Guterres Hailed for Fiery Outgoing Speech Demanding Polluters Pay for Climate Crisis

“We know that fossil fuel interests won’t step aside on their own,” said the UN chief. “When the harms of Big Tobacco became undeniable—governments acted. The climate crisis demands the same determination.”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the opening of the general debate of the UN General Assembly’s 81st session in New York City on September 22, 2026.
(Photo by Loey Felipe/UN)

Jessica Corbett
Sep 22, 2026
COMMON DREAMS



With United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres set to leave his post at the end of this year, he used his final address to the UN General Assembly on Monday to share a familiar call: “Polluters must pay” for fueling the global climate emergency.

Since the Portuguese politician began his first five-year term leading the world body nearly a decade ago, he has repeatedly called for international action to rapidly phase out the coal, gas, and oil that are heating up the planet. In late 2023, he emphasized that “the science is clear. The 1.5°C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce. Not abate.”

The UN chief announced at the end of 2024 that “the top 10 hottest years on record have happened in the last 10 years,” and declared: “This is climate breakdown in real time. We must exit this road to ruin.” Last year, he argued that fossil fuels represent “the greatest threat to energy security today,” and countries clinging to them are “sabotaging” their own economies and futures.

Earlier this month, after a UN report found that at least temporarily surpassing the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting temperature rise this century to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels is now inevitable, Guterres stressed that “this summer’s scorching heat, raging wildfires, and deadly floods are a warning of what lies ahead,” and called for making the overshoot “as small and short as possible.”

Speaking to the General Assembly on Tuesday, he cited that recent finding: “Now we face a near-certain breach of the 1.5-degree limit, with a supersized El Niño speeding straight for humanity. The dangers are real. But so is the hope.”

“The sun belongs to no one. The wind cannot be embargoed. Innovation can come from everywhere,” he said. “Renewables are now the cheapest source of new electricity in most of the world. And the most viable path to energy security, independence, and sustainable growth... A future beyond fossil fuels is in sight. The question is how.”

“Will it be a just and orderly transition built on international cooperation—or chaotic and costly, leaving people and countries behind?” he asked, urging every government to adopt a Paris Agreement-aligned national plan to transition away from fossil fuels.

“We know that fossil fuel interests won’t step aside on their own. For decades, Big Oil has treated the atmosphere as an open sewer—and cashed in on the consequences,” he acknowledged. “We have seen this kind of abuse of power before. When the harms of Big Tobacco became undeniable—governments acted. The climate crisis demands the same determination.”



According to the UN chief: “Those who polluted the most—and profited the most—must do far more to repair the damage they caused. Polluters must pay. And to the leaders, cities, civil society and citizens working to hold them accountable: I say, you are on the right side of history. Keep going.”

“And governments must keep going on all fronts: To end deforestation. Invest in grids and storage. Cut methane emissions,” he continued. “But these actions are not enough: We need climate justice with a focus on adaptation and finance. Developed countries must respect their commitments. They must triple adaptation finance.And make the Loss and Damage Fund work at scale.”

“We must also ensure that the mining of critical minerals does not dig deeper into the inequities of the past,” he added. “Producing countries and affected communities must retain a far greater share of the value created from their resources. No more plundering. No more exploitation.”

While Guterres’ speech didn’t just focus on “the power fueling climate chaos and the war on nature”—it also addressed peace and security, inequality, and artificial intelligence in detail—climate campaigners welcomed the time he devoted to the crisis.



“When the UN secretary-general calls for fossil fuel companies to pay, you know this demand has become impossible to ignore,” said Louise Hutchins, co-convenor of the Make Polluters Pay International Coalition, in a statement. “Millions of people around the world are calling for it, and governments are starting to listen.”

His address came just a day after campaigners from groups around the world delivered over 2 million petition signatures calling on governments to make polluters pay to Selwin Hart, the UN’s assistant secretary-general for climate action, in New York City.

“For years, campaigners and communities on the frontlines have been saying the same thing: The companies that profited from fossil fuels must pay their fair share of the costs of the crisis they helped create. Today, that demand is moving into the mainstream,” 350.org executive director Anne Jellema noted after Guterres’ remarks. “The voices of more than 2 million people are now being brought to the UN. Governments have the power to make polluters pay, and they must use it.”



Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International, highlighted that “the people who have contributed least to the climate crisis are paying the highest price. They are losing homes, livelihoods, and access to food and facing an increasingly uncertain future, while fossil fuel corporations and their billionaire backers continue to profit. The call to make rich polluters pay is about justice. It is about ensuring that those who have benefited most from the fossil fuel economy pay for the damage it has caused.”

Greenpeace International executive director Mads Christensen pointed out that “Guterres has spent years warning leaders where fossil fuel dependence leads, and this year proved him right. From deadly heat to devastating fires and floods, the very dependence driving these disasters is shaking entire economies and leaving families exposed to volatile energy and food prices, while the companies behind it keep raking in the profits.”

“New rules forcing governments to align their taxes and spending with global climate goals would raise hundreds of billions of dollars to support the countries and communities least responsible, while incentivizing money out of fossil fuels and into secure, renewable energy that actually protects people,” he argued. “As long as destruction stays profitable, the transition to a safer, fairer future will keep being held back. Guterres has named the solution, governments must now act on it.”

‘Mamdani Moment’ in Germany as Leftist Elif Eralp in Line to Be Next Mayor of Berlin

A Left Party official said its strategy for the Berlin election was “explicitly inspired... by Zohran Mamdani’s campaign.”

German socialist Left Party’s lead candidate for Governing Mayor of Berlin, Elif Eralp, makes statements alongside party officials on election results at the state parliament in Berlin, Germany, on September 21, 2026.
(Photo by Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Brad Reed
Sep 21, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Germany’s Left Party on Sunday made history by winning the 2026 Berlin state election, putting its lead candidate, socialist Elif Eralp, in position to become mayor of the country’s largest city.

In all, the Left Party won 26% of the overall vote in the election, with the center-right Christian Democratic Union capturing 19% and the far-right Alternative for Germany winning 16% of the vote.

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The two other center-left parties—the Greens and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)—won 14% and 12% of the vote, respectively.

A Sunday report from Bloomberg News described the Left Party’s victory in Berlin as a “Mamdani moment,” in reference to democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s upset 2025 win in the New York City mayoral race.

Like Mamdani, Eralp and her party put affordability at the center of their campaign, with a particular emphasis on the rising cost of housing in the city.

As described by Euronews in a Monday report, Eralp “called for tighter regulation of rents, more social housing, and further moves towards bringing large housing portfolios into public ownership.”

The Euronews report also noted the connection to Mamdani, citing a quote from Eralp last year arguing that “if a left-wing candidate can win in New York, then there’s no reason it can’t happen in Berlin.”

According to a Saturday report in The Washington Post, the Left Party recently sent a delegation to New York City to learn about Mamdani’s campaign and even met with some of the mayor’s advisers to talk political strategy.

Liza Pflaum, the head of digital communications for the Left Party and a member of the delegation, told the Post that while her party had already embraced “a clear focus on issues relevant to affordable living” two years ago, it also was “explicitly inspired... by Zohran Mamdani’s campaign.”

While the Left Party received the most votes in the election, it did not receive enough to form an outright majority, meaning it will need coalition partners to form a government.

The Greens and SPD have indicated they are willing to form a coalition with the Left Party, but have claimed the party has allowed antisemitism to flourish in its ranks—an allegation that conservatives have made against left-wing candidates and political leaders in the US as well.

Progressives have warned against the conflation of antisemitism and criticism of Israel.

Eralp has disputed accusations of antisemitism in her party, which have focused on comments about the Israel Defense Forces at a campaign event and the presence of “an allegedly militant activist” at an election victory party.

“I will do everything to ensure that Jewish people—just like Muslims, queer people, and everyone in our city—can feel safe,” said Eralp.

‘Good Luck With That’: Critics Mock Trump for Hyping ‘Deal’ With Belarus to Replace Canadian Fertilizer

“Canada exports more potash to the US than Belarus produces.”



Brad Reed
Sep 21, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

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.”

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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!”

TRUMP GESTAPO

ICE Denounced for Enacting ‘Official Government Policy of Disappearing People’

“Hiding prisoners from the courts is unconstitutional,” said one expert.

Detainees stand by a window inside the federal immigration center at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, where US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is housing detained immigrants on May 26, 2026.
(Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images)

Brad Reed
Sep 21, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


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.”

