The Imperial Core
National:
Australia: This month’s latest statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare indicate a sharp rise in homelessness. The proportion of rough sleepers seeking homeless services rose by 17 percent in 2023. The proportion of individuals who were already homeless when they sought help grew by 5.5 percent.WSWS
United Kingdom: Around 10,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) are set to take a week of rolling strike action on London Underground in the New Year from January 5-12.WSWS
United States: Huge Capital Investment Required for U.S. Electric Industry’s Decarbonization.NC 10 million American seniors worry about getting enough to eat.SP
American museums and universities repatriated more ancestral remains and sacred objects to tribal nations this year than at any point in the past three decades, transferring ownership of an estimated 18,800 Native American ancestors, institutions reported.PP Why More Than 60 Indigenous Nations Oppose the Line 5 Oil Pipeline.SP Sports historian Arif Khatib’s new book, ‘Remember Their Sacrifice: Stories of Unheralded Athletes of Color’, exhumes the biographies of some of professional sports’ first anti-racist trailblazers.RNN
Maine disqualifies Donald Trump from 2024 primary ballot.A New York City to evict 3,500 migrant families from shelters in January.WSWS Poverty rises and real income falls in Michigan as state now ranks 12th worst in US poverty.WSWS 18 Months After “Dobbs,” Here’s How Abortion Providers and Activists See Things.SP They’re doing what they can to help women in other ways.
The Semi-Periphery
International:
A representative of India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry told a department-related parliamentary standing committee that their country’s Russian oil imports helped stabilize the global energy market and prevent havoc from breaking out.NC
A new survey has found that 70.9 percent of the Chinese-funded enterprises in ASEAN plan to expand their businesses in the region, according to a Chinese trade association.CGTN
Scientists in Russia and China have established quantum communication encrypted with the help of secure keys transmitted by China’s quantum satellite, showing that a Brics quantum communication network may be technically feasible.SCMP
Maduro accused Argentine President Javier Milei of “eliminating all rights” of the Argentine people and “ending the economic sovereignty” of his nation. The Bolivarian leader assured that this South American country is experiencing “disaster” and “madness” after the “dictatorial decree” of Milei, whom he sees as a “far-right neo-Nazi” who is “turning Argentina into an economic colony.”TS Spitting straight facts.
National:
Argentina: Homeless people, UVA Mortgagees, Grouped Tenants and the Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (Utep) took to the streets in the Congress Square in rejection of the adjustment against the people. They are protesting under the slogan “Adjust the caste, do not leave us homeless”.TS Mass protests and strikes erupt in Argentina against Milei’s steps toward dictatorial rule.WSWS Argentines to Go on General Strike Against Milei’s Reforms.TS Argentina’s Human Capital Ministry on Friday ordered the suppression of 4,588 social assistance plans whose beneficiaries were found to have incurred expenses incompatible with such assistance.MP Milei to fire 7,000 public workers.TS
Argentina is reportedly planning to name a veteran diplomat as its new ambassador to China as Buenos Aires seeks to ease ties strained by President Javier Milei’s criticism of his country’s second-largest trading partner.SCMP
Brazil: According to a study released this week by the statistics bureau IBGE, child labor went up in Brazil between 2019 and 2022 under then-President Jair Bolsonaro, Agencia Brasil reported.MP
China: China removes nine PLA generals from top legislature in sign of wider purge.SCMP
The country’s major industrial firms saw their profits surge 29.5 percent in November, compared to the same period of last year.CGTN China has established overall targets for its 2024 grain production, aiming to stabilize food grain, maize and soybean production, expand rapeseed planting area, and increase yield per unit area.CGTN China is developing a mixture of ameliorating mineral content and developing more salt-tolerant crops to improve the amount of arable land that can be farmed, which is important as China has 100 million hectares of saline-alkaline land (of which a third could be made arable).SCMP
Beijing has broken its record for the most hours of sub-zero temperatures in December.CGTN Gansu holds mourning events for victims of 6.2-magnitude earthquake.GT
Import-reliant China makes rubber extraction innovation amid rising demand from car industry.SCMP The world’s largest coal-based ethanol production plant has started test runs in southeastern China.SCMP A photovoltaic project with a power generation capacity of 900 megawatts (MW) went into operation on Sunday in northwest China’s Qinghai Province.CGTN Chinese engineers install cutting-edge superconducting power line, while reducing dependence on raw materials from foreign countries by nearly two thirds.CGTN Chinese energy giant takes big step in capturing carbon dioxide.CGTN It’s essentially impossible to use carbon capture to genuinely reduce emissions while operating on the profit motive, so China is really the only major country where carbon capture could theoretically work.
