Peter Bach
@lyst.bsky.social
đ¤ 67
đĽ 114
đ 105
Kingdom: Animalia Order: Primates Tribe: Hominini
Merry Christmas.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/25/t...
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The Stranger Who Didnât Do Christmas
The lonely figure trudged across the frozen, bare field. The soil was rock hard. The wind bit at his face, too cold even for the geese cutting across the
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/25/the-stranger-who-didnt-do-christmas/
3 days ago
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This one behind a paywall.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/21/w...
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War and Peace in a Post-European America
The strained smiles and fixed expressions of European and Ukrainian leaders in London recently told their own story. President Zelenskyy met with Keir
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/21/war-and-peace-in-a-post-european-america/
7 days ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
Many Europeans are now cancelling trips altogether amid growing talk of having to surrender years of digital history before entering the so-called Land of the Free.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/17/m...
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Melancholia in the Bloodstream: Europe, America, and the Weight of Misunderstanding
I have been thinking about what non-sensational facts about Europe may be overlooked in Washingtonâparticularly as recent reporting suggests that Donald
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/17/melancholia-in-the-bloodstream-europe-america-and-the-weight-of-misunderstanding/
11 days ago
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Many Europeans are now cancelling trips altogether amid growing talk of having to surrender years of digital history before entering the so-called Land of the Free.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/17/m...
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Melancholia in the Bloodstream: Europe, America, and the Weight of Misunderstanding
I have been thinking about what non-sensational facts about Europe may be overlooked in Washingtonâparticularly as recent reporting suggests that Donald
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/17/melancholia-in-the-bloodstream-europe-america-and-the-weight-of-misunderstanding/
11 days ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
16 days ago
"Social media swirls with wild claims that he is being fed slow-acting poison. Further unverified posts allege dementia and liver damage, but these are denied. However, his health raises the question of whether he will ever return to political life." [via
@counterpunchmedia.bsky.social
]
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
16 days ago
"For some, Khan is a potentially anti-imperialist, anti-elite-populist..For others, he represents a neoliberal, populist leadership that uses leftist words without delivering any kind of social justice or change. Many are ambivalent about him even when recognising his mass appeal." â Peter Bach
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Khan in the Dark
The persistent rumours that imprisoned Pakistani politician Imran Khan is dead have been crackling away like Lahore firecrackers these past few weeks.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/12/khan-in-the-dark/
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The persistent rumours that imprisoned Pakistani politician Imran Khan is dead have been crackling away like Lahore firecrackers these past few weeks.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/12/k...
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Khan in the Dark
The persistent rumours that imprisoned Pakistani politician Imran Khan is dead have been crackling away like Lahore firecrackers these past few weeks.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/12/khan-in-the-dark/
16 days ago
0
1
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
18 days ago
"...it turns out that not knowing much about politics is sometimes indistinguishable from knowing a lot. Which is not to say we should opt out of politics. Itâs just that our understanding of it is invariably limited." A(nother) political perspective from Peter Bach,
@lyst.bsky.social
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What I Donât Know About Politics (And Why It Might Not Matter)
As scribes over here in the UK suddenly ask if the right-wing populist Reform party has peaked, I realise I know almost nothing about politics. Even more
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/10/what-i-dont-know-about-politics-and-why-it-might-not-matter/
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As Groucho Marx put it: âPolitics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.â
www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/10/w...
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What I Donât Know About Politics (And Why It Might Not Matter)
As scribes over here in the UK suddenly ask if the right-wing populist Reform party has peaked, I realise I know almost nothing about politics. Even more
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/10/what-i-dont-know-about-politics-and-why-it-might-not-matter/
18 days ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
24 days ago
"Four unanswered applications for visas and film permits in a troubled East African country later, and me and my team have got nowhere. I compare ourselves to a vehicle stuck in the sand with the wheels spinning and no forward motion." Peter Bach
@lyst.bsky.social
at his rousing best on...a lot.