Federal Judge Blocks DHS From Deporting Austin Man Shot by ICE

“DHS must not obstruct or otherwise interfere with this investigation by removing Mr. Garces Perez from the country,” said lawmakers.


Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, who was shot by an immigration agent on September 20, 2026, is seen in an undated photo.
(Photo: family photo via X)

Julia Conley
Sep 22, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


The attorney representing Wilber Rafael Garces Perez said Tuesday that a federal judge had granted her emergency request to block the Trump administration from deporting the 28-year-old delivery driver, who was shot by an immigration agent Sunday and has since been transferred multiple times between hospitals and a detention center—all while the officer’s bullet reportedly remains lodged in his back.

“We have filed a federal lawsuit, and the judge has ordered that he be present at the first hearing, which is scheduled for Wednesday, September 30,” said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. “And that means he won’t be deported in the meantime.”

Lincoln-Goldfinch applauded the rare piece of “good news” that has come out of Garces Perez’s case since he was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent while making DoorDash deliveries in his car Sunday afternoon.

As Common Dreams reported, Garces Perez was transferred from an ICE detention center in Pearsall, Texas to a hospital late Monday after reporting that he had lost feeling in the left side of his body, likely as a result of the bullet that remained close to his spine.

But Lincoln-Goldfinch and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said Tuesday that Garces Perez had again been taken back to the detention center.

Castro said he and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) plan to visit Garces Perez at South Texas ICE Processing Center on Wednesday, to “check on his condition and demand his release.”

“It is nothing more than a prison,” said Castro. “Wilber came to the United States legally. He had work permits and was an asylum seeker. None of this should have ever happened.”

Garces Perez arrived in the US in 2024 from Venezuela, using a government program for asylum seekers and the CBP One app that was introduced by the Biden administration to make an appointment for approval from immigration agents. He received a work permit and applied for asylum.

He mistakenly missed an immigration hearing after a notice was sent to an old address, The New York Times reported, which led to his deportation order. He has no criminal history.

Lincoln-Goldfinch had been planning to visit her client in the hospital Tuesday, where he was taken after he called in to a press conference the lawyer was holding Monday and said that he had not received medical treatment for his gunshot wound.

After speaking to Garces Perez via a video call Tuesday morning, Lincoln-Goldfinch reported on social media:
Wilber tells me that after he spoke publicly, guards at the Pearsall detention center forcibly took the tablet from his hands, revoked his communication privileges, and moved him out of the infirmary into an isolated room with a flat bed that cannot be adjusted like a medical bed.

[...]

At the hospital, Wilber says doctors finally spoke directly to him about his care and gave him IV morphine for his pain. We now understand that the gunshot fractured his clavicle and that he has significant swelling and is wearing a sling. We still do not have clarity about the cause or extent of the loss of movement he experienced.

He was discharged back to Pearsall around midnight. Today, he tells me he is receiving only Tylenol and ibuprofen for pain. He remains in isolation, on a flat bed, and without the tablet he previously used to communicate. We are asking for his communication privileges to be immediately restored and for him to be provided an appropriate medical bed and adequate medical care. Most importantly, we are continuing to advocate for Wilber’s IMMEDIATE release.

Also on Tuesday, it was revealed that the ICE agent who shot Garces Perez was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting—similar to the case of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Maine in July.



“Before we hear anything from ICE about, ‘We pulled him over, or he was fleeing, or he was aggressive,’ our response to any statements like that is, ‘We won’t believe you until you show us,’” said Goldfinch-Lincoln. “Show us your body cam footage, show us your dash cam footage.”

On Tuesday, more than 100 members of Congress signed a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting ICE Director David Venturella, spearheaded by Casar, calling on ICE to release Garces Perez and “abandon efforts to swiftly deport him or remove him from Texas.”

“ICE has provided no justification for this shooting, and there is no indication Mr. Garces Perez posed a threat to officers,” reads the letter, noting that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “has a history of withholding information and attempting to obstruct active investigations into wrongdoing by its agency.”

“DHS must not obstruct or otherwise interfere with this investigation,” said the lawmakers, “by removing Mr. Garces Perez from the country or interfering with the release of footage, data, or other information by Texas state or local agencies involved in the operation.”

