Julia Conley, Common Dreams

As one right-wing news outlet reported that it had “unmasked” a protester who for months has been participating in nonviolent resistance against the Trump administration’s agenda in Portland, Oregon, while dressed in a frog costume, one journalist spoke directly to the demonstrator about their views and motivations.

“I come out here day in and day out since June because I am worried about my community, I am concerned with what is happening in my community,” said the protester, whom news outlets have recently identified as Seth Todd. “I don’t want to see anyone treated inhumanely.”

Todd added that he finds it “unacceptable” that the Trump administration has deployed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and other federal agents to Portland, which President Donald Trump and other officials have baselessly described as “war-ravaged” and “under siege from attack by Antifa,” referring to protesters who oppose fascism.

Local reports have made clear that the agents themselves are escalating violence in Portland—using tear gas and pepper balls to stop community members, including Todd, from protesting near an ICE facility.

Last week, a federal agent was filmed shooting pepper spray directly into the air vent of Todd’s inflatable frog costume.

“I don’t want to see anyone treated inhumanely and to see this happen to my community members, my friends, my family, my neighbors,” Todd said Thursday.

The Telegraph‘s sensationalist reporting emphasized since-deleted comments on social media, including one in which Todd self-identified as a “little gay nonbinary toad and proud Antifa terrorist.”

The president last month signed an executive order claiming he had the authority to designate antifa—which is not an organization—as a domestic terrorist group. The term is a portmanteau of anti-fascist and refers to the ideology held by individuals and groups who oppose authoritarianism.

The newspaper quoted a family member of Todd’s who said: ”I’ve talked to him over and over again about it, if you want to protest, that’s fine. Let’s do it peacefully.“

The Telegraph did not include any description of any act of violence perpetrated by Todd, however.

Todd has been wearing the frog costume to protests since June ”just to show how ridiculous the notion that we are violent terrorists is,” the protester explained in the Thursday interview. “It’s just to showcase how that narrative is wrong and does a lot more damage than good.”

Reporting on the latest news out of Oregon, where a Trump-appointed federal judge blocked the president from deploying the National Guard in Portland last week, The Oregonian also struck an absurdist note on Friday:

The Oregonian/OregonLive fact-checked seven suspect claims made at President Trump’s antifa roundtable earlier this week that featured prominent administration officials and independent journalists with right-wing viewpoints.

We found: Portland is not on fire or bombed out.

Fact: Portland Fire & Rescue responded to four calls about fires near the ICE building since June 6, according to fire department data.

Fact: The last recorded bomb to explode near Portland was 2008.

Todd, the outlet added, is not the only Portland resident who has used a costume while confronting ICE agents.

“Our reporters at the ICE building Thursday night counted several frogs, a unicorn, a polar bear, an axolotl, a raccoon, a peacock, a shark, and a cat among about 100 regularly dressed people,” reported The Oregonian. “The nightly protest proved uneventful as darkness fell and protesters and counterprotesters started to gather. The herd of animal costumes stood out. Or was it a flock?”

Despite the calm atmosphere, reported the outlet, “rooftop officers used their pepper ball guns several times when protesters got particularly close to the officers on the ground.”

Another demonstrator who has donned a chicken costume at Portland protests told Willamette Week on Thursday that the use of animal suits has helped to poke holes in the overarching strategy the Trump administration is using to invade cities including Chicago, Memphis, and Washington, DC.

“What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid,” said Jack Dickinson. “It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [US Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.”

“It feels like we’re winning this,” added Dickinson. “They’re not getting the footage they’re looking for. They look ridiculous.”

An account given in court by the attorney of a woman who was shot several times by a Border Patrol agent “really makes it sounds like” the agent “tried to murder an anti-ICE protester in Chicago and DHS lied to cover for him,” said one researcher, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security whose agents have descended on the Chicago area in recent weeks and have violently raided homes and assaulted community members there.

Christopher Parente, an attorney for Marimar Martinez, spoke at a hearing Monday at a federal courthouse two days after federal officers accused her of driving toward them in the Brighton Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Parente said body camera footage called the account of federal prosecutors and Border Patrol into question, as it showed a Border Patrol agent saying to Martinez, “Do something, b----h” before pulling over and shooting her at least five times.

“We need a zero tolerance policy for lying by law enforcement,” said Jonathan Cohn, political director of Progressive Mass.

Martinez and another driver, Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, were charged Sunday with felony assault of a federal officer, with prosecutors saying they were “aggressively” driving in a “convoy” including several vehicles. The Chicago Sun-Times noted that a statement by DHS after the incident referenced a loaded gun in Martinez’s car, which was not mentioned in the charges filed.

In court on Monday, Assistant US Attorney Sean Hennessy told U.S. District Judge Heather McShain that Martinez had a gun in her car but did not brandish it, while Parente said she has a concealed-carry license and a valid firearm.

A video captured by a security camera at a nearby tire shop showed Martinez’s Nissan Rogue pulling alongside a Chevy Tahoe driven by Border Patrol agents, who had just conducted an operation in nearby Oak Lawn. A GMC Envoy driven by Ruiz is seen following closely behind the authorities’ car. The shooting is not captured on the video.

McShain acknowledged the danger of Martinez and Ruiz’s actions but denied a request by the federal government to detain them, pending trial, citing the two US citizens’ lack of criminal history and extensive community ties. Martinez works for a school and had several character witnesses write letters to the court on her behalf.

“I think there’s a danger to the community, but I don’t think it’s Ms. Martinez,” said Parente at the hearing.

Roughly 100 community members responded to the shooting Saturday by holding a protest in the area where federal agents fired pepper balls and tear gas at the demonstrators.

