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  2. <rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"><channel><title>Common Dreams</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/</link><description>Common Dreams</description><atom:link href="https://www.commondreams.org/feeds/feed.rss" rel="self"></atom:link><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 19:12:10 -0000</lastBuildDate><image><url>https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8zMjEwMDM4OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc0OTE0ODI1N30.nWE-dO3LpGCfrP6HKKrgMGYA-9xT8aazabGiQTfcsrM/image.png?width=210</url><link>https://www.commondreams.org/</link><title>Common Dreams</title></image><item><title>India/Pakistan: Urgent need to protect civilians amidst escalating hostilities</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/india-pakistan-urgent-need-to-protect-civilians-amidst-escalating-hostilities</link><description><![CDATA[
  3. <p>Responding to the escalating armed engagement between India and Pakistan, Carolyn Horn, Programme Director for Law and Policy at Amnesty International said:</p><p>“The escalation of hostilities between India and Pakistan has already taken a toll on civilians. Amnesty International is concerned by reports of loss of civilian lives in both India and Pakistan. In every armed conflict, protecting civilians is paramount— it’s a fundamental principle of international humanitarian law which binds all nations. Deliberate, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks harming civilians or damaging civilian infrastructure such as homes, hospitals, schools, and essential services, are strictly prohibited under the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols and under customary international law.</p><p>“Amnesty International calls on the governments of India and Pakistan to uphold their obligations under both international human rights and humanitarian law. They must take all necessary measures to protect civilians and minimize any suffering and casualties in both countries. As forces from both countries are now engaged in open hostilities, Amnesty International insists that neither security nor justice will be achieved with the senseless loss of more civilian lives.</p><blockquote>In every armed conflict, protecting civilians is paramount.<br/><cite>Carolyn Horn, Programme Director for Law and Policy at Amnesty International </cite></blockquote><p>“We extend our condolences to the families on both sides of the border who have lost their loved ones and borne the devastating cost of the current escalation in what has been a long-standing conflict. We unequivocally condemn the deliberate targeting and unlawful killing of civilians by armed groups during the horrific attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on 22<sup>nd</sup> April and call for an independent, transparent and thorough investigation to bring the suspected perpetrators of the atrocity to account through fair trials, without recourse to the death penalty.”</p><h3><strong>Background</strong></h3><p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6868pdpw4o" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">India conducted several airstrikes</a> in Pakistan and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the early hours on Wednesday, 7 May 2025. Pakistan officials claim that <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cwyneele13qt" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">31 people have been killed</a> and 57 injured by the air strikes including children, women and families and claims <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/8/pakistan-says-it-downed-25-indian-drones-after-attacks-escalate-tensions" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">one civilian</a> was killed by drone-related attacks on 8 May.</p><p>Meanwhile, India’s army claims that at least <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pahalgam-terror-attack-operation-sindoor-launch-live-updates-may-7-2025/article69543511.ece" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">15 civilians were killed</a> and more than 40 injured by Pakistani shelling on its side of the line of control since the airstrikes.</p><p>The escalation of hostilities between the two nuclear-armed countries came after the horrific killing of<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/23/act-of-war-what-happened-in-kashmir-attack-that-killed-26-tourists" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> at least 26 civilians</a>, mainly tourists and families, by five members of armed groups near Pahalgam in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April. India claims it has evidence linking the armed attack to Pakistan – a claim Pakistan <a href="https://www.pmo.gov.pk/press_release_detailes.php?pr_id=6034" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">denies</a>. Pakistan has said that India has not offered any evidence to support its claim and has <a href="https://www.radio.gov.pk/06-05-2025/envoy-reiterates-pakistans-call-for-independent-inquiry-into-pahalgam-incident" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">requested</a> for an independent investigation.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 19:12:10 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/india-pakistan-urgent-need-to-protect-civilians-amidst-escalating-hostilities</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>UK-US TRADE: “Caving into a bully is not something to be celebrated”, campaigners say</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/uk-us-trade-caving-into-a-bully-is-not-something-to-be-celebrated-campaigners-say</link><description><![CDATA[
  4. <p><strong>Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now said:</strong></p> <blockquote>Today’s deal between the UK and US was about appeasing Trump. While there are limited tariff reductions, we remain in a much worse position than we were six months ago. What’s more, Trump could impose new tariffs at any time because Starmer has proven to him that his threats work: caving into a bully is not something to be celebrated. Today’s press conference also fires the starting gun on a genuinely scary, fuller trade deal, and there are strong indications our rights, standards and protections will be up for grabs in that larger agreement. Unless we stand up to this deal, the British public will pay a very high price for Starmer’s friendship with Donald Trump.”<br/></blockquote>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 18:02:46 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/uk-us-trade-caving-into-a-bully-is-not-something-to-be-celebrated-campaigners-say</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Trump’s Announced “Concept of Plan” With UK Must Be Made Public</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-announced-concept-of-plan-with-uk-must-be-made-public</link><description><![CDATA[
  5. <p>Following Trump’s much-hyped announcement of a trade deal with the United Kingdom, <strong>Melinda St. Louis, Global Trade Watch Director at Public Citizen</strong>, issued the following statement: </p><p>“Trump may have enjoyed having his ego stroked by Starmer and Lutnick fawning over him for ‘closing’ a deal – one that is obviously not actually done – but his con on American workers continues. </p><p>“The American and British people need to see whatever text there is or is developed in ongoing talks – and no deal should be approved or go into effect without going through proper on-the-record public comment processes and congressional oversight.</p><p>“We need to know, for instance, when they claim to address “non tariff barriers,” just what giveaways for Big Tech may be inserted on behalf of Elon Musk and Trump’s other tech-bro billionaire buddies, given that he waved around <a href="https://www.citizen.org/article/president-trumps-reciprocal-tariffs-are-nothing-but-a-shakedown-on-behalf-of-big-tech/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Big Tech’s wish list</a> when he announced the tariffs. </p><p>“With claims of dozens more ‘deals’ in progress, Congress must act swiftly to demand transparency and accountability in any trade deal before Trump and his team sell off our country for parts behind closed doors.”</p>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 17:38:47 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-announced-concept-of-plan-with-uk-must-be-made-public</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Our Revolution Sounds the Alarm on Corruption-Ridden Crypto Legislation Ahead of Key Senate Vote</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/our-revolution-sounds-the-alarm-on-corruption-ridden-crypto-legislation-ahead-of-key-senate-vote</link><description><![CDATA[
  6. <p>On Thursday, the U.S. Senate is <a href="https://us.cisionone.cision.com/c/eJwsyz2u4yAUxfHVQIfFN9cFxWu8jegabhI0tvEAiTW7HyV6zSl-R_8cNSQrPaeogvXeGpDAn5G8seTs3UuHjqQBM5MMWYYMDsggL9GDWnF1Kszzam6KYHagZFCwBmZlL5n-lL9ix7JR6yIkn-f7GkAcPqVt-jjf4nOMszPzw_TC9HJd13TWrYyS6pTqzvSylTeJ15lxUGd60VI7phf5Hc_0kurxaNQ_X6cDB4nU_p2jincdJMbzdZBodL7WrSQ8upDSGG205zvlgqLRRthJlBy_cPsFZn4ArFG8xYOuzqxMdd_rkRvh3qfaHryPRrR_yozrDJRR5Ky9sHdMApUFoUEl49A6NXv-jvp_AAAA__82pXFW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>expected to hold a procedural vote</u></a> to advance the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act—a controversial bill <a href="https://us.cisionone.cision.com/c/eJwsyz2u4yAUQOHVQIdlfgzXBcVrvI3oAjcJChgPeOLtjzx67adzklcQzWw5eemMtUbDDPztYcZktXHoFtQ2Oqef1hpFgLMJyiHP3oIMGBbp1jXohyRYF5CzkxAcM_PIiT75j6iYC_UhXLRpfQYHYrcxlul2Xvz7PI_B9A9TG1PbdV1TbHkfB-GH-hRbZWq7JeAgEamJiKUM8XcIPI7eviTGiaHQ3YhCrzwKnrntTG28UsooOhW655z8f3j8AtM_AEZL3v1O12Bmjq3WtqdOWMfU-ouPsxPV-0wYVqCEIiVlhXliFCgNCAUy6gXNIlfLv179CwAA__8ssmpr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>championed by crypto giant Coinbase</u></a> and other deep-pocketed industry players.<br/><br/>The legislation, which has raised alarm bells among ethics watchdogs and democracy advocates, claims to set the first nationwide rules for regulating payment stablecoins—cryptocurrencies that aim to maintain a stable value by being pegged to real-world currencies like the dollar.</p>
  7. <p><strong>Joseph Geevarghese, Executive Director of Our Revolution—the nation’s largest independent political organizing group founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016—issued the following statement slamming the bill ahead of tomorrow’s anticipated vote: </strong></p><p><em>“After seizing the mantle of top corporate political spender in the 2024 election, Big Crypto wasted no time using the influence it bought on Capitol Hill to ram through this laughably weak and toothless regulatory bill—a sham crafted by cryptocurrency giants that is certain to line the pockets of the Trump family's crypto empire.<br/><br/>“This is corruption and self-dealing on an unprecedented scale. And let’s be clear: Democrats are fully complicit in the grift, with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) leading the charge as the bill's original sponsor. We call on every senator who still gives a damn about democracy to shut down this outright sellout to the cryptocurrency industry.”</em><br/><br/>Tomorrow's expected vote follows alarming news that World Liberty Financial—the Trump family’s crypto venture—<a href="https://us.cisionone.cision.com/c/eJwsy02O3CAQxfHT4B0WX8bFgsVsfI0RFNVpFAMdwGn17SOPsnl6-kn_5BWgEXYhL3djrdEgYHl6QCuMFcbYBElCtBSdcZpQ6S1FDUv2FmQMcZO7c1F_SwK3gRS7hLgzI0ZO9Dv_4SXkk_rgO9rkHnEHXi3iud6-nP4552sw_cXUwdTxfr_X-pm50FixFaYOJdTG1CF-RjJ1XIOp49XOPDPed_arvDj2z2s2vHqnih9-jSR5umLIHFt90K3EQ63tqkiF6lyfs5xLoZQD73RSGMRz8j_w_R-Y_gIwWi7dV3oPZgS2UlpNnUIZa-u_ljE7UbnLFKIDSoGnpCw3j4A8SANcgUS9BbNJZ5e_Xv0LAAD__86CdK4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>secured a staggering $2 billion investment</u></a> from MGX, a firm controlled by the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates.<br/><br/>The proposed legislation is riddled with glaring regulatory gaps, including a complete failure to prevent lawmakers—like President Trump—from profiting off stablecoin ventures that could attract investment (and potential bribes) from corporations and foreign governments. The legislation also fails to ban Big Tech companies and other non-banking institutions from launching their own private currencies.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 20:00:31 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/our-revolution-sounds-the-alarm-on-corruption-ridden-crypto-legislation-ahead-of-key-senate-vote</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Appeals Court Orders Trump Administration to Transfer Rümeysa Öztürk to Vermont</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/appeals-court-orders-trump-administration-to-transfer-rumeysa-ozturk-to-vermont</link><description><![CDATA[
  8. <p> The Second Circuit Court of Appeals today <a href="https://www.aclum.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2025-05-07-105954.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">denied</a> the Trump administration’s attempt to further delay Rümeysa Öztürk’s transfer to Vermont. The appeals court ordered the government to comply with a lower court’s ruling to move Ms. Öztürk from a Louisiana detention center to a facility in Vermont. The government must do so within one week.</p><p>“No one should be arrested and locked up for their political views. Every day that Rümeysa Öztürk remains in detention is a day too long. We’re grateful the court refused the government’s attempt to keep her isolated from her community and her legal counsel as she pursues her case for release,” <strong>said Esha Bhandari, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. </strong></p><p>Ms. Öztürk, a former Fulbright scholar and current Tufts University Ph.D. student researching child development, has been held in a Louisiana detention center for six weeks — all in retaliation for co-authoring an op-ed in her student newspaper. On March 25, while Ms. Öztürk was on the phone with her mom, plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents surrounded her in Somerville, Massachusetts and arrested her. For nearly 24 hours, Ms. Öztürk’s attorney was unable to locate her as ICE quickly and quietly moved her to three separate locations in three different states — including Vermont — before sending her to Louisiana.</p><p>“Every day Ms. Öztürk spends in confinement is an affront to the constitution. Her constitutional injury is only compounded by the deplorable conditions she must suffer through. Today, the court rightfully declined to play along with the government’s latest attempt to keep Ms. Öztürk separated from her community and legal counsel. We will continue to advocate for Ms. Öztürk until she is released,” said Mudassar Toppa, staff attorney at CLEAR, a legal non-profit and clinic at CUNY School of Law</p><p>Since she arrived in Louisiana, Ms. Öztürk has lived in a cramped room with poor ventilation and 23 other women for almost all hours of the day. In new filings in her federal court case in Vermont, she says she has suffered several asthma attacks that have “become progressively harder to recover from” while in detention. Whereas her attacks used to last between 5-15 minutes, they now can last up to 45 minutes. She is regularly exposed to asthma triggers including insect and rodent droppings, and is almost never exposed to fresh air. The court filings also describe difficulty receiving appropriate care in detention, including delays to receive medical care and dismissive comments from medical staff.</p><p>“Rümeysa has suffered six weeks in crowded confinement without adequate access to medical care and in conditions that doctors say risk exacerbating her asthma attacks. Her detention — over an op-ed she co-authored in her student newspaper — is as cruel as it is unconstitutional,” said Jessie Rossman, legal director, ACLU of Massachusetts. “Today, we moved one step closer to returning Rümeysa to her community and studies in Massachusetts.”</p><p>A federal judge in Vermont will hold hearings regarding Ms. Öztürk's motion to be released on bail on May 9 and the merits of the habeas petition on May 22.</p><p>“The government’s efforts to deny Rümeysa access to justice by deploying these gratuitous delay tactics have once again been rightfully blocked by the courts,” said Lia Ernst, legal director, ACLU of Vermont. “Today’s ruling affirms that her swift transfer to Vermont is essential, and we will continue fighting until she is free.”</p><p>Ms. Öztürk is represented in immigration court by Mahsa Khanbabai and Marty Rosenbluth, and in federal court by Mahsa Khanbabai, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Massachusetts, ACLU of Vermont, CLEAR, and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP.</p><p>For documents and other case information, see <a href="https://www.aclum.org/en/cases/ozturk-v-trump" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 16:12:17 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/appeals-court-orders-trump-administration-to-transfer-rumeysa-ozturk-to-vermont</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Ahead of McCarthyite House Committee hearing on College Campuses, Jewish Columbia Students Urge Congress to take Action Against the Trump Regime’s False Allegations of Antisemitism</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/ahead-of-mccarthyite-house-committee-hearing-on-college-campuses-jewish-columbia-students-urge-congress-to-take-action-against-the-trump-regimes-false-allegations-of-antisemitism</link><description><![CDATA[
