UNDERNEWS
Online report of the Progressive Review. Since 1964, the news while there's still time to do something about it.
August 16, 2026
Meanwhile. . .
Manhattan
median rent set a record $5,295 in June 2026, up 8% in a year.
The
Hill - President Trump issued fresh criticism on Friday evening toward
the nonprofit organization suing his administration over the White
House ballroom project, accusing the National Trust for Historic Preservation
of revealing “Top Military Secrets” in their lawsuit
More than 170,000 Canadians want US Ambassador gone
Independent - More than 170,000 Canadians have signed a petition demanding the removal of U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, after months of boycotting American goods and canceling trips in response to escalating trade disputes and talk of annexing the country.
Submitted on July 21 by a Calgary
resident, the parliamentary petition urges the Canadian government to declare
Hoekstra persona non grata under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
It also calls for a parliamentary committee to investigate “U.S. diplomatic
interference in Canadian domestic affairs.”
Under Canadian parliamentary
rules, online petitions require only 500 validated signatures to earn a formal
presentation on the floor of the House of Commons.
….The petition follows a decline
in relations between the two countries. A Pew survey released in June indicated
that 35 percent of Canadians viewed the United States as a reliable partner,
down from 82 percent in 2022. Canadian leisure travel to the U.S. has dropped
by more than a quarter over the last year, while Canadian consumers have
increasingly turned away from American products.
Donald Trump
Newsweek
- President Donald Trump is
asking Americans to accept paying higher gas prices as a patriotic trade-off as
the country continues its war against Iran, even as a majority of U.S. adults
want the conflict to end—and think the nation should have not gotten into it in
the first place, according to polling. National gas prices in the U.S. have
shot up since the start of the war, as disruptions in production and supply due
to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz have caused oil prices to
skyrocket.
Public radio listening is growing
Insider
Radio - Public radio listening is showing signs of a meaningful
rebound, with new analysis from the Radio Research Consortium finding the
noncommercial radio audience has grown during the past two years — and the
gains cannot simply be chalked up to Nielsen’s measurement changes. Looking across five major noncommercial
formats — news/talk, contemporary Christian, classical, AAA (adult alternative)
and jazz — RRC says combined cume across PPM and continuous diary measurement
markets is 9.6% higher than it was two years ago at the end of Q1.
Artificial intelligence hits literature
Christian
Science Monitor - This summer,
the literary agencies Europa Content and Hodgman Literary shook the publishing
world when they withdrew from sale a manuscript for the highly anticipated
crime novel “Call Me, I’ll Hide the Body.” The book, written by Nigerian author
Jerry Falade, had already generated plenty of online buzz. It had secured
multimillion-dollar deals from major publishers in both the United States and
the United Kingdom and was slated to be released in 2028.
It was also, the literary
agencies said, unclear whether the book had been written by Mr. Falade or by an
artificial intelligence chatbot.
The controversy is at once new
and familiar, reflecting both the dramatic changes that the proliferation of AI
has wrought on book publishing and echoing other skirmishes this year in which
authors have been accused of using AI. This past spring, Hachette Book Group, a
leading American publisher, canceled the publication of “Shy Girl,” an eagerly
awaited horror novel by Mia Ballard, after rumors that Ms. Ballard had written
the book using AI overtook the internet.
Naval families hit back at Trump and Hegseth
The Guardian - Naval families with loved ones deployed for
months on US warships amid the Iran war have reacted with fury to Donald Trump
and the defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s dismissal of their concerns about the
extreme pressures and dire conditions they are enduring.
The Guardian has talked to three
naval families who have been following the physical and mental stresses bearing
down on their relatives with mounting alarm. The families, with loved ones on
board the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Tripoli, all spoke anonymously for fear
of retribution against their active duty relatives.
