The MAGA Movement Is Not a Debating Society

When Vance, hosting Kirk’s podcast for the first episode after Kirk’s death, threatened to bring the full force of the federal government to bear against liberal nonprofits and NGOs — in an effort to neuter any opposition from civil society — he was reiterating the longstanding policy of this administration to punish dissent, criminalize opposition and silence its critics with the force of the bully pulpit.

The New York Times

Chalk messages at Arlington home of top White House official strike a nerve with GOP heavyweights

The incident immediately earned a defiant post on X from Stephen Miller’s wife, former DOGE staffer Katie Miller, who referenced the shooting death of Charlie Kirk in accusing activists of “trying to intimidate us in the house where we have three young children.”

ARL Now

US will complete TikTok deal ‘in coming days’ and control its algorithm, White House says

Leavitt said Americans would hold six of the seven TikTok board seats.

CNN

A record number of congressional lawmakers aren’t running for reelection in 2026. Here’s the list

Fifteen are retiring from public office with the rest running for a different office — 11 looking to become governor of their state, 10 looking to make the jump from House to Senate and one, Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, is looking to become his state’s attorney general.

NPR

Trump’s new detention policy targets millions of immigrants. Judges keep saying it’s illegal.

The administration says the sweeping detentions are a key prong of Trump’s deportation strategy.

Politico

ICE Plans To Evacuate Chicago-Area Facility Following Immigration Protests

Homeland security communications show officials want to move operations following a protest in which demonstrators said they were hit with teargas.

Huffpost

The Jimmy Kimmel and Disney Drama Has Some Superfans Dumping the Mouse

For most of her life, Disneyland was Stephanie Cuevas’s happy place. But the news on Wednesday, September 17, about Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show being suspended “indefinitely” was her breaking point with Disney.

The next day, Cuevas made an announcement: She is going to dump the mouse. Her Instagram and TikTok accounts, which had grown to tens of thousands of followers based on her Disneyland-themed content, would be pivoting. As a queer and Latina woman, she could not abide by the company’s decision to suspend the late-night host for comments he made about Donald Trump’s reaction to Charlie Kirk’s death.

Glamour

Amid Rise of RFK Jr., Officials Waver on Drinking Water Fluoridation — Even in the State Where It Started

Drinking water fluoridation is widely heralded as a public health triumph, but it’s had critics since it was pioneered 80 years ago in Grand Rapids, about 150 miles southwest of Grayling. While once largely on the fringes, fluoridation skeptics now hold sway in federal, state and local government, and their arguments have seeped into the mainstream.

ProPublica

Why are so many young people getting cancer?

Scientists don’t know yet, but diet, gut bacteria and microplastics could play a role

Science News

Donald Trump Makes Emergency Supreme Court Request Over Passports

The Justice Department is appealing a lower-court order that blocked enforcement of the rule and allows transgender and nonbinary people to request passports with the gender that reflects their identity, including an “X” option.

Newsweek

Why Trump wants companies to report earnings less frequently

….some investor advocates and many finance experts reacted with alarm, saying less frequent disclosures will lead to less transparency because companies could withhold important information for up to six months.

NPR

Resistance to data centers rises on the border

In Doña Ana County, New Mexico, residents have long struggled to access clean water. Now, developers plan to spend $165 billion on a massive data center complex.

High Country News

Could Roger Wicker be part of another rare bipartisan health plan in U.S. Congress?

Such cases are few and far between, but national press reports indicate that the Republican-controlled Congress, fearing the backlash in the 2026 midterm elections, is pondering extending the program that provides enhanced federal financial assistance to people purchasing health insurance policies through the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

Mississippi Today

From Bandung to Disko Afrika: Establishing connections between Asia and Africa in Indonesia

The 1955 Bandung conference that took place in Indonesia signified the start of a global and non-aligned movement that brought Asian and African nations and independence movements closer than ever before. Eighty years later, Indonesia and Africa meet again in a musical phenomenon: Disko Africa.

Global Voices

U.K., Canada and Australia formally recognize a Palestinian state, breaking with the U.S.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Britain and other Western allies of giving Hamas a “prize,” saying: “It will not happen. A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.”

NBC News

Hezbollah’s Collapse Is Lebanon’s Opportunity

Plans to disarm the paramilitary group will reshape the country—if the Lebanese Armed Forces can follow through.

Lawfare Media

EXCLUSIVE: Hundreds of Jewish Health Professionals Say ‘End the Genocide’ in Gaza

“To be silent is to be complicit,” the healthcare workers write in an open letter.

Zeteo

A rushed rescue saves Gaza archeological items before an Israeli strike on a warehouse

The warehouse contained artifacts from over 25 years of excavations, including items from a 4th-century Byzantine monastery designated as a World Heritage Site by the U.N. cultural organization UNESCO, and some of the oldest known evidence of Christianity in Gaza.

Religion News Service

The dirty truth behind the e-waste recycling industry

As the recycling economy continues to grow and formalize, workers are left to the whims of regulators and other powerful players in the industry.

Rest of World

Why are girls in South Punjab, Pakistan, still being married off before the age of 15?

In May 2025, the Parliament of Pakistan passed the Child Marriage Restraint Bill, setting the legal marriage age at 18 for all genders. The law introduced penalties of fines and imprisonment for those who arrange or solemnize underage marriages and empowered local authorities to halt such unions before they take place.

Global Voices