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For Immediate Release
April, 09 2021, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Staci Maiers, NEA communications, smaiers@nea.org
Biden's Spending Proposal Provides Historical Investments in Public Education
Budget 'truly prioritizes students,' continues commitment to building a better America for all.
WASHINGTON
The Biden administration today unveiled a significant commitment to invest in public education, including an additional $20 billion that would be dedicated to students in under-resourced schools and communities.
The following statement can be attributed to NEA president Becky Pringle:
"We all want our students--Black and white, Native and newcomer, Hispanic and Asian alike--to attend good and healthy public schools and higher education campuses that help them pursue their dreams and fulfill their true potentials. President Joe Biden and his administration are making good on the promise to lift our most vulnerable families out of poverty with a budget that truly prioritizes students. The historic investment in Title I funding is a continued commitment to building a better America for all. We also commend President Biden and his administration for proposing significant investments in special education, full-service community schools, school counselors, affordable housing, and healthcare while extending Pell Grants to DREAMers."
"The National Education Association is committed to leading a movement to unite our members and this nation to transform public education into a racially and socially just and equitable system that prepares every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world. We now have a friend in the White House who is supporting us in this critical mission. We look forward to working alongside the Biden administration and Congress to turn this vision into a reality."
The National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA's 3 million members work at every level of education--from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliate organizations in every state and in more than 14,000 communities across the United States.
(202) 833-4000LATEST NEWS
New Inflation Numbers Prove 'Catastrophic Mismanagement of Our Economy' by Trump
"Today's report is yet another reminder that Trump's promise to lower costs on 'Day One' was a lie," said the House Budget Committee's top Democrat.
Aug 12, 2026
As Americans continue to struggle with the cost of gasoline, groceries, healthcare, housing, and more under President Donald Trump, congressional Democrats and economists on Wednesday used his own government's latest inflation figures to call out the Republican's handling of the US economy.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the consumer price index—a measure of goods and services bought by households—increased 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis in July after falling 0.4% in June. The annual inflation rate was 3.4% before seasonal adjustment.
The brief reprieve for American consumers in June was tied to Trump's illegal Iran War cooling off a bit, so the new numbers were expected, given the ramped-up hostilities that followed and persist. The conflict and its various consequences are expected to hurt Republicans in the November elections.
"Prices started climbing again in July, and Trump's catastrophic mismanagement of our economy means more spikes in the months ahead," warned Alex Jacquez, a former Obama administration official who is now senior vice president of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, in a statement.
"The president said it himself: He is only 'semi-negotiating' an end to the war, all while slapping new tariffs on 99% of our imported goods," noted Jacquez. "Trump is not serious about bringing much-needed relief to working families who are weary of higher prices at the pump and on the shelves, and who are pessimistic about an economy that is bleeding jobs."
US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Wednesday that "as inflation continues to spiral out of control and gas prices remain well above $4, this is how Donald Trump is spending your taxpayer dollars. $900 million for a gilded ballroom at the White House. $0 to lower your costs. The Trump White House in a nutshell."
House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) recalled when Trump was asked in May how much "Americans' financial situations" were on his mind as he tried to negotiate an end to the Iran War, and the president replied, "Not even a little bit," then returned to his misleading talking points on nuclear weapons.
"Month after month, Donald Trump continues to prove that he doesn't 'think about Americans' financial situation,'" Boyle said. "Over the last year and a half, Trump and Republicans in Washington have ripped healthcare away from millions of Americans, forced families to pay expensive tariff taxes, and started a disastrous war with Iran."
"Today's report is yet another reminder that Trump's promise to lower costs on 'Day One' was a lie," the congressman added. "American families deserve better."
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) declared on social media Wednesday, "Donald Trump's economy is a disaster."
"His war is spiking gas costs. Wages are down. Inflation is up," she said, looking to the midterms. "In November, Democrats will take back the House and fight for an affordable America."
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ICE Funding Approved by Susan Collins and Trump GOP to Deliver Electric Shock Gloves to Agents Nationwide
"Congress must end the blank check to ICE," said the president of one immigrant rights group.
Aug 12, 2026
As Mainers continue to target Sen. Susan Collins' office with protests following a recent killing by an immigration agent, new reporting shows how some of the $70 billion she and her GOP colleagues gave to President Donald Trump's immigration agencies is being spent.
According to the Associated Press on Tuesday:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers may soon be outfitted with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks intended to gain compliance from combative individuals.
ICE plans to spend up to $20 million to purchase thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” for officers and agents by March, according to a notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security.
The devices are known as the GLOVE, which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, and are manufactured by Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky. They have been used in recent years by some jails and police departments.
