This is a 2021 Oxford University Press book, which I expected to more on the academic end but leans toward storytelling and a mass market book. The stories are interesting and well told. Book might be a good audiobook for trains or driving. Written by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy, both are journalists.

"Without the trader, the economy of apartheid South Africa would almost certainly have collapsed many years earlier than it did. Chris Heunis, a South African minister, admitted that Pretoria had more difficulties buying oil than arms, and that the oil embargo 'could have destroyed' the apartheid regime. For the traders, it was a hugely profitable business. P. W. Botha, the leader of South Africa from 1978 to 1989, said that buying crude oil from the traders had cost the country an additional 22 billion rand (more than $10 billion) over a decade... The traders weren't making money through a brilliant understanding of the market. They were simply willing to put aside any ethical principles to make more money." (p. 89-90)

"But some, notably Switzerland, were extremely slow to act. Paying bribes to foreign officials was not only widely accepted within the business community, but the bribes were even tax deductible. It was only in 2016 that Swiss companies stopped being able to claim a tax credit against the bribes they had paid to businesspeople aboard, with the approval of new legislation' Bribery payments to private individuals should no longer be allowed as expenses that are justified for business purposes', the Swiss government wrote. Switzerland also dragged its feet in prosecuting bribery of foreign government officials." (p. 310)

Judith Butler's "Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Justice" (2004) was published in the "Radical Thinkers" series of Verso Books. The book is a series of essays written after Sept 11, 2001, collected in this short publication of ~150 pages (of writing, excluding Notes). In the Preface, the author suggests in the years following Sept 11 intellectuals and journalists did not uphold their duty to justice, wherein an injustice muted critical discourse and public debate. The specifics of the essays are less timely today, but raise general questions about power – power over media and what can be spoken in the public sphere, power over what can and cannot be asked or discussed, power over life and death, the power to decide whose life should be mourned and whose ignored. The creation of binaries of the with-us-or-against-us type, stifled the ability to engage, Butler for example suggest that opposing war was equated with sympathizing or justifying terrorism.  While the details have changed, the processes persist and the arguments in this book remain relevant. Worth a read.

Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives (2022) is a journalistic take on the mining of cobalt in DR Congo, written by Siddharth Kara (the author has published other books on modern slavery). This book focuses on cobalt, the mineral that is critical for nearly all of our rechargeable devices and much of the 'green' economy, with the DR Congo providing the majority of the world's cobalt supply. This book is a sort of extended version of Amnesty International reporting on cobalt (e.g., here from 2016) or that of Human Rights Watch (e.g., here). Parts of the book verge on slightly paraphrased versions of those reports.

The author spent a few months in the country, over a series of visits. With thick description (read: travel journal with basic context and history, peppered with random facts, similar to Wikipedia reading), this book appears to aim to reach a general audience (successfully, as a best seller). The Amnesty or Human Rights Watch reports are sufficient for anyone interested in understanding the issues involved. As much as the author wants to address the crimes occurring, the book perpetuates a dehumanizing narrative of DR Congo and the Congolese people – seemingly in an effort to emphasize the appalling situation. The book draws on colonial language and sources (the history of DR Congo is centered fully around European interactions with it, European 'discoveries' and so forth – apparently no other history is worth telling, or as Hagel suggested, that there is no other history). In the expose style of journalism, the book delves into the depths of the problem, but offers little in the way of solutions (beyond generics). For anyone following the issue of cobalt and/or familiar with DR Congo, there is not much new from this book (and could be frustrating). 

The edited collection, Thomas Pogge and His Critics (2010), edited by Alison Jaggar, is an excellent collection of chapters by an exceptional line up of philosophers focused on justice. The critics present a series of challenges, critiques and clarifications for Pogge's work, such as on positive duties, the inclusion of rights protection, the causes of global poverty and calls for change, amongst others. The final chapter is a (lengthy) response by Thomas Pogge himself to the chapters. Recommended for those interested in the philosophy and ethics related to global justice. A few notes:

Alison Jaggar in the Introduction: "Pogge regards the global order as unjust on several levels. Most obviously, many trade treaties, tariffs, antidumping laws, agricultural subsidies, and intellectual property rights unfairly provide special advantages to wealthy and powerful countries which are already reaping unjust benefits from their violent role in a world history characterized by conquest, colonization, exploitation, and genocide." (p. 2-3)

Alison Jaggar in the Introduction: "Pogge argues that the citizens and governments of wealthy powerful countries have violated the uncontroversial and morally fundamental requirement not to cause severe harm to innocent people for minor gains. It is this culpability that constitutes the basic and incontrovertible ground of our responsibility to address global poverty." (p. 4)