Editor’s note: In the spirit of Thanksgiving, our readers wrote to us to share what they’re thankful for. Here is a selection of those letters. We will publish the remainder on Wednesday and Thursday.

Value of the news

More than ever, I am thankful for publications and news media that have been willing to print and share the truth in spite of a growing effort of some media sources to kowtow to a fully biased agenda.

The need to enshrine and protect reliable media services has become increasingly more important with the popularity of such social media platforms as X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

Just when we thought the country was beginning to understand the need to bring some regulation to these platforms, we were hit with the full-blown debut of artificial intelligence.

Research tells of that any information on social media platforms should be viewed with a high level of skepticism. This is scary because the respected Pew Research Center reports that approximately 53% of adults rely on social media for a portion of their daily news.

I am so thankful that we still have the Bible and such long established news services in our area as the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times and, on a more national level, The Associated Press, NPR and PBS.

I understand, however, that just being thankful is not enough. We must fight like David did against Goliath to maintain these critical news services.

— George Comer, Crown Point, Indiana

Neighbors’ kindness

While walking along Broadway on Sunday afternoon, my face encountered the sidewalk, and lots of blood was produced. A young couple helped me up, provided a chair and some tissues for the blood, and offered help as needed.

I walked to nearby Maison Marcel to check out the damage in a mirror. The staff gave me ice and offered to get an ambulance or medical care. Francine walked me home, and the manager promised to check on my healing progress.

I am thankful for kindness and assistance from unknown neighbors! So much to be thankful for.

— Dorothy C. Keating, Chicago

Our ‘Mother Teresa’

As I begin to bake cookies to take to Cleveland for Thanksgiving, my thoughts are on my mother-in-law, Rosette Bagley, as many of the recipes that I use came from her. Rose passed away this past spring, and though tiny in stature, she was huge in virtue and compassion.

Rose exemplified the meaning of the word “Christian,” living her life in the service to others. So much so, that she was nicknamed “the Mother Teresa of Naperville”!

From starting a food pantry and volunteering with PADS to protesting for equality for all and marching for peace and social justice. Rose, along with her husband, John, was always on the front line.

Though my heart is heavy as we face this first holiday season without her, I choose to focus on gratitude for having had her in my life these last 26 years.

“Grief is the bill come due for having loved.”

— Nancy Knurek Bagley, Naperville

My friend’s blessings

This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for many blessings. But it’s a dear friend who passed away recently at the young age of 50 who causes me to reflect on the importance of humility, our relationships and spending time together.

My friend Betsy graciously and joyously served those in need in the city — those who are hungry, those who are homeless, the people in most need of support, resources and just general acknowledgement of their humanity. She also served us, her friends and family, just by being in our lives, by spending quality time with us, laughing and traveling and hiking with us.

C.S. Lewis wrote that humility is “not thinking of less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.” Betsy embodied that sentiment the fullest, giving of her time, talent and treasure to those in need and to those who loved her. She quietly and humbly, yet boldly, lifted us all up. She never sought wealth or places of honor; she would be much more pleased if you just shared a cup of coffee and opened your heart to her.

While losing a friend at the young age of 50 is devastating, it is in these heavy feelings that I am reminded of how blessed I am to have beautiful memories of time spent with my friend and the many friends with whom I will make more memories.

May we all take humility to heart as we give thanks this Thanksgiving for the blessings of family and friends.

— Debbie Buczkiewicz, Clarendon Hills

Road to recovery

Well, it has been a very rough and challenging past eight months, specifically for my husband. He went to urgent care in mid-March due to breathing and swallowing problems. In April/May, Bob fell and broke his shoulder (it required two surgeries and six weeks of physical therapy to repair). In June after various doctors’ visits, he was sent to the emergency room by Dr. Nadkarni, a neurologist, due to severe myasthenia gravis symptoms. This resulted in an 11-day hospital stay and five plasma treatments.

The reason I mentioned the doctor’s name is because he was the angel in disguise who got the ball rolling and Bob on the road to recovery. And, to top it off, in October, my husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer! I am happy to be able to say he is on the road to recovery and doing much better.

In addition, I am thankful for my good health and the good health and support of our two sons, two grandsons and extended family. Other problems that happened during the year were nothing in comparison to all that my husband has gone through. Even then, we have been truly blessed, and we are looking forward to a healthier 2026.

— Sandra Paszczyk, Tinley Park

Just love is needed

I am thankful this year for the happiness I feel from the love of three children and seven grandchildren as I age (I’m 75) and also from my beloved fiancé. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday as no gifts are necessary — just the love and laughter of family.

It is never too soon or too late to tell those you love how much thankfulness is so important in our lives. It is a national treasure!

— Barry Carlson, Schaumburg

The joys of walking

At 85 and 75, we are eternally grateful for our mobility. We can still walk, sometimes for two hours, occasionally sitting. Thank you to Brookfield Zoo for a terrific place to walk!

Unfortunately, so many people we know who are our ages cannot walk easily, and several are in constant pain. It makes us realize all the more how fortunate we are and not to take it for granted.

We try to get out and walk every day, and it makes us happy to be able to do so. Now one of our main goals is: Don’t fall!

— Karen and Bob Roseler, LaGrange

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/letters-112525-thankful/ 

Over the weekend, hundreds of curious Chicagoans ventured to Lake Michigan beachfronts to witness a birding marvel: the early arrival of snowy owls.

Two snowy owls have been spotted at Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary and a third briefly at Rainbow Beach, according to the Chicago Ornithological Society.

These are earlier than usual in the season, said Edward Warden, president of the Chicago Ornithological Society.

The Arctic bird typically arrives in Chicago mid- to late December, Warden said. An unusually early arrival may signal an “irruption year,” a migratory boom when large numbers of snowy owls migrate south during the winter months.

“A lot of people are certainly speculating if this is going to be a big year or not based on how early (the snowy owls) are here,” Warden said.

But predicting an irruption year can be difficult, said Warden. The phenomenon can be caused by many ecological factors, including a successful breeding season in the Arctic tundra.

“(Irruptions) are one of those sort of mysteries of science we’re still trying to untangle,” Warden said. “It’s pretty much a case of, you know it when you’re in it.”

The last migratory boom of snowy owls in Chicago happened in winter 2017-2018, Warden recalled.

“That was a year where you could basically trip over snowy owls, they were so common,” he said. “People have been chasing that high ever since then. And so there’s a lot of questions about whether or not this is going to be a similar year.”

During the last irruption year, Chicago birder Tamima Itani witnessed a snowy owl for the first time at Montrose Beach.

“I was there for the entire day, and people kept coming and photographing it, and I kept thinking, ‘oh, my god, this is the most photographed owl in the world,” she said.

