Portside

The decision by Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, to suspend payments to Israel for electricity for Gaza, coincided with his decision to slash funding to Gaza’s hospitals and clinics and to cut the salaries of Gaza’s public sector employees. This is a high stakes gamble. Abbas is prepared to look like he is making common cause with Israel against Hamas while playing politics with the welfare of the two million Palestinians living in the Gaza strip.

Through workers associations, work centers, and “alt-labor” groups, millions of workers — along with part-time workers, temporary workers, and those who work for employers that have no union — are using new tactics to fight against that inequality of bargaining power. The groups are not competing with traditional unions, but rather working alongside them and in tandem.

City puts human rights under threat with water privatization scheme.

Even when change is still necessary, even when injustice still continues, there can be an upward spiral, growing from past transformations into future ones.

The regime has repeatedly carried out artillery and air attacks on city centers, creating a humanitarian catastrophe—which is all but ignored by the US political-media establishment.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby Monday, allowing "closely held" businesses to claim religious rights and avoid federal healthcare regulations that require employers to include birth control in insurance plans.

Al Jazeera journos jailed; NYT beats war drums; Giants behaving badly; Facebook messes with your mind; News biz renaissance; Newspaper requiem.