Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. Democrats, media cheer as Trump escalates Ukraine-Russia war
As is generally the case with Trump, boosting the profits of American corporations at the expense of their overseas rivals was a key selling point for the deal. European countries will purchase billions of dollars in US-made weapons, including two Patriot missile systems, and send them to Ukraine, propping up both the crumbling Zelensky regime in Kiev and the bottom lines of military contractors like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
At Monday’s press briefing, Trump announced that he was giving Russian President Vladimir Putin 50 days to reach a ceasefire deal with Ukraine. If not, Trump warned, he would impose tariffs of at least 100 percent on any country that purchases Russian oil and gas.
The tariffs would target China, India and Brazil, which—along with Russia—are founding members of BRICS, the economic bloc set up to promote trade and financial transactions outside the US dollar. Trump’s ultimatum thus directly links his trade war policies against the foreign rivals of American capitalism, particularly China, with the US-NATO war against Russia, instigated by Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, whom he regularly denounces.
2. 2,000 sanitation workers at Republic Services involved in nationwide strikes
A wave of strikes and solidarity actions by sanitation workers at Republic Services, America’s second-largest waste disposal company, has erupted across the country. It is an important development in the growing resistance of the American working class.
From Boston to the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta to Ottawa, and Seattle to Southern California, some 2,000 sanitation workers are either on strike or honoring picket lines in a national fightback against brutal working conditions, poverty wages and systemic abuse. Their strike has left trash piling up in city streets and the corporate-political establishment scrambling to contain what could become a far wider revolt.
The Republic workers’ demands reflect both immediate grievances and long-simmering systemic issues within the waste management industry.
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But if workers are to win this battle, they must first identify and overcome the most immediate obstacle in their path: the Teamsters bureaucracy itself.
Led by President Sean O’Brien, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters postures as a militant, fighting union. In reality, it functions as a junior partner of corporate America and the state. Its role is not to wage struggle but to prevent it. Every major labor conflict under O’Brien’s leadership has ended in betrayal.
3. Superman: Trump forces outraged by defense of immigrants and … “human kindness”
The hostile response in certain quarters to Superman, a relatively innocuous movie based on a popular comic book, is not directly related to the artistic or dramatic character and quality of Gunn’s work. It emerges instead out of the high level of social and political tensions in the US, and in particular, the extreme sensitivity of reactionary political forces to any criticism or questioning of the Gestapo-like ICE raids against the immigrant population and Trump’s policies as a whole.
These issues arise in regard to Superman, in the first place, because, of course, the “Man of Steel” is an “alien,” literally, sent by his parents to Earth when their own planet, Krypton, faces destruction.
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Political life has swung so far to the right in the US that sections of the establishment associated with the current administration find references to immigrants and “human kindness” impossibly galling, “leftist” and dangerous.
None of these individuals had apparently seen the film. They were simply and stupidly thrashing about, flailing at what they imagined or expected might be there.
4. Jaime Alanís García falls 30 feet to his death fleeing ICE agents in California immigrant raid
Jaime died as a direct consequence of a brutal, militarized immigration crackdown spearheaded by the Trump administration and supported by both capitalist parties. He is the first known martyr in what is becoming an American Gestapo campaign—a term not used lightly, with deliberate historical weight. García was also a husband, a father and the sole provider for his family in Mexico, whose survival depended on the remittances he sent back from his low-paid labor in California.
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On July 10, ICE launched coordinated raids at Glass House Farms cannabis facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria, storming the sites with federal agents, armored vehicles and helicopters. Over 300 people, including at least four US citizens, were arrested in the raids. Amid this military-style assault, federal officials proudly announced they had discovered “at least ten child laborers.”
Rather than indicting the capitalist system that employs children in backbreaking agricultural labor in 2025 California, the state has moved to criminalize the victims of that exploitation. The “discovery” of child workers is now being cynically used to retroactively justify the raid and mass arrests, deflecting attention from the real scandal: that in the richest state of the richest country on earth, such 19th-century barbarism exists as a matter of course.
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California has long been promoted as a “sanctuary state” by Democratic politicians like Governor Gavin Newsom—who recently signed a state budget that effectively condemns undocumented immigrants to illness and destitution—and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. This is a lie. The illusion of California as a safe haven for immigrants is shattered every time ICE conducts a raid with the assistance of local law enforcement.
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The United Farm Workers (UFW), which historically claims to represent immigrant laborers, has once again proven itself utterly bankrupt. In a revealing interview, UFW President Teresa Romero admitted that raids have been ongoing “for months,” yet the union’s response has been limited to calls for nonviolence and “peaceful protest,” appealing to the very politicians responsible for unleashing ICE.
