Democratic participation depends on more than voting rights: people also need material security, practical knowledge, social belonging, and a sense of agency that human ecology education can help cultivate. Danny Howard from San Francisco, CA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Sandra Ericson The Path From Survival to Citizenship Access to food, stable housing, healthcare, and socioeconomic security shapes more than daily life. Material insecurity can also limit the

Ahead of the US midterm elections, voters need to clearly articulate a radical framework for spending our collective wealth. Police officers applauding Trump, August 2026 -- public domain image By Sonali Kolhatkar A recent New York Times editorial by Tim Wu, a former antitrust adviser for the Biden administration, caught my eye for the criticism it leveled at Democrats for making affordability a central issue ahead of the midterm elections. Wu contends that the party needs to

Delegates walk out as Netanyahu begins his speech at UN -- image via news video screenshot By Vijay Prashad When Benjamin Netanyahu rose to address the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, the rows of empty seats spoke before he did. Diplomats walked out, while others stayed away from the outset. News reports citing an Israeli tally put the number of delegations absent or departing at 77. This was not a recorded UN vote, nor did all 77 stage a coordinated walkout.

While genuine concern exists, constant warnings from AI companies serve as both a marketing tool and a consolidation strategy. As major companies manage stock prices and upcoming IPOs, the benefits of portraying the technology as powerful and dangerous are becoming clear. By John P. Ruehl Just weeks before its scheduled November IPO, Anthropic is facing growing attention over the potential dangers of its technology. The resignation of former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon o

US security agreement signing with Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen during the United Nations General Assembly, in New York City, New York, September 22, 2026 -- public domain image By Vijay Prashad Donald Trump’s campaign to bring Greenland under United States control has often been dismissed as bluster. That is a mistake. Behind the language of a property deal lies a serious attempt to revive an old imperial pri

Sarah J Malerich, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Jeffrey H. Altschul Cultural heritage is under attack in the United States. The National Historic Preservation Act’s Section 106 regulation, which balances economic development and historic preservation, has been rewritten to leave historic places in the path of the wrecking ball at the federal government’s whim. Developers contend that a new regulation is required because the Section 106 process is too slow, too unpred

Image via X By Vijay Prashad In Minaçu, in the northern part of the Brazilian state of Goiás, the landscape bears the scars of an earlier mineral rush. For decades, the town depended on the Cana Brava asbestos mine, whose prosperity was inseparable from lethal illnesses and a long history of environmental damage. Now Minaçu has been recruited into another promised future. At the Pela Ema mine, Serra Verde extracts rare-earth elements required for electric motors, wind turbine

Massive state and federal lawsuits take Meta to task over widespread harm to children. sharpemtbr, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Sonali Kolhatkar As a mother of two children who has often been on the losing side of family battles against screen time, I’ve been closely monitoring New Mexico’s landmark lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook. State Attorney General Raúl Torrez took the company to task to protect children “from sexual abuse, online sol

Public domain image By Guillermo R. Barreto It happened on 25 May 2020, in Minneapolis, USA. George Floyd (a Black man) was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pay for a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Police officer Derek Chauvin (a white man) pinned him to the ground and pressed down on his neck for more than 9 minutes. It was to no avail that George Floyd repeated ‘I can’t breathe’ more than 20 times. He lost consciousness and died of asphyxiation. In ot

Vessels in the Staright of Hormuz -- image via news video screenshot By Vijay Prashad For more than three decades, the United States has treated Middle Eastern diplomacy as an exercise in writing the terms for others. Iran’s emerging regional strategy is challenging that privilege. The immediate evidence is emerging in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and Oman are negotiating an arrangement under which Tehran could oversee vessels entering the Gulf while Muscat manages outbound tra

In Bolivar Square, Caracas -- J.A. Vergara, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Guillermo R. Barreto We are living in complex times in which U.S. imperialism is manifesting itself in an extremely aggressive manner, with greater violence and disregard for international law and the sovereignty of peoples, but with a desperation that translates into increasingly irrational decisions that openly threaten not only world peace but the future of all humanity. What we are witnessi

Arkaio Nomisma, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Gary M. Feinman As democracies around the world face mounting challenges and pressures, discussions about autocracy often focus on personalities and ideologies or tend to link governance practices to differences among specific cultural traditions. Yet a growing body of comparative historical research has provided evidence that a more fundamental question deserves attention: How was and how are governments funded? Across t

Public domain image By Carlos Ron On 14 July, at a summit in Orlando, the head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Terrance Cole, declared that Mexico’s cartels and Mexico’s government are ‘one and the same.’ He offered no evidence. President Claudia Sheinbaum demanded some; none came. Mexico’s Security Cabinet answered with figures—tens of thousands of arrests, hundreds of tons of narcotics seized—while Cole’s office remained silent. The accusation was never meant to

From the Civil War and World War I to the ongoing conflict in Iran, America’s and other nations’ expectations of war have repeatedly been challenged by the realities that emerge once fighting begins. U.S. Marines in their gas masks during a gas mask drill, France, WWI, 1917 By John P. Ruehl A nominal ceasefire reached in April 2026 has done little to halt the escalation in the Persian Gulf. After Iran’s “attempted surprise attack” against US forces on July 28, the US retaliat

Daniel Noboa, March 2026 -- public domain image By Pilar Troya Fernández President Daniel Noboa governs Ecuador with increasingly authoritarian methods. Elected in 2023 and reelected in 2025, he has concentrated power in the executive branch, clashed with the Constitutional Court, abused states of emergency, and turned the justice system into a tool against his opponents. Analysts and human rights organizations describe a drift toward a dictatorial edge: a leader who preserve

Marco Rubio meets with the Saudi Foreign Minister, June 25, 2026 -- public domain image By Vijay Prashad On 22 July, the United States and Saudi Arabia signed what Washington calls a ‘peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement.’ The agreement has been presented as a commercial arrangement that will help Saudi Arabia diversify its energy system while creating a vast new market for US-based nuclear companies. But its significance goes far beyond the construction of power stations.

2026 Ankara summit -- Estonian Foreign Ministry, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Biljana Vankovska ‘I think when it comes to nuclear, we are really in a good place.’ With these words, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte described the state of the Alliance’s nuclear strategy at the pre-Summit press conference in Ankara on 6 July 2026. The phrase was intended to project stability, confidence, and reassurance. Yet, to anyone familiar with the history of the nuclear age, it rev

Protests against the government in Tirana on June 13, 2026 -- Albinfo, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Biljana Vankovska When one has witnessed not only a colour revolution in her own country (Macedonia, 2015–2016) but also sensed its arrival during Ukraine’s Euromaidan in 2014, every new outburst of supposedly spontaneous revolt provokes scepticism. Regrettably, this scepticism is usually justified. Nearly two years ago, I wrote similarly about student protests in Serbia

Around the nation, citizens are resisting the mass warehousing of immigrants—and finding some success. Alligator Alcatraz detention center, July 2025 -- SovNAT, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Sonali Kolhatkar As the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency rapidly expands its carceral powers, immigrant detention centers around the United States have been facing relentless public scrutiny. It appears the pressure campaigns are finally having an impact as some cent

Once one of the world’s most militarized frontiers, the Russia-China border along the Amur River Basin shows how a long-running territorial dispute can evolve from confrontation to integration. No. 41 Boundary Marker at China–Russia Border -- Ncysea, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By John P. Ruehl Since the early 1990s, the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk, located on the Amur River, has steadily reemerged as one of Russia’s most important “border trade hubs.” Sitting dir