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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

‘Access to good food should be a universal right’

‘Access to good food should be a universal right’

Hannah Goldfield writes: One morning in late September, the writer and former Times columnist Mark Bittman walked into the Lower East Side Girls Club, a rec center in Alphabet City and the site of what would become, in less than eight hours, his first restaurant. At 6 P.M., an inaugural group of guests would arrive for the soft opening of Community Kitchen, a not-for-profit fine-dining experiment that Bittman spent years concocting, and which had found a home—for the next few…

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Stephen Miller is directing Trump’s war on drug boats

Stephen Miller is directing Trump’s war on drug boats

Jonathan Blitzer writes: Late this summer, James Story, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela for three years of Donald Trump’s first term and for two of Joe Biden’s, felt that anything was possible in the relationship between Washington and Caracas. It had been six years since the U.S. closed its Embassy in Venezuela, to protest the rule of the Socialist authoritarian Nicolás Maduro. The issue of how to dislodge Maduro’s regime has been an American political conundrum for at…

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‘We come offering bread and prayer, hope for justice and healing — we leave washing pepper spray out of each other’s eyes’

‘We come offering bread and prayer, hope for justice and healing — we leave washing pepper spray out of each other’s eyes’

Religion News Service reports: Last Friday (Oct. 17), the Rev. Hannah Kardon, a United Methodist minister in the Chicago area, stood alongside other protesters demonstrating outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Broadview, Illinois. As a line of Illinois State Police began marching toward her and other demonstrators, gripping wooden batons, footage shows the pastor with her hands raised in prayer. Officers then pushed into the protesters, forcing them back. One officer shifted his stance, reared back and…

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One target at a time: The logic that helped Israeli liberals commit genocide

One target at a time: The logic that helped Israeli liberals commit genocide

Yuval Abraham writes: A few months after October 7, I enrolled in an introductory course on genocide at the Open University of Israel. The lecturer began the first class by telling us — about 20 Jewish-Israeli students gathered on Zoom — that by the end of the semester we would understand exactly what genocide entails and be able to explain why Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza. In a nutshell, his argument was this: At most, Israel might be…

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No Kings protests the largest single-day political protest ever in the U.S.

No Kings protests the largest single-day political protest ever in the U.S.

Strength In Numbers partnered with independent Atlanta-based science newsroom The Xylom on Oct. 18, 2025, to produce a crowdsourced estimate of turnout for the second “No Kings Day” protests held around the country. This follows our first attempt at crowdsourced crowd-counting for the first protests held in June. Our median estimate is that 5.2 million people participated in a No Kings Day demonstration somewhere in the country on Saturday, with an upper bound of 8.2 million people. We provide an…

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From California to Chicago, the Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino is seen making race-based arrests

From California to Chicago, the Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino is seen making race-based arrests

Chicago Sun-Times reports: On the morning of Jan. 7, Jesús Ramírez and other day laborers huddled in a Home Depot parking lot in Bakersfield, California, hoping for work. Suddenly, they were surrounded by U.S. Homeland Security vehicles. One agent demanded Ramírez show his papers. When he pulled out his wallet, the agent “snatched” it and took his ID without asking questions, Ramírez said. “It was clear to me the agents did not know who I was,” Ramírez, 64, said in…

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Israel heavily bombs Gaza in major ceasefire violation

Israel heavily bombs Gaza in major ceasefire violation

Middle East Eye reports: Heavy Israeli bombing rocked the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing at least 15 Palestinians, in a major violation of the ceasefire. More than 100 air strikes were reported in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north, and parts of central Gaza. Among the sites hit were a cafe, a mobile phone charging station, a group of journalists and a house sheltering displaced people. The Israeli military said the strikes were in response…

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‘No Kings’ protests against Trump bring a street party vibe to America’s fictitious ‘war zones’

‘No Kings’ protests against Trump bring a street party vibe to America’s fictitious ‘war zones’

The Associated Press reports: Protesting the direction of the country under President Donald Trump, people gathered Saturday in the nation’s capital and communities big and small across the U.S. for “No Kings” demonstrations that the president’s Republican Party disparaged as “Hate America” rallies. With signs such as “Nothing is more patriotic than protesting” or “Resist Fascism,” in many places the events looked more like a street party. There were marching bands, a huge banner with the U.S. Constitution’s “We The…

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‘This is not the end, just the beginning’: Sen. Bernie Sanders addresses No Kings rally in DC

‘This is not the end, just the beginning’: Sen. Bernie Sanders addresses No Kings rally in DC

  “Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House, called these rallies ‘hate America’ events. Boy, does he have it wrong. Millions of Americans are coming out today not because they hate America. We’re here because we love America. We’re here because we’re going to do everything we can to honor the sacrifices of millions of men and women who over the last 250 years fought and sometimes died to defend our democracy and our freedoms.”

