Good Trouble: March, March, Sons Of The Ice!
Happily, May Day saw many thousands unite: You have nothing to lose but the wreckage, shackles and stench of an odious regime. For now it persists, its ghouls ravaging systems, rights, many lives, but myriad small good things continue to seek to stop it: Court rulings block the mayhem and now the Alien Enemies Act, rowdy "empty chair" town halls name the complicit, MAGA thugs are charged, POTUS portraits are unveiled, tech intersections are hacked (Elon: "Please be my friend") and the penguins are revolting.
"Only 1,361 Days To Go," reads The Economist's blistering headline marking Trump's first 100 days of chaos, accompanied by a bloodied, bandaged eagle representing "the lasting harm" done by "a vindictive, vituperative lord of misrule, vacant, spiteful, and cruel." There have been the (way more than) 100 lies in 100 days, the economy he's crashed - which has "NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS," is Biden's fault, and okay so you only get two dolls - the millions he will ultimately condemn to needless death from HIV/AIDS and other diseases after his fave gonzo gazillionaire randomly cut international aid, the ongoing, head-spinning idiocy - "Imams Wut" - and his Nazi ghouls and sycophants on all sides. At this week's grotesque grovel-fest of a cult meeting, lackeys and their Gulf of America caps all in a row, Execution Barbie Bondi burbled she's "signing death warrants" and, smirking "Are you ready for this, liberal media?," declared Trump's already saved 258 million lives, or 75% of America, who didn't die of fentanyl. "That's some North Korea Shit," from one patriot. Also, "Trump also invented corn on the cob. And birds."
On the relentless Constitution-shredding, rights-assailing, authoritarian cosplay, David Remnick is grimly succinct: "Every day is a fresh hell." Still, there are enough outcroppings of grassroots good trouble to (mostly) keep alive our flickering embers of hope. One strategy trending nationwide is democrats organizing so-called empty-chair town halls, an ingenious, effective update to the time-honored "unvarnished, direct democracy" of elected officials gathering with constituents to hear from we the people. Lately, of course, GOP lawmakers would rather not, thanks. Abruptly ejected from their soothing MAGA bubble, they have repeatedly faced real-life, pissed-off voters lambasting DOGE malfeasance. Taken aback, they've tried to dismiss the backlash as "pathetic astroturf campaigns" by "out-of-touch, far-left groups," generously paid. We wish. They've also tried carefully vetting events like Byron Donalds; alas, "They lit his ass up." Now, they're largely following the frantic counsel of Monty Python's Knights of the Round Table when they were confronted by a similarly improbable killer bunny: "Run away! Run away!"
In response, exuberant empty-chair town halls highlight their absence and cowardice with signs like "Where's Warren/Bryan/Elise" etc and "Wanted: Republicans with enough courage to honor their oath of office,” providing a chance to organize, galvanize and raise voters' frayed spirits. Even with constituents knowing that headliners won't come, turnouts are striking: Over 800 in Little Rock for (no-show) Sens. Cotton and Boozman, nearly 1,000 in Billings for 3 GOP no-shows, nearly 500 in Bangor, where Susan Collins hasn't held a town hall in over 25 years but her spox says she "has a proven record of working for all of Maine." In Maryland, Jamie Raskin filled in for (MIA) Andy Harris. In Fort Wayne, Indiana Sen. Jim Banks stayed home but sent donuts to "honor one of the best presidents we’ve ever had"; Indivisible thanked him for "the parlor trick" but regretted he didn't show to "Serve us. Show up. Listen to us." In Savannah, absent Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter got a mannequin in jeans and Where's-Waldo striped shirt with a "Buddy Carter" sign. In Glens Falls, NY., angry voters told an absent Elise Stefanik, "You work for us, not the other way around."
In one recent, brilliant innovation, hundreds of Ohio residents came to Middletown, J.D.'s hometown, to ask questions of a newly devised AI “ChatGOP,” which approximated the slimy, likely answers of Rep. Warren Davidson if he'd bothered to show up. After Davidson, an election-denier who squeaked into power in a highly gerrymandered district, snidely declined the invite - "No one needs to accept every argument (or war) they’re invited to" - his chair sat empty as a raucous crowd booed, cheered and challenged ChatGOP about immigration, education, voter suppression, workers' rights and firings. Fiery speakers - a pastor, union leader, NAACP president - addressed his "abandoned constituents, the people he supposedly works for but actively avoids: This is cowardice in a suit. He doesn't show up for families, workers, veterans, teachers, anyone who cant afford a lobbyist (or) his own damn town hall. But we see you, Warren." Organizer David Pepper praised the exuberant crowd for showing up in force when needed. "This was American democracy at work. Patriotism at its best," he said. "And it was electric."
