How three Uyghur brothers fled China – to spend 12 years in an Indian prison

NB: There seems to be Sino-Indian unity on torturing the innocent. DS Arrested in 2013 on India’s Himalayan border after fleeing Beijing’s ‘genocide’ against Muslims in Xinjiang, the siblings have been imprisoned indefinitely ever since then On the evening of 12 June 2013, according to court documents, three “Chinese intruders” were arrested by the Indian… Read More How three Uyghur brothers fled China – to spend 12 years in an Indian prison

The Great Global Transformation

The Serbian-American economist Branko Milanović has emerged as one of the most discerning thinkers of our time – and certainly one of the most productive. In his books since 2016, he has moved from measuring global inequality to theorising capitalism’s competing forms to excavating how we’ve historically thought about inequality. His new book, The Great Global Transformation, studies… Read More The Great Global Transformation

Brutish, bullying, imperialistic: the Ugly American is back

Donald Trump is using US power to insert himself into other countries’ affairs, treating them as vassals Steven Greenhouse For decades, president after president has sought to rid the US of its image as a bullying, imperialistic nation. But with his blustering, often brutish behavior toward other countries, Donald Trump has rapidly revived that notion. Under Trump,… Read More Brutish, bullying, imperialistic: the Ugly American is back

Monstrosity in the Mediterranean before which Spain humiliates itself 

Why does Spain allow, applaud, and humiliate itself in the face of this unbridled Trumpist bullying that, so clearly and dangerously, could lead us to a third, and final, (atomic) war? What nobody understands is why an army of gorillas is sailing in our Mediterranean (https://as.com/…/el-buque-de-guer…) dedicated to threatening everyone, bombing left and right, directly… Read More Monstrosity in the Mediterranean before which Spain humiliates itself 

Trump’s saber-rattling in Venezuela / Venezuelan Coup Leader María Machado Vows To Privatize Oil: US Corporations Will ‘Make a Lot of Money’

NB: The USA emerged as the leading global hooligan after World War 2. Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Chile, Iraq, Afghanistan: a long story, documented by Alfred McCoy. Venezuela is the latest chapter in American empire building. It will meet the fate of their intervention in Vietnam. Their Armed forces know how they had to leave in… Read More Trump’s saber-rattling in Venezuela / Venezuelan Coup Leader María Machado Vows To Privatize Oil: US Corporations Will ‘Make a Lot of Money’

The future of the world economy beyond globalization – or, thinking with soup

Adam Tooze: Chartbook This year marks the 80th anniversary of 1945. Given the turmoil we are living through, it is tempting to look both backwards and forwards for orientation. As one of the tailgunners at a conference last week at Columbia University commemorating the 1945 moment, I was asked to give 15 minutes of remarks… Read More The future of the world economy beyond globalization – or, thinking with soup

A Dying American Empire, ‘Rotten to the Heart?’

By Alfred McCoy / TomDispatch In his novel The Autumn of the Patriarch, which is eerily evocative of our current political plight, Gabriel Garcia Marquez described how a Latin American autocrat “discovered in the course of his uncountable years that a lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth, [and] became convinced… Read More A Dying American Empire, ‘Rotten to the Heart?’

Heavy recoil

This idea that the world was increasingly being shaped by a freemasonry of Western majoritarians seems to have seduced Modi’s government into thinking of India as the West’s indispensable partner…. By mimicking the rhetoric and the practices of the West’s ‘savarna’ nations, Modi’s government thought it could deal at the world’s top table. This strategy… Read More Heavy recoil

Before and after the fall: World politics & the end of the Cold War

Nuno P. Monteiro and Fritz Bartel, eds., Before and after the fall: world politics and the end of the Cold War, Cambridge, 2021 Reviewed by Lorenzo Cladi In this volume, Nuno Monteiro and Fritz Bartel bring together a vast array of scholars. They all get to grips with the issue of continuity and change with… Read More Before and after the fall: World politics & the end of the Cold War