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Draw the Line is a global action (15-21 September) with widespread events taking place across the world peaking over the weekend of September 19–21, 2025.
In the lead-up to COP30 and as world leaders gather in New York for the General Assembly of the United Nations tens of thousands of people across the globe are taking to the streets in a wave of coordinated protests under the banner “Draw the Line” in 93 different countries around the world.
Communities are demanding urgent action from governments to end extracivism and stop fossil fuel expansion, deliver a fast, fair, funded and just transition away from fossil fuels, address the injustices and inequalities driven by the current neo-liberal and imperialistic economic systems and ensure a just transition to a world that protects life. Workers, women, farmers, fishers, young people, Indigenous Peoples, migrants, refugees, pastoralists, people of color and LGBTI* People are rising together to demand system change and reclaim the commons for a world that is in harmony with nature,centred on solutions by and for the people and not on false solutions.
This global moment comes at a critical time when the rich and the powerful countries and corporations continue their colonial and extractivist agenda, while world leaders fail to prevent and stop the genocide taking place in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo, and the governments across the world are veering towards authoritarianism, undoing decades of progress. With every tenth of a degree of global heating, the consequences for people and ecosystems multiply, as seen in the devastating wildfires, typhoons, cloudbursts, floods, and extreme heatwaves already sweeping across continents this year.
The Draw the Line mobilisations are a global call to action against inequality, destruction, and climate chaos and for rights, jobs, justice, and a safe planet. Across the world, people are demanding a feminist, fast, fair, funded, and forever phase-out of fossil fuels, investment in renewable energy,resilient food systems, real peoples led solutions funding for the future through climate finance from rich countries to the Global South, debt cancellation and taxing billionaires. At its heart, this movement is about justice, defending human rights, reclaiming democracy, restoring ecosystems, and building solidarity across peoples and nations.
Protests, artistic actions, vigils, and marches will take place in hundreds of cities around the world during this Global Week of Action in September, showing that people everywhere are united in demanding climate justice. Draw the Line will be taking place alongside the Disrupt Complicity Weekend, 18 - 21 September called for by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) and stands in solidarity with their call to action.
As COP30 approaches in Brazil, activists stress that leaders must make the most of this narrowing window of opportunity: the choices made in the next few years will define the future of generations to come.
List of Key Events
Events will take place in over 100 countries, with large mobilisations expected in Belem, Berlin, Dhaka, Istanbul, Jakarta, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Istanbul, Suva, London, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, Nairobi, New Delhi, New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Wellington, among other cities, territories, and villages.
Quotes
| Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator, Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) | "We are drawing the line against deceptive tactics led by rich nations and big corporations to perpetuate fossil fuel dominance and delay the equitable just transition to a fossil free and healthy planet. We demand a complete coal phase out in Asia by 2035 and a rapid and just energy transition out of fossil fuels and to 100% renewable energy before 2050. We demand the full delivery of climate finance obligations of the Global North to the Global South for urgent climate action including Just Transition! This is a crucial part of their reparations for historical and continuing harms to our people." |
| Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network International | “We are living through immensely challenging times right now: increasing injustices, human rights violations, wars, conflict and genocide, devastating climate impacts, rising cost of living and more. A global movement of movements is rising up to respond to the moment with the launch of the ‘Draw the Line’ Global Week of Action. Youth and women, workers and communities, young and old, across our ravaged planet are drawing the line against those fighting to keep us locked in a world of pollution, exploitation, wars and injustice. We are saying enough is enough and call for a Just Transition that puts people at the centre and serves the needs and interests of the masses of people who are suffering. As laid out by the UN Secretary General today, the energy transition is here and it is unstoppable, but it has to be just, fair, inclusive and fast. Our united actions across the globe in September will be our call for a just future.” |
| Rachitaa Gupta, Global Coordinator, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) | “We are drawing the line against genocide, against fossil fuel expansion, and against false solutions that destroy our lands and extract from our communities. We refuse to let corporations profit off our lands, our resources, our food systems, and our bodies while our communities at the frontline continue to face the devastating impact of this crisis that we did not create. We demand an end to corporate capture and to the systems that turn war and extraction into profit. We call for a complete overhaul of the international financial architecture to dismantle debt traps, tax injustice, and neocolonial control. The Global North must pay up urgent climate finance in trillions, not as charity, but as reparations for centuries of plunder and pollution. This is not just a protest, it is a global movement for liberation. We demand a system change rooted in justice led by the peoples and communities. Our fight for climate justice is the fight for freedom, for dignity, and for life. And we are not backing down.” |
| Anne Jellema, Chief Executive, 350.org | “This mobilisation is about power, people power. The power to reject the lies of fossil fuel billionaires and remake our world for the many, not the few. We are drawing the line, because when governments fail to act, we rise. When polluters and profiteers try to divide us, we unite. We have the answers to this crisis, and we are calling on world leaders to listen, act, and follow the will of the people, not the whims of autocrats and billionaires. It’s our future, and it is for us to decide what it looks like.” |
| Tyrone Scott, Senior Movement Building & Activism Officer, War on Want | “In the UK, we’re joining movements worldwide and are drawing the line against inequality, climate breakdown, and the billionaires fuelling our global crises. On 20 September, thousands of us, backed by over 60 organisations, will march through the streets of London to demand justice. We’re part of a global movement rising together to say: enough is enough. From debt and poverty to fossil fuel tyranny, we are uniting across borders to resist more destruction and reclaim our future. This is a moment of reckoning. We are drawing the line for justice, for life, for the planet. Ordinary people didn’t cause this crisis, billionaires and corporations did. Now it’s time to make them pay to fix it.” |
| Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement for Palestinian rights, recipient of the 2017 Gandhi Peace Award. | “In the current, most depraved, induced starvation phase of the US-Israeli livestreamed genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza ghetto, Palestinian civil society stands united in calling on people of conscience and grassroots movements for racial, economic, social, climate and gender justice worldwide to help us build a critical mass of people power to end state, corporate and institutional complicity with Israel’s regime of settler-colonial apartheid and genocide, particularly through effective BDS actions and pressure. We are not begging for charity but calling for true solidarity, and that begins with doing no harm to our liberation struggle, at the very least, as a profound moral and legal obligation.” |
| Hari Krishna Nibanupudi, Global Climate Change Adviser, HelpAge International | "Twenty-nine COPs and a million broken promises. Another summit, another letdown. It's time to radically reform how global climate negotiations are conducted—and take power out of the hands of the polluters who profit from delay." |
| Brice Böhmer Climate & Environment Lead, Transparency International | "Too many past COPs have been undermined by undue influence and a lack of integrity. COP30 offers a vital opportunity to change course. Transparency International calls for clear rules of engagement, a strong conflict of interest policy, and an accountability framework to ensure that climate decisions serve the public good, not private profit. This is our chance to put ethics at the centre of climate action." |
| Sara Washburn, Ottawa-Gatineau Climate March Organizer, Fridays For Future Ottawa, Canada | "I’m here because I’m a parent, and I worry about the world my kids are inheriting. We’re drawing the line because we all deserve a future built on care, not chaos. I’m taking action now because I want my children—and all our children—to have a safe, just, and livable planet." |
| Gan Golan, Co-Founder, Climate Clock Website: climateclock.world | “Who is running out the clock? On the same day that this campaign launches, July 22, the Climate Clock will tick down to less than 4 years for the first time in history. That means we will only have 3 years and 364 days remaining before we hit the critical 1.5 degree temperature rise. That is a clear red line that has been drawn by scientists and humanity, that the world does not want to cross. The thing is, we know the solutions. Most of the world is already taking action. However, a few fossil fuel billionaires are running out the clock, and risking humanity's survival. Humanity has drawn the line. These billionaires are the ones crossing it.” |
| Adrian Bornmann, Press Spokesman, PowerShift, https://power-shift.de, IG: powershift_ev | “COP30 must mark a turning point toward true climate justice. Communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis cannot afford further delays - governments must commit to bold, equitable action now. We are drawing the line against climate destruction and economic injustice.” |
| Kumi Naidoo, President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative | "We stand at a pivotal moment in history. This September, the line we draw is a collective act of resistance against destruction, and a bold demand for a better future, where justice and survival are non-negotiable. Fossil fuels fuel inequality, conflict, and climate chaos, benefiting a few at the expense of many. This global wave of action shows the power of people united across borders, backgrounds, and generations. Together, we are seeking to dismantle the systems of exploitation and demanding an end to fossil fuel expansion. Our collective power will shape a world that is sustainable, equitable, and just - for everyone." |
| Coraina de la Plaza, Hands Off Mother Earth (HOME) Alliance Global Coordinator, Spain | “Geoengineering is a dangerous distraction from real climate action that gambles with the Earth’s systems and places power in the hands of the few. We will continue to resist geoengineering and remind governments that our planet is not a laboratory, but a shared home that we all must protect through proven and just sustainable solutions, not by experimenting with risky and unproven geoengineering schemes. To protect people and the Earth, we must resist these climate scams and fight for just, community-driven solutions to climate justice.” |
| Shady Khalil, Global Policy Senior Strategist, Oil Change International | “At COP 28, every country committed to transition away from fossil fuels thanks to the tireless fight of millions of everyday people, frontline communities, and their allies. Rich Global North countries, who hold the greatest responsibility for the climate crisis, must phase out fossil fuels first and fastest. But some are ignoring their commitment, intent on squeezing every last dollar out of a dying, dirty industry —no matter the human cost. People power secured the first ever win for fossil fuel phaseout at COP28. People power will ensure that countries follow through on the equitable transition off of fossil fuels we were promised.” |
| Njoki Njehu, Principal Political Advisor, Fight Inequality Alliance. | "We draw the line, here and now. Big corporations exploit our resources, and billionaire jets worsen the climate crisis, making the world unlivable for communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. These communities are losing their homes and livelihoods, while simultaneously being burdened with taxes and charges to repay national debts. The powerful and influential manipulate the system, and we refuse to remain silent. The insatiable greed of a few must be confronted by the collective power and fundamental needs of all. " |
| Kathryn McCallum, Director of Strategy, Climate Action Network Australia | “Big corporations export more fossil fuel pollution from Australia than from any country except Russia. For too long, fossil fuel CEOs and a handful of politicians in high-polluting countries like Australia have divided people with lies about the possibility for change, while the few profit from polluting our air. We will hold our government accountable, drawing the line on new coal and gas approvals.” |
| Maureen Santos, ONG FASE | “Movimentos sociais, povos indígenas e tradicionais, e organizações do Sul Global estão indo às ruas para defender seus direitos e desafiar grandes corporações e o sistema financeiro. Estamos traçando um limite para que nossas comunidades não mergulhem em uma crise que não causamos. Sem uma transição justa e popular, e sem justiça climática, nossas comunidades e bens comuns continuarão a sofrer. As mobilizações de setembro também são cruciais para o processo que culmina com o grande dia global de ação em 15 de novembro, em Belém.” |
| Mwanahamisi Singano, Director of Policy, WEDO. Women and Gender Constituency co-focal point | “As rights are rolled back and climate disasters intensify, feminists refuse to surrender to militarization, extractivism, and corporate capture. On September 17, we draw the line for bodily autonomy, racial justice, gender equality, and intersectionality. For care over capital, community-led solutions over corporate control, and for food, water, energy, and economic sovereignty. We fight for gender-just transition and regenerative economies.” |
| YOUNGO | We refuse to inherit a planet destroyed by billionaires and fossil fuel companies while our communities bear the brunt of a crisis we didn't create. We're drawing the line against extractive models that prioritize profit over people and planet. We demand transformative action now. Our future depends on a just transition that puts rights, equity, and life at the center. |
