Alex Kogan

“My name is Sharanitha and I am undocumented, unafraid, unapologetic, and I too am UIC.” Applause erupted for Sharanitha in the quad at the University of Illinois, Chicago, during a “Coming Out of the Shadows” rally, where she and other undocumented students addressed the crowd. The event served as a stage for UIC students to publicly share their immigration statuses with the wider university community and to call for an end to deportations.

On Saturday, activists in cities from Dallas to Melbourne, Australia, “swarmed the globe” in an international rally to save the world’s bees. In an action timed to coincide with National Honey Bee Day in the United States, Bee Against Monsanto—a Tampa-based collective that campaigns to protect honey bees and other pollinators—called on organizers worldwide to hold “Swarm the Globe” rallies. Their goal: to raise awareness of the dangers of neonicotinoids, a family of insecticides that kill bees.

This Thursday, February 12th, representatives from all 28 EU member states will meet in Brussels to deliberate renewal of sanctions launched in response to Russian involvement in Ukraine. Regardless of the EU decision, one thing is clear: the strategy of economic sanctions has failed, as it historically always has. It’s a tactic which harms the citizens of the targeted nation, but fails to pressure the leadership. And as one can see in Russia, sanctions often even reinforce the targeted leaders by feeding them a scapegoat for their problems.