Tiny Tips (2023)

The Tiny Tips column from the November 2023 issue of the Socialist Standard 

Princess Diana’s sweater featuring a black sheep among rows of white ones has sold for $1.14 million (£920,000) at an auction by Sotheby’s in New York. (tinyurl.com/398cssps)

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Over 330 million children worldwide living in extreme poverty. (tinyurl.com/5xxyysyr)

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Iranian women face 10 years in jail for inappropriate dress after ‘hijab bill’ approved. (tinyurl.com/bdhy6c52)

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Six out of 10 young South Africans are jobless and more than half of the country’s 60 million residents live in poverty, according to the World Bank. Furthermore, South Africa’s murder rate is one of the highest in the world, with around 25,000 victims per year. Since Apartheid, more than half a million people have met a violent death…’We live in the most unequal society in the world, and the divides are growing wider and wider’ says Notywala. ’It has become even more unequal since the ANC has been in power. Liberators? Don’t make me laugh!’ . (tinyurl.com/mr2mbff8)

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A Kurdish-dominated militia moved to solidify its control over resource-rich parts of eastern Syria on Thursday after suppressing an Arab tribal insurgency with US support. Fighting in the area has diminished after the Syrian Democratic Forces on Wednesday entered the Diban stronghold of a tribal leader who had challenged Kurdish control of the east without resistance. The centre of Syria’s oil and wheat production lie in the region. (tinyurl.com/ra2jxv37)

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Almost nine out of every ten Ukrainian draftees who enlisted in the army a year ago have either been killed or injured in combat, Ukrainian media reported on Friday citing a senior conscription officer in the Poltava Region. (tinyurl.com/yc3zbhyw)

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Zelensky also said in the interview, published on September 10, that anyone who is not supporting Ukraine is with Russia. ‘If you are not with Ukraine, you are with Russia, and if you are not with Russia, you are with Ukraine. And if partners do not help us, it means they will help Russia to win. That is it,’ he said. (tinyurl.com/5cr9yven)

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The TUC, writes Fred Leplat, has voted overwhelmingly to back Ukraine’s right to self-defence against Russia’s invasion…’No peace deal should be imposed on Ukraine. As long as the Ukrainians are prepared to fight, we should be in solidarity with them’. (tinyurl.com/ydcrtkap)

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Equality of opportunity is a phrase commonly used by our politicians, even for those too scared to talk about equality more generally. Yet for decades we’ve been moving in the wrong direction. A recent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that where you are born in the UK, and the income and wealth of your family, now matter more than ever in defining life outcomes, with social mobility at its worst in more than 50 years. (tinyurl.com/4vjrtkct)

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Last year, the CEOs of the Big Three automakers received staggering pay packages, fuelling workers’ ongoing push for better wages and benefits. Ford’s Jim Farley took home around $21 million, Stellantis’ Carlos Tavares pocketed nearly $25 million and General Motors’ Mary Barra — the highest-paid of the group—brought in roughly $29 million. (tinyurl.com/y6s4fhup)