Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Elon’s Twitter ripe for a misinformation avalanche | Daniel Angus

  1 April 2023

  by Daniel Angus *
  Seeing might not be believing going forward as digital technologies make the fight against misinformation even trickier for embattled social media giants.
  In a grainy video, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears to tell his people to lay down their arms and surrender to Russia. The video — quickly debunked by Zelenskyy — was a deep fake, a digital imitation generated by artificial intelligence (AI) to mimic his voice and facial expressions.
  High-profile (…)

• Jihadists target Africa and Afghanistan, but also eye China and Russia James M. Dorsey

  1 April 2023

  by James M. Dorsey *
  March 28
  The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer is a reader-supported publication.
  All Mr. Mohamed wanted was a job and a marriage.
  A 22-year-old Somali farmhand, Mr. Mohamed, skeptically retorted, "is that right?" when Al Shabab recruiters sought to convince him that the defence of Islam needed him.
  "What I really need is a job and a wife,’ Mr. Mohamed added.
  The farmworker was persuaded when the recruiters for one of Africa’s oldest jihadist movements (…)

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  Defend Parliamentary Democracy — Citizens statement (March 28, 2023)

  1 April 2023

  PRESS RELEASE
  Expressing concern over the expulsion of Rahul Gandhi from the parliament and his conviction in a defamation case, over a 1000 teachers, artists, scientists, cultural workers and members of the civil society called upon the people of India to take all measures to save parliamentary democracy from the assault from the ruling party.
  Released by:
  Apoorvanand, Gauhar Raza, Shabnam Hashmi
  28/3/2023
  New Delhi
  STATEMENT
  DEFEND PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY
  The (…)

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  5000 Anganwadi, Mid-day Meal, ASHA Scheme Workers demand regularisation, minimum wages and status as Govt employees | AITUC Press release March 28, 2023

  1 April 2023

  Press Statement released by the platform of scheme workers affiliated to AITUC
  28.03.2023, New Delhi:
  STATUS OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, NO LESS
  DEMAND MORE THAN 5000 SCHEME WORKERS GATHERED AT JANTAR MANTAR
  National ASHA Workers Federation, All India Anganwadi Workers Federation, and All India Mid-day Meal Workers Federation
  More than five thousand Scheme Workers - Anganwadi, Mid-day Meal, ASHA Workers, and Block Facilitators from across the country and UMED W workers from (…)

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  PUCL Rajasthan welcomes court ruling in 2008 Jaipur bomb blasts cases | March 29, 2023

  1 April 2023

  PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES, RAJASTHAN
  Jaipur, 29th March, 2023
  Press Note PUCL demands action against the police team which fabricated cases against innocents and conducted slipshod investigation in the 2008 Jaipur bomb blasts, which killed 74 people Fresh investigation should be ordered to ensure justice to the kin of the 74 killed and 150 injured Compensation must be given to the five acquitted for the loss of 15 years of their lives, which they spent in jail as their families (…)

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  2023 Report on State of Policing in India with focus on Surveillance and Privacy | Common Cause & Lokniti (CSDS)

  1 April 2023

  New Delhi, March 31, 2023: The Status of Policing in India Report 2023 was launched today at the India Habitat Centre by a panel of eminent personalities, followed by a discussion on rethinking surveillance. The theme of this year’s report is surveillance and privacy, and in his keynote address, Justice (Retd.) J. Chelameswar, a former Supreme Court Judge, said that only a robust privacy law can determine if the data of private citizens is being collected for the public good.

• Book Excerpt: ‘Slow Disaster: Political Ecology of Hazards and Everyday Life in the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam

  1 April 2023

  Slow Disaster: Political Ecology of Hazards and Everyday Life in the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam
  by Mitul Baruah
  Routledge
  2022 | 170 pages
  ISBN 9780367509774
  __0__ Slow Disaster draws on fieldwork in Majuli, believed to be the largest river island in the world, located in the middle of the Brahmaputra River. Unfolding in a slow, incremental manner, floods and erosion reduced Majuli’s landmass from 1,255 sq km to about 421 sq km over the 20th century; rendered over 10,000 families (…)

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  Afghans the West Betrayed | M.R. Narayan Swamy

  1 April 2023, by M R Narayan Swamy

  BOOK REVIEW
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  Escape from Kabul: The Inside Story by Levison Wood and Geraint Jones Hodder & Stoughton 2023 Pages: 340; Price: Rs 899 ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1399718126 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1399718127
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  The Americans led a brutal war in Afghanistan for two long and bloody decades, vowing to usher in democracy despite the terrible failures in Vietnam and Iraq. And like earlier, the Americans one day decided that enough was enough. But the military pullout, which was long in the (…)

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  Tribute to Vivan Sundaram | Jayaraj Vellur

  1 April 2023, by Jayaraj Vellur
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  Cartoon: How to Idea for Population Control | Nala Ponnappa

  1 April 2023