Posts by Cosmopolitan Canada
Egypt’s president pardons British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah
Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has pardoned the prominent British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been imprisoned for six years, state media and his family say. Abdel Fattah was one of six people whose sentences were commuted following a request from the National Council for Human Rights, according to Al-Qahera News. His sister Mona…
Read MoreUN human rights expert says Russia steps up repression to silence opposition to war in Ukraine
GENEVA (AP) — A U.N. expert monitoring human rights in Russia said Monday that “repression is escalating,” targeting civilians, journalists and even Ukrainian prisoners of war in an attempt to silence dissent and opposition to the war in Ukraine. Mariana Katzarova, the U.N. special rapporteur focusing on human rights in Russia, presented her latest report…
Read MoreReading the New Pynchon Novel in a Pynchonesque America
As for pace, “Shadow Ticket” reads like one of its subplots, about the Trans-Trianon 2000, a two-thousand-kilometre motorcycle circuit through the disputed territories of Central Europe, all speed and vroom. Uncharacteristically for Pynchon, the book never eddies off to explore some branch of science or mathematics or philosophy, and the moments when it slows down…
Read MoreThe Art of the Impersonal Essay, by Zadie Smith
If it were up to me, for example, I would very happily switch that rickety, always ill-fitting term “humanism” with something broader, more capacious. A bright, shiny neologism that would still place human flourishing at the center of our social and political processes, but which also encompassed the supremacy of all living things—including the natural…
Read MoreIan McEwan Casts the Climate Crisis as a Story of Adultery
At the start of “What We Can Know,” Ian McEwan’s eighteenth novel, the year is 2119 and the humanities are still in crisis. Thomas Metcalfe, a scholar of the literature of 1990 to 2030, props up his lectures with jokes and colorful animations; he and his colleague Rose, who is also his lover, speak to…
Read MoreOver 60 Israeli, Arab peace groups call for recognition of a Palestinian state
A coalition of peace activist groups launched a new campaign, advocating for a peaceful end to the Israel-Hamas War. The “It’s Time Coalition,” a collection of over 60 Israeli and Arab pro-two-state solution organizations, began a campaign on Sunday calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state and an end to the Israel-Hamas War. The…
Read MoreDeputy head of Gazan Abu Shabab anti-Hamas militia wishes the Jewish people a ‘happy new year’
Ghassan Duhine, the deputy of an anti-Hamas resistance group in the Gaza Strip issued a Rosh Hashanah statement on social media. Ghassan Duhine, deputy head of the Abu Shabab militia in the Gaza Strip, wished the Jewish people a happy New Year in a social media post on Sunday. The post included a handwritten note…
Read More‘An important step’: Hamas lauds recognition of Palestinian state
The terror organization called the recognition “a deserved outcome of our people’s struggle” and added that it would lead Western countries to isolate Israel. Hamas lauded the recognition of a Palestinian state by the United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal, and Australia in a Sunday statement, calling the move “an important step.” “This recognition is an important…
Read MoreSebabatso Mosamo, an AP visual journalist in South Africa, has died
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Sebabatso Mosamo, an Associated Press visual journalist in South Africa who documented elections, the COVID-19 pandemic and her country’s struggle with poverty and violence, has died. She was 39. Mosamo died at a hospital in Johannesburg on Saturday after falling ill a week earlier, a family spokesperson said. No…
Read MoreFresh appeal over two men who vanished on ferries
Two men who boarded ferries in Portsmouth five years apart have never been seen again, police have said in a renewed appeal, years after they vanished. Both Gary Tilston, from Coventry, who disappeared in July 2002 aged 30, and Paul Carter, from Birmingham, who was 22 when he went missing in April 2007, boarded vessels…
Read MoreCharities attack ban on Gaza students bringing families to UK
Charities and universities have criticised the UK government’s “excessively harsh” rules preventing university students from Gaza bringing their families with them to Britain. Last week, 34 Gaza students with scholarships at British universities were evacuated ahead of starting their studies. But some students said they would have to give up their places rather than leave…
Read MoreVeteran with prosthetic leg to take on epic hike
A former Royal Marine with a prosthetic leg plans to walk 232 miles (373km) from Exeter to Cheshire, before taking part in a 300ft (91m) bungee jump. Paul Vice, who trained at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines in Lympstone, Devon, sustained life-changing injuries in 2011 when he was caught in an IED blast while…
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