Romero acknowledged that the raids have forced farmworkers to stay home out of fear but emphasized that “they don’t make a lot of money ... so they know they have to go to work.” She also highlighted efforts to work with politicians on a “pathway to citizenship” for those who have labored for “40 or 50 years.” This grotesque approach—where security is a reward for decades of poverty—is a damning indictment of the UFW’s pro-capitalist orientation.
The deadly flooding in Texas Hill Country has exposed deep cracks in American society. At least 120 people have died and 170 remain missing in a catastrophe that could have been mitigated with timely warnings and coordinated rescue operations. But years of budget cuts, disinvestment in public infrastructure and politically driven decision-making have taken their toll.
The region lacked any flood warning system. Staffing shortages at the National Weather Service hampered the agency’s ability to issue timely alerts. And in one of the most damning failures, the City of Austin Fire Department—despite having “the best water rescue units in the state,” according to Austin Firefighters Association (AFA) President Bob Nicks—refused to deploy rescue teams until after the flooding had already begun.
On July 11, the AFA (Local 975 of the International Association of Firefighters) voted overwhelmingly—by 93 percent—to issue a resolution of no confidence in Fire Chief Joel Baker.
6. Mahmoud Khalil files $20 million claim against the Trump administration
In a press release announcing the claim, the Center for Constitutional Rights noted that the claim is “a precursor to a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration” and that Khalil “would accept, in lieu of payment, an official apology and abandonment of the administration’s unconstitutional policy.”
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Khalil’s persecution is only the first in a series of cases in which the White House has detained and sought to deport students for pro-Palestinian speech. Courts have ordered the release of at least two other anti-genocide students from detention—Mohsen Mahdawi of Columbia University and Rümeysa Öztürk of Tufts University, as well as Badar Khan Suri, a professor at Georgetown University—while Momodou Taal of Cornell University was forced to flee the US.
The White House has targeted these students as part of a broader assault against immigrants. The illegal deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was tortured in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, and the detention of Ward Sakeik, a stateless Palestinian, are only two prominent examples.
The aim of this campaign is to establish precedents to criminalize political opposition. Already, Zohran Mamdani’s unexpected victory in last month’s Democratic party primary for New York City mayor has prompted a number of fascist Republicans to call for his deportation. The Trump administration is not afraid of Mamdani, a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member calling for minor reforms, but it is terrified by the masses of people who voted for him.
7. Trump slaps 30 percent tariff on Sri Lanka
The 30 percent tariff will significantly impact on Sri Lanka—particularly its apparel manufacturing and other export industries—and expected to result in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. This will further intensify the economic and political crisis facing the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna/National People’s Power government.
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In response to Trump’s initial tariff hike announcement, President Dissanayake called for “national unity” and convened an All-Party Conference on April 11. He urged working people to “bear the burden of a future economic collapse” and to sacrifice their rights for the benefit of big business.
The Dissanayake government has made its support for Washington’s geopolitical agenda clear by strengthening military ties with the US, welcoming visits from senior American military officials, and aligning itself with the US military buildup against China.
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The tariff war and its devastating social consequences are not isolated events but are rooted in the deepening crisis of global capitalism. Workers are not responsible for the global economic turmoil or the escalating tariff wars and should not sacrifice their rights to protect Sri Lankan capitalism and its ruling elite.
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The struggle against the tariff war, like the fight against IMF austerity, is inherently international. Sri Lankan apparel and other workers must unite with their class brothers and sisters across borders in a common fight against the global capitalist offensive.
8. South Australian supermarket wage-theft case settles for $5.5 million
More than 500 current and former supermarket workers in regional South Australia are to receive $5.5 million in back pay, following the settlement of a four-year wage theft case. They were employed at 23 regional Foodland supermarkets run by Eudunda Farmers Pty Ltd.
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Wage theft is widespread in Australia, especially in the retail and fast food sectors. In 2019, major national supermarket chain Woolworths admitted it had underpaid around 5,700 salaried staff a total of around $300 million over the previous decade. In 2021, the Fair Work Ombudsman found Coles, the country’s other major supermarket chain, had underpaid 7,805 workers a total of $113.8 million.
Super Retail Group, owner of various outlets such as SuperCheap Auto and Rebel Sport, admitted in 2019 to having underpaid staff by up to $43 million. In 2022, Domino’s Pizza was the subject of a class action, in which delivery drivers and other employees claimed they had been paid as much as $11 per hour less than the minimum award wage.
