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."
'Disgusted' But 'Not Afraid': Wisconsin Governor Rips Arrest Threat From Trump Border Czar
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers hit back Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump's border czar suggested the Democratic leader could be arrested for distributing guidance to state employees on what to do if confronted by federal immigration agents.
The guidance is straightforward and unremarkable, instructing state employees to "stay calm," ask federal agents for their name and badge, contact an attorney, and decline to answer questions or provide agents access to any documents without a lawyer present.
"State employees may not grant [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] or another agent access to any such data or information absent authorization from their legal counsel pursuant to a valid judicial warrant," the guidance reads.
In a speech addressed to Wisconsinites and the nation, Evers said that the "goal of this guidance was simple—to provide clear, consistent instructions to state employees and ensure they have a lawyer to help them comply with all federal and state laws."
"But Republicans and their right-wing allies, including Elon Musk, lied about this guidance, spread misinformation, accused me of doing things I didn't do or say, and fueled a fake controversy of their own creation," Evers said.
One Republican member of the Wisconsin State Assembly on Friday morning posted an AI-generated image of Evers in handcuffs at the state capitol, with Trump standing behind him in police uniform.
"I'm used to Republicans and the right wing lying about me. It comes with the job," Evers said Friday. "But, this time, these lies came at a cost. I haven't broken the law. I haven't committed a crime. And I've never encouraged or directed anyone to break any laws or commit any crimes."
"But when President Trump's hand-picked appointee, Tom Homan, was asked about me and this guidance after he apparently threatened to arrest elected officials across the country, he said, 'Wait 'til you see what's coming,'" the governor continued. "Overnight, Republican lawmakers piled on, encouraging the Trump administration to arrest me."
Watch Homan's comments to reporters:
NEW: When asked about Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers telling state officials not to cooperate with ICE, Border Czar Tom Homan seems to signal arrests could be imminent:
“Wait until you see what’s coming. I meant what I said.” pic.twitter.com/xJxw5sBVY6
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 1, 2025
Homan's thinly veiled threat against Evers and other officials came days after FBI agents arrested Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan on obstruction charges alleging that she helped an undocumented immigrant evade arrest by misdirecting federal authorities. Dugan's legal team says she is innocent and will be vindicated in court.
Evers said Friday that Homan's threats are "chilling" and "should be of concern to every Wisconsinite and every American who cares about this country and the values we hold dear."
"These threats represent a concerning trajectory in this country," said Evers. "We now have a federal government that will threaten or arrest an elected official—or even everyday American citizens—who have broken no laws, committed no crimes, and done nothing wrong."
"And as disgusted as I am about the continued actions of the Trump administration, I am not afraid," he added. "I have never once been discouraged from doing the right thing, and I will not start today."
Watch Evers' remarks in full:
The Wisconsin governor's full address is transcribed below:
Good morning, Wisconsin. Governor Tony Evers here.
I’m speaking to you today as your governor but also as a concerned American.
Yesterday, a Trump administration official, in not so many words, apparently threatened to arrest me for distributing guidance that asked state agency employees to consult with an attorney if federal agents show up at state buildings with legal documents.
The goal of this guidance was simple—to provide clear, consistent instructions to state employees and ensure they have a lawyer to help them comply with all federal and state laws. Nothing more, nothing less.
But Republicans and their right-wing allies, including Elon Musk, lied about this guidance, spread misinformation, accused me of doing things I didn’t do or say, and fueled a fake controversy of their own creation.
Now, I’m used to Republicans and the right wing lying about me. It comes with the job. But, this time, these lies came at a cost. I haven't broken the law. I haven't committed a crime. And I’ve never encouraged or directed anyone to break any laws or commit any crimes.
But when President Trump's hand-picked appointee, Tom Homan, was asked about me and this guidance after he apparently threatened to arrest elected officials across the country, he said, "Wait 'til you see what's coming." Overnight, Republican lawmakers piled on, encouraging the Trump administration to arrest me.
Chilling threats like this should be of concern to every Wisconsinite and every American who cares about this country and the values we hold dear.
We live in the United States of America, folks. We are a country of laws. The rule of law matters. Following the law matters.
In this country, the federal government doesn't get to abuse its power to threaten everyday Americans. In this country, the federal government doesn’t get to arrest American citizens who have not committed a crime. In this country, we don't threaten to persecute people just because they belong to a different political party.
These threats represent a concerning trajectory in this country. We now have a federal government that will threaten or arrest an elected official—or even everyday American citizens—who have broken no laws, committed no crimes, and done nothing wrong.
And as disgusted as I am about the continued actions of the Trump administration, I am not afraid. I have never once been discouraged from doing the right thing, and I will not start today.
I swore an oath when I took this office to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of Wisconsin and to faithfully discharge the duties of this office to the best of my ability. I will never waver from that promise.
I hope and pray every elected and appointed official in this country, including the president of the United States of America, will do the same.
Forward, and for Wisconsin, always.
Thank you.
