Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams

The US Senate on Tuesday defeated a Democrat-led bid to stop President Donald Trump from following through on his threat to wage war on Cuba, whose long-suffering people are reeling from the American administration’s tightened economic stranglehold.

Upper chamber lawmakers voted 51-47 on a procedural motion to block further debate Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) SJ Res. 124, “a joint resolution to direct the removal of United States armed forces from hostilities within or against the republic of Cuba that have not been authorized by Congress.”

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky voted to advance the resolution, while John Fetterman of Pennsylvania joined his GOP colleagues in voting to sink the measure.

The vote effectively sidelines the measure, one of many failed attempts to curb Trump’s ability to wage war on countries including Iran and Venezuela, as well as rein in his high seas boat bombing spree.

“The American people are not asking for another war,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.)—one of SJ Res. 124’s dozen co-sponsors—said following Tuesday’s vote. “They want us focused on building housing in Arizona, not bombing housing in Havana. They want us to lower the cost of healthcare not condemn a generation of veterans to a lifetime of hospital visits. They want us to make their lives more affordable, not spend their tax dollars on unnecessary wars.”

Kaine called the GOP move “purely a regime change effort.”

“Why do they want it? You’ll have to ask them,” he added. “What we’re doing with respect to Cuba, if somebody was doing it to us, we would consider it an act of war. But because they don’t pose a security threat to the United States, it’s clearly an effort to change the regime.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who also co-sponsored the resolution, said, “The last thing working Americans need right now is another war—let alone one that’s 90 miles south of the US.”

Resolution co-sponsor Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) said on Bluesky after the vote, “A conflict with Cuba would cost hardworking Americans billions of dollars, deepen the humanitarian crisis in Cuba, and put American service members in harm’s way.”

“The Constitution is clear: Only Congress has the authority to declare war,” Alsobrooks added.

Trump has attacked seven countries since returning to office and 10 since the start of his first term—more than any other president.

The situation in Cuba is dire, as a result of both the 65-year US economic chokehold on the island and mismanaged central planning by its socialist rulers.

Trump has been ramping up military threats and economic pressure on Cuba, whose people were already suffering from generations of US sanctions. His administration’s tightened embargo has severely restricted fuel imports, worsening an energy emergency in which blackouts have become the norm, threatening the lives of vulnerable Cubans—especially sick people and children.

The US president said that “we may stop by Cuba after we’re finished” with the illegal US-Israeli war of choice on Iran that’s killed thousands of people, including hundreds of children. Trump has also said that he believes he’ll “be having the honor of taking Cuba.”

The United States already took Cuba once, during an 1898 war waged against Spain under highly dubious pretenses that ended with the US also acquiring Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam—with Hawaii also annexed that year under the guise of security.

American presidents have been trying to force out Cuba’s socialist government since shortly after the revolution that overthrew a US-backed dictatorship in 1959. US efforts have included carrying out or backing an armed invasion, terrorist attacks, assassination attempts, and other acts of aggression.

Cuba commits no such acts against the United States or anyone else, yet Trump added the country to the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

Following Tuesday’s vote, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said that “Trump should learn the law of holes: If you find yourself in one, stop digging.”

“Instead of threatening that ‘Cuba is next,’ President Trump should remove his blockade against Cuba, which has devastated Havana’s economy and healthcare system, and has created a deepening humanitarian crisis,” Markey added.

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly condemned the blockade 33 times since 1992.

“With its catastrophic Iran war of choice, the Trump administration has lost all credibility on issues of war and peace,” Markey asserted. “The American people do not want yet another endless war that will only costs more lives and more taxpayer dollars, and undermine US security.”

Progressive International co-general coordinator David Adler warned Tuesday that “Trump is preparing military action against Cuba,” calling the Senate vote possibly “the last chance for US Congress to stop it.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday warned that the United States is being “humiliated” by Iran and risks getting trapped in a quagmire there like it did in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either,” Merz told students at the Carolus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Marsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia. “The problem with conflicts like this is always: You don’t just have to get in, you have to get out again. We saw that very painfully in Afghanistan for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq.”

“At the moment, I do not see what strategic exit the Americans will choose, especially since the Iranians are clearly negotiating very skillfully—or very skillfully not negotiating,” the Christian Democratic Union leader continued. “An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, particularly by the so-called Revolutionary Guards.”

US President Donald Trump on Saturday abruptly canceled a planned trip by special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to Islamabad, Pakistan to negotiate a ceasefire with Iranian officials after prior talks ended without an agreement.

Nearly two months of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran have killed more than 3,400 people, at least 2,100 of them civilians—including 503 women, 413 children, 91 health workers, and 9 journalists, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said Monday that the death toll from Israeli bombing of its northern neighbor has topped 2,500, including hundreds of women and children. At least 14 people were killed on Sunday by Israeli strikes, despite a US-brokered ceasefire.

The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society said Saturday that the organization has submitted evidence of US and Israeli war crimes to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which in 2024 issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes—including murder and forced starvation—in Gaza, where more than 250,000 people have been killed or injured since October 2023.

Merz said Monday that the US-Israeli war on Iran is harming his country.

“It is at the moment a pretty tangled situation,” he said. “And it is costing us a great deal of money. This conflict, this war against Iran, has a direct impact on our economic output.”

Merz said that Germany was still open to deploying minesweeping warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has blocked almost all international shipping. However, the chancellor said such a move would only come after fighting stops.

The German leader also told students at the school that their country must assume a greater leadership role within the European Union.

“If we were to unite more effectively and do more together,” he said, “we could be at least as strong as the United States of America.”

Some observers asserted that the US isn’t the only country being humiliated, pointing to Germany’s support for Israel, which is rooted in deep-seated guilt over the country’s systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews during the Nazi-era Holocaust.

In addition to brutally cracking down on pro-Palestine protests and suppressing speech critical of Israel’s obliteration of Gaza, Germany initially planned to intervene in the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also in The Hague.

However, Berlin said last month that it will not intervene in the ICJ case in support of Israel so that it can better focus on its own defense in a separate case before the tribunal filed by Nicaragua accusing Germany of enabling Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza via arms sales.