Itani, who is now a lead piping plover monitor at Montrose and bird conservationist, said the same effect is happening again this year, with onlookers flooding the birding sanctuary to see the Arctic birds.

She said the fact that there’s two snowy owls at Montrose this year also makes the sighting unusual. Snowy owls are a nomadic bird species, so seeing a pair together outside their breeding season is uncommon.

A snowy owl lands near Montrose Beach on Nov. 24, 2025, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago native and lifelong birder Maggie Warren has been frequenting Montrose since last week when she saw a posting about the snowy owls on a birding chat forum. Having never seen a snowy owl, Warren ran to Montrose and has been coming daily to observe the pair.

“Snowy owls are so magical,” Warren said. “It’s so much a part of the zeitgeist when you’re like, ‘I’m going to be a birder and I’m going to see a snowy owl.’ It’s such a quintessential type of bird.”

But with the snowy owl excitement drawing large numbers to Montrose, Itani is concerned by the effect crowds are having on the birds’ habitat and safety.

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“These birds have traveled a long distance and are in a foreign environment to them,” Itani said. “Concrete, steel, glass, lots of people, that’s not something that they’re familiar with.”

Initially, the owls were staying at the protected beach, but due to the high volume of people and dogs, Itani said the owls have since moved out to the pier at Montrose.

“A lot of people may not understand that these birds need to rest and need to be able to be in a safe environment,” Itani said.

Itani’s also concerned about two peregrine falcons in the area that have been a threat to the snowy owls. She said crowd control is vital to ensuring these snowy owls can focus on their avian threats instead of humans and dogs.

As of Monday afternoon, the Chicago Park District had closed off a small section of the Montrose pier near the owls’ perch to guarantee a safe distance from humans. The Park District advised Chicagoans to stay at least 300 feet from the owls.

A snowy owl sits next to Lake Michigan near Montrose Beach on Nov. 24, 2025, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Itani agreed that this early visit could be a sign of an irruption year for snowy owls, as well as for other bird species that are generally only seen every three to four years. These include the common redpolls, evening grosbeaks and pine siskins.

“From a birding standpoint, this is all very exciting, but we always like to make sure that the birds that come and visit us and stay in our midst are also safe,” Itani said.

With the rise in popularity of birding, more people will be coming out to witness birds such as the snowy owl. As of a 2024 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report, nearly 1 of every 3 U.S. adults engages in birding as a pastime.

But Warden said that unlike other bird species, snowy owls attract interest beyond just birding enthusiasts.

“Owls definitely transcend the birding community lines every year,” Warden said. “It doesn’t matter whether you were a birder or just a regular person, when snowy owls show up, people get super excited.”

Warden said it’s hard to predict where they’ll go next.

“Snowy owls are basically wanderers by nature, that’s what they do,” Warden said. “It’s very much wherever the wind takes them.”

Christiana Freitag is a freelancer.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/snowy-owls-chicago-irruption/ 

I have a photo of my father, sitting on a log on a beach somewhere in the South Pacific during World War II. Herman Kogan was a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant, a combat correspondent who fought in and reported from battles at Guadalcanal, Okinawa and elsewhere and, of course, made it home safely to Chicago.

He wrote stories for this paper during the war, and he read books too. I look at this photo and imagine one of those books tucked in a pocket of his fatigues, and I know that he was not alone, because more than 120 million books found their way to soldiers fighting in WWII.

He did not talk much about the war as I was growing up, but he did tell me about some of the books he read when the guns were silent. It is one of the most remarkable if relatively forgotten stories of that war, but this books-in-battle tale came rushing back with the release of the latest limited edition from the ever-imaginative company called Field Notes.

Four times a year or so since its founding in 2007, this local outfit has come forth with these limited editions. The previous 68 of them have featured such topics as baseball, dime novels, space flights, national parks, the Great Lakes, and on and creatively on.

U.S. Marine Corp. sergeant and foreign correspondent Herman Kogan during a pause in the fighting in the South Pacific in 1943. (Kogan family photo)

This new one is called “1943” and was inspired by Armed Services Editions, a series of fiction and nonfiction books published and distributed to the U.S. military from 1943-47. More than 120 million copies of 1,200 titles went to troops in a small paperback format designed for a soldier’s pocket.

The story came to the attention of Field Notes earlier this year when one of the company’s recently hired young designers, Casey Rheault, found some images of the ASE books online. He showed them to Field Notes boss Jim Coudal, asking him, “Have you ever seen these?” Coudal had not, and later that day, he bought some historic examples on eBay.

Coudal explains the Field Notes philosophy to me: “We like digging deep on subjects. We like selling notebooks, and we like telling stories. This edition ticked all those boxes. We don’t worry about things, we just take it on faith that if we are curious about something and excited about the process, people like us will dig it too.”

The “1943” edition “mimics the ASE’s horizontal orientation. While they’re our usual 5.5″ x 3.5″ memo book size, they’re the first with two staples on the short side instead of three on the long side.” They come in bright red, yellow and blue.

Coudal had made a call to his friend, novelist and frequent collaborator Kevin Guilfoile, to share his excitement about this project. And they have come with something extra, inspired by the “gold mine” found in their digging and reading “When Books Went to War,” a 2014 book by Molly Guptill Manning.

The book has inspired a rare Field Notes podcast featuring Guilfoile in conversation for an hour with the lively and smart author.

But wait, there’s more, and it comes in the form of Samuel Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon.” Though Guilfoile writes it “was never published as an Armed Services Edition, it is the type of sexy, gritty, realist novel that undoubtedly would have been a favorite among the troops.”

It is published now as a Field Note Brand Books release, available as part of a “1943” package or as an individual title. It’s the second such book, following Guilfoile’s “A Drive into the Gap,” about baseball and fathers and sons and which Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago author Jonathan Eig called “extraordinary, (a) beautifully written story about baseball and memory. Simply amazing.”

Guilfoile also tells of the happy fate of what many consider the great American novel, “The Great Gatsby.” Most forget that it attracted only modest attention and sad sales when first published in 1925. But after it was reprinted as an ASE, it was, Guilfoile writes, “a huge hit. … (It) almost certainly would never have made it to your 21st century high school reading list if not for the ASE program.” (Poor F. Scott Fitzgerald would never know; he died in 1940.)

Guilfoile also gives us the censorship-shadowed publishing history of “The Maltese Falcon,” which was first published as a serial across five issues of Black Mask Magazine and he solves one of the mysteries of the 1941 film version of the book, which starred Humphrey Bogart as private detective Sam Spade. Guilfoile writes of a seminal line in the film, when Bogart refers to the falcon as “the stuff that dreams are made of.”