They spoke of insufficient
nourishment that has led to close relatives losing 20-30lbs in weight since
they were sent to the Middle East five months ago, leaving one sailor
“emaciated”, according to his mother. They spoke also of low-quality drinking
water and scarce mental health counseling and support despite the intense
burden of being at sea for months on end without making land. More
Russia
Washington Post - Ever since he launched the all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has been claiming that his “special military operation,” as the Kremlin propaganda euphemistically calls it, enjoys overwhelming support among Russian citizens — going as far as to say that “the entire nation” is united behind his war.
August 15, 2026
Trump regime vs. blacks
Alternet
America - In May, the Department of Justice claimed that Yale School of
Medicine used race in admissions, alleging Black or Hispanic applicants had “a
substantially higher likelihood” of admission than white or Asian ones with the
same credentials. To reach that
conclusion, the department only looked at GPAs and standardized test scores,
ignoring every other part of the application.
Yale is just one of over a dozen
more medical schools having their admissions practices investigated. Harvard,
Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania have all received similar
inquiries since the spring.
The DOJ is building these cases
as if the playing field has always been level, but Black students were barred
from most U.S. medical schools for over fifty years after the 1910 Flexner
Report recommended that Black doctors treat only Black patients and study
hygiene instead of surgery.
Middle East
The Hill - President Trump claimed during remarks on Long Island, N.Y., on Friday that he will make the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory, despite the fact that Oman and Iran share jurisdiction of the waterway. “Pretty soon, I will be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said during an address highlighting his administration’s efforts to combat crime in the U.S.
The Hill - Iran on Saturday rejected President Trump’s assertion that he could declare the Strait of Hormuz a “territory of the United States,” saying the opening and closure of the key waterway will remain up to Iran’s control.
In a post on the social platform X, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the U.S. has no authority to claim the strait, which has become a major flashpoint in the nearly six-month conflict.
“The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian,” he wrote in a post translated from Persian to English. “This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran’s command.”
He added that as long as the U.S. does “not accept the reality of defeat” and stop indulging in its “delusions,” Iran will continue to enforce its blockade of the crucial waterway carrying one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Trump floated the idea of taking control of the strait during a speech at a police academy in New York on Friday, despite the fact that it is currently under the shared jurisdiction of Iran and Oman.
The Congressional Insider - President Trump has turned Iran’s own demand for war reparations back on Tehran, pushing a compensation fight that reaches across decades of conflict and could complicate already tense talks over the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said Iran should pay compensation for Americans and others harmed in Iran-linked attacks and conflicts. He tied that demand to Tehran’s own push for war reparations in talks over reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
….President Trump said he will demand payment from Iran for “all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded,” according to reporting from Reuters and other outlets. He framed the move as a direct answer to Iran’s request for war damages during talks tied to the Strait of Hormuz. The result is a new bargaining fight that mixes wartime blame, money, and diplomacy in one move.
Trump family gaining over a million dollars an hour
Ralph
Nader - To House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer—Your responses on July 1, 2026 on the reporting of the
$2.2 billion profit personally reaped by President Donald Trump, while
allegedly a public servant in 2025, was not specific enough.
Jeffries wrote on his social
media account: “Donald Trump made more than $2 billion during his first year as
President. Republicans are enriching themselves while making your life more
expensive. We must crush the culture of corruption.”
Schumer wrote on his: “$2.2
BILLION for the Trump family. Higher costs for the American people.”
You should have described his
huge loot as $1.1 million an hour. That’s right, $1.1 million an hour based on
a 40-hour work week over one year. (And remember, Trump spends a lot of his
time on his vengeance missions, his golf game, and napping—so a 40-hour work
week is a generous estimate.)
More Americans go overseas
Axios - Americans' craving for travel overseas is soaring to new heights, Axios' Avery Lotz writes. More than 56 million U.S. residents traveled overseas last year, according to estimates from the International Trade Administration. That's up from ... around 32.7 million a decade prior.
- Where did most people visit? The U.K., Italy or France.
- Portugal and Greece also saw the biggest growth in U.S. visits between 2015 and 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported.
- Older travelers, in the 55-64 age range and above, led the pack, followed by the youngest jet-setters, aged 18-24.