As he has done numerous times before, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday rejected the notion that democratic socialism has limited appeal outside of progressive urban centers by asserting that his worker-centered policies are aimed at uplifting the nation’s biggest demographic cohort—working people and their families.

Mamdani appeared on “CBS Mornings” and was asked what grade he’d give himself after 100 days leading the world’s most important city.

“You know, I’ll always leave it to New Yorkers to give me the grade but I will say that I’m proud of what the team has accomplished over the 100 days,” Mamdani told “CBS Mornings” hosts Gayle King and Vladimir Duthiers. “I mean, we saw $1.2 billion secured in a partnership with Gov. [Kathy] Hochul to deliver universal childcare in our city.”

“We held bad landlords accountable for $32 millon, fixed 6,070 apartments,” he added. “We filled 102,000 potholes and we did all of this while also returning $9.3 million back to workers and small businesses that have been ripped off by megacorporations.”

Duthiers asked whether “a democratic socialist platform can translate into something that’s electorally viable in a statewide election or a national election given that, according to Gallup, many older and rural voters still have issues with the term, with the label, socialist.”

Mamdani replied: “You know, what I find is that New Yorkers ask me less about how I describe my politics and more about whether my politics includes them, and I think what we can see is that a democratic socialist politics is one that should be judged on its delivery, like any ideology. And what we’re showing in this city is we can we can pursue the big things like universal childcare and do the pothole politics at the same time.”

“I think that this is a politics that can flourish anywhere,” he added, “because frankly there is only one majority in this country that’s the working class and it’s time we have a politics that puts them at the heart of what it is that we’re pursuing and not as part of the appendix.”

Turning to the illegal US-Israeli war of choice against Iran, Mamdani lamented that “we’re talking about spending close to $30 billion to kill thousands of people an ocean away while we’re told that we don’t have even an ounce of that money to help working-class Americans across this country.”

According to a Marist poll published earlier this month, 48% of New Yorkers approved of Mamdani’s overall performance, while 30% disapproved and 23% are unsure. A majority of respondents—55%—“have either a very favorable or somewhat favorable view of the mayor, and 33% have either a somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion.”

A majority of respondents also said the city is heading in the right direction under Mamdani, while nearly three-quarters believe the mayor is “working hard,” and 58% “have a great deal or a good amount of trust in Mayor Mamdani to make decisions that are in the best interest of New York City.”

Previous polling has also shown that Mamdani’s economic policies are popular across the country.

Responding to Mamdani’s “CBS Mornings” appearance, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shared its newly published “Majority Agenda,” a “roadmap” to passing policies that most Americans see as major priorities to improve their lives.

“The Majority Agenda is a collection of policy briefs on important issues where Americans generally have broad agreement across the political landscape,” CEPR explained. “The project organizes these reports into three main areas: good jobs, strong infrastructure, and fair play.”

“We’re not as divided as some media and politicians want us to believe,” CEPR contended.

The International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday that the US-Israeli war on Iran could slow global economic growth, stoke inflation, and increase the possibility of a worldwide recession and energy crisis.

The illegal war of choice on Iran being waged by US President Donald Trump and the government of fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already had wide-ranging negative impacts on the global economy, from soaring fuel prices caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to supply chain disruptions and financial market volatility.

However, a major global economic crisis has thus far been averted. That could soon change.

“Despite major trade disruptions and policy uncertainty, last year ended on an upbeat note,” International Monetary Fund director of research Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas wrote in an analysis of the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook report. “The private sector adapted to a changing business environment, while powerful offsets came from lower US tariffs than originally announced, some fiscal support, and favorable financial conditions coupled with strong productivity gains and a tech boom.”

“Despite some downside risks, the momentum was expected to carry over into 2026, lifting the pre-conflict global growth forecast to 3.4%,” Gourinchas continued. “War in the Middle East has halted this momentum. The closing of the Strait of Hormuz and serious damage to critical facilities in a region central to global hydrocarbon supply raise the prospect of a major energy crisis should hostilities continue.”

The IMF said that even if the war ends quickly, lasting damage to the world’s economy will still happen.

According to the IMF report:

Under the assumption of a limited conflict, global growth is projected at 3.1% in 2026 and 3.2% in 2027, below recent outcomes and well under pre-pandemic averages. Global inflation is expected to tick up in 2026 and resume its decline in 2027. Pressures are concentrated in emerging market and developing economies, especially commodity importers with preexisting vulnerabilities. Risks are decisively on the downside. A prolonged conflict, deeper geopolitical fragmentation, disappointment over [artificial intelligence]-driven productivity, or renewed trade tensions could weaken growth and unsettle markets. High public debt and eroded policy buffers add vulnerability. Policies should foster adaptability, enhance credibility, and reinforce international cooperation.

The IMF said that “the shock’s ultimate magnitude will depend on the conflict’s duration and scale—and how quickly energy production and shipment normalize once hostilities end,” and that effects will vary by location.

“Countries will feel the impact differently,” Gourinchas wrote. “As in past commodity-price surges, importers are highly exposed. Low-income and developing economies—especially those with vulnerabilities and limited buffers—are likely to be hit hardest. Gulf energy exporters will face economic fallout from damaged infrastructure, production disruptions, export constraints, and weaker tourism and business activity. Remittances will fall in countries that supply migrant workers to the region.”

Eric LeCompte, executive director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network and a United Nations finance expert, called the new IMF forecast “extremely concerning for the global economy,” lamenting that “the most dire impacts of our economic situation will be felt by the poor and the vulnerable.”

The new report comes as the IMF’s annual Spring Meetings are underway in Washington, DC.

“World leaders coming to Washington are receiving a very dark picture of the global economy,” said LeCompte. “The war is causing greater poverty and increases in our fuel and food costs.”

Other groups have also warned of the adverse economic effects of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Ben May, Bridget Payne, and Paul Moroz of Oxford Economics recently published a report warning that a longer war in Iran “could tip the global economy into recession.”

In such a situation, “the Gulf states suffer most acutely—GDP down over 8% in 2026—before rebounding sharply as production recovers,” they wrote. “Advanced Asian economies, which are especially reliant on Gulf oil, take a heavy blow from energy import cost surges and supply chain disruption.”

