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• Neo-fascist group Patriot Front parades Confederate flag in Washington DC on Fourth of July

  Hundreds of masked men carrying banners, including the Confederate flag, marched through Washington DC on the Fourth of July, the 250th anniversary of the US’s inception. The group appeared to be led by Thomas Rousseau, founder of the neo-fascist, white supremacist organization Patriot Front. Members of the group wore white masks and gathered in front of DC’s Union Station. They later marched towards Capitol Hill, WTOP reported. Members chanted “Life, liberty, victory!” and “Reclaim America!...

• “What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?”: Frederick Douglass Speech Read by James Earl Jonesl

  We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. The late actor James Earl Jones read the historic address during a performance of Voices of a People’s History of the United States, whi...

• ‘He’s forcing higher bills’: Trump spends billions to kill clean energy and keep coal alive

  The Trump administration has directly spent $2.7bn of taxpayer money on its crusade against wind power while pouring $1.125bn into boosting coal, which critics say is pushing up Americans’ bills. They say the moves are evidence that the president aims to serve fossil-fuel companies like those which donated record sums to his presidential campaign, rather than the working-class Americans to whom he pledged to lower energy bills and other costs.

• US supreme court rules states can exclude trans athletes from female sports

  The US supreme court has upheld laws in two conservative states excluding transgender girls and women from competing in female sports in a far-reaching ruling certain to impact trans rights throughout the US. The court’s nine justices voted to overturn previous judgements issued by lower courts in favor of two trans students who had sued after being barred from competing in West Virginia and Idaho respectively.

• Tens of Thousands in Budapest Celebrate First Pride Event Since Viktor Orbán’s Ouster

  Millions of people took to the streets of cities around the world over the weekend for Pride celebrations. Here in the U.S., LGBTQ+ groups faced a conservative backlash, led by the Republican governors of Indiana and Tennessee, who declared June — Pride Month — as “nuclear family month.” In Hungary, tens of thousands of people braved triple-digit heat to march through Budapest in the city’s first Pride event since longtime far-right leader Viktor Orbán lost reelection. The march came a year af...

• GOP Hatches Scheme to Evade Filibuster and Pass Trump’s Assault on Voting Rights

  Punchbowl ++reported++ on Monday that GOP leadership had expressed interest in creating a $4 billion grant program in order to incentivize states to enact parts of the bill, including requirements that voters re-register to vote with documents proving their citizenship and provide voter ID at the polls while outlawing mail-in ballots in most cases.

• Ocean surface temperatures hit a record high for June

  Temperatures on the ocean surface have hit a record high, raising fears of another burst of extreme heat this summer. On 21 June, temperatures outside the polar regions exceeded the extraordinary highs observed at the same time in 2023 and 2024, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Wednesday. It warned the new peak would probably bring “consequences for weather patterns, global climate and marine ecosystems”, not least because it would coincide with the earliest phases of an El Niño...

• US AI stock sell-off shakes markets from Wall Street to Asia

  A tech sell-off shook global markets on Tuesday as attention turned away from developments in the US war with Iran and toward the future of AIcompanies and chipmakers that have driven stock markets to record highs. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index opened 2% lower on Tuesday. The Dow and S&P 500 were also down at opening. All three major US indices have hit record highs this year, riding off a rush of funding to support AI technology and infrastructure. Nasdaq is up 10% for the year, while the...

• 'This Is Corruption': Trump Bought Stock in Taser Maker Just Before ICE Contract Notice | Common Dreams

  US President ++Donald Trump++bought up to $5 million worth of stock in the corporation that makes Taser electroshock guns, police body cameras, and policing software two weeks before his administration announced the solicitation of a $220 million contract apparently tailored to the company’s product and services, CNBC revealed Monday.

• ‘ We’re up against forces that have all the money in the world’: Erin Brockovich on her battle against AI datacentres

  . According to analysis by the Guardian, two-thirds of planned datacentres in the US are in drought-stricken areas. The larger centres need up to 5m gallons of water a day for cooling, equivalent to the average usage of 50,000 people. It is unclear what the plan is and whose needs will take priority between AI, agriculture and everyone else. “People are reporting bill spikes,” [Erin]Brockovich says, reading an email from someone who says their monthly water bill went from $22 (£17) to more t...

• France’s Death Toll Tops 1,000 as Europe Bakes Under Unprecedented Heat Wave

  Several countries across Europe have shattered temperature records as a deadly heat wave puts over 150 million people under extreme heat advisories. Germany, Hungary, Czechia, Poland and Denmark have all set records for their highest-ever recorded temperatures. French authorities report more than 1,000 excess deaths due to the heat, with the mortality rate expected to rise even further.

• Appeals Court Blocks Trump’s Rollback of Pollution Limits from Coal-Fired Plants

  A federal appeals court has struck down the Trump administration’s rollback of Biden-era limits to soot pollution from coal-fired power plants. The EPA had sought to reverse a 2024 rule change limiting the amount of fine particulate matter from power plants, factories and vehicles.

• Immigrants at Delaney Hall Continue Hunger and Labor Strike Demanding Their Release

  In Newark, New Jersey, today marks 11 days since hundreds of immigrants detained at the ICE jail known as Delaney Hall began a hunger and labor strike demanding their immediate release. Protesters and organizers continued to gather near the facility Sunday after New Jersey State Police erected a barricade about half a mile long around Delaney Hall’s perimeter. Activists have denounced New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill for deploying state police against protesters, with some officers wearing rio...

• ‘Profits Over Safety’: Chemical Disasters Under Trump Pile Up as More Safety Cuts Loom | Common Dreams

  Two recent high-profile chemical plant disasters are putting a spotlight on the Trump administration’s aggressive deregulation of the industry, with even more cuts to chemical safety regulations expected in the coming months. The disasters—one at a paper mill in ++Washington++ state that ++killed++ 11 people and the other in an aerospace ++plastics++ facility in California that forced tens of thousands of people to ++evacuate++their homes—came after months of warnings from experts and labor ++...

• Only a fraction of Washington’s state flood aid has made it to victims

  During the height of December’s severe flooding [in western Washington state ] the Washington state government made $3.5 million available to those in need. Five months later, most of that funding has gone unused. Gov. Bob Ferguson says narrow eligibility requirements for people to access the funding are partly to blame, and that he hopes to see those guidelines changed for future natural disasters.

• They're Called 'Super Pollutants'—And Trump's EPA Wants to Expose You to More of Them | Common Dreams

  In a reversal of his past position and what critics are calling yet another betrayal of his “Make America Healthy Again” campaign pledge, US President ++Donald Trump++ announced Thursday that his administration is loosening limits on so-called “super pollutant” hydrofluorocarbons used in air conditioners and refrigerators at the expense of the environment and climate. Trump and ++Environmental Protection Agency++ Administrator Lee Zeldin ++spun the move++ as a measure that will “save American...

• New burn bans and Trump's battle with immigration and DEI are impacting forest fires

  …a land manager for the conservation nonprofit Columbia Land Trust, was desperate to do his job. The country was already setting records for high temperatures and widespread drought, which meant wildfire season could be unusually devastating. [Adam] Lieberg was burning some land, but not as much as he would have liked. That’s because he had a money problem. Last August, the U.S. Forest Service promised the Columbia Land Trust a grant of more than $9 million to carry out that work over the next...