Week of November 6-12, 2026
Published in conjunction with The Nation magazine, TRACKING THE CRISIS is a weekly round-up from The Democracy Collaborative tracking the administrative, legislative, and other actions of the Trump Administration as well as the many forms of legal and movement response from across a broad range of social, political, and economic actors. TDC is providing this service for collective informational purposes, as a tool for understanding the times during a period of disorientingly rapid flux and change in the U.S. political economy. This round-up is produced by humans, not by Artificial Intelligence. TDC should not be understood as endorsing or otherwise any of the specific content of the information round-up.
TRUMP TRACKER: Administration actions
Trump says he ‘no longer needs’ a deal with Iran, see-saws between competing interests as Israel pushes for new strikes, Iran signals depth of escalation capabilities. Last week’s midterm election results delivered what was widely seen as a massive rebuke of Trump’s Iran war policy from the electorate, momentarily scuppering Trump’s plans to attack Iran immediately after the election. As a result, tensions in the Persian Gulf region have continued to fluctuate within a state of ‘no war, no peace’ as a frustrated Trump appeared to step back and weigh his next move, while competing factions within and around the Trump Administration attempted to push him toward either restraint and the negotiating table or a renewed kinetic war.
Analyst Trita Parsi described three discrete possible pathways available to Trump as the stalemate drags on, each carrying particular dangers and consequences for either side. Renewed war, it is clear, would carry disastrous physical and economic consequences not only for Iran and the United States but the global economy as a whole, especially if additional oil production infrastructure in the Gulf were to be destroyed as a result. On the other hand, negotiating a deal with any compromise toward one side or the other would carry political consequences within each country. If the United States were to unconditionally concede to all seven of Iran’s demands, it would be seen as a historic defeat for the U.S. empire and politically toxic for Trump. On the other hand, any concession from Iran on its nuclear stockpile that entailed any reduction or transportation of its uranium outside the country would be a political disaster for any Iranian official who agreed to it, especially if it resulted in an appearance of vulnerability and were to be accompanied by subsequent attacks. Additionally, a negotiated peace deal would be a political disaster for Israel, as it would be seen as a failure of the Israeli leadership to maintain influence over U.S. foreign policy at a critical time of transition for its own government.
Last Friday, Trump was reportedly presented with several options for returning to active war, as well as a negotiated package towards a deal offered by Iran through Qatari mediators that promised to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days if the United States agreed to its seven conditions. Parsi noted that Trump rejected both options toward war or peace, but elected at the time to continue with the current path of continued economic pressure, which he calls a “Swiss cheese status quo.” In this scenario, Trump “rejects both war and peace, walks away and claims to retain the blockade and sanctions infrastructure, but in reality imperceptibly begins to let it wither away”; which Parsi describes as “the only walk-away option that could work.”
Trump appeared to be pursuing this option as, after meeting with the Qatari prime minister and hearing concerns from Gulf states, he said that the war in Iran was “effectively over.” He said that renewed attacks were “highly unlikely” as he claimed Iran’s decimated military and increasing inflation would do the job through political and economic pressure.
On Friday, November 7, CENTCOM announced the formation of a task force to implement a blockade of Iran’s land-based trade routes it dubbed “Iron Gate,” which would supposedly restrict Iran’s ability to sell oil and other trade goods over the 3,662 miles of land borders it shares with seven other countries, as well as the Caspian Sea. The plan relies heavily on the cooperation of Iran’s neighbors, which has proven rather elusive as states such as Turkiye, Pakistan, and Iraq resisted U.S. directives, as they feared the blow to their own economies more than the pressure from Washington. Russia also rejected the plan, calling the task force a “clear violation of international law” as officials met with their Tehran counterparts to discuss ways to evade U.S. sanctions together, and issued a joint statement reminding the United States that the Caspian Sea remains outside the jurisdiction of Western powers and reasserted sovereignty over the Caspian Sea of its five littoral states. IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi mocked the Iron Gate initiative as “merely wordplay,” noting that at the start of Operation Economic Outcast in August that Washington had predicted Iran’s economy would collapse within two weeks, which has obviously not happened.
