'1.5ºC Is Dead': Climate Movement Holds Funeral for Paris Agreement Target

"We felt we needed a physical space where we could grieve together for what we are losing, and reflect on how to respond to the challenge now in front of us," said Alex Martin of Extinction Rebellion Cambridge.



Members of the "Red Rebel Brigade" led a procession around Cambridge, England as part of a funeral for the Paris agreement's 1.5°C temperature target on May 10, 2025.
(Photo: Derek Langley)

Jessica Corbett
May 10, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Extinction Rebellion and other climate organizations on Saturday held a funeral for the Paris agreement's 1.5ºC temperature target in Cambridge, England.

"The mock funeral idea grew out of the need to process the enormity and sadness of this moment," Alex Martin of Extinction Rebellion (XR) Cambridge said in a statement. "While many people are distracted by 1,001 things on their phones, we felt we needed a physical space where we could grieve together for what we are losing, and reflect on how to respond to the challenge now in front of us."

Almost a decade ago, parties to the Paris treaty agreed to work toward limiting temperature rise this century to 1.5ºC—but 2024 was the hottest year in human history, and countries around the world show no signs of reining in planet-wrecking fossil fuels anywhere near the degree that scientists warn is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate breakdown.

"Crossing 1.5ºC for a whole calendar year is a wake-up call for the world," said Olympic gold medalist and XR U.K. spokesperson Etienne Stott, highlighting another alarming record from last year. "If we want to avoid crossing further tipping points we need a complete transformation of society."


Extinction Rebellion and other climate groups held a funeral for the Paris agreement's 1.5°C temperature target in Cambridge, England on May 10, 2025. (Photo: Derek Langley)

Scientists from universities in the United Kingdom and Germany warned in a peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Earth System Dynamics last month that humankind is at risk of triggering various climate tipping points absent urgent action to dramatically reduce emissions from fossil fuels.

"There are levers policymakers can pull to rapidly phase out fossil fuels, but this requires standing up to powerful interests," Stott said Saturday. "Activists need to build power, resilience, and the world we want to see in our communities; but we also need to keep seeking the spark that will cause the worldwide transformation we need to see."

In addition to the Cambridge and U.K. arms of Extinction Rebellion, Saturday's action was organized by Cambridge Greenpeace, Cambridge Stop the War, and the Organization of Radical Cambridge Activists (ORCA).

Varsity, the independent student newspaper at the University of Cambridge, reported that the marchers "rallied at Christ's Pieces, where they heard from one of the organizers, who emphasised the harm caused by exceeding 1.5ºC of warming."

"The march then proceeded up Christ's Lane and down Sidney Street, led by a group of 'Red Rebels,' dressed in red robes with faces painted white, followed by 'pall bearers' carrying coffins painted black, with the words 'Inaction Is Death' in white," according to Varsity. "The procession was completed by a samba band who drummed as they walked, followed by protesters carrying a large sign reading 'Don't silence the science,' along with many other smaller placards."



Members of the "Red Rebel Brigade" led a procession around Cambridge, England as part of a funeral for the Paris agreement's 1.5°C temperature target on May 10, 2025. (Photo: Derek Langley)

Photos from organizers show participants displaying banners with messages such as "No Future on a Dead Planet," and additional messages painted on the black coffins: "1.5ºC Is Dead," "Act Now," "Ecocide," "RIP Earth," and "Web of Life."

"Politicians have broken their promises to keep global temperature rises to a livable 1.5ºC," declared Zoe Flint, a spokesperson for XR Cambridge. "For decades, people around the world have been resisting environmental devastation in their own communities and beyond—often facing state repression and violence as a result."

"With dozens of political protesters now in prison in this country, that repression has come to the U.K. too," Flint noted. "But when those least responsible for climate breakdown suffer the worst effects, we can't afford to give up the fight."

Parties to the Paris agreement are set to gather next in November at the United Nations climate summit, COP30, in Belém, Brazil.

Warning of Grave Threat to Free Speech, Judge Frees Rümeysa Öztürk

"There has been no evidence that has been introduced by the government other than the op-ed," U.S. District Judge William Sessions III said, referring to Öztürk's article urging divestment from Israel.

Rümeysa Öztürk (left) with her lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai (right) pose for a photo following the Fulbright scholar's release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in Louisiana on May 9, 2025.
(Photo: Rümeysa Öztürk legal team)



Brett Wilkins
May 09, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Rümeysa Öztürk, one of several pro-Palestine scholars kidnapped and imprisoned by the Trump administration under its dubious interpretation of an 18th-century law and a Cold War-era national security measure, was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Friday following a federal judge's order.


U.S. District Judge William Sessions III in Vermont ruled that Öztürk—a 30-year-old Turkish Ph.D. student at Tufts University in Massachusetts and Fulbright scholar—was illegally detained in March, when masked plainclothes federal agents snatched her off a suburban Boston street in broad daylight in what eyewitnesses and advocates likened to a kidnapping and flew her to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Louisiana.

"Thank you so much for all the support and love," Öztürk told supporters outside the facility following her release.



The government admits that Öztürk committed no crime. She was targeted because of an opinion piece published in Tufts Daily advocating divestment from Israel amid the U.S.-backed nation's genocidal assault on Gaza and its apartheid, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and colonization in the rest of Palestine. Öztürk was arrested despite a U.S. State Department determination that there were no grounds for revoking her visa.


