The notorious Megiddo Prison -- image via Middle East Monitor / Twitter By Vijay Prashad and Ubai al-Aboudi In January 2026, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem published a grim update to its earlier work, titled Living Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps . This report documents the horrific conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and detention facilities, revealing structural brutality that must be understood not as is

Venezuela's legislature advancing an amnesty bill proposed by acting President Delcy Rodríguez -- image via news video screenshot By Guillermo Barreto On 20 May 2017, during a violent protest planned by sectors of the Venezuelan opposition, 21-year-old Orlando Figuera was attacked by a mob that accused him of being a Chavista. After being stabbed, he was doused with gasoline and set on fire in front of everyone present. Young Orlando was admitted to a hospital with multiple

Greenland's flag -- Christoph Strässler, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Lotte Rørtoft-Madsen On 14 January, a few hours before the historic meeting in Washington between representatives from Greenland and Denmark and their U.S. counterparts, J. D. Vance and Marco Rubio, Denmark and several of its NATO allies reinforced their military presence in Greenland and announced that more reinforcements would follow. Some interpreted this move as pressure on the Trump Administr

Gaza, December 2025 -- image via the UNRWA on X By Vijay Prashad On 19 January 2025, a ceasefire took effect to halt the Israeli bombing of Palestinians in Gaza. This ceasefire emerged from a mediation process by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, which had been sealed in June 2024 with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2735 . However, the Israelis rejected the agreement and waited until Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election to proceed so that Trump coul

By Biljana Vankovska A passage from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale haunts me often: “That was when they suspended the Constitution… There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home… watching television… There wasn’t even an enemy you could put your finger on.” Today, the enemy list is long: Russia, China, Iran, Hamas—you choose! Our screens have changed, but our passivity hasn’t. We no longer watch TV; we scroll, distracted and numb, as freedoms erode

From child labor to trafficking—and even foster care, sports, and detention—institutions meant to protect children often cause the greatest harm. Road sign in Provincetown, Massachusetts -- Bigguy637, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Colin Greer and Reynard Loki [Editor’s Note: This article is the first installment of “Does Your Community Care About Children?”, a four-part series by Colin Greer and Reynard Loki. The series examines overlapping crises facing vulnerable youth in A

Millions of African children are born into overlapping crises, and true climate justice must begin with birth equity to uphold human rights, sovereignty, and reparative action. Nigerian children doing a class exercise -- Ibukshizzy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Esther Afolaranmi In July 2025, the International Court of Justice held its first hearings on states’ climate responsibilities in decades. A lead judge described climate change as an “ urgent and existential

Kast and Argentinian president Milei on December 16 -- Argentina.gob.ar , CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Vijay Prashad On 14 December, the predictable happened: José Antonio Kast, the candidate of the far-right Republican Party, prevailed over Jeannette Jara of the Communist Party of Chile by 58.16 percent to 41.84 percent. Kast ran as the candidate of the Cambio por Chile (Change for Chile) platform and was backed by all the parties of the traditional right and the cent

Often overlooked in traditional emergency management, women play a critical role in preparedness, risk reduction, and building resilient communities. Representational image -- Kartiki Gonsalves, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Reynard Loki On February 26, 1852, the HMS Birkenhead struck a cluster of rocks off the coast of South Africa. With only a few lifeboats for the 638 people aboard, Captain Robert Salmond ordered the women and children to board first while the men

Trump aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, October 5, 2025 -- public domain image By Vijay Prashad Ever since Hugo Chávez came to power in 1998, the United States has attempted  to overthrow the Bolivarian Revolution. They have tried everything short of a full-scale military invasion: a military coup, selecting a substitute president, cutting off access to the global financial system, imposing layers of sanctions, sabotaging the electricity grid, sending in merc

