“The execution of US murderer Christa Pike has been halted, just over an hour before it was due to happen. Pike, 50, has been awaiting execution since she was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer. In their ruling on Wednesday, judges from the Sixth Circuit Appeals court said they needed more time to consider the arguments in Pike’s case. It is unclear how long the pause will last. This latest ruling comes after the Supreme Court denied a reprieve and the Tennessee governor declined to grant Pike’s request for clemency earlier this week. Her lawyers said that for years, the state of Tennessee argued in court that Pike had lied about being sexually abused as a child. But at a recent hearing about her execution method, the State said it does not dispute she suffered sexual abuse and rape.” (09/30/26)
“On September 24, the Senate rejected a resolution directing the president to remove US forces from hostilities with Iran. In American politics, the end of military operations does not necessarily end a war’s political consequences. Some wars enter a decisive phase when the public judges their costs. Missiles may fall silent, troops return to their bases, and governments announce agreements or claim victory, but questions remain: Who decided? Why was war necessary? How transparent was the decision? What did it cost taxpayers, soldiers, allies, and America’s credibility? Who should answer for it? Elections do more than transfer power between parties. They are among the few institutional channels through which Americans can translate dissatisfaction with foreign policy into political action. A vote need not express partisan loyalty or simple opposition to a president. It can demand answers for decisions whose consequences outlast any administration.” (09/30/26)
“The Department of Justice filed a complaint Wednesday against federal judges in Minnesota over their remarks to the media related to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge. The complaint escalates the department’s battle with the federal judiciary, which has halted administration priorities, dismissed high-profile prosecutions and accused government lawyers in some cases of failing to comply with court orders. The department is demanding that the judges recuse themselves from all criminal or civil cases involving the Department of Homeland Security, Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters, because of what he described as ‘obvious bias they have shown’ in recent remarks to The New York Times. At issue is a September article in which seven federal judges in Minnesota — nominated by Democrats and Republican presidents — spoke on the record about their experience dealing with a flood of cases during last winter’s immigration crackdown that led to thousands of arrests.” (09/30/26)
“Gun control advocates have condemned the Justice Department’s decision to stop criminally enforcing the nearly 60-year-old 1968 federal ban on licensed dealers selling handguns to law-abiding 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds. They say it will cause the loss of life. ‘That’s because young Americans are disproportionately likely to commit gun violence,’ claims the GIFFORDS Center’s Executive Director Emma Brown. It is true that young people commit crime at relatively high rates, but they are also more likely to be victims of crime. A 20-year-old woman facing a stalker needs protection as much as a 21-year-old woman does. Young adults also face substantial risks of becoming victims: Reported rapes are 32 percent more likely for ages 18 to 20 than for people ages 21 to 23, and the younger group’s homicide rate is 7 percent higher.” (09/30/26)
“A group of Senate Democrats on Wednesday pushed US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to pay back the nearly $1 million in Medicare payroll taxes that he reportedly owes from his years as a hedge fund manager. In a letter to Bessent, the senators pointed to a recent court ruling clarifying the scope of a self-employment tax loophole that is widely exploited by hedge fund managers and private equity executives. During his confirmation hearing last year, Bessent cited the then-pending litigation to justify his decision not to pay $910,000 in payroll taxes he potentially owes the Internal Revenue Service, and pledged to set up ‘a reserve fund to address any contingency related to this issue.'” (09/30/26)
“More than 100 academics linked to British institutions have unwittingly assisted China’s espionage operations against the UK via a front company working for its intelligence and security services, MI5 has warned. In the highly unusual public alert, the UK’s internal security service warned universities and academics that continuing ties with China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI) could ultimately lead to criminal charges for aiding a foreign state. Security minister Dan Jarvis said MI5’s warning exposed attempts by Chinese intelligence agencies to use British academic research to undermine UK national security. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in London said the accusation was ‘imaginary and purely fabricated’.” (09/30/26)
Source: The American Prospect
by Whitney Curry Wimbish
“Carlos Josué Marchena Marchena was just 36 years old when he died in the Winn Correctional Center immigration prison in Winnfield, Louisiana, earlier this month. He had repeatedly told his family and another detainee that he wasn’t receiving the insulin shots he needed to manage his Type 1 diabetes; he was missing meals and lacked enough water, too. Another immigrant inside the camp reportedly said that the day before Marchena died, he had been in pain, vomiting, and ‘pale purple and wet with sweat’. Marchena is the third person to die in Winn Correctional Center this year and among the at least 65 people who have died in immigration detention since Donald Trump retook the White House, according to a nonscientific tally the Prospect maintains based on death notices, news coverage, and federal databases for ICE and Customs and Border Protection, among other sources.” (09/30/26)
“The Federal Reserve’s internal watchdog said Wednesday that the central bank has broadly mismanaged an expansive building renovation project but did not find any criminal violations, as alleged by Trump administration prosecutors. A variety of missteps by the Fed’s Board of Governors and staff inflated the cost of the $2.4 billion renovation, the Fed’s inspector general said. The board did not secure a comprehensive cost estimate at the beginning of the project, nor did it nail down a maximum overall cost, a step that could have forced the building contractor to absorb the impact of inflation, the IG said in a 120-page report. Prices spiked after construction began in 2022. ‘Our review found that the Board has not effectively managed and executed its … contract and repeatedly deviated from its cost-management provisions,’ the report said. The building project became a high-profile flashpoint in the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure the Fed into cutting its key interest rate.” (09/30/26)
“Just what is the antisemitism that Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to oppose? He won’t say. And Mamdani’s allies have Sen. Chuck Schumer so cowed that he no longer dares spell out the fact that obsessive ‘anti-Zionism’ plainly is a form of Jew-hate. The mayor on Tuesday declined to do a live press conference to announce his new ‘anti-antisemitism’ drive, instead dropping a two-minute video that avoided any awkward questions about exactly what he’s against, let along queries about why the plan’s so pathetic. He’ll fund more ‘hate-crime prevention’ and help pay for security upgrades at religious centers (not just the Jewish ones that most need it, of course). But God forbid our Israel-hating mayor mention that ‘anti-Zionism’ is central to the recent waves of violent antisemitism he claims he wants stopped.” (09/30/26)
“Merriam-Webster defines a ‘fifth column’ in its original, literal sense: ‘a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders’. That is a high bar … and almost nothing discussed in American politics today clears it. The term has widened in recent years. Political scientists now treat fifth-column politics as rhetoric, policy, or mobilization against domestic ‘enemies within’. Scott Radnitz of the University of Washington splits it into two types: subversive claims aimed at vulnerable minorities or immigrants and collusive claims aimed at elites said to serve a foreign power. Neither needs a hidden army or single chain of command. Both describe a domestic network—whether organized or not—whose activities, funding, or ideology line up with a foreign adversary, or that treats the U.S. constitutional order as illegitimate and works to replace it from the inside.” (09/30/26)
