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Thursday, December 04, 2025

Conditions Are Ripe for a Resistance Counter-Offensive

by Ted Glick / December 3rd, 2025

It’s been over ten long months that the forces of democracy have been on the defensive, doing our best to withstand the many and various assaults on us on issue after issue, but the tide is turning:

-Trump’s polling numbers keep going down, at 36% positive and 60% negative in the latest Gallup Poll;

-Four weeks after Democratic Party electoral victories all over the country on November 4, it’s possible as I write that, today, a Democrat running for Congress in a special election in Tennessee could win despite, in the 2024 election, the Republican candidate winning by a 22% margin of victory;

-Long-time MAGA leader Margaret Taylor Green is resigning from Congress and publicly criticizing Trump on health care, the Epstein issue and more, with the likelihood that other Republican House members will follow her lead;

-The Epstein sex trafficking crisis is not going away!

-Trump’s “Justice” Department’s indictments against James Comey and Letitia James have been thrown out by a US District Court judge;

-Congressional Republicans are on the defensive over what to do about the health care crisis, overall, with the specific problem of huge increases in premiums, doubling, tripling or more, for millions of people by the end of the year; this was one of the main reasons for Green’s resignation;

-And now comes the Caribbean motorboat revelations about Pete Hegseth giving the illegal order to “kill everybody” on those boats even if a boat has been destroyed and there are survivors. True to form, exposed as they have been, rats like Hegseth are deserting a sinking ship by trying to shift the blame to a career military admiral.

Remember that it was Joe McCarthy in the 1950’s attacking the US military that was the beginning of the end for his McCarthyite repressive campaign.

There are probably some on the political Left who would counsel that we allow all of this to keep unfolding and not “rock the sinking boat,” just let it take its course, but I don’t agree at all.

We should do just the opposite, consciously up our game, keep broadening out our resistance movement and make plans for 2026 to be the year that Trump and the MAGA’s are decisively defeated and the House and the Senate come under Democratic and progressive independent (Bernie, others) control. Like it or not, that has to be our north star for the next 11 months, as we keep up the resistance to ICE and Border Control raids and take action on all of the many other issues our peoples are dealing with.

That issue-oriented activity will strengthen the electoral campaigns of genuine progressives in the Democratic primaries running against corporatists or anti-Left centrists, as well as serious, tactically smart, progressive independent campaigns.

It will be essential that we do what we did so effectively over this past year as far as taking it to the streets. We need national days of coordinated local actions, which began in 2025 on February 5 with the 50501 actions in just about every state capitol. Those actions kept building throughout the year up to the seven million of us coming out in 2,600 local actions in every state on the second No Kings day October 18.

January 19, 2026, one year after Trump took office and the federal Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, would be a very good day to initiate this continuing campaign of nationally coordinated street action.

2026 will be the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which offers us lots of possibilities.

We do need to be up front about the mixed reality of that historic revolution against British colonialism, the reality of European-American enslavement of Africans and violent theft of land lived on by indigenous nations for thousands of years. But it is a fact that the American Revolution helped to inspire anti-colonial and anti-monarchy revolutions in France, Haiti, South America and elsewhere. Indeed, when the Vietnamese revolutionaries in 1946 put forward their call for independence from French colonialism, they quoted the US Declaration of Independence.

We should have no illusions that the MAGA’s as a whole are going to see the light and stop with their repressive and regressive efforts, though there’s no question that some of them already are moving away from Trump and there are major internal rifts. This is another important fact about the crisis the Republicans and fascists are in.

As bad as 2025 has been, 2026 can be very different, if we all stay strong and keep consciously building the resistance movement in all its many different aspects. 2026 can end up being a happy, a joyous, successful new year of popular, nonviolent uprising for justice, democracy, peace and defense of our threatened ecosystems.

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Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org. Read other articles by Ted, or visit Ted's website.

Wednesday, December 03, 2025

New camera traps snap nearly three times more images of endangered Sumatran tigers than before

In Sumatra, researchers captured almost three times as many images of critically endangered tigers as during previous surveys, which shows the positive impact of conservation efforts even outside of national parks

Frontiers

video:
Tigress with cub in the Leuser ecosystem. Credit: Figel et al. 2025, BKSDA-Aceh, DLHK. Please write to press@frontiersin.org for higher resolution video.
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Credit: Figel et al. 2025, BKSDA-Aceh, DLHK

Destroyed habitats, poaching, and prey depletion have dramatically reduced tiger habitats around the world. Today, tigers occupy just 5 to 10% of their historical habitats. But on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, an important population of critically endangered Sumatran tigers may persevere, a new Frontiers in Conservation Science study showed.

Using infrared cameras, researchers working on the island, have set out to estimate sex-specific population densities and tigers’ movements during three surveys.

“We documented a robust tiger population, apparently among the healthiest on the island,” said Dr Joe Figel, a conservation biologist, who works with Indonesian wildlife and forestry agencies. “For those on the ground, the onus now falls on us to double down and adequately protect them.”

