The United States now has the most government restrictions on academic freedom of any high-income country. www.chemistryworld.com/news/academi... Raw data from @vdeminstitute.bsky.social —> academic-freedom-index.net/research/Aca...

The Palestinian Authority held the first municipal-level elections in years in occupied territory and in response the Israeli army kidnapped one of the victors and held him hostage and released him only on the condition that he step down from his seat.

These illegal strikes have left 178 dead since September

hey just because you take issue with the actions of someone wearing a respirator in indoor public spaces does not mean the action of wearing a respirator to a public indoor event Bad Or Wrong! and, in fact, you doing so only adds to stigma that keeps disabled people isolated! do better please!

From today’s Creative Action by the Gorky’s Gardeners collective in Union Square, NYC. It was on the occasion of the 111th anniversary of the day we commemorate the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.

"There's no room in this country for political violence" Unless it's ICE wielding the weapon, though, amirite? Then there's PLENTY of room. Or we're bombing Iranian schoolgirls and oil refineries. Then it's fine.

Breaking: A local LGBTQ group has constructed an art installation depicting Baystate Medical System running over trans kids after Baystate decided to cut off gender affirming care for youth in Western Mass. Springfield, MA:

The way artists have been so screwed by this bs...there was no reason for Meta to do this. Between censorship and algorithmic manipulation, it's hard to see and be seen anymore. For disabled/rural/artist not in a major city, it's devastating. Social media had the chance to democratize and it's gone

A “former Palantir executive recently confirmed what many have long suspected. In a public stmt, the whistleblower said it plainly: Palantir intended to take over the US government, & many of his former colleagues are now installed inside the federal apparatus. He called it an occupied nation.” 1/

A man who says he was born in Colorado was deported recently after being pulled over in Texas, after which immigration officers denied his offers to show them proof of citizenship he says he had at home.

www.erininthemorning.com/p/texas-tech... A new memo at Texas Tech University establishes a sweeping and draconian censorship policy toward LGBTQ+ people, creating a campus equivalent of "Don't Say Gay" in one of the most extreme anti-speech policies ever imposed at a public university….

THREAD: Let's dig into one specific piece of the misguided "protect the kids" social media legislation that Massachusetts lawmakers are trying to rush through: The provisions that involve "parental consent." (Read my Boston Globe piece here for a primer) archive.ph/rAK4P But let's go deeper 🧵

All adults and some children on ICE flights—some 50 flights a day now—are shackled at the wrists and ankles attached to a chain around their waists. I have spoken to migrants and their attorneys who report being shackled for 50, 75, and 82 hours while being deported. Flight data backs this up.

They didn’t just double tap. They hunted her like an animal. First they sent her death threats. They struck her, then followed her to where she tried to take shelter & struck her there. They struck the rescue workers who came for her & only after hours, after she died, did they allow retrieval

Also: look up Zhang Shan. She won gold at the Barcelona Olympics in 1993 in skeet shooting. Skeet shooting had been a mixed gender event since the 60s, but after her win, they segregated the genders. And in the next Olympic Games, they literally didn’t even have a women’s skeet shooting category.

RFK Jr: I terminated the COVID vaccines because it didn’t make any sense. COVID is gone. Note: From July 2024 to June 2025 in the US, COVID19 caused up to 450,000 hospitalizations and 53,000 deaths. COVID ain’t gone, shitbird.

For anyone that is reading this and thinking it’s ridiculous… It’s the same justification most people are using to not wear masks/respies. Just sayin’.

They killed her

Really excited with how the show is progressing for @denverbotanic.bsky.social—opening this fall, "The Place of Flowers: Works by Daisy Patton" #art #painting

Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and ships in the region, with experts warning of an impending environmental catastrophe www.cnn.com/2026/04/21/c...

I had no idea of this...worth the read—feels like a microcosm of so much of our current moment and its ills

This is what Israel has done to Bint Jbeil, my hometown in southern Lebanon

This @bostonglobe.com piece highlighting substantive critiques of Massachusetts' "protect the kids" push for online ID checks is rock solid. Many experts quoted along with parents and young people who would be directly impacted. send this to yr MA legislators www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/19/m...