“Europe faces a painful squeeze on gas and electricity,” the trio added. “The US fares somewhat better given its domestic energy production, but an equity market decline of nearly 20% weighs heavily on consumer spending.”

Some US-based organizations have focused on the war’s domestic economic impacts.

Dean Baker, a senior fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research, published an analysis earlier this month asserting that “making enemies makes us poorer.”

“Secretary of Defense (or War) Pete Hegseth seems to be having a really great time killing people in Iran, but his live action video games come at a big cost—not just in lives, but in budget dollars,” Baker wrote. “To be clear, the main reason to oppose this pointless war is its impact on the people of Iran and elsewhere in the region. But it also has a huge economic cost that is seriously underappreciated.”

“In addition to reducing our security and jeopardizing the well-being of people around the world, Donald Trump’s belligerence will cost us a huge amount of money,” he said. Focusing on US military spending, Baker noted that “Trump wants the country to spend 5% of GDP, or $1.5 trillion a year, on the military. This comes to $12,000 per household.”

Trump and his Republican Party are seeking to offset some of their record military spending with devastating cuts to social programs upon which tens of millions of Americans rely. Already reeling from the biggest cuts to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program spending in those programs’ histories, Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2027 contains $73 billion in total reductions in nondefense spending.

“It is striking to see that Congress might be willing to quickly cough up this money,” said Baker, referring to military funding, “when it has refused far smaller sums that could have made a huge difference in the lives of tens of millions of people.”

An ocean conservation ship operated by anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson collided Tuesday with a commercial krill trawler off Antarctica in what the fishing vessel’s owner described as a “deliberate attack,” but activists called “a David-and-Goliath battle against an industrial giant.”

The Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) said on Facebook that, as part of its Operation Krill Wars campaign, the Bandero is currently targeting “two of the largest Norwegian trawlers operating in Antarctic waters, the Antarctic Endurance and the Antarctic Sea,”—both of which are owned by Aker QRILL Company of Lysaker, Norway.

“Earlier today, both trawlers released lines into the water to move the Bandero, a dangerous maneuver that could have disabled our ship,” the foundation alleged. “In response, the Bandero delivered a gentle but deliberate nudge to the stern of the Antarctic Sea, accompanied by a message: Stop despoiling the ecological integrity of the Southern Ocean.”

Aker QRILL is owned by New York City-based American Industrial Partners and Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Røkke, and calls itself “the world’s leading krill company.”

Company CEO Webjørn Barstad responded to the incident by claiming in an interview with Reuters that “our crew were put at risk in some of the most remote waters on Earth, and only luck avoided potential environmental damage.”

“If the steel plates... had ruptured, it could have caused a spill,” Barstad added. “It was probably just luck that it didn’t cause more damage.”

CPWF scoffed at the company’s claims of danger, saying on Facebook that “I understand your need to play the victim while you scoop life from the sea.”

As the Operation Krill Wars campaign explains:

Krill is the keystone species of the ecosystem in Antarctica. The majority of Antarctic species are reliant on krill as their primary food source or krilI is the the food source of their prey. From the great whales down to the penguins, seals, and seabirds, all rely on an abundance of krill to survive.

Currently the quota set by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources is 620,000 tons which is said to represent 1% of the total biomass of krill. However the fishing of krill is in concentrated areas, meaning that the likelihood of ecological collapse in those areas is far more likely.

After the near extinction of several large whale species in the 19th and 20th centuries, conservation efforts in the later half of the 20th century and 21st century have seen whale populations recovering. Though not back to their pre-commercial whaling numbers, this increase in whale populations obviously requires a greater amount of krill for food. Yet what we are seeing is a greater extraction of krill by human commercial enterprises.

“If the ocean dies, we die,” Paul Watson said in a statement. “Krill are the blood of the sea. Without them, the whales, penguins, fish, and birds will starve, and the ocean will fall silent.”

Watson is best known as the co-founder of Greenpeace and, later, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. He has dedicated his life to defending marine wildlife—especially mammals like whales—from harm. A controversial figure, Watson was arrested and jailed in Greenland in 2024 on an international warrant issued by Japan over his anti-whaling activism. However, he was freed after Denmark—which controls Greenland’s foreign affairs—refused Japan’s extradition request.

CPWF said that the issue of ocean exploitation must be “confronted legally and brought to global attention.”

“We are here in the Southern Ocean to oppose a crime against nature and humanity—aggressively, but nonviolently,” the group said Wednesday. “We welcome the opportunity to defend our actions in court and expose the true cost of krill fishing to the world.”

The Bob Brown Foundation, an Australian green group, defended CPWF in a statement Wednesday calling “for the complete end to krill fishing in Antarctica.”

“The krill fishing industry is fully aware of the damage they cause, such as killing whales in their nets, yet they do all they can to greenwash krill products,” said Bob Brown Foundation Antarctic and marine campaigner Alistair Allan. “We applaud the brave actions of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, who are ensuring that the plunder of krill does not go unchallenged.”

“Krill is violently sucked out of Antarctica’s fragile wilderness all for products we don’t need, such as fish farm feed, pet food, and supposed health products,” Allan added. “It’s time for the world to boycott all products with krill in them.”

More than 300 species of migratory freshwater fish are in dire need of “urgent coordinated cross-border collaboration” amid a crisis of rapid collapse, according to a report released Tuesday at a key United Nations conservation conference in Brazil.

“Some of the longest, most important migrations of species on Earth are happening beneath the surface of the world’s rivers and many are rapidly collapsing,” the United Nations Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals’ (CMS) annual “Global Assessment of Migratory Freshwater Fishes” report states.

Released at CMS’ 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Campo Grande, Brazil the report details how freshwater fish—which are vital for the health of riparian ecosystems and provide food for hundreds of millions of people around the world—“are among the most imperiled wildlife on the planet.”

“Many migratory species now face declines driven by loss of connectivity, flow alteration, habitat degradation, exploitation, pollution, and interacting pressures across borders,” the report notes. “Recognizing these trends and their transboundary nature, [CMS] has sought stronger coordinated action for inland fishes that move across national jurisdictions.”