India: India’s government has used the notorious Pegasus spyware to attack the devices of high-profile journalists in the country, according to an investigation by Amnesty International and The Washington Post.MEE
The Periphery
International:
Take a deep breath and rethink infrastructure development in the Himalayas.MB
China has eclipsed Russia as the main trade partner of all five Central Asian states, according to official statistics. Kazakhstan is the most recent Central Asian country to see Beijing pass Moscow in terms of annual trade turnover.EN China building up electric auto infrastructure in Central Asia.EN
On Saturday, top diplomats of Morocco, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger agreed to boost cooperation at a ministerial coordination meeting held in the southern Moroccan city of Marrakech.TS
National:
Chad: Voters in Chad have approved a new constitution that authorities say will usher in an era of democratic rule even as the referendum was marred by opposition boycotts and allegations that it was a fix.FT
Chile: Chile’s Government Friday announced it was extending the agricultural emergency stemming from a water deficit due to poor rains, it was reported in Santiago. With this measure, authorities may keep up the aid to producers from Atacama to Magallanes until Sept. 30, 2024.MP
Cuba: Much More than Primers, Notebooks and Pencils.R
Bolivia: Bolivian Coup Leader Añez Could Spend 20 Years in Prison.TS God forbid women do anything.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Flooding triggered by heavy rains in central Congo killed at least 22 people, including 10 from the same family, a local official said Tuesday.AN
Honduras: Why is Biden endorsing corporate colonialism in Honduras?.MR
Iraq: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said his government is “heading towards” ending the presence of international forces in Iraq, which includes about 2,500 US troops, the largest foreign contingent.SP
Kazakhstan: An intense phase of cold weather in Kazakhstan has caused damage to a gas pipeline and knocked heating and power stations offline across at least eight cities, once again exposing the creaking condition of much of the country’s key utility infrastructure.BNE Kazakhstan removes Taliban from list of banned organizations.EN
Liberia: A leaking tanker truck exploded earlier this week as people gathered to collect gasoline, killing more than 40 people.AN
Mali: The UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA) officially handed over to the national authorities one of its last camps in a large city in the north of the country, Timbuktu, before the end of its final withdrawal, ORTM public television indicated.AN
Myanmar: China, Myanmar revive hopes for Bay of Bengal deep water port in Kyaukphyu under Belt and Road Initiative.SCMP
Niger: Russia reopened its embassy in Burkina Faso on Thursday, which it had closed in 1992, thus continuing a rapprochement with this Sahelian country led by a military regime since last year, and which seeks to diversify its partners since its break with France.AN
Nigeria: 160 killed in attacks in central Nigeria.TS
Panama: The El Nino-induced severe drought in Panama has seriously impacted local agriculture and animal husbandry as the country heads toward an exceptionally longer dry season next year with few rainfalls.CGTN
Rwanda: Rwanda’s opposition leader faces renewed threats but vows to continue the struggle.CD
Venezuela: UK to deploy naval ship to Guyana after Venezuela territory claim.FT Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered preventive measures be taken as the Royal Navy’s HMS Trent was reaching the area to side with Guyana amid tensions over the disputed oil-rich Essequibo area.MP What is it with the British and keeping conflicts going?
Vietnam: The first high-speed railway connecting a Chinese city on the China-Vietnam border with the nation’s national network began operations on Wednesday, underlining Beijing’s efforts to deepen trade and investment cooperation with its Southeast Asian neighbours.SCMP
Zambia: Zambian health authorities announced that measures have been heightened to contain the outbreak of cholera, which has now spread to 12 districts in the country.TS
Global Institutions
Global maritime chokepoints are clogging up.BNE Ansarallah on one side of the world, climate change on the other. There’s a metaphor somewhere here about how as we continue through gluttonous late-stage capitalism, the arteries of the world are clogging up.
