The Lead
The World at a Crossroads: Make Humanity Human Again
by Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — Jun. 25, 2026
While there may be a slight decrease in danger emanating from Southwest Asia as the fragile ceasefire in Iran continues to hold, humanity still stands on the precipice of disaster if the current paradigm of international relations and thinking is not changed—and soon.
Indicative of this is the insanity coming from top European nations, intent on a new war with Russia and defending their collapsing worldview. Leaders from France, Germany, the UK, Poland, and Italy met to bloviate about Russia and restate their commitment to “strengthen the Alliance’s [NATO’s] deterrence and defense posture.” Motivated by imagined Ukrainian successes at terrorizing Russian citizens through recent drone swarms, Europeans are looking for new ways to escalate its involvement and drag the reluctant United States back into the fold. In a series of new and intentionally provocative moves, both France and the UK have seized alleged Russian oil tankers over the past two weeks, even though they were in international waters. There are even reports that Britain is planning to sell the oil on the seized ship and give the proceeds to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, military budgets continue to cannibalize valuable productive capacity throughout the West, feeding a new and bloody speculative bubble. Germany’s Volkswagen sold one of its most productive engine manufacturing business, Everllence, to the private investment firm Bain Capital. Will this be leveraged to fuel the massive rearmament drive being pursued across the West, as other industries have done? The White House has also requested an additional $87 billion for the war against Iran, despite the near-passage of the War Powers act in both houses of Congress. All while untold sums of money are poured into new and frightening domestic surveillance programs overseen by the likes of Palantir, erasing the legal rights that have traditionally protected citizens.
The choice before the world is increasingly clear for all to see. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov put it in a June 23 meeting with ambassadors and diplomats from around the world: “The US, the UK, and Europe are striving for total global dominance so that no one can prevent them from continuing to extract resources around the world and live at the expense of others.” Whether the world will submit to this, or whether it will acknowledge “the objective historical process of forming a just multipolar world order,” he noted, “is something that, without exaggeration, the future of the world order depends on.”
The tragic earthquakes which hit Venezuela powerfully illustrate this point. Many are still missing as a massive search and rescue operation is underway. But, while it is indeed a terrible natural disaster, the man-made aspects of this tragedy can’t be ignored. Decades of harsh U.S. sanctions have kept Venezuela in a state of intentional underdevelopment, without which it may have had a much better chance to weather this kind of disaster.
In addition, what about the shortage of scientific knowledge of these phenomena, and is it possible these could have been detected earlier or predicted? Within 24 hours of the Venezuela quakes, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, a 5.6 magnitude one struck northern California, and a 5.4 magnitude one struck Papua New Guinea—all of which sit on the famous Pacific Ring of Fire. Is there a larger process underway that mankind is not yet aware of? If the human species had exercised more of its creative energies toward understanding these processes than it had building bombs and fighter jets, might we have saved more of the lives lost in Venezuela?
These questions deserve to be asked at a moment when mankind is clearly facing a moral and identity crisis, as is so clearly manifest in today’s political crisis. However, it is a task eminently doable, and, given the magnitude of the transformation taking place today, it might just be more ripe today than ever. As Helga Zepp-LaRouche concluded in her June 24 weekly webcast: “We need to build a world movement of world citizens who fight for development as the new name for peace. And I do not trust any other democratic combination to solve the problem for us, because I think we need to have better people. People have to become more elevated, and they have to become more human again, and not tolerate structures of sin. And that can only be accomplished through a world movement of world citizens…. So join us.”
Tune into this week’s meeting of the International Peace Coalition, beginning at 11 am Eastern time Friday.
Contents
Strategic War Danger
- Britain, France Threaten War, Escalate Stopping of Vessels Transporting Russian Oil (↓)
- Blunt Russia's Lavrov: Europe Demands Russia Surrender, Even As U.S. May Be ‘Abandoning Its Role As Objective Mediator’ (↓)
- E5 Berlin Summit Promises ‘Strengthened Deterrence’ Against Russia and Bringing Ukraine Closer to NATO (↓)
- US and Iran Disagree on Strait of Hormuz (↓)
Collapsing Imperial System
- Two Powerful Earthquakes Devastate Venezuela; Strong International Response (↓)
- Volkswagen Branch Sold to Bain Capital (↓)
LaRouche movement
U.S. and Canada
Harley Schlanger Update
Watch The Daily Update with Harley Schlanger, a short video update available every weekday morning from The LaRouche Organization.
