German pilots’ union announces further strikes at Lufthansa this week

Copyright Photo by Dennis Gecaj on Unsplash

By Fakhriya M. Suleiman

Updated 15/04/2026 - EURONEWS

The latest round of strike action continues a recent trend of travel disruptions at Germany’s busiest hubs, throwing passenger journeys into uncertainty.

German commercial pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) has called on its members at Lufthansa group airlines to continue staging strike action after a two-day demonstration earlier this week.

Set to begin on Thursday 16 April at 12:01 am local time and end on Friday 17 April at 11:59 pm local time, the latest round of action calls for arbitration to resolve the pension dispute.

Also, all Eurowings GmbH flights departing from German airports on 16 April between 12:01 am and 11:59 pm will be impacted, VC announced in its press release, saying that the situation remains “unchanged”.

“There is absolutely no movement on the part of the employers,” said Andreas Pinheiro, President of VC. “Neither Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo have made an offer regarding company pension schemes, nor has Lufthansa CityLine made a viable offer for a new collective bargaining agreement on remuneration, nor has Eurowings made any offer regarding company pension schemes.”

He also said that arbitration would be a means to resolve the dispute with the support of an independent third party and avoid further escalation.

This comes after initial strike action that took place on 12 and 13 April.

The walkout, announced with less than two days' notice, was projected to put at least 80% of flights from Frankfurt and Munich hubs in jeopardy, potentially leaving more than 50,000 travellers in limbo, Air Traveler Club reported.

VC, which represents at least 10,000 pilots across various German airlines, added that its grievance is rooted in Lufthansa's reluctance to settle several wage disputes, including over pensions.

How has Lufthansa responded?

With negotiations collapsing, the Cologne-based carrier now faces the fallout, including replacing scheduled flights with services operated by other airlines within the Lufthansa Group or partner airlines.

In an updated statement, Lufthansa said that passengers impacted by the action would be informed via email on 14 April.

As per the latest rebooking and refund policy, passengers with tickets from Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, Brussels Airlines or Air Dolomiti, issued on or before 13 April, and booked on Lufthansa-operated flights, including Lufthansa CityLine on 13-16 April can rebook for free to another Lufthansa Group flight from before 23 April. There is also the option to request a refund.

Lufthansa will also offer Deutsche Bahn train tickets for passengers on cancelled flights with no alternative options.

“We sincerely regret the disruption caused by the strike announced at short notice by the union Vereinigung Cockpit and thank you for your understanding,” the carrier said.

Weekend awash with disruptions

The upcoming strike action comes on the heels of ten of thousands of passengers across Germany experiencing travel disruptions.

Unabhängige Flugbegleiter Organisation (UFO), a union representing cabin crew professionals in Germany, called on crew members of Lufthansa CityLine GmbH to strike on Friday 10 April.

The day-long strike grounded flights across Frankfurt and Munich, with The Independent reporting approximately 580 Frankfurt flight cancellations, affecting as many as 72,000 travellers.

Like their pilot counterparts, UFO’s grievances also lie in unresolved wage disputes – resorting to industrial action to achieve their demands.

“To this day, management consistently refuses to even enter into negotiations with us regarding our demands for a collectively agreed social plan, to address our demands, or even to submit a negotiable offer for such a plan,” the union said.

Lufthansa pilots strike as cabin crew call further stoppage

By AFP
April 13, 2026


The two strikes are set to disrupt's Lufthansa's operations for most of this week - Copyright AFP Alexandra BEIER

Hundreds of Lufthansa flights were cancelled Monday as pilots kicked off a two-day strike over pay and pensions, with cabin crew announcing they were staging yet another stoppage later this week.

On Monday, half of all long-distance flights and two-thirds of short-haul services were cancelled at Lufthansa, the group’s main airline, on the first day of the two-day industrial action by the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots’ union, the company said.

The VC pilots’ union said Monday afternoon that over 700 flights had been cancelled, adding in a statement that it was “ready for discussions at any time” so long as “realistic offers” were on the table.

Meanwhile cabin crew at Lufthansa also said on Monday that they plan to hit the airline with their own further two-day strike on Wednesday and Thursday.

The cabin crew stoppage will affect “all Lufthansa group departures from Frankfurt and Munich airports” for the whole of Wednesday and Thursday, according to the UFO union.