  9. <p>Ahead of today’s House Committee on Education and Workforce kangaroo hearing grilling the heads of Haverford College, DePaul University, and CalPoly San Luis Obispo, Jewish Voice for Peace Action expresses grave concern that the far-right is using show trials and false allegations of antisemitism to censor the Palestinian rights movement, kidnap non-citizen student activists, crush free speech, and defund higher education. </p><p>On Tuesday May 6th, JVP Action brought nine students from Columbia University to meet with members of Congress to speak about their experiences as Jewish students who have been steadfastly committed to advocating for the safety and freedom of the Palestinian people. The students warned members of Congress that the Trump regime is using false allegations of antisemitism to crack down on dissent, and called for elected officials to do more to protect student activists from the Trump administration’s authoritarian attacks, and to call for the release of non-citizen student activists being targeted for deportation including their classmate Mahmoud Khalil who is currently a political prisoner in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. </p><p>“I’m here asking my representatives to call for the release of my friend Mahmoud Khalil and to put real pressure on the Trump regime. I cannot stand to see the Trump administration smear Mahmoud as an antisemite when it could not be further than the truth,” <strong>said Shay Orentlicher, Jewish Junior at Columbia. </strong></p><p>For the past 1.5 years, Columbia University and its student protests have remained in the public eye, yet very few Jewish student activists have been able to tell their stories. On May 6, a little over one year since the launch of the student encampment movement, these students traveled to Congress to tell their elected officials what it’s like being a Jewish student who supports Palestinian rights in an increasingly repressive campus environment. These students told members of Congress about the beautiful multicultural connection and grief that has been core to their activism on campus.</p><p>“This Passover we held a beautiful seder with not only our fellow Jewish students but also our community members in the broader anti-war movement at Columbia. Rooted in our tradition of remembrance and liberation, we came together to tell the story of Passover and offered a heartfelt prayer for Mahmoud’s freedom” <strong>said Carly Shaffer, a Jewish graduate student in SIPA and friend of Mahmoud Khalil's. </strong></p><p>The students felt it was especially important to make their voices heard prior to today’s House Committee on Education & the Workforce hearing in which far-right members of Congress will once again operate under the guise of caring about antisemitism in order to attack the right to political dissent and free speech. </p><p>“The Trump Regime is using false allegations of antisemitism to disappear our friends, punish student protestors, and dismantle higher education. What we are seeing has nothing to do with keeping Jews safe, and everything to do with crushing dissent. Thousands of Jews on campuses across the country have spoken out in solidarity with the people of Gaza and we will not be silent.” <strong>said Tali Beckwith-Cohen, a Jewish senior at Barnard College. </strong></p><p>“The far-right does not care about Jewish safety. Trump and his allies in Congress are platforming neo-Nazis and Christian Nationalists, all while pretending to care about antisemitism in order to take a hatchet to our communities and most basic freedoms. This is intended to silence the Palestinian rights movement, sow chaos, and sharpen authoritarian tools that will then be used to dismantle civil liberties and democracy itself.” <strong>said Beth Miller, Political Director of JVPA. </strong></p><p>In one of many egregious examples of its absurd claims, in a letter to Haverford College ahead of the House Committee’s hearing tomorrow, the Committee’s Republican leadership refers to an academic talk given by Rabbi Dr. Rebecca Alpert about the history of Jewishness and anti-Zionism as an example of “antisemitism”. Rabbi Dr. Rebecca Alpert is not only a Rabbi, but also a scholar of Jewish history who was invited to speak on campus because of her expertise. </p><p>“My ancestors fled fascism and taught me to fight supremacy and fascism wherever it occurs. I am seeing rising fascism here as the Trump regime lies and targets non citizens, human rights activists, and everyone who challenges their authoritarian agenda. I refuse to be silent because I know that it was silence that allowed the persecution of my ancestors in Europe.” <strong>said Sarah Boris, who is a Senior studying English and Jewish studies at Columbia University. </strong></p>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 14:36:01 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/ahead-of-mccarthyite-house-committee-hearing-on-college-campuses-jewish-columbia-students-urge-congress-to-take-action-against-the-trump-regimes-false-allegations-of-antisemitism</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Public Lands Shouldn’t Have a Price Tag on Them</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/public-lands-shouldnt-have-a-price-tag-on-them</link><description><![CDATA[
  10. <p>After an all-day markup,<strong> </strong>the House Committee on Natural Resources advanced its portion of the Republican reconciliation package in a vote in the dead of night.</p><p>Committee members moved forward the controversial reconciliation text, which includes greatly expanding extractive industry on public lands and waters across the United States. Among other provisions, the GOP package seeks to vastly increase on- and offshore drilling, along with fast tracking mining projects like the proposed Twin Metals mine in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, one of the last remaining true wilderness areas in the country.</p><p>Committee members also approved an amendment from Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) that would begin the process of privatizing public lands in the West. The amendment calls for the sale of areas of public land in Nevada and Utah to private developers and industry. Notably, Clark County, Nevada’s most populous county, opposed the measure.</p><p>The amendment is notable, as some congressional Republicans have identified selling off public lands as one option to pay for extending Donald Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires. In a vote last month, a majority of senators rejected a measure that would have prevented the sell-off. </p><p><em><strong>In response, Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, released the following statement:</strong></em></p><p>“Public lands shouldn’t have a price tag on them. But Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are working like mad to hand over our public lands to billionaires and corporate polluters to drill, mine, and log with the bare minimum oversight or accountability. These lands belong to all Americans, they shouldn’t be given away to pad corporate bottom lines. Congressional Republicans have made it clear that this is their plan, and our public lands, our clean air and water, critical habitat, and our communities will be threatened by unchecked industrial development. The American people will not tolerate it.”</p>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 13:56:47 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/public-lands-shouldnt-have-a-price-tag-on-them</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Sanders Calls on CBS Owner to Stand Up for First Amendment, Not Surrender to Trump</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/sanders-calls-on-cbs-owner-to-stand-up-for-first-amendment-not-surrender-to-trump</link><description><![CDATA[
  11. <p>As President Trump continues his attempts to intimidate the media and those who are critical of him, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) today warned Paramount Global Chair Shari Redstone not to capitulate to Trump.</p><p>Lawyers for Trump and Paramount, the parent of CBS News, have begun mediation over a lawsuit brought by Trump that accuses ’60 Minutes’ of deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris. Legal experts have called the suit baseless and an easy victory for CBS. But Paramount is entering the talks prepared to make a deal. It has been reported that Shari Redstone, the company’s controlling shareholder, is considering settling with Trump in return for his administration’s approval of Paramount’s $8 billion sale to Skydance.</p><p>“This lawsuit is an attack on the United States Constitution and the First Amendment. It has absolutely no merit and it cannot stand,”<strong> Sanders and the senators wrote.</strong> “In the United States of America, presidents do not get to punish or censor the media for criticizing them. Freedom of the press is what sets us apart from tin pot dictatorships and authoritarian regimes.”</p><p>It was also reported that Redstone asked the CEO of CBS to “delay sensitive stories about Trump” until the Skydance merger was completed. If the Skydance merger is approved, the Redstone family could gain up to $2.4 billion.</p><p>“Rewarding Trump with tens of millions of dollars for filing this bogus lawsuit will not cause him to back down on his war against the media and a free press. It will only embolden him to shakedown, extort and silence CBS and other media outlets that have the courage to report about issues that Trump may not like,” the senators continue. “We urge you and the board of directors at Paramount to make it clear to President Trump today that Paramount will not surrender to his attack on the First Amendment.”</p><p>Sanders and the senators conclude: “Stand up for freedom of the press and our democracy. Do not capitulate to this dangerous move to authoritarianism.”</p><p>Read the text of the letter <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/5.6.25-Final-Letter-to-Paramount-re-Lawsuit.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 13:26:27 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/sanders-calls-on-cbs-owner-to-stand-up-for-first-amendment-not-surrender-to-trump</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>ICAN calls for immediate de-escalation of conflict between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/ican-calls-for-immediate-de-escalation-of-conflict-between-nuclear-armed-india-and-pakistan</link><description><![CDATA[
  12. <p>The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Nobel Peace Prize 2017) has issued the following statement from its Executive Director, Melissa Parke:</p><p>“ICAN is gravely concerned at the escalation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, particularly last night’s missile strikes by India on Pakistani-adminstered Kashmir and Pakistan, and Pakistan’s previous threats to use nuclear weapons. </p><p>A nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would cause millions of immediate deaths in the region and have global consequences. As the <a href="https://www.icanw.org/r?u=ab_TgCqBh1nE3AAtXdDlxus76IoPa1u-J9KrCVGb3W_kITfVOcV-35bl4OU3GSGWBaBQolzMPVbxbq_xCBa_zQ&e=4f8e191d0f460c9886992d6e66feaf2a&utm_source=ican&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=press_release_statement_on_ind&n=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nature Food study</a> by Xia, Robock et al from 2022 shows, even a "limited" nuclear war between the two countries could trigger a nuclear winter, drastically disrupting global agriculture leading to famine that could kill up to two billion people. No country would be spared. No government can protect its people from the consequences.</p><p>This is exactly why nuclear weapons must be eliminated. ICAN calls on both governments to show restraint and de-escalate, and calls on the international community to redouble efforts toward disarmament through the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The only way to guarantee these weapons are never used is to ban and eliminate them.”</p>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2025 12:28:26 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/ican-calls-for-immediate-de-escalation-of-conflict-between-nuclear-armed-india-and-pakistan</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Jewish Voice for Peace Congratulates Mosab Abu Toha on Pulitzer Prize</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/jewish-voice-for-peace-congratulates-mosab-abu-toha-on-pulitzer-prize</link><description><![CDATA[
  13. <p>Jewish Voice for Peace congratulates Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha on winning a Pulitzer Prize in journalism! On Saturday, May 3rd, Abu Toha spoke at JVP’s National Member Meeting to a crowd of 2,000 Jews. <br/><br/>“<em>Every day,”</em> <strong>Mosab Abu Toha said from the stage of the JVP National Member Meeting</strong>, <em>“Israel kills a family, burns a baby, bombs a school shelter, a tent, a soup kitchen. Every day, we need to ask ourselves, ‘What did we do to stop this?’’ Israel commits these war crimes every day, and that is why we should do something every day.” </em></p><p><strong>Stefanie Fox, Jewish Voice for Peace Executive Director:</strong></p><p><em>“At a time when the Trump regime is threatening Palestine speech and anti-Palestinian groups are hounding Mosab, Jewish Voice for Peace was deeply honored to welcome Mosab to our National Member Meeting of 2,000 Jews in support of Palestinian liberation. Mosab’s commentary and poetry conveys the powerful resilience of Palestinians, the aching loss of a homeland and the unflinching bravery to look genocide in the eye and not turn away, but instead double down for a future of justice. Jewish Voice for Peace will always stand in solidarity with Mosab and his courageous work.”</em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2025 21:30:21 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/jewish-voice-for-peace-congratulates-mosab-abu-toha-on-pulitzer-prize</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>AFSCME’s Saunders: Self-called ‘DOGE person,’ Frank Bisignano is the wrong choice for the Social Security Administration</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/afscmes-saunders-self-called-doge-person-frank-bisignano-is-the-wrong-choice-for-the-social-security-administration</link><description><![CDATA[
  14. <p>AFSCME President Lee Saunders released the following statement in opposition to Frank Bisignano’s confirmation to lead the Social Security Administration: </p><blockquote> “The Senate just escalated threats to Social Security by confirming Frank Bisignano, another billionaire CEO, to lead the agency. He has spent his career catering to Wall Street elites. Bisignano could have stood up for working families and retirees by opposing efforts to roll back Social Security services, shutdown offices and lay off thousands of workers. Instead, he promises to provide more of the same failed, destructive leadership we have seen so far at Social Security. He describes himself as ‘fundamentally a DOGE person’ – even as Musk’s DOGE has jeopardized Americans’ private data.   <br/><br/>“Their playbook is clearly to break Social Security so they can justify further cuts and privatization. AFSCME members won’t be fooled. We are keeping up the fight to protect our freedom to retire with dignity, and we will remember how our leaders voted and whether they stood with us in our battle to stop this hostile takeover of Social Security.” </blockquote>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2025 20:10:47 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/afscmes-saunders-self-called-doge-person-frank-bisignano-is-the-wrong-choice-for-the-social-security-administration</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Every Senate Republican Just Voted Against Social Security</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/every-senate-republican-just-voted-against-social-security</link><description><![CDATA[
  15. <p>The following is a statement from <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/e1025fdb3ef3496ab81bc13fba7625f7/1/42aef692d743800825e8739c3507b7893d34d2c9213be4528a8e459fbadff46a?cache_buster=1746557806" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nancy Altman</a>, President of <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/e1025fdb3ef3496ab81bc13fba7625f7/2/0017548e864fdaee20dd0de23bb7164ad4885e671a201fa94a1a950e40a53953?cache_buster=1746557806" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Social Security Works</a>, on the Senate’s <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/e1025fdb3ef3496ab81bc13fba7625f7/3/9bdf97e04daf81d8b55cbb5a64bc4545cdf325ab6c554f41ba0c6336898a3d6f?cache_buster=1746557806" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">vote</a>, along party lines, to confirm Frank Bisignano as Social Security Commissioner:</p><p>“Elon Musk and Donald Trump, with the quiet help of Frank Bisignano, have spent the last few months taking a chainsaw to Social Security. This vote was an opportunity for the Senate to reject the decimation of Social Security, and demand that Trump nominate a commissioner who will stop the bleeding. Instead, every Senate Republican just signed off on the DOGE destruction of Social Security.</p><p>Bisignano has zero Social Security expertise or experience. But this self-described “DOGE person” is a Wall Street CEO with a <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/e1025fdb3ef3496ab81bc13fba7625f7/4/d65e8a93856f019d00eb9eab1de1c4b23cdbc8d35c544a05f8e31c4c52bd3906?cache_buster=1746557806" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">long history</a> of slashing the companies he runs to the bone, including massive layoffs.</p><p>He is also a liar. He claims he was not involved in all the chaotic and destructive changes at the Social Security Administration: the hollowing out of the agency, the stealing of our most sensitive data, the harmful and poorly rolled out policy changes, their sudden reversals, and more. However, there are well over a dozen long-serving civil servants, identified by a brave whistleblower, who <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/e1025fdb3ef3496ab81bc13fba7625f7/5/dffee2fdfc11cd674e766110d01efc860c49808841c546940af8452358e127e8?cache_buster=1746557806" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">can validate</a> that he is lying.</p><p>With Bisignano’s increased power as a confirmed Commissioner, he will accelerate the destruction of our Social Security system. One ray of hope is that the DOGE henchmen running Social Security have <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/e1025fdb3ef3496ab81bc13fba7625f7/6/bc902c0bab468adcf595c9511751da3b15146727ad1acb958902ff3d0ea123c8?cache_buster=1746557806" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reversed course</a> on some of the biggest cuts in the face of massive public outrage. They know how popular Social Security is with voters of all parties.</p><p>Together, we can save Social Security from Trump, Musk, and Bisignano. It’s going to take millions of people in the street raising our voices together, saying hands off our Social Security.”</p><p>Last night, lawmakers, Social Security beneficiaries, and advocates held a rally at the Senate swamp opposing Bisignano. The full rally, along with shorter clips, can be viewed <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/e1025fdb3ef3496ab81bc13fba7625f7/7/5f15bfdfa7e8d4d89cda901eeb6052c8ea6e3e167d16cc8cbbc980b7f8fd70d0?cache_buster=1746557806" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2025 20:07:08 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/every-senate-republican-just-voted-against-social-security</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Interior Attempts to Cut Air Quality Monitoring in Parks</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/interior-attempts-to-cut-air-quality-monitoring-in-parks</link><description><![CDATA[
