USA Archives - Page 4 of 12

A “new reactionary international”: how Elon Musk is spreading his fascist ideals in Europe

4 min read MARIUS THIRION ROSZYK

MARIUS THIRION ROSZYK
If Donald Trump began his second term as President of the United States on January 20, he owes it in part to his new friend Elon Musk. With little rancor, the American billionaire has offered the new Ministry of “Government Efficiency” to the man who, in 2022, considered him “too old to be President of anything, let alone the United States of America.”

It is worth remembering that Musk used his considerable influence to help the Republican candidate win, occupying the public space like never before.

America Asia U.S. Principal3

The farce of the ceasefire

9 min read CHRIS HEDGES

CHRIS HEDGES
For decades, Israel has been playing tricks. It signs an agreement with the Palestinians that is to be implemented in phases. The first phase gives Israel what it wants – in this case, the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza – but Israel routinely fails to implement the subsequent phases that would lead to a just and equitable peace. In the end, it provokes the Palestinians with indiscriminate armed attacks to get them to retaliate, defines a Palestinian response as a provocation, and abrogates the ceasefire agreement to reignite the killing.

If this latest three-phase ceasefire agreement is ratified - and there is no certainty that it will be by Israel - it will, I hope, be little more than a pause in the bombing of the presidential inauguration. Israel has no intention of stopping its merry-go-round of death.

America Asia U.S. Principal2

Bibi and Trump beyond the agreement with Hamas

4 min read EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON
The relationship between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu is truly peculiar. One is 78 years old and the other 75. One has amassed a huge fortune while the other is reluctantly content with a more modest fortune. One is beginning his second term as president of the most powerful country in the world and the other is approaching the end of his political career with great power but licking his wounds from the war in Gaza.

Asia U.S. Principal4

How the US and Israel destroyed Syria and called it peace

9 min read JEFFREY D SACHS

JEFFREY D SACHS
The long history of Israel’s campaign to overthrow the Syrian government is not well known, but the documentary record is clear. Israel’s war on Syria began with American and Israeli neoconservatives in 1996, who designed a “clean break” Middle East strategy for Netanyahu when he came to power.

The core of the “clean break” strategy required Israel (and the United States) to reject the idea of “land for peace,” according to which Israel would withdraw from occupied Palestinian lands in exchange for peace. Instead, Israel would retain the occupied Palestinian lands, rule over the Palestinian people in an apartheid state, ethnically cleanse the state step by step, and impose so-called “peace for peace” by overthrowing neighboring governments that resisted Israel’s territorial claims.

U.S. USA/Europe Principal4

Trump, Gorbachev and the fatal parallels

3 min read XULIO RIOS

XULIO RIOS
In 2025, when convicted US President Donald Trump takes office, it will be 40 years since Mikhail Gorbachev took over as Soviet leader. There are some interesting parallels between the situations faced by both leaders.

Although the differences between the USSR in the 1980s and the current state of the US are not minor, there are some notable similarities. If perestroika emerged to lift the USSR out of Brezhnev’s stagnation, Trump’s policies are similarly aimed at “making America great again,” admitting a certain paralysis.

America U.S. USA/Europe Principal3

Trump's America: ecstasy or agony?

7 min read JOSEPH CAMILLERI

JOSEPH CAMILLERI
Trump's electoral victory is not the momentous or unexpected event that many have made it out to be. It is, however, an unmistakable sign of a society in slow decline in which frustration, anger and bewilderment are reaching epidemic proportions.

The inevitable question is: how did this man manage to be re-elected President of the United States?

This is, after all, a man who was twice impeached as president, who rejected the outcome of the previous election. He is known to have repeatedly lied to the electorate before, during and since his first presidential term. This is a man whose business dealings have long been under a cloud, and who is widely accused of deceit, abuse of power and sexual misconduct.

America Asia U.S. USA/Europe Principal10

Trump, Europe and the Middle East

5 min read EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON 0 comments

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON
The big puzzle is how far Trump will go with the Gaza Strip. Israel clearly wants to return to colonisation. To facilitate this, it has been keeping the bulk of its population, 2,3 million Palestinians, moving around for a year, not allowing them to stay anywhere in safety. The apparent intention is to drive them back to Egypt. To do this, he needs the green light from the White House, something Joe Biden has not been willing to grant. The question is whether Trump will allow it.

Asia U.S. Principal1

Nasrallah and the rehabilitation of Netanyahu

4 min read EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON 0 comments

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON
The first poll since the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut has projected Benjamin Netanyahu's popularity to rise. After nearly a year of lackluster poll results and strong public hostility, the Israeli prime minister is once again moving freely and confidently, and it is difficult to know how far he is prepared to go.

Netanyahu has allowed himself to leave the Gaza Strip open pending what happens at the US polls in November. Depending on who enters the White House, it will be much clearer whether Israel can expel all or part of the Palestinian population, 2,3 million people, who since October 7, 2023 have been migrating relentlessly from one place to another in the Strip, forced by American bombs from Israeli fighter planes that pursue them everywhere.

Asia U.S. Principal1

Philadelphia Corridor, Netanyahu's last obstacle to ending the war

3 min read EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON 0 comments

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON
The Philadelphia Corridor is a narrow belt 100 meters wide and 14 kilometers long that runs parallel to and along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. The name Philadelphia (without the letter a at the end) was chosen at random by the Israeli army, while the Palestinians and Egyptians call it the Saladin Corridor.

In recent months, this has become very important, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that any ceasefire agreement with Hamas include the permanence of Israeli troops in that axis. In contrast, the Islamist organisation's position is that any agreement should include the complete withdrawal of soldiers from the entire Gaza Strip, including the Philadelphia corridor.

Archived U.S. USA/Europe Europe

The silencing

4 min read Javier García 0 comments

JAVIER GARCIA
While the conflict in Ukraine escalates dangerously and Israel continues to bomb Gaza and prepare - with the help of the United States - a major war in the Middle East with an eye on Lebanon, Iran, Yemen or Syria, silence any story that falls outside the narrative official is the parallel strategy.

In the throes of this calamitous world order propped up by wars and censorship, supporting independent journalism has become more urgent than ever. At least if we are not willing to survive with the only voice of Big Brother howling in the desert. Either we stand up to this horrible drift or the silence will end up devouring us.

America U.S. Principal3

Trumpism and anti-Trumpism are false decoy revolutions

9 min read CAITLIN JOHNSTONE 0 comments

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
Right-wingers dissatisfied with the American political status quo have been pushed to support a politician who embodies that status quo as much as any other president, mistakenly thinking that they are fighting a battle against the establishment in doing so. And this is reflected on the other side of the imagined partisan divide in American politics, with people making entire identities out of disdain for Donald Trump and acting as if this makes them brave revolutionaries.

As Gore Vidal once said:
“It doesn’t really matter whether the president is a Republican or a Democrat. The genius of the American ruling class is that it has been able to make people believe that it has had something to do with electing presidents for 200 years, when it has had absolutely no say in the candidates or the policies or the way the country is run. A very small group controls almost everything.”

America Archived Asia China U.S.

The war between the United States and China is commercial and Olympic

4 min read PASCUAL SERRANO

PASCUAL SERRANO
On August 7, the Reuters agency uncovered a serious complaint that has gone largely unnoticed in the Western media. The US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) allowed several athletes it had discovered between 2011 and 2014 violating anti-doping rules to continue competing then without being sanctioned.

The excuse given by the US authorities is that it was part of a plan for them to act covertly and continue competing without being prosecuted in exchange for information about other offenders. USADA maintains that the tactic is necessary and permitted, and wants to continue using it.