Adam Hanieh’s new book, Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market (Verso, 2024) could not be timelier. As all eyes turn to Baku for COP29, the capitalist world heads to yet another performance of misdirection. In contrast to that monumental deception, we need to see things as they really stand and take action accordingly. So, let’s take a deep dive and get the record straight, the basic problem remains that capitalism is destroying planet Earth at an accelerating pace. Crude Capitalism—hereafter CC—goes a long way to explaining why the capitalist powers remain so fully committed to oil, come what may.

A probe by India’s Income Tax Department into five major nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the country has reportedly unearthed evidence that they used foreign funding for activities aimed at stalling economic and development projects. 

According to a report in Indian Express, the probe was launched after searches were conducted by tax authorities in September 2022 at the Indian offices of fine NGOs – Oxfam, Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Environics Trust, Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment, and Care India Solution for Sustainable Development. 

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has become increasingly displeased with the work of military intelligence head Kirill Budanov and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and could replace them in the coming weeks, several outlets in Kiev have said.

Forbes Ukraine was the first to report the rumors, citing an official inside the presidential cabinet and two lawmakers on the defense committee of the Verkhovna Rada. As the main reason for the proposed personnel changes, they listed the “growing challenges at the front.”

Discussions about Budanov’s sacking have been going on for at least a month, according to Forbes’s sources. The head of the military intelligence service HUR reportedly has “strained relations” with Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrey Yermak and General Aleksandr Syrsky, the supreme commander of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Ukraine may have to recognize the loss of some of its territory to Russia in order to achieve peace and security guarantees, Jens Stoltenberg said in his first long interview after stepping down as NATO secretary-general. 

Stoltenberg ended his ten-year tenure as the chief of the US-led alliance on October 1. In a conversation with the Financial Times published on Friday, he said that Kiev may be forced to rethink seeing the restoration of the 1991 borders as a prerequisite for any peace deal. 

Stoltenberg suggested that “a kind of new momentum” would come after the US presidential election in early November, possibly ushering in “ways to try to get movement on the battlefield combined with movement around the negotiating table.” 

Former President Donald Trump has spent this week criticizing Democrats for their response to Hurricane Helene — going so far as to say party leaders aren’t interested in helping Republicans in the hardest-hit areas of southern Appalachia.

During a visit to Valdosta, Georgia, he claimed without evidence that the Biden administration — and Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper — were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”

But Trump has his own record to stand on, Scott Waldman and Thomas Frank report.

P&I has obtained a copy of the confidential report to headquarters prepared by a recent intelligence gathering mission to Australia from Mars.

Your most esteemed and benevolent Excellencies

We have the honour to present the final report of our recent expedition to the Blue Planet, hereinafter referred to as Earth. Consistent with the expedition’s objectives, our report offers an assessment of the current civilisational status of earthlings and, in particular, whether the Greater Martian Cooperative Enterprise (GREMCEN) would benefit by now inviting Earth to join its councils.

Ukraine’s conscription drive ‘increasingly deceitful, coercive and violent’ – The Times
Kiev is resorting to dirty tactics in its efforts to bolster its troops, the British newspaper reports

Ukraine’s mobilization campaign is falling far short of targets, while the effort remains marred by violence, mistrust and rampant corruption, The Times reported on Thursday, citing local officials.

A UK security team found a listening device in the personal lavatory of then-foreign secretary Boris Johnson back in 2017, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the facility, the former British politician has reportedly claimed in his memoir.

The incident allegedly occurred at the British Foreign Office, which, according to Johnson, has a bathroom similar to “the gents in a posh London club,”located in a “secret annex” used by the foreign secretary, as reported by The Telegraph on Thursday. Netanyahu was in the building on an official visit, and apparently made a toilet trip while there.

“Thither Bibi repaired for a while, and it may or may not be a coincidence but I am told that later, when they were doing a regular sweep for bugs, they found a listening device in the thunderbox,” Johnson wrote.

Richard C. Cook is a retired U.S. federal analyst who served with the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury and as an aide to U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).

He has just published a thoughtful book, Our Country Then and Now, which provides a sweeping economic history of the U.S. intermeshed with his own family history.

The book traces the rise of plutocratic rule in the U.S. and negative consequences of this rule, ranging from the cruelty directed against Native Americans to the decimation of U.S. manufacturing vitality and the working class to the waging of endless wars.

I am writing this because no one at the ABC — whose producers invited me onto their coronation coverage as a guest — has uttered one word of public support. Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible; this is an institutional failure.

These words, written by Stan Grant, who at the time was one of the ABC’s most high-profile First Nations journalists, catalysed the ABC into commissioning a review that has now revealed systemic racism across the national broadcaster.

At The 79th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA-79) US President Joe Biden revealed that he entered into the US and global politics in a period of great crises, and proceeded to show that more crises have developed under US global leadership. Biden’s call to rally the world behind the US leadership is either deceitful or a case of insanity; doing the same thing and expecting different results. 

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has denounced the Iranian missile attack on Israel, after West Jerusalem slammed him for failing to do so and publicly declared him persona non grata.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a barrage of rockets at Israel on Tuesday, calling it a response to the recent Israeli killings of the heads of Hamas and Hezbollah.

”As I did in relation to the Iranian attack in April, and this should have been obvious yesterday, in the context of the condemnation I expressed, I again strongly condemn yesterday’s massive missile attacks by Iran on Israel,” Guterres told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

Guterres condemned both Israel and Hezbollah for months of cross-border attacks that violated Lebanese sovereignty and called for an immediate ceasefire.

The ?reconstitution? of Moscow's forces during the Ukraine conflict has surprised Washington, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has said

Washington is highly concerned about the rapid "reconstitution" of the Russian military and partly attributes this to Moscow's "formidable" ties with China, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has said.

Discussing the Ukraine conflict in an interview on Wednesday hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think tank, Campbell stated that "what we've seen over the course of the last two years is a reconstitution of the Russian military with a rapidity and a determination that, frankly, surprises us." He further admitted that this "has been a topic of real anxiety" for the West.

The Azov Batallion’s* first commander Andriy Biletsky once claimed the “historic mission” of Ukraine is “to lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade… against the Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans].”

The Netflix reality television program Love Is Blind has drawn controversy by featuring a retired US Marine as a contestant – without revealing his service in a Ukrainian neo-Nazi military brigade.

Rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs, known for collaborating with top Democrats for decades, was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and other felonies in mid-September.

Diddy allegedly hosted and recorded wild sex orgies, dubbed "freak offs", with drugged up guests and prostitutes, which apparently brings him into the same cohort with convicted sex offenders billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and film producer Harvey Weinstein.

What's Known About Diddy's Backing of Top Democrats?