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Freefalling through our authoritarian takeover, this week saw New York police in the grotesque faux-gold belly of the beast arrest 100 Jews of conscience chanting "Free Free Palestine" to protest the ICE abduction of a Palestinian peace advocate for likewise standing against Israeli genocide - both acts of Constitutionally-protected free speech this dark regime deems criminal. Jews on detainment for expressing the wrong political ideas: "We know our history, and we know where this leads. This is what fascists do."
The Jewish Voice For Peace protest - at the start of the Jewish holiday of Purim, which celebrates a long-ago, truth-telling queen who spoke out against another slaughter of innocents, in this case Jews - came after last weekend's nighttime arrest by ICE of Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old leader and mediator of pro-Palestinian campus protests at Columbia University where he'd just earned a Master's degree in international affairs. The arrest was sinister: In newly released video recorded by his wife Noor Abdalla and shared by the New York Civil Liberties Union, burly plainclothes ICE agents confront Khalil in the lobby of his Columbia-owned apartment. They refuse to produce a warrant, say who they are or talk to the couple's attorney on the phone; they threaten both Khalil and his 8-months-pregnant wife before eventually handcuffing Khalil, forcing him into an unmarked car and driving away. "It was the most terrifying moment of my life," said Abdalla. "It felt like a kidnapping, because it was."
In these times, the arrest of Khalil, after a "vicious, coordinated" doxxing campaign by Zionist thugs, was shocking but not surprising. A Syrian-born Palestinian citizen of Algeria whose family fled both the Nakba and then the war in Syria, Khalil was well-respected for his thoughtful, judicious work, first in the UK embassy in Beirut and last year as a negotiator during Columbia's protests. Though he's a legal permanent resident of the U.S. with a green card and a wife who's an American citizen, he was evidently considered fair prey by a stupid, bigoted regime that declared on arrival, "To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: we will find you, and we will deport you." After announcing Khalil had been "proudly apprehended" - he was in plain sight at Columbia - Trump brayed it was “the first of many to come” among "Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before...(They) are not welcome here.”
For 38 hours after his arrest, neither his wife nor lawyers knew where Mahmoud was held; it turned out authorities had secretly transported him from New York to New Jersey, and then in the middle of night to an infamous immigration detention center in Louisiana, a common, toxic ICE move to find judges more supportive of Trump's anti-immigrant assaults. But they still face one problem: Khalil hasn't been charged with any crime, and from the start Trump lackeys have been flailing to find one. ICE agents who arrived at his home first announced they'd revoked his student visa; when they were told he had a green card, they said they'd revoked that, which is almost impossible to do. Now, seeking to prove he is, as charged, an anti-Semitic supporter of Hamas - a claim for which there is no evidence and which his lawyers call "false and preposterous" - they're scrambling to justify their wildly illegal actions by clutching at implausible tactics - terrorism to immigration to McCarthy-era fearmongering.
After a lame effort to base the arrest on a Homeland Security claim Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas" - despite having no contact with them - Marco Rubio dug deep to find and cite a little-used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that the Secretary of State can deport "an alien whose presence or activities in the United States (would) have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences" for the U.S. Presented with this absurd notice in court in Louisiana, Khalil refused to sign it. Because irony is dead, the State Dept. may also use 1952's Red=Scare-and-anti- Semitic McCarran-Walter Act, which set quotas against "subversives" to keep out Jewish Holocaust survivors or "disruptors" suspected of being Soviet agents, to cancel visas of "pro-Hamas" foreign students like Khalil. Despite Jews fighting the law, Congress enacted it, making it almost impossible for Polish survivors to enter the U.S; those who did, like Jared Kushner's family, told US authorities they were German.
Khalil's lawyers say the government’s case has "no basis in law," and it's "chilling" they seek to deport someone because they disapprove of speech "absolutely protected" by the Constitution: "The government doesn’t get to decide what you can talk about ...If it's adverse to U.S foreign policy interests, it's still protected." They also challenge, on legal and moral grounds, the regime's brazen effort to use the Immigration Act's “foreign policy” provision in this life-and-death situation: "If the government thinks Mahmoud’s speech in favor of Palestinian human rights and to end the genocide is not only contrary to U.S. foreign policy, that is something in itself, but that that dissent provides grounds for arrest, detention and deportation...It's an astonishing claim.” They are now trying to get Kahlil back in New York from Louisiana, a move they call a “retaliatory transfer” to restrict his access to his lawyers and family. A New York judge temporarily blocked his deportation at a hearing that drew hundreds of demonstrators.
