Mexico
Was Chapo’s overture to Hollywood fatal?
Chapo Guzmán was apparently tracked down and apprehended after Mexican authorities intercepted his communications with Sean Penn and other show-biz heavies.
Tag: culture wars
North America
Another day, another massacre…
Was the San Bernardino attack politically motivated terrorism or just someone's personal revenge? Either way, pundits right and left are going to be squirming…
North America
Another day, another massacre…
In the wake of the latest campus shoot-up, calls are raised for pre-emptive restraint on the "mentally ill," but it is verboten to ask why so many people are driven to this pathology.
New York City
9-11 at fourteen: spectacle commodified
9-11 still provides an occasion for jingoism and war propaganda. But the day's commodification and transformation into an empty spectacle is now even more disturbing.
Iraq
Kurdish diva wages culture war on ISIS
Kurdish-American pop singer Helly Luv is facing death threats from ISIS after travelling to the frontline in northern Iraq to produce a music video cheering on the Peshmerga.
Iran
Iran: artist gets 12 years for political cartoon
Iranian artist Atena Farghadani was sentenced to 12 years for a cartoon that satirized parliamentarians who voted for a law that restricts women's access to contraception.
Southeast Asia
Cartoon wars hit ‘moderate’ (sic) Malaysia
In "moderate" Malaysia, an opposition leader is sent to prison for "sodomy," and when a cartoonist lampooned the sentence, he was arrested for "sedition."
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.
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.
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?
Southeast Asia
Worldwide despots: Orwell still dangerous
Protesters in military-ruled Thailand have been silently reading 1984 in public to outwit a ban on gatherings—leading to the book itself being banned. Egypt could be next.
Afghanistan
Women’s freedom icon rocks Kabul peace concert
Aryana Sayeed, a popular singer and TV personality facing death threats for refusing to wear the hijab, performed at a Kabul "Peace Concert," organized by youth groups.