Lula at a massive preelection rally on October 24 -- Lula Oficial, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad The week before 25 October in Brazil was frenetic. It appeared that every one of the over 200 million Brazilians had a political opinion about the presidential election. The country was fundamentally polarised. Polls showed that the vote was going to be tight, with most polls favouring the challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former president Jair Bolsona

Delivery worker in China waiting for the light to turn green -- TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Tings Chak At the entrance to Xingfuli, a residential compound in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, a bulletin board displays the names, photographs, and phone numbers of the people responsible for managing the neighbourhood. Though an ordinary bulletin board at first appearance, among the building representatives and Communist Party members is an unexpected name: K

Many of today’s attitudes toward animals have deep philosophical roots. Understanding how those ideas became embedded in culture, law, and social institutions helps explain why changing how we treat animals remains so difficult. By Ondine Sherman [Author’s Note: Humans are animals too. In this article, animals is used as shorthand for nonhuman animals.] At age seven, sitting at the dinner table with my family, I prodded my fork into a thick, squishy brown shape on my plate. M

Lula and Xi in May, 2025 -- Lula Oficial, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Tings Chak On 25 October, Brazilians will return to the polls to choose between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in an attempted coup. The first round gave Flávio 47.03 per cent of valid votes against Lula’s 45.16 per cent, revealing the enduring strength of the far right four yea

Flávio Bolsonaro on September 1, 2026 -- Agência Senado, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad Brazil’s general election on 4 October delivered a severe warning to the Left. Flávio Bolsonaro, the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party (PL), finished ahead of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with approximately 47 per cent against 45 per cent. Neither secured a majority, sending them into a runoff on 25 October. More troubling than this narrow presidenti

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

Donald Trump and Flávio Bolsonaro in the White House's Oval Office, May 2026 -- public domain image By Miguel Enrique Stédile On the last Friday before the first round of Brazil’s presidential elections, the U.S. embassy and consulates in the country remained closed, following a generic order from the State Department regarding ‘security concerns.’ Elections in Brazil proceed peacefully; there are no civil conflicts or military threats, no records of political violence above

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

President Lee Jae Myung in February, 2026 -- Republic of Korea from Seoul, Republic of Korea, via Wikimedia Commons By Dae-Han Song On 20 September, South Korea’s Lee Administration stated that, contrary to foreign media coverage, it had not rejected Trump’s request for support in the Strait of Hormuz. The New York Times might be forgiven for failing to read between the lines when Lee stated that he would not be deploying combat troops to the Strait of Hormuz but left open t

United Nations General Assembly Hall -- Mojnsen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Guillermo R. Barreto This month, like every year, the United Nations General Assembly takes place. Heads of State take the floor to send messages to the world. These messages are broadcast on TV, transcribed, and recorded in official documents and the press. We have heard denunciations of violations of international law, calls for peace and coexistence, and also cynical remarks from leader

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

Trump delivers remarks at the White House AI Summit, July 23, 2025 -- public domain image By Rezgar Akrawi On 8 September 2026 the researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic, declaring that the two largest companies in the field are ‘gambling with our lives,’ and the people building these systems ‘earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.’ His concern was not an isolated one. Tens of thousands of people, among them leading scientists, have sign

Anura Kumara Dissanayaka speaks to a mass May Day rally, May 1, 2026 -- image via Anura Kumara Dissanayaka on X By Ramindu Perera This 21 September marks the second anniversary of Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power (NPP) government, a political movement led by the left-wing Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). Two years ago, the NPP candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayaka secured a dramatic victory in a three-cornered Presidential election and emerged as the first-ever left-wing lead

Chavez giving the famous speech -- image via video screenshot By Carlos Ron On 20 September 2006, Hugo Chávez stepped up to the granite podium of the United Nations General Assembly. A day earlier, from that exact same spot, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, had spoken. Chávez crossed himself, said that the room still smelled of sulphur, and the hall burst into laughter and applause. It was not the speech Chávez had originally intended to give, but rather th

BRICS leaders participate in a joint tree plantation at Bharat Mandapam -- Prime Minister's Office (GODL-India), GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons By Atul Chandra At the BRICS Business Forum in Bharat Mandapam on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin read out the numbers. The eleven members of this grouping now produce more than 40 percent of the world’s output. The G7 produces 29. Over the last five years, BRICS countries generated more than half of all global growth. The

Caracas under bombardment, January 3, 2026 -- image via X By Donald Ramotar Latin America and the Caribbean countries are being re-colonised. This time it is not by Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, France and Portugal, but by the United States. At a period of time the United States had an anti-colonial position and had advocated for the ending of colonialism. That was one of the features of the Monroe Doctrine that has become somewhat obscured since the US became so bellicose

An Equal Earth map showing country boundaries -- Tom Patterson, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Prabir Purkayastha Last week, on 4th September, the United Nations General Assembly adopted an African proposal for a new world map, which shows countries’ true size relative to one another. It aims to correct the view of the world shaped by the widely used world map based on the Mercator Projection, created by Gerardus Mercator, a 16th-century Flemish cartographer. The problem with

A group photograph with BRICS leaders on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit at Bharat Mandapam, in New Delhi on September 12, 2026 -- Prime Minister's Office (GODL-India), via Wikimedia Commons By Busani Ngcaweni The enlargement of BRICS presents Africa with a wider field of economic possibilities by bringing the continent into closer relationship with some of the world’s largest markets, important sources of development finance and countries possessing substantial capabi

"I want you to know that we stand firm, with our hearts full of your love, that love that reaches us transformed into prayer, into constant action, into solidarity and true support. Infinite thanks for every word, for every gesture, for every blessing." -- Maduro from prison, June 25, 2026, public domain image By Stephanie Weatherbee Brito and Vijay Prashad Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is innocent. This is a statement of law and fact, since Maduro has not been convicte

Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in China, May 2026 -- public domain image By Vijay Prashad President Xi Jinping’s forthcoming visit to the United States must be understood as more than an encounter between two heads of state, but it must be seen as an encounter between two possible futures. In one future, the United States imposes a spiral of confrontation against China. Trade disputes harden into economic warfare, then economic warfare intensifies into technological blockades, t