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Ode To Joy
In a triumphal move back toward democratic rule, Hungary's new leader Péter Magyar took his oath of office Saturday in a "regime-change" ceremony rich with symbolism before thousands of jubilant constituents. The sense of a hopeful new political era resonated in Magyar's tribute to a victory for "ordinary, flesh-and-blood people" - and in the gleeful moves and air guitar of unstoppable "dancing machine" and new Health Minister Zsolt Hegedűs. Lookit this guy boogie. Damn, we can't wait.
The day's celebration" marked Magya's stunning defeat last month of authoritarian Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power. A 45-year-old lawyer who founded the center-right Tisza party in 2024, Magyar won a two-thirds majority over Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party, which will allow him to roll back many of Orbán’s policies. Tisza now controls 141 seats in the 199-seat Parliament, with over a quarter held by women; Fidesz won 52 seats, down from 135, and far-right Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) took six. Magyar has vowed to restore democratic institutions, clamp down on corruption, repair ties with the EU, where Orbán often vetoed key decisions including support for Ukraine, and unlock about $20 billion of EU funds to help jump-start Hungary's struggling economy,
Magya was sworn in at the sprawling Parliament building as tens of thousands of Hungarians gathered outside in Kossuth Square. Marking the sea change his victory represents, the EU flag flew for the first time since Orbán’ removed it in 2014, and the Beethoven-inspired European anthem Ode to Joy, symbolizing peace and solidarity, rang out. "Today, every freedom-loving person in the world would like to be Hungarian a little," Magya told the crowd in a message aimed at healing the deep divisions of Orbán's rule. "You have taught (the) world that the most ordinary, flesh-and-blood people can defeat the most vicious tyranny...Today is the fulfillment of a long journey made together (to) once again be a common homeland for all Hungarians."
As the party went all day and into the night - when Magyar took on DJ duties - the high point of its joy and fervor may have come after Magyar's speech when Zsolt Hegedűs, unable to restrain himself, broke out into dancing as the singer Jalja began performing The Hanging Tree: "Strange things have happened here." Hungary's new 56-year-old Health Minister and an internationally recognised orthopaedic surgeon who spent 10 years working for the UK's NHS, Hegedűs had already gone viral last month when, on stage after Magyar's landslide victory, he busted out some fiery dance moves and air guitar in his excitement. This time, he said he wasn't planning a repeat performance. Then the music started...And 140 Party members joined in.
"I could see the audience had been waiting for this," he said. "I didn’t want to let down the people.” So off he went, delighting everyone (except, possibly, his kids if he has any) with his slick moves. The next day, he ascribed it all to his "emotional roller-coaster" since Magyar's victory, with his chance to repair Hungary's health care system, take down Orbán's hate-mongering propaganda, urge people to focus on their mental health. "It's not that I'm going to start dancing in Parliament, but I want (to) encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle...Go outside, dance, be together," he said. "The weight has begun to lift from people’s shoulders." America, weary, ravaged, hungry for peace, just imagine the miracle of it. And for now enjoy his glee.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
May 10, 2026
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Trump Approval of 'Keystone Light' Pipeline Blasted as Yet Another Gift to Big Oil
"We know that if this project goes through, our land and our water are in danger. Our future is in danger," warned Krystal Two Bulls, one of many community, conservation, and Indigenous group leaders speaking out after President Donald Trump granted a cross-border permit to what critics called "nothing more than an attempt to resurrect the unpopular Keystone XL pipeline."
Trump's permit for the Bridger Pipeline Expansion Project authorizes various "petroleum products, including gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas," The Associated Press reported Thursday, but Bridger spokesperson Bill Salvin said the company is currently focused on crude oil—550,000 barrels of which could flow daily from Canada, through Montana, to Guernsey, Wyoming, if the pipeline is completed.
