Category: Uncategorized

by NEIL PRICe

The Norse ravaged much of Europe for centuries. They were also cosmopolitan explorers who followed trade winds into the Far East

In the middle of the 9th century, in an office somewhere in the Jib?l region of what is now western Iran, a man is dictating to a scribe. It is the 840s of the Common Era, though the people in this eastern province of the great Caliphate of the ’Abb?sids – an Islamic superpower with its capital in Baghdad – live by the Hijri calendar. The man’s name is Abu ’l-Q?sim ?Ubayd All?h b ?Abd All?h Ibn Khurrad?dhbih, and he is the director of posts and police for this region.

In his office, he is compiling a report as part of his duties. As his job title implies, he oversees communications and security in the Jib?l region, reporting to officials in Baghdad. What he provides is an intelligence service: in essence, Ibn Khurrad?dhbih is what we would call a station chief, like those CIA officials who manage clandestine operations abroad. The report he’s working on is part of a much larger document that will one day be known as Kit?b al-Mas?lik wa l-mam?lik (the ‘Book of Itineraries and Kingdoms’), a summary of exactly the kind of thing that governments usually want to know: who was visiting their territory, where they came from, where they were going, and why. This is what he says about a group of people known as the Rus’:

The R?s … journey from the farthest reaches of the land of the Slavs to the eastern Mediterranean and there sell beaver and black fox pelts, as well as swords. The Byzantine ruler levies a 10 per cent duty on their merchandise. On their return they go by sea to Samkarsh [Taman], the city of the Jews, and from there make their way back to Slavic territory. They also follow another route, descending the river Tanais [the Volga], the river of the Saq?liba, and passing by Khaml?kh, the capital of the Khazars, where the ruler of the country levies a 10 per cent duty. There they embark upon the Caspian Sea, heading for a point they know … Sometimes they transport their merchandise on camel back from the city of Jurj?n to Baghdad.

They also follow a land route. Merchants departing from Spain or France sail to southern al-Akçâ [Morocco] and then to Tanja [Tangier], from where they set off for Ifriqiyya [the North African coast] and then the Egyptian capital. From there they head towards Ramla, visit Damascus, Kufa, Baghdad and Basra, then cross the Ahwaz (north of the Persian Gulf)

, Fâris [Iran], Kirman, Sindh [southeast Pakistan], India, and finally arrive in al-??n [Turko-China]. Sometimes they take a route north of Rome, heading for Khaml?kh via the lands of the Saq?liba. Khaml?kh is the Khazar capital. They sail the Caspian Sea, make their way to Balkh, from there to Transoxiana, then to the yurts of the Toghuzghuz [the Uyghurs?], and from there to al-??n.

For many decades, the second paragraph of this rather dense text was thought to refer to a totally different group of merchants from those described in the first, for the simple reason that scholars just didn’t believe that the R?s (or the Rus’, as the word is usually spelled today) really went so far east. And yet, the text is clear. The two sections run on from each other, and both refer to the same people. So why do Ibn Khurrad?dhbih’s observations about them matter today?

Aeon for more

by GIULIA GRANCHI & VITOR TAVARES

Before Silvana Santos arrived in the little town of Serrinha dos Pintos more than 20 years ago, residents had no idea why so many local children had lost the ability to walk.

The remote town in north-eastern Brazil is home to fewer than 5,000 people, and is where biologist and geneticist Santos identified and named a previously unknown condition: Spoan syndrome.

Caused by a genetic mutation, the syndrome affects the nervous system, gradually weakening the body. It only appears when the altered gene is inherited from both parents.

Santos’s research marked the first time the disease had been described anywhere in the world. For this and later work, she was named one of the BBC’s 100 most influential women in 2024.

Before Santos arrived, families had no explanation for the illness affecting their children. Today, residents talk confidently about Spoan and genetics.

“She gave us a diagnosis we never had. After the research, help came: people, funding, wheelchairs,” says Marquinhos, one of the patients.