| Ann Harrison, Climate Justice Policy Adviser, Amnesty International | “The human rights harms that hurt those who are least responsible for the climate emergency are made much worse by the unjust economic structures that keep lower income countries in debt and extract their wealth for the benefit of a few. It’s time to tax the super rich and make big polluters pay for their climate harms. We are drawing the line against climate destruction and economic injustice. There is no climate justice without human rights.” |
| Kate Raworth, founder of Doughnut Economics. | “In the face of worsening climate and ecological breakdown, widening inequalities, and escalating conflicts it’s clearly time to draw the line—rejecting economic systems that exploit people and violate Earth’s boundaries—so we can move toward economies that meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet, on which all life depends.” |
| Lauren Latour, Member Services and Movement-Building Manager, Climate Action Network Canada | “On September 20th, we’re coming together in communities across Canada to demand a safe and just future for all, and to build the power we’ll need to win this fight. No more fascism and authoritarianism. No more status quo politics that enable fossil fuel expansion and climate destruction. No more violations of Indigenous rights and scapegoating of migrants. We’re drawing the line—for people, for peace, for the planet.” |
| Mohammed Usrof, Executive Director of the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy | “We are drawing the line because the same forces destroying our climate are bombing our people and stealing our future. We cannot separate climate justice from the struggle for freedom. From Gaza to the Amazon, we see how militarism and fossil capitalism fuel both ecocide and genocide. That’s why we are – to say: no more. No more war machines, no more climate colonialism, no more geoengineering experiments over our skies. The time to act is now. For justice, for life, for liberation.” |
| Meena Raman, Head of Programmes, Third World Network (TWN) | “We are drawing the line at Global North countries delaying urgent climate action by expanding and continuing to rely on fossil fuels and not reducing their emissions fast enough. They are also reneging on their legal obligations to fund and enable climate action in the Global South. Our people are least responsible for and most affected by the climate crises. For us in Asia, our communities have been reeling with climate catastrophes for years, and even as I write this floods in Northern India and Pakistan have ravaged millions of lives and resources. Just Transition and Adaptation are 'not just words' for us but our chance at survival. The Global North, instead of honouring their historical responsibility, is orchestrating a 'Great Escape' from climate commitments. They cite lack of resources even as several G7 countries are funding a genocide in Palestine. Their leaders are evading accountability and passing on the burden to the Global South. It is high time that along with us, the people in the Global North draw a line against the injustices and destruction their countries are complicit in. This is THAT moment.” |
| Lise Masson, Climate Justice & Energy International Programme Coordinator, Friends of the Earth International | “Whilst elites and transnational corporations continue to plunder our communities and our environment, to fuel the genocide in Gaza, to push a capitalist, colonial, and extractivist agenda, we the people draw the line. We say enough - no to the advance of fascism, to land grabs and to the financialisation of nature in the name of profit, and to so-called solutions to the climate and social crises that only further inequity. We stand for justice, for solidarity. We demand a feminist just energy transition that benefits our communities. We demand democracy, sovereignty, freedom for Palestine, and liberation for all.” |
| Dr Arjun Kumar Karki, Executive President, Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN) Nepal | "The Global North owes a climate debt to countries like Nepal, where rural and mountain communities are already paying the price for a crisis they did not cause. Climate finance must be delivered as a binding obligation to support adaptation, build resilience, and address loss and damage, because anything less is a betrayal of justice." |
| Sharif Jamil, Coordinator, Waterkeepers - Bangladesh Bangladesh | "We must draw the line against the fossil fuel systems that endanger our shared future, and directly shift to safe, clean, and affordable renewables, especially solar and wind. This shift will build resilient economies, enhance energy security, and generate green jobs while protecting public health and vital ecosystems. We demand delivery of Climate Finance obligations by the Global North governments to enable a successful just transition in the South." |
| Armayanti Sanusi, Chairperson of National Executive Body Solidaritas Perempuan (Women's Solidarity for Human Rights) Indonesia | “Global food systems are propped up by neoliberal trade policies that serve profit over people, starving millions in the Global South. But this time, we draw the line on leaders' refusal to address climate impacts on our food systems. We draw the line on forced starvation as a weapon of war, illegally used in genocides across the globe and most primarily by the US and Israel in Gaza.” |
| Rifat Maqsood, Chairperson of the Tameer-e-Nou Women Workers Organization Pakistan | “Women especially in the grassroots are hardest hit by crises and injustice. These include the tightening grip on the Pakistani people of repaying unsustainable and illegitimate public debts, with women bearing some of the heaviest burdens that come in the form of austerity loan conditions, such as cutting budgets for essential social services. With up to 60 percent of tax revenues allocated to pay interest payments alone, the Pakistani government is not only close to debt default. It is in fact already defaulting on its sworn mandate to protect and fulfill the rights and needs of its people.” |
| India Saktiman Ghosh, General Secretary, National Hawker Federation | "We must defend vulnerable communities. In India, 40 percent of the people struggle for a day's worth of food. We should start righting the disparity with a wealth tax on the rich 1% that controls 90% of the country's wealth." |
| Luke Espiritu, President, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Solidary of Filipino Workers) | “Social movements, communities, and labor movements are mobilizing in many countries to demand a rapid, equitable, and just transition. This transition must address potential dislocations and disruptions, guarantee the protection and promotion of the rights and welfare of people. This just transition must ensure that the costs and benefits of the transition are shared fairly.” |
| Ivan Gonzales, coordenador político da Confederação Sindical das Américas (CSA) | “Nos oponemos a la crisis climática, la crisis del capitalismo y las acciones de las corporaciones transnacionales. La aceleración de las prácticas económicas capitalistas ha obligado a muchas comunidades en diferentes países y regiones a vincular su lucha y la construcción de respuestas a la cuestión de la justicia climática, lo que nos ha traído a este momento.” |