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The Crack in the Sky
Most of the creative people I know in the UK are resigned to an uphill struggle. Many work in a vacuum. The city is pocked with such voids. Sisyphus and
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/04/the-crack-in-the-sky/
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
24 days ago
"The wolves are still at the door; thatâs a matter of course. But I continue buying into the idea that if we can just keep things flowing, depth charges at the ready, obstacles are swept away." Bach, again. [via
@counterpunchmedia.bsky.social
]
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The Ashes are governed by a playbook thicker than a cricket bat. Ukraineâs reality is defined by rule-breakingâtreaties torn up, borders violated, norms smashed.
#TheAshes
#Ukraine
#Cricket
#cricketforall
www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/01/a...
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Ashes of Another Kind
The news got so absurd I watched only the cricket. Especially when it said the American peace plan for Ukraine was likely written by Russia. The
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/01/ashes-of-another-kind/
27 days ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
about 1 month ago
"The music seemed timeless. Soon I was floating out on the floor, feeling the syncopated horns and strings, galvanising my thinning muscles. I was still the old modernist, making moves I didnât know I still had in me." A.J. Lees regains his Northern Soul in Blackpool.
@thearsonista.bsky.social
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Tangerine Coast by A.J. Lees
The North Shore, Blackpool. All photos by Stefan Svennson. Every year, in the last week of June, the mills, engine rooms, and coal mines in Oldham closed down, and an exodus followed. My great-granâŚ
https://burninghousepress.com/2025/11/26/tangerine-coast-by-a-j-lees/
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The weather was desultory as I walked from Wimbledon Station to the Communication Workers Union headquarters at 150 The Broadway. I was supposed to be filming a conflict in East Africa, but my visa still hadnât materialised.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/26/w...
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Where Labour, Capital, and a National Institution Still Collide
The weather was desultory as I walked from Wimbledon Station to the Communication Workers Union headquarters at 150 The Broadway. I was supposed to be
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/26/where-labour-capital-and-a-national-institution-still-collide/
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
about 1 month ago
Retreats to Iceland... "History burns as quickly as a cigarette paper. People donât even buy art anymore. Whatever happened to art as sanctuaryâart as the antithesis of meanness?" â Peter Bach, a.k.a.
@lyst.bsky.social
[via
@counterpunchmedia.bsky.social
]
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You Do It to Yourself
So Thom Yorke has just insisted Radiohead will âabsolutely notâ perform in Israel under Netanyahu. This marks a clear departure from their previous
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/19/you-do-it-to-yourself/
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Icelandic people maintain a strong attachment to their history. We once spent time there with a former Interior and Justice minister who told us his weekly history group had finally reached the third century. He was very excited about this.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/19/y...
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You Do It to Yourself
So Thom Yorke has just insisted Radiohead will âabsolutely notâ perform in Israel under Netanyahu. This marks a clear departure from their previous
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/19/you-do-it-to-yourself/
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
about 1 month ago
"Greenland gives Denmark its major seabed claims in the Arctic Ocean, a legal and geological smørrebrød layered with what diplomats call âresource and sovereignty implications.â Donât underestimate this. Further phrases like âcontinental shelfâ hide very real power politics." â Peter Bach
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A Small Kingdom at the Top of the World
Nor is it helped by Trumpâs habit of treating allies as optional accessories. We saw this last week with the favoritism shown to Hungary in the form of a one-year exemption from sanctions. Greenland d...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/14/388945/
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My great-great-grandfather, Jens Bach, sat for decades in the Danish parliament, travelling regularly from Thisted in northern Jutland to Copenhagen. This was two islands and a heroic commute away. In his day, too, Greenland came up often.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/14/3...
