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These top Washington think tanks are lobbying lawmakers for sadistic sanctions on some of the hemisphere’s poorest countries while raking in millions from corporations and arms makers. Sanctions are a form of hybrid warfare that harms or even kills the target populations at little cost to the country imposing them. In Latin America alone, US sanctions (correctly known as “unilateral coercive measures”) have killed at least 100,000 Venezuelans. The US blockade of Cuba has been so destructive that one in […]

The post Meet the DC think tanks impoverishing masses of Latin Americans first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Meet the DC think tanks impoverishing masses of Latin Americans appeared first on The Grayzone.

There is an apocryphal story that when asked by US diplomat Henry Kissinger in 1972 what he thought was the impact of the French Revolution, the Chinese premier Zhou Enlai replied that it was too early to say. It’s a quote that has become a legend, flattering Western preconceptions about taciturn, patient Eastern wisdom as […]

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

What put the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with an annual budget hovering at just about 1% of federal spending, at the top of Elon Musk’s budget-cutting target list? Was it just a political calculation that foreign aid is a safe target because it’s unpopular with so many Americans and cutting those funds will only hurt foreigners, not U.S. voters? Or was Musk motivated by some other grudge we haven’t even heard about? A related question: Why is his invective about that particular agency — “a criminal organization,” “a viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America,” and similar blasts — so much more inflammatory in tone and content than his statements about other government programs? As reported by... Read more

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – April 6, 2025

by Tony Wikrent

Crossing the U.S. Border? Here’s How to Protect Yourself

Nikita Mazurov, Matt Sledge, March 29, 2025 [The Intercept]

Searches of phones and other electronics are on the rise for those entering the U.S. Take these steps to help secure your devices.

The post Doctor Who Magazine Special: 20 Years of the Ninth Doctor appeared first on Doctor Who Magazine.

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away.

The post Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners appeared first on The Intercept.

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away.

The post Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners appeared first on The Intercept.

Question: I’ve been presented an opportunity to go back to several places in China I visited in the past–namely Beijing, Xi’an, Yangshou and Shanghai. Probably three weeks.

I will also spend a week in South Korea with old friends, where I lived in 1993-94.

Is this a trip you, the readers of Ian’s site, would be interested in?

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Putin recently said, “I agree in principle in a cease-fire.”

That’s a brilliant PR and propaganda coup. It also has a very pragmatic, realistic purpose. He said this, damn well knowing Zhelensky and the Ukrainians and the Brits and the US have so many hurdles to get through until they can achieve a cease-fire that what Putin has ultimately done is give the Russian army carte blnache to continue capturing key territory for as long as it takes for the West to get its act together or the Ukrainian army collapses, whichever comes first. My money is on a mid-summer collapse.

THE Coalition has pledged $850,000 in funding to create a purpose-built tourism information facility for the Coffs Coast, if successful at May’s federal election. The new centre would be housed at the Coffs Coast Wildlife Sanctuary. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02)...

The post Coalition pledge funds for tourism information centre appeared first on News Of The Area.

ALMOST 100 people attended the Sawtell Cinema on Tuesday, 25 March, to watch “Big Deal” – a film about the role of money in Australian politics. The film is directed by Craig Reucassel, known for “The Chaser”, “The Checkout” and “The War on Waste”, and follows comedian, musician and parent Christiaan Van Vuuren, who discovers...

The post Sawtell screening of ‘Big Deal’ puts democracy under scrutiny appeared first on News Of The Area.