David Sewell
@davidsewell.bsky.social
Native southern Californian, Swarthmore alum, former Tucsonan, retired UVA, live in Charlottesville. Interests include the greater Southwest, Lebanon/MENA, immigration policy/support, Quaker concerns.
UN peacekeeping chief LaCroix says major questions hang over southern Lebanon as UNIFIL exit nears apnews.com/article/leba...;
UN peacekeeping chief says major questions hang over southern Lebanon as UNIFIL exit nears
The United Nations peacekeeping chief says major questions remain about plans for southern Lebanon as the UNIFIL mandate nears its end.
apnews.com
Tadai Me:i Camp calls supporters to join in prayer and protest on the Tohono O’odham Nation as border wall construction is set to begin this Monday, on Indigenous Peoples Day.
Max Granger@maxgranger.info · 5d ago⚠️ Border wall contractors to remove thousands of sacred saguaros (ha:ṣañ) on sovereign O'odham land starting Monday — Indigenous People's Day.
People should remember that to Pete Hegseth, the guy with a "Deus Vult" tattoo, to characterize behavior as "medieval" is praise, not criticism. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
‘Medieval’ and ‘disturbing’: US plan to livestream execution elicits global condemnation
Pentagon said execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, would be broadcast live
theguardian.com
Hard to overstate how much Hegseth's execution stream mirrors the U.S. military's traditional description of ISIS propaganda: broadcast killings designed to send a message, strike fear and create a social media spectacle. Will almost certainly be repurposed by online terror cells
If the governor of Tennessee doesn't commute her sentence, and if no court intervenes to make that happen, we as a nation will deserve whatever opprobrium comes our way from the civilized world. www.cnn.com/2026/10/06/u...
Christa Pike is conscious and speaking after she survived Tennessee’s execution attempt, her attorneys say | CNN
Christa Pike, a Tennessee inmate who survived Tennessee’s attempt to execute her, is conscious and speaking as she continues to receive medical care at a hospital, according to a statement from her at...
cnn.com
The Center for Biological Diversity has been an effective plaintiff in several lawsuits that have impeded or reversed some of the Trump Administration's harms (e.g. dismantling "Alligator Alcatraz"). Dedicated staff, worth your support.
Center for Biological Diversity@biologicaldiversity.org · 2w ago"All #BorderWall and road construction across the entire Big Bend region is halted! What a massive, historic victory for everyone across #BigBend — the toughest, most beautiful souls I know. I’m a puddle of tears. More to come soon." - @laikenjordahl.bsky.social, National #PublicLands Advocate
When some comics became intangible online, paper became *visible* to artists again, leading to beautiful new paper comics. Now, when some "art" becomes inhuman, *we* become visible to ourselves again. What beautiful new *human* art might be the result?
Traverse barriers and checkpoints in the occupied West Bank—your choices reflect the reality of nearly 3.5 million Palestinians who live there. www.wired.com/story/experi...
Experience What It’s Like to Travel in the Occupied West Bank
Traverse barriers and checkpoints in the occupied West Bank—your choices reflect the reality of nearly 3.5 million Palestinians who live there.
wired.com
What's on your bookshelf that the Internet Archive doesn't have? There's an app for that. Scan a book's barcode or ISBN to see whether the Internet Archive needs it for preservation and digitization. Scan your shelves. Save a book. help.archive.org/help/donate-... 🧵
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and powerful ex-Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan have formed an unlikely electoral alliance to challenge Fatah's dominance of the PA - if Palestinian legislative elections go forward as scheduled in November, which is a big if: apnews.com/article/pale...
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and a powerful ex-Fatah official form an unlikely electoral alliance
Islamic Jihad and Hamas have agreed to form an electoral alliance with a former top Fatah official who is close to the United Arab Emirates.
apnews.com
Chip Thomas won a MacArthur! Nice profile in the opening of the NYT story. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/a...
MacArthur Foundation Announces 2026 ‘Genius Grant’ Winners (Gift Article)
The 20 fellowship recipients across the arts, humanities and sciences will each receive an $800,000, no-strings-attached stipend for their work.
nytimes.com
"Here, everyone listened as though potatoes were one of the accepted routes to God." A newcomer shares the experience of their first Quaker meeting https://thefriend.org/article/first-light-an-anonymous-enquirer-at-a-quaker-meeting
First Light: An anonymous enquirer at a Quaker Meeting | The Friend
‘I found myself unexpectedly moved.’| The Friend
thefriend.org
An important report from the AIC—the ICE policy change has been covered by major media outlets in the past week, but the AIC goes into detail about the effects of and probable reasons for ICE's move. www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/ice-ele...
