2 mins read
New Year’s Day always brings a degree of optimism. It’s a fresh start. And the New Year can’t be as bad as the one just concluded, can it?
2023 saw the war in Ukraine drag on even though it became clear after its expected failed offensive that Kiev cannot win the war, and after the Ukrainian side admitted it had a deal with Russia just after the war started that would have saved hundreds of thousands of soldiers’ lives. Ukraine would have lost less territory too had the U.S. not scotched the deal.
And 2023 saw the start of a genocidal war by Israel against Gaza in a renewed push to complete Israel’s 1947 dream to control all of historic Palestine by driving even more Palestinians off their land.
In 2023, Julian Assange spent his fourth year in London’s Belmarsh Prison awaiting a decision on whether he will be extradited to the United States.
It was a tough year for Consortium News too. In June, our late board member Sen. Mike Gravel was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. It was just four days after another former board member, the great whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg had died. And on Saturday we lost yet another member of our board, the magnificent journalist John Pilger.
Some good news is that through the generous support of our readers and viewers Consortium News will push ahead into its 29th year as strong as ever. Our Winter Fund Drive continues until Jan. 15, so if you haven’t yet donated, please consider doing so (deductible on your 2024 taxes).
It will help ensure our continued coverage of Assange’s historic press freedom case and the continuing historic crises in Gaza and Ukraine. Hopefully those wars will end, justice will be served for Assange and the world will try to come to its senses in 2024.
5 mins read
April 30th is an important date in American politics. This is the day 100 for the American President in the White House, and all attention will be on the reports of his achievements and failures. But nothing can be more critical than Peace…
6 mins read
Russia’s invasion has made ordinarily outspoken critics of antisemitism wary of criticizing Ukrainian Nazi collaborators
1 min read
Richard Sakwa has for many years been one of the most distinguished and insightful observers of relations between the West and Russia, and one of the leading critics of Western policy. In this talk with Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia program at the Quincy Institute, Sakwa discusses his book, The Culture of the Second Cold War (Anthem 2025). The book examines the cultural-political trends and inheritances that underlie the new version of a struggle that we thought we had put behind us in 1989. Sakwa describes both the continuities from the first Cold War and the ways in which new technologies have reshaped strategies and attitudes.