The shooting in Brighton Park was one of several recent incidents in which federal agents have violently confronted community members in the Chicago area, following President Donald Trump’s deployment of immigration officers as part of what he calls “Operation Midway Blitz.” Over the weekend, Trump announced he was deploying hundreds of members of the National Guard—both from Illinois and other states—to Chicago to support the effort over the objections of rights groups and Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.

The president and his allies have repeatedly claimed that a federal law enforcement response is necessary in cities including Chicago, Portland, and Washington, DC, even as statistics have shown violent crime is down in the cities and as local authorities have denied that protesters against Trump’s mass deportation campaign are causing havoc.

On Monday, officials in Chicago and Illinois sued the Trump administration over its invasion of the city, and a group of protesters and journalists filed a separate suit arguing that federal agents have “shot, gassed, and detained individuals” for exercising their First Amendment rights.

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal said Sunday that the government shutdown that began last week and could be used as President Donald Trump’s latest reason for mass firings of federal workers is “Project 2025 in action” and condemned the Republican Party’s push to “inflict the most pain on Americans” that they can.

Jayapal (D-WA) spoke to MSNBC as the shutdown entered its fifth day, emphasizing that while the White House is threatening to fire federal workers en masse due to legislators’ failure to reach a deal on a spending package to keep the government open, the Trump administration has already overseen the dismissal of more than 100,000 public servants.

“They have actually already fired at least 150,000 federal workers,” said Jayapal. “They’ve already slashed agencies across the board and [Office of Management and Budget director] Russ Vought does want to use the shutdown to inflict more pain on the American people, instead of addressing the healthcare crisis that we have—both from the Big Bad Betrayal Bill and from the upcoming crisis we have around the Affordable Care Act subsidies.”

Jayapal’s comments came as Kevin Hassett, the National Economic Council director, told CNN that whether or not Trump takes advantage of what he has called an “unprecedented opportunity” to make more cuts to agencies is contingent on whether Democrats agree to the GOP spending proposal—which would keep the government funded for the time being but would allow for the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies and the Medicaid cuts that were part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The expiration of the subsidies could raise health insurance premiums by an average of 75% for millions of Americans, according to a KFF analysis.

Hassett expressed hope that the Democrats will be “reasonable once they get back into town on Monday.”

“And if they are, then I think there’s no reason for those layoffs,” he said.

On Saturday, unions representing public employees filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to block the administration from moving forward with the mass firings, with Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), placing the blame for the shutdown squarely with the GOP.

“These threatened mass firings are the latest attack on working people by an administration abusing its power to push through its extreme Project 2025 agenda,” said Saunders. “We’re facing a healthcare crisis with millions of Americans about to see their health insurance payments skyrocket, and instead of working across the aisle to solve it, the administration is threatening to use its orchestrated shutdown as an excuse to fire federal workers who perform critical services that Americans rely on. The threatened mass firings are unlawful. Public service work is vital to our communities, and we will do everything in our power to defend it.”

AFSCME and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) requested the temporary restraining order days after filing a lawsuit against Vought and other administration officials over the mass firing threat.

Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, which is helping to represent the unions, noted that Congress mandates “strict limits for personnel matters during a shutdown.”

“Donald Trump’s and his administration’s rampant lawlessness continues, and so must the effort to hold him accountable,” said Eisen. “The administration’s latest outrage against the Constitution and human decency is abusing the government shutdown to put in motion the firing of government workers. But Trump and his team have no such legal authority.”

“The federal courts have served as a bulwark against prior illegalities, and we look forward to a hearing here,” he added.
Democrats in Illinois last week accused the president of also using the shutdown to threaten congressionally approved funding for infrastructure projects in Chicago.

”Donald Trump and Russ Vought of Project 2025 are using this shutdown to inflict as much pain as they can,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Saturday. “They’re withholding federal money that has already been approved by Congress to target and punish American communities. This is illegal.”

Reports of the Trump administration’s plan to slash refugee admissions to an even lower number than previously stated—with the majority of spots given to white South Africans descended from French and Dutch colonists who arrived in the country in the 17th century—represents “a moral failure and a dark hour for our country,” according to one refugee policy expert.

As The New York Times reported late Friday, a presidential determination dated September 30 and signed by President Donald Trump showed that the president aims to cap refugee admissions at 7,500 in 2026—a significant decrease from the 40,000 that he previously discussed with officials, and from the 125,000 cap set by the Biden administration last year.

A White House official told the Times that the refugee limit would be final only after the administration consults with Congress, as it’s required to do under the Refugee Act. They added that consultation with the House and Senate Judiciary committees will be possible only after Democrats and Republicans reach a deal to fund the government and end the shutdown that began October 1.

But advocates and Democrats have pointed out in recent days that the White House’s deadline for consulting with lawmakers on refugee limits for next year was September 30, before the shutdown began.

As the deadline passed this week, Democratic leaders said that “in open defiance of the law, the Trump administration has failed to schedule the legally required consultation.”

“Despite repeated outreach from Democratic and Republican committee staff, the Trump administration has completely discarded its legal obligation, leaving Congress in the dark and refugees in limbo,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee; Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement; Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee; and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), ranking member for the Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration.

The president effectively suspended the US State Department’s 40-year-old refugee resettlement program on his first day in office. The program requires refugees fleeing conflict, famine, and persecution to pass background checks and medical exams before entering the country, and often involves years-long waits in refugee camps before they are resettled in the US.

“What began as a so-called ‘suspension’ has now stretched into an eight-month shutdown, betraying the nation’s promise as a refuge for the oppressed,” said the Democrats. “Nearly 130,000 people facing persecution abroad who have already passed the rigorous vetting requirements of our refugee program have been abandoned by this administration, left to languish in refugee camps around the world after being given the promise of safety and a new life in America.”

