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The author and political activist Arundhati Roy has faced prison and censorship. Her Booker Prize-winning novel “The God of Small Things” made her an international literary star when it came out in 1997. Since then, Roy has spent most of her career writing about the struggles of marginalized and oppressed people, and she has been targeted repeatedly by India’s government under the populist leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Roy tells “The Interview” host Lulu Garcia-Navarro that she knows what’s coming for America under President Trump, and she shares advice for how to survive in what she calls a “culture of fear.” Roy’s new memoir, “Mother Mary Comes to Me,” comes out on Sept. 2.

“The Interview” features conversations with the world’s most fascinating people. Each week, co-hosts David Marchese and Lulu Garcia-Navarro talk to compelling, influential figures in culture, politics, business, sports and beyond — illuminating who they are, why they do what they do and how they impact the rest of us.

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by F.S. AIJAZUDDIN

The years ahead are shorter than those already lived. Time therefore to honour two Pakistanis lost to history: Ch. M. Zafrulla Khan (1893-1985) and Eqbal Ahmad (1933-1999). Both shared a deep affinity with the Palestinians and fought, albeit armless, for their cause. Like the Arabist T.E. Lawrence, they too wrote their “will across the sky in stars”.

Chaudhry Zafrulla served as our first foreign minister, and then as president of both the UN General Assembly and the International Court of Justice.

In November 1947, Ch. Zafrulla addressed the UN General Assembly in New York on the plan to divide Palestine. He spoke scathingly of the inequity of a proposed arrangement under which Jews who constituted 33 per cent of the population received 60pc of the area of Palestine. Of the irrigated, cultivable areas, 84pc would go to the new Jewish state and only 16pc to the Arabs.

Despite Ch. Zafrulla’s persuasive rhetoric, the state of Israel came into being on May 14, 1948. The US recognised it the same day.

The ideals espoused by two Pakistanis have been relegated to oblivion.

In Eqbal Ahmad’s case, conflict birthed his pacifism. Wounded during the Kashmir conflict in 1948, he later participated in the revolution in Algeria that led to that nation’s independence from France in 1962. The US involvement in Vietnam agitated him and because he had the support of like-minded thinkers, the US administration longed to get rid of this ‘troublesome’ intellectual.

In 1971, the FBI arrested him on the implausible charge that he, as part of the Harrisburg Seven, planned to abduct Dr Henry Kissinger (then national security adviser to Richard Nixon). After a ridiculously long trial, he and his fellow accused were acquitted. In his later years, like a moth attracted to a flame, Eqbal returned to the US where he became a respected if isolated academic.

His riposte in 1968 to Samuel Huntington (of The Clash of Civilisations fame) deserves to be recalled. Ahmad identified the perceptible gap between Third World countries’ impatience for change and America’s obsession with order, their longing for national sovereignty and America’s preference for pliable allies, and their desire to see their soil free of occupation and America’s need for military bases abroad.

Both Ch. Zafrulla and Eqbal Ahmad have become prisoners of their own reputations. The ideals they espoused and their voices of reason have since been relegated to obli­vion. Mercifully, they have not lived to see Prime Minister Netanyahu flout the authority of the International Criminal Court af­­t­er it issued his arrest warrants for war cri­mes and crimes against humanity. So far, Netanyahu has escaped arrest and punishment. The Nazis at Nuremberg cou­ldn’t. Nor have they lived to see President Donald Trump (like some flaxen-haired Samson) pull down the numerous pillars of order that define civilisation, on himself and on us.

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Over 48 Hours, Witnessing Nepal’s Descent Into Anarchy

by DINESH KAFLE

Despite the violence, arson and impending uncertainty, I encounter triumphant protesters convinced about their ability to build a new nation free of corruption.

Kathmandu: I cannot even begin to summarise the first two days of the ‘Gen Z’ upsurge in Nepal without taking refuge in the words of Charles Dickens:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”

This was just the second day of the Gen Z movement and it was already difficult to keep track of the monumental changes that had occurred in Nepal’s politics in just 24 hours. The unprecedented national mourning over the murder of 19 protesters on the first day swiftly turned into a national uprising on Tuesday as people came out on the streets despite strict curfews and began vandalising everything that came their way.

