CHINA RUSSIA IRAN

ROGER BOYD—Through 2025, Trump and the US oligarchy have slowly come to the understanding that the mixture of absurdly high tariffs and technology export restrictions can no longer hold back China. Quite the opposite in fact, with China matching new tariff for new tariff, actually directing companies not to buy Nvidia chips, and playing its rare earths trump card. The result has been two 90-day delays to the imposition of new tariffs and now a one year agreement that seems to include a 10% reduction in the US tariff on China, from 57% to 47%; with 21% having already been in place under the Biden presidency.

R. WOLFF—Beyond military and economic considerations, Venezuela’s alliance with Russia symbolises a broader ideological challenge to neoliberal capitalism and Western political models. By choosing partners outside the Western bloc, Venezuela asserts its right to pursue social welfare, state control, and national sovereignty on its own terms. This defiance resonates with many nations seeking alternatives to the austerity, privatisation, and poverty often associated with IMF and World Bank programs.

DW—The video transcript features a detailed and wide-ranging conversation with Col. Larry Wilkerson on October 28, 2025, covering critical geopolitical issues, primarily focusing on the ongoing conflict in Gaza, Middle Eastern politics, and broader global power dynamics. Wilkerson provides a candid critique of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military actions in Gaza, highlighting the false pretext used to justify bombardments and the complex ceasefire violations involving Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He criticises the U.S. administration, including figures like Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Jared Kushner, for their role in perpetuating conflict under the guise of peace negotiations, suggesting that these efforts were more about political gain than genuine peace.

R. BOYD—The US administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have chosen the “ignore or deny it” path. The Europeans have chosen the “collective hallucination and mild eco-modernist” path. The Chinese are quite quickly moving to the “wish for a good outcome with supercharged eco-modernism” path. The collective outcome of these three paths will be catastrophic climate change, mixed with extreme emergency geo-engineering attempts that may stave off the worst days of reckoning for a while. There will be no peak oil to force us to do what collectively we seem unable to do.

P. ESCOBAR—“While the traditional system was not immune to change, the goal of these changes was to maintain the status quo, preventing ‘revolutionary’ change. After the Han Dynasty, the policy of ‘abolishing all schools of thought and upholding Confucianism alone’ ideologically suppressed any factors that could catalyse major political change. Confucianism became the sole ruling philosophy, and its core purpose was to maintain rule. The modern German philosopher Hegel argued that ‘China has no history.’