"Water protectors are standing up again, like we have always done against all those who threaten Mother Earth," Two Bulls, an Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne organizer from Lame Deer, Montana, and executive director of Honor the Earth, said Friday. "We fought against the Keystone XL pipeline proposed for these very same lands and won back in 2021. We will fight and win again against the Bridger pipeline."
Shortly after entering office in 2021, then-President Joe Biden revoked the presidential permit for Keystone XL—which Trump had signed during his first term—as part of the Democrat's efforts to combat the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.
While Biden faced criticism from climate advocates for the oil and gas projects he did allow, Trump took a swipe at him on Thursday, telling reporters: "Slightly different from the last administration. They wouldn't sign a pipeline deal, and we have pipelines going up."
Trump—who campaigned on a pledge to "drill, baby, drill" and returned to the White House last year with financial help from Big Oil—also dismissed safety concerns about pipelines, saying: "By the way, they're way underground. They're not a problem. Nobody even knows they're there. It's so crazy. But they wouldn't approve anything having to do with a pipeline."
As the AP detailed:
Bridger Pipeline and other subsidiaries of True Company have been responsible for several major pipeline accidents including more than 50,000 gallons (240,000 liters) of crude that spilled into the Yellowstone River and fouled a Montana city's drinking water supply in 2015, a 45,000-gallon diesel spill in Wyoming in 2022 and a 2016 spill that released more than 600,000 gallons (2.7 million liters) of crude in North Dakota, contaminating the Little Missouri River and a tributary.
Subsidiaries of True agreed to pay a $12.5 million civil penalty to settle a federal lawsuit over the North Dakota and Montana spills.
Salvin said Bridger Pipeline in the years since the Yellowstone spill developed an AI-based leak detection system that allows it to be notified more quickly when there are problems. It also plans to bore 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 meters) beneath major rivers including the Yellowstone and Missouri to reduce the chances of an accident. The 2015 accident occurred on a line that was constructed in a shallow trench at the bottom of the river.
A public comment submitted to the Trump administration by the legal group Earthjustice on behalf of Honor the Earth, Sierra Club, WildEarth Guardians, and a dozen other organizations acknowledges concerns about this pipeline's potential impacts to water, land, the climate, air quality, cultural resources, recreation, and more—and called for an intense federal review of the project.
"We know how this system works: More pipelines mean more drilling, more waste, and more spills. And when spills happen, it's communities, landowners, and tribes who are left dealing with the contamination, not the companies profiting from it," Rebecca Sobel, climate and health director at WildEarth Guardians, said Friday. "Oil and gas infrastructure fails every day in this country, and expanding that system only increases the likelihood of spills and long-term contamination."
Sierra Club Montana chapter director Caryn Miske stressed that "while the Trump administration kills affordable energy projects and jobs across the country, it is continuing to side with wealthy corporations and oil executives looking to increase profit regardless of the risks to Montana's treasured waterways and to families and businesses struggling with high energy costs. These policies aren't about fair or free markets, it's welfare for corporations and pollution for everyone else."
Earthjustice is also representing 350 Montana, Center for Biological Diversity, Families for a Livable Climate, Montana Environmental Information Center, Montana Health and Climate, Mountain Mamas, Red Medicine LLC, Western Environmental Law Center, Western Organization of Resource Councils, Western Watersheds Project, Wild Montana, and Wyoming Outdoor Council.
"The proposed Bridger tar sands pipeline is an environmental disaster waiting to happen," declared Jenny Harbine, managing attorney with Earthjustice's Northern Rockies office. "The Trump administration appears more than willing to limit public engagement to force this project through."
"Communities and tribes in the Northern Rockies have a right to know how this could impact their water sources, historic resources, and ways of life," Harbine added. "If the administration attempts to sidestep that legal obligation, we’ll see them in court."
Separately on Friday, Anthony Swift, a longtime leader in the fight against the pipeline and current senior strategist for global nature at Natural Resources Defense Council, said that "no matter what you call the project, the environmental concerns that animated the fight over Keystone XL are no less acute today. Keystone Light will threaten water supplies and exacerbate climate change. This is the moment to get off the oil roller coaster, not double down on the dirtiest oil on the planet."
