The arrest of a drug kingpin in Mexico has reignited debate over how active U.S. military and intelligence forces are in Mexico and where they might be headed. Marco Rubio meets with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico City, Mexico, September 3, 2025 -- public domain image By John P. Ruehl FBI Director Kash Patel’s announcement on January 23 regarding the arrest of Canadian drug trafficker Ryan Wedding in Mexico led to immediate diplomatic tension between Washingto

“Every day, there’s yet another abuse.” The wanton attack on public schools is one of America’s biggest tragedies. Image via video screenshot By Jeff Bryant Chicago schoolteacher Claudia Morales may have been reflecting the feelings of most Americans about life under the Trump presidential administration when she told Our Schools, “Every day, there’s yet another abuse. It’s scary. And it’s coming from our own government.” In her work as a bilingual program teacher and bilingu

Portraits of Chavez, Bolivar and Maduro in Venezuela -- Guaiquerí, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Celina della Croce U.S. President Donald Trump has not shied away from admitting his thirst for Venezuelan oil. On 16 December 2025, in the leadup to the 3 January bombing of Caracas and kidnapping of the country’s president and first lady, Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores, he claimed ownership over Venezuela resources, stating that “America will not… allow a hostile regime to tak

The bar at The Foreign Correspondents Club in Bangkok, 2019 -- image via X By Kay Young Since the American War on Vietnam, Bangkok has been a key hub for international journalists and academics in Southeast Asia. It offers modern infrastructure, easy travel, and a high quality of life, allowing them to chopper into the periphery and return home for drinks. These advantages foster a professional environment removed from the region it purports to cover. Western expatriates oper

The global energy map is being redefined and brings Tehran and Caracas together: gaining control of their oil wells requires military power. January 2026 marks a turning point: Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and President Donald Trump both held key meetings with the hydrocarbon business sectors, confirming what had been hinted at for some time in analyses: the US needs to take control, by any means possible, of Venezuela and Iran’s oil resources. In Venezuela, a

An election campaign poster of Pheu Thai Party on the Charot Withi Thong Road in Sawankhalok district, Sukhothai province, January 2026 -- image via Chainwit, Wikimedia Commons By Kay Young As Thailand goes to the polls, three visions compete: one which experiments in strange new populist economics, one which critiques from the seminar room, and one paying to keep the countryside quiet. In the Thai election, scheduled for 8 February, we can see the Global South’s political la

Not only are Californians struggling to make ends meet, they also have to contend with a governor who cares more about billionaires and his own presidential aspirations. Newsom at a press conference in May, 2025 -- Office of the Governor of California, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Sonali Kolhatkar California Governor Gavin Newsom has spent 2025 setting himself up as Donald Trump’s leading opponent and the Democratic Party’s 2028 presidential nominee . While the Tru

Mark Carney speaks at Davos -- video screenshot By Raïs Neza Boneza Western Power and the Persistence of Colonial Structures There are moments in global politics when the mask slips—not because power suddenly discovers morality, but because maintaining the performance becomes too expensive. Recently in Davos , the Canadian Prime minister Mark Carney did something unusual. He admitted—almost casually—that the so-called  rules-based international order  has never quite been wha

Board of Peace signing ceremony -- public domain image By Milkaela Nhondo Erskog Khaled Abu Jarrar, a 58-year-old Palestinian from Beit Hanoon, now shelters in Gaza City’s former Legislative Council building—one of thousands of structures repurposed as displacement camps after Israel’s genocidal assault reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble. His wife was recently diagnosed with liver cancer. She needs urgent treatment abroad, but the Rafah crossing remains sealed.  As intern

Pinarayi Vijayan speaks at an LDF rally in Kerala in January, 2026 -- image via Facebook By Nabil Abdul Majeed and Nitheesh Narayanan In 1945, two years prior to India’s independence, the current Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, was born into a working-class family in northern Kerala. He was his mother’s fourteenth child; of the thirteen siblings born before him, only two survived. His mother was an agricultural labourer and his father a toddy tapper. They belonged

