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Election Section: As we prepare for the midterm elections, we want to share some of the work being done to protect fair and free elections. Starting with this Sojourners story on how faith leaders are preparing for the midterms. For those looking to get involved directly, we’re co-hosting trainings in Dallas on October 10th and in the Charlotte area on October 14th and 15th. There will also be a national No Kings call on October 14th and 29th focused on early voting and knowing your rights. People can sign up to attend here.
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This week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Elon Musk will return to an official role in the federal government as part of Project Meridian, a Pentagon study of future warfare. Musk will be joined by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Palmer Luckey, co-founder of the defense technology company Anduril. The Pentagon said the project's goal is to identify "the capabilities required to achieve absolute technological dominance on the next-generation battlefield." The announcement came the same week President Donald Trump unveiled what he called a "morally binding" accord with top artificial intelligence companies. That accord follows warnings from industry leaders, including Musk, about the dangers of AI. Musk's role in the administration's response to the future dangers of AI shows how this focus on the future ignores the harms we're already seeing. In the Memphis area, the data centers that power his company xAI are already worsening longstanding environmental racism, while violating the Clean Air Act by running dozens of gas turbines without air permits, to the detriment of the nearby community. As the leader of the then-named Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE Elon, Musk oversaw a team that use AI to target lifesaving programs and research for elimination. The Lancet projects that the elimination of USAID alone could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030. Now, by working with the Pentagon, Musk joins a department that reportedly relied in part on AI in a February strike on a girl’s school in Minab, Iran, that killed 156 people. While apocalyptic visions of a superintelligence wiping out humanity have come to dominate our headlines, we must keep our eyes on the lives already being affected and lost today. Every life lost through this technology reveals the dehumanization at the heart of its current use, and in that, its fundamental danger. As Christians, we must reject the idolatrous idea that the technology itself decides deny people resources or launch missiles across the world. By prioritizing our humanity, we can mitigate the negative consequences we’re currently experiencing. –– Rev. Moya Harris and Chad Stanton, Sojourners P.S. We are continuing to build an intentional community of people looking to live out their faith in our Sojourners Faith and Practice Forum on Mighty Networks. Please consider joining us.
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Here’s a look at what happened this week: The Trump administration’s deportation regime continued its cruel work. ICE briefly posted internal reviews of death on its website, then removed them. The reviews cited substandard and “inappropriate” care of ill detainees. Some of the examples cited include mismanaging medication, delaying treatment for sick detainees, and failing to provide timely or appropriate lifesaving care during emergencies. Colorado voters will decide in November whether to amend their state constitution to require law enforcement to cooperate more closely with federal immigration authorities such as ICE. Amendment 81 is backed by a conservative “dark money” group and opposed by groups such as ACLU Colorado and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. It needs 55% of the vote to pass. Two dozen U.N. human rights experts have warned of a “cascade of human rights violations” resulting from the Trump administration’s deportation of thousands of migrant people to third countries where they have no ties. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has removed obstacles to the practice, blocking an appeals court ruling that said the current process was unlawful. The Department of Homeland Security was set to end temporary protected status (TPS) for roughly 200,000 Salvadorans in September before the White House apparently hit the brakes. The pause may be related to the November midterm election and the Senate race in Texas, which has the second-largest Salvadoran population in the U.S. It could also be the result of pressure from Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, an ally of Donald Trump, to keep TPS protections in place for now.
Foreign affairs remained turbulent in several hot spots around the world. As a U.S. blockade cuts off Iran’s oil exports, ordinary Iranians are suffering more and more under the economic squeeze. It remains to be seen whether the economic strain in Iran and rising oil and gas prices in the U.S., will lead to greater diplomatic efforts to end the war. Russian attacks on Ukraine this week killed at least seven people and wounded more than 50 others. A building of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in downtown Kyiv was also damaged in a daytime attack. Prospects for a negotiated end to the war soon seem bleak after the Kremlin said Ukraine “will have to pay a price” for recent attacks. The Trump administration tightened the U.S. embargo against Cuba, further restricting both travel to the island and access to U.S. banking for Cuba’s private sector. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the measures show the U.S. intends “to inflict maximum suffering on [the Cuban] people.”
