Events
Globally
People’s Daily: Global energy-related CO2 emissions reach new high in 2022: IEA
Europe
WSWS: Inequality in Sweden reaches highest level in decades
New data from the Swedish government’s statistics agency—Statistics Sweden—shows that income inequality in the country is now higher than at any other point in time since the agency began collecting this information in 1975.
Jacobin: Elly Schlein Will Tilt Italy’s Democrats to the Left, but Don’t Expect Revolutionary Change
If the AOC comparisons are correct, then this goes without saying.
East Asia and Oceania
Climate Change News: Governments sworn to secrecy on ‘$20bn’ for Indonesia’s energy transition
At the G20 leaders summit on the Indonesian island of Bali in November, a group of governments and banks announced they would give $20 billion to move Indonesia away from the coal that currently generates most of its electricity.
Indonesian investment minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the just energy transition partnership (JETP) was a “groundbreaking model of international cooperation” which would fulfill a promise to his granddaughter to “make policy that would benefit future generations”.
But the governments would not reveal who was paying which part of the $20bn or what form the support would take. One bank said its stated contribution to the figure was only the amount it was “willing to consider”.
Central Asia and the Middle East
MEMO: Gaza warns landfill fire could rage for days, appeals for help
Gaza officials called for help to extinguish a fire that started in a landfill in a village bordering Israel on Thursday, saying it could last for days and cause “an environmental catastrophe”, Reuters reports.
A large cloud of heavy smoke billowed into the sky as night fell, and there was a strong smell of burning rubbish across Gaza City.
The fire started “in the eastern part of a landfill in Juhr Al-Deek, south-east of Gaza City, near the separation fence, for reasons that have yet to be confirmed,” the Gaza Municipality said in a statement.
MEE: How Iraq caused a currency crisis by paying Iran in dinars
MEE: UAE has ‘no plans’ to leave Opec alliance despite reports of fissures with Saudi Arabia
Africa
People’s Daily: Leading pro-gov’t newspaper accuses U.S. of seeking to meddle in Zimbabwe’s elections
Zimbabwe’s leading government-controlled newspaper, The Herald, on Thursday accused the United States of openly declaring an interest in the country’s forthcoming elections.
Africa News: ‘Europe can count on Angola’ for energy, President João Lourenço tells Euronews
Africa News: Luanda and Paris launch partnership in agrifood sector
Angolan president Joa Lourenço hosted his French counterpart Friday (Mar. 3rd). Emmanuel Macron was in Luanda with an aim to develop links with the Lusophone country notably in food industry and energy.
Africa News: Illegal refinery blast in Nigeria kills at least 12
Jacobin: Nigeria’s Old Guard Clung to Power in Its Presidential Election
Bola Tinubu, a candidate from Nigeria’s ruling party, has claimed the presidency with a weak and disputed mandate on the lowest turnout since democracy was restored. Tinubu will inherit a deep social crisis that can only be addressed by radical reform.
Africa News: Nigeria’s presidential race runner-up calls polls results ‘a rape of democracy’
Africa News: Summit to protect world’s largest forests ends in Gabon
North America
People’s Daily: Surging student loan debt widening U.S. racial wealth gap: report
People’s Daily: U.S. California drought conditions ease after winter storms
The recent rain and snow from a series of winter storms topped annual precipitation averages across the U.S. West, especially over the Sierra and coastal ranges and Rocky Mountains, resulting in freeing half of California from drought.
According to the latest data released by U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) on Thursday, moderate or severe drought still covered about 49 percent of the Golden State, while nearly 17 percent of the state was free of drought or a condition described as abnormally dry. The remainder is still abnormally dry.
People’s Daily: U.S. largest lithium mining project draws strong protests from environmental groups
The construction of the planned Thacker Pass lithium mine in the remote north of U.S. state of Nevada, the largest known lithium deposit in the United States, has drawn concerns and protests from environmental groups as well as Native American tribes.
Naked Capitalism: Tesla’s Newly Announced “Gigafactory” in Northern Mexico Already Has a Serious Problem: Water Scarcity
Inside Climate News: Activists Make Final Appeal to Biden to Block Arctic Oil Project
South America
TeleSUR: We Will Always Remember Hugo Chavez: Russian FM Lavrov
The Ukraine Proxy Conflict
WSWS: German Foreign Minister Baerbock presents “feminist” war policy
At the heart of the guidelines is the claim that the world is “more peaceful and stable” when women and feminist principles play a greater role in foreign policy. The guidelines advocate increasing the proportion of women in the Federal Foreign Office and appointing “an ambassador for feminist foreign policy,” to which an entire “feminist foreign policy” staff will be assigned. “The aim is to integrate the principles of feminist foreign policy into all foreign policy strategies,” the document declares.
The paper never really explains what this means in concrete terms. But the best proof of the project’s reactionary nature is Baerbock herself. Since she became the first woman to head the Foreign Office, German foreign policy has not become more peaceful, but even more warlike and militaristic. Last year, the German army’s €100 billion special fund launched the largest German rearmament programme since Hitler. 82 years after the Wehrmacht’s war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, German battle tanks are once again rolling against Russia.
The pro-Russian chuds are gonna go absolutely bonkers with this.
Analysis
Retrospectives, History, Theory, and Technology
Naked Capitalism: New York Fed Identifies a New Way Dollar Hegemony Is Not Good for Emerging Economies and Other Growing Things
The Left and the Right
Common Dreams: The Far-Right’s Culture Wars Are Just a Distraction So Oligarchs Can Keep Looting the Working Class
Inside the Imperial Core
People’s Daily: Crusade of 21st Century – America’s attempt to maintain global dominance
This is actually kind of a funny article, where it describes an example of something happening in the Crusades and then ties it back to the United States.
Outside the Imperial Core
Valdai CLub: When Three Is Not a Crowd: Russia, China and Mongolia at the Centre of New Multipolarity
The West seems to be exerting more influence on Mongolian society in order to initiate domestic political instability and sabotage Russian and Chinese projects. However, strong traditions of state governance, reliance on national interests, and reliable neighbours should help Ulaanbaatar to withstand any crisis, writes Valdai Club expert Andrey Gubin.
Valdai Club: Impact of the European Crisis on the Middle East
Without external control and dominant external forces, new regional problems and lines of confrontation will appear. On the other hand, without American involvement in regional affairs, some long-standing crises will no longer be fuelled from outside, and their dynamics will no longer be vital for the countries of the region. Therefore, old contradictions may soften, and countries will look for new ground for cooperation. For Russia, this is a chance to strengthen its influence and expand its circle of partners, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Andrey Sushentsov.
Monthly Review: Those who die for life–like Hugo Chávez–cannot be called dead: The Ninth Newsletter (2023)
Climate Change
Common Dreams: ‘Plasticosis’: Researchers Discover New Digestive Disease Sickening Seabirds
A newly discovered disease is sickening seabirds, and it’s not caused by a virus or bacteria—it’s caused by ingesting the increasingly ubiquitous bits of plastics contaminating land, air, and sea.