Global

Mon dieu! Quel bordel, as say the French. France, the home of reason and logic, is consumed by riots. How can a nation with such advanced education be in such a mess?

Some two thirds of its 3,700 high schools are now closed, and many are put to the sack. It’s as if the barbarian Vandals have reappeared from the Fifth Century to lay fire and sword on France.

French students are whining their classrooms are too old or decrepit. Their teachers too few, their classes, averaging over 30 students, too large. Some express worries that there may not be enough comfy jobs when they graduate from university.

Poor French teenage babies. I advise these suffering youth to turn to the great French stoic philosopher Michel de Montaigne for comfort and guidance. Just imagine you were studying in the ruins of Gaza, amid all the destroyed buildings and crumbling concrete. Breathing in the stench of buried decomposing bodies, without adequate food or medicines.

A 34-year-old Jordanian American man, Mohammad Faiq Al-Hashaisheh, known as “Abu Fares,” was shot and killed inside his tobacco shop in Chicago a week ago, after reportedly refusing to sell cigarettes to a 17-year-old customer who would not provide identification. According to reports cited by Gulf News, the victim was killed after attempting to enforce age restrictions on tobacco sales.

Chicago has frequently made national headlines for violent crime, particularly homicides. In 2024, the city reported 573 homicides in a population of approximately 2.7 million, according to Al Jazeera.

Incident Details

According to the victim’s family, a 17-year-old boy entered Mohammad’s shop seeking to purchase cigarettes. Mohammad reportedly refused the sale because the customer was underage and asked him to provide identification.

The teenager allegedly left the shop but later returned armed with a handgun. He reportedly shot Mohammad, striking him in the throat. Mohammad succumbed to his injuries shortly afterward.

In 2003, George W. Bush’s administration invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein on the pretext that his regime possessed and was developing weapons of mass destruction that posed a grave threat to the United States and the world. Those weapons were never found. As the war dragged on, the original justification became increasingly difficult to defend, and the argument gradually shifted toward a different narrative: that America had gone to Iraq to liberate its people, overthrow a dictatorship, and transform Iraq into a democratic and stable country. 

On Wednesday, September 30, 2026, the U.S. military announced the completion of its troop withdrawal from Iraq, more than 20 years after invading the country and toppling Saddam Hussein. Sadly, after 23 years, Iraq is neither the functioning democracy that the American intervention promised to create nor a fully sovereign nation free from the continuing influence and military presence of outside powers.

Let’s start with the good news. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has added 61 companies to its database of businesses involved in activities linked to illegal Israeli settlements, expanding the list from 158 to 214 companies.

Why is this good news? Because it further illustrates a degree of seriousness within the international community to move its position on Israel from the realm of language to that of action.

Yet more good news: five previously listed companies were removed after the Office determined that their involvement in the relevant activities had ended.

This matters because it suggests that the mechanism can work: sustained scrutiny can influence corporate behavior, and supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine can carry a price.

Today, I was stunned by a shocking video reportedly showing an Israeli soldier displaying Palestinian children who were cuffed and blindfolded, accompanied by the caption: “For sale: 2 for 100, 3 for 75 shekels.”

The video was reported by Al-Quds Al-Arabi in June 2026, which described the children as detained and apparently being held at an Israeli concentration camp. 

For readers unfamiliar with the Israeli currency, 100 Israeli shekels is roughly $33 in U.S. currency. But the monetary value is almost beside the point. The disturbing message conveyed by the caption is the suggestion that human beings—children, no less—can be reduced to commodities with a price tag.

Whether the caption was intended as a sick joke, an attempt to humiliate the children, or something more sinister, the dehumanization depicted in the video is horrifying. No child should ever be treated this way. No child should be cuffed, blindfolded and displayed for someone’s amusement.

And that raises a much larger question: Where is the accountability?

From Minnesota we hear HEDY TRIPP’S report on lawsuits from the family of the murdered Renee Good & masked ICE’s continued predation in MN.

From MIKE HERSH we’re reminded that ICE staff is not vetted or trained with purposeful agenda of citizen terror.

The Green Party’s HOWIE HAWKINS give us the message that Ukraine is being helped by caravans from across Europe, and has no intent of caving into Putin’s brutally violent dictatorship.

Engineer STEVE CARUSO takes us into the nitty-gritty of impeachment, equating it with a “no confidence” vote from Europe.

From Oregon we’re warned by DR. MELISSA BIRD of a horrific corporate Democrat who may open the door to an extreme MAGA poised to turn the state back for decades.

From THIS WILL HOLD we hear from “T” about the possibility of votes disappearing across the country and what must be done to see our democracy survive.

From HENRY WINCHESTER we get a deep technical dive into the desperate need to protect the vote count this November.

Amidst an all-out corporate attack, CHARLIE CRAY of Greenpeace dissects the horrific rigging of the trial that fined it $665 million.