"The Trump administration has been lobbing gifts to Big Oil since its first day in office. This is the latest in a long, long, long list of favors that show the oil industry is getting a great return on its billion-dollar investment in the president's campaign," Swift added. "President Trump has repeatedly said that America does not need Canada's oil, so we certainly don't need Keystone Light."
May 01, 2026
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Rural New Jersey Town Moves to Ban All Data Centers After Community Revolts
Leaders in the rural township of Andover, New Jersey are reversing course on a plan to allow for data center construction in their community after local residents angrily revolted against the project.
According to a Tuesday report from NJ.com, Andover Township Mayor Thomas Walsh Jr. has announced that the township council this week will hold votes on repealing two data center-related ordinances and on a proposed ban on the construction of data centers inside town borders.
While officials in Andover had initially been supportive of the data center project due to the revenue it would have brought into local government, furious opposition from residents convinced them to change course.
"We’ve had some discourse over a project that we were considering for the township that may have brought in quite a bit of revenue," Walsh said. "But we also agree that no project, no money is worth tearing it down at its seams."
Andover resident Ken Collins, an opponent of the data center, celebrated Walsh's decision to back down in an interview with News 10 New Jersey.
"I'm really astounded," Collins said. "I really can't believe this is happening. This community came together in a way I never would've imagined to fight this thing."
The township's reversal on data centers came days after a heated meeting in which one resident was forcibly removed by police after profanely berating local officials over their support for data center construction.
Andover police drew criticism after video showed the resident being body slammed to the ground while being removed, but Walsh said the officers' actions were completely defensible.
"[The police] showed great restraint all night, especially there,” Walsh said, according to News 12 New Jersey. “Those police officers, don’t forget, they don’t know what they’re in danger of. They think they’re in danger and they have to protect themselves."
Data centers have become political lightning rods in recent months, as residents across the country object to their massive resource consumption, which is leading to a major spike in utilities bills, as well as the noise pollution they generate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) earlier this year introduced a bill that would impose a nationwide moratorium on AI data center construction “until strong national safeguards are in place to protect workers, consumers, and communities, defend privacy and civil rights, and ensure these technologies do not harm our environment."
At the same time, Silicon Valley elites are planning to spend huge sums of money in this year’s midterm elections to prevent candidates who support AI regulation from winning public office.
Leading the Future—a super political action committee backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and other AI heavyweights—is spending at least $100 million to elect lawmakers who aim to pass legislation that would set a single set of AI regulations across the US, overriding any restrictions placed on the technology by state governments.
May 12, 2026
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Trump Picks Former Private Prison Executive to Lead ICE as Industry Profits Surge
The Trump administration announced Tuesday that former private prison executive David Venturella will lead US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in an acting capacity after the agency's current director departs at the end of the month.
Venturella has been a senior adviser to ICE since February 2025 and previously worked at the private prison giant GEO Group for more than a decade, most recently serving as the company's senior vice president of client relations until 2023. GEO Group is a major beneficiary of federal contracts, running immigration detention centers for ICE.
The Washington Post noted that GEO Group also "owns the only company with an ICE contract to track immigrants through GPS ankle monitors."
"A federal ethics rule generally bars government employees from working on contracts awarded to their former employers for one year, but the administration granted him a waiver from this rule," the Post observed.
GEO Group's PAC donated heavily to President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign and has seen a hefty return on its investment. The company reported $254 million in profits for fiscal year 2025—a 700% increase compared to the previous year—and boasted "record-setting new contract wins totaling up to $520 million."
As an ICE adviser, Venturella has advocated for the use of warehouses to detain immigrants, a practice that has drawn nationwide outrage. NBC News noted that "after he retired from GEO, Venturella was a consultant for the company, advising on new and existing contracts, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission."
