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Education is the foundation of political change. In this section we provide news and analyses of current events that you won’t likely read or hear in the corporate media. Our sources are from organizations and independent media outlets free of corporate and government propaganda. We strongly encourage you to share these articles by email and social media so that together we create an echo chamber that overcomes the influence of the oligarchy. You will find large social media sharing buttons on the left side of each article when you open the article to read.
United States President Biden has announced that he will remove Cuba from the US’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in his final days as President, reversing Donald Trump’s addition of Cuba to the list in 2021. The Biden administration said on Tuesday, January 14, that this move is meant to facilitate the release of individuals detained in Cuba. “I transmit herewith a report to the Congress with respect to the proposed recission of Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism,” Biden announced.
Countries are added to the US’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list by the State Department that have allegedly “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism”.
The DC Bus Fare Evasion Crackdown
January 15, 2025
Pan-African Community Action PACA, Black Agenda Report.
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Black America, Black Working Class, Police, Racism, Transportation, Washington DC
To make good on the promise implicit in the "Secure DC Omnibus Crime Bill ,” to intensify its war on the Black working class, the DC government is now targeting anyone who can’t afford to pay for public transportation.
In December 2024, a new enforcement campaign was launched called “Operation Fare Pays for Your Service” professing an intention to decrease fare evasion on DC’s Metrobus system. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) argues that increased fare enforcement is necessary after reporting that more than 70% of metrobus riders do not pay their fare, and claiming a $50 million dollar loss in annual revenue.
The ‘Uber Model’ Comes For Nursing
January 15, 2025
Aastha Uprety, Inequality.org.
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Gig Workers, Health Care, Nurses, Worker Rights and Jobs
The “gig” model of labor popularized by Uber has found a new sector to upend: health care. On-demand nursing companies likeCareRev, Clipboard Health, ShiftKey, and ShiftMed promise understaffed hospitals more control and overworked nurses more flexibility. But this labor model and the companies that push it endanger workers and patients alike.
In a recently published brief for the Roosevelt Institute, Groundwork Collaborative Fellow Katie J. Wells and Funda Ustek Spilda, senior lecturer at King’s College London, dig into the harms and pitfalls of what is being called “Uber for nursing.”
The CDC, Palantir And The AI-Healthcare Revolution
The Pentagon and Silicon Valley are in the midst of cultivating an even closer relationship as the Department of Defense (DoD) and Big Tech companies seek to jointly transform the American healthcare system into one that is “artificial intelligence (AI)-driven.” The alleged advantages of such a system, espoused by the Army itself, Big Tech and Pharma executives as well as intelligence officers, would be unleashed by the rapidly developing power of so-called “predictive medicine,” or “a branch of medicine that aims to identify patients at risk of developing a disease, thereby enabling either prevention or early treatment of that disease.”
Sixth Circuit Rules Against Net Neutrality; EFF Will Continue To Fight
January 15, 2025
Chao Liu and Katharine Trendacosta, Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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EFF, FCC, Legal System, Net Neutrality
Last week, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the FCC, rejecting its authority to classify broadband as a Title II “telecommunications service.” In doing so, the court removed net neutrality protections for all Americans and took away the FCC’s ability to meaningfully regulate internet service providers.
This ruling fundamentally gets wrong the reality of internet service we all live with every day. Nearly 80% of Americans view broadband access to be as important as water and electricity. It is no longer an extra, non-necessary “information service,” as it was seen 40 years ago, but it is a vital medium of communication in everyday life.
Trump’s Felony Conviction Appeal Will Show How Fully He’s Above The Law
January 15, 2025
Marjorie Cohn, Truthout.
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Criminal Justice and Prisons, Donald Trump, Felonies, Presidential immunity, Supreme Court
Donald Trump has always maintained that the laws don’t apply to him. But he failed to convince New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to delay sentencing him this month following the May 2024 jury verdict finding him guilty of 34 state felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal in New York v. Trump.
Trump appealed Merchan’s denial of his motion to put off the sentencing. Justice Ellen Gesmer, a New York appeals court judge, affirmed Merchan’s ruling that the sentencing should proceed. She was not convinced that presidents-elect enjoy presidential immunity.
Fire Weather
January 14, 2025
Chris Hedges, Scheer Post.
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climate crisis, Environment, Extreme weather, Wildfires
The apocalyptic wildfires that have erupted in the boreal forest in Siberia, the Russian Far East and Canada, climate scientists repeatedly warned, would inevitably move southwards as rising global temperatures created hotter, more fire-prone landscapes. Now they have. The failures in California, where Los Angeles has had no significant rainfall in eight months, are not only failures of preparedness — the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, decreased funds for the fire department by $17 million — but a failure globally to halt the extraction of fossil fuel.
Los Angeles Fires Ravage Communities, Expose Systemic Issues
January 14, 2025
Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch.
