“After two weeks of protests at the Utah state capitol, the state has banned collective bargaining for teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public employees, a move unions have vowed to fight.
Utah’s Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed the ban even as protests continued outside the state capitol in Salt Lake City demanded he veto the controversial bill. Federal law protects the collective bargaining rights of workers in the private sector, but determining labor law for public employees is up to the states. Supporters of the law argued that labor unions were inherently political and that allowing them to engage in collective bargaining on behalf of public employees presented a conflict of interest and could burden the taxpayer.” (02/16/25)
“Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government is working closely with the US to implement Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, which involves US ownership of the coastal strip, the removal of more than 2 million Palestinians and the redevelopment of the occupied territory as a resort. The Israeli prime minister was speaking after a meeting in Jerusalem with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who defended the Trump plan as bold and visionary. Rubio and Netanyahu blamed Iran for the violence in the Middle East and insisted Tehran would be stopped from developing nuclear weapons. Trump’s shock proposal earlier this month for a ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ has been condemned around the world as a blueprint for ethnic cleansing, but Rubio and Netanyahu insisted it would proceed.” (02/16/25)
“Mouldy half-finished food on bunk beds, discarded military uniforms and abandoned weapons – these are the remnants of an abrupt retreat from this base that once belonged to Iran and its affiliated groups in Syria. The scene tells a story of panic. The forces stationed here fled with little warning, leaving behind a decade-long presence that unravelled in mere weeks. Iran was Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s most critical ally for more than 10 years. It deployed military advisers, mobilised foreign militias, and invested heavily in Syria’s war. Its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) built deep networks of underground bases, supplying arms and training to thousands of fighters. For Iran, this was also part of its ‘security belt’ against Israel.” (02/16/25)
“At least 18 people, including 14 women, were killed in a stampede at a railway station in India’s capital of New Delhi, the Press Trust of India news agency reported Sunday. Many of the victims were Hindu pilgrims who were traveling to the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj in northern India, according to Delhi’s caretaker chief minister, Atishi, who uses only one name. … The incident occurred after some passengers slipped and fell on others while coming down from a footbridge that connects train platforms, authorities said.” (02/16/25)
“The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly cutting thousands of probationary workers as tax season ramps up, according to The Associated Press. The announcement comes just days after the Trump administration instructed agencies to fire most probationary workers who have not secured civil service protection. The layoffs could potentially impact hundreds of thousands of people, although the exact number has not yet been confirmed, the AP reported. In addition to the probationary cuts, President Donald Trump announced on Jan. 29 that federal employees would be fired if they did not return to in-person work by early February. A buyout offer, which has been extended, has already been accepted by about 65,000 employees. The Associated Press reported IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season, which began on Jan. 27, are not eligible for the buyout until after the taxpayer filing deadline, according to a letter sent recently to IRS employees.” (02/15/25)
“A year after Alexei Navalny’s suspicious death in a Russian prison, his supporters have been helping choose a headstone for his grave in Moscow. ‘It will be a place of hope and strength for all those who dream of the wonderful Russia of the future,’ says the opposition politician’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, quoting one of his best-known phrases. Revealing her shortlist of designs in a video last week, she hoped the grave would become somewhere that those who oppose Vladimir Putin go ‘to remember they are not alone.’ Navalnaya now lives abroad, facing arrest if she were to return to Russia. Her words capture just how far ambitions have shrunk.” (02/16/25)
“French President Emmanuel Macron has scheduled an ’emergency meeting’ for European leaders to discuss President Donald Trump, according to another European official. According to Politico, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski alluded to the meeting at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. Two EU officials told the outlet that the meeting would take place on Monday. ‘I’m very glad that President Macron has called our leaders to Paris,’ Sikorski was quoted as saying, noting that the event would involve talking about the implications of Trump’s actions ‘in a very serious fashion.’ ‘President Trump has a method of operating which the Russians call razvedka boyem – reconnaissance through battle. You push and you see what happens, and then you change your position. And we need to respond,’ the Polish official added.” (02/15/25)
“A Turkish opposition party delegation arrived in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region Sunday against the backdrop of peace efforts between Ankara and a banned Kurdish separatist movement in Turkey. The delegation led by Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan, two senior officials with the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, in Turkey, met with Masoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party — the dominant Kurdish party in Iraq — in Irbil Sunday. Barzani’s office said in a statement that they discussed ‘the peace process in Turkey’ and that the Turkish delegation conveyed a message from Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of Turkey’s banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.” (02/16/25)
“Thousands of people marched to the United States Embassy in London on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan for the Gaza Strip, a proposal that has been roundly condemned as unlawful and monstrous by the U.N., international human rights organizations, and Palestinians living in the enclave decimated by relentless Israeli bombing. The march came after Trump doubled down on his proposal for the U.S. to ‘take over’ Gaza after forcibly and permanently displacing Palestinians from the territory. ‘Think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it and we’ll slowly (very slowly, we’re in no rush) develop it,’ Trump told reporters last weekend. Marchers carried signs Sunday expressing contempt for the president’s proposal, which Amnesty International denounced as ‘inflammatory, outrageous, and shameful’.” (02/15/25)
“On a recent Sunday, Tracy Quinn drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to assess damage wrought upon the coastline by the Palisades Fire. The water line was darkened by ash. Burnt remnants of washing machines and dryers and metal appliances were strewn about the shoreline. Sludge carpeted the water’s edge. Waves during high tide lapped onto charred homes, pulling debris and potentially toxic ash into the ocean as they receded. ‘It was just heartbreaking,’ said Quinn, president and CEO of the environmental group Heal the Bay, whose team has reported ash and debris some 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the Palisades burn area west of Los Angeles. As crews work to remove potentially hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous materials from the Los Angeles wildfires, researchers and officials are trying to understand how the fires on land have impacted the sea.” (02/16/25)
