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We had a long discussion of the Mbappé mess, and of the Fifth Plenum, on this week’s episode of Sharp China we recorded earlier today. Look for it in your inboxes/podcast players around 5AM ET Thursday. We still have no…
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In 2018, Barak Mendelsohn wrote, “Bound to Fail: Transnational Jihadism and the Aggregation Problem,” where he argued that transnational jihadist groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State would continue failing to turn…
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Date: Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026Time: 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. ESTThe third joint webinar by RUSI and War on the Rocks: Two leading defense publications from both sides of the Atlantic present their expert panel.Overview:For this…
Articles
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Russian President Vladimir Putin received the US Special Representative Stephen Witkoff, Constantine Palace, St. Petersburg, October 21, 2026 The needle may not have moved on ending the Ukraine war but the joint phone…
Economics
“Empires decline because they can no longer afford the expanding costs of maintaining their hegemony” Jack Rasmus is a host for the radio show Alternative Visions , on the Progressive Radio Network, a journalist, a…
Geopolitics
It appears that Western Asia is withdrawing from US hegemony Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment . He is Richard P. Mitchell Distinguished University Professor in the History Department at the…
National Politics
Orwell: “Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable’.” Cross-posted from Aurelien’s substack “Trying to understand the world” Photo: Wikimedia Commons A spectre is haunting the…
Middle East
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Israel’s opposition parties appeared to have secured enough Knesset seats in Tuesday’s elections to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power and end a four-year reign marked by genocidal war in Gaza and…
Opinion
The following story is co-published with Joe Cirincione’s Substack . There is a lot going on right now, most of it involving elections around the world. Most of the news is positive — if you favor democracy…
Opinion
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Of all the leaders of America’s allies, from Europe to Asia, no one has invested more in seeking the favor of Donald Trump than Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae. She has met Trump three times in person during her…
Geopolitics
Book Review by Branko Milanović As some people who follow my Substack might have been noticed I have been reading this Summer several books about the current Ukraine-Russia war. I find it very instructive and useful to…
Media
C. J. Hopkins, like so many anglo-saxons and other nationalities in Germany, has discovered that in reality democracy and rule of law do not exist in Germany. In fact they are inexorably dieing throughout Europe. C. J…
Activism
Angelenos are in for a treat. Some little-known but extraordinarily consequential history is being presented in an absolutely riveting 50-actor immersive play aptly titled “Convention,” which opened at Hollywood’s…
Activism
The easiest way to measure the size of Nov. 3’s coming Democratic wave is to count the number of times someone tells you what it means, which constituency gets the credit and which policy drew them in — before any of it…
Analysis
At long last, Israel-linked paedophiles have received something like their just desserts. Brothers Tali, Oren and Alon Alexander have been jailed for 30 years each for repeatedly trafficking and raping a string of young…
External
Photo by Ruben Ortega on Unsplash Yesterday, I talked about how little sense the world makes to me these days, how this is a world I do not understand, and I’m afraid to say that nothing changed overnight. Big shock, I…
Middle East
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On Monday, the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement did something a defense treaty is not usually built to do. Its members went to Tehran to talk. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim…
Egypt
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Warnings of escalating clampdown on press freedom come after Cairo court convicts Attalah of managing an unlicensed website Lina Attalah, a prominent Egyptian journalist and the editor-in-chief of the news outlet Mada…
World news
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From AI aunties to long diaspora Uber phone calls, here is a selection of our favourite editions to celebrate our second anniversary - Don’t get The Long Wave delivered to your inbox? Sign up here The Long Wave is two!…
Democracy & Governance
Two years ago, Serbian students started their protests, endorsed by many citizens, in an honest, almost naive way. They declared that they wanted the end of corruption, press freedom, prosecution of the culprits behind…
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When Abelardo de la Espriella was declared the winner of Colombia’s presidential elections, he announced his plan to sever diplomatic relations with Nicaragua, saying, “In my government there will be no ties whatsoever…
Climate Change
Flooding is a complex, sequential plant stressor, and its negative impacts on crops persist even after floodwaters recede. Credit: Shutterstock By Esther Ngumbi URBANA, Illinois, US, Oct 28 2026 (IPS) Recently, countries…
Technology
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TOKYO — When America’s AI bubble bursts, it will be a bad day for Nvidia and Intel. In Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo, it will be a national crisis. AI has become, almost overnight, what China once was for Asia: the growth…
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (PNN) From women struggling to turn small businesses into reliable sources of income to children trying to reclaim their education, a new episode of PNN Accountability has examined how Palestinian…
