THE ISLAMIC STATE IS THE GOD THAT FAILED IN THE MIDDLE EAST
“THE REVOLUTIONARY’S UTOPIA, which in appearance represents a complete break with the past, is always modeled on some image of the lost Paradise, of a legendary Golden Age,” wrote Arthur Koestler in a 1949 essay on his painful disillusionment with the Soviet Union. Koestler was a Hungarian communist intellectual who had been passionately committed to the cause, but later rebelled against the party over Joseph Stalin’s abuses. His essay was part of a collection of writings called “The God that Failed,” published by disaffected communists who had been forced to grapple with what appeared to be the failure of their revolution, as it veered into Stalinism.
“It [is] true that in the face of revolting injustice the only honorable attitude is to revolt, and to leave introspection for better times,” Koestler reflected. “But if we survey history and compare the lofty aims, in the name of which revolutions were started, and the sorry end to which they came, we see again and again how a polluted civilization pollutes its own revolutionary offspring.”
Rohingya Muslims' repatriation to Myanmar postponed
Bangladeshi agreement to send back members of abused minority, due to begin on Tuesday, is on hold
The gradual repatriation of more than 650,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar from Bangladesh has been postponed amid widespread fears that refugees would be forced to return, a Bangladeshi official has said.
“The main thing is that the process has to be voluntary,” said Abul Kalam, the refugee and repatriation commissioner, said on Monday. He added that paperwork for returning refugees had not yet been finalised and transit camps had yet to be built in Bangladesh. The repatriation had been due to begin on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear when the process would now start.
His announcement came amid growing concerns among international aid workers and the Rohingya that they could be coerced to go back to Myanmar. Most fled just months ago, escaping attacks by security forces and Buddhist mobs.
Malala and Apple launch partnership to get at least 100,000 underprivileged girls into school
In a world exclusive interview, The Independent joins Tim Cook and Malala Yousafzai as they reveal how they plan to roll out the major initiative in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Lebanon
The world’s most famous CEO and perhaps the most famous – and definitely youngest – Nobel Peace Prize winner could be found on Saturday morning taking tea with a family in downtown Beirut.
The reason for the dash to Lebanon by Apple supremo Tim Cook and Malala Yousafzai was the announcement of a groundbreaking tie-up between the tech giant and the women’s rights campaigner that will see funding and resources offered to Malala to help deliver her fund’s goal of getting 100,000 girls into education in places including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey and Nigeria. The 100,000 figure is an initial goal; they won’t be stopping at that.
To launch the partnership, Malala and Mr Cook made a flying visit to Lebanon, one of the target countries, where The Independent met them for an in-depth discussion. The conversation covered the need for free education, the gender gap in the UK and US – and if Mr Cook’s job will one day be filled by a woman.
Mexico posts record-breaking homicide rate in 2017
Nearly 30,000 people were killed last year, marking the worst year recorded in Mexico, the interior ministry said. But security analysts have cast doubt on the government figure, saying it's likely much worse.
Mexico witnessed nearly 30,000 murders last year, making it the deadliest year since the government started recording figures in the 1990s, the Mexican Interior Ministry reported on Sunday.
The Interior Ministry said authorities across Mexico opened 29,168 murder cases, saying that it put the country's homicide rate at 20.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. In comparison, Germany's murder rate in 2014 was 0.9 per 100,000 people, according to World Bank data.
The highest figure ever recorded in Mexico before last year was in 2011, during the peak of the Mexican government's war on drugs. That year, authorities recorded 22,409 homicides.JANUARY 22 2018 - 5:10PM
Secrets haunt the ruins at the birthplace of China's bomb
Chris Buckley and Adam Wu
Among the yak herds and Tibetan Buddhism prayer flags dotting the windswept highlands of northwestern China stand the ruins of a remote, hidden city that vanished from the maps in 1958.
The decaying clusters of workshops, bunkers and dormitories are remnants of Plant 221, also known as China's Los Alamos. Here, on a mountain-high grassland called Jinyintan in Qinghai province, thousands of Tibetan and Mongolian herders were expelled to create a secret town where a nuclear arsenal was built to defend Mao Zedong's revolution.
World's richest get 82 percent of global wealth: Oxfam
Half of the world's population received no share of all wealth created globally last year, while 82 percent went to the richest one percent, a report by Oxfam International revealed.
Billionaires in 2017 increased their wealth by $762bn, enough to end "global extreme poverty seven times over", the UK-based charity's annual inequality report, published on Monday, said.
Winnie Byanyima, the organisation's executive director, has called the boom a "symptom of a failing economic system".
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