Mass rally in Tehran condemning US and Israeli threats and intervention in Iran, January 12, 2026 -- Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Biljana Vankovska Anyone from the former Yugoslavia will immediately understand the title. Mujo is a legendary (though fictional) Bosnian character, the protagonist (together with his inseparable friend Haso) of countless jokes that generations of Yugoslavs grew up with. Wars took many lives, erased towns, and destroyed f

Ursula von der Leyen, Volodymyr Zelensky, Mark Rutte & António Costa, December 8, 2025 -- © European Union, 2025, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad Sitting in a lively room in the University of Amsterdam, I ask a question about the respect accorded by students to their former Prime Minister and now head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Mark Rutte. The room is animated and funny. No-one seems to accord Rutte with the respect that he might deser

After centuries of dam building, a nationwide movement to dismantle these aging barriers is showing how free-flowing rivers can restore ecosystems, improve safety, and reconnect people with nature. The silt filled Matilija Dam in California -- Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License, via Wikimedia Commons By Tara Lohan With more than 550,000 dams in the United States, free-flowing rivers are an endangered species. We’ve dammed, diked, and diverted almost every ma

Washington’s unease is rising as Brazil’s Pix bypasses U.S.-dominated payment networks. The country’s digital payment revolution may soon be impossible to contain as other countries adapt their own models. By John P. Ruehl The Trump administration’s July 2025 decision to have the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) investigate Brazil’s “ attacks on American social media companies as well as other unfair trading practices ,” followed by the launch of 50 percent tari

Who and where were the Proto-Indo-Europeans? Almost 450 languages spoken by 4 billion people descend from their tongue—and J.P. Mallory...

A conversation with the legendary evolutionary thinker and archaeologist, Eudald Carbonell. Image via Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0, via...

For decades, the Americas have been the most violent part of the world outside active war zones. Many factors contribute to this, but...

Despite mounting evidence of serious health risks, the U.S. continues to allow diquat use on farms. A Canadian farmer spraying diquat on...

Carriage with Queen Maxima and King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands during Prinsjesdag in 2018 -- Peter van der Sluijs, CC BY-SA 4.0,...

The Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna -- C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT, via Wikimedia Commons By Jorge Coulon From the orderly center...

From trading posts to tech empires, corporations continue to grow in strength. Without reform, their power may soon eclipse public...

The war economy relies on the enclosure of the commons. By reclaiming the commons, we can build a world based on cooperation, ecological...

By Biljana Vankovska My analysis of the beginnings of cracks in NATO had been published with a short delay, just enough to become...

Europe has a choice. It could follow the will of its citizens. Instead, it is choosing profits over Palestinian lives. Red Line for Gaza...

Public domain image By Biljana Vankovska At NATO’s recent summit in The Hague (24–25 June), alliance leaders triumphantly announced a...

Leaders photo at the NATO Summit, June 25 -- public domain image By Vijay Prashad By the end of the annual meeting of the North Atlantic...

In the aftermath of the attack in Tehran -- Student News Agency, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad Israel’s consistent...

By Biljana Vankovska As NATO’s next summit looms – against the backdrop of an escalating proxy war in Ukraine and a genocidal horror in...

A Hungarian Soldier fires his weapon during the US-NATO Swift Response 25 exercise in Norway, May, 2025 -- public domain image By John...

Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park, Berlin -- JoachimKohlerBremen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Biljana Vankovska As we...