UAW President Calls Trump Speech at Non-Union Auto Plant “Pathetic Irony”
Former President Donald Trump will be skipping the second Republican presidential debate on Wednesday evening to instead speak to auto workers in Michigan amid the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against the Big Three auto companies. In spite of the strike, however, Trump will not be delivering his speech at a union shop. Trump will discuss the future of the auto industry at Drake Enterprises...
Judge Orders Trump Officials to Testify on Family Separation Policy
Two Trump-era administration officials have been mandated to testify as part of a lawsuit filed against the U.S. government for separating migrant children under the age of 18 from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Federal magistrate judge Kandis Westmore of California on Monday issued a decision telling the Justice Department and attorneys for the affected families to meet in order to slot...
US Intervention and Sanctions Blamed for Rise in US-Mexico Border Crossings
A sharp increase in the number of people attempting to cross into the United States is straining resources in border communities, as thousands of asylum seekers arrive at the southern U.S. border each day seeking safety from violence, conflict, extreme poverty and the impacts of the climate crisis. Congressmember Jesús “Chuy” García of Illinois says decades of U.S. military interventions...
Philips Ignored Complaints About Breathing Machines Despite Evidence of Hazard
The first complaints landed at the offices of Philips Respironics in 2010, soon after the company made a fateful decision to redesign its best selling breathing machines used in homes and hospitals around the world. To silence the irritating rattle that kept users awake at night, Philips packed the devices with an industrial foam — the same kind used in sofas and mattresses.
Ruling in Trump Fraud Case Could Result in Him Losing Trump Tower
A New York state judge ruled on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump committed business fraud for several years by falsely inflating the value of his assets to secure better loans from banks and policies from insurance companies. The ruling comes in a civil case brought against Trump by state Attorney General Letitia James. The attorney general had considered bringing criminal charges...
6 Portuguese Youth Are Suing 33 Countries to Speed Up Climate Action
Lawyers for six Portuguese children and young adults on Wednesday expressed hope that their unprecedented climate case, brought to the European Court of Human Rights three years after it was first filed, will ultimately be a “game-changer” that forces governments in Europe and across the globe to take decisive action to address the climate emergency. Ranging in age from 11 to 24...
Hollywood Writers Are Set to Vote on New Contract After Ending 148-Day Strike
Hollywood screenwriters’ monthslong strike ended Wednesday after the Writers Guild of America leadership voted unanimously to recommend the tentative three-year contract agreement that the union reached with major studios over the weekend. WGA members will now vote on whether to ratify the deal, which includes higher pay than the studios were originally willing to offer...
True Climate Solutions Don’t Exploit Indigenous and Marginalized Communities
The Sámi people, a nomadic Indigenous community in Scandinavia, are protesting wind turbines built on their traditional lands this month in Norway. They recently led a protest in front of the Norwegian parliament in an ongoing effort to protect Sámi land traditionally used for reindeer herding. In October 2021, the Norwegian Supreme Court sided with the Sámi, ruling that the turbines violated Sámi...
A Small Cadre of GOP Hard-Liners Is Pushing US Toward Government Shutdown
The U.S. government is set to run out of money later this week, not because the U.S. has suddenly gotten poor, but because hard-liners within the GOP are looking for major policy concessions from the White House and the Democratic-controlled Senate simply to keep government operations afloat. Without those concessions, many Republicans have made it clear they will refuse to cast their votes for...
FTC and 17 States File Antitrust Lawsuit Against Amazon
Economic justice advocates applauded on Tuesday as the Federal Trade Commission and 17 states filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Seattle-based Amazon.com for illegally dominating the online retail economy at the expense of consumers. “Freedom of commerce is a fundamental liberty of American democracy,” declared Open Markets Institute executive director Barry Lynn in response to the suit.
