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Government Fights to Keep Lawyer Snooping Details Secret
The UK government today argued that it should not have to admit to several Libyan renditions victims, or to the public, whether it spied unlawfully on their protected communications with their lawyers.
LONDON
The UK government today argued that it should not have to admit to several Libyan renditions victims, or to the public, whether it spied unlawfully on their protected communications with their lawyers.
Abdul Hakim-Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar were kidnapped, tortured and sent to Libya in 2004 in a joint MI6-CIA operation. A second rendition operation targeted Sami al-Saadi, his wife Karima Ait Baaziz, and their four children between the ages of six and twelve. Both families filed a case in 2013 with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), concerning alleged eavesdropping by UK intelligence services on their confidential communications with their lawyers at Reprieve and Leigh Day - which would give the Government an unfair advantage in court. In November last year, the government admitted that its policies on spying on legally-privileged communications were unlawful.
At today's IPT hearing, the government's lawyers argued that, even if the government did unlawfully intercept the legally-privileged communications of the Libyan families, it should be able to keep that fact secret from both the families, their lawyers, and the public. Lawyers for Reprieve and Leigh Day are arguing that in effect, the government's argument would mean the security and intelligence services "should not be subject to public censure or scrutiny even when they act unlawfully."
Today's hearing follows revelations yesterday that MPs on Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) have questioned the security agencies over the spying allegations. The Committee's report concerning the case was titled "allegations in the media," strongly suggesting that the Committee learned of the issue of lawyer-client spying only after reading reports in the press.
Commenting, Cori Crider, a director at Reprieve and a lawyer for the Belhaj and al-Saadi families,said: "We have forced the security services to admit that for years, they used illegal lawyer-client spying policies. They claimed the sky would fall in if we saw those policies - but in fact, all it exposed was patent illegality. Now they say that even if they have eavesdropped and given themselves an unfair advantage in the torture cases, neither the victims nor the public ever have a right to know. That is obviously wrong, and the IPT should shut it down."
Reprieve is a UK-based human rights organization that uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantanamo Bay.
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‘Open, Shameless Grift’: Right Before FDA Ruling on Vapes, Big Tobacco Company Gave $5 Million to a Trump Super PAC
"In the Trump administration, money beats MAHA every time."
May 21, 2026
It was already known that President Donald Trump pressured top health officials to allow flavored vapes to hit the market after being leaned on by Big Tobacco executives earlier this month.
But The New York Times has revealed that the decision came just over a week after a massive super political action committee (PAC) donation from one of the cigarette companies looking to have the regulations lifted.
Kenneth Vogel and Christina Jewett reported for the Times that on April 30, a subsidiary of the tobacco company Reynolds Americans—which owns Camel and Lucky Strike cigarettes—donated $5 million to the Trump-backed super PAC MAGA Inc., according to a financial report filed on Wednesday. It brought the total amount donated to the PAC up to $8 million.
The donation came just two days before tobacco industry executives held their sit-down with Trump at his golf club in Jupiter, Florida, where they told the president they were displeased with the FDA's ban on flavored vapes, which was enacted in light of evidence that they were driving an epidemic of youth vaping.
According to a youth survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the vast majority of middle- and high school-aged e-cigarette users prefer fruit and candy-flavored vapes.
The Times reported earlier this month that immediately after receiving an earful from executives at Reynolds and Philip Morris owner Altria, Trump rang Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Mehmet Oz to complain about the FDA's ban on e-cigarettes.
In the days that followed the meeting, Trump reportedly berated then-FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who hesitated to reverse the policy due to the potential impact on children. Makary ultimately resigned less than a week later, along with RFK Jr.'s chief spokesperson, Rich Danker, citing disagreement about the e-cigarette policy change as the ultimate reason.
Within a week of the meeting with executives, the FDA announced it was dropping the ban on fruit-flavored vapes and authorizing the sale of mango and blueberry flavors by the Los Angeles-based company Glas Inc., which could pave the way for major cigarette makers to launch their own products on store shelves. It also allowed companies to add greater amounts of nicotine to pouches, which smokers often use in order to quit the habit.
Kush Desai, a spokesperson for the White House, told the Times that Reynolds' $5 million donation to the MAGA Inc. PAC had nothing to do with the administration's sudden shift in policy surrounding flavored vapes. He said "the only guiding factor behind the Trump administration’s health policymaking is gold standard science," as well as "recent evidence that has found [vapes] can help adults quit smoking.”
A spokesperson for MAGA Inc. said his organization “is pleased to accept legal contributions from those who agree with President Trump’s America First agenda and his goal to make America great again.”
The $5 million donation is far from the only contribution Big Tobacco has made to Trump. As Common Dreams reported earlier this month:
Trump, who ran in 2024 on a pledge to “save vaping” as part of an effort to appeal to young voters, has raked in huge sums of money from the tobacco industry. According to data from OpenSecrets, his inaugural committee took over $3 million from vaping special interests, including $1.25 million from the Vapor Technology Association, and $1 million apiece from Altria and Breeze Smoke.
Altria, which owns Marlboro maker Philip Morris, and Reynolds American, which owns Lucky Strike and Camel, have also offered donations to Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project. Reynolds, the biggest producer of menthol cigarettes, also gave $10 million to the super PAC backing Trump in 2024.
The Times also reported on Wednesday that a Reynolds executive was invited to a dinner hosted by Trump at the White House in October for donors who gave $2.5 million or more.
The open, shameless grift.www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/u...
[image or embed]
— Wajahat Ali (@wajali.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 1:21 AM
Critics described the $5 million donation as effectively a legal "bribe" to Trump and the latest example of the White House's "open, shameless grift."
