Global Left Midweek – July 16, 2025

World in transition

How Do You Stop an AI Model Turning Nazi?

Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot embedded in X (formerly Twitter) and built by Elon Musk’s company xAI, is back in the headlines after calling itself “MechaHitler” and producing pro-Nazi remarks.

IRS To Share Taxpayers’ Data With ICE

ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts.

BDS@20: Redefining International Solidarity

We must escalate pressure and peacefully disrupt all forms of complicity to contribute to ending Israel’s unspeakable genocide and to dismantling its regime of settler-colonial apartheid. Only then, can we enjoy freedom, justice, and equality.

‘Our Hands Are Loud’: Interview With Marlee Matlin

Not Alone Anymore paints an emotional portrait of Matlin’s acting career and personal life, tracing a line from Matlin’s historic 1987 Oscar win for Children of a Lesser God to 2022’s CODA, which featured a predominantly deaf cast.

Dispatches From the Culture Wars – July 15, 2025

ICE vs USA

This Week in People’s History, Jul 16–22, 2025

Two men standing at ground zero after the first nuclear bomb test
Deadly Fallout Heralds the Nuclear Age (1945), Bob Marley’s Breakthrough (1975), Hitler’s Publishing Debut (1925), Struggle Pays (2000), The Origin of Ignorance (1925), The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same (1665)

200,000 Years of Human–Neanderthal Interbreeding

For centuries, we’ve imagined Neanderthals as distant cousins. But modern humans and Neanderthals didn’t just cross paths; they repeatedly interbred, shared genes, and even merged populations over nearly 250,000 years.

Interview: Jean-Luc Mélenchon & Tariq Ali

The liberals say it’s every man for himself and the fascists say it’s everyone against the Arabs. They have their worldviews, and we, the left, must offer another way of seeing the world. That’s what we’re trying to do.

Surge in U.S. Concern About Immigration Has Abated

Record-high 79% consider immigration good for the country and support down for border wall and mass deportation.
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Culture

books

Red Channels: America’s Lasting Legacy of Repression

Ed Rampell The Progressive
Writer Rampell looks at a long-forgotten, but deeply influential, document from the domestic Cold War that served the unofficial blacklist for radio and television performers, with the aim of helping draw lessons for today.

film

Yes, Superman Has Always Been an Immigration Story

Andrew Slack, Jose Antonio Vargas The Hollywood Reporter
Accusations that James Gunn has “politicized” Superman come laughably late, as the world's most famous superhero has always been political, write narrative strategist Andrew Slack and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas.

poetry

Marat / Sade Medley

Judy Collins
In honor of Bastille Day, a medley of tunes from Peter Brooks' production of Peter Weiss's play, Marat / Sade. Sung by Judy Collins.

music

Living Life With a Purpose: Tim Sheard’s Solidarity Songs

Kurt Stand Portside
We live in an era in which, from the White House on down, meanness has become normalized, become normalized. Music can provide an antidote, reminding us of who we can be, as anyone listening to Tim Sheard’s Solidarity Songs will discover.

books

The Writer As Editor in “Toni at Random”

Gianni Washington Chicago Review of Books
"This book is not about Toni Morrison, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author," writes reviewer Washington, "but about Toni Morrison, boundary-pushing senior editor at Random House."

Labor

labor

America’s Brutal Capitalist Class Tamed Its Labor Movement

Maya Adereth Jacobin
Across Europe, trade unions have a long history of making political demands for universal health care and benefits. The unique brutality of the US capitalist class bred a labor movement that has often limited itself to being a private insurance provi

labor

The Dismantling of American Health Care

Adam Gaffney, David U. Himmelstein and Staffie Woolhander The New York Review of Books
We must resist Trump’s war on medical access and knowledge today, even as we prepare to rebuild something better tomorrow.

labor

Fight ICE. Build the Union.

Natascha Elena Uhlmann and Sarah Lazare Workday Magazine
How Labor is mobilizing to defend workers from federal raids.

Friday nite video

video

Apocalypse in the Tropics | Documentary

Apocalypse in the Tropics investigates the increasingly powerful grip that evangelical Christian leaders hold over politics in Brazil, possibly holding a mirror up to the future of the rest of the world.

video

'The House I Live In' | Paul Robeson

These lyrics were written by Abel Meeropol (who later adopted the children of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg) under the pen name Lewis Allen (1943); the music was composed by Earl Robinson. This 1947 cover by Paul Robeson includes all the original verses.