CounterPunch
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Tells the facts, names the names.
Thus far in 2026, California has experienced its warmest year on record, and no corner of the state has been spared.
Vampire Planet: California's Water Wars Rage On
LA’s early diversions nearly destroyed Mono Lake, which lost half its volume and dropped 45 feet. Toxic dust began to swirl, and gulls’ nesting grounds disappeared. It wasn’t until the mid-1970s that ...
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The political reaction to the Ceuta migration crisis showed just how quickly border events become vehicles for much broader themes.
The Ceuta Crisis
The geography of the crisis seemed widely misunderstood. Ceuta has remained under Portuguese and subsequently Spanish sovereignty since 1415, remaining with Spain after Portugal regained independence ...
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Prior to 1959 Cuba was dominated by casinos, prostitution, and organized crime. Judging from his former investments, political maneuverings, and close friendships, one could assume Trump has a soft spot for casinos, ballrooms, and islands.
The Costs of the US Blockade on Cuba
The U.S. public has been skeptical of the blockade for decades. A 2016 Pew Research Center poll revealed that 73% of Americans favored ending the blockade. More recently, a February 25, 2026 poll by Y...
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With every passing day, the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East are taking on a larger regional cast and threatening to meld. The mindless nature of the growing confrontation points to more friction on the horizon.
The Rising Danger of Regional Confrontation
The U.S.-Israeli invasion of Iran was planned as a short war, but it is turning into an unmitigated, gale-force cock-up. Fighting continues in the sixth month and as many as 17 nations may be involve...
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The UK Green Party’s former leader Caroline Lucas recently nailed the Labor Party for “burying the most explosive report” of the year by UK military and intelligence sources.
The Most Shocking Climate News of 2026
The UK Green Party’s former leader Caroline Lucas recently nailed the Labor Party for “burying the most explosive report” of the year by UK military and intelligence sources. The concealed report warn...
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The remediation of nuclear waste has long been a classified endeavor. Accidents, exposure to radiation, and worker injuries on the job rarely, if ever, make the newspapers where they would receive public scrutiny. This is, of course, intentional.
Vampire Planet: The Time the US Nuked Spain
The remediation of nuclear waste has long been a classified endeavor. Accidents, exposure to radiation, and worker injuries on the job rarely, if ever, make the newspapers where they would receive pub...
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One of the glaring inconsistencies of American life is that the culture prides itself on “individual freedom,” but insists on blind participation in collective ritual.
All Rise…For What? Baseball, Conformity, and Violence in the USA
One of the glaring inconsistencies of American life is that the culture prides itself on “individual freedom,” but insists on blind participation in collective ritual. The inculcation of the conformis...
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Hakeem Jeffries, a seven-term representative from New York City, has received upwards of $1.7 million from pro-Israel donors. He is now third from the top of such recipients among the thousands of House members since 1990.
How Hakeem Jeffries and J Street Teamed Up for Arming Genocide
When House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries sent out a recent “dear colleague” letter, its second sentence cited “the position articulated by… pro-peace organizations like J Street.” The congressman ...
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A hotter atmosphere holds more moisture, which means longer droughts between longer downpours, which means forests primed like kindling between floods.
Blowback
The morning of June 27, 2021: Lytton, British Columbia, woke up and, without realizing it, set a record it never knew it was in the running for. This is,
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Not only is China’s GDP one-third larger than the US economy, it is also growing twice as fast. This means that the addition to GDP each year is far larger in China than in the United States.
China’s Is Bigger: Don’t Tell Trump
Don’t worry folks, we’re keeping our PG rating here. I’m talking about GDP. I had some people question my line in yesterday’s post that China’s economy is
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Dissent is not its enemy of democracy but its lifeblood. The freedom to criticize those in power, expose injustice, challenge entrenched authority, and imagine a more just future is the foundation upon which a meaningful democratic society rests.
When Dissent Becomes “Terror”
Every democracy worthy of the name recognizes a simple but indispensable truth: dissent is not its enemy but its lifeblood. The freedom to criticize those in power, expose injustice, challenge entrenc...
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America’s counterculture has been flipped by the Trump Administration’s Gonzo Governance.
The New Counterculture
Trump and his followers promised a right-wing counterculture that challenged long-held norms and taken-for-granted assumptions about governance. They offered a Gonzo Governance agenda to upend princip...
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Much of the time, it seems as if the war machine runs on autopilot. Indeed, the U.S. has been engaged in warfare for almost the entirety of our 250-year history. It feels overwhelming to most people to attempt to intervene, yet we are all involved.
The War Machine, and the War Budget, Are Out of Control. Let’s Change That.
Much of the time, it seems as if the war machine runs on autopilot. Indeed, the United States has been engaged in warfare for almost the entirety of our
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Under the Trump administration, so many ICE agents have shown up at farms that farmworkers have stopped showing up to work, crops have gone bad, and — no surprise — food prices have soared.