This is all happening as debt delays life milestones, affordability concerns sour sentiment and global perceptions of the U.S. slip.
- Still, people feel the need to hit the road and see the world.
Rich Harrill, the director of the University of South Carolina's International Tourism Research Institute, tells Axios: "Among my students, travel's a must-have. You're not cool unless you go somewhere."
- Explore the data ... Share this story.Axios
Americans' craving for travel overseas is soaring to new heights, Axios' Avery Lotz writes.
- Why it matters: Much like the resilient consumer, the American tourist keeps on riding the post-COVID travel wave.
🔢 By the numbers: More than 56 million U.S. residents traveled overseas last year, according to estimates from the International Trade Administration.
- That's up from roughly 53.7 million in 2024 and around 32.7 million a decade prior.
🌍 Nearly 24 million traveled to Europe, a record high, according to Survey of International Air Travelers (SIAT) data going back to 2012.
- 🇬🇧 Where did most people visit? The U.K., Italy or France.
- 🇵🇹 Portugal and Greece also saw the biggest growth in U.S. visits between 2015 and 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported.
🔬 Zoom in: The wealthiest income bracket is driving overseas travel — followed by those with a combined household income of $100,000 to $119,000.
- Older travelers, in the 55-64 age range and above, led the pack, followed by the youngest jet-setters, aged 18-24.
This is all happening as debt delays life milestones, affordability concerns sour sentiment and global perceptions of the U.S. slip. Still, people feel the need to hit the road and see the world.
Word
Robert Reich- If democracy were working as it should, government officials would make the laws and rules of the “free market” according to what most citizens need. But in our current system, the rules are made mainly by those with the power and wealth to buy the politicians, agency heads, and even the courts and the lawyers who appear before them). As income and wealth concentrate at the top, so does political leverage.
Trump's military invasion of Washington DC
Farrah
Tomazin, Daily Beast - You can learn a lot about a
city by its street posters. They appear between polished campaign signs and
government notices; an unofficial bulletin board where people say what they
really think. And right now, Washington, D.C., appears to have a lot to say.
The biggest message plastered across the city is one that perhaps resonates
most with residents now living under the authority of Donald Trump and the
camouflaged uniforms he has forced on the landscape. “National Guard: I WANT
YOU TO GO HOME,” it says, alongside Uncle Sam’s famous conscription image. This
week marks one year since Trump sent federal troops into Washington under the
guise of a crime “crisis.” But what started as a deployment of 800 members of
the National Guard has since increased to 4,300—nearly six times the original
deployment. The guards are now scheduled to remain in D.C. until January 20,
2029—the end of Trump’s term—in an extended mission expected to cost taxpayers
about $1.4 billion. One year on, the danger isn’t just a more militarized
Washington—it’s what the White House plans to do next.
Stolen paintings
1440 - Italian police recover $10M worth of paintings stolen in three-minute heist. The paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse were stolen from a private museum north of Parma, Italy, in March. Authorities yesterday said the works were recovered during searches ordered by prosecutors, but provided no further details. They also released security footage from the heist (watch via X). Meanwhile, police in Brazil this week recovered eight Matisse illustrations stolen in December. (More, w/photos)
ICE
The
Hill - Outrage is building among congressional Democrats who are
alarmed by new plans from the Trump administration to buy gloves that will
allow immigration agents to deliver a painful electric shock as they carry out
deportations. U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday published a notice of its plans to spend as
much as $20 million on a product known as G.L.O.V.E, an abbreviation for
Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter.
….“Senate Republicans had the
opportunity to rein in ICE and CBP, they refused. Instead they handed DHS billions
more of your tax dollars without any constraint after the shooting and killing
individuals in the streets. Now, ICE is looking to purchase electrical shock
gloves to continue terrorizing our communities,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)
wrote on the social platform X.
Polls
Pew Research - Around three-quarters of Americans
(73%) say they are uncomfortable with transgender athletes competing on sports
teams that do not match their sex at birth. Majorities of both Republicans
(91%) and Democrats (55%) express this view, as do majorities across most demographic groups.