It is no coincidence that wage theft is rife in these sectors, where a high proportion of workers are young and employed on a casual basis. Workers who are not guaranteed ongoing employment, especially if they are inexperienced, are less likely to speak out if they are underpaid.
Unite’s decision to suspend Labour Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner from union membership was forced on it by mounting hostility to the Starmer government.
Rayner was suspended last Friday for her “totally and utterly abhorrent” behavior and “bringing the union into disrepute” during the Birmingham bin dispute, with the same action taken against Birmingham council leader John Cotton and fellow Unite Birmingham councillors “for their roles in effectively firing and rehiring the workers, who are striking over pay cuts of up to £8,000.”
10. Trump plans to shut down the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board
President Trump is planning to kill the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), allocating $0 for its 2026 budget. The CSB is an independent federal agency whose function is to “conduct root cause investigations of chemical accidents at fixed industrial facilities,” as the agency explains on its website.
The agency’s budget last fiscal year was $14.4 million, less than one percent of the $2.1 billion that a single B2, the plane used to bomb Iran, costs. Its emergency fund of $844,000 would be used for closure-related costs.
The CSB has always had limited regulatory powers. It has no ability to penalize companies or issue regulations, and its reports have a standard disclaimer that even prevent its usage in lawsuits.
In spite of this and its small size, having only 50 employees, the agency has had a significant impact on occupational safety and has undoubtedly saved lives.
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Destroying the CSB is bipartisan. The Democrats are doing nothing to stop the gutting of federal safety agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service, which led to 300 preventable deaths from floods in Texas, and other agencies. Both parties support funneling this money towards a massive build-up of the US military for world war, which now has an over $1.1 trillion yearly budget, as well as $3 trillion in handouts to the financial elite.
The other reason the agency is being axed is its factual reporting proves in part that there is an objective basis for an alternative to the industrial slaughterhouse of the American workplace, where approximately 140,000 workers die from traumatic injuries and workplace exposures every year.
A thriving textile manufacturing center until the early 20th century employing thousands in its mills, the southeastern Massachusetts city of 94,000 now ranks 344th out of the state’s 350 municipalities in per capita income. More than 17 percent of Fall River residents aged 65 and older live below the poverty line, and 14.2 percent of this age group live alone.
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According to some residents, the Fall River fire was a disaster waiting to happen. Michael Pimentel and his friend Russell Silvia stated they had called news stations multiple times urging investigations into the Gabriel House. They told the Globe the facility “smelled like urine,” had “mice in beds” and 'cockroaches.”
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The senior living crisis extends beyond Massachusetts. Elder abuse and neglect in US nursing homes and elder care facilities are not only alarming and prevailing problems but also often go unreported. Statistics suggest up to 2 million American senior citizens aged 65 or older might have been affected by elder abuse, and one report found that as many as one in three elder care institutions were responsible for instances of neglect and abuse.
The cost of assisted living in the US is astronomical, further highlighting the economic pressures placed on seniors and their families. As of 2025, the estimated median cost of assisted living in the US is $6,077 per month, or $72,924 per year, according to SeniorLiving.org. In Massachusetts, the median monthly cost is even higher, standing at around $9,330. These costs are prohibitive for all but the wealthiest seniors, who can afford country-club-style accommodations in their “golden years.”
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The median annual cost for assisted living in the US, ranging from $70,800 to $72,924, dwarfs that of other developed nations. For example, assisted living costs in Canada are $24,000–$60,000 per year, with provincial subsidies available, while in Japan, costs are $18,000–$42,000 per year, with national long-term care insurance available. Austerity measures implemented by governments globally will inevitably raise costs in these countries as well.
Less than a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US President Trump at the White House, the real purpose of the discussions as a planning session for the final stages of the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza has been confirmed.
While the mass slaughter of Palestinians is continuing, the US-Israeli plan to construct a militarized “humanitarian city” in southern Gaza have been exposed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert what it is: a concentration camp.
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“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” Olmert told The Guardian.
13. US child health plummets amid austerity and inequality
The health of children in the United States has deteriorated catastrophically over the past 16 years, a trend now documented in a new study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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The worsening health of American children is not a blameless state of affairs but the direct result of a society governed by a financial oligarchy that subordinates every aspect of life to the pursuit of private profit. Over the past several decades, both capitalist parties have overseen the systematic dismantling of the social programs—housing assistance, public education, food security and healthcare—that form the foundation of childhood development. As corporate profits have soared, investment in these critical services has stagnated or declined, leading to rising rates of disease, disability and inequality among working class youth.
14. Washington demands Australian government commit to war on China
Just as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was about to start a visit to China last weekend, the Trump administration leaked to the Financial Times (FT) that it is demanding a commitment from Australia, as well as Japan, of involvement in any war with China.
