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Trump’s DOJ Is Hiring Only the Best MAGA Wing Nuts Published October 12, 2026 With the midterm elections less than a month away, it would seem to be an absurd time to suffer a thought for the next election cycle and the challenges that any would-be Democratic presidential victor would have to tend to on day one. Unfortunately, sometimes current events intercede with a potent reminder of just how rough the road to recovery and post-Trump renewal will be.

Leonard Peltier’s Fight Isn’t Over Published October 12, 2026 NEW YORK CITY – Inside the 15th Street Quaker Meeting House on Sunday, October 4, a score of bright-colored paintings depicting Native American heritage and activism were displayed at the center of the worship space.

This Week in People’s History, Oct 14–20, 2026 Due to a sudden computer problem, This Week in People's History will not appear this week. October 12, 2026 Portside

Columbus’ Own Writings Reveal How Tightly Religion and Conquest Were Intertwined From the Start Published October 12, 2026 Few historic figures are as divisive as Christopher Columbus. For some, in both Spain and the United States, he remains a great hero, an explorer who found a “new world.” He is reviled by others who see him as an arrogant conqueror: the first European to enslave Indigenous Americans, and the man who launched ecological destruction in the Western Hemisphere.

Unions Step Up To Meet the Moment Published October 12, 2026 Since taking office, Trump and MAGA forces have made considerable advances in implementing Project 2025 and consolidating authoritarian power—but many of these moves have proved unpopular and undermined their support. With Trump’s approval ratings dropping and elements of his coalition defecting, conditions look promising for pushing back MAGA in the midterm elections. But there are at least two sources of concern.

The Next Generation of Cultural Stewards Published October 12, 2026 The Tlingit & Haida are bound by their shared goals of protecting their lands and people and advancing subsistence. Stewards of the lands and seas are responsible for protecting Haa Aaní, which represent the Tlingit & Haida’s homelands and Tribal Citizens’ responsibility to nurture those lands through sustainable fishing, hunting, and harvesting practices. However, this traditional knowledge is at risk.

Louise Vincent Built the Collective Power of Drug Users. A Year After Her Death, the Movement She Sparked Struggles To Pick Up the Pieces. Published October 12, 2026 This story is in loving memory of groundbreaking drug user activist Louise Vincent, who died one year ago today, and journalist Logan Hullinger, who was working on a story for Prism about the National Survivors Union when he died from an overdose on March 6. He was 29 years old.

Sunday Science: Star Talk - Inside the Search for Extra Dimensions, With Lara Anderson Published October 11, 2026 The War for the Rio Grande By Jack Herrera, Photographs by Jordan Vonderhaar Texas Monthly (story supported by the Pulitzer Center) When is a river no longer a river? In the case of the Rio Grande, this isn’t some existential riddle. The Rio Grande is one of the most threatened rivers in the country—more imperiled than the Colorado, which tends to generate all the headlines.

But Trump took office the month after it was published, and then the DOJ closed the investigation and retracted the report’s findings. When he sent the task force to Memphis, it was with a very different mandate. A “Justice for Tyrin” banner near where he was killed by the Memphis Safe Task Force, Aug. 27, 2026. Photograph by Rory Doyle for Hammer & Hope.

Brazil’s Angry Tide and the Struggles Ahead Published October 11, 2026 Brazil’s general election on 4 October delivered a severe warning to the Left. Flávio Bolsonaro, the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party (PL), finished ahead of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with approximately 47 per cent against 45 per cent. Neither secured a majority, sending them into a runoff on 25 October. More troubling than this narrow presidential gap was the advance of bolsonarismo through Congress.