This is how Palestinians enter 2026: suspended between fear of what lies ahead & a stubborn optimism rooted deep within them, writes Hassan Abo Qamar. Most Palestinians in Gaza received the new year under crushing conditions: in tents within the Strip, or scattered in exile alone.

“Everything in this world can be robbed & stolen, except one thing; this one thing is the love that emanates from a human being towards a solid commitment to a conviction or cause.” —Ghassan Kanafani We’re back to work after a brutal year that tested our brains, bodies & spirits. Now onto 2026:

In 2026, let’s take back the media — and our minds and spirits — from the billionaires. This op-ed that @neginowl.bsky.social and I wrote today is close to my heart! truthout.org/articles/bil...

Trump’s visa ban is crushing young people in Myanmar, Victor Maung reports. As a military coup & civil war rage on in Myanmar, students who spent years & precious resources preparing to attend college in the U.S. have been banned from entering the country.

At UMass’s flagship campus, concern grows over patterns of pro-Palestine repression, Maddie Khaw reports. Student Kivlighan de Montebello faces suspension after protesting for Palestine on campus, while some activists also raised concerns about the end of an Arabic language program.

A leading Black media org is abandoning its workers—& its values, write members of the PushBlack Workers United in an op-ed. The org built to champion Black liberation & collective care laid off six union workers, exposing a staggering hypocrisy between its external mission & internal cruelty.

If you've protested against the Israeli genocide of Palestinians and been met by phalanxes of bike cops, you have been directly impacted by the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999 and the police tactics that were exported across the country in its aftermath.

NEW: Seattle Police Prioritizing ICE’s Records Requests Over Citizens’ www.hardpressed-info.com/seattle-poli...

“Some people say food deserts, I say food apartheid, because it’s an imposed system. On my reservation, there are two grocery stores, and the land mass is larger than Delaware.” - Foster Kenoyer Hogan, @ndncollective.bsky.social Buffalo Nations coordinator prismreports.org/2025/12/08/s...

Leslie Lee III, an educator, critic, and Long COVID advocate, died on November 10. “He was one of the few voices in leftist spaces that refused to buy into COVID denialism," Taylor Lorenz told @mileswgriffis.bsky.social. "He was such a strong voice..." bit.ly/44MICG4

The memo targets: - Rules on how trans & intersex people are screened for their risk of sexual abuse & how info is used to determine housing - Trans & intersex people’s ability to shower separately - Protocols for sexual abuse incidents that take into account whether the victim was trans or intersex

According to survey data from the DOJ itself, incarcerated trans Americans experience sexual violence at more than 12x the rate of other incarcerated people. The plans outlined in the memo effectively greenlight discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people who are already disproportionately at risk.

BREAKING: Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans & intersex people, memo says. A DOJ memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) do not align with Trump’s Jan. 20 anti-trans executive order, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social reports.

You should also read this fascinating @prismreports.org exclusive from the brilliant @nicolefroio.bsky.social. Nicole spent months studying social media posts from U.S. embassies in Latin America, identifying the State Department’s xenophobic campaign of fear in Venezuela, Brazil, and Mexico:

In this story that @prismreports.org republished from @19thnews.org: a powerful look at how immigrant women are detained in the days and weeks after giving birth, facing medical neglect, separation from their newborns, and ongoing trauma in ICE custody. prismreports.org/2025/12/02/p...

“In the movies, survival games come with rules. In Gaza, there were no rules—only hunger.” Aid sites were Gaza’s compulsory ‘Squid Game.’ Logain Hamdan writes about the memory left of the now-defunct sites that required walking into a barrage of bullets for the mere hope of obtaining a bag of flour.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed disastrous cuts to our city's libraries while setting aside $5M for a ShotSpotter replacement. As library associate Sara Heymann told me, “Libraries embody everything we need to fight back against fascism.” My piece on what’s at stake and how to fight back:

Join us and help spread the word! This is coming up in a few days and we are still very low on signups. Though many of may be familiar with the term "pinkwashing," Khalil's work shows us how queer people in Palestine are targeted by the occupation in many more, sinister ways. Come learn with us!

This is what you get when billionaires own the media. Support grassroots, independent media like Truthout if you can. truthout.org/donate/

Exclusive: The U.S. is exporting Trump’s xenophobia through some of its Latin American embassies, investigates @nicolefroio.bsky.social. The State Dept’s social media campaign of fear in Venezuela, Brazil, & Mexico lays bare the anti-immigrant messaging behind the new face of American diplomacy.

“My own government is forcing me to subsidize the mass murder of children. I don’t want that, & I don’t think Americans do either.” In this Q&A, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa discussed his second medical mission at the Nasser Medical Complex where the Israeli military used US-made weapons to bomb the hospital.

“When you use military hardware on children, it’s going to flay them open. And if they’re lucky enough to survive, they’re in for an awful life.” In part one of a Q&A, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa detailed the catastrophic conditions he witnessed during a medical mission at the European Gaza Hospital.

In honor of @sfdirewolf.bsky.social's legacy as a disability activist and writer, today we are republishing Bitch Magazine's Access Series, which was originally curated by Alice Wong. Worker-owner and former Bitch editor-in-chief Evette Dionne updated the intro to the series here:

Let me remind you that PEN is a multimillion dollar lit org that is taking credit for the work of tiny nonprofit newsrooms such as @prismreports.org. PEN offered not a dollar or an ounce of support for the work we've published by incarcerated writers. This is disgusting & honestly, mad disrespectful

PEN is also taking credit for several @prismreports.org Right to Write pieces the org had ABSOLUTELY NO ROLE in helping to produce. I didn't even know PEN's IWB launched, let alone that it was publicly claiming to have worked with Prism on half a dozen pieces.