  16. <p>Yesterday, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/05/05/national-parks-air-quality-monitoring/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported that the Interior Department temporarily suspended an air-quality monitoring program in the national parks. This follows after the United States experienced some of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/08/air-quality-record-smoke-hazard-wildfire-worst-day-ever-canada-new-york" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">worst wildfire smoke and air quality in decades</a> in June 2023, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/08/air-quality-record-smoke-hazard-wildfire-worst-day-ever-canada-new-york" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2025’s air quality is already trending</a> toward dangerous pollution levels.</p><p><em><strong>In response, Jackie Ostfeld, the Sierra Club Outdoors for All Campaign Director, released the following statement: </strong></em></p><p>“This is an appalling move by the administration, especially considering the haze, wildfire smoke, and worsening air quality conditions that have plagued many areas of the country the past few years. Instead of working to protect the health of our communities, increase access to the parks as summer vacations approach, or address any of the reasons behind air quality issues in our treasured and iconic national parks – wildfires, industry, pollution – the administration is cutting programs designed to keep our outdoors safe and accessible.”</p>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2025 20:06:04 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/interior-attempts-to-cut-air-quality-monitoring-in-parks</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>​Let Them Die Alone, and Hungry</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/further/let-them-die-alone-and-hungry</link><description><![CDATA[
  17. <img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/osama-al-raqab-6-is-one-of-thousands-of-gazan-children-slowly-starving.jpg?id=60140800&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=456%2C0%2C457%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>"Drunk on impunity," Israel has grandiosely labeled  its latest genocidal move "Operation Gideon's Chariots" wherein, moving from siege to seizure, it plans the bloody conquest, ethnic cleansing, and permanent recolonization of Gaza, using the rhetoric of holy war to justify unholy mass destruction - this, even as many of the Palestinian children who've somehow survived their savage 18 months  of carnage now slowly starve to death. "We are complicit," says one angry, grieving doctor. "It is an abomination."</p><p>Having gotten away with so many atrocities while  the international community looks away, Israel just <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-expands-gaza-war-and-moves-control-aid-zones" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">unveiled </a>the  latest escalation of its illegal collective punishment of Gazans by finally  declaring out loud, "We are occupying Gaza to stay." Unanimously <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/cabinet-approves-plans-to-expand-gaza-op-renew-aid-neither-move-will-be-immediate/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> approved</a> by Netanyahu's far-right Security Cabinet, the new "conquering of Gaza" formalizes Israel's plan for the indefinite occupation, forced expulsion and incorporation into "sanitized" Israeli zones of an already long-besieged civilian population "for its own protection." The expansion of an onslaught that has left more than 185,000 Gazans dead, wounded, or missing and millions homeless, hungry, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-photojourn..." target="_blank">maimed</a> and traumatized is being ludicrously framed as a final mission to dismantle Hamas and retrieve hostages, even though Israel repeatedly failed at each before breaking a ceasefire that would have accomplished both.</p><p>"Gideon’s Chariots will begin with great force and will not end until all its objectives are achieved," Israel thundered,  again virtually ignoring the fact that permanent occupation, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing violate international law. "No more going in and out - this is a war for victory," <a href="https://www.newarab.com/tag/bezalel-smotrich" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said </a>apartheid Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who urged Israelis embrace, not fear the word "occupation...A people that wants to live must occupy its land." But the name Gideon's Chariots, <em>Merkavot Gideon</em>, invoking the righteous Biblical warrior who led a chosen few to annihilate an ancient Arab people, <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/what-israels-gideons-chariots-plan-gaza" target="_blank">"layers</a> this symbolism with menace," blending the concepts of divine vengeance with state-sanctioned ethnic violence, the "mythic instruments of war (with) the Israeli Merkava tanks that have long razed homes and lives in Gaza and the West Bank."</p><p>Sicker, darker undercurrents reportedly <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/what-israels-gideons-..." target="_blank">surfaced</a> during a Cabinet meeting rife with genocidal banter. After a minister leered that Gazans should "die with the Philistines," Gaza's ancient inhabitants, Netanyahu  refuted the idea with, "No. We don’t want to die with them. We want them to die alone." Ominously,  the proposal also <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-mercenari..." target="_blank">calls for</a> (now-banned) international aid groups to be replaced with private U.S. military contractors, aka mercenaries, distributing aid at Israeli-designated relief "hubs," which critics call "not an aid plan but an aid denial plan" that flagrantly <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/statement-humanitarian-country-team-occupied-palestinian-territory-principled-aid-delivery-gaza" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">violates </a> international principles that prohibit an occupier  from exploiting humanitarian needs to achieve military or political objectives. Gazan officials angrily <a href="https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1919379983861952635" target="_blank">rejected </a>the idea as "perpetuation of a malicious policy of siege and starvation...The Occupation cannot be a humanitarian mediator (when) it is the source and instrument of the tragedy."</p><p>Any illusion of Israel abruptly becoming a merciful presence in Palestinian lives was shattered Tuesday when far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/202..." target="_blank">proclaimed</a> at a West Bank conference, “Gaza will be entirely destroyed." He added Gazan civilians "will start to leave in great numbers (to) third countries," with hopes the territory would be formally annexed "during the current government’s term." He did not mention such annexation or any acquisition of land by military force is forbidden as a founding principle of international law, including the UN charter. Citing a 2024 <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/you-feel-like-you-are-subhuman-israels-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">report </a>by Amnesty International titled <em>You Feel You Are Subhuman, </em>Dalal Yassine <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-and-end-humanitarian-law/50599" target="_blank">writes</a> that Gaza most bitterly represents the end of humanitarian law: "The past 19 months of genocide have not only demonstrated the double standard imposed on Palestinians in Gaza, but also that there is no standard at all." </p><p>And as it's been all along, the U.S. remains complicit. Israel will not act until after an upcoming <a href="https://www.newarab.com/analysis/what-expect-trumps-high-stakes-middle-east-visit" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">trip </a> by Trump, who's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/guterres-trump-gaza" target="_blank">voiced</a> no <a href="https://it.usembassy.gov/joint-statement-on-israel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a>objections - his gold-plated hotel <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/02/06/inside-trump-gaza-takeover-stunner" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">beckons - </a>and as usual <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3iClYQ5sco" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">gets it all </a>wrong, blaming Hamas for treating Gazans "badly." "People are starving, and we’re going to help them get food," he yammered. "Hamas is making it impossible (by) taking everything that’s brought in." This week, our complicity came into harsher, shocking focus when <em></em><em>nine </em>former Biden officials <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2025/05/biden-staffers-admi..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">admitted </a>its months-long claims of "working tirelessly" for a ceasefire - a phrase used by Biden, Harris, even AOC, and derided by skeptics as "not a thing" - were <a href="https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1916889129771577847" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">all a lie. </a>No demands were made - a moral and political crime re-enforced by a 2024 memo<a href="https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/02/08/national-security-memorandum-on-safeguards-and-accountability-with-respect-to-transferred-defense-articles-and-defense-services/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> finding </a>"insufficient evidence" linking U.S. arms to rights violations or Israel to blocked aid. One <a href="https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1916889148604158174" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">critic</a>: "The lack of concern about Palestinian lives is palpable."</p><p>Still, the killing <a href="https://x.com/AbujomaaGaza/status/1919223116863074734" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">goes on, </a>with about<a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-25-march-2025" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> half </a>the dead women and children. Implausibly, Israeli forces grow ever more savage: Drones often<a href="https://x.com/DropSiteNews" target="_blank"> fire</a> on civil defense teams trying to retrieve the wounded under debris, soldiers just <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6665/Israel%E2%80%99s-execution-of-15-medical-personnel-is-unprecedented-in-recent-history;-crime-demands-immediate-accountability" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">executed </a>15 Palestine Red Crescent workers, their hands and feet bound, before burying them and their ambulances in the sand; hundreds of <a href="https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/gaza-msf-doctors-killed-strike-al-awda-hospital" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">doctors</a>, aid workers and journalists have been <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1161736" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> killed</a>. Last month, they included Ahmad Mansour,<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/journalist-killed-gaza-fire-tent-khan-younis-israel-1.7505942" target="_blank"> burned alive </a>in a media tent, and Fatima Hassouna, a "self-made fighter" colleagues <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/killing-gazas-eye-who..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">called</a> "the Eye of Gaza," for whom the camera was a <a href="https://x.com/MiddleEastEye/status/1912922314515124231/video/1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">weapon </a>to "preserve a voice, tell a story." She died with six siblings, just before her wedding, a day after it was announced a film featuring her, <em>Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk</em>, will screen at the Cannes Film Festival. "If I die, I want a resounding death," she wrote last year. "Fatima planned for joy," said a friend. "Despite the war, she insisted on dreaming."</p><p>With Israeli power left untethered, Arab nations largely silent and international rules of law <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/what-israels-gideons-..." target="_blank">ignored,</a> what's left to protect Gazan lives are mere small gestures. Hundreds of Israelis <a href="https://www.972mag.com/silent-vigils-gazan-childre..." target="_blank">attend </a>silent vigils to hold images of dead Palestinian children; <a href="https://againstapartheid.art/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Artists Against Apartheid</a> and other groups <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/1001884/17000-children-s..." target="_blank">protested</a> in D.C. bearing the names of the dead and installing 17,000 pairs of children's shoes as a  searing memorial; Swedish Television <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250505-popes-f..." target="_blank">announced</a> an initiative to convert the late Pope Francis’s car into a mobile clinic for Gazan children, fulfilling his final wish; World Central Kitchen barely <a href="https://wck.org/news/gaza-update-4-23" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">manages </a>to keep open its <a href="WCK%20now%20operates%20Gaza%E2%80%99s%20only%20remaining%20bakery," target="_blank">mobile bakery,</a> the last bakery in Gaza: "We are now near (the) limits of what is possible." Still, desperate hunger mounts. Most Gazans face "acute levels of food insecurity," with more and more children dying from "starvation-related complications," a now-common term  that should not exist.</p><p>Aid officials<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/09/gaza-israels-i..." target="_blank"> say</a> close to 300,000 children are on the brink of starvation; about a third of those under two suffer from "acute malnutrition," with the rate swiftly climbing; more than  3,500 under five face imminent death from starvation; at least 27 have died from malnutrition, and at least several more die each day, often newborns of mothers who cannot produce milk. To date, the Israeli onslaught has directly killed over 15,000 children; for every direct death, says <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext?utm_source=chatgpt.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Lancet</a> medical journal, there are up to four indirect deaths  from hunger, disease, the collapse of small bodies' immunity  and a country's once-flourishing healthcare system. If they can, sunken-cheeked children who've lost half their body weight <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/israelopt-two-months-humanitarian-aid-ban-gaza-genocide-action-harrowing-testimonies" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">scavenge </a>in mountains of trash for anything to fill their stomachs alongside their frantic parents: "I don’t want my child to die hungry." One mother: "As people, we are almost dead."</p><p>The stories and images <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/3/..." target="_blank">horrify:</a> Stick-thin, Auschwitz-like limbs protrude, ribs <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/children-gaza-h..." target="_blank">jut </a>from concave chests, eyes grow wide and glazed.  