The Exploitation of America's Farmworkers
Farmworkers are the backbone of America, but this country has a long history of exploiting the very people on whose labor we depend. Under the Trump
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The amount of materials needed to sustain an electrified future at the world’s continued pace of economic growth is as remarkable as it is troubling. By one estimate, at least 384 new mines will be needed by 2035.
Vampire Planet: Killing in the Name of ... Climate Change
It’s dry, hot, and windy. The dust is swirling. My buddy Colby and I are in the heart of the blazing Mojave to visit California’s most expansive open-pit mine. Owned and operated by the Australian min...
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The United States has always been divided against itself.
Stealing Democracy: Trump's Assault on Birthright Citizenship
The assault on birthright citizenship is an attempt to steal one of Reconstruction's greatest democratic achievements. As constitutional scholar Sherrilyn Ifill reminds us, the framers of the Fourteen...
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The Venezuela earthquake’s impact spread along material and social fractures that were already carved deep by a decade of crippling sanctions and other imperialist aggressions.
Against Amnesia: The Venezuelan Earthquake, the Historical Moment and the Continental Question
Earthquakes interrupt everyday life, but not history. Nor do they suspend politics. If anything, they compress history into a few dramatic days, revealing
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Trump’s warnings about a ‘communist menace’ threatening American heritage are just a projection trick—it’s an inversion of reality, where the oppressors have become the oppressed, and the invaders act in self-defense against the very people they have robbed and slaughtered.
The Plot to Ruin America
Nothing encapsulates the decline of the American project quite like the optics of its 250th anniversary. While four hundred masked neo-fascists marched through the capitol in navy-blue button-downs an...
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Amal ’Ajlouni is twenty-five years old. She is a mother of four. In July 2023, Israeli soldiers stormed her home in the southern Hebron neighborhood of Khallat Al-Qaba. She testified: www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/03/m...
You know something is amiss when a World Cup referee is denied entry to the United States while Canada and Mexico appear to present no such obstacles.
The Beautiful Game Meets the Border Guard
You know something is amiss when a World Cup referee is denied entry to the United States while Canada and Mexico appear to present no such obstacles. That is what happened when Somali match official ...
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The case for letting Malibu flood:
Vampire Planet: The Case for Letting Malibu Flood
The first major swell of the year pummeled Southern California this week, and onlookers flocked to ritzy Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach to watch adrenaline junkies attack the Wedge – a mutant wave ...
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Bats move through desert night skies with a purpose that is easy to overlook and difficult to replace. As they travel from plant to plant, feeding on nectar, they are also performing one of the most important ecological services in arid landscapes: pollination.
Why Bats Matter to Desert Ecosystems
Bats move through desert night skies with a purpose that is easy to overlook and difficult to replace. As they travel from plant to plant, feeding on
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If we are to understand the conditions facing vulnerable children, we have to begin with a difficult truth: poverty remains the central force shaping their lives. It is not the only factor, but it is the most consistent one.
Investing in Care: A Public-Private Model for Youth Opportunity
If we are to understand the conditions facing vulnerable children, we have to begin with a difficult truth: poverty remains the central force shaping
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Trump, an unapologetically ignorant leader, cannot possibly imagine how Cubans over the decades have come together to help each other through crises, whether weather-caused or man-made.
Trump May Be Serious About ‘Taking Over’ Cuba
The US, with Donald Trump as president, has become a bizarre place. The country is at the moment in a sort of lull in a major war that Trump and his
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"We are in this land of scorching sun and heat, searching for a large Amazon solar installation in rural San Bernardino County, California. This is the home of the endangered desert tortoise and Joshua trees, but more recently, it’s become a plaything for greedy Silicon Valley entrepreneurs."
Vampire Planet: Data Centers, Far Bigger Disasters Than You Even Thought
The road is dusty and trash-strewn. My friend and collaborator Colby Groves is hanging out the car window as I drive, gazing at a patchwork of solar panels lined up behind a chain-link fence. “This ha...
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There is nothing like walking quietly with a group of committed people through the hot Arizona desert to bring home the deadly reality faced by migrants coming to the U.S. through its southern border.
Walking the Migrant Trail
There is nothing like walking quietly with a group of committed people through the hot Arizona desert to bring home the deadly reality faced by migrants coming to the U.S. through its southern border....
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For more than a decade, TSA agents have plundered passengers at airport security checkpoints on the flimsiest or most shameless pretexts. If you get stopped at an airport security checkpoint with $100 or more in cash, TSA agents can fleece you.
Will TSA Looting End Before Hell Freezes Over?
For more than a decade, TSA agents have plundered passengers at airport security checkpoints on the flimsiest or most shameless pretexts. If you get stopped at an airport security checkpoint with $10...
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The world is witnessing the very real limits of U.S. global power.
After America
While Washington’s war with Iran drags on, month after month, without any end in sight, the world is witnessing the very real limits of U.S. global power. As President Donald Trump lurches repeatedly ...
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One Month Inside the Trump Administration’s Siege on the Cuban People.
The Donroe Doctrine Strangles Cuba
One Month Inside the Trump Administration’s Siege on the Cuban People All eyes are on Cuba as the corporate press is now reporting that U.S. troops are in
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