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CURIOUSMINDS
A weekly serving of great articles we curate, and original content we produce. So, all you have to do is pick, read, watch and listen. |
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Issue #211 - JANUARY 2026
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Stories from Around the World that Affect Us |
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How the US attack on Venezuela unfolded
After months of planning, US forces, with 150 jets taking off from 20 airbases, took on an operation to abduct Maduro.
In a move that stunned the world, the United States bombed Venezuela and abducted President Nicolas Maduro amid condemnation and plaudits. In a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, US President Donald Trump praised the operation to seize Maduro as one of the “most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history”.
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 Reshaping the world order: Europe's difficult choice
BBC(Politics)
That era was inaugurated in March 1947 in an 18-minute speech by President Harry Truman, in which he pledged US support to defend Europe against further expansion by the Soviet Union. Now, the new US National Security Strategy (NSS), published in December, signals that, for the White House, that shared endeavour has ended; that much of what the world has taken for granted about America's role is over. So, if the world is indeed moving away from that order, what is it moving towards? And what does it mean for the rest of the world and in particular for Europe?
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 Iran anti-government protests worsen
BBC (Human/Civil Rights/Politics)
US says killing protesters would be met with a military response. Iran blamed the US for turning peaceful protests into what it called "violent subversive acts and widespread vandalism. The protests began in the capital Tehran a fortnight ago over economic hardship. They have since spread to more than 100 cities and towns across all of Iran's provinces. Hundreds of protesters are believed to have been killed or injured, and many more detained. BBC Persian has confirmed the identities of 26, including six children. Members of the security forces have also been killed, with one human rights group putting the number at 14.
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Venezuela’s New President Is No Moderate
About a month ago, as America’s military presence in the Caribbean ramped up, The New York Times ran a feature on the figures that could imaginably step into the presidency in Nicolás Maduro’s absence. One heading was titled “The Moderate: Delcy Rodríguez, Vice President.” To Venezuelans who had spent over a decade seeing in her one of Nicolás Maduro’s most ardent and uncompromising acolytes, calling her a “moderate” is an outrage. Here’s a woman who has held all of the most important offices of state—oil minister, minister of foreign affairs, president of the constituent assembly, vice president—and has never allowed any hint of sunlight to appear between her and Maduro. Now, Delcy Rodríguez is the new president of Venezuela.
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Quote of The Week
I’d rather have an impoverished bank account than an impoverished mind.
- James King -
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Top Stories from our favourite publications to stimulate your curious mind, |
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Who’s Winning the MAGA Civil War
Those who stormed the Capitol five years ago are now free thanks to a presidential pardon. And the most extreme voices on the right are in the ascendant, with a civil war about its future direction brewing between the radical and the even more radical wings of the MAGA movement. So to mark the fifth anniversary of January 6, we are honored to publish Damon Linker, a frequent contributor to our pages who has written a masterful, and frightening, essay on the future trajectory of the American right.
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Who we are and who we become depends on whom we love.
THE MARGINALIAN (Literature/Philosophy)
Music, the Neural Harmonics of Emotion, and How Love Recomposes the Brain For one consciousness to understand another — to understand what it is like to be another — might be the supreme challenge of communication and coexistence, because we each move through life half-opaque to ourselves. We aim the analytical mind — that magnificent novelty-instrument millennia in the evolutionary making — at the opacity, but occluding the lens of self-understanding is something much more primeval: Emotion smudges the eyepiece of life, often without our awareness, changing what we see and making us react not to what is but to what we are perceiving. |
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Iranian Regime Seems Invincible
PERSUASION (Human & Civil Rights/Politics)
Over the past few decades, Iranians’ protests against the Islamic Republic have become a regular sight—bursts of defiance that light up the streets, fill the air with hope, and then fade away only to become a fire beneath ashes. Each protest seems bigger, braver, and more hopeful. Yet each time, the system endures. Still, hope doesn’t die. You can hear it in every conversation and encrypted message coming out of Iran: people still believe change is possible. |
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House of Vipers
A daughter’s loyalty. An evil plot. A mother’s cruelty brings the family down. Alfie struggles to deal with the whirlwind of horrors which unfold chapter after chapter in the second novel of the series.In the poor, hot and dusty north-east of Thailand Alfie Mynn, a South African businessman, has all but finished building a house for his partner Nin. But will her mother’s evil plot bring the family down? Can Mother use her daughter’s misplaced loyalty and the law to ruin Nin and Alfie? The worst and the best elements of the human condition are reflected in the characters.Can Alfie save himself or is it too late?