"There has been no evidence that has been introduced by the government other than the op-ed," said Sessions, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton. "That literally is the case."

"There is no evidence here as to the motivation, absent consideration of the op-ed, so \that creates unto itself a very significant substantial claim that the op-ed—that is, the expression of one's opinion as ordinarily protected by the First Amendment—form the basis of this particular detention," the judge continued, adding that Öztürk's "continued detention potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of people in this country who are not citizens."

"There is absolutely no evidence that she has engaged in violence, or advocated violence, she has no criminal record," Sessions noted. "She has done nothing other than, essentially, attend her university and expand her contacts in her community in such a supportive way."

"Her continued detention cannot stand," he added.

The Trump administration has openly flouted judge's rulings—including a U.S. Supreme Court order—that direct it to release detained immigrants. Sessions' Friday ruling follows his earlier order to send Öztürk to Vermont and Wednesday's 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmation of the judge's directive, both of which have been ignored by the administration.

Seeing that Öztürk was still in ICE custody hours after his order, Sessions reiterated his directive Friday afternoon.

"In light of the court's finding of no flight risk and no danger to the community, petitioner is to be released from ICE custody immediately on her own recognizance, without any form of body-worn GPS or other ICE monitoring at this time," the judge wrote.

Mahsa Khanbabai, Öztürk's attorney, toldCourthouse News Service she's "relieved and ecstatic" that her client has been ordered released.

"Unfortunately, it is 45 days too late," Khanbabai lamented. "She has been imprisoned all these days for simply writing an op-ed that called for human rights and dignity for the people in Palestine. When did speaking up against oppression become a crime? When did speaking up against genocide become something to be imprisoned for?"

The Trump administration has dubiously invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the president to detain dor deport citizens of countries with which the U.S. is at war, in a bid to justify Öztürk's persecution. The administration has also cited the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which empowers the secretary of state to order the expulsion of noncitizens whose presence in the United States is deemed detrimental to U.S. foreign policy interests.

"When did speaking up against genocide become something to be imprisoned for?"

Secretary of State Marco Rubio—who lied about Öztürk supporting Hamas—has used such determinations to target people for engaging in constitutionally protected speech and protest.

"We do it every day," Rubio said in March in defense of the policy. "Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas."

Rubio has invoked the law to target numerous other students who the government admits committed no crimes. These include Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Yunseo Chung—all permanent U.S. residents—as well as Ranjani Srinivasan and others. Far-right, pro-Israel groups like Betar and Canary Mission have compiled lists containing the names of these and other pro-Palestine students that are shared with the Trump administration for possible deportation.

Foreign nationals—and some U.S. citizens wrongfully swept up in the Trump administration's mass deportation effort—are imprisoned in facilities including private, for-profit detention centers, where there are widespread reports of poor conditions and alleged abuses.

These include denial of medical care, insufficient access to feminine hygiene products, and rotten food at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, where Öztürk—who, according to Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), has received no religious or dietary accommodations and had her hijab forcibly removed—is being held.

Öztürk also suffers from asthma and told Sessions via Zoom Friday that her attacks have increased behind bars due to stress. Dr. Jessica McCannon, a pulmonologist, testified that Öztürk's asthma appears to be poorly controlled in ICE custody, according to courtroom coverage on the social media site Bluesky by freelance journalist Joshua J. Friedman.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was among those who on Friday demanded Öztürk's immediate release, while other lawmakers and human rights and free speech defenders celebrated Sessions' decision.

"Rümeysa Öztürk has finally been ordered released," Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said on social media. "She has been unlawfully detained for more than six weeks in an ICE facility in Louisiana, more than 1,500 miles away from Somerville. This is a victory for Rümeysa, for justice, and for our democracy."

Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement that "it is unfathomable that in the United States legal system, it takes 45 days for a judge to rule that people can't be put behind bars for writing op-eds the government doesn't like."

"Without a system committed to its principles, the Constitution is just words on paper, and they don't mean much if this can happen here," Stern continued. "Öztürk's abduction and imprisonment is one of the most shameful chapters in First Amendment history."

"We're thankful that Judge Sessions moved it one step closer to an end and we call on the Trump administration to release Öztürk immediately and not attempt to stall with any further authoritarian nonsense," he added.

Amid President Donald Trump's defunding threats and pressure from ICE officials, universities have told "many hundreds" of international students that they have lost their immigration status and must immediately self-deport. These notifications were based on the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) termination of students' records on the Student Exchange and Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a database used by schools and authorities to access visa information.

Although DHS admitted in court that it had no authority to use SEVIS to revoke students' status, the Trump administration still canceled more than 1,800 visas before reversing course last month pending an ICE policy revamp.

In addition to moving to deport pro-Palestine students, the Trump administration is sending Latin American immigrants—including wrongfully expelled Maryland man Kilmar Abrego García—to a notorious prison in El Salvador, and the president has repeatedly threatened to send natural-born U.S. citizens there.

As with Öztürk and other detained students, the Trump administration has dubiously invoked the Alien Enemies Act in trying to deport García and others. However, federal judges—including multiple Trump appointees—have thwarted some of these efforts.