| Natália Lobo – militante da Marcha das Mulheres e da Sempreviva Organização Feminista (SOF) | “Estamos traçando limites e organizando marchas e manifestações ao redor do mundo em setembro, enquanto também nos preparamos para nossa grande marcha em Belém, em 15 de novembro. Em nosso chamado à ação, enfatizamos a urgência da luta por justiça ambiental e nos posicionamos contra todas as guerras e genocídios ao redor do mundo, bem como contra o poder das corporações transnacionais, a face do capitalismo que destrói a natureza hoje.” |
| Beatriz Moreira, Peoples' Summit Secretariat | “We draw the line against false solutions poisoning our territories and demand an end to all wars and genocides. Against imperialism and corporate power, the People’s Summit Towards COP30 stands firm, raising the real solutions to today’s crises. We hear the cry of the people: from the countryside, waters, mangroves, seas, and forests, to urban workers, women, youth, and children. There is no future without system change, and we can only see its beginnings within ourselves. That’s why we are taking the streets on November 15, raising our voices for climate justice on a massive global day of action.” |
| Antonio Lisboa, CUT Brazil, for TUNGO | “Workers and their unions are calling on governments to deliver climate protection and prosperity. Promises on quality green jobs need to be kept. Finance and investments fail to materialise at scale and new jobs lack decent work standards. The result is an ‘unjust’ and fragmented transition that is leaving workers and vulnerable groups unprotected and unprepared for a runaway climate crisis, especially in the Global South. The global trade union movement calls on governments to draw the line!” |
| Claudia Rubio Giraldo, Coordinator, Women's Environment and Development Organization | “Many times, the most effective (and beautiful) ways to resist is by demonstrating the unity and steadfastness of a community. At this moment, where gender is being pushed back and climate change ignored or outright rejected, we will demonstrate the power of our collective feminist voice, that we won't sit silently while our rights are being squashed, and that we are here, and here to stay.” |
| Greenpeace, Mads Christensen, Executive Director of Greenpeace International | “Nowhere – and no one – is safe from deadly heatwaves, wildfires, toxic air, and rising seas. Absurdly, those most shielded from the fallout are the very ones profiting from it: oil and gas barons and the super-rich. It’s time for governments to flip the script and make polluters – not ordinary people – pay for the damage they’ve caused.” |
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
"Officials should stop wasting taxpayers' money on pointless legal action and instead focus on administering our elections," said the head of People Not Politicians Missouri.
Despite its right-wing supermajority, the US Supreme Court has twice struck down Missouri Republicans' rigged congressional districts for the November midterm elections, but after an appellate panel's Monday decision, the map fight is headed back to the justices.
Less than two weeks after the justices delivered their second blow to the Missouri GOP's gerrymandering effort with no noted dissents, a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that the state's "current plan to use the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election violates the Constitution," and "only use of the 2025 map complies with the Constitution and federal law."
All three panel members were appointed by Republicans: Judge James Loken by former President George HW Bush, and Judges David Stras and Justin Smith by President Donald Trump. The Associated Press reported that "prior to his June appointment, Smith was an attorney who represented Trump as he unsuccessfully appealed a $5 million jury verdict in a lawsuit filed by the writer E. Jean Carroll to the US Supreme Court."
People Not Politicians Missouri, which has been battling the gerrymandering scheme since state lawmakers passed House Bill 1 during last September's special session, pledged to immediately file an emergency appeal with the nation's top court.
"Everyone is aligned on what is true. HB 1 is not the law and cannot be the law unless voters ratify it," said the campaign's executive director, Richard von Glahn, in a statement. "The Supreme Court of Missouri, the United States Supreme Court, the Missouri attorney general, Missouri secretary of state, and People Not Politicians all have agreed on this."
"Ballots have been printed, and Missourians have already voted," he stressed. "Thousands more will vote before this order seeks to take effect. Officials should stop wasting taxpayers' money on pointless legal action and instead focus on administering our elections. Missourians are already voting and will continue to vote no on Proposition A through November 3."
The 8th Circuit's decision also drew attention from beyond Missouri. Politico reporter Kyle Cheney said that "it's the gerrymander that won't die," while Democratic Texas Congressman Christian Menefee—whose state was the first to pass a new rigged map at Trump's request—declared that "this is outrageous."
"The Supreme Court already stepped in twice to block Missouri's rigged map," Menefee added. "Ballots are already in the mail. Now, at the eleventh hour, an appeals court is letting Missouri Republicans force that rigged map on voters anyway. All to erase a Kansas City district and silence Black and Brown voters. Catastrophic for confidence in our elections."
"Honestly, this goes further than a lot of poll data to show you that GOPs are cooked," one journalist said of the Republican candidates claiming to oppose the president's unpopular conflict before the midterms.
With US President Donald Trump's approval rating tanking—largely due to his illegal war on Iran and the resulting economic fallout—Michigan's Republican US Senate candidate, Mike Rogers, on Monday afternoon called for an end to the conflict, and his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, wasted no time turning to the receipts.
Rogers posted a 75-second video on social media: He's in a grocery store, noting the need to bring down food prices. He also says that "the war with Iran needs to end," and in the meantime, the United States should impose a temporary embargo on exports of diesel—which has hit a record high of $6.51 per gallon.
El-Sayed responded with a pair of clips from the Republican's previous interviews and wrote: "You've spent your entire campaign supporting the war in Iran. Liar, coward, fraud."
The Democratic super political action committee Senate Majority PAC also called out Rogers, writing in response to his ad: "No one’s buying this. You supported the war in Iran every step of the way. Rogers six months ago: 'How anyone says [the war] is a bad idea, I don't know what is.'"
Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson Joey Hannum similarly stressed that "Mike Rogers has been all-in on Trump's Iran War from day one, repeatedly dismissed Michiganders' pain as gas prices skyrocketed, and has vowed to hand Trump a blank check to keep this war going indefinitely."
"Every time a Michigander fills up their gas tank, they're paying the price for the Rogers-Trump war in Iran," Hannum continued, as the average cost of gasoline stood at $4.48 a gallon. "Price Hike Mike promised he would give Trump the authority to keep his cost-raising war going, and Michiganders won't forget it."
Track AIPAC, which documents political spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and related groups, responded to Rogers' post with another clip of his previous comments on the war, which has dragged on for nearly seven months—with no end in sight—and killed thousands of people.
