“In late March, I sat in the gallery of the Supreme Court for the first time in my life. Throughout my 30 years of grassroots anti-poverty work, I’ve joined countless protests and vigils outside the Court. In 2018, I was even arrested and held in detention for praying on its palatial steps. Now, I was seated with a clear view of the nine justices of the nation’s highest court. I was there as a guest of immigrant rights lawyers, as their team made oral arguments in Noem v. Al Otro Lado, the most significant case on the right to asylum in decades. In February, the Kairos Center (the organization I direct) authored an interfaith amicus brief on that very case, alongside 31 denominations and organizations representing faith traditions practiced by billions worldwide. Those groups… joined together to declare that our societal obligation to provide for persecuted outsiders is a universally shared moral principle.” (04/20/26)
“The clip-clop of horse hooves echoed as Paul Revere rode through the streets of Boston’s North End on Monday — a reenactment of his historic midnight ride, but with some modern-day tweaks: this time, the revolutionary hero set out under bright daylight and a police escort. Residents lined the narrow streets as the rider passed, some lifting phones to record while others waved, clapped and called out, ‘Here he comes!’ and ‘We love you, Paul!’ The ride cut through dense city blocks where everyday life continued alongside the spectacle — people walking dogs, jogging and moving through parks and apartment-lined streets, some pausing to watch, others carrying on. Mary McCabe, who came from Lowell with her daughter Cecily, said it was interesting ‘just to see how different messages traveled back then.’ Cecily, who said she loves learning about the American Revolution, said seeing the reenactment in person made history feel more real.” (04/20/26)
“Luis Hernandez, then 35, woke to a gray, hazy sky on Feb. 17, 2024. He opted for a warm sweater and cargo pants with pockets just big enough to hold his spare canister of oxygen, but he hoped he wouldn’t need it. It would be a big day out for him and his friends — the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif., was hosting a special Pokemon Go event where some of the rarest Pokemon could be found. When the group arrived, they headed straight to the belly of the bowl, blanketed with bright green turf. Hernandez settled into a rhythm: Walk 50 feet. Pause for 30 minutes. Catch some Pokemon. Walk another 50 feet. Pause another 30 minutes. Catch some Pokemon. Walk another 50 feet. Pause another 30 minutes. When he started gasping for air, he sat down — on a chair if he was lucky, the turf if he was not.” (04/20/26)
“A 10-day ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon took effect at 5 p.m. Thursday, after Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah — an Iranian proxy — had threatened the ceasefire in the wider Iran war.” (04/17/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“One common feature of western empire propaganda is that we are always given reasons for the empire’s violence, while the violence of those who resist the empire tends to be framed as happening for no reason at all. We’ve all been fed reasons for the US-Israeli war on Iran, and we all know what those reasons are. Even less-informed members of the western public will have heard something about the Iranians being a nuclear threat, having a tyrannical government, and maybe something about sponsoring terrorist groups. But the so-called ‘peaceful protesters’ who were killed in an uprising fomented and facilitated by the United States? They were killed for no reason, simply because the Iranian government is evil and hates dissent. … It is only by pure coincidence that this happened at the exact same time the US empire was making the decision to try to topple the Iranian government.” (04/16/26)
“On Sunday night, the streets of Budapest were filled. Tens of thousands of Hungarians poured into the streets along the Danube River, singing folk songs and waving flags celebrating the end of Viktor Orbán’s rule. A young man named Mark Szekeres, his face painted with the colors of the Hungarian flag, told CBC News: ‘This election was about a clash of civilizations. Either you belong in a Western-type democracy or an Eastern-type dictatorship.’ For 16 years, Orbán controlled the country as the classic strongman. Orbán’s electoral defeat was sound—so much so that he conceded defeat before all the votes were counted. Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party captured more than 53% of the vote and approximately 136 of 199 parliamentary seats, a supermajority decisive enough to undo the constitution and other laws that Orbán rewrote. The turnout alone was a verdict: nearly 80% of all eligible voters.” (04/16/26)
“Japan, like much of Asia, which is highly reliant on Middle East oil and gas, announced Wednesday that it will provide $10 billion to many of its regional trade partners to find new supplies during the Strait of Hormuz crisis. As Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae put it, Asian countries ‘are mutually dependent’. Much of that money will go to Southeast Asia, where nations have reacted to the crisis by trying to revive a long-standing regional agreement to aid each other during a petroleum emergency. ‘What this crisis has confirmed is a structural truth: no single country in Asia can insulate itself from supply chain shocks of this scale by acting alone,’ said Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.” (04/15/26)
“In the aftermath of last week’s big meeting of the Democratic National Committee in New Orleans, supporters of the US-Israel alliance have been quite content. ‘We’re pleased that the DNC Resolutions Committee rejected a set of divisive, anti-Israel resolutions,’ the president of Democratic Majority for Israel said. The CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, a former national security advisor to Kamala Harris, expressed gratitude to the DNC’s leadership. Why did pro-Israel groups voice so much pleasure and praise—not only for the sidelining of pro-human-rights resolutions but also for the process that sidelined them? The answer has to do with the DNC’s mechanism that thwarted changes in positions on Israel. A panel named the Middle East Working Group gummed up all efforts to align the DNC with the views of most Democratic voters, even while supposedly hard at work.” (04/16/26)
“Sen. Chuck Schumer faced fresh calls to step aside as the Senate Democratic leader on Wednesday after he broke with the overwhelming majority of his caucus and voted against a pair of resolutions aimed at preventing the Trump administration from selling more US bombs and bulldozers to Israel. ‘Mr. Schumer, you are out of touch with the base of this party, and with your own caucus,’ said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who first called on Schumer to resign as Democratic leader last year, in a short video posted to social media following Wednesday’s votes. ‘Step aside!’ The two resolutions, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), called for halting the sale of around $450 million worth of bulldozers, 1,000-pound bombs, and related military equipment to the Israeli government, which has repeatedly used American weaponry to commit war crimes in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, and Syria.” (04/16/26)
“Secretary of War [sic] Pete Hegseth ripped the media Thursday, likening them to Pharisees in the Bible who ‘were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda’. ‘A note to the press, to the press corps, to the American media, as I just can’t help but notice the endless stream of garbage, the relentlessly negative coverage, you cannot resist peddling, despite the historic and important success of this effort and the success of our troops,’ Hegseth said during a press briefing on the war with Iran, at the Pentagon. … He went on to say that it was difficult to ‘figure out what side’ some of the press was on. ‘It’s incredibly unpatriotic,’ he said.” (04/16/26)