As Guilfoile explains, “This, the most famous line from the film, does not appear in the novel or the screenplay. It’s adapted from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” and legend has it that Bogart suggested it to (director John) Huston on set, while shooting the film’s final scene.”

That’s good to know. As for the entire ASE saga, Guilfoile says that it “transformed many soldiers into passionate readers, … comforted millions of people in battle zones, and fostered a culture of reading. … The program turned forgotten works into beloved classics, expanded the market for affordable books, and promoted literature for both entertainment and the public good.”

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There exists only one complete set of the books, and it resides at the Library of Congress. Individual books for sale pepper the internet. Many libraries hold some. I am holding one of them, “You Know Me Al” by Ring Lardner, once a writer at this paper. It’s worn, its pages a bit darkened and a few torn and tattered and all that tells me is that once a soldier had it in his pocket, somewhere, long ago.

rkogan@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/field-notes/ 

If there is one word that best characterizes President Donald Trump’s Ukraine policy, it’s “frantic.”

If you don’t believe me, take a look at the last several days of drama, when the Trump administration dropped a 28-point peace proposal into the Ukrainians’ lap that included some concessions that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed as unacceptable. According to the original draft, which was revised over the weekend between senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials to 19 points, Kyiv would be expected to withdraw all of its troops from the areas of the Donbas it currently controls. The Ukrainian army’s end-strength would be capped at 600,000 men. And Ukraine would amend its constitution to ensure it doesn’t join NATO. Purported U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine would be on offer in exchange, but those measures would be ill defined, leaving the Ukrainians wondering whether Washington would really come to its defense in the event of another Russian invasion.

The plan generated significant blowback in Ukraine and Europe and in Washington’s foreign policy circuit. Some analysts compared it to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler. The Europeans tried to be as polite as possible, stating that Trump’s plan was a good first step. But it was abundantly obvious to those outside the Trump administration that the 28 points were bits of trash made to look like a comprehensive peace agreement to end a war that will reach its fourth year in February.

In the end, the White House changed tact, arguing that the proposal was just a starting point, not a finished product. 

If you’re getting a little dizzy from all these developments, I don’t blame you. The last three days encapsulate Trump’s approach to ending this conflict since he entered office in January. There is no orderly policy process, just a mishmash of half-baked ideas that may or may not gain traction. U.S. policy depends on the last person who has Trump’s ear. Those who monitor U.S. foreign policy are left wondering how long Trump will take before changing his mind again.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump was tough on the Ukrainians. He never really believed the war was America’s business to begin with; he insisted the war would have never happened if he had been president and faulted Zelenskyy for dragging it out unnecessarily. His first meeting with Zelenskyy in February, during which Trump and Vice President JD Vance ambushed him on television and kicked him out of the White House, was a disaster. A week later, U.S. intelligence and weapons assistance to Ukraine was cut, a decision that forced Zelenskyy into participating in the negotiations Trump sought to spark.

Yet the relationship between the two turned around shortly thereafter. In April, Trump and Zelenskyy met at the Vatican and left with a greater understanding of each other’s positions. This summer, Trump invited Zelenskyy and European prime ministers to Washington in what observers at the time described as a show of unity on Ukraine’s behalf. Trump would go on to express his frustration and disappointment with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stalling tactics and authorized more U.S. defense assistance to the Ukrainian army, the precise opposite of his stance months earlier. 

Then came Trump’s August summit with Putin in Alaska. Again, Trump changed his position. Before the meeting, he was demanding the Russians agree to an immediate ceasefire. Yet after the two departed, Trump ditched this ask and suggested that perhaps an immediate ceasefire wasn’t needed to begin the diplomacy. The about-face was bad news for the Ukrainians, who were slowly losing territory in the Donbas to Russia’s ongoing offensive. Trump’s anger with Putin boiled over again in October, exemplified by U.S. sanctions against Russia’s two largest oil companies.  

As evidenced by the events of the last 11 months, to the extent the Trump administration has a policy on Ukraine, it’s disjointed, confusing and often difficult to keep track of. The only consistent theme is Trump’s obsession with striking some historically groundbreaking diplomatic settlement that will terminate Europe’s largest land war in 80 years. Everything else, such as how the United States intends to accomplish the objective, seemingly depends on the day. Ultimatums to one side or the other become subject to further negotiations, and deadlines get waved away as inconsequential.  

Amid this maelstrom, two core items have remained consistent, regardless of how Trump has operated on a daily basis.

Ukraine’s Presidential Office chief of staff Andriy Yermak, second from right, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio talk to the press as their consultations continue at the U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, on Nov. 23, 2025. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone)

First, in the event a peace settlement is signed, nobody is going to be particularly happy with it. No one is going to get everything they want, and painful concessions, whether it’s on territory, military capacity or the European security architecture, are an inevitability. It oftentimes feels as if the warring parties, as well as their external supporters, genuinely believe there’s a magical agreement available. There isn’t, and we should stop pretending otherwise. Any deal is going to leave people depressed, if not angry. Despite the constant proclamations of getting a so-called “just peace” for Ukraine, a “just peace” is likely impossible.

Second, Europe continues to disappoint. Ultimately what happens in Ukraine is more relevant to Europe’s security than it is to the United States’, but European policymakers are still waiting for the White House to solve the problem for them. Yes, the Europeans are now Ukraine’s biggest military supporters. But in terms of getting a diplomatic outcome, they’re more comfortable complaining about whatever the Trump administration tables than they are proactively putting forth an alternative draft that is actually viable. The only reason the Europeans are involved now is because Trump essentially forced the issue on them.  

The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/column-donald-trump-ukraine-proposal-depetris/ 

For nearly 16 years, María Irma Pérez Padilla set up her tamale cart at a busy intersection in Pilsen, selling the beloved Mexican dish to help support her family. The 52-year-old mother worked long days to pay for her diabetes medication and provide for her children after her husband’s death two years ago.

Like many older immigrants in the U.S. without legal permission, Pérez relied entirely on street vending to survive. But on a Friday morning in October, masked federal agents in an unmarked vehicle detained her as she prepared an order of tamales. Within minutes, the familiar presence who anchored the corner for more than a decade was gone.

“They were just standing between her and her cart — they didn’t even let her finish her job,” her son, Jaime Montano, said. Despite having no criminal record, Pérez was taken to a detention center.

She is one of at least 15 vendors immigration authorities have detained from Chicago’s streets since the Trump administration launched Operation Midway Blitz in September, according to the Street Vendors Association of Chicago and immigrant rights groups. While the operation was promoted as an effort to target people with violent criminal records who didn’t have legal status, the families of detained vendors say most have no such history.

