If the energy transition is the biggest technical challenge ever, it is also the biggest social, economic, and political challenge in human history. It may also turn out to be an enormous geopolitical challenge, if nations end up fighting over access to the minerals and metals that will be the enablers of the energy transition.

Thomas Sankara’s vision of an independent, socialist, pan-Africanist model of development⁠—one in which wealth produced in Africa remains in Africa to develop the majority of the population⁠—was not buried with him. As CD columnist Owen Schalk writes, he remains an inspiring symbol for people in Africa and beyond.

Zbigniew Brzezinski famously described Ukraine as a “geopolitical pivot” of Eurasia, central to both US and Russian power. Since Russia views its vital security interests to be at stake in the current conflict, the war in Ukraine is rapidly escalating to a nuclear showdown. It’s urgent for both the US and Russia to exercise restraint before disaster hits.

In order for Canada’s military to be all it can be—and all the people of Canada need it to be—political leadership needs to reorient military planning to focus on the very real climate change related threats we’re already struggling to adequately deal with, rather than prepare for increasingly suicidal conflicts abroad.

While claiming to support Zambia’s efforts to free itself of its debt burden, the Trudeau government has given its support to Canadian mining companies operating in Africa and has joined the long succession of Canadian prime ministers who support IMF reforms on the continent. The latest wave of neoliberal impositions will only serve to benefit foreign capital.

Hedge funds specialize in buying up “distressed” companies and turning them around profitably, usually by cutting costs and selling off their assets. The bet they made on Canadian newspapers more than a decade ago has already paid off nicely, and it could pay even bigger and continuing dividends if things go their way in Ottawa.

Professor Richard Wolff discusses the powerful economic partnership of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS). “They are the engine of the world economy in a way that was once said of Western Europe, North America and Japan. The engine, the powerhouse, the growth mobile, all of that. That’s moved, friends. And it’s moved in large part to the BRICS.”

The economic war reverberates around the world. Oil and gas are an integral part of the conflict. The pipeline sabotage has taken the war to a new level. It has opened a Pandora’s box of troubles and has endangered pipelines worldwide. It is clear who benefits. Yet with Western control of the narrative, the real culprit may never be identified.

What Québecers need more than anything is a chance to finally break with a stale orthodoxy, one which says that housing is not only out of our control, but that its priority is to be an investment opportunity above all else. As Gavin Armitage-Ackerman writes, Québec Solidaire’s platform offers a chance to finally reject that status quo.

As in the past, these new fascist parties cater to emotional yearnings. They give vent to feelings of abandonment, worthlessness, despair and alienation. They promise unattainable miracles. They too peddle bizarre conspiracy theories including QAnon. But most of all, they promise vengeance against a ruling class that betrayed the nation.