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Grassroots Latinx Group Says Local Organizing Is Key to Stopping Trump Agenda
The largest progressive Latinx political organization in the U.S., Mijente, said Thursday that it will not be officially endorsing a presidential candidate in the 2024 race—but emphasized that its non-endorsement doesn't mean it believes Latino voters should be disengaged from the election or the fights that will continue regardless of who wins. In a video featuring organizers and community members from across the country, Mijente grapples with the reality that many Latino voters and rights advocates are "currently disillusioned with the Biden administration."An Axios-Ipsos poll in April found that while Latino voters support the Democratic Party on issues such as...
Sunrise Warns Trump-Vance Would Cause 'Irreversible Damage' to Climate
The Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate organization, warned on Thursday that former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance, who take their place on the Republican presidential ticket this week at the party's convention in Milwaukee, would cause "catastrophic and irreversible damage" to the climate if elected. Republicans were not speaking about climate at the convention nor even their plans to "drill, baby, drill," as per the party's platform, Stevie O'Hanlon, Sunrise's communications director, said in a statement issued from Milwaukee. O'Hanlon posited that this is because party leaders know that their approach to the climate is unpopular among Americans. "The absence...
CFPB Aims to Protect Workers From Paycheck Advance Fees
With inflation rising in recent years, driven by corporate greed according to numerous analyses, the number of people in the U.S. who have relied on paycheck advance products has skyrocketed—but a rule introduced Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is aimed at ensuring that lenders who provide these products are transparent with financially struggling workers about the fees they can incur.The CFPB proposed a rule clarifying that paycheck advances, sometimes marketed as "earned wage" products, are consumer loans and are therefore subject to the Truth in Lending Act. The federal law requires lenders to disclose all fees, interest, and...
UK Climate Campaigners Get 'Utterly Disproportionate' Sentences
In a decision that one United Nations official called "beyond comprehension," a U.K. judge on Thursday sentenced five Just Stop Oil activists to a combined 21 years in prison over a Zoom call in which they discussed plans to disrupt London's orbital M25 highway. The sentences are believed to be the longest on record for nonviolent protest in U.K. history, The Guardian reported. "The sentences handed to the five Just Stop Oil campaigners are utterly disproportionate," environmentalist and author George Monbiot wrote on social media. "Four and five years in prison for peaceful protest? This is what you might expect in Russia...
Dems Spotlight Project 2025 Plan to Wield 'Zombie Law' Against Abortion Rights
Two congressional Democrats who spearheaded the Stop Project 2025 Task Force warned Thursday that abortion rights opponents are laying the groundwork to revive and wield a 151-year-old "zombie law" to ban abortion nationwide. In a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, who is under growing pressure to drop out of the 2024 race, Reps. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) noted that the Project 2025 agenda crafted by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing groups "includes a detailed blueprint for a future Republican president to impose a backdoor national abortion ban with a stroke of the pen by willfully...
Amnesty Condemns Israel's 'Mass Incommunicado Detention and Torture' of Palestinians
Israel is using its dubious Unlawful Combatants Law to arbitrarily detain Palestinians from the Gaza Strip—including women and children—indefinitely without charge and trial, according to an Amnesty International report published Thursday. All 27 former detainees interviewed by the rights group described being tortured by Israeli forces. Amnesty documented the cases of 21 men, five women, and one 14-year-old boy taken from Gaza and held in indefinite incommunicado detention in facilities including the notorious Sde Teiman camp in Israel's Negev Desert for periods of up to four-and-a-half months, without access to lawyers or contact with their families. "All those interviewed by Amnesty International...
Report Shows How Lawmakers in GOP-Dominated South Harm Workers
"For at least the last 40 years, pay and job quality for workers across the South has been inferior compared to other regions—thanks to the racist and anti-worker Southern economic development model." That's according to a Thursday report by Chandra Childers, a senior policy and economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The new publication is part of her "Rooted in Racism and Economic Exploitation" series.Previous documents in the series have discussed how "Southern politicians claim that 'business-friendly' policies lead to an abundance of jobs and economic prosperity" but in reality, their failed model is designed "to extract the...
Report Details Israel's 'Water War Crimes' in Gaza
Since Israel began its bombardment and near-total blockade on humanitarian aid in Gaza almost 10 months ago, accounts of Palestinians spending hours each day searching for clean water and images of young children hauling jugs to fill up have been seen across the world, as aid groups document what Oxfam calls Israel's "water war crimes" in a new report of the same name. The 66-page report, released Wednesday, documents how since October, Israel has systematically reduced the water available in Gaza by 94%, with just 4.74 liters per resident obtainable each day—less than a third of the recommended minimum amount in...
Oil Giant Ran 1977 Article Linking Climate Change to 'Widespread Starvation'
A Marathon Oil Company magazine from 1977 predicted that rising temperatures caused by industrial activity could one day lead to "widespread starvation and other social and economic calamities," The Guardian reported on Thursday. The revelation comes as Big Oil faces a number of lawsuits for covering up its knowledge about climate change, propagating disinformation, and blocking a green transition. Marathon Petroleum, the largest oil refinery company in the U.S. and a major spin-off of Marathon Oil Company, is among the defendants in one of the most prominent of those cases, City and County of Honolulu v. Sunoco et al....
Push for Biden to Drop Out Reaches Very Top of Democratic Party
The two highest-ranking Democrats in the U.S. Congress have reportedly warned President Joe Biden behind closed doors that his continued presence at the top of the party's ticket could imperil down-ballot candidates in November. The New York Times reported late Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) "each told Mr. Biden privately over the past week that their members were deeply concerned about his chances in November and the fates of House and Senate candidates" should he defy calls to drop his reelection bid against Republican nominee Donald Trump. ABC News reported that Schumer...