Attack on Latino History Exhibit Is “a Repeat of the Red Scare,” Historian Warns
A political battle is brewing in Washington, D.C., over plans to build a National Museum of the American Latino and the portrayal of American Latino history. Last year, the Smithsonian Institution opened a temporary preview exhibition inside the National Museum of American History that has become the focus of controversy within the Latino community, as Republican lawmakers and others challenge...
Kansas Technical Institute Is the Story of a Literal School-to-Prison Pipeline
Not long after moving to Topeka, Kansas, in the early 1980s, community organizer Curtis Pitts learned about a hidden slice of that city’s history that would come to shape his life’s work over the next four decades. He was introduced to the Kansas Technical Institute, or KTI, a Black vocational college that had prospered throughout the early twentieth century, only to close in the mid-1950s.
Supreme Court Denies Alabama’s Request to Use GOP-Drawn Congressional Map
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Alabama’s request to reinstate a Republican-drawn congressional map, in a victory for voting rights advocates and Black Alabama voters who had sued over the gerrymandered map. In June, the Supreme Court had struck down Alabama’s previous map, asserting that it was the product of racist gerrymandering. The justices found that the map diluted the power of...
By Sending Depleted Uranium to Ukraine, Biden Ensures Suffering Past War’s End
The United States announced plans to send depleted uranium to Ukraine earlier this month. Uranium is very dense, which is useful on the battlefield: Bullets that have elements of depleted uranium can pierce armor, and tanks made of depleted uranium stand up well against enemy fire. Almost all the reporting about the move includes the clarification that adverse health risks of depleted uranium — a...
Are Elected Democrats Ignoring the Possibility of a Train Wreck in 2024?
Recent news reports have been filled with results of one poll after another after another showing that President Biden continues to weaken as a candidate for re-election. With an overall approval rating now 21 points underwater, polling shows that Biden has lost support among key demographics that made his 2020 victory possible, especially among younger people and people of color.
General Motors Is Deploying Scabs at Parts Distribution Centers Amid Strike
Auto workers at the Big 3 expanded their strike last Friday to a key vulnerability: parts distribution centers that supply dealerships with everything from water pumps to brake drums and spark plugs to replacement bumpers. On Tuesday morning, General Motors began bringing in temps hired for $14 an hour to attempt to keep some of the parts and accessories flowing. Parts distribution centers ship...
Warming Target of 1.5°C Still Viable Due to Clean Energy Surge, New Report Says
The International Energy Agency said Tuesday that the rapid acceleration of clean energy growth worldwide has kept the Paris climate accord’s critical 1.5°C warming target alive for now — but warned the continued burning of fossil fuels poses a dire threat to efforts to stave off the worst of the planetary crisis. In a new report, the IEA noted that the adoption of clean energy technology has...
1 Year After William Rivers Pitt’s Death, Let’s Recommit to Collective Survival
As COVID infections rose again in the waning days of summer, I couldn’t stop thinking about William Rivers Pitt, Truthout’s lead columnist of two decades, who died tragically a year ago today. Will would not stop writing about COVID. He wouldn’t stop writing about it even after a couple of years had passed, when pandemic fatigue was pervasive and Will’s COVID stories drew fewer readers than his...
Menendez Indicted in Case Involving Halal Meat Export Monopoly and Aid to Egypt
On Friday, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and his wife were accused by federal prosecutors of accepting bribes in exchange for using his position to increase U.S. assistance to Egypt and to do favors for three New Jersey businessmen, including Wael Hana, an Egyptian American who ran a lucrative business certifying halal meat exports. “Egypt is a major meat importer,” says Lina Attalah...
Cafeteria Workers and School Monitors Prepare for Possible Strike in Philly
In a unanimous vote, almost 2,000 unionized cafeteria and student climate staff across the Philadelphia School District have authorized a strike as their current contract is set to expire on September 30. United Here Local 634 represents these workers across 216 schools in the district. “This strike authorization vote gives our Executive Board the ability to do what is necessary if the School...