Solomon Islands: The country has established a comprehensive strategic partnership with China, and additionally a new deal on police co-operation,^ANN and an embassy in Beijing,^GT

Africa

Angola and the DRC have announced a joint project to rehabilitate the railway linking the Congolese mining regions to the Atlantic, after previously granting investors a 30-year concession to operate the line linking Lobito in Angola to Kolwezi in the DRC.^AN

Libya: 38 human traffickers have been jailed over the deaths of migrants heading to Europe, with five receiving life sentences.^EN

Nigeria: Ride-hailing drivers are at risk of losing their livelihoods as the price of fuel triples as the government ends the fuel subsidy to try and relieve its $110 billion debt burden:^Rest of World^

“I almost cried that day,” Ayodeji told Rest of World. “Was 100 naira [13 cents] all I deserved to earn after driving for several hours on three trips? What could that money do for me? When did being a Bolt driver become a crime?”

Kenya: Iranian President Raisi has arrived in Nairobi for a three-day African tour, the first visit to the continent by an Iranian leader in 11 years. He'll go to Uganda and Zimbabwe also.^AN

North America

United States: The Red Clarion discusses the end of Affirmative Action:^RC

While the Supreme Court tries to disguise its decision as a blow against discrimination, it is really another powerful legal shove designed to protect white supremacy. It also puts the reality of much of US “anti-discrimination” law under the spotlight, revealing it for what it is: a mechanism for rationalizing anti-Black racism.

About 40% of US attack submarines are in repair - or 18 out of 49 - which is double what the Navy estimated.^AM

The US has completed its liquidation of its declared chemical weapons stocks, making it the last country to do so under the schedule established by the Chemical Weapon Convention, which was signed in 1997.^AM

Major US banks like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America are funding ultraconservative anti-LGBT+ groups.^OD

Confidence in US banks has fallen from 60% in 1979 to 33% in 2021, and 26% today.^WSoP

Canada: The longest active strike in the country is ongoing, the result of the owners of a Vancouver hotel firing 140 workers after taking money from government programs.^Jacobin

Latin America

Mexico: AMLO is debating an import tax on Chinese shoes, as he wants to protect local production but also wants footwear to be affordable.^SCMP

Brazil: Lula has urged the Central Bank to cut interest rates, which currently stand at 13.75%, as the inflation rate falls from about 4% to about 3%.^TeleSUR

Ecuador: Ecuadorians are to vote on whether the large oil reserves in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon will be exploited or left in the ground, the first referendum of its kind in the country.^CCN

Uruguay: The freshwater reserve for Montevideo has been increasing and hopefully will continue to do so as the country suffers its worst drought in 70 years.^TeleSUR The Uruguayan president actually accepted Argentina's help apparently, but said that the aid on offer was insignificant - and to be fair, it basically is - and is also rather peeved about the comments of an Argentinian ambassador.^MP

Paraguay: The incoming president Pena has confirmed that his adminstration will maintain close ties to Taiwan under his five-year term - the last remaining diplomatic ally of Taiwan in South America - and has gone to Taiwan to meet President Tsai Ing-wen.^AM

The War Against The West

The Western Front: Russian Defense Minister Shoigu has said that Ukraine has received 26,000 casualties in the last month since the counteroffensive began, and lost 3000 pieces of equipment and vehicles, including 17 Leopards, 12 Bradleys, and 27 Storm Shadow missiles.^TeleSUR

German President Steinmeier has backed Biden's decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine, saying, hilariously:^WSWS

He told broadcaster ZDF that the official position of the German government to speak out against these internationally outlawed weapons was still correct, only to add, “But it cannot stand in the way of the USA in the current situation.”

Ukrainian journalists are having their accreditation privileges withheld if they produce coverage that isn't in the national interests of the Ukrainian government, or if the government believes that they are being disloyal. One journalists, Skyba, was accused of holding a Russian passport and was told he'd need to submit to a lie-detector test to continue reporting on the conflict, and Trudeau had to directly intervene to get his accreditation back. Additionally, a NYT reporter has had his press credentials revoked for reporting on Ukraine's use of cluster bombs, as well as reporters from NBC and CNN.^CL

Responsible Statecraft calls out the United States' "rules-based order" after a recent meeting about the Iran deal, in which the US, UK, and France argued that Iran supplying drones to Russia was a violation of the JCPOA which impacts Ukraine directly, giving it the right to be present, while Russia and Iran countered that it would be political and inappropriate to do so.

Retrospectives, Analysis, History, Theory, and Technology

Radhika Desai, Michael Hudson, and Ann Pettifor discuss the international financial system and necolonialism.^GPE

Climate Change

The seafood industry and marine conservation groups are calling for a pause in deep-sea mining, after research showed that it could cause tuna populations to plummit.^ICN