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The Federal Reserve’s independence is currently being challenged by political forces seeking to reshape its mandate. The Fed has not always been independent of Congress and the Treasury. Its independence was formalized only in 1951, with a Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord that was not a law but a policy agreement redefining the relationship of the parties. In the 1930s and 1940s, before the Fed officially became “independent,” it worked with the federal government to fund the most productive period in our country’s history. We can and should do that again.

In a Sept. 1 Substack post titled “Fed Faces Biggest Direct Challenge by a …

Sky Islands are isolated mountain ranges separated from other mountains by a vast distance and surrounded by lowlands of a dramatically different environment. This results in habitat “islands” such as a high-elevation forest surrounded by desert or grassland. In southern Arizona, part of New Mexico, and northern Sonora, six ecosystems blend to comprise the Sky Island region, supporting a wealth of biodiversity and many species found here and nowhere else….

1. Rowley demands supporters of Palestine Action cancel or delay their protest today, after the Manchester synagogue attack, because the timing appears “antisemitic”.

How to untangle this nonsense?

a) The only possible way to interpret Rowley’s argument is that he believes every British Jew identifies and supports Israel’s mass slaughter of children in Gaza and therefore, out of respect for their grief at the Manchester attack, we ought not to protest against the slaughter in Gaza. That undoubtedly makes Rowley the antisemitic one.

b) Even were his deeply antisemitic idea true – that British …

There can be no peace without justice, yet this simple truth still hasn’t penetrated at UKgov and USgov levels. Or is it ignored because it squelches the West’s lawless policies in the Middle East?

Statehood means self-determination with no outside interference. In Palestine’s case international law and relevant UN resolutions must finally be implemented and no longer contemptuously waved aside. Justice must be done and seen to be done. A UN commission of inquiry now confirms what many already knew – that Israel seeks to establish permanent control over Gaza and a Jewish majority in the occupied West Bank. UKGov and …

On Tuesday, Sep 30, 2025, the UN Security Council voted to adopt a resolution drafted by the U.S. and Panama that would create a so-called “Gang Suppression Force” (GSF) to invade Haiti. The resolution was adopted with 12 votes in favor and 3 abstentions (China, Russia, and Pakistan). The Black Alliance for Peace unequivocally condemns the adoption of this resolution. We see the GSF as a further step in the destruction of Haitian popular sovereignty, pushing the country into militarized, neocolonial servitude.
The resolution for the “Gang Suppression Force” (GSF) authorizes …

Sliman Mansour (Palestine), The Sea Is Mine, 2016.

7 October 2025 will mark the second anniversary of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. The World Health Organisation’s data page on Palestinian casualties, regularly updated using figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry and UN agencies, shows that around 66,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the last two years – 30 out of every 1,000 people who were living in Gaza (these numbers, however may be too low, as the ministry has often admitted that it has …

Matt Haig’s The Humans (2013) uses sci fi, ‘speculative fiction’, for what it does best: reveal to us how lethal human beings are and how we need to control technology before it turns us into monsters and reduces planet Earth to … Gaza. This time it’s a simple tale of the seductiveness of ‘going native’ faced with totalitarian alienation, and genocide by the latter against those oh-so seductive natives.

‘Going native’ was a big problem for settler-colonial imperialism over the past 4 centuries. Too many settlers, especially in New England, refused the near-starvation …

Note added 1 October 2025:

This alert was originally published on 14 August 2025. However, a technical problem prevented it from being shared via our usual email lists. This has now been fixed. Apologies for the delay in sending this out.

Late last Sunday, a targeted Israeli attack killed prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif alongside several colleagues. They were in a tent outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital. Also killed were Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed …

When Jay Janson declared, “You’re writing history with your breath,” I recognized the profound truth in his words. For Jay speaks not in ephemeral metaphors, but in potent mandates, each utterance a call to profound moral engagement. He is more than a historian; he is a living archive, a relentless prosecutor of empire who wields facts, fiery conviction, and unshakeable faith to bring hidden truths to light. His testimonies are not dry academic dissertations; they are ancestral echoes, resonant with the cries of the silenced.

I recall his presence at Riverside Church’s Peace and Global Justice ministry – not as …

He had moments of discomfort and embarrassment – pressed into calling the Qatari Prime Minister by his host to apologise for striking Doha and made to pay lip service to the prospect of a Palestinian state – but Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu had many reasons to be pleased. On September 29, President Donald Trump advanced a peace proposal that essentially preserves Israeli pre-eminence regarding the fate of Palestinians, though it entails a cessation of hostilities, an affirmation that Gazans would not be expelled (those leaving would have the right to return), and an injunction against Israeli annexation …

I retired from the University of Texas at Austin journalism school eight years ago, but I can’t stop thinking like a teacher. So when I read the Texas Tech University chancellor’s memo instructing employees to comply with state and federal dictates that “recognize only two human sexes: male and female,” I pondered how I might use such a “teachable moment” if I were still in the classroom.

The self-preservation instinct would make it tempting to avoid any response to such political directives. The memo doesn’t specify what can and can’t be said in the classroom, …

So, we are being subjected to the latest bout of verbal gymnastics as analysts bend themselves to the futile task of inferring logic from Donald Trump most recent effusions on matters Ukraine. Futile because the man possesses no approximation of a mind capable of coherent thought processes. His sole fixed reference points are emotional obsessions and slogans that sparkle in his otherwise inert grey matter. Statements and actions invariably are random, often self-contradictory, and susceptible to reversal either by mood shifts or by the manipulations of calculating persons in his entourage and stray acquaintances.

This manifest reality is beyond the …

Drones over Nordic airports. No damage. No trace. No answers. Most assume Russia—but what if that’s not so? Why is there so much we are not told?

This article explores the strategic ambiguity behind recent drone incursions and asks: Who else might benefit from sending drones into NATO airspace?

From Ukraine’s surprising drone supremacy to Russia’s possible signalling, the silence itself may be the loudest message.

These are the kinds of questions decent, intelligent investigative journalists and commentators could easily research. Why don’t they?

Did you, dear reader, know or think of this? …

United Nations Security Council hall (Image by depositphotos)

At the UN General Assembly, now underway, world leaders are gathering to confront some of today’s greatest crises: Palestine, climate change, the war on drugs—even the role and relevance of the UN itself. Too often, however, the institution feels less like the pantheon of a new human civilization and more like the emergency room of a crowded hospital—treating symptoms while leaving root causes untouched.

The deeper question before us is: What is humanity’s next move? The answer will …

I have to share with you good news. In his video speech to the United Nations Climate Summit 2025 held in New York on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China’s 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions. He said that China will, by 2035, reduce economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent to 10 percent from peak levels, and will strive to do better.

He also announced that China will increase the share of non-fossil fuels in total energy consumption to over 30 percent, and expand the installed capacity of wind and solar power to over six times the 2020 levels, striving …