May Day offered more inspiration, from Switzerland's marching middle fingers to, at home, our buoyant, four-stop, meticulously organized rally - workers, P.O., teachers, all - complete with the Ideal Maine Social Aid and Sanctuary Band at each stop and a patriotic dachshund's two-sided sign: "Dogs for due process" and "If he's a stable genius, I'm a giraffe." Also gifting hope: Bernie and AOC's crowds, Harvard standing up with, finally, 70 more schools, a defiant Alt National Park Service, #SaveOurParks, #RehireRangers. And with thanks to Chop Wood, Carry Water: Charges were filed - battery, false imprisonment - against six private security thugs who dragged a woman from a GOP town hall; the largest federation of unions created a pro bono legal network for fired federal workers; after an ACLU lawsuit, DHS will retrain over 900 California Border Patrol agents to comply with the Constitution; Colorado banned most semi-automatic guns without background checks; 12 GOP reps opposed Medicaid cuts; thousands are using online "anti-woke business finder" PublicSquare, to boycott MAGA businesses instead, and Maine won, again.
And the court rulings against autocracy mount. They've blocked freezes on billions in infrastructure and environmental funding, deportations in Colorado and Nevada, DOGE accessing information from Social Security, multiple mass firings. In a big win this week, Texas District Judge Fernando Rodriguez, Trump-appointed despite his name, ruled the regime's use of the Alien Enemies Act to disappear Venezuelan immigrants "exceeds the scope of the statute and is contrary to (its) plain, ordinary meaning." Friday, another judge permanently struck down a vengeful, bonkers executive order targeting Perkins Coie law firm as "a national security risk" simply because it worked with Hillary Clinton. In a furious, 102-page opinion, Judge Beryl Howell trashed every aspect of the order, said it violated the 1st, 5th and 6th amendments, and called it "unconstitutional retaliation." "No American president has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue," she said, adding, "In purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase, 'The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’”
For every such substantive action pushing back against tyranny, there's inevitably and gratifyingly a grassroots, off-the-wall, often hilarious act of resistance from some random patriot who just can't take it anymore. Last month, after Trump threw a hissy fit about a portrait in Colorado he didn't like, filmmaker Michael Moore helpfully asked artful readers to create and send their own "PORTRAITS OF POTUS—America’s Art Attack for Democracy.” Over 2,000 did - here, here and here - and they are....something to behold. Around the same time, some snarky tech nerds in California used their expertise to hack crosswalk buttons at downtown intersections in Silicon Valley cities - Redwood City, Menlo Park, Palo Alto - that replicate the unctuous tones and sage musings of broligarchs Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. The signals still work - and still say 'wait' - but they spout the inane ramblings of, say, "Musk" arguing, "You know, people keep saying cancer is bad, but have you tried being a cancer? It’s fucking awesome," or lamely pleading, "Can we be friends? I'll give you a Cybertruck." One comment: "Friends don’t give friends Cybertrucks."
There are many more. Zuck pops up near Menlo Park, site of Meta’s headquarters, to declaim how proud he is of "everything we’ve been building together." "From undermining democracy, to cooking our grandparents’ brains with AI slop, to making the world less safe for trans people, nobody does it better than us," he goes on. "And I think that’s pretty neat." Another from Zuck: "It's normal to feel uncomfortable or even violated as we forcefully insert AI into every facet of your conscious experience. And I just want to assure you - you don’t need to worry, because there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop it.” From Elmo: "It's funny - I used to think Trump was just a stuffed sack of shit, but when you get to know him he's actually sweet and tender and loving." "You don’t know the level of depravity I would stoop to just for a crumb of approval," Musk also says. "I mean, let’s be real, it’s not like I had any moral convictions to begin with." "Every small thing you do helps remind people the wannabe dictators are sad, scared, fallible little boys," says one observer. John Adams, in a different context, "The sublimity of it charms me."