Long-time tenants

In many ways, the Leuser ecosystem is ideal habitat for Sumatran tigers. Three times the size of Yellowstone National Park, it is the largest contiguous tiger habitat remaining in Sumatra. It’s made up of lowland, hill, and montane forests, of which 44% are classified as intact forest landscape. “It’s also more thoroughly patrolled by rangers than nearly any other place on the island,” Figel said.

Working with local collaborators from communities at the edges of the study area, the team put up cameras in the northern stretches of Leuser, located in Aceh province, and kept them there for three monitoring periods: 34 cameras were installed during March to May 2023, 59 cameras between June and December 2023, and 74 cameras between May and November of 2024.

“Multi-year camera trap monitoring is critically important for estimating key tiger demographic parameters such as survival, recruitment, tenure, and population growth rate,” explained Figel. “With these data – and only with these data – can we even begin to evaluate conservation efforts.”

During the monitoring periods, the team captured a total of 282 sufficiently clear images of Sumatran tigers to allow for the identification of individuals. Analyzing stripe patterns, the team identified 27 individuals from camera-trap images, including 14 females, 12 males, and one tiger of unknown sex. The relatively high number of tigers suggests there is adequate prey in the area to support tiger presence. Over the study period, female and male individuals were photographed an average of 14 and 16 times, respectively. High densities of female tigers indicate a healthy tiger social system and high-quality habitats, where they can raise about three litters of cubs over a decade. During the six-month session in 2023, three different sets of cubs were documented. Two tiger brothers photographed together as cubs were later spotted individually as adults.

Thriving tigers

Inside the Leuser ecosystem lies Gunung Leuser Nation Park, however, the present study was conducted in forests provincially protected by the Aceh government. In Indonesia, provincially protected forests receive far fewer resources than national parks, which are supported and managed by the central government.

The camera traps placed by Figel and colleagues snapped nearly three times as many tiger images as during previous 90-day surveys at other sites in Sumatra, and the team was able to identify many more individuals than reported in earlier studies. Only three previous surveys – all carried out in protected national parks – documented more than 10 tigers in a single survey. Higher tiger density estimates than reported in the present study were only documented in an intensive protection zone in southern Sumatra.

The current study also provides valuable insights for future monitoring of tigers, the team said. The data on tiger movement collected here could, for example, inform survey protocols and optimal camera spacing.

The high numbers of tiger sightings reported here highlights a success story that is due to a multitude of factors, said the team. “Thanks to the work, activities, and support of government agencies, local Acehnese and Gayo communities, donors, and other researchers, Leuser has maintained important patches of lowland and hill forests where, in Sumatra, tiger prey densities reach their highest levels,” concluded Figel. “The persistence of these habitats and prey populations are the main reasons for our findings.”

Journal

Frontiers in Conservation Science

DOI

10.3389/fcosc.2025.1691233

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Sumatran tiger density estimates in the Leuser Ecosystem, Sumatra, Indonesia

Article Publication Date

4-Dec-2025

Lowland River valley in the Leuser Ecosystem.
Camera trap snapshot of tiger in the Leuser ecosystem.

Credit: Figel et al. 2025, BKSDA-Aceh, DLHK.

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Camera trap snapshot of tiger in the Leuser ecosystem.

A resident female Sumatran tiger grooming one of her two large male cubs in October 2023.
Credit
Figel et al. 2025, BKSDA-Aceh, DLHK

**Tigress with two cubs [VIDEO]**

Tigress with two of her cubs in the Leuser ecosystem. Credit: Figel et al. 2025, BKSDA-Aceh, DLHK. Please write to press@frontiersin.org for higher resolution video.
Credit
Figel et al. 2025, BKSDA-Aceh, DLHK

Tuesday, December 02, 2025

'HIV-free generations': prevention drug rollout brings hope to South Africa

Ga-Rankuwa (South Africa) (South Africa) (AFP) – Kegoratile Aphane did not flinch when the needle pierced the skin of her right buttock, injecting a yellow-coloured drug touted as a revolution that could end the HIV pandemic.

Issued on: 03/12/2025 - RFI

A nurse holds a vial of Lenacapavir at a clinic north-west of. The drug has been shown overwhelmingly to reduce the risk of HIV transmission © Ihsaan Haffejee / AFP

The 32-year-old was among the very first South Africans -- and Africans -- to receive a dose of lenacapavir, a drug taken twice a year that has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV transmission by more than 99.9 percent, making it functionally akin to a powerful vaccine.

"I didn’t even feel any pain," she said with a relieved smile after receiving the two injections that form the first dose.

Five other patients received lenacapavir Tuesday at a clinic outside of Pretoria as part of an implementation study by a Wits University research unit and funded by the international health agency Unitaid, which works on ensuring equitable access to medical innovations.

