SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
September, 17 2025, 12:09pm EDT
Contact:
Jacqui Corcoran | Oxfam Media Lead in Jerusalem, Occupied Palestinian Territory | jacqui.corcoran@oxfam.org
Gaza: Leaders of major aid groups call on world leaders to intervene following UN genocide conclusion
NEW YORK
The leaders of over 20 major aid agencies working in Gaza are calling on world leaders to urgently intervene after a UN commission concluded, for the first time, that genocide is being committed.
The statement is below:
“As world leaders convene next week at the United Nations, we are calling on all member states to act in accordance with the mandate the UN was charged with 80 years ago.
What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, but what the UN Commission of Inquiry has now concluded is a genocide.
With this finding, the Commission joins a growing number of human rights organisations and leaders globally, and within Israel.
The inhumanity of the situation in Gaza is unconscionable. As humanitarian leaders, we have borne direct witness to the horrifying deaths and suffering of the people of Gaza. Our warnings have gone unheeded and thousands more lives are still at stake.
Now, as the Israeli government has ordered the mass displacement of Gaza City – home to nearly one million people – we are on the precipice of an even deadlier period in Gaza’s story if action is not taken. Gaza has been deliberately made uninhabitable.
About 65,000 Palestinians have now been killed, including more than 20,000 children. Thousands more are missing, buried under the rubble that has replaced Gaza’s once lively streets.
Nine out of 10 people in Gaza’s 2.1 million population have been forcibly displaced - most of them multiple times - into increasingly shrinking pockets of land that cannot sustain human life.
More than half a million people are starving. Famine has been declared and is spreading. The cumulative impact of hunger and physical deprivation means people are dying every day.
Throughout Gaza, entire cities have been razed to the ground, along with their life-sustaining public infrastructure, such as hospitals and water treatment plants. Agricultural land has been systemically destroyed.
If the facts and numbers aren’t enough, we have harrowing story upon harrowing story.
Since the Israeli military tightened its siege six months ago, blocking food, fuel, and medicine, we witnessed children and families waste away from starvation as famine took hold. Our colleagues too have been impacted.
Many of us have been into Gaza. We have met countless Palestinians who have lost limbs as a result of Israel’s bombardment. We have personally met children so traumatized by daily airstrikes that they cannot sleep. Some cannot speak. Others have told us they want to die to join their parents in heaven.
We have met families who eat animal food to survive and boil leaves as a meal for their children.
Yet world leaders fail to act. Facts are ignored. Testimony is cast aside. And more people are killed as a direct consequence.
Our organisations, together with Palestinian civil society groups, the UN, and Israeli human rights organisations, can only do so much. We have tirelessly tried to defend the rights of the people of Gaza and sustain humanitarian assistance, but we are being obstructed every step of the way.
We have been denied access, and the militarization of the aid system has proved deadly. Thousands of people have been shot at while trying to reach the handful of sites where food is distributed under armed guard.
Governments must act to prevent the evisceration of life in the Gaza Strip, and to end the violence and occupation. All parties must disavow violence against civilians, adhere to international humanitarian law and pursue peace.
States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action.
The UN enshrined international law as the cornerstone of global peace and security. If Member States continue to treat these legal obligations as optional, they are not only complicit but are setting a dangerous precedent for the future. History will undoubtedly judge this moment as a test of humanity. And we are failing. Failing the people of Gaza, failing the hostages, and failing our own collective moral imperative."
CEO SIGN OFF (alphabetical)
- Arthur Larok, Secretary General of ActionAid International
- Othman Moqbel, Chief Executive Officer, Action For Humanity
- Joyce Ajlouny, General Secretary of American Friends Service Committee
- Sean Carroll, President and CEO of Anera
- Reintje Van Haeringen, Executive Director CARE International
- Jonas Nøddekær, Secretary General of DanChurchAid
- Charlotte Slente, Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council
- Manuel Patrouillard, Managing Director, Humanity & Inclusion - Handicap International
- Jamie Munn, Executive Director, International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)
- Waseem Ahmad, CEO, Islamic Relief Worldwide
- Joseph Belliveau, Executive Director of MedGlobal
- Joel Weiler, Executive Director of Médecins du Monde France
- Nicolás Dotta, Executive Director of Médecins du Monde Spain
- Christopher Lockyear, Secretary General of Médecins Sans Frontières International
- Kenneth Kim, Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee Canada
- Ann Graber Hershberger, Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee US
- Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council
- Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International Executive Director
- Simon Panek, CEO, People in Need
- Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International
- Donatella Vergara, President of Terre des Hommes Italy
- Rob Williams, CEO of War Child Alliance
Oxfam International is a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice. We are working across regions in about 70 countries, with thousands of partners, and allies, supporting communities to build better lives for themselves, grow resilience and protect lives and livelihoods also in times of crisis.
LATEST NEWS
'Without Demarcation, There Is No Climate Solution,' Brazilian Indigenous Leader Tells COP31
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is moving to demarcate scores of Indigenous territories by the end of the year—but many say the government needs to act faster amid deadly attacks.
