Jeffrey Sachs, the American economist and public policy analyst who is also a professor at Columbia University, gave an unconventional address to the EU Parliament last week. Below is a short version of his comments; the full version is here. Text: The NATO enlargement, as you know, started in 1999 with Hungary, Poland and the Continue reading »
USA
One key fact was absent from virtually all of the reporting around the astonishing events of this past week. It was scarcely mentioned in stories about the Munich Security Conference, the call between Presidents Trump and Putin, the freezing out of the Europeans, the jaw-dropping statements by US Defence Secretary Hegseth, the ending of cherished Continue reading »
The decline in manufacturing jobs is common to most developed economies and is not unique to the US. Further, Donald Trump is nothing if not delusional, and his tariffs will only damage both the US economy and others as well. Employment in US manufacturing peaked a long time ago back, in June 1979. Since then, Continue reading »
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya seen in an interview with an Israeli journalist from an Israeli jail draws a statement from his family of psychological terrorism. Owen James speaks of Palestinian children tried in military court while settlers are tried in civil court. Zelenskyy pushes back on Trump with facts. Dan Duggan was one of many Continue reading »
Concerns over police actions in Germany, proof the British Government knows that Israel is committing genocide and Trump’s suggestion for Gaza is a genocidal act. In Australia we wait for politicians to be equally outraged about attacks on Muslims. Jeffrey Sachs on the US wars of choice. “Where are the lawyers, the guardians of the Continue reading »
Five years ago, J.D. Vance, who is now the vice-president of the United States, received the Sacraments of Initiation at St Gertrude Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Dominicans to whom the parish has been entrusted presumably instructed him regarding the basic tenets of Catholic Christianity, stressing that love is the basic reality of the universe Continue reading »
I am not suffering from what some of President Donald Trump’s more fervent supporters — both in the US and in Australia — like to call “Trump derangement syndrome”. That is, I’m not disputing that he won the presidential election held last November “fair and square”, as did the Republican Party in both the House Continue reading »
The “China Initiative” was the name of a controversial program run by the US Department of Justice, which was introduced in late 2018 during the first Trump administration. It operated under a typically broad mandate to counter alleged China-related national security threats to the United States. Might messages in Chinese fortune cookies represent, as the Continue reading »
Trump has created what he calls a ‘Faith Office’ within the White House and appointed a Pentecostal pastor from Florida, Paula White, to lead it. Ms White, widely described in mainstream Christianity as a heretic, teaches a transactional faith. In other words, faith is demonstrated in prosperity. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours Continue reading »
The two big stories in the news today are the Trump administration saying Ukraine is going to have to give up territory and NATO ambitions in order to secure a peace deal, while Israel appears to retreat from its ceasefire standoff with Hamas. US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the US Continue reading »