Capitalists seek oil opportunities in Venezuela
The Guardian, 8/14–BP [British Petroleum] has…new plans to develop a large offshore gasfield. BP will partner with two oil firms with close links to the Trump administration to develop the second phase of the Loran gasfield in one of the first large-scale foreign investments in Venezuela since the US ousted its leader Nicolás Maduro in January. The London-listed oil company holds a licence to develop the field alongside a Qatari company owned by the Al-Khayyat brothers… BP will also work alongside the overseas investment arm of UAE’s national oil company…The deal makes BP one of the first large-scale international oil firms to return to Venezuela after rival Shell secured a licence to develop the first phase of the Loran field earlier this summer.
Apologists for capitalism discuss anger and resentment at the system
Wall Street Journal, 8/10–Inequality is a feature of capitalism and a sign of its health. It isn’t only functionally efficient but morally proper…it is that very inequality and the incentives it produces that make capitalism so uniquely good at generating the resources and opportunity…But it’s also empirically obvious that the wider the inequality, the more social solidarity diminishes. At some point disintegrating cohesion produces costs—social, economic and political—that undermine the benefits of inequality and erode support for the system itself…
Vietnam enters the race to build capitalist war machine
Reuters, 8/10–Vietnam has begun construction on what it describes as the country’s largest and most advanced domestically made anti-submarine frigate, a military-owned newspaper reported. The vessel…will also have most of its weapons and military equipment developed or assembled in the country…Vietnam…has been seeking to expand its domestic defence manufacturing capabilities while reducing reliance on imported military hardware sourced largely from Russia. The project underscores Vietnam’s policy of developing a defence industry that is “autonomous, self-reliant, self-strengthening, dual-use and modern”, according to a government statement…
Mamdani needs bosses’ Tisch run the racist NYPD show
HellgateNYC, 8/21–Since Zohran Mamdani announced in November that he planned to keep NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on as his police commissioner, she has resisted his agenda. She declined to make good on the mayor’s campaign promises to dismantle the Strategic Response Group or defang the NYPD’s controversial gang database. Mamdani’s campaign vision for a total overhaul to public safety, moving many social services responsibilities away from police…has not materialized. Low level arrests for things like fare evasion have continued apace, if not increased. Despite these betrayals of his progressive base, the mayor has very little incentive to change the leadership of the NYPD, because he’s getting exactly what he needs from Tisch, and he has repeatedly said as much…the mayor, who once called the NYPD “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety,” did not hesitate. “Yes,” he said. “I would not have someone serving our City if I was not confident in what they were doing.”
As U.S. economy sinks, military recruitment expands
Military.com, 8/11–After several years of the Army and Navy publicly missing their recruiting targets by thousands of people, the Defense Department’s five military branches had hit or exceeded their fiscal year 2026 recruiting goal…part of what’s driving record enlistment numbers is…a civilian job market that isn’t offering young Americans as many good options as it used to…An official for Army Recruiting Command described the dynamic…using what economists call the Beveridge Curve, which compares the unemployment rate against the number of available job openings. Historically, low unemployment paired with a high number of job openings signals a healthy, growing labor market that competes hard with military recruiters for young talent.
Kidnapped workers sent to Haiti
APNews, 8/20–The U.S. deported more than 160 people to Haiti on Thursday for the first time since the Trump administration won a legal battle to end Temporary Protected Status for some 350,000 Haitians. The plane landed in the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haitien because the main international airport in Port-au-Prince is considered too dangerous. The U.S. government currently has a ban on U.S. commercial flights to Haiti’s capital through early September because of ongoing gang violence.