On December 19th, James Foley, US ambassador to Haiti 2003 – 2005, published an explosive op-ed in rabidly anti-Communist Miami Times. He lamented how the country had become a “ticking time bomb”, with hundreds of thousands of refugees threatening to emigrate Stateside, “mounting gang violence”, withdrawal of “humanitarian relief organizations” due to “threats”, and “criminal” entities “on the verge” of capturing Port-au-Prince entirely. His remedy was simple – direct US “intervention” to secure control locally, and reassert Washington’s “primacy in the hemisphere.”
The global revolt of the 1960s offered hope for liberation from capitalism, a hope that was not fulfilled. To succeed this time, we must address four questions:
What caused the crisis?
How was the system stabilized?
What factors are leading to another global revolt?
4 February 2025, 2⎼5pm: Church House, Dean’s Yard, Westminster, London SW1P
This detailed review is from Dr Lisa Hutchinson, who attended the meeting.
It was appallingly apparent from the very first day of the much anticipated Module 4 of the UK Covid Inquiry, that this never intended on being an honest, open examination into what happened during the pandemic to ensure the harms endured by reckless public health policies could never again be repeated. The Covid Inquiry included vaccine-injured and bereaved groups as well as officials responsible for the jab rollout. Instead, the Inquiry was a stark reminder of a whitewash intent on burying evidence challenging the official narrative that “vaccines are safe and effective”. Further still, it has continued to gaslight those who have been severely injured and harmed by the vaccines. The date for the inquiry was delayed from mid-2024 to January 2025, and the inquiry length truncated from 5 weeks to 3 weeks. A group of experts were called to submit witness statements and since transparency has been non-existent throughout the pandemic, they felt it was in the public’s interest to provide access to their expert testimonies. Thus, the experts formed The People’s Vaccine Inquiry (PVI) to make their evidence available to the public. To ensure the truth of the Covid Inquiry and people’s voices could be heard, The PVI convened a press conference on 4 February 2025. This lay bare the tragic Shakespearian theatre of the UK Covid Inquiry Module 4 public hearings, which were held on 14⎼31 January 2025.
The documentary, that is narrated by a child in the Gaza Strip, takes the viewer through a journey on surviving the Israeli onslaught. However, the Israel Lobby and Zionist activists began immediately accusing the BBC of publishing “Hamas” propaganda. In order to appease the powerful lobby, the BBC violated their own standards on journalistic integrity and removed the documentary from the BBC iPlayer.
The leading big tech companies are working hard to sell Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the gateway to a future of plenty for all. And to this point they have been surprisingly successful in capturing investor money and government support, making their already wealthy owners even wealthier. However, that success doesn’t change the fact that their AI systems have already largely exhausted their potential. More concerning, the uncritical and rapidly increasing adoption of these systems by schools, businesses, the media, and the military represents a serious threat to our collective well-being. We need to push back, and push back hard, against this big tech offensive.
Despite police intimidation and last-minute venue changes, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, delivered a historic speech in Berlin, at an event organised by DiEM25, Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, Eye4palestine and the Gaza Committee Berlin.
Sergey Lavrov at least got to spend a night in one place as the G-20 Foreign Ministers Meeting is a several-days affair. Lavrov went from Moscow to Riyadh back to Moscow then on to Johannesburg and is always primed and ready wherever he lands. Today’s report consists of Lavrov’s opening remarks on the 20th to the G20 Ministerial Council meeting on the global geopolitical situation followed by his comments today, the 21st, on G20 Objectives in 2025. It appears Rubio has declined to attend as there was no media speculation about the two meeting again on the sidelines. As you’ll read, Russia’s position remains the same as it was during the Biden administration since nothing has changed regarding Outlaw US Empire behavior in the global economic sphere since Team Trump took office. (more…)
Trump could reshape the global order, and Moscow will be hoping he succeeds
Dmitry Trenin:
The reopening of US-Russia dialogue has triggered alarm, especially in Western Europe, where many see it as a potential repeat of Yalta — a grand power settlement taking place over their heads. Much of the commentary has been exaggerated. Yet, the pace of global change has clearly accelerated. The words and actions of US President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other key Republican figures over the past ten days suggest that Washington has stopped resisting the shift to a new world order and is now trying to lead it. (more…)
[Today marks the 59th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. See CovertAction Magazine’s in-depth exploration of the crime as an addendum to this piece.—Editors]
In mid-November, three daughters of Malcolm X (aka el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) accused the CIA, FBI, the New York Police Department and the Department of Justice with involvement in the 1965 assassination of the activist leader.
