SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
");background-position:center;background-size:19px 19px;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-color:#222;padding:0;width:var(--form-elem-height);height:var(--form-elem-height);font-size:0;}:is(.js-newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter_bar.newsletter-wrapper) .widget__body:has(.response:not(:empty)) :is(.widget__headline, .widget__subheadline, #mc_embed_signup .mc-field-group, #mc_embed_signup input[type="submit"]){display:none;}:is(.grey_newsblock .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper) #mce-responses:has(.response:not(:empty)){grid-row:1 / -1;grid-column:1 / -1;}.newsletter-wrapper .widget__body > .snark-line:has(.response:not(:empty)){grid-column:1 / -1;}:is(.grey_newsblock .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper) :is(.newsletter-campaign:has(.response:not(:empty)), .newsletter-and-social:has(.response:not(:empty))){width:100%;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col{display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;justify-content:center;align-items:center;gap:8px 20px;margin:0 auto;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col .text-element{display:flex;color:var(--shares-color);margin:0 !important;font-weight:400 !important;font-size:16px !important;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col .whitebar_social{display:flex;gap:12px;width:auto;}.newsletter-wrapper .newsletter_bar_col a{margin:0;background-color:#0000;padding:0;width:32px;height:32px;}.newsletter-wrapper .social_icon:after{display:none;}.newsletter-wrapper .widget article:before, .newsletter-wrapper .widget article:after{display:none;}#sFollow_Block_0_0_3_0_0_0_1{margin:0;}#sSHARED_-_Social_Desktop_0_0_13_0_0_1.row-wrapper{margin:40px auto;}#sBoost_post_0_0_1_0_0_0_1_0{background-color:#000;color:#fff;}.boost-post{--article-direction:column;--min-height:none;--height:auto;--padding:24px;--titles-width:calc(100% - 84px);--image-fit:cover;--image-pos:right;--photo-caption-size:12px;--photo-caption-space:20px;--headline-size:23px;--headline-space:18px;--subheadline-size:13px;--text-size:12px;--oswald-font:"Oswald", Impact, "Franklin Gothic Bold", sans-serif;--cta-position:center;overflow:hidden;margin-bottom:0;--lora-font:"Lora", sans-serif !important;}.boost-post:not(:empty):has(.boost-post-article:not(:empty)){min-height:var(--min-height);}.boost-post *{box-sizing:border-box;float:none;}.boost-post .posts-custom .posts-wrapper:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post article:before, .boost-post article:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post article .row:before, .boost-post article .row:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post article .row .col:before, .boost-post article .row .col:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post .widget__body:before, .boost-post .widget__body:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post .photo-caption:after{content:"";width:100%;height:1px;background-color:#fff;}.boost-post .body:before, .boost-post .body:after{display:none !important;}.boost-post .body :before, .boost-post .body :after{display:none !important;}.boost-post__bottom{--article-direction:row;--titles-width:350px;--min-height:346px;--height:315px;--padding:24px 86px 24px 24px;--image-fit:contain;--image-pos:right;--headline-size:36px;--subheadline-size:15px;--text-size:12px;--cta-position:left;}.boost-post__sidebar:not(:empty):has(.boost-post-article:not(:empty)){margin-bottom:10px;}.boost-post__in-content:not(:empty):has(.boost-post-article:not(:empty)){margin-bottom:40px;}.boost-post__bottom:not(:empty):has(.boost-post-article:not(:empty)){margin-bottom:20px;}@media (min-width: 1024px){#sSHARED_-_Social_Desktop_0_0_13_0_0_1_1{padding-left:40px;}}.donation_banner{position:relative;background:#000;}.donation_banner .posts-custom *, .donation_banner .posts-custom :after, .donation_banner .posts-custom :before{margin:0;}.donation_banner .posts-custom .widget{position:absolute;inset:0;}.donation_banner__wrapper{position:relative;z-index:2;pointer-events:none;}.donation_banner .donate_btn{position:relative;z-index:2;}#sSHARED_-_Support_Block_0_0_16_0_0_3_1_0{color:#fff;}#sSHARED_-_Support_Block_0_0_16_0_0_3_1_1{font-weight:normal;}.sticky-sidebar{margin:auto;}@media (min-width: 980px){.main:has(.sticky-sidebar){overflow:visible;}}@media (min-width: 980px){.row:has(.sticky-sidebar){display:flex;overflow:visible;}}@media (min-width: 980px){.sticky-sidebar{position:-webkit-sticky;position:sticky;top:100px;transition:top .3s ease-in-out, position .3s ease-in-out;}}#sElement_Post_Layout_Press_Release__0_0_2_0_0_11{margin:100px 0;}.grey_newsblock .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper, .newsletter-wrapper.sidebar{background:linear-gradient(91deg, #005dc7 28%, #1d63b2 65%, #0353ae 85%);}.black_newsletter{background:linear-gradient(91deg, #005dc7 28%, #1d63b2 65%, #0353ae 85%);}.black_newsletter .newsletter_bar.newsletter-wrapper{background:none;}
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
Carmel Pryor
On Wednesday afternoon, Millennial and Generation Z-led progressive organizations released an open letter to Vice President Joe Biden, expressing concern over his inability to earn the trust of the vast majority of voters under 45 years old and suggesting a number of policies and personnel commitments he could make to bridge the generational divide in the Democratic Party.
