Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“What just happened? As the Monitor’s Mark Sappenfield reported Tuesday, that’s what Germans are asking themselves after a far-right party won nearly 44% of the vote in a state election this week. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been viewed as an extremist threat to democracy by the government in Berlin, and a tacit ‘firewall’ among centrist parties has excluded it from local or regional governing coalitions. Yet, with its euroskeptic, anti-immigration platform, the AfD is now just three seats short of a governing majority in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, and has 28% support among German voters nationally. The follow-up question for Germany, and Europe more broadly, is: What happens next? Or perhaps, what should happen next? The continued rise of right-wing populism across the 27-member European Union is placing new demands on traditional centrist and liberal political leaders.” (09/09/26)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0909/In-Germany-a-call-to-create-a-compelling-vision-for-democracy

Source: Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin

“Many of the free speech fights today rest on the question: How do we protect kids online? But some of the battles over what can be said or shared on the internet are about protecting a remarkably less vulnerable — and significantly more powerful — group from so-called harm: public officials. One such case is in Australia, where top bureaucrat body the Secretaries Board is asking Parliament to cap politicians’ and parties’ ability to share and criticize clips of testimony from the very officials the board represents.” (09/10/26)

https://expression.fire.org/p/australias-top-bureaucrats-want-protection

Source: Jonathan Turley
by Jonathan Turley

“Will Rogers once observed that ‘Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else’ No one ever personified Rogers’ rule as much as University of California, Irvine instructor Matt Goldman, who cracked everyone up this week by joking about celebrating the anniversary of the assassination of Charlie Kirk by alluding to the possible assassination of independent journalist Nick Shirley. Today is the anniversary of the murder of Kirk. In anticipation, Goldman posted a picture of Shirley with the line ‘Someone can do the funniest thing just before the Kirkiversary’. It was a response to an Instagram post by the Harvard Republican Club promoting a speech by Shirley. Goldman reportedly has long found the deaths of disfavored people to be a real knee-slapper, allegedly mocking the deaths of Henry Kissinger and others. Indeed, Goldman takes Gallows humor to a particularly dark place in American politics.” (09/10/26)

https://jonathanturley.org/2026/09/10/the-funniest-thing-academic-jokes-about-celebrating-the-kirkiversary-by-assassinating-nick-shirley/

Source: Law & Liberty
by James Wallner

“Everyone with a plan to fix Congress wants to help it legislate again by making it easier for lawmakers to compromise. Some call for electing more moderates to serve in the House and Senate. And others want to empower party leaders to impose deadlines, block amendments, and limit debate. But they all share the same underlying goal: produce consensus before the conflict begins. The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t work. Agreement in the legislative process is not an input that lawmakers supply in advance. It is an output. And the process that makes it possible generates the conflict this approach tries to engineer away. Moderates are the driving force behind shutting deliberation down precisely because they don’t want to take votes/positions.” (09/10/26)

https://lawliberty.org/congress-conflict-and-compromise/

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“The Israeli press has published three significant revelations about the Gaza holocaust, reporting (1) that Benjamin Netanyahu concealed advanced knowledge of the Hamas attack on October 7, (2) that Israel rejected a Hamas offer to release all civilian hostages immediately after October 7, and (3) that according to an IDF drone operator, the Israeli military was intentionally firing on civilians throughout Gaza during its operations in the Palestinian territory. The first two come from a Haaretz article titled ‘Revealed: Netanyahu Received an Explicit Warning Days Before Oct. 7. He Didn’t Brief Israel’s Security Chiefs’, which was released ahead of an upcoming Haaretz book about the hostage standoff in Gaza. Haaretz describes a call between Netanyahu and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, citing three foreign senior sources.” (09/10/26)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/09/10/three-major-revelations-about-the-gaza-holocaust-in-the-israeli-press/