Easter offers no respite from Israeli attacks
Al Jazeera, 4/20–Palestinian Christians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem have marked a second sombre Easter under punishing conditions and Israel’s war on Gaza. In the Gaza Strip, where no food or aid has been allowed in by the Israeli military for nearly 50 days, people observed Easter on Sunday at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City amid death and destruction. Easter celebrations were limited to religious rituals as families cancelled other gatherings fearing more bombs would be dropped by Israeli warplanes, which killed dozens of people in the besieged enclave on Sunday…Israeli authorities prevented many Christians, including Palestinians, from accessing holy sites for Easter in the occupied West Bank…people were beaten, and Israeli officers and onlookers directed insults and slurs towards Christians.
Colleges jump on board the ICE attacks on students
The Guardian, 4/21–Fears of a new wave of deportations and student visa cancellations are rising at a number of Florida’s most diverse universities after administrators signed agreements recasting campus police as federal immigration agents…The partnerships give campus officers broad new powers to stop, question and detain students about their immigration status, and share information directly with Ice…More than 1,400 international students and recent graduates perceived by the government to be pro-Palestinian have had their F-1 or J-1 visas canceled by the homeland security department…
College political organizer kicked out of college
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, 4/18–Two words jumped off the page: Interim ban. Guerra knew what it meant…Over the last year, students and officials from the University of Rochester have repeatedly clashed over the handling of protests related to the Israel-Hamas War. “The University retains the right to suspend, ban, or otherwise constrain or restrict students, groups, and organizations on an interim basis until the formal conduct process is completed, if they pose a perceived or actual threat to themselves, others, or to the orderly processes of the University community.” It offered no evidence of his involvement. He had two hours to collect his belongings and leave campus…
Food workers protest factory speed up
MPR News, 4/18–Hundreds of meatpacking workers marched in shifts outside of the JBS Foods plant in Worthington throughout Thursday afternoon and into the early evening. They carried signs and demanded safer work conditions at the pork plant…Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture extended waivers for increased speeds while also moving to make the increases permanent…Line speeds have increased significantly over the last few decades, according to Stull. He said in the poultry industry the rate of birds processed per minute was about 90 in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Now it’s 140 birds a minute.
Think-tank hacks remind us that capitalism is about competition
Foreign Affairs, April/May 2025–Success in great-power competition requires rigorous and unsentimental net assessment…On critical metrics, China has already outmatched the United States. Economically, it boasts twice the manufacturing capacity. Technologically, it dominates everything from electric vehicles to fourth-generation nuclear reactors and now produces more active patents and top-cited scientific publications annually. Militarily, it features the world’s largest navy, bolstered by shipbuilding capacity 200 times as large as that of the United States; vastly greater missile stocks; and the world’s most advanced hypersonic capabilities…Washington would be particularly unwise to go it alone in a complex global competition.
Healthcare workers in Pakistan take to the streets
Daily Times, 4/20–Pakistan’s healthcare system is in crisis, and the Punjab government’s plan to privatize hospitals is making things worse. With only one doctor for every 1,764 people…Many doctors are leaving the country, and strict rules make it hard for students to become doctors. This leaves people without the medical help they need. The recent protests in Lahore…show how serious the problem is. Doctors, nurses, and health workers marched to the Chief Minister’s Secretariat to demand that public hospitals stay public. They were met with violence from police, who beat and injured protesters…