Climate change
In
These Times - As climate change
intensifies, worsening fires and extreme weather are creating increasingly
hostile conditions for workers…. Alongside fighting for healthcare, wages and
better treatment, these workers now find themselves fighting for protections
from dangerous heat, smoke and storms — the severity of which is only expected
to worsen if the status quo continues….
“In Minnesota, every summer, we
now experience wildfire smoke in these hot months,” says Scott Wilkie, the
president of Teamsters Local 638…
Workers say their uniforms add to
the discomfort of the heat. ?“We have to use plastic sleeves covering our
entire arms,” a worker tells me. ? “The
plastic sticks to our skin because of sweat, and it’s incredibly uncomfortable.
It’s the same thing with the glove. You are sweating and can’t pull up your
gloves comfortably because of the sweat.”
“I’m thirsty all the time but
can’t leave the line and go get water,” a worker told me. ?“Maybe every hour
you have a chance to get a drink.”
Puerto Rico
In
These Times - Nearly nine years
after Hurricane Maria tore through the island, a dangerous myth persists: that
Puerto Rico’s ongoing humanitarian crisis is a failure of local resilience or
an unavoidable consequence of climate change. This is a lie.
What the island is suffering from
is not a lack of fortitude, but a manufactured financial chokehold. While
Congress has technically allocated over $42.5 billion in disaster relief to the
island, the federal government’s bureaucratic neglect — and restrictive
conditions — have actively broken the infrastructure meant to sustain human
life.
There is a vast gulf between
money being promised on a spreadsheet and cash actually hitting the ground in
Puerto Rico. According to data from Puerto Rico’s Central Office for
Reconstruction, Recovery, and Resiliency, of the $42.6 billion allocated across
all recovery programs, only roughly $13.1 billion has actually been disbursed.
…Of the $11.1 billion FEMA
obligated to completely overhaul the island’s brittle electrical grid, less
than 25% has been distributed. The rest remains trapped thanks to a calculated
bureaucratic trap: FEMA requires Puerto Rico to pay for massive infrastructure
project costs up front and seek reimbursement later.
Meanwhile. . .
Congressional
Insider - Federal prosecutors say a woman splashed red paint and soap
at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., and now faces two felony
charges tied to the attack on a national shrine. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro
named Melissa L. Farris as the suspect and said she is in custody…. Federal law
allows years in prison for willfully damaging veterans’ memorials.
August 14, 2026
Sanders wants to cut big donations to candidates
Congressional
Insider - Bernie Sanders is pressing Democrats to shut super PAC money
out of their primaries, and he is tying that demand to a fresh bill that would
cap individual super PAC donations at $5,000.
Sanders and Representative Summer Lee have introduced the
Abolish Super PACs Act. The bill would cap individual contributions to super
PACs at $5,000. Sanders says Democrats
should ban super PACs from primary elections.
….Sanders said Democratic leaders should not allow oligarchs
and their super PACs to buy party primaries. He also said the party has the
power to stop super PACs from taking part in its own nomination fights. In his
view, that power should be used now, not after another round of expensive,
donor-driven contests.
Companies that stuck with DEI did okay
The Guardian - Conservative
backlash was supposed to put an end to the diversity, inclusion and equity
(DEI) movement as companies were warned “go woke, go broke”.
In January 2025, Donald Trump
delivered a death knell, ending DEI within the federal government with
executive orders and threatening to target companies that still supported it.
Companies including Google, Goldman Sachs, McDonald’s and Walmart that had embraced
DEI years earlier fell into line and announced an end to their policies.
But new research published Friday
and shared exclusively with the Guardian found that companies that resisted the
pressure and kept their DEI practices, including Costco, Apple and Delta Air
Lines, performed just as well as their competitors who pulled back.
ICE
The
Intercept - Two Republican-appointed judges in Texas just sentenced a
group of anti-ICE activists to a combined 560+ years in prison following a
protest last July outside ICE’s Prairieland Detention Center. Several Prairieland defendants are appealing
their convictions, and The Intercept’s investigation has already exposed gaping
holes in the government’s case.