The two airports are the major hubs for the German airline.

Departures from Lufthansa’s Cityline subsidiaries at seven further airports are also part of the cabin crew strike call.

UFO cabin crew also walked out on Friday at both Lufthansa and CityLine in a dispute over working conditions.

The union’s top negotiator, Harry Jaeger, told AFP on Friday that the strike forced the aviation giant to cancel about 90 percent of flights by those two brands.

Lufthansa described Monday’s strike call “distressing”, saying it showed that the cabin crew union’s members are “completely indifferent to the fate of our passengers and the future of Lufthansa”.

But Jaeger said that the strike on Friday has already demonstrated “how determined they are to stand up for their working conditions”.

UFO contends that there has not been enough progress made on issues such as “avoiding overwork” and lengthening redundancy notice periods.

Pilots at Lufthansa have also gone on strike multiple times this year as part of their disputes with the company.

The most recent strike by pilots took place in mid-March, which grounded about half of the airline’s flights.

On February 12 almost 800 Lufthansa flights were cancelled, affecting around 100,000 passengers, when pilots and cabin crew staged a strike in a pensions dispute.

On Saturday, a Lufthansa spokesman had called the demands from the pilots’ union for higher pay and pensions “absurd and unfeasible”.

But the VC union’s president, Andreas Pinheiro, said the airline had “shown no tangible willingness to find a solution during several rounds of negotiations”.

“Although we deliberately refrained from any strike action during the Easter holidays, no serious proposal was made,” he added.

 

German pilots’ union calls for two-day Lufthansa strike action on Monday and Tuesday

Copyright Photo by Dennis Gecaj on Unsplash

By Fakhriya M. Suleiman

Published on 12/04/2026 - 

The latest round of strikes continues a recent trend of travel disruptions at Germany’s busiest hubs, throwing passenger journeys into uncertainty.

German commercial pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) has called on its members at Lufthansa group airlines to stage two days of strike action on Monday and Tuesday.

Set to begin on 13 April at 12:01 am local time and end on 14 April at 11:59 pm local time, the “strike call” applies to VC members at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Lufthansa Cargo AG and Lufthansa CityLine, the union said in a news release issued on Saturday. It also said that Eurowings GmbH flights that take off from German airports between 12:01 am and 11:59 pm on 13 April will be on strike.

The walkout, announced with less than two days' notice, is projected to put at least 80% of flights from Frankfurt and Munich in jeopardy, potentially leaving more than 50,000 travellers in limbo, Air Traveler Club reported.

VC, which represents at least 10,000 pilots across various German airlines, added that its grievance is rooted in Lufthansa's reluctance to settle several wage disputes, including over 

"Despite a deliberate decision to refrain from strike action over the Easter holidays, no serious offers were forthcoming,” said VC President Andreas Pinheiro.

“During this time, there was neither a response nor any discernible willingness to negotiate on the part of the employers. The employers always have the opportunity to avert the strike by submitting negotiable offers.”

How has Lufthansa responded?

With negotiations collapsing, the Cologne-based carrier now faces the fallout, including replacing scheduled flights with services operated by other airlines within the Lufthansa Group or partner airlines.

“Lufthansa is working intensively to keep the impact on our passengers as low as possible,” the airline said. It added that amid being inundated by a high volume of calls, affected passengers may be informed as late as 12 April.

As per their rebooking and refund policy, passengers with tickets from Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, Brussels Airlines or Air Dolomiti, issued on or before 11 April, and booked on Lufthansa-operated flights, including Lufthansa CityLine on 13 and 14 April, can rebook for free to another Lufthansa Group flight from 11-21 April.

There is also the option to request a refund, no later than 13 April.

Lufthansa will also offer Deutsche Bahn train tickets for passengers on cancelled flights with no alternative options.

“We sincerely regret the disruption caused by the strike announced at short notice by the union Vereinigung Cockpit and thank you for your understanding,” the carrier said.

Weekend awash with disruptions

The upcoming strike action comes after ten of thousands of passengers across Germany experienced travel disruptions over the weekend.

Unabhängige Flugbegleiter Organisation (UFO), a union representing cabin crew professionals in Germany, called on crew members at Lufthansa and its regional subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine GmbH to strike on Friday 10 April.

