Law, politics and society

"To have [the law] revised, I accept, on the condition that nothing changes; or to keep it the same, I accept, but for minor changes here and there, namely in the essential points." — I.L. Caragiale

Highlights

• Watch a Jaw-Dropping Visualization of Every Protest Since 1979

Transportation policy

• How Washington Derailed Amtrak
• Lille passe à 30 km/h : "L'idée c'est vraiment que tout le monde se sente plus en sécurité"
• Transport Isn’t Technology, It’s Politics

2020

• Bi Den (7 November 2020)
• Rebels, Please Join Me In Wishing Emperor Palpatine Well (5 October 2020)
• I Lived Through Collapse. America Is Already There (26 September 2020): Living in Sri Lanka during the end of the civil war, I saw how life goes on, surrounded by death
• A New American Manifesto (24 September 2020): a translation of America's original Declaration of Independence into modern English.
• We Don’t Know How to Warn You Any Harder: America is Dying (30 August 2020) We Survivors of Authoritarianism Have a Message America Needs to Hear: This is Exactly How it Happens, and It’s Happening Here.
• Julian Assange: condemned by his own actions (18 August 2020)
• First-ever trans woman to run for office in Romania vows to make life better for women, sex workers and the Roma community (20 July 2020)
• EU launches its own shock and awe campaign early (10 July 2020)
• The Unfathomable Stupidity of Rich White Men (24 June 2020)
• Romania passes law banning gender identity studies despite protests (22 June 2020)
• Fighting Fascism One Spray at a Time (18 June 2020)
• ‘Under water or under a knee, we can’t breathe’ (11 June 2020)
• Democracy isn’t working: five ideas that are already helping to fix the problem (10 June 2020)
• Tyson Worker: 'I'm putting my life on the line to make sure they get the chicken out.' (15 April 2020)
• Coronavirus and the Blindness of Authoritarianism (February 2020)
• The moral hazard of the United Kingdom casually breaching the Political Declaration (February 2020)

2019

• Jesus Wades Into Seattle Politics (29 September 2019)
• Our political system is to blame for what's happening in Parliament (5 September 2019)
• America, the Gerontocracy (3 September 2019)
• Amnesty joins countries issuing US travel warning over mass shootings (6 August 2019)
• Quebec Bans Religious Symbols (July 2019)
• Chief Gates Comes to Oakhurst: A Cop Drama (July 2019)
• Căpitanul Sea-Watch, arestat după ce nava a acostat forţat la Lampedusa (29 June 2019)
• New Zealand’s well-being budget prioritizes happiness over economic gain (8 June 2019)
• The European Banking Authority Leaves London (31 May 2019)
• California AB5: State Assembly passes employee misclassification bill (30 May 2019)
• What Actually Happens When a Country Bans Abortion (16 May 2019)
• Ecuador legalized gangs like the Latin Kings. Murder rates plummeted. (26 March 2019)
• Why we need to reinvent democracy for the long-term
• The European Copyright Directive: What Is It, and Why Has It Drawn More Controversy Than Any Other Directive In EU History?
• Des micros dans les rues de Saint-Étienne pour assurer la sécurité des habitants (1 March 2019)
• No Deal Brexit will mean "dark, dystopian UK" (26 February 2019)

2018

• The time has come to revoke Article 50 (21 December 2018)
• This fantastic response to Theresa May’s Brexit letter is going viral (26 November 2018)
• Dear Theresa May (25 November 2018)
• Trump administration wants to remove 'gender' from UN human rights documents (24 October 2018)
• Uruguay passes law granting rights to trans people (19 October 2018)
• Here's how Iceland radically cut teenage drug use (5 October 2018)
• Les eurodéputés cèdent aux illusions sur le droit d'auteur (12 September 2018)
• When the far right targets books, it should ring alarm bells for us all (6 August 2018)
• Black People in the US Were Enslaved Well into the 1960s (28 February 2018)

2017

• How the baby boomers — not millennials — screwed America (20 December 2017)
• Akihito to become first Japanese Emperor to abdicate in 200 years (30 November 2017)
• A Generation in Japan Faces a Lonely Death (30 November 2017)
• What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings? International Comparisons Suggest an Answer (7 November 2017)
• DON'T TRY TO BREAK US–WE'LL EXPLODE : The 2017 G20 and the Battle of Hamburg: A Full Account and Analysis (8 August 2017)
• The Dangers of Elite Projection (July 2017)
• Anarchists Fill Services Void Left by Faltering Greek Governance (22 May 2017)
• It's time for a BLUEXIT (9 March 2017)
• Scrolling Beat ’em ups, urban blight and the neoliberal city (27 February 2017)
• PPE: the Oxford degree that runs Britain (23 February 2017)
• Brexodus has begun. We EU nationals know staying on is too big a gamble (29 June 2017)
• UK tabloid reports of sexual assault by refugees in Frankfurt were ‘completely made up’ (February 2017)
• Mass sexual assaults by refugees in Frankfurt ‘completely made up’ (14 February 2017)

2016

• Jürgen Habermas: The players resign (July 2016)
• Economist Detained for Doing Math on an Airplane (May 2016)
• [Report] | Legalize It All (April 2016)
• Humanity adrift (1 January 2016)

2015

• The Future Is Not American (October 2015)
• What You’re Saying When You Use the Phrase “Politically Correct” (14 October 2015)
• Many school shooters, one common factor: a warped view of masculinity (2 October 2015)
• Hein de Haas: Europe's disgrace (September 2015)
• Schwarzenegger: Indiana’s religious freedom law is bad for Republicans (3 April 2015)
• 70 maps that explain America (17 February 2015)
• This is Paris (14 January 2015)
• A cop in Ukraine said he was detaining me because I was black. I appreciated it (2 January 2015)

