Jacobin | Since Labor PM Paul Keating’s early ’90s privatization spree, Australian governments have been obsessed with public-private partnerships. It’s a model that spends public money to subsidize private profits — often with disastrous outcomes.

Jacobin | Finance’s dominance over the economy isn’t a deviant evolution of a “good” industrial capitalism. Finance and industry are interdependent — meaning solving problems like inequality and climate change will require a far-reaching democratization of the economy.

Professor Ilan Pappe spoke at IHRC’s annual Genocide Memorial Day in London, UK on 21st January 2024, on the need to understand that the genocide of Palestinians we are currently witnessing, as brutal as it is, is also the demise of the so-called Jewish state. We need to be ready to imagine a new world beyond it.

Morning Star | The two-day hearing in London’s Royal Courts of Justice is considering Mr Assange’s application to appeal against the dismissal of most of his case that he should not be extradited, which was heard in 2020. Should this application fail, Mr Assange will face 17 charges in the US under the Espionage Act and one for computer hacking. If convicted, he could be jailed for up to 175 years.

Jacobin | International talks aimed at creating a treaty to prevent another COVID-19 catastrophe are nearing collapse. This impasse is due to the refusal of countries such as the US, Canada, and Germany to compromise on Big Pharma’s intellectual property rights.

People's World | Former Republican Oval Office occupant Donald Trump not only committed massive financial frauds to build his real estate empire, but his “complete lack of contrition and remorse” about them—when New York state caught him—“borders on the pathological,” the state judge who decided the case declared.

Canadian Dimension | Ten years since the Maidan massacre, nobody is in prison for the murders and attempted murders of activists and police officers, or for shooting at foreign journalists. The silence on the part of those who deny the false-flag event, or who call these claims a “conspiracy theory” and whitewash the mass murderers of the far-right, is both deafening and revealing.

Canadian Dimension | For-profit media ownership has decimated journalism in Canada and continues to gouge us with some of the highest prices in the world for telecommunications services such as cellular phones, cable TV and Internet access. The private equity players and US hedge funds that own most of our largest newspapers are now harvesting them for hundreds of millions in cash.

CounterPunch.org | Late 2023 marked a notable transformation in North Korea’s longstanding pursuit of peaceful reunification with South Korea after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un noted the failure of the policy in his end-of-year speech. This sentiment was reiterated during a January 15 meeting of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), where the country’s constitution was ordered to be rewritten to label South Korea as its “principal adversary.”

The Maple | The results of a recent Angus Reid poll should be cause for concern among unions and labour supporters alike.

At a time when the Ecuadorian government’s social disinvestment has wrecked the country’s economy and security sector, Canada is arguing for its right to deprive Ecuador of even more public money. Ottawa’s main concern is Ecuador’s resources: how to access them, and how to ensure Canadians can bring home as much profit as possible while exploiting them.

CADTM | China has been demonized by several commentators: it is said to be the main creditor of many countries of the South and to get the most of them through ruthless exploitation whereas the World Bank, the IMF, the Paris Club, that bring together traditional creditor powers, are supposed to do their best to help those countries burdened by too much debt.
China also uses propaganda. It parades as an ally of countries of the South, regularly announces debt cancellation and debt relief, and claims that it does not enforce neoliberal conditionalities as do the IMF and the World Bank. It also stresses its efficiency.

The Breach | If Canadian universities were not permeated by anti-Palestinian racism, why would police need to check out my small lecture?

The Breach | Celeste Trianon explains what Alberta’s new law means for the anti-trans movement in Canada

Jacobin | Colombian elites are determined not to let leftist president Gustavo Petro serve out his full term. As top judicial officials target him and his cabinet, drug cartels and their links to the far right remain uninvestigated.

Jacobin | A new Pentagon policy bars the US Defense Department from working on films that cooperate with Chinese censorship demands. It’s a new front in the economic battle with China — and it ignores the Defense Department

The nations that brag the most about "democracy" routinely ignore the will of their people. Support for Israel's war crimes in Gaza is but one example of this phenomenon.

As the second anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war nears, public support for the war has reached an all-time low. Nonetheless, NATO is escalating tensions along Russia’s border with a four-month military exercise involving 90,000 troops from 32 countries. For the Global North, it is not the Ukrainian people’s wellbeing that matters but the geostrategic necessity to ‘weaken’ Russia and China. In reality, there will be no military triumph in Ukraine, which is why the war must end and negotiations commenced.

The widespread ownership of crypto currencies in countries like Turkey and Argentina has created the grounds for a very reactionary economic understanding among broad social segments, especially among young people.

Indonesia has got the classic formula for development in poor countries in the world of 21st century imperialism. Its economy is founded on basic commodity production that is highly capital intensive, severely damages the environment and does not provide many good jobs for the people, while the rich pay little tax and public services are limited. And the old Suharto elite remain in control.