Finally, all hail the penguins of Heard and McDonald Islands, 2,485 miles off Australia in the Antarctic and accessible only by a seven-day boat trip, for fighting back against the Orange Hand's tariff tyranny. Small but mighty, the denizens of the Democratic Penguins Republic - "Our empire stands by the endless sea" - took up arms after Trump said he was slapping his "Liberation Day" tariffs on the islands' exports, which don't exist. "March, march, sons of the ice! For our holy island, they shall pay the price," they declared. "The silence breaks, no more delay. The order stands, we march today!" And so it went. So fiercely, in fact, they soon announced Victory Day - "Damn, that was fast" - even though "they questioned why we wore no tie." "Victory Day! The war is won! A million penguins marched as one," they sang. "The motherland stood, proud and grey. All shall praise the Democratic Penguins Republic today!" Online, many did. They welcomed "our new penguin overlords," watched and re-watched "unironically as a factual news source," vowed, "In cod we trust," begged for DPR merch and heralded "a dose of sanity in this time of madness." Keep marching.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Fossil Fuels Blamed as 84% of World's Coral Reefs Hit by Worst Bleaching Event Ever Recorded
A year after scientists warned the world was seeing its fourth mass coral bleaching event, rising ocean temperatures fueled by greenhouse gas emissions have now devastated 84% of Earth's coral reefs—with likely knock-on effects for about a third of all marine species and 1 billion people whose lives and livelihoods are directly impacted by the health of the "rainforests of the sea."
Coral Reef Watch at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its latest data on Wednesday, showing the current bleaching event has become the most widespread on record, impacting reefs from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic and Pacific.
The news comes three months after scientists confirmed 2024 was the hottest year on record. Last year, meteorologists also found that sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic were about 2°F higher than the 1990-2020 average and nearly 3°F above the average in the 1980s.
Unusually warm ocean waters cause corals to expel algae that give the reefs their bright color and deliver nutrients, supporting the immense biodiversity that is normally found within the reefs. Prolonged bleaching can kill coral reefs.
"The magnitude and extent of the heat stress is shocking," marine scientist Melanie McField, the founder of the Healthy Reefs for Healthy People initiative in the Caribbean, told Reuters. "Some reefs that had thus far escaped major heat stress and we thought to be somewhat resilient, succumbed to partial mortalities in 2024."
Derek Manzello, director of Coral Reef Watch, told The Guardian that some reefs that had been considered safe from the impact of rising ocean temperatures have now been bleached.
"Some reefs that had thus far escaped major heat stress and we thought to be somewhat resilient, succumbed to partial mortalities in 2024."
“The fact that so many reef areas have been impacted," he said, "suggests that ocean warming has reached a level where there is no longer any safe harbor from coral bleaching and its ramifications."
The current coral bleaching event began in January 2023. That same year, scientists were alarmed by an ocean heatwave off the coast of Florida that rapidly bleached the continental United States' only living barrier reef.
That event prompted NOAA to introduce a new coral bleaching alert scale from Level 1—significant bleaching—to Level 5, at which point a reef is approaching mortality.
Another ocean heatwave last year threatened Australia's Great Barrier Reef, eight years after nearly half of the coral in some northern parts of the 1,400-mile reef was killed by a mass bleaching event.
But recent major bleaching events affecting specific reefs have not compared to the current widespread devastation in the world's oceans.
“Reefs have not encountered this before," said Britta Schaffelke, coordinator of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, told The Guardian. "With the ongoing bleaching it's almost overwhelming the capacity of people to do the monitoring they need to do. The fact that this most recent, global-scale coral bleaching event is still ongoing takes the world's reefs into uncharted waters."
The other three mass bleaching events on record occurred from 2014-17, with 68% of the world's reefs affected; in 2010, when 37% were impacted; and in 1998, when 21% suffered bleaching.
The report from Coral Reef Watch followed the Trump administration's under-the-radar release of climate change data that minimized NOAA's findings about the level of planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. President Donald Trump also issued an executive order demanding sunset provisions for every existing energy regulation and notified companies that they can seek exemptions to clean air regulations.
Joerg Wiedenmann, a marine biologist at the Coral Reef Laboratory at the University of Southampton in England, emphasized that taking action to stop the heating of the world's oceans could protect coral reefs, the marine species they provide habitats to, and the communities they support by protecting coastlines and providing fishing and tourism jobs.
