IVP610 - November 2025

The media hype in Portugal about the “survival” of the Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc) has the same function as the anti-gypsy posters of André Ventura (president of the far-right Chega party), namely, to distract through a gesture with one hand, while the other takes care of more lucrative tasks.

The East African country of Tanzania has been going through the most serious political crisis in its history since gaining independence in 1961, following the disputed re-election of Samia Suluhu Hassan as president. There is now talk of thousands of deaths, an estimate corroborated by diplomatic sources.

While empty promises are repeated in Belém, a plurality of social, indigenous and environmental movements are promoting an internationalist agenda against extractivism and for climate justice from various meeting spaces.

President Donald Trump appears for the first time in his second term to be facing serious challenges that threaten his until now nearly absolute domination of government. First and foremost, is the sense that he is not fulfilling his promise to make the economy affordable for most Americans.

With each passing day, the evidence—not only scientific but also empirical, as seen in [the floods in] Valencia last year—confirms the ecological emergency. Not as a phenomenon of a grim future, but as a present reality. The UN Secretary-General himself, António Guterres, stated that 2024 was "a masterclass in climate destruction." This statement was part of his opening address at the COP29 global climate summit in Baku, exactly one year ago.

Despite dramatic warning signs, global politicians continued to back the fossil fuel-based economic order.

In a recent interview, Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights reporting to the President of the Russian Federation, admitted to having ‘taken in’ and ‘re-educated’ a Ukrainian teenager. At the time, she mentioned around 20,000 similar cases.

The Trump administration fired Carla Hayden, the first African American and first woman librarian of Congress, by text message.

Much of the commentary on the results of the Dutch elections of October 29 can be summarised as “the centre is back”. However, the fact that the centrist party D66 won significantly while Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV lost 11 seats is by no means a decisive change in the political pattern of the Netherlands. With 26 out of 150 seats, the PVV now has the same number as seats as D66. And for the Dutch left, there is even less reason to celebrate.

“In his victory speech Mamdani told his supporters that as mayor, ‘We will put an end to the culture of corruption that has allowed billionaires like Trump to evade taxation and exploit tax breaks’. Directly addressing the president, he said, ‘New York will remain a city of immigrants: a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant. So, hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.’”