Flag of Rojava By Vijay Prashad The agreement that terminated the Syrian Kurdish enclave was presented by its signatories as a pragmatic settlement. But, in fact, the deal is a major political defeat for the Syrian Kurdish political formations. Certainly, the rapid advance of the Syrian armed groups loyal to President Ahmad al-Sharaa broke the resistance of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the largely Kurdish group, but this advance can only be understood by the total back

Chibichiri cave in Yomitan village, Okinawa. A place of mass suicide of Japanese soldiers and Okinawan civilians during the Battle of Okinawa -- Vitalie Ciubotaru, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Tings Chak and Atul Chandra We descended into Chibichibi Cave in southern Okinawa with the heavy feeling that this was not a site of distant history, but a warning. The cave is low enough that you have to bend forward as you walk. The air is damp, the light disappears quickly,

Venezuelans march in Caracas demanding the release of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores, January 9 -- image via X By Manuel Bertoldi 10 Points for debate and political orientation of the popular forces of Our America One. The recent military aggression by the United States and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro constitute the most serious and explicit attack that US imperialism has carried out in the entire history of the Venezuelan nation. At the same time, they repres

The relationship between Cuba and Venezuela transcends traditional diplomacy; it is a phenomenon of direct confrontation against imperialism and a model of cooperation between peoples that has transformed the geopolitics of the Caribbean and South America. This alliance is not a recent or improvised development; it has deep roots, and its destruction has become a primary strategic objective for the United States. Chavez and Castro meet, December 1994 By Carmen Navas Reyes Bac

Cubans at a mass rally in solidarity with Venezuela on January 3 -- image via the Communist Party of Cuba By Llanisca Lugo González In these early days of January, we have had to witness what hoped never to see, though it comes as no surprise: the kidnapping of a legitimate sitting president through a criminal act of aggression by the United States. The initial bewilderment that followed in the first hours after the US military operation has given way to actions of denunciati

The “polluter pays” principle transformed the energy industry half a century ago. Now, as industrial agriculture drives climate breakdown, deforestation, and water scarcity, experts say it’s time to apply the same rule to our food systems—and make corporations, not consumers, bear the cost of the damage. Representational image -- Wilfredor, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons By Alex Crisp The “ polluter pays ” principle is a cornerstone of environmental regulation. It raises

Mass rally in Caracas January 7 demanding the release of Maduro -- image via X By Daniela Ortiz and Gisela Cernadas Current developments in Venezuela may appear to be unfathomable—until one recalls the long history of imperialist interference in Latin America and the Caribbean. The events of the first week of January constitute an escalation of a long-standing campaign to overthrow the Bolivarian Revolution and resume control on the country with the largest known oil reserve

By Biljana Vankovska A passage from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale haunts me often: “That was when they suspended the Constitution… There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home… watching television… There wasn’t even an enemy you could put your finger on.” Today, the enemy list is long: Russia, China, Iran, Hamas—you choose! Our screens have changed, but our passivity hasn’t. We no longer watch TV; we scroll, distracted and numb, as freedoms erode

From child labor to trafficking—and even foster care, sports, and detention—institutions meant to protect children often cause the greatest harm. Road sign in Provincetown, Massachusetts -- Bigguy637, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Colin Greer and Reynard Loki [Editor’s Note: This article is the first installment of “Does Your Community Care About Children?”, a four-part series by Colin Greer and Reynard Loki. The series examines overlapping crises facing vulnerable youth in A

We are wired to find faces everywhere, and this instinct reveals how our perception and our environment can influence each other. Tree with a face, Heald Green by Benjamin Shaw, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Irina Matuzava Imagine that you notice an unfamiliar male face out of the corner of your eye. You turn to look at it, but it turns out that you perceived a face-like visual cue—a tree adorned with several hollows that appear like “eyeholes.” This kind of accident