2014

• Libertarian ‘Utopia’ Styled After Ayn Rand Book Spectacularly Falls Apart Almost Immediately (15 September 2019)
• Julia Reda – “Prison is a bit like copyright”, says jailed Pirate Bay founder (August 2014)
• How we'd cover Ferguson if it happened in another country (15 August 2014)
• America Fails the 'Rule of Law' Test (July 2014)
• Axe of Reason: You are not allowed to read this blog (May 2014)
• Russia is kicking NASA out of the International Space Station in 2020 (13 May 2014)
• Italian Far-Right Lega Nord Activists Almost Drown Attempting Stunt To Prove How 'Easy' Illegal Immigration Is (7 April 2014)
• The 1,500 year old schism fuelling the clash between Russia and the West (March 2014)
• Kansas Republicans Want to Outlaw Any Free Speech They Don’t Like (10 March 2014)
• How Writers Coped Without Copyright (21 February 2014)
• Poland and Lithuania Haunted by Their Involvement in Hosting CIA Torture Prisons (1 February 2014)

2013

• Thanksgiving news: How the U.S. media would cover Thanksgiving if it were in another country. (27 November 2013)
• "Free" Does Not Mean "Exempt From Criticism" (11 November 2013)
• New York City Agrees to Pay Occupy Wall Street $230,000 for Destruction of Library (4 September 2013)
• Detroit Receives Less Federal Money Than All Of These Foreign Nations (INFOGRAPHIC) (22 August 2013)
• Children given lifelong ban on talking about fracking (5 August 2013)
• In Okinawa, Talk of Break From Japan Turns Serious (6 July 2013)
• Why Sharing News About Solutions Is a Revolutionary Act (11 May 2013)
• It’s ever so simple: a tribal map of the Middle East (March 2013)
• Could more immigration compensate for Europe’s low birthrate? (13 March 2013)
• Sorry, publishing that information is illegal in France – even more so if you publish it electronically (28 February 2013)
• Science and gun violence: why is the research so weak? (26 February 2013)
• When did locks become more important than the things protect (27 January 2013)
• RIP, Aaron Swartz (12 January 2013)
• Two Swedes Renditioned To The US, Possibly To Death Penalty, In Secrecy And Without Lawyers’ Knowledge (4 January 2013)

2012

• Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy (29 December 2012)
• Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: Disability Roulette (November 2012)
• Why Copyright & Patent Laws Go Against How We Create (12 August 2012)
• Corrections Corporation of America Used in Drug Sweeps of Public School Students (November 2012)

2006

• Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US (4 December 2006)

2003

• THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: WEAPONS SEARCH; Iraqis Removed Arms Material, U.S. Aide Says (29 October 2003)

Unsorted

• Germany gay marriage approved by MPs in snap vote
• Germany is the first European country to recognize a third gender
• Italy Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre under guard amid death threats
• If the UK were an African Country: Was Great Britain a Mistake?
• U.S. to leave global postal union next month barring last-minute action; exit could send global parcel rates soaring
• EU gives Boris Johnson ultimatum: Show us Brexit plan in 12 days or ‘it’s over’
• Parliament suspension: Queen approves PM's plan
• As a British EU negotiator, I can tell you that Brexit is going to be far worse than anyone could have guessed
• 6 Big Differences That Turn City Dwellers Into Liberals
• The real Indiana Jones on why Western civilization is a bubble
• Moscow's blockchain voting system cracked a month before election
• Nobody Wants To Host The 2022 Olympics
• Britain’s politics and politicians are unhinged and the economy is in trouble
• Technology can't prevent hard border in Ireland if Brexit means customs controls, firms told
• Self-Regulation: American Schools Are Failing Nonconformist Kids
• Marș și miting în Capitală pentru condamnarea violențelor împotriva femeilor
• City of Villains: Why I Don’t Trust Batman
• This is how maternity and paternity leaves around Europe compare
• Flash forward to Boris Britain
• I Don’t Think a Woman Is Electable In 2020 Because Last Time Around the Female Nominee Only Got Three Million More Votes Than Her Opponent
• US demands social media details from visa applicants
• Traveler Photos Were Stolen And Exposed In A US Customs And Border Protection Database Breach
• Decades of books have vanished because of US copyright protections
• Domaine public: Le Petit Grince, ou le brevet sur l'astéroïde B612
• Lutte anti-copie : Mémoriser ce livre est interdit
• Call immigrant detention centers what they really are: concentration camps
• Della Wolf is B.C.'s 1st child with 3 parents on birth certificate
• Welcome to ‘Zombieland’: A former US Army base rots in the hands of overwhelmed Afghans
• Ces 10 cartes vont vous aider à comprendre la situation en Ukraine
• Why the Mightiest Superpower on Earth Hasn’t Won a War in Decades
• Trump, Putin and the Pipelines to Nowhere
• 6 Ideas for a Cop-Free World
• Likely next EU chief says she wants to end member states' veto on foreign policy
• The People You Won’t Meet
• Ethnic minorities: Into the melting pot
• Trump's Victory:The Truth From The Noise
• Suicide Is Now the Leading Cause of Death Amongst Active-Duty Soldiers
• Michael Moore: Celebrating the Prince of Peace in the Land of Guns
• A Holy Thursday