274 miners have been declared dead and up to a hundred are still trapped underground after an explosion in a Turkish coal mine in the western town of Soma. The accident reveals the ruthless exploitation and extreme inequality behind the economic growth of the past decade, and has led to an explosion of anger and protest across Turkey against the hated Erdogan government.

Tensions are high in Thailand as a political crisis that has been simmering for years is reaching boiling point. Last week a judicial coup ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and several of her ministers. Ben Gliniecki analyses the latest developments and the revolutionary potential in Thailand.

The holding of the referendums in eastern Ukraine represents a new and potentially dangerous twist in the Ukrainian crisis. The representatives of the people of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions say 89% and 96% respectively voted in favour of self-rule. Alan Woods analyses the significance of the referendums and the responses of Putin’s Russia and the Western media.