Once vibrant, they<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gaza-malnutrition-ch..." target="_blank"> lie in bed</a>, skin on bone, too weak to walk, stand, turn, lift their head, eventually breathe. An emaciated six-year-old weighing half what he should writhes on a bed, pleading,  "I want to leave." A four-month-old, six-pound girl died of malnutrition, blood acidity, liver and kidney failure after her hair and nails fell out. Of newborn twin girls, one died eight days later. A father's father's infant son Abdelaziz died hours after his severely malnourished mother gave birth to him; hospital staff hooked Abdelaziz, premature and gasping, to a ventilator; it stopped a few hours later when  the hospital ran out of fuel, and he died "immediately." "I am losing my son before my eyes," says one mother. "In these beds, we are waiting for them to die one by one."</p><p>Each day, <a href="https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1919399124740247558" target="_blank">says </a>Tareq Hailat of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, up to ten sick children in Gaza need urgent medical evacuation, but, "It's just not happening." Each one, he stresses, has a story: "They aren't just a number." <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Among </a>the handful his group managed to get out was 6-year-old Fadi al-Zant from Gaza City, who had cystic fibrosis; he was also starving. When his mother couldn't find food or medication, Fadi's weight dropped from 66 to 26 pounds and he became too weak to walk, he was miraculously evacuated to first Egypt, then New York. Once the media began following his story, Fadi became "the face of starvation in Gaza." But he was a  rare, blessed exception. "We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza," says Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO. "We are starving the children of Gaza. We are complicit. As a physician, I am angry. It is an abomination."</p><p>There are so many. <em>Drop Site News</em> <a href="https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1919397635867213994" target="_blank">posted </a>video of the distraught mother of four-month-old Yousef al-Najjar as he lay curled on a hospital bed, small fists flailing, suffering from malnutrition and dehydration. He weighed just 3.3 pounds, one fourth of what he should have weighed. His young mother <a href="https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1919397635867213994" target="_blank">lamented:</a> He has had spasms trying to breathe, his entire ribcage sticks out, she has  never experienced this before, she doesn't know each morning if he's survived: "The woman you see before you is begging for money to feed her children." She held him in her arms, then repeatedly lofted him into the unlistening air, arms straight before her, up and down, up and down, almost weightless. "Why is this happening to us?" she cried. "I swear to God, it's wrong what is happening to us." On Monday, Yousef died from malnutrition, and Israel. May his memory be for a blessing. </p><p><em>Update:</em> More<a href="https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/massacre-thai-restaurant-market-gaza-city-israeli-airstrikes?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2510348&post_id=163097638&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=l8hwn&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email" target="_blank"> horrors</a>: "Absolute savagery."</p><blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1919397635867213994">
  18. <div style="margin:1em 0"></div> —  (@)
  19.        <a href="https://twitter.com/DropSiteNews/status/1919397635867213994"></a>
  20. </blockquote>
  21. <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2025 18:50:01 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/further/let-them-die-alone-and-hungry</guid><dc:creator>Abby Zimet</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/osama-al-raqab-6-is-one-of-thousands-of-gazan-children-slowly-starving.jpg?id=60140800&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Satellite-Generated Atmospheric Pollution to Skyrocket</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/satellite-generated-atmospheric-pollution-to-skyrocket</link><description><![CDATA[
  22. <p>The U.S. is unprepared to handle the huge pollution footprint flowing from the imminent launch of tens of thousands of commercial communications satellites into low-Earth orbit, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Yet, when needed most, the scientific entities tracking these impacts are on the chopping block.</p><p>Led by corporations such as Elon Musk’s Starlink, the current 8,100 telecom satellites in orbit are about to proliferate at an estimated rate of 10,000 new satellites a year. By 2040, some 60,000 satellites are projected to be arrayed in mega-constellations across the stratosphere.</p><p>The environmental impact of the tens of thousands of satellite launches and reentries is not fully understood, but early indications are that they could be significant enough to alter stratospheric temperatures and ozone coverage. A big portion of that impact comes from the discharge of metals, such as aluminum, lithium, and copper, into the atmosphere due to –</p> <ul><li>Old satellites burning upon reentry into our atmosphere, with the projected five-year life of each satellite ensuring a heavy shower of metal particles steadily descending to Earth;</li><li>Discharge of liquified natural gas fuel to power satellite launches and chemical propellants accelerants to reposition to avoid collisions; and</li><li>Collisions, as armadas of satellites from different companies and countries reach orbit. As many as 150,000 near-collisions now occur each year, a number likely to multiply.</li></ul> <p>“The sheer volume of atmospheric pollution from this satellite revolution is not on our national radar,” stated PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, a former senior enforcement attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, noting that control of atmospheric pollution is not even part of the licensing process. “The need for inter-agency and international cooperation in addressing these space impacts is becoming urgent, just as the U.S. has begun to retreat dramatically from climate science and global eco-coordination.”</p><p>Musk’s Starlink and SpaceX are poised to benefit most from this expansion, with Starlink owning roughly three-quarters of satellites now in orbit and roughly half of slated launches via SpaceX rockets in the coming decade. In response to concerns raised by scientists, PEER has been trying to trace Musk’s actions through his Department of Government Efficiency on the federal agencies dealing with commercial space operations, principally NASA, NOAA, and the National Science Foundation. All three agencies are now slated for major cutbacks.</p><p>“A huge and expanding chemistry experiment is taking place in our atmosphere while we fire the scientists needed to monitor it,” Whitehouse added. “Unfortunately, and unbelievably, the person best positioned to profit from lax satellite regulation has been put in charge of dismantling the oversight agencies and eliminating their scientific capacity.”</p><p style="text-align: center;">###</p><p style="text-align: center;"><em><a href="https://csl.noaa.gov/news/2025/427_0428.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Review NOAA’s projections for future satellite debris</a></em></p><p style="text-align: center;"><em><a href="https://peer.org/extensive-musk-tendrils-in-noaa-revealed/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">See intense Musk/DOGE involvement with space-related offices</a> </em></p><p style="text-align: center;"><em>Look at PEER’s request for records on cutbacks in stratospheric monitoring<br/> </em><a href="https://peer.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/5_6_25-NASA-FOIA.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>NASA FOIA<br/> </em></a><a href="https://peer.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/5_6_25-NOAA-FOIA.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>NOAA FOIA<br/> </em></a><a href="https://peer.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/5_6_25-NSF-FOIA.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>NSF FOIA</em></a></p>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2025 13:57:35 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/satellite-generated-atmospheric-pollution-to-skyrocket</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Republicans Endorse $351 Billion in Education Cuts</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/republicans-endorse-351-billion-in-education-cuts</link><description><![CDATA[
  23. <p>Last week, House Education and Workforce Committee (EWC) Republicans pushed through over $350 billion in funding cuts for programs that Americans rely on to pay for education at every level, paving the way for tax cuts for themselves, billionaire donors, and corporations. New <a href="https://accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025-05-01-Education-Pay-Fors-Research-FINAL.docx.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">analysis</a> from Accountable.US revealed today that EWC Republicans endorsed broad-cuts, including diminishing available student aid, repealing Biden-era student loan forgiveness for borrowers misled by predatory institutions, and slashing Pell Grants. </p>           “To pay for tax cuts for the richest in this country, congressional Republicans are willing to gut the programs tens of millions of Americans rely on. Their education markup makes it abundantly clear that they’re not just going to gut Medicaid, they’re proposing hundreds of billions of dollars of cuts to programs that provide more opportunities for everyday Americans to access higher education. These cuts are a betrayal of congressional Republicans’ promise to make government work for Americans and to lower their costs; in fact, it will do quite the opposite.” <strong>— </strong><strong>Accountable.US Executive Director </strong><strong>Tony Carrk</strong> <p>The details of Accountable.US’ analysis,<a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-education/2025/05/05/trump-escalates-fight-against-harvard-00326222" target="_blank"> reported by <em>POLITICO</em>,</a> revealed that EWC Republicans affirmed many of the proposals first considered in the leaked Ways & Means Committee <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025/01/reconciliation-menu-reveals-wide-ranging-gop-policy-priorities-00198940" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">policy proposal wish-list,</a> top cuts include: </p> <ul><li><a href="https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/4.29_reconciliation_bill_summary_final.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Slashing</a> federal student aid by capping unsubsidized and Parent PLUS loans and eliminating subsidized loans for undergraduates and Grad PLUS loans entirely. This move would disproportionately impact low-income families, especially those with students at HBCUs, while <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/proposed-legislation-threatens-to-raise-costs-for-student-borrowers-and-dismantle-consumer-protections/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">shutting</a> underrepresented students out of graduate pathways that offer critical economic mobility and have <a href="https://www.accesslex.org/tools-and-resources/examining-grad-plus-value-and-cost" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">historically been profitable</a> for the federal government.</li><li><a href="https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/4.29_reconciliation_bill_summary_final.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Repealing</a> a set of Biden-era protections—including rules establishing forgiveness for students of schools that closed or failed to lead to gainful employment—that have <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106530" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">canceled</a> at least $17.2 billion in federal student loans for nearly one million borrowers misled by predatory institutions. This repeal would <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/3-ways-the-biden-administration-protected-students-and-borrowers-in-2022/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">leave</a> low-income students, students of color, and those attending for-profit colleges on the hook for degrees they were unable to complete through no fault of their own.</li><li><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/04/30/nx-s1-5381149/trump-republicans-student-loan-repayment" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Repealing</a> the Biden administration’s SAVE plan—a repayment program that lowered monthly payments for nearly all borrowers and prevented balances from ballooning due to unpaid interest—and replacing it, along with other income-driven options like ICR and PAYE, with just two fixed or income-based repayment plans, a change that could raise costs for millions of borrowers, including those making modest incomes.</li><li><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/04/30/nx-s1-5381149/trump-republicans-student-loan-repayment" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Changing</a> Pell Grant eligibility by altering the definition of full-time college attendance to 30 credit hours per year and requiring at least half-time attendance to qualify for any grant at all. These changes could cause students who are unable to meet the new definition to see costs increase by $1,479. Education Committee Republicans also proposed <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/student-aid-policy/2025/04/29/house-gop-propose-330b-cuts-higher-ed-programs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">capping</a> federal student aid for any students, regardless of income, at the median cost of college attendance.</li></ul>]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 05 May 2025 18:46:10 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/republicans-endorse-351-billion-in-education-cuts</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was a Corporate Lobbyist. Now, Her Former Clients are Lobbying the White House.</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-chief-of-staff-susie-wiles-was-a-corporate-lobbyist-now-her-former-clients-are-lobbying-the-white-house</link><description><![CDATA[
  24. <p>Six of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ former lobbying clients – including a tobacco company she was lobbying for just last year – have disclosed that they have lobbied the White House offices that Wiles now oversees on public health regulations, AI policy, tariffs and trade, in the first three months of the Trump Administration.</p><p>That’s according to a new <a href="https://www.citizen.org/article/listening-to-lobbyists/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="https://www.citizen.org/article/listening-to-lobbyists/">report</a> authored by <strong>Public Citizen Democracy Advocate Jon Golinger</strong> that examines the first federal lobbying disclosures filed in late April 2025 that disclose federal lobbying activity during the first three months of the Trump Administration.</p><p>The new filings reveal that a longtime Wiles’ lobbying client that has been actively lobbying the Trump White House is <strong>Swisher International</strong>, a tobacco company that has been engaged in regulatory and legal battles with the Food and Drug Administration over public health restrictions aimed at preventing kids from smoking its “Swishers Sweets” flavored cigarettes. In addition to Swisher’s own company lobbyists, Swisher paid a lobbying firm led by Wiles’ daughter to lobby the White House.</p><p>Wiles’ other former lobbying clients who disclosed lobbying the White House during January-March 2025 are:</p> <ul><li><strong>Mosaic:</strong> a fertilizer producer lobbying on critical minerals and trade</li></ul> <ul><li><strong>Kruger</strong>: a toilet paper and packaging company lobbying on tariffs</li></ul> <ul><li><strong>Zeta Global:</strong> a digital marketing company lobbying on AI policy</li></ul> <ul><li><strong>Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions:</strong> lobbying on tax credits</li></ul> <ul><li><strong>General Motors:</strong> lobbying on autonomous vehicles and fuel economy.</li></ul> <p>Golinger said this level of high-placed access with no ethical guardrails raises red flags that erode public trust.</p><p>“These lobbyist disclosures should make every American ask how corporate interests are influencing this White House,” said Golinger. “Chief of Staff Wiles should disclose whether she has been involved in meetings or discussions regarding her former lobbying clients, reveal whether she has been engaged in decision-making about any issues she lobbied the government on and recuse herself going forward from any matters that could benefit her former clients.”</p>]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 05 May 2025 18:44:41 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-chief-of-staff-susie-wiles-was-a-corporate-lobbyist-now-her-former-clients-are-lobbying-the-white-house</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Good Trouble: March, March, Sons Of The Ice!</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/further/good-trouble-march-march-sons-of-the-ice</link><description><![CDATA[
