Lessons from the first year of Donald Trump’s second term The West’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal razing of Gaza and the impunity with which an allegedly isolationist Trump abducted Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela, expropriated its oil, bombed Iran, and threatened to annex Greenland and Canada has, it’s fair to say, made international law a disreputable… Read More Moment of reckoning
Since independence, the Republic of Congo has been suffering from ethnic strife, armed rebellions and military interventions by neighbouring countries. The presence of valuable minerals has added fuel to the strife which has taken millions of lives. Can peace ever come to this troubled nation? D.J. Ravindran The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly… Read More Congo: A Tragedy in Many Parts Over Many Decades
Behind today’s headlines is a history of imperial outrage—including a Philadelphia contract man who wreaked havoc in early 20th century Venezuela and helped oust a president. Greg Grandin Before Nicolás Maduro and Hugo Chávez, there was Cipriano Castro. Before Donald Trump, there was Theodore Roosevelt. And before petroleum, there was asphalt pitch. The following excerpt… Read More Tar Wars
From Venezuela to Minnesota, Trump is trying to create a borderless American power, collapsing the foreign and the domestic into a single domain of impunity… The good news is that the US is a large, diverse, energetic country, filled with people who do not like to be bullied and coerced, who still possess significant degrees… Read More Homeland Empire
Julian Borger The attack on Venezuela and the seizure of its president was a shocking enough start to 2026, but it was only the next day, when the smoke had dispersed and Donald Trump was flying from Florida to Washington DC in triumph, that it became clear the world had entered a new era. The US president… Read More Trump’s territorial ambition: new imperialism or a case of the emperor’s new clothes?
The Colombian novelist on Trump’s new doctrine and the long shadow of US aggression in Latin America Intervention and imperialism: that’s what the new world looks like. It will take many shapes. One of them is what we saw in Venezuela, but other processes are at work. I’ve been worried for a long time about… Read More ‘An International Thug’
The image Narendra Modi sought as a world leader who is principled and autonomous has been broken. Indian diplomats rely on lobbying firm not once, but routinely for access. Records show a pattern of dependency on the lobbying firm even for routine telephone calls and meetings — paying upfront for access — rather than through… Read More Muted on Venezuela, patronised by Trump, dependent on lobbyists: Modi’s global image takes a hit
Carlos Padrón Venezuelan psychoanalyst As Venezuelans, we share embodied knowledge formed by living through violence, terror, collapse, authoritarianism, migration, fear, absurdity, trauma, and survival. But we also share a layered archive of extraordinary stories: the struggles and resilience of our people; our complex and fascinating history; our literature, art, and music; our relentless and often… Read More Venezuela: Private Wounds, Loud Audiences
The US president has been quite clear that Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Greenland are in his sights. We must believe him… When the Soviet Union collapsed, US elites convinced themselves they were militarily invincible and that their economic model marked the endpoint of human development. That hubris led directly to catastrophe in Iraq, Afghanistan and… Read More Trump’s new world order is being born – and Venezuela is just the start
The United States is a republic forged by war; its founding document lists grievances against a king for quartering troops and waging war without consent. Yet modern Americans often cheer the latest intervention with little reflection on history or morality. The Maduro raid reveals a people quick to salute and slow to question. When the… Read More The Ugly Truth About Many Americans: They Love War
After the truth-shower 