The Trump administration's decision to elevate Venturella to the head of ICE comes as congressional Republicans are working to approve tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for the agency, even as deaths in detention rise and immigration officers unleashed by the president continue to face backlash for fatal abuses across the country.
The GOP's budget reconciliation proposal, according to an analysis by the American Immigration Council, includes over $38 billion for ICE to "expand and sustain enforcement operations by hiring and equipping personnel across its divisions, supporting detention and removal transportation, upgrading technology and facilities, and expanding 287(g) agreements with local law enforcement."
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), a lead sponsor of legislation that would terminate all existing federal contracts for immigration detention, said Tuesday that Venturella's appointment as acting ICE chief "is to ensure Trump's corporate bosses continue profiting from our communities' pain."
"But Americans demand oversight and accountability," said Ramirez. "We must Melt ICE, end detention, and dismantle [the Department of Homeland Security]."
May 13, 2026
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Supreme Court Temporarily Extends Abortion Pill Access, But 'Care Is Still Under Attack Every Day'
Defenders of reproductive rights, including key Democrats in Congress, reiterated the safety of mifepristone on Monday after the US Supreme Court temporarily extended access to the medication—commonly used in abortion and miscarriage care—by mail while the justices review a ruling from a notoriously right-wing appellate court.
The US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit blocked a federal rule allowing mifepristone to be dispensed by mail at the beginning of the month. Drugmakers quickly appealed to the high court, where Justice Samuel Alito, who is part of the right-wing supermajority, issued a one-week stay to give himself and colleagues time to review the case.
As Alito's initial Monday evening deadline approached, he extended the stay until 5:00 pm ET on Thursday. The move means that "for now, mifepristone is still available via telehealth, mail order, and pharmacy while the case proceeds," noted the Democratic Women's Caucus in the US House of Representatives.
However, pro-choice advocates and policymakers are still sounding the alarm and arguing that, as the caucus put it in a social media post, "reproductive freedom should not depend on emergency rulings or political attacks."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement that "mifepristone has been safe, effective, and trusted for decades. Today's order keeps access in place for now, but it's not cause for celebration—it's a reminder that basic reproductive care is still under attack every day. Anti-abortion extremists are trying to use the courts to roll back access to medication abortion nationwide, and Senate Dems will keep fighting to protect women's freedom to make their own healthcare decisions."
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) similarly wrote on social media: "Another extension, but this shouldn't be complicated. Mifepristone is safe and effective, and women should be able to get abortion medication through the mail or telehealth if they need. Extremist judges shouldn't get to decide how women get healthcare."
This case traces back to early 2023, when the Biden administration's Food and Drug Administration permanently lifted mifepristone's in-person dispensing requirement, just months after the Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority overturned Roe v. Wade. Louisiana, which has among the most restrictive abortion policies in the country, sued over the FDA's policy change.
Medication abortions account for the majority of abortions provided in the United States, and those patients generally take both mifepristone and another drug, misoprostol. Demand for abortion pills by mail increased after Roe's reversal, as advocates of forced pregnancy policies in Republican-controlled states ramped up attacks on reproductive freedom.
"With the Supreme Court punting a decision on access to mifepristone—a safe, effective medication used in abortion care—until later this week, patients and providers are left facing continued uncertainty," said Rachel Fey, interim co-CEO of Power to Decide. "Wondering day by day whether you'll have access to an essential medication is not practical, and the confusion only deepens the barriers people already face when seeking abortion care."
"Access to mifepristone should be based on scientific evidence, not ideology," Fey declared. "We urge the Supreme Court to follow that science and maintain current telehealth access to mifepristone—not just for a few days at a time, but permanently."
Alito's extensions in recent days are not necessarily signals of where the conservative will ultimately come down. The Associated Press pointed out Monday that "the current dispute is similar to one that reached the court three years ago," when the justices blocked another 5th Circuit ruling "over the dissenting votes of Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas," and then unanimously dismissed that case due to lack of standing, or a legal right to sue.