Serrinha dos Pintos: a world of its own

Where Santos is from in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest and wealthiest city, many of her neighbours were members of the same extended family originally from Serrinha. Many of them were cousins of varying degrees, married to each other.

They told Santos that many of people in their hometown couldn’t walk, but that no-one knew why.

One of the neighbours’ daughters, Zirlândia, suffered from a debilitating condition: as a child, her eyes moved involuntarily and over time, she lost strength in her limbs and needed to use a wheelchair, requiring help with even the simplest tasks.

Years of investigation would lead Santos and a research team to identify these as symptoms of Spoan syndrome.

They would go on to find 82 other cases worldwide.

BBC for more

by PAUL BOND

This is Theroux’s second documentary on the ultra-nationalist settlers. In 2011, making The Ultra Zionists, he described them as being “on the fringe of a fringe in terms of their outlook and beliefs,” while enjoying “a degree of support from the Israeli state.”

That year, the Netanyahu government faced mounting protests across the whole of Israeli society against economic conditions. Conscious of the Arab Spring, the government approved thousands of settlements on occupied Palestinian land to offset this protest movement.

Today, fascist settler parties are in government and are playing a determining role in Benjamin Netanyahu’s murderous regime. The settlers provide an essential social base for militarism and social reaction.

Theroux’s documentary, though focused on the West Bank, also showed the ethnic cleansing colonialist programme for Gaza. Daniella Weiss, the far-right “godmother” of the settler movement, boasted of having 800 families ready to move into Gaza, saying, “Our mission is to settle Israel.”

She shows Theroux a map of the “Greater Israel” she means, encompassing Lebanon, Jordan, and parts of Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Palestinians in this region should leave and go to other countries, she declares. When Theroux says that not thinking about other people at all seems “sociopathic,” she laughs. “This is normal,” she insists.

This is the real policy of Zionism. In Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, Theroux is asked by an Israeli soldier, “How long are you going to be in Israel?”

Texas-born settler Ari Abramowitz carries his gun at all times, including in the synagogue. He calls the Bible “a land deed to the West Bank.” Showing Theroux around, he insisted that the Palestinian people “don’t exist”.

At one point we see Weiss’s car break from an escorted convoy of settlers and rabbis and head towards Gaza. Her gesture, she said, was to show the accompanying rabbis that Gaza is not “beyond reach.” One rabbi, Dov Lior, is shown calling for Palestinian “savages” and “camel-riders” to be “cleansed.”

World Socialist Web Site for more

by MICHAEL ALBERT

I know you have lives to lead. Friends and parties to enjoy. Tests to take and grades to earn. Jobs to be hired for and retain. I know your values shine. Your empathy sings. I know you bemoan Donald, curse Donald, ridicule and laugh at Donald. I get all that. Great. But Gen Z, you are 70 million strong. 70 million. Where are you? First one, then another.

I tell myself you are preparing yourselves. You are meeting to get your arguments in order.  You will soon burst amorously onto the activist scene. Trump to savages education. Trump exiles students. Did Trump’s troops grab you? Grab a classmate? Grab someone across town? Trump commands whole universities to bend a thousand knees and some rush to do so. Are you at one of those? Are you applying to attend? Are you at work wondering who gets fired next? You must be minutes away from boiling over, mustn’t you?

As students still in high school or college or as young employees I tell myself you are meeting in corridors, dining halls, and even bus stations. I tell myself you are talking, talking, planning, planning. The lid will soon blow off. But will it? Where are you?

NYC, SF, DC, and countless towns from sea to muddy sea display white-haired demonstrators galore. Oldsters march forth on wobbly knees. They carry signs. They know their song well. Their homes are starting to reverberate with committed conversation like colleges ought to. Wonderful. But dear Gen Z, you are 70 million strong. 70 million. Your knees don’t wobble. What is in your minds? What is your song? Where are you? 