Still, Zionist forces remain hard at work. With polls showing U.S. support for a genocidal Israel at its lowest in 25 years, pro-Israel groups and lawmakers are fighting to stifle dissent, criminalize divestment efforts like BDS, further criminally blur the line between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, and delightedly deport the righteous likes of Mahmoud Khalil. Thus, the news that uber-Zionist Betar US, labeled a hate group by the Jewish ADL - for posts like their response to a list of thousands of children killed in Gaza: "Not enough. We demand blood" - has claimed credit for ratting out Khalil to the government. It also says it's compiled a thousands-strong “deportation list” of pro-Palestinian protesters on visas at Columbia and other schools, claiming to have "documentation" to support the claim they're “promoting the eradication, the destruction and the devolution of western civilization." Their former director charges Khalil is an "operative"; asked for whom, he said he hasn't figured that out yet.
Still, disappearing people now is evidently not enough, so a berserk regime keeps cracking down, with Dept, of Education plans to investigate over 50 universities for "racial discrimination." Trump keeps tormenting Columbia, maybe because its city keeps hating him. He's threatened to pull $400 million in contracts and "review" $5 billion more if it doesn't get pro-Zionist, cuts already affecting research at the medical school; his DOJ plans to probe if Columbia "was harboring or concealing immigrants (in) the US illegally" or committing "terrorism crimes”; ICE thugs are roaming the campus searching rooms and reportedly detained at least two more students. When the besieged school ignored the Do Not Obey In Advance memo and said it expelled, suspended or temporarily revoked the degrees of students who took over Hamilton Hall during April demonstrations, Khalil and seven other students filed a lawsuit to stop them from providing activists’ names to vengeful GOP lawmakers in D.C.asking for them.
Still, Trump pressed on. In "an extraordinary ultimatum," he demanded Columbia place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies programs under “academic receivership" for five years, ban masks that conceal identity or “intimidate others,” re-define antisemitism, abolish its discipline rules and "reform" admissions and international recruiting, adding, "We expect your immediate compliance." WTF. His minions are going with the rabid flow: Comic-book thug Tom Homan called Khalil "a national security threat," and Barbie Press Secretary said Khalil “distributed pro-Hamas propaganda, flyers with the logo of Hamas." His lawyers: "The reality is that Mr. Khalil completely, vehemently denies doing anything like that. He has absolutely no connections to Hamas whatsoever. (His) punishment should outrage anybody who believes speech should be free in the United States...If (he) is deported, no one can have any confidence in legal and constitutional protections as a line of defense against arbitrary state violence and punishment."
It was in the same belief Khalil's arrest marks a fascist escalation from which "there is no going back" that about 300 Jewish Voice For Peace activists, allies and Holocaust descendants flooded the public atrium at Trump Tower to protest against "a clear move from the playbook for authoritarian government we know all too well." Their calls: “Bring Mahmoud home now! Not In Our Name! Stop Arming Israel! Fight Nazis Not Students! Never again for anyone, never again is now!" and, stubbornly even as police continuously clambered up and down that damn gold escalator to thin and handcuff their red-shirted ranks, "Free, Free, Free Palestine!" They argued Khalil's arrest "does nothing to make Jews safer.“ They recalled the stories "we grew up on" of relatives abducted by the Nazis, authoritarian regimes targeting and scapegoating people, grieving families separated. They proclaimed, "We will not stand by" and "we will not be silent." And they chanted even as they were dragged away, "Come for one, face us all."
A leading conservation group filed suit Monday to stop U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk from "gutting" over a dozen of the federal government's environmental agencies and departments.
This isn't the Center for Biological Diversity's first lawsuit targeting Trump's Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, but it is the first lawsuit in the country "challenging DOGE's efforts to eviscerate the agencies charged with protecting the environment, natural resources, and wildlife," according to a statement from the group.
The suit names as defendants the Environmental Protection Agency and departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, and Transportation, as well as several entities under them: the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Federal Aviation Administration, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and National Park Service.