Gaza / PNN / Amidst the sprawling ruins and the persistent hum of drones over Gaza, Hussam Al-Ssawaf stands inside his damaged workshop, meticulously spinning a makeshift, hand-driven wooden wheel. For Al-Ssawaf, this…
Global development
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Jean Kaseya, of the Africa CDC, warns of the illness spreading like Covid unless more funding is secured to increase preparedness and possible treatment The “unprecedented” spread of the Ebola outbreak means it could…
Middle East & Africa
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political allies are competing to form the next government after an election left Israel’s parliament without a clear majority for either major political bloc. Although…
Europe
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A growing wave of youth-led protests is challenging political leaders across Europe, as Generation Z expresses frustration over rising living costs, poor education, limited job opportunities and corruption. From France…
Military
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Saudi Arabia’s rapid expansion of a ballistic missile factory signals a transformative shift in its pursuit of strategic deterrence. Saudi Arabia is expanding its solid-propellant missile production complex near…
Active Citizens
By Sheila Aggarwal-Khan GENEVA, Oct 28 2026 (IPS) Governments today face an extraordinarily difficult set of tasks: cutting emissions, protecting nature, reducing pollution, creating jobs, strengthening economies, and…
Opinion
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As artificial intelligence technologies grow ever more powerful, so do the risks they pose and with them the urgency of regulating AI. In July 2026, OpenAI’s advanced models hacked into AI company Hugging Face’s systems…
Biodiversity
Credit: Liv Arnesen By Liv Arnesen OSLO, Norway, Oct 28 2026 (IPS) A global boycott of Antarctic krill products is gathering support. As a Norwegian, I want my country – the world’s largest krill-fishing nation – to…
Africa
Credit: Shutterstock By James Alix Michel VICTORIA, Seychelles, Oct 28 2026 (IPS) On 21 September 1976, less than three months after independence, Seychelles took its seat in the General Assembly of the United Nations…
Larry C. Johnson
On Monday, while Donald Trump was publicly pondering whether to “make a deal” with Iran or “finish them off,” something happened in Tehran that should have set off alarms in every office of the State Department, assuming…
Asia-Pacific
Farwiza Farhan speaks about saving the Leuser Ecosystem at a Global Tipping Points Conference 2026. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS By Zofeen Ebrahim KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 28 2026 (IPS) Forty-year-old Farwiza Farhan’s eyes light…
Southeast Asia
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This article first appeared on Pacific Forum and is republished with kind permission. Read the original here. With so much media focus in recent months on the war in Iran, it’s no surprise that Under Secretary of War for…
Europe
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Two Patrons, One Sunday On 25 October, two candidates who had campaigned with the open approval of a great power lost on the same evening. In Belgrade, Aleksandar Vučić, whom Vladimir Putin had told the Valdai Club he…
East Asia
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Likelihood of a summit between the leaders of the United States, China, and Russia at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in Shenzhen next month was first indicated by Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov…
We must soberly recognize that many factors weakening the Party’s advanced nature and harming its purity still exist; dangers that betray the original aspiration and mission and shake the Party’s foundations are growing…
Analysis
Most of the “if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere” vibe in the midterm elections has revolved around Michigan and its Senate race. The idea is that if a pro-Medicare For All, anti-war, anti-corruption candidate…
National Politics
What kind of future does France offer its young people? Vijay Prashad is the Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. His most recent book (with Grieve Chelwa) is How the International Monetary Fund…
EU politics
Finally, some signs that there may be European leaders willing to give peace a chance. Matthew Blackburn is a Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs within the Research Group for Eastern…
Austerity
It’s better to look after elderly people before they get injured: a preventive approach to health would prioritise social care investment. Joan Costa-Font is a Professor of Health Economics and Head of the Department of…
Analysis
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Fascist failed presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro is said to have fled to the US via fascist-run Argentina. The Trump regime is offering him safe haven as he runs from accountability for his alleged corruption…
ChipAgents AI
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ChipAgents is expanding its agentic AI platform across digital and analog semiconductor engineering, aiming to connect fragmented design workflows through a common system that can plan tasks, operate engineering tools…
External
The Guardian has reported on new findings by the Citizen Lab and SHARE Foundation that a Serbian professor and prominent supporter of the country’s student movement was targeted with Pegasus spyware. The investigation…
Photo by Thomas de LUZE on Unsplash I haven’t been writing as much as I usually did because my son’s leg is well and truly screwed, and he’s needed a lot more assistance than he might have for most other leg injuries…
Activism
In August, a contact in Iran sent me a message that I had to read three times before it could sink in. She would be deleting our chat history as well as her WhatsApp, she wrote, and it might be hard to reach her for a…