As I write this in early 2025, a quiet revolution is unfolding within the U.S. government. Inside the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), teams of young tech operatives are systematically dismantling democratic institutions and replacing them with proprietary artificial intelligence systems. Civil servants who raise legal objections are being removed. Government databases are being migrated to private servers. Decision-making power is being transferred from elected officials and career bureaucrats to algorithms controlled by a small network of Silicon Valley elites. This isn’t a spontaneous coup—it’s the culmination of a dangerous ideology that has been meticulously developed since the 2008 financial crisis, one that sees democracy itself as obsolete technology ready to be “disrupted.” To understand how we reached this critical moment, and why it threatens the very foundation of democratic governance, we need to trace the evolution of an idea: that democracy is not just inefficient, but fundamentally incompatible with technological progress.
Since at least 2014 The United Kingdom has been a major participant in NATO’s proxy war against Russia. During the hot phase of the war it has directed a drone and missile campaign in the Black Sea. It is likely responsible for current attacks against Russia related sea transport. It is developing new naval drones for further assaults on Russia.
Today several civil society organisations (CSOs) – including GMWatch – and industry associations published a joint letter to the European Commission, demanding that they withdraw their proposal for deregulation of plants obtained from new genetic engineering (new genomic techniques, NGTs). They stress that any new regulation for NGT plants must be based on science and ensure safety. In this regard, the proposal made by the Commission suffers from irreparable flaws, since the criteria for speeding up market access are not science-based, but arbitrary. The organisations warn that, with new genetic engineering methods and tools such as the CRISPR/Cas gene scissors, the technical potential, but also the potential damage, has grown rapidly. These tools make it possible, for the first time, to genetically engineer every gene of every life form and to spread these genetic changes within the respective species. This technical potential has also to be taken into account in future regulation of NGT plants. GMWatch
There are days when the dusk of events settles heavily on me, and I try to find a way to retreat into a quiet corner and throw myself into the world of a book. It does not matter if it is a novel or a history book, as long as the author is able to conjure up a world that transports me from the flood of brutalities to an island of imagination. In recent months, I have been reading more and more novels – including Japanese crime fiction, a notable favourite – and finding in them characters with whom I can sometimes laugh and sometimes frown in bewilderment. Madness is not new to our world. It has been there before.
It is sadly ironic that, as we record the experiences of Professor Insa Koch and her young children of the hyper-securitisation of a society which she feels indicates a growing fascism in Germany, and as this week’s calendar reveals, the leader of the Tories, at an international hard-right gathering, echoes tropes about ‘some cultures being better than others’ and immigrants ‘undermining society’s values’, and the US vice-president excoriates Europe for its ‘enemy within’, we have to note the recent passing of three anti-racist, anti-imperialist stalwarts, all born in the 1930s as fascism took hold in Europe.
For good people these are times to weep, rage and, above all, to fight back! But sometimes we may allow ourselves a laugh. Such a time arrived this past weekend in Brussels and at the Security Conference in Munich. Though the big shots present were in no laughing mood—but in shock!
The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 aims to deregulate gene-edited organisms (or, as the UK government misleadingly calls them, “precision-bred organisms, PBOs). As the government moves to implement secondary legislation that will make the Act operational by the end of March, we face the prospect of an inadequate legal framework that could adversely affect our food and farming systems for decades to come, writes Pat Thomas of Beyond GM.
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Eric Adams has a multitude of legal and political problems that have ended any political ambitions he may have had. Donald Trump may have kept him from going to jail, but in seeking a lifeline from a president hated by most New Yorkers, he has sealed his fate and will go down in history as the anti-Black, Black mayor.
We talk the Truth About Trump’s Ukraine Peace Offensive and debate whether it’s a trap for Russia, China & the multipolar world as we review what’s transpired amid rapidly changing global conditions.
This was never meant to be Yalta. Although Yalta 2.0 may eventually happen.
This was never meant to be Yalta. Although Yalta 2.0 may eventually happen. On the Victory Day parade in Moscow next May 9, celebrating 80 years of the end of the Great Patriotic War and the defeat of Nazi Germany, Putin as the host and Xi Jinping as a top guest will be in town. So might be Donald Trump. Why not have them all board a flight to Crimea and stage a Yalta 2.0 in – where else – Yalta?
Tomorrow the Montreal police will arrest me for posting to social media against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Today I received a phone call from a Montreal police officer by the last name of Crivello. She asked me to come to a downtown police station where I will be charged for harassment and indecent communication. Crivello said a complaint was submitted against me months ago by a legal firm on behalf of racist media personality Dahlia Kurtz. Crivello said I had described Kurtz as a “genocide” supporter and “fascist” on Twitter. Guilty as charged.
Dmitry Trenin:
Katsukawa Shunshō (Japan), Japanese Women Reading and Writing, c. 1776.
The New Dark Age 