"The world's richest man has created an alternative power structure inside the federal government for the purpose of controlling spending and pushing out employees."
"Elon Musk and his hacker minions are tearing apart the federal agencies that protect our public lands, keep our air and water clean, and conserve our most cherished wildlife. The public has every right to know why they're waging this cruel war on our environment," said Brett Hartl, the center's government affairs director.
"Musk has shown that he can and will destroy a federal agency in a single weekend," Hartl added. "If his deranged antics are allowed to continue, we might never be able to fix the damage to America's environment."
The suit alleges "a flagrant violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which requires transparency, open public participation, and balanced representation when the president or executive branch agencies establish or use nonfederal bodies for the purpose of seeking advice or recommendations."
Trump's executive order establishing DOGE directs all agencies to form teams, or what FACA calls advisory committees, controlled by Musk. The complaint argues that "defendants have failed to ensure that the DOGE teams comply with the balance and openness requirements of FACA."
"Mr. Musk and other billionaire and tech executives working with DOGE stand to benefit personally and financially from the DOGE teams' work, including by securing government contracts, slashing environmental rules that apply to their companies, and reducing the government's regulatory capacity and authority, including by targeting specific agencies, statutes, and spending decisions that affect their businesses," the filing warns.
The complaint notes recent reporting that "Musk is using his influence over the DOGE teams to rapidly consolidate control over large swaths of the federal government, sideline career officials, gain access to sensitive databases, and dismantle agencies and regulatory systems."
"Since President Trump assumed office—and without any congressional approval—the world's richest man has created an alternative power structure inside the federal government for the purpose of controlling spending and pushing out employees," the document adds. "Meanwhile, Musk has been named as a special government employee, which subjects him to less stringent rules on ethics and financial disclosures regarding his role overseeing DOGE and the DOGE teams."
The new case calling on the court to require compliance with FACA comes after the center filed another federal suit in Washington, D.C. last Thursday with the aim of using the Freedom of Information Act to unveil details about what Hartl said "should be called the Department of Government Evisceration."
It also follows U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, launching a probe last month into Musk's official title. The congressman demanded answers from the White House by this coming Thursday.
As U.S. financial markets continued their downward spiral on Monday amid rapidly mounting concerns about the impacts of President Donald Trump's erratic and destructive tariff policies, one economist argued that the president has almost single-handedly engineered economic conditions that could result in a recession in the near future.
"Past recessions have been the result of policy errors or disasters," Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, wrote Monday. "The most typical policy error is when the Federal Reserve Board raises interest rates too much to counter inflation. That was clearly the story in the 1974-75 recession as well as the 1980-82 double-dip recession."
"Then we have recessions caused by collapsing financial bubbles, the 2001 recession following the collapse of the stock bubble and the 2008-09 recession following the collapse of the housing bubble. And of course, we had the 2020 recession because of the Covid pandemic," he added. "But now Donald Trump is threatening us with a recession, not because of something that is any way unavoidable, but rather because as president he has the power to bring on a recession."
Baker pointed specifically to Trump's decision to impose sweeping tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, which the economist estimates will cost Americans roughly $2,000 per household as companies push the costs of the tariffs onto consumers in the form of higher prices.
Retaliatory measures are also likely to inflict pain on Americans: On Monday, Ontario announced it would charge 25% more for the electricity it provides to Minnesota, New York, and Michigan in response to Trump's tariffs on Canadian imports, a move that's expected to hike electricity bills significantly for ratepayers in those states.
China, meanwhile, hit back at Trump Monday with an additional 15% tariff on U.S. farm products, including chicken, pork, soybeans, and beef.
Trump's tariff policies, and the widespread confusion surrounding their implementation, have sparked a sell-off on Wall Street and broader fears about the state of the U.S. economy as the labor market shows signs of stalling and consumer confidence plunges.
"While a recession may not be fully baked into the cards at this point, the risk is evident and it's almost entirely coming from Donald Trump's policies," Baker argued, noting that while the recession threat is "first and foremost" driven by tariffs, they "are just one possible route."
