“On a cloudy Wednesday in mid-April, Jared and Laurie Berezin, a couple in their 40s from Maynard, Massachusetts, pulled their car into the Macy’s parking lot at the Burlington Mall. Carrying a sign that said, ‘Just Say No To Harassing Immigrants, the two stood by themselves outside Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s New England Regional Headquarters. One week later, there were five people. Six weeks after that, there were 60. Earlier this month, at the 29th consecutive Wednesday protest, there were more than 700. Singing and chanting, the crowd of grandmothers, ministers, war veterans, nuclear physicists, retirees, and many others offered hope and support as a handful of immigrants arrived for their deportation hearings. Using bullhorns, they decried injustices happening inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility where hundreds of immigrants, many with no criminal records, have been detained for multiple days since January.” (11/18/25)
“Democrats say they will make life more affordable for Americans. What a joke. People should ask: If Democrat policies lower costs for Americans, why are all the most expensive cities in the U.S. run by Democrats? Where were these concerned politicians when their party and President Joe Biden blew up federal spending and drove inflation to 9% — the highest since Democrat Jimmy Carter was president? Show me one Democrat who backs sustainable measures that actually lower the cost of living, rather than fake fixes like freezing prices. Why is it so expensive to live in cities and states run by Democrats? Because they impose high taxes, costly labor regulations, expensive green mandates and restrictions on new building that drive construction costs higher. New York, San Francisco, Boston, San Jose, and Honolulu are the costliest cities in the U.S. All are run by Democrat mayors and are in states with Democrat governors.” (11/18/25)
“The Kessler twins, who were best known for their postwar entertainment in the ’50s and ’60s, have died by joint assisted suicide. Alice and Ellen Kessler died at age 89 at their home in Grünwald, near Munich, Germany, on Monday. The sisters ‘no longer wanted to live’ and they ‘had chosen to end their lives together’, as reported by the German newspaper Bild. According to CNN, Alice and Ellen were assisted by advocacy organization the German Society for Humane Dying (DGHS). The DGHS provides people with access to lawyers and doctors and other tools. The organization told CNN that the twins contacted the DGHS over a year ago and became members. ‘The decisive factor is likely to have been the desire to die together on a specific date,’ DGHS spokesperson Wega Wetzel told CNN. However, Wetzel noted that she wasn’t aware of why each woman chose this method.” (11/18/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“The dolphins are getting Alzheimer’s from algae blooms caused by warming waters and toxic runoff / and you could see the bloodstains in Sudan from space. / The cobalt is mined by children and the music is made by robots / and the grownups are wondering
where the fireflies went. / It is an elephant with an eyepatch and a prosthetic leg. / It’s a freshly emptied bed in the nursing home. / A hand offers you pills to numb the dissonance, / but you swat it away and howl naked in the thorns. / Somewhere there’s an ibis on a piano in a junkyard in the rain. / Somewhere else there’s a small boy who has just learned the word ‘treasure’. / ‘Look! Buried treasure!’ he tells his dad. / ‘No. That’s just glass worn smooth by the sea.’ / ‘Is that treasure?’ / ‘No, that’s just a shiny candy wrapper shimmering in the sun.’…” (11/17/25)
“Tanzania’s president on Tuesday said her government may lose access to the international funding that largely keeps the nation afloat after the worst election violence in the country’s history. ‘We have to look for funds internally using our God-given resources,’ President Samia Suluhu Hassan said. The East African nation’s Oct. 29 elections were marked by three days of protests during which the opposition asserts that more than 2,000 people died. Hundreds of others were arrested and charged with treason. The president later asked for some to be released. Hassan was declared the winner with over 97% of the vote after competitors from the two main opposition parties were barred from running. On Monday, she announced her new cabinet, which includes her daughter and son-in-law. On Tuesday, Hassan urged it to find local money to fund development projects.” (11/18/25)
“The buzzword of the month is ‘affordability,’ and based on the election results from New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, voters think that’s declining. Democrats think they’ve found a winning issue here to win back the hearts and minds of voters after the Trump sweep last year. It’s true that people are angry about prices. Steaks and hamburgers are more expensive than ever. So are coffee and rents, and medical care. Many Americans are about to see a 10%-20% increase in their health care premiums starting in January. But who’s to blame? President Donald Trump said he would bring prices down; that hasn’t happened. His tariffs have nudged up prices on certain products like coffee and cars. But since Trump came into office in January, the inflation rate has fallen.” (11/18/25)
“As Democrats in the US House of Representatives introduced their latest measure to stop President Donald Trump from continuing his attacks against alleged drug cartels without approval from Congress, the president said he wouldn’t ‘rule out’ deploying US ground troops in Venezuela, and warned he could escalate attacks across Latin America, with possible strikes in Mexico and Colombia as well. Shortly after the Department of Defense, called the Department of War by the Trump administration, announced its 21st illegal airstrike on what they’ve claimed, without evidence, to be ‘narco-terrorist’ vessels mostly in the Caribbean (attacks that have killed at least 83 people) Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that he may soon begin similar operations against drug cartels in mainland Mexico.” (11/18/25)
“Britain’s MI5 security service issued a new warning to lawmakers on Tuesday about attempts by Chinese agents to collect information and influence activity, its latest accusation that Beijing was trying to spy on the nation’s parliament. Lawmakers were told Chinese spies were targeting them by posing as headhunters or companies to make contact, with two individuals reaching out on LinkedIn to ‘conduct outreach at scale on behalf’ of the Chinese government. The speakers of the lower and upper houses of parliament said MI5 had said the Chinese Ministry of State Security ‘was actively reaching out to individuals in our community.’ Britain’s Security Minister Dan Jarvis told parliament the alert revealed ‘a covert and calculated attempt’ by Beijing to interfere in UK politics and said the government would launch a counterespionage plan to address the threat.” (11/18/25)
“The U.S. Education Department is handing off some of its biggest grant programs to other federal agencies as the Trump administration accelerates its plan to shut down the department. It represents a major step forward for the administration’s dismantling of the department, which has mainly involved cutting jobs since President Donald Trump called for its elimination with an executive action in March. Six new agreements signed by the Education Department will effectively move billions of dollars in grant programs to other agencies. Most notable is one that will put the Department of Labor over some of the largest federal funding streams for K-12 schools, including Title I money for schools serving low-income communities. Department officials said the programs will continue to be funded at levels set by Congress.” (11/18/25)
“Republicans, for once, are sounding downright squeamish about onrushing massive cuts to Obamacare subsidies, with premiums on the exchanges expected to more than double on average starting next year. GOP House committee chairs are reportedly having some ‘brainstorming sessions’ about what to do, and House Speaker Mike Johnson claims that they ‘will be rolling out some of those ideas’ at some point. So far, the genius idea in the lead is Trump’s pitch to reroute subsidies from health insurance companies to the American people, so they can buy health care. … Congratulations, folks, you now get to be your own private dealmaker with the health care system, and with your purchasing power and risk pool of one household, I’m sure you’ll get the best price!” (11/18/25)