FEED Validator

for Atom and RSS and KML

Congratulations!

This is a valid RSS feed.

Recommendations

This feed is valid, but interoperability with the widest range of feed readers could be improved by implementing the following recommendations.

line 3, column 0: description should not contain data-rm-shortcode-id attribute (3 occurrences) [help]
```
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/federal-agents-to-repor ...
```
line 3, column 0: style attribute contains potentially dangerous content: position (37 occurrences) [help]
```
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/federal-agents-to-repor ...
```

line 3, column 0: description should not contain iframe tag (5 occurrences) [help]

<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/federal-agents-to-repor ...

line 8, column 0: description should not contain data-partner attribute (15 occurrences) [help]
```
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/demonstrators-protest-m ...
```
line 8, column 0: description should not contain data-twitter-tweet-id attribute (15 occurrences) [help]
```
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/demonstrators-protest-m ...
```
line 12, column 0: description should not contain script tag (24 occurrences) [help]
```
</blockquote>
```
line 23, column 0: description should not contain data-instgrm-captioned attribute [help]
```
</blockquote>
```
line 23, column 0: description should not contain data-instgrm-permalink attribute [help]
```
</blockquote>
```
line 23, column 0: description should not contain data-instgrm-version attribute [help]
```
</blockquote>
```
line 23, column 0: description should not contain data-media-max-width attribute (7 occurrences) [help]
```
</blockquote>
```
line 48, column 0: description should not contain data-bluesky-cid attribute [help]
```
</blockquote>
```
line 48, column 0: description should not contain data-bluesky-embed-color-mode attribute [help]
```
</blockquote>
```
line 48, column 0: description should not contain data-bluesky-uri attribute [help]
```
</blockquote>
```

