“Lawyers for a young man who fatally stabbed a competitor at a Texas high school track meet called more witnesses Monday to try to support a claim of self-defense as a trial entered a second week. Karmelo Anthony, now 19, is charged with murder in the death of Austin Metcalf, 17, at a school stadium in Frisco, a Dallas suburb, in April 2025. Prosecutors say the stabbing was an unprovoked attack related to a dispute over whether Anthony could be under the tent of Metcalf’s team during a rainy track meet. Defense attorneys insist Anthony felt threatened and believed he needed to defend himself when physical contact was made. Metcalf’s death drew wide attention, in part because of social media posts that amplified the case in racial terms. Anthony, who attended Frisco Centennial High School, is [b]lack, while Metcalf, who attended Frisco Memorial High School, was white. Prosecutors rested their case Saturday in Collin County court.” (06/08/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“We make it so hard for ourselves, this human experience. Like it would be hard enough just being born into mortal bodies that have to experience pain and get sick and deteriorate and die. That alone would be more than enough to deal with. Then on top of all that we go and create these psychological ego structures in our heads that make us miserable for a whole bunch of other reasons that aren’t even real.” (06/08/26)
“You could almost feel sorry for Joe Biden when he crashed his wife Jill’s debut book talk in New York last week. Standing in the shadows at the 92nd Street Y, and with no microphone in sight, the former president looked lost as he rasped at his wife: ‘Who do you love most in the whole world?’ Up on stage, resplendent in a pastel skirt suit in her starring role alongside Whoopi Goldberg, Jill responds, ‘Whoopi,’ laughs and turns on her stiletto heel. Maybe it was a comedy routine the former first couple had practiced, but it fell flat. There wasn’t much laughter from the audience. Who humiliates her 83-year-old husband in public to try to boost lackluster book sales? ‘Dr.’ Jill Biden, that’s who …” (06/07/26)
“Women desperate to become parents are being harassed for sex and offered cheap, illegal sperm samples online. Some of those unable to access fertility treatment are seeking out options on social media sites, which is driving a growing unregulated market – with some even turning to ‘Tinder for sperm’ websites. A BBC Wales investigation paid £100 for a next-day delivery sample from a man who advertised his ‘baby batter’ online and sent it in a box with a frozen carton of tomato passata. The UK’s regulator for fertility warned women were at risk of ‘exploitation by predatory donors’. Wales Investigates used an alias to order sperm from Joe Donor, here’s what was delivered. … One online advert [says] [I] can ‘rely’ on a man called Joe Donor for a delivery in the post. He’s a prolific donor who claims to have 180 children around the world conceived through sex and artificial insemination.” (06/08/26)
Source: The American Prospect
by Whitney Curry Wimbish
“As immigrant prisoners inside Newark’s Delaney Hall enter their third week of collective action against increasingly inhumane conditions, attorneys for the private prison company that runs it are attempting a new gambit to evade responsibility. GEO Group lawyers argued in a recent court filing that the company is exempt from legal action because it is subject to government oversight …. Plaintiffs allege that GEO systematically forced Aurora, Colorado, ICE prisoners into forced labor, a similar complaint to that of detainees in Delaney Hall. But GEO says it has ‘qualified immunity,’ a doctrine the Supreme Court invented out of whole cloth that is meant to protect government officials from cases brought against them as individuals.” (06/08/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Israel’s +972 Magazine reports that the Israeli military establishment has launched a training program designed to ‘influence public consciousness’ around the world, with courses aimed at training hundreds of operatives per year in strategies for ‘actively disrupting or manipulating the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of target audiences.’ … It’s such a trip how Zionists just take it as a given that the only way to improve public perception of Israel is to ramp up efforts to manipulate the thoughts people think about it. They never give serious attention to the possibility that Israel would have a lot more public approval if it stopped fucking murdering innocent civilians all the time and fucking torturing people and raping captives with trained rape dogs. Israel can’t possibly be wrong; only our thoughts about Israel can be wrong.” (06/06/26)
“As schools across the United States let out for summer vacation, more parents and policymakers are trying to make sure kids can get out there and just be kids – by stepping away from screens, playing in the open air, or biking to a friend’s house or the local store. And, they say, kids should be allowed to do all of this without a parent hovering over them – or that parent being held liable for not doing so. In May, the U.S. House introduced a bipartisan bill to promote ‘childhood independence and protect parents who allow their children to play outside unsupervised, get off screens, and develop social skills.’ Earlier this year, Indiana became the 13th state to pass a measure shielding parents from child neglect allegations for certain unsupervised activities.” (06/05/26)
“I’m sorry, folks. I really, truly wish I could be an optimist. I wish I could write positive articles, telling us that America’s golden days are yet to come, that a bright and shining tomorrow awaits our nation, and the reasons are A, B, C, X, Y, Z. I sincerely wish I could do that. But I’m a historian, and as much as that, a student of the Bible. I have degrees in both subjects, have taught both for literally half a century, and have written thousands of articles in each field. I confess, such tends to make me cynical. But maybe, just maybe, America’s best days do still lie ahead of her; I’m a historian, not a prophet. Yet, to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t have a lot of hope, and history is the reason why.” (06/06/26)
“The International Energy Agency has made its May report free to download, and the news is not good for the second and third quarters of this year, i.e. April-September. The IEA hopes things will look up in the fourth quarter, but premises that expectation on an early end to the US conflict with Iran and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. At the moment (June 5, 2026), there does not seem much movement on that front, and in fact the US and Iran are not only skirmishing with one another but Iran is making good its threat to hurt US allies like Bahrain and Kuwait every time the US hurts Iran. One was killed and dozens injured in Kuwait on Wednesday by Iranian Shahed drone barrages that also damaged the airport. Kuwait Airlines shut down briefly but is now flying from a different terminal; it is the only carrier flying from Kuwait.” (06/05/26)
“Before George Floyd, before Michael Brown, there was Trayvon Martin. Back in 2012, the 17-year-old was shot and killed during a struggle with another young man in a Florida gated community. The tragedy that day was discussed in the national media and eventually adjudicated in a court of law. When the trial was over, President Barack Obama said, ‘When Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son.’ In December, an 18-year-old college student was stabbed by another young man in Southampton, England. The victim’s name was Henry Nowak. The American press ignored the story. The British press and politicians largely did too. Like Obama, I thought, this could have been my son.” (06/06/26)
