“A rebel group in eastern Congo has detained civilians, including two journalists, in metal shipping containers without light or ventilation, an advocacy group said Tuesday. Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said the Rwanda-backed M23, which controls parts of eastern Congo, used the containers in the city of Goma as makeshift detention cells under ‘inhumane’ and ‘degrading’conditions. … As many as 80 detainees at a time were placed inside a container, without light or ventilation and allowed out only once a day. Witnesses said they received minimal food, while some reported routine beatings. According to the testimonies, conditions were extreme — suffocating heat by day and cold at night — with deaths reported. Survivors were often held for weeks before being transferred to other locations.” (03/24/26)
“The March 4, 2026, edition of the Arizona Daily Star put the facts succinctly: ‘A Haitian asylum seeker held for four months at Florence Correctional Center died Monday at a Scottsdale hospital due to complications from an infected tooth.’ It seems the infection spread from his tooth to his lungs, and he developed the pneumonia that killed him. In other words, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) allowed a prisoner to die of a toothache. His name was Emmanuel Damas. He was 56 years old and the father of two. And we can only expect medical treatment at ICE centers to deteriorate further.” (03/24/26)
“As the fourth week of the battle with Iran opened, President Donald Trump announced a window of opportunity for negotiations. With whom, no one outside of the president and his closest advisors knows. The president did not halt strikes on Iran, and Israel continued to pound its long list of military targets as well as the regime’s massive apparatus of repression while the U.S. focuses on degrading the military-industrial capacity of the mullahs. Iran is a country with shattered defenses and no ability to project targeted force. This was accomplished in three weeks. No wonder someone wants to negotiate even as others tell our left-wing media that Iran is winning. … No ‘takes’ matter. The conflict will be judged twice: when major combat operations conclude and a year thereafter.” (03/24/26)
“Our country is at war. The American-Israeli attack on Iran has plunged the Middle East and the Arab world into chaos, displacing millions and causing thousands of casualties. Here at home, this war has consequences for the safety of Jewish and Arab American communities. Last week, a man drove a car containing explosives into a synagogue just outside of Metro Detroit. Reports indicate he held Jews responsible for the death of several members of his family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon. At the same time, multiple congressional Republicans have decided anti-Muslim bigotry will be a key part of their strategy for the midterms. This, after their language dehumanizing Palestinians and Arabs, went generally unchallenged. This moment requires solidarity. As we hold our breath with every new development abroad and at home, our hearts.” (03/24/26)
“Ahead of a Tuesday hearing where Minnesota lawmakers will discuss food stamp fraud, Fox News Digital spoke to a millionaire who says he was able to qualify for food stamps through a loophole — one that he hopes will soon be closed as the state grapples with a massive fraud scandal. Rob Undersander, a retired engineer who volunteers to help seniors navigate the government benefits system, said he learned during training that eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Minnesota was based on income only, not assets. Because his retirement income was low, he realized he could qualify even though he had significant savings and property. To test the system, Undersander applied for benefits in Stearns County in 2016 and was approved within weeks. He later said he collected thousands of dollars in SNAP benefits over more than a year, which he donated to charity, in an effort to draw attention to the issue.” (03/24/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The only worthwhile ‘western culture’ in modern times is culture which rejects and opposes the dystopian nature of western civilization and the abuses of the western empire. Western civilization is what’s bombing Iran. It’s what’s strangling Cuba. It’s what’s torching Lebanon. It’s what’s exterminating Palestine. It’s what stole Venezuela. It’s what’s plundering the labor and resources of the global south. It’s what’s keeping the systems in place which are killing our ecosystem and driving us closer to nuclear armageddon. There is no sane and truthful position to have toward all this but vehement rejection. Westerners — particularly white westerners in nations with colonialist histories like the United States and Australia — often struggle to find their cultural moorings. It can be difficult to find an authentic position from which to express art and take your stand as a personality when you feel culturally rootless and historically ungrounded.” (03/24/26)
“The University of Southern California decided to cancel its Tuesday night gubernatorial debate after accusations that it excluded four of the only candidates of color, the Los Angeles Times reported. The private university came under fire when Xavier Becerra, a Mexican American candidate for governor, sent a scathing letter to the university’s president last week accusing it of the blatant exclusion of four candidates from the debate. He called it ‘a chilling and dangerous move.’ The university decided to cancel the event on Monday, less than a day before it was scheduled to take place. Becerra celebrated the news, which was first reported by the Times. ‘We fought. We won! We stood up against an unfair candidate debate set-up that prematurely chose winners and losers,’ he wrote on X on Monday night.” [editor’s note: This should be no surprise to Libertarians, who have seen Ed Clark, Harry Browne, Gary Johnson and others similarly excluded from Presidential debates for low polling and fundraising numbers – SAT] (03/24/26)
“The Taliban has freed an American citizen after more than a year in captivity, amid pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration. Dennis Walter Coyle, 64, who was living in Afghanistan working as a language researcher, according to his family, was arrested in January 2025. In a statement posted online, the Taliban-run Afghan foreign ministry said Coyle’s imprisonment was deemed ‘sufficient’ and that he had been pardoned to mark Eid al-Fitr, the holiday at the end of Ramadan. The US government — which declared Afghanistan a ‘state sponsor of wrongful detention’ just weeks ago — welcomed the release, but called for other US citizens being ‘unjustly’ held to be freed, too. According to a family website, Coyle arrived in Afghanistan in the early 2000s to study Afghan linguistics and help communities develop resources in their native languages.” (03/24/26)
“‘I’m not saying we should run government like a business,’ Tom Steyer told a questioner at the latest in a series of question-and-answer sessions he’s been holding around the state as he campaigns for governor of California. ‘There’s a big fight right now between working people and rich companies who want to control our government and rip people off.’ If I didn’t tell you that Steyer was himself a billionaire business titan until he left the hedge fund he founded, Farallon Capital Management, in 2012, you might have assumed from the above exchange that he was a Bernie Sanders acolyte who camped overnight at Occupy Wall Street. He’s running for governor, even more so than in his unsuccessful 2020 presidential run, as a traitor to his class …” (03/24/26)
“About 10 years ago, backlash against an influx of Eastern European immigrants – mainly from Poland – helped propel Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union. (That, in turn, led thousands of Poles to leave the U.K.) A little more than 10 days ago, The London Times published a guide for citizens of the U.K. about picking up their lives and moving … to Poland! ‘With a lower cost of living and a booming tech industry, [Poland] is calling to many Brits,’ the Times stated. This turnaround highlights how economic progress in the formerly communist nation has taken place side by side with growth in democratic values and institutions that reward individual effort and innovation. ‘Poland … stands as one of history’s most remarkable examples of how embracing democratic institutions and a free-market economy can radically transform a nation and propel it [to] rapid development,’ the Atlantic Council noted in a report last year.” (03/23/26)