The report’s authors—Zeb Hogan, Zach Bess, Michele Thieme, and Twan Stoffers—identified 325 species of freshwater fish as candidates for international conservation efforts. River basins the report says should be prioritized include the Amazon and La Plata–Paraná in South America, the Danube in Europe, the Mekong and Ganges-Brahmaputra in Asia, and the Nile in Africa.

According to the report:

Many migratory fish rely on long, uninterrupted river corridors connecting spawning grounds, feeding areas, and floodplain nurseries, often across multiple countries. When dams, altered flows, or habitat degradation interrupt those pathways, populations can decline rapidly...

Migratory freshwater fish populations worldwide have declined by roughly 81% since 1970 and nearly all (97%) of the 58 CMS-listed migratory fish species (including fresh and salt-water species) are threatened with extinction.

CMS recommends governments take steps to safeguard migratory fish and their habitats, including protecting migration corridors, devising basin-scale action plans and transboundary monitoring, and international coordination of seasonal fisheries.

“Many of the world’s great wildlife migrations take place underwater,” Hogan, the report’s lead author, said in a statement. “This assessment shows that migratory freshwater fish are in serious trouble, and that protecting them will require countries to work together to keep rivers connected, productive, and full of life.”

Thieme, who is vice president of World Wildlife Fund-US, said that “rivers don’t recognize borders—and neither do the fish that depend on them.”

“The crisis unfolding beneath our waterways is far more severe than most people realize, and we are running out of time,” she added. “Rivers need to be managed as connected systems, with coordination across borders, and investments in basin-wide solutions now before these migrations are lost forever.”

The CMS report follows last month’s publication of a study by researchers in Spain who examined how ocean warming driven by human burning of fossil fuels is causing a “staggering and deeply concerning loss of marine life.”

A Utah law firm said Tuesday that it plans to sue the US government for its allegedly unlawful detention and deportation of a Venezuelan immigrant who was sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador known for its torture and abuse of inmates.

“Our client is a young Venezuelan man who came into the US legally to escape threats of violence by the Venezuelan government against his family for their opposition to the Maduro regime,” said Brent Ward, an attorney at Parker & McConkie, referring to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was kidnapped by US forces during a January invasion of his country.

Ward said that the client—identified by the pseudonym “Johnny Hernandez”—is seeking $56 million in damages and “has no criminal record either in the US or in Venezuela.”

Hernandez was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and subsequently deported to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca, central El Salvador, where he allegedly suffered torture and other abuse.

“The Trump administration knowingly and unlawfully locked up an innocent person for four months in a concentration camp-like prison where he suffered torture, shooting, beatings, and solitary confinement,” Ward stated. “When the US government knowingly and purposefully violates the law by detaining and deporting innocent individuals on false charges and is not held responsible, the individual rights of not just legal immigrants but all Americans are placed in jeopardy.”

“Our client suffered catastrophic injuries in CECOT from which he will never fully recover,” the lawyer said. “Failing to demand accountability now places all Americans in jeopardy in the future.”

The impending lawsuit comes as ICE proposes to literally warehouse up to 10,000 arrested immigrants in a “megacenter” in Salt Lake City, Utah. Opponents have compared the 833,000-square foot facility to a concentration camp akin to the Topaz War Relocation Center, a harsh, desolate desert prison where Japanese Americans and Japanese people living in the Western US were forcibly interned during World War II.

The case also follows last week’s filing of a lawsuit by Neiyerver Adrián León Rengel, one of the Venezuelans sent to CECOT. Like Hernandez, León Rengel—who is seeking $1.3 million in damages—was in the US legally when he was arrested by federal immigration authorities.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently said on the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation of Salvadorans, Venezuelans, and others that, of the 9,000 Salvadorans expelled from the US since the beginning of last year, “only 10.5% had a conviction in the United States for a violent or potentially violent crime.”

The Salvadoran investigative journalism outlet El Faro—which, along with its staff, has been the target of sweeping government persecution—last year published a report on CECOT, citing one former prisoner who said that inmates are “committing suicide out of desperation.”

At least one deported Salvadoran—longtime Maryland resident Kilmar Ábrego García—was wrongfully expelled due to what the Trump administration called an “administrative error.”

The Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans to CECOT under a multimillion-dollar agreement between the Trump administration and the government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

While Trump claimed—often without evidence—that the Venezuelan deportees were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, only about 3% of them had violent criminal convictions in the United States, and Department of Homeland Security records show that the Trump administration knew it.

In July 2025, El Salvador released 252 Venezuelans imprisoned at CECOT and sent them to Venezuela in a prisoner swap that saw Maduro’s government free 10 US citizens and permanent residents whom it jailed. Many of the repatriated Venezuelans said they suffered torture, sexual assault, severe beatings, and other abuse at CECOT.

Last December, Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Trump administration broke the law by deporting the Venezuelans without due process.

In what’s being called an “exceedingly rare” move, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of two Black and two female colonels to one-star generals.

The New York Times reported Friday that some senior US military officials are questioning whether Hegseth acted out of animus toward Black people and women after the defense secretary blocked the promotion of the four officers despite the repeated objections of Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, who touted what the Times called the colonels’ “decadeslong records of exemplary service.”

Military officials told the Times that Hegseth’s chief of staff, Lt. Col. Ricky Buria, got into a heated exchange with Driscoll last summer over the promotion of another officer, Maj. Gen. Antoinette Gant—a combat veteran of the US invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq—to command the Military District of Washington, DC.

Such a promotion would have placed Gant in charge of numerous events at which she would likely be seen publicly with President Donald Trump. According to multiple military officials, Buria told Driscoll that Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer.

A shocked Driscoll reportedly replied that “the president is not racist or sexist,” an assessment that flies in the face of countless racist and sexist statements by the president, both before and during both of his White House terms.

Buria called the officials’ account of his exchange with Driscoll “completely false.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to discuss the matter beyond saying that Hegseth is “doing a tremendous job restoring meritocracy throughout the ranks at the Pentagon, as President Trump directed him to do.”