Absolutely unconscionable www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

It's important to understand the strangle hold that Catholic medical care has across the United States. It impacts *so* many people in shocking ways. Trans healthcare has always been a no go. Have a miscarriage? Also real grim. and Abortion access? Absolutely not.

Graham Platner is a bigoted white socialist's idea of the kind of politician who brings "radical" change. I don't discount them as a huge part of the electorate.

In 2003, US citizen Rachel Corrie was killed by Israeli soldiers using a US-provided bulldozer. Her parents are calling on senators to vote yes today to block $295 million worth of these bulldozers to Israel. Join them by calling your senators TODAY:

lots of Spanberger headlines today. if you care about criminal justice issues — don't sleep on this one boltsmag.org/virginia-fou...

A third of all countries have had their governments, people, or organizations sanctioned by the US which makes this terrorism claim particularly absurd. Some International Criminal Court judges can’t use their credit cards because US sanctions reach so broadly and control everything they touch.

Why aren't students protesting?

“Everything they do here is to mistreat us, to make us suffer. And there’s no one to complain to. If we do, they punish us,” he said, adding that detainees have been directed instead to fill out electronic forms on a shared tablet. “They tell us to write it down on the tablet … and nothing happens.”

Idaho has the most punitive anti-trans bathroom ban in the country, with up to five years in prison for a second offense. I spoke to the folks pushing back—over what just a few years ago led to calls for boycotts, the state legislature shamed on the national stage—on how they fight.

Deputizing local police to engage in immigration enforcement means more pain for our communities. This approach guarantees every police encounter becomes even more traumatizing for immigrants + refugees, while redirecting local resources further away from real community need.

Y'all need to get the fuck off Substack.

Okay bluesky I need your help I live in Massachusetts. You might think we're a bastion of lefty intellectualism but our state government a clusterfuck of post-puritan real estate bros Reskeet this. Text it to your "friends from home" Help this find every masshole poster who will know what to do

Also, if you don't think there's an ableism problem on the left, you need to make friends with more disabled people.

As a disability rights activist in Maine there is a deep reckoning needed in this state around the harmful language perpetuated so casually. As a long term organizer & strategist who once worked nonstop w/orgs & politicians in Maine this battle feels futile & accessibility discussions are a fight.

Exactly this. If you clearly think that some disabled people are not your equals, how are you going to be an ally to them and defend their rights once you're in office?

There definitely aren't many discussions about this (offline), and even on the skyline. He burned half-a-billion dollars of merchandise of a major brand over poor pay, and hardly anyone is talking about it, even as a tank of gas costs a mortgage payment! 😒

Man idk how to express how demoralizing it is to see people doing joke support for the Pope as the Catholic Church implements the most draconian trans healthcare ban anywhere in the US. It's a FULL ADULT TRANS HEALTHCARE BAN!!!THEY KEEP BUYING MORE HOSPITALS!!!!!!! Moreover, ICE must be destroyed

As @theintercept.com reports out a story about ICE obtaining a student activist's data from Google—no judge required, tech journalist @byjacobward.bsky.social warns, "the 4th Amendment doesn’t protect third-party data… ICE or anybody else who wants this data, they don't need a subpoena." #Velshi

A new study shows that Black women outpace every other group of women in workforce participation. Yet they are still paid less & retire in poverty at twice the rate of white women. This is a system. It is long past time this country started carrying them the way they have carried us.

Just a reminder that we can fund science, and save the earth, and feed everyone, and have health care and housing too. All those things are within our reach, together.

Kennedy is a eugenicist. His words and choices to date provide ample evidence of his deep hatred for disabled ‘weaker’ people. All his ‘policy’ is driven by one goal: make the population ‘fitter’ by ‘weeding out the unfit.’ Speak of him as the open, rank eugenicist he is.

We have been asking them if they will commit to impeachment after midterms, and their responses have not been reassuring. bsky.app/profile/citi...

The Burlington, Massachusetts ICE facility continues to be so horrific to me because it essentially crams a mini ad hoc concentration camp into a suburban office park. It's a perfect encapsulation of American fascism.

I've studied so many concentration camps through history that held vulnerable people in just this kind of crowded squalor. You demonize people, you demand more arrests, this is what you get. It already has its own budget and its own momentum, and is on track to go much further, unless we stop it.