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Two recent events — the victory of right-wing candidate Mauricio Macri in Argentina's presidential election in November and the win by Venezuela's right-wing Democratic Unity Roundtable in the December National Assembly elections — have radically altered South America's political map.
Bernie Sanders. Self-described democratic socialist and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders used a January 5 speech to call for structural reforms to the US financial system, calling Wall Street's business model as fraudulent, TeleSUR English said on January 5.
The Hurriers

British band The Hurriers are passionate, independently-driven — both in terms of control of their output, promo and gigs — and, almost as a bonus, a kick-ass in-your-face rock'n'roll act. The five-piece hails from Barnsley in South Yorkshire, a working-class town with a long history of mining.

“Stop the blackmail: Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.” Paris, July 2014.
Supporters stand with Ezra Nawi outside an Israeli prison where he served a one-month sentence, May 23, 2010.

Israel has arrested three human rights defenders amid what appears to be a concerted campaign to sabotage domestic groups documenting Israeli abuses of Palestinians, Electronic Intifada said on January 21.

Young child at a protest on the current Flint water hazard, October 28 2015.

Poisoned water in Flint, Michigan, has exposed residents to toxic levels of lead and caused drastically elevated levels of the element in children, TeleSUR English said on January 19. Michigan authorities declared a state of emergency in Flint on January 5.

Protesters gathered outside the former Pentridge Prison on January 16 to say “no” to the planned residential Pentridge tower. A plan to build a 19-storey apartment complex within the walls of the former Pentridge Prison was lodged over the Christmas period. The proposed residential tower will totally dominate and overshadow the guards’ watchtower. It will also be the tallest building in Moreland. This would set a precedent for no limits on the height of buildings in central Coburg.
Well my only New Year's resolution was to have no hope the status quo would somehow miraculously change itself in 2016 — and it is a resolution that has proven all too easy to keep. For instance, any hopes that changing the “five” to a “six” on the annual calendar would lessen the misogyny strangling decency in this country were pretty quickly defeated.
Tamils protest for the release of political prisoners. Colombo, October 2015. When Maithripala Sirisena was elected as president of Sri Lanka in January last year, he promised to end human rights violations by the security forces. Under Sirisena's predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, it was common practice for the army and police to abduct people and torture them. Some were later released, while others were murdered.
A History Man’s Past & Other People’s Stories: A Shared Memoir. Part One: Other People’s Wars By John Tognolini 2015, 160 pages pb $24, ebook $5 Order the book
Farmland

In the past few years, private investors backed by corporate interests such as global banks, financial firms, hedge funds and food giants have bought a huge amount of farmland across the global South.

Devastation wrought by the Turkish state in Sur, Diyarbakır. Members of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) condemned massacres of Kurds by the Turkish state in a debate in the European Parliament on January 20.