By the afternoon, it was easier to tell which major government building or which leaders’ houses were left out rather than which had been torched.

In what could be symbolic of the dismantling of Nepal’s democratic structure, the protesters on Tuesday attacked all three arms of the government – the executive, the judiciary and the legislature – as they torched the Singha Durbar, the Supreme Court and the parliament buildings, apart from the office of the president as well as the private homes of the president the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, among others.

By afternoon, videos emerged of protesters with foreign minister Arzu Rana Deuba and her husband, the former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, both beaten and visibly shaken. Ministers were escorted to safety in Nepal Army helicopters, and leaders across political parties had fled their homes for fear of their lives.

An uprising

Monday’s tragedy had by Tuesday afternoon given way to anarchy as the Gen Z movement was joined, even taken over, by citizens of all ages and from all walks of life. Corruption, nepotism and the social media ban, the three concerns of the Gen Z movement, seemed inconsequential in just a day as the slogans now involved “change” – although there was no unanimity in what it is that they really wanted to change.

Unable to face public anger, Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned, paving the way for the formation of a new government. But at this point, there are hardly any takers for the prime minister’s position, which had for the past two decades remained the hot potato of Nepali politics.

Each of the top leaders of all three major political parties – the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and the Maoist Centre – has been targeted and rejected on the streets. The leaders of the fourth- and fifth-largest parties – the Rastriya Swatantra Party and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party – have announced their resignations en masse.

This has left a political vacuum that is unprecedented in Nepal’s political history. No one can tell whom the enraged people will accept as their leader at this moment.

But there are signs. In what could be taken as the desire of at least one significant section of the population, protesters stormed into the Nakkhu jail on the outskirts of the Kathmandu valley to release Rabi Lamichhane, the embattled parliamentarian of the Rastriya Swatantra Party and former home minister who is undergoing trial in a corruption case.

And all day, a section of the protesters called on Kathmandu Metropolitan City mayor Balen Shah to come forward and take the lead, with major newspapers toeing the line.

The Wire for more

Fearless, restless, and leaderless: What the Gen Z movement can learn from history

by MANEESH PRADHAN

If we learn from history, build strong institutions, and channel collective hope into meaningful action, the ashes of today can become the foundation for a more just and prosperous Nepal

“Once in an age, a single day arrives. It brings upheaval, turmoil, transformation.”

Gopal Prasad Rimal wrote those words for a revolution during the final years of the Rana regime [the Rana dynasty 1846–1951], and strangely, it has found its relevance again. The events of September 8th and 9th felt like one such day. Nepal has witnessed many political upheavals: the democratic movement that toppled the Rana regime, the People’s Movement that paved the way for multi-party democracy, the Maoist insurgency, and the republican movement. Yet the current movement stands apart. In just two days, it shook the country to its core. The government fell, leaving behind destruction and anarchy, while claiming many young lives. Grief, fear, and uncertainty swept through families and communities, leaving the nation struggling to imagine what the future might hold.

What makes this movement truly unprecedented is its leadership – or rather, its absence. Driven by Gen Z and largely without a formal political organisation, this is a leaderless uprising. And as the country tries to steady itself from the uncertainty, it is worth looking into history for lessons. From the French Revolution in the 18th century to the Arab Spring in the 2010s and more recent uprisings in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, these movements show us a pattern. They show us both the extraordinary power of leaderless movements and the challenges they face in translating energy into lasting change.

These movements don’t start over political doctrines. They are often non-ideological, unlike major political upheavals throughout history. At their core, such movements are propelled by long-standing frustrations: inequality, lack of opportunity, a sense of voicelessness, corruption, and deep distrust in the political establishment and leadership. Then, when a tipping point is reached, a single spark (such as the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, the student protests against the quota system in Bangladesh, or social media restrictions in Nepal) ignites everything.

