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"Speaker Pelosi, I am undocumented. My community is being targeted by ICE and killed by white supremacists. Fight for my community and impeach Trump now," said Credo Action campaign manager Thais Marques. (Photo: Credo Action)
Demanding that the nation's most powerful Democrat use her position to impede President Donald Trump's vicious anti-immigrant agenda and push for impeachment, progressive activists on Wednesday disrupted a "Heart of the Resistance" event honoring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a lifetime achievement award.
As dozens rallied outside, four activists with Credo Action entered the InterContinental San Francisco Hotel, the site of the $250-per-ticket dinner, and interrupted the award ceremony, calling on Pelosi to heed the demands of the grassroots and a growing number of House Democrats by backing impeachment.
"Speaker Pelosi, I am undocumented. My community is being targeted by ICE and killed by white supremacists. Fight for my community and impeach Trump now," said Credo Action campaign manager Thais Marques. "We can't wait. Impeach Trump."
In an email to supporters late Wednesday, Credo Action said many Democrats in attendance "shouted Marques down while Speaker Pelosi herself talked over Marques rather than listening to and engaging with her."
The activists were eventually removed from the event by San Francisco police.
"The time to act is now--we can't wait on impeachment any longer," said Marques following the event. "Pelosi's refusal to hear me speaks volumes about the limits of today's Democratic Party, which congratulates itself on hating Trump but is unwilling to act to rein him in."
\u201cHAPPENING NOW: While @SpeakerPelosi drags her feet on impeachment, Trump is empowering white supremacists who have led some of the most horrific attacks and mass shootings on U.S. soil. We're fighting back. #WeCantWait #ImpeachTrumpNow #PelosiLegacy\u201d— CREDO Mobile (@CREDO Mobile) 1566435199
In addition to demanding that Pelosi back impeachment proceedings, which a majority of House Democrats now support, activists also condemned the Speaker's decision in June to approve a $4.6 billion Republican border funding package that included virtually no safeguards for immigrant children detained by the Trump administration.
Demonstrators outside the hotel held signs that read, "On Your Watch--$4.59 Billion for Concentration Camps, $5 Billion for Border Wall Funding, 2,167 Children Separated, 24 Migrant Deaths."
\u201c.@SpeakerPelosi is the most powerful Democrat in the country. She championed many progressive policies. But she is failing us now. Trump is selling the government to the highest bidder and migrant children are dying in detention \u2013 on her watch. #WeCantWait #ImpeachTrumpNow\u201d— CREDO Mobile (@CREDO Mobile) 1566446942
"Speaker Pelosi is letting Trump get away with deporting and oppressing our people and stripping away our rights," said immigrant rights organization Movimiento Cosecha, which took part in Wednesday's demonstration. "Just today, he announced plans to detain kids indefinitely. She must use her power to impeach Trump now."
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Demanding that the nation's most powerful Democrat use her position to impede President Donald Trump's vicious anti-immigrant agenda and push for impeachment, progressive activists on Wednesday disrupted a "Heart of the Resistance" event honoring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a lifetime achievement award.
As dozens rallied outside, four activists with Credo Action entered the InterContinental San Francisco Hotel, the site of the $250-per-ticket dinner, and interrupted the award ceremony, calling on Pelosi to heed the demands of the grassroots and a growing number of House Democrats by backing impeachment.
"Speaker Pelosi, I am undocumented. My community is being targeted by ICE and killed by white supremacists. Fight for my community and impeach Trump now," said Credo Action campaign manager Thais Marques. "We can't wait. Impeach Trump."
In an email to supporters late Wednesday, Credo Action said many Democrats in attendance "shouted Marques down while Speaker Pelosi herself talked over Marques rather than listening to and engaging with her."
The activists were eventually removed from the event by San Francisco police.
"The time to act is now--we can't wait on impeachment any longer," said Marques following the event. "Pelosi's refusal to hear me speaks volumes about the limits of today's Democratic Party, which congratulates itself on hating Trump but is unwilling to act to rein him in."