On Friday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said that Trump and his advisers are "actively looking at" suspending habeas corpus as a means of overcoming judicial pushback against the administration's deportation blitz.

"Well, the Constitution is clear—and that of course is the supreme law of the land—that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion," Miller told reporters at the White House. No foreign entity has invaded the United States since Japanese forces landed in the Aleutian Islands in the then-territory of Alaska during World War II.

Critics pointed out that Miller's proposal is, in fact, blatantly unconstitutional.

"Since it appears needs to be said: The authority to suspend habeas corpus lies with Congress, not the president, and is only legal during extreme circumstances of rebellion or invasion," Democratic pollster and strategist Matt McDermott said on Bluesky. "Stephen Miller is full of shit."

It wasn't just Democrats and Palestine defenders who cheered Sessions' ruling Friday. Billy Binion, who covers "all things injustice" for the libertarian website Reason, said on social media that the government's "entire case against her is that... she wrote an op-ed."


  

"Hard to overstate how bleak—and frankly embarrassing—it is that the Trump administration wants to jail and deport someone for speech," he continued. "In America."

Trump Admin 'Reviewing' Visas After Arrest of Dozens of Pro-Palestinian Protesters at Columbia

"Repression breeds resistance—if Columbia escalates repression, the people will continue to escalate disruptions on this campus," wrote Columbia University Apartheid Divest.


New York City police arrested dozens of Pro-Palestinian protesters on Columbia University on Wednesday evening after they took over part of a central library in New York, U.S. on May 7, 2025.
(Photo: Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Eloise Goldsmith
May 08, 2025
COMMON DREAMS


The New York Police Department arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian protestors on Columbia University's campus on Wednesday evening—prompting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to announce on X that the federal government is reviewing the visa status of those involved in the action.

On Wednesday afternoon, masked protestors, many wearing keffiyehs, gathered in Columbia's Butler Library. Video of the protest posted to social media shows demonstrators inside the library chanting "free Palestine."

Columbia has been under intense scrutiny from the Trump administration in recent months over the school's alleged failure to protect Jewish students. Critics say the administration is weaponizing antisemitism to attack Palestinian rights advocates. In March, the school faced backlash for making policy changes in line with demands from the Trump administration following the administration's decision to freeze $400 million in federal grants for the school.

Late Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X: "We are reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University's library. Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation."

In January, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the professed aim of rooting out antisemitism at higher education institutions, and vowed to target foreign-born students who have engaged in "pro-jihadist" protests.

Acting university president Claire Shipman authorized the NYPD to enter campus around 7 pm on Wednesday in response to the rally in the library, according to the Columbia Daily Spectator. The student paper reported that the NYPD arrested roughly 75 protesters and began leading them out of the library shortly thereafter.

The Daily Spectator also reported that there were altercations between the police and protestors after the arrests made in connection to the library protest.

Eighty people "who did not comply with verbal warnings by the NYPD to disperse" were taken into custody, according to the NYPD, per reporting from CNN. Seventy-eight of those taken into custody were arrested and two others were issued summonses, the NYPD told the outlet. CNN noted that it's not clear how many of those arrested came from the protest inside the building.

The group Columbia University Apartheid Divest wrote on Substack on Wednesday that the protestors renamed the library in honor of Palestinian activist Basil al-Araj.

The organizers said that the action at the library "shows that as long as Columbia funds and profits from imperialist violence, the people will continue to disrupt Columbia's profits and legitimacy. Repression breeds resistance—if Columbia escalates repression, the people will continue to escalate disruptions on this campus."

In May of last year, the NYPD swept an occupation of Hamilton Hall and arrested dozens of student protestors.

Wednesday's events come not long after arrests by federal immigration agents of multiple noncitizens who had been active in pro-Palestine actions on Columbia's campus.

In March, federal immigration agents arrested pro-Palestinian activist and former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, who is currently languishing in an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Jena, Louisiana. Another Palestinian green-card holder active in Columbia's student protest movement, Mohsen Mahdawi, was also arrested by federal immigration agents, but last month was released on bail.

Both of those cases have generated significant national attention.

Federal Judge Halts Trump and Musk's Illegal Overhaul of US Government

The second Trump administration "has thrown agencies into chaos, disrupting critical services provided across our nation," the coalition behind the lawsuit said, welcoming the temporary restraining order.


Demonstrators continue weekly protest rallies against U.S. President Donald Trump and his adviser, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, outside of a Tesla dealership on May 3, 2025 in Pasadena, California.
(Photo: David McNew/Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
May 10, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

A federal judge in California on Friday temporarily blocked what at coalition of labor unions, local governments, and nonprofits argued was "the unconstitutional dismantling of the federal government by the president of the United States on a scale unprecedented in this country’s history and in clear excess of his authority."

Since returning to office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump—aided by his so-callled Department of Government Efficiency and its de facto leader, billionaire Elon Musk—has worked to quickly overhaul the bureaucracy, even though "the president does not possess authority to reorganize, downsize, or otherwise transform the agencies of the federal government, unless and until Congress authorizes such action," as the coalition's complaint notes.

District Judge Susan Illston agreed with the groups and governments, which include the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Alliance for Retired Americans, Main Street Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, the city and county of San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore, and more.