Source: http://www.commondreams.org/feed/headlines_rss

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<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/news.rss" rel="self"></atom:link><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 22:16:28 -0000</lastBuildDate><image><url>https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8zMjEwMDM4OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTgxMjIyMDI1N30.ErOfRE5hvYF7nWXKN4iUp2dOTKR2-o5weET2FxMgj9A/image.png?width=210</url><link>https://www.commondreams.org/</link><title>Common Dreams</title></image><item><title>At Request of Billionaire ‘Friends,’ Trump Pulls Plug on Troop Deployment to San Francisco—For Now</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/billionaires-stop-trump-troops-san-francisco</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/federal-agents-to-reportedly-increase-immigration-enforcement-operations-in-bay-area.jpg?id=61897572&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C2070"/> After threatening for days to deploy troops to San Francisco, President Donald Trump announced that he would pull back for the moment, apparently after some of his billionaire "friends" in the city called him and asked him not to."The Federal Government was preparing to 'surge' San Francisco, California, on Saturday," Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115424560133045127" target="_blank">wrote</a> on Truth Social. "But friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me not to go forward with the surge in that the Mayor, Daniel Lurie, was making substantial progress."Trump said he "spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around. I told [Lurie], I think he is making a mistake, because we can do it much faster, and remove the criminals that the Law does not permit him to remove. I told him, 'It's an easier process if we do it, faster, stronger, and safer but, let's see how you do?'"In a separate post, Lurie <a href="https://x.com/DanielLurie/status/1981397195757932892" target="_blank">affirmed</a> that he had spoken with Trump. He said he told the president that "San Francisco is on the rise," and that a military occupation would "hinder our recovery." Although Trump is walking back his troop threat, for now, US Customs and Border Protection agents still arrived in the Bay Area on Thursday as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants. The Associated Press <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/trump-backs-down-from-planned-surge-of-federal-agents-into-san-francisco-after-call-from-mayor" target="_blank">reported</a> that "police used at least one flash-bang grenade to clear a handful of demonstrators from the entrance" of Coast Guard Island in Alameda, where the CBP agents will be based. In addition to threatening San Francisco in recent days, Trump has sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles, California; Washington, DC; Portland, Oregon; and Chicago, Illinois—where a judge has halted the deployment.Like <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-crime-rates-down" target="_blank">virtually all</a> of the cities where Trump has either surged or threatened to surge federalized troops, San Francisco has no crime wave to "turn around." In fact, crime has been falling precipitously in the city. Homicides <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/outgoing-san-francisco-mayor-london-breed-drop-crime-rates/#:~:text=San%20Francisco%20reported%20a%20total,a%2035%25%20drop%20from%202023." target="_blank">dropped</a> by 35% during 2024 and hit a 60-year low this year, contradicting Trump's <a href="https://time.com/7327207/national-guard-san-francisco-trump/#:~:text=Last%20month%2C%20a%20federal%20judge,he%20would%20deploy%20troops%20there." target="_blank">assertions</a> that the city is a "mess" and that people there lived in constant fear of <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/trump-suggests-adding-san-francisco-to-federal-crime-crackdown/3718375#:~:text=%E2%80%9CEvery%20American%20deserves%20to%20live,San%20Francisco%2C%E2%80%9D%20he%20added." target="_blank">being</a> "mugged, murdered, robbed, raped, assaulted, or shot."Lurie said he agreed to help Trump go to war on this imaginary crime wave, and said he would welcome "would welcome continued partnerships with the FBI, DEA, ATF, and US attorney."Trump said he was persuaded to hold off on the surge of troops after he was called by two Silicon Valley billionaires, Marc Benioff and Jensen Huang, whom he called "great people."Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, was a longtime Democrat who quickly morphed into an outspoken Trump supporter after his victory in 2024. He was also an <a href="https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2025/10/20/audacity-marc-benioff/" target="_blank">initial champion</a> of Trump's proposal to send troops to San Francisco, but later backed off and even apologized after facing criticism from local officials and former political allies.Huang, the CEO of the computer tech company Nvidia, meanwhile, cut an <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-nvidia-shakedown" target="_blank">unprecedented</a> deal with Trump in August that allowed the company to sell computer chips in China if it handed 15% of the revenue from those sales to the federal government, which was described as a "shakedown" by one financial columnist.Trump said that these two and some unspecified "others" called him, "saying that the future of San Francisco is great" and that "they want to give [Lurie's efforts] a 'shot.'""Therefore," Trump said, "we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday."Hafiz Rashid, a writer for the <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/202195/trump-troops-san-francisco" target="_blank">New Republic</a>, quipped that "maybe other cities should try to convince a wealthy tech CEO or two to keep the president from siccing his agents on them."]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 22:12:33 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/billionaires-stop-trump-troops-san-francisco</guid><category>Billionaires</category><category>Daniel lurie</category><category>Donald trump</category><category>Jensen huang</category><category>Marc benioff</category><category>San francisco</category><category>National guard</category><dc:creator>Stephen Prager</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/federal-agents-to-reportedly-increase-immigration-enforcement-operations-in-bay-area.jpg?id=61897572&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'Willing to Do What It Takes': UAW Volkswagen Workers in Chattanooga Call Strike Vote</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/volkswagen-chattanooga</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/volkswagen-workers-in-chattanooga.jpg?id=61897099&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C71%2C0%2C449"/> Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/tennessee-volkswagen-workers-join-uaw" target="_blank">unionized</a> with the United Auto Workers last year, announced Thursday that they will vote next week to authorize a strike after over 13 months of fruitless contract <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/volkswagen-uaw-first-contract" target="_blank">negotiations</a> with the auto giant.The strike authorization vote planned for <a href="https://vw.uaw.org/updates" target="_blank">October 28-29</a> "comes after months of unfair labor practices committed by the company, including bad faith negotiations, unlawful intimidation, and the unilateral cutting of jobs at Volkswagen’s only US assembly plant," UAW <a href="https://uaw-newsroom.prgloo.com/press-release/volkswagen-workers-in-chattanooga-to-vote-on-strike-authorization" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement. The union also highlighted Volkswagen's $20.6 billion in profits last year.Company spokesperson Michael Lowder <a href="https://www.local3news.com/local-news/update-union-submits-counteroffer-after-volkswagen-makes-final-contract-public/article_36cca1fe-ba19-4525-9bcb-4a93f31e8ab6.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> Monday that "Volkswagen made it clear to the union that our last, best, and final offer is indeed final. We cannot in good faith prolong negotiations by continuing to bargain when we have already put our best offer on the table. It is time for the UAW to give VW employees a voice and let them decide for themselves by voting on our final offer."However, multiple employees said Thursday that they are not happy with the company's latest offer and plan to vote for a strike."I'm voting yes because this is the time to show Volkswagen we are serious about receiving industry-standard treatment. Job security's essential. They could pay us $100 an hour, but it means nothing if they close the plant two weeks into the agreement," said James Robinson. "I'm hoping this process shows the company we are serious about getting a fair contract. We will show them their offer wasn't enough, show them we're willing to stand up to get what we deserve.""I'm hoping this process shows the company we are serious about getting a fair contract."Employee Taylor Fugate said that "I'm voting yes to get Volkswagen to come back to the table. The majority of the people I know don't want VW's 'final offer.' They want to keep negotiating, and we are willing to do what it takes to make that happen." "We need affordable healthcare and a strong job security statement that leaves no gray area," Fugate added. "We also deserve equal standards—Southern autoworkers shouldn't be treated differently!"One elected Republican held a press conference on Wednesday in a bid to bully the union into holding a vote on the company's latest offer. Local 3 News <a href="https://www.local3news.com/local-news/update-workers-react-after-hamilton-co-commissioner-calls-for-uaw-vote-on-vws-final-contract/article_ca66c778-7c4c-4c98-9b5f-34ec5e0e9e52.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a> that Hamilton County Commissioner Jeff Eversole said: "Volkswagen put forward a final union contract offer over a month ago that offers significant gains for Chattanooga workers, including a 20% wage increase, a cost-of-living allowance, a $4,000 ratification bonus, lower healthcare costs, and much more. Many employees have been reaching out to the UAW to vote, and the UAW has refused."Payday Report's Mike Elk <a href="https://paydayreport.com/uaw-calls-strike-vote-at-chattanooga-volkswagen-county-gop-official-threatens-funds-for-plant-volkswagen-threatens-german-layoffs-too/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">pointed out</a> Thursday that "<a href="https://paydayreport.com/the-battle-for-chattanooga-toxic-masculinity-ableism-anti-union-campaign-at-volkswagen/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the tactics used by the GOP in Chattanooga are similar to the tactics that they have used for more than a decade to sometimes successfully dissuade union votes</a> by implying that the plant may close if the union gets 'too greedy' (their words, not my mine, as the son of a Volkswagen auto assembly line worker)."Local 3 News noted that "during the press conference, dozens of members from both the UAW and the Chattanooga Area Central Labor Council, or CLC, began picketing outside of the VW plant." The outlet also spoke with some employees. One of them, Dakotah Bailey, explained that "originally, it was going to be a 25% increase in wages. They didn't want to take that, and now they dropped it down to 20%. I wanted to try and get my money now. Especially right before the holidays. It would be great to have an extra $5,500 sitting in my bank account."According to a "Volkswagen Stories" video series published by the UAW on YouTube, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Pe59midYA&t=48s" target="_blank">wages</a> are a primary concern for workers. Other top priorities include <a href="https://youtu.be/dNZdomtp8Bo" target="_blank">health and safety</a> conditions at the plant, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dC0LwF0Cgs" target="_blank">healthcare</a>, <a href="https://youtu.be/BVzzareAl8c" target="_blank">paid time off</a>, and <a href="https://youtu.be/4Us3-tbH9_Q" target="_blank">retirement benefits</a>. <iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9xOe99Nnqoo?rel=0&start=5" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe> "I don't want to strike, but if it comes to it, I will," Volkswagen worker Mitchell Harris said Thursday. "Because I feel that all my brothers and sisters of UAW Local 42 deserve respect, to provide a better life for their families, and have job security for us and generations to come."]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 21:11:08 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/volkswagen-chattanooga</guid><category>Chattanooga</category><category>Labor</category><category>Tennessee</category><category>United auto workers</category><category>Workers</category><category>Volkswagen</category><dc:creator>Jessica Corbett</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/volkswagen-workers-in-chattanooga.jpg?id=61897099&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'It Pisses Me Off': Chicago Neighborhood Furious as Feds Lob Tear Gas, Detain US Citizens</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/border-patrol-chicago-raid</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/demonstrators-protest-against-the-trump-administration-s-operation-midway-blitz-on-october-19-2025-in-west-chicago-illinois.jpg?id=61895195&width=1024&height=691&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/> Residents of Chicago's Little Village are angrily lashing out at federal immigration officials who rolled into their neighborhood and detained residents for a second consecutive day.The Chicago Sun-Times <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/23/feds-make-arrests-deploy-tear-gas-d%5B%E2%80%A6%5Dface-off-with-protesters-near-little-village-discount-mall" target="_blank">reports</a> that US Border Patrol agents, led by Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino, stormed into Little Village on Thursday morning wearing military-style gear and gas masks. Witnesses tell the Sun-Times that the agents began by trying to enter a discount mall in the neighborhood, only to realize that it had been closed.The agents' presence drew the attention of local residents who gathered around them and demanded that they leave their neighborhood.Baltazar Enriquez, president of the Little Village Community Council, said that he arrived on the scene and tried to deescalate tensions between the agents and the community. However, he told the Sun-Times that Bovino appeared to be itching for confrontation and was the first federal official to lob a tear gas canister into the crowd."I told him not to throw it because all he was going to do was rile people up, but he just smirked at me and threw it anyway,” said Enriquez, who also accused Bovino of leading an "orchestrated" assault on the neighborhood.At the end of the operation, Border Patrol agents detained five people, including at least two people whom locals said were US citizens.Illinois state Rep. Edgar González (D-23), who grew up in Little Village, expressed fury at the agents' tactics.“It pisses me off to see them coming into our neighborhood and terrorizing our people,” he said, while also cautioning residents against getting into violent confrontations with federal officials."It’s a normal reaction to want to resist and to be angry,” González said. “I’m angry, too. But we need to remember not to take the bait."The raid in Little Village came on the same day that Human Rights Watch released a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/10/23/united-states-federal-agents-use-excessive-force-in-illinois" target="_blank">report</a> documenting the use of excessive force by federal immigration officials on protesters, journalists, and volunteer street medics outside of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Broadview, Illinois.According to Human Rights Watch—and reporting published since the Trump administration launched Operation Midway Blitz last month—federal agents have repeatedly lobbed tear gas canisters and fired projectiles into crowds of peaceful protesters who are posing no threat to law enforcement officials.“This is not crowd control, but a campaign of intimidation,” said <a href="https://www.hrw.org/about/people/belkis-wille" target="_blank">Belkis Wille</a>, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “Federal agents are using chemical irritants and firing projectiles at peaceful protesters, volunteer street medics, and journalists in broad daylight. The message is clear that dissent will be punished.” ]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 20:53:53 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/border-patrol-chicago-raid</guid><category>Border patrol</category><category>Chicago</category><category>Human rights watch</category><category>Illinois</category><category>Operation midway blitz</category><category>Immigration</category><dc:creator>Brad Reed</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/demonstrators-protest-against-the-trump-administration-s-operation-midway-blitz-on-october-19-2025-in-west-chicago-illinois.jpg?id=61895195&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Trump Pardons 'Comically Corrupt' Crypto Magnate Who Helped Boost His Meme Coin</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-pardons-binance-founder</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/former-binance-ceo-changpeng-cz-zhao-arrives-at-federal-court-in-seattle-washington-on-april-30-2024.jpg?id=61894031&width=3778&height=2519&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/> President Donald Trump on Thursday formally pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-crypto-corruption" target="_blank">Binance</a>, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in 2023.The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the pardon, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trump-binance-changpeng-zhao-pardon-7509bd63" target="_blank">noted</a> that it came "following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company." According to the Journal, Binance has been a major financial booster of World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by the Trump family that has <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trump-family-amasses-6-billion-fortune-after-crypto-launch-567faec5?mod=article_inline" target="_blank">added</a> an estimated $5 billion to their total wealth."Binance has been one of the main drivers of the growth of World Liberty’s dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, called USD1," the Journal reported. "It delivered World Liberty’s first big break this spring when it accepted a $2 billion investment from an outside investor paid in USD1. Binance has also incentivized trading in USD1 across platforms it controls."Critics of the president hammered him for pardoning Zhao, whose company willfully flouted reporting requirements that allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers. As <a href="https://x.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1981394474258338225" target="_blank">flagged</a> by CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane, prosecutors also found that Binance "critically undermined the effectiveness of US sanctions against Iran by providing its Iranian customers the ability to transact with the US customers."Journalist Isaac Saul <a href="https://x.com/Ike_Saul/status/1981378804468895964" target="_blank">described</a> Zhao as "comically corrupt" and said that his pardon would be "a monthslong scandal in any other normal administration" given the role Binance has played in boosting the Trump family's personal wealth.Tommy Vietor, co-host of the Pod Save America podcast, was aghast at the brazenness of Trump's latest actions."Binance willfully failed to report transactions on its platform by al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad," he <a href="https://x.com/TVietor08/status/1981389005326602635" target="_blank">wrote</a> on X. "But then Trump's crypto company made a multibillion-dollar deal in partnership with Binance, so Trump gave the founder a pardon. Shockingly brazen corruption."Chuck Todd, the former host of NBC News' "Meet the Press," demanded that Republicans in Congress start doing their jobs and investigate the president's pardons."I know the GOP’s tolerance for government corruption has never been higher, but the obvious pay-to-play pardon scam for Trump family business partner Changpeng Zhao must make some elected GOPer squeamish," he <a href="https://x.com/chucktodd/status/1981395371038281809" target="_blank">said</a>. "A normal functional congressional majority would do things like 'Oversight hearings' on what looks like obvious corrupt act like this one, and yet, cue the crickets."Several Democratic politicians pounced on Trump's latest pardon, which they called evidence of unprecedented corruption."Make Trump rich and he'll gladly pardon you for your crimes," <a href="https://x.com/PattyMurray/status/1981426813051052281" target="_blank">wrote</a> Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). "Most corrupt administration in history. Meanwhile, he doesn't give a damn if you can't afford healthcare next year."Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) <a href="https://x.com/SenBlumenthal/status/1981395531923394811" target="_blank">argued</a> that pardoning Zhao "rewards corruption" and said it makes the Trump administration "look like a RICO organized crime enterprise."Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) expressed fury that the president would feel emboldened to pardon a criminal who helped boost his own net worth by billions of dollars."Trump got paid," he <a href="https://x.com/SeanCasten/status/1981392380499464590" target="_blank">wrote</a>. "And in exchange, he is rewarding a criminal who will use his new freedom to make every single American less safe. Get furious. I sure as hell am, and wish we had a single Republican who was willing to support ANY oversight."Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also demanded congressional Republicans do their jobs and act as a check on the executive branch—and she warned them of political consequences if they failed to do so."If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption, it owns it," she <a href="https://x.com/SenWarren/status/1981401323280224349" target="_blank">said</a>.Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) noted that Trump, who <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-pardons-george-santos" target="_blank">commuted</a> the prison sentence of notoriously corrupt former Rep. George Santos (D-NY) less than a week ago, seems to have a soft spot for wealthy white-collar criminals."Trump’s pardons and embrace of fraudsters—all to support his corruption—is just outrageous," she <a href="https://x.com/RepJayapal/status/1981392746251227507" target="_blank">said</a>. "So much for Republicans as the so-called party of 'law and order.' <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/jan-6-pardons" target="_blank">Insurrectionists</a>, fraudsters, criminals—oh my." ]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 19:44:14 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-pardons-binance-founder</guid><category>Corruption</category><category>Cryptocurrency</category><category>Elizabeth warren</category><category>Patty murray</category><category>Pramila jayapal</category><category>Richard blumenthal</category><category>Donald trump</category><dc:creator>Brad Reed</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/former-binance-ceo-changpeng-cz-zhao-arrives-at-federal-court-in-seattle-washington-on-april-30-2024.jpg?id=61894031&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'Our Democracy Is Not for Sale': Bishop Barber Sues Over NC GOP's Gerrymandering</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/gerrymandering-nc</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/bishop-william-j-barber.png?id=56644617&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C46%2C0%2C414"/> Calling the North Carolina Republican Party's new congressional district map "surgical racism with surgical precision," Bishop William J. Barber II of Repairers of the Breach was in Raleigh Thursday announcing a lawsuit challenging the redistricting effort—pledging that the state's voters will "challenge gerrymandering in the courts, in the streets, and at the ballot box.""This is a direct attack on the state's Black Belt district and marginalized communities," said Barber at a press conference announcing the legal challenge, a day after the state House of Representatives <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/north-carolina-congressional-map" target="_blank">approved</a> the new map in a party-line vote. The new map, which was passed by the state Senate earlier this week and cannot be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein under state law, will likely give the GOP an additional seat in the US House after the 2026 midterm elections. President Donald Trump has called for mid-decade redistricting efforts by the GOP in states including <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/texas-map" target="_blank">Missouri</a> and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/texas-redistricting" target="_blank">Texas</a> as well as North Carolina, with state Republicans heeding his demands. North Carolina's new map will likely give Republicans 11 of the state's 14 districts, by <a href="https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/north-carolina-senate-approves-gerrymander-targeting-black-voters/" target="_blank">moving</a> some Black voters out of the 1st District and into the 3rd District. Had the new map been in place in 2024, Trump would likely have won 55% of the vote in the new 1st District in 2024, up from the 51% he won.Barber denounced the redistricting efforts across the country as "political robbery" by a party that wants "to rob people of their rights through this racially based gerrymandering... so that they can give power or keep power in the US Congress to engage in political violence," including by cutting healthcare and blocking the passage of living wages. “We’ve seen this pattern before—the use of redistricting and voting laws to divide, diminish, and deny," said Barber. "But the truth is simple: When you steal people’s representation, you steal their healthcare, their wages, and their future. That’s why we will fight back... to make clear that in North Carolina, and across America, the people’s will cannot be gerrymandered out of existence."<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NyryBNUOoUM?si=60ezGNV_iNaxnQ7-" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>Barber said Republicans in the state Legislature are "gambling" in order to win another seat, instead of trying to win over voters. "They're saying, 'Let's move this county over here, let's move this county over here,' he said at the press conference. "Black voters in Congressional District 1 make up approximately 40% of the population, and there's a growing Latino population that makes up 7%... Black communities, Latino communities, and rural, working-class, poor white voters, if the districts are fair, have the power to build a fusion electorate that can overcome the greedy oligarchs' will to control elections in our state."Along with filing a legal action against state lawmakers to challenge the legality of the map, Barber said Repairers of the Breach will hold a "Mass Moral Fusion Meeting" and public hearing on November 2. “If they won’t hold public hearings, we will,” said Barber. “This is our Edmund Pettus Bridge moment... Black, white, and brown together—because our democracy is not for sale.”]