The West:

Antony Blinken and the diplomacy deficit: His remarks to students this week shows how much American exceptionalism and Great Power competition have taken over the craft.^RS

Air Force misses recruitment goal for first time since 1999.^RS

How the UK’s arms trade funnels public cash into private pockets.^OD

Labour:

Kaiser Permanente workers have voted to authorize strike action to fight for safe staffing and fair wages.^WSWS Auto Workers Strike Plants at All Three of the Big 3.^LN ‘No Justice, No Jeeps!’ Scenes from the Auto Workers Strike.^LN ‘We’re looking for the means of production’: Bakehouse workers in Chicago fight for independent union.^RNN

New Zealand doctors hold second strike.^WSWS Sri Lankan railway union calls off drivers strike, after government threats and bogus promises.^WSWS Sri Lankan government begins looting workers’ pension funds.^WSWS

Don’t Do the Boss Any Favors.^LN

Australian billionaire real estate developer Tim Gurner has said that unemployment needs to rise "40 to 50%" to discipline workers into working again, saying that “people decided they didn’t really want to work so much anymore through COVID, and that has had a massive effect on productivity.”^PW

Left and Right:

Beneath the polycrisis is the singular dilemma of humanity called capitalism: The Thirty-Seventh Newsletter (2023)^MR

The Black Working Class Can No Longer Be Ignored.^Jacobin

Nazis Swarm Florida But Whew At Least No Trans Kids In Sight^CD

Argentina shuts down Nazi and antisemitic publisher.^DW

Far-right AfD's Björn Höcke faces trial over Nazi slogan.^DW

LGBTQIA:

Content Warning - this section is not usually good news.

Florida City Declares Itself LGBTQ+ Sanctuary.^Advocate Judge Won't Block Florida's Restrictions on Care for Trans Adults.^Advocate Who could have possibly seen this coming? GOP Sen. John Kennedy Reads Queer Sex Excerpts at Cringe-Worthy Senate Hearing^Advocate Alabama Families Continue to Appeal to Block Transgender Care Ban.^Advocate Olivia Hill of Nashville Council Is First Trans Person Elected in Tennessee.^Advocate California Becomes First State to Declare Transgender History Month.^Advocate

Mausoleum for Trans Women Inaugurated in Mexico City.^Advocate Czech companies urge PM to ensure equal rights to LGBT+ people.^BNE Rwanda: Activists want trans and intersex legal rights.^DW

‘Standing up for trans people is self-defense for every worker’^MR

Climate:

New Documents Show Exxon Executives Cast Doubt on Climate Science to Protect Profits.^CD New Research Exposes 5 Global North Countries Responsible for 51% of Planned Oil and Gas Expansion Through 2050.^CD Revealed: How Big Dairy Is Milking Net Zero.^DS ‘There is nothing green about economic growth in high-income countries’.^MR Only 11 countries are reducing emissions and all will miss Paris targets.^BNE

Hundreds of Scientists Endorse Demands of March to End Fossil Fuels.^CD 400+ Actions to End Fossil Fuels Planned Around the World.^CD Latin America, most dangerous region for environment defenders, Global Witness report.^MP Electric vehicles aren't enough.^Ecologist

Small islands slam ‘endless’ climate talks at landmark maritime court hearing.^CCN

Overshoot Commission calls for research into solar geoengineering.^CCN All planetary boundaries mapped out for the first time, six of nine crossed.^MR

Stop calling people ‘climate refugees’.^CCN

Climate change, unfortunately, has many negative effects. It might be clear that those fleeing an extreme weather event, such as storms or flooding, require emergency protections. Here, it’s easy to attribute the cause of displacement to climate change. But the task is more difficult when the impact develops over time, for example when droughts lead to land degradation and the loss of economic opportunities.

Climate change is also a threat multiplier, meaning it exacerbates existing vulnerabilities. The decision to leave one’s home is usually based on multiple factors.

At what point can we say climate change is the driving factor of displacement? And if moving is only partially motivated by climate change, does that mean the people affected are not deserving of safe migration routes and protection? Rather than try to reduce the experience of climate mobility into one, provocative, label, we need discussions and international policies capable of creating comprehensive labels that recognise the diversity of experiences and address the context-specific needs of people on the move due to climate change.

Highly invasive fire ant reaches Europe, scientists call for urgent action.^Euractiv

Miscellaneous Analysis:

FDIC Releases a New Problem Bank List: It’s an Exercise in Fantasy^WSoP

Financial Statecraft and its Limits in the Semi-Periphery.^DE

Maha Hilal on Innocent Until Proven Muslim.^FAIR

IIPPE 2023 Part Two – China, profitability and financialisation, Michael Roberts.^MR

Dipshittery and Cope:

The Left's Electoral Strategy Is Working. Let's Keep Building It.^Jacobin

Together, we can combine and amplify our struggles, and enhance solidarity. Together, we can crush strikes across America, as well as cry after voting for reactionary policies.