no republicans attended this hearing today:

Marimar Martinez, a witness who was shot by Customs and Border Patrol agents and Aliya Rahman, a witness who was dragged from her car in Minneapolis testify on Capitol Hill to describe the horrors that they have had to face at the hands of Trump’s immigration enforcement officers.

Gaza has been suspended in a bloody limbo for months. Despite the much-hyped ceasefire between Israel and Hamas—declared on October 10, 2025—peace has not arrived in the Gaza Strip. The bombings have continued, killing at least 509 people; hunger persists; aid trickles in rather than flows; and Israel remains in control of nearly 60 percent of the terrain. Hundreds of thousands of people continue to live in threadbare tents. Meanwhile, US promises of a “technocratic governance” mask a colonial project bestowed on a people with no say.

As Hollywood continues to prevent Palestinian films from reaching wide audiences, films like Palestine 36 and The Voice of Hind Rajab have made their way into award season discussions despite production and distribution challenges. Between these two films, Palestinian-led stories are telling crucial pieces of history, drawing a clear line from past to present.

Palestine 36, directed by Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir and distributed in the U.S. by Watermelon Pictures, is one of the most discussed international films of the past year. It received a twenty-minute long standing ovation after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, won the Tokyo Film Festival’s top prize, and was even named to the Oscar shortlist for Best International Feature last month. But it almost didn’t make it to the big screen.