The Roberts Court Just Helped Trump Rig the Midterms – Mother Jones (Dec 4) - The conservative majority on the Supreme Court took a major step towards handing the 2026 midterms to the Republicans. In spite of Trump's unpopularity, the Republican's narrow majority in the House, and the normal mid-term vote against the sitting President's political party, Republicans now stand an excellent chance of holding on to all three branches of the government. In a 6-3 vote along party lines, the "Supreme Court...reinstated the Trump-inspired gerrymandered congressional map in Texas after it was blocked by a lower court, with the Roberts court once again putting its thumb on the scale to weaken protections for minority voters and entrench GOP political power...The map was struck down earlier this month by a Trump-appointed federal judge, Jeffrey Brown, who wrote for the majority on a three-judge panel that “substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”
Boat Strike Survivors Clung to Wreckage for Some 45 Minutes Before U.S. Military Killed Them - The Intercept (Dec 5) “There are a lot of disturbing aspects [to the extrajudicial killings by the US military in the Caribbean and Pacific]. But this is one of the most disturbing...Two survivors clung to the wreckage of a vessel attacked by the U.S. military for roughly 45 minutes before a second strike killed them on September 2. After about three quarters of an hour, Adm. Frank Bradley, then head of Joint Special Operations Command, ordered a follow-up strike...that killed the shipwrecked men, according to three government sources and a senior lawmaker."
Besides being an abuse of power, the extrajudicial killings of alleged drug dealers in the Caribbean and Pacific are violations of international law and possibly war crimes. The Brennan Center for Justice says the Trump Administration actions "demand an extraordinary response from Congress. The military campaign against so-called 'narco-terrorists' has not been approved by Congress, and the attacks may have also murdered civilians in international waters. Federal lawmakers have ample powers to uncover and end administration abuse. History shows that one of the most effective ways to do this is for the House or Senate to create a select committee to investigate misuse of presidential power."
Sudan's bloody civil war is worsening a major humanitarian crisis (NBC News, Dec 7)
"What began as a power struggle between rival generals more than two years ago has since plunged Sudan into a brutal civil war that has killed more than 150,000 people...At least 21.2 million people — roughly 45% of Sudan’s population — are now facing high levels of acute food insecurity." Some food aid routes have been secured but peace remains elusive. The "Quartet Peace Plan" - the roadmap backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE — was officially proposed in September 2025. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) leadership rejected the Quartet plan outright, claiming it would “cancel out the armed forces” and dissolve security agencies and saying it was “impossible to accept the Quad as a mediator,” accusing U.S. officials of misrepresenting the role of Islamists in the military. This rejection effectively froze the plan. But there is some support for the peace plan in the Sudanese government Sudan’s Security and Defense Council held an emergency session to discuss the Quartet roadmap, signaling at least some institutional willingness to engage with it. Meanwhile, the Sudanese government submitted its own roadmap to the UN in November. saying it supports negotiations under this roadmap, while conditioning that the RSF withdraw from all cities and civilian facilities to enable tens of thousands of displaced people to return to their areas.
One Day in Gaza and the West Bank (Drop Site News) (Dec 10) - News from Occupied Palestine, Dec 10, 2025.
File this under ethnic cleansing: "Three days of winter storms are expected to hit Gaza today with flash floods, high winds, and hail... According to the UN, more than 760 displacement sites, housing 850,000 people, face imminent flood risk."
File this under genocide: Despite the US-brokered "ceasefire", the killing continues in Gaza. "Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 379 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 992, while 627 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble. ...Child malnutrition in Gaza remains at crisis levels. UNICEF reported that 9,300 children were hospitalized for severe acute malnutrition in October, alongside 8,300 malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women." More than 70,000 Gazans, the vast majority civilians, have been killed by Israel since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
File this under apartheid as usual: "More than 100 Palestinians were detained on Wednesday in a wave of Israeli military raids across the occupied West Bank."
File this under crimes against humanity: "Twenty-one-year-old Abdul Rahman al-Sabateen was arrested by Israeli soldiers in late June, and he has been confirmed to have died in Israeli custody last night." Approximately 100 Palestinians have now died in Israeli custody since October 7, 2023. These deaths occurred in Israeli prisons and military detention centers, and reports cite patterns of physical violence, medical neglect, food deprivation and in some cases, forced disappearance.
Is War Next? U.S. Seizes Venezuelan Oil Tanker as Anti-Maduro Campaign Escalates | Democracy Now! (Dec 11)
"In a major escalation, U.S. troops seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a day after U.S. fighter jets flew over the Gulf of Venezuela, the closest the U.S. has come to the country’s airspace...Though the Pentagon has claimed the conflict is aimed at combating narcoterrorism, the violence is actually an effort, according to NYU Professor Alejandro Velasco, 'to get rid of leftist governments in the region...' Trump's threats to Colombia and Mexico, Trump's pardon of former President of Honduras, sentenced to 45 years on drug-related charges, and the Democratic landslide victory in the Miami mayoral race,
Deeper Dive: The Trump Corollary - TomDispatch.com - U.S. Imperialism in Latin America from the Monroe Doctrine to Maduro
Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks are at an impasse with Kiev refusing any territorial concessions and Moscow refusing a ceasefire until Ukrainian troops withdraw from Donbas. As Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of drone attack overnight on Dec 10-11, Kiev offered an alternate peace plan to the US plan. Moscow has not seen that plan yet and "may not like it". Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that there were no lingering "misunderstandings" with Washington over Ukraine, but added that Moscow wanted any peace plan to include collective security guarantees for all parties involved. The war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Ukrainians (both military and civilian) and more than 150,000 Russian soldiers.