"It’s not just party politics that are messy. The social protection system itself is officially state-funded, but unofficially it’s semi-privatised. On paper, right across eastern Europe, we have preserved free (or almost free) healthcare, nursery, school and university education. But in reality, particularly in Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Lithuania and Hungary, many people have to pay informally for these services. Patients are often expected to give a fat tip after a medical consultation, or, in the case of more expensive surgeries, to pay up front to have it performed in the first place, regardless of insurance cover. Parents, too, are widely expected to pay for extra classes, exams and “presents” for teachers."

On the night of March 8, 2019, four staffers at a Swedish-run health clinic in Afghanistan’s Wardak Province ate together, talked around a thermos of tea, and bedded down for the night in the guard’s room. They were awakened some time later by the thump of helicopter rotors followed by distant explosions echoing from farther up the Tangi Valley. The sounds were not unusual in Wardak, where for 20 years there has been little respite from war, and the four went back to sleep.

For only the third time in the history of the modern presidency, the US House of Representatives voted on Thursday to formalize impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States.

The May 2019 WhatsApp Incident As reported in May 2019, WhatsApp identified and shortly thereafter fixed a vulnerability that allowed attackers to inject commercial spyware on to phones simply by ringing the number of a target’s device. Today Oct 29th, WhatsApp is publicly attributing the attack to NSO Group, an Israeli spyware developer that also... Read more »

Paul Krugman and other mainstream trade experts are now admitting that they were wrong about globalization: It hurt American workers far more than they thought…

"The official said drawing aid away from Lebanon could pave the way for Russia to move in. Russia has expanded its influence in Syria since Trump announced he was withdrawing U.S. forces from the northeastern part of the country. Lebanon has been arguing with foreign donors over international aid for months. Before he resigned, Hariri failed to convince foreign donors to release $11 billion in assistance pledged at a Paris conference last year."

At least 200 protesters have died in recent weeks.

Those who praise the post-2008 economy as a successful recovery point to the fact that the stock market has soared to all-time highs, while the unemployment rate has fallen to a decade-low. But is the stock market a good proxy for how the overall economy is doing? The low reported unemployment rate sidesteps the predominance of minimum-wage jobs, part-time “gig” work, and the fact that the Federal Reserve’s Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2018 reports that 39% of Americans do not have $400 cash available for a medical or other emergency, and that a quarter of adults skipped medical care in 2018 because they could not afford it.

"It was the implementation of a decision first made by Modi’s government 86 days ago, when legislation was rushed through the Indian parliament to approve the end of article 370 of the constitution, which for over 70 years has guaranteed special privileges to the predominately Muslim region. It had been drawn up in 1947 as the foundation of Kashmir’s agreement to be part of India."

Facebook isn’t defending free speech, it’s assaulting truth.