After the Chinese-brokered rapprochement between Saudi Araba and Iran, another diplomatic coup is unfolding in the Middle East. This one is orchestrated by the Russians.
SCOTT RITTER: Syria Comes in From the Cold
Category: Economy
EU’s Ukraine Grain Policy Hits Eastern Europe
Governments including Poland and Hungary are balking at the effects of tax-free cheap grain from Ukraine on their domestic markets, Peoples Dispatch reports.
Chris Hedges: Reclaiming US Universities
American universities are appendages of the corporate state. Educators are increasingly poorly paid, denied benefits and job security while senior administrators pay themselves obscene salaries.
The IMF’s ‘Austerity Drive’
Oxfam estimated that “for every $1 the IMF encouraged a set of poor countries to spend on public goods, it has told them to cut four times more through austerity measures.”
Lula Goes to China
The Brazilian president is joined by a major delegation this week as more than 20 agreements are expected to be signed with the Amazon country’s largest trading partner.
Fossil Fuel Divestment Doesn’t Work
NGOs, activists and especially policymakers need to stop pretending that the climate movement can succeed by pressuring capitalists to be more responsible, writes Ted Franklin.
Changing the Rules of the Banking Game
A state-owned bank on the model of the Bank of North Dakota can provide low-interest loans, liquidity and financial sovereignty, writes Ellen Brown.
Craig Murray: Why Would China Be An Enemy?
To react to Beijing’s growing economic power by increasing Western military power is hopeless. It is harder to think of a more stupid example of lashing out in blind anger.
BP Extracted £15 Billion of Iraqi Oil After British Invasion
Shell, the other U.K. “super-major” oil company, also re-entered Iraq in 2009 after an invasion in 2003 that was widely denounced at the time as a war-for-oil on the part of the U.S. and U.K., Matt Kennard reports.
German Public Sector Workers Continue Strikes
After a year of labor actions and demands for higher wages to combat high inflation, negotiations between trade unions and employers at the municipal and federal levels head into their third round next week.