"The president has the authority to seek changes to executive branch agencies, but he must do so in lawful ways and, in the case of large-scale reorganizations, with the cooperation of the legislative branch," wrote Illston in a 42-page decision. "Many presidents have sought this cooperation before; many iterations of Congress have provided it. Nothing prevents the president from requesting this cooperation—as he did in his prior term of office."

"Indeed, the court holds the president likely must request congressional cooperation to order the changes he seeks, and thus issues a temporary restraining order to pause large-scale reductions in force in the meantime," said the judge, appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by former President Bill Clinton.

Illston added that "a temporary restraining order is, by definition, temporary. The court will not consider defendants' request for a stay of execution of the temporary restraining order, as doing so would render the exercise pointless. The court must promptly proceed to consideration of a preliminary injunction."

Welcoming the development in a late Friday statement, the plaintiff coalition said that "the Trump administration's unlawful attempt to reorganize the federal government has thrown agencies into chaos, disrupting critical services provided across our nation."

"Each of us represents communities deeply invested in the efficiency of the federal government—laying off federal employees and reorganizing government functions haphazardly does not achieve that," the coalition added. "We are gratified by the court's decision today to pause these harmful actions while our case proceeds."

The "largest and most significant challenge to Trump's authority to remake the government without congressional approval," as the coalition called it, was filed April 28 by the organizations' legal team: Democracy Forward, Altshuler Berzon LLP, Protect Democracy, Public Rights Project, and State Democracy Defenders Fund.

Illston's decision came just hours after an emergency hearing, during which coalition attorney Danielle Leonard "said the Trump administration's vision was to fundamentally degrade the services that Congress funds agencies to carry out, raising a profound separation of powers conflict," according toThe New York Times.

As the newspaper detailed:
"There's a presumption of regularity that used to exist with respect to the government's actions that I think they need to re-earn," she said.

Ms. Leonard said the Trump administration has never been able to point to any specific authority through which the president could seize that power from Congress. And she said that the government has consistently offered competing and contradictory explanations of why Mr. Trump can authorize the massive restructuring without Congress.

"It's an ouroboros: the snake eating its tail," she said.

Signaling a desire to keep moving through the process swiftly, Illston gave the plaintiff coalition until next Wednesday to file a motion for a preliminary injunction, and the federal defendants—Trump along with various federal agencies and their leaders—until the following Monday to respond, with a limit of 25 pages for both.

Even if the coalition's lawsuit ultimately succeeds, Republicans have a narrow majority in both chambers of Congress, meaning Trump could potentially work with lawmakers to pursue a similar gutting of the federal government before the midterm elections.

Elon Musk holds a personalized chainsaw gifted by Argentine President Javier Milei and a painting given by an attendee at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland on February 20, 2025.
(Photo: Valerie Plesch for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Scale of Musk's DOGE Conflicts of Interest 'Should Alarm Every American'

"The wealthiest man in the world is working to dismantle the very same federal departments and agencies tasked with overseeing and placing checks on his businesses," says Public Citizen in a new analysis.


Brett Wilkins
May 08, 2025
COMMON DREAMS


Elon Musk, the world's richest person and de facto head of the Trump administration's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, "has had a direct business interest in over 70% of the agencies and departments targeted by DOGE since its inception," according to an analysis published Thursday by a leading U.S. consumer advocacy group.

The Public Citizen report, titled Duplicitous Oligarchy Grifting Endlessly, "maps out the entities DOGE has targeted and identifies which ones carry a known conflict of interest for Elon Musk's business entanglements" as the executive office leads the Trump administration's purge of federal agencies.

"The wealthiest man in the world is working to dismantle the very same federal departments and agencies tasked with overseeing and placing checks on his businesses," the report states. "He also now is adjacent to and could potentially access sensitive and potentially proprietary information from his biggest competitors in the various industries that have made him wealthy. He also has personal business interests that could shape what his DOGE project considers ripe for cuts."



Elizabeth Beavers, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch, said in a statement that "it should alarm every American that the wealthiest man in the world has spent the last several months dismantling the same departments and agencies tasked with regulating his businesses."

"Musk's role as the most powerful person in government makes it highly unlikely that any regulator will crack down on his corporations and surely will make agency leaders look more favorably at Musk companies as potential government contractors," Beavers added.

The report considers Musk—who has signaled he will leave DOGE—to have a conflict of interest with a federal agency when one of his companies has received contracts or grants from the department, has an interest in its proprietary data, and is subject to its regulation or enforcement regime.

Public Citizen's analysis highlights interests with federal agencies including:Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Musk wants to abolish, would be in charge of regulating a proposed payments processing partnership between Visa and Musk's social media platform X;
Department of Justice, which is investigating electric automaker Tesla and possibly Musk as its CEO;
Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates Musk's SpaceX;
Food and Drug Administration, where some of the more than 1,000 fired staffers were reviewing Musk's Nueralink brain implants;
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which has awarded SpaceX approximately $15 billion in contracts;
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates Teslas, was hit with a 10% workforce reduction since President Donald Trump took office;
Securities and Exchange Commission, which has ongoing enforcement actions against Musk, including fines as high as $150 million for failing to file disclosure forms regarding shares of Twitter, which he bought in 2022; and
United States Agency for International Development, which was investigating whether Russia had improperly gained access to Musk's Starlink satellite internet system.