SOS: Migrants Awaiting Deportation Use Their Bodies to Cry for Help
Ten days after a U.S. Supreme Court order forced buses carrying dozens of Venezuelan migrants to an airport in Texas to immediately turn around and return them to Bluebonnet Detention Facility in the small city of Anson, 31 of the men formed the letters SOS by standing in the detention center's dirt yard.
As Reutersreported, the families of several of the men have denied that they are members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, contrary to the Trump administration's claims.
Immigration enforcement agents have detained and expelled numerous people with no criminal records, basing accusations that they're members of Tren de Aragua and MS-13 solely on the fact that they have tattoos in some cases.
After the reprieve from the Supreme Court earlier this month, with the justices ordering the government "not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court," the migrants still face potential deportation to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center under the Alien Enemies Act.
Reuters flew a drone over Bluebonnet in recent days to capture images of the migrants, after being denied access to the facility. One flight captured the men forming the letters—the internationally used distress signal.
Reuters spoke to one of the men, 19-year-old Jeferson Escalona, after identifying him with the drone images.
He was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in January and initially sent to the U.S. migrant detention center at Guantánamo Bay before being transferred to Bluebonnet. A Department of Homeland Security official said, without providing evidence, that he was a "self-admitted" member of Tren de Aragua, but Escalona vehemently denied the claim and told Reuters he had trained to be a police officer in Venezuela before coming to the United States.
"They're making false accusations about me. I don't belong to any gang," he told Reuters, adding that he has asked to return to his home country but has been denied.
"I fear for my life here," he told the outlet. "I want to go to Venezuela."
Earlier this month in a separate decision, the Supreme Court ruled that migrants being deported under the Alien Enemies Act must be provided with due process to challenge their removal.
"Remember," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council, "the Trump administration refuses to give these men a chance to day in court, despite the Supreme Court telling them that they must give people a chance to take their case in front of a judge!"
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.
Rwanda Confirms Talks With Trump Administration to Take Deported Migrants
"As we did with the U.K.-Rwanda deportation deal... let us unapologetically and loudly oppose this again," said one Rwandan human rights defender.
Rwanda's foreign minister confirmed Sunday that the East African nation's government is in "early stage" talks with the Trump administration about possibly taking in migrants deported from the United States.
"It has not yet reached a stage where we can say exactly how things will proceed, but the talks are ongoing," Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe toldRwanda TV. He added that the Rwandan government is in the "spirit" of offering "another chance to migrants who have problems across the world."
Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration is seeking nations that are willing to accept its deportees.
"We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries."
"We are working with other countries to say, 'We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries. Will you do that as a favor to us?'" Rubio said. "And the farther away from America, the better, so they can't come back across the border."
The Wall Street Journalreported last month that Trump administration officials have also asked other countries including Benin, Eswatini, Kosovo, Libya, Moldova, and Mongolia about resettling U.S. deportees.
In 2022, Rwanda agreed to take in some people seeking asylum in the United Kingdom while their claims were being processed. However, the scheme was shelved amid legal and human rights concerns following the return to power of the center-left Labour Party. Rwanda is still seeking to collect £50 million ($66.4 million) from Britain despite the canceled deal.
The United Nations refugee agency condemned the U.K.-Rwanda deal, asserting that "externalizing asylum obligations poses serious risks for the safety of refugees" and "is not compatible with international refugee law."
Local human rights defenders strongly oppose any resettlement of third-country migrants in Rwanda.
"I with other concerned and responsible Rwandans are going to wage a legal war to challenge this arrangement between [Trump's] government and the dictatorial regime of [Rwandan President Paul Kagame]," investigative journalist Samuel Baker Byansi said on social media Sunday.
"Rwanda is not a dumping site of migrants with criminal records who have served their sentence in the U.S.," he added. "As we did with the U.K.-Rwanda deportation deal, fellow Rwandans in the country and abroad, let us unapologetically and loudly oppose this again."
Last month, the U.S. deported Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, an Iraqi refugee who had lived in the United States since 2014, to Rwanda after officials in Baghdad accused him of being a former Islamic State militant who murdered an Iraqi police officer. This, despite a U.S. judge's order blocking his deportation on the grounds that the murder allegation was "not plausible" since Ameen was living in Turkey at the time of the officer's killing.
Critics have sounded the alarm over potential perils migrants might face in Rwanda, including human rights violations and the possibility that they could be sent to third countries where they are at risk of violence and persecution.
The Trump administration is facing legal challenges to its mass deportation efforts, which include sending immigrants to the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay and the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison in El Salvador. President Donald Trump has even proposed deporting U.S. citizens to CECOT.
Trump appeared on NBC News' "Meet the Press" Sunday and was pressed by moderator Kristen Welker about the legality of his mass deportation program. Asked whether every person in the United States is entitled to due process, Trump replied: "I don't know. I'm not a lawyer."
Asked If He Must Uphold the US Constitution, Trump Says: 'I Don't Know'
"I'm not a lawyer," the president said in a newly aired interview.