As the company's website explains, "the discomfort associated with the stimulation is usually effective in bringing individuals into compliance in less than three seconds and leaves no burns, marks, or scars." It describes them as a "humane, low-optics, de-escalation solution for many situations facing our men and women in uniform."
John Peters, president of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, told the AP that the sensation is "immediate and sharp," comparing it to a "bee sting."
While he said it could be an effective tool to prevent "resistance," he warned that it should not be used as a form of punishment against those merely exhibiting “verbal defiance or belligerence” or on high-risk populations such as children, pregnant women, or elderly or disabled people.
But given the recent record of rampant civil rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, excessive use of force, and efforts to lie about misconduct, civil rights advocates are warning that these gloves are being placed into, or onto, the exact wrong hands.
"ICE spent the last year showing this country that they are willing to disregard the law and are too quick to use force, with devastating and at times fatal consequences for citizens and noncitizens alike," Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Common Dreams. "Now they might be equipped with a device that allows them to deliver an electric shock with their hands by pushing a small button, in a move that might be imperceptible to those watching."
Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, concurred, telling Common Dreams that ICE is a "rogue agency with an $80 billion slush fund that allows them to concoct and fund new ways to visit cruelty upon our communities."
"Arming poorly trained agents with electric shock gloves to inflict pain on our neighbors is disgusting and barbaric," Matos added. "Congress must end the blank check to ICE, and ICE must get out of our communities.”
The shock gloves are just one way that immigration agencies are spending the $70 billion in additional funding they were given back in June, when Republicans in the Senate voted 52-47 to authorize the funding despite rampant lawlessness. Only one Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), voted against supercharging the funding.
In a July 16 letter to Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, Collins defended her vote for the increased ICE funding by pointing to "reforms" passed in April as part of the Department of Homeland Security's broader appropriations bill, which included $20 million for body cameras and $2 million for "de-escalation" training.
Collins' office did not immediately respond when asked by Common Dreams whether she believes electric shock gloves were a good form of "de-escalation."
A five-term senator in the midst of a fierce reelection bid against Democrat Troy Jackson has taken fierce criticism for her vote to support ICE on the campaign trail, which has only grown in intensity since July's fatal shooting of 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford.
It was one of two fatal shootings of men without criminal records over the course of a week. ICE later acknowledged that the victims were not the target of their operations.
When asked after the shooting, Collins declined to say that she regretted her vote for increased ICE funding.
Protesters who gathered outside Collins' Biddeford office on Tuesday said she should.
"$70 billion to fund the terror that left my family and community in fear,” Fernanda McLaughlin, a Maine resident and community organizer, said over the loudspeaker, according to NBC News Center Maine. "You know what that money can be really used for? To feed Mainers. To fund our schools. To fund our health system."
"There were no guardrails included, and she still voted yes on it," McLaughlin said. "Simple guardrails that exist in nearly every other law enforcement agency across our nation."
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'Ecocide': Israel Accused of Deliberately Starting Wildfires in Lebanon
“They had already bulldozed the whole village," said one mayor of a southern Lebanese town. "Then they set fire to the trees."
Aug 12, 2026
Environmental and rights advocates are condemning what one academic called "the latest in a neverending series of international crimes" by the Israel Defense Forces as firefighters and residents in southern Lebanon report that the IDF has purposely started destructive wildfires by continuing to bomb the region.
The blazes are an attempt, one town mayor said Wednesday, to make it appear "as though nobody had ever lived here.”
Israel renewed attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon in March, as the US-Israeli war on Iran widened across the Middle East. Following a "ceasefire" agreement in June, Israeli forces have continued occupying about 20% of Lebanese territory after forcibly displacing over 1 million people from the southern part of the country.
Israeli officials have said they aim to apply the "Gaza model" to Lebanon, deploying the kinds of attacks that have destroyed 90% of civilian infrastructure in Gaza since the IDF began attacking the exclave in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack, and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz recently boasted that the IDF had destroyed 24 villages “that had existed for hundreds of years."
Now, Hafez Ghasham, mayor of the southern town of Yaroun, told The Guardian, “they are trying to make the land uninhabitable."
“They had already bulldozed the whole village. Then they set fire to the trees. What remained in this particular area were the olive trees—large groves, with very old olive trees," Ghasham told the newspaper. “Many of these trees, most of them, in fact, were inherited from our grandparents and parents. They have enormous sentimental value. The trees were also an important source of income for the people of the village."
Residents who had been forced out of Yaroun said they learned from people in nearby Christian towns that their olive and fruit groves as well as many homes had been set on fire by Israeli soldiers.
The head of Civil Defense in the Nabatieh region said about 30-40% of the land in the area had been affected by the fires, and firefighters have been forced to withdraw as they've tried to extinguish the flames as the IDF has launched drone strikes after the initial attacks that sparked the fires.
