More news behind the headlines

In this edition, the shifting sands of power in the Middle East, the alliance between Iran and North Korea, the politics of India’s oil supply, Vince Cable’s corrupt dealings, and why Mongolia matters.

Is Libya trying to sell off its shipping fleet? – By Robert Zeliger

blog.foreignpolicy.com – How desperate is Muammar Qaddafi to raise cash? According to a new report, the Libyan leader is trying to unload the country’s fleet of 22 shipping vessels as economic sanctions and continued fight.

Why Mongolia Matters « Commentary Magazine

commentarymagazine.com – Our colleague Michael Rubin makes a good case for why we should care about Mongolia as well as why we should reject the realpolitik that would have the United States eschew friendship with small st..

How Saudi Arabia and Qatar Became Friends Again – By Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi

foreignpolicy.com – In the spring of 2006, Qatar’s then energy minister broke his silence on a stalled, multibillion-dollar project to supply Qatari gas to Kuwait. “We have received no clearance from Saudi Arabia” he…

North Korea and Iran increase collaboration on nuclear missile, report claims

telegraph.co.uk – It was capable of manufacturing high strength steel that Iran has been unable to manufacture. Iran has instead relied on carbon fibre materials that are less reliable.”What previously had been a on…

‘India can cope with oil supply halt’

timesofindia.indiatimes.com – NEW DELHI: India has back-up plan to cope with a halt to crude supplies from Iran, oil minister S Jaipal Reddy said, as the Islamic republic upped the ante in an oil payments row and Indian refiner…

Cable flies into controversy with £32m for Westland Business News, Business

independent.co.uk – AgustaWestland has secured a £22m government loan to build the new AW169 helicopter at its Yeovil factory, along with £10m in research and development grants. The funds, announced by the Business…

Related articles

In a complex world…

The Propagandist features China’s rising hard power with a fascinating video.

Another aspect of the multipolar world whose contours are becoming increasingly visible is the rise of the so-called “Moscow-Ankara-Rome” axis. Volvbilis has been covering this well, for instance in this piece, originally from the Strategic Culture foundation.

One of the key labour disputes of our times that of the garment workers in Bangladesh, which Libcom has been covering well. For more news from a trade union perspective, see LabourStart.

Daniel Ben-Ami in Spiked has a great piece about Vince Cable as an example of the reactionary, misanthropic anti-capitalism sweeping the world. David Osler describes Cable as a “populist not a Marxist“, while Carl Packman calls him “capitalism’s posterboy“.

Also from the UK, Chris Dillow punctures the immigration orthodoxies in new Labour Party leader Ed Miliband’s speech.

From the archives: Modern Times magazine in the 1980s on austerity, in an article all too relevant today.

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COMMENT: Rise up against ‘King Vince’! [Brendan O’Neill]

Alongside Piers Morgan’s TV career and the disappearance of Wimpy restaurants, one of the great mysteries of modern British life is the popularity of Vince Cable, economic spokesman for the Liberal Democrats. He might have the attire, demeanour and nasal whine of a geography teacher in a collapsing comp, but the media can’t get enough of him. ‘King Vince was the runaway winner of the first major televised debate of the General Election campaign’, gushes this morning’s Guardian, becoming a fully signed-up member of what one journalist has labelled ‘the cult of Cable’.

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