The Monday Politics Thread Celebrates Indigenous People

Reshaped civil rights mission at Justice Department transforms its work, workforce

When Harmeet Dhillon took over as the new chief of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division last April, the conservative attorney vowed to radically reshape the storied unit and its mission.

NPR

Sudden surge in ICE arrests empties streets in California’s San Joaquin Valley

As ICE arrests in the San Joaquin Valley escalate, a family mourns

Cal Matters

Trump plan would remove protections for national forests like Shawnee: ‘We stand to lose our solitude’

The repeal of the conservation regulation commonly known as the Roadless Rule, would affect nearly 45 million acres of national forests across the country, including about 10,666 acres in Shawnee.

Chicago Tribune

As Trump’s Wall Closes in, DHS Intimidates a Border Tribe With Surveillance, Masked Agents and Drones

Despite the collaborations, and assurances from the Trump administration, ProPublica found that DHS has turned its vast apparatus on tribal members, with 24-hour surveillance directed at an ongoing border prayer ceremony and tribal members being questioned outside the reservation about their ceremonial activities. ProPublica’s account is based on photos, videos, court filings, interviews with tribal leadership, firsthand observations and more than 1,000 contemporaneously written observations compiled by tribal members.

ProPublica

WHAT IS JOHN FETTERMAN DOING?

Missed committees. Rare public appearances. Private animosity toward Philly. Four years in, and possibly running again, Fetterman and his record come under scrutiny.

The Inquirer

US measles cases surpass 4,000, with more than 25 percent coming from Pennsylvania

This latest figure places Pennsylvania more than 400 cases beyond the state with the second-highest reported number of infections, South Carolina at 670.

The Hill

Measles Outbreak Tests Vaccine Attitudes In Rural Southwest Wisconsin

As cases climb, parents, doctors and parents weigh risks, rights and misinformation.

Urban Milwaukee

All the Things You’re Not Allowed to Say In Texas

The state now controls what professors can teach.

The Atlantic

US Consumers and Businesses Are Now Facing a Future of More Expensive Borrowing

Many small and traditional businesses are also in a bind as they face substantially higher financing costs than they did several years ago. Those costs reflect the rising yields on longer-term U.S. government debt, which have been going up for months on a mix of factors: Longer-term inflation concerns due to soaring U.S. government debt, geopolitical risks driving up energy costs, and ongoing financing demand for AI.

Mississippi Free Press

D.C. Elections Board Asks National Guard to Stay Away From Ballot Drop Boxes

Guard members were seen standing next to a drop box in Foggy Bottom this week.

The Washington Sun

Abortion foes plan to push pill restrictions in the states

As they await a federal decision on a potential nationwide ban on telehealth abortions, anti-abortion activists plan to push more states to require women to visit a doctor’s office, get an ultrasound or wait before they can get abortion pills.

North Dakota Monitor

Young people are bridging the climate divide for Oceania and the Caribbean

Young people are no strangers to seeing the impacts of climate change. In Australia alone, the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires of 2019–20, record-breaking floods across northern parts of the country in 2026, and most recently, the severe tropical cyclone Narelle, which badly affected three states, have all left their mark.

Global Voices

South Africa joins the global resistance against American data centers

Civil rights groups in South Africa are protesting the expansion of data centers by American companies, marking one of the first coordinated attempts on the continent to slow AI infrastructure development.

Rest Of World

Israeli documentary ‘NAZA’ opens in the US, reigniting debate over the war in Gaza

The film received a record 25-minute standing ovation when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival. The backlash in Israel, which holds its own elections at the end of this month, has been just as thunderous.

Religion News Network

Pope Leo XIV to undergo lung surgery this week

According to the American Cancer Society, a lung nodule is a small abnormal area, less than or equal to 3 cm, found during a CT scan of the chest or abdomen. These tests are often conducted as routine screenings for “trauma, heart disease, non-cancer related lung disease, or lung infection.”

WFDD

Hormuz attacks intensify as efforts to end war on Iran stall

IRGC warns against ignoring the ‘security and rules’ of the strategic waterway as US CENTCOM says it disabled vessel trying to run naval blockade.

AlJazeera

She was a global star: Teen bikes 700 miles carrying injured dad. Where is she now?

“The politicians who made promises, saying they would give money for my sports or education — nobody actually gave anything,” she says. “Whatever reward money we collected back then [from individuals who extended help and a government award that came with a cash prize], we put it all into our house, rebuilding it. We had a brick house before, but it only had bare walls. Now we have completed it, added a toilet, a bathroom, and a running water connection. By doing all that, the house has finally become livable,” she says.

NPR

Trump says Russia and Ukraine agree to an ‘energy ceasefire’ but Kyiv says attacks continue

“Unfortunately, Ukrainian skies have been infested with Russian ‘shaheds’ all day today,” he said in an evening address, referring to drones launched by Moscow . “There have been glide bomb strikes and strikes on our energy infrastructure too. A power plant in Kharkiv was attacked this evening.”

AP News

Scientists discover 180,000 giant tortoises on one Seychelles island

Free-roaming Aldabra population far exceeds human population of Seychelles after decades-long recovery programme

The Guardian

When radio finds a new digital voice: Bringing Romani language and culture online in Kosovo

But as media consumption increasingly moves online, one question became impossible to ignore: What happens to Romani-language content when the radio broadcast ends?

Global Voices

Saudi airport passenger terminal is struck again, a day after 12 were killed

Saudi authorities said there were injuries in the latest attack on the King Khalid International Airport complex for terminals 3 and 4, serving domestic flights. The airport — struck four times in the past five days — has been closed since Saturday’s missile attack, which was the deadliest in a Gulf Arab nation since the Iran war began. Over 300 other people were wounded, some critically.

AP News

Hurricane Simon nears Mexico with 155 mph winds and flooding fears

Simon has strengthened to 155 mph (250 kph), only just below the threshold for becoming a Category 5 storm, the highest on the Saffir Simpson scale. It was about 60 miles (100 kilometers) west-southwest of Manzanilla and moving north-northwest at 6 mph (9 kph).

NPR