"If we manage to decrease ocean warming," Wiedenmann toldThe Washington Post, "there is always a chance for corals to recover."
'Time to Break Up This Tech Giant,' Says Warren After Latest Monopoly Ruling Against Google
For the second time in less than a year, a federal judge on Thursday ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly in part of its tech business—leading to the latest calls for the Silicon Valley giant to be broken up to end its anticompetitive practices.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that Google holds a monopoly over two online advertising markets, after the U.S. Justice Department and several states filed a lawsuit arguing its practices allowing it to dominate advertising technology had enabled the $1.88 trillion company to charge higher prices and take a bigger portion of profits from sales.
"In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google's publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web," said Brinkema in the 115-page decision.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) applauded DOJ lawyers and called the victory "the result of years of work to rein in tech companies' abuses."
Google's latest legal defeat, said the senator, shows that "Google is an illegal monopolist—and it's time to break up this tech giant."
Jonathan Kanter, former assistant attorney general in the DOJ's Antitrust Division, added that the company "is an illegal monopolist twice over."
"The company's near-total dominance of the online advertising market hurts media companies, rival search engines, social media companies, and anyone who consumes media on the internet."
Last August, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta issued a landmark ruling in another antitrust case against Google, saying the company had illegally monopolized the online search and general text advertising markets.
Next week, Mehta is scheduled to consider whether to break up the company over its control of online searches. The DOJ has also called for a breakup of Google's advertising tech monopoly.
"Case by case, antitrust enforcers are taming the beasts of Big Tech," said Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. "Yet another monumental win in the history of antitrust enforcement, this case in particular is a win for journalists, publishers, online content creators, and the distributed open web."
In the advertising tech case that was decided Thursday, the government argued last year that Google locked web publishers into using its software, harming websites that produce content that they make available for free online.
The result of Google's practices, said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, "is that our internet is less open and free, and civic discourse has irreparably been damaged by killing the local news we need to operate a vibrant democracy."
"This ruling is an unequivocal win for the American people that will help lower prices, increase competition, and lead to a better internet for everyone," said Haworth.
Jason Kint, CEO of the nonprofit trade association Digital Content Next, said Thursday's ruling underscores "the global harm caused by Google's practices, which have deprived premium publishers worldwide of critical revenue, undermining their ability to sustain high-quality journalism and entertainment."
"Today's decision," said Kint, "is a significant step toward restoring competition and accountability in the digital advertising ecosystem."
Emily Peterson-Cassin, corporate power director at Demand Progress Education Fund, said that "Google's illegal monopolies are blunting [the United States'] competitive edge in the tech industry" and called on the courts to take far-reaching action against the company.
"Our nation has grown prosperous and powerful because of competition," said Peterson-Cassin. "The company's near-total dominance of the online advertising market hurts media companies, rival search engines, social media companies, and anyone who consumes media on the internet. As one of the richest, most powerful companies in the history of humanity, a mere fine or slap on the wrist won't cut it. For the good of our nation and the health of our tech and media industries the government must force Google to sell its advertising technology division."
'A Disgrace': Trump Budget Gives $1 Trillion to Military While Slashing Programs for Working Class
The budget blueprint that U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled Friday would give a record $1.01 trillion to the American military for the coming fiscal year while imposing $163 billion in total cuts to housing, education, healthcare, climate, and labor programs.
The proposal, released by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, was viewed by Democratic lawmakers and other critics as a clear statement of the White House's intent to gut programs that working class Americans rely on while pursuing another round of tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and bolstering the Pentagon, a morass of waste and abuse.
"President Trump has made his priorities clear as day," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "He wants to outright defund programs that help working Americans while he shovels massive tax breaks at billionaires like himself and raises taxes on middle-class Americans with his reckless tariffs."
"This president believes we should shred at least $163 billion in investments here at home that make all the difference for families and have been essential to America's success—but that we should hand billionaires and the biggest corporations trillions in new tax breaks," Murray added. "That is outrageous—and it should offend every hardworking American who wants their tax dollars to help them live a good life, not pad the pockets of billionaires."
"Trump is prioritizing his own wallet and the tax benefits of his wealthy donors—leaving local communities and small towns to bear the brunt of his cuts."
