The World Bank and other Western institutions retreat from fossil fuel finance has created a significant geopolitical opportunity for China. China is willing to finance fossil fuel projects in Africa and the developing world and reap the strategic benefit of control of energy infrastructure in many countries.
World Bank Reduces Emissions, Not Poverty
World Bank Reduces Emissions, Not Poverty
12 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: climate alarmism
Brendan O’Neill ponders the unemployment of Israel haters
11 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, war against terror
The lead story on last night’s NBC News was about the cease-fire in Gaza, and it showed Israelis celebrating the return of the hostages, and Gazan civilians celebrating the cessation of war. Even my Jewish friends in America are celebrating, though they’re properly wary of “stage 2” of the deal: will Hamas gives up its […]
Brendan O’Neill ponders the unemployment of Israel haters
A ceasefire in Gaza
10 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, war against terror
Stuff reports: Celebration – tinged with anxiousness – has broken out in parts of Israel and Gaza after the announcement of a ceasefire deal between the warring parties. Israel has begun implementing the ceasefire deal in Gaza, after it reached an agreement with Hamas for the Palestinian militant group to release all the hostages it holds. Crowds in both […]
A ceasefire in Gaza
The Hindenburg Line Breaks – The Lost Battalion Returns I THE GREAT WAR …
06 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: World War I
Germany’s Reckoning – Bulgarian Armistice I THE GREAT WAR Week 219
06 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, war and peace Tags: World War I
BBC News delivers the goods in narrative promoting flotilla coverage
03 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, media bias, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
As readers no doubt recall, the BBC began producing partial coverage of the story of the latest flotilla publicity stunt soon after its second departure from Spain on the evening of September 1st: BBC NEWS KEEPS AUDIENCES IN THE DARK ABOUT LATEST FLOTILLA STUNT Days later the BBC promoted unproven allegations of ‘drone attacks’ made […]
BBC News delivers the goods in narrative promoting flotilla coverage
Historical omissions plague BBC ‘Palestinian state’ explainer
02 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, International law, law and economics, property rights, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror, West Bank
On July 30th 2025 the BBC News website published an ‘explainer’ article by Paul Adams under the headline “What does recognising a Palestinian state mean?”. Since its initial publication, that article – which currently appears on the website’s ‘Middle East’ page – has been updated several times, including a recent amendment to its introduction: Original […]
Historical omissions plague BBC ‘Palestinian state’ explainer
BBC News promotes CPJ claims concerning ’31 journalists’
29 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Israel, Middle-East politics, war against terror
Visitors to the BBC News website on the afternoon of September 24th found a report by Alys Davies headlined “Twenty injured in Yemen drone attack on Israel, rescuers and military say”. Notably, that report about a Houthi – rather than “Yemen” – UAV attack on the same day fails to note that it struck a […]
BBC News promotes CPJ claims concerning ’31 journalists’
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive – Bulgarian Collapse I THE GREAT WAR Week 218
28 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War I
Australia Recognises Palestine – But With Strings Attached the Media Won’t Tell You About
26 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, politics - Australia, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror, West Bank
Steven Gaskell writes – Australia’s Labor government has made a historic move: it has formally recognised the State of Palestine. Foreign Minister Penny Wong framed the decision as a step towards peace and a two-state solution. The headlines blared “Australia recognises Palestine” but almost none of the mainstream outlets bothered to mention the fine print. […]
Australia Recognises Palestine – But With Strings Attached the Media Won’t Tell You About
Economics of Trade Sanctions
26 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, defence economics, development economics, economic history, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, international economics Tags: trade sanctions
The exercise of US foreign policy (along with the European Union and the United Nations) has been increasingly characterized by the use (or threat) of trade sanctions. What do we know about how such sanctions work? Gabriel Felbermayr, T. Clifton Morgan, Constantinos Syropoulos, and Yoto V. Yotov review the evidence in “Economic Sanctions: Stylized Facts…
Economics of Trade Sanctions
Two bits from Bill Maher’s latest show
23 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, television, TV shows
Here are two short (ca. 7 minutes each) clips from Friday’s “Real Time” show with Bill Maher; watch ’em before they take them down. They’re both good–and larded with humor. The first is his opening monologue about the censorship and fear of American media. Maher points out that Jimmy Kimmel’s firing occurred exactly 24 years […]
Two bits from Bill Maher’s latest show
Families and friends on opposite sides in a war
23 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: American Civil War
This has some relevance to today’s wars. Families and friends who ended up on opposite sides in the U.S. Civil War (1861–1865) experienced some of the most painful consequences of the conflict. The war was not just between North and South—it cut across states, towns, and even households. Here’s what happened in different situations: Families […]
Families and friends on opposite sides in a war
Just War Theory: Before, During, and After
21 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace
Just War Theory is a moral framework for evaluating the resort to war, conduct in war, and responsibilities after war. It seeks a middle path between pacifism (which rejects war) and realism (which treats war as beyond morality), arguing that war, though tragic, can sometimes be morally justified and must always be morally constrained. Classically […]
Just War Theory: Before, During, and After
Guardian is AGAIN forced to correct false claim on ICJ ruling
18 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, media bias, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
As we wrote in a post last week, a Guardian article by their Beirut correspondent William Christou (“US imposes sanctions on Palestinians for requesting war crimes inquiry“, 5 Sept) included the following erroneous claim: In an interim judgment in January 2024, the ICJ ruled that the claim of genocide was “plausible”… As we’ve noted in communications […]
Guardian is AGAIN forced to correct false claim on ICJ ruling
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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