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You Got This: Amidst the Carnage, A Beautiful Moment
Needing a break, we honor the rare sweet sliver of comity during Monday's Boston Marathon when two runners, both on course to achieve their personal best, instead stopped to help Ajay Haridasse, collapsed on the ground and unable to stand back up, over the finish line just ahead - because, they explained, "This is what it's all about...Two is better than one." Hallelujah: For now, still human after all these years.
The "beautiful moment" of compassion and sportsmanship came almost at the end of the grueling, 26.2-mile marathon known as "the runner's Holy Grail" for its tough qualifying standards and steep terrain, including Newton's iconic "Heartbreak Hill." The world's oldest marathon was inspired by the inaugural 1896 Olympics and begun the next year; widely considered one of the most difficult races anywhere, it attracts 500,000 spectators and over 20,000 dogged participants from 96 countries. "It’s a slog. It’s a grind. It’s brilliant," said one aspirant. Another: "Nothing is like it. Runners train and train and train for this race."
So did Ajay Haridasse, a 21-year-old senior at Northeastern running his first Boston Marathon having grown up nearby and faithfully watched it for years. Haridasse had passed the 26-mile mark when, he later said, "the wheels kinda fell off." After running almost three hours and struggling against cramps, his legs abruptly gave out 1,000 feet from the finish line, when he wobbled and fell to the ground. As runners streamed by, he painfully tried to stand up again, fell, tried to stand up, fell. "You got this!" a woman yelled from the sidelines, as others joined in. "You were made for this! You can do it! You got it!"
"After falling down the fourth time, I was getting ready to crawl," Haridasse later recalled. That's when Aaron Beggs, a 40-year-old runner from Northern Ireland, suddenly appeared at his left. Beggs stopped, pulled Haridasse to his feet and tried to hold him upright; Haridasse began collapsing again, only to be caught from behind on his right by Robson De Oliveira, a 36-year-old runner from Brazil who swooped in. Beggs and De Oliveira quickly lifted Haridasse’s arms around their shoulders and put their arms around his waist; then the three men jogged and stumbled toward and over the finish line as the crowd roared.
"No marathon is easy - there's no fooling this distance," says one runner of a two, three, four hour challenge run on grit and blisters, and those who embrace it often cite the importance of "athletes taking care of each other." "It's not always about crossing the finish line first, but lifting others when they fall," said one. "We do it together." When Beggs, a member of North Down Athletic Club, paused to help Haridasse, sacrificing his own time and standing, he "embodied everything our club stands for - integrity, compassion and true sportsmanship," said Club chair Jamie Stevenson, who hailed him as "a superstar (who) couldn't pass an athlete in distress. What a gentleman!"
Beggs later said he saw Haridasse fall a couple of times out of the corner of his eye, and "my instinct was just to go over (and) do the right thing." He doesn't blame those who ran past: "It’s a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. You have to put yourself in front of others. This time, I just happened to put somebody else in front of me...It's one of those things in life - you've got an option at any moment in time. It could be me on my next marathon." As they crossed the finish line, a wheelchair "flew past." He thought it was for Haridasse, but it was for De Oliveira, who'd passed out: "He used everything in him to get Ajay across the line."
"It was a split-second decision," De Oliveira later wrote of stopping when he saw Haridasse collapse. “I knew I wouldn’t have the strength to help him on my own. In that moment, I thought, ‘God, if someone stops, I’ll stop too and help him. And God was so generous...because two are stronger than one." In the end, De Oliveira's time was 2hr 44min 26sec, followed by Haridasse at 2:44:32 and Beggs at 2:44:36. All three qualified for next year's race, and all plan to run again - "God willing," said De Oliveira. Haridasse later thanked his two rescuers; despite his own near-obliteration, he called the race "the greatest experience ever."
In a searing piece about the 2013 Boston Marathon terrorist bombing that killed five and wounded almost 300 - "All My Tears, All My Love" - Dave Zirin contrasted that tragedy with the historic joy of the Marathon. In 1967, Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to run it, registering as K.V. Switzer and dressing in loose sweats. Five miles in, when a rabid official noticed her and tried to force her out, male runners fought him off: "For them, Kathrine Switzer had every right to be there." The moment, Zirin wrote, "gave us all a glimpse of the possible...of the world we'd aspire to live in." This week, Beggs and De Oliveira gave us another.
"If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon." - Kathrine Switzer
Mike Johnson to Unleash 'Catastrophic' Attack on Endangered Species Act
Conservationists warned Monday that "Earth Day could become Extinction Day" if Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives get their way.