The day-long strike grounded flights across Frankfurt and Munich, with The Independent reporting approximately 580 Frankfurt flight cancellations, affecting as many as 72,000 travellers.

UFO’s grievances lie in unresolved pay disputes – resorting to industrial action to achieve their demands.

“To this day, management consistently refuses to even enter into negotiations with us regarding our demands for a collectively agreed social plan, to address our demands, or even to submit a negotiable offer for such a plan,” the union said.

Lufthansa cabin crew begin strike, hundreds of flights cancelled

10.04.2026, dpa

Photo: Lando Hass/dpa

By Christian Ebner, dpa

Cabin crew at German airline Lufthansa began a strike at midnight, a spokeswoman for the UFO union has confirmed.

Around 20,000 flight attendants have been called on to stay off work until 10 pm (2000 GMT) on Friday.

The UFO union called the strike in an effort to break deadlocked wage negotiations with Lufthansa's core airline and its regional subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine, which is also affected by the strike.

It marks the third major walkout this year at Germany's largest airline, following two rounds of pilot strikes.

Lufthansa has announced contingency measures but had already cancelled hundreds of flights in advance.

At Frankfurt, the airline's largest hub, around 75% of roughly 350 planned Lufthansa departures were cancelled, according to airport schedules. Landings were similarly affected.

Officially, only departures in Germany are affected, including at the hubs in Munich and Frankfurt and at other airports such as Leipzig/Halle, Berlin and Stuttgart.

However, due to aircraft being out of position at foreign destinations, many return flights for Easter holiday travellers are also expected to be cancelled.

Lufthansa advised passengers to check their flight status before travelling, saying tickets can be rebooked or refunded. In cases of delays of more than three hours, passengers are entitled to compensation. The airline must also provide alternative transport, as well as meals and accommodation where necessary.

The strike follows a warning strike and a union ballot that showed strong support among Lufthansa cabin crew for industrial action. The UFO union said the dispute centres on stalled talks over Lufthansa's collective agreement and the company's refusal to negotiate a social plan for Lufthansa CityLine.

Lufthansa cabin crew begin strike

Rana Taha 

DW with dpa

10/04/2026

Hundreds of flights have been canceled as cabin crew members walk out. This is Lufthansa's third major strike this year.

Cabin crew at German flag carrier Lufthansa walked off of their jobs on Friday, with a strike that began at midnight (2200 Thursday GMT) and that will affect hundreds of flights.

Some 20,000 flight attendants have been called to strike until 10 p.m. on Friday.

The UFO trade union called a one-day strike for its members both with Lufthansa and its Cityline regional subsidiary, as wage negotiations continue to stall.

The walkout is Lufthansa's third major one this year. It follows two rounds of pilot strikes.
How is the strike expected to affect travel?

Lufthansa, Germany's largest airline, canceled hundreds of flights in advance of the strike, as it struggles to mitigate the impact of the walkout.

Cancellations are expected to hit the hubs in Munich and Frankfurt, as well as other airports, including Leipzig/Halle, Berlin and Stuttgart.

At its largest hub in Frankfurt, nearly 75% of some 350 scheduled Lufthansa departures were canceled.

Though the strike is only meant to affect departures in Germany, it is expected to lead to the cancellation of several return flights for Easter holiday travelers.

The airline advised its passengers to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport.

Hundreds of flights were canceledImage: Bodo Marks/dpa/picture alliance

Lufthansa is struggling in negotiations not just with the UFO cabin crew union but also the pilots' trade union Vereinigung Cockpit.

The two organizations joined forces in early February in a bid to maximize the impact of their strike, leading to major disruptions. The pilots then went on strike for another two days in mid-March.

Edited by: Sean Sinico

As Trump orders UFO data released, question hangs: If aliens exist, what would they think of us?


By AP

Published Apr 5, 2026 

A patron passes a painting inside the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, N.M., on June 10, 1997. AP-Yonhap

For generations, human beings have wondered: What would alien life from another planet be like? But we rarely ask the opposite: What would they think of us?

It's a question that can produce some, well, uncomfortable answers if you happen to be an earthling.

“If I were looking at Earth from a distance, I would be pretty disappointed,” theoretical physicist Avi Loeb says. “Most of our investing is dealing with conflicts to prevent other people from killing us or us killing others. Look at the Ukraine war over a little bit of territory. That is not a sign of intelligence."