Military officials told the Times that one of the Black colonels whose promotion was blocked by Hegseth wrote a paper nearly 15 years ago historically analyzing differences between Black and white soldiers’ roles in the Army. One of the female colonels, a logistics officer, was held back because she was deployed in Afghanistan during the US withdrawal whose foundation was laid by Trump during his first term. It is unclear why the two other colonels were denied promotions.

Although more than 40% of current active duty US troops are people of color, military leadership remains overwhelmingly comprised of white men. Hegseth, who declared a “frontal assault” on the “whores to wokesters” who he said rose up through the ranks during the Biden administration, told an audience during a 250th anniversary ceremony for the US Navy that “your diversity is not your strength.”

Hegseth has argued that women should not serve in combat roles, although he later walked back his assertion amid pushback from senators during his confirmation process. Still, since Trump returned to office, every service branch chief and 9 of the military’s 10 combat commanders are white men.

Leaders of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus issued a joint statement Friday calling Hegseth’s blocking of the four colonels’ promotions “outrageous and wrong.”

“The claim that Hegseth’s chief of staff told the army secretary Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events is racist, sexist, and extremely concerning,” wrote the lawmakers, Reps. Yvette Clarke (NY), Teresa Leger Fernández (NM), Emilia Sykes (Ohio), Hillary Scholten (Mich.), and Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.).

“Time and time again, Trump and his administration have shown us exactly who they are—attacking and undermining Black people and women in the military, public servants, and women in power,” the congressional leaders asserted. “It is clear they are trying to erase Black and women’s leadership and history.”

“Today’s news isn’t an anomaly, it is a part of a coordinated and sustained strategy to undermine and erase women and people of color,” their statement said.

“We’ve long known that Pete Hegseth is an unfit and unqualified secretary of defense appointed by Trump,” the lawmakers added. “So it is absurd, ironic, and beyond inappropriate that he of all people would deny these promotions to officers with records of exemplary service. America’s servicemembers deserve so much better.”

Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also issued a statement reading, “If these reports are accurate, Secretary Hegseth’s decision to remove four decorated officers from a promotion list after having been selected by their peers for their merit and performance is not only outrageous, it would be illegal.”

“Denying the promotions of individual officers based on their race or gender would betray every principle of merit-based service military officers uphold throughout their careers,” Reed added.

Several congressional colleagues weighed in, like Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a decorated combat veteran who lost her legs when an Iraqi defending his homeland from US invasion shot down the Blackhawk helicopter she was piloting. Duckworth said on Bluesky: “He says he wants to bring meritocracy back to our military. He says he has our warfighters’ backs. But here he is, the most unqualified SecDef in history, denying troops a promotion that their fellow warfighters decided they’ve earned. Hegseth is a disgrace to our heroes.”

Other observers also condemned Hegseth’s move, with historian Virginia Scharff accusing him of “undermining national security with his racism and misogyny,” and City University of New York English Chair Jonathan Gray decrying the “gutter racist” who “should be hounded from public life for the damage he’s caused.”

Vice President JD Vance’s scheduled attendance at three $100,000-per-couple fundraisers has raised eyebrows and ire as Americans struggle to make ends meet due to the Trump administration economic policies and experts warn that the US-Israeli war on Iran could cause tens of millions of people in the Global South to suffer acute hunger.

Vance—who is widely expected to run for president in 2028—is in Texas this week for Republican National Committee fundraisers in Austin on Monday and Dallas on Tuesday. The vice president is also scheduled to attend another similar fundraising event in Nashville, Tennessee on March 30.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Joe Lonsdale, the billionaire founder of the controversial data analytics company Palantir, is hosting the Austin event. Billionaire investor and real estate developer Ray Washburne will co-host the Dallas fundraiser along with Chris Buskirk, founder of the venture capital firm where Donald Trump Jr. works. Buskirk openly advocates for an American “aristocracy” that “takes care of the country and governs it well so that everyone prospers.”

Also set to co-host the Dallas event is David Hininger, the former CEO of CoreCivic, a leading private prison firm in an industry that has gloated about the “unprecedented” profit potential of Trump’s mass arrest and deportation campaign against undocumented immigrants.

Donors were reportedly asked to pay $250,000 to host one of the fundraisers.

“While Vance dines with billionaire donors, Americans are struggling to get by in the Trump-Vance economy as prices on everything from gas to groceries soar and working families dip into their savings to make ends meet,” the Democratic National Committee said in a statement Monday.

“Trump and Vance’s war with Iran has already claimed the lives of 13 US service members and injured over 230, while driving up global oil prices and gas prices for Americans back home,” the DNC added, without mentioning the thousands of Iranians killed or wounded by the illegal war of choice. “According to [the American Automobile Association], the average price for a gallon of gas is $3.96 nationwide, up from $2.94 just one month ago.”

Trump campaigned on promises of no new wars and lower consumer prices, including gas, on “day one.” Since returning to office, he has ordered the bombing of seven countries. Gas prices are up around 30% since Trump returned to the White House in January 2020.

“Prices on everything from gas to groceries to rent are soaring because of the Trump-Vance agenda, and what is JD Vance up to? He’s rubbing elbows with billionaires and special interests while working families struggle to make ends meet,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said Monday. “Everyday Americans are stretching every dollar just to get by, and Vance is worried about lining his own pockets.”

Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee Chair Rep. Christina Morales (D-145) told the Houston Chronicle Monday that “JD Vance has a lot of nerve showing up in Texas to shake down wealthy donors for a quarter of a million dollars a head while Texans are paying through the nose at the pump and can’t get through the airport his party broke.”

The war on Iran and its cascading global economic impacts could also fuel a sharp rise in acute hunger around the world, the United Nations World Food Program warned last week. WFP said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is driving higher energy and fertilizer prices, which in turn can result in more expensive food.

“If this conflict continues, it will send shockwaves across the globe, and families who already cannot afford their next meal will be hit the hardest,” Carl Skau, WFP’s deputy executive director and chief operating officer, said. “Without an adequately funded humanitarian response, it could spell catastrophe for millions already on the edge.”

