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Rep. Ilhan Omar Statement on Meeting With President Biden
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued the following statement after her first sit-down meeting with the President:
"As someone who spent her childhood in a war zone and refugee camp dreaming of coming to the United States of America, I never imagined that I would one day be meeting with the President of the United States in the Roosevelt Room as a Member of Congress.
WASHINGTON
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued the following statement after her first sit-down meeting with the President:
"As someone who spent her childhood in a war zone and refugee camp dreaming of coming to the United States of America, I never imagined that I would one day be meeting with the President of the United States in the Roosevelt Room as a Member of Congress.
"I want to thank the President for engaging with leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and for a productive and heartfelt discussion of our shared priorities as Democrats.
"We spoke with the President about the bold executive action agenda the Progressive Caucus released earlier this month. In particular, I thanked him for canceling student loan debt for defrauded students and certain students with disabilities, and urged him to take further action to fully cancel student debt. I also discussed the importance of expanding childcare and supporting the growing labor movement at chains like Starbucks. On foreign affairs, I stressed the importance of continuing to take action to support Afghan people, ending our involvement in the Yemen War, and addressing the global food crisis--especially in the wake of sanctions against Russia.
"Along with the leadership of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, I look forward to continued engagement."
You can view a photo here and below.
Rep. Ilhan Omar represents Minnesota's 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which includes Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs.
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Dozens of Former Judges Join Call for Senate to Reject Bove's Judicial Nomination
"Mr. Bove's egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position."
Jul 15, 2025
With two days to go until the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on advancing the judicial nomination of President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, Emil Bove, more than 75 former federal and state judges wrote to lawmakers to demand they reject the "deeply inappropriate" appointment.
Confirming Bove to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit would not only "compromise the integrity of the courts" and "set a dangerous precedent" that "personal fealty rather than constitutional duty" can secure judicial power, said the judges, but would also elevate someone who has allegedly "plotted to violate court orders," according to a recent whistleblower report.
The judges noted that the whistleblower, former Department of Justice lawyer Erez Reuveni, has offered to testify under oath and has provided the committee with "compelling evidence" that Bove told DOJ staffers to "ignore" any court orders that challenged Trump's mass deportation operation—yet the Republican-controlled panel has not invited Reuveni to speak to lawmakers.
On Tuesday, committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) rejected a request to hold additional hearings on Bove's nomination before voting, saying they were "unnecessary."
"The Senate has a duty to hear that testimony," said the former judges, including Republican-nominated former circuit judges J. Michael Luttig, Timothy Lewis, and Paul Michel.
The judges wrote that "Mr. Bove's egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position."
The letter is only the latest push to stop senators from confirming Bove, currently the principal associate deputy attorney general at the DOJ. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 240 civil society organizations, wrote to senators last month, saying Bove does not meet the "basic requirements" to be a federal judge, including being "fair-minded, well-qualified, and committed to civil and human rights."
Like the Leadership Conference, the judges on Tuesday pointed to Bove's views on and conduct regarding the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which the DOJ official "refuses to condemn." Bove also investigated and fired dozens of FBI agents who had been involved in probing the attacks, which were aimed at stopping lawmakers from certifying Trump's 2020 election loss.
"It is disqualifying alone that Mr. Bove targeted or terminated Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel and career DOJ prosecutors for honorably investigating violent criminals who assaulted police officers and intended to murder members of Congress and our nation's vice president on January 6, 2021," wrote the judges.
They also pointed to Bove's role in dropping corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, which prompted the resignation of several disgusted staff attorneys, and his record of belittling and abusing staffers when he was a federal prosecutor in New York's Southern District—a pattern that made him the subject of an email from defense attorneys who expressed concern about Bove's "power plays" and "professionalism."
"Mr. Bove's egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position," wrote the lawyers.
Gregg Nunziata, executive director at the Society for the Rule of Law, said the "remarkable" letter demonstrated how "the case against Mr. Bove's confirmation" is "about fundamental unfitness for the judicial role."
The Senate committee is set to vote on Bove's nomination on Thursday, and Republicans on the panel are expected to approve the appointment—even though Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) previously said he would not support nominations of people who refused to condemn the January 6 attacks. After the committee vote, Bove would need to be confirmed by the full chamber.