The debate on whether little green men or UFOs are among us escalated in February when former President Barack Obama, responding to a podcaster's question, said aliens are “real,” but he ”hasn’t seen them” and “they’re not being kept at Area 51.” U.S. President Donald Trump later announced on social media that he was directing release of government files because of “tremendous interest.”

Stepped-up interest in UFOs also is swirling as the United States heads back toward the moon with Wednesday's launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission. The four astronauts aboard will do a fly-around of the moon before returning to Earth.

Gen. John "Jay" Raymond, Commander U.S. Space Command, left, and Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman, center, hold the Space Force Flag as U.S. President Donald Trump gestures to it during the presentation of the in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, May 15, 2020. AP-Yonhap

In a world riven by war, civil unrest, climate change and divisiveness, it's easy to wonder what newcomers to Planet Earth might make of us and our struggles. Whatever the case, well over a majority of Americans echo the sentiment of the slogan from “The X-Files”: “The truth is out there."

A 2021 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center showed about two-thirds of Americans said their best guess is that intelligent life exists on other planets. About half of U.S. adults said UFOs reported by people in the military are “definitely” or “probably” evidence of intelligent life outside Earth.

“We don’t want to think this is the only place in this extraordinarily and incomprehensibly large universe where life and intelligence and even technology have emerged,” says Bill Diamond, president and chief executive of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.


“It sort of says about humans, ’We don’t want to be alone.'"

Something is up there. But what?

Americans have been fascinated by the thought of life outside this planet following the recovery of debris in 1947 near Roswell, New Mexico. The military initially said the material was from a flying disc, only to reverse course and tell the public it was from a weather balloon.


A visitor walks past a line of posters for the forthcoming film "Star Trek," on the first day of ShoWest, the largest annual convention for the motion picture industry, in Las Vegas on March 30, 2009. AP-Yonhap

Hollywood ran with it. Flying saucers, little green men and eventually humanoid gray aliens became part of popular culture. April 5 even is celebrated annually throughout the iconic “Star Trek" franchise as “First Contact Day” to mark the date in 2063 when humankind, in “Trek” canon, first made contact with Vulcans.

Much in the popular culture suggests any aliens might be aggressive. Priscilla Wald, who teaches about science fiction at Duke University, has a theory as to why.

“It seems to me it’s a reflection on who we are, that we’re projecting onto aliens the way we treat each other," Wald says. "So the aliens are coming down, they want to conquer us, they’re violent. Who does that sound like? It sounds like us.”

In 2024, the Pentagon released hundreds of reports of unidentified and unexplained aerial phenomena. However, that review gave no indications that their origins were extraterrestrial.

Debbie Dmytro points to the spot where she first saw four silent golden lights flying low in the sky in 2023, in Royal Oak, Mich., as she poses for a photo, March 24. AP-Yonhap

On two separate occasions, Debbie Dmytro saw things in the sky over Michigan’s southern Oakland County. The greenish object Dmytro says she saw March 1 in the sky over Royal Oak, Michigan, looked like neither plane nor helicopter. Dmytro, a 56-year-old medical professional, acknowledges that it could have been some type of commercial or delivery drone.

What she saw in 2023 in the same general area north of Detroit is not so easily explained.

“Four yellow lights, yellowish golden lights and they were all flying very, very low,” Dmytro remembers. She says the lights were about 100 feet (30 meters) up at their nearest.

“I’ve never seen anything so low without any noise and flying in complete uniformity,” she says. “Is it something man-made? Is it something that’s not manmade? Who knows?”

A sign directs travelers to the "1947 UFO Crash Site Tours" in Roswell, N.M., June 10, 1997. AP-Yonhap

Who knows indeed? UFOs, the term for unidentified flying objects, has in recent years given way to UAP — unidentified aerial phenomena or unidentified anomalous phenomena.

“Absolutely, there are such things” as UAPs and UFOs, says Diamond, whose SETI — Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence — seeks to explore, search and understand the nature of life and intelligence in the universe.

“People observe things in the sky that they can’t immediately identify or recognize as either human engineering such as planes or drones or helicopters, or animals, such as birds, and therefore they don’t know what they are," Diamond says.