Musk—whose companies have tens of billions of dollars worth of government contracts—also has conflicts of interest with the departments of Defense, Agriculture, and Energy. SpaceX, for example, holds Pentagon contracts worth around $8 billion, including nearly $6 billion for the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 program.

Critics have laughed off the White House's assertion that Muskld self-police his conflicts of interest by recusing himself when DOGE and his business interests overlap.

"The report's findings make clear that this approach is deeply and incurably flawed—and that urgent action by Congress is required to safeguard the government from Musk's self-dealing and grift," Public Citizen said.

'The Corruption Is Staggering': Trump Officials Push Tariffed Nations to Approve Musk's Starlink

"The glaring conflict of interest inherent in this pressure to preference a Musk-owned company is disgusting," said Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert.


Elon Musk sits next to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 10, 2025.
(Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
May 08, 2025
COMMON DREAMS


Trump administration officials have reportedly been pressuring countries facing U.S. tariffs to approve satellite internet services offered by Elon Musk's Starlink to help grease trade negotiations, further underscoring the conflicts of interest stemming from the mega-billionaire's proximity to the White House.

The Washington Postreported Wednesday that it obtained "a series of internal government messages" that "reveal how U.S. embassies and the State Department have pushed nations to clear hurdles for U.S. satellite companies, often mentioning Starlink by name."

"The documents do not show that the Trump team has explicitly demanded favors for Starlink in exchange for lower tariffs," the newspaper added. "But they do indicate that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has increasingly instructed officials to push for regulatory approvals for Musk's satellite firm at a moment when the White House is calling for wide-ranging talks on trade."

The Post points specifically to ongoing bilateral trade negotiations between the U.S. and India, where "government officials have sped through approvals of Starlink with the understanding that doing so could help them cement trade deals with the administration."

The Times of Indiareported Wednesday that Starlink, a subsidiary of Musk's SpaceX, "has been issued a Letter of Intent by the Indian government for satcom services."



Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the U.S.-based consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in response to the Post's reporting that "the glaring conflict of interest inherent in this pressure to preference a Musk-owned company is disgusting."

"The bottom line here is that tools of trade and government should be utilized for the benefit of the American public, not abused for personal tech bro profiteering," Gilbert added.

Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called the revelations "a huge new scandal."

"Trump and Musk are using tariffs as leverage to get other countries to buy from Musk's companies. Working families pay $4,000+ more a year so Musk gets new deals," Casar wrote on social media. "They get richer. Everyone else gets screwed."


Last month, U.S. President Donald Trumppartially paused the more aggressive tariffs he sought to impose on countries around the world while leaving in place 10% across-the-board import duties, which are already raising costs for American families.

The Post reported Wednesday that "at least two countries have explicitly discussed or moved toward adopting Musk's Starlink as a means of avoiding Trump’s tariffs and negotiating a better trade deal with the United States."

Cambodia, which is facing a potential 49% tariff rate, appears to be one of those countries. The Post obtained a U.S. embassy cable indicating that Cambodian officials have signaled a "desire to help balance our trade relationship by promoting the market entry of leading U.S. companies such as Boeing and Starlink."

"Another cable from April 17 reported that Starlink was pushing for a license to operate in Djibouti," the newspaper reported. "Embassy staffers wrote they would help Starlink as much as they could: 'Post will continue to follow up with Starlink in identifying government officials and facilitating discussions.'"

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said the internal cables show "gross corruption." Congressional Democrats are already probing the White House's use of Starlink services.

"Surprise, surprise: another Trump move that directly benefits Elon Musk—the guy who spent $260 million to elect Donald Trump and has been given the keys to the federal government," said Van Hollen. "They are rigging the government for themselves."

Trump's Tax Rate for Richest Would Affect Very Little of Their Income


Nobody should be deceived: The wealthiest taxpayers got enormous tax breaks from Trump’s 2017 law and are getting additional large tax breaks in what Trump and Republicans are proposing now.


People rally in support of fair taxation near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. 

on April 10, 2025.
(Photo: Bryan Dozier/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)


Steve WamhoffCarl Davis
May 10, 2025

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

President Donald Trump has proposed extending all the temporary tax cuts he signed into law in 2017 with one (newly announced) exception—allowing the top rate to revert from 37% to 39.6% for taxable income greater than $5 million for married couples and $2.5 million for unmarried taxpayers. But many other special breaks in the tax code—some introduced by Trump’s 2017 tax law and many others that existed prior to it—would ensure that most income of very well-off people would never be subject to Trump’s 39.6% tax rate.

The very richest taxpayers broken out in IRS data are those with adjusted gross income (AGI) exceeding $10 million. Calculations using the most recent IRS data, which is for 2022, show that 85% of income from these extremely well-off taxpayers would not have been taxed at this higher rate, had it been in effect that year.

Of the $1.05 trillion in income reported by these taxpayers (who all reported at least $10 million), only $162 billion (15% of their total income) would have been subject to the 39.6% rate.





Another $176 billion (17% of their total income) would be taxed at a lower effective rate due to the 20% deduction for business income enacted as part of the 2017 tax law.