The battle comes as the Trump administration's FDA is conducting a review of mifepristone that Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, has said seems "designed to manufacture an excuse for further restricting medication abortion across the country."
The New York Times noted Monday that US Department of Justice "lawyers have not said in court proceedings or publicly whether they back regulations that allow people to be prescribed the pills through telehealth appointments. Instead, they have asked the lower courts to pause the litigation to give the FDA time to complete a review of the safety of mifepristone, which was first approved in 2000."
May 11, 2026
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Trump's 'Golden Dome' Shield Exposed as 'Trillion-Dollar Boondoggle' by CBO
The Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday released a report estimating that President Donald Trump's proposed "Golden Dome" missile defense system would cost $1.2 trillion to create, deploy, and operate over the first 20 years of its existence.
The CBO report projects that acquisition costs for the proposed national missile defense (NMD) system would account for the vast majority of the $1.2 trillion total, including "costs for the system’s major components—namely, the interceptor layers and a space-based missile warning and tracking system."
In fact, the report says that the NMD system's space-based interceptor layer will be so expensive that it "accounts for about 70% of acquisition costs and 60% of total costs."
The CBO also questioned whether this massive investment would successfully protect the US from a foreign missile attack.
"Although the notional NMD system... would be far more capable than defenses the United States fields today," the report states, "it would not be an impenetrable shield or be able to fully counter a large attack of the sort that Russia or China might be able to launch."
"The strategic consequences of deploying an NMD system with the capacity considered here are unclear," the report continues, "because they hinge on an adversary’s perception of the defense's capability and how that adversary chose to respond."
The CBO's estimate on the missile system's cost was nearly seven times the projection Trump made last year, when he said it would cost just $175 billion.
And because the US Department of Defense still hasn't delivered key details about the proposed system, the CBO wrote, it is currently "impossible to estimate the long-term cost" of the initiative.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), a longtime critic of the "Golden Dome" proposal, said the CBO report shows the Trump-backed project is "nothing more than a massive giveaway to defense contractors paid for entirely by working Americans."
"Just like the president’s symbolic renaming of the Department of Defense or deploying National Guard troops to our cities," added Merkley, who is the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, "this move to fund the ‘Golden Dome’ will be far more effective at squandering money than protecting American lives."
The Oregon Democrat vowed to "continue to work with my colleagues in the Senate to prevent another dime from flowing to this racket."
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), also a longtime critic of the president's proposed missile system, wrote in a social media post that "Trump’s Golden Dome is a $1.2 trillion golden sieve that won’t stop a nuclear attack, but will balloon the deficit and boost the bottom lines of billionaires."
Tommy Vietor, former National Security Council staffer under President Barack Obama and current co-host of Pod Save America, was even blunter in his criticism of the "Golden Dome" plan.
"$1.2 TRILLION for this dumb fucking Golden Dome missile defense system," he wrote in a social media post. "The initial estimate was $175 billion! Madness. No one wants this."
Daniel Larison, contributing editor at Antiwar.com and former senior editor at The American Conservative magazine, wrote that the CBO report exposed Trump's dome as a "trillion-dollar boondoggle."
Trump has said that he was inspired to develop such a missile system after being impressed by Israel’s “Iron Dome," despite the fact that Israel has a vastly smaller landmass to defend compared to the US and has historically faced far more danger from missile and rocket attacks.
May 12, 2026
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Report Details How Trump Did Big Tobacco’s Bidding on Flavored Vapes Despite Risk to Kids
"Trump could not care less about the health consequences and costs of giving teenagers access to addictive flavored poison if it means his tobacco industry donors can make record profits," said one public health advocate.
May 13, 2026
The resignation of a pair of top health officials in the Trump administration this week has brought to light efforts by the president to help Big Tobacco executives and lobbyists sell addictive flavored e-cigarettes that could be marketed to children.
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new guidance allowing cigarette makers to begin marketing and selling fruit- and candy-flavored vape products on store shelves, which were banned under previous administrations due to evidence that they were driving youth vaping.
