Thousands turned out to see Sen. Bernie Sanders this weekend deep in the heart of what we’re told is “Trump country.”

On his Fighting Oligarchy Tour, Sanders packed venues in Wheeling, Charleston, and the small town of Lenore, West Virginia—hammering Trump’s brutal cuts to healthcare, food assistance, and public education while showing that progressive populism resonates far beyond blue-state borders.

THE DETAILS: In all three places, Sanders packed venues to warn about Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which slashes the social safety net while handing tax breaks to billionaires.

He also pushed for more, old-school organizing in the Mountain State. “I am here to beg you to organize around this state, get working class people organized to stand up and fight the fights that have to be fought,” he told a roaring Wheeling crowd.

NOD TO THE PAST: Some in the Wheeling crowd wore red bandanas—a nod to the 1921 coal miners’ uprising, when a multiracial union army marched for fair pay and safe working conditions.

BIG PICTURE: On the stump, Bernie made it clear that the GOP isn’t winning West Virginia because MAGA has all the answers—it’s because Democrats stopped showing up.

Sanders later posted: “The working class here knows that it’s absurd to slash Medicaid & SNAP to give tax breaks to billionaires. Trump didn’t win West Virginia, Democrats lost it. Working people want a real alternative.”

WHY IT MATTERS: The turnout shows that progressive populism can thrive deep in so-called Trump country—if leaders talk about real kitchen-table issues and take on the billionaire class.

Donald Trump has ordered homeless residents in Washington D.C. to leave the city “immediately” or face eviction, pledging to use federal officers to enforce removals despite violent crime being at a 30-year low. The move, announced after Trump passed several encampments on his way to a golf course, drew sharp criticism from local leaders and advocates, who note homelessness is limited in scale and that DC’s crime rates have been falling for years. Full story from The Guardian.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is under fire after promoting a Christian nationalist church whose pastors openly call for repealing women’s right to vote. In a repost of a CNN video, Hegseth endorsed the views with the caption “All of Christ for All of Life.” Critics say it is alarming and dangerous for the nation’s top military leader to publicly embrace anti-democratic, misogynistic ideology—especially from inside the Pentagon, where Hegseth has already hosted sectarian prayer services during work hours. Full story from the AP.

President Donald Trump is alarming leaders across Latin America by weighing direct U.S. military action against drug cartels—an aggressive shift from previous diplomacy-first strategies. Mexico’s government has flatly rejected any foreign troop presence, warning it would violate sovereignty and destroy trust, while regional experts say even floating the idea risks inflaming anti-U.S. sentiment, empowering autocrats, and destabilizing fragile governments. Full story from Bloomberg.

In Israel, mass protests are erupting against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to escalate the genocide in Gaza, with hostage families accusing the government of putting politics over lives. Relatives warn that pushing deeper into the enclave—already devastated after nearly two years of bombardment—will be a “death sentence” for the remaining captives and will worsen a humanitarian crisis that has killed over 61,000 Palestinians. Full story from The Independent.

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Israel has murdered one of the most prominent reporters covering the genocide in Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, along with four others, in a targeted attack over the weekend—drawing international outrage.

THE DETAILS: Al-Sharif and his colleagues were inside a tent for journalists when the missile hit, killing seven people total.

Just a week earlier, an Israeli military official had publicly attacked al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera correspondents for documenting Gaza’s starvation, famine, and relentless bombardment.

THE BACKGROUND: The 28-year-old al-Sharif was one of Gaza’s most recognizable voices, reporting from the frontlines since the start of the war.

He refused to leave Gaza even after his father was killed in an Israeli strike in 2023. In his final post before his death, he described “intense, concentrated Israeli bombardment” on Gaza City.

THE BIG PICTURE: Israel has killed at least 186 journalists in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, while barring foreign reporters and targeting local ones.

Because the truth is—you only kill journalists when you don’t want the world to know what you’re doing.

Last week we asked, how closely do you follow the news?

Cynthia voted ‘a lot’ and said: “I'm retired (and disabled) so I have a lot more time than most people. That said, I do have to go on regular 'media blackout' days, otherwise I'd lose my mind.”

Macourt said a moderate amount: “I lately monitor my time watching the news. I am disgusted and heartbroken over the way other Americans are behaving. The cruelty alone sickens me. So I tune in for only a few hours at a time.”

Photojan said very little: “The last presidential cycle was the worst. We were in New Orleans during October and the local campaigns were even worse than the presidential one, couldn't even watch the weather. We basically just shut down. Only follow a few news streams now.”

Here are some stories the algorithms may be keeping out of your feed.