  25. <img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/penguins-unite-against-a-predator-bird.jpg?id=60058144&width=1200&height=800&coordinates=528%2C0%2C528%2C0"/><br/><br/><p>Happily, May Day saw many thousands  unite: You have nothing to lose but the wreckage, shackles  and stench of an odious regime. For now it persists, its ghouls ravaging systems, rights, many lives, but myriad small good things continue to seek to stop it: Court rulings block the mayhem and now the Alien Enemies Act, rowdy "empty chair" town halls name the complicit, MAGA thugs are charged, POTUS portraits are unveiled, tech intersections are hacked (Elon: "Please be my friend") and the penguins are revolting. </p><p>"Only 1,361 Days To Go," reads <em>The Economist</em>'s blistering headline marking Trump's first 100 days of chaos, accompanied by a bloodied, bandaged eagle representing "the lasting harm" done by "a vindictive, vituperative <a href="https://voxpopulisphere.com/2025/04/15/robert-wrig..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lord of misrule, </a>vacant, spiteful, and cruel." There have been  the  (way more than) 100 <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/fact-check-trump-fals..." target="_blank">lies </a>in 100 days, the economy he's <a href="https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-30-2025?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">crashed </a>- which has <em></em>"NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS," <em></em>is Biden's fault, and okay so you only get<a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/194638/trump-buy-less-toys-kids" target="_blank"> two dolls</a> - the millions he will ultimately condemn to needless <a href="https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-30-2025?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank"> death </a>from HIV/AIDS and other diseases after his fave gonzo gazillionaire randomly cut international aid, the ongoing, head-spinning <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIEAm2E5bis" target="_blank">idiocy </a>- "Imams Wut" - and his Nazi<a href="https://digbysblog.net/2025/05/01/chilling-4/" target="_blank"> ghouls </a>and sycophants on all sides. At this week's grotesque grovel-fest of a cult meeting, lackeys and their <em>Gulf of America </em>caps all in a row, Execution Barbie Bondi burbled she's "signing death warrants" and, smirking "Are you ready for this, liberal media?," declared Trump's already <a href="https://x.com/atrupar/status/1917617183112175742" target="_blank">saved </a>258 million lives, or 75% of America, who didn't die of fentanyl. "That's some North Korea Shit," from one patriot. Also, "Trump also invented corn on the cob. And birds."</p><p>On the relentless Constitution-shredding, rights-assailing,   authoritarian cosplay, David Remnick is grimly succinct: "Every day is a fresh hell." Still, there are enough outcroppings of grassroots good trouble to (mostly) keep alive our flickering embers of hope. One strategy trending nationwide is democrats organizing so-called empty-chair <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-re..." target="_blank">town halls,</a> an ingenious, effective update to the time-honored "unvarnished, direct democracy" of elected officials gathering with constituents to hear from we the people. Lately, of course, GOP lawmakers would rather not, thanks. Abruptly ejected from their soothing MAGA bubble, they have repeatedly  faced real-life, pissed-off voters lambasting  DOGE malfeasance. Taken aback, they've tried to dismiss the backlash as "pathetic astroturf campaigns" by "out-of-touch, far-left groups," generously paid. We wish. They've also tried carefully <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/byron-donalds-town-hall-protesters-removed/" target="_blank">vetting</a> events like Byron Donalds; alas, "They lit his ass up." Now, they're largely following the frantic counsel of Monty Python's Knights of the Round Table when they were <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMDA1iDqPFQ" target="_blank">confronted</a> by a similarly improbable  killer bunny: "Run away! Run away!"</p><p>In response, exuberant empty-chair town halls highlight their absence and cowardice with signs like "Where's Warren/Bryan/Elise" etc and "Wanted: Republicans with enough courage to honor their oath of office,” providing a chance to organize, galvanize and raise voters' frayed spirits.  Even with constituents knowing that headliners won't come, turnouts are striking: Over 800 in Little Rock for (no-show) Sens. Cotton and Boozman, nearly 1,000 in Billings for 3 GOP no-shows, nearly 500 in Bangor, where Susan Collins hasn't held a town hall in over 25 years but her spox says she "has a proven record of working for all of Maine." In Maryland, Jamie Raskin filled in for (MIA)  Andy Harris. In Fort Wayne, Indiana Sen. Jim Banks stayed home but <a href="https://www.wane.com/news/local-news/anti-trump-or..." target="_blank">sent donuts </a>to "honor one of the best presidents we’ve ever had"; <em>Indivisible</em> thanked him for "the parlor trick" but regretted he didn't show to "Serve us. Show up. Listen to us." In Savannah, <a href="https://thecurrentga.org/2025/03/24/amid-growing-unease-in-his-backyard-u-s-rep-buddy-carter-holds-telephone-town-hall/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">absent </a>Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter got a mannequin in  jeans and <em>Where's-Waldo</em> striped shirt with a "Buddy Carter" sign. In Glens Falls, NY., angry voters told an absent Elise Stefanik, "You work for us, not the other way around."</p><p>In one recent, brilliant <a href="https://www.threads.com/@drrusswin/post/DI1VDFtNJLz/hundreds-of-people-showed-up-for-an-empty-chair-town-hall-in-gop-rep-warren-davi" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">innovation</a>, hundreds of Ohio residents came to Middletown, J.D.'s hometown, to ask questions of a newly <a href="https://davidpepper.substack.com/p/our-empty-chair..." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">devised</a> AI “ChatGOP,” which  approximated the slimy, likely answers of Rep. Warren Davidson if he'd bothered to show up. After Davidson, an election-denier who squeaked into power in a highly gerrymandered district, snidely declined the invite - "No one needs to accept every argument (or war) they’re invited to" - his chair sat empty as a raucous <a href="https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/04/23/b..." target="_blank">crowd</a> booed, cheered and challenged ChatGOP about immigration, education, voter suppression, workers' rights and firings. Fiery speakers - a pastor, union leader, NAACP president - <a href="https://davidpepper.substack.com/p/full-video-chat..." target="_blank">addressed</a> his "abandoned constituents, the people he supposedly works for but actively avoids: This is cowardice in a suit. He doesn't show up for families, workers, veterans, teachers, anyone who cant afford a lobbyist (or) his own damn town hall. But we see you, Warren." Organizer David Pepper praised the exuberant crowd for showing up in force when needed. "This was American democracy at work. Patriotism at its best," he said. "And it was electric."</p><p>May Day offered more inspiration, from Switzerland's <a href="https://x.com/cwebbonline/status/1917985646825881691%20may%20day,%20long-neutral%20switzerlands%20parade%20of%20marching%20middle%20fingers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">marching </a>middle fingers to, at home, our buoyant, four-stop, meticulously organized rally - workers, P.O., teachers, all - complete with the Ideal Maine Social Aid and Sanctuary <a href="https://www.idealmaineband.org/" target="_blank">Band</a> at each stop and a patriotic dachshund's two-sided sign: "Dogs for due process" and "If he's a stable genius, I'm a giraffe." Also gifting hope: Bernie and AOC's crowds, Harvard <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/04/harvard-wont-comply-with-demands-from-trump-administration/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">standing up</a> with, finally, 70 more <a href="https://ctrk.klclick.com/l/01JS2WCVZ6HSGM46XD6XWZ1Q0M_5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">schools, </a>a defiant <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.social" target="_blank">Alt National Park Service,</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/saveourparks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#SaveOurParks,</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/rehirerangers/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#RehireRangers. </a>And with thanks to <em><a href="https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.co..." target="_blank">Chop Wood, Carry Water</a></em>: Charges were <a href="https://www.europesays.com/2009356/" target="_blank">filed</a> - battery, false imprisonment -  <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/apr/17/charges-filed-against-security-team-at-wild-cda-to/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">against </a>six private security thugs who <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/politics/security-companys-license-revocation-coeur-dalene-town-hall/293-ed2a47bc-e320-4154-9d38-e189a6f820bb" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">dragged </a>a woman from a GOP town hall; <strong></strong>the largest federation of unions <a href="https://archive.ph/tBNUE#selection-673.0-673.191" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">created </a>a pro bono legal network for fired federal workers; after an ACLU lawsuit, DHS <a href="https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/04/border-patr..." target="_blank">will retrain </a>over 900 California Border Patrol agents to comply with the Constitution; Colorado <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/semi-automatic-firearms-colorado-restrictive-gun-law-signed-governor-jared-polis/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">banned</a> most semi-automatic guns without background checks; 12 GOP reps <a href="https://punchbowl.news/archive/41625-am/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=4/17/25%20%20AM:&utm_term=Punchbowl%20AM%20and%20Active%20Subscribers%20from%20Memberful%20Combined" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">opposed </a>Medicaid cuts; thousands are using online "anti-woke business finder" <em></em><a href="https://www.publicsquare.com/blog/culture/parallel-economy-meaning" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em> PublicSquare,</em></a> to <a href="https://www.thestranger.com/news/2025/03/25/79983467/publicsquare-is-an-inadvertent-gift-to-people-who-dont-want-to-fund-fascism" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">boycott MAGA </a>businesses instead, and Maine <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/trump-maine-funding-freeze" target="_blank">won, </a>again. </p><p>And the court rulings against autocracy mount. They've <a href="https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IRA-Funds-Challenge-PI-Opinion-4.15.25.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">blocked</a> freezes on billions in infrastructure and environmental funding, deportations in <a href="https://statesuniteddemocracy.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4139819478ff9d596dba6c455&id=c9f858ef0f&e=8c633457c7" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Colorado</a> and <a href="https://statesuniteddemocracy.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4139819478ff9d596dba6c455&id=23b4cd3fbc&e=8c633457c7" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nevada</a>, DOGE accessing information from Social Security, multiple <a href="https://link.punchbowl.news/click/39490928.6059/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmV1dGVycy5jb20vd29ybGQvdXMvZG9nZS1jZnBiLWRpc3JlZ2FyZGVkLWNvdXJ0LW9yZGVycy1tYXNzLWZpcmluZ3Mtc3RhdGVtZW50LXNheXMtMjAyNS0wNC0xOC8/648769476c40ce474b0fd342B62d031aa" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mass firings.</a> In a big win this week, Texas District Judge Fernando Rodriguez,  Trump-appointed despite his name,<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-federal-judge-deportations-alien-enemies-act-unlawful-b2743220.html" target="_blank"> ruled</a> the regime's use of the Alien Enemies Act to disappear Venezuelan immigrants "exceeds the scope of the statute and is contrary to (its) plain, ordinary meaning." Friday, another judge permanently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/tr..." target="_blank">struck down</a> a vengeful, bonkers executive order targeting Perkins Coie law firm as "a national security risk" simply because it worked with Hillary Clinton. In a furious, 102-page opinion, Judge Beryl Howell trashed every aspect of the order, said it violated the 1st, 5th and 6th amendments, and called it  "unconstitutional retaliation." "No American president has ever before issued executive orders like the one  at issue," she said, adding, "In purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase, 'The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’”</p><p>For every such substantive action pushing back against tyranny, there's inevitably and gratifyingly a grassroots, off-the-wall, often hilarious act of resistance from some random patriot who just can't take it anymore. Last month, after Trump threw a hissy fit about a portrait in Colorado he didn't like, filmmaker Michael Moore helpfully asked artful readers to create and send their own "PORTRAITS OF POTUS—America’s Art Attack for Democracy.” Over 2,000 did - <a href="https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/an-entire-wing-of-t..." target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/get-up-get-out-get-in-the-streets" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/massive-crowds-everywhere-and-everywhere" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here </a> - and they are....something to behold. Around the same time, some snarky tech nerds in California used their expertise to <a href="https://www.paloaltoonline.com/technology/2025/04/..." target="_blank">hack </a>crosswalk buttons at downtown intersections in Silicon Valley cities - Redwood City, Menlo Park, Palo Alto - that <a href="https://www.paloaltoonline.com/technology/2025/04/12/silicon-valley-crosswalk-buttons-apparently-hacked-to-imitate-musk-zuckerberg-voices/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">replicate</a> the unctuous  tones and sage musings of broligarchs Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. The signals still work - and still say 'wait' - but they <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4usmserhjqkvhldgedfjb3jw/post/3lmo22lcnk226?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252F" target="_blank">spout t</a>he inane ramblings of, say,  "Musk" arguing, "You know, people keep saying cancer is bad, but have you tried being a cancer? It’s fucking awesome," or lamely pleading, "Can we be friends? I'll give you a Cybertruck." One comment: "Friends don’t give friends Cybertrucks."</p><p>There are many <a href="https://www.theverge.com/news/647830/crosswalk-hack-musk-zuckerberg-voices-california" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">more.</a> Zuck pops up near Menlo Park, site of Meta’s headquarters, to declaim how proud he is of "everything we’ve been building together." "From undermining democracy, to cooking our grandparents’ brains with AI slop, to making the world less safe for trans people, nobody does it better than us," he goes on. "And I think that’s pretty neat." Another from Zuck: "It's normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every facet of your conscious experience. And I just want to assure you - you don’t need to worry, because there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop it.” From Elmo: "It's funny - I used to think Trump was just a stuffed sack of shit, but when you get to know him he's actually sweet and tender and loving." "You don’t know the level of depravity I would stoop to just for a crumb of approval," Musk also <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:uzdeesef7j4jcmqml4du6jt7/post/3lmocc3tirc2v?ref_src=embed&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.dailykos.com%252Fstories%252F2025%252F4%252F13%252F2316212%252F-Hilarious-resistance-Silicon-Valley-crosswalks-hacked-to-imitate-and-mock-Musk-and-Zuckerberg" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">says.</a> "I mean, let’s be real, it’s not like I had any moral convictions to begin with." "Every small thing you do helps remind people the wannabe dictators are sad, scared, fallible little boys," says one observer. John Adams, in a different context, "The sublimity of it charms me."</p><p>Finally, all hail the penguins of Heard and McDonald Islands, 2,485 miles off Australia in the Antarctic and accessible only by a seven-day boat trip, for fighting back against  the Orange Hand's tariff tyranny. Small but mighty, the  denizens of the Democratic Penguins Republic - "Our empire stands by the endless sea" - took up arms after Trump said he was slapping his "Liberation Day" tariffs on the islands' exports, which don't exist. "March, march, sons of the ice! For our holy island, they shall pay the price," they declared.  "The silence breaks, no more delay. The order stands, we march today!" And so it went. So fiercely, in fact, they soon announced <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOzP87HVCWw" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Victory Day - </a>"Damn, that was fast" - even though "they questioned why we wore no tie." "Victory Day! The war is won! A million penguins marched as one," they sang. "The motherland stood, proud and grey. All shall praise the Democratic Penguins Republic today!" Online, many did. They welcomed "our new penguin overlords," watched and re-watched "unironically as a factual news source," vowed, "In cod we trust," begged for DPR merch and heralded "a dose of sanity in this time of madness." Keep <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Wz3i_BYUc" target="_blank">marching.</a> </p><span></span><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
  26. <span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5fe867db7c860f4f1d95c263b4166f62" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HJ8qGOe2K0o?rel=0&start=1" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span>
  27. <small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">- YouTube</small>