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 19:17:09 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/gerrymandering-nc</guid><category>Gerrymandering</category><category>North carolina</category><category>Repairers of the breach</category><category>Voting rights</category><category>William barber</category><dc:creator>Julia Conley</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/png" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/bishop-william-j-barber.png?id=56644617&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'The 2026 Billionaire Tax Act': Emergency Proposal Aims to Fight Back Against Trump Attack on Medicaid</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/california-billionaire-tax-initiative</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/demonstrators-protest-medicaid-cuts.jpg?id=61890570&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C803%2C0%2C1197"/> A coalition of frontline healthcare workers, unions, and economists <a href="https://www.cabillionairetax.org/" target="_blank">launched</a> an effort Thursday to build support for a proposed ballot measure in California that would impose a one-time tax on the state's billionaires to avert a looming crisis spurred by national Republicans' unprecedented Medicaid cuts.The proposed ballot initiative, titled "<a href="https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/initiatives/pdfs/25-0024%20%28Billionaire%20Tax%20%29.pdf" target="_blank">The 2026 Billionaire Tax Act</a>," would levy a single 5% tax on the wealth of California's roughly 200 billionaires to offset healthcare funding shortfalls caused by the roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts that US President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans approved over the summer.Service Employees International Union–United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), one of the largest healthcare worker unions in the country, is spearheading the organizing push to get the proposal on the California ballot in November 2026. The union expects support for the measure to grow quickly in the coming weeks, and organizers said they hope the effort can serve as a "playbook" for other states working to mitigate the increasingly devastating impacts of the GOP assault on Medicaid.Dave Regan, the president of SEIU-UHW, said during a press call Thursday that "it is a 100% certainty that we have the ability to put this on the ballot in 2026, and we intend to do so.""We know what's going to happen if we don't do this," Regan added, alluding to the hospital closures, healthcare job cuts, and other havoc the Trump-GOP Medicaid cuts are already causing <a href="https://www.protectourcare.org/hospital-crisis-watch-500-health-care-providers-closing-or-at-risk-as-the-nation-continues-reeling-from-the-gop-health-care-crisis/" target="_blank">across the nation</a>.Supporters of the new initiative warn that if Medicaid funding cuts aren't offset with new revenue, California could lose around 145,000 healthcare jobs and see hospital closures across the state, a disaster for vulnerable families."We are already short-staffed, and every week more patients walk through our doors with fewer places to go," said Mayra Castanada, an ultrasound technologist in Lynwood, California. "If these cuts take effect without replacement funding, it won't just mean longer lines—it means people won't be able to get care when they need it.""The tax is small relative to the massive gains billionaires have made, yet large enough to preserve programs that are crucial for California's economy and its continued success."Experts estimate that the one-time tax would raise $100 billion—a fraction of the staggering $2 trillion in combined wealth controlled by the 200 wealthiest Californians. Billionaires impacted by the tax would include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, two of the richest men in the world.Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a leading expert on wealth inequality, voiced support for the initiative, saying that "the wealth of California billionaires has exploded in recent years while health and education in California are getting defunded by the Trump administration.""The tax is small relative to the massive gains billionaires have made, yet large enough to preserve programs that are crucial for California's economy and its continued success," said Saez.Former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich also backed the initiative, saying the GOP Medicaid cuts have sparked a "manufactured crisis.""These federal cuts didn't happen by accident—they were designed to shield billionaires from contributing while pushing the consequences onto patients and workers," said Reich. "A time-limited emergency tax on the ultra-wealthy is a practical way to keep the healthcare system functioning."]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 18:58:58 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/california-billionaire-tax-initiative</guid><category>Billionaires</category><category>California</category><category>Healthcare</category><category>Inequality</category><category>Medicaid</category><category>Billionaire tax</category><dc:creator>Jake Johnson</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/demonstrators-protest-medicaid-cuts.jpg?id=61890570&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>UN Expert Says All Nations With Ties to Israel 'Responsible in Some Measure' for Gaza Genocide</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/albanese-nations-support-israel-complicit-genocide</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/dr-mbuyiseni-buthelezi-briefs-the-media-ahead-of-the-23rd-nelson-mandela-annual-lecture-in-south-africa.jpg?id=61890500&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C765%2C0%2C1395"/> A report by one of the United Nations’ leading experts on Israel-Palestine describes the more than two years of genocide in Gaza as a “collective crime,” for which all nations with financial, diplomatic, and military ties with Israel are culpable.The draft <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiopt/a-80-492-advance-unedited-version.pdf" target="_blank">report</a>, published Monday, was written by Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, who is expected to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9w9c9rTyRg" target="_blank">speak</a> at length on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza this weekend as part of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s lecture series in Johannesburg, South Africa.Her report names more than 60 countries, without which she says the systematic destruction of Gaza—which has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/7/two-years-of-israels-genocide-in-gaza-by-the-numbers" target="_blank">killed</a> or injured more than 10% of the strip’s population and displaced nearly everyone there—would not have been possible.“Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians, this livestreamed atrocity has been facilitated through third states’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection, and, in some cases, active participation,” Albanese wrote. “The world now stands on a knife-edge between the collapse of the international rule of law and hope for renewal. Renewal is only possible if complicity is confronted, responsibilities are met, and justice is upheld.”<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1981030333668528172">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1981030333668528172"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Her report says that the states most responsible are “primarily Western ones,” the United States being chief among them.The US accounts for two-thirds of Israel’s annual arms imports. And according to a report out this week from the <a href="https://internationalpolicy.org/publications/us-military-spending-on-israel-in-the-past-two-years/" target="_blank">Center for International Policy,</a> it has spent over $38 billion since October 2023, both directly arming Israel through military grant programs and waging war against its enemies in Iran, Lebanon, and other nations across the Middle East.Under both a Democratic and Republican administration, the US has also provided critical diplomatic cover for Israel, proposing temporary “pauses” and “truces” to the conflict before international bodies, “sidestepping a permanent ceasefire and ensuring a continuation of the violence.”On several occasions, the US has used its veto power to block unanimous votes in favor of a binding ceasefire resolution by the UN Security Council. In September, it did so for the fifth time, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-vetoes-another-un-gaza-resolution" target="_blank">vetoing</a> a 14-1 resolution that would have required both parties to halt the violence and release all hostages.The US has <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/icc-sanctions" target="_blank">sanctioned</a> the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Trump administration also <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/rubio-sanctions-albanese" target="_blank">placed</a> Albanese herself under sanctions in July for her support of the ICC’s efforts.American non-governmental organizations supported by US President Donald Trump were also directly involved with the creation and administration of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which administered aid sites after humanitarian organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were pushed out. In just over three months, more than 1,000 Palestinian aid seekers were <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-aid-seekers-killed-by-israel" target="_blank">killed</a> in routine massacres by Israeli troops, who have <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-soldier-speaks-out" target="_blank">described</a> the GHF sites as “killing fields.”Many senior US politicians, Albanese said, have helped to prolong the genocide through rhetoric that frames Israeli lives as more important and worthy of protection than Palestinian ones.“Israelis were depicted as ‘civilians’ and ‘hostages,’ and Palestinians as ‘Hamas terrorists,’ ‘legitimate’ or ‘collateral’ targets,’ ‘human shields’ or lawfully detained ‘prisoners,’” she wrote.Albanese also singled out many European nations as particularly culpable. These include Germany, which <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2025/08/08/germany-israels-no-2-arms-dealer-halts-exports-over-gaza-concerns/" target="_blank">provided</a> Israel with over $565 million worth of weapons, making it the second-largest exporter behind the US; and the United Kingdom, which has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/aug/07/uks-surveillance-flights-over-gaza-raise-questions-on-help-for-israeli-military" target="_blank">participated</a> in hundreds of surveillance missions over Gaza and whose prime minister, Keir Starmer, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PKhR5oRuC-s" target="_blank">defended </a>Israel’s right to cut off water and power to civilians at the war’s outset.She also called out others that increased trade with Israel during the two years of genocide—Germany, Poland, Greece, Italy, Denmark, and France—as well as Arab countries like the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. She said their continued economic support not only “legitimizes and sustains the Israeli apartheid regime” but “countered the trade decline Israel might otherwise have faced” as a result of its increasing global isolation.Albanese wrote that for helping Israel, which she described as a “genocidal apartheid state,” these nations “could and should be held liable for aiding, assisting, or jointly participating in internationally wrongful acts.”Though a ceasefire is now in effect between Israel and Gaza, Albanese <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251022-gaza-truce-plan-insufficient-against-genocide-un-s-albanese" target="_blank">said</a> on Wednesday that the plan, which currently has Israel occupying more than half the Gaza Strip, was “absolutely inadequate and it doesn’t comply with international law.”She said that the recognition of a Palestinian state by several Western nations in recent months has “been a pretense of doing something while the emergency was to discuss... how we stop the genocide.”Albanese said that the states “who still have ties with Israel, diplomatic, but especially economic, political, and military ties, are all responsible in some measure.”]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 18:57:26 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/albanese-nations-support-israel-complicit-genocide</guid><category>Ceasefire</category><category>Francesca albanese</category><category>Genocide</category><category>Israel</category><category>United nations</category><category>United states</category><category>Gaza</category><dc:creator>Stephen Prager</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/dr-mbuyiseni-buthelezi-briefs-the-media-ahead-of-the-23rd-nelson-mandela-annual-lecture-in-south-africa.jpg?id=61890500&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>CNBC Host Doesn't Know How to Fix Runaway Healthcare Costs. Ro Khanna Says: Medicare for All</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-medicare-for-all</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/epstein-files-transparency-act.jpg?id=61889726&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C827%2C0%2C1941"/> With the second-longest federal government shutdown dragging on and Americans concerned about soaring health insurance premiums and coverage losses, Congressman Ro Khanna on Thursday again made the case for Medicare for All.On CNBC's "Squawk Box," co-host Joe Kernen made clear he doesn't support Medicare for All but expressed concern about rising premiums. He also admitted, "I don't know what the answer is."Khanna (D-Calif.), meanwhile, reiterated his support for a single-payer system, in part by highlighting how private health insurance companies are <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/health-insurance-profits" target="_blank">raking in</a> billions of dollars in profits each year, at the expense of patients.If the United States extended eligibility for Medicare, which is now only available to Americans ages 65 and older, "it would help private business," the congressman argued. "It would lower healthcare costs."<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1981350387534659925">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/RoKhanna/status/1981350387534659925"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>A 2020 analysis from the Economic Policy Institute <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/medicare-for-all-would-help-the-labor-market/" target="_blank">found</a> that Medicare for All would benefit companies and workers by supporting self-employment and small business development, boosting wages, increasing job quality, and lessening the stress and economic shock of losing or changing employment. That same year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/11/seems-good-policy-cbo-shows-medicare-all-could-cover-everyone-650-billion-less-year" target="_self">estimated</a> that shifting to Medicare for All could save $650 billion annually.Khanna on Thursday pushed back against claims that under Medicare for All, Americans wouldn't be able to get the healthcare they need, saying: "I don't think Medicare is rationing more than the private industry. [If] you are on private insurance, that's where you get rationed. You have to get your pre-authorization. You have things denied. Medicare, actually, doesn't do that."Although Medicare can deny coverage, KFF <a href="https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/consumer-survey-highlights-problems-with-denied-health-insurance-claims/" target="_blank">found</a> in 2023 that people with employer-sponsored health insurance were twice as likely as those on Medicare for Medicaid—which covers people with low incomes and disabilities—to have a claim denied."Traditional Medicare, also known as Original Medicare, has historically required little in the way of pre-authorization for beneficiaries seeking services; pre-authorization was typically the domain of Medicare Advantage," or plans administered by private insurance companies, Kiplinger <a href="https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/medicare/prior-authorization-coming-to-traditional-medicare" target="_blank">reported</a> this summer. "But that's about to change."Under President Donald Trump's "<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/dr-mehmet-oz" target="_blank">profoundly unqualified</a>" pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet Oz, CMS will require prior authorization for 17 services it claims "are vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse" in six states next year.Beginning in January, Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington will serve as testing grounds "to provide an improved and expedited prior authorization process relative to Original Medicare's existing processes, helping patients and providers avoid unnecessary or inappropriate care and safeguarding federal taxpayer dollars," CMS <a href="https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-launches-new-model-target-wasteful-inappropriate-services-original-medicare" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> in a June statement.Julie Alderman Boudreau, who has worked as a researcher at various organizations, <a href="https://x.com/juliealdermanb/status/1939706646197838137" target="_blank">warned</a> at the time that "this is a Medicare cut by another name. This will cause seniors to delay care or forgo it altogether."The CMS announcement came just days before Trump signed Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which contained cuts to Medicaid and did not extend expiring Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. The current government shutdown, which began on October 1, stems from Democrats' fight to undo the GOP attacks on Medicaid and ACA subsidies.The CBO estimates that 10 million Americans could be <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/big-beautiful-bill-debt" target="_blank">booted</a> off Medicaid because of cuts. Additionally, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/aca-marketplace-previews-show-staggering-premium-spikes-due-to-gop-subsidy-cuts" target="_blank">more than</a> 20 million Americans who buy insurance via ACA marketplaces are expected to see their premiums spike next year, and some of them may not be able to afford any plans. Multiple polls <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/healthcare-poll-ap-norc" target="_blank">released</a> this week <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/health-insurance-premiums-rise" target="_blank">show</a> that US voters are concerned about premium hikes.One of those surveys, released Monday by Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative, also shows that voters want Democrats in Congress to keep fighting for a fix to the looming healthcare crisis, even if it means the shutdown continues.Khanna—one of several Democrats considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate—<a href="https://x.com/RepRoKhanna/status/1980315409749537268" target="_blank">noted</a> on social media earlier this week that KFF polling <a href="https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/kff-health-tracking-poll-public-weighs-political-consequences-of-health-policy-legislation/" target="_blank">shows</a> that "78% of Americans favor extending ACA credits." "Republicans are once again trying to reward the ultrawealthy at the expense of regular folks," he added. "It's time to pass Medicare for All and solidify Americans' right to affordable healthcare."]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 18:07:08 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-medicare-for-all</guid><category>Affordable care act</category><category>Government shutdown</category><category>Healthcare</category><category>Medicaid</category><category>Medicare</category><category>Medicare for all</category><dc:creator>Jessica Corbett</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/epstein-files-transparency-act.jpg?id=61889726&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'We Have Lived This Nightmare Before': Latin American Lawmakers Condemn Trump Extrajudicial Killings</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-boat-bombings-condemned</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/joined-by-elon-musk-trump-holds-first-cabinet-meeting-of-his-second-term.jpg?id=56596789&width=1024&height=683&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/> Dozens of political leaders throughout Latin America are condemning US President Donald Trump's boat-bombing spree, which began in the Caribbean last month but has since <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-boat-bombing-pacific" target="_blank">spread</a> to the Pacific Ocean.In a <a href="https://x.com/ProgIntl/status/1981330085111353654" target="_blank">letter</a> posted by Progressive International on its X account, the Latin American leaders from across the region said that Trump's campaign of extrajudicial killings of purported drug traffickers is threatening peace and stability in Latin America, and is likely a pretext for further military intervention in the region."The Trump administration is escalating a dangerous military buildup off the coast of Venezuela, deploying naval forces in the Caribbean in preparation for potential armed intervention," they wrote. "The pretext is familiar. President Trump justifies intervention in Venezuela as a means to combat 'cartels,' celebrating lethal strikes against fishermen accused of carrying drugs."The lawmakers then linked the Trump administration's current militarism to past US actions that had destabilized their nations."We have lived this nightmare before," they emphasized. "US military interventions of the 20th century brought dictatorships, disappearances, and decades of trauma to our nations. We know the terrible cost of allowing foreign powers to wage war on our continent. We cannot—we will not—allow history to repeat itself."They called upon "all organized political forces across Latin America and the Caribbean" to unite in the name of preventing another "catastrophe" from occurring."Across our political contexts, we share a common cause: the sovereignty of our nations and the security of our peoples," they concluded. "We must stand together now."The US military has carried out at least nine attacks on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific Ocean over the past seven weeks, killing at least 37 people so far. Although the administration has claimed that these boats were engaged in illegal drug smuggling, it has provided no evidence to justify this claim—and both Trump and Vice President have jokingly <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-fentanyl-news" target="_blank">said</a> it would be dangerous "to even go fishing" in the Caribbean, suggesting civilians could be killed in the strikesColombian President Gustavo Petro this past weekend <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/world/americas/trump-colombia-petro-aid.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> that the Trump administration had “committed a murder” after one of its boat attacks killed a Colombian citizen named Alejandro Carranza, who had been out on a fishing trip when the US military attacked his boat.The Trump administration's boat strikes have been condemned not only by leaders in Latin America, but also by multiple US-based legal experts who have <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-venezuelan-boat-strike" target="_self">accused</a> the administration of going on an extrajudicial murder spree. Experts have noted that the US has long approached drug trafficking as a criminal offense—not an act of war to be responded to with military force.The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), a US-based think tank, <a href="https://cepr.net/newsroom/cepr-launches-new-blog-to-track-us-aggression-in-caribbean-and-latin-america/" target="_blank">announced</a> on Thursday that it was launching a new project aimed at tracking "US militarism, aggression, and intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean," including "US strikes on boats, threats against Venezuela and Colombia, and other aspects of US interventionism in the region under the second Trump administration."Alexander Main, CEPR's director of international policy, said that the Trump administration's recent actions across Latin America represent "a dangerous new escalation with an open disregard for international law and agreements" that could have "profound implications beyond the region."]