"The other is Elon Musk's DOGE team attack on the government. If there was ever any doubt, it is now clear that this outfit has nothing to do with increasing government efficiency," Baker wrote. "The direct impact of Musk's job cuts on both the budget and the economy is likely to be small. The bigger impact is the uncertainty they have created in large sectors of the economy."
"In short, Donald Trump has good reasons for telling us that his MAGA policies might give us a recession," he added. "It's hard to know how bad this recession would be, but it will definitely be the 'Donald J. Trump recession.'"
"Will the Trump slump turn into a recession? How will Trump lie and cheat his way out of it? Stay tuned."
Baker's assessment came a day after Trump declined to rule out the possibility of an economic recession in the U.S. this year and downplayed the effects of his tariffs, claiming without a shred of evidence that they will make the country "so rich you're not going to know where to spend all that money."
Trump previously insisted that the U.S. stock sell-off was attributable not to his chaotic tariff announcements, but to "globalists that see how rich our country is going to be and they don't like it."
Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote Monday that just seven weeks after Trump's inauguration, "the bottom is falling out" of the U.S. economy.
"Stocks are plunging. Treasury yields are falling. Consumer confidence is dropping. Inflation is picking up," Reich wrote. "The cost of living—the single biggest problem identified by consumers over the last several years—is going up, not down. Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum, and his threatened 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, are playing havoc with supply chains inside and outside America."
"Even before this Trump slump, only the richest 10% of Americans had enough purchasing power to keep the economy going with their spending. The bottom 90%—including most Trump voters—were barely getting by. The next eighteen months could be rough on millions of people," he continued. "Will the Trump slump turn into a recession? How will Trump lie and cheat his way out of it? Stay tuned."
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has faced a flood of condemnation since announcing on social media Friday that "South Africa's ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country."
"Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates President Donald Trump," the secretary claimed. "We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA."
In the post on X—the social media site owned by Elon Musk, Trump's South Africa-born billionaire adviser—Rubio linked to an article by the right-wing news site Breitbart about Rasool saying during a Friday webinar that the U.S. president is leading global a white supremacist movement.
As examples of Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement exporting its "supremacist assault," Rasool pointed to Musk elevating Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right Reform U.K. party, and Vice President JD Vance meeting with the leader of the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany party.
Responding to Rubio on X, North Carolina State University assistant teaching professor Nathan Lean said: "Ebrahim Rasool is a man of genuine decency, moral courage, and is a friend. This makes me absolutely embarrassed to be an American. And it underscores that his critiques of white supremacy in the Age of Trump are perceived as threatening for one simple reason: He's right."
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) similarly responded: "Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool is a principled leader who fought alongside Nelson Mandela against apartheid and has dedicated his career to democracy, interfaith cooperation, and justice. Baseless attacks like this only serve to divide. We stand by him and his lifelong commitment to building a more just and inclusive world."
Laila Al-Arian, executive producer of Al Jazeera's "Fault Lines," declared that "this administration is virulently and unabashedly Islamophobic, not even trying to hide how unhinged they are as they go after people for speech."
Rasool previously served as ambassador during the Obama administration and returned to the role shortly before Trump began his second term. Earlier this week, Semafor reported on his difficulties dealing with the current administration:
He has failed to secure routine meetings with State Department officials and key Republican figures since Trump took office in January, Washington and South African government insiders told Semafor, drawing frustration in Pretoria.
Rasool is likely to have been frozen out for his prior vocal criticism of Israel, a South African diplomat, based in Washington, told Semafor. "A man named Ebrahim, who is Muslim, with a history of pro-Palestine politics, is not likely to do well in that job right now," said one of them. While South Africa brought a case against Israel to the International Court of Justice in December 2023, accusing it of genocide in Gaza, Rasool is nevertheless widely considered to be among the government's most ardent pro-Palestine voices.
South African political analyst Sandile Swana told Al Jazeera on Friday that the "core of the dispute" with the diplomatic was the genocide case against U.S.-armed Israel. In the fight against apartheid, the U.S. "supported the apartheid regime," said Swana. "Rasool continues to point out the behaviour of the United States, even now is to support apartheid and genocide."
Other critics also pointed to the ongoing court battle over Israel's utter destruction of Gaza and mass slaughter of Palestinians.
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) national executive director Nihad Awad told Rubio: "Your declaration of Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool as persona non grata is a racist, Islamophobic, transparent act of retaliation for South Africa's opposition to Israel's genocide in Gaza."