Joe Kent, former head of the U.S. Counterterrorism Center who resigned from the Trump Administration at the start of the Iran war, called the Iron Gate initiative a “brash provocation” and accused CENTCOM of using the initiative to undermine JD Vance’s continuing efforts to resume talks with Iran through mediators. Since his social media post blaming the GOP’s midterm losses last week on the unpopularity of the war, Vance’s position favoring the diplomatic path appears to be at odds with the rest of the Trump Administration, including Marco Rubio, who dismissed Vance’s claims while defending Trump’s decision to go to war as “unpopular but necessary.”
Meanwhile, U.S. forces continued to conduct ‘minor strikes’ on Qeshm Island, targeting radar installations and missile sites, while Iran claimed attacks and mine strikes on tankers navigating the unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, as well as a strike on the Omani island of Didamar, which contained navigational equipment for tankers crossing the southern route. Early in the week, Iran threatened to target U.S. bases in Europe if attacked from those bases, prompting the United States to pull several aircraft from bases in the UK as a precaution. On Wednesday, Iran launched a barrage of anti-ship cruise missiles at a U.S. navy warship that had come within range of its ‘carrier killer’ missiles, and released a video of a sprawling new underground missile production facility to show off its robust military capability, refuting Trump’s claims.
Despite the amplified rhetoric from the United States and Iran and the exchange of threats and tit-for-tat strikes, rumors of continued backchannel negotiations percolated throughout the week. On Tuesday, sources close to U.S. intelligence claimed that Iraqi prime minister Al-Zaidi had made an unannounced trip to Tehran carrying a U.S. proposal that accepted at least four out of Iran’s seven demands, proposing that the U.S. would lift the blockades and end hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, in exchange for Iran’s agreement to dilute its nuclear material. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Vance was seeking a face-to-face meeting with Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei, offering further concessions if Iran were willing to send its nuclear material to a third country. A new nuclear proposal reportedly sent from Iran to the United States via mediators last week was also rumored to contain a concession to dilute its nuclear stockpile once all seven demands were met by Washington.
On the other side, sources claim that Netanyahu has been calling Trump “every day” pushing for a new wave of attacks on Iran in a last-ditch attempt to resume the war during his last days as Israel’s premier. On November 8, Israeli president Isaac Herzog formally selected Netanyahu rival Gadi Eisenkot to form the new government in the Knesset, giving Netanyahu just 30 days left as prime minister in Israel’s ‘caretaker’ government. Over the weekend, phone discussions between Netanyahu and Trump apparently descended into a “shouting match from hell” as the two leaders clashed over the next steps regarding Iran.
On Tuesday, Iranian chief negotiator Mohammed Ghalibaf warned that “Israelis are working overtime to drag the US into an endless war with Iran,” which he described as “a quagmire that no president, now or in the future, Republican or Democrat, could escape.” He noted that American voters had overwhelmingly voiced their opposition to war in the midterm elections, and warned that “unless Washington drops the “Israel First” mindset, America and its allies are headed straight for a dark age.”
On Thursday, Trump abruptly pulled JD Vance from his negotiating role, ordering him to shift his “total and complete attention” from Iran to a new task force ‘combating corruption’ in Democrat-led cities and states, saying in a Truth Social post that the U.S. “doesn’t need a deal with Iran” and saying to reporters that he “will not hesitate” to renew the war against Iran and might do so “right now.” Shortly afterward, U.S. forces bombed an Iranian communications tower in Sirik, prompting an Iranian attack on a radar installation in Bahrain in retaliation.
Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon announced late Thursday that the United States is preparing for a large-scale attack, moving large numbers of troops into the region and putting its embassies on high alert. At the same time, Iran’s Assembly of Experts, one of its highest governmental bodies with authority over selecting the Supreme Leader, issued a recommendation that Iran withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, saying it has become an “unavoidable necessity” and a “public and national demand.” Ghalibaf has also warned that if either the United States or Israel launches large-scale attacks on Iran, Tehran will treat them as a “single front” and launch a coordinated response, declaring that U.S. and Israeli assets will be targeted simultaneously. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has also warned that any country supporting U.S. or Israeli attacks on Iran will also be considered a target.
As of this writing, Trump has announced that he is holding off on further strikes on Iran at the request of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Gulf allies, while claiming that the United States is “locked and loaded” and can destroy Iran’s energy infrastructure, civilian bridges and manufacturing facilities within three days.