According to the OMB summary, Trump's Fiscal Year 2026 budget would cut over $4.5 billion from Title I and K-12 education programs, $4 billion from a program that provides heating assistance to low-income households, $2.4 billion from safe drinking water funding, $26 billion from rental assistance programs, $17 billion from the National Institutes of Health, $100 million from environmental justice programs, $1.3 billion from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and $4.6 billion from the Labor Department.
"President Trump is again betraying the millions of Americans who believed him when he promised to lower costs," Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US, said in a statement. "This time, he's taking aim at anyone who attends a public school, relies on rental assistance to keep a roof over their heads, or accesses healthcare through Medicaid or Medicare."
"Instead of standing up for everyday Americans," said Carrk, "Trump is prioritizing his own wallet and the tax benefits of his wealthy donors—leaving local communities and small towns to bear the brunt of his cuts."
Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, noted that the cuts to social programs in the White House's budget proposal "are extreme by any standard, but they're extreme even by Trump's own standards," far exceeding even what he proposed during his first term.
"The cuts in this budget are especially egregious," said Kogan, "when you consider that Trump is also trying to push the largest Medicaid and food assistance cuts in American history through Congress over the next few months."
Meanwhile, the U.S. military would see a $113 billion budget increase compared to current levels if the Republican-controlled Congress were to enact Trump's proposal. The 13% increase would push the nation's annual military budget above $1 trillion, which analysts have described as the highest level since the Second World War.
"The Pentagon is bloated, wasteful, and has NEVER passed an audit," the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen wrote in response to Trump's budget. "What a disgrace."
US Postal Service Now Aiding Trump's Mass Deportation Effort
The United States Postal Service has joined the ranks of federal agencies that are cooperating with President Donald Trump's mass deportation operation that's sent hundreds of people to a foreign prison without due process and deported more than one young U.S. citizen with cancer.
As The Washington Postreported Tuesday, leaders of the Postal Inspection Service—the USPS law enforcement arm that's more accustomed to investigating threats against mail carriers and contraband sent through the mail—agreed to participate in Trump's deportation campaign amid threats from the administration that it could take control of USPS.
Administration officials moved to oust Postmaster General Louis DeJoy last month, and Trump has discussed the idea of privatizing the agency and bringing it under the control of the Department of Commerce.
"We want to play well in the sandbox," an email from the inspection service said after a meeting with immigration officials, according to the Post.
So far, that has included postal inspectors' participation in an immigration raid in Colorado Springs on Sunday, according to a video posted on social media by the local Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) office, which also showed at least one official from the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) criminal investigation unit. More than 100 undocumented immigrants were arrested in the raid.
"Is there a single government agency or service left that hasn't fully embraced fascism?" asked one critic on Bluesky.
Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office directing all federal law enforcement agencies to take part in locating and deporting undocumented immigrants. Earlier this month, immigrant rights and privacy advocates were outraged at the news that the IRS would begin cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by allowing it to access taxpayer data.
In the case of the USPS law enforcement arm, immigration officials are working with postal inspectors to access photographs of the outside of envelopes and packages and the postal agency's surveillance systems, including credit card data and mail tracking information, to help locate undocumented immigrants.
Postal inspectors have previously taken part in federal law enforcement operations, but this marks the first time they have been involved in immigration enforcement.
One source who remained anonymous for fear of retribution told the Post that the Postal Inspection Service is "very, very nervous" about its new involvement, but leaders "seem to be trying to placate Trump by getting involved with things they think he'd like."
"But it's complete overreach," they said. "This is the Postal Service. Why are they involved in deporting people?"
Jonathan Cohn of the grassroots group Progressive Mass said the new development at USPS is indicative of the Trump administration "weaponizing every arm of the federal government to commit state terror against the population."
Palestinian Envoy to ICJ: Israel Using Starvation as 'Weapon of War' in 'Genocidal Campaign'
With Israel's "total and complete blockade" leaving people across Gaza "slowly dying" if they aren't being "killed with bombs and bullets," according to one United Nations official, Palestinian envoy Ammar Hijazi was among those who described the reality on the ground to the U.N.'s top court on Monday as the body considered Israel's legal obligations in Palestine.
Ammar Hijazi, Palestinian ambassador to the Netherlands, warned the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that since October 2023, Israel's blockade on humanitarian aid "has progressively turned into a total siege."
"Israel is starving, killing, and displacing Palestinians, while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organizations trying to save their lives," he said, accusing the Israeli military of waging a "genocidal campaign" in Gaza.