However, local authorities are
still refusing to release records that could contain key evidence that the jury
in the first trial never saw. So The Intercept’s legal team continues to use
state open records laws to force local authorities to turn over everything they
have.
The Guardian - The extent to which federal law enforcement targeted political opponents and peaceful organizers has been laid bare in newly disclosed court documents. Internal investigative files reveal that the Department of Homeland Security launched a sweeping surveillance operation against anti-ICE protesters, major labor unions and left-leaning advocacy groups – sending undercover agents to infiltrate community meetings and issuing administrative subpoenas to seize financial records. The documents show that DHS investigators obtained financial records of unions and non-profits, as part of an inquiry into “domestic terrorist financing”.
Trump regime forms "birth tourism" task force
Newsworthy - With a new Birth Tourism Prevention
Task Force now active, the State Department says it is revoking visas and
moving to dismantle profit-driven networks behind the practice. The State
Department formed a task force to target “birth tourism.” Officials report more than 600 recent visa
revocations tied to the crackdown.
August 13, 2026
Elections
Bowers
News Media - In 2025, Donald
Trump signed an executive order that, according to the Brennan Center for
Justice, "attempted to assert presidential control over significant
aspects of federal elections." However, Democratic state officials sued,
and that executive order has largely been blocked in court.
In 2026, the Trump administration
filed lawsuits against 30 states and the District of Columbia demanding that
they turn over their unredacted voter files–including driver's license numbers,
partial Social Security numbers, and dates of birth. However, the state
officials targeted by the Trump administration fought back in court, and have
won every single time, even though most of the judges in ruling on the cases
were appointed by Republican presidents.
Also in 2026, the postal service
began the process of implementing another executive order on elections from
Donald Trump, one that squarely targets mail-in voting. Once again, Democratic
state election officials sued, winning in both district and circuit federal
courts. That executive order is now blocked nationwide.
The Trump administration has
appealed those rulings to the Supreme Court, and as the midterm elections
rapidly approach, is begging them to quickly unblock the executive order on
mail-in voting. Once again, the legal team on the other side is a coalition of
Democratic state officials.
You may have noticed a pattern
here: Donald Trump is doing whatever he can to try and take control of our
elections, and basically the only thing standing in his way are lawsuits from
Democratic state officials.
Roll
Call - The progressive momentum in Democratic
Senate primaries continued Tuesday, with Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan
defeating the more moderate Rep. Angie Craig in a high-stakes contest. But
progressives were dealt a setback in neighboring Wisconsin, with state Rep.
Francesca Hong, a self-described democratic socialist and the perceived
front-runner in the Democratic primary, losing to Milwaukee County Executive
David Crowley. …
Flanagan is now set to face
Republican Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter, who comfortably won
a nine-way Republican primary. If elected, Flanagan, a member of the White
Earth Band of Ojibwe, would be the first Native American woman to serve in the
Senate.
Meanwhile, Minnesota appears
poised to elect its first female governor this fall. Amy Klobuchar, the state’s
senior senator, easily won the Democratic primary Tuesday in the race to
succeed Gov. Tim Walz, who is stepping down after two terms. The Republican
primary represented another defeat for President Donald Trump, with his
endorsed candidate, former MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, losing to state House
Speaker Lisa Demuth.
Congressional
Insider - During weekend comments covered by a New
York outlet, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez encouraged voters to judge a
Wisconsin candidate by what she is saying now, not only by older quotes that
backed "defund the police." … Her remarks mark a softer tone than her
2020 push for the phrase. The shift comes as both parties argue over crime,
police staffing, and how to keep people safe.
TNR Blue Book - You may have seen some right-wingers trying to compare what Donald Trump did in Ankara, Turkey, to something Bill Clinton did in Pakistan in March 2000. Don't buy it. Yes, Clinton secretly boarded a different plane in that global hotspot, but the press was informed, and human beings were not used as a decoy.