IVP616 - May 2026

A sophisticated French weapons system is being used in the conflict in Sudan, exposing the French government’s violations of arms sales conventions.

Belgium has once again been paralysed by strikes. Tens of thousands of workers demonstrated in Brussels on Tuesday 12 May 2026, the day before the opening of the debates on the law and pension reform programme. Since the formation of the government, structured around the two major right-wing parties (the Flemish nationalists of the NVA and the “Trumpified” Francophone neoliberals of the MR- Mouvement réformateur), the trade union common front (Fédération générale du travail de Belgique-FGTB, Confédération des syndicats chrétiens-CSC and Confédération générale des syndicats libéraux-CGSLB) has been mobilising relentlessly and successfully. The conflict is primarily aimed at the federal government, but also at the federated entities, particularly with regard to education.

Once again, a threat of civil war hangs over Ethiopia, opposing different factions to the detriment of the already badly wounded peoples.

“In these notes, we address South America, where the complexity of societies, scandalous socioeconomic inequality, the presence of a so-called “middle” economy with its own influence in the region (Brazil), a tradition of struggle and organization on the left, and governments less subservient than the liberal right (such as those of Colombia, Brazil, and Uruguay), imperialist interventionism faces more obstacles and has to moderate its attacks. In light of important electoral processes and tests in the class struggle posed by far-right and right-wing governments, such as those in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and Ecuador, it is worth considering the commonalities across national contexts in the region in the coming months.”

By early May, Putin’s regime appeared to be facing a perfect storm: a battlefield stalemate, economic stagnation, and a visibly faltering state response to crises ranging from flooding in Dagestan to a foot-and-mouth outbreak in Siberia. At the same time, the Kremlin intensified mobile-internet blackouts and expanded efforts by the security services to tighten control over social media.

By dint of dragging on, the United States’ war against Iran seems to be becoming a real international tipping point whose scope varies according to the region. Its consequences are expected to be major in Asia. On the geopolitical terrain, of course, as illustrated by the Xi-Trump summit in Beijing on 14-15 May. But it will also aggravate the social crisis in many countries as well as boosting the global climate and ecological crisis. It is the beginning of multiple upheavals that will only be fully measured with hindsight.

As soon as he became prime minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis built parallel powers and, seven years later, he is swimming in scandals marking the privatization of the state for his own benefit and that of his relatives and the employers.

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department on May 20, 2026 charged Raúl Castro with murder. Raúl, the 94-year-old brother of Fidel Castro was one of the revolutionaries who overthrew the government of dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and established a Communist pro-Soviet state by 1961. The charges against him stem from February 1996 when a Cuban exile group called Brothers to the Rescue flew two planes toward Cuba but while still in international airspace were shot down by Cuban fighter planes, killing four people in the planes. Now the Trump government is holding Raúl Castro, who has served as head of the Communist Party and chief of state, responsible for those deaths.

Behind the so-called ceasefire, the reconstruction of Gaza is blocked, and Israel is already preparing a new large-scale offensive. As always with Israel, agreements are not respected and ceasefires are mainly used to rearm and prepare for the next offensive. Nearly 800 people have been killed during this so-called ceasefire.

Four years of war have not suspended social and political conflicts in Ukraine. Civil society, largely engaged in a war of survival in the face of Russian aggression, continues to fight to defend its rights.