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 17:48:44 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-boat-bombings-condemned</guid><category>Caribbean</category><category>Colombia</category><category>Donald trump</category><category>Venezuela</category><category>War on drugs</category><category>Latin america</category><dc:creator>Brad Reed</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/joined-by-elon-musk-trump-holds-first-cabinet-meeting-of-his-second-term.jpg?id=56596789&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'The Establishment Is Spooked': Poll Shows Platner With Big Lead Over Mills in Maine Democratic Primary</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/graham-platner-reddit-2674226288</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/maine-senatorial-candidate-graham-platner-speaks-to-voters-during-town-hall.jpg?id=61885417&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C153%2C0%2C847"/> As Politico and other news outlets reported over the past week on old posts written by progressive US Senate candidate Graham Platner and a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/progressives-support-graham-platner" target="_blank">tattoo</a> he got while in the military, pollsters with the University of New Hampshire were speaking to Mainers about their views on the state's Democratic primary, in which Platner is now facing Gov. Janet Mills along with several other candidates.Despite the media onslaught, UNH's <a href="https://scholars.unh.edu/survey_center_polls/897/" target="_blank">Pine Tree State Poll</a> revealed on Thursday that voters in Maine heavily favor Platner, who has spent the past two months since his campaign launch speaking to overflow crowds about his platform—one that is focused on making life more affordable for Maine families, shifting the Democratic Party away from corporate interests and toward the needs of working people, and ensuring corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share to provide for the needs of all Mainers. The poll, taken between October 16-21, found Platner with 58% of the vote. Twenty-four percent of respondents said they support Mills, who <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/maine-senate" target="_blank">announced</a> her campaign on October 14 after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) urged her to run, while other candidates each had less than 2% of the vote. <blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1981345212858286095">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1981345212858286095"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/16/maine-senate-candidate-promoted-violent-political-action-in-since-deleted-online-posts-00613037" target="_blank">reported</a> on Platner's old Reddit posts on October 16, generating national attention in the following days, and on Monday the oyster farmer and former Marine spoke on the popular podcast Pod Save America about his tattoo that was visible in a video—one that critics said resembled a Nazi symbol, but which, he noted, didn't prevent from from being approved to reenlist in the US military after he got it. Platner this week covered the tattoo and denounced Nazism."In other words, they were in the field as all the [opposition] hit," Democratic consultant Rebecca Katz <a href="https://x.com/RebeccaKKatz/status/1981343645069455423" target="_blank">said</a> in response to the polling. "Mainers have Graham Platner's back because they know he has theirs."Progressive observers said the polling showed that recent efforts to damage Platner's working class-focused campaign—which, one attendee at the candidate's town hall on Wednesday night <a href="https://x.com/grahamformaine/status/1981366262954434691" target="_blank">noted</a>, coincided with Mills' entrance into the race—have been no match for voters' palpable anger over a political system that has left millions struggling to afford healthcare, groceries, and other essentials while the wealthiest Americans are handed tax breaks.The survey, <a href="https://x.com/davidsirota/status/1981351973598482822" target="_blank">said</a> journalist David Sirota, provides "today's evidence that people are really pissed at the status quo, and also despise the national Democratic leadership and the media that so often run interference for them."Ryan Grim of Drop Site News <a href="https://x.com/ryangrim/status/1981351094606311705" target="_blank">added</a> that, judging from the temperature-check in Maine, the "Democratic Party leadership could not be more disconnected from the party base if they had lived on the moon the past decade."Tommy Vietor of Pod Save America <a href="https://x.com/TVietor08/status/1981364366093275531" target="_blank">said</a> that the poll served as a "good reminder that the DC pundit class has no fucking clue what actual Maine voters think or how they will vote."The poll results were released the morning after Platner spoke to a crowd of about 600 people at a town hall in Ogunquit, Maine, following a video he posted on Instagram addressing the controversy surrounding his tattoo. "This has come up because the establishment is trying to throw everything it can at me," said Platner, who also showed a new tattoo he got to cover up the old image. "It is terrified of what we are trying to build here. Every second we spend talking about a tattoo I got in the Marine Corps is a second we don't talk about Medicare for All. It's a second we don't talk about raising taxes on the wealthy. It's a second we’re not talking about the material struggles of Mainers as they try to scrape through a system that at its core is trying to rob them.""And that's why tonight, I'm just going back right out on the road," he said. "Going around the state of Maine, making myself accessible to Mainers in their communities, so I can listen to them, I can hear about what it is they need to change in our political system, and that is what I'm going to continue dedicating my time to."<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQH3jhGEX2R/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:16px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQH3jhGEX2R/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"> <div style=" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div></div></div><div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px; width:50px;"></div><div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style=" color:#3897f0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;">View this post on Instagram</div></div><div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"><div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div></div><div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"></div></div><div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div></div></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div></div></a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQH3jhGEX2R/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine)</a> </div></blockquote><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script></div>At the town hall in Ogunquit, Platner emphasized his political and personal evolution as he turned the attention back to his <a href="https://www.grahamforsenate.com/platform" target="_blank">platform</a>—one focused on passing a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling and ban "billionaires buying elections," rebuilding the US healthcare system by extending Medicare to all, breaking up corporate monopolies and ensuring corporations pay a fair tax rate, and defending the rights of immigrants and other marginalized groups. "I'm not going to minimize what has come out," he said. "I used to hold different opinions... I also grew. I met new people. I learned of other people's experiences. I realized... that the more open I could be to listen to other people's stories, the more open I was willing to be—to extend compassion and empathy to others."<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">If they thought that any of this would stop us or deter us: they clearly don't understand our movement, and they don't understand Marines. <a href="https://t.co/fXukXG2nVT">pic.twitter.com/fXukXG2nVT</a> — Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) <a href="https://twitter.com/grahamformaine/status/1981366262954434691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 23, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>"The establishment is spooked," he reiterated. "And if they thought that this was going to scare me off, if they thought that ripping my life to pieces and trying to destroy it was going to make me think that I shouldn't undertake this project, they clearly have not spent a lot of time around Marines."]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 17:03:04 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/graham-platner-reddit-2674226288</guid><category>Democratic party</category><category>Election 2026</category><category>Inequality</category><category>Maine</category><category>Susan collins</category><category>Graham platner</category><dc:creator>Julia Conley</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/maine-senatorial-candidate-graham-platner-speaks-to-voters-during-town-hall.jpg?id=61885417&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Officials Plot to Have Trump Declare National Emergency in 2026, Raising Fears He May 'Hijack' the Next Election</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-emergency-hijack-2026-election</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/president-trump-departs-white-house-for-new-york.jpg?id=61887474&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C138%2C0%2C1071"/> Voting rights advocates are raising fears that the Trump administration may attempt to "hijack" the 2026 election after a new report revealed that a top election integrity official suggested invoking a "national emergency" to justify a federal takeover of state-run election processes.The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/us/politics/trump-election-deniers-voting-security.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a> reported on Wednesday that during a call in March with right-wing activists, the woman who has since been appointed to President Donald Trump's newly created "election integrity" position within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had suggested that the president could declare a "national emergency" to give his government new authority to dictate election rules typically decided by state and local governments.Heather Honey, formerly a Pennsylvania-based private investigator who came to prominence as a leading proponent of Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to former President Joe Biden, said this authority would come from "an actual investigation" of the loss, which she has baselessly argued was marred by widespread fraud.In the US, elections are administered by states, with the president having no legal authority over how they are carried out. But Honey suggested that the Trump administration has "some additional powers that don't exist right now," and that by using the investigation as a pretext, "we can take these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on."Seeming to recognize the extreme step she was proposing, Honey added: "I don't know if that's really feasible and if the people around the president would let him test that theory."The 2020 election <a href="https://lostnotstolen.org/" target="_blank">was subject</a> to numerous state-level recounts and audits and over 60 failed court challenges in state and federal jurisdictions—many of which were dismissed by Republican and Trump-appointed judges for lack of merit and credible evidence.An investigation by the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-voter-fraud-trump-harris-a3b4c2db17217311770259193c115b80" target="_blank">Associated Press</a> last year found that across the six battleground states Trump claimed were beset by widespread fraud, only 475 individual ballots out of millions of votes cast were flagged by election officials as "potentially" affected by fraud. Even if every single one of the ballots had been proven fraudulent, it would not have been nearly enough to swing the election result in Trump's favor.Meanwhile, several aides and officials who served Trump during the waning days of his first administration <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/13/trump-admission-election-aides-january-6-panel" target="_blank">testified</a> before the January 6 commission that the president was well aware he'd lost the election, but continued to push false claims of fraud in an effort to cling to power.Matt Crane, a former Republican election official who served until earlier this year as a consultant for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)—which Trump recently purged of election experts—told the Times that officials who have roposed relitigating the 2020 election "are not coming with an objective frame of mind to say, 'Let's look at the facts and see where that takes us.'""They have their destination in mind and cherry-pick facts to help stand up their crazy theories, so there's nothing objective about it," he said.Last week, the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/white-house-hires-stop-the-steal-lawyer-to-investigate-2020-election-claims-6395d322?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqebqSz5EX_NrvXWkuk4XnDypL3uSlytjO2ftWSXdZX2UQ5HEl2kMFaVveeoRI8%3D&gaa_ts=68f398ef&gaa_sig=8nzGeTcP6gmkTUAFxK7p8qR0W3kxlx8a7yQauihylOarsejSXiHbGl3bgAlxtcZz1m1V5-BPhyJiA7dEfa6cEg%3D%3D" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a> reported that the administration had begun this effort to reboot the election fraud narrative, with Trump tapping former campaign lawyer and "Stop the Steal" proponent Kurt Olsen as a "special government employee" tasked with reinvestigating 2020. Olsen has reportedly already begun asking intelligence agencies for information about the 2020 election and has also suggested he wants to purge government employees who are disloyal to Trump.Trump has also sought to implement many of the proposals from the <a href="https://www.votefair2026.com/" target="_blank">"US Citizens Elections Bill of Rights,"</a> proposed by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/15/election-deniers-midterms-board-offices" target="_blank">Election Integrity Network</a> (EIN), a group of pro-Trump election deniers, of which Honey is a member. The group has become deeply influential during Trump's second term, receiving a briefing from the DHS in June on how a database run by the department can be used to verify the citizenship status of registered voters, according to a report from <a href="https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/cleta-mitchell-thinks-trump-will-use-emergency-powers-to-take-control-of-elections/" target="_blank">Democracy Docket</a>.The group has called for new restrictions on mail-in ballots, early voting, and to make it easier for voter rolls to be scrubbed and for election results to be challenged. Many of these proposals have made it in some form or another into Trump's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-executive-order-elections" target="_blank">executive order</a> on elections and the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/save-act-voting" target="_blank">SAVE Act</a>, which Republicans passed through the House earlier this year, that would require all voters to show passports or birth certificates in order to register to vote, which voting rights groups have denounced as a "modern-day poll tax."As Max Flugrath, the communications director for the voting rights group Fair Fight Action, <a href="https://x.com/MaxFlugrath/status/1981073230828880162" target="_blank">noted</a>, "Judges have blocked Trump's March executive order on elections—a move courts called an overreach that belongs to the states, not the White House.""Despite the rulings, Trump allies are pressing ahead," Flugrath said. "The DOJ is collecting massive voter roll data, DHS is pressuring states to upload files, and Honey is spreading false claims and framing the directives as 'best practices.' It's election disinformation rebranded as policy." Those actions, he said, are being urged on by the EIN, which has promoted Trump "pushing the limits of executive power."Honey is just one of many EIN members with a direct line of communication to Trump.Trump has also elevated a leading EIN operative, Marcy McCarthy—who also <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-cybersecurity/2025/10/20/testing-us-election-security-00615113" target="_blank">pushed</a> debunked theories of widespread illegal voting in Georgia—to be CISA's director of public affairs.EIN's founder, Cleta Mitchell, was notably one of the lawyers <a href="https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/cleta-mitchell-thinks-trump-will-use-emergency-powers-to-take-control-of-elections/" target="_blank">present</a> on Trump's phone call in January 2021 in which he attempted to pressure Georgia election officials to "find" him enough votes to be declared the winner of the state, which resulted in him being indicted three years later.On a podcast with a Christian nationalist influencer last month, Mitchell likewise pushed the idea that Trump could use emergency powers to assert control over the election."The president's authority is limited in his role with regard to elections except where there is a threat to the national sovereignty of the United States—as I think that we can establish with the porous system that we have," she said.She seemed to suggest Trump was on board with the idea, saying, "I think maybe the president is thinking that he will exercise some emergency powers to protect the federal elections going forward."Flugrath said these statements, and those reported by the Times, "should be a five-alarm fire," as they suggest Trump will use past false claims of voter fraud as "a cover to hijack elections" in the future.He noted that in April, Trump himself seemed to echo EIN's theories of sweeping authority, <a href="https://x.com/MaxFlugrath/status/1981073230828880162" target="_blank">saying</a> during a speech that "we're gonna get good elections pretty soon" because "the states are just an agent of the federal government.""Trump is embedding EIN operatives into the government to push his election takeover agenda, all built on lies about his 2020 loss," Flugrath said. "EIN seems to be using a playbook to decimate the independence and fairness of elections: Sow doubt in elections, install loyalists in government, use doubt sowed to push an 'emergency,' and change election rules.""It's a federal strategy to control elections and rig our democracy," he continued. "Independent elections are the foundation of freedom. If Trump can control our elections, he can dismantle other checks on power. Protecting free, state-run elections is the firewall between democracy and authoritarianism."]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 16:35:38 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-emergency-hijack-2026-election</guid><category>Authoritarianism</category><category>Election 2020</category><category>Election 2026</category><category>Stop the steal</category><category>Trump administration</category><category>Voting rights</category><category>Election denial</category><dc:creator>Stephen Prager</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/president-trump-departs-white-house-for-new-york.jpg?id=61887474&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Survivors of Philippines ‘Super Typhoon’ Sue Oil Giant for Causing Climate Emergency</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/climate-lawsuit-philippines-typhoon</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/this-photo-taken-on-january-3-2022-shows-people-constructing-a-new-house-near-an-overturned-vehicle-and-other-debris-in-burgos.jpg?id=61884354&width=1024&height=716&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/> Dozens of survivors of a "super typhoon" that struck the Philippines are suing fossil fuels giant Shell for its role in causing the climate emergency in a landmark lawsuit.As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/23/we-are-now-fighting-back-philippines-typhoon-survivors-to-sue-shell-for-climate-harms" target="_blank">reported</a> by The Guardian, 66 victims of Typhoon Rai, a 2021 storm that killed more than 400 people and left millions more displaced, filed a lawsuit in the United Kingdom on Wednesday demanding that Shell provide them with financial compensation for their losses.The Guardian noted that this is the first-ever civil complaint "to directly link polluting companies to deaths and personal injuries that have already happened in the Global South," as most other lawsuits against fossil fuel companies have been focused on potential future risks. In the US earlier this year, a woman named Misti Leon sued several fossil fuel giants, arguing they were liable for the death of her mother, who died in an extreme heatwave in the Pacific Northwest in 2021.The attorneys representing the victims in the Philippines case have invited Shell to respond to their allegations, and said they will file the case with the UK High Court by the end of the year if the two parties do not come to an agreement.The lawsuit centers on Philippine laws stating that citizens have the right to a healthy environment, and it cites leaked internal <a href="https://climateinvestigations.org/shell-oil-climate-documents-revealed/" target="_blank">documents</a> from Shell that suggest it possessed full knowledge about the negative impact its activities are having on the climate.Greg Lascelles, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the fact that Shell continued to aggressively expand its fossil fuel extraction operations "knowing the harm they would cause, coupled with deliberately misinforming the public, can be considered acting contrary to certain provisions of Filipino law."A spokesperson for Shell told The Guardian that it is not fair to blame their company exclusively for the global climate emergency."The suggestion that Shell had unique knowledge about climate change is simply not true," they said. "The issue of climate change and how to tackle it has been part of public discussion and scientific research for decades."One 1988 document from Shell cautioned that "by the time the global warming becomes detectable it could be too late to take effective countermeasures to reduce the effects or even to stabilize the situation," while another projected that "catastrophic weather events" could eventually trigger lawsuits against governments and oil companies."After all, two successive [<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a>] reports since 1995 have reinforced the human connection to climate change," wrote Shell scenario planners.Although the lawsuit against Shell is the first to directly link fossil fuel companies to recent climate disasters in the Global South, Climate Home News <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/10/23/philippines-storm-victims-to-seek-damages-from-shell-in-unprecedented-climate-claim/" target="_blank">noted</a> in a Thursday report that many legal experts believe that a ruling earlier this year from a court in Germany "confirmed that climate science can establish legal liability for damage caused by emissions."Specifically, the court this past May found that companies can be held liable for climate damages, although it dismissed a specific claim from a Peruvian farmer who had sued German energy company RWE for allegedly putting his home at risk of floods due to melting glaciers.As The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/28/rwe-peruvian-farmer-court-germany" target="_blank">reported</a> at the time, the court ruled that polluters "must bear the costs in proportion to their share of... emissions" if they fail to take "preventative measures" to reduce environmental destruction.]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:55:10 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/climate-lawsuit-philippines-typhoon</guid><category>Extreme weather</category><category>Fossil fuels</category><category>Philippines</category><category>Shell</category><category>Climate emergency</category><dc:creator>Brad Reed</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/this-photo-taken-on-january-3-2022-shows-people-constructing-a-new-house-near-an-overturned-vehicle-and-other-debris-in-burgos.jpg?id=61884354&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Josh Hawley Postures as SNAP Defender Months After Voting to Slash Food Aid for Millions</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/josh-hawley-snap-cuts</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/sen-josh-hawley-talks-with-reporters.jpg?id=61883105&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C250%2C0%2C2453"/> Republican US Sen. Josh Hawley is <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/josh-hawley-medicaid" target="_blank">once again</a> posing as the defender of a program he recently voted to cut.On Wednesday, the Missouri senator <a href="https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-introduces-legislation-to-fund-food-stamps-and-farm-programs-during-government-shutdown/" target="_blank">introduced</a> legislation that would fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the duration of the government shutdown as families across the country brace for benefit disruptions and cuts <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000019a-0e88-dc69-abda-fedaddf90000" target="_blank">beginning as soon as November 1</a><a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000019a-0e88-dc69-abda-fedaddf90000"></a>, potentially impacting more than 40 million people."Our kids deserve to eat," Hawley said in a statement, blaming Democrats for the shutdown even as his party refuses to support an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/aca-marketplace-previews-show-staggering-premium-spikes-due-to-gop-subsidy-cuts" target="_blank">sending insurance premiums soaring</a>.Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told reporters this week that Democrats "want Americans to have healthcare and food.""The Republicans, evidently, don't care whether they have either," Warren added.Hawley's statement on the new legislation did not mention his support for President Donald Trump's signature budget package, which included the largest SNAP cuts in US history, affecting millions across the nation—<a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/many-low-income-people-will-soon-begin-to-lose-food-assistance-under" target="_blank">including many children</a>.The looming SNAP benefit cuts due to the government shutdown are set to compound the impacts of food aid cuts from the Trump-GOP budget law. The Trump administration is <a href="https://frac.org/news/deadlinesnapcutsoct2025" target="_blank">currently pressuring</a> states to swiftly implement the law's draconian SNAP changes, including more expansive work requirements.Hawley's new bill, titled the <a href="https://www.hawley.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Keep-SNAP-Funded-Act.pdf" target="_blank">Keep SNAP Funded Act</a>, marks the second time this year that the Missouri Republican has come to the defense of a program that he has helped attack. Just two weeks after helping pass the Trump-GOP budget package, which contains around $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade, Hawley <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/josh-hawley-medicaid" target="_blank">unveiled legislation</a> aimed at repealing some of those cuts.The bill went nowhere in the Republican-controlled Senate.It's unclear whether Hawley's SNAP legislation will suffer the same fate. The Republican senator said if GOP leaders don't agree to bring it up for a vote, he intends to try to pass it via unanimous consent.Dozens of states have <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/23/states-snap-food-aid-benefits-government-shutdown-00619117" target="_blank">said</a> they have begun sending out notices informing SNAP recipients that they won't receive benefits next month if the shutdown continues, and food pantries across the nation are <a href="https://wgme.com/news/local/maine-food-pantries-brace-for-increased-demand-as-snap-benefits-face-november-cutoff" target="_blank">preparing for a surge in demand</a>.Legislation like Hawley's isn't necessary to ensure that SNAP recipients continue receiving at least partial benefits as the shutdown drags on, experts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/blog/the-trump-administration-can-and-should-take-available-steps-to-ensure-snap-participants-get" target="_blank">stressed</a> earlier this week."Nearly two-thirds of the funds needed for a full month of benefits are available in SNAP's contingency fund and must be used when regular funding for SNAP runs short," wrote CBPP's Dottie Rosenbaum and Katie Bergh. "The administration must release those funds immediately as SNAP law requires, to ensure that families can put food on the table next month."As of this writing, the Trump administration has made no indication it plans to release those funds.]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:31:12 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/josh-hawley-snap-cuts</guid><category>Food</category><category>Government shutdown</category><category>Hunger</category><category>Medicaid</category><category>Supplemental nutrition assistance program</category><category>Josh hawley</category><dc:creator>Jake Johnson</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/sen-josh-hawley-talks-with-reporters.jpg?id=61883105&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>AOC Would Be Formidable 2028 Presidential Candidate, Sanders Says</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-aoc-2028</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/sen-bernie-sanders-i-vt-speaks-about-rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez.png?id=61880539&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C99%2C0%2C503"/> Despite the Trump administration's increasing assaults on immigrant communities, the political left, and the rule of law, US Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/10/23/bernie-sanders-aoc-2028-presidential-election" target="_blank">said</a> he is optimistic "about our political future" when he looks at progressive leaders including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.In excerpts of the latest episode of "The Axios Show" by the news outlet Axios, which is set to be released in full on Friday, Sanders (I-Vt.) weighed in on the recent <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/will-aoc-run-for-president-in-2028" target="_blank">news</a> that Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is considering a presidential run in 2028. When host Alex Thompson asked him whether Ocasio-Cortez would be a "formidable" candidate, Sanders replied, "I think she would."