Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America. Please take a moment to click the ❤️ and restack this post. The oligarchs’ platforms are trying to keep stories like the ones below from hitting your feeds, and this helps us break through.
Trump’s White House is drafting an executive order to put political appointees in charge of $48 billion in science funding. The administration is also preparing to sanction the entire International Criminal Court. An ICE officer shot a 28-year-old DoorDash delivery driver in Texas and the government transferred him to a detention center with a bullet still in his back. And California Governor Gavin Newsom drew fury for backing a settlement that would allow the $111 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. merger to go forward.
Before we get to the news, a brief ask: AlterNet America was launched as a direct response to MAGA billionaires buying up networks like CBS and newspapers like the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. We’re going all-in on the bet that reader-supported journalism can compete directly with the billionaires by being the one thing they can’t buy.
We’re incredibly grateful to all the free subscribers who have signed up to receive our newsletters in recent weeks. But if you’ve been thinking about making the leap to become a paying subscriber, this is the time when it matters the most. Please upgrade today.
Trump Wants Veto Power Over Every Science Grant in America
The president who told people to inject bleach now wants final say over medical research.
During a Friday Oval Office meeting, Trump ordered NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya to roll back Harvard’s federal research grants. When he refused, Trump told Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to write an executive order installing a board of political appointees to oversee the entire $48 billion grant budget of the agency.
At the meeting, Vought accused Bhattacharya of funding grants that conflicted with administration priorities, including supporting research related to diversity. Vought, whom Trump has publicly dubbed his “Grim Reaper,” would join Bhattacharya on the new board, and grants would need unanimous approval from both.
The money from those grants goes to research on cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and just about every other disease. Under the proposed order, one political appointee who does not like the subject of a study could kill it before it even begins.
NIH has been choosing research projects based on expert review of their scientific merit for decades. Congress already rejected Vought’s plan to grant political appointees this power at the legislative level, so the White House is trying to go around Congress by executive order instead.
Sponsored Kalshi poll: Midterms: Congress Balance of Power
Trump Admin. to Sanction the Entire International Criminal Court
Israel is bombing hospitals and the only consequence so far is for the court that called it a war crime.
The Trump administration has prepared sanctions against the International Criminal Court, according to sources familiar with the matter, beyond the penalties it has already imposed on individual judges and prosecutors. The move threatens to cut off funding for the court, which would leave ongoing cases in limbo.
The ICC is the global body responsible for prosecuting war crimes and genocide. While the United States has never been a member, to sanction the institution itself would only further undermine a court that exists to hold powerful nations to account for atrocities.
The administration has urged the ICC to withdraw its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others over the genocide in Gaza. It also seeks to end another investigation into allegations that U.S. military personnel and CIA operatives tortured, raped and sexually abused detainees in secret prisons in Afghanistan.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been trying to build international pressure against the court since July, when he launched a campaign urging other countries to withdraw from the tribunal entirely. So far, none have done it.
ICE Officer Shoots Driver, Ships Him Off With Bullet Still in His Back
Make sure to leave a good tip next time you order DoorDash — your driver could get shot.
An ICE officer shot a 28-year-old Venezuelan DoorDash driver, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, in the middle of a delivery on Sunday afternoon in Austin, Texas. He still had a bullet in his back when the government moved him to an immigration detention center 200 miles away.
ICE officers pulled Garces Perez over and ran his license plate, matching it to a deportation order. Law enforcement said he attempted to escape in a car, but his lawyer disputes the account. The Department of Homeland Security has not said if the officers were even wearing body cameras, let alone made footage of the incident public.
ABC News obtained video of Garces Perez sitting on the ground, his hands cuffed behind him, and his shirt cut open to reveal what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the back. DoorDash confirmed he was working as a delivery driver at the time of the shooting.
As of Monday morning, Garces Perez was being held at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas, with a bullet still lodged in his back. Officers had not given him pain medicine, and his wife has not been able to speak with him since the shooting.
