Author: nick

[ad_1] After becoming the target of police harassment, the Chinese artist and journalist Ai Weiwei left his homeland for good in 2015. In a new book, On Censorship, he writes about how censorship and surveillance go hand in hand. Like a dealer who can see all the cards, Ai argues, an all-seeing government has an “absolute advantage” over dissidents. The nexus between surveillance and censorship has a psychological aspect as well. “A primary aim of censorship is to normalize itself, to present itself as natural and essential,” Ai warns. He cites an ancient Chinese saying that “the great affairs of the…

[ad_1] Book Cover The Yellow Vests and the Battle for Democracy:  In one of the scariest moments in modern history, we’re doing our best at ScheerPost to pierce the fog of lies that conceal it but we need some help to pay our writers and staff. Please consider a tax-deductible donation. Ida Susser Adapted from The Yellow Vests and the Battle for Democracy:  Taking to the Streets of Paris in the 21st Century. In June 2019, a group of Yellow Vests, the diverse protest movement that broke out a year earlier, and their families set to work constructing a…

[ad_1] Image by ‪Salah Darwish. “It’s got no anything,” President Donald Trump said of Somalia in a recent xenophobic rant. “All they do is run around shooting each other.” As is true of so much with this administration, every accusation is also a confession. U.S. troops have been shooting Somalis since the early 1990s, after lame duck President George H. W. Bush launched an ostensibly humanitarian intervention there that would be embraced by his successor, Bill Clinton. By June 1993, U.S. and U.N. troops had begun attacking various targets in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, linked to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, who had helped…

[ad_1] KEY EVENTS Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets are falsely framed as cover for domestic political scandals. Europe is again portrayed as standing in the way of peace. Old “Ukrainian biolabs” conspiracy theories make a comeback. LAST WEEK IN REVIEW Last week’s Russian FIMI activity centred heavily on strikes exchanged between Ukraine and Russia. Reporting on Russian strikes in Ukraine largely ignored civilian casualties and presented attacks as legitimate military actions, while Ukrainian strikes were framed as deliberate attacks on civilians, often with claims linking them to EU support. Hardline voices continued to call for escalation, while Russia was portrayed…

[ad_1] Image by Pierre Bamin. This week in the Anthropocene I’ve seen dead birds. Dozens of them. Washed ashore in various stages of decay, lining the beaches of Southern California. Seagulls, cormorants, pelicans, puffins, loons. All of the most glorious of California’s seabirds. They are often emaciated and frail, as if they’ve starved. This week, we began to understand what may be causing these deaths. Researchers at Scripps in La Jolla have a theory. Warmer ocean temperatures reduce what’s called upwelling, the process by which nutrients rise from the depths. Fewer nutrients at the ocean’s surface mean there are fewer nutrients…

[ad_1] Police in Arlington, Texas, arrested a fellow officer who allegedly sexually assaulted a woman he met while responding to a call for help at her home. Investigators say Officer Derreck Dean returned to the woman’s house three times while on duty, even though there were no calls for service, and that he covered his body camera during all three visits. One of those visits allegedly involved inappropriate sexual contact. Dean now faces charges including sexual assault and oppression. The Arlington Police Department placed him on administrative leave during the investigation and said it is looking into whether there may…

[ad_1] Still from Fritz Lang’s The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. “President Xi said America is a nation in decline. And I said, ‘You’re right.’” – Donald Trump + NPR interviewed a Trump voter in Georgia who said he thought the President was doing “an A+ job.” When asked how his family was dealing with rising food prices, the man replied, “My wife and I fast.” What’s the cure for this mass mesmerism that induces people to be willing to suffer extreme deprivations in order to enhance the fortunes, political and financial, of their billionaire leader? Trump’s like Fritz Lang’s Dr.…

[ad_1] Beijing’s influence now extends well beyond the Indo-Pacific and reaches into Europe in ways Washington cannot ignore, writes Alexander Korolev. It’s been quite a week for Beijing, with back-to-back visits by the leaders of the United States and Russia. Chinese President Xi Jinping has had his hands full with hosting duties, gun salutes, photo opportunities and high-level talks. Each visit was important in its own way. U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit was his first to Beijing since 2017. It came at a moment of strained China-U.S. relations, with the U.S. at war in the Middle East and its foreign…

[ad_1] James Gilray, Monstrous craws, at a new coalition feast. 1787. Photo: Library of Congress. The recent U.K. election The political gloom lifted here just a bit this week, when it became clear there will soon be a leadership contest in the British Labour Party. Last week’s municipal and “devolved” (Scottish and Welsh parliament) election results were like a 16-ton weight dropped on Britain’s hapless Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Labour received the worst drubbing in its history: 1400 municipal council seats lost, including 450 in London; loss of control of the Welsh Senedd (the quasi-independent, unicameral legislature); and an equally…

[ad_1] On Thursday, the Court DIG’d Hamm v. Smith, a messy death penalty case that has been going on for three decades. Several things are unusual about this ham-handed DIG. Indeed, it is possible that Justice Alito lost the majority opinion. First, more than five months elapsed between oral argument in December and the DIG in May. This is an exceptionally long time for a DIG. Usually when a case presents vehicle problems, there are questions at oral argument about it. But I didn’t see any clear signs at OA that a DIG might be in the cards. Moreover, these sorts…