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A Small Kingdom at the Top of the World
Nor is it helped by Trumpâs habit of treating allies as optional accessories. We saw this last week with the favoritism shown to Hungary in the form of a one-year exemption from sanctions. Greenland d...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/14/388945/
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
about 1 month ago
...the most stiflingly straitlaced, Oxbridge-groomed professionals youâll findâstudiously unimaginative, obsessively proper, exuding all the charisma of a school prefect on downers. But when it comes to reporting facts, Iâd take any one of them over the president of the United States. â Peter Bach
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Why Iâd Still Trust a BBC Producer Over the President
Brits often wrestle with their annual BBC licence fee. At ÂŁ174.50 a year, it is no small cost in the current economic climate. Every payment creates a
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/13/why-id-still-trust-a-bbc-producer-over-the-president/
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Now that the long-anticipated attempt to dismantle the BBC is nearly complete, I will try not to overstate its importanceâit aired two of my documentaries, albeit for a pittance.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/13/w...
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Why Iâd Still Trust a BBC Producer Over the President
Brits often wrestle with their annual BBC licence fee. At ÂŁ174.50 a year, it is no small cost in the current economic climate. Every payment creates a
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/13/why-id-still-trust-a-bbc-producer-over-the-president/
about 2 months ago
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âItâs the last big card he has to play,â says my friend. âMy guess is he makes a referendum part of his next manifesto. But he canât play it too earlyâor too late.â
www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/06/s...
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Starmerama: When Governance is Not Enough
âWhen do you think Starmer goes?â asked a friend last week, irate about the high arrest rate among non-UK nationals. In a Focaldata poll, at the same
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/06/starmerama-when-governance-is-not-enough-2/
about 2 months ago
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No wonder âDas Crazyâ was voted German Youth Word of the Year at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair. Counselling centres for conscientious objectors are reporting an increasing number of visits from worried parents.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/29/d...
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Das Crazy
Joseph Beuys on his lecture "Jeder Mensch ist ein KĂźnstler â Auf dem Weg zur Freiheitsgestalt des sozialen Organismus" photographed by Rainer Rappmann in
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/29/das-crazy/
2 months ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
2 months ago
"What makes people make art? It isnât sales, thatâs for sure, as the London art world is in pretty bad shape here. Anyway, I suspect itâs something more interesting and remote than thatâsome kind of small desert shack between Bravery and Self-Soothing." â Peter Bach (
@lyst.bsky.social
)
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The Artist and the Eye
I saw a man crouched by the side of the road close to the railway station last week. I thought he'd dropped something. Then I saw he was holding a piece
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/23/the-artist-and-the-eye/
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Iâve studied the artistâs attention to detail for years. It has compelled me to look at things more closely than I suspect I would have done otherwise. To consider her eyesight in jeopardy was the mother of all distractions.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/23/t...
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The Artist and the Eye
I saw a man crouched by the side of the road close to the railway station last week. I thought he'd dropped something. Then I saw he was holding a piece
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/23/the-artist-and-the-eye/
2 months ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
3 months ago
Between Myth and Muzzle: Peter Bach,
@lyst.bsky.social
, on the erosion of traditional press freedom â and respect â in the US and UK. [via
@counterpunchmedia.bsky.social
]
www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/07/b...
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Itâs easy enough to picture how a man in Kushnerâs position might profit from peace.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/13/t...
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The Price of Peace
When the first Trump years ended, Jared Kushner did what many former officials only dream ofâhe turned his address book into a balance sheet. In 2021 he founded Affinity Partners, a private-equity fir...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/13/the-price-of-peace-2/
3 months ago
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âYou canât handle the truth!â Jack Nicholson sneered in A Few Good Men.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/07/b...
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Between Myth and Muzzle: Press Freedom in the US and UK
âThe truth is rarely pure and never simple,â wrote Oscar Wilde. That observation holds true for press freedom on both sides of the Atlantic. The US
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/07/between-myth-and-muzzle-press-freedom-in-the-us-and-uk/
3 months ago
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Evening, waxing gibbous.
3 months ago
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Part 2 of a short on the unions in the UK:
youtu.be/KjNRtHuof_g
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Part 2: The Union Question
YouTube video by The Union Question
https://youtu.be/KjNRtHuof_g
3 months ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
3 months ago
ââŚalgorithms flatten cinema into âcontentâ. True cinemaâeccentric, lilting, awkwardly humanâseems to be gasping under this weight. But in that room, it felt immortal.â - Peter Bach,
@lyst.bsky.social
[via
@counterpunchmedia.bsky.social
]
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Smoke and Light in Soho
Paul Donnellon, a BAFTA-nominated animator and director, invited me to two private feature film screenings in Londonâs Soho last week. He is the only man
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/01/smoke-and-light-in-soho/
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youtu.be/TiSh0LHdCak?...