Indigenous leaders, farmers, and environmental activists worldwide face harassment, violence, and legal threats while defending land, water, and ecosystems, highlighting the urgent need for stronger protections and international accountability. Banner at a protest after the murder of Honduran environmental activist Juan López -- image via X By Reynard Loki Land and environmental defenders—Indigenous leaders, farmers, conservationists, and community activists—risk their lives

A Brandix factory floor in Sri Lanka -- image via a Brandix corporate video screenshot By Shiran Illanperuma Sundays at Paramasivam Pushpalatha’s home used to be a much livelier affair. It was her only day off from the factory and so she would pack seven days of domesticity into one. Her husband, Govindasamy Sivakumar, would sometimes take walks to avoid the hustle and bustle of the house being turned upside down in a frenzy of cooking and cleaning. “She had the strength of t

Image via India Today on X, November 28, 2025 By Srujana Bodapati It is that time of year again when India’s national capital Delhi’s air quality turned acutely hazardous. Official Indian air quality indicators hit their maximum adverse readings of 500, while indices based on international norms shoot past 1,000 or even 2,000 —a level that effectively turned the city into a gas chamber. The thick smog, loaded with toxic gases, seeps into every corner of the city, including in

People march in Belem, Brazil on November 15 as part of the popular protests outside of COP30 -- news screenshot via X By Cade Dunbar On Friday, 17 October 2025, the UN Development Programme released the 2025 edition of its Multidimensional Poverty Index Report . For the first time, the report directly evaluates their multidimensional poverty data against climate hazards, exposing the extent to which the world’s poor are threatened by the environmental crisis. According to th

A mural painted on the rubble of a destroyed building in Al Thawra Street in Rimal, Gaza. The mural was created by Mostafa Mehna with 25 children from Gaza. The Arabic text reads "There is hope" -- photo, February 2025 via Hla.bashbash, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Biljana Vankovska As a professor who has spent more than forty years studying questions of war and peace, international law and relations  —and above all, the human consequences of armed conflict— I once bel

Catherine Connolly campaigning in October -- image via Connolly for President on X By Vijay Prashad Catherine Connolly (born 1957) only became involved in active politics in 1999. Michael D. Higgins, the outgoing president of Ireland (2011-2025), encouraged Connolly to join the Labour Party and stand for election. Both Connolly and Higgins (known in Ireland as Michael D) come from Galway, a city on the west coast of Ireland. Connolly was born there, the ninth of fourteen chil

Trump and Netanyahu with a number of US officials at the White House, September 29, 2025 -- public domain image By Vijay Prashad On 26 October, Caroline Willemen of Médecins Sans Frontières stated that Israel continues to use the need for humanitarian aid in Gaza as “means of pressure”. “The humanitarian situation in Gaza has not improved significantly”, she told the press, “as water and shelter shortages persist and hundreds of thousands of people continue to live in tents

The recent US airstrikes in the Caribbean and military threats against Venezuela are a continuation of decades (or even centuries) of US policy on the region, not a departure from it. Trump on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, October 5, 2025 -- public domain image By Manolo De Los Santos Over the last several weeks, Washington has escalated threats and hostilities against Venezuela, and US President Donald Trump openly confirmed that he authorized the CIA to carry o

By Vijay Prashad Slowly, a full picture of the devastation of Gaza by Israel is becoming clear. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) released a report around the time of the ceasefire that began to lay out the numbers: Israel’s bombardment of Gaza resulted in the total destruction of 190,115 buildings and the almost total destruction of another 330,500 housing units. The constant artillery and aerial fire over the 734 days of the genocide resulted in the wrec

Image via X By Jaime Bravo and Jorge Coulon Dina Boluarte’s removal from office is not a victory for the people, but an internal readjustment of power. Congress did not obey the clamor of the streets, but rather the need to preserve a system that is crumbling from within. The fuse was changed so that the same machinery could continue to run: the pact between plutocracy, corruption, and fear. Boluarte was useful as long as she maintained the order imposed after the fall of Ped