Newsom and Bonta Draw Fury for Backing Paramount Merger Settlement
California Attorney General Rob Bonta spent months calling Paramount’s threats to leave the state “blackmail.” On Monday morning, he paid ransom.
Bonta struck a deal that gives David Ellison his $111 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, ending a lawsuit brought by 12 states to block the biggest media consolidation in a generation. Bonta said the deal is not an endorsement of the merger.
Paramount spent the month of September leaking stories that they were moving to Texas and Tennessee, and it worked just as planned. But the $7 million-a-day penalty that goes into effect Oct. 1 put a countdown clock on the threat, leading Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass to cave.
Every public merger opponent called on Bonta not to settle. Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo and Robert De Niro met with Newsom Friday night in a last-ditch effort to convince him to block the deal. Senator Elizabeth Warren told him to hold the line.
The FCC has already approved a deal structure that grants Saudi and UAE investors an ownership stake in the combined company, meaning a chunk of American media now belongs to governments that jail journalists. The approval followed a $16 million settlement paid by Paramount to Trump to end his lawsuit against CBS and the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show days after Colbert criticized the payment on air.
Support Journalism That Rejects Billionaire Money
Right-wing billionaires are quietly gobbling up more media outlets, while smaller outlets unable to keep up shut down on a nearly daily basis. If left unchecked, the rich and well-connected get to do their dirt in the dark and escape all accountability. But AlterNet America doesn’t answer to them. We only answer to you, and that means we can cover these stories the way they need to be covered. But our editorial independence is only possible with the support of our paying subscribers.
If you’re still reading, that means you found this newsletter valuable. Now we need you to make your support official by upgrading your free subscription to a paying one. It only costs 22 cents a day, and ensures AlterNet America will be able to continue working exclusively for you instead of a billionaire or corporate owner. Please subscribe or upgrade now.
Thank you again for reading and for supporting independent media. And if you haven’t yet, click the ❤️ and restack this post so we can break through to more feeds.
POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Every Major TV Network, Including Fox News, Refuses to Cover Trump After Press Ban. The White House television pool announced Monday it will no longer provide televised coverage of Trump events after the administration barred CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. Fox News Washington Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton, who chairs the pool consortium, said there would be no replacement coverage. The boycott was a response to Trump’s decision Friday to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House for what he called their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS.” Secret Service agents confiscated reporters’ press credentials at the gate Saturday, and all three banned outlets filed a joint First Amendment lawsuit against the administration on Monday.
Trump’s Approval Rating Drops Below 30 Percent for the First Time in Either Term. A new poll from American Research Group, which surveyed 1,100 American adults from September 16 through 20, showed the president with a 29 percent overall approval rating. Only 26 percent had a positive view of the economy, and 72 percent of those surveyed said they felt the U.S. economy was worsening amid rising gas and grocery prices, despite the administration’s insistence those pressures are still tied to the previous administration. That’s the lowest approval rating Trump has scored across both of his White House terms, with the midterms now less than two months away.
California Signs Law Penalizing Influencers Who Hide Political Ad Payments. Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law legislation that increases penalties for online influencers who get paid to post about politics and don’t disclose the payments. AB 1130 allows regulators to fine influencers up to $5,000 for each violation and refer them to law enforcement for potential misdemeanor charges. California already required disclosure for influencers posting about state or local races, but there were no fines or criminal penalties if someone did not comply. The legislation was signed as part of a broader package of bills that Newsom’s office said will guard against potential election interference from Trump.
Threatened Mojave Tortoises Move Into Nevada’s Largest Solar Farm. When the project was originally proposed, the Gemini Solar Project in Nevada was projected to kill up to 215 adult desert tortoises and 900 juveniles. Two full summers in commercial operation, the threatened Mojave desert tortoise is instead living inside the fence line of the 7,100-acre solar plant, parking itself under 1.8 million panels and using them as shade. The key design change was to raise sections of fencing eight inches off the ground to allow animals to pass underneath. USGS researchers also found a rare native plant persisted at the site under the low-disturbance construction methods used by the project.