“Behind every crime lie layered, often hidden motives — economic grievances, personal vendettas and the opportunism made possible by gaps in security.” Kamal Shahin examines the sectarian killings in Syria’s Homs, for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

ICYMI yesterday's great decision by Judge Howell.

Robert Malley on the myth of “Palestinians walked away” at Camp David (July 2000): ➤ Malley says the popular story pushed since 2000 – that Arafat rejected a “generous offer” – is contradicted by the actual record. Israeli PM Barak sidelined the Palestinians for a year, expanded settlements...

A hearing is about to start in Abrego Garcia's civil case. I'll try to cover for @lawfaremedia.org . Colleague @annabower.bsky.social might be joining. Among other things, govt is seeking to dissolve Judge Xinis's preliminary injunction preventing Abrego from being removed immediately. /1

If you aren't paying attention to what is happening in Illinois/Chicago, you're missing out on Bovino and federal agents using tear gas, pepper balls, and force against the people. Check out our investigation alongside @evidentmedia.org

Maine will vote in under two weeks on a measure that would make voting a lot harder for a lot of people, including disabled folks, older folks, and anyone who struggles to meet strict ID requirements. If passed, this would really reshape voting in 2026. My deep dive: boltsmag.org/maine-questi...

Looks as if Trump is saying no Democrat will be allowed to win another national election—and he will use the FBI, the DOJ, and the CIA to make sure of that. This is a full-scale attack on American democracy, and every Republican, CEO, and conservative mouthpiece who doesn't object is complicit.

Very disappointing move from Hochul nysfocus.com/2025/10/20/h...

Still unreal to get a question about Israel before any policy questions about New York.

SOUTHCOM head steps down early & one US official says "Admiral Holsey had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the alleged drug boats...." Bulk of article then discusses overwhelming view (incl every IL scholar & mil expert i know) that strikes are illegal.

CA governor Gavin Newsom vetoed both of the major AI bills on his desk that Silicon Valley meaningfully opposed—one making it illegal for bosses to use AI to fire workers with no oversight, one requiring chatbot sellers to ensure their products do not harm children before marketing to them.

This is so damn scary. The book claimed that Jeffrey Epstein was the one who introduced Donald and Melania. Now the CEO of Harper UK is out.

Dr. Rupa Marya was a professor of medicine at the UCSF. She reveals how she was fired from her position after a campaign involving a state politician, a billionaire donor, and university admin targeted her for speaking out against the destruction of hospitals from a region experiencing a genocide.

WOW. This entire story is HORRIFIC. This is FOIA of a body cam from the raid in upstate New York the same day as the Hyundai plant. It catches a Border Patrol agent on camera only bragging about denying medical care to migrants detained at the border under Biden — who he says are all "animals." 1/3

This is really fascinating because the automatic stay is a long-standing part of the immigration detention system. It's been in use for decades.

“Fourteen years after its clandestine birth, and after sacrifices that claimed the lives of six of its founders, Bilal Abu Allaban and Bahaa Ziadeh look out through the newsroom’s large windows at the shattered horizon of Darayya.”

📢 NEW: Amnesty International: Pull the Plug on Israel’s War Economy Amnesty International has issued a new report calling on states, public institutions, and companies to end their complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, unlawful occupation, and apartheid system...

📊 PCBS: 740,000 Palestinians Remain in Northern Gaza The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) estimates that as of September 16, 2025, roughly 740,000 people – 35% of Gaza’s population – remain in the north, despite nearly two years of siege, repeated ground incursions, and mass...

The union representing the musicians from Jimmy Kimmel’s band releases a statement calling the FCC’s pressure on Disney “state censorship.”

We are point where … Karl Rove and … John “Torture Memo” Yoo feel compelled to loudly and publicly denounce MAGA overreach (louder, honestly, than many Dem leaders). I don’t know what it means: things are abt to get really bad? Or proof of fatal overreach? But either way, it’s just wild.

NEW: Recently we reported on L.A. honor student and track star Nory Sontay Ramos and her mom Estela, deported after a routine immigration check-in. Weeks after we met them in Guatemala, where they were in hiding, Estela died suddenly. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/d...

The death of an NYPD officer brought rare recognition for Bangladeshi Americans. But for younger generations shaped by post-9/11 surveillance and Black Lives Matter, it exposed painful questions about belonging, writes Jennifer Chowdhury for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

CA lawmakers have introduced the California Civic Media Program to support local news, but full discretionary grantmaking authority lies in the executive branch. Read the analysis from @mattdpearce.com: www.rebuildlocalnews.org/analysis-california-lawmakers-propose-20m-google-grant-partnership/

“The world we know as “publishing” may perfectly well conclude that the age of mechanical reproduction was a lot of fun but these days it’s easier to be an events business and a community lifestyle brand.” Wow @mattdpearce.com mattdpearce.substack.com/p/google-min...