Leaderless uprisings can mobilise large groups of people very quickly. Their strength lies in being perceived as authentic, less hierarchical, and free from elite capture. And it connects through visceral anger. Social media amplifies this effect, allowing movements to spread rapidly and connect participants across the country. These movements reveal the depth of ordinary people’s frustrations and demonstrate their ability to act collectively without waiting for direction from established leaders.

This teaches us our first lesson: energy and authenticity can unite people quickly, but sustaining momentum requires foresight and organisation. Mobilisation is easy; consolidation is hard.

Such movements often benefit from the clarity of their demands. Simple goals, such as ending corruption or removing an unpopular leader, are easy to rally around and create a strong sense of shared purpose. However, once the movement achieves the immediate target, it often struggles to define the next step. In Egypt, after Mubarak stepped down, divisions between secularists, Islamists, and the military led to chaos. In Sri Lanka, the ouster of Gotabaya Rajapaksa did not result in systemic change, as the political elite largely reasserted itself.

Hence, the second lesson: simple and clear demands can unite people, but without a roadmap for what follows, movements risk fragmentation. Shared anger unites, but visions for the future divide.

A further challenge is the vacuum created by the absence of clear leadership or organisational structures. Without direction, it becomes difficult to negotiate gains, consolidate achievements, or guard against counter-revolutions. And the void left by a fallen regime often gets filled by the next most organised group. During the French Revolution, unstructured energy led to cycles of violence before giving rise to Napoleon’s authoritarian rule. In Egypt, the army quickly regained control. In Sri Lanka, protesters ousted a president, yet the old elite returned to power soon after. Both internal factions and external actors often exploit this vacuum. Military forces, religious groups, entrenched elites, or outside powers can step in, supporting, undermining, or even hijacking movements, sometimes turning initial hopes into outcomes far from what protesters intended.

The lesson is clear: without leadership and organisational capacity, even powerful uprisings risk being co-opted before meaningful change can take root.

The Himalayan

Sushila Karki: How Gen Z protestors chose Nepal’s first woman prime minister on Discord

by VISHWAM SANKARAN

Over the week, multiple polls were held by representatives of the protest movement on Discord to nominate possible leaders and Karki emerged as a favourite, widely praised for her integrity

Nepal’s young anti-corruption protestors reportedly used the platform Discord to hold an impromptu vote to pick their first interim woman prime minister days after toppling the KP Sharma Oli government through deadly protests that spread like wildfire across the country.

The country is set to hold elections on 5 March 2026 to determine its next full-time prime minister. Till elections are held, 73-year-old Sushila Karki, a former chief justice, would be the first woman to lead the country.

The protests, fanned by dissatisfaction over the government’s ban on several popular social media platforms, soon snowballed into a wider discourse on corruption and unemployment as the Generation Z – people in their teens and 20s – took to the streets with banners and slogans. At least 51 people were killed and more than 1,300 were injured in the nationwide protests that erupted after the government tried to shut down social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, causing deep anger to boil over.

The protests turned violent as security forces used live bullets, tear gas, and batons while demonstrators toppled barricades, looted businesses, and set fire to government offices and politicians’ residences.

Fire rages through the Singha Durbar, the main administrative building for the Nepal government, in Kathmandu on September 9, 2025 (AFP via Getty Images)

The protesters also burned the Singha Durbar palace, the seat of the Nepali government, and damaged airports and a TV news station building.

The prime minister and four of his ministers resigned last week, and the military took over the capital, immediately enforcing a nationwide curfew. The military relaxed the curfew for a few hours to allow people to buy supplies.

What is Discord?

After Mr Oli’s resignation and the exodus of senior political figures left a power vacuum in Nepal, activists took to the US group-chat app platform to plan their next steps, according to NDTV.

The outlet reported that one server with more than 145,000 members hosted a debate about who could be an interim leader.Over the week, multiple polls were held by representatives of the protest movement on the social media platform Discord to nominate possible leaders. Ms Karki emerged as a favourite, widely praised for her integrity.

Independent for more

‘More egalitarian’: How Nepal’s Gen Z used gaming app Discord to pick PM

by SAMIK KHAREL

It was a first for an electoral democracy. Backers say it is more transparent than what politicians do. But it has risks.