U.S. President Donald Trump refused in an interview released Sunday to affirm that the nation's Constitution affords due process to citizens and noncitizens alike and that he, as president, must uphold that fundamental right.
"I don't know, I'm not a lawyer," Trump told NBC's Kristen Welker, who asked if the president agrees with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statement that everyone on U.S. soil is entitled to due process.
When Welker pointed to the Fifth Amendment—which states that "no person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"—Trump again replied that he's unsure and suggested granting due process to the undocumented immigrants he wants to deport would be too burdensome.
"We'd have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials," Trump said, echoing a sentiment that his vice president expressed last month.
Asked whether he needs to "uphold the Constitution of the United States as president," Trump replied, "I don't know."
Watch:
WELKER: The 5th Amendment says everyone deserves due process
TRUMP: It might say that, but if you're talking about that, then we'd have to have a million or two million or three million trials pic.twitter.com/FMZQ7O9mTP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 4, 2025
Trump, who similarly deferred to "the lawyers" when asked recently about his refusal to bring home wrongly deported Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, has unlawfully cited the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly remove undocumented immigrants from the U.S. without due process. Federal agents have also arrested and detained students, academics, and a current and former judge in recent weeks, heightening alarm over the administration's authoritarian tactics.
CNNreported Friday that the administration has "been examining whether it can label some suspected cartel and gang members inside the U.S. as 'enemy combatants' as a possible way to detain them more easily and limit their ability to challenge their imprisonment."
"Trump has expressed extreme frustration with federal courts halting many of those migrants' deportations, amid legal challenges questioning whether they were being afforded due process," the outlet added. "By labeling the migrants as enemy combatants, they would have fewer rights, the thinking goes."
Some top administration officials have publicly expressed disdain for the constitutional right to due process. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, wrote in a social media post last month that "the judicial process is for Americans" and "immediate deportation" is for undocumented immigrants.
The New Republic's Greg Sargent wrote in a column Saturday that "Miller appears to want Trump to have the power to declare undocumented immigrants to be terrorists and gang members by fiat; to have the power to absurdly decree them members of a hostile nation's invading army, again by fiat; and then to have quasi-unlimited power to remove them, unconstrained by any court."
"The more transparency we have gained into the rot of corruption and bad faith at the core of this whole saga, the worse it has come to look," Sargent continued. "Trump himself is exposing it all for what it truly is: the stuff of Mad Kings."
'Chilling Attempt to Normalize Fascism': Groups Decry Trump Official's Arrest Threats
"We must not allow intimidation and authoritarian tactics to take root in our political system."
A coalition of advocacy organizations on Saturday expressed support for Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and warned that the Trump border czar's threat against the Democratic leader marks a "dangerous escalation" of the administration's assault on the rule of law across the United States.
The groups—including All Voting Is Local and the ACLU of Wisconsin—said in a joint statement that Evers' guidance to state officials on how to handle being confronted by federal agents was "a prudent measure aimed at ensuring compliance with state and federal laws while protecting the rights of state employees."
The suggestion by Tom Homan, a leader of President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign, that Evers could be arrested for issuing such guidance undermines "the foundational principles of our democracy, including the separation of powers, the rule of law, and the right of state governments to operate without undue federal interference," the groups said Saturday.
"To threaten our governor over his legal directive is gross overreach by our federal government, and it is not occurring in a vacuum," they continued, warning that the administration's rhetoric and actions represent a "chilling attempt to normalize fascism."
"Similar occurrences are happening across the nation, including within our academic systems," the groups added. "If we do not reject these actions now, states and other institutions will only lose more and more of their autonomy and power. This is exactly why we underscore Gov. Evers' claim that this event is 'chilling.'"
The threats against Gov. Evers in Wisconsin undermine the foundational principles of our democracy: the separation of powers, the rule of law, and the right of state governments to operate without undue federal interference. We must reject this overreach. allvotingislocal.org/statements/w...
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— All Voting is Local (@allvotingislocal.bsky.social) May 3, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Trump administration officials and the president himself have repeatedly threatened state and local officials as the White House rushes ahead with its lawless mass deportation campaign, which has ensnared tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants and at least over a dozen U.S. citizens—including children.
In an executive order signed late last month, Trump accused "some state and local officials" of engaging in a "lawless insurrection" against the federal government by refusing to cooperate with the administration's deportation efforts.
But as Temple University law professor Jennifer Lee recently noted, localities "can legally decide not to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement."
"Cities, like states, have constitutional protections against being forced to administer or enforce federal programs," Lee wrote. "The Trump administration cannot force any state or local official to assist in enforcing federal immigration law."
Administration officials have also leveled threats against members of Congress, with Homan suggesting earlier this year that he would refer Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to the U.S. Justice Department for holding a webinar informing constituents of their rights.
During a town hall on Friday, Ocasio-Cortez dared Homan to do so.
"To that I say: Come for me," she said to cheers from the audience. "We need to challenge them. So don't let them intimidate you."