Stop teasing us already
Trump signs a new executive order on voting. Experts say he lacks the authority
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he believes the order is legally “foolproof.” But election experts said the order was unconstitutional, and voting rights advocates and Democratic state officials quickly pledged to sue to block the order from going into effect.
NPR
Faith leaders’ activism shows organized religion can still be a force for good
Before the deportation crackdown began, ministers of all faiths had been supporting social justice movements, not leading them. In recent months, they have rediscovered their historic roles.
Religion News Service
A Nursing Home Owner Got a Trump Pardon. The Families of His Patients Got Nothing.
Often overshadowed in the attention around Trump’s decisions is the emotional and financial devastation left behind. Few clemency decisions illustrate that more clearly than the case of Schwartz, who paid himself millions of dollars from his nursing homes while diverting tens of millions owed to taxpayers and employees, and who has failed to satisfy at least three multimillion-dollar judgments awarded to grieving families.
ProPublica
It’s Time To Grow Up
HBO’s new Harry Potter TV series is premiering this Christmas Day. Under current plans, it will last at least a decade. The trailer looks like the original films were run through an AI generator, but quality isn’t the point. The show is a transparent attempt to induct a new generation—and market—into the lucrative fantasy world while massaging the nostalgia of existing fans. The announcement of the show has triggered another repetition of the same cycle that has repeated, ad nauseam, since J. K. Rowling started calling random trans women men to her 13 million Twitter followers. Actors in the series dodge questions about Rowling’s opinions, smiling winningly while they pontificate about how Harry Potter teaches everyone to be nice. Those in the know debate the ethics of watching the show. Meanwhile, a vast, blithe section of the press considers Rowling’s activism—or any anti-trans activism—to be interesting only insofar as they can use it to wring out another ponderous essay on the terrors of so-called cancellation.
Defector
Bernie Sanders Backs Claire Valdez in NYC House Race Dividing Left and Progressives
The race to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez in New York’s 7th Congressional District has put major progressive organizations and figures at odds. Hoping to capitalize on growing national frustration with conservative Democrats and lingering momentum from Mamdani’s win in November, national progressives and their counterparts in New York are fighting to succeed Velázquez with an ally in Congress.
The Intercept
Artemis II Astronauts Have ‘Two Microsoft Outlooks’ and Neither Work
In space, no one can hear you scream at Microsoft’s legacy software.
404 Media
Texas Saw a $50 Billion Future in Clean Energy. Then the Political Winds Shifted.
Hallman’s doubts reflect a larger reckoning underway in West Texas. Over the past two decades, rural counties that helped meet the nation’s demand for oil have become unexpected linchpins of its clean-energy buildout. Pumpjacks now stand alongside wind and solar farms drawn in part by open range and generous federal incentives. For Schleicher County, where oil production has waned and the tax base dwindled, “renewables” have taken on a double meaning, offering the promise of fiscal stability in a place desperate for economic renewal. But that promise is now complicated by the Trump administration’s rollback of clean energy policy and many of the incentives that fueled the boom.
Texas Observer
ICE Presence Persists in Chicago as Raids Shift to Quieter Tactics
Advocates say ICE arrests continue daily across Chicagoland, even as tactics grow more targeted and less visible.
Truthout
The oldest known dice date back about 12,000 years in North America
The findings extend the long record of precolonial Native American dice
ScienceNews
Public monuments are the story we tell about ourselves. They shouldn’t aggrandize a living leader.
Someday, a future historian (and if we’re lucky it will be a human historian, not something made of silicon chips or an alien species) will look back on our present moment and ponder why we didn’t react with more alarm. All the signs were there. The turning point was when Trump began putting his signature on their money and his face on their gold coins. Flaunting tradition a time or two makes you a maverick. Violating every norm that has kept presidential power in check since the time of George Washington makes one a tyrant.
Kansas Reflector
Trump Says Pam Bondi, a Loyalist Who Oversaw Justice Department Upheaval, Is Out as Attorney General
The announcement follows months of scrutiny over the Justice Department’s handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation that made Bondi the target of angry conservatives even with her close relationship with Trump. She also struggled to satisfy Trump’s demands to prosecute his political rivals, with multiple investigations rejected by judges or grand juries.
Mississippi Free Press
Amazon is betting on speed in a market that may not need it
Quick commerce promises instant convenience, but it’s driven more by deep discounts and habit-building than real need.
