Trump's Justice Department creates a $1.7 billion fund to compensate political allies prosecuted under the Biden administration. Democratic lawmakers and watchdog groups say the plan is a brazenly corrupt "slush fund" that would reward the president's loyalists with taxpayer money u.afp.com/SR27

"You need a certain kind of active listening, because music is actually art in time ... you go with friends and after you can talk about (the performance). That experience is, I think, very important. You are sharing the (music) together to experience something together."

"Officials told the NYT that the base discovered by Shammari had been known to Washington since at least June 2025, suggesting the US had withheld the information from the Iraqi government despite being a close ally."

"Despite the grim figures, Amnesty noted signs of progress toward the abolition of capital punishment." "By the end of 2025, 113 countries had fully abolished the death penalty for all crimes, up from just 16 in 1977."

"Fulton, Wayne, Maricopa, and Milwaukee County are the largest and most heavily scrutinized election jurisdictions in their respective states. Each has been the subject of persistent conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, many of which remain prevalent on social media,..."

"The investigation also underlined what other reports and security analysts have concluded: that the strikes have not reduced the flow of drugs to the US, but have instead torn apart communities already fractured and weakened by organised crime and state neglect."

"According to the American Psychological Association, conversion therapy is largely ineffective and can increase risks of depression, anxiety, suicide and substance abuse."...

"In the past, B'Tselem has recorded acts of violence by Jewish marchers directed towards Palestinian residents and journalists." "One journalist told the group in 2023, before the Gaza genocide, that "groups of Jews threw stones, plastic water bottles, and broken flag poles at us",..."

"Cuba reportedly produces approximately 40,000 barrels of oil per day but consumes well over twice that, between 90,000 and 110,000, making it structurally dependent on imports that have now virtually disappeared."

"The number of executions recorded in 2025 was the highest in 35 years, and was a continuation of a surge that began in 2022 after the nationwide "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests. People now speak of a climate of fear."

"Political, legal, economic and logistical obstacles delayed the new boundaries, while agribusiness-linked groups opposed to demarcation have launched repeated legal challenges to stall progress."

"It’s hard to tell exactly how many immigrants are threatened with indefinite detention, but of about 14.6 million undocumented residents, the Center for Migration Studies estimates, something like 5.5 million could have entered the country illegally, making them subject to the detention policy."

"Across the nation, as many as 200,000 immigrant drivers could be pushed out of the trucking industry by the CDL crackdown, according to the Department of Transportation — even as the U.S. faces a shortage of up to 80,000 truck drivers."

"...(A)s the IACHR report makes clear, state actors are often involved, either directly by snatching people from their homes or cars without warrants and handing them off to criminal groups, or indirectly by looking the other way as these crimes take place."

"The U.S. is the only wealthy nation on Earth that lacks federally mandated, paid maternity leave, even though about three-quarters of mothers are employed. As of January 2026, only 14 states and the District of Columbia had a mandated, paid maternity leave of eight to 12 weeks."

“One of the problems that we have right now is an administration that seems to think that it can just plow ahead without any input,” (Rebecca Miller, exec. director of DC Preservation League) said. “These assets are owned by the people of the United States. They’re not anybody’s personal portfolio.”

"One cannot help noticing the parallel to another ethnic state—a “Land Without a People,” as early Zionists claimed, unless you count the ones that happened to be living there."...

Your regular reminder that when David Duke ran for statewide office in the early 1990s, the MAJORITY of white Louisiana voters pulled the lever for him. This was AFTER they’d seen the pictures of Duke in a Klan outfit and a Nazi uniform.

To be clear, this guy thinks 9/11 was an inside job!

"Since its inception in 1989, the Knowles-Nelson program helped preserve over 750,000 acres across all 72 counties in Wisconsin, including at least roughly 17,600 acres in Dane County."

"The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters, including the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea, has gone on since early September and killed at least 193 people in total."...

"Less well-known is another term, “qualitative military edge”, or QME, that has long been used in Washington policy circles. It was enshrined in US law in 2008, and guides US foreign policy to this day."...

Can’t qwhite tell what he means

"The report examined whether discrimination was a factor in the deaths, and found that Native women have the highest rates of discrimination, with more than 90% of deaths involving discrimination."...

"The Washington Post cited a US official saying that Iran has 75 percent of its pre-war inventories of mobile launchers and about 70 percent of its pre-war stockpiles of missiles. Iran has also managed to reopen its underground missile storage facilities."