Austin Man Shot by ICE Facing Paralysis After Being Refused Medical Care

“This isn’t law enforcement,” said US Senate candidate James Talarico. “It’s lawlessness.”


People protest outside the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, on September 21, 2026, a day after Wilber Rafael Garces Perez was shot and wounded by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation.
(Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Sep 22, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Democrats in Congress on Monday evening were demanding a full, independent investigation into US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s shooting on Sunday of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, as it was reported that he had been held in an ICE detention center with a bullet still lodged in his back—close to his spine—and that he was finally being taken to a hospital only after he lost feeling in the left side of his body.

In a video posted on social media, US Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) recounted how Perez was initially hospitalized after ICE agents in an unmarked SUV sideswiped his car as he was making DoorDash deliveries in Austin, Texas, and then shot him through his windshield as he was trying to pull over.

But “only a few hours after being shot, he was forced out of the hospital,” said Castro, “and sent over to what is known as STIPC, in Pearsall, Texas, along I-35, the South Texas ICE Processing Center.”

Castro and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) spent Monday attempting to gain permission to visit with Perez and raising alarm over the fact that ICE’s bullet had not been removed from his back before he was taken to STIPC, where he was reportedly forced to sleep on a floor.

“He reported that he’s in incredible pain, that he’d not been given any medication,” said Castro. “It’s basically abuse that you would take somebody who has been shot and move them from a hospital to a prison, that kind of prison, within a matter of hours, and then also, it looks like, start the process to deport them immediately.”


Perez entered the country two years ago after using the CBP One application to set up an appointment with immigration agents. The app was introduced by the Biden administration, but President Donald Trump abruptly terminated it immediately after he took office last year. Perez was permitted to enter the country, applied for asylum, and received a work permit.

As Common Dreams reported Monday, Perez’s lawyer, Kate Goldfinch-Lincoln, and his wife were unable to make contact with him when he was first taken from the hospital on Sunday.

After Perez briefly called in from the detention center to a press conference held by Goldfinch-Lincoln on Monday, she said she received a call from another detainee who told her “that officers came in and handled Wilber roughly.”

“According to this detainee, Wilber then lost feeling on the left side of his body, including his arm and leg,” she said. “Wilber has a bullet lodged near his spine. I was told that he was handcuffed, shackled at the feet, placed in a waist chain, and taken to a hospital. I am waiting to find out how he is doing and what his current condition is. We need answers. We need to know that Wilber is safe and receiving appropriate medical care. So far, he has not.”



In response to the update on Perez’s condition, Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico said: “This isn’t law enforcement. It’s lawlessness.”

Casar called Perez’s transfer back to the hospital “a positive first step,” and credited immigrant rights advocates and community members for “speaking up.”

“Now, we have to make sure he fully recovers, is reunited with his family, and gets to tell law enforcement the full story of how he was shot in the back by ICE,” said Casar.

Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) were among the lawmakers calling for a full investigation into the shooting and ICE’s treatment of Perez.

“This is absolutely horrific,” said Frost. “ICE must be stopped. Their regime of cruelty will continue until they are held accountable.”

‘Huge Blow’ to ‘Lawless’ Practices of Trump DHS as Court Orders End to Warrantless Construction Site Raids

“By setting aside those unconstitutional policies, the court has restored the rule of law.”

A worker is seen at a construction in Santa Clarita, California
(Photo by Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Sep 21, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


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.”

As El-Sayed Champions Medicare for All, Michiganders Can’t Afford Basic Needs Due to Health Insurance Costs

“With everyday costs getting higher and higher, it is clear that we need a system like Medicare for All,” said the director of the group behind a new survey.


Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks at Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) “Fight Oligarchy” tour on May 3, 2026 at Mumford High School in Detroit.
(Photo by Sarah Rice/Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Sep 24, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


Nearly half of Michiganders surveyed for a poll published this week said they’re struggling to pay for groceries and gas because of the high and rising cost of health insurance, underscoring an affordability crisis that Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has cited as one of the reasons why the United States needs Medicare for All.

Forty-nine percent of Michigan voters queried by Progress Michigan and Public Policy Polling said the cost of health insurance affects their ability to afford basic necessities at least some of the time. Twenty-four percent said it happens “all the time,” while another 25% said it happens “sometimes.” Among Black Michiganders, the figures were substantially higher, with 34% reporting the problem occurs all the time and 31% saying it happens sometimes.

