UNGA 81 looked like a week of separate crises: Palestine, Iran, Venezuela, artificial intelligence and China. Beneath the speeches, however, each exposed the same unfinished contradiction between formal sovereignty and the unequal material power needed to make sovereignty real. Gaza’s reconstruction, Venezuela’s oil revenues, Iran’s negotiations under coercion, and the Global South’s struggle for technological capacity all reveal how finance, property, military force and infrastructure shape what legal equality can actually deliver. The summit’s real story wasn’t only what leaders said from the podium, but who still controls the machinery that gives those words weight.
The Golden Age Needs a Gunboat: Trump’s UN Speech and the Rising Cost of American Command
Trump's United Nations address declares America’s resurgence, yet it reveals an empire grappling with an escalating need for military force and economic coercion to maintain supremacy. His speech elevates military spending, sanctions, and immigration enforcement as signs of strength while ignoring the underlying contradictions—an empire that once commanded effortlessly now relies heavily on intimidation. The reality is that the U.S. must work harder to enforce its will both abroad and domestically as competition grows and global power dynamics shift. Instead of showcasing dominance, Trump's rhetoric underscores a declining ability to produce consent, exposing the fragility of American imperialism. The mask of effortless domination is slipping.
We Built an Orbital Nervous System: The War Machine Came to Command It
The U.S. military's recent admission of operating weapons in orbit isn’t the start of space militarization; it's merely the public unveiling of a long-established reality. Decades of geopolitical maneuvering and failed arms control have woven military functions into the very fabric of space infrastructure crucial for global communication and navigation. As rival nations develop counterspace systems, the stakes intensify: who governs this vital domain, humanity’s common resource or a battleground for military supremacy? The struggle becomes whether orbit will serve human needs or become a theater for power contests, with civilian and military dependencies intricately intertwined, compounding the urgency of this cosmic dilemma.
Convenience Inherited an Empire: Africa Puts the World Map on Trial
Mercator’s projection began as a useful tool for sailors, not a colonial conspiracy. But publishers, schools, governments, and later digital platforms carried its distorted view of continental scale far beyond navigation, turning a technical choice into inherited common sense. This essay traces how colonial cartography made geographic knowledge part of territorial command, how Web Mercator gave the old projection a new technological life, and how African political organization transformed the issue into a struggle over narrative sovereignty. The UN vote to “correct the map” matters—but a fairer image of Africa is only one front in the larger fight over who gets to define, produce, and control global knowledge.
Seizing the Stage: AP, China, and the Struggle Over Global Governance
A Weaponized Propaganda Excavation of Didi Tang’s Coverage of Li Qiang’s UN SpeechBy Prince Kapone | Weaponized Information | October 1, 2025Reading the Script: How AP Frames China’s UN Overture as a Threat to “Our” WorldAssociated Press ran a piece by Didi Tang that pretends to neutrally report on Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s remarks at... Continue Reading →
From Gaza to the Caribbean: Petro Names the System, Not the Symptom
The crisis of imperialism and the war on the poor — from fentanyl to fossil fuels, from blockades to bombsBy Prince Kapone | Weaponized Information | September 25, 2025IntroductionGustavo Petro walked into the UN and did what most heads of state never dare: he said out loud what everyone already knows. The bombs that fall... Continue Reading →
The Emperor at the UN: Lies, Spectacle, and the Crisis of Empire
Trump strutted into the General Assembly like a conqueror, boasting of wars ended and enemies humbled. We dig beneath the theater to expose the propaganda and the crumbling empire it serves.By Prince Kapone | Weaponized Information | September 25, 2025The Emperor Shows His FaceThe UN General Assembly is supposed to be a place where nations,... Continue Reading →