Danielle Oster (she/her)

Then my sister Huda, 21, was awakened by a phone call. Her friend told her the ceasefire would begin at 12 PM. "A ceasefire! A ceasefire!" she shouted, her voice shaking with disbelief. The whole house erupted— some of us laughed, some of us cried, and all of us dared to hope, if only for a moment. My 10-year-old brother Abedrahim jumped from his mattress and danced around the room shouting, "The genocide is over! We'll finally eat chicken!"

I walked through the ruins of Al-Rimal to find a cafe with internet so I could submit my exam. The streets were unrecognizable. Shops were flattened. Homes were piles of ash and steel. I ran into my friend Khaled Al-Saqqa, 27, the sole survivor of his entire family. When I told him about the ceasefire, his eyes filled with tears. “Why was I left to suffer alone?!” he asked. I had no answer. I simply hugged him and whispered, “God gives you strength.”

We’ll welcome back loved ones who fled to the south—but not all will return. The IOF killed many who sought safety in so-called “safe zones.” Among them was the family of my father’s cousin Yusuf. A midnight strike on September 28, 2025, hit the apartment next to theirs as they prepared to pitch a tent. His wife Nidaa, daughter Ruaa, 18, and son Hamoud, 11, with curly yellow hair, were killed. Yusuf survived, along with his daughter Aya, 21, who suffered a broken leg and pelvis, and Aboud, 17, who remembers hearing his mother’s last breath.

We will remember the martyrs—those who died teaching, reporting, healing, mothering, surviving. We will carry their memory like fire in our hearts. And we will begin again. The real war is now. The war of healing. Of remembering. Of refusing to forget. Of restarting. Of chasing our dreams.

This extraordinary piece from Gaza by Ali Skaik about the ceasefire made me cry. It contains so much—joy, grief, determination, love, sorrow, hope. Very proud to run it in @thenation.com today. Please read it. www.thenation.com/article/worl...

20 paragraphs down in the NBC News story that broke the information that the administration is considering invoking the Insurrection Act is the report that Stephen Miller is driving the issue.

They don’t seem to give the math here on how they arrive at the EV estimate, but I assume they’re going with general miles/kwh averages. But if you drive with an eye toward efficiency, you can do significantly better than the standard 3.5-4.2 or so, especially if you’re not driving on the highway.

💯And the idea that minors are “voluntarily” signing up for such treatment is ridiculous…particularly coming from the same people trying to argue that 17-year-old trans kids (and sometimes even 18 or 19) can’t consent to HRT they’ve waited years for.

So frustrating to hear long-debunked bullshit about how with most kids with gender dysphoria it “resolves naturally” and know that the majority of the Supreme Court is either gullible enough to believe it or invested in pretending they do.

Salazar on plaintiffs’ complete lack of evidence supporting any benefit to conversion therapy: “…not a single study, not a single expert willing to endorse conversion therapy.”

The idea that minors are “voluntarily“ opting-in to conversion therapy is just obviously absurd.

“The state tells dieticians not to provide advice that encourages anorexic behavior … there are studies that do show [conversion therapy] harms people emotionally and physically.” -Justice Sotomayor #ChilesV.Salazar #SupremeCourt

Christian group ‘deceived’ supreme court about LGBTQ+ research, cited scholars say Exclusive: Experts say Alliance Defending Freedom, arguing to revive conversion therapy, ‘profoundly misrepresented’ their work in case threatening trans and queer youth

It’s really fucking disturbing and egregious that the court even agreed to hear a “pre-enforcement challenge” arguing that the 1st amendment protects a bigot’s right to engage in verbal and psychological child abuse as part of her work as a licensed counselor. WTF www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Christian group ‘deceived’ supreme court about LGBTQ+ research, cited scholars say Exclusive: Experts say Alliance Defending Freedom, arguing to revive conversion therapy, ‘profoundly misrepresented’ their work in case threatening trans and queer youth

NEW: Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom "deceived" the Supreme Court + "profoundly misrepresented" LGBTQ+ research, according to scholars cited by ADF.

Quoted experts speak out about ADF's "distortions" + "false evidence" in major case, on deck tomorrow, to revive "conversion therapy"

‘Lawyers owe a duty of candor to the court…’ [said University of Utah professor of constitutional law and civil rights Clifford Rosky.] They claim our work supports conversion therapy when our work clearly and specifically condemns conversion therapy on the same page they’re citing.’”

Fucking horrific.

“Parente said Martinez has ‘seven holes’ in her from the shooting and that agents were in such a hurry to take her into custody at the hospital that they had to return later when Martinez began bleeding from her wounds.”