But for white South African farmers, also known as Afrikaners, Trump carved out an exception earlier this year that will reportedly be extended into 2026—allowing them “to skip the line and rigorous vetting as countless others are shut out of the US,” said the Democrats.

Trump and his billionaire megadonor, South Africa-born Elon Musk, have helped spread false claims that the country’s democratically elected Black government has systematically oppressed white Afrikaners, who enforced a racist apartheid system until 1994, and has allowed white farmers to be murdered—saying white people in the country face a “genocide.”

White South Africans hold 20 times the wealth of Black people in the country despite making up just 7% of the population, and control the vast majority of land.

“Poor Black citizens of South Africa are far more likely to be victims of violent crime and murder than white people,” wrote Joe Walsh at Current Affairs last year, noting that during one period, “when there were 49 murders on farms across the entire country, one of Cape Town’s predominantly Black townships called Khayelitsha recorded 179 murders, at a rate of approximately 116 per 100,000 people.”

While Trump plans to open the door to thousands of white South Africans, said Danilo Zak, director of policy at Church World Service, “more than 100,000 refugees from Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine, etc., who have been through years of vetting, approved, [are] now left stranded.”

With Trump’s determination on refugee numbers “already signed and dated,” said Zak, it’s impossible for Trump to have completed an “appropriate consultation” with Congress to approve the abandonment of refugees across the world.

Trump previously set a record low number for refugee admissions during his first term, imposing a cap of 15,000 slots for resettlement.

The new plan was reported as the US Supreme Court ruled for the second time in four months in favor of allowing the president to revoke Temporary Protected Status for 300,000 Venezuelans, putting them at risk for deportation—despite an earlier ruling by a federal judge who found Trump had acted illegally when he moved to revoke TPS.

“This decision threatens not only the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who will lose legal status and face deportation,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, “but also a basic sense of fairness.”

Public high schools in Oklahoma are being ordered to partner with Turning Point USA, the right-wing group founded by activist Charlie Kirk — and threatened with being stripped of their accreditation if they don’t comply.

Ryan Walters, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, released a video address on Tuesday saying that “every Oklahoma high school will have a Turning Point USA chapter.”

“For far too long we have seen radical leftists with the teachers unions dominate classrooms and push woke indoctrination on our kids,” Walters said in the video posted to social media.

The state-mandated chapters of “Club America,” Turning Point’s high school program, will ensure students “understand American greatness” while enabling them to “engage in civic dialogue and have that open discussion,” said Walters.

Turning Point has claimed that since Kirk was fatally shot earlier this month at a debate event the group was holding at Utah Valley University, it has received a “massive surge of inquiries to start new chapters” of Club America.

He told reporter Paige Taylor of KOKH FOX 25, “We would go after their accreditation, we would go after their certificates, they would be in danger of not being a school district if they decided to reject a club that is here to promote civil engagement.”

Since Kirk’s killing, Walters has focused intently on rooting out teachers and school administrators who have not displayed mourning for the activist. On September 17, his office said it had received hundreds of reports of schools and educators displaying “vile rhetoric promoting the killing.”

The press release listed 224 reports of “defamatory comments” as well as 30 reports of schools “not observing a moment of silence” and three of schools refusing to fly their flag at half staff.

Kirk mobilized young conservatives and engaged in debates on college campuses regarding abortion rights, immigration, and other political issues. At events and on his podcast, he promoted the white supremacist view that a “great replacement strategy” was underway via immigration policy and claimed “prowling Blacks” target white people with violence in cities.

Walters has spent much of his time as state superintendent pushing for Oklahoma’s public schools to include Christian and right-wing beliefs in their teachings—calling on schools to display a video of him praying, procuring President Donald Trump-branded bibles after mandating biblical lessons, screening teachers for liberal viewpoints, and pushing for high school social studies teachers to include debunked conspiracy theories about “election fraud” in the 2020 election in their lesson plans.

After Walters announced his plan to mandate the establishment of Turning Point USA chapters at high schools, a number of observers noted that the superintendent has presided over a school system that is ranked 50th nationwide in terms of education quality.

A new report on no-bid contracts awarded in Texas to corporations after they donated to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s political action committee exemplifies why many people “lose faith in their government,” said one advocate at the watchdog group Public Citizen on Wednesday.

The organization released a report, Awarding Influence, on no-bid contracts that were awarded by Abbott from 2020-24 after he declared state emergencies over border security, Hurricane Beryl, and the coronavirus pandemic.

Donors to Abbott’s political action committee, Texans for Greg Abbott PAC, received approximately $950 million in at least 89 state contracts during those emergencies. The companies—including through their subsidiaries, PACs, executives, and executives’ spouses—donated a collective $2.9 million to Abbott in 96 contributions between 2014-25.

“The timing of the contributions is suspect,” said Andrew Cates, an attorney and government ethics expert. “The groups were awarded the contracts after they made large contributions to the governor or his [super PAC]. If it were the other way around, it could be viewed as a thank-you contribution, but this way feels much more pay-to-play when procurement money flows quickly after large contributions.”

Cates said one particular donor, Doggett Equipment Services Group, drew the scrutiny of Public Citizen due to $1.6 million it was awarded in no-bid state contracts that were simply labeled “fees.”

The company provides services to the heavy equipment industry across Texas, and its CEO, William “Leslie” Doggett, has contributed more than $1.7 million to Texans for Greg Abbott since 2014, either personally or through his corporation.

One of Doggett’s companies, Doggett Freightliners of South Texas, received two noncompetitive contracts—identified only as “fees” on paperwork—worth $1.6 million in 2022 and 2023. One of the contracts was finalized eight days after Doggett donated $500,000 to the PAC.

Cates said the Doggett contracts were “especially egregious.”