"There are enormous areas of woodland that have burned," Hussein Fakih told The Guardian.
Kelley B. Vlahos, editor-in-chief of Responsible Statecraft, noted that "while the rest of the world is trying to put out forest fires this summer, Israel reportedly started them as a military tactic," even following the Lebanon ceasefire.
Last Friday, large wildfires were caused by Israeli munitions and drones that struck woodlands in Kfarchouba and in the area between Jezzine and the western Bekaa valley.
The Israeli military has accused Hezbollah of using woodland areas as cover for its military outposts and tunnels. The IDF has similarly defended extensive bombing of Gaza's schools, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure by claiming Hamas operates in tunnels beneath the buildings.
In a statement, Hezbollah's media relations officials said the fires represent "a continuation of urban destruction, the bulldozing of infrastructure, and the theft of ancient olive trees."
"The party called on the government, the Ministry of Environment, and all relevant authorities to speak out and act immediately to halt Israeli savagery against the environment, human life, and infrastructure," reported Al Mayadeen.
Hisham Younes, the founder of Lebanese conservation group Green Southerners, told The Guardian that Israel's bombing of forested areas amounts to "ecocide."
“These are long-established woodlands," said Younes. "They perform critical functions. The wider area is also an important passage and resting ground for migratory birds."
“It is not about any single fire or attack, but a pattern of destruction that progressively erodes the ability of ecosystems to function, regenerate, and sustain life," Younes added. "When those cascading effects also undermine livelihoods and people’s ability to return to and remain on their land, environmental destruction becomes inseparable from the wider transformation of the territory itself.”
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Trump-Endorsed MyPillow Founder Mike Lindell Refuses to Concede After Losing Big in GOP Primary
"I'm not going to give up on this race until the votes are counted. That's nonsense!"
Aug 12, 2026
Mike Lindell, the conspiracy-mongering founder of MyPillow, is refusing to concede defeat after being soundly defeated on Tuesday in the Minnesota Republican Party gubernatorial primary.
Although official results show Lindell losing to Minnesota state House Speaker Lisa Demuth by more than 10 percentage points, the President Donald Trump-endorsed pillow magnate on Tuesday night bristled when asked if he would accept defeat if the Associated Press called the race.
"Why would I listen to the AP?" Lindell asked incredulously. "There's 265,000 votes left to count. I'm down by 18,000 now. We just gained 5,000... I'm not going to give up on this race until the votes are counted. That's nonsense!"
The AP would go on to project Demuth as the winner at 11:30 pm ET on Tuesday.
Manic Mike Lindell is ranting and raving that he won’t concede. pic.twitter.com/A67RewLDa3
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 12, 2026
Lindell also told KSTP investigative reporter Kirsten Swanson that there are unspecified "anomalies" in the vote tallies that "his teams will be looking into."
Lindell has a long history of spreading lies about elections.
After Trump lost the 2020 election, Lindell falsely accused Dominion Voting Systems, the company whose voting machines were used in 27 states, of stealing the election for former President Joe Biden.
MS NOW host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday noted that Lindell was deploying the same script in his own race that he used for Trump in 2020.
"He is talking about 'irregularities'... in a Republican primary, just like he talked about 'irregularities' in the 2020 campaign," Scarborough said. "Again, it was in a Republican primary! And he got the stuffing knocked out of him!"
LMAO!
Mika: Lindell is not conceding.
Joe: He is talking about irregularities. Irregularities in a Republican primary. Just like he talked about irregularities in the 2020 election. The only irregularity here is maybe in his bowel movements.
Mika: Oh my God Joe. Stop! pic.twitter.com/ey9L2bKWyn
— Reggie B. (@reggiebblue) August 12, 2026
Trump pointed to Lindell's history of pushing election conspiracy theories as a strength in his July endorsement.
"Nobody has sacrificed more than Mike Lindell in fighting for our country, especially when it comes to Election Integrity," the president wrote in a Truth Social post. "He truly deserves everything he gets. He will MAKE MINNESOTA GREAT AGAIN!!! MIKE LINDELL HAS MY COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT—HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN."
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Billionaire Cash Helps 'Empty Suit' Luke Bronin Defeat Top Social Security Champion John Larson
"The bittersweet truth is that when you successfully fight the monstrous power of the billionaires, they will do everything they can to silence you."
Aug 12, 2026
US Rep. John Larson, one of the most vocal champions of Social Security expansion in Congress, lost reelection on Tuesday to the former mayor of Hartford, Connecticut whose campaign was bankrolled in part by a billionaire hedge fund manager and his network of dark money groups.