"With young people poised to play a critical role deciding the next President, you need to have more young people enthusiastically supporting and campaigning with you to defeat Trump," reads the letter signed by Alliance for Youth Action, Justice Democrats, March for Our Lives Action Fund, NextGen America, Student Action, Sunrise Movement, and United We Dream Action. "Exclusively anti-Trump messaging won't be enough to lead any candidate to victory. We need you to champion the bold ideas that have galvanized our generation and given us hope in the political process."
The coalition has requested several personnel commitments, including:
The coalition has also requested that Biden commit to policy proposals, such as:
"In order to win up and down the ballot in November, the Democratic Party needs the energy and enthusiasm of our generation," reads the letter.
In March, Representative James Clyburn said Biden "should incorporate as much of the efforts being proposed by Bernie Sanders as he can."
The letter advised Biden's campaign that a message around a "return to normalcy" does not energize millennials because their political views have been shaped from a "series of crises that took hold when we came of political age." Even before the coronavirus epidemic, the unemployment rate among recent college graduates in the U.S. was higher than our country's unemployment rate for the first time in over two decades and the median income among the bottom half of college graduates was about 10 percent lower than it was thirty years ago.
"The coronavirus pandemic has exposed not only the failure of Trump, but how decades of policymaking has failed to create a robust social safety net for the vast majority of Americans," reads the letter.
In response to those challenges, the youth-led organizations making up the coalition have powered a number of social movements that captured the hearts and minds of many voters in the Democratic Party: Occupy Wall Street, undocumented immigrant youth, a resurgent climate movement, Black Lives Matter, the Fight for $15, and others.
"The victorious 'Obama coalition' included millions of energized young people fighting for change," read the letter. "But the Democratic Party's last presidential nominee failed to mobilize our enthusiasm where it mattered. We can't afford to see those mistakes repeated."
As documented in extensive polling and a number of primary contests, Biden struggles to garner the support of voters under 45 years old, while Bernie Sanders' base is made primarily of voters under 45. On Super Tuesday, Biden won only 17 percent of voters under 45. Bernie Sanders won voters under 30 in Michigan and Missouri by 76 points and 57 points respectively, according to exit polls. Democratic voters under 45 tend to be more progressive than their older counterparts.
TEXT OF LETTER:
Dear Vice President Joe Biden,
We write to you as leaders from a diverse array of organizations building political power for young people in the United States. We are all deeply committed to ending a presidency that has set the clock back on all of the issues that impact our lives.
While you are now the presumptive Democratic nominee, it is clear that you were unable to win the votes of the vast majority of voters under 45 years old during the primary. With young people poised to play a critical role deciding the next President, you need to have more young people enthusiastically supporting and campaigning with you to defeat Trump. This division must be reconciled so we can unite the party to defeat Trump.
Messaging around a "return to normalcy" does not and has not earned the support and trust of voters from our generation. For so many young people, going back to the way things were "before Trump" isn't a motivating enough reason to cast a ballot in November. And now, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed not only the failure of Trump, but how decades of policymaking has failed to create a robust social safety net for the vast majority of Americans.
The views of younger Americans are the result of a series of crises that took hold when we came of political age, and flow from bad decisions made by those in power from both major parties. For millions of young people, our path to a safe and secure middle class life is far more out-of-reach than it was for our parents or grandparents. We grew up in a world where "doing better than the generation before us" was not a foregone conclusion.