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The Union Question - Part 1
YouTube video by The Union Question
https://youtu.be/TiSh0LHdCak?feature=shared
3 months ago
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Europeâs economyâmocked regularly by bullish Americansâis nine times larger than Russiaâs.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/26/t...
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Twelve Minutes Over Tallinn
The story goes like thisâand it is true. At 9:14 on a cloudless morning last week, Estonian radar caught the faint pulse of three Russian MiG-31s slicing
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/26/twelve-minutes-over-tallinn/
3 months ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
3 months ago
âOrwellâs paradox lingers: for those in power, war can masquerade as peace. For those who endure it, war is only war â and peace remains out of reach.â - Peter Bach (
@lyst.bsky.social
) via
@counterpunchmedia.bsky.social
www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/24/t...
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The Long Road Beyond War
âWar is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength,â wrote George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Looking at just eight conflicts today, the words
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/24/the-long-road-beyond-war/
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âAll war is a symptom of manâs failure as a thinking animal,â raged John Steinbeck.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/24/t...
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The Long Road Beyond War
âWar is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength,â wrote George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Looking at just eight conflicts today, the words
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/24/the-long-road-beyond-war/
3 months ago
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The masque, then, ran its course. Windsor for pageantry, Chequers for diplomacy, London for protest, the City for contracts. A still-fizzing circuit is complete.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/19/k...
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King on King: A Masque in Fog
Most Londoners had half-forgotten about Trumpâs state visit until Air Force One touched down. The capital was that distracted by the Mandelson scandal, Cabinet reshuffles, Tory defections, and brutish...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/19/king-on-king-a-masque-in-fog/
3 months ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
4 months ago
âThe Ghanaian poet Awoonor once wrote, âWhat has been broken shall be woven, / the house shall stand, the feast shall be eaten.ââŚIt is written for Ghanaians as if the words themselves a promise.â - Peter Bach
@lyst.bsky.social
[via
@counterpunchmedia.bsky.social
]
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Ghana: Echoes of Tomorrow
Itâs been thirty-three years since I walked the streets of Takoradiâover three decades that feel less like time passed than the tide gone out. And now, out of nowhere, fresh footage arrives of low-bel...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/10/ghana-echoes-of-tomorrow/
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Ships queued patiently in 1992, their silhouettes more Conrad than Spearman, more Amma Darko than pulp fiction. One afternoon I saw Rawlingsâ Lear jet against the blue sky.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/10/g...
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Ghana: Echoes of Tomorrow
Itâs been thirty-three years since I walked the streets of Takoradiâover three decades that feel less like time passed than the tide gone out. And now, out of nowhere, fresh footage arrives of low-bel...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/10/ghana-echoes-of-tomorrow/
4 months ago
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Much to the relief of everyone, I am sure, Iâve been refraining of late from posting my articles here. This one, however, I will. It is something for the cineaste.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/01/a...
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Autocracy, Apocalypse and the Blue Glow: The State of America in Film
An American friend visiting London last week asked me to recommend some âmoviesâ to him. Only later did I realise how loaded a question it was. Cinema has
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/01/autocracy-apocalypse-and-the-blue-glow-the-state-of-america-in-film/
4 months ago
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www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/28/s...
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Summer Report Card
Much judgement of the UK drifts steadily westwards, crossing the Atlantic in fleets of think-tank reports, news magazine features, breathless cable
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/28/summer-report-card/
4 months ago
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âIndustry killers and demon disguises I see the hierarchies and I recognise itâŚâ
www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/22/u...
