South Africa and the internationalization of mineral extraction Duncan Money At the 2025 African Mining Indaba, leaders from across the Continent met representatives from multilateral lending institutions, energy companies, and US national security agencies to discuss how to “position mining as the continent’s foremost industry, driving sustainable investment and fostering economic growth.” The conference location, in… Read More After the Diamond Rush
From Jairus Banaji’s Facebook page A builder fantasizes about transforming Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East, with a string of luxury hotels for the consumption of the world’s super-rich. Netanyahu looks baffled and even pained by the thought, because this real estate fantasy transforms the Israeli state into a mercenary that has unwittingly… Read More Trump on Ketamine
Dilip Simeon NB: This is part of a paper that I wrote in October 2023. Trump’s new declaration that he intends to complete the process of ethnic cleansing is merely the latest and most brazen declaration of the murderous impulses of American imperialism. He and his cronies will meet the same fate of the Presidents… Read More Nation-states as national homes; and Sir Edwin Montagu’s views on Zionism (1917)
Brain workers, comrades, scattered throughout the world, kept apart for five years by the armies, the censorship and the mutual hatred of the warring nations, now that barriers are falling and frontiers are being reopened, we issue to you a call to reconstitute our brotherly union, but to make of it a new union more… Read More Declaration of the Independence of the Mind (1919). Manifesto Signed by Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Rabindranath Tagore, Jane Addams and Others
It is difficult to imagine today how strongly the reaction in the public was against Fischer’s challenge of a deeply entrenched national myth… the warning he wanted to give to younger historians was to avoid national partiality and not to identify the writing of history with nationalist causes or government politics. He lived his advice.… Read More Professor Fritz Fischer (1908 – 1999)
Democracy doesn’t exist in the United States As Donald Trump returns to the White House, many are raising concerns about the possible decline of liberal democracy. What then would a second Trump term mean for the next four years for the United States? And what impact will the president’s foreign policy have on the Middle… Read More Chris Hedges: Democracy doesn’t exist in the United States
Demands expressed in the Resolution of the General Meeting of the Crews of the Ships of the Line, Kronstadt Original Source: Pravda o Kronshtadte (Prague: Volia Rossii, 1921), pp. 46-7 Having heard the report of the representatives of the crews dispatched by the General Meeting of the crews from the ships to Petrograd in order to… Read More Demands of the Kronstadt Insurgents; February 28, 1921
In this video, Yanis Varoufakis delves into the seismic developments of January 2025, spotlighting the transformative impact of DeepSeek—a groundbreaking Chinese AI company that has sent shockwaves through the global tech and financial landscapes. By releasing free, open-source AI models, DeepSeek has not only disrupted the American stock markets but has also outperformed proprietary giants… Read More Yanis Varoufakis on Cloud Capital vs AI: DeepSeek, Technofeudalism, Capitalism and the New Cold War
Sam Himself: La Paz I’ll ride into town on an old truck from JapanAcross a dead dust desert where the heat rots everythingThrough a cold sweat jungle where the leaves whisper the nameOf the first place I’ll lastI’m never gonna leave again When I go to La Paz to dieFor a while I’ll scale any… Read More La Paz
Among the projects in Gwadar that have been met with local distaste is a donkey slaughtering factory – not yet operational – where up to a million donkeys imported from Africa are to be killed to harvest products, including an ingredient used in traditional Chinese medicine. Shah Meer Baloch in Gwadar and Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi As the… Read More What went wrong with ‘Pakistan’s Dubai’? – inside the Chinese initiative that is prompting terror attacks
After the truth-shower 