Portside

Scientists have discovered a mutation that increases the production of brain cells and seems to have set our ancestors apart from other hominins.

The right to intimacy serves as both a realm of domination as well as a form of resistance under Israeli settler-colonialism.

Accuracy no longer matters. Witnessing no longer matters. Conformity matters.

To avoid the energy catastrophe and reverse the huge loss in living standards already under way, we need to take over the fossil fuel companies and phase out their production with increased investment in renewables, to reduce fuel prices for households and small businesses.

Railroad workers bargaining for better pay and working conditions are at an impasse with their employers, causing the federal government to intervene to ward off a disruptive strike. But railworkers should be allowed to strike if and when they want to.

Starbucks is doing everything it can to stifle, delay, and repress the new union Starbucks Workers United — despite an order by a federal judge to cease and desist its myriad and repeated violations of labor law.

People are angry about nonwhite elves in Middle Earth, and the actors find themselves having to respond to the controversy. Yes, you read that correctly.

New scholarship by the French economist is a bona fide phenomenon - and the right is terrified. Thomas Piketty argues that the main driver of inequality - the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth - threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. He calls for political action and policy intervention. Video - Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman on the significance of the work, and the stir.

Chris Hani was assassinated April 10, 1993. Yet in the view of this author, he should not be made into an ideal type or used to settle political scores in the present. And further, any observer of contemporary South Africa can't help noticing that while Chris Hani is still lionized and his name invoked in speeches and songs, the principles he stood for no longer animate the political project of the liberation movement he laid down his life for.

The recent French municipal elections...The abstention levels of 39% were a record high for municipal elections. They were particularly high in areas most affected by the crisis; in metropolitan communes; among the young; workers; and voters of the Front de Gauche (Left Front) and of the FN (National Front). In addition, almost 3 million potential voters were not registered to vote.