Subterms
History is not short of examples of autocrats who used a crisis to strengthen their grip on power. Our current crisis, triggered by the global spread of the new coronavirus, appears to be no different. Justified by the need for extraordinary measures to address the pandemic, on March 30 the Hungarian parliament approved an emergency […] More
On April 9, the government of Saudi Arabia unilaterally called for a two-week ceasefire in the five-year conflict that has ravaged Yemen, the Middle East’s poorest nation. The UN, the European Union and the US Congress have long called for a suspension of hostilities and a return to the negotiating table. In June 2019, Congress voted to suspend all weapons […] More
Joe Biden now stands alone as the Democratic Party’s presumptive candidate to run against the incumbent US president, Donald Trump, in November’s election. Officially, the suspense is over. But unofficially, it continues stronger than ever. One obvious reason is the chaos that affects all public activities due to the nation’s organized response to the coronavirus […] More
In photo after photo on their website, they show their volunteers doing everything from delivering food and supplies to people on low incomes to driving health-care professionals to work in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. They say they’ve already helped thousands of their fellow citizens, warning people about the country’s quarantine regulations and […] More
Senator Bernie Sanders is no longer a candidate for president. Five years of drama have now come to a close. Or have they? To all appearances, Sanders bowed to pressure, from inside and outside his Democratic primary campaign. He has accepted the inevitable: Joe Biden’s victory and his elimination. Or has he? It may depend […] More
The most insidious tactic of COVID-19 is to get a person’s body to attack itself. In the worst cases, the body’s autoimmune system essentially goes haywire as it tries to fight off infection. This “cytokine storm” can lead to serious inflammation in the lungs and ultimately to major organ failure. COVID-19 seems to have had a similar […] More
“We need the masks. We don’t want other people getting it,” was US President Trump’s defiant justification for temporarily halting the export of N95 respirators to Canada and Latin America. The decision triggered an equally blunt response from the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, who said: “I’m not going to rely on President Trump, I’m […] More
The novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 has opened the floodgates of shame and blame. This has been specifically aimed at politicians for their lack of preparation and insistence on spreading misinformation in the form of wishful thinking before changing their tune by acknowledging the true extent of the problem and ultimately pushing the panic button. […] More