Jensen Huang scandal accelerates AI bubble collapse as Nvidia stock plummets; bond markets back in trouble as inflation data deepens worries of protracted crisis. One week after stock markets melted down over AI industry fears, big tech and global stock markets were rocked once again this week, this time by a salacious sex scandal involving Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of leading chipmaker Nvidia and a major Trump ally and advocate for the AI industry.
In October 2025, the New York Times broke the story that Chinese citizen Alice Huang (aka Huang Le, no relation to Jensen), a top executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed, had been under scrutiny by U.S. intelligence agencies for possible smuggling of GPU chips to China, which had been barred by U.S. export controls from obtaining advanced AI technologies that could make Chinese companies competitive in the AI race against American companies. On October 29 of this year, the Times reported that in the course of surveilling Alice Huang, intelligence officials also found out that she had developed a romantic relationship with Jensen Huang, and had possibly passed information obtained from the extramarital affair to Beijing.
Intelligence agencies reportedly informed Trump of the situation earlier this year, but the Administration took no action at the time; the Times article reports that Trump had been “wary” of disrupting Nvidia’s AI chip sales, which formed the bedrock of the AI industry’s ‘circular financing’ scheme that for several years has underwritten nearly all growth in the U.S. stock market and the economy as a whole.
On November 8, Nvidia’s board announced an investigation into the affair, at which time the story exploded into the mainstream media. Over the next several days, more revelations surfaced that thickened the plot: Huang was found to have had affairs with at least two other Nvidia employees, and Trump’s reticence to pursue the allegations of corporate espionage was found to have been partly driven by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who had been at odds with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent over the issue, raising suspicions of complicity at the top levels of the Trump Administration.
On Thursday, November 11, Jensen Huang was ousted as CEO of Nvidia after 33 years at the company, and has now been summoned by three House committees to testify over the alleged ‘honeypot’ operation. The Senate Banking Committee has also summoned Lutnick to discuss “serious concerns” about U.S. national security. China has denied U.S. intelligence’s claims of espionage, calling them “purely unsubstantiated and directed at smearing China.”
Beyond the tabloid headlines, it is the economic fallout of the Huang scandal that is perhaps the most relevant consequence for the United States and global economy, due to Nvidia’s outsized influence on the AI industry and global markets. Nvidia controls around 90% of global market share for advanced AI chips, thus making the company the primary financier for the entire AI industry, which analysts have likened to being the “central bank of AI.” Data center buildouts using Nvidia chips drove 92% of U.S. GDP growth in the first quarter of 2025, and around half of U.S. GDP growth overall over the past two years. The company’s over $5 trillion market cap, comprising 6-8% of the total value of the S&P 500, means that any volatility or downturn in Nvidia’s fortunes poses significant macroeconomic risks.
Financial analyst Emerald Book characterized the company thus: “Nvidia is not just a chip company anymore. It has become a systemic utility for the global economy – and that makes it a systemic risk.”
Hours after Huang’s resignation, Nvidia stock plunged 10.3% in premarket trading, erasing approximately $490 billion of the company’s value at market opening on Thursday, dragging down major indices with it. On top of its 12% plunge during last week’s meltdown, the company has shed nearly a third of its value from its peak in early October, for a total of $1.6 trillion over six weeks of decline. On top of its individual decline, Nvidia’s financial commitments and load-bearing stakes in all the other major AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and the rest of the Magnificent Seven, analysts fear its collapse may accelerate the bursting of the AI bubble and trigger a cascade failure throughout the industry that has been holding up the entire U.S. economy.
Given that most 401(k)s are invested in index funds tied to the Nasdaq and S&P 500 that have been held up by just 10 companies all related to Nvidia, the collapse of the AI bubble will directly affect Americans’ wallets. One analyst compared the $800 billion lost from Nvidia stock just this week to the total amount of the Obama stimulus distributed to all Americans after the 2008 financial crisis, to the tune of approximately $2,000 per U.S. household.
On top of this week’s CPI report showing inflation exceeding estimates, the shock to the average U.S. consumer as a result of the AI collapse is yet unknown but certain to be significant. Retail investors, especially of the Boomer generation investing their equity and retirement savings, comprise about 17% of total investment in AI corporate bonds.