I hear that today’s music revolves around everything but the real world. I wonder where the performers who earlier rejected Trump and still do in private have gone in song. I wonder why athletes are essentially silent too. Millions demonstrate which is great but not them and too few of you. I get that Trump may seem to you like a walking, talking, joke. After all, he is. But this is no laughing matter.

I get that the idea of collectively addressing reality has been seriously wounded, perhaps even amputated. I get that what arises from today’s cyber culture as a way to address danger is to avoid it or anonymously curse it, but certainly not forthrightly collectively confront it. I get that you feel mature and cool to personally rail at or joke about Donald but that you might feel tacky or just a bit out of place to collectively organize and demonstrate to stop him. Work on a resume. Keep a job. Get a new one. And, yes, I also get that responsibility for your diverse feelings don’t rest exclusively on your shoulders, but on me and mine too. After all, my generation birthed your parents and together we and they handed you a nasty world. But still. The sky is falling. Where are you?

I wonder what to write or to say to impact your thoughts and feelings. I wonder how to steal away fears you may have. If your getting out of bed in this world that we gave you is hard, I wonder how to sunder your slumber? I wonder if loneliness too is an issue? For guys, I hear that it is. And I wonder very much is your mood due to things we who went before you did or didn’t do? Do you fear, slumber or endure isolation—or is it something else entirely? 

Am I being unduly harsh? Honestly, I hope that I am. I hope you about to demolish my worry with your determination. I expect it each day. If so, I will extremely happily apologize for my worry.

Z Network for more

The Objectives Resolution of 1949 codified the ambiguity surrounding the role of religion in Pakistan’s early years, and with political leaders exploiting religious sentiment for political gain, the anti-Ahmadi movement and the constitutional crises of the 1950s all but ensured that political maneuvers and ideological struggles were to characterize Pakistan’s future trajectory as a nation-state.

The foundational principles of the 1956 Constitution and the significant departures introduced by the 1962 Constitution under General Ayub Khan’s regime reflected the institutional imbalances and democratic challenges that were to become a permanent fixture of Pakistan’s political destiny.

Youtube for more

by RAZAN SHAWAMREH

Away from Beijing’s lofty rhetoric about defending Palestinians, Chinese firms are helping to sustain illegal settlements

“No need, Razan, for you to go to China – come to Huwara, China is here.” Though said jokingly by my friend Ahmad, who asked his full name be withheld for security reasons, these words carried a heavy truth. 

Huwara is a small Palestinian village near Nablus, surrounded by some of the most violent and ideologically extreme Zionist settlements in the country, including Yitzhar. 

When I asked what he meant, he told me: “Chinese workers are living and working in nearby settlements. I see them regularly in the village streets, shopping at local Palestinian stores.”

That offhand remark a couple of months ago pushed me to investigate further. I spoke with Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and collected their testimonies. Ali, who lives in Ramallah near the Beit El settlement, told me: “I’ve seen dozens of Chinese workers building homes and infrastructure in Beit El.” 

Saeed, from Hebron, recalled that “during the Covid-19 pandemic, settlers even quarantined the Chinese workers separately from others”.

Such testimonies reveal an uncomfortable truth: Chinese labour is actively and visibly contributing to the construction of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

Ironically, this reality stands in direct contradiction to China’s own stated policy; a decade ago, it forbade Chinese construction crews from working in Israeli settlements.

Back to 2015, China signed a bilateral labour agreement with Israel that included a stipulation preventing Chinese workers from being employed in the Occupied West Bank. Notably, this condition was motivated by safety concerns rather than by a principled stance against the illegality or immorality of settlement construction. However, in 2016, these safety concerns appeared to have diminished when China acquired Ahava, a settlement-based company located in Mitzpe Shalem.

One year later, both countries signed another labour agreement to bring in 6000 Chinese construction workers to Israel under the same conditions. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon confirmed the deal was “based on the concern for the safety and security of the workers”. However, Chinese officials responded by stating that “the real issue was not safety, but China’s objection to construction in the settlements.”

