curated news excerpts & citations
Jason Easley: It is Easter Sunday, and the United States has a president who can’t be quoted in front of children.
Dean Blundell: Pope Leo XIV, Urbi et Orbi, Easter Sunday 2026: We cannot continue to be indifferent! And we cannot resign ourselves to evil!
“Let those who have weapons lay them down,” Pope Leo XIV declared to the world. “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace. Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue. Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them.”
He wasn’t done. The world, he warned, is “growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent.” Indifferent, he said, “to the deaths of thousands of people. Indifferent to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow.”
Asawin Suebsaeng and Andrew Perez @ zeteo: Trump Threatens War Crimes, Praises ‘Allah’ on Easter Sunday
‘Praise be to Allah,’ the insane president posted, while threatening to blow up Iranian power plants and bridges if he doesn’t get his way.
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 5, 2026
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And that is another way to look at the post from Trump’s social media account: that he is panicked that he has not been able to bully other countries into fixing the mess he created by attacking Iran and precipitating the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and is now simply trying to bully Iran. In The Guardian last Monday, Sidney Blumenthal noted that Trump “has declared ‘victory’ more than eight times,” says he has “won” more than ten times, and said Iranian forces have been “obliterated” or suffered “obliteration” more than six times. Blumenthal noted Trump is now threatening to “obliterate” Iran’s power grid and has used the words “decimate” or “decimation” at least six times.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Heather Delaney Reese: The president has gone insane
… On Easter morning, while families across the country were gathering in churches, the President of the United States was threatening to bomb a country, driving to his golf course, and calling in to Fox News for a 15-minute phone interview about his war. He didn’t go to church. He went to worship himself instead.
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Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Humeyra Pamuk @ Reuters: How a perilous US rescue mission in Iran nearly went off course
- Mechanical failure forced risky extraction and destruction of US aircraft in Iran
- CIA ran deception campaign, US military jammed electronics and bombed roads to aid rescue
- Airman authenticated his identity to avoid potential Iranian trap for rescuers, US official says
(Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Humeyra Pamuk @ Reuters more…)
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Spencer Neale @ American Conservative: MAGA Champion Need Not Apply
The Iran War demonstrates why no “true MAGA” candidate will ever replace Trump.
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Ken Klippenstein: FBI’s New Political Pre-Crime Center
Are you on the list of ‘domestic terrorism’ indicators?
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In other words, if your political views are practically anything other than MAGA, you’re on notice, courtesy of the FBI.
(Ken Klippenstein more…)
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Alissa Azar: Oregon DOC Appears to Have Disappeared Portland Protester Malik Muhammad
The Oregon Department of Corrections appears to have effectively disappeared Malik Muhammad, a Black Palestinian anarchist and antifascist prisoner serving one of the longest sentences handed to a protester after the 2020 George Floyd uprising.
…On Monday, March 30, 2026, members of Muhammad’s support team noticed something alarming: their profile had vanished from the prison messaging system GettingOut. Around the same time, their name no longer appeared in Oregon’s inmate search database. This disappearance happened in the wake of a call-in campaign to once again get Muhammad out of solitary confinement.
(Alissa Azar more…)
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Inside Climate News: Paramedics for Ecosystems
Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins and investigative reporter Katie Surma as they discuss how the Shuar people in Ecuador are combining ancestral knowledge and modern science to protect their forest from a Canadian mining giant.
(Inside Climate News more…)
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Shanley Hurt: Absolutely, Otterly, Not: This Week’s Proof There May Still Be Hope For Humanity After All
Giant otters, snowy owls, hammerhead sharks, and the stubborn human beings still trying to keep this world alive.
(Shanley Hurt more…)
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: Dr. Ruth Report, 4/5/26
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Thom Hartmann: Epilogue
Your weekly excerpt from one of my books. This week: “The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink”
(Thom Hartmann more…)
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Liliana Segura @ Intercept: Grandmother Faces Trial in Alabama for Wearing Penis Costume to No Kings Protest
When the viral video cooled off, people thought the case against the 62-year-old would be dropped. Prosecutors doubled down.
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The turnout exceeded organizers’ expectations. It also flew in the face of neighbors and critics who might dismiss protesters as paid agitators. “When you show your face to people that probably see you around town and know you live here, it combats the narrative of, like, [George] Soros busing us in,” said Kayleigh Rae, who founded Indivisible Baldwin County.
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“No provision of Fairhope’s disorderly conduct ordinance applies to what she was doing or wearing when she was arrested,” he wrote. “Both her costume and her actions were protected First Amendment speech.”
(Liliana Segura @ Intercept more…)
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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