As longtime vendors quietly disappear from the corners they’ve held for years, community organizations and neighbors are scrambling to support those taken, their families and those still working on the streets. A new local effort has emerged to provide financial assistance, helping vendors avoid working outdoors under fear of arrest or to ensure someone else can temporarily run their stands.

The Street Vendors Association of Chicago launched a fundraiser last month to collect donations now being distributed to vendors who apply for emergency support. Maria Orozco of SVAC said the campaign gained momentum following Tribune reporting that highlighted the toll ICE raids have taken on street vendors citywide.

Salvador Salas, center, 75, who sells elotes from a cart, accepts a $500 check Nov. 2, 2025, in the Little Village neighborhood from the Street Vendors Association of Chicago. The group collected donations to help during a time of decreased sales because of immigration enforcement. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

Street vendors are uniquely vulnerable because of the public nature of their work, Orozco said. The fear generated by recent raids has forced many to forgo the income they rely on to sustain their families and small businesses.

For Montano, community support made the difference. Donations collected through a GoFundMe allowed him to hire an attorney, who secured his mother’s release a week after her arrest. He drove to Indiana, near the Kentucky border, to bring her home.

For now, Pérez remains inside their apartment. She has a court date later this month that will begin a long legal process. She hasn’t stepped outdoors since returning, though she keeps a printed copy of her judge-ordered release by her side in case agents approach her again.

The family has lived in Pilsen for more than two decades, and Pérez’s sudden disappearance shook the community. Montano, who once split household expenses with his mother, said she was always determined not to burden him.

“She said she was here to work, so she wanted to get out there and do her job,” Montano said.

That determination was shared by many of the detained vendors, their families say. Most continued working despite warnings that agents were nearby, believing the raids would focus on “the worst of the worst.” Instead, many vendors were questioned about their birthplace and nationality and detained without explanation, a practice community leaders say has become routine since Border Patrol arrived in Chicago.

“We aren’t the criminals they said they would target,” Laura Murillo told her fiance, Jaime Perez, before masked agents arrested her at her tamale stand in Back of the Yards. Even after hearing “la migra” was close, she kept working the morning of Sept. 25.

After Murillo’s arrest, the community rallied. Neighbors, friends and family helped keep her stand open, selling tamales to support her legal defense and her three children. Murillo, who has run her business for nearly 20 years, is now being held in a Texas detention center as she awaits a court date.

“We are fighting her deportation because she is not a criminal, she is a business owner that has paid more taxes than some people, and an exemplary mother,” Perez said.

Every morning, he sets up in the same spot where she was taken. He sells tamales to help keep Murillo’s eldest daughter in college and to ensure her youngest, who has autism, continues receiving care.

Across the city, similar scenes are unfolding. On the North Side, just days before Pérez Padilla’s arrest, another tamale vendor was taken from her corner at Belmont and Kimball.

Since then, Francelia Lagunas, a close family friend, has stepped in to run the cart. A few yards away, “Abolish ICE” was spray-painted in large white letters across a brick wall, a stark reminder of the tense atmosphere.

Street vendor Francelia Lagunas retrieves tamales for a customer in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood on Oct. 15, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

The business owner who makes the tamales sent someone with legal status to recover the cart and try to learn what happened. Bystanders later told Laguna’s sister that masked agents arrived about 9 a.m., grabbed the vendor by the hand and forced her into a van. The woman did not speak.

On a recent Tuesday, Lagunas worked from 6 a.m. to noon, hoping sales would help the tamalera’s daughter as she tries to understand what comes next. According to a rapid response volunteer in contact with the family, the vendor is being held in a Texas detention center while awaiting deportation to Peru.

Sometimes, family or friends make it to the scene in time to save a vendor’s belongings. Other times, carts, coolers and fresh produce are left behind.

After agents detained Edwin Andres Quinones at his fruit stand under the bridge at Cicero Avenue and I-55, they left behind crates of bananas, oranges and mangos. His family only learned of his arrest after he stopped answering his phone and a video of his abandoned stand circulated online.

Boxes of fruit are left on the median in the 4200 block of South Cicero Avenue in Chicago, near the entrance to the northbound Stevenson Expressway, after fruit vendor Edwin Andres Quinones reportedly was detained by immigration officials on Oct. 2, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Quinones had been selling fruit for more than six months while waiting for his work permit and asylum case, his wife said. Now, as he sits in a Texas detention center awaiting deportation to Venezuela, she and their child struggle to buy groceries and pay rent. She also has an ongoing asylum case and has not left her home since enforcement ramped up, fearing their child might be left alone.

In Berwyn and Cicero, a neighborhood watch group is raising money to help the family, but finances are tight, and uncertainty grows as the holidays approach. Like the Quinones family, many others now face the compounded burden of lost income and the urgent need to hire an attorney.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights has been contacted sporadically by families of detained street vendors, said Brandon Lee, the organization’s communications director. Some need financial help. Others are navigating the legal system. Nearly all are desperate for answers.

“These are folks who are community staples, who interact with their neighbors every single day, their presence is part of the vibrancy of so many neighborhoods,” Lee said. “What’s happening to street vendors is just one of the many examples of the cruelty and disregard, the disdain, that ICE has for our immigrant communities.”

Meanwhile, Orozco and other volunteers hope they can provide support as the holidays near — especially amid expectations that Border Patrol and ICE enforcement will continue.

In Little Village, many corners once filled with vendors selling elotes, fruit, vegetables, empanadas, snacks, and eggs now sit empty. Some vendors were swept up during enforcement sweeps; others remained indoors.

“But eventually, they have to eat,” said Elizeth Arguelles, a community organizer, street vendor advocate, and SVAC member. Arguelles is helping build a volunteer network to take over vendor shifts or accompany vendors throughout the day, offering support and monitoring for suspicious activity.

SVAC’s GoFundMe, which set a goal of $300,000, reached its target Nov. 5 — and donations continue to come in. As of Friday, 979 vendors have applied for a $500 emergency check. Orozco said that in the first week of accepting applications, a line stretched out the door of their office.

Orozco hand-delivered the first 160 checks last week and is waiting to receive 800 more checks to resume distribution. The group prioritized elderly applicants and will continue to distribute based on need, including medical conditions, lack of food or medicine, and households where the vendor is the sole earner.

“My parents are street vendors and I don’t allow my mom to go out right now,” Orozco said. “It’s a tough choice because when you’re a street vendor, you get an income basically daily. It gets very depressing when there is nothing coming in.”

Other grassroots groups are organizing “buy-outs” so vendors can earn money without staying outside for long periods. Neighbors are pooling money to bulk-purchase tamales, elotes and candy to reduce vendors’ exposure to enforcement.