Elected Republicans have long set their sights on the historic Endangered Species Act of 1973—and wildfire defenders sounded the alarm in December, when the Republican-led House Natural Resources Committee advanced Chair Bruce Westerman's (R-Ark.) ESA Amendments Act.
"If this bill passes, protections for species like the Florida manatee, monarch butterfly, and California spotted owl would immediately decrease," Earthjustice legislative director for lands, wildlife, and oceans Addie Haughey warned at the time.
Since then, President Donald Trump has continued his war on endangered species with his budget request for the 2027 fiscal year, and his administration's so-called "God Squad" unanimously approved an "unprecedented" exemption allowing fossil fuel operations in the Gulf of Mexico to ignore ESA protections.
Now, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) plans to take up Westerman's bill this week—potentially on Wednesday, Earth Day.
"At a time when wildlife is already under immense pressure from habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, and industrial development, Congress should be strengthening the Endangered Species Act, not tearing it apart," said Jewel Tomasula, policy director of the Endangered Species Coalition, which has hundreds of member organizations.
"If Rep. Bruce Westerman and Speaker Johnson have their way, Earth Day will become Extinction Day," Tomasula warned. "The urgency is real. This bill is catastrophic for threatened and endangered species."
Susan Holmes, the coalition's executive director, emphasized that "the Endangered Species Act works because it is rooted in science and because it recognizes a simple truth: Once a species is gone, it is gone forever."
"We should not allow politicians to dismantle protections that have saved bald eagles, gray whales, peregrine falcons, and so many other species from disappearing forever," she declared.
Holmes also noted that "the American people overwhelmingly support the Endangered Species Act" and "understand that protecting wildlife is not a partisan issue. It is about responsibility, stewardship, and ensuring that future generations inherit a world still rich with wild species and wild places."
Polling commissioned by IFAW and conducted online last year by Beekeeper Group found that over three-quarters of Americans say they are concerned about the environment, the welfare of animals, and conserving nature, and specifically support the goals of the ESA. That aligns with figures from surveys conducted over the past three decades, according to a 2025 analysis.
The U.S. House is scheduled to vote on the so-called "ESA Amendments Act" (H.R. 1897) on Earth Day, April 22. H.R. 1897 would drastically weaken the Endangered Species Act and decrease protections for threatened and endangered species.TAKE ACTION >>> wildernesswatch.substack.com/p/the-extinc...
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— Wilderness Watch (@wildernesswatch.bsky.social) April 20, 2026 at 3:23 PM
"Protecting the nation's wildlife and habitats has never been an issue of right or left—it is a shared value and a commitment to future generations," said Cassie Ferri, legislative analyst at Defenders of Wildlife, in a Monday statement. "Instead of honoring Earth Day, Congress is turning it into 'Destroy Earth Day' by attempting to dismantle one of our nation's most foundational conservation laws. We all depend on healthy ecosystems to thrive, and the vast majority of Americans want to preserve wildlife through a strong Endangered Species Act—yet time and again Congress blatantly disregards their voices."
The advocacy group director of legislative affairs, Mary Beth Beetham, said that "shameless attempts by some members of Congress to dismantle the Endangered Species Act demonstrate a profound disregard for how valuable this law is to wildlife conservation."
"The Endangered Species Act isn't just rhetoric—it's proven effective and has safeguarded imperiled species for more than 50 years," Beetham stressed. "This bill could be the driving force behind future extinctions and would set a dangerous precedent for wildlife legislation moving forward."
The U.S. House is expected to vote on H.R. 1897 next week—the most dangerous bill facing endangered species right now! It prioritizes profits over science-based safeguards and blocks judicial review. ACT NOW and tell your lawmakers #NOHR1897!ACT NOW at TeamWolf.Org!
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— Team Wolf (@team-wolf.bsky.social) April 17, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Defenders of Wildlife is among nearly 300 groups that have signed on to a Monday letter—shared with Common Dreams by another signatory, Humane World for Animals—urging US House members to "vote NO on HR 1897, which is a damaging bill that would dramatically weaken the ESA and make it harder, if not impossible, to achieve the progress we must make to address the alarming rate of extinction our planet now faces."
Westerman's bill, the letter says, "would significantly rewrite key portions of the ESA to prioritize politics over science and inappropriately shift responsibility for key implementation decisions from the federal government to the states, many of which do not have sufficient resources or legal mechanisms in place to take the lead in conserving listed species."
"It would place significant new administrative burdens on already overburdened agencies," the letter continues. "It would turn the current process for listing and recovering threatened and endangered species into a far lengthier process that precludes judicial review of key decisions."