Yet my interviews with residents – from Nablus to Ramallah to Hebron – made clear that Chinese workers remain present and involved in settlement expansion. This raises serious questions about the sincerity of China’s supposed opposition to Israeli settlement activity.

‘Pioneers of our days’

Amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Chinese officials have publicly expressed concerns over increased settler violence in the occupied West Bank. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian stated in September last year that Israel must “stop the illegal settlement activities in the West Bank”. 

But while Beijing speaks of restraint, Chinese companies act in support of occupation and the settler-colonial project in Palestine.

One of the most striking examples is Adama Agricultural Solutions, a former Israeli company now fully owned by the Chinese state-run firm China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina). Amid the Gaza war, Adama mobilised its workers “to support farmers who have been suffering from a shortage of workers … [including] farmers in the south, in the surrounding residents of the Gaza Envelope and in the northern settlements”, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.

Middle East Eye for more

by GILANG KEMBARA

For much of April and into May, a team of negotiators from Indonesia have been in Washington to discuss trading relations between the world’s largest economy and another forecast to be in the Top 5 within a generation.

The Southeast Asian nation was among those hit hard by the across-the-board tariffs announced on April 2, 2025, by President Donald Trump, with a proposed 32% levy on its exports to the U.S. Trump subsequently backpedaled, putting in place a 90-day pause on any additional tariffs beyond a new 10% minimum.

So far, Indonesia – whose-second largest export market is the United States – has signaled its intent to negotiate rather than respond with countermeasures like some other countries targeted by Trump, such as China and Canada.

Indonesia may even offer to relax protectionist policies aimed at boosting domestic manufactures as a concession. “People who have known me for a long time would say I’m the most nationalist person … but we have to be realistic,” said President Prabowo Subianto.

The issue of Trump’s tariff policy is a major early test for Subianto, a right-wing populist whose worldview was shaped by decades of military experience. He views Indonesia and its place in the broader world through a lens of realist power politics – wanting to ensure Indonesia possesses adequate hard military power and robust economic performance.

Through pushing both, Subianto hopes to ensure that Indonesia is not easily swayed by foreign influence and can avoid domestic discontent due to any economic malaise. His approach to ruling the nation of over 280 million people is driven by a desire to retain friendly relations with the United States and China, retaining close economic and security cooperation with both.

The Conversation for more

by HAMID DABASHI

From Tocqueville to today, the real danger lies not in Trump’s vulgarity but in the tyranny masked as democracy – built on illusion, repression, and majority rule without dissent

Liberal imperialists, who would have been delighted with either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris as president in the last US election, are now up in arms, mourning the global embarrassment Donald Trump has caused them on the pages of The New York Times and beyond.

Trump is too obvious, too crass, too vulgar an imperialist. Their first instinct is to disown him as an anomaly. He looks like a Latin American dictator, an African despot, an Oriental tyrant, or a Russian czar.

He is cast as the American version of Erdogan, Putin, Sisi, Xi – anything, anywhere, so long as it seems far from the US of A. He cannot possibly be American. Except he is – more than any of them – representing 77,284,118 Americans just like him, who eagerly rushed to vote him into power.

This is a bizarre intellectual malady on full display in the US, where badly defeated and demoralised liberals refuse to acknowledge that Trump is a 100 percent American phenomenon. 

He is a homegrown dictator with unabashed fascistic proclivities, barely able to contain his urges, and surrounded by equally 100 percent American sycophants – worse than any clown or court jester ever conjured from their Orientalist imagination.

Just summon your courage and look at his cabinet: doormat lickspittles, competing in barefaced sycophancy.

This is all American. “Made in America.” It is not an import. They are making America great again!

Without owning up to Trump as a homegrown crook with a crown on his head, this country will never have a snowball’s chance in hell of disentangling itself from this murderous mess.

From Mussolini to MAGA

If there is any context for Trump, it is the long and recent history of European fascism – from Hitler and Mussolini to Franco, and now all their heir-apparent lookalikes: Viktor Orban, Matteo Salvini, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, ad nauseam.

