As the death toll from Hurricane Matthew continues to rise to more 330, across the country some 15,000 have been displaced and 350,000 more are in need of assistance. The storm knocked out most electricity and phone service across the country. It also washed out a major bridge connecting southern Haiti to the rest of the country. Aid organizations are warning that food and water is scarce. We get reaction from Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat, who says the storm has caused what will be an “ongoing disaster” in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, which is still recovering from a devastating earthquake six years ago that left more than 300,000 dead and twice as many people displaced.
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
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