The December 20th elections in Spain produced an extremely fragmented congress in which no single party emerged with an overall majority. The regime is at an impasse. But the European capitalists are insisting on a “stable government” in Spain, which they need to push through further austerity and attacks.

The United Nations is often held up as an international instrument for world peace and prosperity. The reality of the UN falls far short of this noble image. In fact, as Daniel Morley explains, the UN is a forum for the horse-trading of the major capitalist powers; a convenient cover for their imperialist designs.

Less than a quarter of an hour after opening, the Chinese stock market was closed by an automatic shutdown. This “circuit-breaker” mechanism was imposed by the government only five months ago after equally dramatic losses. This reveals how nervous the Chinese government is of the underlying economic instability.