🌍Pan-African activists organize France-Africa counter summit in Nairobi

PD’s Nicholas Mwangi reports from the Pan-Africanist Summit Against Imperialism in Kenya. The summit was organized by progressive movements in Kenya and from across the world to protest the France-Africa summit held in Nairobi from May 11-12. The France-Africa summit was presided over by French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President William Ruto, and seen by many as an attempt by France to reorganize its colonial interests in Africa after being expelled from the Sahel region.

Trump is visiting Beijing this week in the first US state visit to China in nine years.

The last US state visit to Chinese soil was Trump’s own, in November 2017 – at the start of the US-imposed trade war that would deepen under Biden and intensify in his second presidency. The China that received him then was still learning to respond to the aggressions.

The China that receives him now has spent nine years diversifying its export markets, building supply chain autonomy, developing the technological leverage to push back, while turning towards Global South countries. Trump’s failed tariff war against China ended up hurting its own economy and people more than China’s, and Beijing’s export controls on rare earth elements ultimately forced Trump to back down. The eighteen US executives in the delegation, including Tim Cook, Elon Musk and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, have come because their companies cannot do without the Chinese market. The economic instruments of US containment have not produced the result Washington wanted.

📲 Read the full article by Tings Chak on our website.⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/13/trumps-state-visit-to-beijing-and-the-new-cold-war-on-asia/

🇨🇳 The Trump-Xi Summit has kicked off in Beijing’s Great Hall. The leaders are expected to discuss a variety issues and major agreements on trade and tariffs are expected, as the US delegation has the participation of over a dozen CEOs from the country’s largest firms.

“China’s position on the issue of Cuba is consistent, clear, and unchanged. On the issue of Venezuela, China’s position is equally consistent,” Guo stated during the ministry’s press conference.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun reaffirmed on Wednesday, May 13, that Beijing’s position on Cuba and Venezuela remains unchanged, when asked whether the issues would be discussed at the meeting between President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, who arrived in Beijing this afternoon for a two-day summit.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/13/china-reaffirms-support-for-cuba-and-venezuela-on-the-eve-of-the-xi-trump-summit-in-beijing/

“The apparent widespread popularity of Nayib Bukele’s government (regime) acts as a sophisticated media smokescreen. Under the guise of effectiveness lies the deliberate dismantling of the rule of law and the deepening of social precariousness that the regime attempts to render invisible. Physical security, achieved through the permanent suspension of civil liberties, is a mirage that sacrifices social justice and due process in favor of a one-man hegemony and becomes a kind of war on the poor, paradoxically endorsed by them.”

📲 Read the full article by Carmen Navas Reyes on our website.⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/13/the-mirage-of-security-the-dangerous-bukele-model/

For the 15th time in 18 months, tens of thousands of people demonstrated against reforms proposed by Belgium’s Arizona government seeking to reduce pension rights, introduce harsher working conditions, and cut social budgets to finance war and armament. On May 12, “75,000 people filled the streets of Brussels: workers from the public and private sector, metalworkers, caregivers, teachers, public service employees, NGOs, cultural workers, youth, feminist, democratic and peace movements,” stated the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA).

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/13/brussels-protest-marks-15th-demonstration-against-austerity-in-18-months/

For several weeks now, anti-immigrant protests have taken place across different cities in South Africa, a country grappling with deep economic and historical contradictions rooted in its apartheid past and uneven post-liberation transformation.

Anti-immigrant demonstrations and violence have taken place in cities such as Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, and the Eastern Cape. Several videos have circulated online showing incidents of assault and violence on men accused of being undocumented immigrants. At least seven people have reportedly been killed as a result of these attacks since March 2026.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/14/anti-immigrant-protests-and-violence-escalate-in-south-africa/

Following a controversial legal process, the Bolivian justice system has issued an arrest warrant against former leftist President Evo Morales, who governed Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. The Prosecutor’s Office is seeking a 20-year sentence against one of the Andean country’s most prominent opposition leaders.

The prosecution accuses Morales of having had a romantic relationship with a minor who allegedly had a daughter with Morales while he was president of Bolivia. However, the news outlet Telesur reported that the alleged victim, named Cindy Vargas, appeared before the Court Against Violence Against Women and requested that the case be dismissed: “I am not a victim; the incident did not occur, nor was there any exploitation.” In light of this, Vargas objected to public institutions pursuing legal action on her behalf and requested that the case be dismissed.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/13/bolivian-prosecutors-demand-the-arrest-of-former-president-evo-morales/

Nepal’s Supreme Court issued an interim stay on the move by the newly-elected government, led by Prime Minister Balendra Shah, to ban and dissolve party-affiliated trade unions for government employees.

The court also stayed a similar ban on student unions, issued on the very first day of the Shah government’s formation.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/14/nepals-top-court-halts-governments-attempts-to-ban-trade-union-for-civil-servants/

Iran dismissed Kuwait’s accusations as “utterly baseless” and said that four Iranian personnel entered Kuwaiti territorial waters accidentally due to a navigational system malfunction.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/13/iran-rejects-kuwaiti-accusation-of-irgc-infiltration/

On May 8, 45,000 students joined a school strike against conscription and militarization in 150 cities across the country. The strike was held on the 81st anniversary of Victory Day, which brought peace to Europe at the end of World War II. This was the third school strike since December 5, 2025, the day the new conscription law was passed unanimously by the German parliament, the Bundestag.

Read more ⬇
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2026/05/15/german-students-expand-their-strike-against-conscription-and-militarization-to-150-cities/