<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bahxNnw-PI0?si=DezQHJdVnfLmAbbM" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>He added that a number of other Democratic elected officials would also be good candidates, and said the congresswoman's future political moves are "her decision to make." Ocasio-Cortez has also been <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/aoc-schumer-poll-ny-primary-2028" target="_blank">named</a> as a potential challenger to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in 2026. Sanders spoke about Ocasio-Cortez's ability to connect with voters she meets in person. "I've been out on the streets with her, people come up, and how she responds to people is so incredibly genuine and open," he said. "It's just something that's a gift that she has. It's a quality that she has, she's a great speaker out there."While progressive electoral successes like Ocasio-Cortez's have often been dismissed by centrist Democrats and Republicans who claim left-wing candidates don't have appeal outside of deep-blue urban areas like New York City, the congresswoman—who's often called by her nickname, AOC—has received <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-aoc-fight-oligarchy-denver" target="_blank">warm receptions</a> in conservative, rural parts of the country, including when speaking to crowds of thousands with Sanders on his Fighting Oligarchy Tour this year. "She comes from the working class, she was a kid who was cleaning houses with her mother," he said. "She knows what it's like not to have any money and she’s going out, fighting for working families all over this country."Sanders emphasized that the Democratic Party has an increasingly deep bench of left-wing political leaders, naming Reps. Greg Casar (Texas), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), and Maxwell Alejandro Frost (Fla.)."I do want to say, it's not just Alexandria," he said. "You've got a lot of great young people right now in the Progressive Caucus in the House...I mean literally dozens... And that gives me a lot of optimism about our political future."Sanders also spoke about Maine Democratic Senate candidate <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/tag/graham-platner" target="_blank">Graham Platner</a>, who is running a campaign focused on lifting up the working class in the primary against multiple candidates, including Gov. Janet Mills, as the party aims to unseat Sen. <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/tag/susan-collins" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_self">Susan Collins</a> (R-Maine).Platner has been the subject of <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/progressives-support-graham-platner" target="_blank">controversy</a> in recent days over deleted Reddit posts he wrote in the past and a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol—one that he got while serving in the military and that didn't prevent him from being approved to reenlist. He <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DQH3jhGEX2R/" target="_blank">announced</a> Wednesday that he had gotten the tattoo covered with another image, before continuing his campaign with a town hall where he spoke to hundreds of Maine voters. When Thompson asked Sanders about Platner's controversies, he answered that he is "not overly impressed by a squad of media running around saying, 'What do you think about the tattoo on Graham Platner's chest?'""Between you and me, there might be one or two more important issues," he said before speaking about the progressive oyster farmer's impressive campaign rallies and the "dark period" he went through in the past. "He went through some very difficult experiences in the military," said Sanders. "Seeing his friends killed... He went to the VA and by the way, he says they rebuilt his life. He went into a dark period in his life. I suspect that Graham Platner is not the only American to have gone through a dark period."<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">📺 EXCLUSIVE: On the latest episode of The Axios Show, <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSanders?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenSanders</a> defends Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, saying there might be "one or two more important issues" than the Marine veteran's tattoos. "I'm not overly impressed by a squad of media running around… <a href="https://t.co/mYic6tC0j4">pic.twitter.com/mYic6tC0j4</a> — Axios (@axios) <a href="https://twitter.com/axios/status/1981135362732020101?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 22, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>"The guy that I saw up on the stage in Portland, Maine, rather a brilliant guy," said the senator. "Really a strong fighter for the working class, very articulate, very smart and what he said is, 'Yeah, I went through a dark period and said stupid things. I am not the person that I was back then.'""And I think as a nation," he added, "especially given the fact that we have a president who was convicted of 34 felonies, maybe we have to do a little bit of forgiveness."]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 11:59:38 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-aoc-2028</guid><category>Alexandria ocasio-cortez</category><category>Election 2026</category><category>Election 2028</category><category>Graham platner</category><category>Maine</category><category>Bernie sanders</category><dc:creator>Julia Conley</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/png" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/sen-bernie-sanders-i-vt-speaks-about-rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez.png?id=61880539&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'Not a Fantasy': Mamdani Applauded for Defense of $30 Minimum Wage Plan</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/mamdani-30-minimum-wage</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/democratic-candidate-zohran-mamdani-participates-in-the-second-new-york-city-mayoral-debate.jpg?id=61879654&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C148%2C0%2C1194"/> New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani forcefully defended his call for a $30 minimum wage during the final debate of the race Wednesday night, warning that under the status quo, the expensive metropolis is at growing risk of becoming "a museum of where working-class people used to be able to live."The inability of many New Yorkers to make a livable wage in the city, Mamdani said, "is pushing them to live in Jersey City, to live in Pennsylvania, to live in Connecticut, because they can't afford to live in New York City."Under Mamdani's proposal, which would have to be approved by lawmakers, New York City's wage floor would rise incrementally before reaching $30 an hour by 2030. The minimum wage would then be tied to either cost-of-living increases or worker productivity jumps.<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="640">The candidates traded a lot of barbs but this is the one issue that will actually help working class New Yorkers. Instead of attacking Mamdani for wanting New Yorkers to earn a wage they can afford to live on, the other candidates should have to explain why they don’t agree. <a href="https://t.co/RpR1NpqKYY">pic.twitter.com/RpR1NpqKYY</a> — One Fair Wage (@onefairwage) <a href="https://twitter.com/onefairwage/status/1981184329859682808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 23, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Mamdani's campaign has noted that the city is effectively subsidizing low-wage employers by failing to establish a livable minimum wage, forcing New York City residents to rely on public benefits to get by. The city's current hourly minimum wage is $16.50—<a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/a-30-by-2030-minimum-wage-in-new-york-city-is-a-bold-proposal-the-first-step-is-giving-the-city-the-freedom-to-set-its-own-wage-floor/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">nowhere close to a living wage</a>.Mamdani's opponents in the mayoral race, disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, voiced opposition to Mamdani's plan, with Sliwa calling it a "fantasy" and Cuomo rejecting the proposed $30 minimum as "too high" and "another tax on corporations."But in arguing against a $30 wage floor, Cuomo appeared to undercut the narrative that Mamdani's proposal is unrealistic, pointing out that critics said New York state was "crazy" to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2018, when Cuomo was governor.Polling <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-living-wage" target="_blank">released earlier this month</a> found that 72% of likely New York City voters support incrementally raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that if a $30 minimum wage is not enacted, more than a third of New York City workers will earn less than $30 an hour in 2030."Discussions of a $30 minimum wage in New York City are not superfluous—they reflect the very real needs of working people throughout the city,' EPI's Sebastian Martinez Hickey <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/a-30-by-2030-minimum-wage-in-new-york-city-is-a-bold-proposal-the-first-step-is-giving-the-city-the-freedom-to-set-its-own-wage-floor/" target="_blank">wrote</a> in August.Cuomo supports raising New York City's minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2027—which aligns with the first phase of Mamdani's proposal.Saru Jayaraman, president of the advocacy organization One Fair Wage and director of the UC Berkeley Food Labor Research Center, applauded Mamdani for standing by his proposal during Wednesday's debate."Assemblymember Mamdani is showing the kind of courage and clarity working families have been waiting for," said Jayaraman. "His call for a $30 living wage is not a fantasy—it's the most direct and far-reaching solution to the affordability crisis facing millions of New Yorkers.""The response has been extraordinary," Jayaraman added. "Workers across all five boroughs are organizing, knocking doors, and building the kind of grassroots energy that creates real mandates for change. As the cost of living continues to rise, voters are ready to elect leaders who will deliver a real living wage, which in New York means at least $30 an hour.”]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 09:50:05 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/mamdani-30-minimum-wage</guid><category>Minimum wage</category><category>New york city</category><category>Zohran mamdani</category><dc:creator>Jake Johnson</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/democratic-candidate-zohran-mamdani-participates-in-the-second-new-york-city-mayoral-debate.jpg?id=61879654&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'Right Out of the Dictator's Handbook': Trump Sends Immigration Agents to San Francisco</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/newsom-trump-national-guard</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/san-francisco-rally-at-phillip-burton-federal-building-and-u-s-courthouse-hearing-for-guillermo-medina-reyes-ice-detention-and.jpg?id=61879173&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C298%2C0%2C386"/> President Donald Trump's assault on immigrants in Democrat-led cities continued Wednesday with confirmation from the US Coast Guard that its base in Alameda, California is preparing to host 100 federal agents—whose looming arrival is seen as "<a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sf-immigration-operation-21114328.php" target="_blank">a likely precursor</a>" to the Republican deploying National Guard troops to San Francisco.The San Francisco Chronicle initially <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sf-immigration-operation-21114328.php" target="_blank">reported</a> that agents from Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—an agency in the US Department of Homeland Security—were headed to the Bay Area, citing a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A spokesperson from the Coast Guard, also part of DHS, then confirmed that the base would serve as a "place of operations.""This support of DHS agencies continues the Coast Guard's operations to control, secure, and defend US borders and maritime approaches," the spokesperson <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/12061080/federal-border-agents-to-arrive-in-bay-area-as-cities-brace-for-enforcement-surge" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement to multiple local media outlets. "Through a whole-of-government approach, we are leveraging our unique authorities and capabilities to detect, deter, and interdict illegal aliens, narco-terrorists, and individuals intent on terrorism or other hostile activity before they reach our border."As KQED <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/12061080/federal-border-agents-to-arrive-in-bay-area-as-cities-brace-for-enforcement-surge" target="_blank">pointed out</a> Wednesday, the region has already seen increased immigration enforcement in recent months:<blockquote>Since May, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP officials have been <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/12041473/unprecedented-ice-officers-operating-inside-bay-area-immigration-courts-lawyers-say" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">escalating operations</a> throughout the Bay Area, moving to have undocumented immigrants’ asylum cases dismissed and arresting them outside of courtrooms and ICE field offices. More than 2,000 people were arrested in San Francisco's "Area of Responsibility" between January and July 2025, <a href="https://missionlocal.org/2025/07/ice-data-immigrants-arrested-sf/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to Mission Local.</a></blockquote>The reporting on the federal agents due to start arriving in the Bay Area on Thursday followed various <a href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco-national-guard-trump/3967003/" target="_blank">threats</a> from Trump to send National Guard soldiers into San Francisco, as he has with Los Angeles, California; Washington, DC; Portland, Oregon; and Chicago, Illinois. The president and Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee have also collaborated to <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-memphis" target="_self">deploy</a> National Guard troops in Memphis.A federal judge has blocked the National Guard deployment in Illinois—where ICE's Operation Midway Blitz is ongoing—but the Trump administration has appealed to the US Supreme Court. Citing two unnamed officials, CBS News' Camilo Montoya-Galvez <a href="https://x.com/camiloreports/status/1981097954061488567" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a> on social media Wednesday that Border Patrol's Gregory Bovino, who has led immigration raids in Chicago and Los Angeles, "is expected to be involved in the operation" in the Bay Area.Elected officials across California have condemned the deployment of federal agents and Trump's threats to send National Guard troops. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom—a likely 2028 presidential candidate—declared in a Wednesday video on social media that "this is right out of the dictator's handbook."Newsom accused Trump of sending in masked immigration agents to cause "anxiety," so he can then justify deploying the National Guard. As the governor put it, "This is no different than the arsonist putting out the fire."<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1981103617265586655">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1981103617265586655"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Democratic San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie <a href="https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-signs-executive-directive-to-prepare-for-potential-federal-deployment-support-san-franciscos-immigrant-communities" target="_blank">said</a> Wednesday that "our communities have already endured the painful impact of aggressive immigration enforcement. At the same time, we continue to see escalated operations across the country, with military personnel on the ground in cities like Chicago and Portland.""For the last 10 months, we have been taking steps to prepare for this kind of escalation here in San Francisco," he continued. "Just a few minutes ago, I signed an <a href="https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/2025-05_Executive_Directive.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">executive directive</a> that will build on these preparations, strengthen the city's support for our immigrant communities, and ensure our departments are coordinated ahead of any federal deployment.""Immigrants are the small business owners, essential workers, community leaders, and neighbors who make San Francisco a place that we are proud to call home. They fuel our economy—contributing nearly $275 billion in output and $23 billion in annual tax revenue across California," he added. "San Francisco will never stand by as our neighbors are targeted, and neither will I."Meanwhile, in Alameda, where the base is located, the city <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DQH9ErPk4O6/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D" target="_blank">said</a> in a Wednesday statement that "the Alameda Police Department (APD) is not a part of this operation, and APD does not enforce federal immigration laws or related civil warrants."The city also shared various resources and stressed its commitment "to the values of dignity, inclusivity, and respect for all individuals, regardless of ethnic or national origin, gender, race, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, or immigration status."<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1981082680465723688">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/SenAlexPadilla/status/1981082680465723688"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a former speaker of the House of Representatives, <a href="https://x.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1980714807104803075" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> Tuesday that "San Francisco does not want or need Donald Trump's chaos. Our city takes great pride in the steps we've taken to significantly increase public safety and reduce crime—without the interference of a president just seeking headlines."California Attorney General Rob Bonta this week <a href="https://x.com/AGRobBonta/status/1980781618945224887" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">threatened</a> to sue over any deployment of the National Guard, as did San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu—who on Monday <a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/city-attorney-poised-sue-trump-national-guard-is-sent-san-francisco" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">urged</a> the US Supreme Court "to uphold the bedrock legal principle that domestic law enforcement is not the military's job.""San Francisco has seen historic drops in crime," Chiu said, "and our local law enforcement are more than capable of keeping our city safe while upholding First Amendment rights."The administration's attacks on First Amendment rights have extended far beyond immigrants and protesters of the president's anti-migrant agenda; Trump and his officials have also targeted journalists and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/paramount-settles-trump-lawsuit" target="_blank">media companies</a>, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/kimmel-returns-fight-continues" target="_blank">comedians</a>, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-law-firms-directive" target="_blank">law firms</a>, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-collective-bargaining-federal-workers" target="_blank">federal workers</a>, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-antifa" target="_blank">anti-fascists</a>, and anyone expressing views <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/antifa-trump" target="_blank">deemed</a> "anti-Christianity," "anti-capitalism," or "hostility toward those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality." ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 23:58:26 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/newsom-trump-national-guard</guid><category>California</category><category>Gavin newsom</category><category>Immigration</category><category>National guard</category><category>San francisco</category><category>Us customs and border protection</category><category>Donald trump</category><dc:creator>Jessica Corbett</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/san-francisco-rally-at-phillip-burton-federal-building-and-u-s-courthouse-hearing-for-guillermo-medina-reyes-ice-detention-and.jpg?id=61879173&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>ICJ Rejects Israeli Claims About UNRWA and Orders Officials to Provide More Aid to Gaza</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/icj-israel-ruling</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/hot-meal-distributed-to-palestinians-struggling-with-hunger-in-gaza.jpg?id=61878768&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C413%2C0%2C1503"/> The commissioner-general of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said Wednesday that he welcomed an "unambiguous ruling by the International Court of Justice" affirming that the organization has not been infiltrated by Hamas, as Israel and its allies have persistently claimed, and that Israeli officials must cooperate with the UN to ensure Palestinians receive sufficient aid after nearly two years of starvation policy. In an advisory opinion, the ICJ <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/196/196-20251022-adv-01-00-en.pdf" target="_blank">ruled</a> 10-1 that as the occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel is responsible for providing aid to Palestinians and allowing the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to operate in Gaza. Israel has sought to ban UNRWA from Gaza since January 2024, when it <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-dossier-unrwa" target="_blank">alleged</a> without evidence that a small number of staffers at the agency had participated in a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023. Multiple investigations <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/unrwa-2667835600" target="_blank">found</a> that Israel had not provided supporting evidence of the allegations, and the ICJ on Wednesday said that the country had “not substantiated its allegations that a significant number of UNRWA employees were members of Hamas.”With the advisory opinion, <a href="https://x.com/tparsi/status/1981016632198939010" target="_blank">said</a> Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, "yet another Israeli government lie—slavishly repeated by Western media—collapses."<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1981017088056553887">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/CraigMokhiber/status/1981017088056553887"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa said in the ruling, which is not legally binding, that Israel's first obligation is to "ensure that the population of the occupied Palestinian territory has the essential supplies of daily life, including food, water, clothing, bedding, shelter, fuel, medical supplies, and services."The court also ordered Israel to "agree to and facilitate by all means at its disposal relief schemes on behalf of the population of the occupied Palestinian territory so long as that population is inadequately supplied, as has been the case in the Gaza Strip."UNRWA has said it has roughly 6,000 aid trucks that are ready to enter Gaza."With huge amounts of food and other lifesaving supplies on standby in Egypt and Jordan, UNRWA has the resources and expertise to immediately scale up the humanitarian response in Gaza and help alleviate the suffering of the civilian population," <a href="https://x.com/UNRWA/status/1981045772511518760" target="_blank">said</a> Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the agency. Israel began blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza following the Hamas-led attack in 2023, and intensified the blockade from March-May this year after breaking a ceasefire that began in January. More than 450 Palestinians have starved to death, and experts have warned that the many of the effects of starvation on those who have survived, especially children, may be <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/07/27/nx-s1-5479775/doctors-warn-that-children-in-gaza-have-suffered-irreversible-damage-from-starvation" target="_blank">irreversible</a>. A famine was <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/phase-5-catastrophe-global-food-authority-declares-famine-in-gaza" target="_blank">declared</a> in August by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a UN-backed group. UN Secretary-General António Guterres <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/10/22/israel-icj-court-gaza-palestinians-unrwa/f7403b82-af04-11f0-ab72-a5fffa9bf3eb_story.html" target="_blank">said</a> the ICJ opinion "comes at a moment in which we are doing everything we can to boost our humanitarian aid in Gaza. So the impact of this decision is decisive in order for us to be able to do it to the level that is necessary for the tragic situation in which the people of Gaza still is.”As it has with numerous other rulings by the ICJ, Israel immediately rejected the decision and claimed it was politically motivated. The US State Department also <a href="https://x.com/StateDept/status/1981084834920386683" target="_blank">dismissed</a> the ruling, saying it "unfairly bashe[d] Israel" and repeated the debunked allegations of UNRWA's "deep entanglement with and material support for Hamas terrorism."Step Vaessen of Al Jazeera <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/22/icj-says-israel-must-allow-aid-into-blockaded-gaza-provide-basic-needs" target="_blank">reported</a> that "even if Israel ignores [the advisory opinion], as it’s done time and time again, all the UN countries are obliged to follow up on this court’s advice."The ICJ is also considering a genocide case against Israel, brought by South Africa.In September, a commission of independent experts at the UN said Western countries including the US must stop providing military aid to Israel as it <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/united-nations-report-on-gaza" target="_blank">found</a> the country was carrying out a genocide in Gaza, citing several of the attacks that have killed more than 68,000 Palestinians since October 2023 and public statements made by Israeli officials demonstrating their intent to wipe out Gaza's population of 2.1 million people. ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 21:16:47 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/icj-israel-ruling</guid><category>Famine</category><category>Gaza</category><category>Humanitarian aid</category><category>International court of justice</category><category>Starvation</category><category>Israel</category><dc:creator>Julia Conley</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/hot-meal-distributed-to-palestinians-struggling-with-hunger-in-gaza.jpg?id=61878768&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'Another Unlawful Extrajudicial Killing' as Trump Expands Boat-Bombing Spree to Pacific</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-boat-bombing-pacific</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-boat-in-the-pacific-ocean-targeted-for-military-strike-by-the-trump-administration-on-october-21-2025.png?id=61878920&width=1800&height=1148&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/> The Trump administration launched another military strike on a purported drug trafficking boat on Tuesday night, and for the first time expanded its campaign of extrajudicial killing to the Pacific Ocean.In a social media post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth <a href="https://x.com/SecWar/status/1981049943306752361" target="_blank">claimed</a> that President Donald Trump had authorized "a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a designated terrorist organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific." Hegseth also said that the strike killed two passengers who were aboard the vessel.This marks at least the eighth time the US military has attacked a purported drug-trafficking boat, although the previous seven strikes took place in the Caribbean. Collectively, the strikes have killed at least 34 people.In the wake of the latest boat attack, many Trump critics once again slammed the administration for carrying out what they described as acts of murder.<a href="https://x.com/conor64" target="_blank"></a>Conor Friedersdorf, a staff writer at The Atlantic, <a href="https://x.com/conor64/status/1981078450296549453" target="_blank">described</a> the attack as "another unlawful extrajudicial killing of a boat our military could have stopped and investigated." <a href="https://x.com/conor64" target="_blank"></a>Friedersdorf also emphasized that these killings would be unlawful even if the people on the boats were involved in narcotics trafficking."Even when convicted drug smugglers go to court, they don't get the death penalty," he wrote. "This is immoral."Kenneth Roth, former executive director for Human Rights Watch, tore apart the administration's legal argument for treating alleged drug smuggling as an act of war by a hostile foreign power."Trump's rationale for his repeated murders at sea don't hold water," he <a href="https://x.com/KenRoth/status/1981083016546963792" target="_blank">wrote</a> in a post on X. "There is no 'self-defense' because no one is attacking the United States. There is no 'armed conflict' because there are no hostilities approaching a war."Jill Wine-Banks, former Watergate prosecutor and US general counsel of the Army, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/jillwine-banks.bsky.social/post/3m3sj7lgb522g" target="_blank">warned</a> in a post on Bluesky about the dangers of further widening Trump's bombing campaign."He must be stopped," she wrote. "This is illegal and endangers America."Journalist Mark Jacob said he was highly skeptical that the administration was carrying out these attacks to stop the flow of drugs into the US."The Trump regime lies all the time," he <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/markjacob.bsky.social/post/3m3smid2fik2n" target="_blank">wrote</a> on Bluesky. "A more likely explanation for these attacks is US imperialism: Trump wants to overthrow Maduro in Venezuela (with vast oil reserves) and intimidate Colombia (which criticized previous attacks)."Colombian President Gustavo Petro this past weekend <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/world/americas/trump-colombia-petro-aid.html" target="_blank">said</a> that the Trump administration had "committed a murder" after one of its boat attacks killed a Colombian citizen named Alejandro Carranza, who had been out on a fishing trip when the US military attacked his boat.Trump responded by baselessly calling Petro "an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs," while also levying new tariffs against Colombia.]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 21:03:30 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-boat-bombing-pacific</guid><category>Pete hegseth</category><category>Us military</category><category>War on drugs</category><category>Donald trump</category><dc:creator>Brad Reed</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/png" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-boat-in-the-pacific-ocean-targeted-for-military-strike-by-the-trump-administration-on-october-21-2025.png?id=61878920&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'Pro-Trump Propagandists' Take Over Pentagon Press Corps After Signing Loyalty Pledge</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/pentagon-propaganda</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/pentagon-reporters.jpg?id=61878833&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C289%2C0%2C1554"/> Less than a week after <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/10/16/more-than-100-people-cover-pentagon-only-15-signed-its-new-press-policy/" target="_blank">most</a> journalists covering the US Department of Defense <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-press-access-hegseth-trump-restrictions-5d9c2a63e4e03b91fc1546bb09ffbf12" target="_blank">turned in</a> their press credentials and carried out their belongings in boxes over Secretary Pete Hegseth's new <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/press-freedom-pentagon" target="_blank">restrictions</a> on reporters, his chief spokesperson announced "the next generation of the Pentagon press corps," which critics quickly condemned as a collection of right-wing propagandists.Even many right-wing outlets—including the Daily Caller, Newsmax, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, and Fox News, where Hegseth was previously a host—have refused to sign on to the new rules at what President Donald Trump has <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-department-of-war" target="_self">dubbed</a> the Department of War (DOW). The policy limits where reporters can go without an official escort and, most controversially, restricts them from soliciting or reporting on information not approved by the government, even if it is unclassified."We are excited to announce over 60 journalists, representing a broad spectrum of new media outlets and independent journalists, have signed the Pentagon's media access policy and will be joining the new Pentagon press corps," Sean Parnell, the Pentagon spokesperson, said Wednesday on the social media platform X. "Twenty-six journalists across 18 outlets were among the former Pentagon press corps who chose to sign the DOW media access policy.""New media outlets and independent journalists have created the formula to circumvent the lies of the mainstream media and get real news directly to the American people," he wrote. "Their reach and impact collectively are far more effective and balanced than the self-righteous media who chose to self-deport from the Pentagon. Americans have largely abandoned digesting their news through the lens of activists who masquerade as journalists in the mainstream media. We look forward to beginning a fresh relationship with members of the new Pentagon press corps."<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1981070438349623405">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/barratt_dewey/status/1981070438349623405"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/10/22/pentagon-press-corps-right-wing-media/" target="_blank">According to</a> the Washington Post, which obtained a draft announcement:<blockquote>The coalition of signatories includes streaming service Lindell TV (started by MyPillow CEO and Trump ally Mike Lindell), the websites the Gateway Pundit, the Post Millennial, Human Events, and the National Pulse. It also includes Turning Point USA's media brand Frontlines, as well as influencer Tim Pool's Timcast, and a Substack-based newsletter called Washington Reporter. The memo said that "many independent journalists" also signed, but did not specify who they were. Timcast, the National Pulse, and the Washington Reporter all confirmed to the Post that they had signed the policy. The <a href="https://x.com/TPostMillennial/status/1981050001984721369" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Post Millennial</a>, <a href="https://x.com/JackPosobiec/status/1981049199111307737" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Human Events</a>, <a href="https://x.com/FrontlinesTPUSA/status/1981051379964866768" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TPUSA Frontlines</a>, <a href="https://x.com/RealLindellTV/status/1981052975993807085" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lindell TV</a>, and the <a href="https://x.com/ConradsonJordan/status/1981050548427112846" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Gateway Pundit</a> all confirmed on X, as did <a href="https://x.com/jsolomonReports/status/1981057028740313289" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Just the News</a>.</blockquote>A wide range of critics, including many journalists, sharply condemned the "<a href="https://x.com/SenTinaSmith/status/1981076333313855681" target="_blank">Pentagon Propaganda Corps</a>" as "<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/angrystaffer.bsky.social/post/3m3shl447x22k" target="_blank">a predictable clown car of loyalists</a>," and "<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/hannahgais.bsky.social/post/3m3smcxappk2j" target="_blank">a who's who of pro-Trump propagandists</a>." They called Parnell's announcement "<a href="https://x.com/JRussellMI/status/1981058403750285569" target="_blank">deeply weird and awful</a>," "<a href="https://x.com/KyleB_Wallace/status/1981073447309734265" target="_blank">so Orwellian</a>," and "<a href="https://x.com/JesseCharlesLee/status/1981077611670368601" target="_blank">real textbook fascism beginning to end</a>."<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreievjjcfdjuuayxxs5mulu3g7qjwof32wfvcpo5leya53lw3os4clu" data-bluesky-embed-color-mode="system" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:dl44vk75vdlhhbvs6p4fbxzf/app.bsky.feed.post/3m3si6i7zvk2i">The public must be made to recognize that any "journalist" still holding a Pentagon press credential is actually just a stenographer for propagandists, and anything they report should be met with deep skepticism if not outright rejection. <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:dl44vk75vdlhhbvs6p4fbxzf/post/3m3si6i7zvk2i?ref_src=embed">[image or embed]</a> — Josh Richman (<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:dl44vk75vdlhhbvs6p4fbxzf?ref_src=embed">@joshrichman.bsky.social</a>) <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:dl44vk75vdlhhbvs6p4fbxzf/post/3m3si6i7zvk2i?ref_src=embed">October 22, 2025 at 2:32 PM</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js"></script></div>"This reads like they're announcing the handpicked contestants of a new reality series," <a href="https://x.com/MrJohnFlowers/status/1981056880119046638" target="_blank">said</a> journalist and television news producer John Flowers. Africa Report's Julian Pecquet <a href="https://x.com/JulianPecquet/status/1981059221178503353" target="_blank">quipped</a>, "That's a lot of stenographers."Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, <a href="https://x.com/MattGertz/status/1981054298789237246" target="_blank">said</a>, "Press corps as adjuncts of the administration."Breaking Defense reporter Valerie Insinna <a href="https://x.com/ValerieInsinna/status/1981052747425468839" target="_blank">wrote</a> that it is "important to note that all of the defense trade publications refused to sign the Pentagon's media access policy, and we write about budget and military technology—not exactly what you think of when you envision 'activists who masquerade as journalists.'"<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1981056561456812159">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1981056561456812159"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Other journalists now covering the Pentagon from afar used Parnell's X post to share their contact information."If anyone is interested in speaking to a member of the current generation of the press corps… the one that is still aggressively covering the Pentagon," <a href="https://x.com/KToropin/status/1981070901279150423" target="_blank">wrote</a> Konstantin Toropin of the Associated Press, "you can find me on Signal at ktoropin.73."Reuters' Idrees Ali similarly <a href="https://x.com/idreesali114/status/1981068214831579375" target="_blank">said</a>, "If you want to talk to the 'old' generation of the press corps, which continues to cover the Pentagon accurately and aggressively, you can reach out to me on Signal at idreesali1141.43."Heather Mongilio of USNI News, the US Naval Institute's independent news service, <a href="https://x.com/HMongilio/status/1981051706273378458" target="_blank">stressed</a> that "defense journalists that turned in their badges continue to cover the Pentagon and military, even if they do not have desks.""See news of the eighth strike on a suspected drug boat as an example," she continued, referring to Trump's latest illegal bombing in international waters—the first in the Pacific. "As always, I can be reached at HMongilio.52 on Signal." ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 20:43:31 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/pentagon-propaganda</guid><category>Journalism</category><category>Media</category><category>Pete hegseth</category><category>Propaganda</category><category>Us department of defense</category><dc:creator>Jessica Corbett</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/pentagon-reporters.jpg?id=61878833&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Allies Challenge Corporate Media Onslaught Against Working-Class Champion Graham Platner</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/progressives-support-graham-platner</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/us-senate-candidate-graham-platner.jpg?id=61878631&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C228%2C0%2C402"/> US Sen. Bernie Sanders was among the progressives voicing continued support for working-class Senate candidate Graham Platner as he faces a relentless onslaught of negative corporate media attention over his past online posts and a tattoo he says was a drunken mistake that has now been covered with fresh ink."He went through a dark period," Sanders (I-Vt.), Platner's most prominent supporter, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/21/graham-platner-tattoo-nazi-00617686" target="_blank">said</a> Tuesday. "He's not the only one in America who has gone through a dark period. People go through that, he has apologized for the stupid remarks, the hurtful remarks that he made, and I'm confident that he's going to run a great campaign and that he's going to win."The firestorm began last week, when CNN published a story <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/16/politics/kfile-graham-platner-maine-senate-candidate-deleted-reddit-posts" target="_blank">featuring</a> deleted Reddit posts in which Platner—who is running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)—called himself a "communist," castigated police, downplayed sexual assault in the military, and asked, "Why don't black people tip?"Platner, who <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/susan-collins-reelection" target="_blank">launched</a> his campaign in August with a fiery anti-oligarchy message, has addressed the resurfaced posts head-on, saying they reflect a period of his life in which he was angry, depressed, less knowledgeable, and disillusioned from eight years of service in the US military. Platner said he has since evolved personally and politically, recognizing today that many of his past comments were abhorrent."I don't want people to judge me off the dumbest thing I said on the Internet 12 years ago," the Senate hopeful, now 41, said in a statement regarding the Reddit posts, which he deleted ahead of his campaign launch. "I would like people to engage with who I am today."Allies of Platner, including US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), came to his defense, <a href="https://x.com/RoKhanna/status/1979361307305406763" target="_blank">accusing</a> the Democratic Party establishment of trying to undermine him for the benefit of its preferred candidate in the race, Maine Gov. Janet Mills—who <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2026-maine-senate-race" target="_blank">announced</a> her bid for Collins' Senate seat a day before the CNN story broke."I respect Platner's journey and the man he is today. I reject the politics of personal destruction," Khanna wrote on social media. "I stand by my endorsement. I won't cower to the establishment."<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="640"><a href="https://t.co/fPnFgpD54T">pic.twitter.com/fPnFgpD54T</a> — Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) <a href="https://twitter.com/grahamformaine/status/1979312580490596829?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2025</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>But with the ink hardly dry on news stories plumbing Platner's social media history, the candidate is now facing fresh uproar over a chest tattoo he got 18 years ago in Croatia while "very inebriated" with fellow Marines.On Platner's account, the tattoo—which resembles Nazi iconography—was an ignorant mistake, not an expression of affinity for Nazism or antisemitism, of which he said he is a "lifelong opponent." Platner has since had the tattoo covered with "some kind of Celtic knot with a dog on it," he <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/graham-platner-nazi-tattoo-interview" target="_blank">told</a> Vanity Fair on Wednesday.Platner discussed the tattoo at length in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMnc4ddc7j4" target="_blank">interview</a> on "Pod Save America," saying he decided to address it publicly after he "got wind that in the opposition research, somebody was shopping the idea that I was a secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo.""We chose a terrifying-looking skull and crossbones off the wall because we were Marines and, you know, skulls and crossbones are a standard military thing," he said."At no point in this entire experience of my life did anybody ever once say, 'Hey, you're a Nazi,'" Platner added. <iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uMnc4ddc7j4?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe>In the early stages of his campaign, Platner has spoken out forcefully against what he's <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-podcast/why-is-this-happening/oyster-farming-running-senate-graham-platner-podcast-transcript-rcna232367" target="_blank">called</a> the "right-wing populism" of figures like President Donald Trump, saying it "otherizes people" and wields bigotry as a tool to divide the working class while continuing to redistribute wealth to the oligarchs on top."I think we live in a world that is shaped by policy," Platner <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-podcast/why-is-this-happening/oyster-farming-running-senate-graham-platner-podcast-transcript-rcna232367" target="_blank">told</a> MSNBC's Chris Hayes last month. "I don't think it has to be like this. All the outcomes we have are the outcomes of policy decisions that we choose to enforce or not enforce.""And when you start asking, well, like what other questions you'd have to ask to get the outcomes we have currently, the answer starts to mostly look like we're just figuring out how to steal as much money and time from working people and give it to the ultra-wealthy," he continued. "And that's pretty much where I've landed."Platner has also been highly critical of the Democratic establishment, condemning the party's support for Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza and failure to sufficiently counter the fascistic Trump administration."Nothing pisses me off more than getting a fundraising text from Democrats talking about how they're fighting fascism," he <a href="https://x.com/grahamformaine/status/1958275897506591142" target="_blank">wrote</a> on social media in August, shortly after launching his campaign. "It's such bullshit. We're not idiots. Everyone knows most of them aren’t doing jack shit right now to fight back.""This is a crucial moment for the Democratic Party. If they decide that normal people with some small skeletons in their closet (or inked on their chest) are not welcome, they are finished."Some argued the fierceness of the backlash against Platner stems from the anti-oligarchy messaging that he's made central to his campaign."The reason anyone pretends to care about Platner's tattoo and Reddit posts is because they think he's coming after the rich. That's it. That's all it's about," <a href="https://x.com/matthewstoller/status/1980752068886319166" target="_blank">wrote</a> Matt Stoller, author of the anti-monopoly newsletter, BIG. "They hate populists because we actually believe in equality and that terrifies them."Others voiced concern about the possible chilling effect that attacks on Platner could have on future progressive political candidates, particularly if he's forced out of the race."Censorious, hall monitor liberalism that refuses to accept growth in people—unless you're a corporate centrist and all is forgiven, just ask [Andrew] Cuomo supporters—is far more of a threat to the Democratic Party's chances in the future than anything dug up on Graham Platner," <a href="https://x.com/EmmaVigeland/status/1980798432618160533" target="_blank">wrote</a> Emma Vigeland, co-host of the progressive political talk show "Majority Report."Drop Site's Ryan Grim similarly <a href="https://x.com/ryangrim/status/1980841553036997119" target="_blank">argued</a> that "this is a crucial moment for the Democratic Party.""If they decide that normal people with some small skeletons in their closet (or inked on their chest) are not welcome, they are finished," Grim wrote. "Because they've tried the other way and it didn't work."Platner has signaled that he has no intention of exiting the race, <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/10/21/2025/platner-puts-democrats-through-a-political-stress-test" target="_blank">telling</a> Semafor that his campaign has $400,000 in recurring monthly donations—a figure that he said did not dip following the resurfacing of his old Reddit posts.This story has been updated to reflect that Matt Stoller wrote his social media post in his personal capacity.]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:20:37 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/progressives-support-graham-platner</guid><category>Corporate media</category><category>Democratic party</category><category>Maine</category><category>Susan collins</category><category>Us senate</category><category>Graham platner</category><dc:creator>Jake Johnson</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/us-senate-candidate-graham-platner.jpg?id=61878631&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'RIP to Free and Fair Elections,' Say North Carolina Dems After GOP Approves New Voting Map</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/north-carolina-congressional-map</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-staff-members-holds-a-chart-showing-the-redistricting-that-has-taken-place-in-the-state-of-north-carolina-during-a-press-confe.jpg?id=61878596&width=1024&height=683&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/> Republicans in North Carolina have passed a new congressional map that eliminates the one genuinely competitive district in the state and makes it likely the GOP will gain an extra seat in next year's midterm elections.As <a href="https://www.wral.com/story/nc-passes-new-gop-friendly-congressional-districts-into-law-ahead-of-2026/22208874/" target="_blank">reported</a> by local news station WRAL, the new map passed on a party-line vote in the North Carolina House of Representatives on Wednesday, and will now become law, as Democratic North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein is not allowed under state law to veto redistricting legislation.The law's passage came even as protesters flooded the House gallery ahead of the vote and chanted, "Don’t rig the maps!" and "We need healthcare, not racist maps!"<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">📍Raleigh, NC Protesters escorted out of the N.C. State House gallery chanting “we need healthcare, not racist maps” The State House is slated for to pass a new gerrymandered congressional map as soon as this afternoon. <a href="https://t.co/gx8AM5KAzi">pic.twitter.com/gx8AM5KAzi</a> — Alex Tabet (@AlexanderTabet) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexanderTabet/status/1981028004261142839?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 22, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>The North Carolina Democratic Party lashed out at state Republicans for ramming through the new map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections."RIP to free and fair elections in North Carolina," the party <a href="https://x.com/NCDemParty/status/1981044216550600723" target="_blank">said</a> in a social media post. "Republicans just passed rigged maps to keep power—turning our 50/50 state into an 11-3 Republican advantage at [President Donald] Trump's request. They know they can't win fair and square, so they rig the maps. This fight isn’t over. We’ll organize, we’ll mobilize, and we’ll take it back at the ballot box."US Rep. Don Davis (D-NC), whose seat is being targeted by the GOP redistricting plan, <a href="https://x.com/DonDavisNC/status/1980664221412331632" target="_blank">noted</a> in a statement that voters in his <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/North_Carolina%27s_1st_Congressional_District_election,_2024" target="_blank">district</a> last year voted for both him and Trump, and he argued that "not a single" one of them had ever demanded "a new congressional map redrawing eastern North Carolina."Republicans in the Tar Heel State redrew their congressional map as part of an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting campaign being pushed by Trump to help Republicans maintain their razor-thin majority in the US House of Representatives next year. In addition to North Carolina, both Texas and Missouri have also heeded Trump's call to redraw their maps to boost their party's chances.However, not every North Carolina Republican is on board with the scheme, as US Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) on Wednesday <a href="https://x.com/ReubenJones1/status/1981032943662268494" target="_blank">told</a> Spectrum News' Reuben Jones that he supported having independent redistricting panels, and warned his party that their scheme could have unintended consequences."You need to be careful," said Tillis, who is not seeking reelection. "North Carolina is a purple state... if you go a little bit further, you could get surprised in an election cycle, and [it will] not go your way. So just be careful what you wish for!"As things stand now, Republicans currently have 10 of North Carolina's 14 congressional seats, and under the new map, that is projected to increase to 11 seats.]