Doggett’s apparent transaction with Abbott’s PAC did not make his company the largest recipient of no-bid contracts detailed in the report; that distinction goes to Gothams LLC, an emergency management company that received nearly $640 million in contracts in 2021 and 2022.

After pandemic contracts began to slow in 2022, Gothams received just one contract worth $43 million—but after its founder, Matthew Michelsen, started sending donations to Texans for Greg Abbott that totaled $600,000, the firm received 10 contracts worth $66 million.

“People lose faith in their government when they see a system that appears to benefit those who can buy access to elected officials,” said Adrian Shelley, the Texas director of Public Citizen. “Even when no laws are broken, insider dealing undermines confidence in state government. People conclude that the government works for wealthy people first and everyday Texans second.”

In another example from the report, infrastructure development firm HNTB Holdings received an emergency contract worth $2.6 million in 2021 to provide software updates. Since 2015, the company, its PAC, and its senior officials have contributed $193,750 to Texans for Greg Abbott

“All of the companies identified in this report, either through corporate PACs or individuals affiliated with the company, contributed significant amounts to Texans for Greg Abbott,” said Cassify Levin, a research fellow at Public Citizen. “Lawmakers should adopt stronger restrictions on pay-to-play practices in government contracting and implement reporting requirements for the governor’s office in the aftermath of an emergency.”

The group called on Texas officials to make changes to the state’s contract procurement rules, including by:

• Banning no-bid contract awards to companies whose PACs, officers, or families of officers have made political donations above a given threshold within the last election cycle;
• Barring recipients of no-bid contracts from making contributions above a given threshold for a given period of time;
• Establishing a more thorough and transparent reporting process of the awarding of no-bid contracts after disaster and emergency declarations; and
• Imposing penalties for noncompliance, including contract forfeiture.

The report acknowledges that “disaster response includes the rapid deployment of resources to areas of need” and that “the speed involved may make normal contract bid and award procedures impossible.”

However, reads the conclusion, “ethics laws should be sufficient to eliminate conflict and the appearance of conflict in government decision-making.”

Shelley added that “there are simple safeguards that lawmakers could implement to avoid apparent conflicts of interest while still allowing the state to respond quickly to emergencies.”

International leaders and diplomats gasped and were seen shaking their heads as US President Donald Trump gave his address at the United Nations General Assembly—attacking the UN itself, migration, and climate action—but Sen. Lindsey Graham gave the speech an obsequious review on Fox News Tuesday night, going so far as to say Trump’s performance made a compelling case for him to run for an illegal third term.

“Trump 2028,” Graham (R-SC) told Sean Hannity. “I hope this never ends.”

He repeated Trump’s baseless claim that he has ended seven “unendable” wars since taking office in January and praised the president for “standing up in the UN and telling the world the way it is.”

“We don’t have to live this way,” said Graham, before emphasizing, “I hope he runs again.”

Graham’s comments represented “Republicans just openly calling for unconstitutional, lawless behavior” from the president, said journalist Mehdi Hasan.

Trump is barred from running for a third term by the 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution, which states: “No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice.”

Graham has previously called for the president to run for a third term in 2028, saying on the social media platform X, “Trump 2028!” after praising Trump’s address to Congress in March.

The comment was “a joke,” Graham later said.

The president has also made comments about attempting to serve a third term, and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) introduced a resolution days after Trump was sworn in to amend the Constitution, aiming to clear the way for a 2028 presidential run.

Economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research said the latest comments from Graham—who loudly denounced Trump at the beginning of his political career—suggested that “Trump must have some big-time dirt” on the senator.

“He used to have pretenses of being a serious person,” said Baker.

On the US Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave her Republican colleagues a choice: undo the damage they caused to the healthcare of millions of Americans by slashing Medicaid and insurance subsidies, or explain to the public why they refuse to do so—even if it means shutting down the government.

Warren (D-MA) spoke about a proposal released by the Democrats Wednesday night to keep the government running through October 31—averting a shutdown at the beginning of next month—if the GOP agrees to restore the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts and extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies to keep out-of-pocket premiums from rising by an average of 75% for millions of people who purchase health insurance through the ACA.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis released Thursday found that making the ACA subsidies permanent would increase the number of insured people by nearly 4 million.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have said Democrats will not vote for Republicans’ proposal to extend government funding at its current level through November 21, including the cuts in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, unless the GOP opens bipartisan talks on the legislation.

So far, GOP leaders have not asked the Democrats for input—but the Republicans will need at least 60 votes to pass the spending proposal in the Senate and will require Democrats to vote with them.

On the Senate floor, Warren told the Republicans how they can ensure that result.

“Before working moms go broke from a cancer diagnosis, Congress must act. Before community hospitals are forced to shut down, Congress must act,” said the senator. “That is why Democrats are saying: ‘If Republicans want our votes, they need to restore healthcare for Americans.‘”

While Schumer has demanded bipartisan talks and called for the GOP to make concessions on healthcare, he told The Washington Post Wednesday that the Democrats do not have a “red line.”

Schumer angered progressive lawmakers and many of his own constituents in March when he joined the GOP to advance a spending bill that kept the government open—but cut $13 billion in nonmilitary federal spending and did nothing to rein in President Donald Trump and his then-adviser, Elon Musk, as they eviscerated government agencies.

Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said Tuesday that the current “alignment of Democratic leadership and appropriators in recognition of this moment of leverage is heartening.”

“A budget deal should be contingent on addressing Americans’ top economic priority—the cost of and access to healthcare. If Republicans refuse to negotiate and move away from their cost-increasing agenda, then they are the ones who will be forcing a government-wide shutdown,” said Gilbert. “There should be no deal without assurances that the budget will be honored and not impounded, and that it will begin to return care to the American people.”

