🇪🇨 Ecuador is in mourning after the government confirmed that the four charred corpses found near an army base were the four Ecuadorian children kidnapped by military forces on December 8.

Ismael Arroyo and Josué Arroyo (15 and 14 years old), Saúl Arboleda (15 years old), and Steven Medina (11 years old) were picked up and kidnapped by military forces patrolling the south of Guayaquil, on December 8. Videos and testimonies show that the military forces beat the children; they were never seen again.

The government only responded to the events after the case blew up on social media and sparked popular outrage against the armed forces in the country. People are also affirming that this case of forced disappearance corresponds to a larger phenomenon mainly targeting Black and poor communities in the country.

🇨🇳 China announced sanctions against seven US-based military industrial companies and their senior executives last week. It claimed the move was a “countermeasure” against the US providing “huge military aid and arms sales” to its Taiwan region.
📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/03/china-imposes-sanctions-on-us-defense-contractors-for-selling-arms-to-taiwan/

The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced the suspension of the operations of Al Jazeera Media Network, and the temporary suspension of all journalists, staff, and associated channels affiliated with the network in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, January 1.

The suspension of the network’s operation was criticized by Al Jazeera, rights groups, and Palestinian movements as being part of the PA’s attempt to impose a media blackout amid the large-scale security campaign carried out by its security forces against the Jenin refugee camp.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/03/pa-suspends-al-jazeera-over-biased-coverage-and-incitement-amid-widespread-condemnation/

"The arrival of expensive Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in South America is now a fact."

Vijay Prashad writes on the global banana trade, and how the United States is trying to make the commerce of bananas into a national security issue

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/04/the-banana-road-from-south-america-to-china/

🇰🇪 Kenya’s high court declared that the proposed higher education funding model is unconstitutional, arguing the its discriminatory, due to its unequal treatment based on financial ability, school type, age & ambiguous criteria like “household income".

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/04/kenyas-high-court-delivers-blow-to-neoliberal-university-funding-model/

Three months after Austria’s general election, the far-right Freedom Party inches closer to power as mainstream parties fail to form a coalition.

The far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and Kickl gleefully welcomed the collapse of the coalition talks, describing the effort as a doomed traffic-light coalition, referencing the recently failed German federal government. “It is clear that the FPÖ was and is the only stable factor in Austrian domestic politics,” the party stated on social media.
📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/06/austrian-far-right-within-reach-of-power-as-coalition-talks-collapse/

Trump promises to begin the largest program of mass deportations in US history on day one of his presidency. Trump has promised to expel between 15 to 20 million people, and many worry that Trump’s promises of expulsions on such a mass scale would see millions of immigrants, with or without documents, kicked out of the country each year.

Here’s how this could work, and how immigrant communities pledge to fight back:
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/06/how-does-trump-plan-to-carry-out-mass-deportations/

On January 6, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation.

Trudeau was facing a mounting cost of living crisis, dire opinion polls, and a tariff threat by the United States.

Last year, Trudeau’s government was caught by surprise with the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who wrote a scathing letter criticizing the then-prime minister.
📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/06/canadian-pm-trudeau-resigns-leaving-behind-cost-of-living-crisis-and-trumps-tariff-threat/

In global health circles, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has long been recognized as a ticking time bomb. With the potential to kill as many as 10 million people each year by 2050, it demands the same sombre confrontation as the threat of nuclear weapons.

AMR occurs when germs develop resistance to drugs designed to combat them, a process strongly associated with human activities such as industrial meat production, agricultural practices, and the improper disposal of e.g. pharmaceutical waste and heavy metals. High-income countries still frequently export this waste to low- and middle-income ones, fueling the process while seemingly expressing concerns about the dangers posed, as recognized in earlier analyses by SID and the AMR Think-Do-Tank.

📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/06/wars-are-fueling-the-rise-of-resistant-superbugs-in-the-global-south/

🇻🇪 Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López responded to the message from right-wing opposition leader Edmundo González to the Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela to overthrow the government of Nicolás Maduro.

González has refused to recognize the results of the July 28 elections and insists that he is the rightful victor and should be inaugurated as president and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Venezuela.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who won the July 28 elections is set to be inaugurated on January 10. His government has warned of potential foreign-backed right-wing plots to sabotage the swearing in.

At least three Israeli settlers were killed and several others wounded in a shooting attack near the illegal settlement of Kedumim near the Al-Funduq village, in the northern occupied West Bank.

📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/07/west-bank-on-the-brink-as-israel-and-palestinian-authority-attempt-to-crush-resistance/

🇻🇪Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro reported that Venezuelan authorities detained several foreign mercenaries in Venezuela. The mercenaries were allegedly in the country to carry out attacks against Venezuelan institutions to impede the inauguration of Maduro on January 10.

Over 30,000 people in the Greater Los Angeles area are under evacuation orders following the outbreak of wildfires.

As of Wednesday, January 8, four life-threatening wildfires are raging around Los Angeles, in which at least two people have died. At the time of this writing, the fires are 0% contained.
📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/08/los-angeles-wildfires-force-evacuations-of-tens-of-thousands/

Donald Trump has renewed his proposal to claim Greenland, highlighting US expansionist ambitions in the Arctic.

Since being elected the next president of the United States, Donald Trump has signaled that he may try to revisit expansionist policies, including an interest in seizing control over the Panama Canal, absorbing Canada, and claiming Greenland.
📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/08/trumps-sets-his-sights-on-greenland//

Workers are ready take on the most profitable logistics corporation after staging the largest strike against Amazon in US history.

How is it possible that Amazon continues to break records amid an industry downturn? The ever-decreasing quality of life for its workers could provide some answers as to how Amazon, much like other corporations, extracts profit from human misery.
📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/08/amazon-extracts-profit-from-the-suffering-of-its-workers/

Yemen’s Ansar Allah foils a UK-Saudi espionage plot and continues military operations against Israel and the US in solidarity with Palestine.

The network’s members were reportedly trained “to develop espionage skills and utilize advanced spying technologies” in the Saudi capital Riyad. British officers provided them with “sophisticated communication tools and techniques to gather intelligence information”.

📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/08/yemen-dismantles-uk-saudi-espionage-network-and-continues-to-attack-strategic-us-and-israeli-targets/

The destruction caused by pro-coup Bolsonaro supporters at the headquarters of the Three Powers in Brasília, occurred two years ago this Wednesday January 8.

To recall the gravity of the events and reinforce the importance of democracy, the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, held a ceremony at the Planalto Palace together with various authorities.

📲 Read the full English-version of the Brasil de Fato article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/09/we-are-still-here-says-lula-two-years-since-january-8-coup-attempt/

"January 10 is a crucial day for Venezuela: the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as President, after having been re-elected with 52% of the votes on July 28.
...

Since the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution, Venezuela has been a reference for peoples movements in Latin America and the world. ...

The Venezuelan reactionary sectors, supported by the US and its allies, have tried to destabilize the country on multiple occasions and once again now, with the defeated candidate Edmundo González self-proclaiming himself the winner and declaring that he will take office as president on the 10th."
📲 Read the full English-version of the article by Stephanie Weatherbee Brito and Vivian Fernandes of the International Peoples Assembly on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/09/whats-at-stake-with-maduros-inauguration-in-venezuela/