The vast majority of the income flowing to this group, $713 billion (68% of their total income) would not have been affected at all by Trump’s 39.6% rate. Most of this income is long-term capital gains and qualified dividends that have long been taxed at special, lower rates enacted under former President George W. Bush. It would be difficult for Congress to ever adequately tax extremely well-off people without reforming these and other special tax breaks for capital gains and dividends.

The 68% of income for these taxpayers that would not be subject to the 39.6% rate also includes income taxed at ordinary rates in brackets below the proposed 39.6% bracket. In addition, it includes income that is not taxable because of various deductions, like the deduction for charitable giving.

Had this proposal been in effect in 2022, the total additional tax paid by people with AGI exceeding $10 million would have been less than $8 billion.* The overall cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts, plus many new cuts that Trump and his supporters in Congress are considering, would cost orders of magnitude more than that.

In some ways, very well-off people are even more shielded from Trump’s proposed top rate than is illustrated in these figures. They have vast amounts of income that they are not required to report to the IRS, which are not included in this data and which are exempt from taxes under federal law. Most importantly, a wealthy person’s increase in net worth due to appreciation of assets is capital gain income that is not taxed until the assets are sold and the capital gains are “realized” as profits.




The corporate tax cuts enacted as part of the 2017 law mainly helped these taxpayers by increasing the value of their stocks, meaning they likely benefited from increased unrealized capital gains not reported in this data. The drafters of the 2017 law made those corporate income tax cuts permanent, unlike the personal income tax cuts and estate tax cuts that are temporary and being debated now as they near expiration. It will be difficult to adequately tax extremely well-off taxpayers without revisiting and reversing some of these corporate income tax cuts.

All else equal, it would be slightly better to let the top tax rate revert to 2017 levels as Trump suggests. But nobody should be deceived: The wealthiest taxpayers got enormous tax breaks from Trump’s 2017 law and are getting additional large tax breaks in what Trump and Republicans are proposing now. We need legislation that requires rich people to pay more taxes, not less. The Republican legislation will do the opposite, regardless of whether or not Congress includes this latest suggestion from Donald Trump.

*The revenue generated by a 39.6% rate compared to a 37% rate would be 2.6% of whatever taxable income is affected. As explained, only $162 billion of income for these taxpayers would have been entirely subject to the 39.6% rate, and 2.6% of $162 billion yields $4.2 billion. As explained, another $176 billion would have been subject to the 39.6% rate but because of the 20% deduction for pass-through business income, the revenue saved would be 20% less, yielding $3.6 billion. The sum of the two amounts is $7.9 billion. A small but indeterminate amount of additional revenue would also be raised from taxpayers with AGI below $10 million.

Trump appointee Pirro left trail of 'stiffed' creditors dating back to 2006: report

Tom Boggioni
May 10, 2025 
RAW STORY


Jeanine Pirro (Photo by Jim Lamparski for Reuters)

According to a report from NOTUS, Donald Trump's replacement hire to serve as the interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., has hundreds of thousands of dollars dating back to 2006 that have reportedly never been paid.

As Dave Levinthal of NOTUS wrote, Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro's unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate resulted in vendors left hanging according to FEC reports to the tune of $600,000.

As he wrote, "Pirro’s 2006 U.S. Senate campaign failed for years to file mandatory financial reports with the Federal Election Commission, despite repeated warnings from regulators," with one regulator warning in 2024, "The failure to timely file a complete report may result in civil money penalties, an audit or legal enforcement action."

Reporting, "The Pirro committee’s $600,000 in total debts involved nearly two-dozen creditors, including Mercury Public Affairs ($37,640), Verizon ($1,859.28) and the U.S. Postal Service ($1,627.30)," Levinthal reported that in 2019 the Pirro for Senate committee claimed, "... these debts, based on contract, are not collectable as the [New York state] 6-year [statute] of limitations has long passed.”

In May of the same year, the FEC allowed the committee to abandon filing reports with the admonition, “... administrative termination of your reporting obligation does not relieve the committee of any legal responsibility for the payment of any outstanding debt or obligation.”

You can read more here.


MSNBC host urges viewers to 'Google it' while digging into Jeanine Pirro's sketchy history

Tom Boggioni
May 10, 2025 
RAW STORY

Jeanine Pirro walks on the hallway during a break at Manhattan criminal court in New York, US, on Friday, May 10, 2024. JEENAH MOON/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

On Saturday morning's edition of MSNBC's "The Weekend," co-host Jonathan Capehart expressed both dismay and surprise that Donald Trump selected Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro to serve as Washington, D.C.'s interim U.S. attorney considering her history.

Speaking with his co-hosts, he claimed it doesn't take much effort to dig up Pirro's sketchy background when it comes to law enforcement and offered some tips to viewers.

"Talk about failing upward!" he exclaimed before continuing, "She's not qualified."

Point out the longtime friendship between Pirro and Trump, Capehart continued, "They are such good friends that at the end of his first term as president, didn't he, yeah, he gave her former husband, tax cheat ex-husband Al a pardon."

"And folks, do yourself a favor just Google 'Jeanine Pirro,' 'husband,' 'FBI,' 'Bernie Kerik,'" he advised.

"See, there's a whole thing, a scandal from 20 years ago where she is caught on tape talking to the former New York police commissioner about bugging her husband's boat for reasons you can read in that story if you Google it," he continued.