"[The open letter] noted that there had been no formal interviews with witnesses, “despite the willingness of multiple witnesses to cooperate”, and no signs of FBI activity to gather evidence in Israel or Palestine."

This story is WILD. Juan Orlando Hernandez, the Honduran ex-president pardoned by Trump for narcotrafficking, seemingly caught on tape in dozens of conversations (if true), discussing plans with GOP and other figures to attack left-wing governments, and saying Israel paid for his pardon from Trump.

Breaking: Tennessee Republicans pass new 9-0 gerrymander after SCOTUS destruction of Voting Rights Act eliminating state’s only majority-Black district & last Democratic seat. Splits Memphis, which is 63% Black, into 3 districts to disenfranchise Black voters. Quite literally a return to Jim Crow

Excited to live in a country where you can mail someone a handgun but not an abortion pill

"The piece was composed in 2019 by Omar Thomas for contemporary wind ensembles and does not have lyrics. But Thomas dedicated the work to transgender activist Marsha Johnson, a key figure in the 1969 Stonewall uprising against police raids in New York."

Looks like the feds gave a heads-up to their favorite ride-along buddy Bill Melugin, always a sign that's something's being done with noble intent

"UNESCO has verified damage to 164 cultural sites in the enclave—among them fourteen religious sites, 128 historic or artistic buildings, three depositories, nine monuments, two museums, and eight archaeological sites."...

"Iowa has some of the highest nitrate levels in drinking water that’s linked to widespread use of fertilizers and manure, and it has the most concentrated feeding animal operations of any state. It’s also one of the few states where cancer rates are rising."

"In 10 state legislatures across the South, Republicans could gain more than 190 seats currently held by Democrats, most of them Black representatives in majority-minority districts, according to an analysis released in Dec. by voting rights groups Fair Fight Action & Black Voters Matter Fund."...

"The crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives is not new. On some reservations, Native women face murder rates more than ten times the national average — ..."

"Labeled for the first time ever, the collateral arrests are reported from August to early March in ICE arrest data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by Stateline. In that time there were about 64,000 collateral arrests, a quarter of the 253,000 total arrests by ICE."

"According to the RSF report, "armed conflict is the primary reason for [the] decline in press freedom" in countries such as Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen."...

"The stories of Black patriots cannot be told w/o mentioning slavery, which was legal at the time in all 13 Colonies. Some Blacks who fought were enslaved and others fought in the hopes of gaining freedom. Indigenous soldiers made similar calculations, even as tribes fought for their very survival."

Mississippi Republicans quickly began pushing to eliminate Bennie Thompson's district in Mississippi after the VRA ruling. This would leave Mississippi—where nearly 4-in-10 residents are Black—with four white-majority congressional districts. www.mississippifreepress.org/mississippi-...

"A coalition of 20 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in March, claiming that the restrictions are unlawful. The lawsuit has largely focused on federal food assistance programs provided by the agency, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program..."

"When telemedicine is restricted, rural communities, people with low incomes, people with disabilities, survivors of intimate partner violence and communities of color suffer the most." -Julia Kaye, an ACLU lawyer

"...(M)any also raise concerns about how the change could potentially disenfranchise voters — a heightened worry in a deeply red state that has been leading efforts to gut the Voting Rights Act. Orleans Parish is a Democratic hub with a predominantly Black electorate."

"Some 35,000 to 39,000 US soldiers are currently stationed in Germany, plus around 13,000 Air Force personnel. They are spread across 20 different major sites, located primarily in the south and southwest of the country."...

"Some health campaigners have warned that the proposed deal could link aid funding to access to critical minerals and raise questions over data sharing. Ambassador Gonzales has strongly denied those claims, calling them false and offensive."

"[UN chief investigator Mohamed Chande Othman] based his conclusion on three key findings. "The first one is to have mass killings. Secondly, you find physical harm through torture and horrendous gender-based violence, which is really traumatic, as proven by the evidence that we have.""...

"For the first time since RSF started producing the index in 2002, more than half of the world’s countries fall into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories for press freedom – “a clear sign that journalism is increasingly criminalised worldwide.""

"Republicans could ultimately eliminate a dozen Democratic congressional seats in the South as a result, leaving no Democratic representatives or majority-minority districts in states including Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana—..."