While Republicans can pass legislation along party lines in the House, they usually need at least some Democratic support in the Senate—due to chamber rules, which can be changed—to send a bill to Trump's desk.
Risk of 'Significant and Severe' Food Crisis If Strait of Hormuz Remains Shut, Says Top UN Official
A top United Nations official on Tuesday warned that there is a real risk of a global food crisis if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to shipments of fertilizer.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), said in an interview with UN News that roughly one-third of global fertilizer shipments flow through the Strait of Hormuz, and its closure has caused "a massive disruption in the supply chain of fertilizers," and "clearly we are seeing a crisis emerging" in the agricultural industry.
The UN official also emphasized the need for a fast resolution to the crisis to prevent catastrophic food shortages as tensions continued to escalate in the strait in recent days, with both the US and Iran seizing vessels in the area.
"We can’t wait until everything is fixed to at least get something fixed in time for the planting season," he emphasized. "The planting season has already started, and in most countries in Africa it will end in May. So, if we don’t get some solution immediately, the crisis will be very significant and severe, particularly for the poorest countries and for the poorest citizens."
While poorer nations are most vulnerable to fertilizer supply shocks, wealthy nations like the US are taking a hit as well.
A survey released last week by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) found that 70% of US farmers say the price of fertilizer has grown so high that they will not be able to afford all they need for the 2026 planting season.
Analysis conducted by AFBF found that, since President Donald Trump illegally launched his war with Iran in late February without any congressional approval, "nitrogen fertilizer prices have risen more than 30%, while combined fuel and fertilizer costs have increased roughly 20% to 40%."
AFBF also found that the cost of widely used urea fertilizers "have increased by 47% since the end of February, marking the largest month-to-month percentage increase" ever.
Zippy Duvall, president of AFBF, warned that "without the necessary fertilizers, we’ll face lower yields and some farmers will reduce acres altogether, which will impact food and feed supplies."
An analysis published by Bloomberg's Tracy Alloway on Wednesday found that "all the signs are already pointing to higher prices" for food in the coming weeks thanks to Trump's Iran War.
"Bank of America’s Commodity Inflation Trendspotter for food and beverage companies shows March input costs up a whopping 373 basis points to 7.9% year-on-year," explained Alloway. "That jump was driven mostly by diesel and heating oil, meaning we haven’t even seen much impact from things like higher plastics prices or fertilizer just yet."
Alloway pointed to the skyrocketing price of urea as particularly worrisome for food prices, as once Midwestern farmers start paying more for the fertilizer, "you start seeing higher prices for everything from actual grains to beef, chicken, eggs, ethanol," and more.
The bottom line, Alloway wrote, is "rising fertilizer prices are now hitting farmers, and eventually those will translate into higher wholesale food prices which will (assuming higher costs are passed onto consumers) eventually land at grocery stores too."
"The inflationary impulse doesn’t arrive all at once," she added, "it builds."
'The Corruption Is in Plain Sight': Protesters Decry Ellison-Trump Dinner as Megamerger Looms
A coalition of free speech organizations, progressive lawmakers, and antitrust advocates gathered outside the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC on Thursday to protest a private dinner hosted inside the building by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, who is seeking regulatory approval from the Trump administration for a megamerger of his company and Warner Bros. Discovery.
The invite-only dinner was billed as an "intimate gathering in celebration of the First Amendment honoring the Trump White House"—which has waged war on press freedom—"and CBS White House correspondents." Norm Eisen, co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action, said during Thursday's protest that the dinner "resembles the First Amendment in the same way that a book burning is a celebration of the written word." President Donald Trump attended the dinner, which critics dubbed the "Paramount Corruption Gala."
Organizers of Thursday's demonstration warned that the proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Bros., the parent company of CNN, would be catastrophic for media and free expression. If the merger is approved, David Ellison—the son of Trump megadonor Larry Ellison—would control CBS, CNN, HBO, and other major media properties.
"Tonight’s dinner appears to be nothing more than a transparent bid to flatter the Trump administration into rubber-stamping David Ellison’s proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, which would be a disaster for American news media and media consumers," said Robert Weissman, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen. "This proposed acquisition perfectly illustrates the domino effect of corporate and wealth concentration: David Ellison is only positioned to propose this merger because his father, Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, has become richer than any person should be allowed to be."
"This event should be an embarrassment to everyone involved," Weissman added, "including the attendees who have chosen to participate in this offensive charade."
Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the advocacy group Free Press, said that "no company should have this much media power, but especially not this company."
"We're here tonight to defend free speech. We're here tonight to defend press freedom," said Aaron. "We're here to stop government censorship. We're here to stop corruption and stop the Ellisons from trashing even more of our media."