Nov 09, 2026
A tribal leader from Brazil stressed on Monday, the opening day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Türkiye, that protecting Indigenous lands is a critical part of tackling the climate emergency, remarks that came as Brazil's government advances a plan to demarcate dozens of Indigenous territories amid surging violence against native people.
Joziléia Kaingang, co-founder and executive director of the National Network of Indigenous Women Warriors of Ancestral Wisdom (ANMIGA), told attendees of a session in COP31's Brazil Pavilion in Antalya that there are no real climate solutions without Indigenous participation.
"This means a very simple thing for us Indigenous peoples, something that our grandmothers have been saying for a long time and have known for a long time. Protecting Indigenous territory is indeed a climate policy," said Kaingang, who is a member of the Kaingang people of southern Brazil. "It is not charity, it is not compensation, it is a solution."
Kaingang hailed progress under the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was reelected last month with the support of 608 of the country's 658 Indigenous polling places. Lula's overwhelming support from Indigenous Brazilians is in no small part due to his government's substantial—yet tenuous—progress against illegal mining, logging, and other invasions of tribal lands.
Lula's policies marked a sharp reversal from former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's deliberate dismantling of Indigenous territorial protections and other actions that lived up to his self-bestowed "Captain Chainsaw" moniker.
"The state withdrew invaders from our lands," Kaingang said. "The forest breathes again from the action of the last government of President Lula, and will continue to do so in this presidency in the next four years."
Kaingang continued:
In the Yanomami territory... 98% of illegal mining fell. This is important for all of us. Indigenous lands and local communities keep about a third of the carbon that humanity cannot lose.
And we want to say that we, Indigenous peoples, are here to celebrate the Brazilian government. We want to advance the roadmap to stop and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. But it is necessary that the roadmap brings the perspective of Indigenous peoples, of traditional communities, of our knowledge.
"Let's reaffirm that without demarcation, there is no climate solution," Kaingang added. "So let's keep demarcating the Indigenous territories so that we are the solution."
Brazil's government is preparing to approve dozens of additional Indigenous land demarcations before the end of 2026, Indigenous Peoples Minister Eloy Terena, who is a member of the Terena people, told Brasil de Fato on Sunday, as native communities face continuing deadly violence, land invasions, and encroachment by agribusiness interests.
During Lula’s third term, Brazil's government has recognized 20 Indigenous lands, declared 21 others, and established 31 reserves, according to the minister.
However, recent Indigenous land demarcation protests across Brazil have decried the government's failure to move faster in recognizing and protecting Indigenous territories amid ongoing violence.
Terena linked recent attacks against Guarani Kaiowá communities in Mato Grosso do Sul—including reported murders, vehicle attacks, and threats to poison drinking water—to the government's failure to secure their ancestral territories. He said that more than 150 technical working groups are advancing demarcation procedures, but warned that executive action alone cannot overcome entrenched political and judicial resistance, which is sustained by pressure from agribusiness and other destructive interests.
The minister added that the government seeks "to strengthen Indigenous organizations, the Indigenous movement, and communities. Because we understand that if eventually the democratic winds turn, we need to have a very committed society and very well-structured social movements."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Green Groups Boost Pressure on Schumer to Block Permitting Bill That Guts Environmental Protections
"If Texas of all places can go blue, then we can be bold enough to say a better bill is possible."
Nov 09, 2026
Environmental groups are making a last-ditch push to persuade Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to block a bipartisan permitting bill that they warn would speed up approvals for polluting projects and data center infrastructure.
Activists gathered outside Schumer’s (D-NY) Midtown Manhattan office Monday morning, hours before the US Senate’s planned evening vote on whether to advance the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA).
In a media advisory, organizers from the New York Public Interest Research Group, Food & Water Watch, and New York Communities for Change, who led Monday’s protest and a previous one at Schumer’s apartment on Friday, called the bill an “aggressive attack on federal environmental protections in order to facilitate rapid, unregulated development of fracked gas power plants, dirty fossil fuel pipelines, and expensive hyperscale data centers.”
The motion needs 60 votes to advance, so some Democrats will have to support holding a final vote. The bill’s leading Democratic sponsor, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), said he believes supporters “have the votes to proceed.”
The bill faces longer odds in the US House of Representatives, especially after Tuesday’s Democratic blowout in the midterms, when voters across the country also backed restrictions on data centers.
Sponsors have revised the bill, but David Watkins, director of government affairs for the Climate and Energy programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists, argued that the amendment “fails to address the fundamental imbalance of the legislation” in favor of polluting energy.
“To get bipartisan support for negligible reductions in emissions,” he said, “this deal would convert compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and Clean Water Act into largely voluntary exercises.”
While some Democratic proponents of the bill have argued that these compromises are necessary to speed up permits for clean energy infrastructure, Watkins said existing law already allows much of that work and saw no need to enact “the most significant legislative reversal in environmental and community protections in decades.”