The policy was enacted despite the strong opposition of then-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who resigned on Tuesday, reportedly because he could not in good conscience support it.
Makary's resignation was followed by the departure of Rich Danker, the chief spokesperson for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who similarly warned that the policy "would appeal to children and expose them to nicotine addiction, lung damage, and higher risk of cancer" in a letter addressed to Trump on Wednesday.
Danker did not blame Trump for the policy in his letter; instead, he attributed it to "senior HHS officials in the immediate office of the secretary."
This is despite the fact that The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump had personally berated Makary over his hesitation to enact the policy and had signed off on a plan to fire him.
A New York Times report on Wednesday confirms the extent of Trump's direct involvement in strong-arming the FDA into enacting the policy. It found that he pressured higher-ups in HHS to move the policy forward amid a tongue-lashing from tobacco industry lobbyists and executives angry that they could not get in on the highly profitable sale of fruit- and candy-flavored vapes. Despite being illegal and mostly imported to the US from China, these vapes make up about 60% of the total e-cigarette market.
Trump, who ran in 2024 on a pledge to "save vaping" as part of an effort to appeal to young voters, has raked in huge sums of money from the tobacco industry. According to data from OpenSecrets, his inaugural committee took over $3 million from vaping special interests, including $1.25 million from the Vapor Technology Association, and $1 million apiece from Altria and Breeze Smoke.
Altria, which owns Marlboro maker Philip Morris, and Reynolds American, which owns Lucky Strike and Camel, have also offered donations to Trump's $400 million White House ballroom project. Reynolds, the biggest producer of menthol cigarettes, also gave $10 million to the super PAC backing Trump in 2024.
According to The New York Times, executives for Altria and Reynolds were turning the screws on Trump over lunch at his golf club in Jupiter, Florida, in early May because they were "unhappy with the way the Food and Drug Administration was regulating their industry."
Trump interrupted the conversation to call up RFK Jr. and Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and complained to them about the FDA's regulation of e-cigarettes.
Within a week, the new policy had been enacted, and its leading opponent, Makary, was gone. He has since been replaced by Kyle Diamantas, whom the healthcare advocacy group Protect Our Care described as "a 30-something lawyer whose qualifications for such a critical public health role seem to begin and end at being Donald Trump Jr.’s 'hunting buddy.'”
"Donald Trump’s fury at FDA head Makary was motivated by gross political opportunism and fat checks from the big vape industry," said Jeremy Funk, the deputy director of Protect Our Care's Public Health Watch team. "Trump could not care less about the health consequences and costs of giving teenagers access to addictive flavored poison if it means his tobacco industry donors can make record profits."
While youth vaping is at a 10-year low, about 1.6 million middle and high school students were estimated to use vape products in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey. Nearly 90% of them said they used fruit and candy-flavored vapes.
Dr. Jerome Adams, a physician and professor at Purdue University, said in a post on social media that the rise of vaping has fueled a rebound in nicotine usage among college-aged adults.
"Youth combustible cigarette smoking was already at an all-time low and consistently dropping before vaping came on the scene. There is literally no reason to believe that the majority of young people who are now vaping would have otherwise been smoking combustible cigarettes," he said. "Amongst college-age and young adults, nicotine use is going back up to incredibly high rates—largely due to vaping."
The new policy enacted by the FDA has so far only authorized the sale of flavored products by one company, the Los Angeles-based Glas Inc., which will be allowed to sell vapes in flavors like mango and blueberry under names like "Gold" and "Sapphire."
The FDA sought to assuage fears of underage use by pointing to the Glas' digital age-verification system, which requires the product to be connected to the Bluetooth of a phone owned by a person over the age of 21. However, it is expected that, especially amid industry pressure, more companies will have their products approved soon.
Kayla Hancock, director of Protect Our Care’s Public Health Project, said that while Makary had a "terrible record" as FDA commissioner, having taken actions that slowed vaccine development and launched dubious, politically charged "reviews" of abortion pills long found to be safe, "apparently, it wasn’t terrible enough for Donald Trump."
