communists

Lilos, Speedos and piña coladas: in the public imagination, Wham!’s Club Tropicana is Ibiza’s Pikes Hotel, the setting for its radiant video. The hotel’s website describes the resort and bar as “an iconic institution, steeped in rock’n’roll history”, beloved by the likes of Freddie Mercury, Grace Jones and Bon Jovi. In the new Netflix documentary about the 80s pop duo, songwriter George Michael says the song was in fact inspired by his visits to Le Beat Route, the Soho nightclub where he and Andrew Ridgeley would spend…

Marvel's Jann Of The Jungle uncovers a Communist plot to steal uranium by drugging jungle animals in the debut of her own title in 1955.Jann of the Jungle took over Jungle Tales from Marvel/Atlas with issue #8 in 1955, with one of the coolest and action-packed covers the title ever saw. Look at everything going on down there: a futuristic hero swinging over a cool-looking swamp full of alligators. How cool is that? Jann of the Jungle is a Earth 616 character, though you would be forgiven for not realizing that. You can…

Elon Musk speaks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound on January 9, 2018 in Beijing, China. Photo: Mark Schiefelbein (Getty Images)Chinese government officials thanked Elon Musk over the weekend for his ideas about Taiwan which were shared in a new interview with the Financial Times. Musk said that Taiwan, which is currently independent as a self-governing democracy, should be controlled by China, something that hasn’t happened since 1949. “My recommendation...  would be to figure out a…

KANNUR: Inside India’s Bloodiest Revenge Politics By Ullekh NP Viking Penguin 2018, 223pp., Rs 499 Reviewed by Shashi Tharoor Kannur (or, as the Brits preferred to call it, Cannanore) is a lovely little town in north Kerala, located in a picturesque seaside setting near some spectacular beaches that ought to have made it a tourist paradise. It is better known, instead, as a town drenched in blood from repeated acts of political violence. Between 1991 and 2016, according to official crime statistics, 45…