The waste management sector is an important employment sector.

Together, 45 global livestock companies produce more greenhouse gases than all but eight countries. Plus, crimes against nature are big business that rely on criminal networks, corrupt officials and eager customers, and global warming marches on.

Peter Sainsbury

The global livestock industry (mainly producing beef, pork, chicken and milk) is responsible for 12-19 per cent of all annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Not all Jews are equal; some are more equal than others. Jewish by birth and a card-carrying Israeli, Veronica Sherman sees Zionists as a cult, a dangerous pyramid scheme. 

If a group of Jewish backpackers from Melbourne met a group of Israeli backpackers in a hostel in Thailand, the Melbourne backpackers would be all excited to meet “fellow Jews” and feel they have a connection. A bit like meeting a relative while travelling.

The Israeli backpackers, however, would more likely look at the Melbourne travellers with complete disinterest. Unless, of course, they had planned on visiting Australia at some point, then they might see the Melbournians as a potential free accommodation option.

Every Israeli I have used this analogy with has nodded their head and agreed.

Captain Jack Sparrow’s boast comes to mind for a reason; we are about to discuss the real “scourge of the seas.” Here Lithuania is the one and undisputed champion. The global information space trembled with tension when the news broke: the president of this country, which occupies roughly 1.6% of the EU’s territory, Gitanas Nauseda, stated he is ready to send a warship as part of security guarantees for Ukraine.

“My ship is incomparable and proud… but he swam away”

Ksenia Muratshina

New Eastern Outlook has a new segment: “would be funny if it weren’t so sad”. Which events shocked us in January?

The United Nations is at risk of running out of cash as unpaid dues and funding shortfalls by member states threaten to disrupt key operations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned.

Guterres issued the warning in a letter to all 193 member states this week, as cited by multiple media outlets. He urged either honoring the mandatory payments or overhauling the organization’s financial rules to avoid an “imminent financial collapse.” The secretary-general said the UN faced a financial crisis that was “deepening, threatening program delivery,” with cash potentially running out by July.

Africa suffers… In many places of Africa, the people suffer… The pains come from various sources:

— the lingering momentum of COLONIALISM…

— the Vulture funds that are bleeding countries by refinancing the IMF and World Bank bad debts…

— Western induced POVERTY through deliberate bad debts...

— the Muslim terrorists being mostly funded by the USA and the Wahhabis/Sunnis of Saudi Arabia…

— Slavery (historical and present)….

— plunder of resources by Multinationals…

— inherited and Western cultivated corruption in order to prevent increase in the standards of living and to maintain divisions….

— Murders of many African thinkers and independent inspiring leaders….

— Tribalism, broken by artificial boundaries….

— Racism…

— Global warming which is increasing desertification….

— Diseases (imported and intrinsic)....

Donald Trump’s pronouncements about his so-called “Board of Peace” seem far removed from daily reality in the Gaza Strip, where residents are preoccupied with securing water, bread and warmth.

Yet Trump’s choice of members such as former UK prime minister Tony Blair has reopened old questions about the meaning and limits of peace, and whether it is possible to discuss it apart from justice.

‘NOT WELCOME’: PALESTINIANS CONDEMN BLAIR’S ROLE ON GAZA ‘PEACE BOARD’

Donald Trump’s plan to include Tony Blair in the running of Gaza is causing dismay among survivors of Israel’s genocide

BY SHAIMAA MARWAN

Inside his tent west of Gaza City, Palestinian journalist Abdullah al-Turkmani says the concerns are not just about Blair as a person, but about what this proposal represents politically.

In assessing the new world situation, we should start here in the U.S. At this moment, the epicenter of the struggle is Minneapolis. What’s happening there poses a fundamental question that is germane to the changing world situation, the global class struggle and the struggle for world socialist revolution. The same conditions, the repression and the angry mass response of the people are spreading and will continue to spread throughout the country.

The New World Situation: The decline of U.S. imperialism and the centrality of the class struggle

By Larry Holmes

The writer is the First Secretary of Workers World Party.

The idea that the United States should lead the world, replacing the British Empire, had been advanced by various U.S. leaders and influential citizens since the late 19th century.  This ambition was in keeping with age-old aspirations of great states and empires, and also with the trajectory of U.S. history.  The U.S. expanded across North America in the 19th century, became an imperial power in Asia in 1899, declared Latin America an exclusive sphere of influence in the early 20th century, and became the foremost global economic power prior to the First World War.

Cold War interventionism, 1945-1990

UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY

Presumably, Melania is meant to show us the woman behind the woman behind the man. It’s a lavish, beautifully shot documentary that deploys many of the tropes of commercial cinema (director Brett Ratner’s principle stomping ground until accusations of sexual assault – which he has denied – derailed his career in 2017). But actual revelations and insights into the first lady of the United States (FLOTUS, for short) are as thin on the ground as the hairs are on her husband’s head.

Melania Trump was a model before she became the girlfriend of property developer Donald Trump circa 1998. Born in Slovenia, she grew up watching her seamstress mother devote herself to the business of making things beautiful.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said she “will be very smart” by the end of her term thanks to her reading habits.

Kallas made the remark at a press conference on Thursday after a journalist offered to give her a book on Kurdish history by Masoud Barzani, the first president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.

“You know, my reading list is quite long,” she replied. “I am not telling you what I am reading right now but it is also about the history of different regions. So, by the end, when I finish this job, I will be very smart.”

Syrian Kurds, who served as a US proxy in the war that ultimately ousted President Bashar Assad, recently suffered a defeat from the forces of the new US-backed Türkiye-allied government seeking to reintegrate Syria.

Science in the Arctic — and Greenland — is on the frontline of pressing challenges facing humanity, like climate change and genetics. Some researchers worry international collaboration is at risk.

Decades of successful scientific collaboration could be at risk if political relations between Europe and the US continue to fray over trade and defense issues.

For more than 30 years, Arctic nations have worked together across the physical, biological and social sciences to understand one of the world's fastest-changing regions. Since the late 1970s, the Arctic has lost around 33,000 square miles of sea ice each year — roughly the same area as Czechia.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has declared that the military is fully prepared to “deliver whatever” President Donald Trump orders regarding Iran, as a major naval armada moves toward the region.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Hegseth warned Tehran against pursuing nuclear weapons, which Iran has consistently denied seeking.

“We will be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects of the War Department,” he stated.

Hegseth framed the recent US operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a demonstration of capability and intent.

“That sends a message to every capital around the world that when President Trump speaks, he means business,” he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has stated that the principle of self-determination does not apply to the people of Crimea and Donbass, drawing sharp condemnation from Moscow.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week accused the UN Secretariat of “playing into the hands” of Kiev and failing to act with impartiality, citing what he called glaringly different stances on self-determination for Crimea and Greenland.

Asked about this perceived double standard at a press conference on Thursday, Guterres said the body had held “very interesting discussions” on the matter and concluded that in Ukraine’s case, the “principle of territorial integrity” prevails over the will of the people.