On March 2, for the second time since the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began bombarding Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack in October 2023, Israel halted all humanitarian aid into the enclave. The total blockade was followed by Israel's decision to end a cease-fire that has begun in January, conducting a bombing campaign that killed hundreds of Palestinians in its first day.
For nearly two months, food supplies have dwindled in Gaza, and the World Food Program announced last week that it had delivered its last remaining stocks of hot meals to food kitchens.
The siege has created conditions that are "incompatible with sustaining life or the continued existence of Palestinians in Gaza," Hijazi said.
The ambassador noted that the ICJ hearing was taking place to consider whether Israel is violating international law.
"It is not about the number of aid trucks Israel is or is not allowing into the Occupied Palestinian Territories, especially Gaza," said Hijazi. "It is about Israel destroying the fundamentals of life in Palestine while it blocks U.N. and other humanitarians from providing lifesaving aid to the population. It is about Israel unraveling fundamental principles of international law, including their obligations under the U.N. Charter."
"Starvation is here," Hijazi added. "Humanitarian aid is being used as a weapon of war."
The hearing on Monday was the first of several that will take place at the ICJ over the next five days, following a resolution passed by the U.N. General Assembly last year calling on the court to consider Israel's legal responsibilities after the government blocked the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from operating in the Palestinian territories—cutting Palestinians off from the agency that has for years provided crucial food aid, cash assistance, and health services, among other necessities.
Elinor Hammarskjold, U.N. undersecretary-general for legal affairs, argued during the hearing that Israel's ban on UNRWA is "inconsistent with Israel's obligation under international law" and warned that Israel has an "overarching obligation to administer the territory for the benefit of the local population" and must "agree to and facilitate relief schemes."
As the hearing was underway, medical sources in Gaza toldAl Jazeera that at least 36 people had been killed in Israeli attacks since dawn while eight out of 12 ambulances in southern Gaza were no longer operating due to a lack of fuel.
The Palestinian Civil Defense said its capacity to respond to residents in need will be increasingly reduced by the blockade, "threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelters."
"We hold the Israeli occupation responsible for the worsening suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing war and the continued imposition of the blockade," said the civil defense.
In addition to describing to the court the impact of Israel's blockade, Hijazi spoke about the IDF's attacks that have killed hundreds of aid workers, including nearly 300 UNRWA staff members and dozens of paramedics.
"These killings are deliberate, not accidental," he said of the killing earlier this month of 15 paramedics who were found with bullet wounds in a mass grave, and whose vehicles were shown to be clearly marked in cellphone footage that was later released—despite Israeli claims that they had provoked suspicion by driving in the dark without headlights on.
One of the attorneys representing Palestine at the ICJ, Paul Reichler, said that "the inhumanity of this Israeli policy is compounded by its unlawful objective: to forever extinguish the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination."
"In these circumstances, there can be no doubt that Israel is violating its obligations under international humanitarian law, including obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and customary international law," said Reichler.
Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, another of the international human rights lawyers who represented Palestine at the ICJ on Monday, cataloged just some of Israel's recent displays of hostility to the rule of law, noting that Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier this month that "Israel's policy is clear: No humanitarian aid will enter Gaza," and that the Israeli government is planning to annex 75 square kilometers of the southern Gaza city of Rafah as part of a so-called "buffer zone."
Ní Ghrálaigh emphasized that "despite the extraordinary efforts of Palestinian journalists, who are themselves repeatedly targeted and killed, so much remains undocumented."
"As stated by UNRWA's commissioner-general, I quote, 'I shudder to think of what will still be revealed about the horrors that have taken place in this narrow strip of land,'" she said.
Forty states and four international groups are scheduled to present in the upcoming ICJ hearings, which are separate from the genocide case filed at the court by South Africa. The ICJ said in January 2024 that Israel was required to take steps to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide and to provide humanitarian aid.
A ruling in the case that began Monday is expected to take several months to be announced.
Illinois Man Gets 53 Years in Prison for Vicious Hate-Crime Killing of 6-Year-Old Wadee Alfayoumi
"No sentence can restore what was taken, but today's outcome delivers a necessary measure of justice. Wadee was an innocent child. He was targeted because of who he was—Muslim, Palestinian, and loved."
