Our ex-BuzzFeed team has provided a testimonial to the immigration court about the value of Guan's work and his incredible bravery. I hope that this man - who I am in absolute awe of - is granted the asylum he needs and deserves. You can read more here: hrichina.substack.com/p/man-who-fi...

He has been held in a detention centre in New York State since August and on Monday (15 December) there will be an immigration hearing to decide whether he can remain in the US, or will be sent back to China, where human rights experts believe he will be in extreme danger.

In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites. He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him. www.wsj.com/world/china/...

The reason folks are focusing on DHS's refusal to honor Real IDs is that it means that the Trump regime is asserting the right to detain anyone in America, resident or visitor, without probable cause. It's an erasure of habeas corpus for all Americans. bsky.app/profile/jare...

To give you a sense of how big a departure this year, the government doesn't do this for wanted criminals.

The third-country removal tracker has been updated with this week's transfer deportation/chain refoulement. Egypt took Russians in ICE custody and forced them onto a plane to Moscow; Kuwait took Iranians in ICE custody and forced them onto a plane to Tehran. hardghistory.ghost.io/tracking-all...

This is not going to go well for the GOP. I really don't think they comprehend how large this is.

Look I am famously opposed to Democrats focusing on kitchen-table stuff like healthcare but when the president is out here saying "Stop whining about your healthcare going away, losers" you pretty much gotta take that ball and run with it

🎯

Visiting snow for the weekend (Minneapolis).

Ron DeSantis stole $36 million in state money "intended to assist needy Floridians" in order to brazenly campaign against ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana and overturn the state's six-week abortion ban both amendments got majority support but fell just short of the 60% threshold

One of the most gripping moments I've ever seen in a congressional hearing.

Making this threat was an incredibly stupid thing to do. If he follows through now, he risks a revolt inside his own party over the fact that he's attacking a red state. If he doesn't follow through, he's announcing to the world that he's a paper tiger.

The thing a lot of people dont think about often is that walls dont just keep other people out, they keep you in as well

The thing to understand about Trump II's new proposed ESTA requirements is that once the outside world is seen and framed as a threat and a hardened border the only protection from it, the distinction between friend and enemy becomes meaningless, and there's no such thing as safe passage.

Pretty sure that any American on a health care plan with a deductible (which is every American with a health care plan) is pretty freaking aware of “what the actual prices are” you imbecile.

JUST IN: A federal judge has blocked DHS from enforcing a new prohibition on “unusual noise” outside a government building in Oregon, saying it unconstitutionally criminalizes and chills free speech storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

We now learn that Fifa had a very specific "ask" in exchange for its "Peace Award" to Trump, with loads of gold trinkets, and that was dismissal of a criminal corruption case against senior Fifa officials. And Trump granted it. Another corrupt bargain, barely noticed (and ignored by US media).

Amazon is making money off AI copies of books - and putting the onus on authors to prove they’ve been plagiarised. Honestly, just stop buying books from Amazon. Get them from an actual bookshop or order them from a reputable book supplier like bookshop.org www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

We are in Medieval times. 16 cases are linked to a church, which followed exposures at four schools last week. The outbreaks are threatening to cost the country its measles elimination status, which was earned in 2000 after vaccination efforts stopped the virus from spreading continuously. 🧪

If you think Trump's bad polling doesn't matter, I hope you reconsider after tonight's elections. Maybe his unpopularity doesn't affect *his* behavior, but it definitely impacts tons of other people—including many GOP voters who are either switching sides or staying home.

Thinking back to how people were "hysterical" for calling trump white supremacist and now he's doing nordic theory on the campaign trail

What prospective foreign *tourist* in their right mind (which precludes the MAGA allies) would agree to do this?

NEW: Pentagon lawyers asked State Dept. if US could send survivors of Trump's boat strikes to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Then Pentagon pushed to have survivors sent anywhere but the US — to prevent any US court cases. Gift link to our @nytimes.com story: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/u...

of course bari’s promoting the guy who disrespected ta-nehisi coates on air because he told the truth about israel

Fantastic ad.

This is an excellent and necessary use of Holocaust analogies. Like, sometimes you should avoid Holocaust analogies. But not in this case. This is right on.

Donald Trump said he’ll “be involved in” deciding if Netflix can buy Warner Bros. Is that an open invite for CEOs to curry favor with Trump in exchange for merger approvals? It should be an independent decision by the Department of Justice based on the law and facts.

Case in point. “A Charlotte family says their son — a 27-year-old Honduran man with end-stage renal failure — was denied dialysis and pressured into signing a voluntary deportation order…” www.wfae.org/race-equity/...

At this point their grotesqueness is so OTT that they are just caricatures of ghouls.

I knew it. We all knew it.

Himes: "I think it's really important this video by made public ... it's important people see what it looks like when the full force of the US military is turned on two guys who are clinging to a piece of wood and about to go under just so they have a visceral feel for what it is we're doing"

UPDATE: Another Chicago-area church has put up an immigration-themed Nativity scene. A church member at Urban Village Church sent this one along, where Mary, Joseph and Jesus are gone and replaced with a sign that reads: “Due to ICE activity in our community, the Holy Family is in hiding.”

from a state party director

The 14th Amendment says that all people born in America, regardless of race are citizens and have a right to equal protection under the law. For SCOTUS to be remotely confused on that text speaks to their racism, not the Constitution (1/3) www.cnn.com/2025/12/05/p...

don't worry, john roberts says this is a legitimate exercise of presidential power and if we did anything to curb it, we would be robbing the executive of the energy he needs to do his job

reading this my main thought is that the leavitt family appears to be a bunch of degenerates and this woman was unlucky to enter their orbit

“Kill all boats no matter where they are going or what they possess” isn’t a strategy, it’s just a killing spree

Here's a better headline for Axios: "How Trump has normalized racism and racist slurs." Why can't some journalists just call a thing what it is? https://loom.ly/hiKWr58

More of this nationwide please!

Trump wants to recreate a white America that never existed | Rebecca Solnit

Corporate-owned outlets that answer to billionaires are increasingly showing they’re not built for this moment. Independent media is filling the gaps and building something new. Help us keep building for another year with a gift subscription to one of these awesome outlets:

NEW — I put together a list of independent journalism subscriptions that would make great holiday gifts. From music to politics, astronomy to alcohol, tech to social justice, there’s something for [almost] everyone. Support indie media *and* surprise and delight your loved ones! My guide:

The idea that they want only legal immigration was a lie from the start.

You could write this. Or you could write: “That notion, which has been the rule in nearly every country in the Western Hemisphere for over a century, is grounded in the language of the 14th Amendment.” All how you choose to frame it.

Read our blog post on the matter! www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/trump-a...

The Feds just cancelled all the upcoming ceremonies in three counties here in the Mid-Hudson Valley NY

We have to accept that the FIFA thing is at least somewhat made possible by insufferable soccer fans' platitudes about the unifying world game and such.