On the Monday after Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino said on X that agents would be returning to Little Village; the Edgeville Community Rapid Response Team launched what they called a “tamale train.”

“We (suggested to our community) that if we raised $1,000, we could buy out four vendors immediately,” said Quinn Michaelis, a member of the Edgewater/Andersonville group. “Within a half hour, we had $1,300.”

At 6:30 the next morning, a volunteer in Little Village bought out as many vendors as they could find and distributed half the tamales to protesters gathered near the 26th Street Arch. Michaelis brought the remaining tamales back to Edgewater for their community. The group bought out vendors again the following day.

“It was such a wonderful, uplifting way for us all to get involved in a very real way,” Michaelis added.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/chicago-street-vendors-ice/ 

Bad Butter and Blame Butter tell the tales of two bakeries in Chicago. It is the best of times, and it is the butteriest of times. The former is a cult favorite preorder bakery at a hotel in the West Loop. The latter is a pop-up pie shop in the back of a poke shop in River North. By the end of the year, both will be gone as we know them.

My reviews won’t be starred due to the imminent changes, but I had to share in this peak pie and pastry season.

Bad Butter

Chef and owner Dan Koester still bakes some sourdough bread, his first love. But for now, it’s mostly exquisitely golden and flaky viennoiserie. Bad Butter offers classics, including croissants and pain au chocolat, and seasonal creations that generate a particular kind of pastry frenzy.

A towering cruffin, the cross between a croissant and muffin, has consistently become a bestseller with flavors changing every month. Tall and heavy yet tender, they hide not one, but two fillings. A recent ricotta and pumpkin cruffin held clouds of ricotta pastry cream intertwined with silken pumpkin ganache.

That ephemeral ganache begins with caramelized white chocolate, Dulcey by Valrhona, stirred with cream, then pumpkin puree and pumpkin spices.

The aromatic ham and cheese croissant, one of his original items, will remain.

“That’s one of my favorites,” said Koester. “Because it’s got sliced porchetta and whole grain mustard and gruyere cheese, and then it’s topped with sesame seeds.”

He sources the excellent herbed porchetta from Tempesta Artisan Salumi based in Chicago.

But it’s the crispy cheese skirt that steals the show.

“That’s the best part of the croissant,” said the baker. “The cheese that melts out the side and kind of gets crusty.”

It’s one of his earliest pastries, but the bakery began even earlier.

“I started Dan the Baker, like my own ‘business,’ in my house during COVID in 2020,” said Koester.

He had previously been the head baker at Soho House Chicago before the pandemic, so he was able to move his home operation into their professional kitchen in 2021, but just for a year. Luckily enough, somebody at The Emily Hotel said they had a spare kitchen for lease, so he moved again in 2023, and has been there since.

He had to change his business name at the end of 2024, because there’s another Dan the Baker in Ohio. Bad Butter was accidental.

“It’s honestly kind of a silly story,” said Koester. He was cooking for his family one night. The pan was too hot, so when he put a little butter in, it immediately burned, so he set it aside until after dinner.

“My wife and I were cleaning up, and she was like, what’s this? I said, it’s some bad butter. And she said, is that your rapper name? I said, no, but it could be our bakery name.”

The s’mores croissant is served at Bad Butter in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood on Nov. 22, 2025. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)

The stunning s’mores croissant, however, was as deliberate as it is delicious.

One of his bakers said that whenever s’mores becomes something else, the graham cracker gets lost in translation.

“I thought, why don’t we make a chocolate with cocoa butter, milk powder and graham crackers?” said Koester. “And that’s our graham cracker element.”

It’s toasty and textural and absolutely brilliant.

“So we have the graham cracker and then we add chocolate pastry cream and little chocolate croissant bars as well,” he said.

After they bake the filled and cross-shaped laminated pastry, they pipe in a gobsmacking heart of Italian meringue, similar to melty marshmallow.

My favorite, as a s’mores connoisseur, sells out in minutes, and as a seasonal specialty item may be taken off the menu anytime.

As is the case with a perfectly crisp and custardy canelé de Bordeaux, a beautifully caramelized kouign-amann and a spectacularly loaded sticky pecan monkey bread.

His so-called plain croissant and chocolate croissant will always stay as classic staples.

“We use Isigny Ste Mère butter from Normandy, France,” said Koester. “When I first started, it was $115 a case. Now it’s up to $200 a case, almost doubled.”

His pastry prices have certainly not doubled, remarkable for the ingredients and technique, but also the sheer enormous size of the pastries. They’re so big that the pain au chocolat actually holds three bars of chocolate, defying chefs in Paris who insisted two bars were the absolute limit and any more just madness. While generous, I do feel that the butter and chocolate croissants lean a bit toward bready boulangerie and away from buttery layered pâtisserie.

Unless they’re warmed, which they can do at The Emily coffee shop, where some of the classics are available daily. And in the afternoon, the shop offers a coffee and pastry deal. That may be one of the best-kept secrets in the neighborhood. Plus, when I picked up my preorder box at the coffee shop, impeccably packed by the bakers themselves, the baristas handled the handover with sincere hospitality.

“They don’t work for me,” said Koester. “But they do it with a lot of care, and they’re just the coolest people, and I really appreciate that they go above and beyond.”

The apple custard danish at Bad Butter in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)

A shattering apple custard danish also goes so above and beyond that it may be the baker’s favorite pastry.

“At least top five pastries that we do,” he said. “I put it on last fall, so we brought it back this year.”

A seemingly infinite layered croissant shell hugs a pie filling, made with Honeycrisp apples from Mick Klug Farms. That’s covered with custard, then baked again until the top caramelizes.

“It’s creamy, it’s appley,” he added. “It’s very fall.”

But seasons change, and so will his bakery yet again.

“We are opening a storefront,” said Koester. “We’re moving to Bucktown, hopefully in January.”

The space at 1655 W. Cortland was last Mable’s Table and previously the beloved Jane’s.

“I’ve always wanted the neighborhood spot,” said the baker. “And it’s perfect.”

Owner Dan Koester shapes the dough for the country sourdough bread for the next day’s preorders on Nov. 22, 2025, at Bad Butter in The Emily Hotel in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)

They will still focus on viennoiserie, but expand the sourdough bread program because they’ll have space to do it.

“And we have deck ovens, which are going to be kind of behind the pastry case,” he said. “So you’re going to be able to see the action, hopefully.

They plan to make breakfast sandwiches later on, but will have no plated dishes or inside seating, because there’s not enough room. The coveted seasonal patio will open when the weather permits.

Until then, the Bad Butter preorder bakery menu goes live online on Monday mornings. Ordering opens at 3 p.m., and I highly recommend signing up for an alert, because the hundreds of pastries will sell out fast.