Billionaire-Backed JD Vance Postures as Working Class Ally in RNC Speech
A former venture capitalist whose Senate campaign and push to become Republican nominee Donald Trump's running mate were propelled by billionaire cash postured as an ally of the U.S. working class during his speech Wednesday night at the GOP's convention, where he accepted the party's vice presidential nomination."We're done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street. We'll commit to the working man," said Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who made millions working in Silicon Valley—including for billionaire Peter Thiel's company Mithril Capital—and later started his own venture capital firm, Narya."We need a leader who's not in the pocket of big business,...
Israeli Lawmakers Vote Against Palestinian Statehood
While Israel's troops wage what has been widely decried as genocide on the Gaza Strip, Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a resolution opposing "the establishment of a Palestinian state" west of the Jordan River.The measure passed Israel's legislature, the Knesset, 68-9. It was spearheaded by Knesset Member Zeev Elkin of New Hope - The United Right, who shared the key messages from the resolution on social media along with a photo of the final tally.According to Religious Zionism-affiliated Israel National News:The proposal says, "The Israeli Knesset firmly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan. The...
Biden Contracts Covid Again During Tough Campaign
U.S. President Joe Biden has contracted Covid-19 for the second time and is heading to his home in Delaware to self-isolate, the White House said Wednesday evening. "President Biden is vaccinated, boosted, and he is experiencing mild symptoms following a positive Covid-19 test," the White House said on social media. A statement attributed to Biden's doctor said that "the president presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorrhea (runny nose) and nonproductive cough, with general malaise." .@POTUS is back on Air Force One and we’re headed to Delaware pic.twitter.com/SLGfL8pcN1 — Nandita Bose (@nanditab1) July 17, 2024 "He felt okay for his...
Peace Group Faces Death Threats After 'False Accusations' by Lawmaker at RNC
CodePink on Wednesday published a recording of a vicious death threat it received after a GOP congressman's dubious assault allegation against one of the peace group's members resulted in her arrest outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. According to CodePink, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.)—a former Navy SEAL—"falsely accused" Nour Jaghama, the group's Palestine campaign coordinator, of assault after he ran into her from behind. Jaghama was arrested and held for 15 hours in a Milwaukee jail before being released. She was charged with battery against a sitting member of Congress. "CodePink unequivocally states that no one from our organization assaulted...
'Disconnection Crisis': Power Shutoffs Put Poor at Risk as Heatwaves Ravage US
Low-income Americans face climbing energy costs and the possibility of summertime power shutoffs—even amid a devastating heatwave—if they can't pay their utility bills, thanks to a lack of legal protections in most states, a report issued Tuesday by a pair of advocacy groups warns. The Center for Energy Poverty and Climate (EPC) and the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) released the report, which calls for an increase in federal funding to address the issue, as more than 100 million Americans this week face heat advisories and extreme temperatures driven by climate change become increasingly common. Many low-income people face...
Palestinian Envoy Demands End to 'Most Documented Genocide in History'
Ahead of the International Court of Justice's expected advisory opinion on legal consequences for Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, Palestine's permanent observer at the United Nations reminded other diplomats at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday that the slaughter of more than 38,000 people in Gaza has been broadcast for nine months—while Israel has claimed it is acting in self-defense and is targeting Hamas. "What is happening in Gaza is going down as the most documented genocide in history," Riyad Mansour said. "When will the world denounce the crimes and stop tolerating their reoccurrence?"In addition to the daily...
'Scathing' Report Exposes Broken Promises of Cori Bush's Primary Challenger
A local coalition on Wednesday released a report blasting the record of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, who is challenging progressive Congresswoman Cori Bush in the Democratic primary for Missouri's 1st District. The report about Bell's five years in his current office was published by the Prosecutor Organizing Table, which includes Action St. Louis, ArchCity Defenders, Freedom Community Center, Forward through Ferguson, MacArthur Justice Center, and Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty. "Early on, Bell cast himself as a progressive looking to make fundamental changes to the way that the St. Louis County prosecutor's office operated," the report explains. "He...
65% of Democratic Voters Want Biden to Step Aside: Poll
A majority of U.S. voters want both President Joe Biden and Republican nominee Donald Trump to drop out of the 2024 presidential contest, with nearly two-thirds of Democrats favoring the Democratic incumbent's withdrawal amid mounting concerns over his mental fitness, a poll published Wednesday revealed. The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of 1,253 U.S. adults conducted between July 11-15 found that 70% of all respondents want Biden to step aside in favor of an alternative nominee and 57% think Trump should quit the race. Broken down by partisan affiliation, 73% of Republicans, 70% of Independents, and 65% of...
House Progressives Rip GOP for Siding With Credit Card Giants on Junk Fees
Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Wednesday slammed their House Republican colleagues for siding with credit card giants over U.S. consumers by attempting to roll back a Biden administration rule banning excessive late fees—a major profit source for card issuers. The House's Republican majority is expected in the near future to schedule a floor vote on a GOP-authored resolution that would use the Congressional Review Act to undo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) rule lowering the typical credit card late fee from $32 to $8. The CFPB is currently fighting a Trump-appointed judge's injunction against the rule, which the agency...
81 Killed in 24 Hours as Israel Continues Targeting UN School Shelters in Gaza
Israeli attacks have killed 81 Palestinians over roughly the last 24 hours, including an attack on a United Nations-run school shelter in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to data released by the Gaza health ministry on Wednesday. The Nuseirat strike, which killed 23 Palestinians on Tuesday, was at least the eighth Israeli attack on a school shelter in the last ten days. Six of the schools had been run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). "Why do they target us when we are innocent people?" Umm Mohammed al-Hasanat,...
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