Luke Bronin's landslide win over Larson, a 14-term incumbent, in Connecticut's 1st Congressional District unseats an ardent Social Security champion amid a renewed bipartisan push for legislation that progressives warn would result in benefit cuts. On his website, Bronin expresses support for "strengthening Social Security" and ensuring the program survives for current and future beneficiaries—but provides no details on how he would go about accomplishing those objectives.
By contrast, Larson—whose campaign was backed by prominent unions and Social Security defenders—has laid out his vision for strengthening the New Deal program and ensuring its solvency for the rest of the century.
The Social Security 2100 Act, Larson's bill, would increase benefits and bolster the program's finances by eliminating the payroll tax cap that currently exempts annual income above $184,500. Had he won Tuesday's primary, Larson would have been on track to chair the House Ways and Means Committee's Social Security panel under a possible Democratic majority next year.
"Larson’s Social Security 2100 Act would protect and expand Social Security by making billionaires pay in on all of their income, just like the rest of us," Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works—whose PAC endorsed Larson—wrote in an op-ed for Common Dreams last week. "That’s why billionaires are so desperate to defeat him—and they’ve found just the empty suit to do it."
Billionaire hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel and his wife maxed out individual donations to Bronin's campaign, which also received support from Majority Democrats and the Bench—organizations funded by the Mandels.
"Bronin has amassed a sizable war chest, thanks to the Bench and other PACs that trace back to Mandel," The Lever reported on Tuesday. "As it turns out, Bronin used to be on the payroll of a nonprofit funded by the billionaire, and his campaign’s policy stances reflect the network’s influence."
"History will recognize the invaluable role Larson played in uniting the Democratic Party against even a single penny in cuts to Social Security's earned benefits."
Throughout the primary, Bronin repeatedly criticized Larson for "introducing the same bill every year"—referring to the Social Security 2100 Act—without making progress toward its passage.
But Larson's supporters said a narrow focus on Larson's bill obscures the congressman's broader efforts to preserve and bolster Social Security benefits throughout his career in the US House of Representatives.
"When faced with a political consensus that assumed it was necessary to cut Social Security’s hard-earned benefits, Larson worked to change the entire conversation about Social Security," a trio of retiree advocates—Nancy Altman of Social Security Works, Max Richtman of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and Richard Fiesta of the Alliance for Retired Americans—wrote earlier this week.
"Thanks to his hard work, Democrats are now united around strengthening Social Security by making the wealthy pay their fair share, and even some Republicans are beginning to come on board," they continued. "Importantly, Larson has gone face to face with Elon Musk’s so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' and has stood up to them, fighting for every inch when it comes to protecting Social Security from vicious DOGE attacks."
In a statement to Common Dreams on Wednesday, Lawson of Social Security Works said that "history will recognize the invaluable role Larson played in uniting the Democratic Party against even a single penny in cuts to Social Security's earned benefits."
"The bittersweet truth is that when you successfully fight the monstrous power of the billionaires," Lawson added, "they will do everything they can to silence you."
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'Minnesota Is Not for Sale': Peggy Flanagan Wins Senate Primary, Defeating Millions in Dark Money
"For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many vs. the money," said Minnesota's lieutenant governor. "The many just won."
Aug 12, 2026
Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota's lieutenant governor, won her state's Democratic primary for the US Senate on Tuesday by an overwhelming margin, defeating US Rep. Angie Craig and outside groups that spent tens of millions of dollars trying to influence the race.
"For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many vs. the money," Flanagan said in her victory speech. "Well, guess what? The many just won."
Flanagan's platform includes Medicare for All, expanding Social Security, and dismantling Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after federal agents unleashed by the Trump administration killed two people in Minnesota earlier this year. Flanagan was endorsed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.), whose seat the Minnesota lieutenant governor is running to fill.
Outside organizations poured more than $20 million into the race to support Craig, a centrist Democrat and crypto industry champion. A large chunk of Craig's financial support in the US Senate primary came from North Star Dawn PAC, a shadowy organization funded by the Civic Progress Fund Inc., a group that does not disclose its donors.
"This happened because of you," Flanagan said of her primary win. "This happened because you said Minnesota is not for sale."
Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, celebrated Flanagan's victory in a statement late Tuesday, saying the results "once again reinforced what we’ve seen all across the country this election cycle: Voters want candidates to reject corporate PAC money and not be beholden to special interests."
“Lt. Gov. Flanagan ran on independence, accountability, and putting working families first—and beat nearly $20 million in outside spending against her," said Muller. "She understands that a government captured by special interests can’t deliver for everyday people. Her campaign demonstrated the power of standing firmly on principle, building trust with voters, and putting people at the center of every decision, and Minnesotans rewarded that vision."