“I always tell people like you just really never know when something’s going to come off the menu,” said the baker. “So definitely don’t wait.”

Bad Butter

311 N. Morgan St. (pick up at The Emily Hotel coffee shop or front desk after hours)

badbutterchicago.com

Open: Friday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (preorder only) (holiday hours may differ)

Prices: $4.25 (plain croissant), $4.75 (chocolate croissant), $6.50 (ham and cheese croissant), $7 (ricotta and pumpkin cruffin), $8 (s’mores croissant), $9 (apple custard danish)

Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible with restrooms on same level

Blame Butter

Founder and chief pie officer Asa Balanoff Naiditch does all the baking herself for Blame Butter.

“I call myself a pietisserie,” said the baker. “Kind of like a pâtisserie in France, but pie.”

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Like a high-end French pâtisserie meets modern art.

“I think of it kind of as a living archive,” she said. “I consider myself an artist, and pie is just kind of the medium.”

Balanoff Naiditch is clearly obsessed with pie. And I don’t just love what she’s doing with Blame Butter. I am completely smitten.

The baker will hand you bundles, tied like something urgent and precious. Your first instinct will be to rush outside for a taste. But you’ll want to keep that moment for a little bit longer. You will discover that the pies themselves are delicious and delightful works.

“My hope is that I’m passing my memory,” she said. “Food is everything. It can even be political. It’s the one thing that you carry with you when nothing else remains.”

Asa Balanoff Naiditch salts her Dying The Honey Pink pie at the pastry shop Blame Butter, 168 W. Huron St. in Chicago, Nov. 21, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Dying The Honey Pink is the title of one pie, with a narrative that begins, “To the ache of loving something you cannot save.”

It’s a compelling salty and sweet burnt honey custard, infused with tart sumac, under a dark pink floral orange blossom glaze finished with petals, leaves and salinity from Maldon sea salt.

“It’s the pie of the residency,” said Balanoff Naiditch. It’s also the only one that’s been on the menu since she opened in September to lines wrapped around the corner, and will remain until she closes at the end of the year. “It gets a variety of flowers, depending on what Mike brings me.”

That’s Mike Murphy of Chef’s Local Choice, who grows flowers in his own local suburban home garden, and has also supplied flowers to Kumiko by James Beard award-winning chef Julia Momosé.

But Dying The Honey Pink began with fragrant, organic, handpicked Palestinian sumac at Middle East Bakery & Grocery in Andersonville.

“This pie is a tribute to Palestine,” said the baker. “It was kind of a love letter to its love and heartbreak.”

Her best friend is Palestinian, whom she met at pastry school in London, and they now spend a lot of time together in the Middle East.

“It’s my way to kind of be political,” Balanoff Naiditch. “To call resistance through food.”

The flavors are deeply rooted in the region.

“They hold both beauty and grief, that salty and sweet,” said the baker. “All folded together into a pie.”

A slice of The One for Paul pie at the pastry shop Blame Butter, 168 W. Huron St. in Chicago, Nov. 21, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

The One For Paul is a fantastic fruit-forward apple pie, topped with a thin sheet of cinnamon rolls and mascarpone frosting.

“That actually came about before Blame Butter was ever a thing,” said Balanoff Naiditch. “It was for my friend’s dad, who loved apple desserts.”

When she came back to Chicago, it became pie and her first original recipe.

“It is thinly sliced, peeled apples that then are very heavy with cinnamon, dark brown sugar, but not too much, not too sweet,” said the baker. “And he loves a flaky crust.”

Her flaky buttery crust is a rough puff pastry, also unusual for pie.

Her newest pie is a two-part birthday cake pie.

“On your birthday, you either want a chocolate cake or vanilla,” said Balanoff Naiditch. “So I couldn’t say I had a birthday cake pie on the menu and not have one that was chocolate, and one that was vanilla.”

Both are layered like an entremet with sponge cake, a birthday cake infused pastry cream, more cake, more pastry cream and frosting, plus choux à la crème (cream puffs) and sprinkles.

It’s My Party has cake that’s infused with tonka bean and vanilla. To my relief, it’s subtly sweet, evocative of distant childhood birthdays, with a tender crumb throughout.

A slice of the I’ll Cry if I Want To pie at Blame Butter on West Huron Street on Nov. 21, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

And I’ll Cry If I Want To, however, has cake infused with toasted cocoa nib and chocolate. Also lovely and not too sweet, but the sponge cake was a touch dry and needed a bit more of a syrup soak.

The choux, though, were perfection with crisp shells and luxurious cream, which she pipes to order.

It’s all part of the remarkable performance art that captures the intensity of a chef during a fine dining service. But there’s also ordering, finishing, wrapping, beribboning, bagging, real forks, heavy paper napkins and a shopping bag that feels like a couture experience. The baker works fast, but it does take time.

“The lines came a lot faster than I expected,” she said.

Balanoff Naiditch was born and raised in Chicago. She has dual art degrees and a minor in political science.

Her first job in pastry was at Dutch & Doc’s in 2018, now Swift Tavern in Wrigleyville.

“I cried almost every day,” said the baker, who loved the experience, especially prep, but not service.

She graduated from pastry school at Le Cordon Bleu London in 2019.

“I came back to get my work visa, and the pandemic hit in ’20,” she said.

Her return to London coincided with a job offer, but then another wave of COVID lockdowns hit Britain.

“And I started doing Blame Butter from my flat as a secret micro bakery,” she added, adapting the name from the Blame Gloria cocktail bar in Covent Garden.

Another job offer came, for what was her dream job in London, but the baker turned it down, realizing she had no desire to be the executive pastry chef at a fancy hotel.

“When everything reopened, I started staging,” she said, at Violet Cakes, Pantechnicon and finally The Pie Room at Holborn Dining Room, where she was hired and worked for two and a half years.

“All we did was make savory British pies,” said the baker.

The last place she worked was Hart Bageri, the bakery in Copenhagen, famously featured in “The Bear.”

At Last, In Quiet Company was a nutty, studded pecan pie on a recent menu at Blame Butter.

“It was the one pie that even if I had any left over, I just had no desire to sit and eat it,” she said.

The baker is not a pecan person, so she started introducing hazelnuts into the ganache, then the glaze and tempering the traditional sweetness with cocoa nibs and burnt maple on top. The terrific toasted hazelnut croustillant alone crackles with creativity.

“It slowly came together,” she said. “But it’s never as much mine as some of the others.”

