Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. US Supreme Court greenlights destruction of Department of Education
The latest ruling is part of a series of decisions by the gang of fascists that controls the court aimed at dismantling fundamental democratic rights. In July 2024, the court endorsed Trump’s claim of “absolute criminal immunity” for actions taken under his “constitutional powers.” In April 2025, it further gutted judicial oversight and due process by upholding mass deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.
In the Trump v. CASA ruling of June 2025, the court stripped federal courts of the authority to issue nationwide injunctions against unconstitutional actions by the government—including Trump’s drive to abolish birthright citizenship, a right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
This week’s decision—coming on the heels of last week’s ruling permitting the mass firing of federal workers—clearly exposes the class character of the turn toward dictatorship: the dismantling of basic democratic protections to enforce the interests of the financial oligarchy.
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The Supreme Court’s decision paves the way for an intensified assault on every level of public education and the plundering of its resources by the financial oligarchy through privatization. It aims to make meaningful education unattainable to the working class. Exposure to world cultures, history, the arts, and science is to be gutted and replaced with narrow vocational training. The ruling class seeks to funnel youth into two channels: the brutal reindustrialization of the US at home and military service in the predatory wars of American imperialism abroad.
2. Letter from a rank-and-file Chicago educator to teachers in Philadelphia and California
An educator urges his counter-parts in other cities to draw the lessons from the betrayal in Chicago and wage a counter-offensive against the Democrats and Trump.
3. Fascist terrorist cell uncovered in Canada’s military
The fascist plotters had amassed a vast arsenal of weapons, were actively seeking recruits for their militia, and reportedly planned to “seize land.”
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The plotters promoted right-wing conspiracy theories on social media, many of them directed against Trudeau, a hate-figure for the far right, which blames Trudeau variously for “wokeism,” COVID lockdowns, and increased immigration.
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Opposition to government support for Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians does indeed run broad and deep among working people, and that “anti-authority” sentiment truly terrifies the ruling class and its functionaries. By lumping fascists and principled and peaceful opponents of genocide together as “other extremists” and “opponents of authority,” the state both covers up its own role in incubating and promoting fascist forces and seeks to legitimize its repression of social opposition from the working class and left.
On leaving No. 10, Tony Blair was immediately shoe-horned—with the support of his partner in crime US President George W. Bush—into the position of Middle East envoy for the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia. He was given the task of helping develop the Palestinian economy under Israeli occupation and “improv[ing] governance”, but from the start was seen as too close to the Israeli government.
Crucially, this role allowed him to hobnob with despots throughout the region and in the process cultivate lucrative business contacts.
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5. UK police use Palestine Action proscription to target protest mentioning “Gaza” and “genocide”
A Canterbury police officer threatened a protester that “mentioning freedom of Gaza, Israel, genocide, all of that, it will come under proscribed groups which are terror groups… which we have suspicion that you’re supporting, based on your actions here, in a city with the flags and the posters you’ve got up.”
6. Indiana Kroger workers reject second sellout contract approved by UFCW Local 700
In 2022, workers at Kroger formed a rank-and-file committee to oppose the union sellouts and push for strike action. With the United Food and Commercial Workers sabotaging the potential for a nationwide grocery strike, such a rank-and-file rebellion is once again needed.
Of course, The Phoenician Scheme is carried off with Anderson’s characteristic “touch,” i.e., eccentric, roundabout, imaginative, quasi-literary, a little claustrophobic, oblique and even at times confusing. The American filmmaker (born 1969 in Houston) offers his account of the fate of a “great capitalist” in the form of a dark comedy about a sociopathic billionaire who keeps surviving airplane crashes and other assassination attempts, stores his ambitious plans in numbered shoeboxes and hands over a business empire to his youthful daughter, a novitiate preparing to take her final vows! There are even scenes set in heaven!
The result is surprising, oddly appealing and generally humane.
The main issue for the Verdi union is not to oppose the cuts, but to take part in deciding when and where the axe should fall.
The contract ratification follows more than four months of closed-door talks between the MNA and hospital administrators. Nurses in the Twin Cities have been working without a contract since May 31. The MNA announced the tentative agreement with Twin Cities hospitals on July 3, days after Duluth-area nurses voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. The next day, the union called off the Duluth strike and quickly moved to finalize a second agreement.
Meanwhile, a separate strike by more than 500 Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) at Essentia Health hospitals in northeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin remains ongoing. The APPs are nurse practitioners, midwives, physician assistants, and clinical nurse specialists. They joined the MNA last year and are now being isolated on the picket line by the union
The MNA bureaucracy worked to fragment and dissipate the growing anger among healthcare workers across the state. At no point were nurses across the different systems and job classifications unified in a common fight. The bureaucracy's actions were aimed not at strengthening the struggle, but at limiting its political and economic impact.
10. 19-year-old killed while cleaning industrial meat grinder in Vernon, California
The horrific death of a 19-year-old industrial janitor at Tina’s Burritos in Vernon, California exposes the deadly reality facing workers under capitalism: deregulation, union complicity, and a state that protects profits over human life.
11. Milwaukee, Michigan transit workers vote to authorize strike
On July 9 workers at the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) voted by 98 percent to 2 percent to authorize a strike, another indication of the growing anger and militancy among workers across the United States, and internationally, where waves of strikes and protests are increasing.
12. 20-year-old Palestinian American beaten to death by Zionist mob in the West Bank
Musallet’s father, Kamel, condemned both the settler violence and the actions of the Israeli military, insisting that they, alongside the US government, share responsibility for enabling impunity.
He said, “The Israeli military prevented the ambulance and allowed the settlers to do what they do anytime they want. I hold the Israeli military just as responsible as the settlers and the American government for not doing anything about this.”
13. Social crisis deepening in New Zealand
Growing discontent was highlighted last week with Statistics NZ revealing that a net 30,000 citizens quit New Zealand last year to move to Australia, the largest single year exodus since 2012. Tens of thousands more departed for other countries. In April and May 2025, more people left permanently than entered.
14. Japanese government faces losses in upper house election
The political crisis in Japan is being compounded by Trump’s tariffs and demands that the government commit to a US-led war against China over Taiwan.
15. The surge of XFG (Stratus) as the next dominant variant of Omicron globally
Despite its spread, the WHO currently assesses the additional public health risk posed by XFG as low at the global level, with existing COVID-19 vaccines expected to remain effective against symptomatic and severe disease. However, this ongoing viral evolution and transmission occurs amidst a devastating crisis in US public health, driven by sweeping policy shifts and budget cuts.
16. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk and Leon Trotsky