Aaron called on those gathered to say it "loud so that state attorneys general" across the country can hear the message clearly.
"Stop the merger!" they shouted. "Stop the merger!"
Watch the full protest:
The dinner was held hours after Warner Bros. shareholders approved the proposed merger with Paramount, a company that just last summer received approval from the Trump administration to merge with Skydance—a decision that was widely viewed as corrupt. The proposed merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. has drawn vocal opposition from Hollywood actors, directors, and producers, who released an open letter earlier this month warning that the combination would "threaten the sustainability of the entire creative community."
Two members of Congress, Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Becca Balint (D-Vt.), spoke at Thursday's protest, decrying what they called Ellison and Trump's "corrupt merger scheme."
"We're here to say, 'Hell no,'" said Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. The Maryland lawmaker called Ellison's private event "a lavish oligarch’s dinner for Donald Trump."
Balint told protesters that as she spoke, Ellison was probably "raising a glass to his friend, his supporter, his patron, Donald Trump."
"That’s what they’re celebrating: power and corruption," said Balint. "And in this instance, the corruption is in plain sight."
DOJ Denaturalization Referrals Spark Fear of 'Expansive' Effort to Strip Citizenship From Americans
The US Department of Justice has referred hundreds of citizens for denaturalization, beginning what some fear will be a massive effort to strip Americans of their citizenship.
Months ago, it was reported that the Trump administration would seek to enlist the DOJ in its effort to revoke the citizenship of hundreds of people each month.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that the effort to carry out what DOJ spokesperson Matthew Tragesser called "the highest volume of denaturalization referrals in history” had begun.
The paper reported that the DOJ had identified 384 foreign-born Americans whose citizenship it wants to take away and had assigned the cases to prosecutors in dozens of US attorneys' offices across the country.
President Donald Trump is trying to dramatically expand a process that Sameera Hafiz, policy director at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, told the Houston Chronicle is typically reserved for "very rare extreme circumstances."
Federal law allows the government to ask courts to strip citizenship from those it can prove obtained it fraudulently. In some rare cases, people found to have committed egregious offenses like war crimes or the financing of terrorism have also been stripped of citizenship.
Between 2017 and the end of 2025, the federal government attempted to denaturalize just 120 citizens, less than a third of the number the Trump administration referred for denaturalization in just this first batch.
According to the Times, it is not clear why the 384 individuals referred to federal courts have been singled out. Tragesser said the administration was "laser focused on rooting out criminal aliens defrauding the naturalization process."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that these cases "are not exactly easy for the government to win," because "they have to go to a bench trial in front of a federal judge and prove material fraud."
But the DOJ has indicated that the range of people targeted for denaturalization could be much broader than just those found guilty of fraud.
The Trump administration's plans to pursue mass denaturalization first came to light last June when Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate issued an internal memo calling on the DOJ's Civil Division to "prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence."
In addition to the fraudsters and human rights violators who have typically been subject to denaturalization, Shumate urged the department to go after those “who pose a potential danger to national security” and "any other cases... that the division determines to be sufficiently important to pursue," which suggested that much broader categories of people may be targeted.
"The way the memo suggests they're going to apply it is very broad and expansive, and it's shockingly dramatic because that's not the intention behind denaturalization," Hafiz said.
The Trump administration has frequently targeted protesters and activists, including those with legal status in the US, for deportation for expressing political opinions opposite those of the government.
Last year, hundreds of foreign-born students who participated in protests against US support for Israel had their visas stripped by the US State Department. Some—like Columbia student activist Mahmoud Khalil—were deemed a danger to "national security" based solely on their articulation of beliefs out of step with the Trump administration's foreign policy.
Trump and several members of the Republican Party have also called for the denaturalization of foreign-born political opponents, including the Somali-American Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and the Ugandan-American New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Earlier this week, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced legislation titled the "MAMDANI Act," which would deport and denaturalize any immigrant who "advocates for socialism, communism, Marxism, or Islamic fundamentalism.”
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), who has also pushed for the deportation of Mamdani, who is Muslim, recently said that non-Christians should not be allowed in America.
"We're not a melting pot," he said. "If you're building temples or mosques and undermining Christianity, you're not assimilating."
Trump, meanwhile, has expressed a desire to go after certain ethnic groups, particularly Somali-Americans, whom he has said have "low IQs" and described as "garbage". Most people of Somali descent living in the US are citizens, but Trump has said "I don't want them in the country" and said they should "go back where they came from."