All whole pies come fully wrapped, with her signature wax seal and art labels showing the title, artist, date, medium, description and a tagline. For Dying the Honey Pink, it’s Even Honey Bleeds. They are not inexpensive at $112 each. Slices range from $13 to $16. All prices include tax with no fees or tips expected.

“When I came back from London, I was kind of shocked, because I had gotten so used to seeing a price and that’s what you pay,” Balanoff Naiditch said.

Her prices reflect ingredients that come from specialized vendors within two hours of the city.

“I work with individuals,” she added. “I work with Pete at Seedling. I work with Al at Nordic Creamery. It was one of the only places where I could find cultured butter, 85% butter fat, even in London, I was only getting like 83%. My flour comes from Josh at Farm2Flour in Alvin, Illinois, where they do organic stone ground.

She’s mostly a one-woman show, except for her father, who helps by driving pies from a nearby commercial kitchen or folding boxes. Bob Balanoff was the presiding judge of the Child Protection Division in Cook County until he retired in January.

Meanwhile, the pietisserie will only remain in its current residency until the end of the year.

“I’m not sure exactly what’s next,” said the baker. “But for sure, I’m going to do a pie-focused supper club series, I think in January.”

Part dinner, part party, kind of love letter to the universality of pie and travel.

“Blame Butter will never leave Chicago permanently,” she said. “Even if it disappears, it will return.”

Blame Butter

168 W. Huron St.

blamebutter.com

Open: Friday, 4 to 6 p.m., for whole pies by reservation only; Saturday and Sunday, 12 noon until 3 p.m. or sold out, for slices (holiday hours may differ)

Prices: $13 to $16 (pie slice); $112 (whole pie), all including tax with no tips expected

Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible with restroom on same level

Meals are paid for by the Tribune.

lchu@chicagotribune.com

Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/restaurant-review-bad-butter-bakery-blame-butter-pie-chicago/ 

The saga of Lawrence Reed, the 50-year-old accused of pouring gasoline over a young woman on a CTA Blue Line train and setting her on fire, represents a nightmare for advocates of criminal justice reform and more specifically the SAFE-T Act.

The Illinois statute, first enacted in 2021, famously eliminated the use of cash bail for those accused of crimes, violent or otherwise, and awaiting trial. In its place, the law established a system where prosecutors would be tasked with asking judges to detain defendants deemed a flight risk or a threat to public safety. Judges would have the final say on whether to imprison them as they awaited their day in court.

Before he allegedly attacked the 26-year-old woman, Reed, with more than 70 past arrests and a history of mental illness, had been accused of another violent crime — aggravated battery — and had been released in August over the objections of a Cook County prosecutor by Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez. At the time, the judge said, “I can’t keep everybody in jail because the state’s attorney wants me to.”

Those are likely to be words Molina-Gonzalez very much regrets when she next faces voters.

But what happened after Molina-Gonzalez made her fateful decision is what’s most on our minds right now. Thanks to strong and thorough reporting by crime news site CWB, we have a comprehensive look at just how badly our system failed the woman who reportedly remains in critical condition as we write.

Just before the attack took place the night of Monday, Nov. 17, Reed had been out of his home in violation of his curfew for much of the immediately preceding weekend, according to a court filing by pretrial personnel in the office of Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans. (The chief judge’s office now has sole authority over the county’s electronic-monitoring program, under which those subject to pretrial home confinement rather than imprisonment are tracked.)

Lawrence Reed, 50, faces a federal charge after he poured gasoline on a 26-year-old woman riding a CTA Blue Line train and set her on fire, authorities said. (U.S. District Court)

Reed wasn’t where he was supposed to be beginning 6:31 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, until 6:21 a.m. the next morning, according to the CWB report.

Two days later, on the day of the attack, Reed was away from home in violation of his release conditions for virtually the entire day. Evans’ office reported receiving the first notice of Reed’s violation at 9:13 that morning. It got an “escalated alert” three hours later, at 12:13 p.m., and another “escalated alert” 12 hours later, at 12:13 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18. That second escalated alert occurred about three hours after the woman was set on fire.

Reed was on pretrial release after having been accused of hitting without prior provocation a female attendant at a mental health facility so hard in the face that she lost consciousness. In other words, he is not the sort of criminal defendant who should be roaming Chicago streets at all hours.

CWB asked the chief judge’s office what their normal protocol is in a situation like Reed’s. The answer was disturbing, to say the least. Effectively, when there are curfew violations, the assigned officer will prepare a report with the details and share it with the assistant state’s attorney and defense attorneys on the case. At the defendant’s next court date, the judge will be notified of violations.

What about cases involving “escalated” alerts? Same answer.

That’s it. No request to Chicago police or the sheriff’s office to find the violator and ensure they’re where they’re supposed to be. No apparent physical intervention of any kind to ensure compliance.

When Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office ran the part of the county’s electronic-monitoring program applied to those charged with the most violent and other serious offenses — a responsibility Dart handed over to the chief judge’s office earlier this year — sheriff’s officers often would intervene. They would call those who weren’t in their designated locations or would go out to locate the individuals. Unlike the sheriff, the chief judge’s office doesn’t have sworn officers at its disposal, but Dart at the time of the handover said his office would be available to help at the request of the chief judge’s office in cases where defendants abscond. The sheriff’s office tells us it’s unaware of any such ask since the chief judge took over the program, and in no event did it happen in the Reed case.

Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke said at the time of the change that she didn’t believe the chief judge’s office was prepared to run the program safely. The case of Lawrence Reed sure makes it look like she was right.

We believe the public at large is generally unaware that there’s now effectively no timely enforcement for those who violate or ignore conditions of release under the EM program. Given that EM has become the main alternative to incarceration under the SAFE-T Act when judges opt not to detain those accused of serious crimes, the currently lax state of EM enforcement obviously is a serious threat to public safety.

Evans, a fierce proponent of criminal justice reform and the SAFE-T Act over his 24 years as chief judge, will be chief judge only until the end of the month, having been defeated in September in his bid for reelection by Cook County Judge Charles Beach.

At the top of Beach’s list of priorities when he takes office on Dec. 1 must be an overhaul of the EM program to ensure that dangerous people who violate their terms of release face timely repercussions.

The Nov. 17 horror on that Blue Line train was preventable.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/editorial-blue-line-attack-lawrence-reed-tim-evans-cook-county-judges-electronic-monitoring/ 

These Are The Most Religious States In America

Tyler Durden
Tue, 11/25/2025 – 05:45

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/these-are-most-religious-states-america 

Por DAVID RISING

BANGKOK (AP) — Grupos de derechos humanos criticaron el martes la decisión del gobierno de Trump de poner fin al estatus de protección para los ciudadanos de Myanmar debido al “notable progreso en gobernanza y estabilidad” del país, a pesar de que sigue sumido en una sangrienta guerra civil y el jefe de su régimen militar enfrenta posibles cargos de crímenes de guerra por parte de la ONU.

