“The U.S. government imposed visa restrictions on Fritz Alphonse Jean, a member of Haiti’s transitional presidential council, accusing him of supporting gangs and other criminal organizations in a move expected to deepen the country’s political instability. The U.S. did not name the person it sanctioned in its announcement late Monday, but Jean confirmed it was him, telling The Associated Press on Tuesday that he rejected those accusations. The U.S. also accused Jean of obstructing Haiti’s fight against ‘terrorist gangs,’ without details. Gangs control 90% of Haiti’s capital and swaths of territory in the center of the country, where they extort businesses, kill civilians and fight for territory, using military-grade weaponry. Haiti is due to hold elections by Feb. 7, when the nine-member council is supposed to step down.” (11/25/25)
“It was, by any measure, a lot of red ink. When Volkswagen announced its third-quarter profits at the end of October, the German auto giant said it anticipated heavy losses for this year. The reason? It is taking a 5 billion-euro hit from tariffs imposed in the American market. Likewise, the German sportswear manufacturer Adidas warned of a 120 million-euro hit to its earnings, in part because the levies its sneakers now face in the United States, while Toyota warned of a $9 billion hit from tariffs. For anyone following the corporate earnings season over the last month, a clear theme has emerged from the giants of European and Asian industry: President Trump’s tariff regime is starting to significantly reduce their profits. But hold on. Weren’t we told that tariffs would simply be passed straight on to American consumers in the form of higher prices? That they were a tax on ordinary working people?” [editor’s: Yes, that’s what we were told — and we were told correctly – TLK] (11/24/25)
“Iowa Democrat Christina Bohannan has built her campaign for Congress around the image of a hard-working, middle-class advocate who understands what it’s like ‘to struggle to put food on the table.’ However, her real estate portfolio and financial disclosures paint a very different picture — one of expensive homes, a Florida waterfront condo and lucrative stock investments that place Bohannan among the wealthy elite she claims to want to fight against in Congress. ‘You know, I know what it’s like to work so hard and to, to still struggle to put food on the table,’ Bohannan previously told a crowd at the Iowa State Fair. Throughout her multiple campaigns … she has touted her history of growing up in a trailer park and being forced to choose ‘between putting groceries in the cart and filling prescription drugs.'” (11/25/25)
“Israel on Tuesday said it received human remains that Palestinian militants handed over to the Red Cross, but it was not immediately clear if they were one of three hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the remains will be taken for forensics testing and identification. The handover is the latest under last month’s fragile ceasefire that has held despite mutual accusations of violations. Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it found the remains earlier this week in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza. Palestinian militants have returned 25 bodies of hostages under the ceasefire deal that went into effect on Oct. 10. In return, Israel has released the bodies of 330 Palestinians to Gaza. Most remain unidentified.” (11/25/25)
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen & Ryan Cooper
“One way of looking at Donald Trump’s plan for the Affordable Care Act, which has leaked out and was expected to be announced this week, is that it’s a surrender. (The fact that ‘strong congressional backlash’ has delayed the announcement fits this analysis.) While stopping short of making Democratic enhanced subsidies for millions of insurance exchange customers permanent, it does extend them for two years, similar to a bipartisan outline introduced last week. And while there are changes to the subsidies, some are relatively more benign than expected. One of the main goals of the enhanced subsidies, established in 2021, was to universalize affordable insurance and avoid the ‘cliff’ effect of cutting off aid at a particular income level. The Trump proposal restores that cliff but sets it much higher. Prior to 2021, the cliff was set at 400 percent of the federal poverty level. The Trump plan raises that to 700 percent.” (11/24/25)
“In Tennessee, another test of the ongoing fragmentation of the Trump coalition is playing out in a December 2 special election for the U.S. House. After bad losses for Republicans across the country over the last month, a seat that Donald Trump won last year by 22 points is at enough risk that conservative groups have thrown $3.3 million at the race in the final stretch. The seat was vacated in July by Rep. Mark Green, who opted to take a private-sector job. Republican Mark Van Epps, a member of Gov. Bill Lee’s administration, is facing Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn. It was designed as a gerrymandered red seat …. But the possibility of a monumental upset has brought DNC chair Ken Martin and 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris to the district, earned Behn cable news appearances, and raised a ton of anticipation.” [editor’s note: This is my district. I am choosing neither the Trumper nor the Mamdani in a dress – SAT] (11/24/25)
“This week, top leaders of Africa and Europe gathered in Angola in an attempt to answer this question: Can ethical business practices win out in the global race to extract Africa’s vast mineral resources? The moral tone for the summit was set last month by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In a speech, she said Europe seeks critical materials for its China-challenged industries but ‘not just for Europe’s needs – but with local processing and added value [in Africa].’ In other words, can European mining companies help Africa process its raw minerals into consumer and industrial goods while also boosting local jobs and local skills? For some countries in Europe, that would mean a shift away from how it often treats former colonies. As President Faustin-Archange Touadéra of the Central African Republic put it in September, ‘The era of Africa’s dependence is over.'” (11/24/25)
“In late October, Hurricane Melissa (that should have been called ‘Godzilla’) battered western Jamaica with 185-mile-an-hour winds. It tossed the roofs of buildings about like splintering javelins, demolished municipal buildings and hospitals, snapped telephone poles like matchsticks, flattened crops, and dumped torrential floodwaters everywhere, leaving $8 billion in damage. That Category 5 storm’s unprecedented ferocity was driven by an overheated Caribbean Sea, produced by 275 years of industrial civilization that has spewed obscene amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. The same week that U.N. officials spoke of an ‘apocalypse’ in Jamaica, American billionaire Bill Gates expressed a certain unease about officials and scientists concerned with climate change who, he thought, were being hysterical.” (11/24/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It should be against the law to use generative AI to deceive the public. I’ve got absolutely no problem with outright government censorship in this case, and I say this as an aggressive and outspoken proponent of free speech. AI products which deceive people should be illegal in the same way fraud is illegal. I want it to be illegal to knowingly circulate AI video footage and pass it off as real. I want AI companies to be severely penalized if they don’t prevent people from using their products to generate fake videos that get passed off as real.” [editor’s note: When you say you have “no problem with government censorship” in ANY case, you are by definition not “an aggressive and outspoken proponent of free speech” – TLK (11/24/25)
“Liberal judges who decide not to jail violent career criminals and sadistic psychopaths ought to be held liable when the felons attack innocent citizens. Two horrendous, unprovoked attacks on helpless young women on public transit in recent weeks would never have happened if the legal system had done what it’s designed to do. Instead, BLM-inspired reparatory justice has endangered the most vulnerable among us — women, children, the elderly and disabled. We pay police and judges to keep evil and dangerous predators away from weak and defenseless innocents. Yet radical Democrats who have taken over blue cities are hellbent on a destructive ideological crusade to defund the police, close the jails and install obedient judges who side with the perpetrator over the victim.” (11/23/25)