The fragility in the U.S. stock market related to AI volatility has reduced confidence in U.S. assets even more, affecting the U.S. bond market; after the Veterans Day holiday, 10-year benchmark Treasury yields opened above 5% again on Thursday on inflation fears and Fed rate hike expectations, erasing the brief rally that had brought some relief to the cratering stock market. Wells Fargo issued a warning this week that AI borrowing is hitting the “saturation point” of what corporate bond markets can bear, leading to a ‘supply shock’ as debt issuance hits a mathematical limit. Investors who fled to the ‘safe haven’ of U.S. Treasuries in the wake of last week’s stock collapse now find themselves between a rock and a hard place, with no safe avenue left for positive investment.
The International Monetary Fund announced Thursday that they are closely monitoring “the most recent developments and their impact on equity markets, the economy, and financial stability” in the wake of the Nvidia collapse. While it remains too early to tell whether investors will exit the industry in ways that will affect the larger global ecosystem, IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack noted that “AI investment and data centre construction were among the two major contributors to US inflation, alongside higher energy prices linked to the Iran war.”
Stephen Miller named new White House Chief of Staff. One of the first Trump Administration casualties in the aftermath of the GOP’s historic midterm rout was White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, whom Trump publicly blamed for the midterm disaster. One of the rare internal critics of the Iran war inside Trump’s inner circle, she supposedly knew about JD Vance’s break with the Trump line regarding the role of the war in the midterm rout, and many analysts speculated that Wiles’ unruly ouster from the Oval Office was due to her opposition to the war and other critiques she had of Trump’s recent policy decisions, some of which she had voiced to the media.
Wiles was replaced on Monday, November 9 by Trump special adviser Stephen Miller, a highly controversial figure who has held an influential position within the Administration since the beginning of Trump’s second term. Miller, a hard-line right-wing extremist, is best known as the ‘architect’ of Trump’s draconian immigration policy and mass deportation program, and is listed as a defendant in the pending wrongful death lawsuit surrounding January’s ICE murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Jean Guerrero, author of the 2020 Miller biography titled ‘Hatemonger,’ traces Miller’s right-wing influences in the book and calls him a “case study in radicalization.”
Miller’s appointment sparked condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike, as his ascendancy to the position sends a dangerous signal regarding Trump’s intentions to hold on to power during the next two years of what would normally be a lame-duck presidency. Democrat Hakeem Jeffries called Miller “a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands” while calling for his immediate ouster on social media, while Republican Miles Taylor, former DHS chief of staff in the first Trump Administration, said that Miller’s appointment “is among the most dangerous personnel decisions in the history of our republic.”
Republicans blamed Miller’s immigration policies for alienating Latino voters who had voted for Trump in 2024 but flipped in the 2026 midterms due to the brutality of ICE’s deportation tactics. Other GOP lawmakers fear that Miller’s appointment to advance the Trump agenda and elevate it to a “new level of aggression” in direct defiance of voter will in the midterms could poison the Republican Party’s reputation for years to come.
Axios outlines the major pillars of what it terms the Miller Doctrine, which embraces the ‘unitary executive’ theory of power espoused by Project 2025 and the hardline right-wing operatives surrounding Trump in his second term. Other aspects of Miller’s philosophy of governance includes the disregarding of courts and judicial authority, the aggressive persecution of political opponents, hardline immigration policies and Homeland Security as the backbone of an authoritarian domestic agenda, and the promotion of U.S. “hard power” in the Western Hemisphere, the basis of Trump’s ‘Donroe Doctrine’ in Latin America (where tensions between the United States and Mexico have already heightened in the wake of Miller’s appointment).
Miller is reportedly already exploring maneuvers that enable Trump to use executive power to circumvent a Democrat-controlled Congress, potentially setting up a constitutional crisis as he is reportedly working with fellow Project 2025 author Russell Vought to “chart a second-term agenda with an emphasis on executive actions that don’t require congressional approval.” Analysts warn that Miller is already using his new role to act as a ‘shadow president,’ moving to reroute nearly all White House functions through his authority in ways that traditional conservatives fear could even usurp Trump’s power in the Oval Office.
As Democrats are preparing to use their newly won Congressional majorities to assert powers of oversight over the Trump Administration in the coming year with an ‘avalanche’ of subpoenas and probes into corruption, graft, and overreach, Trump’s Justice Department is reportedly ‘preparing for war’ as Miller and other MAGA hardliners are already characterizing the Democrats’ agenda to probe the Administration as ‘illegal and criminal.’
