Series Note: We are in the middle of an unprecedented crisis as the Covid-19 pandemic, and the lockdowns implemented in response, continue to deliver a series of economic, social and psychological shocks to the world. In this time of chaos, some of the world’s most powerful interest groups have stepped forward claiming that this crisis presents an opportunity to ‘reset’ the world’s systems.
This week, the story I followed most closely wasn’t a breaking news item or global development, but an important debate taking place in Washington these days over whether or not restraint should serve as the guiding framework for U.S. foreign policy.
The United States is “back,” proclaims U.S. President Joe Biden, seemingly as often as he can. The coming week will show if the same is true of the West. At successive summits of the G-7, NATO and the European Union, Biden and fellow leaders will confront a dual task: reviving the community of advanced market democracies and showing that the West is capable of resolving today’s complex transnational challenges.
Developments on the world stage are stunning. Almost every day, geopolitical incidents and moves are appearing magical.
The developments are challenging the Empire’s geopolitics in regions. Months ago, the Empire gave an impression that it’ll regain ground whatever has been lost, prestige that slipped down from its crown. Immediate moves were taken, at least for public view. Those were image-rebuilding moves, and some other “things”.
Margrethe Vestager said that while she was Interior Minister her responsibilities did not include overseeing the activities of Danish intelligence services.
On Thursday, European Commission (EC) Vice President Margrethe Vestager explained that while she was Denmark’s Interior Minister, she was not responsible for overseeing her country’s intelligence services, which allegedly collaborated with the United States to spy on other European countries.
Posing the Question
This year marks the 57th anniversary of Herbert Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man (1964). This text, although plagued with a pessimistic spirit, was a great source of inspiration for the development of the New Left and the May 68 uprisings. The question we must ask ourselves is whether a text that predates the last 50 years of neoliberalism has any pertinent take-aways for today’s revolutionary struggles. Before we examine this, let us first review the context and central observations in Marcuse’s famed work.
The NSA would have used the Danish IT infrastructure to spy on Angela Merkel and other European leaders.
The Danish public television DR and other European media on Sunday published an investigation showing that the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (FE) gave the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) open internet access to spy on top politicians of neighboring countries, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Une tribune du général François Gaubert
En tant que général signataire de la lettre ouverte dite des généraux – laquelle en fait est celle de plusieurs milliers d’anciens militaires de tous grades, ce qui en fait la valeur – je souhaiterais apporter un éclairage complémentaire mais essentiel au paragraphe évoquant « l’intervention de nos camarades d’active ».
La France a longtemps été connue pour sa démographie dynamique. Mais des signes très préoccupants d’un dérèglement apparaissent ces dernières années, alerte le haut-commissaire au Plan François Bayrou. Les critiques lui ont reproché de vouloir ouvrir grand les vannes de l’immigration. Or le rapport ne dit pas vraiment cela.
When Rachid Zerrouki, a teacher in Marseille, headed back to his classroom last Monday, he braced himself for the worst. He hadn’t seen his students since the brutal killing of Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old middle school teacher in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, who was beheaded by a young Chechen refugee days after he showed his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson about freedom of expression. With school back in session after a holiday break, the Education Ministry had instructed teachers to have students participate in a minute of silence to express solidarity with Paty and all teachers throughout France.