“Half of Michigan is already struggling with the cost of health insurance,” Progress Michigan executive director Justin Mendoza said Thursday in a statement. “With everyday costs getting higher and higher, it is clear that we need a system like Medicare for All to help Michiganders improve their health and afford their lives.”

El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health official, has made universal healthcare one of the three policy pillars of his campaign, alongside getting money “out of politics” and putting it “in your pocket.”

At a Monday “Students vs. Billionaires” town hall at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, El-Sayed argued that healthcare should be treated as a basic public investment rather than a commodity.

“You need good healthcare. You need a good education. We need childcare. We need good roads and bridges,” he said. “We don’t need to send our money to big corporations to subsidize them, we need to be invested in people so they have the human capital to be able to do all the things as they graduate and come out. That’s how the system should work.”

El-Sayed has also repeatedly highlighted the plight of families who are insured but still cannot afford care because their deductibles are prohibitively expensive, and others who worry what will happen to their families’ healthcare if they lose their jobs—an increasingly likely prospect as artificial intelligence usurps human workers.

“Medicare for All would allow us to actually provide every single person cradle-to-grave insurance,” El-Sayed said in a recent CBS interview, “without having to worry about losing it” after changing jobs, losing employment, getting married, or reaching retirement age.

The health insurance affordability crisis is likely to worsen in 2027. Healthinsurance.org reports that insurers are proposing a median increase of roughly 15% for individual market premiums nationwide, with Michigan insurers seeking an average 14.2% increase. The final rates could change before approval.

“Imagine not having to pay that,” El-Sayed told CBS.

A new New York Times/Siena poll of Michigan voters found that 57% of respondents believe El-Sayed would do a better job on healthcare than Republican opponent Mike Rogers. Only 33% said Rogers would do a better job. Among all surveyed women, 67% said El-Sayed would be better for healthcare.




The overwhelming majority of voters ages 18-29 (86%) and Black voters (82%) agreed. Just 4% of Black respondents said Rogers would be better on healthcare. Among young voters, none—0%—said Rogers is the better choice for healthcare.

Vance Fraud Task Force Condemned as ‘Smokescreen’ for Booting 700,000 More People Off Healthcare

“This so-called task force is nothing more than a bullshit distraction.”

Vice President JD Vance arrives for a news conference on September 22, 2026 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Sep 22, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

The Trump administration is planning to boot more than 700,000 people from their Affordable Care Act coverage as part of a purported initiative to root out fraud in the program—an effort that campaigners said is nothing more than a pretext to kick more people off healthcare.

Vice President JD Vance, who is leading the White House’s “Task Force to Eliminate Fraud,” announced the planned ACA purge during a press conference on Tuesday alongside Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, whose agency has touted a right-wing think tank’s dubious claim that millions of ACA enrollees are on the program improperly.

Vance insisted during Tuesday’s press conference that the administration is putting itself “under an extraordinary burden of proof” to ensure its mass removal doesn’t impact people who are eligible for ACA coverage, but advocates were not convinced.

“Vance’s task force is a smokescreen for kicking people off coverage,” declared the advocacy group Protect Our Care. The organization’s president, Brad Woodhouse, said in a statement that Vance’s task force “is nothing more than a bullshit distraction—a political stunt designed to throw even more people off their coverage while pretending to save taxpayers’ money.”

“At a time when millions of Americans are already losing coverage and facing skyrocketing costs, Vance and this administration are making the crisis exponentially worse,” said Woodhouse. “They are piling on more red tape, more confusion, and more opportunities for people to lose the coverage they rely on. Families need coverage they can afford and count on when they get sick. Vance’s task force won’t accomplish that. It’s a smokescreen for an administration whose sole mission is to make it harder to get and stay covered but to shower billionaires with tax breaks instead.”

Millions of people have lost ACA and Medicaid coverage since the start of President Donald Trump’s second White House term, due in large part to a Republican budget law that cut Medicaid by more than $800 billion and did nothing to extend enhanced ACA subsidies, sending premiums soaring.

Trump administration officials have baselessly claimed that their anti-fraud efforts were the key driver of ACA enrollment declines this year.



The mass disenrollment push comes less than two weeks after the Trump administration said it would send $500 rebate checks to some Americans who were allegedly “overcharged” under the ACA. Critics noted that the checks would only go to a small sliver of ACA enrollees and would do virtually nothing to offset premium hikes that are hitting millions of Americans.

