Colombia the latest example of a candidate winning who advertises he is a bad person, will make life worse for everyone, and you can’t trust anything he says. Yet his voters see him as personally qualified to save the country from leftist “radicals”.

The US is arresting immigrants who speak out against Trump’s preferred (and of course very autocratic) presidential candidate in their home country www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/u...

The three players in this photo: 1. Nigerian heritage, grew up in England, and is only a citizen thanks to birthright citizenship. 2. Born + raised in Holland, has a dad who immigrated to the US from Suriname. 3. Said he wanted to “make people who look like me proud” while playing on Juneteenth

happy world cup day! www.theguardian.com/football/202...

The CAF referee of the year, who officiated the African Champions League final and is one of the 52 designated referees for the World Cup, has been denied entry to the US at Miami International Airport www.france24.com/en/live-news...

This is an example of a scientific association censoring its members, real scientists, for defending attacks on science. The police were called to remove the scientists for handing out hard copies of this editorial. diabetesjournals.org/care/article...

What is happening at Delaney concentration camp is absolute clash of fascist horrors and daring defiance. Everyday people, both those held captive and those outside, are an example to us all of courage and tenacity. Portland gave us inflatables. Minnesota, "neighborism." New Jersey, uprising.

The persecution of trans people in the UK is a sudden, elite-driven campaign that has very seriously harmed their well-being. And if it’s possible to do so against one minority group, what’s protecting others?

Gov. Bill Lee just announced he is granting Tony Carruthers a 1-year reprieve. His attorney immediately started weeping at the news.

The case is based on a paid informant’s testimony, which the informant himself later recanted. The informant also made false claims against others leading to their conviction. And yet…

It’s an unpopular view but Arsenal’s title is the story of considerable overperformance against wealthier opposition - City’s higher wage bill is the equivalent of more than five Sakas It wasn’t always pretty but it is maximising everything you’ve got www.independent.co.uk/sport/footba...

the "Thucydides Trap" shows how bad history can succeed if it serves a purpose

Good piece by @nesrinemalik.bsky.social. There is little difference at times between Reform, Labour or Tories on hostile rhetoric against minorities. Toxic language has become "normalised". The biggest cause of division isn't immigration, it's political rhetoric. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Journalists continue to face mortal risks for doing their job in Colombian conflict zones. Mateo Pérez was assassinated by FARC dissidents (Frente 36) in Briceño, Antioquia last week. www.elcolombiano.com/amp/antioqui...

FWIW, I don’t think the major problem in my field, or related ones, is that people need to move faster & produce more. I read a lot of papers as part of the job, and I’m increasingly convinced we’d benefit from fewer papers and better ones, not more mediocre work produced ever more “efficiently.”

There's nothing reactionary centrists love more than describing someone participating in debate as "shutting down debate." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Weak political leadership. His only answer is to continue attacking the left and moving further to the authoritarian right, even when the (completely horrific) Golders Green attack has no clear connection to Palestine protests. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

That's a resounding High Court defeat for the Office for Students. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

As a neutral, this is simply sumptuous

British universities paid security firm to ‘spy’ on pro-Palestine students… Firm, has been paid at least 440,000 pounds ($594,000) by universities since 2022. www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/...

Massive wave of Israeli airstrikes in Beirut as Israel attempts to undercut the fragile ceasefire

When the US admits that they killed any “military-aged men” who walked within 3km of a downed pilot they mean any boy lanky enough to be a teenager and any middle-aged man able to walk unaided with a cane got shot in the head for the crime of walking.

The dead can’t be brought back, but the mass murderers responsible should face the consequences

This is an absolute scandal; the United States government is deliberately consolidating all deportation cases of an ethnic minority that the President has called "garbage" in front of a handpicked group of judges and with dramatically accelerated timeline. A lawsuit was filed yesterday against it.