According to Axios, Miller claims his primary focus in the role is to rebuild the fractured MAGA coalition, hoping to win back young men and Latinos who revolted against Trump in the midterm election. Some of his first acts in the role have been to bar lobbyists from the White House except those with his explicit approval to meet with Trump, in a bid to reform Trump’s reputation as an influence peddler; and in a reversal of Wiles’ policy regarding Cabinet members, Miller issued a memo this week ‘unleashing’ Cabinet-level department heads to control their own messaging, encouraging them to act as “captains of their own ship.”
Truthdig reports that a conservative group called American Moment is also gearing up to place “10,000 Stephen Millers” in government agencies, public policy organizations, and leading businesses to push Miller’s agenda in every avenue they can regardless of who controls the reins of government. The Wall Street Journal also reported Friday that Miller is at the center of a renewed push to use Trump’s executive power to persecute nonprofits deemed unfriendly to the Trump agenda and strip them of their tax-exempt status using an untested use of an obscure statutory authority in the tax code.
Veterans’ Day marked with anger at Trump cuts, Hegseth disrespect as Democrats sabotage impeachment vote. This year’s Veterans Day holiday on Wednesday, November 11 was marked by various controversies within the U.S. military establishment as veterans and active-duty servicemembers alike found themselves at odds with Trump and self-styled ‘Secretary of War’ Pete Hegseth.
Trump delivered what veterans called a ‘baffling’ speech at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, where he broke from a longstanding tradition of non-partisan rhetoric and spent the time defending his Iran war policies, calling the U.S. military a “wall of flesh” and asking for money for his “Presidential Fundraising Blitz,” while dedicating his proposed ‘Arc de Trump’ – a towering 250-foot arch that would cast a shadow over Arlington Cemetery, the construction of which veterans have sued to stop – to the U.S. military.
Hegseth and several aides visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where they were reprimanded by a U.S. Army sentinel for joking and laughing at the monument revered in military culture, where a decorum of somber silence is strictly enforced. Hegseth later awarded the soldier the prestigious Joint Service Commendation medal, saying on X that “we love standards.”
In Congress, outrage erupted as Republicans were accused of using a ‘dirty trick’ to fast-track a veterans’ benefits bill that implemented what Senator Richard Blumenthal called “the biggest cut to veterans’ benefits in American history.” The ‘Take Care of America’s Veterans Act’ (TCAVA) passed by Republicans on Wednesday touts a small increase in veterans’ retirement, paid for by up to $57 billion in cuts to earned monthly disability benefits for up to 1.5 million veterans suffering from sleep apnea and tinnitus, common ailments affecting injured vets. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) organization joined House Democrats in condemning the bill this week, calling for a re-vote through proper channels. DOGE cuts to VA benefits and infrastructure during Trump’s second term have precipitated a crisis in veterans’ healthcare as staffing shortages and shuttered hospital services have already resulted in unnecessary deaths.
Also this week, a contentious town hall between Navy leaders and families of U.S. servicemembers deployed onboard the USS George W. Bush erupted in protests as 500 Navy families were told that the carrier, which left for the Persian Gulf in March for what servicemembers were told would be a six- to seven-month deployment, would now be deployed for up to one year and that servicemembers would not be able to return to their families for the holiday season.
Angry families confronted Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao over deteriorating conditions on the USS Bush similar to those experienced by those deployed on the USS Abraham Lincoln, which was deployed in the Persian Gulf for a record 286 consecutive days at sea and was pulled off active duty after several servicemembers had attempted suicide by jumping overboard.
One wife of a Navy sailor on board the USS George W. Bush testified to how her husband was treated after seeking help for suicidal thoughts, after he was told that his “job was not to have mental health care.” Another spouse said her husband had been placed on suicide watch but was turned away when he sought medical help. Navy leaders, after informing families that the ship would not be home for the holidays, told them to keep the news quiet for now as they had not yet informed servicemembers of their extended deployment.
On Tuesday, November 9, Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth in the House of Representatives. The motion narrowly failed 211-204 in the House after eleven Democrats, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, failed to show up for the vote. The absent Democrats faced fierce backlash for their failure to support the impeachment effort; some of the Democrat representatives blamed traffic for the delay, while Pelosi chose to attend a Veterans Day celebration in San Francisco instead.
Some of the lawmakers issued apologies to their colleagues for missing the critical vote that would have ended Hegseth’s controversial leadership of the U.S. military, where critics within the Pentagon have said his hardline ideological stances, firings of experienced generals, and blocking of officer promotions for race and gender reasons have eroded morale, damaged U.S. military institutions and contributed to the United States’ catastrophic strategic defeat in the Iran war.
