Revelations: US Africom runs a network of drone bases integral to American assassination programmes in Africa
I had begun requesting information in May 2012, so called in additional questions in June and July, and then (as requested) put them in writing. I followed up on the July 9, mentioning my looming deadline and was told that Africom headquarters might have some answers for me on the...
Against backdrop of Russia’s Wagner Group’s atrocities in Africa, same concerns are also being raised over US Africom
What’s the US military doing in Africa? It’s an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, straitjacketed in secrecy and hogtied by red tape. Or at least it would be if it were up to the Pentagon. Ten years ago, I embarked on a quest to answer that question at TomDispatch, chronicling...
Why without conceptual clarity, the fuzziness in social sciences can drive a news reporter to despair
US millennials are rejecting suburbia and moving back to the city. That was a prevailing idea in 2019, when I started as the social sciences reporter at Science News. But when I began digging into a possible story on the phenomenon, I encountered an incoherent mess. Some research showed that...
Social media companies in Ethiopia told to rein in hate mongers during peace talks in South Africa
With talks under way in South Africa to end the two-year Tigray civil war in Ethiopia, there are calls for social media platforms to control hate speech that could stir tempers between the two warring parties. Since the beginning of hostilities in November 2020, social media, mostly Twitter, has become...
Why Liz Truss’s 44-day stint as UK premier has been branded a ‘globalist coup’ in financial markets
The shortest-serving prime minister in British history. She went after days of absolute mayhem at Westminster. Everywhere people are lining up to say that this represents some kind of democratic collapse. And everywhere, those people are wrong. At worst we see the conspiracy theorists of the right branding this a...
Parallels between Trumpian extremism in US, Trussian meltdown in UK sound dire warnings about fragile economies
Democratic candidates are heading into the homestretch of the 2022 midterms with a message focused mainly on Trumpian extremism, but they might do well over the next two weeks to highlight the spectre of a Trussian meltdown. Liz Truss, of course, is the English Conservative leader destined to become a...
We should abandon the illusion that politicians will come to the rescue of planet Earth
We are living in a state of emergency: the climate, ecological and sustainability crisis is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. For too long, we have ignored the effects, and now we are living through the consequences. Twenty of the 21 hottest years since records began in 1850 have...
Cristiano Ronaldo woes: There’re players at Old Trafford who don’t need a scarecrow in Man United shirt
On so many levels, it was the night when Erik ten Hag truly arrived at Manchester United. A comfortable 2-0 against an admittedly flaccid-looking Spurs was the best performance since his arrival at the club. It was a marker that, while a tilt at the Premier League title this season...
US opinion pollsters are no longer ‘seen as gurus, who can’t be wrong’ but conniving data fiddlers
If pollsters were transparent, TargetSmart CEO Tom Bonier, a poll critic says, they’d share their “likely voter” models, and even release different scenarios based on different turnout assumptions. “But pollsters are seen as gurus – they can’t be wrong. If they admit their polling is based on these ‘models,’ does...
US midterms: Why are pollsters getting the stick after years of seeming to hold elections trump card?
It’s said to be wrong to kick a person when he or she is down. If Monday’s New York Times/Siena poll were a person, it’s been stomped so severely that a compassionate observer would step in to stop the fight. But even though the poll that launched a thousand headlines...