"Hesitating to approve flavored vapes and not put American teens on a fast-track to lifelong addiction to harmful nicotine products is the bare minimum anyone could hope for from the Trump FDA," she said. "But that was a bridge too far for Donald Trump, who sees young people as disposable political pawns that he can appeal to with poison while lining the pockets of his big vape donors."
She said the ouster of Makary and his replacement with Diamantas "all but guarantees an FDA further consumed by chaos and driven by the wish lists of special interests that want profits put before public health."
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Senate Iran War Powers Resolution Falls Short by One Vote—Thanks to John Fetterman
Fetterman's vote comes as recent polling has shown the Iran war has grown more unpopular over time.
May 13, 2026
The US Senate on Wednesday once again voted down a resolution that would have restricted President Donald Trump's ability to use military force against Iran, and this time a Democratic senator was the deciding vote.
The resolution failed after Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) voted with the majority of Republican senators against a war powers resolution introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
The resolution would would have passed had Fetterman supported it because Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) all voted in favor.
This is now the seventh time the Senate has blocked a war powers resolution on Iran since Trump illegally began the conflict in late February.
As noted by Zeteo reporter Prem Thakker, a poll taken two months ago found that Pennsylvania voters disapproved of the Iran war by 16 percentage points, and more recent national polling shows that the war has grown more unpopular over time.
"Nonetheless," Thakker commented, "John Fetterman was just a deciding vote to keep it going."
Fetterman has frequently been at odds with his party on a number of issues, including the war with Iran and building Trump's proposed luxury ballroom at the White House.
Despite the motion's failure, Ryan Costello, policy director of the National Iranian American Council, optimistically pointed out that this war powers resolution came closer to passing than any others, with Murkowski crossing the aisle for the first time to register her support.
"Sen. Murkowski moved in line with the vast majority of Americans who want this war to end," said Costello, "and did so right after hearing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth claim that the Trump administration did not need authorization from Congress to resume the war, and as gas prices in Alaska hit $5.26."
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'This Is War Profiteering': Fertilizer Giants See Fortunes Boom as Trump Militarism, Tariffs Hurt Farmers
"While a few agrochemical giants shamelessly reap bumper profits, farmers are watching their livelihoods wither on the vine," said one Greenpeace campaigner.
May 13, 2026
Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday underscored how the US-Israeli war on Iran and Trump administration trade policies are hurting farmers and consumers while Big Ag profits from fast-rising fertilizer and food prices.
President Donald Trump's illegal war of choice has resulted in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 30% of the world's fertilizer and 20% of its oil previously passed. In addition to increasing the risk of a global food crisis, the strait's closure has sent fuel and fertilizer prices soaring, with US farm diesel costing nearly 50% more than it did on the war's eve in February and nitrogen fertilizer rising by a similar percentage.
Meanwhile, Trump's erratic tariff war has further squeezed farmers and consumers. Tariffs have increased short-term prices, market volatility, and farmer costs while temporarily reducing import flows.
Vermont farmers "are footing the bill for Trump's reckless war in Iran," Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) said Wednesday on social media. "Fuel and fertilizer costs are surging right amid planting season, hitting family farms that are already stretched thin. This needs to end."
Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) said on X that "food prices are skyrocketing because 70% of farmers can't afford fertilizer, due to Trump's reckless Iran War," adding that "perhaps Trump should help them out by lending some, given that he's full of crap."
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) noted Tuesday on Bluesky that "Minnesota’s farmers are dealing with tariffs, high fertilizer costs, expensive feed, and exorbitant fuel prices," while Trump is "planning to lay off dozens" of US Department of Agriculture workers "who help farmers protect their land and water."
The lawmakers' posts followed Tuesday's US Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on fertilizer market challenges, during which members of the Republican majority spoke vaguely of "trade disputes" and the "recent conflict in the Middle East" without naming names.