Go to the roots of America’s claim to democracy, and you will see fascism staring you down

Columnists at The Times are now fond of comparing Trump to a Mafia boss, or else to their favourite villain, “Soviet-style” Putin. 

But Mafia is an aberration, and Putin is a scapegoat. Much closer to Trump are Hitler, Mussolini and Franco – even closer still are the exposed fascistic roots of American so-called democracy.

Go there: go to the roots of America’s claim to democracy, and you will see fascism staring you down.

This is Trump doing exactly what he always said he would. And what he does is backed by his claim to represent the will of the American majority.

But here is the heart of the paradox: this is not merely the rule of the majority, but the tyranny of the majority – a term made potently insightful by Alexis de Tocqueville in his two-volume diagnosis of the malice and maladies of American democracy, Democracy in America (1835-1840).

Tyranny

Trump’s barefaced vulgarity – his outright disregard for even the most basic norms of human decency – is, in its own way, refreshing. 

I much prefer it to Obama’s sleek duplicities and fake sincerity, beneath which he advanced some of the most vicious imperial designs imaginable – including the hyper-militarisation of the Israeli settler colony – far more effectively than Trump ever could.

Trump’s thuggish demeanour is, in fact, quite liberating. 

Middle East Eye for more

by BEN NORTON

VIDEO/Youtube

This interview is a year and a half old, but remains extremely topical.

—MR Online Eds.

Why does the United States so strongly support Israel? Geopolitical Economy Report editor Ben Norton interviewed economist Michael Hudson to explore the reasons why Israel is such an important part of U.S. foreign policy and Washington’s attempt to dominate not only the region of the Middle East, but the entire world.

Israel is an extension of U.S. geopolitical power in one of the most critically important regions of the world.

U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig boasted, “Israel is the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk, does not carry even one American soldier, and is located in a critical region for American national security”.

Moreover, it was current U.S. President Joe Biden, back in 1986, when he was a senator, who famously said that, if Israel didn’t exist, the United States would have to invent it:

If we look at the Middle East, I think it’s about time we stop, those of us who support, as most of us do, Israel in this body, for apologizing for our support for Israel.

There is no apology to be made. None. It is the best $3 billion investment we make.

Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interest in the region; the United States would have to go out and invent an Israel.

I am with my colleagues who are on the floor of the Foreign Relations Committee, and we worry at length about NATO; and we worry about the eastern flank of NATO, Greece and Turkey, and how important it is. They pale by comparison…

They pale by comparison in terms of the benefit that accrues to the United States of America.

It goes without saying that the so-called Middle East, or a better term is West Asia, has some of the world’s largest reserves of oil and gas, and the entire world’s economic infrastructure relies heavily on fossil fuels.

The planet is gradually moving toward new energy sources, which is needed to fight climate change, but fossil fuels are still absolutely critical to the global economy. And Washington’s goal has been to make sure that it can maintain steady prices in global oil and gas markets.

But this is about something much bigger than just oil and gas. The U.S. military’s stated policy since the 1990s, since the end of the Cold War and the overthrow of the Soviet Union, is to try to maintain control over every region of the world.

This was stated clearly in 1992 in the so-called Wolfowitz Doctrine. The U.S. National Security Council wrote:

[The United States’] goal is to preclude any hostile power from dominating a region critical to our interests, and also thereby to strengthen the barriers against the reemergence of a global threat to the interests of the U.S. and our allies. These regions include Europe, East Asia, the Middle East/Persian Gulf, and Latin America. Consolidated, nondemocratic control of the resources of such a critical region could generate a significant threat to our security.

Then, in 2004, the U.S. government published its National Military Strategy, in which Washington stressed that its goal was “Full Spectrum Dominance—the ability to control any situation or defeat any adversary across the range of military operations”.

Historically, when it came to West Asia, the U.S. relied on a so-called “twin pillar” strategy. The west pillar was Saudi Arabia, and the east pillar was Iran.

Monthly Review Online for more