By refusing to meet with the Democrats thus far, said Kobie Christian of Unrig Our Economy, GOP leaders are thus far showing that “if it isn’t about giving the ultrarich another tax break, Republicans in Congress aren’t interested.”

“Every day that Congress does not take action to prevent increases in health insurance premiums, more and more Americans are at risk of facing higher healthcare costs and losing coverage,” said Christian. “It’s time that congressional Republicans come to the table and find a solution to help all Americans, not just the ultrawealthy.”

On her way to the Senate floor Thursday, Warren said that “if Republicans want our votes for this budget, they’ve got to restore healthcare for millions of Americans.”

“It’s really that simple,” she added.

First Amendment advocates on Wednesday evening demanded that media companies “stop capitulating—and start fighting back” against President Donald Trump and his administration after FCC chair Brendan Carr successfully pressured ABC to pull comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show from the air indefinitely over comments he made about the aftermath of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s murder.

ABC announced the decision just hours after Carr said on a podcast that the network; its owner, the Walt Disney Company; and its affiliates must “find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel.”

Carr took issue with remarks Kimmel made in his Monday night broadcast—remarks that had more to do with Trump’s far-right MAGA movement than Kirk or the suspect in his killing, Tyler Robinson, but which right-wing activists claimed portrayed Robinson as a conservative.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.

Carr said Wednesday, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” suggesting the FCC would take action to pull “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from the air unless ABC made the decision itself.

According to The New York Times, Disney CEO Robert Iger and co-chair Dana Walden made the decision to take the show off the air, and Rolling Stone reported that in meetings on Wednesday, many executives believed Kimmel had done nothing wrong—“but the threat of Trump administration retaliation loomed.”

Nexstar, which owns ABC affiliate stations across the country and is currently seeking FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger with rival company Tegna, fell in line soon after Carr’s remarks, saying it would preempt Kimmel’s show on its affiliates. Sinclair, another affiliate owner, also said it would preempt the program and called on Kimmel to make a “meaningful personal donation” to the Kirk family and Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, for describing the far-right’s decision to immediately blame the left for Kirk’s assassination.

Craig Aaron, CEO of the First Amendment advocacy group Free Press, noted that ABC attempted to “buy off Trump with a ridiculous legal settlement last year” when it gave $15 million to his presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit—but the move made no difference when Carr disapproved of Kimmel’s remarks.

“ABC keeps caving regardless of how meritless the administration’s claims are—and how much lasting damage they’re doing to free speech in America,” said Aaron. “These companies are turning the public airwaves into another propaganda arm of the Trump regime.”

“Donald Trump and Brendan Carr have turned the FCC into the Federal Censorship Commission, ignoring the First Amendment and replacing the rule of law with the whims of right-wing bloggers,” added Aaron. “They’re abusing their power to shake down media companies with their dangerous demands for dishonest coverage and Orwellian compliance with the administration’s demands. This is nothing more than censorship and extortion.”

The administration’s latest attack on the media, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), has been characterized by “last-minute settlements, secret side deals, multi-billion dollar mergers pending Donald Trump’s approval.”

“Trump silencing free speech stifles our democracy,” she said. “It sure looks like giant media companies are enabling his authoritarianism.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in a video posted on social media that the US public is witnessing “the systematic destruction of free speech in this country,” noting that “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was also recently cancelled, effective next May. CBS announced the decision as its parent company, Paramount, was seeking approval of an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance. The merger was approved days later.

“This is a moment for the country to mobilize,” said Murphy. “This is a moment for all of us to be out on the streets protesting because if you don’t raise your voices right now about the assault on free speech, about Donald Trump’s decision to disgustingly exploit the murder of Charlie Kirk, so as to try to permanently render powerless and impotent those who politically oppose him—there may be no democracy to save a year from now.”

“This is a red alert moment,” he added.

The abrupt cancellation of Kimmel’s show in response to his comments comes after numerous attacks on free speech by the Trump administration. In March, former Columbia University student organizer Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk were among the foreign students who were detained by masked immigration agents and threatened with deportation for speaking out against US support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. Both have since been released; on Wednesday Khalil and his legal team said they would fight an immigration judge’s ruling that could pave the way for his deportation to Algeria or Syria.

Trump also announced a lawsuit against The New York Times and book publisher Penguin Random House over reporting and news analysis that was unfavorable to him.

“Jimmy Kimmel is the latest target of the Trump administration’s unconstitutional plan to silence its critics and control what the American people watch and read,” said Christopher Anders, director of the Democracy and Technology Division at the ACLU. “Cowering to threats, ABC and the biggest owner of its affiliate stations gave the Trump FCC chairman exactly what he wanted by suspending Kimmel indefinitely and dropping the show.”

“This is beyond McCarthyism. Trump officials are repeatedly abusing their power to stop ideas they don’t like, deciding who can speak, write, and even joke,” said Anders. “The Trump administration’s actions, paired with ABC‘s capitulation, represent a grave threat to our First Amendment freedoms.”

The leaders of the UK-based protest group Led By Donkeys said Wednesday that four of its members remained under arrest for displaying images of US President Donald Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on the side of Windsor Castle ahead of Trump’s second state visit to the United Kingdom.

The widely available images were accompanied by a narration discussing Trump and Epstein’s friendship, as well as pictures of Epstein’s victims, police reports, and news reports about the case.

Trump began his visit, on which he’ll meet with King Charles and other members of the royal family as well as Prime Minister Keir Starmer, amid growing scrutiny of the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision not to release files related to the Epstein case and the release of a letter the president reportedly sent to Epstein containing dialogue between the two men about a “wonderful secret” they shared.

The White House has denied the letter is authentic and Trump has claimed he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal activities during his friendship with him.

Police said they arrested the four Led by Donkeys members on suspicion of “malicious communications” after they displayed the “unauthorized projection.”

