Headlines at the World Socialist Web Site today:
1. This week in history: August 17-23
- 25 years ago:
50 years ago:
75 years ago:
Britain imposes economic sanctions on Iran after oil nationalization
100 years ago:
German Communist Party expels oppositionists
2. Trotsky’s My Life: An imperishable contribution to Marxism and world literature
This speech was given by David North at the fourth annual international commemoration of Leon Trotsky’s exile on the island of Büyükada (Prinkipo), Turkey, held August 16 before an audience of more than 100, under the title “My Life, Written on Prinkipo, and Trotsky's Years in Exile.”
North prefaces the speech with an appeal to the working class to call for the release of the unjustly imprisoned mayor of Büyükada, Ali Ercan Akpolat, and the Ukrainian socialist and political prisoner, Bogdan Syrotiuk,
3. Significant loss by major Wall Street trading firm
The Jane Street loss is only one indication of growing instability and the possibility that, due to the highly leveraged nature of the stock market boom, a crisis in one area can have a cascading effect.*****
The New York Times reported last week that private equity firms were saddled with more than 33,000 unsold businesses and that this “growing backlog is a challenge for private equity’s core business model.”
There are broader consequences, it noted.
“The state of limbo has been difficult for large investors like pension fund and endowments that have spent decades paying steep fees to private equity promising market-beating returns. Some investors and industry professionals are worried that the firms won’t be able to sell companies without taking big losses.”
AI is having a major impact as well. This is because much of private equity investment has been in software companies which have been declining in value because of fears that the use of AI will hit their earnings.
4. Australian school students strike against far right
Many students had created their own placards, with some reading “blame billionaires not immigrants,” “not another Trump,” “power of the people is greater than the people in power” and “keep fascists out, not immigrants.”
Reports that sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln have either jumped overboard or attempted to do so have exposed the horrendous conditions facing the largely working class naval crew that has been at sea for 268 days and deployed in the Arabian Sea in the war against Iran for five months.
6. One year after fatal Clairton explosion, federal report confirms warnings were ignored for decades
A Chemical Safety Board report on the deadly 2025 explosion at US Steel’s Clairton Coke Works documents decades of ignored warnings.
7. Job cuts planned on Wellington, New Zealand rail network
The multinational company Transdev is threatening to eliminate 53 jobs as it transitions to cashless ticketing systems.
8. ICE turns states and local police into nationwide deportation force
The Trump administration has enlisted more than 2,000 state and local law enforcement agencies in ICE’s 287(g) program, extending its mass deportation operation into traffic stops, truck inspections, schools and county jails.9. Fifth death at Michigan women’s prison as families confront Whitmer administration
Five women have died since May at Michigan’s only women’s prison, where incarcerated women describe systematic medical neglect under a for-profit health care system defended by the Whitmer administration.
10. National Symphony Orchestra faces calamity in Washington D.C.
Playing to largely empty halls, NSO's ticket revenues have fallen as much as 50 percent for some concerts.
11. Museveni sends Ugandan troops to Gaza as proxies of US imperialism
Uganda will be joining other proxies within the International Stabilisation Force, including Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania.
12. Lewes train derailment raises fresh alarm over Britain’s rail network safety
Lewes was the fifth major rail accident in six years, three of them occurring since Labour took office in July 2024. On Friday, just 24 hours later, there was another derailment involving a Greater Anglia train in Wickford, Essex.
13. Anglicare report shows deepening rental crisis for Australian workers and welfare recipients
The report found almost no rental properties in the country were affordable for low-income workers and those relying on meagre government welfare payments.
14. Australian war crimes whistleblower David McBride released from prison
McBride’s release is welcome news, but the Labor government has maintained his convictions and the precedent they seek to establish of preventing whistleblowers from exposing war crimes.
15. WSWS German editor Johannes Stern: Stop the Ukraine war! Free Bogdan Syrotiuk!
At the election rally of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei on August 15 in the Berlin district of Wedding, Johannes Stern, editor-in-chief of the German edition of the WSWS, spoke against the Ukraine war and the sentencing of 27-year-old Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk to 15 years in prison.
Opposition to the imprisonment of Bogdan Syrotiuk continued to build over the weekend, six days after a Ukrainian court gave the 27-year-old socialist 15 years in prison for calling for the unity of Ukrainian and Russian workers against the war.
17. Free Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist, Bogdan Syrotiuk!
The fight for the Ukrainian socialist and anti-war activist's freedom is an essential component of the struggle against imperialist war, genocide, dictatorship and fascism.
