The new law amends an existing law adopted in 2016 by introducing criminal offenses and harsher punishments for spreading “fake news”. The law also has provisions of increased state oversight of digital and social media platforms and provides for the creation of new regulatory bodies for social media content.

📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/03/pakistani-journalists-and-opposition-parties-demand-repeal-of-draconian-digital-media-law/

Reports indicate that the fighting has already led to casualties, including several UN peacekeepers and at least 700 people since last Sunday, according to the United Nations. Over 700,000 people have also been displaced.

📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/03/the-rwanda-backed-m23-offensive-a-battle-for-congos-resources/

During the XII Extraordinary Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) on Monday, February 3, member countries met virtually to discuss several issues that have arisen from recent geopolitical developments.

Indeed, the beginning of Donald Trump’s mandate, together with his immigration policy of massive deportations, the new tariff measures he announced on his neighbors, and the quest to keep Cuba diplomatically and economically ostracized, among others, brought ALBA member countries together to discuss the necessary precautions to face this new US administration.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/05/we-must-remain-united-for-the-defense-of-our-peoples-alba-stands-against-trump/

As China surges ahead in critical technologies, Washington debates not how to compete, but how to stop China’s rise–even through war.

Vijay Prashad writes

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/05/washingtons-fantasy-of-a-war-against-china/

The first batch of Indian migrants deported from the US landed in the north Indian city of Amritsar on Wednesday, February 5. They had left San Antonio in Texas on Monday in a military C-17 aircraft.

Out of the total 205 migrants reported to be on board the C-17, 25 were women and 13 children. Most of the deported migrants originally came from the Indian states of Gujarat and Punjab. Government officials reportedly have said that only after all documents are verified, their citizenship is confirmed, and their “criminal records” are checked, the deportees would be allowed to leave the airport.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/05/first-batch-of-indian-deportees-arrives-in-handcuffs-with-the-full-approval-of-modi-government/

Hezbollah Secretary General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, announced in a televised speech on Sunday, February 2, that a funeral procession of the resistance group’s late Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, alongside late head of executive council, Hashem Safieddine, will be held on February 23, under the banner “We shall keep the covenant.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/06/hezbollah-to-hold-nasrallah-and-safieddines-funeral-on-february-23/

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has ushered in the most aggressive immigration crackdown in modern US history–one that extends far beyond the country’s borders. His administration is rapidly expanding deportation efforts, detaining migrants in offshore facilities, and striking controversial agreements with Latin American and Caribbean nations to outsource detention and enforcement.

The legal and human rights implications of this strategy remain murky, as does the extent of Trump’s authority to operate detention centers outside US soil.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/06/trumps-global-immigration-offensive-detention-deportation-and-resistance/

Two weeks ahead of Germany’s general election, much of the buzz is focused on the popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party is currently polling at around 22% of the vote, trailing behind the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) but significantly ahead of the parties that formed the recently collapsed coalition government—the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/06/springtime-for-militarization-winter-for-social-rights-in-germany/

As Trump’s administration escalates immigration enforcement raids across the United States, detaining around 1,000 immigrants on a daily basis in sweeping arrests, the movement against harsh measures has grown. Protests have been called for the weekend of February 7 through 9 to oppose Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Demonstrations have been scheduled in cities across the country including Riverside, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; San Antonio, Texas; Anchorage, Alaska; Chicago, Illinois; New York City; Phoenix, Arizona; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Indianapolis, Indiana.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/06/actions-planned-across-the-us-in-opposition-to-immigration-raids/

🇲🇦🇵🇸Moroccan activist Ismail Al-Ghazawi was released from jail on Wednesday, February 5, after the Casablanca Court of Appeals reduced his sentence from one year to four months. Having already served two months, the court suspended the duration of the pro-Palestinian activist’s sentence. Ghazawi is a member of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Morocco.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/06/pro-palestinian-activist-ismail-al-ghazawi-freed-in-morocco/

🇪🇨 Ecuadorians head to the polls on February 9 to elect a new president and legislative representatives. The election is shaping up to be a contest between continuity and reformism.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/07/ecuadors-presidential-election-noboa-and-gonzalez-lead-in-a-polarized-race/

🇮🇳After spending six years in jail without trial, Indian activists Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawle were finally granted bail.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/07/after-six-years-in-jail-two-activists-accused-in-indias-bhima-koregaon-case-released-on-bail/

🇪🇨 In an unprecedented election, the candidate of the ruling party and the candidate of the Citizen Revolution party monopolized more than 88% of the valid votes, even though there were almost 16 candidates.

This means that there is more or less a difference of 42,000 votes between the top two candidates out of the more than 10 million people who voted. In third place is the Indigenous leader Leonidas Iza with 5.26% of the Pachakutik party.
📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/10/bipartisanism-wins-in-ecuador-noboa-and-gonzalez-head-to-presidential-run-off/

🇵🇸 Israel further cracks down on Palestinians’ freedom of movement amid its “Iron Wall” operation in the West Bank.

Israel has escalated its operation against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and tightened the already severe restrictions on freedom of movement.

As part of the operation, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has expanded its open-fire orders in the occupied West Bank during the "Iron Wall" operation, leading to an increase in the number of Palestinian civilian casualties.

The IOF has also intensified its arrest campaign during the operation. As per Palestinian prisoners' institutions, 580 Palestinians were arrested from the occupied West Bank during January, most of them from the city of Jenin and its camp.
https://x.com/peoplesdispatch/status/1889060111550910763

Iran has rejected Trump’s declarations saying he will take over Gaza and turn it into a “riviera of the Middle East” by expelling Palestinians.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday, February 9 that his country has requested an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers to discuss the statement made by US President Donald Trump about displacing Palestinians from Gaza.
📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/10/iran-says-trumps-plan-to-occupy-gaza-is-ethnic-cleansing-calls-for-a-united-global-response/

The delay was announced a few days after Netanyahu revealed that he intends to restart the war in Gaza following the release of Israeli captives, and amid Trump’s recurrent calls to displace Palestinians.

The spokesperson of Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, Abu Obaida said in a statement on Monday that “the handover of the captives, who were scheduled to be released next Saturday, will be postponed until further notice, and until the occupation commits to and compensates for the ennoscriptments of the past weeks retroactively.”
📲 Read the full article on our website.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/02/10/hamas-delays-release-of-captives-due-to-israels-violations-of-ceasefire-terms/