Source: United Press International
“Federal authorities have arrested and charged an Army veteran with top secret clearance on accusations of sharing classified national defense information with a journalist, who is accusing the Trump administration of retaliating against a whistleblower. Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, N.C., was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday, a day after she was arrested by the FBI, the Justice Department said in a statement. … Williams is a named source in Seth Harp’s The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces, an investigative nonfiction book about a string of unsolved murders at the special operations base that was published in August. In a book excerpt published by Politico, Williams alleges sexual harassment and discrimination within Delta Force at the North Carolina base.” (04/09/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/04/09/veteran-charged-journalist/9181775719093/
Source: Hoover Institution
“Speech, Not ‘Conduct’: Supreme Court Rules on Conversion Talk Therapy | Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer.” (04/08/26)
https://free-speech-unmuted.podbean.com/e/speech-not-conduct-supreme-court-rules-on-conversion-talk-therapy-eugene-volokh-and-jane-bambauer-hoover-institution/
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Buried in his book about being a wheeler-dealer, Mr. Trump notoriously advances a notion eerily similar to Nixon’s Madman strategy. Trump likes to keep those with whom he is negotiating ‘guessing.’ He says this often. We cannot be shocked, then, if we’re all kept guessing about his Iran strategy. His litany of flip-flops from early March to the present day has been breathtaking, even for Trump.” (04/08/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/04/08/posting-past-armageddon/
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman
“So the world’s greatest military power went to war with a poor, medievalist theocracy. It was an incredibly uneven match. … Yet Iran won. The Iranian regime has emerged far stronger than it was before, controlling the Strait of Hormuz and having demonstrated its ability to inflict damage on both its neighbors and the world economy. The U.S. has emerged far weaker, having demonstrated the limitations of its military technology, its strategic ineptitude and, when push comes to shove, its cowardice. We’ve also destroyed our moral credibility …” (04/08/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/ignorance-and-ignominy
Source: SFGate
“A 300-million-year-old tentacled sea creature has lost its crown as the world’s oldest octopus, after scientists found evidence that it’s not an octopus at all. Newly published research concludes that fossilized remains listed by Guinness World Records as the earliest known octopus belong instead to a relative of a nautilus, a cephalopod with both tentacles and a shell. University of Reading zoologist Thomas Clements, the lead researcher behind the new findings, said the fossil, Pohlsepia mazonensis, has long been the subject of scientific debate. ‘It’s a very difficult fossil to interpret,’ he said. ‘To look at it, it kind of just looks like a white mush. If you look at it and you are a cephalopod researcher and you’re interested in everything octopus, it does superficially look a lot like a deep-water octopus.'” (04/09/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/scientists-say-the-world-s-oldest-octopus-fossil-22197059.php
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“What did the United States and Iran just agree to?” (04/08/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/04/08/nx-s1-5777407/what-did-the-united-states-and-iran-just-agree-to
Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher
“After six weeks of insane behavior, the ceasefire should not lead us to believe Trump has regained his faculties.” (04/08/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/04/08/trump-madman-theory-danger/
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence in workplaces across the United States is automating a wide range of administrative, managerial, and even specialized high-tech tasks. Employers and employees alike are understandably concerned. Yet, the same AI boom is also driving demand for workers in professions long seen as declining in prestige and pay scales: the skilled trades or blue-collar jobs that helped build America’s middle class. As the cost of a college education increases, and as young people seek less debt, enrollment in vocational community-college programs and private trade schools has increased by about 6% annually in recent years. Still, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 400,000 skilled trade jobs remained unfilled in 2025. Paradoxically, these economic and social pressure points highlight new possibilities for expanding pathways to prosperity.” (04/08/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0408/Welding-the-skilled-trades-to-dignity
Source: In These Times
by Dr. Hatem Bazian
“There are people you meet in the struggle for Palestine and justice who leave a mark not because of titles they hold or platforms they command, but because of who they are — quietly, consistently, and without asking for anything in return. Salah Sarsour is that kind of person. And the fact that he is sitting tonight in a detention facility, torn from his family and his community by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who pulled him over with no legitimate cause, is an injustice that demands that every one of us speak. I first met Salah over thirty years ago, when I was beginning to organize for Palestine on a national level and found myself visiting the Muslim community in Milwaukee. He was already a key leader then — grounded, trusted, and beloved.” (04/09/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/salah-sarsour-a-pillar-taken-a-community-that-will-not-yield
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem has reopened to Palestinian worshippers after a 40-day closure by Israel. Video verified by Al Jazeera showed Palestinians streaming through its gates early on Thursday morning. Around 3,000 worshippers attended morning prayers. Access had been completely prohibited, or restricted to a few dozen faithful at Christian, Jewish and Muslim sites following the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran on February 28. Israel often imposes restrictions, especially on Palestinian worshippers.” (04/09/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/9/thousands-of-palestinians-pray-at-al-aqsa-mosque-after-israels-40-day-ban