I'm running for U.S. Senate to:
Get Big Money out of our politics.
End prior authorization.
Pass Medicare for All.
Rip ICE apart.
Raise the wage.
Deliver universal childcare.
Secure the right to repair.
Block the bombs.
Save Social Security.
Deliver for the people of Minnesota.
— Peggy Flanagan (@peggyflanagan) August 11, 2026
Flanagan will face sports reporter Michele Tafoya in November. Richard Carlbom, chair of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, mocked Republicans' choice of "Michele ‘take one less trip to Starbucks’ Tafoya as their candidate for the US Senate," referring to the GOP candidate's call for Americans to "just try to be patriots" and endure economic pain from President Donald Trump's Iran war with "a stiff upper lip."
"Tafoya is out of touch with the people of Minnesota and has aligned herself with Donald Trump on everything from abortion bans to tariffs," said Carlbom. "Michele Tafoya’s agenda consists only of saying yes to Donald Trump and yes to higher costs for working people. Minnesotans will reject her in November."
Flanagan's win in the key battleground state came as democratic socialist Francesca Hong suffered an upset loss in neighboring Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary, falling narrowly to establishment favorite David Crowley in a contest that drew national attention.
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'Cheap Piece of Imperialist Propaganda': US Video Hails 'American Dominance' of Western Hemisphere
"Despite what warmongers want you to believe, the Monroe Doctrine undermines the partnerships needed to confront our complex challenges," said Rep. Delia Ramirez. "We must change course."
Aug 11, 2026
A congresswoman whose parents immigrated to the United States during US-backed genocidal dictatorships in Guatemala on Tuesday excoriated a State Department video hailing the Monroe Doctrine, an imperialist policy used by Washington to declare the Western Hemisphere its exclusive sphere of influence while masking aggression as protection from outside powers.
The roughly five-minute State Department video presents the Monroe Doctrine as a continuous thread in US foreign policy from 1823 to today, culminating in January's abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. It starts with President James Monroe's warning that the Americas were no longer open to European colonization, then moves through the Spanish-American War—launched by President William McKinley on false pretenses—the Roosevelt Corollary, the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis, and finally to the Trump administration.
"American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again," the State Department said in a social media post promoting the video.
Responding to the clip, Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said: "What a cheap piece of imperialist propaganda. The Monroe Doctrine's legacy is political instability, deep poverty, extreme migration, and colonialism throughout Latin America and the Caribbean."
Declared in December 1823 by Monroe as Spanish colonies in the Americas won their independence, the doctrine states that European powers should not establish new colonies or interfere politically in the independent states of the Western Hemisphere. While it was partly a response to European attempts to restore colonial rule in Latin America, the Monroe Doctrine also asserted US hegemony over the Americas.
Over time, the Monroe Doctrine was transformed from a warning against European imperialism into a rationale for US imperial interventions and conquest, beginning with waging war on Mexico—again, under false pretenses, this time challenged by opponents including a young congressman named Abraham Lincoln—that resulted in the seizure of more than half of Mexican territory.
The US attempted to use the Monroe Doctrine to justify acquisition of a 10-mile zone around the Panama Canal via "gunboat diplomacy" and, after the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary, the right to intervene in Latin American and Caribbean countries when it judged their governments unstable, indebted, hostile, or vulnerable to foreign influence. Invasions and occupations of Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua followed.
During the Cold War, successive US administrations used the largely imagined communist "threat" as pretext for CIA overthrows of democratically elected governments in Guatemala, Chile, Brazil, and other countries outside the Americas, including Iran and Congo—none of which were actually run by communists. The US also backed the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion, attempts to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and terrorism targeting his regime and the Cuban people. Right-wing, pro-US military dictatorships were installed and lavished with financial, armed, and security aid, including torture training by operatives from the CIA, USAID, and other agencies.
The State Department video was not well received throughout Latin America. One Brazilian news site resented its "threatening tone," while Cuban media underscored the socialist island's sovereignty amid fears of a takeover repeatedly teased by US President Donald Trump.
In addition to illegal airstrikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and bombing and invasion of Venezuela to kidnap Maduro and his wife, the US under Trump has deployed troops to Ecuador as part of a joint campaign against alleged drug gangs dubbed Operation Total Extermination. Trump has also ordered the military to plan an invasion to seize the Panama Canal, attack Mexico and Colombia, invade and annex Greenland, and somehow make Canada the “51st state.”
Critics and supporters alike have called Trump's aggressive policies in the Americas the "Donroe Doctrine."
All told, Trump has bombed seven countries around the world since returning to the White House and 10 nations over the course of his two terms—including Iran, where he launched an illegal war with Israel.