Imraan Siddiqi, a former congressional candidate in Washington who now leads the state's branch of CAIR, said that "he stood up firmly against apartheid, so it's no coincidence you're punishing him in favor of an openly apartheid state."
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's office said in a statement Saturday that "the presidency has noted the regrettable expulsion of South Africa's ambassador to the United States of America, Mr. Ebrahim Rasool.
"The presidency urges all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter," the office added. "South Africa remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America."
The diplomat's expulsion follows Trump signing an executive order last month that frames South Africa's land law as "blatant discrimination" against the country's white minority. Writing about the order for Foreign Policy in Focus, Zeb Larson and William Minter noted that "his actions echo a long history of right-wing support in the United States for racism in Southern Africa, including mobilization of support for white Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as well as the apartheid regime in South Africa."
##
In an interview with one of the top officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, NPR's Michel Martin sought to gain clarity about the agency's reasoning for arresting former Columbia University student organizer Mahmoud Khalil last week—but Troy Edgar provided no supporting evidence of specific offenses committed by Khalil, who has not been charged with a crime, and suggested his mere participation in "pro-Palestinian activity" was sufficient to order his deportation.
Edgar, the deputy homeland security secretary, repeatedly alleged that Khalil was in the U.S. on a visa, despite Martin correcting him and clarifying that the Algerian citizen is a legal permanent resident of the country with a green card—until it was reportedly revoked under the Trump administration's "catch and revoke" program targeting international students who protest the government's pro-Israel policy.
The Trump administration has accused Khalil, who is of Palestinian descent, of leading "activities aligned to Hamas" and protests where pro-Hamas propaganda was distributed, but officials have provided no evidence that he's provided support to Hamas or other groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government.
A White House official this week toldThe Free Press that Khalil is not being accused of breaking any laws, but is rather "a threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States," and Edgar's comments to Martin offered further evidence evidence that DHS is working to deport Khalil without accusing him of a crime.
"He is coming in to basically be a student that is not going to be supporting terrorism," said Edgar. "So, the issue is he was let into the country on this visa. He has been promoting this antisemitism activity at the university. And at this point, the State Department has revoked his visa for supporting a terrorist type organization."
But Edgar was unable to point to specific "terrorist activity" that Khalil was supporting when he helped lead Palestinian solidarity protests at Columbia, where students occupied a building and displayed a banner labeling it Hind's Hall in honor of a six-year-old girl who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza and negotiated with administrators to end the school's investment in companies that benefit from Israel's policies in Palestine.
"How did he support Hamas? Exactly what did he do?" Martin pressed.
"Well, I think you can see it on TV, right?" Edgar replied. "This is somebody that we've invited and allowed the student to come into the country, and he's put himself in the middle of the process of basically pro-Palestinian activity."
Martin then repeatedly asked whether criticism of the U.S. government, which is the largest international funder of the Israeli military and has backed its assault on Gaza, and protesting are deportable offenses.
"Let me put it this way, Michel, imagine if he came in and filled out the form and said, 'I want a student visa.' They asked him, 'What are you going to do here?' And he says, 'I'm going to go and protest.' We would have never let him into the country," said Edgar. "I think if he would have declared he's a terrorist, we would have never let him in."
Will Creeley, legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), called the interview "stunning" and said Edgar's "conflation of protest and terrorism stopped me cold."
The interview, said Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid, serves as the latest confirmation from the Trump administration that "Mahmoud Khalil's arrest has no basis."
The interview was released the same day that more than 100 people were arrested at a sit-in led by Jewish Voice of Peace at Trump Tower in New York City, demanding Khalil's release. His arrest has sparked outcry from progressives in Congress, local lawmakers including New York mayoral candidate and state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani, legal experts, and the human rights group Amnesty International.
The Trump administration said Tuesday that it would resume military aid to and intelligence-sharing with Ukraine after that country's leadership endorsed a U.S. proposal for a 30-day cease-fire in the war defending against Russia's three-year invasion and occupation.
The Washington Postreports that U.S., Ukrainian, and Saudi officials met for eight hours on Tuesday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. No Russian officials were present at the negotiations.