Kathmandu, Nepal – As Nepal burned on Thursday after two days of deadly unrest that ousted a government accused of corruption, thousands of young people gathered in a heated debate to decide their nation’s next leader.

To them, the country’s mainstream politicians across the major parties were discredited: 14 governments representing three parties have taken turns at governing since 2008, when Nepal adopted a new constitution after abolishing its monarchy.

But in the wake of a brutal crackdown on protesters by security forces that killed at least 72 people, their trust in the country’s political system itself had been shattered. They wanted to select a consensus leader who would steer the country of 30 million people out of chaos and take steps towards stamping out corruption and nepotism. Just not in the way countries usually pick their heads.

So, they chose Nepal’s next leader in a manner unprecedented for any electoral democracy – through a virtual poll on Discord, a United States-based free messaging platform mainly used by online gamers.

The online huddle was organised by Hami Nepal, a Gen Z group behind the protest with more than 160,000 members.

Hami Nepal ran a channel on the platform called Youth Against Corruption, where a fiery debate on the country’s future brought together more than 10,000 people, including many from the Nepali diaspora. As more people tried to log in and failed, a mirrored livestream was held on YouTube to allow about 6,000 more people to see the debate.

After hours of debate that included difficult questions for protest leaders and attempts at reaching out to potential prime minister candidates in real time, the participants chose former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sushila Karki to lead Nepal. The 73-year-old took the oath of office as the country’s interim prime minister on Friday.

But Nepal’s transition is only beginning, say analysts, and the approach protesters took to choose the country’s leader only underscores how a chaotic new experiment in democracy appears to be under way, with rewards as well as risks.

Discord enables users to connect through texts, voice calls, video calls and media sharing. It also allows communication through direct messages or within community spaces known as servers. It was one of the platforms banned by the government earlier this month alongside two dozen other popular applications, including Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

The ban, protesters said, was the last straw that spiralled into a nationwide movement against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s government. The demonstrators accused it of being unrepresentative of young people, as well as of widespread corruption and nepotism.

Tens of thousands of young protesters hit the streets on Tuesday, torching government buildings, including the parliament and residences of top politicians, and forcing Oli to resign. On Friday, President Ramchandra Paudel dissolved parliament and called for a general election in March.

By then, Nepal’s Gen Z protesters had turned to Discord to decide who should lead their nation until March. The social media ban was lifted after the killings earlier in the week.

Virtual polls on mobile screens allowed participants to nominate their interim leader in real time, marking a radical experiment in digital democracy.

“People were learning as they went,” said 25-year-old law graduate Regina Basnet, a protester who had then joined the Discord debate. “Many of us didn’t know what it meant to dissolve parliament or form an interim government. But we were asking questions, getting answers from experts, and trying to figure it out together.”

The discussion revolved around a wide range of issues Nepal must battle now, including jobs, police and university reforms, as well as the state of government healthcare, as the moderators urged the participants to focus on the main question before them: the next leader.

Five names were shortlisted for the final voting: Harka Sampang, a social activist and mayor of the eastern city of Dharan; Mahabir Pun, a popular social activist running the National Innovation Centre; Sagar Dhakal, an independent politician who ran against the powerful Nepali Congress leader, Sher Bahadur Deuba, in 2022; advocate Rastra Bimochan Timalsina, also known as Random Nepali on his YouTube channel, who has been advising the Gen Z protesters; and Karki.

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Nepal’s Gen Z Uprising and the Unraveling of South Asia’s Old Order

by S. D. MUNI

What began as a youth-led outcry against corruption and a ban on social media morphed into Nepal’s most violent political upheaval in decades, leaving the pillars of its republic in ruins. The uprising, part of a wider South Asian wave, has unsettled not just Kathmandu’s old guard but also India, China and the US, each wary of losing influence in a region on the boil.