Mike Rogers pledges to support unconditional military aid to the country that dragged us into this war: pic.twitter.com/GluXUGKk3X
— AIPAC Tracker (@TrackAIPAC) September 21, 2026
Journalists and pollsters highlighted that Rogers isn't the only Republican running in the November midterms who is now calling for an end to the war, which polling has shown is deeply unpopular with the US public.
Republican Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson—who has repeatedly voted against war powers resolutions intended to end the conflict in Iran—wrote on social media Monday morning that "Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn't have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran. We need to use every option at our disposal to provide some relief from high prices."
"That includes suspending the gas tax, pausing diesel exports, unleashing E-15 everywhere we can, reinstating the $1/gallon biodiesel tax credit, and creating a diesel relief program to help our farmers and truckers being crushed by the high costs," Hinson continued, adding that "the war needs to be brought to a successful and immediate end."
In response, her Democratic opponent, Josh Turek, said that "it's easy to send a tweet, but when you had the chance to vote to end this war, you chose not to. You voted seven times to continue it, including just last week. It's time to actually end the forever wars and put Iowa and Iowans first. Glad you're finally following my lead after waffling on the proposals I put forward last week to address the rising costs of the war in Iran."
Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council, wrote to Hinson: "It's good you're calling for the Iran War to end, though you've also voted against six war powers resolutions directing an end to the war, including just six days ago. Will you vote for the next one, and commit to cut off funding for the backfiring war?"
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) asked: "How dumb does she think voters are? If Hinson wins, then Republicans control the Senate. And they've pledged to Trump to kill any legislative effort to end the war as long as they keep power."
Noting that "first Hinson, now Rogers" is claiming to want an end to the war, Punchbowl News senior congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio said that it "will be fascinating to see which way vulnerable R incumbents," such as Sens. Jon Husted (Ohio) and Dan Sullivan (Alaska), "vote on the Iran war powers resolution expected to come up this week."
Following Rogers' post, longtime Capitol Hill journalist Jamie Dupree wrote: "Wow. The war in Iran + high gas/diesel costs must be killing Republicans in their internal polling."
Zenith Research founding partner Adam Carlson posited: "The Republican strategy memo must have gone out this weekend. And the numbers must have been dire, particularly in the already tariff-battered Midwest."
Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshal suggested, "Honestly, this goes further than a lot of poll data to show you that GOPs are cooked."
Republicans are trying to hang on to their slim majorities in both chambers of Congress for the latter half of Trump's second term, and with the midterms less than two months away, The Cook Political Report currently ranks seven Senate seats as a "toss-up." In addition to the contests in Iowa and Michigan, there is Sullivan's race against former Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola in Alaska and Husted versus former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
There's also former Democratic Maine Senate President Troy Jackson's challenge to Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the race between Democratic New Hampshire Congressman Chris Pappas and former Republican Sen. John Sununu, and Texas' contest between Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Trump-backed state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
"Seven of nine planetary boundaries are transgressed, and pressure on all seven is at its highest recorded level," said one scientist.
Like other recent warnings from climate scientists, the message sent by the latest Planetary Health Check report on Monday was clear: "We need to move fast," as the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the group behind the report, said.
"Seven of nine planetary boundaries are transgressed, and pressure on all seven is at its highest recorded level," said Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute (PIK).
The report finds that seven measures of the Earth's health are no longer within the "safe operating space": ocean acidification, freshwater change, land system change, climate change, modification of biogeochemical flows, introduction of novel entities, and change in biosphere integrity.
Just two markers, stratospheric ozone depletion and the increase in atmospheric aerosol loading, have shown improvement over the last decade, said the Planetary Boundaries Science Lab at PIK.
“The diagnosis is unambiguous," said Boris Sakschewski, the lead author of the report. "Pressure is rising across every planetary boundary already outside the safe operating space. It means that the risk of large-scale, persistent, and potentially irreversible change is increasing, while our margin for error in tackling these problems is shrinking."
The scientists behind the report emphasized that with recent news regarding the state of the planet's crucial coral reefs, forests, and extreme weather events like heatwaves and flooding, it should come as no surprise that the Earth's boundaries have been transgressed, as continued fossil fuel emissions have caused runaway planetary heating.
Earlier this month, United Nations scientists said the planet can no longer avoid at least a temporary temperature rise above 1.5°C over preindustrial levels.
Oceans have also become so warm that stressed coral reefs have less and less time to recover from climate damage, as Common Dreams reported last month, and a UN report last year found that the world's governments are not moving fast enough to end the destruction of forests.
Last month and the summer of 2026 both set heat records, with extreme heat killing more than 1,000 people across Europe, and wildfires spreading across the continent and Canada. Record-breaking heat was also recorded in parts of Asia and the Middle East.
In June, the UN Children's Fund found that nearly every child on Earth is now exposed to at least one climate hazard driven by fossil fuel emissions, including flooding, heatwaves, and drought.
"Pakistan’s 2025 monsoon floods affected more than 6.9 million people," said PIK. "Global ocean heat content reached a new record in 2025, with Hurricane Melissa rapidly ramping up to a Category 5 hurricane and striking Jamaica after passing over exceptionally warm seas. From January 2023 to September 2025, bleaching-level heat stress impacted about 84.4% of the world’s coral reef area, making it the largest global coral-bleaching event observed to date."
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, chair of Planetary Guardians, implored readers of the Planetary Health Check report to "read that list again: Pakistan, the Caribbean, Europe, the reefs beneath our oceans. These are not separate emergencies; the planet is telling us, in every region at once, that it is out of balance."
"As chair of Planetary Guardians, I hear this same story wherever I go, whether from a pastoralist watching the rains fail season after season or a coastal community watching the sea rise," said Ibrahim. "The 2026 Planetary Health Check puts data behind what communities on the frontlines already know from living it. We do not have the luxury of treating these as separate crises any longer.”
Rockström emphasized that while "we do not have the luxury of time... we do have the knowledge, capacity, and solutions to change course."
