Analysis

Cricket is at the heart of a new optimism in war-torn Afghanistan as youth swap Kalashnikovs for bats

I first stepped foot on Afghan soil in 1988, and in the months that followed, I worked from a Mujahideen camp on the border with Pakistan running clinics for refugee women fleeing the Afghan-Soviet war.

07 Apr 2019

Voters don't forgive

Promises win power, performance its perpetuation. The ruling Indian dispensation would have done well to remember that in the interest of the country, the party and those forsaken by destiny and abandoned by politicians. But it didn’t because power sedates reason.

4 hours ago

Economic sanctions make life hard

In the year since I last visited Syria, Damascenes have lived without the metallic report of mortars fired by insurgents landing in the city and its suburbs, the whistle of responding artillery shells and thud of bombs dropped on Eastern Ghouta.

4 hours ago

Why we need historic spaces like Notre Dame

It seems the cruellest of ironies: an edifice constructed over the span of centuries, consumed by flames and streamed in real time to an audience of hundreds of millions.

21 hours ago

Gun lovers don't have a credible argument

It’s just a fact of life that handguns are now permanent legal fixtures in the American landscape. We have to live with that. But the freedom to own a firearm doesn’t mean it has to be free of charge. It doesn’t mean that owners can’t be a tiny bit inconvenienced. And someone’s right to own a gun certainly does not trump the safety rights of the rest of us.

21 hours ago

May’s Brexit strategy has put MPs in danger and wasted billions, now Britain deserves a real leader

When the prime minister applied for and got a second extension to the Article 50 period, she did so because she wanted to save the country from the disastrous consequences of leaving the EU without a deal. She did the right thing, putting the country first.

21 hours ago

Muslim immigrants distrust census in Trump era

This two-block commercial strip of the Midwood neighbourhood features a mosque, halal markets and restaurants, and tailor shops with colorful shalwar kameez pantsuits, all catering to the Pakistani immigrant community wedged between a Jewish neighbourhood and a Mexican enclave on Coney Island Avenue.

21 hours ago

Not all Americans are threatened by immigrants

I’m not afraid of migrants. I’m not afraid of people fleeing violence in search of a better life. I’m not afraid of asylum seekers. And I’m certainly not afraid of a president who thinks he can scare a large swath of his fellow citizens — you know, the ones he’s supposed to represent — by threatening to send busloads of migrants and asylum seekers into their cities.

22 hours ago

Redacted Russia probe report to add to collusion row

The release of the report of the investigation into allegations that Russia colluded with President Donald Trump’s campaign in the 2016 election that is scheduled for Thursday with some redactions will only amp the volume of debate, rather than set the controversy at rest.

17 Apr 2019

Making a difference through eco-friendly fashion

A Delhi-based fashion brand Doodlage provides the perfect antidote to fast fashion by making chic garments with scraps of waste cloth. Designing clothes out of scraps of fabric and second-hand garments, Doodlage’s creative team dreams up new designs and sells its wares in 30 shops and online.

17 Apr 2019

Italy has edged closer to fascism with a startling attack on academic freedom

We live in an age marked by the return of right-wing, anti-democratic ethno-nationalism, and by the rise of anti-intellectualism. So perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that the world’s oldest academic institution is facing dangerous criticism from the demagogic far right.

17 Apr 2019