In his Wall Street Journal op-ed laying out the case for the House Republican budget, Paul Ryan contends that “the most important question isn’t how we balance the budget”. When a politician tells you something he’s doing isn’t so important, that’s probably a good place to look at where the ball’s been hidden.

And judging by the budget he just released, the “how” here is pretty darn important. The budget will be balanced, if Ryan gets …

Read more

(Reuters) – Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei announced plans on Monday to release a heavy-metal album that he said would “express his opinion” just as he does with his art.

The burly and bearded Ai said 81 days in secretive detention in 2011, which sparked an international outcry, triggered his foray into music.

“When I was arrested, they (his guards) would often ask me to sing songs, but because I wasn’t familiar with music, I was embarrassed,” …

Read more

Colorado students are planning to walk out of the state’s mandatory assessment this week and protest at the state Capitol, the latest in growing student pushback against high-stakes tests around the country.

In Providence, R.I., students recently dressed up as zombies and marched at the State House; in Oregon, students are organizing an opt-out campaign to persuade other students not to take state standardized tests; in New York, California and other states, students are increasingly opting …

Read more

BUDAPEST, March 11 (Reuters) – Hungary’s ruling party is set to push through changes to the constitution on Monday that critics say will curb democratic rights, despite warnings from European leaders and a protest by thousands of people in Budapest at the weekend.

The changes are seen by critics as the latest in a series of moves by centre-right Fidesz party to cement its position in public institutions via its large parliamentary majority.

They scrap all decisions …

Read more

President Barack Obama is expected to tap Thomas Perez, the head of the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, to serve as his next labor secretary. The appointment would make Perez the only Latino in the president’s second-term cabinet.

Multiple media reports have indicated that Perez is Obama’s likely pick to become the next head of the Department of Labor. Perez, 51, previously served as Maryland’s labor secretary between 2007 and 2009 before joining the …

Read more

Mohammed Al-Qahtani and Abdullah Al-Hamid, two prominent Saudi human rights activists, were handed 10-year prison sentences this weekend, concluding a trial that began in June 2012, and has since gained international attention.

Al-Qahtani, an economics professor, has been an outspoken critic of the Saudi judicial system and monarchy. He has spent most of his energy focusing on the arbitrary detention of political prisoners. In 2012, he pushed his criticism to dangerous levels when he demanded the …

Read more

Whole Foods Market, the grocery chain, announced on Friday that it would require all foods sold in its stores that contain genetically modified ingredients to be labeled as such within five years.

The company is the first retailer in the country to require the labeling, and its executives received a standing ovation when they made the announcement at the Natural Products Expo West, a trade conference being held this week in Anaheim, Calif. The show …

Read more

Following his colossal interview ‘The Empire of Sexuality’, we arranged to interview the most prominent Arab intellectual in the post-Fatimid era, Joseph Massad (JM), about another problematic concept at the intersection of late capitalism and Euro-American hegemony, cheese. We were intrigued by Massad’s comments about western culture’s tendency to label the various stages of milk into clear-cut ‘categories’, such as butter, cheese and ice cream, so we dispatched Alex Osman Fassbinder (AOF) and Mga Mga …

Read more

The funeral of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela took place on International Women’s Day – a fitting day of departure for “the president of the poor” who was loved by millions, especially by women, the poorest.

When Chávez was elected in 1998, the grassroots movement took a leap in power, and women in particular were empowered. Women were the first into the streets against the 2002 US-backed coup; their mobilisation saved the revolution. When asked why, …

Read more

In 1994, a scientist studying her company’s new medical imaging dye reached troubling findings. Her boss, she recalls, told her to “burn the data.”

That alleged request surfaced this week in a groundbreaking trial over the dye, which is injected into patients to sharpen MRI scans and has been owned since 2004 by GE Healthcare. At issue is whether GE did enough to protect patients from a rare but devastating side effect of the …

Read more