There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
Human Rights is a tremendous dream
VIJAY PRASHAD marks Human Rights Day by reflecting that narrow Western definitions have robbed the term of much of its import
SEISMIC CHANGE: The May Fourth Movement radicalised China as the general urban population became involved in political demonstrations and many future Communist leaders were converted to Marxism.
[Sidney David Gamble / Public domain] 
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
WIDTH of imagination is necessary to grasp the fullness of the dream of human rights. The idea emerges slowly, driven by the hunger of the vast majority of the world’s people.
Revolutions in the early years of the 20th century (Mexico, 1911; Persian empire, 1911; Ireland, 1916; tsarist empire, 1917) brought the old ideas of equality to life, making it perfectly possible that older social rigidities and economic destitution could be swept away. Crush the crowns underfoot, chanted the republicans, while others, the trade unions and the socialists, wanted to set aside the capitalists and establish an egalitarian social order.
It was generally understood — as far back as during the French Revolution (1789) and the Haitian Revolution (1804) — that the wretchedness of hierarchy must be overthrown. The problem before dreamers of various sorts was how to get rid of monarchs and factory-owners and yet build a world that was not going to slip back into chaos and poverty. That’s where Karl Marx came in.
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VIJAY PRASHAD examines why in 2018 Washington started to take an increasingly belligerent stance towards ‘near peer rivals’ – Russa and China – with far-reaching geopolitical effects
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The remarkable resilience of Palestinians is a powerful example of human courage and dignity in the face of terrible violence, writes VIJAY PRASHAD