When it was her turn to speak, Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) noted the "direct link" between the soaring price of nitrogen fertilizer components and Trump's actions.
"In the months since the president started the war, with no consultation or authorization from Congress... urea has spiked more than 40%, the cost of diesel has hit near record highs in Midwest states," she said. "Now, why? Well, nearly half of the global urea goes through the Strait of Hormuz. Thirty percent of ammonia goes through the Strait of Hormuz."
Farmers are facing fertilizer prices that are through the roof because of the across-the-board tariffs, market consolidation, and uncertainties stemming from a war in Iran that was started with no consultation or authorization from Congress.
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— Senator Amy Klobuchar (@klobuchar.senate.gov) May 12, 2026 at 5:51 PM
"Yet, even before the war, farmers were walloped by the presence of across-the-board tariffs," Klobuchar continued. "An analysis by North Dakota State University... found that [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] tariffs added nearly $1 billion in costs to critical inputs like fertilizer, seed, machinery, and chemicals from February through October of last year."
"Acting now will ultimately help stabilize prices and give farmers the certainty they need," the senator added. "But it is going to have to be a combination of things: ending the tariffs, or reducing them, or making them much more targeted; ending this war; finding a way to resolve it, so the Strait of Hormuz is open again; and then going at this long-term systemic problem about the lack of competition in this area."
According to the advocacy group Farm Action, a handful of companies—primarily Nutrien, Mosaic, and CF Industries—dominate the North American fertilizer market, operating as an oligopoly that controls over 90% of nitrogen and potash production. Saskatchewan-based Nutrien, the world's leading potash producer, last week reported net first-quarter earnings of $139 million, up from $19 million one year ago.
"Fertilizer companies raise their prices because they can, and that's the market power that they have," Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said during Tuesday's hearing.
Noting record gains reaped amid the tumult of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Smith said that during 2021-22, "the nine largest fertilizer companies made an estimated $84 billion in profits."
"In 2022, major fertilizer companies saw profits increase somewhere between 100 and 200%," she continued. "Their input costs did not go up by that much... How much do you think the profits of the average farmer in South Dakota [went] up during that time period?"
Pointing to new reports of robust fertilizer industry profits, South Dakota Corn Farmers president Trent Kubik replied, "during these last 75 days, a lot of money was being made, but it wasn't by farmers."
Addressing the question of "what can we do to change the behavior of companies that are in a position where they can charge such high prices and get such exorbitant profits," Smith suggested considering a "windfall profits tax" to "make the market more fair, particularly for folks that are doing the work."
The Trump administration's plan to counter high fertilizer prices includes reopening the Biden-era Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, which provides grants and financing to build or expand domestic manufacturing capacity. Some critics have slammed the program as a form of corporate welfare.
The administration is also considering further expanding a multibillion-dollar bailout program, which critics say has mainly benefited large-scale, export-oriented commodity farms.
Responding to recent reports of strong profits for nitrogen fertilizer producers, Greenpeace Aotearoa (New Zealand) Big Ag project lead Amanda Larsson said Tuesday that “the illegal US-Israeli attack on Iran has sent global fertilizer prices soaring, and while a few agrochemical giants shamelessly reap bumper profits, farmers are watching their livelihoods wither on the vine."
"This is war profiteering facilitated by a broken, fossil fuel-dependent food system—with farmers and consumers paying the price," she continued.
“Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer causes water and climate pollution, while propping up a system of industrial over-production, particularly to produce monoculture feed crops for livestock," Larsson said. "We are sacrificing our rivers, our climate, and our financial security to prop up a system that serves billionaires, not communities."
“We cannot buy food security on a volatile global chemical market," she added. "The only path to true food sovereignty and resilience is through a transition to ecological farming. By moving away from synthetic fertilizers and toward diverse, nature-based practices, we can break the cycle of chemical dependence, protect our water, and ensure that the price of food is no longer dictated by the whims of war and corporate greed.”
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