Time for the truth

Like so many, Dmytro wants to know what the government knows. “I think there’s more information out there. I’m open to learning more,” she says. “I have an open mind. It’s always about scientific proof.”

This image from a 2015 video provided by the Department of Defense and labelled, "Gimbal," shows an unexplained object being tracked as it soars high along the clouds against the wind. AP-Yonhap

Retired Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet says evidence clearly shows there are UAP zipping around the airspace and in the oceans.

“The nonhuman intelligence that operates them or controls them are absolutely real,” Gallaudet says. “We’ve recovered crashed craft. We don’t know if they’re extraterrestrial in origin."

Gallaudet worked as acting administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He participated in a 2024 congressional hearing on UAP disclosure and says the release of government files promised by Trump is something people find of interest. He just hopes the president follows through.

There are billions of galaxies in the universe and each has billions of stars, so the likelihood life developed elsewhere is fairly high, according to University of Michigan Astronomy Professor Edwin Bergin, who teaches about looking for life elsewhere. He believes that if intelligent beings navigated vast distances to reach Earth they would make themselves known — despite humanity’s penchant for creating chaos.

“I would think that they would look at us like we were crazy ... but they would come out," he says. "I mean, why come here otherwise unless you’re going to sit and observe.”

Loeb, director of the Institute for Theory & Computation at Harvard and head of the university's Galileo Project for the Systematic Scientific Search for Evidence of Extraterrestrial Technological Artifacts, believes in the likely existence of extraterrestrials.

Attendees playfully wear tin foil hats at the Edinburg UFO Festival, in Edinburg, Texas, April 5, 2024. AP-Yonhap

“They might be laughing at us,” he says. "They might be watching us ... to make sure we will not become predators, that we will not become dangerous to them.”

In the interest of national security

Much of the government’s secrecy around UFOs and UAP is tied to national security concerns, according to Diamond.

“We have pretty advanced technologies, satellite, ground-based that are for various purposes mostly national security and defense that are pointing at the sky or things on board aircraft,” Diamond says. “Sometimes these pick up objects. The technology behind it is sensitive and protected.”

Government data, including a “trove ” of UAP video the Navy is sitting on, should be shared with scientists for research and a better understanding of the characteristics of the objects, says Gallaudet, who spent 32 years in the Navy and viewed classified UAP video.

“When you look at these things in our airspace having near collisions with our aircraft, that’s a real valid concern,” he says. “We are just not sure of what they are and what they intend to do with their interaction with humanity. That could be a national security threat, or not."

“When has ignorance ever been a good national strategy?" Gallaudet asks. "Whether it be scary, harmful or not, or a mix, I think seeking the truth is in our best interest.”

Meanwhile, Diamond doesn't think any “true alien encounter could be kept secret.”

“If any civilization has mastered interstellar travel, they have technology and capabilities beyond our wildest comprehension,” he says. “If they want to interact, they will; if they don’t, they won’t. If they want to be seen, they will be, and if not, they won’t be!”

 THE EPSTEIN CLASS

The Problem with the Epstein Files

Distraction Discourse

Cinnamon Janzer

March 27, 2026

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Instagram is my social media drug of choice. I can’t say for sure that it’s happening elsewhere, like in the land of TikTok, but I imagine it is and that you, reader, may have encountered some of the same rhetoric I’ve been seeing and hearing both on- and offline.

“DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES”

“DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES”

“DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES”

“DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT THE EPSTEIN FILES”

repeats one oft-parroted sentiment across my corner of the Insta-verse, at least. “Here’s why the Epstein files are radicalizing you,” says another piece of content. Another: “You can’t bury the Epstein files under Iran’s rubble.” Yet another depicts “THE EPSTEIN FILES” in thick black lettering, partially covered by wheatpasted posters that read, “THE SUPREME COURT,” “ICE,” “BOARD OF PEACE,” “TARRIF$,” “GREENLAND,” “UFO FILES,” and “WAR WITH IRAN.”

The idea that the United States’ far-reaching geopolitical violence, its weaponization and bastardization of its own institutions, its cratering of the economy, its endeavors to strongarm the rest of what’s considered to be the “western” world into complicity with the plainly fascist agenda it shares with Israel are merely an effort to distract from the Epstein files is asinine at best. At worst, the Epstein files distraction discourse effectively aids and abets the violence it derides, undermining the many victims of Epstein and company’s hideous escapades in the process.

