I’ve been having a few too many conversations like this. Them: Hi Kate, how are things with your work, with the world? Me: the university is under attack, democratic norms being broken in half, so, pretty bad. Them: But everything is going to come back and be okay after the midterms. Me: Uhh, no.
A young Palestinian girl who lost her mother and brother in a blazing fire after Israel struck their tents has just been reunited with her aunt in the U.S. through an evacuation by HEAL Palestine... Rahaf will get treatment in Boston for her severe burns.
www.npr.org/2025/08/04/n...
"rhetoric seems to be part of an elaborate game, in which everyone dances increasingly performatively around what needs to happen... Action that never comes"
Keith and Lee Siegel continue to work to free the remaining hostages, with Lee saying continued war "is how hostages are murdered"
president trump tells bbc he’s “disappointed” with putin, “but not done with him.”
and asked if he trusts him: “i trust almost nobody, to be honest with you.”
(fact check: true)
A former sheriff pushed Kerr County, where dozens are dead from flash floods, nearly a decade ago to adopt a more robust flood-warning system. That suggestion, from him and others, was never adopted.
“The billions spent on so-called reforms, designed to promote a more tolerant and inclusive kingdom under the crown prince’s rule, mask an authoritarian state where daily executions for drug crimes are now the norm.”
apnews.com/article/saud...
“…what it seems like ICE has done is basically give out an order to round up as many Iranians as you can…”
more of our extended conversation with Alejandro Barranco, who had just visited his dad in ICE custody where he says he is “in a cage, you can say, with at least 70 other people. No privacy. One toilet. He's received water maybe once a day.” youtu.be/OgIXyY1xzho?...
"... the people of New York City tonight have spoken. They have spoken out against the lily-livered, lack-of-courage approach of Democrats in fighting authoritarianism.”
“domestic use of the military is often fraught and is just as often corrosive to American democracy”
www.justsecurity.org/114395/the-m...
Great interview with the Los Angeles day laborers who weren't grabbed in the raid that kicked off the protests. “I’m starting to feel something ugly,” Josue said. "It’s a familiar feeling not unlike the sense of insecurity I felt in my own country." www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
.@zeteo_news EXCLUSIVE: Wife of Kidnapped Georgetown Scholar Speaks Out in Heartbreaking Interview
She shares that fellow detainees call Badar Khan Suri "Gandhi" because he's teaching about peace and political justice
Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic—as part of a military strategy,” according to aid groups
What an excellent resource - @NaTakallam offers Arabic tutoring courses (provided by refugees) specifically for journalists:
“The sexual abuse crisis is not a matter of the past. It is present.” Clergy sexual abuse victims demand next pope enact zero-tolerance policy.
I asked top media execs to share their unfiltered, anonymous takeaways from Donald Trump's first 100 days in office. Here's what one told me. Read the rest in @status.news: www.status.news/p/donald-tru...
The Trump administration has been engaged in a concerted effort to undo initiatives aimed at holding Russia accountable for alleged war crimes in Ukraine
Georgetown U students used open data to discover that the planes athletes take to games are the exact same planes being used by ICE for deportations (h/t to Bellingcat)
thehoya.com/news/inside-...
This is very eyebrow-raising. An un-retracted lie by Columbia that’s possibly contributed to the detaining of one of their students.
As one professor put it to me: “we have never seen so clear a line between language the university has used and the Trump attacks on individuals.”
TPM’s @hunterw.bsky.social makes a convincing case - citing experts - that we should be referring to CECOT as a “concentration camp,” “penal colony,” or “permanent prison camp.”
Based on its features (no due process, indefinite detention) he says: “President Trump is sending people to the camps.”
This is exemplary leadership by Van Hollen and it is beyond outrageous that a White House atrocity necessitates it.
Whistleblower against DOGE had a threat taped to his office door - including overhead photos of him walking his dog that appeared to be taken with a drone
“As the occupying power, Israel has unequivocal obligations under international law,” Guterres said. “The current path is a dead end — totally intolerable in the eyes of international law and history.”
Concerning - US immigration officials look to expand social media data collection
apnews.com/article/soci...
babe, wake up, Houthi PC small group attack plans just dropped
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
“Elam said he was hoping his protest would help fellow Israelis to understand that ‘the pain of Palestinians is the same as Israelis.’”
www.cnn.com/2025/03/24/m...
As a Hoya, horrified to see the Trump administration target a Georgetown fellow -- an expert in **conflict resolution**
www.politico.com/news/2025/03...
American surgeon in Gaza describes some of the victims of Israeli attacks:
"There had been a 2- or 3-year-old girl with shrapnel in her brain and her spleen; a 6-year-old boy whose heart had briefly stopped and whose belly was sliced through with shrapnel"
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
Another wartime leader for whom suits were not appropriate - Winston Churchill:
“That strange costume Mr. Churchill wore was recognized... as a ‘siren suit’, a zipper coverall to be donned quickly in the event of air raid alarms"
www.washingtonpost.com/history/2025...