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  29. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ8qGOe2K0o&t=1s" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
  30. </small>
  31. </p>]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 03 May 2025 04:48:37 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/further/good-trouble-march-march-sons-of-the-ice</guid><dc:creator>Abby Zimet</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/penguins-unite-against-a-predator-bird.jpg?id=60058144&amp;width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Donald Trump’s Budget Breaks His Promise to Protect Social Security</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/donald-trumps-budget-breaks-his-promise-to-protect-social-security</link><description><![CDATA[
  32. <p>The following is a statement from <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/3c7a8ad711cc448c81805357caaf10bf/1/542b44fe06bf6f0545a64cb6271a0c20910b2a471733c716728772b145acbcff?cache_buster=1746209979" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>Nancy Altman</u></a>, President of <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/3c7a8ad711cc448c81805357caaf10bf/2/a0569bda30b44de27515b421afc8c86904a85b903d23c05448f040efa283e2eb?cache_buster=1746209979" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>Social Security Works</u></a>, on the Trump administration’s <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/3c7a8ad711cc448c81805357caaf10bf/3/fce35e244dcce02f8baae8947bba25aecde5fe109f20e2adebf053ad0f026385?cache_buster=1746209979" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>FY 2026 budget blueprint</u></a>:</p><p>“Donald Trump ran for President on a promise to protect Social Security. This budget breaks that promise.</p><p>It keeps funding for the Social Security Administration (SSA) flat, which is a de-facto cut since SSA’s fixed costs, such as field office rents, <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/3c7a8ad711cc448c81805357caaf10bf/4/fdb25ee390251ef091a8728c3f8662d87bad3027d5f6c294b01254b8aa83a3e9?cache_buster=1746209979" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>go up every year</u></a> by over $600 million. </p><p>Furthermore, it forces SSA to spend more money on so-called “program integrity” — clawing back money from Americans who have been overpaid through no fault of their own — which creates extreme hardship, including homelessness. </p><p>The truth is that Social Security is extremely understaffed, which is increasing backlogs and wait times. This budget will make those backlogs and delays worse. It will make mistakes — including the <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/3c7a8ad711cc448c81805357caaf10bf/5/3d32c9525af6a2b0e0257d6f76904570fcc0016afbbddbbf00bf00e09369c6a0?cache_buster=1746209979" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>Orwellian nightmare</u></a> of being inadvertently declared dead when you are not — harder to fix.</p><p>This budget’s cuts to Social Security are right in line with Elon Musk’s DOGE, which has pushed out <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/3c7a8ad711cc448c81805357caaf10bf/6/b5c7ce13860daf91a3295b81befade2e82a73470d68ed21e3927159c463e4019?cache_buster=1746209979" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>over 7,000</u></a> SSA workers, including some of the most experienced and highly trained. Many Social Security field offices have <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/3c7a8ad711cc448c81805357caaf10bf/7/9433fd2e3d1c1c3682a50decc83f707a894c145eb199255e171cc604f098638f?cache_buster=1746209979" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>lost half their staff</u></a>, even as <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/3c7a8ad711cc448c81805357caaf10bf/8/01811047edfc6b65d07a4af30cb5f5011c0554986bf519b1471e0c1628c6bf6a?cache_buster=1746209979" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>DOGE is forcing</u></a> millions more people a year to visit those offices. What good are earned benefits that Americans can’t access?</p><p>Despite these massive cuts, as well as cuts to <a href="https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/3c7a8ad711cc448c81805357caaf10bf/9/ec998823454351289d12b5666ddb8f807772f8cc32d45cb11f5dbe238b8e687c?cache_buster=1746209979" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>other essential programs</u></a> like Meals on Wheels, the Trump administration continues to lie that it is protecting seniors and Social Security. No one should believe them.”</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 20:18:04 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/donald-trumps-budget-breaks-his-promise-to-protect-social-security</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>AFT’s Weingarten Responds to Trump’s 2026 Budget Proposal</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/afts-weingarten-responds-to-trumps-2026-budget-proposal</link><description><![CDATA[
  33. <p>AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after the release of President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget blueprint, which asks Congress to cut programs that help Americans:</p><p>“President Trump’s skinny budget cuts much of what helps poor, working-class and middle-class Americans, seemingly to pay for tax cuts for the rich. You can’t make this up.</p><p>“The draconian cuts to public education and lifesaving medical research and health agencies demonstrate a lack of care for Americans’ future and well-being.</p><p>“Our concern when the president started dismantling the Department of Education was not the bureaucracy but the funding. And now we know, he’s actually shortchanging kids. He would gut K-12 programs by $5.4 billion. Support for student aid would be slashed.</p><p>“Healthcare programs would be cut by more than a quarter and labor by more than one-third. And what he isn’t gutting he’s using to create a slush fund for state bureaucrats to do whatever they want with Title I money.</p><p>“Every president gets to pursue their agenda, but Trump’s budget proposal just strips away the supports children get in public schools across America, disproportionately in places that voted for him.</p><p>“Voters didn’t expect to lose their reading or after-school programs for a tax cut for the ultra wealthy. Meanwhile, Trump’s allies in Congress are trying to take an even bigger hatchet to critical supports for Americans—like healthcare, food assistance and education.</p><p>“We won’t stop fighting for America’s children, and we hope members of Congress will join us in opposing this proposal, which is a blatant attack on all of us.”</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 19:23:03 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/afts-weingarten-responds-to-trumps-2026-budget-proposal</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Trump Demands Cuts to Child Care, Housing Assistance as Economy Implodes</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trump-demands-cuts-to-child-care-housing-assistance-as-economy-implodes</link><description><![CDATA[
  34. <p>Today, President Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/President-Trumps-Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Funding-Request-Overview.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">unveiled</a> his draconian wish list of budget cuts to child care, health research, education, housing assistance, community development, and more. After spending his first months in office gutting federal agencies, the Trump Administration’s FY2026 Budget targets an additional $163 billion in funding for programs relied on by working families.</p><p>Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are scrambling to defund Medicaid, food assistance, and other vital programs that millions of Americans depend on during economic downturns so the GOP can pass another round of tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy. <strong>Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief of Policy and Advocacy Alex Jacquez</strong> reacted with the following statement:</p> <blockquote>“Budgets reveal priorities, and it’s clear that President Trump doesn’t care about making life more affordable for working families. He is driving the economy into a recession and gutting the programs that Americans will need to weather the storm. Americans want relief from Trump’s economic doom-loop, not another billionaire tax giveaway.”<br/></blockquote> <p>Email <a href="mailto:press@groundworkcollaborative.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">press@groundworkcollaborative.org</a> to speak with a Groundwork expert about today’s jobs report and President Trump’s handling of the economy.</p><p>THIS WEEK IN THE TRUMP SLUMP: New polling and economic indicators continue to show that President Trump is deliberately engineering a recession.</p><p>Economic Indicators:</p> <ul><li><a href="https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gross-domestic-product" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">GDP showed a 0.3% decrease</a> in the first quarter of 2025, landing below expectations. This is the first negative GDP reading since Q2 of 2022.</li><li>Consumer confidence, measured by the Conference Board, showed a <a href="https://www.conference-board.org/topics/consumer-confidence" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fifth straight month of decline</a>, the worst since the COVID-19 pandemic, with consumer expectations at a 13-year low. Additionally, the Expectations Index dropped to 54.4, the lowest level since October 2011, and well below the threshold of 80 that usually signals a recession. Expectations of inflation over the next year have climbed to 7.0%, the highest since November 2022.</li><li>The latest <a href="https://www.ismworld.org/supply-management-news-and-reports/reports/ism-report-on-business/pmi/april/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Manufacturing ISM report</a> found the manufacturing sector contracted in April for the second month in a row. The ISM Manufacturing PMI® registered 48.7% this month, down 0.3 points from March. <ul><li>Exports declined by 6.5 points (the largest drop since 2020), imports dropped by 3 points, and production fell by 4.3 points compared to last month. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariffs are sending prices through the roof. The ISM Prices Index registered 69.8%, the highest reading in nearly three years, driven mostly by increases in steel and aluminum prices.</li></ul> </li></ul> <p>Polling</p> <ul><li>72 percent — including 51 percent of Republicans — say it’s at least “somewhat” likely that Trump’s economic policies will lead to a recession, according to a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/tablet/2025/04/25/april-18-22-2025-washington-post-abc-news-ipsos-national-poll/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll</a>.</li><li>Polling from <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-approval-steady-concerns-over-economy-immigration-rise-reutersipsos-poll-2025-04-29/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Reuters/Ipsos</a> found that Trump’s economic approval rating dropped to 36%, the lowest point of either of his presidencies.</li><li><a href="https://navigatorresearch.org/anxious-discouraged-exhausted-the-first-100-days/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Navigator Research</a> found that Trump’s economic approval ratings are 16 points underwater, after being +1 at his inauguration. This is below even his overall approval. <ul><li>Navigator also <a href="https://navigatorresearch.org/americans-believe-president-trumps-policies-are-increasing-the-cost-of-living/?emci=769a9975-d226-f011-8b3d-6045bded8cca&emdi=9a23b821-3a27-f011-8b3d-6045bded8cca&ceid=1571400" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">found</a> that nearly 70 percent of Americans view the current state of the economy negatively, and a majority believe Trump’s policies are contributing to the rising cost of living.</li></ul> </li><li>A <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25920872-rel5b-economy-and-tariffs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN poll</a> found that almost 6 in 10 Americans think Trump’s policies are making the economy worse.</li></ul> <p>Expert Commentary</p> <ul><li>Mark Zandi, Chief Economist for Moody’s Analytics, warned of a “recession dead ahead” if Trump continued his trade war. He <a href="https://x.com/Markzandi/status/1917228795372642512" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a>, “The Conference Board consumer confidence survey fell sharply to 86 in April. It is off 19.3 points in the past 3 months. Just shy of the recession threshold of 20. Unless the trade war cools off very (very) soon, recession appears dead-ahead.”</li><li>Goldman Sachs <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/30/tariffs-to-spike-inflation-stunt-growth-and-raise-recession-risks-goldman-says-.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> that Trump’s tariffs will increase inflation and halt economic growth. “We continue to believe the risk from April 2 tariffs is greater than many market participants have previously assumed,” they wrote.</li><li>Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist for Nationwide, warned that the economy will slow down in the upcoming months as tariffs kick in and businesses are hesitant to spend. Bostjancic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/business/us-economy-gdp-tariffs.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a>, “Once everything kicks in, we’ll have a slower economy, the labor market slowing. Hiring has already stalled, and we expect the unemployment rate to start to rise.”</li><li>According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-04-25/economists-say-trade-war-makes-us-recession-almost-a-coin-flip?sref=a5mft8DW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>, economists are projecting a 45% chance of a recession, up 30% from March.</li><li>Jamie Dimon <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/goldman-sachs-offers-advice-on-tariffs-to-countries-scrambling-to-please-trump-a138835f" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reportedly</a> told investors that a mild recession would be the “best-case” scenario from Trump’s trade war.</li></ul>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 19:10:22 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trump-demands-cuts-to-child-care-housing-assistance-as-economy-implodes</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Big Medicine Medicare Advantage Insurers Caught Bribing Brokers</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/big-medicine-medicare-advantage-insurers-caught-bribing-brokers</link><description><![CDATA[
  35. <p>Following <a href="https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https:/link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=u001.OMdVzV-2FN-2FjMvjjQtI3xB4rID2SXjo-2BINS3e9ep317B6u-2Fhivl-2BF2hGcBVKh4Eu0VzapV-2BMTbZo5W-2FPKpI-2BYn3O4-2B1Mu5nnBh7ZVMQAcdGdWVT0JuqGh-2BrGoG9IFpPflQsXDJNY2weN5o5L73mQnUp14bRFGOOwmKPwc3n5cixyI-3D3chm_oM7GKyPgU6VXhmS-2BmIhmKvQCQuZs8aRfSyghYq8AWldu-2FXcyce3RbPHGpNa-2BGY0qzWnY0eSjL0GO9UyxVT4W2EnK53fa7RMJpaxShI-2B66uv8g70OlcJ36NWz3TfQ30H3n-2FV6Y16foIKjzq9oA9knyja-2BznqmeAhmur9OAE2cFXGRVp4lT5nKAL-2BDCeyRe4o4KoTE0Y1PyB1-2BTrksoObgfI6YouTP0ZiBPUwa3IqHJpSeKOuqR94uhSjh0w6UwfxBmEbwxhWZ3p8OI6QzUokUhpr-2Bg-2F5Yazuobj4Rpp6-2FSREPF7PSk-2BrsiP6Y600raolDoUITOK5opWpnNwGQaXWFV6sd-2FpRrYcFz0lSy-2FSr7tTk8fZF0i9OWHIuXKLOwQ0gheU8DseAwJK-2ByQ7IYfUzXSA-3D-3D___.YzJ1OmFlbHBlY29ub21pY2xpYmVydGllczpjOm86YzE2OGRkYWExOTFiYjU3YmJhMmEzNTExN2UzYmEzNjU6NzphZTM3OmI3YzRiM2NjNmFlYTM4NjAxYjhjOWQyYzgxYTJiNjNiMjdjNTEwMWEzN2NkZTIyOGE2MjAwNWFiMzk3NDZmYWU6aDpGOkY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">news</a> that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued three of the largest Medicare Advantage insurers for allegedly paying brokers hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks to steer customers toward their plans and to steer clear of potential enrollees with disabilities, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.</p><p>“Private Medicare Advantage plans routinely fail to deliver quality care—especially for seniors and the most vulnerable—and are among the most wasteful, fraudulent, and abusive actors in our healthcare system,” <strong>said Emma Freer, Senior Policy Analyst for Healthcare at the American Economic Liberties Project.</strong> “For years, these firms have driven seniors into worse care with deceptive marketing and discrimination, but now it’s clear they’re crooks too—bribing brokers behind closed doors because they know no one would choose these plans on a level playing field. We’re thrilled to see the DOJ crack down on Aetna, Elevance Health, and Humana—three vertically-integrated Fortune 40 Big Medicine conglomerates—and urge the DOJ to move swiftly on its ongoing monopolization and fraud investigations in the largest Medicare Advantage plan provider, UnitedHealth Group.”