\u201cHAPPENING NOW: While @SpeakerPelosi drags her feet on impeachment, Trump is empowering white supremacists who have led some of the most horrific attacks and mass shootings on U.S. soil. We're fighting back. #WeCantWait #ImpeachTrumpNow #PelosiLegacy\u201d— CREDO Mobile (@CREDO Mobile) 1566435199
In addition to demanding that Pelosi back impeachment proceedings, which a majority of House Democrats now support, activists also condemned the Speaker's decision in June to approve a $4.6 billion Republican border funding package that included virtually no safeguards for immigrant children detained by the Trump administration.
Demonstrators outside the hotel held signs that read, "On Your Watch--$4.59 Billion for Concentration Camps, $5 Billion for Border Wall Funding, 2,167 Children Separated, 24 Migrant Deaths."
\u201c.@SpeakerPelosi is the most powerful Democrat in the country. She championed many progressive policies. But she is failing us now. Trump is selling the government to the highest bidder and migrant children are dying in detention \u2013 on her watch. #WeCantWait #ImpeachTrumpNow\u201d— CREDO Mobile (@CREDO Mobile) 1566446942
"Speaker Pelosi is letting Trump get away with deporting and oppressing our people and stripping away our rights," said immigrant rights organization Movimiento Cosecha, which took part in Wednesday's demonstration. "Just today, he announced plans to detain kids indefinitely. She must use her power to impeach Trump now."
Demanding that the nation's most powerful Democrat use her position to impede President Donald Trump's vicious anti-immigrant agenda and push for impeachment, progressive activists on Wednesday disrupted a "Heart of the Resistance" event honoring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a lifetime achievement award.
As dozens rallied outside, four activists with Credo Action entered the InterContinental San Francisco Hotel, the site of the $250-per-ticket dinner, and interrupted the award ceremony, calling on Pelosi to heed the demands of the grassroots and a growing number of House Democrats by backing impeachment.
"Speaker Pelosi, I am undocumented. My community is being targeted by ICE and killed by white supremacists. Fight for my community and impeach Trump now," said Credo Action campaign manager Thais Marques. "We can't wait. Impeach Trump."
In an email to supporters late Wednesday, Credo Action said many Democrats in attendance "shouted Marques down while Speaker Pelosi herself talked over Marques rather than listening to and engaging with her."
The activists were eventually removed from the event by San Francisco police.
"The time to act is now--we can't wait on impeachment any longer," said Marques following the event. "Pelosi's refusal to hear me speaks volumes about the limits of today's Democratic Party, which congratulates itself on hating Trump but is unwilling to act to rein him in."
\u201cHAPPENING NOW: While @SpeakerPelosi drags her feet on impeachment, Trump is empowering white supremacists who have led some of the most horrific attacks and mass shootings on U.S. soil. We're fighting back. #WeCantWait #ImpeachTrumpNow #PelosiLegacy\u201d— CREDO Mobile (@CREDO Mobile) 1566435199
In addition to demanding that Pelosi back impeachment proceedings, which a majority of House Democrats now support, activists also condemned the Speaker's decision in June to approve a $4.6 billion Republican border funding package that included virtually no safeguards for immigrant children detained by the Trump administration.
Demonstrators outside the hotel held signs that read, "On Your Watch--$4.59 Billion for Concentration Camps, $5 Billion for Border Wall Funding, 2,167 Children Separated, 24 Migrant Deaths."
\u201c.@SpeakerPelosi is the most powerful Democrat in the country. She championed many progressive policies. But she is failing us now. Trump is selling the government to the highest bidder and migrant children are dying in detention \u2013 on her watch. #WeCantWait #ImpeachTrumpNow\u201d— CREDO Mobile (@CREDO Mobile) 1566446942
"Speaker Pelosi is letting Trump get away with deporting and oppressing our people and stripping away our rights," said immigrant rights organization Movimiento Cosecha, which took part in Wednesday's demonstration. "Just today, he announced plans to detain kids indefinitely. She must use her power to impeach Trump now."
