by Maximillian Alvarez | Feb 27, 2026 | big tech, Gaza, ICE, Israel, Palestine, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Working People
In just six months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) more than tripled the amount of data stored on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, The Guardian reports, “at the same time that its arsenal of surveillance technology ballooned.” This week, tech workers with the No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) campaign staged a protest and informational picket at Microsoft’s global headquarters in Redmond, Washington, demanding that Microsoft cancel all contracts that provide technological support for Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and ICE’s campaign of terror in the US. We speak with Ibtihal, a former software engineer at Microsoft and an organizer with the NOAA campaign.
Additional links/info:
No Azure for Apartheid Instagram and Linktree
Harry Davies & Yuval Abraham, The Guardian, “ICE reliance on Microsoft technology surged amid immigration crackdown, documents show”
Maximillian Alvarez, TRNN, “‘Microsoft workers refuse to be complicit in the genocide’”
Maximillian Alvarez, TRNN, “Microsoft cancels Israeli spy unit access after tech worker revolt”
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “The biggest labor story in the US right now is happening at Microsoft”
Featured Music:
Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
I got work to do. All right. Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you in partnership within these Times Magazine and the Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is
by Mansa Musa | Feb 27, 2026 | Economy, Economy and Inequality, history, Politics and Movements: US, Racial Justice, Rattling the Bars, video
How did the promise of Black wealth become a tool for white elites? In this Black History Month special of Rattling the Bars, Mansa Musa speaks with UVA professor and author Justene Hill Edwards about the tragic history of the Freedman’s Bank. They dive into the economic intelligence of enslaved people and how they navigated the inherent violence of the slave economy. Professor Hill Edwards also breaks down the betrayal detailed in her book, Savings and Trust, revealing how a bank built for the formerly enslaved was redirected to fund D.C. infrastructure and white elite interests.
Resource Links:
Get the book at this link on bookshop.com
Professor Hill Edwards’ website
Follow Hill Edwards on X
Reviews of Hill Edwards’ latest book:
“This is a revealing history of banking innovation and experimentation, the financial acuity of Black men and women, corruption among powerful trustees, and the failure of Congressional oversight that feels all too familiar in our own era of bank failures, governmental dysfunction, and financial malfeasance. Justene Hill Edwards argues convincingly that the Freedman’s Bank debacle that lost millions of dollars earned and saved by hardworking, self-sacrificing, recently enslaved people is another little-known cause of the contemporary racial wealth gap.” – Tiya Miles, National Book Award-winning author of All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
“Savings and Trust, in beautifully written and accessible prose, is a must-read that offers crucial context for understanding the economic plight of formerly enslaved people after the Civil War, racial capitalism, the racial wealth gap, and contemporary calls for reparations.” – Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, author of They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in
by Brad Reed | Feb 27, 2026 | Article, elections, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Trump
by Stephen Prager | Feb 27, 2026 | AI, Article, big tech, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 25, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has threatened to punish the artificial intelligence company Anthropic if it doesn’t let the Pentagon use its technology however it wants—apparently even to create autonomous killer drones or conduct surveillance of Americans.
Anthropic’s powerful AI model, Claude, is currently the only one permitted to handle classified military data, and the company was awarded a $200 million contract last year to develop AI capabilities for the Department of Defense to use alongside other AI firms.
However, the company’s usage policy prohibits its use for mass surveillance and for the development of autonomous weapons—such as drones that attack targets without a human operator.
These limitations have infuriated the Defense Department leadership. On Tuesday, Hegseth called Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, to a meeting at the Pentagon, where he demanded “unfettered” access to Claude without any guardrails.
This goal was outlined last month in the department’s “AI Strategy” memo, which called for the US to adopt an “AI-first warfighting force” and for companies to allow their technology to be deployed for “any lawful use,” free from ethical safeguards.
According to a senior defense official who spoke to Axios, Hegseth issued an ultimatum to Amodei on Tuesday: If he does not grant the Pentagon unrestricted use of Anthropic’s technology by 5:01 pm on Friday, the department would take measures to coerce the company.
It would either declare Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” effectively blacklisting it for military use and ending its contract, or it would invoke the Defense Production Act, which would force the company to tailor the product to the military’s needs.
While it would not be an
by Taya Graham and Stephen Janis | Feb 27, 2026 | Economy, Epstein, immigration, Inequality Watch, Politics and Movements: US, Trump, video
Trump’s State of the Union address delivered grandstanding and grievance politics, but few concrete solutions for Americans facing healthcare crises, economic instability, and ever-widening inequality. While mainstream media commentators fixated on the spectacle, Epstein survivors in attendance were essentially ignored, and key claims on immigration and economic policy went largely unexamined.
Credits:
Written by: Stephen Janis
Produced by: Taya Graham, Stephen Janis
Studio / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Taya Graham:
Okay. You might have watched President Donald Trump’s state of the Union and found it difficult to reconcile with what’s actually happening in your life. He said we were in a new golden age, but it doesn’t feel like it for most of us. He said the economy is the strongest ever, but perhaps your actual experience doesn’t jive with that assessment. Well, you’re not wrong and we’re going to prove it. Myself, along with my reporting partner, Stephen Janis, are going to break down what Trump’s speech was missing, mainly the perspective of the people actually living with the consequences of his policies. So we’re going to give you the people’s state of the union breakdown and you won’t want to miss it.
Hello, my name is Taya Graham and welcome to The Inequality Watch, the show where we break down the historic wealth imbalance that defines this country and hold the people who are making it worse accountable. Today we’re going to talk about the state of the union or perhaps more accurately, the state of the oligarchy address, which President Trump gave on Tuesday. Like
by Jake Johnson | Feb 27, 2026 | Article, cuba, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 26, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
The Cuban government said Wednesday that the men on a Florida-registered boat who opened fire on Cuban soldiers in the island’s territorial waters were bent on carrying out “an infiltration for terrorist purposes.”
In a statement following news that Cuban forces had killed four people on the boat, the besieged Caribbean nation’s Interior Ministry said the vessel was carrying 10 men, all “Cuban nationals residing in the United States.”
The ministry said it seized assault rifles, explosives, body armor, and other items from the boat and identified seven of its passengers, six of whom were detained. Four men on the boat—which, according to reports, was last purchased in 2022—were killed in the gunfight with Cuban soldiers, who had reportedly “approached the vessel for identification.”
Cuban authorities also said another individual, Duniel Hernández Santos, was arrested “within national territory.” The Interior Ministry said Santos “had allegedly been sent from the United States to facilitate the landing and reception of the armed group and has confessed to his role.”
“The investigation remains ongoing until all facts have been fully established,” the ministry said.
Participants in Foiled Armed Infiltration in Villa Clara IdentifiedAs part of the ongoing investigation into the armed attack against a patrol vessel of the Border Guard Troops of the Ministry of the Interior, in the northeastern area of the El Pino channel, at Cayo Falcones,… pic.twitter.com/s9IFmUkqvk— Cuban Embassy in US (@EmbaCubaUS) February 26, 2026
The deadly incident came as Cuba continued to reel from the Trump administration’s recent intensification of decades-long economic warfare against the island. The administration is “actively seeking regime change in Cuba,” according to Wall
