Europe
#JeSuisCharlie hypocrisy goes off the charts
Under the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, an attack on free speech is being used to justify further attacks on free speech… in the paradoxical name of protecting free speech.
Author: Bill Weinberg
Iraq
US media betray Kobani defenders
US media accounts of gains against ISIS at Kobani play up the role of US air-strikes and depreciate that of Kurdish fighters—or even deny the success at Kobani entirely.
Europe
Europe: destroying freedom to save it
At thier meeting in Paris to condemn the attack on Charlie Hebdo, European Union government ministers issued a statement calling for further restrictions on the Internet.
Europe
#JeSuisCharlie, #JeSuisMusulman: contradiction?
The dueling hashtags #JeSuisCharlie (I am Charlie) and #JeSuisMusulman (I am Muslim) reveal a pathological dichotomy: we can defend free speech and oppose Islamophobia.
Planet Watch
Behind oil slump: shale boom or geopolitics?
Experts tell us the North American shale oil boom is responsible for low prices despite Middle East unrest. But the price slump serves Western aims of weakening Russia and Iran.
Central Asia
Facebook enforces censorship of Tibetan struggle
Facebook's deletion of a post by Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser comes just after Mark Zuckerberg met in Beijing with China's minister for Internet censorship Lu Wei.
The Caribbean
Cuba: #YoTambienExijo and ‘regime change’
Was Tania Bruguera's #YoTambienExijo a US-inspired "regime change" charade? Should Cubans not press free speech now because of US rapprochement with the regime?
Afghanistan
US ‘ends war’ in Afghanistan —not!
The NATO "withdrawal" from Afghanistan was quietly marked by a Kabul ceremony—as air-strikes, suicide attacks and gun-battles with Taliban insurgents continued without pause.
The Caribbean
Assata Shakur as political football
The US political right uses Assata Shakur to take a hit at Obama's Cuba opening while simultaneously getting subliminal licks in at the Black Lives Matter protests.
Europe
‘Car Intifada’ comes to France?
An outbreak of motorist attacks on pedestrians in France is spun exclusively in terms of Islamist extremism, leaving out the critical factor of car culture.
East Asia
Threat to South Korean nuclear plants: no thanks
An "anti-nuclear" hacker who obtained blueprints of South Korean reactors warned residents to "stay away" from them—an implicit threat of sabotage and radiation release.
East Asia
South Korea threatens free expression too…
As partisans of North Korea use threats to supress The Interview, South Korea's high court bans a pro-DPRK political party. Do you think either side grasps the irony?