Many Somali-American citizens were detained, often brutally, during US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) massive operation in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Around the same time, the US Department of Homeland Security endorsed the idea of pursuing "100 million deportations," which would entail the removal of tens of millions of American citizens from the country, including many who were born in the United States. Ex-Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who oversaw Trump's mass deportation crusade for months, recently said he had a "master plan" to make this sweeping purge a reality.
Hafiz said the Trump administration's conduct has raised the possibility that the denaturalization push will be carried out in a "very broad and expansive way."
"That's very concerning," she said. "And we've seen in so many of the tactics that the Trump administration is using, what a slippery slope it is, how they say, 'This policy is to target one set of individuals,' and how that set of individuals just becomes broader as it's applied."
'Corruption Starts at the Top': US Soldier Arrested for Profiting Off Bets on Maduro Abduction
The US Justice Department announced Thursday that an American special forces soldier has been arrested and charged for pocketing over $400,000 by betting, on the basis of classified information, on the timing of the Trump administration's illegal abduction of Nicolás Maduro earlier this year.
Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an active-duty soldier in the US Army who was involved in planning and executing the operation to kidnap Maduro in early January, was charged with "unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction," the Justice Department said in a statement.
Van Dyke placed a total of 13 bets worth roughly $33,000 on the prediction platform Polymarket. All of his bets took the "yes" position on questions pertaining to whether US forces would invade Venezuela and remove Maduro before the end of January.
The unsealing of the Van Dyke indictment came amid mounting concerns that insiders at the Trump administration—which experts and watchdogs have deemed the most brazenly corrupt administration in US history—are profiting off nonpublic knowledge.
"This soldier was probably just copying what he’s seeing elsewhere," said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.). "The culture of insider trading and corruption starts at the top and is permeating everywhere and everything. This is what people hate about our government now."
One expert gestured at the absurdity of a soldier who placed bets on the Venezuela operation being arrested—but not those in charge of ordering the operation itself, which was a flagrant violation of international law.
"I hear someone was arrested in connection with the patently illegal invasion of Venezuela," wrote Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group. "Can't wait to see who is going to be held accountable for this lawless use of military force..."
President Donald Trump, who has profited massively from his second term in the White House, told reporters on Thursday that he wasn't aware of the charges against Van Dyke. The president then asked, "Was he betting that they would get [Maduro] or they wouldn't get him?"
"That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team," said Trump, referring to the Major League Baseball player and manager who was banned for gambling on games. "Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good."
Reporter: There was a special forces soldier involved in the capture of Maduro who was arrested on suspicion of insider trading. Are you concerned that federal employees are betting on these reduction markets and potentially getting rich?
Trump: Well, I don't know about it. Was… pic.twitter.com/zmPNGuVL1s
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 23, 2026
Suspiciously timed bets on both the Maduro abduction and the US military assault on Iran have sparked alarm about potentially widespread, lucrative insider trading at the Trump administration and among those in the president's orbit.
Last month, The Financial Times reported that Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth's broker tried to make a multimillion-dollar investment in weapons stocks in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran.
"The Iran War has become a corruption racket for the people close to President Trump," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the lead Senate sponsor of legislation that would prohibit "wagering on government actions, terrorism, war, assassination, and events where an individual knows or controls the outcome."
'Communities Not Cages': 200+ Actions Across US Protest ICE Warehouse Detention
"Warehouse facilities are built for storing products, not people."
Communities across the United States are mobilizing on Saturday to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement's aggressive expansion of warehouse detention projects nationwide, as deaths in ICE custody continue to soar under the Trump administration.
Saturday's day of action is expected to include over 200 demonstrations, from Atlanta, Georgia to Salt Lake City, Utah to Alexandria, Louisiana, according to organizers, who said the events will elevate local opposition to President Donald Trump's mass detention and deportation agenda. The groups behind the day of protests include the Disappeared In America coalition, Detention Watch Network, Indivisible, MoveOn, Public Citizen, and Workers Circle.
"Detention is deadly," said Nanci Palacios, organizing and membership director at Detention Watch Network. "People in immigration detention are describing it as ‘hell on earth’ because it is. What we’re seeing now is heightened cruelty under the Trump administration. People are not commodities to be shipped, discarded, and profited off of in detention warehouses or any detention facility—full stop. We demand an end to Trump’s cruel mass detention expansion and that detention facilities be shut down for good.”
Enabled by tens of billions of dollars in funding that congressional Republicans and Trump approved last summer, ICE has been buying up commercial warehouses and moving to convert them into detention centers with the capacity to hold up to 10,000 people. Business Insider reported earlier this month that since January, ICE "has spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying at least 11 massive facilities in eight states," including Utah, Georgia, and New Jersey.
