World

At least nine persons have become new billionaires since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, thanks to the excessive profits pharmaceutical corporations with monopolies on COVID vaccines are making, said the People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA), a group advocating turning vaccine receipts into a global public good. Between them, the nine new billionaires, have a combined net wealth of $19.3 billion,[Read More...]

Photo taken on May 9, 2021 shows the books of students who were killed in a car bomb attack in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. (Photo by Rahmatullah Alizadah/Xinhua). Over 80 people were killed in successive explosions outside a girls’ high school in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, most of the victims were girl students. US withdrawal from Afghanistan must be[Read More...]

Africa’s role model, Eritrea, located on the Red Sea will mark 30 years of independence this coming Monday, May 24. When a rag tag band of afro coiffed Eritrean rebels drove captured Ethiopian tanks into the streets of our capital Asmara thirty years ago it marked the first successful armed struggle for national liberation on the continent. Others had fought[Read More...]

Letter to President Biden and his cabinet about Israel and Palestine conflict Letter to President Joseph Biden Vice-President Kamala Harris Secretary of State Tony Blinken Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Senator Minority leader Mitch McConnel Congressional Majority leader Nancy Pelosi Congressional Minority leader Kevin McCarthy It is time we work for the security of Israel and Justice to the Palestinians.[Read More...]

The Saudi-Iranian contacts that began last month in secrecy have gained gravitas. Significantly, this is an exclusively regional initiative. The Saudi-Iranian drive to normalise ties is motivated primarily by the two sides’ deep distrust of American intentions. Blinken sounded unhappy and somewhat irritated. His words reflect the reality that the US is a mere passive bystander while the two Gulf[Read More...]

There has been a social explosion of the Colombian people against poverty and repression. President Duque’s ‘tax reform’ package was the last straw that broke their patience. The biggest upsurge of sustained popular protest since the 1970s has brought the country to an absolutely pivotal moment: Colombia’s future hangs in the balance. In this article we look at why Duque[Read More...]

At the beginning of this year, I wrote an article for Counterpunch arguing that UFO sightings were a new kind of quasi-religion based on the cultural peculiarities of modern post-war America: technologism, managerism, a decline in traditional religions, cold war “after-glow”, and last but not least a pervasive sense of loss of control over one’s destiny and increasing alienation from society and[Read More...]

Resounding victories for leftist and independent candidates saw rightwing politicians crash to dismal electoral defeats alongside those with links to Chile’s transition to democracy. Communist party members in Santiago celebrated victories in the constitutional assembly elections.

This article seeks to draw attention to one aspect of African sovereignty that does not get adequate coverage. Admittedly, many are aware of illicit financial outflows that cripple development or the fact that Africa has been a net creditor to the global financial system even though the countries within are debt ridden. This article will draw the lines between the[Read More...]

Is President Biden afflicted with the political equivalent of a split personality?  His first several months in office suggest just that possibility.  On the home front, the president’s inclination is clearly to Go Big.  When it comes to America’s role in the world, however, Biden largely hews to pre-Trumpian precedent.  So far at least, the administration’s overarching foreign-policy theme is[Read More...]