“It is increasingly clear to me that our systems and institutions — of government and technology, of religion and journalism, of justice and enforcement, of economy, of enterprise, even of entertainment — are run on abuse and for the sake of abusers. This convinces me that we are dealing with a culture of abuse, a collective spiritual alignment with abuse know as supremacy — the belief that only some people matter. It’s a sickness that is systemic and social and spiritual more than it is individual, which suggests to me that the remedy will need to be systemic and social and spiritual as well. How to heal from this systemic, social, and spiritual sickness?” (04/25/26)
“There is no victory coming in Iran. There are better and worse possible outcomes. There is no victory coming in Iran because it is an illegal war that will leave our constitutional mechanism, already running rough, further out of balance for a generation, with the presidential warmaking power now entirely untethered from Congress. There is no upside to that. Repairing the damage would take a generation of work by better men and women than we currently have in Washington. On top of this, the Trump administration has effectively conceded sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz to Iran, a privilege Iran did not previously enjoy regarding the international strait, which is partly in the territorial waters of Oman. … In this war, the United States will lose no battles, but Iran has, in effect, gained territory.” (04/24/26)
“Authorities in Tunisia have ordered a one-month suspension of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, one of the oldest rights groups in Africa and the Arab world and part of the National Dialogue Quartet awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, in the latest move raising concerns over a widening crackdown on civil society. The league confirmed the suspension in a statement late Friday, warning that the decision amounted to ‘a serious and arbitrary violation of freedom of association’ and ‘a direct assault’ on one of Tunisia’s key democratic gains. President Kais Saied has often cited foreign funding, which rights groups sometimes rely on, as a threat to Tunisia, using it to fuel a populist narrative and accuse his political opponents and social justice activists of being foreign agents and stirring unrest at home.” (04/25/26)
“A car bomb exploded outside a police station in the Dunmurry area of south Belfast late on Saturday after a delivery vehicle was hijacked and the driver forced to take it to the site, [British-occupied] Ireland police said on Sunday. The attack is the latest in a series of sporadic attempts by militant groups that continue to target police officers, decades after a peace deal largely ended sectarian violence in the region. … The car was hijacked in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast shortly after 10:50 p.m. (2150 GMT) on Saturday and a gas cylinder device was placed in the trunk, police said. The man was ordered to drive the vehicle to Dunmurry police station, Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton told a news conference. The vehicle was abandoned outside the front of the station, prompting police to activate an alarm and evacuate nearby homes, Singleton said.” (04/26/26)
