(2024-12-26). Making America Healthy Again. counterpunch.org Yes. In the wealthiest country on Earth let us Make America Healthy Again. We should be leading the world in terms of life-expectancy, happiness, and productivity. This is some of what we have to do. Medicare for All. Every American, regardless of age or income, must be entitled to health care as a human right. It
(2024-12-26). Laos/Thailand: United Nations body petitioned over the enforced disappearance of Thai dissident. fidh.org On 20 December 2024, the International Federation for Human Rights and (FIDH) and Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) submitted a communication to the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) concerning the enforced disappearance of exiled Thai political activist Surachai Danwattananusorn.
Bangkok, Paris, 23 December 2024. Surachai's enforced disappearance occurred in the context of efforts by Thai authorities to persecute dissidents who fled to (…) | – |
(2024-12-26). The best MENA films of 2024. newarab.com 
At a time when people of Arab, Middle Eastern or North African heritage are being rampantly maligned across the globe, in both news bulletins and on social media, cinema has never played such a vital role in shifting negative perceptions. | Looking back at 2024 in film, there has been an excellent number of stories from and about the MENA world that humanise those from the region. | From powerful documentaries cutting through mainstream Zionist propaganda to an exquisite character study of a queer Arab drag queen in London working out the kinks in their identity, here are some of the best MENA films released i…
(2024-12-26). OEWG: ICRC Statement on International Law. icrc.org Delivered by Kosuke Onishi, Legal Adviser, at the 9th Substantive Session of the Open-Ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies 2021-2025, New York…
(2024-12-26). Minimum wage in Colombia up 9.5% in 2025. colombiareports.com Colombia's government decreed a 9.5% minimum wage hike after employers and labor unions failed to reach agreement. The wage hike that will take force in January is significantly higher than…
(2024-12-26). Israeli public focused on hostages as famine looms in Gaza. aljazeera.com "The Israeli public is overwhelmed with the issue of the hostages."
(2024-12-26). UN warns of alarming escalation of hunger and malnutrition in Sudan. plenglish.com United Nations, Dec 26 (Prensa Latina) The conflict in Sudan is extending famine conditions, which have already been confirmed in five regions of the country, while the UN foresees an alarming escalation of hunger and malnutrition.
(2024-12-26). Sudan Suspends Cooperation With Global Hunger Monitor as War Expands Famine. truthout.org The Sudanese government suspended cooperation with a global hunger monitor on Monday, on the eve of the initiative announcing that the African country's civil war has driven the expansion of a famine first declared at a refugee camp earlier this year and expected to keep growing next year without a cease-fire. Alarm over widespread hunger in Sudan has mounted since fighting erupted between… |
(2024-12-26). The US won't reign in Israel in Gaza. aljazeera.com International relations professor Hassan Barari says the US will allow Israel to continue causing hunger in Gaza…
(2024-12-25). A Global Minimum Wage Would Reduce Poverty and Corporate Power. counterpunch.org 
In today's world of widespread poverty and unprecedented wealth, how about raising the wages of the most poorly paid workers? This October, the World Bank reported that "8.5 percent of the global population―almost 700 million people―live today on less than $2.15 per day," while "44 percent of the global population―around 3.5 billion people―live today on less than
(2024-12-25). A Tribute to Blacklisted Lyricist Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz. democracynow.org 
His name might not be familiar to many, but his songs are sung by millions around the world. Today, we take a journey through the life and work of Yip Harburg, the Broadway lyricist who wrote such hits as "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and who put the music into The Wizard of Oz, the movie that inspired the hit Broadway musical and now Hollywood blockbuster, Wicked. Born into poverty on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Harburg always included a strong social and political component to his work, fighting racism and poverty. A lifelong socialist, Harburg was blacklisted and hounded throughout much of…
(2024-12-25). A Note on Trade and Inequality. counterpunch.org 
We saw millions of workers displaced in manufacturing, as our trade deficit ballooned from 1997 to 2007. Communities across the industrial heartland were devastated as the factories that supported them downsized or shut altogether. We can have lengthy debates about the motives of working-class people who switched from Democrats to Trump voters, but the fact that Democratic presidents pushed trade policies that destroyed millions of good paying jobs for non-college educated workers is not really in dispute.
(2024-12-25). OEWG: ICRC Statement on International Law. icrc.org Delivered by Kosuke Onishi, Legal Adviser, at the 9th Substantive Session of the Open-Ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies 2021-2025, New York…
(2024-12-25). Colombian workers pleased with minimum wage hike. plenglish.com The president of the Central Unitaria Trabajadores de Colombia (CUT), Fabio Arias, said, for example, that the increase will allow Colombians to have greater purchasing power. | This, he said, considering that the real increase is more than 200,000 pesos (about 45 dollars at the current exchange rate), which means an average increase of 11% over last year. | "We have called on the central workers to reduce the wage gap that we have with the previous decisions of the neoliberal and business governments," the union leader said. | Meanwhile, the president of the Confederation of Workers of Colombia, Jhon Caicedo, e…
(2024-12-25). Palestinians Endure Another Christmas of Genocide and Displacement. truthout.org Over the past 14 months, I have watched in horror as fellow Palestinians in Gaza have been subjected to Israel's relentless bombardment — targeting refugee camps, residential neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, universities and bakeries — and forced to live the nightmare of homelessness in leaky tents without food, water or medical care. I have listened to friends and family in the West Bank and… |
(2024-12-25). How Union Democracy Builds Labor's Strike Power. popularresistance.org Scott Houldieson had some questions. He had worked at Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant, United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 551, since 1989, but in the late 2000s the company was in a financial hole following the Great Recession, and the leaders of the UAW told him and his fellow coworkers that they were going to have to give up some of the benefits that had long made auto work a good blue-collar job. | Houldieson understood that times were hard; he'd seen the quarterly reports showing gigantic losses for the company, even if it wasn't facing bankruptcy like its competitors, but something still didn't compute.
(2024-12-25). War-torn Sudan faces 'widening' famine crisis: UN-backed report. newarab.com 
(2024-12-25). How Fascism Came. popularresistance.org President-elect Donald Trump does not herald the advent of fascism. He heralds the collapse of the veneer that masked the corruption within the ruling class and their pretense of democracy. He is the symptom, not the disease. The loss of basic democratic norms began long before Trump, which paved the road to an American totalitarianism. Deindustrialization, deregulation, austerity, unchecked predatory corporations, including the health-care industry, wholesale surveillance of every American, social inequality, an electoral system that is plagued by legalized bribery, endless and futile wars, the largest prison po…
(2024-12-25). What If Jesus Had Been Born into the American Police State? counterpunch.org 
"When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the