"We're going to tell them this is what's on the table. Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the meeting. "And now it'll be up to them to say yes or no. If they say no, then we'll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here."
Ukraine has agreed to a 30 day ceasefire. Incredible work by Trump team. Now if Russia agrees, Trump may have gotten cease fires in the Middle East and Europe in his first 60 days. Nobel Peace Prize worthy: pic.twitter.com/lYogXVP8wj
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 11, 2025
White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz said following the talks that "the Ukrainian delegation today made something very clear, that they share President [Donald] Trump's vision for peace, they share his determination to end the fighting, to end the killing, to end the tragic meat grinder of people."
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called his country's endorsement of the cease-fire proposal a "step that proves Ukraine is ready to move forward on the path to a just end to the war."
"Ukraine is not an obstacle to peace; it is a partner in its restoration," Sybiha added.
U.S. officials said the cease-fire proposal will now be sent to Russia for approval. It is unclear whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will accept the offer.
"The ball is now in their court," Rubio said of the Russians.
Buoyed by Western support but stretched thin and vastly outmanned and outgunned, Ukrainian forces have been struggling to repel Russia's invasion and hold Russian territory they seized in the Kursk region, with an eye toward potential future territorial exchanges.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian forces launched a massive drone attack on Moscow. Three people were reportedly killed and six others were injured when debris struck a meat processing facility.
Tuesday's development marked a dramatic turnaround from just two weeks ago, when Trump and Vice President JD Vance lambasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a highly contentious White House meeting that was followed by a suspension of all U.S. military assistance and intelligence-sharing with Kyiv.
The U.S. has "provided $66.5 billion in military assistance since Russia launched its premeditated, unprovoked, and brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and approximately $69.2 billion in military assistance since Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014," according to a State Department fact sheet dated March 4.
"The only way to stop an authoritarian advance is to disrupt it, to make every step costly, to slow its march through whatever means necessary," wrote one Democratic strategist. "Instead, Schumer is helping smooth the path."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has opted to postpone events promoting his forthcoming book amid sustained outrage over his decision to back a Republican-authored government funding plan that bolsters President Donald Trump's lawless assault on federal agencies.
Schumer's (D-N.Y.) office attributed the decision to reschedule the book tour events—including one that was supposed to take place in Baltimore Monday night—to "security concerns."
The anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace was planning to hold a demonstration outside the Baltimore venue. Other progressive activists highlighted Schumer's upcoming tour dates after he announced he would vote with the GOP on the funding package, rebuffing calls from Democratic lawmakers, advocacy groups, and the largest union of federal workers to oppose the legislation on the grounds that it would effectively greenlight Trump's destruction of federal departments and illegal spending maneuvers.
Much of the Democratic Party erupted in fury following Schumer's decision to support the Republican bill, and he quickly faced calls to step down as Senate minority leader.
"The passage of this dangerous Republican funding bill is a travesty," Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the progressive advocacy group Indivisible, said in a statement Saturday. "The ongoing administrative coup led by Donald Trump and Elon Musk is a constitutional crisis. The authoritarians stripping away our rights and trying to loot the government to enrich the billionaires are a five-alarm fire."
"Senator Schumer should step aside as leader," Levin added. "Every Democrat in the Senate should call for him to do so, and begin making plans for new leadership immediately. Indivisible will be encouraging our groups and activists to talk to their Senators at town halls, community events, and office visits about the urgent need for a minority leader who’s up for the fight this moment demands."
Schumer has thus far brushed off calls to resign, telling The New York Times in an interview published over the weekend that while there is "spirited disagreement on which was the right vote," he and members of his caucus "have mutual respect" and "are all united, no matter how people voted on this vote, to continue fighting Trump."
But Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid argued Monday that Schumer "is stuck in 2005," believing that "if Democrats just wait long enough, if they hold the line and play nice, Republicans will suddenly come to their senses."
"Democrats like Schumer still behave as though the system will self-correct, that if they abide by procedural norms long enough and let Trump-Musk exhaust themselves, the fever will break. But the people dismantling democracy aren't waiting," Shahid wrote. "They are exploiting every available lever of power—hollowing out agencies, capturing the courts, stripping Congress of oversight—at a breakneck pace. The only way to stop an authoritarian advance is to disrupt it, to make every step costly, to slow its march through whatever means necessary. Instead, Schumer is helping smooth the path."