Over 70 Democratic US lawmakers on Tuesday demanded a new investigation into warrantless purchases of Americans’ location data by Department of Homeland Security agencies—including Immigration and Customs Enforcement—which critics say violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition of unwarranted search and seizure.

In a letter to DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, 72 congressional Democrats led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) wrote, “Public contracting documents indicate that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently resumed buying Americans’ location data from a shady data broker” after the agency “ended a previous program to purchase Americans’ cellphone location data in 2023, following an investigation by your office and scrutiny from Congress.”

“Location data is extremely sensitive, and can reveal someone’s religion, their political views, medical conditions, addictions, and with whom they spend time,” the lawmakers’ letter states. “It is for that reason that ordinarily, the government must obtain a warrant from a judge in order to demand such data from phone or technology companies.”

While the Fourth Amendment generally prohibits the government from searching or obtaining Americans’ private information without a warrant, federal agencies have circumvented the proscription by buying sensitive personal data from private brokers.

“Public reports indicate that ICE has resumed its location data purchases, even though DHS has yet to adopt all of the recommendations from your prior review,” the lawmakers noted in their letter.

The letter continues:

"ICE issued a no-bid contract to the surveillance company PenLink in 2025, which included licenses for its location tracking product, Webloc, according to press reports. Webloc was developed by the controversial surveillance company Cobwebs Technologies, which was combined with Nebraska-based PenLink as part of a $200 million private equity deal in 2023. Cobwebs gained notoriety when Meta banned the company in 2021, as part of a crackdown on surveillance mercenaries after detecting the company’s customers targeting activists, opposition politicians, and government officials in Hong Kong and Mexico."

"ICE is now stonewalling congressional oversight into its purchase of location data. Sen. Wyden’s office requested a briefing from ICE soon after this contract was revealed in the press, in October, which was scheduled in December, for February 10, 2026. One day before that briefing was to take place, ICE canceled it with no explanation and without any offer to reschedule."

The letter asks:

• Whether ICE and other DHS components are purchasing illegally obtained location data about Americans;
• If so, why does DHS not have policies in place to prevent taxpayer dollars from going to contractors that have invaded Americans’ privacy in violation of federal law;
• How ICE and other DHS components have used location data and whether they have used it to investigate Americans for engaging in constitutionally protected activities, including protesting or monitoring ICE operations;
• Whether ICE and other DHS components are auditing employee access to commercial location data to identify likely patterns of abuse; and
• Why has DHS still not adopted a policy for the use of commercial location data, as you recommended in 2023?

As the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently explained, ICE has spent $5 million on Webloc and Tangles, another location and social media surveillance product made by PenLink.

According to EFF:

Webloc gathers the locations of millions of phones by gathering data from mobile data brokers and linking it together with other information about users. Tangles is a social media surveillance tool which combines web scraping with access to social media application programming interfaces. These tools are able to build a dossier on anyone who has a public social media account. Tangles is able to link together a person’s posting history, posts, and comments containing keywords, location history, tags, social graph, and photos with those of their friends and family. PenLink then sells this information to law enforcement, allowing law enforcement to avoid the need for a warrant. This means ICE can look up historic and current locations of many people all across the US without ever having to get a warrant.

There have been several attempts to solidify restrictions on government purchase of Americans’ personal data in recent years, most notably the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act (FANFSA), which failed to pass.

Last month, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the Security and Freedom Enhancement Act, which would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act but is also intended to protect Americans from warrantless spying, including by closing the data broker loophole that lets law enforcement buy their way around the Fourth Amendment.

Also last month, Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) led 13 Democratic lawmakers who sent a separate letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem seeking answers about ICE’s use of PenLink surveillance technology “designed to collect and analyze cellphone location data across entire neighborhoods.”

“Mass surveillance of entire communities or city blocks raises serious questions about data privacy and potential violations of civil liberties,” Brown wrote.

“Americans should be able to trust their government to uphold the Constitution and respect fundamental rights,” she added. “Instead, DHS appears to be engaging in broad surveillance practices to monitor entire communities, violating Americans’ fundamental civil rights and civil liberties to punish dissent and advance the president’s cruel and unconstitutional mass deportation agenda.”

President Donald Trump raised eyebrows and angst among democracy defenders Friday for saying he deserves an unconstitutional third term in office, remarks that came a day after reporting that right-wing activists are drafting an executive order that could empower him to ban mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“Maybe we do one more term. Should we do one more?” the 79-year-old Republican president asked attendees of an event at the Port of Corpus Christi in Texas on Friday to roaring applause. “Do one more term. Well, we are entitled to it.”

During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump rehashed his thoroughly debunked claim that Democrats stole the 2020 election for former President Joe Biden, saying this “should be my third term.”

A third term would require a constitutional amendment, as the 22nd Amendment restricts US presidents to two terms in office.

Extensions of presidential terms or abolition of limits are hallmarks of dictators and backsliding leaders of erstwhile democracies. After Chinese President Xi Jinping lifted constitutional term limits in 2018, Trump marveled, “He’s great,” adding, “He’s now president for life.”

Trump has made cryptic allusions to a third term in office on multiple occasions.

While many Trump supporters believe he should also be president for life, his allies in actual positions of power—including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and political strategist and convicted fraudster Steve Bannon, whom Trump granted clemency—have backed a third term for his administration.

A constitutional amendment enabling a third Trump term is not under any consideration and is all but impossible by the 2028 election. So Trump and his allies are working on other ways for the president to remain in office, focusing heavily on voter suppression. The Washington Post reported Thursday that a group of right-wing activists is writing a draft decree that would give the president “extraordinary power over voting.” On Friday, Democracy Docket published an April 2025 version of the draft order provided by a Trump ally, which the outlet described as “riddled with errors.”

According to the Post, the draft executive order would cite the pretext of alleged Chinese interference in the 2020 election. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded that there was no such interference.

MS NOW national security contributor Marc Polymeropoulos called the draft order “bats--- authoritarianism.”

Child safety advocates renewed calls for tighter gun control measures following a Monday mass shooting at a high school hockey game in Rhode Island that left three people including the gunman dead and three others injured.