The study would enrol 2,000 people and "follow them for at least a year to understand how this prevention option works in real life", according to the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (RHI)'s Saiqa Mullick.

'Life-changing'

With close to one in five adults living with HIV, South Africa has one of the highest rates in the world, and reported last year the highest number of new infections for any single country -- 170,000.

Until now, the best available prevention drug for HIV-negative people was through a daily pill.

The twice-yearly lenacapavir jab would be "life-changing", said the clinic’s manager Magdaline Ngwato, especially for young people who struggled to maintain the daily schedule of the pill and groups like sex workers or LGBTQ patients who wanted to be discreet.

"Now with the injection it will be fine, because you can do it secretly," she told AFP, adding that many people had already expressed interest.

"Even mothers said they will send their children to come get it," Ngwato enthused. "I think we are going to have a lot of HIV-free generations."

For Aphane, the decision to take the groundbreaking treatment was deeply personal.

"I just lost my mom in 2021 -- she was HIV positive," she told AFP with emotion.

"It's a very, very, very painful disease. So that's why I (am) so serious about this. Let me be safe and try this."

Twenty-year-old student Katlego, who asked to speak under a pseudonym, was "proud" to have received one of the very first doses.

A broader national rollout is expected next year, starting with 400,000 doses that would be received through a deal between lenacapavir's manufacturer Gilead Sciences and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.

While lenacapavir currently costs around $28,000 a year in the United States, generic versions are expected to be available from 2027 at around $40 per year in more than 100 countries through agreements by Unitaid and the Gates Foundation with Indian pharmaceutical companies.

The rollout could usher in a different world for Aphane's daughters and future grandchildren, she said.

"The more they introduce, the more they talk about it, the more they show (it) everywhere, it will save lives," she said.

© 2025 AFP

The minority dilemma in media reports

Psychology

Ruhr-University Bochum

Group of authors — image:
The Bochum-based team of authors: Johanna Woitzel, Moritz Ingendahl, Anna Schulte, Hans Alves (from left)

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Credit: © RUB, Marquard

The research team conducted five studies involving more than 900 participants, as well as an analysis of six large language models such as ChatGPT. In one of the studies, U.S. American participants received a fictitious FBI press release about a criminal incident, including a suspect description (age, sex, weight, height, country of origin, clothing, other characteristics). The suspect’s membership in either a social majority or minority was systematically varied through the country of origin: The suspect either came from the United States (majority) or from one of the countries with the largest immigrant groups in the U.S. (Mexico, India, China, Philippines, El Salvador, Vietnam, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Korea; random assignment).

Minority membership is also mentioned more frequently in positive contexts

Participants were asked to summarize the information for a news article. The researchers analyzed whether the suspect’s origin was mentioned or not. “The results showed that the country of origin was mentioned more than three times as often when the suspect belonged to a minority, regardless of whether the participants themselves belonged to a minority,” reports Anna Schulte.

Because these findings could also be explained by motivational factors such as prejudice, the study was repeated with positive events. Instead of criminal incidents, participants read about lottery winnings or scientific breakthroughs. Here, the effect was even more pronounced: The subject’s origin was mentioned almost four times as often when they belonged to a minority. “This study is particularly central because it shows that the primary driver is the communicative focus on distinct characteristics, not a specifically negative portrayal of minorities,” says Anna Schulte.

AI overgeneralizes these tendencies

The research team also had six different AI language models perform the same task. They created 1,000 negative and 1,000 positive scenarios and presented them to the models as prompts, asking them to summarize the information for a news article. The result: AI models mentioned minority group membership even more frequently than humans did, both in negative and positive contexts. Why the models exhibit this tendency more strongly is not yet fully understood. “The findings suggest that AI models adopt statistical patterns from their (human-generated) training data and overgeneralize existing communication tendencies. Further research is needed here,” says Anna Schulte.

The dilemma

“The results indicate that no deliberate disparagement of minority groups is taking place,” concludes Schulte. Instead, the researchers see a fundamental cognitive principle behind the excessive emphasis on minority characteristics. Nonetheless, this tendency results in minority groups being disproportionately represented in media contexts – which are usually negative. “We refer to this phenomenon as the ‘minority dilemma’,” the researcher explains.

What media professionals can do

Media professionals who are aware of the effect could try to mitigate it by either always or never mentioning a subject’s origin. Both approaches, however, have drawbacks: Since people are generally interested in distinct information, omitting such details may undermine trust in a news source. Conversely, consistently reporting all characteristics of all individuals may create the impression that the news source provides irrelevant and redundant information, which can also undermine trust. “One possible intervention would be to report other distinct characteristics instead, such as a person’s birthplace. This could provide sufficient distinctiveness and informativeness even for minority group members. We plan to systematically investigate such measures in a follow-up project,” says Schulte. Another important implication concerns the use of AI in news production: Since AI models not only reproduce existing biases in training data but even amplify them, media professionals should be aware of these risks when relying on AI for text generation.