April 18th, 2026
Via Phenomenal World, a look at corporate concentration and the far right in South America: Early this year, in the Brazilian Amazon, a coalition of 14 indigenous groups rose upagainst a government decree that planned to privatize the waterway between Itaituba and Santarém—two towns in the state of Pará—as well as a public project to […]
Read more »The Limits of the UAE’s Push for Food Security
March 18th, 2026
Via New Lines Magazine, a look at how – as Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz – the Gulf state’s strategic investments across Africa face a reality check: Deep in the heart of the Sahara Desert, an industrial complex of greenhouses rises above the dunes. Running underneath the sand is a 35-mile-long pipeline transporting water […]
Read more »February 26th, 2026
Via Monthly Review Online, a look at how the UAE and most of the other oil-rich Arab Gulf states are involved in a ‘new scramble for Africa’, inserting themselves in the continent’s politics, buying up land, purchasing port concessions, and entrenching themselves as major trade partners with African countries: Conflict has torn Sudan apart. Recent […]
Read more »How Trump Turned International Relations Into a Real Estate Game
January 24th, 2026
Courtesy of The Financial Times, commentary on how President Trump – with his Greenland obsession – is reviving a national tradition: expansion via land grabs: Perhaps Donald Trump really has suddenly given up on Greenland, but his obsession with the place has been long-term and telling. Sanewashers — the people who try to rationalise everything […]
Read more »December 23rd, 2025
Via Al Akhbar, commentary on the Gulf’s growing control over Sudan’s agricultural sector: Sudan, once envisioned as the Arab world’s breadbasket, now faces one of the gravest famines of the century. The IPC Special Snapshot for September 2025 to May 2026 confirms famine in El Fasher and Kadugli, warning that catastrophic hunger is spreading and affecting more […]
Read more »How China Weaponized Soybeans to Squeeze U.S. Farmers — and Spite Trump
October 21st, 2025
Via the Washington Post, a look at how China weaponized soybeans to squeeze U.S. farmers — and spite Trump: The start of the harvest in September is usually when China, the world’s biggest importer of soybeans, puts in a flurry of orders to the farms of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Indiana. This year, however, Chinese […]
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