"Accelerating action to return to the safe operating space across all planetary boundaries is essential to protect lives and livelihoods," said Rockström, "and to deliver on the promise of shared future prosperity."
"It’s clear: Americans are fed up with Trump and Republicans."
As US diesel prices are hitting record highs, President Donald Trump's approval ratings are hitting record lows.
A poll from Reuters released on Monday shows Trump's approval rating clocking in at just 32%, the worst rating recorded over either of his two terms.
One reason for Trump's rock-bottom ratings has been increasing dissatisfaction from Republican voters, who in the past have stood by him even after he incited a violent attack on the US Capitol that sent lawmakers running for their lives.
Overall, Trump's job approval ratings among Republicans fell by nine points in the span of a week, going from 82% to 73%. The survey also finds for the first time that Republican voters disapprove of Trump's handling of the cost of living, with 51% registering dissatisfaction.
The Reuters survey wasn't even the worst poll for Trump released on Monday, as a poll from American Research Group shows the president with an approval rating of 29% and a disapproval rating of 68%.
Notably, American Research Group said Trump's approval rating now is 10 points lower than it was in September 2018, shortly before the Republican Party lost 41 seats in the US House of Representatives in that year's midterm election.
The next midterm elections are less than two months away, and the biggest difference between 2018 and 2026 is the state of the economy, as Trump's illegal war with Iran has led to skyrocketing energy prices with no end in sight.
Data released by the American Automobile Association on Monday shows the average price of gasoline in the US rising to $4.48 per gallon, with the average price of diesel fuel hitting another record high of $6.51 per gallon.
Economists say the record diesel prices are likely to lead to further increases in grocery prices, as the fuel is used to power both farm equipment and delivery trucks. According to a Monday report from Axios, higher costs for farmers are set to "reach store shelves in the coming months, starting with bread, meat, dairy, and eggs."
In a Monday social media post, Trump tried to cast blame for high diesel prices exclusively on Russia's war with Ukraine, without mentioning the illegal war with Iran he started more than six months ago.
"Russia has unfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry due to its War with Ukraine," Trump wrote. "A large number of their Diesel refineries have been blown up and are, at least temporarily, out of commission. This ridiculous and never ending War with Ukraine must be ended."
The social media account for House Democrats pounced on the record-low approval numbers for the president.
"It’s clear: Americans are fed up with Trump and Republicans," they wrote.
"By setting aside those unconstitutional policies, the court has restored the rule of law."
A federal judge on Monday handed down a decision in a case brought by US citizen Leo Garcia Venegas, who was detained three times in the Trump administration's immigration raids at construction sites—but the court's order, said advocates, will protect workers across the country from federal agents' warrantless, violent raids.
Chief US District Judge Jeffrey U. Beaverstock in the US District Court for the Southern District of Alabama temporarily blocked Department of Homeland Security officers from conducting raids at construction sites. He issued stays on three DHS policies while Venegas' case proceeds and said agents had likely violated his Fourth Amendment rights.
The three practices Beaverstock blocked include DHS' warrantless entry policy; its preemptive detention policy, which allows agents to detain a person simply based on suspicion, even without evidence, that they are an undocumented immigrant; and its continued detention policy, which permits officers to hold a person even after they show evidence of citizenship or lawful presence in the US.
Those policies have resulted in three arrests of Venegas since the spring of 2025, including one instance in which masked officers followed him home from the construction site where he worked, ripped him from his car, tackled him to the ground, and handcuffed and shackled him—all while he was trying to show them his REAL ID to prove his citizenship.
“They can suddenly show up and detain you without having done anything,” Venegas testified in May. “Now I don’t feel free to drive, to go to work, or go to the store.”
The Institute of Justice, which is representing Venegas, noted that the Trump administration has urged all Americans to get their REAL ID cards—which, in most states, have a symbol like a star on them to comply with new rules—and Venegas' state of Alabama issues the cards only to citizens or those who are lawfully present. Yet a DHS official testified in Venegas' case that REAL ID cards do not prove that someone is authorized to be in the US.
"Venegas was not promptly released following the production of his REAL ID to officers. Instead, the officers disregarded the veracity of his documentation and continued to detain him," reads the court order. "A policy that permits such action is likely to run afoul of the Fourth Amendment."
In the ruling, Beaverstock also noted that DHS last year had claimed Venegas tried to interfere with officers when he was first detained in May 2025—something that video of the arrest did not support.
DHS also claimed that the agency treats construction sites as "open fields" where agents do not need a warrant or even a reason to search the premises and make arrests—but Venegas works in closed construction sites that are posted with "No Trespassing" signs, and was working inside a house that was in the finishing stages of being built when he was arrested for a second time last June.
"Agents walked inside a house where Leo was working, surrounded him, and ordered him to follow them," said the Institute for Justice last year when Venegas sued the Trump administration. "Again, Leo produced his REAL ID. Again, the agents refused to accept it. They marched him out of the development and detained him alongside other workers they had grabbed—only releasing him (and other lawful residents) 20 minutes later after confirming his citizenship."
Beaverstock wrote that "the government has not convinced this court that the warrantless entry into a structure—which undisputedly occurred during the June encounter—does not implicate the Fourth Amendment."
Jared McClain, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, called the judge's decision "a huge blow to DHS’ lawless enforcement practices."
“The government stood up in court and argued that they don’t need warrants to enter private construction sites and round up all the workers, and that they can’t trust government-issued IDs," said McClain. "By setting aside those unconstitutional policies, the court has restored the rule of law. Construction workers like Leo can finally go to work in peace again.”
A host on the Trump-friendly Newsmax network said it seemed his exile of the press was "backfiring just a little bit.”
It turns out that President Donald Trump may not have thought through all the consequences before he banned some of his most hated news outlets from the White House.
After Trump declared CNN, MS NOW, and Politico "fake news" and exiled them from the White House grounds on Friday, the other networks that make up the White House press pool—including ABC, CBS, NBC, and even Fox News—agreed to boycott their pool duties on Monday in solidarity with the banned outlets.