A judge told an Illinois man Friday that his hate-fueled murder of six-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi in October 2023 was "brutal and heinous" as she sentenced him to 53 years in prison.
The sentence was handed down three months after Joseph Czuba, 73, was found guilty of murdering the Palestinian-American kindergartner, who lived with his family in two bedrooms they rented from Czuba in Plainfield Township, Illinois.
Prosecutors found that Czuba became "paranoid and violent" after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 and as Israel's bombardment of Gaza's population of 2.3 million Palestinians began in retaliation.
Alfayoumi's mother, Hanan Shaheen, testified during Czuba's trial that he had attacked her first before moving on to stab her son 26 times. Czuba told Shaheen before the attack that the family had to leave their home because they were Muslim.
Mahmoud Yousef, an uncle of Alfayoumi's father, told the court at the sentencing that no prison sentence for Czuba would lessen the family's pain.
"Together, we must build a society where no one lives in fear because of who they are, and no family mourns a loved one lost to hate."
"That's more than just hate, that went way beyond that," Yousef said of the murder. "We're talking about a 6-year-old kid whose father had plans for him."
Yousef also looked directly at Czuba and demanded that he say something to the family "for peace of mind," but Czuba did not speak during the hearing.
"Wadee Alfayoumi should still be alive today," said Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.). "While justice has been served, nothing can bring Wadee back. Together, we must build a society where no one lives in fear because of who they are, and no family mourns a loved one lost to hate."
During the trial, the jury heard Shaheen's frantic 911 call and saw crime scene photos that were so harrowing the judge agreed not to show them to the audience, where Alfayoumi's family was sitting.
"No sentence can restore what was taken, but today's outcome delivers a necessary measure of justice," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of Chicago's chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "Wadee was an innocent child. He was targeted because of who he was—Muslim, Palestinian, and loved."
In 'Dead of Night,' House GOP Unveils 'Corporate Polluter's Wish List'
"The sprawling proposal," warned the Sierra Club, "includes dozens of provisions that would benefit the oil and gas industry and other corporations, at the expense of American families."
Green groups on Friday decried U.S. House Republicans' proposed text for the upcoming reconciliation bill, which the Natural Resources Defense Council said "contains an unprecedented slate of direct attacks on the environment and public lands and waters."
Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee submitted their proposed section of the massive GOP energy, tax, and national security bill, which is scheduled for a markup on Tuesday.
"The sprawling proposal, released in the dead of night, includes dozens of provisions that would benefit the oil and gas industry and other corporations, at the expense of American families," said the Sierra Club.
"The only way it could be friendlier to Big Oil CEOs would be if they wrote it themselves."
The draft's proposals include fast-tracked and expanded fossil fuel extraction on public lands, mandated oil and gas drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ending protections for Minnesota's pristine Boundary Waters watershed, reinstating canceled leases for the proposed Twin Metals mine in Minnesota, rolling back fossil fuel royalties, and more.
"This proposal is a corporate polluter's wish list," warned Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club's Lands Protection Program. "The only way it could be friendlier to Big Oil CEOs would be if they wrote it themselves."
"Let's be clear, this proposal is a means to an end," Manuel added. "The end is tax cuts for billionaires, and the means are selling off the public lands that belong to the American people. These provisions enable drilling and mining as quickly, lucratively, and free from public scrutiny as possible, even allowing the fossil fuel industry to buy their way out of judicial oversight. It's a giveaway to industry, and Americans should not stand for it."
Defenders of Wildlife warned that "this egregious legislation would undermine critical wildlife protections and destroy or degrade large swaths of wildlife habitats through destructive mandates for increased logging and massive oil and gas lease sales on American public land, including portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."
Robert Dewey, the group's vice president of government relations, said that "this bill would be devastating for American wildlife and the habitats they depend on."
"It puts a bullseye on already imperiled polar bears, whales, and hundreds of other species that depend on the integrity of federal lands and waters for their survival," Dewey added. "Congress shouldn't be handing over these vital and cherished wildlife habitats on public lands to oil and other extractive companies for bigger profits."
"This measure would give the oil industry free rein to pillage our public lands and oceans."
Kyle Jones, NRDC's federal affairs director, also issued a dire warning:
This measure would give the oil industry free rein to pillage our public lands and oceans. Instead of helping the American people and our shared public resources, it would allow the oil, coal, and timber industries to pick and choose the areas they want to exploit. And it exposes irreplaceable Alaskan wilderness to destructive oil drilling, industrial roadways and mining.