Breaking news: A jury convicted people who protested outside an ICE facility in Texas of providing material support to terrorists, and other charges in a closely watched case in which the gov't argued the protesters were "Antifa". www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

US policy now, from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, is to target defenseless sailors, presumably because US leaders enjoy killing

And the legislature is uninterested in restraining him in any way www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Would an appropriate reading be that the US in both easily influenced by Israel, and, like with Venezuela, sees the war with Iran as content creation? In this sense, it’s not about long-term regime change planning, it’s about killing people and bragging about it.

These are criminal acts, and there is no way to find the other side of this without meaningful accountability for this—like “in the dock at The Hague” accountability.

-Zero Congressional consultation or approval. -Zero preparation of public for need/consequences of war. -Zero evidence of thought about "OK, what might the other side do?" Next month. Next year. -Zero mention of anti-nuke agreement Trump voided, or Trump claim last year that nukes "obliterated."

Israel and the US both have autocratic leaders concerned with their own survival who possess extreme revanchist visions of the world. They’re starting a full-on regional war without even the pretense this will lead to something better for those affected.

In the past, sometimes presidents have said it’s just a military operation or limited airstrikes to skirt Congress. Trump has unilaterally launched major combat operations, declaring war with the goal of regime change. A major violation of the U.S. Constitution, also illegal under international law

Horrific. Second attempted regime change in two months.

In 2026 Iranian civilians have been bombed by the US, bombed by Israel and massacred by their own government.

Just a few more crackdowns bro please bro I promise bro we only need a few more I swear I am begging you please just a tiny bit more crackdowns I swear this time it'll work please I need this bro

So Columbia, how do you feel about your collaboration with Trump now? It did not make you safer. It made you more of a target.

He’s been found dead. He was originally beaten and tased after getting lost while walking and refusing to drop his “weapon”, a curtain rod he used as a walking stick. He did not speak English.

Spotify ad tells me that a signing up for Booper health insurance can get me a free subscription to Woop 5.0. Personally, I like my satire and my reality to blur less.

If the Obama administration used metadata to select who to kill with drone strikes, this is the dumbed down version: a boat is along a “known narco-trafficking route,” so we can murder its occupants.

often try to move in on their territory. This happened with Zetas-Sinaloa, Sinaloa-CJNG, etc. Again unlike #1, this would suggest longer-term violence.

a group fragments, the newer, smaller groups are often too weak to traffic drugs internationally, so they get into easier things - kidnapping, extortion, etc. Eduardo Guerrero wrote about this as far back as 2011. 4. Rivals seizing the opportunity. If a group seems weakened (leader lost), rivals...

the group might break into factions, and those factions go to war over succession. This is why taking the top leader, and especially killing the top leader, can lead to serious violence. Unclear if we'll see this, but it would be longer-term than backlash. 3. Predatory violence. After...

There are several reasons arresting or killing a leader of a criminal group usually leads to more violence. In no order 1. Backlash. This is what we're seeing right now in Mexico, especially GDL. Common tactic is flaming roadblocks, "narcobloqueos." 2. Fragmentation. If top leader is lost...

I started my Substack about a yr ago and honestly it's been such an upgrade on other platforms—as I wrote about here it's largely bc email newsletters get around many flaws of algorithmic social media. But that only works if ppl subscribe, so please do! timhirschelburns.substack.com/p/one-year-o...

The Republic is being saved by several thousand people named, like, “Peanut,” “Dugtrio,” and “Green Pants”

In Boston ICE randomly pulled over this huge white Irish guy with a Mass drivers license, 20 years in the states, legal status, pending green card and have held him for 5 months, his citizen wife paid a $4k bond that was ignored(!) ICE forged his signature on deportation agreement, no appeal

this is exactly right. "popularism" in practice amounts to an abdication of political leadership!

Short of outright violent resistance, I can imagine a lot of measures cities and their PD’s could take: the below, tracking ICE and warning community, shadowing ICE, intervening in case of warrantless searches, and starting investigations of ICE abuses. But would most PD’s do these if ordered?