We Need Your Help Counting “No Kings” Crowds
Dear Reader,
Today, “No Kings” mass protests are being held in over 2,500 cities and towns across the United States and its territories (see the full list here).
Once again, The Xylom is leading a nationwide, unofficial, crowdsourced “No Kings” attendance estimate. This time, we’re joining forces with data journalist G. Elliott Morris, who first developed the methodology during June’s “No Kings” protests, which we adapted to estimate the number of Labor Day protestors.
Covering mass protests is important to The Xylom because we expect a lot of the grievances to be centered around the Trump administration’s rollbacks of evidence-based policy, abandonment of global humanitarian assistance, treatment of immigrants, and attacks on the free press. Those are four issues central to our mission of growing healthy, interconnected communities across the world.
In the previous round of “No Kings” protests in June, independent Spanish-speaking journalist Mario Guevara was arrested while covering a “No Kings” protest just miles away from where I lived. ICE detained him for over 100 days before deporting him to El Salvador.
However, as a proud Atlanta-based, immigrant-run news outlet, The Xylom will not be deterred by the Trump administration’s attempts to silence independent reporting.
If you or someone you know is organizing or attending a rally today:
Check out this “How to Protest Safely: What to Bring, What to Do, and What to Avoid” guide developed by our colleagues at WIRED.
Submit details to our spreadsheet. You can reply to this email or message me on social media/ Signal @alexip.718 with any photographic or video evidence, or to volunteer as an authorized user who helps verify the flood of data coming in.
Support The Xylom’s independent reporting: we’re around $2,000 short of our October fundraising target!
If you’re not convinced yet, here’s what Adam Rose, the Deputy Director of Advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and a board member of the LA Press Club, is saying about our public service journalism:
Low-key brilliant. I’ve been in newsrooms for decades as people gnashed teeth over crowd estimates. Trump’s first week as president was entirely focused that. These guys may solve it by applying The Wisdom Of Crowds to the social media age. 🤯 Now if only James Surowiecki would come over to Bsky… [contains quote post or other embedded content]
— Adam Rose (@adamrose.bsky.social) 2025-10-17T06:54:24.657Z
Thank you once again for standing strong with us.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Ip
Publisher and Editor
✨ NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS
💉 Our colleagues at Atlanta News First, in partnership with Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, are hosting an event aimed at examining public trust in vaccines as misinformation continues to fuel preventable outbreaks on Nov. 5th. Sign up here.
⚛️ This year's Science Journalism Forum (SJF) runs from October 27 to 30 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) —with a hybrid option to join from anywhere in the world. The theme is "Science Journalism at a Crossroads: Rethinking Trust, Funding, and Innovation." There’s still time to get 50% off all SJF ticket types with the discount code Xylom50. Join us!
📱 ICYMI: Join our WhatsApp channel and help reach users who stay off social media (share this with your aunties and uncles!)
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THINGS YOU SHOULD READ
🍑 A SOUTHERN FLAIR
FLORIDA — From Medicine to Mysticism: The Radicalization of Florida’s Top Doc (Kiera Butler and Julianne McShane, Mother Jones)
One former research co-collaborator from Boston Children’s Hospital told us that he and Ladapo’s other former colleagues had, in recent weeks, found themselves asking, “‘How did this happen? Where did this come from?’”
OAK ISLAND, N.C. — A Short-Lived Win in a Never-Ending Fight Over Forever Chemicals (Lisa Sorg, Inside Climate News)
“Churches in Brunswick County baptize their babies in PFAS-contaminated tap water,” Donovan told the crowd. “We fought so hard. And now our hard work is getting rolled back.”
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Can farmland thrive with solar? This Virginia nonprofit is finding out. (Elizabeth Ouzts, Canary Media)
Using a conservative metric that 10 acres of land can host 1 megawatt of solar capacity, a Nature Conservancy analysis found that the state has 40 times more suitable land area than needed for solar fields, even after ruling out over 2 million acres of “prime conservation lands” including farmland.
🗺️ WHAT ELSE WE'RE READING
WASHINGTON — A C.I.A. Secret Kept for 35 Years Is Found in the Smithsonian’s Vault (John Schwartz, The New York Times)
Elonka Dunin, a game designer who helps lead the most active online discussion about Kryptos, said in an interview that she hoped the text didn’t get out. But for true lovers of cryptographic skill, she said, the real challenge is not having the answer but knowing how to get there. “That’s the exciting part for me,” and, she proposed, “the real value” at auction.
“If they don’t have the method,” she said, “it’s not solved.”GAZA STRIP — From genocide to ecocide: After years of war, Gaza faces an environmental crisis ‘above imagination’ (Sophie Hurwitz, Grist)
“The garbage becomes mountains, and the mountains are a breeding site for mosquitos and rodents, which spread malaria,” said Yasser El-Nahhal, an environmental chemist and eco-toxicologist with the Islamic University of Gaza.
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — In rural America, scarce doctors battle misinformation as they practice medicine (Yuki Noguchi, NPR)
For many decades, the U.S. has relied heavily on foreign-born doctors; half the country's oncology workforce, for example, comes from overseas. Now, in large part because of the Trump administration's cuts to science, medicine and research funding, as well as new immigration policies, fewer physicians can — or want to — come to the U.S.
SOME OF OUR RECENT STORIES
😷 Nepal's Air Got More Toxic During Gen-Z Protests
Severe air pollution during Nepal's Gen-Z protests has sent vulnerable groups to hospitals with serious respiratory complications. It echoes research that evaluated the effects of excessive chemical munitions use in urban areas during the George Floyd protests.
🌡️ Texas Researchers Make A Heatstroke Calculator for Burn Victims
A new Heat Risk Calculator developed by Texas researchers is helping burn survivors such as America's Got Talent finalist Kechi Okwuchi assess their heat risk during physical activity. The tool is expected to become more important as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events.