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California, Capitalism, climate crisis, Insurance Companies, Prisoner rights, Wildfires
Several wildfires continue to burn in Eaton, Palisades, and other parts of the greater Los Angeles area, incurring a death toll of at least 24 people. Thus far the total area burned has reached nearly 40,000 acres, larger than each of the city limits of San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston and Miami. Over 150,000 people have been forced to flee from their homes, and the Eaton and Palisades fires alone have destroyed over 12,000 structures. As of the time of writing, the Palisades fire is only 14% contained and the Eaton fire is 33% contained.
Wildfires are highly unusual in Southern California during this time of year.
Norway’s Equinor Forced To Withdraw Key Carbon Capture Claim
January 14, 2025
Edward Donnelly, DeSmog.
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Carbon Capture, climate crisis, Energy, False Solutions, Norway
Equinor has retracted a claim that it stores about a million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually at its flagship carbon capture project after DeSmog obtained data showing the real figure was as little as a tenth of that amount.
The Norwegian oil company scrubbed the estimate from its website in November, when presented with official figures showing that it captured 106,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) at its Sleipner carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility in 2023.
Equinor has not captured 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year at the site since 2001, according to the data, provided by the Norwegian Environment Agency.
Outgoing CIA Director Says ‘No Sign’ Iran Developing Nuclear Weapons
January 13, 2025
News Desk, The Cradle.
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CIA, Iran, Iran Nuclear Deal, ISIS, Nuclear Weapons, William Burns
Outgoing CIA director William Burns stated in an interview on 10 January that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program, following a decision it made in 2003, and that the US is concerned about the revival of ISIS.
In an interview with state broadcaster National Public Radio (NPR) to discuss his time as director of the notorious spy agency under President Joe Biden, Burns was asked whether Iran may accelerate its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons given the setbacks the Islamic Republic and its allies in the regional Axis of Resistance have sustained over the past year.
A New Military Strategy Of French Neo-Colonialism In Africa
January 13, 2025
Pavan Kulkarni, People's Dispatch.
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Alliance of Sahel States (AES), Anti-Imperialism, France, French colonialism, French troops, History, Pan Africanism, West Africa
In his New Year’s address, Alassane Ouattara, president of Ivory Coast since 2010 when he took power with the aid of a French military intervention, announced “we have decided on the coordinated and organized withdrawal of French forces” from the country.
However, his address made no mention of terminating the 1961 military agreements with France. These “agreements are at the root of the problem. As long as these agreements exist, France will be able to use them to carry out military maneuvers or intervene at the request of its servants in power in Ivory Coast,” General Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Ivory Coast (PCRCI), Achy Ekissi, told Peoples Dispatch.
The Limits of Artificial Intelligence
January 13, 2025
Joe Lauria, Consortium News.
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Artificial Intelligence, Disinformation, Nuclear Weapons, Wars and Militarism
There is no way to reverse the emergence of Artificial Intelligence on its way to dominating our lives. From customer service to censorship and war, AI is making its mark, and the potential for disaster is real.
The amount of face-to-face contact, or even human voice-to-voice interaction on the phone when doing business has been declining for years and is getting worse with AI. But AI is doing far more than just erode community, destroy jobs and enerverate people waiting on hold.
AI is increasingly behind decisions social media companies make on which posts to remove because they violate some vague “community” standards (as it destroys community), when it’s obvious that AI is programed to weed out dissident political messages.
Poland To ‘Shield’ Netanyahu From ICC Arrest Warrant During Visit
January 12, 2025
News Desk, The Cradle.
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Arrest Warrants, Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza, Genocide, International Criminal Court (ICC), Palestine, Poland, War crimes
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on 9 January that his government would shield Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, from possible arrest on war crimes charges ahead of a visit to Poland this month to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz.
Netanyahu faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes in Gaza, including seeking to starve Palestinians to death by imposing a total blockade on the strip. The ICC also issued a warrant for former defense minister Yoav Gallant on the same charges.
UN Experts Slam US Bill Sanctioning International Criminal Court
January 12, 2025
Sharon Zhang, Truthout.
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Genocide, Human Rights, International Criminal Court (ICC), International Law, Israel, Palestine
A group of UN human rights experts is urging the U.S. Senate to block a bill that seeks to punish the International Criminal Court (ICC) and people affiliated with it after the body issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, condemning the bill as “dangerous” and against international law.
“It is shocking to see a country that considers itself a champion of the rule of law trying to stymie the actions of an independent and impartial tribunal set up by the international community, to thwart accountability,” the four experts said in a statement on Friday.
Vermont Faces Legal Challenge From Big Oil Over New Law
January 12, 2025
Alexandra Jacobo, Nation of Change.
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Big Oil, climate crisis, Climate Justice, Vermont
In a move that could set a precedent for climate accountability laws across the United States, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute (API) have filed a lawsuit against the state of Vermont. The lawsuit challenges Vermont’s groundbreaking law that requires fossil fuel companies to pay for damages caused by climate change, which has increasingly devastated the state through extreme weather events.
The law, passed in 2024, makes Vermont the first state in the nation to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for a share of the financial burden caused by climate change.