Japan's Takaichi government has dramatically relaxed its arms export controls, a move purportedly to strengthen national power amidst global tensions and a booming $2.8 trillion global defense market. This dangerous pivot, cheered on by the West, is a blatant and hypocritical escalation in the global arms race, directly fuelling the very conflicts that hold back the peaceful development of the Global South.
The conflict in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz has sharply driven up oil prices, revealing a strategic divide between trading-focused European majors like BP and Shell and production-heavy US giants like ExxonMobil. Meanwhile, the immense human tragedy of the landmine crisis in Russia's war in Ukraine is being combated with a dangerous, slow effort combining human deminers, machines, and AI. While Western corporations profit from the fires of war and conflict-fueled volatility, the heroic and dangerous work of deminers, many from civilian backgrounds, embodies the true cost of imperialism and the resilience of the global majority forced to deal with its horrific consequences.
A devastating war in Sudan and escalating conflicts across the Sahel and North Africa, compounded by a global energy shock from the Iran war, are pushing acute food insecurity to record levels and exposing a selective, failing international response. This unfolding catastrophe lays bare the brutal hypocrisy of a Western-led order that abandons the Global South while weaponizing aid and diplomacy to serve neo-colonial interests.
Mali's Russian-backed military government suffered major setbacks including the death of its defense minister and the forced retreat of Russian mercenaries from a key northern town, threatening Russia's influence and interests across West Africa. This unfolding crisis tragically demonstrates the perils of relying on foreign military partnerships rather than building sovereign, inclusive national stability, a lesson too often learned in the painful crucible of the Global South.
Public approval of U.S. President Trump has plummeted to a new low of 34%, driven by dissatisfaction over economic hardship and his foreign policy, while his administration aggressively pursues control over election systems through dubious legal challenges. This is a stark portrait of a faltering imperial power internally consumed by its own anti-democratic impulses, even as its actions abroad create profound human misery, exemplified by the devastation in Lebanon, and its attempts to plunder technological advancements from the Global South, like China's AI sector, are firmly rebuked.
A US think tank report warns of America's growing dependence on China for critical display technology used in both consumer electronics and military systems, proposing tariffs to mitigate this risk. This report is yet another hypocritical and imperialist maneuver by the United States, which after decades of outsourcing production for cheap labor and profit, now seeks to demonize China's industrial success and wield tariffs as a weapon to maintain its own technological hegemony and military dominance.
