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8+ min ago (590+ words) This month is a particularly good time to watch \"It\'s a Wonderful Life,\" though any weekend spent revisiting this film is a good one. Frank Capra\'s Christmas classic is one of the purest representations of humanity ever put to film, an ode to the common man whose life is extraordinary merely because it is spent in kindness. Jimmy Stewart\'s George Bailey is fully realized and achingly human "he errs, he envies, he shouts, he lusts, but he can\'t keep himself from helping his fellow man in the end. Stewart plays the part beautifully. Some viewers may call it slow (and at times, perhaps they\'re right), but one of the great and surprising decisions of \"It\'s a Wonderful Life\" is just how much time you spend with George Bailey before his life-saving angelic intervention. You…...

8+ min ago (686+ words) When shopping for items for your pet, you likely assume that everyone on the shelves of pet stores is tested and safe. This isn't always true. Major retailers have been accused of not-animal-friendly practices. Furthermore, products intended for animals can occasionally lead to trips to the emergency veterinarian. This doesn't even include all of the animal products that get routinely recalled for health violations. Now, a user on TikTok is calling out pet stores that still sell a certain type of food. According to her, it's been proven to cause issues in animals'but is that really true? In a video with over 593,000 views, TikToker Aliyah Matta (@lusciouscurlsbylia) advises that viewers avoid a specific brand of dog food. "For those who have pets and might not know, this brand right here, FreshPet, don't buy them," Matta says. "They've been known to…...

10+ min ago (674+ words) At first glance it sounds impossible'but a strategic look back at the coordinated strikes and militancy of the past two decades shows we might be much closer than we think. We've laid the groundwork. Now we have to harness the lessons from those fights and "speed-run" to much larger, disruptive actions. The preconditions for large-scale coordinated actions are being laid out in plain view. Draconian, racist attacks on entire communities with the veneer of immigration enforcement. Gigantic tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations'which, along with economic contraction and federal budget cuts, will lead to huge budget challenges in statehouses and city halls across the country. The attacks on democracy, immigrants, and the rule of law have already led to some of the largest mass mobilizations in U.S. history, including on October 18, when millions of people across the country joined thousands…...

14+ min ago (814+ words) As market economies become more expensive and predatory, Stephanie Rearick is showing that it's entirely possible to meet people's needs effectively through care and cooperation, through a kind of alternative social economy. For more than twenty years, Rearick has championed mutual aid and cooperative economics through such projects as the Madison Mutual Aid Network Cooperative and the Dane County TimeBank, both of which she founded. Rearick also works internationally through'Humans United in Mutual Aid Networks, a global network of networks dedicated to building mutual aid economy. Rearick is keenly aware of the pressures that the formal economy exerts on people. Government budget cutbacks, corporate price gouging, engineered dependencies, trade tariffs, and inflation all contribute to our precarity. This state of affairs has quickened interest in mutual aid as a practical strategy. Rearick reports that a recent online webinar on mutual…...

19+ min ago (279+ words) That's where Conover is headed for four to 10 years, after he pleaded guilty on Friday to two felony charges, first-degree assault and reckless conduct. His plea was made after he led New Hampshire cops on an eight mile chase in March, at one plowing into an officer who tried to arrest him and then starting a second 28-mile chase before he was finally apprehended. WMUR 9, a local ABC affiliate, reported the officer Conover hit "rolled onto the hood and was carried and thrown 40 feet" during the wild incident. The 36-year-old YouTuber and his legal team argued he acted especially erratic because he was dealing with a mental health crisis at the time. "I was suffering from a mental health incident, acute bipolar manic episode, that contributed to my actions and decision making on that day," Conover said in court on…...

22+ min ago (365+ words) Inset: Tariq Thomas (Woodbury County Jail). Background: The home on South Lyons Street in Sioux City, Iowa, where the stabbing occurred (Google Maps)." A man in western Iowa will spend years behind bars for stabbing his cousin in the head after a day of drinking, authorities say. Tariq Thomas, 24, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to local NBC affiliate KTIV, citing court documents. The sentence was handed down after the defendant pleaded guilty to willful injury causing serious injury. Thomas was drinking alcohol with his cousin, 24-year-old Saville Thomas, on Oct. 11, in the basement of a home on South Lyons Street in Sioux City. At about 6:10 p.m., the two got into an argument, which ultimately turned violent, according to law enforcement. "[Tariq Thomas] grabbed a large butcher knife and stabbed the victim in the left collarbone before plunging the…...

23+ min ago (462+ words) The Cohen Building has been called the "Sistine Chapel of the New Deal" for its ambitious mural cycles. Shahn and Guston, as well as Seymour Fogel and Ethel and Jenne Magafan, gave indelible form to New Deal tenets: the dignity of labor, the benefit of public works, and the need for a social safety net. Is it frivolous to worry about art when the world is on fire? The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration didn't think so. In the midst of the Great Depression, the worst economic calamity in the country's history, FDR's New Deal invested in culture as essential to a more "abundant life" for US citizens. The Cohen murals were among the New Deal's highest-profile works. Commissioned by the Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts, the agency that oversaw art for federal buildings (such as your local post office, which…...

30+ min ago (345+ words) South Africa, grappling with entrenched crime and corruption, has one of the world's highest murder rates. Gunmen have killed at least 12 people, including a three-year-old boy, in a mass shooting at a bar near the South African city of Pretoria, according to police. Athlenda Mathe, spokesperson for the South African Police Service (SAPS), confirmed on Saturday that a total of 25 people were shot in the bar in Saulsville township, 18km (11 miles) west of Pretoria, adding that 14 had been taken to hospital. Police said three minors were among the dead in the shooting, including the three-year-old, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. The shooting occurred in what Mathe described as an "illegal shebeen" " or bar " within a hostel at about 4:30am (02:30 GMT), with three gunmen indiscriminately firing at a group of men who were drinking. Police were not alerted until about 6am (04:00 GMT)....

31+ min ago (848+ words) Conservative influencers are playing a central role in a new campaign of weaponising Islamophobia. By Marc Owen Jones Associate Professor at Hamad bin Khalifa University. Qatar is not a big country, but lately it occupies an astonishing amount of space in the imagination of a growing ecosystem of far-right influencers, pseudo-journalists, pro-Israel think tanks and dubious analysts. According to them, Qatar is'orchestrating various global conspiracies. Despite her Islamophobic history, Loomer's obsession with Qatar is relatively new. Before 2025, she only mentioned Qatar about five times on X, but she has done so 460 times since May 2025. Even Republican leaders are folded into the conspiracy, with baseless claims that Congresswoman Lisa McClain and her staff leaked internal questions from a committee hearing on anti-Semitism to the Qatari embassy. The pattern in these narratives fuses two older conspiratorial narratives: the "Red-Green alliance" myth " claiming…...

36+ min ago (549+ words) Maduro Asked Trump for $200 Million to Leave Venezuela Venezuela's president asked to keep $200m of his private wealth, amnesty for his officials and safe harbour in a friendly country as part of a deal with Donald Trump to step down and flee, sources said. Posted by OCUser at 03:32 PM | 10 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry | Trump news at a glance: tensions with Venezuela rise following president's reported ultimatum to Maduro[image or embed] "The US spent an estimated $9.65 to $12.07 billion on military operations in Yemen, Iran, and the wider region in support of Israel's offensive wars during the two-year period ending in 2025." Nicolas Maduro wants to keep his pelf to leave and we'll save American taxpayer money and US and Venezuelan lives? And Dummkopf Trumpf said no? The Shah of Iran, Baby Doc Duvalier, and Nicaraguan El Jefe Anastasio Somoza Garca…...