Rest of World
In 1978, they stopped buses — and helped launch a disability rights movement
It was an act of civil disobedience that got little attention at the time and has now been largely forgotten. But those people with disabilities secured wheelchair access on Denver buses and eventually helped spur a nationwide movement.
NPR
DHS Launches Massive “Less Lethal” Chemical Weapons Buying Spree
Federal agents’ indiscriminate use of tear gases and “less-lethal” projectiles has become a mainstay of protest crackdowns.
The Intercept
Trump has threatened ‘taking Cuba.’ What’s at stake for the US economically, politically?
“The nature of the Cuban government, the structure of the Cuban government and the members of the Cuban government are not part of the negotiation,” Fernández de Cossío said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “That is something that no sovereign country negotiates.”
Politifact
Myth of the AI Oracle
Even the most capable AI will face limits on its ability to make predictions and substitute for strategic decision-making.
Lawfare Media
US War Machine Is Built on Decades of Lies. The Assault on Iran Is No Exception.
Trump’s endless falsehoods about the Iran war build on a long history of US military mythmaking.
Truthout
Republicans applaud immigrant detention — until it’s in their back yards
At every turn, DHS has faced pushback from Republicans in its drive to quickly scale up immigrant detention to 92,600 people by September, a pillar of the president’s mass deportation plan as Trump aims to remove 1 million immigrants without legal status each year. Republicans warn that the move to convert warehouses into hulking detention sites in rural areas will strain local communities’ water, sewage, electricity, heat and health care.
Alabama Reflector
American politicians talk about persecuted Christians abroad – but here’s what happens when those Christians migrate to the US
An anthropologist of religion shows how Coptic Christians navigate two competing realities: the narrative of Christian persecution abroad and the suspicion surrounding migrants in the contemporary US.
Religion News Service
This Kansas-born transgender doctor made a lifesaving tuberculosis breakthrough
On International Transgender Day of Visibility, Kansas should remember the accomplishments of Dr. Alan L. Hart, a doctor and author born in Halls Summit in the late 19th century. In 1917, he made history by becoming one of the first known trans men in the country to undergo gender affirming surgery.
KCUR
Yeah, you can laugh
Yemeni politician says former U.S. soldiers tried to kill him. Now he’s suing in U.S. court
A Yemeni lawmaker has filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court that alleges former American special forces operators working as mercenaries hired by the United Arab Emirates tried to kill him as part of a targeted assassination program.
NPR
Holocaust survivors in France came home to stolen apartments, looted furniture and bureaucratic hurdles
Laws put in place after the war aimed to return stolen belongings and offer war damages to victims. In reality, many Jewish families faced lengthy waits and legal hurdles.
Religion News Service
AI’s green-energy goal is devastating Taiwan’s coastal villages
Aggressive expansion of wind energy to power the semiconductor industry is upending the livelihoods of farmers and fishers.
Rest of World
Let’s Not Give Up Milk Tea
Southeast Asian countries have been among the worst affected. Bangladesh shut universities to conserve electricity. A World Economic Forum analysis noted that import-reliant countries, particularly in Asia — which source a significant share of their crude oil from the Middle East — have been forced to curb fuel use and protect domestic supplies.
The Xylom
In Lebanon, more than 50 medics have been killed by Israel. Some say they’re targeted
Lebanon’s government says at least 54 health workers are among more than 1,400 people killed by Israel during the current invasion. Some human rights groups say first responders are being targeted — something Israel denies.
NPR
Gaza Farmland Is Destroyed, But Some Are Growing Food Even While Displaced
In Gaza, war is not measured only by the number of airstrikes, but by the number of trees that no longer bear fruit.
Truthout
Pope Leo’s Easter message to the world: ‘Let those who have weapons lay them down!’
As wars intensify across the globe, Pope Leo XIV used his first Easter address to deliver a stark warning against growing indifference to violence, urging both world leaders and ordinary people to reject fear and choose peace through dialogue.
Religion News Service
Palestinian Christians Observe Palm Sunday with Prayers for an End to the War
Inside the sanctuary at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, Christians in the war-torn city gathered last week to observe Palm Sunday with gratitude for the chance to congregate but weary of the ongoing assault on the territory they call home.
Unicorn Riot
IAEA Sounds Alarm on US-Israeli Strike Near Iran Nuclear Plant
At least one person was killed in the strike near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, raising safety concerns.
Truthout
Passover’s matzah isn’t just simple food. It’s a quiet act of rebellion.
Why Jews have traditionally gone against the grain.
Religion News Service