But the American Immigration Council noted earlier this year that "local advocacy and outrage" have blocked ICE attempts to purchase at least a dozen warehouses.
Saturday's actions aim to build on that local opposition. “Communities are fed up with ICE’s brutality, chaos, and terror," said Katie Bethell, executive director of MoveOn Civic Action. "Across the country, everyday people are rising up against the Trump administration’s plans to cage tens of thousands of immigrant kids and families in their backyards."
"Backlash to ICE converting warehouses into massive detention centers has been swift, vocal, and growing," Bethel said. "We will not stop protesting until contracts and expansion plans are canceled. With gas prices skyrocketing, healthcare premiums exploding, and the cost of living growing exponentially unaffordable, we need elected leaders to invest in our communities, not in cages.”
Leah Greenberg, co-director of Indivisible, added that "warehouse facilities are built for storing products, not people."
"Converting them into detention centers exposes our neighbors to unsafe, degrading, and inhumane conditions, harms surrounding communities, and locks states into long-term infrastructure without public input," Greenberg added.
Nearly 50 people have died in ICE custody during Trump's second term in the White House, which has seen a massive and lawless expansion of immigrant detention and deportation efforts.
Ahead of Saturday's demonstrations, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) introduced legislation that would prohibit ICE from "establishing, operating, expanding, converting, or renovating any warehouse or similar building or structure for the purposes of detaining people." Tlaib's office noted that "ICE is actively scouting, purchasing, and planning to convert approximately 23 warehouses nationwide into new immigration detention and processing facilities," which would "rapidly increase detention capacity to 92,600."
"We do not want ICE cages in our communities," said Tlaib. "ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] are murdering people in the streets, tearing families apart, abducting our neighbors, and locking them in cages. Now they are attempting to buy and convert warehouses across our country into massive prison camps to expand their operations, despite strong local opposition in communities like mine."
"This will only increase the serious human rights abuses and trauma on immigrant families, including medical neglect, inhumane conditions, and rising deaths," Tlaib continued. "The Ban Warehouse Detention Act would stop this expansion by prohibiting the use of warehouses for immigration detention."
Press Freedom Groups Demand International Probe Into Israel's Killing of Journalist Amal Khalil
"Responsibility for these crimes also lies with Israel’s allies, who continue to allow the Netanyahu government to commit them with impunity."
Global press freedom organizations are demanding an immediate international probe into the Israeli military's apparently targeted killing of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, who died trapped under the rubble of a home bombed by Israeli forces earlier this week.
The calls for an urgent independent investigation came as the details surrounding Khalil's killing in southern Lebanon continued to emerge. Khalil's body was recovered by the Lebanese army and Red Cross rescue workers around six hours after the Israeli military bombed the house in which she took cover with fellow journalist Zeinab Faraj—who was badly injured in the attack—following an Israeli strike near their car. Israeli forces obstructed rescue operations by continuing to attack the area.
Reporters Without Borders, known internationally as Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), published an in-depth timeline of events, making the case that the Israeli military intentionally targeted Khalil and interfered with rescue efforts:
- At around 14:30 [Paris time]: a first Israeli strike targets a car near the vehicle carrying Amal Khalil and Zeinab Faraj. The two journalists survive the attack and manage to exit their vehicle.
- 14:52: Amal Khalil is contacted by Al Jazeera’s correspondent in southern Lebanon, Carmen Joukhadar. The call lasts nine seconds. “I could clearly hear that she was running and out of breath while speaking to me, but she told me she was fine,” he told RSF.
- Between 15:00 and 16:00: rescuers await authorization from the diplomatic committee—known as the “mechanism”—which, among other roles, serves as guarantor and mediator for the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in order to access the site. The committee, established in November 2024 under the auspices of France and the United States, also includes the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
- Around 16:00: a second strike targets the journalists’ car. Hiding nearby, Amal Khalil calls her colleagues to inform them of the attack, then takes refuge, with Zeinab Faraj, in a three-story house located nearby.
- 16:22: last contact with Amal Khalil. According to her sister, who was on the phone with her at the time, Amal Khalil was unharmed. After this call, the journalist’s phone went dead.
- 16:27: a third Israeli strike targets the house. According to RSF, the strike was carried out by a military aircraft, not a drone. Smoke was captured in a photograph taken by Carmen Joukhadar from the neighboring village of Khiam.
- Around 16:40: Lebanese army and nearby rescue teams are unable to reach the location of the two journalists due to ongoing strikes.