WPRI reported that the father of a North Providence High School senior shot five members of his family at a hockey game at Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket at around 2:30 pm local time. The student’s mother was killed at the rink, while his sister died after being rushed to a local hospital. Three other relatives are reportedly in critical condition at Rhode Island Hospital.

“We realized pretty quickly that it was a gunshot. It was very scary,” hockey player Silas Core said during an interview with WCVB, adding that he and his teammates rushed into a locker room.

“We barricaded the locker room with our bodies. We were all pressing up against it,” he said. “Everybody was, you know, worried about our parents and everybody.”

Core’s mother told WCVB that everything “just happened so fast.”

“You don’t even know. You know, you just see everybody else on the ground and you kind of get on the ground,” she said. “This is really disturbing, you know? And it’s the other team’s senior day. Like, it was supposed to be a special day for the team.”

Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said the shooting appeared to be “a family dispute,” a “tragic” but “isolated” incident.

A woman who said she was the shooter’s daughter told WCVB that the man suffered from mental health problems.

“He shot my family, and he’s dead now,” she said.

FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the agency “will provide state and local law enforcement any and all resources necessary and keep the public updated as we are able.”

“In the meantime,” he added, “please pray for the victims and their families.”

Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said that “as governor, a parent, and a former coach, my heart breaks for the victims, families, students, and everyone impacted by the devastating shooting at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket.”

McKee added that he is “praying for our communities.”

Gun control advocates demanded more than the customary thoughts and prayers.

“As a native Rhode Islander who has played many games in that very rink, this tragedy hits especially close to home,” Stop Gun Violence board chair Brian Lemek said. “That space holds memories of community, competition, and joy—and now it’s filled with pain no community should have to carry.”

“The only thing young athletes should worry about is the scoreboard—not their safety,” he continued. “Our kids deserve spaces that bring communities together, they deserve to be safe, and they deserve a future free from this constant fear.”

“This is no way for our kids to live,” Lemek added. “We need to stop this madness.”

Monday’s incident follows December’s mass shooting at Brown University in Providence—which is less than 10 miles from Pawtucket—that left two people dead and nine others wounded.

“We can and should work together to promote responsible gun ownership and pass legislation like safe storage laws and red flag laws—widely supported measures that keep guns out of dangerous situations while respecting responsible ownership,” Lemek asserted Monday.

“I’m holding the victims and their loved ones in my heart,” he added, “and I’m more determined than ever to build a future where our kids are safe in the places meant for joy.”

A Mexican man beaten within an inch of his life last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is on the mend and on Saturday spoke out to refute what one nurse called the agency’s “laughable” claim that his injuries—which include a skull shattered in eight places and five brain hemorrhages—were self-inflicted.

Alberto Castañeda Mondragón told the Associated Press that ICE agents pulled him from a friend’s car outside a shopping center in St. Paul, Minnesota—where the Trump administration’s ongoing Operation Metro Surge has left two people dead and thousands arrested—on January 8.

The 31-year-old father was thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and then savagely assaulted with fists and a steel baton.

“They started beating me right away when they arrested me,” he said.

Castañeda Mondragón was then dragged into an SUV and taken to a holding facility at Ft. Snelling in suburban Minneapolis where he says he was beaten again. He said he pleaded with his attackers to stop, but they just “laughed at me and hit me again.”

“They were very racist people,” he said. “No one insulted them, neither me nor the other person they detained me with. It was their character, their racism toward us, for being immigrants.”

Castañeda Mondragón was taken to the emergency room at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) suffering from eight skull fractures, five life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and multiple broken facial bones.

ICE agents told HCMC nurses that Castañeda Mondragón “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,” a claim his caretakers immediately doubted. A CT scan revealed fractures to the front, back, and both sides of his skull—injuries inconsistent with running into a wall.

“It was laughable, if there was something to laugh about,” one of the nurses told the AP last month on the condition of anonymity. “There was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall.”

“There was never a wall,” Castañeda Mondragón insisted.

Castañeda Mondragón was hospitalized for nearly three weeks. During the first week, he was minimally responsive, disoriented, and heavily sedated. His memory was damaged by the beating—he said he could not initially remember that he had a daughter—and he could not bathe himself after he was discharged from the hospital.

In addition to facing a long road to recovery, Castañeda Mondragón, who has been employed as a driver and a roofer, has been relying upon support from co-workers and his community for food, housing, and healthcare, as he is unable to work and has no health insurance. A GoFundMe page has been launched to solicit donations “for covering medical care and living expenses until he can begin working again.”

“I don’t know why ICE did this to me,” Castañeda Mondragón said in translated remarks on the page. “They did not detain me after the hospital, I am not a criminal, and the doctors say they were untruthful about how the injuries occurred. But I prefer not to fight, I only want to recover, pay my bills, and go back to work.”

On January 23, US District Judge Donovan W. Frank ruled that ICE was unlawfully detaining Castañeda Mondragón and ordered his immediate release.

Frank’s ruling noted that “ICE agents have largely refused to provide information about the cause of [Castañeda Mondragón’s] condition to hospital staff and counsel for [him], stating only that ‘he got his shit rocked’ and that he ran headfirst into a brick wall.”

The ruling also stated that “despite requests by hospital staff, ICE agents have refused to leave the hospital, asserting that [Castañeda Mondragón] is under ICE custody.”

“Two agents have been present at the hospital at all times since January 8, 2026,” the document continues. “ICE agents used handcuffs to shackle [Castañeda Mondragón’s] legs, despite requests from HCMC staff that he not be so restrained. Petitioner is now confined by hospital-issued four-point restraints in an apparent compromise between the providers and agents.”

“Prior to this case, ICE had not provided any explanation for [Castañeda Mondragón’s] arrest or continued detention,” Frank added.

Castañeda Mondragón legally entered the United States in 2022 but reportedly overstayed his visa.

Castañeda Mondragón’s arrest came a day after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old legal observer Renee Good in Minneapolis. Seventeen days later, Customs and Border Protection officers fatally shot nurse Alex Pretti, who was also 37, in South Minneapolis after disarming him of a legally carried handgun.

