“Medford, a city of 60,000 people in Massachusetts, voted to pass a historic ordinance to divest from weapons companies that contribute to human rights violations. Their vote included Israel’s ongoing genocide, starvation, and destruction of everything that makes life in Gaza possible. The Medford City Council passed the Values-Aligned Local Investments Ordinance in August 2025, making Medford one of a handful of municipalities (and the only city in liberal Massachusetts) that has barred investments in companies that profit from genocide. Others include Dearborn, Michigan; Iowa City; Richmond, California; and Portland and Belfast, Maine. In December 2024, Alameda County, California, a populous county of 1.7 million people, became the first county to divest from Caterpillar, Inc., a complicit company that sells bulldozers to Israel to demolish agricultural fields, roads, buildings, and other infrastructure in Gaza and Palestinian territories.” (08/28/25)
“As more Palestinian refugee camps handed over caches of weapons to the Lebanese army this week, a Lebanese government official told The Associated Press that the disarmament effort could pave the way for granting Palestinian refugees in Lebanon more legal rights. Ramez Dimashkieh, head of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, a government body that serves as an interlocutor between Palestinian refugees and officials, said his group is working on proposed legislation that they hope to introduce by the end of the year that could improve the situation of Lebanon’s approximately 200,000 Palestinian refugees. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are not given citizenship, ostensibly to preserve their right to go back to the homes they fled or were forced from during the 1948 creation of the state of Israel, which now bans them from returning.” (08/28/25)
“On Wednesday, one of Europe’s smallest, poorest, and most rural countries, Moldova, received a visit by the leaders of France, Germany, and Poland. Why this abundant attention from European elite? It was not only to celebrate the 34th Independence Day of the former Soviet republic. It was also an appeal to Moldovan voters before a crucial Sept. 28 election not to fall for the ‘Kremlin’s propaganda,’ as French President Emmanuel Macron put it. ‘Unlike Russia, the European Union threatens no one and respects everyone’s sovereignty,’ the French leader said alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the capital, Chisinau. After recently losing much of its economic leverage over its tiny neighbor, Russia now backs an immense disinformation campaign in Moldova, along with paid public protests and vote-buying, to help pro-Russia political parties win the election.” (08/27/25)
“If ever there were an example of the perils of the Democrat approach to crime and social disorder, it is Minneapolis, ground zero of the George Floyd/defund-the-police movement that roiled the country five years ago, and ‘a sanctuary transgender state.’ The deadly mass shooting of small children at Mass at Annunciation Catholic School Wednesday brings home the tragic cost of a disordered society, where evil rampages unchecked and those who would protect the vulnerable are handcuffed and pushed away. It’s too early to say exactly how, or even if, the tragedy could have been prevented. Yet Minnesota Democrats already have reached for their lazy gun-control mantra, in a state that has among the strictest gun laws in the country.” (08/27/25)
“President Donald Trump is considering holding a Republican National Convention ahead of the midterm elections, he announced Thursday. Trump did not offer any details about where the convention would take place, or what would happen there, but he touted various statistics that have been beneficial for the Republican Party this year. The GOP is fighting to maintain control of both the House and Senate in 2026. ‘The Republican Party is doing really well. Millions of people have joined us in our quest to MAKE AMERICA, GREAT AGAIN. We won every aspect of the Presidential Election and, based on the great success we are having, are poised to WIN BIG IN THE MIDTERMS,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘We have raised far more money than the Democrats, and are having a great time fixing all of the Country Destroying mistakes made by the Biden Administration, and watching the USA heal and prosper.'” (08/28/25)
“The Trump administration wants to increase logging in forests to simultaneously boost timber production and reduce wildfire risk. Yet, a new study shows that industrial private land managed by timber companies is nearly 1.5 times more likely to experience high-severity wildfires compared with public land. Many timber companies manage land in a way that maximizes profits while also providing a sustainable source of wood, according to the study’s authors. That tends to look like clear-cutting an area, then replanting trees in a dense yet methodical grid. As trees grow back, they’re the same age and size. The forest takes on a homogenous look, with undergrowth that easily connects to the canopy. That’s a recipe for high-severity wildfire, said Jacob Levine, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utah and the study’s lead author.” (08/27/25)
“One of the biggest biases in American life is the idea that Republicans are ‘good for business’. But if you’re a business with any need to receive commercial parcels from other countries, Republicans are pretty bad for you right now. Numerous industrialized countries throughout Europe and Asia have suspended business parcel shipments to the U.S. in advance of a Friday change to the so-called de minimis rules. In most countries, only letters and gift parcels under $100 are being let through, though postal services in Italy, Lithuania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Thailand, the Czech Republic, and others have suspended sending all packages to the U.S. regardless of value. E-commerce firms like Etsy and eBay have also suspended shipping of U.S.-bound parcels from some countries. Private shippers like FedEx could be used, though that will be much costlier.” (08/28/25)
“Federal prosecutors have failed to obtain a felony indictment against a man who was seen on camera hurling a sandwich at a federal law enforcement official in the nation’s capital, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Sean Charles Dunn was arrested on an assault charge after he threw a sub-style sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent. A video of the incident went viral, and shortly after he was fired from the Justice Department, where he worked as an international affairs specialist in the department’s criminal division. The case is one of the examples of the legal pushback to President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington that has led to more than 1,000 arrests. It is highly unusual for grand jurors to refuse to return an indictment, and it was once said that prosecutors could persuade a grand jury ‘to indict a ham sandwich.'” (08/27/25)
“I didn’t set out to study nonviolence. Like many, I stumbled upon it in fragments, quotes that refused to leave me, the persistent sense that some ancient wisdom was trying to cut through the noise of our modern world. Over time, through teaching, crisis counseling, community organizing, and meditation, I’ve come to a radical realization: Nonviolence is not merely a political tactic or a personal ethic. It is a global resistance movement against the fusion of religion and empire. It is how we reclaim God from the powers that abuse the sacred to justify violence. Together, we can defend the truth when it’s under siege.” (08/27/25)
“An enraged Chicago woman allegedly told an ICE agent ‘I hope your kid dies’ and threatened to shoot officers ‘right in their f–king’ face as they carried out a recent immigration raid. Joshalin Rivera is accused of spewing the vile tirade as ICE and Border Patrol agents were [abducting victims] at an apartment building on Chicago’s West Side on Sunday morning, according to a criminal complaint. ‘I hope your kid dies a f–king miserable death, your f–king kid needs to get shot in the f–king face next bitch,’ Rivera allegedly shouted at the agent. ‘They lucky I ain’t got my s–t on me. I’d pop both of they ass … pop them right in their f–king face.’ Rivera was among a group of bystanders who swarmed the apartment building entrance just as the feds were trying to [abduct people], according to the filing. It wasn’t immediately clear who authorities were trying to [abduct].” (08/27/25)
