Rania Khalek Dispatches

As the U.S. pours a seemingly endless amount of weapons into Ukraine to weaken Russia, Western officials and pundits are very casually setting us up for a potential nuclear war that would be catastrophic for humanity. Meanwhile European hardship continues to skyrocket as sanctions on Russia destroy its economy and cause gas shortages while European leaders and media demonstrate shocking levels of...

How can we comprehend the victory of Giorgia Meloni, an admirer of Mussolini, in Italy's recent elections? Is she a fascist? Does this represent a surging far-right trend in Europe? How has the war in Ukraine impacted Italian politics? And where is the Italian left in all of this?  To discuss this and more Rania Khalek was joined by Maurizio Coppola, a member of the international office of th...

Navid Zarrinnal, a Columbia Univ. PhD and Iranian scholar at Stanford University, joined Rania Khalek to help make sense of the unrest in Iran over the morality police or guidance patrol amid the death of Mahsa Amini and the way Western governments are using a legitimate grievance to promote instability in Iran. They also discuss the way the protests have been exaggerated by Western anti-Iran medi...

To discuss the history of the Arab Gulf states as Western imperial outposts and the damage they have done and continue to do to the left and progressive movements around the world, Rania Khalek was joined by As’ad Abukhalil, a Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts. Ap...

To understand what Brazil has gone through in recent years, the significance of the recent election results and what it could mean for the country and the world, Rania Khalek was joined by Michael Fox, a freelance journalist based in Latin America, former editor of NACLA and host of the new podcast Brazil on Fire.  Michael on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mfox_us Michael’s podcast Brazil on Fire: h...

With the Democratic Party hopelessly incapable of doing anything to address our many crises, the far-right has managed to brand itself as subversive using oligarch funding for anti-woke and pseudo-populist campaigns. The result is to send more and more lost and alienated people down the reactionary rabbit hole.  How do we understand and navigate our way through this dystopian political scene? To d...

Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez sat down with BT’s Rania Khalek following the UN General Assembly to discuss why so many countries oppose the U.S. blockade, how U.S. official hostility towards Cuba hurts both countries and his own personal history volunteering in the liberation struggle of Angola against racist apartheid. 

The British Queen’s death has given rise to conversations about the crimes of colonialism as well as defenses and denials of it. Meanwhile the US can’t impose itself on the Global South the way it used to, it appears both at home and abroad to be an empire in decline.  To discuss empires, both dead and dying, why colonialism still matters and the anti-imperialist struggle around the world, Rania K...

To discuss the disinformation industry and how it's contributed to the collapse of foreign reporting in the West, Rania Khalek was joined by Ben Norton, a Latin America based journalist and founder of Multipolarista.  Ben’s article discussed in the episode: https://multipolarista.com/2022/04/14/new-york-times-attack-propaganda/ Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you g...

Are Russia & China imperialist like the US? Will the decline of the west lead to more fascism in the global north? What is sovereignty? Is every country entitled to it? Where do sanctions fit in? What does it mean that the Global South is refusing to get on board with them? And what are the alternatives to the current so-called rules-based international order?  To discuss this and more Rania K...

What does the US Cold War with China and Russia mean for Africa? Can China’s rise benefit the continent, providing it leverage and another partner to rely on? Or is the State Department correct that China is engaging in neocolonialism and that African countries should be cautious and prioritize their relationship with the US?  To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek was joined by Kambale Musavuli,...

To discuss the censored reality of the war in Ukraine and its horrific consequences, Rania Khalek was joined by Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany, who is currently associate professor of history at Koc University in Istanbul, working on Russian, Ukrainian, and generally East European history. Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts. Apple: https://appl...

The misnamed “Arab Spring” unleashed restrained aspirations of the region and like all uprisings saw an eruption of expression in songs, music, lyrics, spreading, much like these intifadas, through social media, massive crowds, and sharing ideas and trends across borders.  But just as the initial optimism of the protests was crushed by the harsh reality of reactionary governments, western interven...