"There will be no replacement pool put in place," wrote Bryan Boughton, Fox News’ Washington bureau chief and chair of the White House television pool, in an internal notice to news organizations obtained by Politico.
It became clear exactly what that meant when the White House attempted to broadcast a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Trump's new helipad on the White House lawn on Monday afternoon.
The president's voice could be heard faintly. But his words were inaudible over the whir of a helicopter parked nearby.
"There's no microphone because the pool cameras aren't there," explained Bianca de la Garza, who was covering the event for the Trump-friendly outlet Newsmax.
The anchor said this was maybe "one example" of the president's attack on the media "backfiring just a little bit."
As of Monday afternoon, there is no reported effort by the White House to find a new press pool. This may prove problematic for Trump as he attends the United Nations General Assembly this week.
Meanwhile, the three outlets banned by Trump filed a lawsuit on Monday, arguing that their removal from White House grounds violated the First Amendment. Previous attempts by the Trump administration to ban news outlets from covering its activities have been shot down in court.
Aidan McLaughlin, the Washington correspondent for Vanity Fair, suggested on social media that, at the rate things are going, a lawsuit may not even have been necessary.
"He’s gonna lift the ban by the end of the week," he predicted.
"Hiding prisoners from the courts is unconstitutional," said one expert.
Critics reacted with horror to a Monday report from The Associated Press detailing how US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has abruptly ended its practice of disclosing the locations of thousands of detainees.
According to the AP, ICE "has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding... detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, an unannounced move that has made it far more difficult for lawyers and relatives to find them."
Immigration attorneys who spoke with the AP said that their clients had "vanished" from the system after ICE removed them from its online detainee locator system last week.
Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the AP that families of detainees "are freaking out because they think the person has been deported and they don’t know where the person might be."
Chen added that the new policy has "serious implications" for attorneys' ability to make contact with their clients.
Michelle Mendez, legal director at the National Immigration Project, told the AP that the new policy is "just another iteration of disappearing people."
"Why would we do that in the United States of America?" Mendez asked. "It's something we’d hear about in another country and be concerned about individual rights and due process."
Tom Jawetz, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, echoed Mendez's analysis, writing in a social media post that the AP report reveals "an official government policy of disappearing people," as "systems for attorneys and loved ones to know where—even whether—a person with a final removal order is in ICE custody have been wiped clean."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, described the new ICE policy as "unprecedented" for US immigration enforcement.
"People who have been detained for months are suddenly disappearing from the locator system—even if they haven't been moved anywhere," Reichlin-Melnick explained. "And people newly arrested are not showing up at all, their location now hidden from view."
Georgetown University political scientist Jonathan Ladd argued that the ICE policy was a fundamental violation of long-established rights in the US that date to before the country's official founding.
"The government moving or hiding jailed people to avoid review by courts isn't some loophole in our habeas corpus rights," Ladd explained. "This government behavior has been considered a violation of the people's habeas corpus rights since at least the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679."
Ladd further pointed out that "habeas corpus rights are guaranteed by Article I of our Constitution," which means "hiding prisoners from the courts is unconstitutional."
Journalist Gillian Brockell observed that the new ICE policy "will make it nearly impossible to file habeas petitions, because attorneys won’t even know what federal district their client has been moved to to stage for their removal."
Among those sharing the AP report on social media was Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an attorney for Wilbur Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan shot by ICE in Austin, Texas on Sunday.
Initially, she and the immigrant's wife could not make contact with him, because ICE moved him from the hospital "to an undisclosed location," but Lincoln-Goldfinch said Monday afternoon that her client "is being held at Pearsall for interrogation."
"We got Wilber on the phone live from detention at the press conference," the attorney added. "He says he still has the bullet lodged in his shoulder. He says he is not doing well and has not received the medical care he needs."
More than 11,000 children have severe life-changing injuries, including thousands who have had limbs amputated as a result of Israel's assault on Gaza.
Gaza has the world's largest concentration of child amputees thanks to Israel's genocidal war. Now, as Australian charities seek to deliver hundreds of wheelchairs to the children injured in the onslaught, Israel has reportedly been blocking them for more than a year and a half.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported last week that:
More than 900 wheelchairs, donated by two Australian charities to help injured children in Gaza, are stuck in warehouses in Jordan due to Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries into the war-ravaged strip.
Two shipments from New South Wales-based charity Kids on Wheels Alliance arrived in Jordan in February 2025, while a third, from Wheelchairs for Kids based in Western Australia, arrived in October 2025.
But instead of being delivered to children with severe mobility issues inside Gaza, they remain sitting in storage facilities managed by the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO).
According to the report, JHCO submitted an application in February 2025 for the wheelchairs to be included in an aid convoy headed to Gaza, where more than 11,000 kids have been left with "severe, life-changing injuries, including permanent disabilities that require long-term care and rehabilitation," according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
That application was denied by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli agency responsible for aid coordination, because "medical equipment and medicines were not approved for inclusion in that convoy." The application has been marked as "pending" for the last 19 months, meaning that a new request cannot be sent.
An Israeli government source told ABC that Israel had not blocked the delivery of the wheelchairs. But COGAT did not answer specific questions from the network about what had happened to the shipment.
The agency said it had allowed the entry of thousands of wheelchairs "without any quantitative restrictions," as well as "approximately 22,000 tons of medical equipment and medicines" since the beginning of the ceasefire in October 2025.
One source told the outlet that the wheelchairs may have been held up under Israel's rules blocking possible "dual-use" items that authorities believe could serve a military purpose.
The wheelchairs have specialized features: they are adapted for rough terrain to help users navigate the rubble-strewn streets of Gaza and are adjustable to grow with the children who use them.
But as Dr. Abdullah Al-Balawi, a physician with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association who has watched the boxes pile up undelivered, explained, "they do not pose any threat."