I've shared multiple articles about the ICE raid at 75th & South Shore Drive because no one of them captures everything important:
-simmering tensions over Venezuelan migrants into a Black neighborhood that is the eviction capital of Chicago
-prior deplorable conditions & lack of maintenance

Remembering how the media reported that the Trump campaign not only denied intent to follow Project 2025, but insisted that anyone associated would be barred from the administration.

@politico.com had a big piece about it.

Val and I checked repeatedly because we simply couldn't believe no national or local news organizations covered this letter from 18 AGs in support of trans youth care and against FTC overreach.

If you find any stories, let us know, but it seems to be our exclusive.

Alt text: Document confirming a Freedom of Information request for an equality impact assessment following a Supreme Court decision. Response notes the information is withheld due to an exemption.

We requested the Equality Impact Assessment for the draft Code of Practice from the EHRC. No surprise they have rejected the request under Section 22(1) due to future publication. They have confirmed that they hold the requested information: 1/

NEW: Rachel Maddow drops unseen bodycam footage of feds coordinating the arrest of Newark Mayor Baraka.

I REPEAT: the feds ordered his arrest even though he wasn’t breaking any laws.

Federal agent: “We are arresting the mayor right now per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”

Trump threatens to shut down US government unless all trans health care is banned The US government's looming shutdown hinges on anti-trans measures after Donald Trump refused to speak to Democrats unless they were passed.

Ok. So there's A LOT of misinformation about the government shutdown, the continuing resolution and gender-affirming care. There was one article in PinkNews that was VERY shoddy about what Trump said. So let's breakdown what's true and what's BS. 1/
www.thepinknews.com/2025/09/29/t...

Speaking of when John Roberts WAS on the White House payroll…

Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians Exclusive: Tech firm ends military unit’s access to AI and data services after Guardian reveals secret spy project

Microsoft will no longer allow Israel to use its cloud services to enable its mass surveillance of occupied Palestinians – "the first known case of a US technology company withdrawing services provided to the Israeli military since the beginning of its war on Gaza"

On Tuesday, with no reasoning — because it’s only an “administrative stay,” after all — Roberts nonetheless granted that administrative stay. This administrative stay raises questions about irreparable harm. If an administrative stay could moot an appeal by running out the clock on the funding — not so incidentally, the very thing that Trump is seeking to do with his “pocket rescission,” which Ali found is likely illegal — how is it administrative at all?

In other news, Chief Justice Roberts's "administrative" stay from 9/9 — allowing the Trump admin hold off spending nearly $5 billion in foreign aid that Congress said is to be spent by 9/30 — remains in effect tonight, one week and one hour from the spending deadline. www.lawdork.com/i/173230405/...

(ORDER LIST: 606 U.S.) THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2025 HABEAS CORPUS DENIED 25-5712 (25A335) IN RE BLAINE MILAM The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied. The petition for a writ of habeas corpus is denied.

NEW: The U.S. Supreme Court won't stop Texas from killing Blaine Milam tonight. There were no noted dissents.

This would be Texas's fifth execution in 2025 and the 32nd execution in America this year across 10 states.

Together: Australian film altered in China to make gay couple straight A scene featuring a same-sex couple was digitally altered to depict a heterosexual couple.

China has digitally altered an Australian film, changing a same-sex couple to a heterosexual one. It seems to be part of a wider crackdown on LGBTQ+ content across the country:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

WOW. The lead plaintiff is a Latino man who's been here legally for 24 years. He was grabbed off the street by plainclothes federal agents who didn't even ASK about his status.

He was detained overnight and only released once a supervisor realized he had been illegally arrested.

YouTube video by Low Low - Words (Official Video)

youtu.be/EbCF2OqZOfE

YouTube video by Yo La Tengo Yo La Tengo - "Autumn Sweater" (Official Audio)

youtu.be/38iyHpJtylg

youtu.be/38iyHpJtylg

“The NYT and The Atlantic have published story after story about the supposed dangers of gender-affirming care…and stoked fears about [trans people in sports]. These scaremongering campaigns may come dressed in more respectable clothing than a Fox News rant, but they are similarly grounded in myth.”

Andy Alford, Nexstar CEO, liking post calling for Adam Schiff to be sent to prison

Nexstar statement about firing Jimmy Kimmel

Andrew Alford, the Nexstar exec quoted in firing Jimmy Kimmel, just a few months ago liked a post calling for Adam Schiff to be sent to prison

i have to say, as a trans journalist who has covered the "trans debate" for about a decade now, there is no daylight between how the trump administration and conservatives lie about tylenol and autism and how they've lied about youth trans care.