</p><p>Medicare Advantage is the privatized version of Medicare and now covers more than half of Medicare patients. Intended to lower costs and improve quality, Medicare Advantage has had the opposite effect. The program is expected to cost taxpayers 20% more per enrollee – or $84 billion annually – than traditional Medicare in 2025. Meanwhile, Medicare Advantage plans deny claims at much higher rates, stranding vulnerable seniors without medically-necessary care to further pad their own profits. Despite its promises to crack down on such wasteful spending, the Trump administration <a href="https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https:/link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=u001.OMdVzV-2FN-2FjMvjjQtI3xB4guys9Uo-2BMCHUg4JVDmQpYh-2FQWQn50JA4yu24DW-2Fyc38HyhMJF3VYo2kGqCBk7LaWCfESgwx5XLVs0OXkJ43TVpnXBGSn3bEjMyK0UivE0lB3g3kM7K3ucnZMRxqkG84gybkck0zHzks-2FwH-2BXvn6wNC7pDVzgxJBAUnlHLEUqzo7RxIiQx68WbYytiozXdGH3w-3D-3D0Nec_oM7GKyPgU6VXhmS-2BmIhmKvQCQuZs8aRfSyghYq8AWldu-2FXcyce3RbPHGpNa-2BGY0qzWnY0eSjL0GO9UyxVT4W2EnK53fa7RMJpaxShI-2B66uv8g70OlcJ36NWz3TfQ30H3n-2FV6Y16foIKjzq9oA9knyja-2BznqmeAhmur9OAE2cFXGRVp4lT5nKAL-2BDCeyRe4o4KoTE0Y1PyB1-2BTrksoObgfI6YouTP0ZiBPUwa3IqHJpTzaWXKOKKZYmyHd271Pxbxgs6WWT-2Bu0qab3D0eTn9iZHvy54BHEDjgunvXL40-2BV3vbqYCy3eOJo7-2FoqCh-2FmrYu1oJHBO8smZFrQBDQ2W7Nc4RILGfMjNM7h2-2BJXXq0lSTNfgWYaBx-2BBTh5TSkz7dK41zVHyv2WSDHbMThn1l5Tww-3D-3D___.YzJ1OmFlbHBlY29ub21pY2xpYmVydGllczpjOm86YzE2OGRkYWExOTFiYjU3YmJhMmEzNTExN2UzYmEzNjU6NzpmYzY0OjIxODUzYmM2NWFmN2IzODRkZjc0OGU4ZGQzNTM2NDBhNTVkOWYyNDI4NjYxY2ZjMDBlZWVmZDBjNjAxODlmOTg6aDpGOkY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recently announced</a> it would substantially increase payments to private Medicare Advantage plans in 2026, rewarding their bad behavior.</p><p><strong>Learn more about Medicare Advantage </strong><a href="https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https:/link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=u001.OMdVzV-2FN-2FjMvjjQtI3xB4guys9Uo-2BMCHUg4JVDmQpYjLhYFJrHc-2BP5a1927cvbszSJeevRl8zWtGu5OO-2FJiDygdoUb2mO9Wq4jpJljOZLMzwZ31xDZMV8SMfbPz81V5lp5gxSQHw-2Ftp-2BlWqDEW5z5w-3D-3DZT6P_oM7GKyPgU6VXhmS-2BmIhmKvQCQuZs8aRfSyghYq8AWldu-2FXcyce3RbPHGpNa-2BGY0qzWnY0eSjL0GO9UyxVT4W2EnK53fa7RMJpaxShI-2B66uv8g70OlcJ36NWz3TfQ30H3n-2FV6Y16foIKjzq9oA9knyja-2BznqmeAhmur9OAE2cFXGRVp4lT5nKAL-2BDCeyRe4o4KoTE0Y1PyB1-2BTrksoObgfI6YouTP0ZiBPUwa3IqHJpRpkBBXZimzqLX-2FsH-2FStyYv-2FMryVOGsOu9R4whtOWcLoqGzJvu20X9IJ5rOPLD4wrLw3tFGzP-2FfN9REikQ7bjuf9x9mf1sJTTsqtdBlktnXSEDIQNzIAR2eT-2FCFmpuLNsDq0XU5tBj5Yw3zpzwi0TtHBAwxLcWJOzTkOaUfteiVlg-3D-3D___.YzJ1OmFlbHBlY29ub21pY2xpYmVydGllczpjOm86YzE2OGRkYWExOTFiYjU3YmJhMmEzNTExN2UzYmEzNjU6NzpmNzc0OjUzYzc4YTk4NGIwMDBmMGM1MTI2ZDg1N2Y0ZDVjMmE0NzUwYmViNGI4MjI4YmVhMDE5N2VjZjI1MGUxMmM1YmU6aDpGOkY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>here</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p><p><strong>Learn more about Economic Liberties’ Break Up Big Medicine initiative to address healthcare consolidation </strong><a href="https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https:/link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=u001.OMdVzV-2FN-2FjMvjjQtI3xB4ks3-2Finx4DQ3WxC7rutwIVYWtLFQe0D1f-2FasIHfPzhv3kJpu8UKDi8-2FvFWxHC1udmCgbPRhoFeKNDPJRiIoCvR64tcxQkI-2B0vEqSnIRawPLebCFMo9tFO0E63FPg25AvIkamAWg1qj-2FqGnGqvgppiDIM8lMi2ZPFoYNdEA3pP44Yb7pxi-2BjL3fciJIFoJhYvXAHtR1B7M0-2FUYdl4mB0L6O5TGaFanc0oKepS1LLOWF6-2BEsb9Hr8o2Dnl7kVxMZBKcDrOa0NTYjnQOm4pZmypE-2Fti64Ds1dx5q-2FEcATGdaXR63-2Fg1NYIK8vKkwu4XN7U9b5z8HFQDSqiip8b7UGqRVm4yXUi0nApxc70WETv3RTpHT0DIW11nT0RiW4kH1nzyNFRcRwZd7PIL1SmmyBBC5HaWyltR-2FUF4FPj5C-2F3IuJAS-2Bllxu-2Fdh8V-2FxBGaheqYTWVSlLs2Ea0rjr41r7bTnayg-2BrTR4-2FONYfBRTZ54icCl2sKdGHJrM4RMXhFtfHD0jSD4i30hpsdU11yFPqlOgWjp7cF9lWHTKM6kEV-2F6WXnUtZy-2BMUd69A0Xh2aBt-2FXE-2BV26TZukUkYdOWQtUM5vWOiolkqJJFDQfRxZyXuvqnBh-2BlQBP4Tpzl-2FdvDKpSd7-2BsNt1Le9fzDYX5cTd0xlQcO7-2FQkZkuZ5s-2B9feXacpAhnVs6j1YNs-2FvNXl1go3lraMu6TZpC7vsyd6B-2FD6KVDpv9weoHI9UrtSV7unjMlv93d4K6yxVhbIVxYbKtSfesTvfcXdwfNWW1uvOa79WdZDETRr6znG269qVKbaDydo-2FbMq1zlzKLku6b7-2FvrT9MekOLbVP5vIla4q7WShDWWP1rxJrNUuUM7El3gKdcy3ExvK9WqFFIGnREWiOEl48TTYGNItBm8j-2Fmu2aQPKFiIo7BIcvpOqlrnmEDoownnR8xdybpXTuUtP4huOEY-2BaHUNQRIoTv2d9fFCLfKlg-2BJA1WzgkS7TD9mfraQV4Wif-2F2DRFGWCt0QjjW6Uq-2B7dBYCEP2hcxULv4Ru7PiAXQmVvl0IFvsAMcRUdg2DzkC0kjttP-2FmfvEj7_oM7GKyPgU6VXhmS-2BmIhmKvQCQuZs8aRfSyghYq8AWldu-2FXcyce3RbPHGpNa-2BGY0qzWnY0eSjL0GO9UyxVT4W2EnK53fa7RMJpaxShI-2B66uv8g70OlcJ36NWz3TfQ30H3n-2FV6Y16foIKjzq9oA9knyja-2BznqmeAhmur9OAE2cFXGRVp4lT5nKAL-2BDCeyRe4o4KoTE0Y1PyB1-2BTrksoObgfI6YouTP0ZiBPUwa3IqHJpSmYEhA1iXOF-2BlTIKuK7ilwUSoHYjgS2wjBzqmtDS95Nwl5hHNynPhDeshqoWHglmQiFxfCLyHhseil4-2B6dHmMJ8jmKSLj2HKVpMLdaPpR1-2B6beoXsVIMUmV8LuEm1IV6IKxs82qzBCQoymWe5v8KzjrMADZIukYbVUgXZeXFXKtQ-3D-3D___.YzJ1OmFlbHBlY29ub21pY2xpYmVydGllczpjOm86YzE2OGRkYWExOTFiYjU3YmJhMmEzNTExN2UzYmEzNjU6Nzo3YzkwOmQ4NmZhYTkyM2NlNzZjYTFhMGM2YTBlYWE0MzU5N2FiNjA5NWUxNGVkMmY0MjQ3MmY0MjM2OGJhMTRlYzE5NDY6aDpGOkY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>here</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p><p><strong>Learn more about Economic Liberties </strong><a href="https://protect.checkpoint.com/v2/r01/___https:/link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=u001.OMdVzV-2FN-2FjMvjjQtI3xB4ks3-2Finx4DQ3WxC7rutwIVYWtLFQe0D1f-2FasIHfPzhv3kJpu8UKDi8-2FvFWxHC1udmCgbPRhoFeKNDPJRiIoCvR64tcxQkI-2B0vEqSnIRawPLebCFMo9tFO0E63FPg25AvIkamAWg1qj-2FqGnGqvgppiDIwBJ1Oc67REu7zwPLvK-2BalZ-2F27sO6vmCcZBIm7PyHRB4nOOKbM-2BUnxn1vFW9JigYNdmUXVNLP4VWVpnASdQIK-2BdY9aHQRoMW5gPS-2F2i5j8eyStwxxt3IdHjpuTRfwhw-2BaP8TPZEXBtCcRtKCT12uVLtZq9-2FrNsKDz07PWu-2FMdSsqPq-2BNmHoNxKhxeY-2F2JF2Q3ISy0wy-2F9vDCg1YcAKicAryl0uieJgp8OobuJInBKyScRV77OlfjAfvYtdWd9ZQ02L2IBTJyKUiNcXJ6LTSJVeif6mifW8ixJJWAtvNpEk-2Fd4WUK5af7tgI7WK6CkU5gxFIZX-2FhJzlWnrpEiP8StWa-2B-2FIWs2yIagdwffd-2B3qwvb50AQ-2BG9vIgz9V2COoV5c5DNMNDvO-2FQU4u-2FLzUDql-2BTbyCGTxgC9kO3Z94-2BTmsVGu8Ztb3lCc-2BnQidqO5MGp0Lct0YV-2FItt3DOXQD1c6f0UTHdXhz6NOoBoToQD-2B5Sp-2FycZe7QisGgPWSwMuBOGnly7167UaJJYUtRJSkJYHMdTvsb29TwZR0AXBsfpC2UDpfnQWXrWZA79wvLZ0H-2FgiNLt7ZKG-2BsIR4ym-2FmmHhQclGBmlITlFWLM8BlYt6X34uZXcDz-2BNwqHKqoehDYF1HOT9IqyHDS-2FeoNsy6wgQG6g7E8G3woYuSnIqgaG4thF2EFH2EuZaatDxzRvH7UMS9S5-2F2rQZIUZSI-2FSt8HakhOet4qZh-2FvNAwBKe4C98Vftt0XP55-2FvLfNgqtCTIm-2FEh1aep07-2BPkgySWxXxYCKIzQl1PiZVIGdxS2lDb1Ou8LVa4mdrocZzFPIkX9LdaTst-2Bh-2BpCt8nQEAccEGq4fbNpEUM7DEPRnFWivziUnLNFXXCD8iKVhtdk6J7TiK99Pz0SOKElyb23uJEl-2F1LMgIqmwPMkSxHcB_oM7GKyPgU6VXhmS-2BmIhmKvQCQuZs8aRfSyghYq8AWldu-2FXcyce3RbPHGpNa-2BGY0qzWnY0eSjL0GO9UyxVT4W2EnK53fa7RMJpaxShI-2B66uv8g70OlcJ36NWz3TfQ30H3n-2FV6Y16foIKjzq9oA9knyja-2BznqmeAhmur9OAE2cFXGRVp4lT5nKAL-2BDCeyRe4o4KoTE0Y1PyB1-2BTrksoObgfI6YouTP0ZiBPUwa3IqHJpRBtquDV0arcMCslIjLXr-2FXQF7ynajGWZkiKvJKb3wFuQnb3QXELsJV-2Fg3-2Bn1XUQpqEdnIxtztvv7jb-2BwQWA0JrgaTFyGcVUcVdC-2BQL-2Byr8sMPMtspx8NcEwA7nQbwTb1h5lCdN-2B2tOea9Dl1UjBpCOmXr22bQM8t3CBvQKfPKrWw-3D-3D___.YzJ1OmFlbHBlY29ub21pY2xpYmVydGllczpjOm86YzE2OGRkYWExOTFiYjU3YmJhMmEzNTExN2UzYmEzNjU6NzpmMDY3Ojc0YWY0MDE3MGE0Y2JkMjQ1ZmFkNWQ2NGFjYTU1ZGU2ZjRiZTJlMmU4N2Q5YjNkNGExYTJkY2U3ODRlZWE4NDM6aDpGOkY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>here</strong></a><strong>. </strong></p><p><em><br/><br/></em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 19:09:10 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/big-medicine-medicare-advantage-insurers-caught-bribing-brokers</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>President Trump’s Budget Proposal Slashes Programs Millions Rely On To Make Ends Meet</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/president-trumps-budget-proposal-slashes-programs-millions-rely-on-to-make-ends-meet</link><description><![CDATA[
  36. <p>Today, President Donald Trump released his fiscal year 2026 budget. In response, <strong><a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/people/bobby-kogan/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bobby Kogan</a></strong>, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, released the following statement.</p> <blockquote>Trump’s budget request puts a sledgehammer to the programs that millions of Americans rely on. It would cut nondefense discretionary spending by $174 billion, leaving it at the lowest level as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) on record. The proposed cuts are extreme by any standard, but they’re extreme even by Trump’s own standards. For comparison, in his skinny budget in 2017, Trump called to cut this category of funding by $54 billion. The cuts in this budget are especially egregious when you consider that Trump is also trying to push the largest Medicaid and food assistance cuts in American history through Congress over the next few months.<br/><br/>If it goes into effect, Trump’s budget proposal would make it much harder for Americans to cover basic needs such as child care and education—harming American households and leaving vulnerable families even worse off. Specifically, his budget request calls for enormous cuts to K-12 education and rental assistance as well as for the elimination of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps poor households heat their homes in the winter. Americans are not going to be better off by any means. Trump’s budget proposal will come at the expense of the American people.<br/></blockquote>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 19:07:20 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/president-trumps-budget-proposal-slashes-programs-millions-rely-on-to-make-ends-meet</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Trump’s Budget Betrays the American People</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-budget-betrays-the-american-people</link><description><![CDATA[
  37. <p>Continuing their campaign to make life more expensive for millions of Americans by slashing access to healthcare, housing, and community services, the Trump administration today unveiled <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/02/us/trump-budget-2026/heres-the-latest?smid=url-share" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">$163 billion</a> in drastic budget cuts for the 2026 fiscal year. Among other things, Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">proposal</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/02/us/trump-budget-2026?smid=url-share#heres-the-latest" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">calls</a> for $674 million in cuts from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Program Management, $18 billion in cuts to the National Institute of Health, $27 billion in cuts to rental assistance, and $12 billion in education cuts, funding cuts that in total would impact tens of millions of everyday Americans.</p><p>Trump’s budget reinforces the Republican plan to reimagine government for the ultra-wealthy and special interests, as Republican lawmakers <a href="https://accountable.us/consumer-protections-education-on-the-line-as-republican-lawmakers-slash-funding-to-offset-billionaire-tax-cuts/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">clear a path</a> for tax cuts for themselves, their wealthy donors, and giant corporations. </p><blockquote>“President Trump is again betraying the millions of Americans who believed him when he promised to lower costs. This time, he’s taking aim at anyone who attends a public school, relies on rental assistance to keep a roof over their heads, or accesses healthcare through Medicaid or Medicare. Instead of standing up for everyday Americans, Trump is prioritizing his own wallet and the tax benefits of his wealthy donors—leaving local communities and small towns to bear the brunt of his cuts.”  —Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk<br/></blockquote>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 19:00:07 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/trumps-budget-betrays-the-american-people</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>House GOP Plan to Pay for Billionaire Tax Cuts Will Destroy Public Lands, Speed Climate Change</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/house-gop-plan-to-pay-for-billionaire-tax-cuts-will-destroy-public-lands-speed-climate-change</link><description><![CDATA[
  38. <p>The House Natural Resources Committee released its portion of the Republican House reconciliation bill late Thursday. It’s part of a Republican proposal to help fund President Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires.</p><p>The Republican plan calls for ramping up oil and gas lease sales on public lands and waters, opening at least 4 million acres of public lands for new coal leasing, reinstating multiple highly contested mining leases, authorizing a massive road to aid mining in some of the most pristine wilderness areas in the country, and legislating increased timber production on public forests.</p><p>“This extreme proposal shows that House Republicans are hellbent on following Trump’s plan to sell out America’s public lands and offshore waters to the world’s worst polluters,” says Ashley C. Nunes, public lands policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Republicans are treating our most precious wild places as nothing more than opportunities for industry to plunder, profit and pollute.”</p><p>The bill would overturn several landmark decisions made by the Biden administration to prevent irreparable harm to sensitive resources. The bill mandates the following:</p><ul><li><strong>Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska:</strong> Four more oil leases that would disrupt polar bear habitat, caribou calving grounds, and the migration patterns of other wildlife.</li><li>Cook Inlet, Alaska: Six oil lease sales, putting fragile endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales at risk from seismic testing and oil spills.</li><li>Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota: Reverses a mining ban on 225,000 acres of federal land and opening it to Twin Metal’s sulfide mining, which threatens to pollute the adjacent Boundary Water wilderness.</li><li>Brooks Range Wilderness, Alaska: Reverses a ban on the 211-mile Ambler mining road that would stretch across the vast unspoiled wilderness of the Brooks Range, to facilitate an industrial mining complex on behalf of a foreign mining company. Caribou migrations may also be affected as the road intersects their migration paths.</li></ul><p>The bill includes other provisions that expand extractive industries and undermine environmental protections. For example, it reduces royalties for oil producers, establishes rental fees for renewables on public lands, and directs agencies to increase timber harvests by 25%. It also allow project sponsors to pay a fee to cover environmental review and receive expedited completion.</p><p>“From oil drilling in the Arctic and Gulf, to coal mining in the Boundary Waters, to chopping down majestic old-growth trees across the country, a slew of ruinous projects are fast-tracked by this pay-to-play reconciliation package,” Nunes said. “This is nothing short of a plan to let Trump’s friends get rich by destroying our landscapes, coastal waters and wildlife habitat.”</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 18:58:40 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/house-gop-plan-to-pay-for-billionaire-tax-cuts-will-destroy-public-lands-speed-climate-change</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Sierra Club Statement on Draft Natural Resources Committee Reconciliation Text</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/sierra-club-statement-on-draft-natural-resources-committee-reconciliation-text</link><description><![CDATA[
  39. <p><strong> </strong>Last night, the House Committee on Natural Resources unveiled <a href="https://docs.house.gov/meetings/II/II00/20250506/118151/BILLS-119-CommitteePrint-W000821-Amdt-012.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">its proposed section</a> for the massive Republican energy, tax, and national security bill.</p><p>The sprawling proposal, released in the dead of night, includes dozens of provisions that would benefit the oil and gas industry and other corporations, at the expense of American families.</p><p>A markup of the draft legislative text is scheduled for May 6.</p><p><em><strong>In response, Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, released the following statement:</strong></em></p><p>“This proposal is a corporate polluter’s wishlist. The only way it could be friendlier to Big Oil CEOs would be if they wrote it themselves. Let’s be clear, this proposal is a means to an end. The end is tax cuts for billionaires, and the means are selling off the public lands that belong to the American people. These provisions enable drilling and mining as quickly, lucratively, and free from public scrutiny as possible, even allowing the fossil fuel industry to buy their way out of judicial oversight. It’s a giveaway to industry, and Americans should not stand for it.”</p><p><em>Among the draft proposals are:</em></p><ul><li><strong>Handing over our public lands to corporate polluters:</strong><ul><li>Mandating oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic Refuge</li><li>Ending protections for the pristine Boundary Waters watershed</li><li>Reinstating canceled leases for the proposed Twin Metals mine</li></ul></li><li><strong>Expanded drilling on public lands:</strong><ul><li>Requiring at least four lease sales per year for oil and gas drilling in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming, along with any other state with “available land” under the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA).</li><li>Forbidding the Bureau of Land Management from adding new stipulations or mitigation measures to leases – only those from applicable land use plans</li><li>Reauthorizing noncompetitive leasing</li></ul></li><li><strong>Rolling back common-sense fiscal reforms that hold the fossil fuel industry accountable to pay their fair share:</strong><ul><li>Reinstating a 12.5% royalty rate, which was first put in place more than 100 years ago from current level of 16.67%</li><li>Authorizing royalty reductions for noncompetitive and reinstated leases “due to uneconomic or other circumstances”</li></ul></li><li><strong>Gutting bedrock environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA):</strong><ul><li>If project sponsors pay a fee (equal to 125% of estimated costs of preparing NEPA document), environmental assessments must be finalized within six months and environmental impact statements within one year –</li><li>Prohibiting judicial review for any sponsored EAs/EISs</li></ul></li><li><strong>Fast-tracking drilling permits:</strong><ul><li>Extending Application for Permit to Drill (APD) terms to 4 years (from 3 years under current federal rules)</li><li>Requiring regulations within two years establishing “permit-by-rule” – operators may certify compliance with the regulations and begin drilling within 45 days</li><li>Forgoing federal permits, bonds or mitigation measures for drilling on certain non-federal lands overlying federal oil and gas resources</li></ul></li><li><strong>Scrapping Resource Management Plans (RMPs):</strong><ul><li>Prohibiting the implementation of the Rock Springs, Miles City, Buffalo, North Dakota and Colorado River Valley/Grand Junction resource management plans</li></ul></li></ul>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 18:54:48 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/sierra-club-statement-on-draft-natural-resources-committee-reconciliation-text</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>House Natural Resources Would Give Oil Industry Free Rein on Public Lands, Waters</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/house-natural-resources-would-give-oil-industry-free-rein-on-public-lands-waters</link><description><![CDATA[