Vance indicated Tuesday that the roughly 750,000 individuals who will soon be removed from the ACA due to alleged fraud are just the start of a broader purge. Around 19 million people are currently enrolled in ACA marketplace coverage.

“We’re gonna do some additional verification,” said Vance, who suggested the administration is using artificial intelligence tools to identify purported fraud. “We expect that most of these people are fraudulently enrolled, but we’re gonna do some additional verification on about 419,000 people.”

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the ACA, wrote Tuesday that “people losing healthcare isn’t a bug, it’s [Trump and the GOP’s] plan.”

“First Republicans stripped Medicaid from millions,” the Democrats wrote on social media. “Then they let premiums spike for millions more. Now JD Vance is using claims of ‘fraud’ to take coverage from hundreds of thousands more.”

Mamdani Hails Landmark DoorDash Deal as ‘Largest Settlement for Food Delivery Workers Ever’

“After years of corporate greed and impunity, we are holding DoorDash to account.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani lights the Empire State Building in celebration of America 250 at The Empire State Building on July 4, 2026 in New York City.
(Photo by John Nacion/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust)

Brad Reed
Sep 22, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday touted a settlement with food delivery app DoorDash as a “landmark win” for workers.

During a press event, Mamdani announced DoorDash had agreed to pay $131 million—of which $115 million will go directly to short-changed workers—in what he described as “the largest settlement for food delivery workers ever secured in American municipal history.”

The mayor said that DoorDash’s systematic exploitation and underpayment of its workers showed it profited by using “greed as a business model.”

“Two months ago, Tony Xu, the CEO of DoorDash, gave business owners a piece of advice,” Mamdani said. “A CEO, he said, has to take the greedy algorithm and keep going all the way to see if there is more. In computer science, a greedy algorithm is one that makes the most optimized, best short-term outcome at every step, and never weighs the consequences.”



Mamdani explained that DoorDash for years “failed to count every hour worked by deliver workers,” emphasizing that this was “not an accidental rounding error or a mistake.”

The mayor touted the work done by the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), which analyzed more than 150 million DoorDash payments and determined that the company had “underpaid more than 260,000 delivery workers across New York City” over a four-year period.

“After years of corporate greed and impunity, we are holding DoorDash to account,” Mamdani said. “City Hall will not sit idly by while a megacorporation that made nearly a billion dollars in profits last year rips off the working people who keep our city moving.”

A Tuesday report in The New York Times noted that, in addition to making a $131 million payout, DoorDash has also agreed to allow closer monitoring of its payment methods to ensure that its workers get what they are owed.

While the company defended its payment calculation model as “fair, practical, and legal,” it also acknowledged it made mistakes that led to some workers not getting everything they had earned.

“We screwed up,” DoorDash said, “and our mistakes meant some NYC Dashers were underpaid or paid late.”

DCWP Commissioner Samuel Levine told the Times that the city’s settlement with the delivery app “sends a strong message that we are in a new era of enforcement in New York,” adding that “we will not tolerate nickeling and diming New York City workers.”

Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director of Campaign for New York Healthcare, said in a Tuesday social media post that the DoorDash settlement showed the importance of electing leaders willing to take on corporate power.

“Just in case you were wondering why DoorDash was spending so much money to elect Andrew Cuomo and oppose Zohran Mamdani,” D’Arrigo observed, “DoorDash now has to pay $115 million to the workers it stole wages from.”

#METOO LONG

‘Massive Exhale’: Survivors Relieved as Weinstein Gets 15 Years for New York Sex Crime Conviction

“Our work doesn’t end here,” said one campaigner. “Across the country, it’s still the case that a majority of survivors of sexual abuse are often not served by our courts,”


Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears for sentencing in the sexual assault of Miriam Haley, on September 23, 2026, in New York City.
(Photo by Barry Williams/Pool/Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Sep 23, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting former assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haley in 2006, prompting expressions of relief from survivors and advocates after nearly a decade of legal battles—and calls to improve how such cases are handled so that the process does not punish victims.

The sentence, handed down by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber, adds to the prison time Weinstein has already served and follows his conviction last year for committing a first-degree criminal sexual act. With three separate felony sex crime convictions stemming from his 2022 California case still standing, Wednesday’s conviction marks the 74-year-old’s fourth extant felony.