Demonstrators hold placards and raise slogans during a protest against the government, in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 11, 2025. Photo: PTI

The crisis in Nepal is part of a wider wave of unexpected popular uprisings and regime changes in South Asia. It was preceded by a similar phenomenon in Sri Lanka in 2022 and Bangladesh in 2024. This wave is the fall out of an explosive cocktail of domestic turmoil and occurs against the backdrop of regional and global geo-political rivalries.

South Asia’s domestic terrain is on the boil owing to demographic and developmental changes.

States in the world’s most populous sub-regions have not been able to meet the aspirations of this demographic bulge. The pace of development is slow and highly inequitable. Governance is fraught with corruption, nepotism, inefficiency and repression. Frustrated by their conditions, people are reacting with huge demonstrations, aggressive uprisings and violence. In the hands of tech savvy youngsters, social media is facilitating networking and the mobilisation of widespread popular dissent.

Fuelling this domestic fire are regional and global geopolitical rivalries, with China on one side and the US and India on the other competing for strategic presence and influence. Over the past decade, particularly under President Xi, China has built high stakes across Asia. Its stakes in South Asia, a densely populated, fast-growing and strategically located region bordering its turbulent western frontier and the Indian Ocean, have become sharper and deeper. Through economic incentives, cultural outreach and diplomatic moves, Beijing has sought to shape and sustain friendly regimes in the region.

This growing Chinese presence is not palatable to India and the US, and both of them have used all their diplomatic and political capabilities to contain Beijing. In supporting the popular uprising against the Rajapaksa regime in Sri Lanka, both India and the US appeared to be on the same page. In Bangladesh however, the US dislike for the Hasina regime and preference for the BNP was in direct conflict with that of India’s. In Nepal too, there seems to be a degree of convergence between the US and India in the disapproval of the Oli regime, seen by them as overtly pro-China.

The wave of regime change in South Asia must be seen in the context of domestic turmoil amplified by geopolitical rivalries. Recent political shifts in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal share striking similarities: sudden uprisings of unexpected scale, triggered by economic hardship for ordinary people and the repressive methods of ruling regimes.The uprisings have been led by largely unconventional, marginalised and youthful leadership, but extensively supported by wider sections of society. In all three cases, varying degrees of violence, arson, targeted attacks on political leadership and governing systems have been witnessed. 

The political explosion against the regime was the loudest and most brutal In Nepal. Sixty lives and counting are estimated to have been lost and more than a thousand casualties are being treated in hospitals. A large number of public and personal properties have been burnt and damaged, the private homes of the president and former prime ministers. Many prominent business leaders and political activists were attacked and their houses and properties destroyed. Key political leaders from both the ruling and opposition parties are under the army’s protection to save their lives. Nepal’s parliament, central secretariat (Singh Durbar) and Supreme Court were gutted along with many police stations and the Central Bank. The establishments of principal media groups like that of Kantipur newspaper and television were also destroyed.

This uprising was led by various Gen Z groups, spearheaded by Sudan Gurung of the Hami Nepal NGO. For the past decade, these groups have been raising questions about the corruption, nepotism and misgovernance of the regime. They were exposing their misdeeds. The display of arrogant and affluent lifestyles of the children of ruling elites have offended the sensitivities of Gen. Z who have been creating networks of dissenting groups through social media. 

During these years, three parties and their leaders, K.P. Sharma Oli of the United Marxist-Leninist (UML) party, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ of the Maoist Centre and Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress have been circulating themselves on the seats of power, all indulging in extensive plunder of public resources at the cost of public good and the country’s economic well-being.

The Wire for more

by JUSTIN DUNNAVANT

“For a long time now, a large number of [escaped slaves] have established themselves on lofty Maroon Hill in the mountains toward the west end of the island [of St. Croix]. … They are there protected by the impenetrable bush and by their own wariness.”

Those are the words of Christian Oldendorp, a Danish missionary who visited the Caribbean island of St. Croix in 1767. His account is one of the few Danish historical records of Maronberg, a community of escaped slaves, known as Maroons, in the northwest mountain ranges of the island.

