Search focused on Liberal Politics

1+ min ago (1684+ words) For decades, India's diamond industry offered workers a way to a better income and life for their families. Not anymore. By Anuj Behal and Suchak Patel Surat, India "In 2018, Alpesh Bhai enrolled his three-year-old daughter in an English-language private school in Surat. This was something he never imagined possible while growing up in his village in the Indian state of Gujarat, where his family survived on small fields of fennel, castor and cumin, with their earnings barely enough to cover basic needs. He had studied in a public school, where, he recalled, "teachers were a rarity, and English almost didn't exist. "Maybe if I knew English, I would have been some government worker. Who knows?, he said, referring to the dream of a majority of Indians, as government jobs come with tenure and benefits. His finances improved once he joined…...

6+ min ago (1713+ words) Somewhere between a renaming and a re-founding " deceptively labelled "Generation Germany" (GG) " Germany's far-right, or neo-Nazi, AfD has given itself a new youth organization. The cunning, innocent, and thoroughly deceptive name " "Generation Deutschland" " clearly could not be "HJ 2.0" or the more modern version of the HDJ " Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend. At one point the HDJ's Nazi connotations and ideology became all too obvious; the state declared it illegal. The neo-fascist AfD's "Generation Deutschland" is designed to avoid this fate. The founding of the AfD's new youth platoon was a right-wing revelation. As has become common for the neo-fascist AfD, the minions' congregation of the neo-fascistic faith-"fools" was accompanied by loud and persistent protests organised by Germany's democratic civil society. At the meeting, right-wing extremists, neo-Nazis, right-wing populists and members of neo-fascist networks shook hands. At the well-choreographed party show, the…...

16+ min ago (485+ words) This article is based on the detailed descriptions and long conversations with human rights activist Santosh Upadhyay. " The conditions inmates live in are not exaggerated images but grounded reality. In many prisons, inmates have no space to sleep. Access to healthcare is limited, clean water is scarce, sanitation is dismal and mental health needs remain unacknowledged. This is a system that produces fractures rather than rehabilitation. The disproportionately high numbers of women, Dalits, Adivasis and the poor in prisons illustrate how deeply inequality defines access to justice. Upadhyay notes that within prison walls, the voices suppressed most systematically belong to these very groups. As a result, prisons transform from spaces of correction into spaces of oppression. Upadhyay reiterates that harsh punishment does not deter crime. What prevents crime is swift and fair access to justice. This principle is accepted globally,…...

26+ min ago (502+ words) Heavy tropical storms and torrential monsoon rains have triggered massive floods and landslides in several parts of South and Southeast Asia. The downpours, which began late last month, have ravaged Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. As climate change exacerbates natural disasters across Asia, more than 1,800 people have been killed by flooding and landslides in affected countries. The rains have also caused extensive damage, destroying homes, flooding streets and wrecking forested areas. The Asian Water Development Outlook 2025, released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday, cautioned that the effects of climate change on Asia's water systems threaten billions of people. In Indonesia, at least 961 people have been killed in Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra while 293 are still missing, Indonesia's National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) reported late on Sunday. Some 5,000 people have been injured across the three provinces,…...

28+ min ago (241+ words) MAGA Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas threatened state school districts on Monday that they will face "meaningful disciplinary action" if they dare to stand in his way of expanding the organization formerly led by slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, according to a new report. Abbott added that expanding the Club USA chapters to high schools across Texas would provide "essential moral guidance" for students, Fox News reported. "Any school that stands in the way of a Club America program in their school should be reported immediately to the Texas Education Agency," Abbott said. "I expect meaningful disciplinary action to be taken for any stoppage of TPUSA in the great state of Texas." The expansion comes at a time when Abbott is seeking to reshape the educational landscape in Texas. The state's Republican-controlled legislature passed a bill earlier this year to…...

29+ min ago (947+ words) President Donald Trump hosted the first Kennedy Center Honors ceremony of his second term last weekend, and one reporter in attendance described the night as "very weird."In a Monday article in The Atlantic, writer Alexandra Petri noted that she had always been "obsessed" with the Kennedy Center Honors in the way others may be fascinated by the Oscars or the Grammys, and jumped at the chance to attend the 2025 ceremony. However, she said that this year's ceremony " now that Trump has taken over the vaunted institution by installing himself as chairman and replacing the bulk of the organization's board with his own handpicked associates " felt different [emphasis Petri's]."Something's off. The whole evening has the characteristics of a wish made on a monkey's paw," Petri wrote. "You wanted the Four Seasons, but you got Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Why…...

37+ min ago (246+ words) First lady Melania Trump promoted a high-dollar handbag on her social media accounts on Monday as her husband rages that the concerns Americans have about the cost of living are a "Democrat scam," according to a new report. Melania Trump posted about a handbag designed by Alexandra Gucci Zarini, the great-granddaughter of Gucci founder Guccio Gucci, The Daily Beast reported on Monday. A fifth of the proceeds from the handbag's sale will support Fostering the Future, a White House initiative to provide employment opportunities to children in foster care, according to the report. A boutique in Beverly Hills, California, listed the handbag for sale for $2,800. Her comments come at a time when many Americans say the cost of living is their top concern. According to a recent poll conducted by Politico, 46% of Americans say the cost of living is "the…...

43+ min ago (276+ words) A top Democrat in the House of Representatives made a surprising prediction about her run for a Senate seat in Texas on Monday during an interview on CNN. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) joined CNN's "Laura Coates Live" on Monday night to discuss her Senate run, which she announced earlier that day. Her announcement ended months of speculation that Crockett would run for Senate after Texas Republicans redrew the state's congressional map, and made Crockett's district more competitive for Republicans. During the interview, Crockett said that she expects to pick up support from a surprising group of voters. "A lot of people continue to think that this is about policy, yet they can't really explain how it is that you have Mamdani-Trump voters or how you have Obama-Trump voters, or how you have AOC-Trump voters," Crockett said. "The reality is that's…...

43+ min ago (309+ words) More than one week after the November 30 national elections in Honduras marked by an unprecedented level of intervention and intimidation from Washington, there is still no clear winner. The National Party's Asfura was the chosen candidate of US President Donald Trump, who labeled Moncada a "communist" and Nasralla a "borderline communist," while threatening that there would "be hell to pay" if the election did not turn out to his liking. Both Nasralla of the Liberal Party and Libre candidate Moncada have charged election rigging during the long drawn-out vote count. Moncada delivered a statement on behalf of her party declaring that it refused to "recognize elections held under the intervention and coercion of Donald Trump and the allied oligarchy." The country continues to host the most important overseas US military base in the region, the Enrique Soto Cano air base,…...

47+ min ago (897+ words) A memorandum from US Attorney General Pam Bondi, issued December 4, instructs all federal prosecutors and law enforcement agencies to compile lists of organizations to be slandered and criminalized as "domestic terrorists" because they oppose fascism and capitalism and advocate for socialism. The six-page document, uncovered and made public by journalist Ken Klippenstein, is a blueprint for federal officials on how to implement National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), issued by Trump on September 25, after the assassination of ultra-right activist Charlie Kirk, a close associate of the fascist cabal in the White House. NSPM-7 is so broadly worded that, as the WSWS warned at the time, it would criminalize virtually all political opposition to the Trump administration, even including the Democratic Party, which holds 47 out of 100 seats in the US Senate and 213 out of 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Its language…...