- Around 18:00: the Red Cross finally manages to evacuate Zeinab Faraj, who was suffering from fractures. According to the Lebanese TV channel LBCI, a flash grenade fired by Israeli forces forced the ambulance to retreat without being able to save Amal Khalil. Zeinab Faraj was taken to the local hospital in the nearby village of Tibnin.
- Around 19:20: the Lebanese army decides to accompany the Red Cross despite lacking authorization from the “mechanism” given the urgency of the situation.
- Around 20:20: the Red Cross returns to the scene, accompanied by the Lebanese army and bulldozers begin rescue operations.
- 23:10: the army and the Red Cross publicly announce that they have found Amal Khalil’s lifeless body on the ground floor of the building. The exact time of her death is yet to be determined.
Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF's Middle East desk, said in a statement that "so long as impunity prevails, crimes will continue to be committed."
"The Israeli army has very likely committed two more war crimes on 22 April, by targeting journalists who were identified as such, obstructing rescue operations, and continuing strikes that killed one journalist and injured another," said Dagher. "Responsibility for these crimes also lies with Israel’s allies, who continue to allow the Netanyahu government to commit them with impunity."
"We call on the international community to take firm measures to ensure that the Israeli government brings its massacre of journalists in Lebanon and Palestine to an end," Dagher added. "We also call on the Lebanese government to investigate this crime, which took place on Lebanese territory, and will continue to work to ensure that justice is served for Amal Khalil and every single other journalist killed in Lebanon and the wider region."
I urge everyone to watch this report by Channel 4 News about Israel’s killing of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil.
“Under international humanitarian law, journalists are afforded the same protection as civilians… If that journalist has a particular sympathy with a particular… pic.twitter.com/uzxCENNUqi
— Hamza Yusuf (@Hamza_a96) April 24, 2026
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also demanded an independent investigation into Khalil's killing, which the group described as a possible war crime.
CPJ noted that Khalil "received numerous threats prior to her killing, including a reported death threat in September 2024, and public incitement against her by an Israeli military official days before her killing, leading to widespread accusations that she was deliberately targeted. The reported obstruction of rescue operations, claimed by Lebanese government officials, constitute an additional grave violation of international humanitarian law."
Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ's chief executive, said in a statement that "this is not the first time that Israel has prevented emergency services from reaching journalists injured in their strikes."
"Journalists are civilians and protected under international law," said Ginsberg. "Israel’s blatant disregard for such norms—and the international community’s failure to hold them accountable—is abhorrent."
A spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights told reporters on Friday that "deliberately targeting" journalists or rescue workers "would amount to a war crime," pointing specifically to Israel's killing of Amal Khalil and obstruction of emergency teams.
"UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk calls for prompt, thorough, independent, and impartial investigations into all incidents involving allegations of violations of international humanitarian law," said the commissioner's spokesperson. "Findings must be disclosed, and those responsible held to account."
'Leaving the US Behind,' 50+ Nations Gather in Colombia to 'Phase Out Fossil Fuels'
"Word on the street is NO fossil fuel lobbyists at the Santa Marta, Colombia 'Transition Away' conference," said one climate journalist.
Representatives of more than 50 countries on Friday kicked off the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Colombia, a hopeful summit that comes amid a worsening global climate crisis and fossil fuel-producing nations' efforts to block a clean energy transition.
Organizers of the conference—which is taking place in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta and is co-hosted by the Netherlands—said participants aim to "initiate a concrete process through which a coalition of committed countries, subnational governments, and relevant stakeholders can identify and advance enabling pathways to implement a progressive transition away from fossil fuels, creating sustainable societies and economies."
"This process will be informed by the experience and perspectives of national and subnational governments, academia, Indigenous peoples, peoples of African descent, peasants, civil society, workers, the private sector, and other key actors at different stages of the transition," the organizers added.
The conference comes amid widespread disappointment and frustration over what climate defenders called a "shamefully weak" draft text—called the Multirão Decision—produced at last November's United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, in Brazil. The final document removed all mentions of fossil fuels amid pressure from oil and gas-producing nations like the United States, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, and the presence of a record number of industry lobbyists.
“When multilateral processes move slowly, concrete alliances of the willing can take us a long way," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said this week at the 17th Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Hesse state, where high-level representatives from around 40 countries discussed "concrete steps towards overcoming the climate crisis."
I've worked on #climate and fossil fuels for almost 30 years and the Santa Marta Conference is definitely one of the most hopeful things I've seen. Finally some governments are exploring solutions that meet the scale of the crisis. Good explainer 🧵👇
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— Patrick Reinsborough ❌👑 (@giantwhispers.bsky.social) April 24, 2026 at 7:57 AM
The Santa Marta conference, which will run through April 29, will focus on three main areas:
- Overcoming economic dependence on fossil fuels;
- Transforming energy supply and demand; and
- Advancing international cooperation and climate diplomacy.