You can watch below or at the link.

'Bombastic talking head': MSNBC panel mocks Trump's 'reality show' pick Jeanine Pirro

Fox News

Alex Henderson

May 10, 2025
ALTERNET

President Donald Trump has picked far-right Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to serve as interim U.S. attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Washington, D.C. office. Trump's Pirro announcement followed his decision not to nominate the current interim U.S. attorney for that office, Ed Martin, permanently.

Pirro has a background as a prosecutor: in the past, she served as DA in Westchester County, New York. But in recent years, Pirro's main focus has been working as a Fox News pundit.

Trump's decision to appoint Pirro to DOJ drew a biting response from a Saturday morning, May 10 panel on MSNBC's "The Weekend." And the three hosts — The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart, Politico's Eugene Daniels and Never Trump conservative Elise Jordan — agreed that Pirro is being hired for her loyalty to Trump, not because she brings a long DOJ resume to the table.

Capehart complained, "She's not qualified to do any of this stuff." And Daniels responded, "For Trump, she is."

Daniels elaborated, "The qualifications that he has for a lot of these people — and we're looking at 21 different Fox News personalities or contributors who have joined the second Trump Administration…..The qualifications aren't: Can they run the department? It's: Do they have loyalty to him? And more importantly, do they have disdain for the organization of which they're a part? He also tells people that he likes folks who look the part. Right? And you know, whether that means they're pretty or they're handsome or they look strong."

Daniels noted that when Trump picks nominees, he is thinking like "the producer of a reality show" — and by that standard, Pirro fights right in.

Jordan agreed, interjecting, "And he loves having someone who is a bombastic talking head is and is going to fight."

Watch the full video below or at this link.

'Why are we not talking about his mental acuity?' MSNBC host nails growing Trump problem

Tom Boggioni
May 10, 2025 

RAW STORY


Donald Trump (Photo via Reuters)

During an MSNBC panel on recent proclamations from Donald Trump that have left observers baffled, "The Weekend" co-host Jonathan Capehart expressed dismay that there is not more attention being paid to the president's state of mind.

With former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) commenting on Trump's nonsensical tariff claims, Capehart couldn't contain himself and exclaimed, "I wrote down this note immediately: why are we not talking about his mental acuity? How?"

Co-host and former GOP speechwriter Elise Jordan offered, "The last interview he did with [NBC's] Kristen Welker, he did not look as sharp and he looked, at least at a minimum, tired. At worst case, he is not as sharp as he used to be."

Comstock then jumped in with, "I mean he's talking about how it's great that those, right the [container] ships coming over are empty, that means we're saving money, it is literally economically illiterate."

"His own people –– look at Steve Moore, Heritage Foundation, a guy who opposes tariffs has been saying to people behind the scenes, actually, he's been saying it on Fox News, this is insane," she added. "

"You can tell –– Ken Griffin who gave money, huge money to Republicans last year, including Trump, has said this has made us 20 percent poorer in a month done permanent damage to the American brand and this isn't going to be something we can turn around from now. You know, and what he [Trump] does is he burns down the house and then he comes in and says, 'Oh, the market went up.' Well, no."

You can watch below or at the link

'We're not playing': DHS spokesperson reveals plans on CNN to arrest members of Congress

Tom Boggioni
May 10, 2025
RAW STORY


Victor Blackwell, Tricia McLaughlin (CNN screenshot)

During an appearance on CNN Saturday morning where she was tasked with defending the questionable arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka by a mob of armed ICE agents outside of an DHS facility, a spokesperson for the agency stated there are plans to arrest more lawmakers in the coming days.

Speaking with host Victor Blackwell, Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at DHS and former advisor to failed GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, kept insisting that Mayor Baraka was arrested for "storming" the facility despite video showing him being taken into custody outside the chain-link gate.

After she grimly recited that the mayor and members of Congress who were also in attendance "put law enforcement at risk, this actually put the detainees, as well, at risk," she added more arrests would be forthcoming.

"Victor, I think that we should let viewers know there will likely be more arrests coming," McLaughlin claimed. " We actually have body camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer. So we will be showing that to viewers very shortly."

'You say a video of members of Congress body slamming ICE officials?" a skeptical Blackwell asked.

"That's correct sir, it's disgusting," she replied.

"Okay, and so, if you have that video, are you suggesting that members of Congress will be arrested who were there yesterday?" the CNN host pressed.

"This is an ongoing investigation and that is definitely on the table," she shot back.

"Who has the video?" Blackwell asked.

"ICE does and we will be releasing that shortly," she replied before later adding, "We're not playing."

You can watch below or at the link:

‘I didn’t break any laws’: Newark mayor slams ‘humiliating’ arrest at ICE facility

Erik De La Garza
May 9, 2025 

RAW STORY

(Screengrab via CNN)

Ras Baraka, the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey, didn’t waste any time defending himself after his arrest outside an ICE facility sparked a chaotic scene that included protesters and several members of Congress who were on site.

“It was really humiliating and painful,” Baraka, who said he's now facing a federal trespassing charge, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Friday.