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:00:48 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/north-carolina-congressional-map</guid><category>Donald trump</category><category>Election 2026</category><category>Gerrymandering</category><category>Redistricting</category><category>Thom tillis</category><category>Us house of representatives</category><category>North carolina</category><dc:creator>Brad Reed</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-staff-members-holds-a-chart-showing-the-redistricting-that-has-taken-place-in-the-state-of-north-carolina-during-a-press-confe.jpg?id=61878596&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Creators of Melania Trump Meme Coin Accused of Fraud as Value Has Tanked By 95%</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/melania-meme-coin-lawsuit</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-laptop-keyboard-melania-official-meme-website-displayed-on-a-phone-screen-and-representation-of-cryptocurrency-are-seen-in-th.jpg?id=61877044&width=5179&height=3453&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/> The creators of the official meme coin of First Lady Melania Trump are being accused of engaging in a sophisticated fraud scheme in a lawsuit filed by cryptocurrency investors.As <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/melania-trump-used-as-window-dressing-in-elaborate-memecoin-fraud-legal-filing-claims/" target="_blank">reported</a> by Wired on Tuesday, the allegations against the creators of the Melania coin came as part of a proposed amended complaint that had been filed by investors earlier this year against Benjamin Chow, cofounder of crypto exchange Meteora, and Hayden Davis, cofounder of crypto venture capital firm Kelsier Labs.According to the proposed complaint, Chow and Davis conspired to run pump-and-dump schemes on over a dozen meme coins they launched, including the Melania coin. Pump-and-dump schemes <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp" target="_blank">involve</a> asset owners who knowingly use false information to hype up the value of their assets before selling them off en masse just before their prices crash. The plaintiffs claim that the alleged scammers have developed a "repeatable six-step ‘playbook’ for pump-and-dump fraud" that had already been used before it was employed on behalf of the first lady's coin, and that inflicted millions of dollars in losses on investors.The complaint does not name the first lady as a conspirator, but says that she was merely used as "window dressing for a crime engineered" by Chow and Davis.Despite President Donald Trump's history of financial fraud, which he was found guilty of in New York in 2024, the complaint states that "investors reasonably interpreted the use of Melania Trump’s name and likeness as evidence of legitimacy and due diligence—trusting that no one of her stature would knowingly associate with a fraudulent venture."Chow and Davis were also responsible to launching the cryptocurrency <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/milei-trump" target="_blank">promoted</a> by Argentine President Javier Milei earlier this year that collapsed in value shortly after its launch.Max Burwick, an attorney whose law firm Burwick Law is representing the plaintiffs, told Wired that the case "could clarify basic expectations for token launches and disclosures in the US" if it is successful.<a href="https://99bitcoins.com/news/altcoins/whos-melania-trumps-scapegoat-meme-coin-dev-faces-chopping-block-for-melania-crypto-project/" target="_blank">According</a> to cryptocurrency news website 99Bitcoins, the Melania meme coin has lost more than 95% of its peak value since its launch in February, and is now <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/melania-meme/" target="_blank">trading</a> at under 10 cents per unit.While Melania Trump was not directly involved in the creation of the now nearly-worthless meme coin, the Trump family was accused last month of the "greatest corruption in presidential history" when it was reported they had added $5 billion in cash to their fortunes when President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency was opened to the public market.]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 17:25:25 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/melania-meme-coin-lawsuit</guid><category>Cryptocurrency</category><category>Fraud</category><category>Javier milei</category><category>Oligarchy</category><category>Melania trump</category><dc:creator>Brad Reed</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-laptop-keyboard-melania-official-meme-website-displayed-on-a-phone-screen-and-representation-of-cryptocurrency-are-seen-in-th.jpg?id=61877044&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Prominent Jewish Figures Call On World Leaders to 'Refuse' Complicity in Israeli Crimes in Gaza, West Bank</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/jewish-people-and-israel</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/96th-annual-oscars-show.jpg?id=56524785&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C1758"/> With the Palestinian news agency in Gaza <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/22/jewish-notables-open-letter-un-sanction-israel" target="_blank">reporting</a> that Israel has <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-ceasefire-frays" target="_blank">violated</a> the 12-day-old ceasefire agreement with Hamas at least 80 times and killed at least 80 people in the exclave, <a href="https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1981024186828210222" target="_blank">more than 460</a> prominent Jewish artists, writers, rights advocates, and policymakers on Wednesday called on world leaders—including at the United Nations—to intensify the international pressure that helped push Israel to sign the fragile truce deal."It was international pressure that helped to secure this ceasefire, and it must be sustained to guarantee that it endures," reads a <a href="https://jewsdemandaction.org/" target="_blank">letter</a> organized by Jews Demand Action. "The ceasefire must be the beginning, not the end. The risk of reverting to a political reality of indifference to occupation and permanent conflict is too great. This same pressure must be continued to deliver a new era of peace and justice for all—Palestinians and Israelis alike."The letter was initiated by former Israeli Knesset Member Avrum Burg, former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, Israeli-American activist Libby Lenkinski, Belgian former Member of European Parliament Simone Susskind, US columnist and journalist Peter Beinart, and UK activist Em Hilton.The signatories said that they "deplore the fact that Israeli leaders have repeatedly taken to the world stage to declare" that their bombardment of Gaza—which has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians and decimated nearly all housing units across the exclave along with hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure—has been "committed in the name of the Jewish people.""As Jews and as human beings, we declare: Not in our name," reads the letter, which was also signed by actor and writer Wallace Shawn, British filmmaker <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/award-gaza" target="_blank">Jonathan Glazer</a>, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, and actor <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/hannah-einbinder-fuck-ice-free-palestine" target="_blank">Hannah Einbinder</a>. "Not in the name of our heritage, our faith, or our moral tradition. The monumental scale of the killing and destruction, the forced displacement, the deliberate withholding of life-sustaining necessities, and the ongoing criminal actions in the West Bank must end and never be repeated.""It is time to do everything possible to definitively end the Israeli government’s collective punishment of the Palestinians and to pursue peace for the sake of both peoples."Among the letter's demands is one calling on UN Secretary-General António Guterres and other world leaders to "refute false accusations of antisemitism that abusively deploy our collective history to tarnish those with whom we stand together in the pursuit of peace and justice."Calls to destroy Palestinian life "are not Jewish values nor are they guided by the lessons we draw from our peoples’ history," they wrote. "Instead we see in many of those standing up for Palestinian rights a reflection of the people who stood with Jews in our times of need. Our solidarity with Palestinians is not a betrayal of Judaism, then, but a fulfillment of it. When our sages taught that to destroy one life is to destroy an entire world, they did not carve exceptions for Palestinians."The group called on other Jewish people to sign the letter. <blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1980860987390718125">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/RabbiMivasair/status/1980860987390718125"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> The letter notes that the ceasefire signed on October 10 "makes no reference to the West Bank," where more than 3,200 Palestinians have been injured in attacks, including by Israeli settlers, this year. Israeli leaders have promoted the creation of the E1 settlement, which would cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the illegally occupied territory and make it impossible for Palestinians to establish a state with the city as its capital.Masked settlers in recent days <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/israeli-settlers-attack-palestinians" target="_blank">attacked</a> Palestinians civilians who were harvesting olives in the town of Turmus Ayya, with one clubbing a 55-year-old woman named Umm Saleh Abu Alia, who had to be hospitalized.The letter was addressed to Guterres and other world leaders and representatives of UN member states as the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251022-top-un-court-starts-ruling-on-israel-s-gaza-aid-obligations" target="_blank">provide</a> for the "basic needs" of Palestinians in Gaza and allow aid into the exclave. In 2024 the ICJ <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/international-court-of-justice-israel-occupation" target="_blank">issued</a> a nonbinding opinion saying the occupation was illegal—in keeping with long-established international law—and calling on settlers to leave the West Bank.The signatories affirmed their "belief in the universality of justice and the fair and equal application of international law," writing: "We have not forgotten that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust. Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel.""Accountability for the Israeli leadership’s grievous violations of international law is necessary," they wrote. "It is time to do everything possible to definitively end the Israeli government’s collective punishment of the Palestinians and to pursue peace for the sake of both peoples."The European Union's foreign ministers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/21/eu-pause-trade-sanctions-israel-donald-trump-gaza-ceasefire" target="_blank">paused</a> sanctions against Israel in response to the ceasefire agreement, a decision that was criticized by rights advocates this week."That is the last thing that we should be doing, because this is exactly the moment when you need to keep the pressure on. Because we all know that it’s certainly not a foregone conclusion that this plan will be implemented," Nathalie Tocci, a former adviser to two EU foreign policy officials, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/21/eu-pause-trade-sanctions-israel-donald-trump-gaza-ceasefire" target="_blank">told</a> The Guardian. “I fear that... European governments and institutions will be... reverting back to the sort of old, familiar patterns."The letter sent on Wednesday called on the UN and member states to:<ul><li>Respect and abide by the decisions of the International Court of Justice, apply arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court, and resist efforts to unduly pressure and influence and prevent the workings of both courts;</li><li>To refuse any complicity in continued crimes and violations of international law against Palestinians by Israel, including by ending the provision of arms and other relevant goods and services, and to use relevant leverage, including targeted sanctions on governmental bodies and individuals responsible for violations of international law; and</li><li>To ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches all Palestinians in Gaza at the scale that is commensurate to their vital need, that the blockade is lifted and materials for reconstruction enter, and that there is a full Israeli military withdrawal.</li></ul>Al Jazeera <a href="https://aje.io/ous27e?update=4052884" target="_blank">reported</a> on Wednesday that Palestinians in Gaza "are still going hungry" despite the ceasefire. In August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/phase-5-catastrophe-global-food-authority-declares-famine-in-gaza" target="_blank">declared</a> famine in parts of the exclave, and more than 450 people have <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/gaza-starvation-deaths-reach-453-including-150-children-health-ministry/3703311" target="_blank">starved</a> to death as a result of the near-total blockade Israel began imposing in October 2023. There is now only one entry point open for aid trucks at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, reported Al Jazeera. "When it comes to the northern part of Gaza, none of the crossings have been opened. For more than 50 days now, the Israeli military has imposed a complete blockade on these crossings, and none of the trucks are coming to this area," wrote Hani Mahmoud, a correspondent in Gaza City. "It continues to be very difficult for people here, particularly those returning to their homes in Gaza City and the northern areas. Apart from the fact that they are lacking access to water, there’s no access to proper food."Whatever is available is from business owners, the traders, who have been given permits from the Israeli military to get commercial items into the Gaza Strip," Mahmoud reported. "Despite the illusion that aid is 'pouring' into Gaza, the reality on the ground is different, and people are still going hungry, unable to access food and water."Levy said that "Israel's actions against Palestinians are antithetical to the Jewish heritage we hold dear.""We must end this shame and reclaim a better future for Jews and Palestinians alike," he said. "We are calling on world leaders to reject complicity in the status quo of occupation, apartheid, and Israel's genocidal doom-loop towards the Palestinians, and ensure respect for international law and an end to impunity. That is the only path towards hope and sustainable peace.”The signatories added that despite the ceasefire, they "shall not rest" until the agreement "carries forward into an end of occupation and apartheid.""We write in the hope that this initiative further emboldens a moment of renewed Jewish commitment to act with conscience and compassion," they wrote. "We vow to work urgently to achieve equality, justice, and freedom for Palestinians and Israelis."]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:57:41 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/jewish-people-and-israel</guid><category>Gaza</category><category>Human rights</category><category>Judaism</category><category>Military aid</category><category>Palestine</category><category>Israel</category><dc:creator>Julia Conley</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/96th-annual-oscars-show.jpg?id=56524785&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'No CEO Is Worth a Trillion-Dollar Pay Package': Unions Target Outrageous Elon Musk Tesla Deal</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/elon-musk-and-tesla</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/the-take-back-tesla-campaign-is-urging-shareholders-to-reject-elon-musk-s-1-trillion-pay-package.png?id=61877020&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C12%2C0%2C12"/> A coalition of labor unions and progressive advocacy organizations on Tuesday launched the "Take Back Tesla" campaign, urging shareholders of the electric vehicle giant to reject a pay package that could <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/elon-musk-trillionaire" target="_blank">make</a> CEO Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire.Musk is already the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/elon-musk-500-billion" target="_blank">richest</a> person on the planet, with an estimated net worth of <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/" target="_blank">$458</a>-<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#6329a013d788" target="_blank">485.9</a> billion as of Wednesday. His previous 10-year proposal, worth $56 billion, was invalidated by a judge. He's now on an interim plan that has not been approved by shareholders, who are set to vote on the $1 trillion package at the company's annual meeting next month.Tesla's board unveiled the proposed $1 trillion plan—which <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-offers-mammoth-1-trillion-pay-package-musk-sets-lofty-targets-2025-09-05/" target="_blank">would be</a> the biggest corporate compensation package in history—last month. Musk would get the full amount if he boosted share value "eightfold over the next decade" and stayed at Tesla for at least that long. He would own 29% of the company, one of several in which he holds a leadership position.Top unions, such as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and Communications Workers of America (CWA), joined groups including Americans for Financial Reform, Ekō, People's Action Institute, Public Citizen, and Stop the Money Pipeline for the new campaign against "Musk's money grab." As part of it, they launched the website <a href="https://takebacktesla.com/" target="_blank">TakeBackTesla.com</a>."How shareholders vote on Musk's trillion-dollar pay package and other important Tesla ballot items will likely set the stage for similar attempts by other oligarchs to consolidate their own power."Several coalition leaders pointed to Musk's recent <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/elon-musk-leaving-doge" target="_self">efforts</a> to get President Donald Trump elected and then help the Republican gut the federal government—which has been shut down for 22 days due to a congressional funding fight—via their so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The billionaire's DOGE activities <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/tens-of-thousands-join-in-tesla-takedown-actions-around-the-world" target="_blank">provoked</a> nationwide protests targeting Tesla."In the last 12 months, Elon Musk's attempts to destroy the American government have caused huge damage to the Tesla brand and contributed to a significant decline in the company's sales in multiple key markets," Stop the Money Pipeline's Alex Connon noted, urging shareholders to "reject this insane proposal."AFT president Randi Weingarten said that "the Tesla board, instead of upholding basic governance standards, wants to green-light an outrageous $1 trillion pay package for a CEO who has spent most of the year engaged in childish political brawls, rather than working to create shareholder value.""To reward this destructive behavior with an obscene salary is a slap in the face—not only to the federal workers he's fired, but to the retirees whose pensions are invested in Tesla stock," she declared.<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1980999241330991586">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/AFTunion/status/1980999241330991586"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> Dubbing the proposal "Musk's corporate heist," CWA president Claude Cummings Jr. similarly stressed that "Elon Musk is enriching himself by stealing from the American worker—from our infrastructure dollars for rural broadband to workers' private data from the Department of Labor—and now he wants to steal $1 trillion from our pensions and retirement accounts."Natalia Renta, Americans for Financial Reform's associate director of corporate governance and power, emphasized that the vote is bigger than Musk. She said that "how shareholders vote on Musk's trillion-dollar pay package and other important Tesla ballot items will likely set the stage for similar attempts by other oligarchs to consolidate their own power.""This new website allows people to get their voices heard by sending letters to their state financial officer and mutual fund manager (if they have one)," Renta added. State treasurers of Connecticut, Nevada, and New Mexico have already <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/elon-musks-1-trillion-pay-plan-faces-pushback-investors-state-officials-2025-10-02/" target="_blank">joined</a> mounting calls for shareholders to vote down Musk's compensation package.Ekō executive director Emma Ruby-Sachs argued that "no CEO is worth a trillion-dollar pay package, but especially not Elon Musk, who has wiped billions off of Tesla's share value, trashed the company's reputation, and driven millions of its customers away. Tesla's shareholders need to show the judgment Musk so clearly lacks, and reject this pay deal."]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:48:35 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/elon-musk-and-tesla</guid><category>American federation of teachers</category><category>Billionaires</category><category>Ceo pay</category><category>Department of government efficiency</category><category>Stop the money pipeline</category><category>Tesla</category><category>Elon musk</category><dc:creator>Jessica Corbett</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/png" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/the-take-back-tesla-campaign-is-urging-shareholders-to-reject-elon-musk-s-1-trillion-pay-package.png?id=61877020&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>‘Ring the Alarm Bells’: Merkley Marathon Speech Against Trump Authoritarianism Passes 16-Hour Mark</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/jeff-merkley-marathon-speech</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/sen-jeff-merkley-d-ore-delivers-a-marathon-speech-in-the-us-senate-on-october-22-2025.png?id=61876812&width=1562&height=652&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0"/> Sen. Jeff Merkley on Tuesday night began a marathon speech on the floor of the US Senate, which he said was intended to "ring the alarm bells" against President Donald Trump's authoritarian ambitions.The speech, which began at approximately 6:30 pm ET on Tuesday and and was still continuing at press time, documented Trump's unprecedented assaults on American institutions and the rule of law."I’ve come to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells," Merkley (D-Ore.) said at the start of his speech. "We’re in the most perilous moment, the biggest threat to our republic since the Civil War. President Trump is shredding our Constitution." <iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" lazy-loadable="true" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bE37g0mkpEo?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe> Among other things, Merkley pointed to the Trump administration's attacks on the media, including <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/kimmel-firing-democrats-fcc" target="_blank">threats</a> from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr to pull broadcast licenses of stations unless they stopped airing late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who for years has been a staunch Trump critic.Merkley also noted Trump's attempts to send the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, based on completely <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-portland-riots-antifa" target="_blank">false</a> claims that the city is "burning down" due to rioting from Antifa operatives. He ridiculed the notion that the current protests outside of the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility constituted an organized rebellion with an intent to overthrow the US government."So among the inflated <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/big-frog-portland" target="_blank">costumes</a>, and the women in doing their pajamas and pastries... and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unipiper" target="_blank">Unipiper</a> on the unicycle, where do you find a large, organized, armed group with a mission of overthrowing the government?" he asked rhetorically. "Not to be found!"Merkley highlighted the threat posed by National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-war-on-critics" target="_blank">NSPM-7</a>), a directive signed by Trump last month that mandates a "national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence," with an exclusive focus on left-wing groups.Merkley argued that the order was a thinly veiled effort to shut down political dissent in the US by labeling all opposition to the president as a form of "political violence.""It certainly appears like it's a strategy to take folks you disagree with and label them a terrorist threat, when they may actually be no such threat at all," he said.Elsewhere in the speech, Merkley slammed Trump for using the US Department of Justice as an instrument of revenge to go after his political opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, all of whom have been indicted on criminal charges over the last month.“This is an extraordinarily dangerous moment,” he said. “An authoritarian president proceeding to attack free speech, attack free press, weaponize the Department of Justice, and use it against those who disagree with him, and then seeking the court’s permission to send the military into our cities to attack people who are peacefully protesting."At press time, Merkley has been speaking for more than 16 consecutive hours. Earlier this year, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) held the Senate floor for a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/cory-booker-speech" target="_blank">record</a> 25 hours in a speech that similarly warned about Trump's authoritarian takeover of the US government.]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 15:06:10 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/jeff-merkley-marathon-speech</guid><category>Authoritarianism</category><category>Donald trump</category><category>Nspm-7</category><category>Portland oregon</category><category>Us immigration and customs enforcement</category><category>Us senate</category><category>Jeff merkley</category><dc:creator>Brad Reed</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/png" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/sen-jeff-merkley-d-ore-delivers-a-marathon-speech-in-the-us-senate-on-october-22-2025.png?id=61876812&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Trump Launches 'Appalling' Assault on Programs for Children With Disabilities</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-program-children-with-disabilities</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-preschool-teacher-works-with-a-student.jpg?id=61876577&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C399%2C0%2C802"/> The Trump administration has launched what advocates, parents, and Democratic members of Congress are calling an unlawful and immoral attack on programs that provide education services to millions of children with disabilities across the United States.Earlier this month, the administration <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/10/13/nx-s1-5572489/trump-special-education-department-funding-layoffs-disabilities" target="_blank">announced</a> mass firings at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), terminations that would hollow out the agency tasked with administering and overseeing programs that support students with disabilities—part of President Donald Trump's effort to abolish the Education Department without congressional approval."This reckless and illegal action is another step toward the administration's goal of dismantling the Department of Education," Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/blog/trump-administration-threatens-support-for-children-with-disabilities" target="_blank">wrote</a> Tuesday. "With this latest action, the Trump Administration is effectively shuttering [the Office of Special Education Programs], which distributed $15 billion in federal grants to schools in 2025.""These grants," Romig noted, "pay for special education teachers and aides, speech and occupational therapists, assistive technology, screening and early intervention for infants and toddlers, and other critical services and supports that millions of families rely upon."Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/10/18/trump-education-department-cuts/" target="_blank">said</a> it is "appalling" that the Trump administration is exploiting the ongoing government shutdown to escalate its destruction of the Education Department."No one is forcing Donald Trump to fire the people who make sure students with disabilities can get a good education—he just wants to," said Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.While a federal judge <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/judge-blocks-trump-firings" target="_blank">paused</a> the OSERS firings with a temporary restraining order last week, reports and public comments from Trump officials <a href="https://x.com/SecKennedy/status/1903156638154137682" target="_blank">indicate</a> that the administration's assault on programs that aid students with disabilities is just beginning. The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/10/21/trump-special-education-move/" target="_blank">reported</a> Tuesday that the administration is considering placing the Individuals with Disabilities Education (IDEA) Act program under the purview of the Health and Human Services Department, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.More than <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/cutting-the-us-department-of-education-harms-millions-of-students-with-disabilities/" target="_blank">15% of students in the US</a> receive special education services. IDEA also <a href="https://sites.ed.gov/idea/2023-individuals-with-disabilities-education-act-annual-report-to-congress/#Part-C" target="_blank">provides support</a> to hundreds of thousands of infants and toddlers each year.Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy for AASA, the School Superintendents Association, told the Post that "moving special education out of the Department of Education demonstrates a disregard for the educational needs of students with disabilities.""America's special education students are embedded at every level, in every program that the department oversees," Pudelski added. "It's a step backward for education and for our country."The National Education Association (NEA), the country's largest teachers union, published an <a href="https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/education-department-guts-special-education-staff-amid-government-shutdown" target="_blank">article</a> on Tuesday featuring comments from parents alarmed by the administration's targeting of programs that their kids rely on."I'm a proud parent of a neurodivergent student, and I'm heartbroken,” Kim Pinckney, the mother of a child with autism, ADHD, and speech disorders, <a href="https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/education-department-guts-special-education-staff-amid-government-shutdown" target="_blank">told</a> NEA Today, the union's news publication. "I am one of those parents with the audacity to love my child and to believe he deserves a free and appropriate education. I am one of millions of parents who have the audacity to believe our children are worthy and that they have their own unique genius that deserves to be unearthed."]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:45:46 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-program-children-with-disabilities</guid><category>Disabilities</category><category>Donald trump</category><category>Education</category><category>Patty murray</category><category>Us department of education</category><category>Children</category><dc:creator>Jake Johnson</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/a-preschool-teacher-works-with-a-student.jpg?id=61876577&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>'It Must Stop': New Yorkers Protest After Violent ICE Raid on Canal Street Sparks Chaos</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/ice-raid-canal-street</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/federal-agents-arrest-in-nyc.png?id=61876269&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C148%2C0%2C148"/> More scenes of chaos and community anger erupted Tuesday night in downtown New York City as federal agents under the orders of President Donald Trump targeted a popular area for street vendors, many of them immigrants struggling to get by, and shoppers looking for more affordable bags, clothing, and other accessories than what's available in retail stores.Illegal street vending is a well-known practice in the Canal Street area of Chinatown. Still, the arrival of masked agents and military-style vehicles on Tuesday devolved into another episode of violence in Trump's America, with frightened vendors running for their lives and passersby expressing outrage over the violence being used against the unlicensed retailers.<a href="https://abc7ny.com/post/federal-agents-conducting-enforcement-illegal-vending-canal-street-nyc/18052570/" target="_blank">According to</a> local WABC 7:<blockquote>NewsCopter 7 showed arrests taking place between Lafayette and Center streets in Chinatown, an area typically busy with merchants selling T-shirts, handbags, perfumes, and designer knockoffs, as New Yorkers faced off against federal agents. The scene grew chaotic as vendors packed up their tables and attempted to flee, with several people seen running and falling as authorities from multiple agencies, including Homeland Security, ICE, DEA and the FBI, pursued them. As agents tried to detain individuals, crowds of New Yorkers gathered, shouting and pushing in an attempt to intervene. Some bystanders were heard cursing at officers, one officer was seen pointing his taser at the angry crowd, and several arrests were made.</blockquote>Footage from Canal Street posted online showed agents tackling vendors and the angry response from the crowds witnessing the heavy-handed raid:<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">Trump's Nazi ICE Gestapo has come to Canal Street in New York City to kidnap residents — and New Yorkers are having none of it. 😳👇 <a href="https://t.co/olGgtLvjli">pic.twitter.com/olGgtLvjli</a> — Bill Madden (@maddenifico) <a href="https://twitter.com/maddenifico/status/1980766555458687162?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 21, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>"Trump's Nazi ICE Gestapo has come to Canal Street in New York City to kidnap residents—and New Yorkers are having none of it," <a href="https://x.com/maddenifico/status/1980766555458687162" target="_blank">said</a> social justice activist Bill Madded in a social media post, pointing to the footage.New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani also condemned the raid."Federal agents from ICE and HSI—some in military fatigues and masks—descended on Chinatown today in an aggressive and reckless raid on immigrant street vendors," Mamdani said in a statement. "Once again, the Trump administration chooses authoritarian theatrics that create fear, not safety. It must stop." Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for DHS, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/nyregion/nyc-raid-canal-st-agents-ice.html" target="_blank">told</a> the New York Times that the operation was led by ICE and others, including the FBI and Border Patrol, but did not, the newspaper reported, "immediately indicate the number of people arrested or disclose their immigration status." Witnesses said agents were demanding proof of immigration status from those detained.<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1980739624944439765">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/hellosami/status/1980739624944439765"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> The surprise raid, noted many observers, came just days after right-wing political commentator Savanah Hernandez, a Trump loyalist, posted a video of herself on Canal Street documenting the street vending scene and denigrating many of the immigrants who find work there."A few days ago, this far-right poverty tourist and provocateur discovered Canal Street," noted Justin Brannan, a member of the New York City Council, referencing Hernandez's recent video segment. "Today, Trump’s ICE cowboys marched in. They're not hiding it. They're telegraphing it now."<div class="rm-embed embed-media"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">As masked federal agents target street vendors on Canal Street, THE CITY watched one street vendor being detained. As the operation carried on, agents were confronted with a spontaneous crowd of protesters. MORE HERE: <a href="https://t.co/DsHGCcdDMV">https://t.co/DsHGCcdDMV</a> <a href="https://t.co/jvAbm0jVgQ">pic.twitter.com/jvAbm0jVgQ</a> — THE CITY (@THECITYNY) <a href="https://twitter.com/THECITYNY/status/1980805996168769633?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 22, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>While members of the New York community denounced the raid, Hernandez, who is not from New York City, took a bow for what she accepted as her role in instigating it."Illegal immigration and the crime tied to it have been plaguing your city," Hernandez said with pride. "I make no apologies for reporting on what real New Yorkers have to deal with every single day."A statement from the office of New York's Democratic Governor, Katherine Hochul, described Hernandez as "a bigot" and denounced the operation in the city.<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1980809397694787614">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/NYGovPress/status/1980809397694787614"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> The afternoon raid sparked an impromptu protest in lower Manhattan outside federal buildings that lasted late into the evening, with residents denouncing Trump and the behavior of the agencies operating in the city."I am so angry. What are they doing to our city? It's terrible," Nicole Parcher, a New York City resident who attended the protest, told WABC.]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:26:26 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/ice-raid-canal-street</guid><category>Donald trump</category><category>Ice</category><category>Immigration</category><category>Zohran mamdani</category><category>New york city</category><dc:creator>Jon Queally</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/png" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/federal-agents-arrest-in-nyc.png?id=61876269&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>UN Experts Decry Trump Warmongering Against Venezuela as 'Extremely Dangerous Escalation'</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/un-experts-trump-venezuela</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/us-navy-destroyer-uss-sampson-docked-in-panama-amid-regional-tensions-with-venezuela.jpg?id=61875090&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C976%2C0%2C976"/> A group of United Nations experts on Tuesday condemned US President Donald Trump's recent threats to wage war on Venezuela and said his decision to bomb at least seven boats in international waters—killing dozens of people accused without evidence of drug trafficking—amounted to "extrajudicial executions."Trump's repeated threats against Venezuela "violate the fundamental international obligations not to intervene in the domestic affairs or threaten to use armed force against another country," <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/un-experts-condemn-coercive-intervention-venezuela-united-states" target="_blank">said</a> the trio of experts, warning that the US president's belligerence represents "an extremely dangerous escalation with grave implications for peace and security in the Caribbean region."Even if the Trump administration had substantiated its drug trafficking claims, the experts continued, "the use of lethal force in international waters without proper legal basis violates the international law of the sea."The statement from the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, and special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism came amid growing alarm over Trump's actions and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-maduro-venezuela-united-states/" target="_blank">posturing</a> against Venezuela.Earlier this month, Trump <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/venezuela-cia-trump" target="_blank">authorized</a> covert CIA operations in the country and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/10/22/venezuela-trump-maduro-war-narcotics/" target="_blank">declined to answer</a> when asked whether the move amounted to a green light for the agency to assassinate the nation's president, Nicolás Maduro.The Trump administration has also amassed an "<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-military-buildup-caribbean-venezuela-ships-troops-810f6181371f53536c723ea562c5277c" target="_blank">unusually large force</a>" in the Caribbean consisting of thousands of troops, at least eight warships, and a squadron of jets."Trump has said nothing to dispel concerns that the United States could launch a full-scale military operation," The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/10/22/venezuela-trump-maduro-war-narcotics/" target="_blank">reported</a> Tuesday.In their statement, the UN experts called Trump's warmongering against Venezuela a violation of the UN Charter, which they note "prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."They also cast the administration's aggressive conduct as a reprise of the <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-10-20/cia-activity-against-venezuelan-leaders-revives-specter-of-us-interventionism-in-latin-america.html#" target="_blank">sordid record of US intervention</a>, covert and otherwise, in Latin America."The long history of external interventions in Latin America must not be repeated," the experts said. "The lessons from history must be learned and not repeated. The international community must stand firm in defending the rule of law, dialogue, and the peaceful settlement of disputes."]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2025 11:37:37 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/un-experts-trump-venezuela</guid><category>Donald trump</category><category>United nations</category><category>Us military</category><category>Venezuela</category><dc:creator>Jake Johnson</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/us-navy-destroyer-uss-sampson-docked-in-panama-amid-regional-tensions-with-venezuela.jpg?id=61875090&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Adelita Grijalva and Arizona AG Sue Over 'Speaker Johnson's Obstruction'</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/news/adelita-grijalva-arizona</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/rep-elect-adelita-grijalva.jpg?id=61787736&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C402%2C0%2C1960"/> Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva filed a highly anticipated federal lawsuit on Tuesday over Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's refusal to administer the oath of office for nearly a month."On September 23, 2025, the voters in Arizona's 7th Congressional District elected Adelita Grijalva to serve as their representative in the House, with 68.94% of the vote," <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.286094/gov.uscourts.dcd.286094.1.0.pdf" target="_blank">notes</a> the complaint, filed in a the district court in Washington, DC. "The election was canvassed and the certificate of election delivered to the House on October 14, 2025."Grijalva's victory in the special election for her late father's seat came shortly before a government shutdown. Johnson (La.) has used the ongoing shutdown as an excuse and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/adelita-grijalva" target="_self">denied</a> that he is intentionally delaying her oath to <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/grijalva-adelita" target="_self">avoid</a> a vote on releasing files about deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a former friend of President Donald Trump."Speaker Mike Johnson is actively stripping the people of Arizona of one of their seats in Congress and disenfranchising the voters of Arizona's 7th Congressional District in the process," Mayes—who had <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/grijalva-arizona" target="_blank">threatened</a> legal action last week—<a href="https://www.azag.gov/press-release/attorney-general-mayes-representative-elect-grijalva-sue-house-representatives" target="_blank">said</a> Tuesday. "By blocking Adelita Grijalva from taking her rightful oath of office, he is subjecting Arizona's 7th Congressional District to taxation without representation. I will not allow Arizonans to be silenced or treated as second-class citizens in their own democracy."<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1980754993474060410">
<div style="margin:1em 0"></div> — (@)
<a href="https://twitter.com/AdelitaForAZ/status/1980754993474060410"></a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> The court filing came a day after Johnson publicly <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/grijalva-arizona" target="_blank">suggested</a> he would swear in Grijalva as soon as the shutdown ends, and fired back at her for repeatedly calling him out on social media. The speaker said that "instead of doing TikTok videos, she should be serving her constituents," even though she lacks the resources to do so, because she hasn't yet taken the oath of office. "I don't have constituents until I'm sworn in," Grijalva <a href="https://apnews.com/article/adelita-grijalva-swearin-congress-epstein-files-adeb9e704220b65c9ae139e557c72381" target="_blank">told</a> the Associated Press before the suit was filed, noting that the delay means she can't sign a lease on office space in her district.After the filing, she <a href="https://www.azag.gov/press-release/attorney-general-mayes-representative-elect-grijalva-sue-house-representatives" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement that "Speaker Johnson's obstruction has gone far beyond petty partisan politics—it's an unlawful breach of our Constitution and the democratic process. The voters of Southern Arizona made their choice, yet for four weeks, he has refused to seat a duly elected member of Congress—denying Southern Arizona its constitutional representation.""I'm proud to join Attorney General Mayes in standing up for the more than 800,000 Arizonans who have been stripped of their voice in Congress," Grijalva added. "Speaker Johnson cannot continue to disenfranchise an entire district and suppress their representation to shield this administration from accountability and block justice for the Epstein survivors."Welcoming the suit, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) <a href="https://x.com/RubenGallego/status/1980755605372510365" target="_blank">said</a> that Mayes "isn't playing around. She just filed a lawsuit against pedo protector Mike! Maybe now he'll stop covering for predators and start giving the people of AZ-07 a voice in Congress."]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 21 Oct 2025 23:11:45 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/news/adelita-grijalva-arizona</guid><category>Arizona</category><category>Government shutdown</category><category>Jeffrey epstein</category><category>Kris mayes</category><category>Us house of representatives</category><category>Adelita grijalva</category><dc:creator>Jessica Corbett</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/rep-elect-adelita-grijalva.jpg?id=61787736&width=980"></media:content></item><item><title>Record Number of US Cities, Counties, and States to Raise Minimum Wage in 2023</title><link>https://www.commondreams.org/minimum-wage</link><description><![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/workers-advocate-for-20-an-hour-minimum-wage.jpg?id=32387279&width=1200&height=400&coordinates=0%2C343%2C0%2C0"/> After a decade since the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/11/30/166217423/n-y-fast-food-workers-strike-for-better-wages" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">launch</a> of the Fight for $15 movement in New York City, a record number of U.S. states and communities are set to raise the minimum wage in the new year.From New Year's Eve to New Year's Day, the minimum wage will increase in 23 states and 41 cities and counties, according to a report released Thursday by the National Employment Law Project (NELP). In 40 of those 64 jurisdictions, it will hit or exceed $15 an hour for at least some workers."The raises we are seeing are a true testament to the power of organizing."By the end of 2023, additional increases are planned in five states and 22 localities—with 21 reaching or topping $15 an hour—bringing the total for next year to 86: 27 states and 59 cities and counties, says the report, Raises From Coast to Coast in 2023. The totals take into account that multiple increases are planned in Michigan and four local jurisdictions."The raises we are seeing are a true testament to the power of organizing," <a href="https://www.nelp.org/news-releases/record-number-of-cities-states-will-increase-minimum-wages-in-2023/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> Yannet Lathrop, senior researcher and policy analyst at NELP, in a statement. "These raises were achieved in a variety of ways, from ballot initiatives to statehouses to workers making their demands to employers directly.""As these wins continue and we see the real-world impact of higher pay—from <a href="https://www.nelp.org/publication/10-year-legacy-fight-for-15-union-movement/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">growing unionization to narrowing racial wealth gaps</a>—we encourage lawmakers to go further and raise pay broadly across our economy," Lathrop added.<blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1605945501219708930">
<div style="margin:1em 0">\u201cA record 86 cities, counties, & states are raising wages sometime in 2023. (5 jurisdictions are raising\nwages 2x in 2023 & are only counted once in our report.) These raises are a necessary advancement towards a sustaining #MinimumWage \u270a\u201d</div> — NELP (@NELP)
<a href="https://twitter.com/NelpNews/status/1605945501219708930">1671722150</a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>As the report details: <blockquote>In the 10 years since fast food workers walked out of their jobs demanding a $15 minimum wage and a union, the Fight for $15 worker movement has won minimum wage increases in 28 states and nearly five dozen cities and counties. These victories have led to an estimated $150 billion in additional annual pay for 26 million workers and to the narrowing of the racial wealth gap. The movement has also put pressure on employers to raise their pay scales, leading… hundreds of businesses, large and small, to raise wages to $15 or more. Among them are corporate giants employing hundreds of thousands of workers from coast to coast, including Amalgamated Bank, Bank of America, Barclays, Best Buy, Charter Communications, Chobani, Chipotle, CVS, Ikea, JP Morgan Chase, LabCorp, Macy's, MetLife PNC, Sam's Club, Southwest Airlines, Synchrony Financial, T- Mobile, Target, Under Armour, USAA, Verizon, Walgreen's, Walmart, and Wells Fargo. </blockquote>"The monumental impact of the Fight for $15 is clearly visible in this year's record wage increases as well as those in years past," said NELP executive director Rebecca Dixon. "But in those same 10 years, congressional action to expand worker rights has been limited.""While it is encouraging to see boosts to the minimum wage in cities and states across the country, we need federal policy to address the mounting crises brought about by record increases in the cost of living and pandemic recovery," she stressed. "We must pass a higher federal minimum wage—at least $15 an hour—that accounts for rising costs of living and ensures that workers have the ability to support themselves and their families."In March 2021, eight members of the Democratic caucus, joined all 50 Republicans in the U.S. Senate to kill legislation that would have established a $15 federal minimum wage, lifting millions of people out of poverty. Among those Democrats was Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who officially declared herself an Independent in recent weeks.State-wide polling conducted shortly before that vote last year showed a majority of Arizonans across the political spectrum in favor of increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour. In November 2021, the people of Sinema's hometown of Tucson approved a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Arizona's second-largest city.NELP's new report notes that Tucson residents are on track to see a $15 hourly wage by 2025. The city's current rate is $13, but it is set to increase to $13.85 on January 1, with a $10.85 tipped wage—both in line with the state's floor.Worker wins from 2022 highlighted in the report include campaigns in Foster City and San Mateo County, California; Hawaii; Nebraska; Tukwila, Washington; and Washington, D.C. <blockquote class="rm-embed twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1605946400839061504">
<div style="margin:1em 0">\u201cPlus, in the South, underpaid workers are demanding higher wages & stronger labor standards. @RaiseUptheSouth is organizing workers in the service sector throughout the region #OrganizeTheSouth #UnionsForAll\u201d</div> — NELP (@NELP)
<a href="https://twitter.com/NelpNews/status/1605946400839061504">1671722150</a>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>"In 2023 and 2024, the campaigns to watch include an $18 ballot measure in California and possible ballot measures in Arizona, Ohio, and Michigan," the publication points out. "On the legislative front, there may be one fair wage campaigns in Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland," the report adds, "as well as efforts to raise the minimum wage in Maryland (to speed up the state's implementation of a $15 minimum wage), Massachusetts (where the minimum will reach $15 in 2023 and there are no inflation adjustments planned for following years), and New York (where the demand is $21.25 by 2026-2027)."]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 22 Dec 2022 21:43:53 +0000</pubDate><guid>https://www.commondreams.org/minimum-wage</guid><category>Minimum wage</category><category>Workers</category><dc:creator>Jessica Corbett</dc:creator><media:content medium="image" type="image/jpeg" url="https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/workers-advocate-for-20-an-hour-minimum-wage.jpg?id=32387279&width=980"></media:content></item></channel></rss>

If you would like to create a banner that links to this page (i.e. this validation result), do the following:

Download the "valid RSS" banner.
Upload the image to your own server. (This step is important. Please do not link directly to the image on this server.)
Add this HTML to your page (change the image src attribute if necessary):

<a href="http://www.feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A//www.commondreams.org/feed/headlines_rss"><img src="valid-rss-rogers.png" alt="[Valid RSS]" title="Validate my RSS feed" /></a>

If you would like to create a text link instead, here is the URL you can use:

http://www.feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A//www.commondreams.org/feed/headlines_rss

Home · About · News · Docs · Terms