From 1962 to 2006 the glaciers of the Himalaya appear to have lost more than a fifth of their ice. They did not all shrink at the same rate. In fact, some glaciers haven’t shrunk at all, but measurements of the overall trend in the Sikkim-Nepal region put the average loss at seven inches of depth every year across the whole extent of ice. And, of course, the melting continues.

One way or another, however, we can be reasonably certain of one thing: as the term makes all too clear, the old Cold War format for military policy no longer holds, not on such an overheating planet. As a result, expect Chinese soldiers to be spending far more time filling sandbags to defend their country’s coastline from rising seas in 2049 than manning weaponry to fight American soldiers.

The Chinese state today wields enormous power, economic and coercive, and how it uses that power matters. As the war drums beat on, misinformation will proliferate and the danger of conflict will also escalate. Finding a path for peace is possible but not easy given that the world is already facing a climate crisis, an enduring pandemic, and the continuing effects of two centuries of settler colonialism.

Hopefully, the recent hostage exchange and trend of Chinese-Canadians rejecting the Conservatives will embolden those within the Canadian government who prefer engagement over conflict with the world’s emerging superpower. One would also hope that thoughtful citizens will see through the reactionary anti-China propaganda and come to understand this country’s self-interest lies with an internationalist foreign policy.

As the legal battle over the Kumtor gold mine rages on, Centerra’s legal options for extending its management of the mine look more limited by the day. Any Canadian who is interested in how their country’s capital functions on the global stage, and how affected countries are trying to resist this neocolonial domination, should eagerly follow new developments in the case.

Like every man, Dr. Norman Bethune had his flaws. There is no need to falsify the record with inventions and distortions. An accurate portrayal of Bethune’s personality is important then, not just for history’s sake, but because he continues to be a living force capable, let us fervently hope, of healing the dangerous rift opening between the country in which he was born and the country in which he died.

In this month’s lecture for Democracy At Work, Richard D. Wolff, professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, will discuss China’s economic growth since the revolution of 1949, China’s economic model in the context of the globalized economy, the differences between China’s economic system, socialism and capitalism, and increased rivalry with the United States, what many describe as a ‘new Cold War.’

Outside of Malacañang Palace, the seat of the Philippine president’s power in Manila, opposition groups, peasant workers, and unions held an annual tradition during Duterte’s last presidential speech: The People’s State of the Nation Address. The PSONA is an organized mass protest in response to the yearly State of the Nation spectacle to condemn continued atrocities committed by the Government of the Philippines in the service of American imperial interests.

According to Jeffrey Sachs and William Schabas, there are credible charges of human rights abuses against Uighurs, but those do not per se constitute genocide. And we must understand the context of the Chinese crackdown in Xinjiang, which had essentially the same motivation as America’s foray into the Middle East and Central Asia after the September 2001 attacks: to stop the terrorism of militant Islamic groups.

If capital sees the Olympic Games as the end of a pandemic and a way out of an existential crisis that could have—but didn’t—signal its collapse, the left must observe the Olympics as a beginning; as a launching point to organize and build to the next crisis, taking the failure of this one as a lesson and not an acceptance of our system’s seemingly eternal power.