“Fifty of the more than 300 students kidnapped from a Nigerian Catholic school last week have escaped and have been reunited with their parents, the Catholic Church and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said on Sunday. But around 253 of the kidnapped children, along with 12 staff members and teachers, are still with the kidnappers, said CAN Chairman Bulus Yohanna, a Catholic Bishop who is also the proprietor of the school. In a statement, Yohanna said the pupils escaped on Friday and Saturday. Parents rushed to the school in Niger state, to the west of the capital Abuja, after hearing that some children were free.” (11/23/25)
“Prosecutors introduced a new mental-state theory in court Thursday as they prepare to retry a former UC Davis student in the 2023 Davis stabbing spree that left two people dead. Carlos Reales Dominguez is accused of stabbing 50-year-old David Breaux, 21-year-old UC Davis student Karim Abou Najm and 64-year-old unhoused resident Kimberlee Guillory. Breaux and Abou Najm were killed; Guillory survived with three stab wounds. The attacks occurred within a week in April 2023 and sent fear through the Davis community. Dominguez’s first trial ended in a mistrial in June. During a motion hearing on Thursday, KCRA-TV reported that Judge Samuel McAdam acknowledged prosecutors’ newly stated position, asking: ‘Is this an entirely new theory for the people?’ Assistant Chief Deputy District for Yolo County Attorney David Wilson sought permission for a new psychiatric evaluation to assess whether Dominguez experienced cannabis-induced psychosis.” (11/21/25)
“In mid-September, I wrote a moderately optimistic piece for the Prospect, taking stock of the various elements of resistance, most notably courts and elections. Many readers felt I was being a little too hopeful. Since Election Day, however, there has been a notable shift. And each aspect feeds on the others. They include: * A Democratic wave election that is likely to be repeated and intensified in 2026; * Lower courts becoming even bolder in striking down Trump’s excesses; * The Supreme Court likely to overturn three key Trump cases: tariffs, his efforts to fire Federal Reserve governors, and birthright citizenship; * At least some states, such as Indiana and Kansas, resisting Trump’s redistricting demands: * The continuing fallout from the Epstein files; * Republican defections.” (11/21/25)
“Rooting out terrorism and antisemitism was the supposed reason that plainclothed ICE agents arrested doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, after she coauthored an op-ed calling on Tufts University to divest from companies with ties to Israel due to the killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians. There is an international movement to boycott, sanction, and divest from Israel, but in the United States, President Donald Trump is imperiling the freedom even to publicly discuss such ideas, which should, in effect, be considered a test case for his larger attack on free speech. So far, the test is going well for Trump. In what seems a long time ago, in 2024, the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, released a blueprint for what it called ‘a national strategy to combat antisemitism’ by addressing what it described as ‘America’s virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American pro-Palestinian movement’.” (11/20/25)
“Ecuador, once one of the most peaceful countries in Latin America, is now one of its most dangerous. The murder rate in 2020 was 7.7 homicides per 100,000 people. That was roughly comparable to the United States where it was 6.4 that year. In nearby Brazil, on the other hand, it was 22.3. By 2023, Ecuador’s homicide rate had leapfrogged over its neighbors to an astounding 46 per 100,000. In a mere three years, the number of murders had increased six-fold. The reason: narco-traffickers. Ecuador had become a convenient transshipment hub, and various gangs were warring over territory, particularly in coastal cities. In 2023, in a presidential election that featured the assassination of one of the candidates, Ecuadorians voted in Daniel Noboa, an undistinguished but telegenic conservative politician who promised an iron-fist approach to fighting drug kingpins. His tactics boiled down to unleashing the military to attack specific gangs.” (11/20/25)
“Sensible people already know that medicalizing children in the name of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ is not only experimental, it’s barbaric. Now, a peer-reviewed study, commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services, reports that the evidence used to back such practices as hormone therapy for kids is flimsy at best. There just isn’t enough known to justify such drastic medical interventions for young people. Back in January, President Trump slammed the brakes on the medicalization of minors with his Executive Order 14187, restricting ‘the maiming and sterilization’ of patients under 19, and ordered a study to look at the standards of care. First released in May, the report has been affirmed by 10 researchers and groups who found no fault with the findings — and advised that doctors treating minors with gender dysphoria should focus on psychotherapy until more is known about medical interventions.” (11/19/25)
Source: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
by Ricardo Vaz
“Since August, the US has been amassing military assets in the Caribbean. Warships, bombers, and thousands of troops have been joined by the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, in the largest regional deployment in decades. Extrajudicial strikes against small vessels, which United Nations experts have decried as violations of international law, have killed at least 80 civilians (CNN, 11/14/25). Many foreign policy analysts believe that regime change in Venezuela is the ultimate goal (Al Jazeera, 10/24/25; Left Chapter, 10/21/25), but the Trump administration instead claims it is fighting ‘narcoterrorism’, accusing Caracas of flooding the US with drugs via the Cartel of the Suns and Tren de Aragua, both designated as foreign terrorist organizations. Over the years, Western media have endorsed Washington’s Venezuela regime-change efforts at every turn, from cheerleading coup attempts to whitewashing deadly sanctions.” (11/20/25)
“It is sad to say, but what Americans have been seeing unravel before their eyes in recent weeks with the revelations of Arctic Frost and other FBI-related scandals are not the least bit shocking to me. In fact, it validates what I detail in my book The Two FBIs: The Bravery and Betrayal I Saw in My Time at the Bureau, which was published by Broadside Books on November 11. I was humbled to personally be invited to the Oval Office last week to meet with President Donald Trump, who endorsed my book. I loved being an FBI special agent for over a dozen years and considered it a sacred responsibility and mission.” (11/20/25)
“The Trump administration signaled [Tuesday] that it was moving forward on one of President Trump’s key election promises: shutting down the Department of Education. As someone who has advocated for this outcome for many, many years, I am personally thrilled it’s finally coming. The administration announced that the department’s core functions would be handed off to other agencies in anticipation of finally closing down. Actually abolishing the Education Department would take an act of Congress, though the Supreme Court has OK’d Trump’s move to fire many of the department’s bureaucrats, which is a good start. Frankly, it’s astonishing that this is actually happening. Republicans have been promising to shut down the Education Department for 50 years. (11/19/25)
“Authorities said they have uncovered the identity of a New England serial killer allegedly linked to multiple cold case murders across the state over a decade ago, as rumors continue to swirl regarding numerous bodies found throughout the region earlier this year. Kevin Lino, 38, was arraigned in August for the alleged murders of two Massachusetts men in 2010 and 2012, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. ‘Mr. Lino is a serial killer,’ Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said, according to Boston 25 News. ‘The Department of Justice defines a serial killer as someone who has taken the life of two individuals in separate situations. In this case, we have already convictions in two. We’ve now brought charges in two more.'” (11/20/25)