Major fossil fuel producers including Angola, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, and the United Kingdom are among the 54 nations represented in Santa Marta.
Notably absent from the conference are some of the world's biggest greenhouse gas polluters, including the United States, China, Russia, India, and Japan. Their absence is fine with Colombian Environmental Minister Irene Vélez Torres, who told The Guardian that “this is not the space for them."
"We are not going to have boycotters or climate denialists at the table,” Vélez said.
Also missing by design are the legions of lobbyists who increasingly swarm COP conferences.
Word on the street is NO fossil fuel lobbyists at the Santa Marta, Colombia 'Transition Away' conference. But it does have some of the best climate scientists in the world for an advisory panel.
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— Bob Berwyn (@bberwyn.bsky.social) April 24, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Former Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who heads the World Wildlife Fund's global climate division, said in a statement that "changing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels isn’t a slow problem with a slow solution: We need a rapid, global shift to renewable power, smarter grids, and efficiency, so emissions fall fast and stay down."
"And we need a ‘coalition of the willing’ to show us the way," he added. "Santa Marta is an inflection point and an opportunity that we should not miss.”
The absence of the United States surprised no one, given the Trump administration and Republicans' promotion of oil, gas, and coal. Big Oil invested $445 million during the 2024 election cycle in efforts to elect Trump and other Republicans and promote fossil fuel-friendly policies.
Trump, who ran on a “drill, baby, drill” energy policy, has signed a series of executive orders aimed at boosting fossil fuel production, including by declaring a fake “energy emergency” in a push to fast-track permit approvals. He also tapped former fossil fuel executives to head the Department of Energy and Interior Department, which have pursued a policy of opening up more public lands and waters for fossil fuel development.
At the same time, the Trump administration dropped out of the Paris climate agreement for the second time and moved to roll back the modest climate progress achieved under former President Joe Biden.
Melinda Lewis—who directs the Global Trade Watch program at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen—is attending the Santa Marta conference, where she is working to dismantle the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system. The enforced mechanism empowers multinational corporations to sue governments before panels of corporate attorneys and has been denounced by opponents—especially those in the Global South—as a novel form of colonialism.
"While it is tragic that the United States government is failing to meet this critical moment for climate action, we are encouraged that the rest of the world has recognized that it’s high time to take bold action to remove the arcane ISDS extra-legal instrument buried in trade and investment treaties that has been used as a cudgel by fossil fuel and extractive industries to stymie government actions that might reduce their profits," Lewis said on Friday.
As Canadian researcher Joseph Bouchard recently wrote in a Common Dreams opinion piece, "Colombia is especially exposed" to ISDS harm, as "the country has 129 oil and gas projects covered by ISDS provisions, leaving it vulnerable to a wave of potential claims as it pursues its energy transition."
Lewis noted that Colombia's government, led by leftist President Gustavo Petro, "recently announced its intention to renounce its treaties that include ISDS as part of the full package of needed action to usher in a clean energy transition."
Indigenous leaders said more must be done to ensure a just transition.
“We are very concerned. We talk about a just transition, but in practice it is not true,” Oswaldo Muca, General Coordinator of the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon, told Inter Press Service. “Mining continues. Extraction continues. Deforestation continues. The territories and Indigenous peoples continue suffering this problem, and it is becoming more serious every day."
Muca added that benefits from resource extraction "do not reach Indigenous territories, but they destroy the territory and leave the damage."
On Friday, more than 250 legal experts from around the world asserted that "phasing out fossil fuels is not a political choice—it is a legal obligation."
The jurists noted in an open letter that "the International Court of Justice (ICJ) unanimously confirmed that every state must use all means at its disposal to prevent significant harm to the climate system, including by avoiding the principal activities driving it: fossil fuel production and use."
The letter's signers include former Irish President Mary Robinson and Julian Aguon, an Indigenous human rights lawyer from Guam who played a key role in winning the ICJ climate case.
"The phaseout of fossil fuels is not just scientifically necessary to prevent catastrophic and irreversible harm to the climate system, all peoples, and ecosystems; it is legally required," they wrote. "It is also socially, economically, and environmentally beneficial for present and future generations."
Ultimately, countries participating in the Santa Marta conference will draw their own individual roadmaps with the help of scientists and other experts.
“If we think about it," said Vélez, "the conference is that turning point where, collectively, we decide to be on the right side of history."