Global

In an article titled “The Government is Monitoring Anti-Flock TikTok and Instagram Accounts,” 404 Media reports:

“Government surveillance centers are monitoring viral anti-Flock Instagram posts, warning local police about upcoming DeFlock events including one scheduled to start next week, and have told cops to ‘increase patrols around ALPR [automatic license plate readers]’ as backlash to Flock grows, according to government intelligence bulletins obtained using public records requests. The documents also warn about devices ‘that could be used to identify the locations of Flock cameras.’”

Murdering foreign leaders is not something any American president should ever do. How can the US uphold its claim to be a champion of laws and political decency while committing murder and sabotage?

Alas, Donald Trump is not the first US president to stoop so low. The Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations enlisted gangsters in attempts to remove the irksome Cuban strongman, Fidel Castro. Sixty-eight or more years later, the US is still trying to strangle long-suffering Cuba by blockading its food and oil and sabotaging its electrical system.

How did the US get into this sordid business? The US government has been largely usurped by Israel’s extremist far right government and its American fifth column – what the late renowned Israeli journalist Uri Avnery used to call ‘Jewish fascists.’ Most of the US media dares not use this term, however appropriate. Israel’s current rightwing government has fallen completely in thrall to extreme rightist groups, many in league with US-based ultra-Zionist groups agitating for an ever-greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates.

July 5, 2026, was a historic day for Muslims, especially Muslim women, in the state of Mississippi.

On that day, Assma Ali announced that she had been appointed a municipal court judge in Mississippi. In a statement celebrating the appointment, Ali wrote that she was “honored and humbled” and pledged to continue serving her clients as an immigration attorney while faithfully carrying out her judicial responsibilities.

Ali's appointment is significant not simply because she is a woman or because she wears the hijab, but because her appointment represents another step in the growing presence of Muslim Americans in the American legal system.

Yet instead of celebrating that milestone, some politicians have chosen to question whether a Muslim woman belongs on the bench at all.

That raises a fundamental question: Why should a Muslim woman be considered unfit to serve as a judge simply because she is Muslim?

It is now official: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flatly rejected the core conditions of the Board of Peace framework, explicitly stating that Israel will neither adhere to a ceasefire nor withdraw its forces from Gaza.

During a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu stated with unambiguous language: "Israel rejects the 15-point document published by the Board of Peace for Gaza".

In a previous conversation with lead envoy Nickolay Mladenov, Netanyahu set conditions—such as demanding unilateral operational freedom for the Israeli military to strike inside Gaza at will—that render a genuine peace agreement structurally impossible.

When drug addicts show up on the big screen, you generally see them making a series of unwise choices as their lives change from bad to worse. They seem either unwilling or unable to fight the habit that’s dragging them down.

That’s what makes Union County so unique.

The Ohio-based film shows victims of rural America’s opioid epidemic actually making the effort to escape their addiction and get their lives under control. It’s a difficult task, but they have the advantage of being supported by a legal system that’s focused on helping rather than punishing them.

Written and directed by Adam Meeks, the drama centers on Cody Parsons (Will Poulter), who became addicted to opiates when he was still a teenager. Years later, he’s already spent time in prison and is living out of his car when he finds himself in front of a drug court.

There, he’s faced with a judge who practices tough love by enrolling him in an adult recovery program. Stay clean and follow the rules, he’s told, and you’ll keep your freedom. Break the rules, and you could end up back behind bars.

It is that time of year when everyone yearns for the temperature to come down. I remember summer days when I used to wish for winter snow. I used to love the winter. All of that changed after I spent my first winter homeless. 

For the purpose of telling my story, there isn’t a need to explain how I got there. There are so many paths to homelessness these days that we should not assume nor judge anyone ‘out there.’ 

The past winter in Columbus was brutal. It started early; it held on late. There was a three-week period when the temperature was close to, or under, ten degrees. Snow came and didn’t get a chance to melt before the next round. It made me hate winter. In fact, it made me leave Columbus for which I have called home for over forty years (I am currently residing in California). 

When you are really ‘out there,’ cold hits different. Being able to go inside is more of a luxury than you may realize. Enduring cold sets into your bones in a painful way. It takes far longer to get warmed up. When you have health problems, as most of us out here do, it makes your body even less prepared to regulate it. 

The American political circus is back in full swing, and the latest maneuvers from federal authorities demand our immediate attention. Reports indicate that suggestions have been floated to declare a national emergency in a bid to federalize control over the upcoming November midterm elections. Combined with the push for the restrictive SAVE America Act—which mandates rigid proof of citizenship and photo ID for federal voting—we are witnessing a calculated effort to alter the rules of democracy from the top down. ​

This is not about "election integrity." This is a calculated panic play orchestrated by Donald Trump and his handlers, who are terrified of losing their grip on Congress. With a razor-thin House majority on the line—where Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to take back the chamber—the current administration is resorting to desperate tactics. Floating the idea of a national emergency and pushing voter suppression isn't about protecting the ballot box; it's about manipulating it to prevent a predictable electoral rebuke. ​

Imagine you are sitting on an airplane and preparing for takeoff. As the plane is taxiing down the runway, the flight attendant comes along and tells you that deranged Iranian terrorists are planning to take out another passenger who is booked on your flight, but that passenger made an escape to another plane, and you are being used as a decoy. How would you feel about that? Now imagine that the flight attendant never told you this information, and you didn't find out you were a decoy until over a month later. I bet that would make you feel like chopped liver.