A spokesperson for Led By Donkeys told The Guardian the group has previously displayed “25 or 30 projections” without organizers being arrested.

“Often the police come along and we have a chat to them, and they even have a laugh with us and occasionally tell us to not do it,” the spokesperson said. “But no one’s ever been arrested before, so it is ridiculous that four of our guys have been arrested for malicious communications.”

“Forgive the cliche, but it is rather Orwellian for a piece of journalism, which raises questions about our guest’s relationship with America’s most notorious child sex trafficker, to lead to arrests,” they added.

King Charles’ brother, Prince Andrew, has also been accused of sexually abusing teenage girls during his friendship with Epstein. He settled out of court with Virginia Giuffre, who sued him for allegedly abusing her, in 2022, after being stripped of his royal patronages.

While the projection was taken down and the protesters detained, Trump is unlikely to escape condemnation from members of the British public during his visit.

The group Everyone Hates Elon, which has previously displayed messages denouncing billionaire Trump ally and megadonor Elon Musk at bus stops around London, also unfurled a banner at Windsor Castle showing a picture of Trump and Epstein.

Protesters gathered in London Wednesday for a “Trump Not Welcome” march from Portland Place to Parliament Square, with some displaying the “Trump baby balloon” that became familiar after the president’s first official visit to the UK in 2018, as well as balloons showing a caricature of Vice President JD Vance.

Demonstrators carried signs reading, “No to racism” and “Stop arming Israel,” among other slogans.

“We do not want our government to trade away our democracy and decency,” Zoe Gardner, a spokesperson for the Stop Trump Coalition, told The Washington Post Wednesday.

A rallygoer named Alena Ivanova told the outlet that “there’s a reason” Trump is spending much of his visit outside of the nation’s capital, meeting with Starmer at his country estate and staying at Windsor Castle.

“People on the streets will say what our government seems unable to: Donald Trump is not welcome here,” said Ivanova.

Observers in the UK view the invitation for a state visit as an attempt to appeal to the president as he threatens the country with tariffs and an end to aid for Ukraine.

“We want our government to show some backbone,” Gardner told the BBC, “and have a little bit of pride and represent that huge feeling of disgust at Donald Trump’s politics in the UK.”

The Led By Donkeys spokesperson told The Guardian that the arrest of the four organizers “says a lot more about the policing of Trump’s visit than it does about what we did.”

More than 1,600 police officers have been deployed to respond to protests while Trump is in the UK.

“We’re constantly told, you know, we need to see peaceful protests. Well, here’s a peaceful protest,” said the spokesperson. “We projected a piece of journalism onto a wall and now people have been arrested for malicious communications.”

President Donald Trump's tariff policies, imposing levies as high as 50% on the United States' trading partners, have not proven compatible with his campaign promise to turn the U.S. back into a "manufacturing powerhouse," as Friday's jobs report showed.

The overall analysis was grim, with the economy adding just 22,000 jobs last month, but manufacturing employment in particular has declined since Trump made his April 2 "Liberation Day" announcement of tariffs on countries including Canada and Mexico.

Since then, the president has introduced new rounds of tariffs on imports from countries he claims have treated the U.S. unfairly, and all the while, manufacturers have tightened their belts to cope with the higher cost of supplies and materials.

Overall manufacturing employment has plummeted by 42,000 jobs, while job openings and new hires have declined by 76,000 and 18,000, respectively, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP), which released a jobs report analysis titled "Trump's Trade War Squeezes Middle-Class Manufacturing Employment" on Friday.

"The manufacturing sector is struggling more than the rest of the labor market under Trump's tariffs, and manufacturing workers' wage growth is stagnating," said CAP.

Last month, the sector lost 12,000 jobs, while wages for manufacturing workers stagnated.

In line with other private employees, workers in the sector saw their wages go up just 10 cents from July, earning an average of $35.50 per hour.

"Despite Trump's claims that his policies will reignite the manufacturing industry in the United States, his policies have achieved the opposite," wrote policy analyst Kennedy Andara and economist Sara Estep at CAP.

The findings are in line with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' Texas Manufacturing Survey, which was taken from August 12-20 and found that 72% of manufacturing firms say the tariffs have had a negative impact on their business.

"The argument is: We're all meant to sacrifice a bit, so that tariffs can help rebuild American manufacturing. Let's ask American manufacturers whether they're helping," said University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers on social media, sharing a graph that showed the survey's findings.

As Philip Luck, a former deputy chief economist with the US State Department, told the CBC last month, Trump has been promising "millions and millions of jobs" will result from his tariff regime, but those promises are out of step with the reality of manufacturing in 2025.

"We do [manufacturing] now with very few workers, we do it in a very automated way," Luck told the CBC. "Even if we do increase manufacturing I don't know that we're going to increase jobs along with it."

The outlet noted that while the number of Americans employed in manufacturing peaked in 1979, the value of manufacturing production has continuously trended up since then.

Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, told the CBC that "no treasure trove of jobs" is likely to come out of Trump's tariffs.

The president "walked into an economy that was seeing the largest manufacturing production in American history," Hicks said. "That is really a testament to how productive American workers are, the quality of the technology, and capital investment in manufacturing."

But the rate of hiring at manufacturing firms is far below its 2024 level, said CAP, revealing the negative impact of Trump's tariff regime.

US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed to nearly 800 workers who lost their jobs in the manufacturing sector this week, including 120 whose company's sawmill closed in Darlington, South Carolina; 101 who worked at an electronics assembly plant for Intervala in Manchester, New Hampshire; and 170 whose sawmill positions were eliminated in Estill, South Carolina.

The US Supreme Court is expected to soon review Trump's tariffs after the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled last week that many of them are illegal.