These crimes against humanity aren’t manufactured distractions designed to keep the Epstein files at bay. They’re simply the par-for-the-course behaviors of the old, rich, almost entirely white, and definitely entirely self-centered and competition-obsessed deranged men that have been in charge of the United States since its inception.

From the physical and cultural genocide of Native Americans in order to steal the land upon which the U.S. empire has been built to the catapulting of women into poverty by way of forcing childbirth in an economy in which it costs between $241,000–$513,000 to raise a child, belligerence is the name of the game. War for the sake of oil, profit, or whatever else serves the interests of those who benefit from the country’s military industrial complex is nothing new. The United States terrorizing its own people, as it has been most visibly and recently in Minneapolis and now Vermont, is nothing new. None of it is.

Sure, more (white) people may be experiencing these horrors than before. Sure, the specific forms and the details of these actions look different in 2026 than they did in 1776. Sure, the cruelty of the Trump regime has its own uniquely perverted flavor—rather than even attempt to disguise their atrocities like previous administrations have, the MAGA minions pump out odious dribble to defend their behavior instead. But the fact remains that the broad strokes are nothing new.

This is where the logic of the Epstein file distraction discourse falls apart. Are the files really a distraction if what they’re supposedly distracting from is simply the status quo?

The distraction discourse also neglects an inconvenient truth, which is that the files are effectively out. Not in their entirety, sure, but—seriously—who cares? Does it actually matter? What does it say about us if we have to have our eyes on millions of documents in order to believe what women have been saying happened to them for literal decades? Have we learned exactly nothing from the #MeToo moment? Insofar as we continue to demand documents rather than believe what more than 1,000 women, apparently we have not.

We already know what’s in the files. Rich and powerful men, from Trump and Clinton to Dan Ariely and Woody Allen, have been committing violent crimes against young girls around the world with impunity. The St. Louis-based journalist and author Sarah Kendzior has dutifully chronicled how much of this has been in the public domain for decades. The unfortunate truth of our current reality is that releasing the files is unlikely to accomplish anything more than has already been accomplished.

What the distraction discourse belies is an enduring belief in the United States and the institutions that constitute it as anything but corrupt despite the facts.

The presumption behind the distraction discourse is that, should they be released in full, something would actually come from it; that rich, powerful, and influential men like Trump—who has, as the distraction discourse does, supposedly developed in this narrow case, and this narrow case only, the ability to put his daintily fragile ego aside in order to watch his words and actually act strategically on a day-to-day basis for months on end in order to keep up the charade—would actually face some sort of consequence, accountability, or justice as a result.

The discourse presumes that the release of the files would inspire Congress to actually start doing its job as outlined in the now practically useless constitution instead of manufacturing political theater; that the felon in the White House would face justice for these abuses against women despite facing none for the many that have come before; that the Epstein files are so uniquely bad that their release would turn this corrupt country around; that the United States still has some ability to behave ethically as it bombs school children and deprives an entire island nation of the basic necessitates for survival.

I haven’t seen anything even resembling justice take place in this country for a long time—one could argue it never has. There can be no accountability in a justice system that rests upon a democracy that is no longer functioning, if it ever was at all. The release of the Epstein files cannot change that reality. It is certainly a nice idea, the notion that something so truly terrible could actually fetch accountability. I’d love to be wrong, but I don’t suspect that a system that has never produced justice, one that’s in the throes of collapse, will start doing so once some documents are published.

Meanwhile, as we’re prodded to not stop talking about the Epstein files despite the violence designed to distract from them, the actual motivations for said violence go unexamined. The U.S., its leadership, and its beneficiaries—none of whom are us, the people—continue terrorizing the planet and life itself without having to even providing an excuse for what they’re doing. Because the Epstein files distraction discourse provides them with one. And they didn’t even have to bother coming up with themselves.

The longer we erroneously insist that the release of the Epstein files matters, the longer we continue to center the distraction discourse, the more we distract ourselves from the fact that we’re living in a post-democracy, post-truth country in which institutions have failed. Justice cannot and will not come from anyone or anything besides us ourselves. We can’t demand justice; we have to create it.

Cinnamon Janzer is a Minneapolis-based freelance journalist dedicated to covering lesser-told stories across Middle America.