Source: US News & World Report
“Portuguese law enforcement officials investigating cases of alleged torture at two central Lisbon precincts detained 15 police officers on Tuesday, raising the total number of those charged or arrested to 25, police and prosecutors said. In January, prosecutors charged two officers with torturing vagrants and migrants and then sharing images of their acts in an online chat with dozens of other officers, triggering a broader inquiry. The two are awaiting trial, accused of torture, acts of cruelty and abuse of power, according to the indictment. One also faces charges of rape, robbery and forgery. Another seven people were detained in March. Police confirmed Tuesday’s detentions that also included one civilian but would not say whether those held were suspected of carrying out torture themselves or of failing to report abuse they had witnessed in person or in shared videos.” (05/05/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-05-05/portugal-detains-15-officers-as-lisbon-police-torture-probe-widens
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Daniel Davis on What’s Been Happening in Ukraine.” (05/05/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/4-30-26-daniel-davis-on-whats-been-happening-in-ukraine/
Source: Liberalism.org
by Sarah Skwire
“I read some really great political theory this week. And unlike Plato’s Republic or Aristotle’s Politics, this book had a dragon. Joe Hill’s most recent novel, King Sorrow, takes its main characters and its readers on a scary and suspenseful exploration of the dubious wisdom of the claim that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ That old political saw gets hauled out from the back corner of the basement whenever it seems expedient to make a morally dubious alliance with a stronger power. Hill’s novel, a deliciously gory and smart bit of horror in its own right, exposes the ethical void at the center of such alliances.” (05/05/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-a-really-big-dragon
Source: New York Post
by Joel Kotkin
“The Trump administration has been cracking down on a handful of Iranian residents who have ties to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and have even allegedly been involved in gun-running while living lavish lifestyles in LA. That may leave the impression that this community might not support attempts to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, California’s Persian community is overwhelmingly opposed to the regime. A survey done recently by the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans found that barely 3% of Iranian-Americans favor the current regime, while an additional 8% would welcome a reformed Islamic Republic.” (05/04/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/04/opinion/iranian-americans-want-irgc-gone/
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“An Israeli court on Tuesday extended the [caging] of two foreign activists [abducted] from a Gaza-bound flotilla by six days, a lawyer representing them said. Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila appeared before a court in the southern city of Ashkelon for their second hearing, after being brought to Israel for questioning last week. … The two, held in a prison in Ashkelon, were among dozens of activists aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off the coast of Greece early on Thursday. The other [abducted] activists were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released.” (05/05/26)
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260505-israeli-court-extends-detention-of-two-gaza-flotilla-activists-amid-abuse-claims
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Laurenz Guenther on the Representation Gap in Politics.” (05/05/26)
https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/laurenz-guenther
Source: Los Angeles Times
by James Weinstein
“Washington treats healthcare spending like a moral obligation and interest payments like an accounting nuisance. They’re linked: Federal spending that is wasted in the healthcare system forces higher taxes or more borrowing, leaving less money for Medicare, defense or anything else. To slow deficit spending and the ballooning costs of the national debt, policymakers should start by eliminating a large preventable expense: waste in U.S. healthcare.” (05/05/26)
https://archive.is/YQHi9
Source: New York Post
“Cornell University’s president has blasted a group of radical students for hurling abuse and holding him hostage in his own car following an Israel-Palestine debate series at the Ivy League school. The group of rabble-rousers filmed themselves swarming Michael Kotlikoff and trailing him to his vehicle as he was trying to leave the event at the Ithaca, New York, campus last Thursday. Kotlikoff accused the group — who he said have become notorious for spewing verbal and online abuse toward Cornell staffers in the past – of surrounding his car, banging on the windows and blocking him from leaving. The school prez spoke out after the students posted footage on social media of Kotlikoff apparently backing into the group amid the parking lot chaos.” (05/05/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/05/us-news/cornell-president-michael-kotlikoff-accused-of-injuring-2-students-in-parking-lot-clash-after-israel-debate/
Source: The Hill
by Merrill Matthews
“There’s been no shortage of expressed outrage from the left in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which significantly limits states’ efforts at racial gerrymandering. A Salon headline captures the progressive indignation: ‘Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act in ‘Jim Crow 2.0 ruling.’’ The left can never be accused of understatement. But the change needed to happen because U.S. demographics are making racial gerrymandering increasingly difficult. And that’s a good thing.” (05/05/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/5862711-voting-rights-act-challenges/
Source: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
by Julie Hollar
“If you haven’t heard the argument that civilization is about to collapse because women aren’t having enough babies, you haven’t been consuming much media. ‘The Birth-Rate Crisis Isn’t as Bad as You’ve Heard — It’s Worse,’ announced The Atlantic (6/30/25). Business Insider (8/21/25) ran a piece titled ‘America’s Great People Shortage,’ which opened, ‘America is about to tumble off the edge of a massive demographic cliff.’ And NPR’s Brian Mann warned on PBS (4/10/26) that, as a result of the birth rate decline, ‘many people say’ that the US soon ‘will be unrecognizable.’ It’s repeatedly in the news in part because it’s a priority of the ‘pronatalist’ right, which has prominent backers in the Trump administration.” (05/05/26)
https://fair.org/home/the-regressive-ideologies-behind-the-baby-bust-panic/
