I vividly remember reading Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai’s classic Malayalam novel Randidangazhi in high school. Set in 1940s Kuttanad, Alappuzha—Kerala’s rice bowl—it depicts the brutal socio-economic conditions of Dalit agricultural workers and impoverished tenant peasants, alongside communist-led resistance against imperialism and landlords. ...

On 8 December 2024, the government of Bashar al-Assad collapsed as the army of the former al-Qaeda leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa entered Damascus and seized the institutions of the Syrian state. The Syrian Arab Army, which had remained loyal to the al-Assad government, appeared to dissolve....

Europe calls itself the cradle of democracy and freedom. And yet it is also the continent that still preserves monarchies as if they were part of the natural landscape, unquestioned relics of a lineage believed to be immutable. This contradiction reveals a profound orphanhood: Europe...

From the orderly center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a crack opened in the soul of Europe. From it sprang the most disturbing forms of beauty, thought, and modern music. Also, from its edges, the century gave birth to its monster. ...

Dag Hammarskjöld, the tragic second United Nations secretary general, once said the organization “was created not to lead mankind to heaven but to save humanity from hell.” ...

On September 25, 2022, Cuba passed one of the world’s most progressive codes on families. All in one go, the small island nation legalized same-sex marriage, defined and upheld the rights of children, the disabled, caregivers, and the elderly, and redefined “family” along ties...

Georgina Orellano, secretary-general of the Association of Women Sex Workers of Argentina (AMMAR), says that “the pandemic has highlighted the inequality” in society and deepened the problems faced by sex workers. Sex work, which is not recognized in Argentina, has become more precarious, she...