Dutch workers sickened by racist annihilation of Palestinians 

Al Jazeera, 5/18–Tens of thousands of red-clad protesters marched through the Dutch capital to demand their government do more to halt Israel’s war on Gaza in what organizers called the country’s biggest demonstration in two decades. Human rights groups and aid agencies…estimated the peaceful crowd at more than 100,000 people on the streets of The Hague. “We are calling on the Dutch government: stop political, economic and military support to Israel as long as it blocks access to aid supplies and while it is guilty of genocide, war crimes and structural human rights violations in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories”... 

Workers sickened by black lung gain legal support

In These Times, 5/15–In a rare occasion of good news for the nation’s coal miners, a decision this week in a lawsuit brought by one of their own will reverse at least some of the damage done when the Trump administration eviscerated the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) offices…hundreds of those workers had suddenly found themselves out of a job…As a result, the NIOSH Respiratory Health Division and the Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program (CWHSP), whose ongoing research and health screenings are critically important in addressing the black lung epidemic stalking Appalachia’s coal miners, were left unable to function.  

Georgia prosecutors continue legal hunt of KKKop City protesters

The Guardian, 5/18–Nearly two years into the largest Rico, or conspiracy, prosecution against a protest movement in US history, the case is mired in delays and defence claims that proceedings are politically motivated and ruining the lives of the 61 activists and protesters who face trial. Rico cases are usually brought against organized crime, and are associated with the mafia, but in Georgia a sprawling prosecution has been brought against dozens of people opposed to a police training center near Atlanta known as Cop City. 

Think-tank warning about potential for U.S.--China war

Foreign Affairs, 5/15–Tensions in the Taiwan Strait are growing. Even before Taiwan elected William Lai as its president, in January 2024, China voiced strong opposition to him, calling him a “separatist” and an “instigator of war.” In recent months, Beijing has ramped up its broadsides: in mid-March, the spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office labeled Lai a “destroyer of cross-Straits peace” and accused him of pushing Taiwan toward “the perilous brink of war”...Since Lai became president, Beijing has demonstrated growing willingness to use military might to intimidate and punish the island. And it is far more prepared to use force against Taiwan today than it was 20 years ago.

Migrants, escaping capitalist terror, die in large numbers

Infomigrants, 5/5–A new report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reveals that most people who die while migrating are not taking dangerous journeys purely out of choice, but out of desperation -- fleeing insecurity, conflict, disaster, and other humanitarian crises.  Since 2014, more than 52,000 people have died while trying to escape crisis-affected countries…More than half (54 percent) of all recorded migrant deaths since 2014 occurred in or near countries affected by conflict or disaster…the central Mediterranean remains the deadliest single migration route worldwide, with nearly 25,000 people lost at sea…

Capitalism fails even to feed Haitian children

ScrippsNews, 5/14–In a sterile, solar-powered facility in northern Haiti, workers suit up like surgeons. But they aren’t performing operations, they’re producing medicine in the form of peanut paste. And in a country teetering on the edge of collapse, it’s a rare symbol of hope. Inside this factory run by the nonprofit Meds & Food for Kids, Haitian workers meticulously measure, mix and pack a therapeutic peanut paste that’s used to treat severe childhood malnutrition. The paste, enriched with vitamins and micronutrients, has become a lifeline for children pushed to the brink by starvation…The numbers are stark: over one million children in Haiti — one in four — are now facing life-threatening malnutrition.