It comes amid what seem to be endless reports of blatant self-dealing by Trump allies, most recently exemplified by the Trump-controlled Department of Justice's settlement of a lawsuit from Trump against the Internal Revenue Service, which handed the president $1.8 billion in taxpayer funds that he plans to disperse to his allies as part of a so-called “weaponization fund,” which critics have dubbed a “slush fund.”
It's also the latest example of Trump appearing to take actions in direct service of rich corporate donors—particularly in the fossil fuel, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrency industries—or members of his family or personal inner circle.
Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) also described the FDA's policy change on vaping as a betrayal by the administration's overseer, Kennedy. Though the HHS secretary has built his brand on pledges to "Make America Healthy Again" by decoupling corporate interests from health policy, he has been accused of bending to industry pressure on everything from food regulation to cancer-causing pesticides.
"In the Trump administration," Magaziner said, "money beats MAHA every time."
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With Straight Face, Rubio Tells People of Cuba That US Oil Blockade Is Not Cause of Their Energy Crisis
"The administration will continue to claim that their actions serve the freedom of Cubans, but history has shown us that peace and democracy has never been realized through US imperialism or unilateral military intervention," said Rep. Delia Ramirez.
May 21, 2026
A five-minute address to the people of Cuba by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longtime advocate of regime change in the communist country, was called "Orwellian" by one former Obama administration staffer as the diplomat claimed the "unimaginable hardships" Cubans now face are the fault of their own government—not the US blockade on oil that began nearly four months ago.
On the country's 124th Independence Day, Rubio—the son of Cuban immigrants who left the island for the US several years before Fidel Castro took power—said he wanted to "share with you the truth about the reason for your suffering. And I want to tell you what we, in the US, are offering to help you not only alleviate the current crisis, but also to build a better future."
Rolling blackouts have been a frequent occurrence since the Trump administration cut off Cuba's main oil supply after it invaded Venezuela in January, followed by a threat to impose tariffs on any country that supplied Cuba with energy. Rubio insisted that the blackouts are "not due to an oil 'blockade' by the US" and said that Cubans know "better than anyone" that the island has suffered from energy shortages "for years."
The secretary of state didn't mention the embargo the US has imposed on Cuba for more than six decades, exacerbating the country's struggles with its power infrastructure.
🇺🇸🇨🇺 pic.twitter.com/nwEePVJ1lX
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 20, 2026
"The real reason you don’t have electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people," said Rubio—echoing comments he made in April about Iran's government, which he said has spent "billions of dollars, supporting terrorists or weapons," instead of "helping the people of Iran."
At the time, Rubio's accusations were ridiculed by progressives who noted the Trump administration had already spent billions of dollars on the Iran War as Americans struggled with rising grocery, healthcare, and gas prices.
On Wednesday, the Republican Party appeared to have adopted Rubio's recycled talking point as tensions with Cuba grew following the US government's indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro. On Fox News, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Cuban officials "take all their money and they give it to the military and the police and themselves, and to hell with the good people."
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said late Thursday that President Donald Trump and Rubio "are pulling straight from the imperialists' playbook to justify another unauthorized and unlawful military invasion–just as they did in Venezuela and Iran."
"The administration will continue to claim that their actions serve the freedom of Cubans, but history has shown us that peace and democracy has never been realized through US imperialism or unilateral military intervention," said Ramirez.
As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, Rubio also took aim at Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), a company founded by Castro which controls an estimated 40-70% of Cuba's economy.
"President Trump is offering a new relationship between the US and Cuba. But it must be directly with you, the Cuban people, not with GAESA," said Rubio, adding that the administration is offering $100 million in food and medicine with the stipulation that it be distributed by the Catholic Church "or other trusted charitable groups."
"In the US we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people and our countries," said Rubio. "And, currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country."
Ben Rhodes, who served as deputy national security adviser under former President Barack Obama, noted that the secretary of state "works for a guy who has looted far more billions of dollars for himself and his cronies than even the most corrupt Cuban officials," and condemned his claim that the US oil blockade is not behind Cuba's energy crisis, which has caused a healthcare crisis as hospitals have struggled to provide services.
Democrats on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee noted that as a senator, Rubio worked to "make every effort" to block Obama's push to normalize relations with Cuba—only to claim that he wants to forge a new path with the country after strangling its energy supply.
"Sen. Rubio made it his mission to block every serious effort to build a new relationship with the Cuban people," said the Democrats. "Now, as secretary of state, he's peddling disingenuous rhetoric of a ‘new relationship' while the administration's Cuba policies exacerbate the humanitarian crisis there."
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Read It: The 192-Page Autopsy of the 2024 Election the DNC Didn't Want You To See
Chairman Ken Martin told CNN he kept the document secret because he "didn’t want to create a distraction, but by not putting the report out, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction."
May 21, 2026
The controversial, and until now secret, Democratic National Committee autopsy of the 2024 election failure in which Democrats lost the White House to Donald Trump and control of Congress to the Republican Party was published online Thursday after it was obtained CNN.
For months, progressives have been agitating for the DNC to release the document, which was alleged to contain damning findings about the manner in which former Vice President Kamala Harris and her team ran the campaign, with a sharp focus on the issue of the genocide in Gaza.
According to CNN, the "version of the report–better known as the 2024 autopsy–was written by Democratic strategist Paul Rivera. The DNC withheld the report until presented with CNN’s reporting about much of its contents. The copy published by CNN includes annotations in red that the DNC added to its version of Rivera’s report."
CNN said it did not modify the report in any way and that it "does not vouch for the accuracy of any statements within the report or the DNC’s annotations."
Here is the document, as first posted by the CNN:
In a statement to CNN after being informed the network was in possession of the document, DNC Chairman Ken Martin said, “After last November’s massive Democratic wins, I didn’t want to create a distraction, but by not putting the report out, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction. For that, I sincerely apologize."
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