Worst of all, it allows fossil fuel companies and other big polluters to buy their way out of meaningful review or public input into their projects. So, that would mean one set of rules for the fossil fuel and logging barons, and another for the rest of us.
"The best thing that can be said about this measure is that it may be too radical for even this Congress," Jones added. "For the good of Americans and our shared resources, it should be quickly cast aside and forgotten."
The GOP draft follows the Trump administration's publication last month of a proposal that the Center for Biological Diversity warned "would rescind nearly all habitat protections for endangered species nationwide" by changing the regulatory definition of a single word—"harm"—in the Endangered Species Act, the nation's cornerstone wildlife conservation law.
It also comes as the administration, spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency—which has been led by billionaire Elon Musk—eviscerates federal agencies including the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
As he did during his first term, President Donald Trump—who campaigned on a "drill, baby, drill" platform—is pursuing a massive rollback of climate and environmental regulations and has appointed Cabinet secretaries whose backgrounds and beliefs are often inimical to their agencies' purposes.
Medicare Advantage Bribery Scheme Highlights 'Bad Behavior' Trump Wants to Reward
"The Trump administration recently announced it would substantially increase payments to private Medicare Advantage plans in 2026, rewarding their bad behavior."
Healthcare advocates have long condemned the for-profit insurance companies that manage Medicare Advantage plans for overbilling the federal government by hundreds of billions of dollars per year, using artificial intelligence and algorithms to deny patients' claims, and tricking patients with disabilities via deceptive marketing practices—and a lawsuit originally initiated by a whistleblower is accusing three such private insurance giants of taking part in overt bribery.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint Thursday under the False Claims Act, accusing three of the largest Medicare Advantage insurers—Aetna, Humana, and Elevance Health—of paying brokers hundreds of millions of dollars to steer beneficiaries toward their plans, and to steer disabled seniors away in an effort to keep them more profitable.
The American Economic Liberties Project (AELP) noted that the lawsuit comes from an unlikely place—the Trump administration, which last month announced it would substantially increase payments to the privately run plans, increasing rates to the tune of $25 billion in additional funds next year despite their history of defrauding the government and patients.
While applauding the DOJ for cracking down on the bribery scheme, the group noted that "despite its promises to crack down on such wasteful spending, the Trump administration recently announced it would substantially increase payments to private Medicare Advantage plans in 2026, rewarding their bad behavior."
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who President Donald Trump appointed to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has also advocated for a proposal called Medicare Advantage for All—further expanding the for-profit plans that now cover more than half of Americans who are eligible for Medicare.
"For years, these firms have driven seniors into worse care with deceptive marketing and discrimination, but now it's clear they're crooks too."
The lawsuit filed Thursday also named three brokers—eHealth, Inc., GoHealth, Inc., and SelectQuote Inc.—and said that between 2016-21, the companies "paid hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to the defendant brokers in exchange for enrollments into the insurers' Medicare Advantage plans."
The brokers are accused of directing beneficiaries to the plans that paid them the most in kickbacks, regardless of the suitability of the plans. They also allegedly provided their employees with incentives to sell plans based on the payments from the three insurers and refused to sell Medicare Advantage plans for the three companies if they didn't pay the brokers sufficiently.
Aetna and Humana are also accused of conspiring with the brokers to "discriminate against Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities whom they perceived to be less profitable," threatening to withhold payments unless brokers enrolled fewer disabled senior citizens.
"Private Medicare Advantage plans routinely fail to deliver quality care—especially for seniors and the most vulnerable—and are among the most wasteful, fraudulent, and abusive actors in our healthcare system," said Emma Freer, senior policy analyst for healthcare at AELP. "For years, these firms have driven seniors into worse care with deceptive marketing and discrimination, but now it's clear they're crooks too—bribing brokers behind closed doors because they know no one would choose these plans on a level playing field."
In addition to cracking down on the bribery scheme, Freer called on Trump's DOJ to "move swiftly on its ongoing monopolization and fraud investigations in the largest Medicare Advantage plan provider, UnitedHealth Group."
The DOJ opened an investigation in February into UnitedHealth's effect on competition in insurance, pharmacy benefit management, physician networks, and other sectors of the for-profit healthcare industry.