1. Amazon worker protests call attention to poverty and brutal working conditions which generally reach a low point due to extreme overwork during the holiday season

2. School districts, community colleges and public universities across California are grappling with budget cuts, layoffs and campus closures

3. High rates of truancy in the United States are being weaponized by the incoming Trump administration to justify Wall Street’s demand for the privatization of public education

4. A Netflix offering, Woman of the Hour, "crowds out a meaningful examination" of a bizarre period of serial killing that took place in the US during the '70s and '80s

5. President-elect Trump rewards January 6 insurrection co-conspirator Kashyap “Kash” Patel by nominating him to direct the FBI

6. A freedom of information request reveals the precarious livelihoods provided lecturers and researchers at England's prestigious Oxford University

7. In spite of having made big promises to the Berlin, Germany transportation workers it represents, the Verdi public service union loses its Berlin staff council majority for the first time

8. An Australian State of the Climate report describes how extreme heat events will be exacerbated by increased global warming

Here is a direct link to the report

9.  With the assistance of police, the Australian Woolworths chain tries to break a distribution workers' picket line by bringing in scab workers on buses

10. The former Australian Labor Party premier of the state of Victoria demands the de-funding of any organization that criticizes Israel at an awards event

11. A major setback for French imperialism (especially when Russia is bolstering its military presence in Africa's Sahel): Chad ends its defense agreement with France; also, Senegal  announces that France should close its military bases there

12. Recognizing the central role the global dollar plays in maintaining the financial hegemony of the US, President-elect Trump increasingly threatens severe tariffs against all renegade countries

13. Billionaire-controlled private equity firms and financial institutions wield unprecedented control over public healthcare in the United States

14. Every escalatory action taken by the Biden administration against Russia was preceded by an equally categorical denial, it now denies reports it will include nuclear weapons to Ukraine as a part of more massive assistance being sent

15. By forbidding the commemoration of Tamil war heroes, the Sri Lankan government reneges on its promises to stand for democratic rights, national unity and against communalism and racism

16. Unions allow Massachusetts' North Shore teachers' strikes to end with none of the strikers' main concerns getting addressed

17. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!