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Undervalued Artists in the Streaming Age
The global music industry, while outwardly glamorous, is structurally imbalanced. The ones who suffer most are those who create its core product, namely
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/22/undervalued-artists-in-the-streaming-age/
4 months ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
5 months ago
âTo understand who speaks for the working class now requires understanding who was once silenced â and how.â - Peter Bach (
@lyst.bsky.social
)
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Britainâs new working class
https://unherd.com/2025/07/britains-new-working-class/
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At the root of this turbulence lies a more foundational question. New piece in UnHerd:
unherd.com/2025/07/brit...
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Britainâs new working class
https://unherd.com/2025/07/britains-new-working-class/
5 months ago
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Whatâs urgently needed in Sudan are ceasefires and protected corridors. Civilians and aid must be shielded under international supervision. Humanitarian missions need protection. Assaults on aid convoys should be treated as war crimes.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/17/s...
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Sudan: A War of Attrition, a War on Civilians
On July 11, the US-derided International Criminal Court (ICC) told the UN Security Council that war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in Darfur. This includes systematic rape, bom...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/17/sudan-a-war-of-attrition-a-war-on-civilians/
5 months ago
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Across continents, cricket has been a stage for protest, resistance, and prideâa tool of exclusion, and later, of course, unity. In much of the postcolonial world, itâs not just a sport: itâs memory, defiance, identity.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/10/w...
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Why Two Billion People Watch Cricket
âWhat do they know of cricket who only cricket know?â famously wrote the Trinidadian historian C.L.R. James in Beyond a Boundary, exploring not just the
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/10/why-two-billion-people-watch-cricket/
6 months ago
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This story keeps givingâwhich is why we keep returning. In the end, this isnât just about postmen or parcels. Itâs about what a country lets go of, and whoâs left holding the letter when no oneâs left to deliver it.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/03/t...
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The Czech Billionaire, the Union Pact and a Very British Power Play
When a billionaire dubbed the âCzech Sphinxâ takes control of Royal MailâBritainâs storied postal serviceâitâs both a chance for modernisation and a kind of slow-motion national retreat. Add a freshly...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/03/the-czech-billionaire-the-union-pact-and-a-very-british-power-play/
6 months ago
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How I enjoyed visiting the now late great Sandy Gall at the ITN building and drinking whisky with him before he went on air and I would eventually go to Afghanistan. My condolences to his family.
6 months ago
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reposted by
Peter Bach
c.c. o'hanlon
6 months ago
âEvery strike echoesâin neo-natal wards without power, in schools flattened by miscalculation, in aforementioned breadlines turned bloodbaths. The language of âproportionalityâ and âdeterrenceâ cannot translate the sound of a child calling for their dead.â - Peter Bach,
@lyst.bsky.social
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This Is Not a Drill: Why the UK had to Say No to War with Iran
Two days before those B-2s flew, a moment of diplomacyâsome said hypocrisyâstill lingered. Leading Hezbollah commander Mohammad Ahmad Khreiss had just been assassinated in Lebanon. This was as UK, Fre...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/06/26/this-is-not-a-drill-why-the-uk-had-to-say-no-to-war-with-iran/
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To understand this escalation, we have to return to 1953âthe year the British and the CIA helped overthrow Iranâs elected government and install the Shah.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/06/26/t...
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This Is Not a Drill: Why the UK had to Say No to War with Iran
Two days before those B-2s flew, a moment of diplomacyâsome said hypocrisyâstill lingered. Leading Hezbollah commander Mohammad Ahmad Khreiss had just been assassinated in Lebanon. This was as UK, Fre...
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/06/26/this-is-not-a-drill-why-the-uk-had-to-say-no-to-war-with-iran/
6 months ago
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In an age where economic insecurity trumpsâforgive the punâideology, Farage sees an opening. Heâs long mastered grievance politics and now bets that worker dissatisfaction could further fuel his irrefutable rise.
www.counterpunch.org/2025/06/19/r...
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Reform UKâs Curious Courtship
Only months ago, Reform UK and Britainâs trade unions stood on opposite endsâideologically and strategically. One championed deregulation and
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/06/19/reform-uks-curious-courtship/
6 months ago
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