Fire-related deaths were reported in Turkey, Spain, Montenegro, and Albania.
With firefighters in southern Europe battling blazes that have killed people in multiple countries and forced thousands to evacuate, Spain's environment minister on Wednesday called the wildfires a "clear warning" of the climate emergency driven by the fossil fuel industry.
While authorities have cited a variety of causes for current fires across the continent, from arson to "careless farming practices, improperly maintained power cables, and summer lightning storms," scientists have long stressed that wildfires are getting worse as humanity heats the planet with fossil fuels.
The Spanish minister, Sara Aagesen, told the radio network Cadena SER that "the fires are one of the parts of the impact of that climate change, which is why we have to do all we can when it comes to prevention."
"Our country is especially vulnerable to climate change. We have resources now but, given that the scientific evidence and the general expectation point to it having an ever greater impact, we need to work to reinforce and professionalize those resources," Aagesen added in remarks translated by The Guardian.
The Spanish meteorological agency, AEMET, said on social media Wednesday that "the danger of wildfires continues at very high or extreme levels in most of Spain, despite the likelihood of showers in many areas," and urged residents to "take extreme precautions!"
The heatwave impacting Spain "peaked on Tuesday with temperatures as high as 45°C (113°F)," according to Reuters. AEMET warned that "starting Thursday, the heat will intensify again," and is likely to continue through Monday.
The heatwave is also a sign of climate change, Akshay Deoras, a research scientist in the Meteorology Department at the U.K.'s University of Reading, told Agence France-Presse this week.
"Thanks to climate change, we now live in a significantly warmer world," Deoras said, adding that "many still underestimate the danger."
There have been at least two fire-related deaths in Spain this week: a man working at a horse stable on the outskirts of the Spanish capital Madrid, and a 35-year-old volunteer firefighter trying to make firebreaks near the town of Nogarejas, in the Castile and León region.
Acknowledging the firefighter's death on social media Tuesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez sent his "deepest condolences to their family, friends, and colleagues," and wished "much strength and a speedy recovery to the people injured in that same fire."
According to The New York Times, deaths tied to the fires were also reported in Turkey, Montenegro, and Albania. Additionally, The Guardian noted, "a 4-year-old boy who was found unconscious in his family's car in Sardinia died in Rome on Monday after suffering irreversible brain damage caused by heatstroke."
There are also fires in Greece, France, and Portugal, where the mayor of Vila Real, Alexandre Favaios, declared that "we are being cooked alive, this cannot continue."
Reuters on Wednesday highlighted Greenpeace estimates that investing €1 billion, or $1.17 billion, annually in forest management could save 9.9 million hectares or 24.5 million acres—an area bigger than Portugal—and tens of billions of euros spent on firefighting and restoration work.
The European fires are raging roughly three months out from the next United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, which is scheduled to begin on November 10 in Belém, Brazil.
"These are not abstract numbers," wrote National Education Association president Becky Pringle. "These are real children who show up to school eager to learn but are instead distracted by hunger."
The leader of the largest teachers union in the United States is sounding the alarm over the impact that President Donald Trump's newly enacted budget law will have on young students, specifically warning that massive cuts to federal nutrition assistance will intensify the nation's child hunger crisis.
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association (NEA)—which represents millions of educators across the U.S.—wrote for Time magazine earlier this week that "as families across America prepare for the new school year, millions of children face the threat of returning to classrooms without access to school meals" under the budget measure that Trump signed into law last month after it cleared the Republican-controlled Congress.
Estimates indicate that more than 18 million children nationwide could lose access to free school meals due to the law's unprecedented cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid, which are used to determine eligibility for free meals in most U.S. states.
The Trump-GOP budget law imposes more strict work-reporting requirements on SNAP recipients and expands the mandates to adults between the ages of 55 and 64 and parents with children aged 14 and older. The Congressional Budget Office said earlier this week that the more aggressive work requirements would kick millions of adults off SNAP over the next decade—with cascading effects for children and other family members who rely on the program.
"Educators see this pain every day, and that's why they go above and beyond—buying classroom snacks with their own money—to support their students."
