María Corina Machado, the far-right Venezuelan coup leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize, vowed “massive privatization”, offering to sell off $1.7 trillion of her country’s resources to U.S. corporations.

An analysis of Donald Trump’s attacks on Venezuela, the economic impact of U.S. sanctions, and the similarities and differences with the successful Western regime-change war on Syria.

The Trump admin pressured countries to oppose a UN General Assembly resolution calling to end the illegal US embargo against Cuba. Only 7 voted against it. 165 member states (85%) supported the measure.

How do China’s government, political system, and socialist market economy work? How does it see democracy? Prominent Chinese academic Zhang Weiwei explains in this sit-down interview with Ben Norton.

In a recent interview with Jyotishman Mudiar of India & Global Left, respected geopolitical analyst Ben Norton provided an in-depth explanation of why Venezuela has been targeted for regime change by U.S. imperialism since Hugo Chávez was elected to the presidency in 1998.

A former U.S. secretary of state boasted, “Israel is the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk”. Journalist Ben Norton and economist Michael Hudson discuss why the United States so strongly supports Israel.

The U.S. military is preparing for war on China. It has missile systems in the Philippines aimed at major Chinese cities. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the USA is turning “Japan into a war-fighting headquarters”. Silicon Valley Big Tech oligarchs are making hugely profitable investments.

Donald Trump’s top economic advisor Stephen Miran revealed that Washington’s strategy is to use tariffs to force countries to pay the USA tribute to maintain its global financial and military empire. This is the idea behind the so-called “Mar-a-Lago Accord”.

Donald Trump is portrayed as a “populist” committed to average working-class people, but his policies benefit wealthy elites at the expense of everyone else. His administration includes 13 billionaires—including Elon Musk, the world’s richest oligarch—and he is cutting taxes on the rich and corporations while imposing a consumption tax on the poor through tariffs.

At a summit held by a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, U.S. Vice President JD Vance gave a speech about globalization that made it clear that the West wants to keep poor, formerly colonized countries in the Global South trapped at the bottom of the global value chain, through monopolistic control of advanced technologies.

What is the meaning of “multipolarity”? Donald Trump and Marco Rubio say “great power competition” with imperial spheres of influence. China and much of the Global South have an anti-imperialist view: “equality among all countries regardless of size”.

BRICS keeps expanding. As a new full member, it added Indonesia, the 4th most populous country with the 7th largest economy on Earth. BRICS now has 10 members and 8 partners. They make up 41.4% of global GDP (PPP) and half the world population.

Donald Trump’s tariffs will not reduce U.S. public debt. The federal deficit will keep growing, but they will be an excuse to further cut taxes on the rich and to ratchet up the new cold war on China.

BRICS keeps expanding, adding 9 partner countries in January 2025, after admitting 4 new members in 2024. It now makes up roughly half of the global population and more than 41% of world GDP (PPP). It’s an economic powerhouse, with top producers of key commodities like oil, gas, grains, meat, and minerals.

BRICS held a summit in Kazan, Russia in October 2024, where it expanded with 13 “partner nations”, after adding four new members. These are the most important takeaways from the historic meeting.

The BRICS Cross-Border Payment Initiative (BCBPI) will use national currencies, instead of the U.S. dollar. Russia’s finance ministry and central bank released a report detailing plans to transform the international monetary and financial system.

In what it called “China Week”, the U.S. House of Representatives approved 25 anti-Chinese laws over a few days, in bipartisan votes. Cold War Two fervor is reaching fever pitch in Washington.

U.S. Big Tech corporations are like the feudal landlords of medieval Europe. These Silicon Valley monopolies own the digital land that the global economy is built on, and are charging higher and higher rents to use their privatized infrastructure.

The stock market crashed on August 5, in a new “Black Monday”. What caused it? Is the USA on the verge of a new financial crisis? Ben Norton is joined by economist Michael Hudson to discuss the extreme volatility.

China’s state-led economic development model and robust industrial policy has transformed it into what an influential European think tank calls “the world’s sole manufacturing superpower”, making up 35% of global gross production–more than the 9 next largest manufacturers combined.