"Defending democracy requires more than safeguarding institutions in the abstract—it requires upholding the values those institutions were meant to serve," he added. "Right now, we are witnessing Musk's corporate coup and state capture in real-time. Politics is about knowing what time it is, and I'm not sure Chuck Schumer has the answer."
"The public has a right to know that their tax dollars are being spent in the public's best interest and not to benefit a government employee's financial interests," according to a recent ethics complaint filed by the Campaign Legal Center.
The drum beat for a federal probe into whether billionaire and GOP donor Elon Musk violated conflict of interest law through his dealings with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is growing louder following reporting that technology from Musk's Starlink, the satellite network developed by its company SpaceX, will be involved in upgrading the FAA air traffic control system.
On Monday, a group of Democratic senators sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Acting Inspector General at the Transportation Department, Mitch Behm, demanding an investigation into whether Musk's activities at the FAA have violated the criminal conflict of interest statute. The letter was first reported by The Guardian on Monday.
"We are concerned that Musk... may be using his government role to benefit his own private company," the senators wrote.
The letter, sent by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) cites coverage from The Washington Post, which in late February reported that the FAA was considering canceling a $2.4 billion Verizon contract to upgrade the FAA's communication system "that serves as the backbone of the nation's air traffic control system" and award the work to Starlink, citing unnamed sources.
The letter follows an ethics complaint, filed last week by the nonpartisan legal group Campaign Legal Center (CLC) to Behm, also asking for an investigation into whether the FAA's business transactions with Starlink "are improper due to violations of the criminal conflict of interest law."
Both the letter from the Democratic senators and the CLC complaint cite a section of federal statute that prohibits government employees—including special government employees, which is Musk's designation—from "participat[ing] personally and substantially" in any "particular matter[s]" in which the employee, their spouse, their companies, or other business partners have any "financial interest."
"Public reports establish that the FAA began using Starlink services and considering contracts with the company in response to Musk's requests," according to the letter from CLC. "The public has a right to know that their tax dollars are being spent in the public's best interest and not to benefit a government employee's financial interests."
In early February, Musk—who has been deputized by U.S. President Trump to pursue cuts to government spending and personnel—said that his so-called Department of Government Efficiency(DOGE) will "aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system."
According to Bloomberg, a SpaceX engineer arrived at the FAA headquarters in late February to "deliver what he described as a directive from his boss Elon Musk: The agency will immediately start work on a program to deploy thousands of the company's Starlink satellite terminals to support the national airspace system."
"There is no effort or intent for Starlink to 'take over' any existing contract," SpaceX wrote on X in early March. The company said it is working in coordination with another prime contractor for the FAA's telecommunications infrastructure "to test the use of Starlink as one piece of the infrastructure upgrades so badly needed along with fiber, wireless, and other technologies."
Per Bloomberg, the FAA is already testing or actively using multiple Starlink terminals.
The CLC letter argues that reporting provides evidence that "the FAA's business relationship with Starlink is tainted by Musk's influence. Musk is a government official with broad authority who acts with direct support from the president. With this authority and support, he has openly criticized the FAA's contractors while directing the agency to test and use his company's services."
This "establish[es] a possible criminal conflict of interest violation, and an [Office of Inspector General] investigation is needed to determine whether the facts constitute a legal violation," per the CLC letter.
The requests to probe Musk's business connections to the FAA come as the U.S. has dealt with a series of plane crashes and accidents, which in some cases have been deadly, and has invited scrutiny of the country's air traffic control system.
John P. Pelissero, the director of a government ethics program at Santa Clara University, told the Post that it appears that "because of Musk's current position in DOGE and his closeness to Trump he and his company are getting an advantage and getting a contract," speaking of the potential Verizon contract cancellation.
"Who's looking out for the public interest here when you get the person who's cutting budgets and personnel from the FAA, suddenly trying to benefit from still another government contract?" Pelissero said, according to the Post.
"My children are crying at home from hunger and I have nothing to give them," said one mother. "I can't afford to buy what we need. There's simply no way to survive."