President Milei Rejects Joining Argentina to BRICS.TS
The Second Cold War
Russia:
Economically:
Ukraine warns of pension and salary delays without western aid.FT
US significantly beefs up secondary sanctions on Western banks unwittingly dealing with Russian business.BNE
Russian Trade Corridors Flourish Under Western Sanctions.NC
Militarily:
Zelensky government submits draft law for the mobilization of another 500,000 men.WSWS Japan exports Patriot missiles to assist US-led war on Russia.WSWS
Poland says Russian rocket entered its airspace, summons diplomat.E
“On Friday at 7.12 local time (0612 GMT), from the direction of the border with Ukraine, there was a violation of Polish airspace by an object that left Poland’s territory after less than three minutes,” Poland’s General Staff wrote on X social media.
It was in your airspace for three minutes and you didn’t shoot it down? Damn, bro.
China:
Militarily:
‘Revolutionary’ design: Chinese scientists invent the most powerful detonation engine for hypersonic flight.SCMP
According to a global poll conducted by CGTN, some 93 percent of the respondents were deeply concerned, believing that the irrational increase in U.S. and Japanese military spending will destabilize regional peace and trigger a new round of arms race in East Asia and even in the world. The military budgets of the United States and Japan for 2024 have both reached historic highs, adding more unease to this tension.CGTN
Palestine:
Diplomatically:
Book Review: Antony Loewenstein, “The Palestine Laboratory”.NC
Gaza and the fault lines of empire.CD
South Africa launches International Court of Justice case accusing Israel of genocide.MEE Over 1,000 children in Gaza have limbs amputated, Unicef says.MEE
New Year’s celebrations banned in Sharjah and Pakistan amid Gaza war.MEE
India’s voting pattern in the United Nations with regard to the Israel-Palestine conflict is lately marked by a calibrated distancing from Israel. Only a few weeks ago, Israel’s ambassador in Delhi bullishly described the Indian stance as one of “100% support” to his country. But that is no more the case today.IP
Erdogan: No Difference Between Hitler’s Actions and Netanyahu’s.TS And yet you aren’t cutting off trade with them.
Economically:
Yemen’s Houthis claim fresh attacks on cargo ship in Red Sea, Israeli city.PD Some shipping companies announce return to Red Sea as Houthi attacks continue.CGTN Shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd will continue to avoid Red Sea amid Houthi attacks.MEE
Maersk to resume Red Sea shipping under US-led naval coalition.FT They have since been warded off by Yemen and shipping once again stopped.
Militarily:
Ebrahim Raisi Deplores Israeli Murder of Iranian Commander.TS Israel Launches Missile Attack on Targets Near Syrian Capital.TS
Biden administration approves “emergency” sale of howitzer shells to Israel amid intensification of ethnic cleansing in Gaza Strip.WSWS
Every time the UN can get more aid into Gaza, the Israeli bombardment of civilian areas intensifies, and the civilian deaths increase.SP Death Toll from Gaza Genocide Exceeds 29,000: Euro-Med Monitor.TS
Various Analyses
Mainstream media wasn’t good for US foreign policy in 2023.RS lmfao. Thanks, Responsible Statecraft.
Monroe Doctrine: Two Centuries of Implacable Imperialism.TS
The World’s Economic Centre of Gravity is returning to Asia: The Fifty-Second Newsletter (2023).MR
The Cuban Revolution through the eyes of the women of my life.MR
Widely ignored official reports and never-before-seen declassified files suggest shadowy British special forces operatives played a crucial role in one of the 20th century’s most notorious and controversial massacres.GZ
An education policy for colonizing minds.MR
Environment:
DeSmog’s best articles of 2023.DS
Lowest rainfall in over 40 years affects Amazon basin rivers,MP
African Penguins Have Almost Been Wiped Out by Overfishing and Climate Change. Researchers Want to Orchestrate a Comeback.ICN
China’s ocean drilling ship Mengxiang aims to be first to reach Earth’s mantle, opening ‘gate to hell’.SCMP Hell yeah.
Economics:
Marx’s value theory and the value form interpretation.MR
Michael Hudson: Neoliberalism, Industrial Capitalism, and the Rise of Debt.NC
Real News Network’s best articles of 2023.RNN
LGBTQIA+
Content Warning - this is usually not good news.
Brazil: Same-sex marriages on the rise.MP
Idaho Gender-Affirming Care Ban for Transgender Minors Blocked for Now.A
Burundi’s President Calls for Stoning of Gay Couples Amid Global LGBTQ+ Rights Debate.AN
Stigma against gay men could worsen Congo’s biggest mpox outbreak, scientists warn.AN