MOVEMENT TRACKER
Schumer, Jeffries face backlash as “blue tsunami” crashes into party leadership. Last week’s “blue tsunami” appears to have brought with it increasing tensions within the Democratic party, as the failed Hegseth impeachment vote and rumors of a Jeffries speakership have provoked outcry from progressive voters and lawmakers. More than a dozen House lawmakers and aides reportedly told Axios that they have been “inundated” with hundreds of calls and emails urging them not to appoint Hakeem Jeffries as House Speaker, with one House Dem telling reporters, “It’s our No. 1 issue, and it’s not close.” Another told Axios that a post on X by actor Mark Ruffalo appears to have catalyzed the pushback, and a Change.org petition associated with the post has over 1.1 million signatures at time of reporting.
Senators are facing similar pressure, as proposals have been made to appoint Chuck Schumer Senate Majority Leader despite catastrophically low approval ratings – an NBC poll in October found that 13% of respondents viewed Schumer positively, while 53% had a negative view. Some of the pushback came to a head on Thursday when over 50 activists associated with the youth-led climate advocacy organization Sunrise Movement were reportedly arrested for blockading Schumer’s office and protesting outside his home. In a Facebook post about the protests, Sunrise Movement states their purpose was to “demand that [Schumer] STEP UP and pledge to abolish the filibuster or STEP ASIDE as Senate Majority Leader in favor of Senator Chris Van Hollen.”
These apparent large scale rejections of establishment leadership within the party evidence similar trends to those seen across the midterms. Activists and progressive lawmakers alike cite support for Israel, capitulation toward the Trump Administration, friendly relations with large corporations, and weak stances on affordability measures like Medicare for All as primary complaints against both Schumer and Jeffries. Analysts argue that the rejection of old guard leadership within the party signals a sea change amongst the party’s base, wherein lawmakers may face new levels of pressure and scrutiny from their constituents as approval ratings for many party-favored figures remain critically low.
Spain sees general strike, Netherlanders target data centers as Gen Z protests take over Europe. Workers in Spain staged the country’s first general strike in 14 years this week, a scant few days after France’s protest movement held one of their own. Millions of workers across various industries reportedly walked off the job on Wednesday to protest the rising housing costs and stagnant wages that have become a flashpoint issue for Spain’s upcoming elections. Protesters blockaded roads and picketed factories as hundreds of thousands of Spaniards rallied in Barcelona, Madrid, and other major cities. The strike was initially called by tenants’ associations across the country before later gaining backing from labor unions. A Madrid Tenants’ Union member told reporters, “It’s extremely important to remind people that we, the workers – who are also renters or who also pay mortgages – are the ones with the power to halt production and bring the economy to a standstill.” The protests appear to have been effective, as the Spanish Parliament on Thursday passed measures to limit evictions and real estate speculation in an attempt to make housing more affordable.
In France, the student movement many say sparked the youth-led protests now reverberating across Europe is staying strong, nearly two months after students first walked out to protest underfunded and overcrowded schools. Unions estimate approximately 250,000 rallied across the country on Saturday in protests that were met once again with batons and tear gas by French police. Since the French student movement began in September, more than 30 European countries have seen large-scale protests relating to government corruption, affordability, and lack of public services, with more than 1,700 protests or riots of 100 or more participants reported across the continent in that time period. After France, where the vast majority of those protests took place, Spain, Italy, and Germany have been the most impacted.
More recently, protesters in a number of European countries have oriented toward a new target: hyperscale data centers. Over the weekend of November 6th-8th, dozens of cities across 15 countries saw anti-data center protests under the heading “Stop Dirty Data Centers,” including a reported 2,000-strong march in Dublin and 1,300 in Helsinki. In the Netherlands, protests came with more direct action, as activists in Amsterdam broke into the construction site of a Microsoft-owned hyperscale data center project. Dutch police said they detained around 200 protesters associated with the action after clashes with the protesters, who were seen scaling construction equipment and setting off flares during the protests. An individual associated with protest group Geef Tegengas, which translates as “Push Back,” told reporters regarding the data center project, “The only thing this will be used for is AI slop. AI warfare, data surveillance and committing genocides. We don’t want that.”