WELL. Fast forward to today, when I learned from @empowermentave.bsky.social that @penamerica.bsky.social's Incarcerated Writers Bureau finally launched. And guess what? PEN is taking credit for "facilitating" Derek Trumbo's @prismreports.org column.

Given our experience with @penamerica.bsky.social and what we were hearing from incarcerated writers about how the esteemed literary organization treated them, @prismreports.org launched its Right to Write editorial initiative for incarcerated writers. We have since published dozens of pieces.

But Derek and I loved working together and we decided to continue our work together with absolutely zero support from @penamerica.bsky.social. Derek and I co-wrote pieces together about prison labor, and he launched a column at @prismreports.org about life behind bars.

In 2021, I became a "coach" in @penamerica.bsky.social's IWB & I was paired with Derek Trumbo, who at the time was a writer incarcerated in Kentucky. But after our introduction, the IWB completely fell apart. The team behind the PEN program abruptly left the org, and the IWB never actually launched.

Well, apparently this practice continues! Today, I was alerted by @empowermentave.bsky.social that PEN's Incarcerated Writers Bureau finally launched. The original idea behind the program was to create a pathway for incarcerated writers to publish more regularly with esteemed publications.

You can see the archive of reporting here, but effectively the org has a long history of treating incarcerated writers horribly and taking credit for work @penamerica.bsky.social actually had no hand in producing.

Formerly incarcerated writer Alex Tretbar first blew the whistle on the esteemed literary organization when he revealed in this op-ed co-written with journalist Natalye Childress that PEN failed to pay incarcerated writers awarded writing prizes:

Some of you might recall the reporting from @prismreports.org about @penamerica.bsky.social's treatment of incarcerated writers. It's a long list of horrendous behavior.

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“Our happiness for Ahmad’s wedding was greater than our happiness for the end of the war itself.” After all the loss of two long years, we want to love & be loved, without the fear of the pain that has haunted us, writes Hassan Herzallah on experiencing the joy of a wedding again.

“[Movement journalism is] not in ‘business’ to funnel advertising dollars to the pockets of billionaires; we’re here to perform liberatory work” write @femmfeministe.bsky.social & @mayaschenwar.bsky.social. It’s time for progressive philanthropy to commit to funding journalism.

Social media and many of the places where we get perspectives are a mess with manipulation, conspiracy, and misinformation. Radicals hoping to fight oppression have to be mindful of where we listen and why. I wrote about this and more for @prismreports.org. prismreports.org/2025/11/20/a...

Thousands in NYC are training to protect non-citizens from masked agents and the potential deployment of federal troops--a move at the core of the authoritarian agenda of the administration. @cosecha.bsky.social @maketheroadny.bsky.social @cmsandynurse.bsky.social prismreports.org/2025/11/19/n...

"Rigorous, principled, independent journalism is an essential part of movement building." Read @femmfeministe.bsky.social and @mayaschenwar.bsky.social's urgent appeal to keep progressive media alive -- and thriving -- during these terrible times.

"No COP discussion or agreement has ever suggested addressing root causes of climate change and ecological destruction—colonialism, imperialism—through demilitarization." ray levy uyeda wrote this for @prismreports.org in 2023 and it's even more relevant for COP30 prismreports.org/2023/11/28/c...

"The right knows that funding media is important." "Progressive foundations have an opportunity to recognize their unique responsibility here." "Rigorous, principled, independent nonprofit and community-based news is an essential part of progressive movement building." #USA #Media

Weddings in Gaza used to be a time for celebration. But now, weddings that people once dreamed of only exist in their imaginations, writes Hassan Herzallah. After all the loss, the waiting, & the silence of two years, Gazans are trying to rebuild not just their homes, but the meaning of life itself.

It's NewsMatch time! If you donate to Prism between now and the end of the year, @inn.org will match your donation, double your impact, and help Prism continue fighting for a better news media landscape powered by Actual Interaction, not "artificial intelligence"

Perfectly put by @femmfeministe.bsky.social and @mayaschenwar.bsky.social: prismreports.org/2025/11/19/p...

I went home to Southeast L.A. to cover the immigration raids there. And this week I've covered the raids in my adopted home of NC. Nothing--and I mean NOTHING--will give you hope like speaking to immigrant organizers and locals fighting back.

Yesterday, through a flurry of interviews & phone calls, @tinavasquez.bsky.social wrote this excellent report on the immigration raids in cities across North Carolina. She spoke to community members about the devastation & fear, as well as the love & resistance. prismreports.org/2025/11/19/n...

“I wished for death every moment. [...] I could hear the soldiers outside speaking Hebrew & laughing.” Testimonies reveal rape & torture in Israeli prisons, @laubast.bsky.social reports. Israel’s carceral regime inflicts systemic sexual violence on Palestinians, advocates & experts say.

🧵 The elimination of Teen Vogue’s entire political desk and layoffs of their Black, brown, trans, and queer workers is part of a devastating mainstream media landscape. prismreports.org/2025/11/19/p...