In 1733, the Danish West India-Guinea Company purchased St. Croix from France and quickly expanded the island’s sugar and cotton production. This also meant expanding the slave population to harvest lucrative plantations. But the Danes were never able to fully control the island – or the enslaved. By the end of the 1700s, nearly 1,400 people – more than 10% of the enslaved population – successfully escaped captivity. But where did they escape to? Only recently have researchers started to shed more light on this centuries-old mystery.

As an archaeologist specializing in slavery and resistance, I’ve excavated plantations in the Americas and used geographic information systems to model Maroon escape routes by sea. Recently, I turned my attention to Maroon settlements on land, working with a team of archaeologists to locate Maronberg.

The Conversation for more

by JARRETT A. LOBELL

A millennium ago, the Chimú built a new way of life in the vast city of Chan Chan

The Moche River Valley in northern Peru was an unlikely place to build a city. Though barely 1,000 feet from the Pacific Ocean, the valley received less than a tenth of an inch of rain per year. Nevertheless, in about A.D. 1000, a people known as the Chimú selected a location in the valley some four miles north of the river and set about making it habitable. Called Chimor in colonial accounts, and now commonly known as Chan Chan, it became the largest urban center in the Americas.

What enabled the Chimú to build a city in this unpopulated coastal desert was their tremendous engineering skill, which they used to create an extensive network of irrigation canals that channeled snowmelt from the Andes Mountains into the Moche River. What drove the Chimú was the desire for a place to call their own. The valley had no one to conquer and evict, no existing structures to raze, and no troubled history to erase. “Chan Chan is an invented city in an artificially irrigated valley,” says archaeologist Gabriel Prieto of the University of Florida. “The Chimú transformed the landscape, created an entirely new society, and became the most powerful rulers in coastal Peru. Chan Chan was an experiment that worked for almost five hundred years.”

The Chimú built their new capital, which spread over more than seven square miles, in a way that distinguished them from other Andean cultures and was intended to reflect their particular social system. “There were enormous social differences and a clear recognition of social distinctions in Chimú society,” says archaeologist Jerry Moore of California State University, Dominguez Hills. “What is so important about Chan Chan is that it shows a very different kind of architectural style from other Andean societies.” Even their myths reveal how, for the Chimú, division between classes was at the center of their worldview. One myth says that royal and noble males were spawned from a gold egg, noblewomen from a silver egg, and everyone else from a copper egg. “I like the egg myth because it suggests that the Chimú understood that social and political inequality is ‘baked in’ to humanity from the beginning,” says anthropologist Robyn Cutright of Centre College.

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by ERIC TOUSSAINT

The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which have admitted five more states (Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Iran), met in Rio de Janeiro on 6 and 7 July 2025. Saudi Arabia was present but did not officially join as a member country. Representatives from 20 other states considered partners were also present.

While the President of the United States is stepping up unilateral actions on both the military and commercial fronts, the BRICS countries are defending multilateralism and the United Nations system, which are in crisis. They are also defending the capitalist, productivist-extractivist mode of production that exploits human labour and destroys nature.

The BRICS countries represent half the world’s population, 40% of fossil energy resources, 30% of global GDP and 50% of growth. They have the resources to change their export-oriented capitalist development model, but they don’t want to.

It is necessary to express a clearly critical view of the BRICS. This stance in no way prevents us from denouncing, first and foremost and with the utmost firmness, the government of the United States, as well as its European and Indo-Pacific allies (Japan, Australia, etc.), for their imperialist policies.

This policy is blatantly expressed through their support for the State of Israel, which is responsible for the ongoing genocide in Gaza and military aggression against neighbouring countries. Israel is the armed wing of the United States in the region. Without Washington’s unwavering support and the complicity of Western Europe, the neo-fascist Israeli government would not be able to continue the genocide.

For their part, the BRICS countries are not taking any concrete measures as a group to effectively prevent the continuation of the massacres and genocide.

In this series of questions and answers, Eric Toussaint analyses the final declaration of the BRICS summit released on 6 July 2025, as well as the practical policies of the BRICS and the institutions they have established.

Is it true that the BRICS countries are not condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza?