ICE Begins Electronically 'Disappearing' People in Custody: What You Need to Know - American Immigration Council
People held in ICE detention who are subject to final orders of removal will no longer be listed in the Online Detainee Locator System.
americanimmigrationcouncil.org
Diesel prices are at an all-time high, half of all families with children in Virginia have experienced food insecurity in the past year, but at least the grocery stores are fully stocked with pumpkins. 🤨 🤷🏼♂️
Those who ban the press and start state run media are never the good guys in history.
I’m working on a story about the impact of upcoming changes to Medicaid in Charlottesville. I'm looking for people who'd be open to talking with me about how new work requirements will impact them. Feel free to DM me or shoot me an email at hdreid@vpm.org!
On the ground at the Kennedy Center where people are gathering ahead of tonight’s “Hands Off the Arts” protest. Activists are expected to hold hands to form a human chain around the center, and musical performances are expected.
Another cruise ship has docked in Alaska with a dead endangered fin whale on its bow. 💔 Ships can kill these swimming giants in an instant as they hurtle through their habitat, and these collisions are one of the most frequent causes of premature death for several highly endangered marine mammals.
A Philadelphia family just bought their first home with a $10,000 first-time homebuyer grant funded by a group of Quakers It’s part of the congregation’s racial justice plan to redistribute wealth to Black residents in the Germantown area as a form of reparations
A Philly family bought their first home thanks to reparations from Quakers in Germantown
Green Street Friends Meeting, a Quaker congregation in Germantown, pledged to spend $50,000 a year for 10 years as part of its reparations work. It’s helping Black Philadelphians become homeowners.
inquirer.com
After more than 4 months imprisoned at a decommissioned hotel in Equatorial Guinea, a deported Phoenix man was arrested there Friday, in what attorneys are calling retaliation for his speaking out about abusive, dangerous conditions for dozens held at the hotel. tucson.com/news/local/b...
Arrest of Arizona man deported to Africa called retaliation for speaking out
After more than four months imprisoned at a decommissioned hotel in Equatorial Guinea, a deported Phoenix man was arrested there Friday, in what attorneys are calling retaliation for his speaking
tucson.com
Gerrard Winstanley, who died 350 years ago today: “Was the earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease, and for them to bag and barn up the treasures of the earth from others, that these may beg or starve in a fruitful land; or was it made to preserve all her children?”
One advantage of ordering direct from the publisher (U of Chicago Press in this case): Gary Nabhan's latest arrived nearly a month before the official pub date. This should be a fun read: it mixes natural history with--well, let's just say there's an entry for Sand Trout and another for La Corua.
At San Diego's Natural History Museum, I saw a small sign suggesting they had a ....scientific specimen lending library?? For the general public? This couldn't be real. But it's so real. Aisles of taxidermy, bones, and fossils--and you can take them home. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
We welcome today’s announcement of a “new approach” in UK policy towards Israel in response to its violations against the Palestinian people. This marks a fundamental shift. We welcome this change as a long-awaited and positive step towards a broader reset. www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...
Quakers welcome UK’s “new approach” to Israeli occupation of Palestine
Quakers in Britain has welcomed a raft of measures announced by the UK government today as it seeks to reset British policy towards Israel.
quaker.org.uk
Who knew that Lucy van Pelt was a pre-Socratic philosopher? One of the fragments of Heraclitus, as preserved by Aristotle, is ὁ ἥλιος νέος ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἐστίν, "the sun is new every day". Which naturally followed from his doctrine of change (cf. "you cannot step into the same river twice").
This is obscene. No one in the GOP will say a word about it.
FactPost@factpostnews.bsky.social · last mo.New footage of bulldozers plowing through Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to construct a border wall.
ICE is purchasing $2M worth of "robot dogs". Contractually they are not supposed to be "weaponized". I wonder if ICE will consider nonlethal tracking to be acceptable use. I suppose instilling terror wouldn't count as "weaponizing". www.wbal.com/ice-to-use-b...
ICE to use Boston Dynamics robot dogs | WBAL Baltimore News
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is set to deploy a new tool in its mass deportation campaign: a fleet of "robot dogs."The Spot robots were created by Boston Dynamics and will be use
wbal.com
These Generals Fought for Israel. Now They See ‘Jewish Terrorism’ as the Threat. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/w...
These Generals Fought for Israel. Now They See ‘Jewish Terrorism’ as the Threat. (Gift Article)
A growing number of former Israeli generals, intelligence officials and prime ministers are accusing settlers in the West Bank of committing ethnic cleansing with government support. “Once a society b...
nytimes.com
The moving letter James Baldwin received from his childhood teacher at the peak of his fame and his heartbreak www.themarginalian.org/2026/08/26/j...
The Moving Letter James Baldwin Received from His Childhood Teacher at the Peak of His Fame and His Heartbreak
In early 1934, a twenty-four-year-old graduate student at Columbia Teachers College took an internship teaching drama and producing student plays at PS 24 in Harlem. Among her young charges at that…
themarginalian.org
