Europe’s militarization drive is gathering pace, with Germany leading the charge. People’s Health Dispatch spoke with Manuel Funk and Nadja Rakowitz from the Association of Democratic Doctors (Verein demokratischer Ärzt*innen, vdää*) about the consequences for the health system and for people’s right to health.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/01/31/militarization-is-spreading-through-germanys-health-sector/

On a cold January morning in Berlin, around 200 mourners gathered to bid farewell to Victor Grossman, the American-born socialist journalist and author who defected from the US Army in 1952 and spent the rest of his life in Germany.

📲 Read the full article by Florentine Morales Sandoval⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/01/internationalist-victor-grossman-laid-to-rest-in-berlin/

Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem warned in a televised speech that his group is concerned “to carry out all the procedures and make all the preparations to confront” the intended US aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

📲 Read the full article on our website.⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/01/hezbollah-vows-to-respond-if-iran-is-attacked/

News that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be among United States institutions accompanying Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Winter Olympic Games in Italy in February has sparked indignation across the region.

Since the information was first published, the Left in the European Parliament has called for an EU-wide travel ban, while Milan’s local authorities stated that the US agency is “a militia that kills” and therefore not welcome in the city.

“The mass response we are seeing in the US, with the general strike in Minneapolis and demonstrations across the country, signals the deep crisis the ruling class is facing there, just as it is in Europe,” wrote Marta Collot of Potere al Popolo on social media.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/01/29/announcement-of-ice-presence-at-italys-winter-olympics-exposes-europes-own-anti-migrant-policies/

“This decisive measure follows a series of unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practice which pose a direct challenge to South Africa’s sovereignty,” said a media statement by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).

“These violations include the repeated use of official Israeli social media platforms to launch insulting attacks against His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa, and a deliberate failure to inform DIRCO of purported visits by senior Israeli officials.”

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/01/south-africa-expels-israeli-ambassador-israel-retaliates-by-expelling-south-africas-ambassador-to-palestine/

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva calls for Latin American unity in the face of US unilateralism. Latin America and the Caribbean today faces intensified threats of war, sanctions, and meddling by its northern neighbor, yet the countries are still unable to forge unity and confront them.

Lula was speaking at the International Economic Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean in Panama City.

For people in the United States, understanding this situation requires a break with their own government’s extreme violence towards Cuba. The fuel blockade is not a “policy disagreement.” It is an act of economic terrorism designed to foment hunger, suffering, and instability until a sovereign government abdicates. Cuba’s steadfastness, against all odds, remains a powerful testament to the fact that even the most powerful empire cannot extinguish the desire for dignity and self-determination.

📲 Read the full article by Manolo de los Santos on our website.⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/02/trumps-ultimatum-to-cuba-fuel-or-surrender/

As Thailand goes to the polls, three visions compete: one which experiments in strange new populist economics, one which critiques from the seminar room, and one paying to keep the countryside quiet. In the Thai election, scheduled for February 8, we can see the Global South’s political laboratory in microcosm.

📲 Read the full article by Kay Young on our website.⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/02/thailand-general-election-2026/

Around 50,000 people mobilized in Turin against the forced closure of the social center Askatasuna and the increasingly repressive policies of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government. Authorities deployed hundreds of police officers, who used tear gas and physical force against demonstrators during the march.

📲 Read the full article on our website.⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/02/partisan-turin-rises-against-militarization-and-repression/

One month after the attack, US authorities have resumed their imperialist rhetoric. Venezuelan authorities have been forced to change the historic course of the Venezuelan oil industry under threat of a second attack.

📲 Read the full article on our website.⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/02/02/one-month-after-the-attack-on-venezuela-the-resurgence-of-imperialist-diplomacy/

🇮🇹 Italian police heavily repress youth in Turin

Thousands took to the streets of Turin, Italy, to protest the forced shutdown of the Askatasuna social center and were violently repressed by the police. The social center had provided space for community programs, as well as initiatives organizing against austerity and in support of social and environmental justice.