As a court in Fort Myers, Florida, prepared to hold the first hearing on the legal rights of immigrants detained at "Alligator Alcatraz," the Everglades detention facility that a federal judge ordered to be shut down last month, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday said the Trump administration has found a new prison to house arrested migrants, and boasted that detainees will likely get "a message" from the facility the government selected.

The administration has struck a "historic" deal with the Louisiana state government, said officials on Wednesday, and will begin detaining hundreds of immigrants in a new facility at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly called Angola, and well known for its long history of violence and brutality against inmates as well as inhumane conditions.

Noem said in a press conference Wednesday that the prison, a former slave plantation, has "absolutely" been chosen due to its reputation for brutal working conditions—over which a group of inmates sued last year—use of solitary confinement, including for teenage prisoners; lack of access to clean water, sufficient food, and adequate hygiene; and violence.

"Absolutely, this is a facility that's notorious. It's a facility—Angola prison is legendary—but that's a message that these individuals that are going to be here, that are illegal criminals, need to understand," said Noem.

"Angola has a particularly dark history of abuse and repression that's almost singular in prison history in the United States."

An isolated section of the nation's largest maximum-security prison will house "the worst of the worst" criminal offenders who are immigrants, said Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, after whom the Angola facility has apparently been named. The area where up to 400 immigrants will be held is being called Camp 57, an homage to Landry, who is the state's 57th governor.

Landry issued an emergency declaration in July to expedite repairs in the facility, which hasn't held prisoners since 2018 due to security and safety risks stemming from its deteriorating condition.

"Angola has a particularly dark history of abuse and repression that's almost singular in prison history in the United States," Eunice Cho, senior counsel at the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, told The New York Times.

As with Alligator Alcatraz, the administration has come up with a nickname for the detention and deportation center: "Louisiana Lockup."

Landry emphasized Wednesday that "the most violent offenders" will be held in the facility, and said that "if you don't think that they belong in somewhere like this, you've got a problem."

The center, which is being run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contractors, was already housing 51 detainees as of Wednesday and is expected to hold up to 200 by the end of September.

Noem named examples of people convicted of crimes, including murder, sexual assault, battery, and possession of child sexual abuse imagery, who would be sent to the Angola facility.

The administration's comments echoed earlier statements about Alligator Alcatraz, where officials said "the worst of the worst" would be held while they awaited deportation.

The Miami Herald and The Tampa Bay Times reported in July that just a third of about 900 people held at the facility had been convicted of crimes, which ranged from serious offenses to traffic violations. More than 250 people had never been convicted or charged with any crime.

One analysis in June found that nearly two-thirds of migrants who had been rounded up by ICE in the first months of Trump's second term did not have criminal convictions.

Following President Donald Trump's declaration that "we're going on" with a deployment of federal agents to Chicago, the nation's third-largest city and a frequent target of fearmongering by the president, Rep. Delia Ramirez led Democratic lawmakers in condemning the White House's threat to militarize federal troops in cities across the country.

Trump's persistent, baseless claims that large cities like Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles are facing violent crime waves are part of an attempt, suggested Ramirez (D-Ill.), to distract from the fact that his administration and Republicans in Congress are slashing funding that millions of people rely on.

"We have less than 30 days to pass a spending budget," said Ramirez, who represents parts of Chicago. "And yet here we are, the president is attempting to send the National Guard and terrorize cities instead of actually funding the government. See, we don't need Trump's troops on our streets. What we need and what our constituents continue to say is that we need an investment in our neighborhoods. We need an investment in food for our tables, healthcare for our families, and safety that is rooted in justice and opportunity."

Trump's comments about Chicago came on Tuesday and followed plans to deploy 200 Homeland Security officials to the city and use a nearby naval base as a staging area, as part of his nationwide anti-immigration crackdown.

The White House has said it's overseen the arrests of more than 65,000 people by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since Trump took office in January, but the Cato Institute found in June that 65% of people rounded up by the agency had no criminal conviction, while 93% had no conviction for violent offenses.

Trump's threat against Chicago also came as a federal judge ruled that his use of federal troops in Los Angeles was illegal. The president deployed Marine and National Guard soldiers to the city more than two months ago, and about 300 members of the National Guard remain there to crack down on protests against ICE raids and "ensure that federal immigration law was enforced."

Last month, the president sent the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and federalized the police force of the nation's capital, claiming he planned to rid the city of "slums" and ordering the destruction of encampments inhabited by homeless people.

Since that deployment, law enforcement agents have subjected local residents to illegal searches and unfairly charged them with serious crimes, threatening them with lengthy prison sentences.

On Wednesday, Ramirez noted that, as with ICE raids that are targeting people without criminal records despite Trump's claims to the contrary, the president is threatening to send troops to cities, including Chicago, to crack down on crime waves that aren't happening.

Thanks to investments in communities across Chicago, said Ramirez, "violent crime rates have fallen 22% today. Homicides are down more than 33% in the past year, while shootings are down by 38%."

Trump's actions in Washington, D.C., and his threats against Chicago, added the congresswoman, "are not just about one city."

"When armed troops are sent into American communities to suppress protests, to target civil society leaders, or to facilitate the disappearance of our neighbors, it is not just a local issue," said Ramirez. "It strikes at the core of our very own democracy... This moment demands courage. It demands that we understand that we must obstruct and do everything we can to oppose any of these authoritarians against our cities."

Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) also spoke at the press conference, warning that Trump's threat against Chicago is a "dangerous sign that the president is signaling to turn American troops on American citizens on American soil."

Ramirez said legislative action, legal challenges, and organizing on the ground are needed to fight back against Trump's attacks on cities.

At the press conference, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said she was introducing two bills to give Washington, D.C., full control over the National Guard and its police department, and renewed her call for the passage of legislation that would grant statehood to the nation's capital.