In 2020, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years behind bars after a New York jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting Haley and raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann—but those convictions were overturned in 2024, sparking widespread anguish and outrage.

“Having been sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein has had a devastating effect on my life and sense of security that may never go away. Making the decision to speak up will have me looking over my shoulder for years to come,” Haley—who testified at both New York trials—told the court Wednesday in her pre-sentencing victim impact statement. “It’s a life sentence for me.”



Haley—who had worked briefly on the Weinstein-produced reality show “Project Runway”—described the years of litigation, public scrutiny, and attacks on her credibility as deeply damaging. She said that she often considered dropping the case, a process she called one of the most difficult decisions of her life.

Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence, arguing that Weinstein had shown no genuine remorse and continued to portray himself as the victim, and that he had used private investigators and other intimidation tactics against Haley.

After Weinstein’s sentence was announced, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg praised Haley and other survivors for their perseverance through the lengthy process.

“Today was about the survivors,” Bragg said. “Ms. Haley, her remarks were powerful, moving, and eloquent.”

Weinstein—who is expected to appeal—also addressed the court before Farber imposed the sentence. He apologized for causing Haley pain but again professed his innocence.

“I am not a perfect person. I live with many regrets and sincerely apologize for my actions,” he said. “I do have remorse for Miriam Haley’s pain, but I have to reiterate my innocence.”

Farber wasn’t having it, calling Weinstein “the literal face of the #MeToo movement.”

A 2017 New York Times investigation into Weinstein led to a flood of allegations against him and others—sparking a #MeToo movement that featured a phrase coined by survivor and activist Tarana Burke more than a decade earlier.

“You had it all,” the judge said. “Your legacy could have been cemented with greatness. But you threw it all away by assaulting Miriam Haley.”

In June 2025, a Manhattan jury convicted Weinstein of first-degree criminal sexual act, a felony, for forcibly sexually assaulting Haley at his Manhattan apartment in 2006. He was acquitted of a separate first-degree charge involving former model Kaja Sokola. The jury deadlocked on the third charge, involving Mann’s 2013 rape, resulting in a mistrial.

In California, Weinstein was convicted of felony rape, forcible oral copulation, and sexual penetration by a foreign object stemming from a 2013 assault. Originally sentenced to 16 years, a California appeals court upheld the convictions in June while ordering a pending resentencing.

Rose McGowan, one of Weinstein’s most prominent accusers and a major figure in the #MeToo era, posted an Instagram video reacting to the sentence.



“It’s done. I can’t really adequately explain what this is like, what this feels like,” McGowan said. “It’s too strange and surreal and massive exhale and massive fucking yes.”

“Enough,” she added. “Years stolen from so many of us. Thank you to the women in New York. You did this.”

Gloria Allred, Haley’s attorney, said that “Mimi underwent a trial by fire twice, and prevailed both times, unlike any other person in the ‘MeToo’ movement.”

“Mimi is a true hero. She has survived all attempts both inside and outside of court to discredit her or question her motives,” Allred added. “To describe Mimi as courageous is an understatement. She faced her fears and overcame them.”

Elisa Batista, campaign director at the women-led gender justice group UltraViolet, said in a statement that “Harvey Weinstein, like so many powerful abusers, thought the system would enable and protect him forever. That era is over.”

“This victory belongs to courageous survivors like Miriam Haley, Kaja Sokola, and Jessica Mann who came forward at great personal risk to tell their stories, as well as those abused by Weinstein who were unable to,” Batista continued.

“Thankfully, justice was delivered. But our work doesn’t end here,” she stressed. “Across the country, it’s still the case that a majority of survivors of sexual abuse are often not served by our courts,” said Batista. “We will continue to stand with survivors and fight the systems that enable and protect abusers—whether in Hollywood, the workplace, the White House, or anywhere else.”

Haley left the courthouse Wednesday surrounded by supporters, including other Weinstein accusers and Allred.



“This being so public, for this having gone on for so long,” she said, “it’s been really, really tough.”

The US National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), by texting “START” to 88788, or through chat at thehotline.org. It offers 24/7, free, and confidential support. DomesticShelters.org has a list of global and national resources.