“Over the weekend, tens of thousands of Brazilian women participated in rallies calling for stronger action to tackle violence against women, which remains intolerably high. A few weeks earlier, several thousand South African women participated in ‘lie-downs’ across the country to call attention to the same issue. ‘Just as women many years ago protested … for the changes that we are privileged to experience today,’ said a South African participant in her 20s, ‘we also need to be the generation that steps up.’ Coinciding with the global ’16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’ campaign, these events underscore how much remains to be done to uphold the safety and dignity of women and girls the world over. As well as laws and enforcement, the process requires confronting deep-rooted traditions and cultural notions that constrain the full participation and vigorous contributions of half the world’s population.” (12/08/25)
“Only recently, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, met in Brazil for two weeks. While 194 countries were represented there, the historically greatest fossil-fuelizer on the planet, Donald Trump’s United States, was, of course, missing in action (for the first time in 30 years). Worse yet, while the conference was underway, the Trump administration announced a new plan to open 1.3 billion acres (no, that is not a misprint!) of coastal waters to new oil and gas drilling. As for the conference itself, after floundering and almost foundering, its member nations barely agreed on a way more or less forward, what were termed ‘baby steps’ toward a better (or at least less utterly disastrous) future. And yet, can you believe this? The final agreement didn’t even include the words ‘fossil fuels’ or reaffirm in blunt language that they should be phased out! (President Trump must have been pleased!)” (12/09/25)
“It may well be that there’s an affordability crisis and consumers have no confidence in America or President Trump. Yet sometimes facts speak louder than political conjectures or biased polls. Black Friday spending surged this year to new highs, fueled by record breaking online spending that reached $11.8 billion on Black Friday alone, according to Market Data. Online sales on Black Friday made up about 10 percent of total sales for the entire month of November. The number was just above $111 billion, according to an Adobe Analytics report. Adobe tracks over $1 trillion U.S. retail site visits. And they are predicting that the 2025 holiday season will be the biggest online spending in American history.” (12/09/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“I think first we need to be clear that healing and feeling secure are two different things. Healing isn’t about getting away from uncomfortable feelings, it’s about moving right into them and feeling them fully. After we have done our work and healing has occurred we tend to notice that we feel better, but the actual work of healing begins in discomfort. That’s where the rubber meets the road on this path. Healing is when you find a part of yourself that has been acting out unconsciously over and over again throughout your life, by getting annoyed or upset or collapsing into helplessness, or by freezing up, freezing out, or freaking out. You start paying attention to how these unconscious behaviors play in yourself (either in your outward behavior or privately in your internal suffering), and you get real curious about how that is happening.” (12/09/25)
“President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei have a special relationship. Each is engaged in a crusade to make his respective country’s economy great again. Trump was all in on helping Milei win his elections earlier this year, and he has also offered the Argentines a $20 billion ‘lifeline’ as they adjust to the bumpy path to needed free-market reforms. The stakes are gigantic because the whole world is watching Milei’s embrace of free-market ‘shock capitalism,’ which so far is working. He has restored sound money (by linking to the dollar) and taken a chainsaw to the bloated state bureaucracy as he privatizes rather than nationalizes government assets. Argentina’s tragic detour into the dead end of socialism drove the nation into a half-century-long economic ditch, with poverty rates skyrocketing.” (12/09/25)
“Ten years after Donald Trump first ran for president, he stands at the helm of Titanic America. How did this happen? No factors were more pivotal than the outlooks and actions of the Democratic Party leadership. Scrutinizing them now is vital not only for clarity about the past. It also makes possible a clear focus on ways to prevent further catastrophe. Here’s the actual history that corporate Democrats pretend didn’t happen: 2016: Hillary Clinton offers more of the status quo. Her allies in the Democratic Party pull out all the stops so she can win the party’s presidential nomination. With a big assist from the Democratic National Committee, she prevails over the strong primary challenge from Bernie Sanders, but her campaign trail goes downhill from there.” (12/09/25)
“German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday that the Trump administration’s new national security strategy underscores the need for Europe to become ‘much more independent’ from the United States in terms of security policy. Merz also pushed back against the notion that European democracy needs saving. The U.S. strategy, published Friday, paints European allies as weak, while offering tacit support to far-right political parties, and was critical of European free speech and migration policy. On Monday, European Council President António Costa warned the U.S. against interfering in Europe’s affairs and said only European citizens can decide which parties should govern them. Merz, the leader of the European Union’s most populous nation and its biggest economy, said he wasn’t surprised by the substance of the strategy as it was largely in line with a lecture U.S. Vice President JD Vance gave to European allies in Munich in February.” (12/09/25)
“Vladimir Putin last week sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner packing, passing on President Donald Trump’s latest peace plan, and has followed up with yet more aerial assaults on Ukrainian civilians; it’s plainly time for Trump to up the economic pressure to get Vlad to the table. Absent that, the only peace Putin is interested in is the total conquest of Ukraine. Trump may grumble about Volodymyr Zelensky, but Ukraine’s president has been happy to negotiate; Putin’s the one who keeps saying nyet, even as he orders his forces to prepare for winter operations. European leaders who met Monday with Zelensky say they’re going to up their aid to Kyiv and look to further squeeze Moscow; if they follow through, Trump can surely do the same.” (12/08/25)
“Australia at midnight (1300 GMT) on Wednesday became the first country in the world to ban social media for children under 16, blocking them from platforms including TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook. Ten of the biggest platforms were ordered to block children or be fined up to A$49.5 million ($33 million) under the new law, which was criticised by major technology companies and free speech campaigners, but praised by parents and child advocates. The ban is being closely watched by other countries considering similar age-based measures as concerns mount over the effects of social media on children’s health and safety. ‘While Australia is the first to adopt such restrictions, it is unlikely to be the last,’ Tama Leaver, a professor of internet studies at Curtin University, said.” (12/09/25)
“A planned news conference on Tuesday by Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado was canceled after a several-hour delay, a day before the award ceremony in Oslo. Machado, who last appeared in public 11 months ago, had been due to hold a traditional news conference the day before the formal award ceremony. But the lunchtime event was delayed without explanation, until the Norwegian Nobel Institute said three hours after the scheduled time that ‘it will not take place today.’ ‘María Corina Machado has herself stated in interviews how challenging the journey to Oslo, Norway, will be,’ the institute said in an email. ‘We therefore cannot at this point provide any further information about when and how she will arrive for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.’ The institute did not specify whether the news conference would take place at a later point.” (12/09/25)