After a four-day mission to the West Bank and Gaza, a top official for the United Nations' children's welfare agency on Sunday described the effects that Israel's blockade on all humanitarian aid into the latter territory has had on roughly 1 million children in recent weeks, and demanded that lifesaving essentials—currently "stalled just a few dozen kilometers outside the Gaza Strip"—be allowed into the enclave.
Edouard Beigbeder, Middle East and North Africa regional director for the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), said that during his most recent trip to Gaza he witnessed how "1 million children are living without the very basics they need to survive—yet again," following Israel's decision in early March to once again block all aid in a purported effort to pressure Hamas into accepting a U.S. hostage release plan.
The blocking of food, water, medications, and other essential supplies is a violation of "international humanitarian law," said Beigbeder.
"Civilians' essential needs must be met, and this requires facilitating the entry of lifesaving assistance whether or not there is a cease-fire in place," he said. "Any further delays to the entry of aid risk further slowing or shuttering essential services and could fast-reverse the gains made for children during the cease-fire."
Israel's blockade has left a water desalination plant in Khan Younis without electricity, allowing it to run at just 13% capacity and "depriving hundreds of thousands of people from drinkable water and sanitation services," said Beigbeder.
He particularly warned of the blockade's impact on some of Gaza's most vulnerable residents—premature newborns and children under the age of two who need access to lifesaving vaccines and medical equipment that have been languishing in delivery trucks just outside the Gaza Strip for two weeks.
UNICEF has managed to deliver 30 continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines to aid premature newborns with acute respiratory syndrome, but Beigbeder warned that "approximately 4,000 newborns are currently unable to access essential lifesaving care due to the major impact on medical facilities in the Gaza Strip."
"Every day without these ventilators, lives are lost, especially among vulnerable, premature newborns in the northern Gaza Strip," he said.
Beigbeder's warning came as the operator of 10 charity food kitchens in Gaza toldAl Jazeera that it has only been able to operate two distribution centers since Israel began blocking aid again following the cease-fire that began in January.
"We had 80 pots every day that we were serving to people," Omar Abuhammad, a coordinator with the Heroic Hearts organization, told the outlet. "Now we're working on about 20... As the main source of food for [people], we no longer have the ability to serve them."
Abuhammad said the organization had been able to serve about 40,000 Palestinians in Deir el-Balah each day before the newest blockade was imposed, but now it is only able to help 10,000 people daily.
Om Mahmoud, a displaced woman in Deir el-Balah, toldAl Jazeera that she "used to rely on this simple community kitchen for food, but now even they are struggling to feed us."
"My children are crying at home from hunger and I have nothing to give them," said Mahmoud. "I can't afford to buy what we need. There's simply no way to survive."
Beigbader said that on the four-day mission to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, "nearly all of the 2.4 million children" living there are being "affected in some way" by Israel's continued assaults.
"Some children live with tremendous fear or anxiety; others face the real consequences of deprivation of humanitarian assistance and protection, displacement, destruction, or death. All children must be protected," said Beigbader. "UNICEF continues to do everything we can to protect and support children in the state of Palestine. We are repairing water systems, running mental health sessions, setting up learning centers, and advocating constantly with decision makers for access and for the violence to cease. But this alone is not enough."
Israel has demanded the release of 11 living hostages captured by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in exchange for extending the cease-fire by 50 days and allowing aid into Gaza, but Hamas has objected to the U.S.-drafted proposal because it does not include a firm timeline for a permanent cease-fire.
As Israel has blocked humanitarian aid to pressure Hamas to accept the cease-fire extension, it has also launched strikes in Gaza, including a drone strike that killed three men who a witness in the Bureij refugee camp said were collecting firewood due to the lack of cooking gas stemming from the blockade.
Israel had claimed the men were planting roadside bombs.
A woman at the scene told Al Jazeera that "the young men were busy, not very far away from me, collecting firewood. But without warning, a missile hit them. Some other people were injured. We climbed a hill to try to help them, and we were shocked to see a quadcopter overhead. We are so terrified."
Hani Mahmoud ofAl Jazeera reported on Monday that "this is not the first time we're seeing this happen since the cease-fire began on January 19."
"Just now, a drone is hovering above in the western part of Gaza City," Mahmoud said. "It is buzzing and casting fear on the population. The streets have been emptied of people because of concerns over more attacks."