A coalition of conservation groups, including Earthjustice Action, Defenders of Wildlife, and Friends of the Earth, sent a letter to the Senate on Monday urging members to delay the vote until newly elected members of the US Congress—some of whom made opposition to data centers central to their campaigns—can be sworn in.
“The elections on November 3 sent a clear message from the American public denouncing the administration’s actions over the past two years and, in states across the country, rejecting the accelerated proliferation of data centers,” they wrote. “We strongly encourage you to heed the public’s wishes and advance energy infrastructure needs and an affordability agenda without making false and unnecessary trade-offs that severely undermine tribal sovereignty and our bedrock environmental, public lands, waters, wildlife, ocean, and historic preservation laws.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said he would vote against advancing the bill without substantial changes, adding that “robust consideration of the bill should be a priority in the new Congress.”
"Permitting reform for electrical transmission lines is essential," he said. But, he added, "Getting more renewable electrons where they are needed doesn’t tackle climate change if you simultaneously promote the burning of more fossil fuels. Unfortunately, this bill does exactly that."
As questions mount about whether Democratic leaders will use their new mandate to pursue a bold legislative agenda, some see BAAJA as a worrying sign that Schumer and other party leaders may squander the moment by reverting to business as usual.
“If Texas of all places can go blue, then we can be bold enough to say a better bill is possible,” said Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the youth-led climate group Sunrise Movement. “Young people and the working class deserve it. To stop the climate crisis, America needs Senate Democrats to fight harder. Senate Democrats must deliver.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Horrific': Supreme Court OKs Trump’s Border Wall Construction in Big Bend
"The damage done to Big Bend will be felt for future generations of Texans and Americans," one advocate said, "and this administration will bear responsibility for the natural heritage we lose.”
Nov 09, 2026
The US Supreme Court on Monday lifted a court order that had halted construction of a barrier wall and roads across Big Bend National Park and the surrounding region, but advocates warned that the "firestorm of outrage" unleashed by the Trump administration waiving of dozens of environmental laws to build the wall would only intensify.
In an 8-1 vote, with Democratic appointee Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting, the high court lifted an injunction that had been issued October 2 by US District Judge Kathleen Cardone, a Republican appointee in the Western District of Texas.
Cardone handed down the injunction after the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Friends of the Ruidosa Church, and a Big Bend-area river guide and landowner filed a lawsuit challenging the administration's decision to waive laws including the Endangered Species Act, the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and the National Park Service Organic Act, arguing that such waivers violate the major questions doctrine, which requires congressional approval for actions with major economic and political consequences.
The majority ruled that construction can continue as the lower court considers its legality, finding that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is permitted by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to waive environmental laws and has “broad authority to construct border barriers and roads."
In August, despite a separate coalition's lawsuit, bulldozers appeared at Big Bend and began leveling part of the national park before the October ruling halted construction.
Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The New York Times he was "completely devastated" by the ruling.
Customs and Border Protection has indicated the agency plans to build vehicle barriers and patrol roads across the national park, including in the remote Mariscal Mountain region, which would require "extensive dynamite blasting," according to CBD.
“The Trump administration and its contractors are hell-bent on destroying one of America’s greatest national parks, and the Supreme Court just gave them the green light,” Jordahl said in a statement. “This horrific decision clears the way for contractors to bulldoze pristine desert and dynamite canyon walls before the courts have even decided whether this destruction is legal. They’re signing off on the permanent destruction of the wildest place in Texas, and the theft of a great American river from all of us.”
Sierra Club also expressed outrage, and US Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said the decision would only "destroy the nature and wildlife that we love at Big Bend."
"The corrupt and far-right Supreme Court just gave [President Donald] Trump the OK to rip up Big Bend with a border wall. No one will be safer or freer," said Casar. "Democrats, Republicans, Texans of all backgrounds all agree: Leave Big Bend alone."
Jordahl emphasized that the court had ruled in favor of the Trump administration less than a week after two Texas Democrats, Sen.-elect James Talarico and Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa, stunned the Republican Party with their electoral victories in the longtime GOP stronghold.
Texans “roundly rejected the destruction of this national park and border wall destruction at large," Jordahl told the Times, adding that Mullin's agency “would be wise to listen to Texans and pump the brakes on this project.”
In a statement, he warned that "Americans care deeply about this extraordinary national park and they won’t stand by quietly if its irreplaceable landscapes are butchered and paved over."
"The damage done to Big Bend will be felt for future generations of Texans and Americans," he said, "and this administration will bear responsibility for the natural heritage we lose.”
Hillary Pierce, director of communications for the group No Big Bend Wall, which also sued the administration in September, noted that officials haven't "answered why the government is building a wall in one of the least-crossed stretches of the southern border."
“Once the bulldozers cut through a canyon or a family's ranch gets walled off from the Rio Grande, there's no undoing it," said Pierce. "This isn't the end of our fight. The justices didn't decide whether Big Bend actually qualifies as an area of high illegal entry. That matters because the administration used that designation to justify building the wall and bypassing environmental protections. The government's own numbers show Big Bend has the fewest Border Patrol apprehensions along the southern border. That's exactly what we're challenging in our lawsuit in Washington.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Majority of Progressive Organizers Want Schumer and Jeffries Replaced With New Leadership
Progressive advocacy group Our Revolution is calling on leadership candidates to "publicly explain how they would use the new majority to challenge corporate influence, lower costs, and deliver for working people."
Nov 09, 2026
With Democrats poised to take over both chambers of the US Congress next year, a majority of progressive organizers are calling for the party to seek new leadership.
A survey of over 4,300 progressive activists released by Our Revolution on Monday shows that there is strong demand among organizers for replacing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leadere Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who are seeking the majority leader and speaker roles.
In total, the survey finds that 72% of activists want a different leader than Schumer, compared to just 5% who say they support him and 22% who say they're willing to see what he delivers.
Support for Jeffries was stronger than for Schumer, although 52% of respondents said they wanted a different leader, with 18% offering full support and 29% taking a wait-and-see approach.
Our Revolution has been calling for "open, competitive leadership elections" for the new Democratic Congress, and is urging prospective candidates to "publicly explain how they would use the new majority to challenge corporate influence, lower costs, and deliver for working people."
Schumer and Jeffries have given no indication that they plan to step back from their ambitions to lead Democrats in Congress, and the two put out a joint statement on Monday outlining their priorities.
"The American people have forcefully rejected MAGA extremism and are demanding dramatic change in their lives," Schumer and Jeffries said. "House and Senate Democrats have been given a clear mandate to aggressively address the affordability crisis, stop the reckless war of choice in Iran, meaningfully expand access to affordable healthcare, and hold the crooks accountable who have unleashed unprecedented corruption on the country."
“A new day is coming on January 3rd," they added. "Democrats are united and ready to lead."
So far, no other Democrats have stepped forward to officially challenge either Schumer or Jeffries. According to a Monday report in Punchbowl News, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is opening to challenging Schumer for Senate leadership after receiving "received an outpouring of calls" urging him to do so.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Van Hollen Considers Challenging Schumer as Cracks Emerge in Support for Key Democrat
"We need clear and moral leadership in the Senate. We need people who understand this moment and what it demands," one supporter said. "Do it."
Nov 09, 2026
"Do not stop calling!" was the message that the progressive grassroots organization People for Bernie took from the news Monday that not only had Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced that he was considering a run to replace Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after calls poured into his office, but cracks were also appearing to form in Schumer's support among his longtime colleagues in the upper chamber.
As Punchbowl News reported that Van Hollen (D-Md.) had not ruled out running for the top leadership post less than a week after Democrats swept the crucial midterm elections, it was reported that Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) declined to endorse Schumer (D-NY) to be Senate majority leader when the new Congress is sworn in in January.
"We need a conversation about leadership going forward because we need new energy and ideas," Blumenthal told reporters, according to News 12 in Connecticut.
People for Bernie called Blumenthal's remarks an "absolutely seismic shift in less than a week," following last week's elections in which the GOP was stunned by its losses to Democrats in states including Texas, South Carolina, and Kansas.
Progressives have emphasized that many winning candidates, even those who did not run as left-wing contenders, campaigned as adversaries to billionaires, corporations, and the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—which counts Schumer as one of its top recipients of campaign cash—and rallied supporters with rhetoric popularized by progressive leader Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), long dismissed by establishment Democrats as an extremist who was out of step with the party's base.
Despite those dynamics, Schumer has expressed confidence that he will remain as the party's leader in the Senate.
On Monday, he told CNN that Democrats' electoral victory was "about to become the largest landslide in the history of the Senate since the '50s, and now we're ready to roll up our sleeves, get to work, and lower costs for the American people.” He did not answer a question from reporter Morgan Rimmer about a possible challenge for the Senate majority leader post.
After Van Hollen said last week that Schumer must earn the support of his colleagues by putting forward a "bold agenda," a source close to the senator told Punchbowl News that he has "received an outpouring of calls" from voters who want him to challenge Schumer.
Van Hollen, said the source, "is now in active listening mode... The door is not shut."
Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett rejected the suggestion by some political observers that a challenger to the senior Democrat, who has been in office since 1999 and previously served in the US House of Representatives for nearly two decades, would never win the race to lead the party's new Senate majority.
"It’s possible the floodgates open if someone has the courage to step up," said Hackett.
Van Hollen won praise from progressive organizers last year when he swiftly traveled to El Salvador to demand the safe return of his constituent, Kilmar Ábrego García, whom the Trump administration had unlawfully deported to the Central American country. Criminal charges against the Maryland resident were thrown out by a federal judge in May, but the White House has continued pushing to deport Ábrego García to another country.
The senator has also been a vocal critic of the administration's blockade on Cuba and Israel's violent US-backed policies in the West Bank and Gaza, and forced a vote this year on ending President Donald Trump's illegal, unpopular war in Iran.
"Voters elected a majority to fight back. It should be led by someone who's been in the fight all along," said organizer Cheyenne Hunt.
With many establishment Democrats still reticent to vote against the interests of Israel, corporations, and Big Tech, Van Hollen would "have a caucus to deal with," said Saikat Chakrabarti, co-founder of Justice Democrats, "but having him in charge makes sure bills to continue sending money to Israel don’t get votes."
Blumenthal, a longtime defender of Israel, was the third sitting Senate Democrat, after Van Hollen and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who took office last year and has frequently called for a "new generation" of party leadership, to decline to endorse Schumer. Slotkin said Saturday she was considering a run.
Sens.-elect Adam Hamilton (D-Kan.), Annie Andrews (D-SC), James Talarico (D-Texas), Juliana Stratton (D-Ill.), and Troy Jackson (D-Maine) are among the incoming lawmakers who have declined to support the Democratic leader.
After the announcement by Blumenthal, who has served alongside Schumer since 2011, Cory Archibald of AIPAC Tracker said she was "starting to think Chuck might actually be done."
"Do it, Chris Van Hollen," said Archibald. "We need you. We need clear and moral leadership in the Senate. We need people who understand this moment and what it demands. Do it. We're with you."
Meanwhile, in the US House, a number of newly elected progressive representatives have refused to throw their support behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) for speaker.
As Blumenthal broke with a majority of his colleagues on Schumer's bid, progressive strategist Deep Singh Badesha said, "I'm begging the House Democrats to also have this courage."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Ex-Democratic Sen. Jon Tester Joins Palantir as Tech Giant Faces Probe for Helping Trump’s Deportation Campaign
"This is an organization that believes in privacy," Tester said of Palantir, whose software ICE has used to identify targets for deportation and compile dossiers on activists.
Nov 09, 2026
Expecting to face a slew of investigations by a Democratic-controlled Congress, the infamous Trump administration-aligned tech firm Palantir is apparently trying to soften its image by bringing in a trusted name: former Democratic US Sen. Jon Tester of Montana.
NPR reported Monday that the three-term senator—who lost his reelection bid in 2024—was joining the surveillance company in an “advisory” role on the government side of the company's work.
Palantir, co-founded by the billionaire right-wing megadonor Peter Thiel, has received tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts supporting President Donald Trump's “mass deportation” campaign during his second term. The company has developed technology that has been used to identify and track immigrants targeted for removal and has reportedly helped federal agencies integrate vast troves of Americans’ personal data—raising concerns among civil rights groups about violations of privacy.
After Trump returned to office in January 2025, Palantir's leadership aggressively courted his administration. The company's CEO, Alex Karp, who had supported Kamala Harris over Trump in the presidential election, gave $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund before pivoting to praise the president's immigration policies and declare his company “completely anti-woke.” Palantir donated an additional $10 million to Trump's White House ballroom project. Meanwhile, company co-founder Joe Lonsdale has been one of the leading backers of the administration's second-term efforts to criminalize homelessness.
This has drawn the ire of Democrats in Congress, who have vowed to put Palantir's practices under the microscope when they take control of investigative committees beginning in January.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who will chair the powerful Senate Finance Committee, has threatened to use compulsory investigative powers if Palantir refuses to answer questions about its role in Trump's immigration enforcement and handling of Americans' personal information. Other Democrats have suggested looking into conflicts of interest between the company and the administration.
Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s mass deportation policy, who was appointed White House chief of staff last week, for instance, has disclosed that he sold up to $250,000 worth of Palantir stock last summer. Several former Palantir employees have been appointed to powerful government positions. Thiel helped to finance the political rise of Vice President JD Vance.
Protesters gather in the lobby of 9200 Sunset in Los Angeles on June 13, 2025, to protest Palantir's work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). (Photo by Madison Swart/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
Tester, a vocal critic of the PATRIOT Act and the resulting expansion of government surveillance, told NPR that Palantir's problem was, more than anything, one of "perception."
"Perception is reality in Washington, DC, and in politics in general," said Tester. "But the fact is, I think Palantir has got a good story to tell, and they need to tell it. And hopefully folks will be receptive to it."
Tester said he does not share the fears that many others hold about his new employer: "I've talked to many people within Palantir. They believe the same way I do," he said. "This is an organization that believes in privacy."
He said Palantir was different from other companies because it does not build “big databases.” Though the company maintains that it does not itself collect or own the personal data processed by its software, it specializes in building systems that consolidate, store, cross-reference, and analyze vast amounts of data from different sources.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for instance, has used a Palantir-developed application called ELITE that combines address data from federal health records, immigration records, commercial databases, and criminal records to map potential targets for immigration raids. Shortly before the midterms, Democracy Docket revealed that ICE had tried to add voter information from at least six states to the platform.
Last month, a WIRED investigation revealed how federal agents assembled dossiers on activists observing immigration enforcement operations in Maine using Palantir's Investigative Case Management system to store information about them—including license plate data and facial recognition information.
During his time in Congress, Tester also criticized lobbyists’ influence over Congress, even while receiving more donations from lobbyists than any other lawmaker in the 2012 and 2018 election cycles.
David Sirota, founder and editor-in-chief of The Lever, said that for the former senator, the transition from surveillance critic to Palantir adviser was quite “on-brand.”
Pollster Adam Carlson described it as "just about the grossest way he could end his career."
"I can count on one hand companies that are more evil and have caused more direct human suffering than Palantir," Carlson said. "And these kinds of revolving door antics make the public even more jaded and distrustful of their elected officials."
Tester has said he would not be acting as a “lobbyist” for Palantir but would instead merely be helping it to navigate its relations with the incoming Congress, using his nearly two decades of insider experience.
Tester is not the first former Democratic lawmaker to take a role advising an industry that has drawn criticism from within the party.
Recent examples include former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), a one-time Democrat who joined Coinbase's advisory council and helped launch an artificial intelligence industry advocacy group, and former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), who joined a fossil fuel industry-funded influence campaign to promote natural gas as part of a clean energy transition.
Melanie D'Arrigo, the executive director of the New York Health Campaign, said Tester's journey to the private sector was an example of this “politician to lobbyist pipeline.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
'A Threat to the Constitution': Massie to Force Vote on Hegseth Impeachment Articles
"Secretary Hegseth has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as secretary of defense, and subversive to constitutional government."
Nov 09, 2026
Rep. Thomas Massie on Monday took to the floor of the US House of Representatives to introduce articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
In introducing the articles, which he first filed in September, the Kentucky Republican said Hegseth has "knowingly executed and implemented unlawful orders" in carrying out President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran, which was launched without congressional authorization in February.
"In all of this, Secretary Hegseth has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as secretary of defense, and subversive to constitutional government," said Massie. "Hegseth, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law."
Massie: Hegseth knowingly executed and implemented unlawful orders.. Hegseth has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to the constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law. Hegseth thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 9, 2026
Because of this, Massie continued, Hegseth "warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States."
Massie then made a detailed case for removing Hegseth, as outlined across eight impeachment articles alleging a wide variety of misconduct and criminality.
The Kentucky Republican argued that, in carrying out Trump's Iran War, Hegseth violated the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which specified that the president cannot send the US military into combat operations absent “a declaration of war, specific statutory authorization, or a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces."
Massie also outlined how Hegseth systematically dismantled rules of engagement intended to minimize civilian casualties, which the congressman said led to the deadly US attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in the city of Minab, Iran.
"Reported death tolls from the strikes on the elementary school indicate that at least 156 civilians were killed, with some reports suggesting the civilian death toll surpassed 170," Massie said. "Those killed include at least 120 school children, 26 teachers, seven parents attempting to evacuate their children, a school bus driver, a pharmacy technician from a nearby clinic, and the six month old unborn child of one of the teachers also killed in the attack."
Massie: Reported death tolls from the strikes on the elementary school indicate that at least 156 civilians were killed, with some reports suggesting the civilian death toll surpassed 170. Those killed include at least 120 school children, 26 teachers, seven parents attempting to evacuate their children, a school bus driver, a pharmacy technician from a nearby clinic, and the six month old unborn child of one of the teachers also killed in the attack.
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 9, 2026
Massie also touched upon Hegseth's campaign of military strikes on purported drug trafficking vessels, which he said resulted in the "summary execution of at least 243 persons in international waters" on the defense secretary's orders.
A vote on Massie's impeachment resolution against Hegseth is expected to take place on Wednesday.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Scientists Sue as Trump Administration Tries to Deliver 'Crushing Blow' to Behavioral and Brain Research
"It's scientific self-sabotage, and the American public will ultimately pay the price in the discoveries never made and lives never changed for the better."
Nov 09, 2026
Some scientists and scientific societies sued President Donald Trump's administration in the District of Massachusetts on Monday for shutting down the entity that provides nearly two-thirds of federal funding for basic academic research in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences.
The administration's effort to eliminate the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) "is a disservice to the American public and a crushing blow to the behavioral and brain sciences," declared Juliane Baron, executive director of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS).
"When I think about the biggest challenges facing people across our country—advancing health and well-being, providing economic and physical security for our loved ones—these are all inherently human questions," Baron stressed. "We can't solve pressing societal challenges without understanding humans."
FABBS partnered with the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SESP), the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society (SANS), and two researchers—University of Massachusetts Amherst lecturer Jenna Croteau and Boston College assistant professor Gregg Sparkman—in the lawsuit, which Democracy Forward filed on their behalf.
Over the past century, the complaint explains, "SBE research has driven some of the most groundbreaking innovations in nearly every aspect of modern life—from the way doctors match kidney donors with patients, to how governments approach economic policy, national security, and international relations, to the models behind Google's search engine."
"SBE research has helped mitigate the opioid crisis, the spread of diseases like Ebola and Covid-19, and evolving threats posed by cyberhackers and terrorist networks in the United States and abroad," notes the filing. "And it has transformed economics."
As the complaint details:
When the Trump-Vance administration took office, it deemed these fields “woke.” In its 2026 budget proposal, the administration urged Congress to cut funding for the SBE Directorate. Congress refused. The congressional report that accompanied NSF's January 2026 appropriation expressly directed NSF not to reduce SBE’s budget by more than 5%.
Three months later, NSF decided to shutter the directorate anyway. On April 3, 2026—without a director, and without consulting the National Science Board, the body Congress required to make such decisions—NSF leadership announced that it would unilaterally "close-out" the SBE Directorate in fiscal year 2027. Since the April 3 decision, the agency has stopped funding opportunities for basic SBE research, released the scientists who work in the directorate on assignment from universities, and reassigned nearly all the directorate's permanent staff.
"The administration's dismantling of SBE is not only reckless; it is illegal," emphasized Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman. "NSF provided no public explanation for its decision to close the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate, and this dangerous dismissal of scientific expertise is a threat to crucial scientific research. We are honored to work with this coalition to challenge the administration's crusade against science and the unlawful closure of the directorate."
Coalition members highlighted the importance of them prevailing in court, particularly in the current era of rapidly developing artificial intelligence with inadequate safeguards. SANS president Jennifer Kubota said that "understanding how the brain shapes trust, cooperation, emotion, and social behavior is essential to addressing some of society's most pressing challenges, from social isolation and polarization to the rapid emergence of AI."
"Eliminating NSF SBE funding for this research threatens decades of scientific progress and the next generation of scientists," Kubota continued. "Research opportunities lost today cannot simply be recovered tomorrow. We risk losing not only critical discoveries, but also the talented researchers who will make them."
A coalition of scientific societies and individual scientists has united to challenge the unlawful closure of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE) of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Happy to support SESP in joining this lawsuit.democracyforward.org/news/press-r...
[image or embed]
— Kate A. Ratliff (@kateratliff.bsky.social) November 9, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Columbia University professor and FABBS board member Jon Freeman delivered a similar warning, arguing that "we cannot allow this administration to shoot America in the foot."
"American behavioral science has transformed everything from the algorithms powering our technology to how we strengthen human connection, overcome social divisions, improve public health, and make better decisions in our everyday lives," he said. "Dismantling SBE would devastate a vital part of our scientific workforce at precisely the moment we need it most, as AI reshapes society. It's scientific self-sabotage, and the American public will ultimately pay the price in the discoveries never made and lives never changed for the better."
SESP executive officer Steven J. Stroessner also not only acknowledged the past but looked toward the future: "For decades, federal support for basic research in social psychology has helped us understand how people think, make decisions, and relate to one another. The resulting discoveries have strengthened our nation by improving education, informing public policy, fostering cooperation, and helping us address some of society’s most persistent challenges. Dismantling that support threatens not only the research being conducted today, but the discoveries we have yet to imagine."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Should Set Off Every Alarm Bell': Trump DOJ Cleared Merger After Company Donated to Melania Trump Initiative
"The next Congress has a responsibility to take these sorts of transactions seriously and root out the blatant corruption that has allowed America to turn into an oligarchy."
Nov 09, 2026
The American Economic Liberties Project on Monday called on the US Congress and state attorneys general to investigate the US Department of Justice's decision last week to abruptly end its probe into the proposed merger between Fox Corporation and TV streaming company Roku.
In a Friday announcement, the DOJ said that its investigation found it was "unlikely" that a Fox-Roku merger would pose "a substantial risk of harm to competition" in the TV streaming market.
The DOJ also said it was satisfied with Fox's pledge to keep Roku "an open and neutral content partner," noting that the media giant "would suffer monetary and reputational harm if it attempted to use the Roku platform to harm Fox's content rivals."
Although earlier reporting claimed that the DOJ would approve the Fox-Roku merger under a consent decree, the department instead signed off on it "with a simple affirmative press statement outlining commitments from Fox, several of which expire in just three years, and leaving the conditions without any judicial enforcement mechanism attached," explained the American Economic Liberties Project.
Additionally, the group pointed out that the DOJ's decision to end its merger investigation came just weeks after Fox made a $1 million contribution to First Lady Melania Trump's "Fostering the Future" initiative, a scholarship program aimed at helping foster children attend college.
“It should set off every alarm bell that the Fox Corporation is giving any money to the first lady’s foster care initiative during the Justice Department’s review of its Roku deal,” said Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. "This is part of a documented pattern, where big media corporations curry favor with the administration, via donations and promises of favorable coverage, and then deals get done."
Hepner added that the DOJ's decision to sign off on the deal was part of a broader pattern of corporate consolidation and corruption under the second Trump administration.
“The next Congress has a responsibility to take these sorts of transactions seriously," he said, "and root out the blatant corruption that has allowed America to turn into an oligarchy, where power keeps getting consolidated at a remarkable rate."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Off the Charts': UN Sounds Alarm as Planet Plunges Deeper Into Climate Emergency
"Leaders must get serious by cutting emissions faster," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a report released as COP31 kicked off in Türkiye.
Nov 09, 2026
The Earth is hurtling deeper into a climate emergency, with 2026 on track to be one of the four hottest years ever recorded, ocean temperatures and sea levels hitting record highs, and glacier melt accelerating at an alarming pace, according to a report released Monday by the World Meteorological Organization as the United Nations Climate Change Conference kicked off in Türkiye.
The WMO's "State of the Climate" report "shows that the past 12 years have individually been the warmest on record, with the past four years being the top four," according to a summary of the 25-page publication.
WMO further noted that "the global average surface temperature for January–September 2026 was about 1.47°C above the preindustrial average," or right on the brink of the 1.5°C of warming beyond which scientists say the risks of catastrophic and potentially irreversible climate impacts increase substantially.
2026 is on track to be one of 4 warmest years on record, marked by exceptional global temperatures, melting ice, rising sea levels, and a very strong El Niño that will unleash more heat & extreme weather into 2027.New WMO #StateOfClimate #COP31 Update↪️ https://bit.ly/stateofclimateCOP31pr
[image or embed]
— World Meteorological Organization (@wmo-global.bsky.social) November 9, 2026 at 12:33 AM
UN scientists said last month that the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C this century is no longer achievable without an overshoot.
The 1.47°C figure "is likely to rise through the end of the year because of the warming effect of El Niño, which has been intensifying since August and is expected to be the strongest on record by December," the report's summary states. El Niño is the warm phase of a pattern in the Pacific Ocean whose impact on disrupts weather, ecosystems, and economies.
According to WMO:
Earth’s energy imbalance is rising... The imbalance reached its highest level since monitoring began, as greenhouse gases trap unprecedented amounts of heat and upset the equilibrium between incoming energy from the sun and outgoing energy. The ocean absorbs 90% of this excess heat, and 2026 is on track to be the 10th successive year of record ocean warmth.
Sea level is the highest on record, and sea-surface temperatures hit monthly records during 2026. The long-term retreat of glaciers continues—the annual mass loss of ice in 2025 would have filled five Olympic pools every second of the year. Freshwater storage has been dwindling since 2014.
“Extreme weather has made headlines throughout 2026. Behind the headlines and the statistics in this report are people who suffered the loss of loved ones, threats to their health and safety, flooded homes, failed harvests, empty shelves, lack of water, and choking air," WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo said in the report.
"The past four years have been the warmest in the 177-year observational record, and the heat in the oceans is breaking records for the 10th year in a row," she continued. "The ongoing El Niño is forecast to be one of the strongest on record, and the heat it releases from the ocean will continue to fuel high temperatures and extreme weather into 2027."
“El Niño and indeed the state of the global climate in 2026 gives new meaning to the phrase off the charts," Saulo added. "El Niño doesn't add new heat to the planet. It releases heat from the ocean, which is the warmest ever measured. There is simply more heat available to release."
Indeed, climate scientists are warning that the planet is closer than previously thought to tipping points leading to hellish feedback loops and a "hothouse Earth."
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres responded to the WMO report in a statement, saying: "We have entered a new age of climate extremes. A supersized El Niño is colliding with a planet already superheated by manmade climate change. Climate records keep falling. The human costs keep rising. And those least responsible are suffering first and worst."
"Leaders must get serious by cutting emissions faster, accelerating a just transition from fossil fuels, and delivering the finance and protection vulnerable countries need," he added.
The "State of the Climate" report was released on the first day of the UN summit, or COP31, in Antalya, Türkiye. Advocacy groups warned that world leaders must commit to phase out fossil fuels, finance a just transition to a post-carbon economy, and protect vulnerable populations from worsening climate harms.
“No country can confront this crisis alone. Those who have contributed least to global warming are often suffering the greatest harms. COP31 must deliver collective action that reflects this profound injustice,” Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International's program director for climate, environmental and social justice, and corporate accountability, said Monday.
“The world is not running out of climate warnings. It is running out of excuses," she continued. "After more than 30 years of climate negotiations, governments can no longer hide behind promises of future action or avoid confronting their fossil fuel industry allies."
"The climate crisis is not a failure of knowledge, but a failure of political courage," Schaaf added. "It is time to break the stranglehold of corporate power over political decision-making and end the fossil fuel era before it ends us."
Oil Change International global policy senior strategist Shady Khalil asserted that “we know what needs to happen. Governments must stop fossil fuel expansion, plan a fair phaseout of existing production, and invest public money in renewable energy and economic diversification."
"Wealthy countries must move first and fastest and provide the finance needed to make this transition possible everywhere," he added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
See More
Most Popular