The stalled wheelchairs are hardly the first medical or disability equipment to be blocked as a result of Israel's strict restrictions on humanitarian supplies entering Gaza. Human rights groups have previously documented the use of dual-use restrictions to block wheelchair batteries, X-ray equipment, and materials used to manufacture prosthetic limbs.
It's not just medical supplies. Portable toilets have also been blocked, as have sleeping bags and tarps. These items are in high demand as around 90% of Palestinians living in Gaza remain displaced, with Israel's attacks having destroyed most of the buildings. According to a report from humanitarian organizations in April, bandages, diapers, shampoo, and tent poles have also been blocked.
Human Rights Watch has argued that the dual-use restrictions are unnecessarily broad and arbitrary, allowing certain items some days and rejecting them on others. The organization has called on Israel to remove the dual-use label on "medical-related supplies, assistive aids, and accessible technology like eyeglasses, wheelchairs, walkers, canes [and] hearing aids."
Amnesty International has described Israel's blocking of lifesaving medical and other forms of humanitarian assistance—including food, water and sanitation supplies, fuel, and shelter materials and equipment—as part of a pattern that amounts to genocide.
"The humanitarian aid must not stop," Al-Balawi said. "This is part of the stubbornness of the other side by not letting in this aid; the wheelchairs are only a part of it."
"If he doesn’t, then there can be no doubt that he is, and always will be, an enemy of the free press, just like his buddy in the White House."
A coalition of more than 100 journalists, press freedom campaigners, and advocacy organizations demanded Monday that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison fully and publicly back CNN, MS NOW, and Politico in their legal fight against President Donald Trump, who banned the outlets from the White House last week.
Ellison's company owns CBS and is currently on track to acquire CNN's parent firm, Warner Bros. Discovery. In a letter to Ellison, whose billionaire father is a megadonor to Trump and the Republican Party, the press freedom coalition urged the Paramount CEO to "publicly, harshly, and immediately condemn Trump’s unconstitutional ban on news outlets he dislikes, in violation of decades of precedent protecting the press from content-based punishment, including retaliatory restrictions on their access."
"We further call on you to publicly commit to fully backing any legal challenge to the illegal ban should you come to own CNN," the letter continues. "We need you to make clear that you stand with the reporters, photographers, camera operators, and other journalists you seek to employ, even when their reporting angers the president. If you fail to do so, the only logical conclusion is that your claims to value press freedom, editorial independence, and the First Amendment are empty talk and can’t be trusted."
The coalition's letter was spearheaded by the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), a vocal opponent of Trump's assault on journalism and Paramount's megamerger with Warner Bros. The Committee to Protect Journalists, Free Press, and investigative journalist Laura Poitras were among the other signatories.
Seth Stern, FPF's chief of advocacy, said in a statement that "Ellison’s past actions, from trading away CBS News’ independence to throwing dinner parties for Trump and his censorial hangers-on, have convinced many that he’s all talk when it comes to press freedom."
"Can he instantly rebuild that broken trust by finally standing up for the First Amendment only now, after such an extreme and outrageous action by Trump? Of course not," said Stern. "But if he doesn’t, then there can be no doubt that he is, and always will be, an enemy of the free press, just like his buddy in the White House."
The coalition's letter came shortly after CNN, MS NOW, and Politico sued Trump in a federal district court in Washington, DC, arguing his decision to ban the three outlets from the White House "could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles."
The call for Ellison to back the outlets' legal challenge also came amid news that state attorneys general reached a deal with Paramount that paves the way for the company to acquire Warner Bros., CNN's parent company.
"This moment is a test of your sincerity," the coalition wrote in its Monday letter to Ellison. "CNN, under its current ownership, has already released a statement, as have MS NOW and Politico, and they’ve announced they’ll file a lawsuit. Only one of those entities, however, has a parent company seeking to close a transaction in the near future that could steer control of its news operations to friends and political allies of the president."
"Canada exports more potash to the US than Belarus produces."
President Donald Trump drew ridicule on Monday when he announced he was working on an agreement to import potash, an important fertilizer for US farmers, from Belarus.
In a social media post, Trump claimed that the "massive deal" with Belarus would let the US import potash for "substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada," which he described as "very good news for our Farmers and Ranchers."
Canada supplies roughly 80% of all potash used by US farmers, and Trump's trade war against America's largest trading partner has been putting upward pressure the prices of all Canadian imports.
However, even if Trump's deal to buy potash from Belarus comes to fruition, it is unclear how much relief it would provide to US farmers, who have been also been paying a heavy price his illegal war with Iran, which has led to record-high diesel fuel prices.
As noted by a Monday report from Bloomberg, Belarus in 2021 only shipped around 700,000 tons of potassium fertilizers to the US before trade with the nation was restricted following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Canada, meanwhile, supplied the US with more than 10 million tons of such fertilizers last year.
Bloomberg also pointed out that "Belarus doesn’t have enough capacity to supply large volumes to the US" at the moment "because production for the year is already under contract."
There are also several logistical challenges to shipping large quantities of fertilizer from Belarus.
Oil market researcher Rory Johnston observed in a social media post that Belarus is a landlocked country with no easy way to export its products to the west after Lithuania terminated its transit agreement with the country at the start of the Ukraine conflict.
Canada, Johnston added, is "right next door."
Journalist Diana Henriques offered a similar assessment of the challenges of importing potash from Belarus.
"It is 5,080 miles from Nebraska to Minsk," Henriques wrote. "It is about 700 miles from Nebraska to Saskatchewan, the source of most Canadian potash. That's gonna have to be one heckuva discount to cover the transportation differential."
Ross O'Connor, former foreign affairs and national security advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was openly dismissive of Trump's Belarus gambit.
"Good luck with that," O'Connor wrote. "Canada exports more potash to the US than Belarus produces."
David Ryan Miller, professor of government at American University, offered a satirical summary of Trump's latest geopolitical maneuver.
"We are spurning our longtime democratic ally directly to our north in favor of an autocratic regime aligned with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that is 4,000+ miles away," Miller wrote. "We are very smart, serious people!"