Instead, we grew up with endless war, skyrocketing inequality, crushing student loan debt, mass deportations, police murders of black Americans and mass incarceration, schools which have become killing fields, and knowing that the political leaders of today are choking the planet we will live on long after they are gone. We've spent our whole lives witnessing our political leaders prioritize the voices of wealthy lobbyists and big corporations over our needs. From this hardship, we've powered a resurgence of social movements demanding fundamental change. Why would we want a return to normalcy? We need a vision for the future, not a return to the past.
New leadership in November is an imperative for everything our movements are fighting for. But in order to win up and down the ballot in November, the Democratic Party needs the energy and enthusiasm of our generation. The victorious "Obama coalition" included millions of energized young people fighting for change. But the Democratic Party's last presidential nominee failed to mobilize our enthusiasm where it mattered. We can't afford to see those mistakes repeated.
Young people are issues-first voters. Fewer identify with a political party than any other generation. Exclusively anti-Trump messaging won't be enough to lead any candidate to victory. We need you to champion the bold ideas that have galvanized our generation and given us hope in the political process. As the party's nominee, the following commitments are needed to earn the support of our generation and unite the party for a general election against Donald Trump:
Policy:
Personnel and Future Administration:
In addition to these policy and personnel commitments, you and your campaign must demonstrate a real passion and enthusiasm for engaging with our generation and its leaders. It's not just about the policies and issues, but also about how you prioritize them, how you talk about them, and how you demonstrate real passion for addressing them. You must demonstrate, authentically, that you empathize with our generation's struggles.
Calling for solutions that match the scale, scope, and urgency of the problems we are facing is not radical. If nothing else, this moment of crisis should show that it is the pragmatic thing to do. We want results and we're leading some of the movements that will help deliver them.
The organizations below will spend more than $100 million communicating with more than 10 million young members, supporters, and potential voters this election cycle. We are uniquely suited to help mobilize our communities, but we need help ensuring our efforts will be backed-up by a campaign that speaks to our generation. Our generation is the future of this country. If you aim to motivate, mobilize, and welcome us in, we will work tirelessly to align this nation with its highest ideals.
Signed,
Host nation Colombia's deputy foreign minister said participants "will not only reaffirm their commitment to opposing genocide, but also formulate concrete steps to move from words to collective action."
Ministerial delegates from more than 30 nations gathered in the Colombian capital Bogotá Tuesday for an emergency summit focused on "concrete measures" to end Israel's U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza and other crimes against occupied Palestine.
The two-day Hague Group summit ultimately aims to "halt the genocide in Gaza" and sois led by co-chairs Colombia—which last year severed diplomatic relations with Israel—and South Africa, which filed the ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) joined by around two dozen countries. Progressive International first convened the Hague Group in January in the eponymous Dutch city, which is home to both the ICJ and International Criminal Court (ICC), whose rulings the coalition is dedicated to upholding.
"This summit marks a turning point in the global response to the erosion and violation of international law," South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said ahead of the gathering. "No country is above the law, and no crime will go unanswered."
Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir said before the summit: "The Palestinian genocide threatens the entire international system. Colombia cannot remain indifferent in the face of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. The participating states will not only reaffirm their commitment to opposing genocide, but also formulate concrete steps to move from words to collective action."
That action includes enforcement of ICC arrest warrants issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza including murder and forced starvation in a war that has left more than 211,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Hague Group members Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, and Senegal will attend the summit. Algeria, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Djibouti, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Venezuela will also take part.
Notably, so will NATO members and U.S. allies Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey. Like Israel, the United States denies there is a genocide in Gaza, despite growing international consensus among human rights defenders, jurists, and genocide experts including some of the leading Holocaust scholars in Israel and the United States.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department—which has sanctioned ICC judges and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese for seeking accountability for Israeli crimes—told Jewish News Syndicate Monday that the United States "strongly opposes efforts by so-called 'multilateral blocs' to weaponize international law as a tool to advance radical anti-Western agendas."
The spokesperson added that the Trump administration "will aggressively defend our interests, our military, and our allies, including Israel, from such coordinated legal and diplomatic warfare," even as U.S. allies take part in the summit.
Undaunted by U.S. sanctions, Albanese is among several U.N. experts who spoke at the summit, which she hailed as "the most significant political development in the past 20 months."
