Global
We are often quick to complain when people do wrong, yet slow to say “thank you” when people do extraordinarily good. Today, I want to give credit where it is due by shedding light on Zohar Regev, the former Israeli hostage, for her sacrifices and long history of defending the people of Palestine. No, she was not held captive in Gaza, but rather in Israel just 10 days ago. In my view, this Israeli woman has a heart of gold. Here is why.
Who Is Zohar Regev?
She was born and raised in the Israeli kibbutz Kfar HaHoresh—established on land in historic Palestine near Nazareth—into a secular Jewish family. She grew up inside the very system that took Palestinian land and continues, as of this writing, the genocide in Gaza. For most of her life, she was an atheist who never believed in Judaism as a religion.
Later, she moved to Nazareth and lived among Palestinians, where she witnessed firsthand the harsh treatment they endured under occupation.
Two and a half years later, she made the conscious and entirely voluntary decision to embrace Islam. From that moment on, she dedicated her life to defending the truth with every ounce of strength she possessed.
For those unfamiliar with the intricate machinery of Israeli politics, the unanimous 110-0 vote to dissolve the Knesset on May 20 appears to be an earth-shattering event. On the surface, it looks as if the days of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition of far-right extremists are numbered. The reality, however, is far more complex.
Israel’s current political implosion is fundamentally tied to its failure to escape the ghosts of October 7. When the country's military defenses collapsed on that day, Israel was transformed from a state with a formidable reputation as an invincible regional superpower into one trapped with a struggling army, structurally incapable of decisively winning a single war.
Appropriated from the 1955 cult classic titled Rebel Without a Cause starring bad boy James Dean and Natalie Wood, Rita Coburn’s 2026 PBS documentary of W.E.B. DuBois: Rebel with a Cause is a well-done biopic of one of the 20th century’s foremost intellectuals. But despite some glowing reviews, it is not particularly groundbreaking, especially for those who are familiar with Louis Massiah’s late 1990’s W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices. That work is sectioned into four eras, with each period written and narrated by a well-known African American intellectual/writer. A People magazine reviewer wrote that in Coburn’s documentary DuBois “gets a long-overdue close-up.” Nothing could be further from the truth, unless the writer is referring to the very personal aspects of DuBois’s life that were included in the film but adds little to one’s understanding of the things for which DuBois stood and was best known. In this writer’s opinion, some things are not for public consumption and should be left private.
If nothing else, Donald Trump pushes the nation’s – the world’s – thought process beyond anything that feels normal and comfortable. Consider the “MADness” of the last eight decades: You know, how “mutually assured destruction” has kept humanity from nuking itself into oblivion because . . . uh, mass murder could have consequences.
Thus, the planet’s nine nuclear powers have refrained (so far) from unleashing a nuclear assault on an enemy for fear of getting nuked back. Hey, what a solid foundation for building peace! Of course, the nuclear nine have spent billions of dollars over the years expanding and developing the nuclear arsenals they will allegedly never use. But they’ve also made it clear that no other nation on the planet is “authorized” to possess nukes.
U.S. energy storage sector hits record numbers in first quarter of 2026
The battery storage sector is having a record year, with installations up 32 percent in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same time period in 2025.
Utility-scale storage accounted for 7.8 GWh of this year's installations, with commercial and industrial behind that at 648 MWh, and finally 515 MWh for residential storage.
The recent growth in solar and storage is occurring primarily in traditional "red" states. Seventy-one percent of the utility-scale storage installations were built in states President Trump won in 2024. Texas, Arizona, and California accounted for the largest share of current installations, with Georgia, Iowa, and Mississippi also posting impressive figures.
Pilot projects to prove iron-sodium battery technology
California-based battery startup Inlyte Energy is preparing to deploy its sodium-iron battery technology in two major pilot programs in 2026, aiming to prove the systems' viability as a safe, long-duration backup power source.
Perhaps it is too much to hope, but maybe we’ve hit an inflection point over state sponsored attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. There are signs Israeli elites are sending a message to the government that a line has been crossed, even as its policy and performance has been to abet the activity with its military and guns.
Grabbing at straws, the following have all emerged recently:
