July, 30 2024, 03:37pm EDT
KOSA is advancing in the Senate. It still makes kids less safe.
The controversial Kids Online Safety Act passed out of the Senate today by a vote of 91-3. As the vote was taking place, a group of human rights, LGBTQ+, and civil liberties experts held a virtual press conference to discuss the longstanding issues with the bill, how passing it would be a major handout to Big Tech, and why the House must reject it.
You can watch the press conference in full at this link or below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwufHSTjdgE
Here a sampling of important quotes given during the press conference:
“The fact of the matter is, young people are naturally curious and taking away potentially educational resources limits their learning and can actually endanger them.” –Jenna Leventoff, Senior Policy Counsel at American Civil Liberties Union
“I think some of this is just based on hoping or believing that the enforcement of a speech law will be done by the good guys. And that’s we’ve just never seen that be the case. And that’s why it’s better to stick by our First Amendment values.” –Joe Mullin, Senior Policy Analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation
“I’m really particularly concerned about the impact on youth in states that are already living under abortion bans or living in the 25 States that have bans on gender and care. I think you’re just gonna see that kind of censorship get much worse.” –Mandy Salley, Chief Operating Officer at Woodhull Freedom Foundation
“I’ve literally had legislators tell me to my face that they would love to see our website taken off the Internet because they don’t want people to have the kinds of vital community resources that we provide.” –Dara Adkison, Executive Director of TransOhio
“We need legislation that addresses the harm of big tech. And still lets young people fight for the type of world that they actually want to grow up in.” –Evan Greer, Director at Fight for the Future
Senator Ron Wyden (OR) also sent in this quote to be read during the press conference:
“Everyone agrees tech companies need to be held accountable, and Congress needs to do more to keep kids safe online. But that shouldn’t mean making some kids safer while putting others in harms’ way. I appreciate the intent of KOSA, and support restrictions on harmful design elements, along with new privacy protections for teenagers. At the same time, I implore my colleagues in the House to listen to the LGBTQ+ teens and the folks on the call today. It is not too late to do more to ensure that KOSA can’t be misused by MAGA politicians who are waging a dangerous and retrograde culture war. It’s not too late to make commonsense changes that ensure KOSA can’t be used to scare platforms away from responsible use of privacy protecting technologies like encryption or anonymous accounts. I hope Congress can work together to pass legislation to make ALL kids safer online.”
The grassroots human rights coalition opposing KOSA will redouble our efforts to stop it in the House, where younger progressives like Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep Maxwell Frost have already come out against it.
Additional resources about the opposition to KOSA:
- See Fight for the Future’s statement on KOSA advancing HERE.
- View our Tuesday, July 30 12 pm ET press conference on KOSA advancing HERE. More info on speakers, including bios, below.
- See a letter from hundreds of parents of trans kids opposing KOSA here: TransParentsLetter.com
- And read this in-depth piece lifting up the voices of LGBTQ youth who have led the opposition to KOSA.
- See photos of LGBTQ youth opposing KOSA at Pride Events here.
- See a full list of organizations opposing KOSA at StopKOSA.com, a tool that hundreds of thousands of people have used to contact their legislators opposing the bill.
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
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'We Should Go to Court': Khanna Says Latest US Bombings of Iran a 'Blatant Violation' by Trump
"Trump must stop this war now—or we will take him to court to compel him to do so."
Jun 28, 2026
Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna on Sunday reiterated his position that new bombings of Iran by the US military over the weekend are a direct violation of a War Powers Resolution passed by Congress earlier this month and said legal action was in the works to challenge the president's ability to carry on with the unprovoked war he first launched alongside Israel in February.
"These strikes are a blatant violation of the War Powers Resolution that we passed," Khanna said in a social media post Saturday after Trump acknowledged strikes on numerous Iranian targets. "Trump must stop this war now—or we will take him to court to compel him to do so."
In a Saturday statement on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the US had "struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!"
"It is very possible that they will never learn!" the president exclaimed. "There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started. If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!"
The latest direct exchange of hostilities—that began with US bombings of Iranian targets Friday and included Iran targeting US allies in Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday—come over lingering disagreements about how vessels will or will not pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
"Congress passed the first War Powers Resolution in history, legally compeling an end to war on Iran," the anti-war group Just Foreign Policy said following Friday's strikes. "This means Trump's strikes today are an unprecedented Constitutional violation **Trump must be taken to court** to honor the American people's demand that we exit this war — NOW."
Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that “interference in [the Strait], any attempt to establish new or separate arrangements from those currently being carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to further complications, delay the reopening of the strait of Hormuz, and increase the level of tension.”
Araghchi called for a regional agreement to settle the issue of passage through the Strait, but indicated the US should have no role in determining the outcome of the settlement. On Saturday, the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said that the US—"whose very nature is characterized by breaking commitments and violating agreements"—was guilty of firing on coastal targets but that such attacks would not deter the Iranian military from exerting control over the Strait.
"Henceforth," said the IRGC, "vessels found to be in violation will be dealt with more firmly than before."
On June 23, a 50-48 vote in the Senate saw a war powers resolution pass the upper chamber after the House also passed a similar resolution on June 3 to bring an end to the war started by the US and Israel on February 28. But as Khanna explained Sunday, speaking with journalist David Sirota, these votes have not been enough to curb the president's actions.
🚨NEW: Congress just passed resolutions to block Trump from continuing the Iran War. The resolutions carry the force of law under the text of the 1973 War Powers Act. Now, @RoKhanna tells me he is working to organize lawmakers to bring an historic court case to enforce the law. pic.twitter.com/IBH7dbKcxG
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) June 28, 2026
Asked by Sirota what he would be doing to compel Trump to adhere to the congressional opposition to Trump's ongoing aggression against Iran, Khanna said, "we should go to court."
Noting that former Republican Congressman Tom Campbell, back in 1999, had taken former President Bill Clinton to court for violating a War Powers Resolution during the US-backed NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, Khanna said he is preparing to follow a similar course.
"This is something that we should try to enforce," Khanna said. "And I'm working with my colleagues to see how we can get a group to take this case to the courts."
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'We Were Warned,' Says WHO Chief as More Than 1,300+ Dead Across Europe From Climate-Driven Heat Wave
“It’s time to turn the heat on the fossil fuel giants that caused this heatwave but are doing nothing to cover the costs."
Jun 28, 2026
The head of the World Health Organization on Sunday said the deadly heat wave now boiling across Europe—which French authorities say caused more than 1,000 deaths last week alone—is the predicted and horrifying result that climate scientists and human rights advocates have been warning about for decades.
In a social post Sunday, WHO secretary-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "Driven by climate change and global warming, the phenomenon of the 'once-in-a-generation' heatwave is now occurring nearly annual. We were warned."
Citing over 1,300 excess deaths across Europe in the last week—as temperatures broke records in nation after nation—Tedros added that "heat stress is often called the 'silent killer'—and European homes, workplaces and schools were not built for these temperatures."
"Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at twice the global average," he said. "Right now 150 million people are living under extreme heat, hundreds have died, schools are shut, grids are buckling."
According to the Associated Press:
Germany marked a new record for the third day in a row with 41.7 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) in Neißemünde, near the border with Poland. The Czech Republic also experienced its hottest day ever with 41.1 C (106.4 F).
A new study from the World Weather Attribution, a Europe-based collaboration of scientists, reported Friday that the record-breaking heat and humidity in Europe this past week would not have been possible without climate change.
The rapid study found that the heat would have been virtually impossible just five decades ago, and is 200 times more likely today than it would have been 20 years ago.
On Sunday, authorities in France said over 1,000 excess deaths attributable to the heat were recorded last week, with at least 100 or more over the previous 24 hours.
The threat of extreme heat related to the climate crisis is not only in Europe.
In 2024, a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that heat-related deaths in the United States rose 117% between 1999 and 2023.
Last year, a joint analysis by The Guardian and Pro Publica estimated that the industry-friendly policies of US President Donald Trump could result in the otherwise preventable deaths of 1.3 million people worldwide over the next 80 years, most of them among poor people in nations that did very little to cause the planetary crisis driven by the consumption of fossil fuels.
In a comment last week, as the deadly heatwave made international headlines, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was among those who pointed his finger directly at Trump for his vicious policies related to energy and climate.
"There is a record-breaking heat wave in Europe and hundreds are dying," said Sanders. "There is drought all across America and farmers are going out of business. Yet, Trump thinks climate change is a 'hoax' and cuts funding for sustainable energy. Insane. He is threatening the very future of our planet."
On Friday, the climate group 350.org said the polluting companies, namely those in the coal, oil, and gas industry, should be made to pay for the deaths and damage they have caused and continue to cause.
“It’s time to turn the heat on the fossil fuel giants that caused this heatwave but are doing nothing to cover the costs," said Lisa Rose, a campaigner with the group. "Both science and the law are clear: polluters must answer for climate damage. Now it’s up to our leaders to make them pay."
“Forcing fossil fuel companies to cut emissions and pay their fair share is the only effective lasting response," she added. "Half-measures won’t cool this crisis, only a faster shift to renewables can."
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Warned That Republicans Will Make Him 'Poster Child of Democratic Party,' Mamdani Says: 'Let Them'
"We don’t have to ask ourselves what life looks like if a socialist wins," said the New York City mayor.