  40. <p>The House Committee on Natural Resources released its bill text that would be part of the massive tax cut measure for billionaires the majority in Congress is developing. It contains an unprecedented slate of direct attacks on the environment and public lands and waters.</p><p><strong>The following is a statement from </strong><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/bio/kyle-t-jones" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Kyle Jones</strong></a><strong>, director of federal affairs at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):</strong> </p><p>“This measure would give the oil industry free rein to pillage our public lands and oceans. Instead of helping the American people and our shared public resources, it would allow the oil, coal and timber industries to pick and choose the areas they want to exploit. And it exposes irreplaceable Alaskan wilderness to destructive oil drilling, industrial roadways and mining.</p><p>“Worst of all, it allows fossil fuel companies and other big polluters to buy their way out of meaningful review or public input into their projects. So, that would mean one set of rules for the fossil fuel and logging barons, and another for the rest of us.</p><p>“The best thing that can be said about this measure, is that it may be too radical for even this Congress. For the good of Americans and our shared resources, it should be quickly cast aside and forgotten.”</p><p><strong>Background</strong></p><p>As part of the process of developing the reconciliation bill, the House Natural Resources committee released its draft measure last night. It includes the following provisions:</p> <ul><li>mandatory on- and offshore oil and gas lease sales, from Alaska's Arctic Refuge to the Gulf, all while— </li><li>allowing oil companies to select for themselves which of our public lands are leased; and </li><li>rolling back important fiscal reforms that require producers to pay their fair share for drilling in public lands and waters;</li><li>a pay-to-play system to rush environmental reviews and block any oversight, enabling polluters to bypass environmental safeguards with no way to hold them accountable to the public;</li><li>four million acres of new coal leasing on public lands; </li><li>brazen proposals to supplant the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act to further the development of yesterday’s energy sources; </li><li>a destructive mandate to increase logging on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands by at least 25 percent over 2024 levels, while rescinding funding to identify and protect old-growth forests; </li><li>attacks on protected spaces with chilling particularity, enabling large-scale mining in Alaska and mineral extraction just upstream of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters; and </li><li>rescissions of an array of vital funding for projects that create jobs and support rural communities, like forest restoration, National Marine Sanctuary facilities and ecosystem restoration at the National Park Service. </li></ul>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 18:53:51 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/house-natural-resources-would-give-oil-industry-free-rein-on-public-lands-waters</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Defenders Denounces Destructive Natural Resources Reconciliation Text</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/defenders-denounces-destructive-natural-resources-reconciliation-text</link><description><![CDATA[
  41. <p>Defenders of Wildlife strongly denounces the House Natural Resources Committee’s text for the upcoming reconciliation bill. This egregious legislation would undermine critical wildlife protections and destroy or degrade large swaths of wildlife habitats through destructive mandates for increased logging and massive oil and gas lease sales on American public land, including portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. </p><p>“This bill would be devastating for American wildlife and the habitats they depend on,” <strong>said Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders.</strong> “It puts a bullseye on already imperiled polar bears, whales and hundreds of other species that depend on the integrity of federal lands and waters for their survival. Congress shouldn't be handing over these vital and cherished wildlife habitats on public lands to oil and other extractive companies for bigger profits.”</p><p><strong>Among other harmful provisions, the proposed text will:</strong></p><ul><li>Circumvent the National Environmental Policy Act by allowing pay-to-play permitting, expediting environmental reviews and barring administrative or judicial review for projects by companies that pay an additional fee.</li><li>Require no fewer than four mandated lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge in not less than 10 years.</li><li>Amend the purpose of the National Petroleum Reserve Production Act to mandate an oil and gas leasing program in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska.</li><li>Increase timber production by requiring annual issuance of 20-year contracts in each region for the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.</li><li>Require quarterly lease sales of onshore oil and gas in any state with available land, including Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Alaska. </li><li>Require no fewer than 30 offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico in a 15-year period.</li><li>Require no fewer than six lease sales in Cook Inlet, Alaska over a 10-year period.</li><li>Allow the Secretary of the Interior to waive any requirement under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that the Secretary determines would delay issuance of a lease under a lease sale. </li></ul>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 18:04:36 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/defenders-denounces-destructive-natural-resources-reconciliation-text</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Order to End Federal Support for NPR and PBS Is a Legally Dubious Push to Censor Media Coverage Trump Dislikes</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/order-to-end-federal-support-for-npr-and-pbs-is-a-legally-dubious-push-to-censor-media-coverage-trump-dislikes</link><description><![CDATA[
  42. <p>Late Thursday night, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aiming to end federal support of NPR and PBS “to the maximum extent allowed by law.” </p><p>In April, the White House revealed a plan to ask Congress to claw back nearly $1.1 billion in already-approved federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the entity that provides federal support for NPR and PBS affiliates. Thursday night’s executive order instructs the CPB to cease funding the two entities by June 30. </p><p>Free Press Co-CEO <strong>Craig Aaron</strong> said:</p><p>“Trump’s attack on public media shows why our democracy is on life support. Healthy democracies have independent, well-funded and robust public-media systems. At their best, noncommercial media put the public interest before profits and hold power to account. Trump’s outrageous order to end federal support for NPR and PBS takes U.S. media in the opposite direction. It’s riddled with falsehoods and disinformation about public media, much of it seemingly cribbed from right-wing blogs and newsletters. Despite the president’s twisted claims, public broadcasting remains an incredibly popular use of taxpayer dollars, and local stations provide trustworthy news and cultural programming, as well as lifesaving coverage during emergencies.</p><p>“The order’s legality is dubious at best — Congress appropriates funds for public broadcasting, and the president doesn’t get a magic eraser for programs he doesn’t like. The government’s unhinged attempt to defund news outlets they deem biased is blatant censorship. This represents a dangerous assault on independent journalism and public accountability — and it’s not happening in isolation. The Trump administration is also pushing Congress to rescind public media’s already-approved budget and is trying to remove board members at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for no legally justifiable reason. Brendan Carr, Trump’s top censor at the Federal Communications Commission, has also launched an investigation into the underwriting practices of NPR and PBS, using it as a pretext to call for an end to funding. </p><p>“After years of attacking journalists and lying about their work, it’s no surprise that Trump and his minions are trying to silence and shutter any newsroom that dares to ask him questions or show the devastating impact of his policies on local communities. Yet in many of those communities, the local public-media station is the only source of independent reporting. Trump, of course, prefers fawning propaganda — which too many commercial TV and radio broadcasters are willing to provide in exchange for regulatory favors, or to stay off the president’s target list. Since Trump can’t shake down NPR and PBS the same way he’s doing to CBS and ABC, he’s trying to starve them of the resources they need to survive. </p><p>“Attacking journalists and the media is on page one of the authoritarian playbook. This is why everyone who cares about accountability and democracy should be deeply concerned about public media’s future. The current system is far from perfect, and for too long public broadcasting’s leaders have cowered and conceded when they should have been pushing back. But all of us who care about an independent press, an informed populace, a responsive government and a thriving democracy have a stake in the outcome of this fight. If we unite to defend public media — and I believe we can and will prevail — then we might just save our democracy, too.”<br/><br/><strong>Background:</strong> In February, Craig Aaron<a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=u001.gqh-2BaxUzlo7XKIuSly0rCy-2FfHQkg9aXJvPRf26hLUM-2F-2Fwj2HsN-2Fuc9Nxf1issN1-2FbwAdx6x1mnzcNdJ1U6pnoNTVrl5l2CRBuKGipJKoN-2F7kAYCORtS2cKt1zLAsZQfOJIp8r4Gf9H6HsR-2Ff3lNVD73LWgYp8UVn2g2ZouSwYHY-3Dcb25_YlLmf0ZTZpG7R9lcA36PUTxeXs1YCGnry7L2IQE5n-2FldCFPF2MrkhPO0YBPPGc9ciK5v0P9Y-2BDjDL8S55LIUIjI4DTvgKwA10IgNeQi-2BnBr0nFIHA559qLqUF4MfTykb2XFAJlW55IISgwZDLeLhak-2FIEPRsS347S5pwoOWu7H5MLox2DfzM3ahqD1TFxq7c0biN1mcaao8Iev-2FZ1DkrBZx86iabZ99Kk8Ydpu-2FSx131ls-2F9aoDqalDdB7tis7A5NBQwZVcIKwBdTw6GvtZuO-2FKYkacP25PmD06fTFzSVU0x627W4h27nj-2FTxobLvdxZIDqirVoAnTpFqJ-2F6EFtOYQ-3D-3D" target="_blank"> testified before the House Judiciary Committee</a> about the Trump administration’s campaign of censorship against media viewpoints the president doesn’t like, calling it a “free-speech emergency.” In May 2024, he <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=u001.gqh-2BaxUzlo7XKIuSly0rCy-2FfHQkg9aXJvPRf26hLUM8tFS7tXz9J4eWdSLqyjzrW1QB2zg9FW9EF39Yk5uAhmKBSuq84IOMJnGrGBrt2Umgqs7Omj8G344wVytopFjVge4YN88hTj9Lt-2B-2FRe-2BkqrN7SjL2Qgrfde3mXLOvpC0QyQDtgp7NbTiHoBR5uUcJbQiPBE_YlLmf0ZTZpG7R9lcA36PUTxeXs1YCGnry7L2IQE5n-2FldCFPF2MrkhPO0YBPPGc9ciK5v0P9Y-2BDjDL8S55LIUIjI4DTvgKwA10IgNeQi-2BnBr0nFIHA559qLqUF4MfTykb2XFAJlW55IISgwZDLeLhak-2FIEPRsS347S5pwoOWu7H5MLox2DfzM3ahqD1TFxq7c4O79urVYLHPMHbBmZaTrZD0Xmx6QRc-2FIjdQUpdZjteiNjlaZXjpB6yTCvaLR-2FnKFm7KsLktSS3HMQ-2BObAi-2BVJcXwA-2F8w4vos5jtjN5ld0bXK424UgtWChVqjP73t1gkpv1aQYQq0pP-2FOcv4-2BE-2BU69w-3D-3D" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">testified about false claims </a>of bias at NPR and PBS. Free Press Action is <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=u001.gqh-2BaxUzlo7XKIuSly0rCy-2FfHQkg9aXJvPRf26hLUM8tFS7tXz9J4eWdSLqyjzrWkHchm1tFeR3QWl2mfTTOIKIQ87oG1p7wmGFsaJQfU2gwajHxBfMmg-2BlYxwdt9GJ0E-2Bi4Mn-2BLr89cg2MCVDJ7SSUbkCsFf64Z6EiByKzjkTGQW2rFFvU1JIjyOIuS-2F7lhaSDB_YlLmf0ZTZpG7R9lcA36PUTxeXs1YCGnry7L2IQE5n-2FldCFPF2MrkhPO0YBPPGc9ciK5v0P9Y-2BDjDL8S55LIUIjI4DTvgKwA10IgNeQi-2BnBr0nFIHA559qLqUF4MfTykb2XFAJlW55IISgwZDLeLhak-2FIEPRsS347S5pwoOWu7H5MLox2DfzM3ahqD1TFxq7cKGRG6nBVkNgHZIRSV770AnEK1Xl3mQsFVy8p1ugq-2FsSwVUnANKNfAxWMf-2F5JWre6roxrap-2BE0VZhmH4y2sdYlFBJ9VIBE6MZI69I1nBQuTDYCRe61TEFz1RlpUcMUTZnilUCph220kI33ZLw5SUPRg-3D-3D" target="_blank">leading grassroots efforts</a> to craft public policy that supports local noncommercial news and information.</p>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 May 2025 12:11:56 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/order-to-end-federal-support-for-npr-and-pbs-is-a-legally-dubious-push-to-censor-media-coverage-trump-dislikes</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item><item><title>Revolving Door Project Condemns Trump’s Appointment of Corrupt Partisans As Inspectors General</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/revolving-door-project-condemns-trumps-appointment-of-corrupt-partisans-as-inspectors-general</link><description><![CDATA[
  43. <p>In response to the Trump administration’s selection of self-serving <a href="https://us.cisionone.cision.com/c/eJwsy01uwyAUBODTwA4LP36MFyyy8TWiZ3jYtMakYDXK7atE3c18o4keXNDScvLjpO0IYIzju0dtIq0KQiKUs3VOx6TDGqROq3WWePbWjWqdIBm0SPdxRDJOGRuYlj1H-s4_omA-qHUxTeusXdSrFtPX1vXwHvjh9-t6dKZuDBYGy_P5HM7XlQv1IdTCYAEJmsEi53dWDJbz1WjL9WSw4Hnt9XyJSP1Re76qwJQwNxHquTXqfdivcvBCMaNodBB2Ejn6D9z_gambs2p0vHk8YyNkWoZaSv2U0ofaNt6vRlTeXzPjDM6BmOK8Ch2dFIgoRTCjSVKlKZLivx7-AgAA___8fGuR" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>nepotists</u></a> and <a href="https://us.cisionone.cision.com/c/eJwsy02O3CAQxfHT2Ltqme_ygsVs-hqjAsptEgwOoMn1o25l-f89veQlRr3Zlb1w2gopjcH19IqZdhkESkOBRNzZ2gPdFjBsWii7Zm9RqODkYcgSfwtBbFAZGxe9jZz4d_4DF-XCfYBzYdeYdNDgfr2GfryHtfhzznss6muRz0U-6a78dzxiu97RZ46FF_k8zwG5jpvjbB1eXLlTgcClwF2oVk5wU-c6z9YS5PrDY-YXzdzqgAMla6MVs6WgAqkgDBuBIRlEFcN6ccoEnQvTYMjJf-D7PyzqC60SuHZPNXWmRW-xXVf7xDUerb_WMTvz9f6anXaJKMGlPYBOuAERbRCNMMemDpdYrT9e_gsAAP__sA52sA" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>ideologues</u></a> to serve as Inspectors General, the Revolving Door Project (RDP) announced a project to track their appointments. RDP senior researcher, Toni Aguilar Rosenthal, released the following statement:</p>
  44. <p> “Inspectors General are crucial parts of the apparatus that keep the government accountable to everyday people. IG offices investigate real cases of fraud, waste and abuse, and work to remedy them. Unlike DOGEーthe agents of rampant destruction that are running amok across Donald Trump’s governmentーIGs use disciplined investigative approaches to ensure that government works for real people.” </p>
  45. <p>“Instead of investing in those offices, their leaders, and their crucial work, Donald Trump has fired most of them, and in their stead offered brazen partisans with records of using their positions to allegedly engage in nepotism and outright theft. For many years, those holding this position were held to a particularly high standard of ethics and public service. Now, having a besmirched legacy is not seen as an automatic disqualifier, but is seemingly viewed as an asset for a potential Trump administration Inspector General.” </p>
  46. <p>“The Revolving Door Project will continue to track the bad actors running these offices, because the decimation of the institutions structured to hold the government to account impacts us all. IGs have long been bulwarks against the use of public offices and public funds for self-enrichment schemes, for personal gain, for personal retribution and more, and their replacement is a crucial part of the Trump corruption project. Should Trump succeed in staffing them with loyalists and crooked characters, another barrier in the way of autocracy will fall. We encourage all those committed to covering the Trump administration’s abuses to avail themselves of this resource.” </p>
  47. <p><em>The tracker can be viewed </em><em><a href="https://us.cisionone.cision.com/c/eJwszTvO6yAUBODVQEfE-1FQpPE2ogMcOyS2yQWU9V85-sv5RqMpUfqsuaUYhdNWSGmMp8_IrVMYShBGcr8KmXhOtoQULAjt0NIarRcqObkasIAPIQCNV8ZmovmoBd_1Hzug7tgHcy4F7YtOmrnXNvTtKugen3N-BlF3Ihcil_nEjt-2f-u5ldb6p7cX5nlrfSNyqef4YJ6tD7bhiR12NjvkN3YiF3pgqcA67ggDWS3xB48_IOrurRKe9ghn6QhE89yOo_3CMa4LOmZHPK6tCRCk95K5EhLTxXMGAJxlI8zK1eoKKvqN8n8AAAD__xSKZCo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><u>here</u></a></em><em> and will be regularly updated to reflect changes made by the Trump administration. <br/></em></p>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 01 May 2025 19:05:02 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/revolving-door-project-condemns-trumps-appointment-of-corrupt-partisans-as-inspectors-general</guid><dc:creator>Newswire Editor</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>

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