The Department of Homeland Security has not announced any investigation into the attack on Castañeda Mondragón, sparking criticism from civil rights advocates and some Democratic elected officials.

Castañeda Mondragón told the AP that he considers himself lucky.

“It’s immense luck to have survived, to be able to be in this country again, to be able to heal, and to try to move forward,” he said. “For me, it’s the best luck in the world.”

But he suffers nightmares that ICE is coming for him.

“You’re left with the nightmare of going to work and being stopped,” Castañeda Mondragón said, “or that you’re buying your food somewhere, your lunch, and they show up and stop you again. They hit you.”

A divided federal appellate panel ruled Friday in favor of the Trump administration’s policy of locking up most undocumented immigrants without bond, a decision that legal experts called a serious blow to due process.

A three-judge panel of the right-wing 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled 2-1 that President Donald Trump’s reversal of three decades of practice by previous administrations is legally sound under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). The ruling reverses two lower court orders.

“The text [of the IIRIRA] says what it says, regardless of the decisions of prior administrations,” Judge Edith Jones—an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan—wrote for the majority. “That prior administrations decided to use less than their full enforcement authority... does not mean they lacked the authority to do more.”

Writing in dissent, Judge Dana M. Douglas, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, asserted that “the Congress that passed IIRIRA would be surprised to learn it had also required the detention without bond of two million people. For almost 30 years there was no sign anyone thought it had done so, and nothing in the congressional record or the history of the statute’s enforcement suggests that it did.”

“Nonetheless, the government today asserts the authority and mandate to detain millions of noncitizens in the interior, some of them present here for decades, on the same terms as if they were apprehended at the border,” Douglas added. “No matter that this newly discovered mandate arrives without historical precedent, and in the teeth of one of the core distinctions of immigration law. The overwhelming majority elsewhere have recognized that the government’s position is totally unsupported.”

Past administration generally allowed unauthorized immigrants who had lived in the United States for years to attend bond hearings, at which they had a chance to argue before immigration judges that they posed no flight risk and should be permitted to contest their deportation without detention.

Mandatory detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was generally reserved for convicted criminals or people who recently entered the country illegally.

However, the Trump administration contends that anyone who entered the United States without authorization at any time can be detained pending deportation, with limited discretionary exceptions for humanitarian or public interest cases. As a result, immigrants who have lived in the US for years or even decades are being detained indefinitely, even if they have no criminal records.

According to a POLITICO analysis, more than 360 judges across the country—including dozens of Trump appointees—have rejected the administration’s interpretation of ICE’s detention power, while just 26 sided with the administration.

While US Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed Friday’s ruling as a “significant blow against activist judges who have been undermining our efforts to make America safe again at every turn,” some legal experts said the decision erodes constitutional rights.

“AWFUL news for due process,” American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said on social media in response to Friday’s ruling. “This decision will wipe out the availability of release through bond for tens of thousands of people detained in or transported to Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi by ICE.”

While Friday’s ruling only applies to those three states, which fall under the 5th Circuit Court’s jurisdiction, there are numerous legal challenges to the administration’s detention policy in courts across the country.

The US Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced its anticipated reapproval of dicamba for two key crops, a move which, given the pesticide’s proven health risks, places the EPA at apparent odds with President Donald Trump’s vow to “Make America Healthy Again.”

“The industry cronies at the EPA just approved a pesticide that drifts away from application sites for miles and poisons everything it touches,” Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in response to Friday’s announcement.

“With the EPA taking aggressive pro-pesticide industry actions like this, it’s hard to see how Making America Healthy Again was anything but another broken campaign promise,” Donley added. “When push comes to shove, this administration is willing to bend over backward to appease the pesticide industry, regardless of the consequences to public health or the environment.”

The EPA said in a statement that the agency “established the strongest protections in agency history for over-the-top (OTT) dicamba application on dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybean crops,” and that “this decision responds directly to the strong advocacy of America’s cotton and soybean farmers.”

While scientific studies have linked exposure to high levels of dicamba to increased risk of cancer and hypothyroidism and the European Union has classified dicamba as a category II suspected endocrine disruptor, the EPA said Friday that “when applied according to the new label instructions,” it “found no unreasonable risk to human health and the environment from OTT dicamba use.”

This is the third time the EPA has approved dicamba for OTT use. On both prior occasions, federal courts blocked the approvals, citing underestimation of the risk of chemical drift that could harm neighboring farms.

The agency highlighted new restrictions on dicamba use it said will reduce risk of drift.

“EPA recognizes that previous drift issues created legitimate concerns, and designed these new label restrictions to directly address them, including cutting the amount of dicamba that can be used annually in half, doubling required safety agents, requiring conservation practices to protect endangered species, and restricting applications during high temperatures when exposure and volatility risks increase,” it said.

Critics noted that the EPA during the Biden administration published a report revealing that during Trump’s first term, senior administration officials intentionally excluded scientific evidence of dicamba-related hazards, including the risk of widespread drift damage, prior to a previous reapproval.

Others pointed to the recent appointment of former American Soybean Associate lobbyist and dicamba advocate Kyle Kunkler as the EPA’s pesticides chief.

“Kunkler works under two former lobbyists for the American Chemistry Council, Nancy Beck and Lynn Dekleva, who are now overseen by a fourth industry lobbyist, Doug Troutman, who was recently confirmed to lead the chemicals office following endorsement by the chemical council,” the Center for Food Safety (CFS) noted Friday.

The Trump EPA has also come under fire for promoting the alleged safety of atrazine, a herbicide that the World Health Organization says probably causes cancer, and for pushing the US Supreme Court to shield Bayer, which makes the likely carcinogenic weedkiller Roundup, from thousands of lawsuits.

CFS science director Bill Freese said that “the Trump administration’s hostility to farmers and rural America knows no bounds.”

“Dicamba drift damage threatens farmers’ livelihoods and tears apart rural communities,” Freese added. “And these are farmers and communities already reeling from Trump’s [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] raids on farmworkers, the trade war shutdown of soybean exports to China, and Trump’s bailout of Argentina, whose farmers are selling soybeans to the Chinese—soybeans China used to buy from American growers.”