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Mystery of SA activists murdered by apartheid hit squad
DAILY MAVERICK (Apartheid/Human Rights)
On 19 December, 40 years ago Jacqueline Quin and her husband Leon Meyer - along with Joseph Mayoli, Nomkhosi Mini, Lulamile Dantile, Stanley Mathee and three Basotho - were shot dead in Maseru by South African security forces. It has been 40 years since the murder of the six South Africans and three Basotho by the Security Police. Still only the fate of two of them is known.
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Climate Conspiracy
we need to start engaging in more overtly conspiratorial language. Because the actual story of climate change is one about coordinated power, deliberate deception, and a bought-off government that repeatedly acts to promote an industry that is poisoning humans and the environment for profit. The recent invasion of Venezuela has put this conspiracy at the top of the news cycle. Trump framed the attack explicitly as an oil play, bragging about handing Venezuela’s oil infrastructure to U.S. companies. He said he privately briefed oil executives in advance of the attack, but did not inform Congress. He made clear that if U.S. companies were hesitant to enter Venezuela, U.S. taxpayers would step in to shoulder the financial risk. Though he didn't say when they approved!!
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UPGRADE to PAID
CURIOUSMINDS content and opinions contain important information curated from reliable sources. We rely on reader support to keep it FREE. We want it to reach as many people as possible. If you value what we do and would like to help us sustain it, please consider a small monthly or annual contribution. Contributing subscribers get full access to all James King Publications including archives of CURIOUSMINDS, and a valuable BONUS: FREE ebook versions of all James King’s published books.Click - View them at Amazon · Donate via the - Choose a subscription plan - page. If you are not a subscriber already - Go to the Welcome page |
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James King Blog offers valuable resources for students of Arts and Humanities. Particularly those interested in Environments, Literature, Performing Arts, Visual Art, Philosophy, Travel, and Human Rights. The articles provide insights into complex interactions between humans and their environments, and the ethical and moral dimensions of environmental issues. The Blog is relevant to students of all ages and those who are just fascinated by the Arts and Humanities. |
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 Central African Republic Humanitarian Crisis – Facts of the Struggle
The Central African Republic humanitarian crisis left more than half the population needing aid and protection. Conflict between armed groups, foreign soldiers, and other security personnel fuelled the crisis. Widespread displacement and suffering of civilians followed. |
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FREE BOOKS69 Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense FreebiesThis Promo Closes 31 January Thriller authors join forces in joint promotion campaigns to introduce themselves to readers. You can download as many books as you like.
I hope you find plenty to entertain you. |
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STICKS & STONES FROM - ALFIE GOES TO THAILAND - SERIES
Sticks and Stones highlights the clear case of abuse as the victim prepares himself for a journey of recovery by discovery. The journey will either bury him in his misery or raise him up from the ashes to challenge himself again and build a new life. All will be revealed in the final novel - A Million Roman Candles. The Series is a story of human challenge, manipulation, rejection, abuse, and a search for peace. |
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THE KENRIGHT CHRONICLES - SERIES
The Kenright Chronicles is a psychological thriller series. Jack Kenright, a young investment banker gets involved in an international art swindle. which cripples his business and threatens his life and his family. He ends up a recluse, working for the FBI undercover and exposes massive corruption in the gambling world. |
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The Good EarthBy Pearl S Buck
Pearl S. Buck’s timeless masterpiece, the Pulitzer Prize–winning story of a farmer’s journey through China in the 1920s The Good Earth is Buck’s classic story of Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant farmer, and his wife, O-lan, a former slave. With luck and hard work, the couple’s fortunes improve over the years: They are blessed with sons, and save steadily until one day they can afford to buy property in the House of Wang—the very house in which O-lan used to work. But success brings with it a new set of problems. Wang soon finds himself the target of jealousy, and as good harvests come and go, so does the social order. Will Wang’s family cherish the estate after he’s gone? And can his material success, the bedrock of his life, guarantee anything about his soul? |
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DemianBy Hermann Hesse Demian is a classic coming-of-age story that continues to inspire generations of readers in its exploration of good and evil, morality, and self-discovery. A story of Jungian individuation, the process of opening up to one's unconsciousness. First published in 1919, it is a brilliant journey of the psyche written by one of Germany’s most influential writers and thinkers—Herman Hesse. A young man awakens to selfhood and to a world of possibilities beyond the conventions of his upbringing. Emil Sinclair is a quiet boy drawn into a forbidden yet seductive realm of petty crime and defiance. His guide is his precocious, mysterious classmate Max Demian, who provokes in Emil a search for self-discovery and spiritual fulfillment.
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Substack - Creative Xellence -
Join us at Creative Xellence where we are building a home for James King's Poetry, Short Stories and serialised Novels. Subscribe for Free and you will be notified of new content and recieve the Newsletter.
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Medium
At Medium we curate high value informative articles related to A&H from major publishers and authoratative sources. And we publish a smattering of selected articles from James King Blog and articles written by James King for Medium Publications.
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