Respondents to international public opinion surveys have repeatedly named the United States as the biggest threat to world peace. The late former US President Jimmy Carter even called his own country the "most warlike nation in the history of the world."
The US has attacked, invaded, or bombed dozens of countries and supported most right-wing dictatorships in the world since the end of World War II. It has overthrown or attempted to overthrow numerous foreign governments and has actively sought to crush many people’s liberation movements over that same period. It has also meddled in elections in countries that are allies and adversaries alike.
"Despite what warmongers want you to believe, the Monroe Doctrine undermines the partnerships needed to confront our complex challenges," Ramirez said on Tuesday. "We must change course. We must pass the New Good Neighbor Act."
Named after the short-lived period when the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration pursued policies of nonintervention and improved diplomatic relations with Latin America in the 1930s, the New Good Neighbor Act—a resolution introduced in February by Ramirez and Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY)—calls on the US to adopt a new approach to the region based on cooperation, not confrontation.
“For more than 200 years, the United States has used the Monroe Doctrine to justify a paternalistic, damaging approach to relations with Latin America and the Caribbean," Ramirez said at the time. "As a result, the legacy of our nation’s foreign policy in those regions is political instability, deep poverty, extreme migration, and colonialism. It is well past time we change our approach."
“We must recognize our interconnectedness and admit that the Monroe Doctrine undermines the partnership needed to confront the complex challenges of this century," she added. "We must become better neighbors."
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'Trump Is Scared': DOJ Executive Privilege Memo Decried as Effort to 'Shield' Inner Circle
"This opinion is about protecting Trump and his allies from any real accountability, no matter where the questions come from—Congress, the courts, or investigators of any kind."
Aug 11, 2026
Just days after Senate Republicans confirmed US Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Department of Justice this week issued a legal opinion on executive privilege that was swiftly condemned as an attempt to unfairly protect some of President Donald Trump's top advisers from any accountability.
Historically, the president has been allowed to assert executive privilege over communications with executive branch staff, protecting them from disclosure.
However, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) said in a Monday memo that "presidential communications with private advisers can fall within the scope of executive privilege so long as they relate to official presidential decisionmaking, involve or reflect communications with the president or his direct advisers, and are confidential."
The memo is signed by Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser. HuffPost reported that a DOJ official "argued its veracity by comparing it to a similar one made by President George W. Bush's attorney general in 2007."
"While the issue has not been litigated frequently, the opinion reaffirms the long-standing position of the office going back at least as far as Paul Clement in 2007 and arguably as far back as 1972," the unnamed official said.
Jonathan Shaub, a University of Kentucky School of Law professor who served in the Obama administration’s OLC, told CNN: "I would say it's not inconsistent with past positions... But it's never been stated publicly."
Shaub also told Axios that "it really could be a pretty significant weapon" for the second Trump administration "to deflect a lot of that congressional investigation of private parties."
Republicans are at risk of losing control of both chambers of Congress in the November midterm elections, and if they do, Democratic majorities could move to impeach Trump a historic third time—for everything from the Trump family's profiteering off of the presidency to his illegal war on Iran.
The Not Above the Law coalition's co-chairs—Brett Edkins of Stand Up America, Praveen Fernandes of the Constitutional Accountability Center, Lisa Gilbert of Public Citizen, and Kelsey Herbert of MoveOn—said Tuesday that "Todd Blanche's Justice Department is doing what it always does: attempting to shield Donald Trump and the people around him before anyone can hold them accountable."
"This opinion is about protecting Trump and his allies from any real accountability, no matter where the questions come from—Congress, the courts, or investigators of any kind," they argued. "Every senator who voted to confirm Blanche knew exactly what kind of Justice Department they were signing off on. They own it now."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)—who may not have enough support to lead Democrats even if they reclaim the upper chamber in November—was similarly critical, concluding: "Donald Trump is scared. He knows accountability is coming."
"He’s using his newly installed attorney general/personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, to cover up his communications with private advisers and special interest cronies," Schumer said on Facebook. "These are the actions of someone with something to hide. And it shows he is petrified of the questions a Democratic Congress will demand answers to. We will not let Trump escape the accountability he deserves."
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Peer-Reviewed Study Exposes How Big Tech and Big Oil Work 'Hand-in-Glove' to Profit Off AI
"New research confirms: AI, on sum, is a loser for global climate."
Aug 11, 2026
As people across the United States protest against artificial intelligence data centers and their impact on utility bills, the local environment, and the climate, a new study highlights an overlooked way AI is increasing emissions that heat the planet.
Holly Alpine co-founded the nonprofit Enabled Emissions Campaign with her husband, fellow Microsoft alum Will Alpine. For the study, published last week in the journal npj Climate Action, the couple partnered with Purdue University associate professor Maksym Chepeliev and independent researcher Nathan Geldner.
