Gustavo and Priscilla Gac-Artigas. Credit Priscilla Gac-Artigas Born in Santiago de Chile in 1944, Gustavo Gac-Artigas is a Chilean poet, novelist, playwright, and former political prisoner whose writing has long engaged with questions of memory, exile, testimony, and the ethical responsibilities involved in using language. Following the 1973 military coup, Gac-Artigas was imprisoned and…

US Defeat in Iran will lead to the unification of the Persian-Sphere by Richard Steinhardt Let us set aside, now and forever, the ridiculous idea of a Greater Israel. The United States and Europe are not powerful enough to colonise more of North Africa and West Asia or eliminate its inhabitants through their Israeli…

Himalayan view. Photograph Sudeep Sen by Sudeep Sen It was good to wake up to the silence of the Himalayas this morning. The shifting grey palette of the clouds was an antithesis to the recent tsunami of stimuli. The pleated, opalus ridges hid their pine-green veneer in obfuscating skies. The festivities took place in…

It did not spin like a normal coin, losing energy to the friction of the wood. It spun with a velocity that defied Newtonian physics, gaining momentum from the very air it displaced. Illustration WordPress by Yogesh Patel The penthouse was less a residence than a vaulted reliquary, a glass-and-steel carbuncle grafted onto the city’s tired shoulder.…

Heiko Khoo’s Karl Marx Walking Tours. Photo credit Heiko Khoo ‘For me, the key question is to reinvigorate a culture of discussion and debate’ Interviewed conducted by Phil Hall, Paul Halas and Gordon Lidl Phil Hall: Hi, Heiko. Thank you for joining us. How are you doing? Heiko Khoo: I’m very well, thank you. Phil Hall: Let…

Roadside mango Snack in Mexico. Photograph Miguel González Freshness without friction is boring by Arun Kapil Manek Chowk doesn’t ease into the day. It detonates. Heat rises off cobbled stone. Diesel coughs. Metal shutters slam open. Somewhere behind you, something is already frying. In front of you, fruit – piled high, bruised, perfect, sweating…

Alexandrian Tramway in the Rain. Photograph Mohamed Hozyen Ahmed, Public Domain  By Adel Darwish Founded by Alexander and once governed by Cleopatra, Alexandria became a beacon of learning and cosmopolitan exchange. Today, in the name of development, the city’s physical memory is being dismantled — and the Ramleh tram is among its most eloquent…

S Jaishankar in Vienna (2023). Photograph Dean Calma / IAEA, Wikimedia Commons “We are very much wedded to strategic autonomy because it’s very much a part of our history and our evolution. It’s something which is very deep, and it’s something which cuts across the political spectrum as well.” — S. Jaishankar at the…