Unfettered and unaccountable: How Trump is building a violent, shadowy federal police force

Unfettered and unaccountable: How Trump is building a violent, shadowy federal police force

By J. David McSwane and Hannah Allam This story was originally published by ProPublica When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stormed through Santa Ana, California, in June, panicked calls flooded into the city’s emergency response system. Recordings of those calls, obtained by ProPublica, captured some of the terror residents felt as they watched masked men ambush people and force them into unmarked cars. In some cases, the men wore plain clothes and refused to identify themselves. There was no way…

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Public health professor warns the Trump’s ‘eugenics’ policy echoes Nazism

Public health professor warns the Trump’s ‘eugenics’ policy echoes Nazism

The Daily Beast reports: An eminent ER doctor and health policy expert has warned that President Donald Trump’s government shutdown talk about “deserving” patients mirrors a “eugenics” policy adopted by the Nazis. The shutdown is about to enter its fourth week after Congress failed to pass full-year funding. The White House and Speaker Mike Johnson are demanding spending cuts and immigration concessions, while Senate Democrats insist on extending ACA subsidies and undoing the summer healthcare cuts before reopening agencies. Dr….

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Gaza must decide its own political future — before the world does for us

Gaza must decide its own political future — before the world does for us

Mahmoud Mushtaha writes: On Monday, world leaders gathered in Sharm El-Sheikh to promote what they described as a new “path toward peace” in Gaza. The summit was ostensibly intended to consolidate the phases of the ceasefire and outline a long-term governance and reconstruction plan for the Strip. Yet it ended with an ambiguous roadmap and an uncertain future for Palestinians — who, as usual, were entirely left out from the conversation. No representatives from Gaza were present in those meetings,…

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Gaza aid still critically scarce as Israelis kill Palestinians for crossing an invisible line

Gaza aid still critically scarce as Israelis kill Palestinians for crossing an invisible line

The Guardian reports: Aid remains critically scarce in Gaza one week into the ceasefire, humanitarian agencies have warned, as Israel delays the entry of food convoys into the territory. The Israeli government and Hamas continue to trade blame over violations of the truce. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that it had brought about 560 tonnes of food a day on average into Gaza since the ceasefire began, but it was still below what was needed. Its…

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We found that over 170 U.S. citizens have been held by immigration agents. They’ve been kicked, dragged and detained for days

We found that over 170 U.S. citizens have been held by immigration agents. They’ve been kicked, dragged and detained for days

By Nicole Foy This story was originally published by ProPublica When the Supreme Court recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn’t be concerned. “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote, “they promptly let the individual go.” But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have…

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The GOP’s coordinated attack on the ‘No Kings’ rally is unhinged

The GOP’s coordinated attack on the ‘No Kings’ rally is unhinged

Michael Steele writes: In recent days, Republican leaders have warned darkly about the “No Kings” national protests scheduled for Saturday. Speaker Mike Johnson called it a “hate-America rally” that will ​​draw “the pro-Hamas wing” of the Democratic Party and “the antifa people.” House Republican Whip Tom Emmer claimed that “you’ll see the hate for America all over this thing when they show up” for the rally. Sen. Roger Marshall claimed protesters were being paid and suggested the National Guard might…

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Afraid of peaceful protests, Abbott sends National Guard to Austin for No Kings rally

Afraid of peaceful protests, Abbott sends National Guard to Austin for No Kings rally

Politico reports: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is deploying the state’s National Guard to Austin ahead of this weekend’s planned No Kings rally in the Texas capital, he announced Thursday, as top Republicans around the country vilify the protests as Antifa-linked and led by the radical flank of the Democratic Party. “Violence and destruction will never be tolerated in Texas,” Abbott said in a statement Thursday. “Today, I directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas National Guard to deploy…

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