"Most assessments of AI's climate impact are framed as a trade-off between data center energy use and the emissions AI might help avoid," Holly Alpine said in a Tuesday statement. "What's missing entirely is the other side of the ledger for AI's applications: the emissions enabled from the additional fossil fuel production being made commercially viable."
"Our modeling quantifies both, and finds a significant net global emissions increase," she explained. "Until enabled emissions are recognized, measured, and governed, we're only addressing a fraction of AI's climate impact."
In the fossil fuel sector, AI's "applications predominantly expand the pool of economically viable supply by increasing extraction productivity, lowering production costs, and reducing operational risk, thus extending the industry’s economic viability," the study states. It notes that "these applications predominantly" increase emissions, but can also avoid some, such as "through methane leak detection or efficiency gains in power generation."
"Applied to renewables (and other low-carbon generation), AI's applications predominantly avoid emissions," the paper details. "They offer potential to accelerate deployment and optimize generation efficiency, for example, through forecasting, predictive maintenance, and power generation optimization, while also extending the productive life of installed capacity and improving grid integration."
Examining dozens of scenarios, the study's authors found that if AI is used by both the fossil fuel and renewable sectors to boost productivity, global emissions rise by 0.47-1.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide annually. They also found that when fossil fuel productivity gains are considered in isolation, the increase for climate-heating pollution is 3.3-13.3 times larger than current data center emissions, and up to eight times larger than those projected for such facilities by 2035.
New research confirms: AI, on sum, is a loser for global climateShort of significant policy to curb fossil fuel interests (ha!), AI will amplify CO2 emissions, not mitigate them, even when considering the prospects of any renewable gains AI buildout could motivatewww.nature.com/articles/s44...
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— Philip Loring (@philiploring.com) August 11, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Putting the study's figures into context, Wired pointed out that "at the low end, the research finds that the additional yearly emissions could be equal to Mexico's; at the high end, AI boosting the fossil fuel industry could add as much greenhouse gas emissions as Russia, the world’s fourth-largest emitter."
Will Alpine, the lead author, said that "I spent years building AI platform tools and have seen firsthand how they're used."
"Like any tool, AI can accelerate whatever it's applied to," he continued. "Yes, it can advance renewable energy, strengthen the grid, and improve efficiency. But it has also been boosting the productivity of the fossil fuel industry for years, and our research shows that effect is asymmetric: It acts as an economic lever that reinforces the viability and dominance of fossil fuels."
As The Guardian reported Tuesday:
Saudi Aramco said last year that it had embedded AI "in everything," increasing productivity and the number of wells, while earlier this summer Equinor attributed 27 discoveries on the Norwegian continental shelf to new seismic technologies and AI. The findings include the Lofn and Langermann oil wells, which the company said was the largest discovery it operated in 2025. "AI was key, from automated data interpretation to efficient well planning," it said in a video at its capital markets day in June.
Rystad Energy, an independent research and energy intelligence company based in Oslo, estimated in May that digitalization and AI would create close to $500 billion (£370 billion) in cumulative value for fossil fuel exploration and production companies between 2026 and 2030—the result of more efficient operations, increased production, and shorter development timelines. "The returns are already visible in the industry," its analysts wrote, citing hundreds of millions of dollars in reported AI-related savings from Equinor and Abu Dhabi's Adnoc.
Welcoming the study, Clara Vondrich, senior policy counsel for the Climate Program at the watchdog group Public Citizen, said that "this research exposes Big Tech as a lead accomplice to the fossil fuel industry in ways we never imagined. It's bad enough that communities are being hammered by rising energy bills as data centers gobble up insane amounts of fossil fuel power, but now we see that those emissions are just a fraction of the climate harms Big Tech is responsible for."
"To be clear, oil companies are not simply using publicly available AI tools: Big Tech is entering into bilateral contracts with oil companies, and selling them proprietary tools specifically designed for the purpose of accelerating oil production," Vondrich stressed. "You can't make this up: Big Tech companies, self-avowed climate champs for decades, are working hand-in-glove with Big Oil to find, dig, and burn more fossil fuels to make a buck."
"AI’s promise as a tool for advancing solutions to the climate crisis is fading as a cruel reality takes shape: Big tech companies are selling AI to the fossil fuel industry to accelerate our demise so they can turn a profit," she added. "These are the perverse outcomes resulting from our rigged market economy: access to cutting-edge AI goes to the highest bidder and Big Oil has some of the deepest pockets in the world. Meanwhile the externalities—runaway climate change manifesting this summer as historic heat domes and fires—are never counted, except as body counts. Today, Big Tech is Big Oil's number one accomplice."
