Category: World News

by Daniel Ross / Counter Currents / March 28, 2023

Several Hollywood action films center around an impending apocalypse in the form of an asteroid on a collision course with Earth—a glaring metaphor for the real-world implications of a rapidly accelerating climate crisis.

As this crisis unfolds before our very eyes, however, rather than look up to the atmosphere to see what can and should be done to curtail some of the worst effects of a rapidly warming world, maybe our gazes should also be trained downward at the soil beneath our feet,

By Mexico News Daily Staff / March 13, 2023

Mexico is safer than the United States, President López Obrador said Monday [March 13] without citing any hard data to back up his claim.

His assertion came in response to a question from a United States-based reporter at his morning press conference.

“Is traveling to Mexico safe at the moment with everything we’re seeing, with all these [travel] alerts and these very regrettable events?” asked Octavio Valdez of Los Angeles-based television station Univisión 34.

“Mexico is safer than the United States,” López Obrador responded.

Mexico News Daily Staff / February 8, 2023

At the site of the world’s largest pyramid (by volume), the Great Pyramid of Cholula, Puebla, the remains of pre-Hispanic braziers and a sculpture of the god Tlaloc were discovered during restoration work, the according to a press bulletin from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

The findings were made while working on the pyramid’s stairway, “Escalinata del Pocito”, which started in December under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture through INAH. The first discovery was an adobe core that would correspond to the filling of the fifth stage of the pyramid base, dated towards the end of the Classic period (100-600 AD).

The OB Rag International Desk reports on little-known news. Here’s the latest:

Despite China’s spy balloon and deteriorating relations between governments, consumers in America and manufacturers in China broke trade records in 2022.

Fortune magazine reports: Trade between the US and China is on track to break records, a signal of resilient links between the world’s top economies amid the heated national security rhetoric in Washington and fears of “decoupling.”

By Colleen O’Connor

Why can’t a man lead more Like a woman, specifically, like the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern who announced her resignation Thursday.

Remember the classic My Fair Lady stage and film rendition with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn where he tried to turn a flower seller of the streets into a cultured gem (all in an attempt to win a bet)?

Tragically, the NZ Prime Minister since 2017, has left as one of the most admired, energetic, conscientious, and noble of world leaders.

By Mike James

This was my third year experiencing Dia de Muertos in Mexico. In 2019 I visited Tlaquepaque and Tequila in the state of Jalisco and last year in Mexico City. This year, on the days approaching Dia de Muertos, I was once again exhausted by the enormity of all things Mexico City.

The city has invested in capitalizing on the growing popularity of the Dia de Muertos. Yet it has become a victim of its own success.

Case in point, the once fictional parade has evolved into something where only the few with front row viewing can truly enjoy. The other millions of spectators unfortunately only catch glimpses of the parade as it passes by. I would definitely recommend visiting Mexico City… any other time of the year.

For the actual days of holiday, I was based in the Pueblos Mágicos town of Cholula in the nearby state of Puebla.

By Mike James / Special to the OB Rag

Every year the Dia de Muertos grows in popularity internationally. Yet this growth is fairly recent.

In the late 1930’s, the Càrdenas presidency embraced the holiday to celebrate the indigenous culture and create an inclusive national identity. Yet for decades the holiday was mainly observed in Mexico as a private family ceremony, with the ofrenda being the main component.

Much of the credit of an increase in the popularity of El Dia de los Muertos can be traced back to the Chicano movement in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Antonio in the early 70’s. The activist and the artist of the Chicano movement promoted Dia de Muertos as a way to reconnect with their pre-Hispanic and Mexican Identity as a community. Processions through Mexican American neighborhoods and celebrations of Dia de Muertos became more commonplace.

By Mike James / Special to the OB Rag

At midnight, October 31st marks the beginning of the Day of the Dead. The direct Spanish translation is Dia de los Muertos, but in Mexico it is more commonly known as Dia de Muertos. The holiday falls on November 1st and 2nd.

In its present form Dia de Muertos is a fairly recent Mexican tradition and can be traced back to the late 1930’s to the Presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas. Càrdenas in an effort to create a united national identity, sought to promote Dia de Muertos that would encompass the indigenous interpretation of the Roman Catholic holidays of All Saint’s Day (All Hallow’s) and All Soul’s Days.

By removing Catholic religious iconisms and replacing it with the elements associated with the indigenous population, the holiday has been embraced by Mexicans and its popularity is spreading internationally.

By Colleen O’Connor

Seriously, why are people prepared to wait in line for “thirty hours” at Buckingham Palace to view the Queen’s coffin? Such reverence, not heard of since the death of FDR’s coffin moved by train from Warm Springs, Georgia back to the nation’s capital to lie in rest.

So, why the outpouring of respect, grief, and yes, a bit of fear, at the prospect of life without this Queen.  Granted there are the just curious, the selfie-photographers, and the wannabe influencers.

By Colleen O’Connor

Evidently, the decision had been made.  According to CNN, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the third in line of succession to the Presidency, is currently visiting Taiwan.

Why is this even a story, let alone a global headline? And a major controversy? Because China declares that Taiwan belongs to them. And because, reportedly, Pelosi’s 12th Congressional District is made up of 32% Chinese-Americans.

Early in February, perhaps a couple weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, well-known producer / director, Oliver Stone told journalist Robert Scheer: “The United States and its allies in NATO have been provoking Russia for, since two years now — actually three years – over the Ukraine…”

In the same interview, Stone decried “bloodthirsty” media coverage saying, “they have no proof that Russia intends to invade Ukraine; I doubt that they would. I think Russia is concerned only with the Donbass region.”

After the invasion, Stone — who had also criticized the media for using the term “invasion” to characterize Russia’s plans — came around. And here is the full text of Oliver Stone’s most recent Facebook post:

By David Ost / Common Dreams / April 2, 2022

It is tough for leftists to be on the same side as the mainstream.

We can easily feel at those times that we’re missing something, that we’re letting down the struggle, that by ganging up even on an admittedly bad actor we’re helping strengthen the nemesis at home, allowing it to appear as the good guy.

Ever since 1917, that has been the case with regards to the western Left and Russia. Before 1917, the Left saw the tsarist autocracy as the pinnacle of authoritarian reaction, an attitude that eased the path for the socialist parties of Russia’s enemies to embrace World War I. But ever since the Russian Revolution, the Left has been wary of joining with any western bourgeois condemnations of the country,