HARARE, Zimbabwe, Feb 11 2025 (IPS)* – Many in the West, of the political right and left, now deny imperialism. For Josef Schumpeter, empires were pre-capitalist atavisms that would not survive the spread of capitalism. But even the conservative Economist notes President Trump’s revival of this US legacy.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Economic liberalism challenged
Major liberal economic thinkers of the 19th century noted capitalism was undermining economic liberalism.
John Stuart Mill and others acknowledged the difficulties of keeping capitalism competitive.
In 2014, billionaire Peter Thiel declared competition is for losers.
According to Elon Musk, USAID, the US chief foreign aid agency, “deserves to die.” Why? Because it is “a viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.”
Richard E. Rubenstein
What planet does this strange fellow live on? I AM a radical-left Marxist professor – one who happens to love the USA–and for more than forty years I have been criticizing USAID for not being radical or leftist at all.
What the irate oligarch means by “Marxist” is anyone’s guess.
—Everyone knows the saying ‘life imitates art’, but we’d argue that art imitates life when it comes to Disney’s Moana film franchise. Moana 2 premiered in theatres in late November following the title character’s quest to protect her community’s ancestral way of life.
(UN News)* —The world has just experienced the hottest January ever recorded, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on , citing data crunched by UN partner the Copernicus Climate Service
Last month was 1.75 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level and 0.79°C above the 1991-2020 average, despite expectations that the La Nina weather phenomenon might bring cooler temperatures.
In 2015, the international community agreed to try to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
ASMARA, Eritrea, Feb 10 2025 (IPS)* – At night, when the world lights up, large swathes of Africa remain cloaked in darkness—a stark reminder of the continent’s lack of reliable access to electricity.
Around 600 million Africans still lack reliable access to electricity, which is nearly half the continent’s population and more than 80 per cent of the global electricity access gap. Credit: Raphael Pouget / Climate Visuals Countdown via UNDP
This access is one of the key ingredients to accelerating the continent’s progress – powering homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses, towards unlocking the continent’s full potential.
(UN News)* — The civilian death toll in Sudan has surged dramatically, with at least 275 people killed between 31 January and 5 February, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, reported on Friday.[].
(Washington D.C., February 6, 2025) –The United States government’s decision to permit Lithium Americas to mine at Thacker Pass in Nevada violated Indigenous people’s rights, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU said in a report released today.
()* — Armed groups in Haiti are inflicting “unimaginable horrors” on children, turning their “bodies into battlegrounds”, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The agency’s spokesperson James Elder has just visited Port-au-Prince, the capital of the embattled Caribbean nation and has been speaking about what he experienced there.
Staggering abuse and neglect
“There has been a staggering 1,000 per cent rise in sexual violence against children in Haiti, which has turned their bodies into battlegrounds.
The 10-fold rise, recorded from 2023 to last year, comes as armed groups inflict unimaginable horrors on children.
NEW YORK, Feb 7 2025 (IPS)* –Even after Trump declared that he wanted to take back the Panama Canal, acquire Greenland by force, if necessary, and rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, I could not, like many others, imagine that his madness could reach a new unfathomable height.
Much of Gaza has been destroyed in the current conflict. Credit: UNICEF/Eyad El Baba, February 2025
At his news conference on February 4, with Prime Minister Netanyahu standing beside him, sporting a sinister grin, Trump announced that the US would take over Gaza, ship the Palestinians like sheep to Jordan and Egypt, build such a mesmerizing Riviera along the Mediterranean Sea and, voilà, bring peace and prosperity to the whole region.
Two weeks after Goma was captured by the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels, many families who lost their loved ones are begging for peace. Some of them have had no news of their loved ones, while others have already identified their relatives, civilians and soldiers, who died during the fighting in the city.
M23 fighters at border between Rwanda and DRC. At least 2,800 people have died in renewed hostilities. Credit: Ajabu Adolphe/IPS
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Feb 6 2025 (IPS)* – Zawadi Delphine is a soldier’s wife and mother of three. She and her family live in Camp Katindo, east of the city of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 