“The Pentagon is pressing Japan and Australia to make clear what role they would play if the US and China went to war over Taiwan,” the FT reported. Elbridge Colby, Trump’s under-secretary of defense for policy, “has been pushing the issue in meetings with Japanese and Australian defense officials in recent months, said five people familiar with the discussions.”
An unnamed US defense official alluded to advanced plans, involving Japan and Australia, telling the FT: “Concrete operational planning and exercises that have direct application to a Taiwan contingency are moving forward with Japan and Australia.”
An official said the Pentagon had received “positive” indicators on higher spending from Japan and Australia, but stressed that it was “critical for us all that we see results.”
After the article’s publication, Colby essentially confirmed the report.
15. Part One: President Gabriel Boric and the rightward shift of the Chilean pseudo-left
The right-ward trajectory of the ruling coalition, made up of the pseudo-left Broad Front alliance, the Stalinist Communist Party and the bourgeois Socialist Party-Party for Democracy, substantiates the International Committee of the Fourth International’s characterization of pseudo-left organizations as political tendencies reflecting the aspirations of upper middle class layers for a more equitable wealth distribution only within the wealthiest 10 percent.
This political stratum decades ago renounced even the pretense of fighting for the revolutionary transformation of society. It accommodated itself to the financialization of the economy and the needs of the capitalist nation-state, with all that this implied—the return to colonialist wars and plunder, de-industrialization and impoverishment of the working class, and the ever-widening breach between rich and poor.
At critical inflection points during the reemergence of the class struggle over the last 15 years, they have mouthed left-sounding phraseology only to better ensnare radicalized youth, students and workers, to dissipate their struggles and divert them back into the safe channels of bourgeois parliamentarism and the grip of the despised establishment parties.
16. Republican congressmen escalate witch-hunt against Chinese researchers at the University of Michigan
On June 18, three US House of Representatives committee chairmen wrote to the University of Michigan, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation, demanding an inquiry into research security. The letters mark a significant escalation of the persecution of U-M postdoctoral researchers and Chinese citizens Yunqing Jian and Chengxuan Han, directly integrating the federal legislative branch into the anti-China witch-hunt.
Jian was arrested June 2 and, together with her boyfriend Zunyong Liu, faces charges related to the alleged smuggling of Fusarium graminearum, a common agricultural fungus. Han, arrested June 8, is accused of smuggling C. elegans roundworms and plasmids.
Jian and Han remain in federal custody without bond, facing potential sentences of up to 20 years in prison, while Liu was returned to China and has been banned from entering the US. Both Jian and Han are reportedly in plea negotiations with prosecutors.
These severe penalties are wildly disproportionate to actions that would under ordinary circumstances result in a fine for failing to follow protocol. The congressional inquiry underscores the unscientific and witch-hunting character of the prosecution of Jian and Han.
The targeting of Jian, Liu and Han is part of a campaign to poison US public opinion against China in preparation for war against the nuclear power and economic rival of US imperialism. They are being depicted as “agro-terrorist” agents of the Chinese Communist Party.
In a powerful show of opposition to the Gaza genocide, large numbers of students at University of Edinburgh, Scotland held dramatic walkouts and protests at their graduation ceremonies over the past fortnight, to oppose their university’s financial ties to the Israeli arms industry and its complicity in genocide.
Young people interrupted their graduation ceremonies, unfolding flags and banners with slogans including, “Fund teaching not genocide”, “No Graduates in Gaza” and “No universities in Gaza”, before walking out of the graduation halls, to cheering and clapping.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Sanders said, “If Russia stops fighting in Ukraine, you get to a position where within a matter of months they will have the capability to conduct a limited attack on a NATO member that we will be responsible for supporting, and that happens by 2030.”
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His main concern is military manpower.
“Now the first place you go to are the reserves, but the reserves are also too small. Thirty thousand reserves still only takes you to an army of 100,000. I joined an Army in the Cold War that was about 140,000 regulars, and on top of that, a much larger reserve.”
The government’s Strategic Defense Review published in June—which envisages a slight increase in regular army troop numbers to just 73,000—“didn’t touch on this at all”.
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Sanders’s comments take place within the context of the mad rush to rearmament by the main imperialist powers, with Russia and China in the firing line. His Telegraph interview was published just days before widespread media discussion of right-wing German historian Sönke Neitzel’s statement “Perhaps this is the last summer of peace.”
The intervention by Sanders also coincided with the call on Sunday by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier for the reintroduction of conscription.
19. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
Bogdan Syrotiuk and Leon Trotsky