There was plenty of news about the activities of Congress and the Trump administration. Congress has officially recessed until after the November midterm elections. The Senate finished its work on Sept. 30, and the House left town even earlier. The Senate will reconvene Nov. 9. The Senate voted 77-22 to pass a bill that would regulate athlete payments and transfers in college sports and give the NCAA new authority over those rules. Opponents of the bill, including all four Black Democrats in the Senate, argued that it came about only after college athletes started winning cases in court and power started to shift in their direction. Former special counsel Jack Smith defended his prosecutions of President Donald Trump at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. Republicans on the committee tried to paint Smith as a political operative, while Democrats pointed to the legal and factual basis for the prosecutions. The Trump administration is using taxpayer funds to air a television ad nearly identical to one from Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. The White House calls it a “public service announcement.” About $319,000 has already been spent on the ad. President Trump told Congress Friday that he has unilaterally cancelled almost $1 billion in federal funding that Congress had already approved. The maneuver is called a “pocked recission” and many lawmakers, including some top Republicans, consider it illegal. The money Trump cancelled was for immigration services, support to foreign countries, education programs, health research and assistance for minority-owned businesses.
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Strange FruitI have been deeply troubled in recent weeks. Strange fruit has been appearing on trees across America. One might call it an invasive species: a nonnative organism that spreads aggressively and causes harm to the environment, the economy or human health. Though it is not native to this land, this species has grown in North American soil for centuries. One cannot consider the history of the United States without considering the blood in its soil. There is both clotted blood and fresh blood seeping down through dirt and rock. Many people don't talk about this fruit. It is not the fruit one buys at the farmers market or the local grocery store. Nor is it the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians. This strange fruit is the Black bodies found hanging from trees. Billie Holiday sang about it in 1939. The lyrics, written by Abel Meeropol under the pseudonym Lewis Allan, were inspired by the 1930 lynching of two young Black men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, in Marion, Indiana. Hauntingly, she sang: Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. In 2026, I can still hear Holiday's slow, lilting voice as I call the names of some of those found hanging in 2025 and 2026: An unidentified man, September 2026, Maryland Tasia Fortune, 26, August 2026, Mississippi Demartravion "Trey" Reed, 21, September 2025, Mississippi Demetrius Fleming, 38, August 2026, North Carolina An unidentified Black man, 32, August 2026, North Carolina Juliana Nzita, 16, May 2026, North Carolina Justice Kai James, 21, June 2026, Georgia Kyle Bassinga, 21, February 2026, Georgia To'Nea Nicole Miller, 27, June 2026, Florida Jerard "Jay" Jackson, 28, June 2026, Michigan Torrance "Tory" Medley, 39, November 2025, Wisconsin Saniyah Cheatham, 18, July 2025, New York
Activists have tracked at least 27 suspicious hanging deaths of Black people since March 2025. Many of these deaths have been ruled suicides. In others, authorities have not ruled out foul play, and families are left with questions. Whatever the circumstances, something is going on. Whether it is an issue of homicide or mental illness, it cannot be ignored. Congress has taken notice. In September, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., led nearly 60 lawmakers in calling on the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate. Their letter notes that Congress passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act in 2022 "to ensure the DOJ and FBI are empowered to fully investigate suspicious deaths and hold individuals accountable." As people who follow Jesus and stand in reciprocal solidarity, we must pay attention to what is happening while this administration continues to deceive and disrupt our democratic way of life. Standing in solidarity means speaking out against injustices that may not affect us personally. In other words, it means loving our neighbors as we love God and ourselves, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us. Please listen to this prophetic word from the late, great Billie Holiday as you consider how you will protect those whose backs have been against the wall for generations. Billie Holiday, "Strange Fruit"
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The Truth and Action Roundup is compiled by Sojourners staff: President: Rev. Adam Russell Taylor
Senior Research Associate: J.K. Granberg-Michaelson
Digital Content and Community Specialist: Kassandra Tapia
Chief Program and Impact Officer: Bryan Epps
Political Director: Chad V. Stanton
Senior Program Director: Rev. Moya Harris
Education and Engagement Program Manager: Cortnie Brooks Mobilizing & Policy Fellow: Alyssa Parker
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