Yes. In the final declaration of the BRICS summit published on 6 July 2025, the BRICS countries do not use the term genocideto describe what is happening in Gaza. The BRICS countries criticise Israel’s use of force in points 24 to 27 of their statement, but nowhere do they use the terms “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing” or “massacre”.

What is also striking is that the part of the 6 July 2025 statement concerning Gaza is almost identical to what is found in the final statement of the previous BRICS summit held in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024 (point 30 of the final statement).

It is as if the evidence of genocide, which is mounting every day, still does not justify the clear use of this term.

Is it true that the BRICS countries are not proposing sanctions against Israel?

Yes, it is true: in their final statement, the BRICS countries did not propose sanctions against Israel. They did not propose to break the various agreements that bind them to the State of Israel. Yet the ongoing genocide and massacres of Gazans in search of food justify and demand action that goes beyond protests by the BRICS and other states.

The protests expressed by the BRICS countries were totally insufficient in October 2024 at the Kazan summit and are even more so in 2025. Only governments and multilateral bodies can take the required concrete and strong action. Of course, street demonstrations, occupations of public spaces and universities, and legal initiatives by citizens’ organisations are fundamental, but they cannot replace action by states and international institutions.

Are the BRICS countries taking concrete measures against the Israeli government?

The BRICS countries as a group are not implementing any concrete measures against the Israeli government, such as boycotts or embargoes. Admittedly, South Africa has taken the initiative of filing a complaint against Israel before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which is positive, but its practices are at odds with this legal action. Indeed, South Africa maintains trade relations with Israel, notably by allowing South African companies to regularly export coal to Israel by ship.

Since the genocide began, it is reliably estimated that 17 shipments have taken 1.6 million tonnes of coal to fuel the Israeli grid. There have been protests attended by hundreds, called by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, community groups in coal-mining areas, and climate activists against Glencore on 22 August 2024 and 28 May 2025 (a global day of action) and at its local partner African Rainbow Minerals on 5 April 2025; that company is run by Patrice Motsepe who is South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s brother in law.

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by JINOY JOSE P.

Dear reader,

My Instagram handle is Jinoymash. No, this is not a social media plug. That is simply how I am—or perhaps how I once was—known in my village. I have been what Indian imagination would easily call a “tuition mash” for many years, especially during my college days, teaching little children who wandered into my life, one of whom was barely three.

I can still see little Sanjo, whose father, a bank employee, wanted him to start school with “some basics”. Sanjo could not even pronounce his own name properly. He would say fa for sa: “Fanjo wants bifcuit.” It was so beautiful, so innocent, that I never once tried to correct him. When his father worried aloud about whether this would remain, I consulted a friend studying psychology who reached out to someone in speech therapy, and the professional reassured us it was harmless, something he would outgrow. And so it was: Sanjo shed fa for sa and became, in his father’s relieved words, “normal”. His father thanked me—the “mash”—for helping, but in truth it was the family’s patience, their willingness to wait, to withstand social pressure, to understand the boy as he was, that gave him the room to bloom.

But Anoop Kumar’s (name changed) family had none of that understanding or knowledge, for they were poor, uneducated, and above all, unsupported. Anoop used to stammer; he could never finish the “r” in Kumar. He was, I know now, autistic. And his mind worked in remarkable, unexpected ways. Take this one example: he struggled to memorise the multiplication table of nine. It simply refused to lodge in his memory. So he invented a trick. Each time he recited, he placed both hands on the table. For 1×9, he folded one finger on his left hand and, quick as lightning, counted the nine that remained. For 2×9, he folded the second finger, saw the single finger on one side and eight on the other, and instantly declared “eighteen”. He did this all the way through the table, his eyes darting, his mind racing, and the answers always right.

I never knew whether he had discovered an old trick or conjured it himself, but it worked. When I asked him why he did it, whether it was cheating, the frail little boy—he was still in primary school—looked up at me with wet eyes and whispered, “This is how I learn, mashe.” That helpless honesty pierced me. I did not stop him, but I did murmur that one day he might have to learn the “usual” way. I remember feeling a small sting of shame as the words left my mouth.