En su anuncio el lunes sobre el fin de la protección temporal contra la deportación para los ciudadanos de Myanmar, también conocido como Birmania, la secretaria de Seguridad Nacional, Kristi Noem, citó los planes del ejército para celebrar “elecciones libres y justas” en diciembre y “acuerdos de alto el fuego exitosos” como algunas de las razones para su decisión.

“La situación en Birmania ha mejorado lo suficiente como para que sea seguro que los ciudadanos birmanos regresen a casa”, afirmó en un comunicado.

Al mando del general de alto rango Min Aung Hlaing, el Ejécito arrebató el poder en 2021 a Aung San Suu Kyi, que habia sido elegida de forma democrática, y ahora busca añadir un brillo de legitimidad internacional a su gobierno con las próximas elecciones. Pero con Suu Kyi en prisión y su partido ilegalizado, la mayoría de los observadores externos han descrito las elecciones como una farsa.

“La secretaria de Seguridad Nacional Kristi Noem está tratando a esas personas como al perro de su familia, al que famosamente disparó a sangre fría porque se portó mal. Si se lleva a cabo su orden, literalmente los estará enviando de regreso a prisiones, torturas brutales y muerte en Myanmar”, afirmó Phil Robertson, director de Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates.

“Es un grave error de juicio por parte de la secretaria Noem pensar que las próximas elecciones en Myanmar serán siquiera remotamente libres y justas, y simplemente está inventando cosas cuando afirma que los inexistentes altos el fuego proclamados por la junta militar de Myanmar resultarán en progreso político” añadió.

La toma militar provocó un levantamiento nacional con duros combates en muchas partes del país, y grupos prodemocracia y otras fuerzas han tomado el control de grandes extensiones de territorio.

El gobierno militar ha intensificado sus esfuerzos antes de las elecciones para retomar áreas controladas por fuerzas opositoras, con ataques aéreos que han matado a decenas de civiles.

En su lucha, el ejército ha sido acusado de uso indiscriminado de minas terrestres, de golpear escuelas, hospitales y lugares de culto en sus ataques, y de usar civiles como escudos humanos.

Además, los fiscales de la Corte Penal Internacional pidieron el año pasado una orden de arresto contra Min Aung Hlaing, acusándolo de crímenes contra la humanidad por la persecución de la minoría musulmana rohinya del país antes de que tomara el poder.

El Gobierno de Unidad Nacional, o NUG, un gobierno paralelo clandestino establecido por legisladores electos a los que se impidió ocupar sus escaños después de que el ejército tomó el poder en 2021, expresó su pesar por la decisión de Seguridad Nacional.

El portavoz del NUG, Nay Phone Latt, afirmó que el ejército lleva a cabo reclutamiento forzoso, ataca a civiles a diario, y las elecciones están excluyendo cualquier oposición real y no serán aceptadas por nadie.

“Las razones dadas para revocar el TPS no reflejan la realidad en Myanmar”, dijo Nay Phone Latt a The Associated Press.

En su declaración, Noem dijo que su decisión de eliminar la protección “TPS” se tomó en consulta con el Departamento de Estado, aunque su último informe sobre derechos humanos en Myanmar cita “informes creíbles de: asesinatos arbitrarios o ilegales; desapariciones; tortura o trato o castigo cruel, inhumano o degradante; arresto o detención arbitraria”.

Y la última recomendación de viaje del Departamento de Estado para los estadounidenses es evitar el país por completo.

“No viaje a Birmania debido al conflicto armado, la posibilidad de disturbios civiles, la aplicación arbitraria de leyes locales, la mala infraestructura de salud, minas terrestres y municiones sin detonar, crimen y detenciones injustas”, dice la guía.

Según la Asociación de Asistencia para Presos Políticos, más de 30.000 personas han sido arrestadas por razones políticas desde que el ejército tomó el poder, y 7.488 han sido asesinadas.

Aun así, Seguridad Nacional dijo que “la secretaria determinó que, en general, las condiciones del país han mejorado hasta el punto en que los ciudadanos birmanos pueden regresar a casa con seguridad”, mientras añadía que permitirles permanecer temporalmente en Estados Unidos es “contrario al interés nacional”.

John Sifton, director de defensa de Asia en Human Rights Watch, afirmó que “los extensos reportes sobre Myanmar contradicen casi todas las afirmaciones” en la declaración de Seguridad Nacional.

La decisión podría afectar a hasta 4.000 personas, dijo.

“Las declaraciones erróneas de Seguridad Nacional al revocar el TPS para personas de Myanmar son tan atroces que es difícil imaginar quién las creería”, afirmó en un comunicado.

“Quizás no se esperaba que nadie lo hiciera”.

___

Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/grupos-de-derechos-critican-a-trump-por-anular-proteccin-de-deportacin-a-myanmar-pese-a-la-guerra/ 

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 25, the 329th day of 2025. There are 36 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Nov. 25, 1961, the USS Enterprise was commissioned; it was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and remains the longest naval vessel ever built, at 1,123 feet.

Also on this date:

In 1783, following the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the last remaining British troops in the United States were evacuated from New York City.

In 1963, the body of President John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery after a funeral procession through Washington, D.C. An estimated 1 million people lined the somber procession route.

In 1986, the Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.

In 1999, Elian Gonzalez, a 5-year-old Cuban boy, was rescued by two sport fishermen off the coast of Florida, setting off an international custody battle that eventually saw him repatriated to his father in Cuba.

In 2001, as the war in Afghanistan entered its eighth week, CIA officer Johnny “Mike” Spann was killed during a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif that erupted while he was interviewing detainees, becoming the first American combat casualty of the conflict.

In 2016, Fidel Castro, who led his rebels to a victorious revolution in 1959, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half-century of authoritarian rule in Cuba, died at age 90.

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In 2020, Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona died of a heart attack at age 60. Maradona led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title before later struggling with cocaine use and obesity.

Today’s Birthdays: Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs is 85. Actor John Larroquette is 78. Dance judge Bruno Tonioli (TV: “Dancing with the Stars”) is 70. Musician Amy Grant is 65. Football Hall of Famer Cris Carter is 60. Rapper-producer Erick Sermon is 57. Actor Jill Hennessy is 57. Actor Christina Applegate is 54. Former NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb is 49. Television personality Jenna Bush Hager and twin sister Barbara Pierce Bush, daughters of former President George W. Bush, are 44. Soccer manager and former player Xabi Alonso is 44. Actor Stephanie Hsu is 35.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/today-in-history-uss-enterprise-commissioned/