Opal Lee is a writer.
Last month, the Israeli Knesset passed a measure severely limiting the Supreme Court’s powers. The central motivation: ensuring the courts won’t be able to interfere with plans to vastly increase the number of Israeli squatter settlements on Palestinian land.
Joe Biden’s policy toward Iran has been marked by incoherence and inconsistency. His prisoner swap deal between the United States and Iran is a rare positive development amid escalating tensions.
The contrarian website Spiked is now at the heart of an influential right-wing network in British politics and media. But the group behind Spiked started off as an avowedly Marxist organization before turning its back on left-wing politics in the 1990s.
G20 leaders have announced a deal with Zambia as a new debt crisis looms in the Global South. The deal will be another bonanza for finance capital at the expense of the world’s poorest people unless private lenders are forced to take a loss.
Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed through the first of his controversial judicial reforms. His domestic critics have spent months calling for a last stand for Israeli democracy — but refuse to take up the demands of Palestinians subject to decades of apartheid.
The UFC spinoff company Power Slap is angling to make slap fighting a new “sport.” But its recent visibility has less to do with its organic popularity than with the UFC’s ever-expanding grip on combat sports.
Critics of decriminalizing drugs have pointed to rising overdose rates to argue that decriminalization doesn’t work. In fact, such policies are effective — when combined with robust state support for addiction treatment.
Last week saw protests in 40 towns across Bulgaria, after courts failed to convict a man who attacked his 18-year-old former partner with a knife. The case pointed to authorities’ failure to confront domestic violence — and the wider misogyny of public life.
Late in life, diplomat George Kennan became known as a “dove” on US-Russian relations. But after World War II his containment strategy played a major role subverting democracies in the name of fighting communism.
One thing is clear from the Teamsters’ recent tentative agreement for UPS workers: thanks to members’ organizing, it is far and away the best contract ever negotiated at the company. The problems UPS workers will have to solve now are very good problems to have.
Ohio’s Issue 1 was about preventing a popular decision on abortion rights in the short term and undercutting majority influence over policymaking in the long term. Its failure is a win for democracy — but it’s part of a larger campaign that isn’t over yet.
The Trump-linked private equity firm Apollo is now benefitting from a bailout Donald Trump orchestrated in 2020 for the trucking company Yellow. As the company files for bankruptcy, truckers are getting crushed and Apollo is enjoying a publicly funded cushion.
Appalachians built their identities around an industry that’s nearly dead. Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s new documentary film King Coal asks: What happens when the king dies and there’s no heir apparent?
US regulations that fall between lax and nonexistent mean Tesla is able to treat car buyers as beta testers and public roads as a testing ground for its accident-prone “self-driving” cars. It’s a dangerous experiment that all Americans are being subject to.
The impact of Saudi money on the Premier League, whose first match is today, is tremendous. Liverpool FC’s experience highlights the delicate balance between football’s loyalty to its working-class heritage and the changes wrought by the influx of oil dollars.
Tunisian president Kais Saied has launched an authoritarian clampdown on opposition parties and media while inciting hatred against African migrants. But EU officials seem happy to embrace Saied as another thuggish border guard for Fortress Europe.
New South Wales Labor premier Chris Minns came to power after promising to scrap the coalition’s public sector pay freeze. After less than five months, he has spectacularly broken his promise — and offered what amounts to a pay cut.
Globalization has upended film and TV, creating more jobs, but ones that are worse-paid and more precarious. Like UPS Teamsters did with their strike threat, striking Hollywood workers are seeking to make their industry’s global reach work for them.
In addition to blocking action on climate change, lobbyists for oil and gas companies are pushing back against federal labor protections meant to safeguard workers from the effects of record-high temperatures.
In July, Israel’s far-right government pushed through a law undermining the power of the country’s Supreme Court. Israeli protests against the law have scarcely mentioned one of its key features: making it even easier for Israel to trample the rights of Palestinians.