Speaking out just hours after his release from federal custody, Baraka, a candidate for governor of New Jersey, took to CNN to tell his side of the story – and denounce the charges. He said he was there in support of members of Congress and his capacity as mayor, not to protest, and was wrongfully “targeted.”



“After they told us to leave, we left and they began to try to arrest me,” Baraka said. “I shouldn't say us. They targeted me and came after me specifically and arrested me.” He also slammed comments from Alina Habba, acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey and longtime Trump ally, that accused the Newark mayor of ignoring multiple warnings.

“The reality is, Alina Habba wasn't there,” he said. “She doesn't know what happened. I was there for over an hour in that space, and nobody ever told me to move."

“Not a single person,” he added. “Not an officer from ICE, not any of the security guards, nobody told me to leave that place.”

But Baraka said he has no regrets.

“I don't have any regrets at all,” Baraka told Collins. “I would do it again. I have a right to go to those facilities as the mayor of the city.”

“And it is not federal property,” he added. “It is, in fact, private property. GEO is privately owned.”

Watch the video below via CNN or at the link here: 

Former head of crypto platform Celsius sentenced 12 years


By AFP
May 8, 2025


Founder and former CEO of crypto lender Celsius Alexander Mashinsky has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on fraud charges 

- Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File David Dee Delgado

The founder and former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency trading platform Celsius, Alexander Mashinsky, was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in prison on fraud charges.

Mashinsky, 50, pleaded guilty last December to securities fraud in a deal that reduced the level of charges he faced.

The sentence comes down nearly three years after the startup’s collapse as a cryptocurrency platform, which offered customers the ability to invest in digital currencies, including its own coin, CEL.

According to the indictment, Celsius executives took more than $4 billion in customers’ assets to finance the platform’s operations, make unsecured loans and invest in high-risk items.

Mashinsky was also accused of manipulating the price of CEL by using customers’ funds to purchase the currency, artificially inflating its price.

At its peak in late 2021, Celsius had more than one million clients and held more than $25 billion in assets.

But the company hit hard times in the spring of 2022 as the value of cryptocurrencies plummeted.

Facing deep customer withdrawals, Celsius on June 12, 2022 froze over $4.7 billion in customer accounts before filing for bankruptcy protection a month later.

A progress report published in March found that 93 percent of the frozen assets had been recovered and returned to former Celsius customers.

The 2022 cryptocurrency collapse affected a number of other startups in the field, including FTX, the second-largest crypto exchange that filed for bankruptcy in November 2022.

Nearing 100, Malaysian ex-PM Mahathir blasts ‘old world’ Trump


By AFP
May 8, 2025


Ex-Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is giving President Donald Trump three months before Americans force him to rethink his global tariff strategy - Copyright AFP JADE GAO

Isabelle LEONG and Jan HENNOP

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is giving President Donald Trump three months before his fellow Americans force him to rethink his stringent global tariff strategy, accusing the US leader of “living in an old world”.

Speaking to AFP in an interview two months ahead of his 100th birthday, the plain-speaking Mahathir said: “Trump will find that his tariffs are hurting America, and the people in America will end up against him.”

The US president’s stop-start tariff rollout will hit Asian nations hard — including Malaysia, which faces a 24 percent levy in July unless the two countries can strike a deal.

“It’s going to cause America a lot of problems, so I give Trump three months,” said Mahathir, who ruled Malaysia in two stints lasting nearly a quarter of a century.

Still working a five-day week from his office in the administrative capital Putrajaya, the sprightly nonagenarian remains as outspoken as ever.

“Donald Trump is irrational. I don’t think he thinks carefully about what he’s doing,” said Mahathir.

“His policies on migration — and also trying to reduce the cost of government, sacking thousands of people — all these things are not good.

“It will not make America great,” he said, taking a jab at Trump’s MAGA election slogan.

Asked what he thought of some of Trump’s foreign policies — proposing to take over Greenland and seize control of the Panama Canal — Mahathir said the US leader was “living in an old world”.



– ‘Cannot stop China’ –



Throughout his long career, Mahathir was a proponent of a “Look East” policy — pushing Malaysians to find solutions in Asia rather than depending on Western nations.

As US tariffs loom, Mahathir has not changed his mind.

China has taken the brunt of the US president’s combative trade policies with 145 percent tariffs on many goods.

President Xi Jinping recently visited Malaysia, part of a three-stop tour to Southeast Asia, where the Chinese leader called for closer cooperation between the two nations.

“You cannot just stop China because its ability, its capacity is the same as those of Western countries,” said Mahathir.

“We find that the US, which for some time has been lauding itself as the world’s first power, does not want to accept China’s development.”

Malaysia aimed to remain friendly towards both Washington and Beijing, the veteran politician said.

“We don’t want to quarrel with China, but we don’t want to quarrel with America either,” he added.

“Malaysia’s policy is to be friendly with all countries.”

Mahathir, one of the 20th century’s last post-colonial stalwarts, will celebrate his birthday on July 10.

The former leader has been battling health problems, most recently when he was hospitalised after contracting a respiratory infection.

He spent nearly three months in hospital during another stay last year.

Although no longer in power — his fragile coalition which included long-time political foe and current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim collapsed in 2020 — Mahathir’s views still carry much weight at home and across the region.

But asked what he thought was his most important legacy, Mahathir said it was “for others” to judge.