⚫ A U.S. federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sanctioning two organizations for assisting the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation into Israeli war crimes.
The ruling, which was issued by Judge Jesse M Furman last week, comes in response to a lawsuit filed against the administration by Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide (TAAG) earlier this year.
The legal action challenged a February 2025 executive order that imposed “tangible and significant consequences” on groups that conduct investigations deemed detrimental to the United States’ national security. That order came shortly after the ICC issued warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
“The U.S. ruling elite continues their crusade against the Palestine movement because of its threat to their imperialist project. Support for Israel and the zionist project has plummeted among the global masses,” reads a social media post from Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) celebrating the judge’s decision. “Neither sanctions nor threats can bury the clear evidence, broadcasted to the world by Palestinian journalists, that Israel has and continues to commit a genocide in Gaza.”
“Despite the masses around the world filling the streets for Palestine, U.S. policy throughout the genocide has not changed, showing the ruling class only represents their own interests,” it continues.
⚫ A coalition of press freedom organizations, including the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and Defending Rights & Dissent, are demanding that the House Ways and Means Committee drop its threat to subpoena workers at BreakThrough News.
The Committee’s chairman, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MS), has repeatedly alleged that the news channel has connections to the Chinese Communist Party and has called for the group to hand over its financial records.
“Either these organizations turn over the documents, or their leaders will answer the Committee’s questions under oath,” said Smith in a recent statement.
“The First Amendment exists to protect people with politically disfavored views from people like you,” reads a letter sent to Smith from the coalition. “Speech that politicians approve of is not in need of constitutional protection.”
“The threatened subpoenas are clearly designed to target BreakThrough for reporting and editorial viewpoints with which the Committee disagrees,” it continues. “Subpoenas of journalists and newsrooms obstruct First Amendment activity by forcing cash-strapped news outlets to spend time and money defending their rights, and by intimidating not only reporters but also sources, donors, and readers.”
⚫ Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is asking the Supreme Court to hear his case. The Columbia graduate, who was detained by the Trump administration over his activism, is challenging an appellate ruling that federal courts do not have jurisdiction to review the legality of such detentions until immigration proceedings have concluded.
“The federal government jailed Mr. Khalil for his speech,” said Alina Das, Director of the NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic in a statement. “This not only violates his First and Fifth Amendment rights, it chills the speech of other members of our community – U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike – who fear retaliation against themselves or their loved ones. The Supreme Court must uphold the power of habeas corpus to free people from retaliatory detention and prevent the weaponization of the immigration system to punish dissent.”
⚫ The Trump administration announced that it reached a settlement with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ending 18 federal investigations into the school for “antisemitism and race discrimination.”
As a result of the settlement, the school is required to “maintain policies aimed at prohibiting, preventing, and disciplining unlawful antisemitism, which includes establishing a Title VI Coordinator position, ensuring Jewish and Israeli students are covered by UNC’s Non-Discrimination Policy, promptly assess and investigate antisemitism complaints, provide mandatory antisemitism training to all students, faculty, and staff, deploy additional law enforcement resources when events or other factors warrant to protect Jewish and Israeli students, and prohibit face masks that conceal an individual’s identity. UNC will also discipline and sanction student groups for antisemitic discriminatory conduct.”
“This announcement reinforces our commitment to the fair and equal treatment of everyone at Carolina,” said UNC Chancellor Lee H. Roberts in a statement. “For at least a decade, through different presidential administrations, U.S. universities have faced heightened public scrutiny across a range of issues. We’re proud to resolve those issues at Carolina in a way that protects our mission and affirms the civil rights of everyone in our community.”
⚫ The Irish novelist Sally Rooney says she’s been forced to withdraw her books from stores in the United Kingdom over her support for the group Palestine Action.
In July 2025, Palestine Action was banned in the UK and proscribed as a terrorist group. A month later, Rooney penned an op-ed in support of the organization.
“As a result, the fulfilment of contracts to publish my work in the UK could now constitute a serious criminal offence,” she explained in a statement. “After a process of consultation and deliberation, and with my full agreement, my publisher Faber has therefore determined that it can no longer supply my work within the UK. I have made every effort to be honest with the public about my beliefs and intentions, and I am wholly prepared to accept the consequences.”
“Let us be clear: Palestine Action, whose stated aims are to stop Israeli war crimes and British complicity in them by disrupting the production of weapons, mainly Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company, is not a terrorist group,” writes Fatima Bhutto at Zeteo. “It was the government of Keir ‘Israel has a legal right to cut water and electricity to Palestinians’ Starmer, laughably, a former human rights lawyer, that proscribed it under the UK Terrorism Act 2000, placing it on the same footing as al-Qaeda. By pledging her earnings to Palestine Action, Rooney placed herself at risk of arrest if she enters the UK. Now, her publishers can’t pay her for her work, and she’s been forced to withdraw all her books from sale in the UK. It is an extraordinary act of Orwellian villainy, censorship, and oppression by the UK. If they can shut down one of the most popular writers of her time, what other line won’t they cross?
⚫ In response to a planned protest, the Israeli settler recruiting agency Nefesh B’Nefesh moved its October settler recruiter event from Queens to Long Island.
The action had been organized by the group Pal-Awda NY/NJ as part of its Stolen Palestinian Land campaign.
“The new location is significantly less accessible from the city; the Zionist organizers have been forced to isolate themselves due to sustained community pressure over months and years,” explained the group in a social media post.
In a recent op-ed in Mondoweiss, the organization called on NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stop the illegal sale of Palestinian land in the city.
“It is long past time that he delivered on the promises that won his astounding and unprecedented victory over a three-term governor from a political dynasty,” it reads. “As the genocide in Gaza continues unfettered and state-sponsored settler violence rages exponentially in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, now is the time for serious action.”