The US left is often smeared and mocked, accused of being weak, ineffective, unserious, fractured, obsessed with identity issues and prone to destructive infighting. While capitalist media has a stake in portraying the left in this way, the organized US left is rebuilding and growing stronger. Still, it is weaker today than it was many decades ago and that’s no accident.   To discuss the history o...

The occupation of Palestine continues with no end in sight, and this remains the primary political struggle in the region as America’s client states normalize with Israel. But now there’s a new backdrop: the war in Ukraine exposing Western double standards alongside the US-China New Cold War.  Fundamental to US geostrategic aims in the region is taming the “axis of resistance” stretching from Iraq...

NATO expansion might have provoked the war in Ukraine, but surrounding Russia isn’t the organization’s only pursuit. NATO participated in the US “war on terror” in Afghanistan, NATO destroyed Libya and today NATO is expanding into Africa.  To help break it all down, Rania Khalek was joined by Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and author of many...

How is it that judges arbitrarily chosen by presidents who didn't even win the popular vote are appointed for life and can overturn our most cherished rights? What’s with the veneration of the US constitution, which was written by slave owners? Is America really a democracy? To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek was joined by Aziz Rana, a professor of law at Cornell University and author of...

In his recent Harper's cover piece, “Empire Burlesque,” Daniel Bessner traced the evolution of the foreign policy vision that defined the so-called American century and how it has been reshaped by failures and a changing world order, including a new multipolarity and the rise of China. He draws a distinction between the liberal internationalists and the “restrainers,” the two dominant foreign...

A few months ago Democrats bragged that Americans were so supportive of President Biden's "unprecedented" Russia sanctions turning the ruble into rubble, that they couldn't wait to pay higher gas prices. But now that prices are higher with no end in sight, Americans are irate with high costs eating into their earnings, and Democrats and Republicans are pretending the sanctions...

From his perch at the Chapo Trap House podcast, Felix Biederman has been an acerbic observer and commentator. He joined Dispatches with Rania Khalek for a wide-ranging discussion about America’s cultural and political decline.  Listen to every episode of Dispatches with Rania Khalek anywhere you get podcasts. Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW   Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK TIME CODES:  0:00 Int...

On its face, nothing seems more benign and positive than “wildlife conservation.” But the Wildlife Conservation Society and the German and US governments have now been implicated in supporting organized violence against Congolese villagers, using mortars, RPGs, indisciminate fire, murder and rape. This is the finding of award-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Robert Flumme...

To understand why the European Union exists and how it is changing due to the financial crisis and the war in Ukraine, Rania Khalek was joined by Costas Lapavitsas, a professor of economics at SOAS, author of “The Left Case Against the EU” and a former Syriza MP. He also has a forthcoming book out in 2023 called “The State of Capitalism” published by Verso Books.  Listen to every episode of Rania...

Rania Khalek was joined by Arnaud Bertrand, a commentator on economics and geopolitics based in Shanghai, to discuss the sanctions blowback on the West, the narrative management surrounding it, and growing tensions between the US and China.  Arnaud on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand   TIME CODES: 0:00 Intro 1:32 Is the West isolating itself? 6:09 Russia & China can survive US sancti...

What’s cryptocurrency really? What are NFTs? Is it as revolutionary as its advocates claim or is it a libertarian fake money Ponzi scheme? Is this digital funny money really the future, and if so why is it tanking?  To help break it all down, Rania Khalek was joined by Tom Redshaw, a sociologist and lecturer in digital society at the University of Salford. Tom’s articles on cryptocurrency mentione...

Europe has ceded its core decisions to the US warmongers flooding Ukraine with arms, expediting the global economy’s collapse and extending the war against their own interests. But Ukraine isn’t the only major event stressing the global order: the US flexing against China, global inflation, a possible victory for the left in Colombia, massive protests in Sri Lanka, and even the senseless school sh...