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'Assault on the Rule of Law': US Groups Sue Trump Administration Over ICC Sanctions
The head of one affiliated organization called Trump's sanctions "a slap in the face to victims and survivors of grave crimes everywhere who depend on the ICC as a court of last resort.”
Aug 11, 2026
A quartet of US human rights groups filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the Trump administration’s sanctions targeting members of the International Criminal Court for their roles in seeking to hold Israeli leaders accountable for alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and the Open Society Institute (OSI) filed suit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York challenging the Trump administration’s sanctions against ICC prosecutors and judges, a United Nations human rights expert, and three Palestinian human rights groups.
The groups argue that US President Donald Trump's February 2025 executive order that imposed sanctions on the ICC are a “blatantly illegal attack on international justice and should be struck down."
James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, called the sanctions "a slap in the face to victims and survivors of grave crimes everywhere who depend on the ICC as a court of last resort.”
Trump's sanctions follow the ICC's November 2024 issuance of arrest warrants 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. The tribunal simultaneously issued warrants for the arrest of three Hamas leaders for the same categories of crimes allegedly committed on and after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. However, Israel extrajudicially assassinated all three of the men.
The groups' complaint argues that the Trump administration has effectively transformed human rights advocacy into a potential criminal offense. Organizations can face severe civil and criminal penalties for providing what the government may determine are “services” to sanctioned individuals or groups.
That threat, they contend, has already had tangible consequences. The plaintiffs say the sanctions have disrupted their ability to represent victims of war crimes, submit evidence and legal arguments to the ICC, and collaborate with sanctioned Palestinian organizations on research, litigation, advocacy, and humanitarian work.
Targeted groups and individuals have experienced "frozen or closed bank accounts, rejection of financial transactions, denial of access to digital services, and travel bans," CCR notes. "US organizations, including the plaintiffs, can face punishment of up to 20 years of imprisonment and exorbitant fines for providing services to sanctioned persons or entities."
CCR called the sanctions "one of many" actions taken by the Trump administration "against free speech, protest, and advocacy in support of the human rights of Palestinians."
“For many years, I have represented victims in pressing for justice for crimes committed by the powerful, and finally saw much-needed, even if overdue, investigations opened at the ICC," said CCR senior staff attorney Katherine Gallagher. "In response, the Trump administration took the extraordinary step to not only deny Palestinians and victims of US torture equal access to justice, but to criminalize and punish them, their lawyers and advocates, and their partners."
Israeli officials and their supporters argue that the ICC and the International Court of Justice—where Israel is facing a genocide case filed by South Africa and formally supported by nearly 20 nations—have unfairly singled out Israel. However, the ICC has launched 18 investigations involving conflicts in countries including Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, the Philippines, Sudan (Darfur), and Ukraine.
Trump’s order asserts that ICC efforts involving US or allied nationals constitute a threat to American national security. But the new complaint argues that there is no genuine “national emergency” that can lawfully justify invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act against the court’s routine judicial work.
"The US government’s efforts to dismantle the ICC and punish people seeking justice for grave human rights violations harm far more than the individuals and groups facing sanctions," AFSC general secretary Joyce Ajlouny said in a statement Tuesday. “It is an affront to all victims and survivors of war crimes and genocide."
Ajlouny asserted that the Trump administration "seeks to intimidate human rights defenders and deter people of conscience from advocating for the rights and dignity of others."
"We are joining this lawsuit because we refuse to stay silent when the pursuit of justice is criminalized," she added.
Tuesday's complaint is the latest in a string of lawsuits challenging Trump's sanctions.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, earlier this year sued Trump and three of his senior Cabinet officials over sanctions imposed on her and her family. Although a federal district judge temporarily blocked the move on First Amendment grounds, an appeals court quickly reinstated the sanctions via an administrative stay.
In April 2025, two human rights advocates sued over sanctions against then-ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, arguing that the restrictions violated their First Amendment rights. A federal judge subsequently found the advocates were likely to succeed on their constitutional claims and issued a preliminary injunction protecting their communications with the court.
In June, three sanctioned ICC judges—Judges Kimberly Prost of Canada, Solomy Bossa of Uganda, and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin—filed suit against the Trump administration, arguing that the president's order directly violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which prohibits the government from making arbitrary and capricious policy changes.
Last month, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and the Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide also sued Trump and senior administration officials over the ICC sanctions.
“The Trump administration is using the blunt instrument of economic sanctions not only to punish human rights defenders but to police the political expression of millions of Americans,” DAWN executive director Omar Shakir said at the time. “The government is violating the constitutional rights of American citizens in order to shield officials of a foreign government who have committed a genocide.”
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