Anoop had many such habits that the mainstream would dismiss as flaws, but to me, he was brilliant, witty, shy in a unique way, with a crooked smile that could disarm anyone. We grew close. By then, I was tutoring nearly every child in the village. Some families paid me, many did not, but they gave me love, respect, and plates of boiled bananas and eggs whenever they could.

My little army grew fast: Anoop, Dhanya, Drishya, Remya, Chinnu, Ponnu, Paru, Avinash, and many others. We shared our afternoons, laughed, traded gossip. They told me everything—their schools, their teachers, their parents. In fact, they were my teachers; I was endlessly amazed by their intelligence, their presence of mind, their sharp grasp of the world.

Frontline for more

by JESSICA MOUZO

A team of scientists identifies a molecular mechanism that helps explain how airborne toxins influences Lewy body dementia

Air pollution makes people sick and can be deadly — in many ways. It has been shown to drive cardiovascular diseases, respiratory infections, and cancers such as lung cancer. It is responsible for 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide every year. There is no doubt about its harmful potential, but science is increasingly trying to pinpoint the exact links between pollution and different illnesses. A new study, published on Thursday in Science, focuses on the connection between air pollution and the risk of developing dementia, a group of neurodegenerative diseases traditionally associated with aging and characterized by the loss of memory and individual autonomy.

Specifically, researchers from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, who authored the study, focused on Lewy body dementia, a neurodegenerative disorder marked by the abnormal accumulation in the brain of a protein called alpha-synuclein. These harmful deposits (Lewy bodies), which are distinctive signs of this type of dementia and also of Parkinson’s disease, are responsible for motor problems and memory loss. And according to this new research, that protein may also hold the key to explaining how prolonged exposure to air pollution increases the risk of developing this type of dementia. The study provides scientific support for the potential of air pollutants to fuel disease and suggests that alpha-synuclein is a crucial mediator linking environmental damage to brain damage.

Xiaobo Mao, a researcher in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University and author of the study, explains that his intention was to dig deeper into a major knowledge gap — “a black box” that made it impossible to understand exactly how pollution damages the brain. The association between pollution and the risk of developing dementia had already been demonstrated, but, he notes, “the specific molecular mechanisms were not clear.”

The researchers focused specifically on Lewy body dementia because of its public health impact — it is the second most common neurodegenerative dementia, after Alzheimer’s — and because its link to pollution was “a blind spot for science,” he says, almost unknown. “We saw a pressing need to investigate whether this common environmental exposure could be a risk factor for this devastating and widespread disease,” he explains in an email response.

The first thing the scientists did was delve into epidemiological research to confirm the association already suggested by earlier scientific literature. They used data from 56 million U.S. patients hospitalized with neurodegenerative diseases between 2000 and 2014. They focused on those with Lewy body-related diseases and also calculated their exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) — an airborne pollutant produced by vehicle combustion, factories, or the burning of materials. When they cross-referenced the data, the scientists found that as exposure to these environmental toxins increased, so did the risk of hospital admission for these neurodegenerative conditions.

Then, in experiments with mice, they confirmed that normal rodents exposed to these pollutants developed buildups of alpha-synuclein and ultimately suffered brain atrophy, neuronal death, and cognitive decline — all hallmarks of dementia. In contrast, when the same pollutants were given to genetically modified mice that did not produce alpha-synuclein, no significant brain changes were observed: no atrophy, no cognitive decline. “The pollution was still present, but without its key target protein, it could not cause this specific type of neurodegeneration,” the researcher adds.

The scientists’ hypothesis is that environmental toxins such as PM2.5 could trigger abnormal accumulations of alpha-synuclein capable of spreading damage throughout the brain.

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by B. R. GOWANI

Muslims should remember three precepts:

•     Allah is a concept – it cannot be destroyed.
•     Muhammad is with his Allah*, so is beyond any harm.
•     Quran is reprintable and can be replaced when haters burn Quran.

*Muslim scripture consoling words for bereaving believers at time of death are:

“Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed, to Him we return.”

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com