Essay as Activism: Bearing Witness Through Craft

“…In my book, Too Poor to Die, I explain “patient dumping”:

‘Imagine being admitted to the hospital after falling and hitting your head on the sidewalk. Imagine you’re treated, then, in the middle of the night, they deem you no longer sick enough to stay in the hospital. At up to $10,000 a night, hospitals can’t keep you there for free. Imagine they hand you a bag with your clothes in it. Imagine they then drop you off at a bus stop in a hospital gown, but far enough away from the hospital, so you won’t easily make your way back. Imagine they do this in the dead of winter with freezing temps outside.’…”

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Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins

“…New York is the latest state to take a stand against prediction markets. Attorney General Letitia James has sued Coinbase Financial Markets and Gemini Titan on charges that both are illegally running unlicensed gambling operations.

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Earlier this month, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued three of the states that have charged prediction markets with running unlicensed gambling. The CFTC claimed that it should be the sole regulator for prediction markets and called the efforts by Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois an overreach of authority…”

~ Full article…

“…The experiences of these young Palestinians reflect a deteriorating economic reality in the shattered enclave, where the unemployment rate has risen to more than 80 per cent, and much of the population is focused on securing daily necessities: according to data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the price of basic commodities in the Gaza Strip increased by 37.9 per cent during February 2026, further increasing pressure on families.

A joint report by the United Nations and the European Union estimates Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction needs at $71.4 billion over 10 years, including $26.3 billion required within 18 months to restore basic services, rebuild infrastructure and support the economy.

Gaza’s economy has contracted by 84 per cent, the report says, underscoring the depth of the crisis that has pushed thousands of graduates and workers into informal activities simply to get by…”

~ Full article…

~ Watch video

“…The package was formally endorsed under directives from King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, underscoring that the decision carried strategic significance beyond routine financial assistance.

Pakistan’s leadership secured the agreement during the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, where international lenders continued scrutinising Islamabad’s capacity to sustain fiscal reforms.

The support package was not structured as a direct cash grant or infrastructure investment, because Riyadh instead prioritised central bank deposits capable of stabilising Pakistan’s external account rapidly.

Saudi Arabia therefore signalled that preserving Pakistan’s macroeconomic stability has become an important regional security objective rather than merely a bilateral economic concern.

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That rapid transfer demonstrated unusual urgency, suggesting both governments viewed Pakistan’s reserve position as sufficiently vulnerable to require immediate reinforcement before market confidence weakened further.

The unusually large size and accelerated implementation of the package also suggested Riyadh wanted to prevent Pakistan from entering another cycle of emergency borrowing that could have weakened Islamabad’s strategic autonomy…”

~ Full article…

“…The mounting absurdity of Trump’s War on Iran has entered a new, more rarefied phase with the announcement of the Blockade on the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman by the Trump administration. As with all of Trump’s actions, particularly in recent weeks, the rationale is hard to discern. It is supposed to be a counter what it sees as Iran’s blockade, or rather control, over the Strait of Hormuz. It is an open question whether the US has the means to impose it and exactly how that is going to ease the supply of oil is anyone’s guess.

No wonder the goalposts keep shifting. Initially announced as a blockade on all traffic, it was then restricted to Iranian ports, all to be enforced by US military assets a thousand miles away. No wonder there are reports emerging of ships, including those linked to Iran, transiting through the strait, making the blockade laughing stock of the world. No wonder oil prices are not exactly leaping up. And no wonder that there are new reports emerging of another set of talks between the US and Iran taking place this weekend. Trump’s search for an off ramp continues.

While few other things are clear, one thing is: Trump has lost control over the war, over his MAGA base and, most meaningfully, over the prospects of his party in the mid term elections due in November. Israel is getting more and more unruly. Iran won’t budge. US allies are refusing his demands and requests. In his desperation, Trump has now been reduced to having rows with, of all people, the Pope. This makes one recall Stalin’s pertinent question: How many divisions does the Pope have?

With me to make what we can at this present stage of Trump and Netanyahu’s war on Iran is a regular and a favourite on Geopolitical Economy Hour, Michel Hudson…”

~ Full Podcast…

“…On top of the tariffs, wars and inflation upending the global economy, US chieftains are grappling with a new question: which tech companies might get “BYD-ed” next? The reference here is to the Chinese electric-vehicle juggernaut that’s zoomed past Elon Musk’s Tesla and its peers to become No. 1 globally.

The idea that the Shenzhen EV company was an aberration has since been dispelled by the “DeepSeek shock,” which disrupted the artificial intelligence realm, and by a number of other startup successes, from Horizon Robotics to autonomous vehicle shop Qcraft.

But as 2026 unfolds, and US President Donald Trump prioritizes trade wars over investing in raising America’s tech game, China is not so quietly grabbing market share around the globe despite Trump’s tariffs and trade curbs.

And thanks to the “Made in China 2025” program Xi Jinping launched in 2015, this isn’t spin but economic reality. And this latest “China shock”, increasingly known as “China shock 2.0”, is becoming the talk of corporate boardrooms everywhere.

The reason: 11 years on, the fruits of Xi’s effort to expand China’s footprint in EVs, AI, batteries, biotechnology, renewable energy, robotics, semiconductors and other future technologies are making more and more headlines in the Western media…”

~ Full article…

“…The White House said its meeting with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei was “productive and constructive” on Friday, the latest sign of a potential thaw in the standoff between the government and the leading artificial intelligence company.

But when President Donald Trump was asked about Amodei’s visit on a runway in Phoenix, Ariz., he responded, “Who?” and then said he had “no idea.”

Amodei met with Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and other senior administration officials to talk about the company’s powerful new Mythos model, which was announced earlier this month. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was one of the officials in attendance, according to a source familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the meeting was private…”

~ Full article…

“…The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, points out that instability in the Strait of Hormuz is forcing the search for alternative oil supply routes.

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According to him, the project of transporting oil from Iraq through Turkey is able to simultaneously solve several tasks: to ensure stable exports for Baghdad, strengthen Ankara’s role as an energy hub and increase Europe’s energy security.

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The expert emphasizes that the implementation of the project will require political coordination between Turkey and Iraq, as well as attracting international financing, including from European countries interested in diversifying supplies…”

~ Full article…

“…According to the Financial Times, Democrats running in the 2026 midterm elections have been advised by party strategists not to antagonize pro-AI interests, even as polls show AI regulation is incredibly popular with voters.

Specifically, the Democratic establishment is telling politicians to play nice with any “pro-AI group” with over $300 million to toss around, evidently in an effort to court that money for the political machine. So far, only a small handful of progressive Democrats have made AI regulation a key part of their platform, as the majority of party functionaries bite their tongues.

“You are definitely seeing a chilling effect [on campaigns],” Alex Jacquez, former White House advisor and head of policy at Groundwork Collaborative told the FT. “There’s just not a lot of upside in the potential of getting $20mn [spent by pro-AI campaign groups] in your race…  in a lot of cases it is going to be easier to say nothing.”…”

~ Full article…