Pringle wrote in her Time op-ed that "our children can't learn if they are hungry," adding that as a middle school science teacher she has seen first-hand "the pain that hunger creates."
"Educators see this pain every day, and that's why they go above and beyond—buying classroom snacks with their own money—to support their students," she wrote.
The NEA president warned that cuts from the Trump-GOP law "will hit hardest in places where families are already struggling the most, especially in rural and Southern states where school nutrition programs are a lifeline to many."
"In Texas, 3.4 million kids, nearly two-thirds of students, are eligible for free and reduced lunch," Pringle wrote. "In Mississippi, 439,000 kids, 99.7% of the student population, were eligible for free and reduced-cost lunch during the 2022-23 school year."
"These are not abstract numbers," she added. "These are real children who show up to school eager to learn but are instead distracted by hunger and uncertainty about when they will eat again. America's kids deserve better.
Pringle's op-ed came as school leaders, advocates, and lawmakers across the country braced for the impacts of Trump's budget law.
"We're going to see cuts to programs such as SNAP and Medicaid, resulting in domino effects for the children we serve," Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) said during a recent gathering of lawmakers and experts. "For many of our communities, these policies mean life or death."
In some cases, corporate groups have posed as small business owners besieged by rising crime rates.
U.S. President Donald Trump's military occupation of Washington, D.C. has been egged on for months by corporate lobbyists. In some cases, they have posed as small business owners besieged by rising crime rates.
According to a report Tuesday in The Lever:
Last February, the American Investment Council, private equity's $24 million lobbying shop, penned a letter to D.C. city leaders demanding "immediate action" to address an "alarming increase" in crime.
That letter was published as an exclusive by Axios with the headline: "Downtown D.C. Business Leaders Demand Crime Solutions."
But far from a group of beleaguered mom-and-pops, the letter's signatories "included some of the biggest trade groups on K Street," The Lever observed:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which boasts its status as the largest business organization in the world; the National Retail Federation, a powerful retail alliance representing giants like Walmart and Target; and Airlines for America, which represents the major U.S. airlines, among others. These lobbying juggernauts spend tens of millions of dollars every year lobbying federal lawmakers to get their way in Washington."
It was one of many efforts by right-wing groups to agitate for a more fearsome police crackdown in the city and oppose criminal justice reforms.
On multiple occasions, business groups and police unions have helped to thwart efforts by the D.C. city council to rewrite the city's criminal code, which has not been updated in over a century, to eliminate many mandatory minimum sentences and reduce sentences for some nonviolent offenses.
The reforms were vetoed by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2023. After the veto was overridden by the city council, Democrats helped Republicans pass a law squashing the reforms, which was signed by then-President Joe Biden.
In 2024, groups like the Chamber of Commerce pushed the "Secure D.C." bill in the city council, which expanded pre-trial detention, weakened restrictions on chokeholds, and limited public access to police disciplinary records.
At the time, business groups lauded these changes as necessary to fight the post-pandemic crime spike D.C. was experiencing.
But crime rates in D.C. have fallen precipitously, to a 30-year low over the course of 2024. As a press release from the U.S. attorney's office released on January 3, 2025 stated: "homicides are down 32%; robberies are down 39%; armed carjackings are down 53%; assaults with a dangerous weapon are down 27% when compared with 2023 levels."
Nevertheless, as Trump sends federal troops into D.C., many in the corporate world are still cheering.
In a statement Monday, the D.C. Chamber of Commerce described itself as a "strong supporter" of the Home Rule Act, which Trump used to enact his federal crackdown.
The Washington Business Journal quoted multiple consultancy executives—including Yaman Coskum, who exclaimed that "It is about time somebody did something to make D.C. great again," and Kirk McLaren who said, "If local leaders won't protect residents and businesses, let's see if the federal government will step in and do what's necessary to create a safe and prosperous city."
Despite crime also being on the decline in every other city he has singled out—Los Angeles, Baltimore, Oakland, New York, and Chicago—Trump has said his deployment of federal troops "will go further."