Crises afflict the world at a rapid velocity. It is hard to keep up with these developments, let alone develop a historical and critical perspective regarding them. Our Red Alert series provides a brief two page assessment of key crises.
Crises afflict the world at a rapid velocity. It is hard to keep up with these developments, let alone develop a historical and critical perspective regarding them. Our Red Alert series provides a brief two page assessment of key crises.
There is nothing more obscene than the existence of hunger, the terrible indignity of working hard but being without the means for sustenance. While 1 in 8 people in the world go hungry, one third of all food produced is either lost during processing and transportation or it is wasted. As we approach World Food Day on 16 October, Red Alert no. 12 explores why hunger persists, explains the campaign to end hunger, and sets forward a path towards creating a just food and distribution system that could finally eliminate world hunger.
As the earth’s triple environmental emergencies of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution worsen, drastic measures need to be taken that place greater responsibility on those who generate the crisis, from the US military to the G20. Themed ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ to emphasise how the capitalist system has eroded the earth’s capacity to sustain life, World Environment Day on 5 June is an alarm bell demanding an end to cannibalising the planet, in defence of life over profit.
What began as a trade dispute in the 1990s has now escalated into the United States making an existential challenge against China. The threat against China is made for perfectly rational reasons: the US correctly sees that the Chinese economy is slowly going to be the largest in the world, and that the United States understands that China will soon produce the most advanced technology. Various hybrid war techniques to weaken or overthrow the government are simply not available.
In the early evening of August 4, a fire broke out in Warehouse 12 at the Port of Beirut, Lebanon. An explosion immediately leveled the port, the pressure wave reaching 15 kilometres in all directions. What had exploded was not a ship with weapons or fireworks or a missile, but a building that housed 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored negligently in a port warehouse since November 2013. More than 19 officials have been arrested, including the director of the Port of Beirut and the customs director.