In prepared remarks, Albanese—who earlier this month said that "Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history"—told attendees that "for too long, international law has been treated as optional—applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful."
"This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order," she argued. "That era must end."
According to Albanese:
The world will remember what we, states and individuals, did in this moment—whether we recoiled in fear or rose in defense of human dignity. Here in Bogotá, a growing number of states have the opportunity to break the silence and revert to a path of legality by finally saying: Enough. Enough impunity. Enough empty rhetoric. Enough exceptionalism. Enough complicity. The time has come to act in pursuit of justice and peace—grounded in rights and freedoms for all, and not mere privileges for some, at the expense of the annihilation of others.
The Israeli Mission to the United Nations told Jewish News Syndicate that "what the event organizers, and perhaps some of the countries attending, forget is what triggered this conflict—namely, the butchering of 1,200 innocent souls on October 7, and how 50 Israelis remain in brutal captivity to this day by Hamas in Gaza."
"Attempting to exert pressure on Israel—and not Hamas, who initiated and are prolonging this conflict—is a moral travesty," the mission added. "The war will not end while hostages remain in Gaza."
In addition to the ICC warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the ICJ—whose ruling in the genocide case is not expected for years—has ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, to stop blocking lifesaving humanitarian aid from entering the strip, and to halt its assault on Rafah. Israel has ignored all three orders.
"The choice before us is stark and unforgiving," Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote in The Guardian last week. "We can either stand firm in defense of the legal principles that seek to prevent war and conflict, or watch helplessly as the international system collapses under the weight of unchecked power politics."
"While we may face threats of retaliation when we stand up for international law—as South Africa discovered when the United States retaliated for its case at the International Court of Justice—the consequences of abdicating our responsibilities will be dire," Petro continued. "If we fail to act now, we not only betray the Palestinian people, we become complicit in the atrocities committed by Netanyahu's government."
"For the billions of people in the Global South who rely on international law for protection, the stakes could not be higher," he added. "The Palestinian people deserve justice. The moment demands courage."
"Today's inflation report confirms what we already knew: Trump's tariffs are a tax on working-class Americans and additional tariffs would hurt them even more."
Inflation figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics offered what economists described as early evidence that President Donald Trump's erratic tariff policies are driving up prices across the nation's economy, from household appliances to groceries to apparel.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.7% in June compared to the previous year, according to the new data—the highest reading since February. Separate figures released by the Labor Department showed that real wages declined slightly in June, underscoring the impact of rising prices.
"Trump's Big Beautiful tariffs are showing up in the data," wrote Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "It's very MAGA!"
Baker highlighted coffee prices—which were up 2.2% in June—and noted that "prices will go much higher if Trump carries through with his threat of a 50% tax on coffee imported from Brazil because they are prosecuting someone for trying to overthrow the government."
According to the Labor Department, the "food at home" index—which tracks grocery costs—rose 0.3% in June and is up 2.4% compared to a year earlier. Beef and ice cream prices rose to record highs last month, and toys, shoes, and other categories also registered increases.
"The impact of tariffs is becoming more salient," said Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at Yale University's Budget Lab. "Apparel, which had seen cool inflation the last two months, grew 0.4% in June. Household furnishings grew 1%. Video and audio electronics grew 1.1%."
Leor Tal, campaign director at the progressive advocacy coalition Unrig Our Economy, said in a statement that "today's inflation report confirms what we already knew: Trump's tariffs are a tax on working-class Americans and additional tariffs would hurt them even more."
"Republicans in Congress should intervene and put a stop to this, but so far they've just doubled down on policies that line the pockets of the ultra-rich while hurting hardworking families," said Tal.
"President Trump promised to bring prices down. Instead, he and Republicans have made things worse."
Democratic lawmakers immediately seized on the new government data as proof that, despite his campaign promises, Trump's agenda is driving up costs for American consumers—a problem that they said will intensify if the president follows through on the tariff threats he recently leveled at the European Union, Brazil, and other U.S. trading partners.
"For those saying we have not seen the impact of Trump's tariff wars, look at today's data," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a statement. "Americans continue to struggle with the costs of groceries and rent—and now prices of food and appliances are rising."
"Trump has announced even more tariffs, including 50% on Brazil and 30% on the European Union," Warren added. "Families were already getting crushed, and the president's making it worse."