Back to school is different in DC. We should be focused on possibilities but families are fearful because of Trump’s military occupation. Those of us who don't live in DC can help by calling Congress and telling them to pass resolution 115 to end the occupation.

DENVER (AP) — Conservative network Newsmax agrees to pay $67 million in defamation case over bogus 2020 election claims.

Two weeks ago, CPJ reported on Anas Al-Sharif getting threats from the IDF to cease reporting. He didn’t, and now he’s dead. He’s not the only journalist getting threats from the IDF. We partnered with @theintercept.com to document this horrific practice.

UPDATE — With Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson, there are 12 members of Congress now calling Israel's genocide a "genocide." Other recent additions are Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Pramila Jayapal, Chair Emerita of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

I am proud to report that our clients have prevailed in their First Amendment challenge to this pernicious, viewpoint-discriminatory law that sought to criminalize information about abortion care: horwitz.law/wp-content/u.... Thus, all enforcement of this overbroad law is now enjoined.

Israel bombed an Evin, an Iranian prison that housed dissidents and political prisoners. They ended up destroying the trans wing and murdering over 100 trans people incarcerated there, many for simply being queer in Iran. This is unspeakable evil. archive.ph/PA2n5

An astonishing figure in this piece: Last year, the U.S. budgeted $12.8B for new affordable housing. This country is now poised to spend $45B on immigrant detention centers. That's nearly *four times* as much on cages as on homes—in the middle of a devastating housing and homelessness crisis.

NEW: the Trump admin has moved to terminate TPS for Honduras and Nicaragua, covering over 50,000 people Both of these designations date back to 1999, meaning Trump wants to strip legal status from people here legally who have had a background check every 18 months for the last 26 years.

Trump’s megabill will strip 14 million Americans of access to healthcare care. Here’s why our top story today is something a neo-Nazi sent us about a college application from 15 years ago.

Let's be clear: Jordan Lasker's scandal is MUCH worse than that of Harvard's Claudine Gay, which the NYT covered for days. Gay wasn't fired. Bryan Pesta was. Jordan Lasker could never be hired. If the NYT cares about academic misconduct, they must now cover Lasker's sins. They made him the story. 6/

Here’s the true reported scandal of NYT’s scandalously bogus hit job on Mamdani spoon fed to the paper by a white supremacist shill. As thread says NYT should now cover *this* story with far greater fervor & outrage than it covered Claudine Gray - but don’t hold yr breath waiting for it to do that.

"Right now, 90% of people in immigration detention are in a facility operated by a private detention corporation. GEO Group and CoreCivic are the two main corporations, and we’ve heard from their earnings calls that they’re very excited about getting more money & expand detention."

10 years from Sam Alito's bitter Obergefell dissent to his ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor that queer people in children's books violates religious freedom. He's so triggered by LGBTQ+ joy he attached book pages to his opinion like evidence of a crime. He wants constitutional bubble wrap for bigots.

It is unconscionable that American taxpayers are paying for these killings. Shame, shame on Donald Trump and the complicity of everyone who continues to look the other way. apnews.com/article/pale...

Harvard, aka Resistance U, is taking advantage of the Trumpist NLRB to crush its grad student union by stripping it of 800 members. Sounds about right. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

The attack on public higher ed has been a decades long bipartisan affair: the MAGA wrecking crew wld not have been possible had not yrs of austerity, from GOP & Dems alike, saddled generations of students w debt; destroyed tenure. It is free college for all, or nothing

The news is almost uniformly awful so I was glad to cover the start of a historic anti-SLAPP case in the EU. At least free speech lives on somewhere drilled.media/news/EU-SLAPP

A fascinating test case for the European Union’s new anti-SLAPP law protecting free speech got underway today, with Greenpeace International suing Dakota Access Pipeline owner Energy Transfer, @jindia.bsky.social has the story for @drilledmedia.bsky.social drilled.media/news/EU-SLAPP

NEW: In first public account, Kilmar Abrego Garcia details weeks in Salvadoran prison CECOT. Says he was subjected to 'severe beatings,' psychological torture & soiled himself. Also says jailers confirmed his tattoos have no gang meaning. w/@kyledcheney www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

Question: does it make America great again to deport a guy who’s willing to run into the ocean where a shark is prowling to save a child and chase away the shark?

If a sitting president can openly muse about arresting and disappearing someone who is likely to become mayor of the country's largest city, while also getting the funding for a massive secret police, it'd be hard to find sufficient evidence to qualify that country as a democracy.

I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that. The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one. This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.

Will President Donald Trump deport Elon Musk? Today, Trump told reporters: "We'll have to take a look." Musk appears to have worked in the US without authorization. According to experts, if he did so and lied about it as part of the immigration process, he could be denaturalized. Our earlier story: