World

The majority world (in red) | Photo: Stephen Sefton Since its inception, the leaders of the ALBA countries have denounced North American and European imperialism's brutal exploitation and domination and its gangster diplomacy of “Do what we want or else...”. By Stephen Sefton In 2004, Comandante Fidel Castro and Comandante Hugo Chávez founded what is now the Bolivarian Alliance of the peoples of our America, ALBA which now includes Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and the Caribbean island nations of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda and Santa Lucía. A year earlier, in 2003, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was formally constituted, which now includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzb...

Two days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in favour of South Africa’s prima facia case of genocide against Israel, Israel, and its primary sponsor the United States, along with the usual cohort of vassal states including Britain, all withdrew funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which provides food and aid to Gaza. The very same people deprived of food, water, medical supplies and all other life supporting mechanisms whilst being bombed into oblivion by Israel using US and British weapons, have had what meagre support they had withdrawn. Whilst the withdrawal of UNWRA funding could be considered a war crime in itself, the action is in flagrant defiance of the ICJ’s ruling that found the charge...

Fadi, a Syrian teenager with curly hair and an acne-covered face, has miraculously survived one of the greatest migrant boat disasters in the modern history of the Mediterranean. Only 104 people have been rescued from a boat that carried an estimated 750 refugees after it capsized on June 13 in the open sea near the coastal town of Pylos. Scores of lifeless bodies have been pulled out from the water, and many more have washed ashore. Hundreds are still missing, feared dead, many of whom are women and children, as they huddled on the lower deck of the 30-meter boat. Fadi survived. A heart-rending photo shows the young Syrian sobbing as he met his older brother, Mohammed, who rushed to the port of Kalamata, Greece, to see him. The two brothers could not embr...

Two days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in favour of South Africa’s prima facia case of genocide against Israel, Israel, and its primary sponsor the United States, along with the usual cohort of vassal states including Britain, all withdrew funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which provides food and aid to Gaza. The very same people deprived of food, water, medical supplies and all other life supporting mechanisms whilst being bombed into oblivion by Israel using US and British weapons, have had what meagre support they had withdrawn. Whilst the withdrawal of UNWRA funding could be considered a war crime in itself, the action is in flagrant defiance of the ICJ’s ruling that found the charge...

By Prof. Maurice Okoli Global Research, The Valdai Discussion Club has held its 20th Annual Meeting under the unique theme “Fair Multipolarity: How to Ensure Security and Development for Everyone” in Sochi, the southern coastal city of Russia. It gathered some 140 experts, politicians, and diplomats from 42 countries throughout Eurasia, Africa, and North and South America. The story of the Valdai Club’s twenty meetings is a chronicle of an extremely interesting and turbulent time. Really, it was hard to imagine discussing the world for twenty years. In a practical context, that is its greatest primary achievement. The Valdai Discussion Club is a Russian think tank that was established in 2004. It is named after Lake Valdai which is located close to Veliky Novgorod where...

BY ROB URIE Photograph Source: David Geitgey Sierralupe – CC BY 2.0 The nature of the American political system is often hidden behind theories of how democracy works. In these we, the people, choose politicians to represent ‘our’ interests within the realms of government, foreign affairs, and commerce. In contrast, at least according to the annual polls conducted by the Alliance of Democracies, fewer than half of Americans believe that the US is democratic; is a democracy. The reasons given against the US being a democracy are 1) corruption (73%), followed by 2) corporate control of the political system (72%). In other words, the reasons for this missing democracy are economic. From the advent of neoliberalism in the mid-1970s to today, the US has been systema...