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, warned that the Republican budget measure that Trump signed into law earlier this month—which includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts primarily for the wealthy and historic cuts to Medicaid and food assistance—"will raise costs even further, on everything from groceries to healthcare, all while showering billionaires with tax breaks."
"President Trump promised to bring prices down. Instead, he and Republicans have made things worse," said Boyle. "American families are already struggling, and they simply can't afford another round of this president's lies and his reckless economic policies."
"This decision will hurt people's financial futures, including their ability to buy a home, care for their families, or even get a job," said the president and CEO of the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt.
A Trump-appointed judge axed a Biden-era rule on Friday that would have removed medical debt from credit reports and barred lenders from using certain medical information in loan decisions.
The rule, enacted under the authority of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, would have removed an estimated $49 billion in medical bills from the credit reports of about 15 million people.
But after a lawsuit brought by two industry groups with the support of Republicans in Congress who attempted to block it, Judge Sean Jordan of the U.S. District Court of Texas' Eastern District ruled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had exceeded its authority in introducing the rule.
According to the CFPB, those with medical debt on their credit reports would have received a 20-point boost to their credit scores on average as a result of the rule. It would have led to an estimated 22,000 more mortgages being approved for people struggling with medical debt.
According to a report by the Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF last year, roughly 1 in 12 adults has over $250 in unpaid medical debt.
"People who get sick shouldn't have their financial future upended," said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra at the time of the rule's passage in January 2025. "The CFPB's final rule will close a special carveout that has allowed debt collectors to abuse the credit reporting system to coerce people into paying medical bills they may not even owe."
The consumer reports industry lobbied furiously against the measure. Two industry groups—the Consumer Data Industry Association and the Cornerstone Credit Union League—brought the lawsuit before Judge Jordan. Meanwhile, reporting from Accountable.US in March revealed that Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee accepted a combined $867,000 from trade groups opposed to the rule.
Using the same talking points as the industry, they then attempted to block the rule, arguing that it would "weaken the accuracy and completeness of consumer credit reports."
However, according to research by the CFPB, medical debt on credit reports often has no bearing on a person's ability to pay back other loans.
Medical bills also frequently contain mistakes. According to a survey by the Commonwealth Fund last year, more than 45% of respondents were billed for a service they thought was covered by insurance. The trade magazine Becker’s Hospital Review, meanwhile, has estimated that 80% of medical bills contain errors that inflate costs.
"Medical debt unjustly damages the credit scores of millions, limiting their ability to obtain affordable credit, rent safe housing, or even get a job," said the National Consumer Law Center after the rule was introduced.
Now, as a result of its being struck down, the 15 million Americans who have medical debt on their credit reports will see an average of $3,200 remaining on their reports that would have otherwise been erased.
"The facts are clear: Medical debt is not predictive of creditworthiness," said Allison Sesso, the president and CEO of the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, on Monday. "This decision will hurt people’s financial futures, including their ability to buy a home, care for their families, or even get a job—all because they got sick, injured, or were born with a chronic condition through no fault of their own. It will also further decrease their willingness to get the care they need."
The ruling also marks the latest attack by Republicans on the CFPB. In February, the Trump administration attempted to unilaterally and illegally shut down the consumer watchdog agency. His effort to dismantle it was later blocked by a federal judge.
Since its creation in 2011, the CFPB has relieved $21 billion worth of debt for nearly 200 million Americans. It recouped that money from powerful financial institutions and credit card companies that had engaged in predatory practices and saddled Americans with junk fees.
But by cracking down on corporate abuses, it became the bane of Republican lawmakers and their corporate donors. Many top Trump donors sought to kill the CFPB because it was coming after the actions of their companies.
Elon Musk's company Tesla was facing scrutiny over its auto loan policies, which had received hundreds of complaints from customers. His social media company, X, was also being examined for its payment policies.
Another top Trump donor, investor Marc Andreesen, launched a broadside against the bureau when it ordered a payday lending company he'd invested in to pay tens of millions worth of fines for engaging in predatory lending.
"Judge Sean Jordan, a Trump-appointed judge, joined congressional Republicans in making it easier for the Trump administration to raise costs on millions of Americans," said Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk.
"Not only are they dismantling healthcare for 17 million through their big, ugly betrayal, but they're dooming millions more with low credit scores due to illness and injury," he continued. "Republicans are holding a grudge against the CFPB, and it's costing Americans money."