"Our local police force should not be subject to federalization, an action that wouldn't be possible for any other police department in the country," said Norton. "Although D.C.'s lack of statehood makes it more vulnerable to the president's abuses of power, he has frequently made it known that his authoritarian ambitions do not end with D.C."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday moved to rescind a conservation policy dating back nearly 25 years that has protected more than 45 million acres of pristine public lands, as the Trump administration announced a public comment period of just three weeks regarding the rollback of the "Roadless Rule."

The rule, officially called the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, has protected against the building of roads for logging and oil and gas drilling in forest lands, including Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the nation's largest national woodland.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in June as she announced her intention of repealing the rule that the administration aims to "get more logs on trucks," in accordance with President Donald Trump's executive order calling for expanded logging in the nation's forests. The president has asserted more trees must be cut down to protect from wildfires, a claim that's been rejected by environmental groups that note fires are more likely to be ignited in areas where vehicles travel.

The public comment period on rescinding the Roadless Rule is set to open this week and end Sept. 19.

The environmental legal firm Earthjustice, which has fought to defend the Roadless Rule for years, including when Trump moved to exempt the Tongass from the regulation during his first term, noted that roadless forests provide vulnerable and endangered wildlife "with needed habitat, offer people a wide range of recreational activities, and protect the headwaters of major rivers, which are vital for maintaining clean, mountain-fed drinking water nationwide."

"If the Roadless Rule is rescinded nationally, logging and other destructive, extractive development is set to increase in public forests that currently function as intact ecosystems that benefit wildlife and people alike," said the group.

Gloria Burns, president of the Ketchikan Indian Community, said the people of her tribe "are the Tongass."

"This is an attack on Tribes and our people who depend on the land to eat," said Burns. "The federal government must act and provide us the safeguards we need or leave our home roadless. We are not willing to risk the destruction of our homelands when no effort has been made to ensure our future is the one our ancestors envisioned for us. Without our lungs (the Tongass) we cannot breathe life into our future generations."

Garett Rose, senior attorney at the Natural Defenses Resource Council, said Rollins and Trump have declared "open season on America's forests."

"For decades, the Roadless Rule has stood as one of America's most important conservation safeguards, protecting the public's wildest forests from the bulldozer and chainsaw," said Rose. "The Trump administration's move to gut this bedrock protection is nothing more than a handout to logging interests at the expense of clean water, wildlife, and local communities. But we're not backing down and will continue to defend these unparalleled wild forests from attacks, just as we have done for decades."

The Alaska Wilderness League (AWL) noted that 15 million acres of intact temperate rain forest, including the Tongass and the Chugach, would be impacted by the rulemaking, as would taxpayers who would be burdened by the need to maintain even more roads run by the US Forest Service.

The service currently maintains more than 380,000 miles of road—a system larger than the US Interstate Highway System—with a "maintenance backlog that has ballooned to billions in needed repairs," said AWL.

"More roads mean more taxpayer liability, more wildfire risk, and more damage to salmon streams and clean water sources," added the group.

"No public lands are safe from the Trump administration, not even Alaska's globally significant forests," said Andy Moderow, senior director of policy at AWL. "Rolling back the Roadless Rule means bulldozing taxpayer-funded roads into irreplaceable old growth forest, and favoring short-term industry profits over long-term, sustainable forest uses. The Roadless Rule is one of the most effective, commonsense conservation protections in U.S. history. Scrapping it would sacrifice Alaska's public lands to the highest bidder."

Drew Caputo, vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife, and oceans at Earthjustice, emphasized that the group "has successfully defended the Roadless Rule in court for decades."

"Nothing will stop us," he said, "from taking up that fight again."

The top US official in Denmark arrived at the country's foreign ministry on Wednesday after being summoned for talks about a recent report that US citizens with ties to the Trump White House have carried out a covert "influence" campaign in Greenland.

Denmark's foreign minister called upon Mark Stroh, the charge d'affaires in Denmark, on Wednesday, after the main Danish public broadcaster reported that at least three people have been attempting to sow discord between Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous territory that is part of the Danish kingdom.

President Donald Trump has long expressed a desire to take control of Greenland, and has suggested he could use military force even though Denmark is a close ally and fellow member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Danish officials and Greenlanders have dismissed the idea, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warning the US that it "cannot annex another country."

"We want to be independent. So we are not for sale," resident Karen Cortsen told NPR earlier this year as the outlet reported that 85% of people in Greenland and Denmark opposed the president's push to "get" the vast, mineral-rich Arctic island.

According to the main Danish public broadcaster, the Trump administration has sought to reverse widespread public opposition to his plan, with at least three people connected to his administration carrying out covert operations to "foment dissent" in Greenland.

The broadcast network, DR, reported that eight government and security sources believe the individuals are working to weaken relations between Greenland and Denmark, compiling lists of Greenlandic citizens who support and oppose Trump's plans, and trying "to cultivate contacts with politicians, businesspeople, and citizens, and the sources' concern is that these contacts could secretly be used to support Donald Trump's desire to take over Greenland."

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement that "any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the kingdom will of course be unacceptable."

"We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark," Rasmussen said, adding that he had "asked the ministry of foreign affairs to summon the US charge d'affaires for a meeting at the ministry."

Trump has not yet confirmed an ambassador to Denmark. PayPal cofounder Kenneth Howery, a close friend of Trump megadonor Elon Musk, has been named as his nominee for the position.

Frederiksen told Danish media that "the Americans are not clearly denying the information presented by DR today, and of course that is serious."

"We have made it very clear that this is unacceptable," said the prime minister. "And it is something we will raise directly with our colleagues in the United States—who, if this were untrue, could very easily dismiss the claims."