Jun 28, 2026
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is not afraid to be seen as the future of the Democratic Party, even as Republicans and members of his own party's establishment wing—with a bit of help from corporate media journalists and pundits—try to paint the wave of democratic socialist victories as somehow a scary prospect.
"Republicans are going to make you the poster child for the Democratic Party," said Jonathan Karl of ABC News in an interview with Mamdani that aired Saturday.
"Let them," Mamdani responded without hesitation. "We don’t have to ask ourselves what life looks like if a socialist wins. I won last November, and over the course of these last six months, what we’ve delivered for working people are the very things we were told were impossible."
- YouTube
"We’ve delivered free child care for two-year-olds for the first time in New York City history," Mamdani continued. "We’ve delivered tens of millions of dollars back to tenants who were taken advantage of by bad landlords. We’ve delivered 165,000 potholes being paved. And we’ve done all of these things while also delivering the lowest recorded crime in our city’s history. That’s what it looks like to have democratic socialism."
Mamdani also referenced the slate of three democratic socialists candidates running for US Congress—Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier—who last week swept the Democratic primary in districts representing city voters.
"What you’re seeing," said Mamdani of the primary wins, "is that New Yorkers experienced this for six months and made the decision that they wanted to see more of it on the national stage as well."
"I think we are seeing a hunger that is not just felt by New Yorkers, but frankly by Americans from coast to coast, for a new kind of politics, one that puts working people at the heart of it." —Mayor Zohran Mamdani
He also said that this kind of politics need not be isolated to large cities like New York. "A democratic socialist can get elected anywhere across this country for any position," Mamdani argued. "I think we are seeing a hunger that is not just felt by New Yorkers, but frankly by Americans from coast to coast, for a new kind of politics, one that puts working people at the heart of it."
The victories of Avila Chevalier, Valdez, and Lander sparked a broader conversation across the political world in the US as members of the party's more pro-corporate establishment issued blistering warnings that progressive candidates are a threat, not a boon, to Democratic strength heading into the midterms and beyond.
In a satirical takedown of such thinking, USA Today columnist Rex Huppke on Sunday ripped into the mythical "center" (whatever that is) by calling it an "ambiguous blob-like thing that exists only in the minds of Democratic strategists whose brains stopped working in the 1990s."
In the column—titled "I am centrist Democrat and I am terrified of success"—Huppke writes:
Hello, I am a centrist Democrat who is terrified that progressive liberal candidates keep winning primary elections. I am also terrified of my own shadow, but this is somehow worse.
Suddenly, voters are being won over by liberal candidates—even a few who are democratic socialists!—who aren’t afraid to lean into populist messages with passion and an apparent drive to actually do things that will make people’s lives better.
What is that all about? Since when did the things voters want become so important?
"AUGH!" the tongue-in-cheek column continues. "What kind of radical Democrat would talk about taxing billionaires in a moment when income inequality is at the top of voters’ minds and people are struggling to afford food? That’s edging too far away from the center, which is the safe place where I reside and insist all other Democrats must reside. It’s nice here. There are comfy pillows a corporate lobbyist once gave me, and we just sit and occasionally furrow our brows."
Progressives inspired by Mamdani and the political breakthrough spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) over recent years, say it is time to stop listening to corporate Democrat scolds like Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), former Obama White House advisor Rahm Emanuel, and other Blue Dog and Third Way hangers-on.
On Saturday, a group of right-wing Democrats—including Reps. Tom Suozzi of New York, Janelle Bynum of Oregon, Susie Lee of Nevada, and Gottheimer—put out an open letter to declare their hostility to democratic socialism and which states emphatically, "We are capitalist, not socialist."
Mamdani addressed the effort during his interview with Karl.
Karl: Josh Gottheimer, a Democratic member of Congress, who says, “Many of us believe, as do I, if you’re a socialist, you are not a Democrat.” And in fact, they put out a manifesto today.
Mamdani: Sounds pretty socialist to me…. I'm not interested in writing a manifesto or… pic.twitter.com/sE8cA022EG
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 28, 2026
Speaking at a Saturday event for Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, running as a progressive champion of Medicare for All and taking on corporate power in the race for a US Senate seat in Michigan, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who served as national co-chair of the 2020 Sanders campaign, said that he doesn't want to hear from members of the party establishment fearmongering over candidates who are winning support—not to mention primaries and elections—with strong working-class agendas.
@RoKhanna campaigning for @AbdulElSayed:
“The last people who have any right to lecture us about electability are the establishment who lost to Donald Trump twice. I don’t want to hear it. If you had anything to do with those campaigns, please sit down or exit stage left.” pic.twitter.com/VXfK8s4nFQ
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) June 27, 2026
“The last people who have any right to lecture us about electability are the establishment who lost to Donald Trump twice," said Khanna. "I don’t want to hear it. If you had anything to do with those campaigns, please sit down or exit stage left.”
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