On a questionnaire given to him by the Senate as part of his confirmation process, Bove said "the characterization of the events on January 6 is a matter of significant political debate," and declined to comment on his views.
On the same document, Bove did not rule out Trump's potential run for a third term—which would violate the U.S. Constitution's 22nd Amendment.
While the judges outlined Bove's unfitness for the lifetime appeals court seat, journalist Lydia Polgreen noted that as the committee moved toward a likely confirmation, condemnation should also be aimed at members of the Democratic Party who "caved to anti-Muslim smears" last year and failed to confirm veteran lawyer Adeel Mangi for the seat on the 3rd Circuit—leaving the spot open for Trump's former personal attorney.
As Common Dreams reported last year, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned whether Mangi condemned the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023. They also accused Mangi of antisemitism due to his membership on the advisory board for the Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights, which hosted speakers who—like more than half of U.S. adults currently—were critical of Israel.
The "monthslong onslaught of baseless, disgusting attacks on Mangi," as HuffPost reporter Jennifer Bendery called them, were successful, and convinced Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to vote against the "highly qualified, widely endorsed, successful litigator."
"The history of trying to fill this powerful court seat," said Bendery, "is just as infuriating as where it could be headed."
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House GOP Wants to Stop a Ban That Would Keep Toxic 'Forever Chemicals' Off Food Crops
"Across the country, farms have had to be condemned and livestock slaughtered due to PFAS pollution from fertilizers," said a lawyer at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
Jul 15, 2025
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are pushing to block action that would protect farms from toxic "forever chemicals" found in fertilizers made from sewage sludge.
The provision, introduced as part of a government spending bill unveiled Monday, would bar the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from enforcing the findings from a January risk assessment, which found that the sludge contains dangerous amounts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
According to the environmental advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the act could cause agricultural losses and pose serious risks to public health.
For decades, the federal government encouraged farmers to spread municipal sewage onto their farmland, as it was a good source of nutrients and a preferable alternative to putting the sludge in landfills.
Nearly 20% of U.S. agricultural land is estimated to use this sludge, commonly known as "biosolids," in fertilizer, and 70 million acres of farmland may be contaminated.
These biosolids contain large amounts of PFAS, which are absorbed through the roots of plants and contaminate plant and animal products that end up on store shelves.
These chemicals are known to accumulate in the body for years without degrading and cause increased rates of cancer, decreased fertility, and developmental delays in children.
The EPA's January study found that the risks associated with PFAS in these sewage sludge-based fertilizers "exceed EPA's acceptable thresholds, sometimes by several orders of magnitude." Even very small quantities of these chemicals, it found, could pose major risks.
The GOP bill, however, forbids the EPA from using any funding to "finalize, implement, administer, or enforce" that risk assessment.
"Preventing EPA from protecting public health and our food supply from toxic contamination epitomizes special interest politics at their worst," said PEER science policy director Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney formerly with the EPA. "If finalized, this ban will leave ill-equipped state agricultural agencies to deal with a rapidly spreading chemical disaster."
Republicans have faced pressure from chemical manufacturing groups to kill PFAS regulations. In 2023, a report from Food & Water Watch found that eight major companies, including Dow and DuPont, spent a combined $55.7 million to lobby against bills to rein in PFAS between 2019 and 2022. The American Chemistry Council, the industry's lobbying arm, spent over $58.7 million during that same period.
The rule banning action on PFAS is part of a broader effort by Republicans to gut environmental regulations. The bill released Monday slashes EPA spending by over $2 billion, nearly 25%.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has also weakened standards on PFAS in drinking water, which were adopted during the Biden administration.
"Across the country, farms have had to be condemned and livestock slaughtered due to PFAS pollution from fertilizers," said PEER staff counsel Laura Dumais, who filed a lawsuit against the EPA last year for its slow rollout of PFAS regulations. "Further delay in preventing more of these needless tragedies would be unconscionable."
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At Hague Group Emergency Summit, 30+ Nations Seek to 'Halt the Genocide in Gaza'
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."
Jul 15, 2025
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."
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