Mayoral candidate Mamdani makes his pro-boss positions known
New York Times, 8/28–Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist and current front-runner in the New York City mayor’s race, sought to distance himself on Thursday from the national Democratic Socialists of America platform, which includes proposals to eliminate all misdemeanor offenses and to close local jails. “My platform is not the same as national D.S.A.,” he told reporters after an unrelated event.
When asked whether he wanted to eliminate misdemeanor offenses, he said “no.” “You can’t find that on my platform, because it’s not there,” he said. Mr. Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, has taken steps over the course of his campaign to moderate his image, including by making clear that while he previously expressed support for defunding the police, he has long since abandoned that stance.
U.S. looks to textbooks on how to defeat China
Foreign Affairs, 8/19–In the continental world, the currency of power is land. Most countries, by geography, inhabit a continental world with multiple neighbors…Those with enough power to conquer others…believe the international system should be divided among them into huge spheres of influence…states with an oceanic moat have relative security from invasion…The United States can prevail…by hewing to the successful strategies of maritime power…China has 13 landward neighbors and seven seaward neighbors, and no shortage of disagreements with them. With submarines, shore artillery, drones, and planes, these neighbors can shut down China’s merchant traffic and make its naval passage perilous.
Israelis continue genocide in Gaza
Al Jazeera, 8/31–Israel has stepped up its destruction of Gaza City, as it plans to seize Gaza’s largest urban centre and forcibly displace around one million Palestinians to concentration zones in the south, as it killed at least 78 people across the besieged enclave since dawn, including 32 desperately seeking food…“There is non-stop heavy artillery targeting the Zeitoun area and Jabalia, where we are seeing the systematic demolition of homes. There is hardly any fighting going on, but heavy artillery and bulldozers are moving from one street to the other, destroying all of these residential clusters”...
China and Russia work on replacing U.S. as dominant imperialist powers
The Guardian, 8/31–Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have met on the sidelines of a showpiece summit in China that seeks to challenge US-led, western-dominated blocs and is being attended by the leaders of more than two dozen nations. The Chinese and Russian leaders, who are closely allied under what they have termed a “limitless” partnership, discussed Putin’s recent meeting with Donald Trump…The Tianjin summit is the largest held by the bloc since it was formed in 2001. The SCO is a key part of Beijing’s push for stronger multilateral alternatives to western or US-led blocs such as NATO.
Contradictions of capitalism migrate to Germany
Der Spiegel, 8/26–They are images for the history books. The photos of young men with backpacks and weary faces who set out on foot in September 2015 from Hungary on their way to Austria and Germany…more than a million asylum seekers arrived in the country – an unprecedented number…Ten years have since passed. The number of refugees in the country has climbed from 750,000 in 2014 to 3.3 million by the end of 2024…German new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, campaigned last winter in part on a significant shift to the country’s migration policies…Since Merz entered the Chancellery, Germany’s federal police force has begun rejecting asylum seekers at the border…
War in Sudan continues to devastate workers
France24, 8/31–Shelling by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces killed at least seven people and wounded 71 others in El-Fasher…El-Fasher, the last major city in the vast western Darfur region still under army control, has become the most violent front line in the war between the Sudanese army and the RSF…In recent weeks, paramilitary forces have escalated their long-running siege, launching fierce artillery barrages and ground incursions into densely populated neighbourhoods…The RSF, which evolved from the Janjaweed Arab militias accused of genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s, is seeking to wrest full control of the region…