News Releases

  • ​LGBTQI+ Communities at Greater Risk of Losing Healthcare Access 

    While anti-trans and anti-DEI legislation is making it harder for a wide range of Americans to access healthcare, new survey findings show that LGBTQI+ people are at greater risk of losing access to healthcare under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”


  • Two-State Rhetoric Used as “Cover” for Israel’s Genocide and Continuing the Occupation?

    Many media outlets have been reporting on Saudi Arabia and France holding a conference at the UN for “recognising Palestinian statehood.” This narrative is scrutinized in an in-depth video with Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada: “UK, France, Canada ‘recognizing Palestine’ to cover up support for Israel’s genocide.” 


  • Ralph Nader: “Palestinian Holocaust,” 500,000 Dead

    “You can’t have a tiny enclave, the size geographically of Philadelphia, with 2.3 million people, have 170,000 tons of bombs, all kinds of artillery, sniper fire, denial of food, water, medicine, health care, all kinds of infectious diseases, destroying homes, apartment buildings, markets, religious institutions, educational institutions, anything that stands, anything that moves — 75 percent of Gaza is now completely destroyed. And they’re trying to persuade us that there are still 97 out of every 100 Gazans alive? What are they made of — steel and asbestos?” 


  • Judge in Epstein Case Has Financial Conflicts of Interest

    Judge Loretta Preska “through her husband’s law firm” has “connections to a number of other financial institutions tied to Epstein, throwing an even darker shadow on her prior sealing of these documents.” Preska’s spouse is Thomas Kavaler, “a fifty-year veteran of Cahill Gordon & Reindel.” The firm “defended Deutsche Bank after it was sued by a group of its investors over the fact that it had done business with Epstein long after he had been convicted and his crimes had become widely known.”


  • “Healthcare Deserts”Have Worsened Since 2021

    A new report from GoodRx finds that healthcare deserts––areas that lack adequate access to and infrastructure for healthcare services––exist in about 80 percent of counties in the United States. Nearly 60 percent of counties have more than one type of healthcare desert, and roughly one in three Americans are affected by healthcare deserts. Pharmacy deserts have expanded since 2021 while access to critical hospital services like trauma care and hospital beds has remained stagnant. The report pairs metrics with interactive maps and a video that follows Americans living in healthcare deserts as they try to access care. 


  • Amazon Union Leader Beaten by Israeli Military

    “’The Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms that upon arrival in Israeli custody, U.S. human rights defender, Christian Small, was physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals,’ wrote the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Instagram. ‘They choked him and kicked him, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back.’”


  • “Transparent Farce”: Israel’s Latest Strategies of Deliberate Starvation

    The resumption of aid airdrops “approved by Israel and implemented on Saturday evening, does not reflect a genuine shift in the humanitarian response. Rather, it aims to mislead international public opinion and downplay the severity of the crime, diverting attention from Israel’s systematic starvation policy in the Gaza Strip, which has caused an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.” 


  • U.N. Still Hasn’t Declared a Famine in Gaza, a Year After Palestinian Groups Called for It

    “Secretary General Guteress should not allow Israel’s deliberate blocking of data collection to impede a formal famine declaration and provide cover for this genocide by starvation. The international community has sufficient evidence, including video documentation of starving children, testimonies from U.N. officials, and Israel’s own statements about cutting off food supplies to support an immediate famine declaration.”


  • Protests Demand Aid Get Into Gaza, Sanctions on Israel

    More than 100 organizations are demanding the entry and distribution of lifesaving aid to Gaza, see statement from Doctors Without Borders: “As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organizations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes. Exactly two months since the Israeli government-controlled scheme, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating, more than 100 organizations are sounding the alarm and urging governments to act: open all land crossings; restore the full flow…


  • Gaza: “Countries MUST Act to Stop Starvation”

    The Independent reports: “‘No one is spared’: Children are starving to death in Gaza and even the medics treating them faint from hunger.” AntiWar.com reports: “Fifteen More Palestinians Starve to Death in Gaza Due to US-Backed Israeli Blockade” and “Israeli Forces Kill 72 Palestinians in Gaza Over 24 Hours.” Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, states there is an obligation to act: “We knew that Israel had intended to starve the Palestinians in Gaza since October 9, 2023 when Israel announced explicitly its plan to starve the Palestinians in Gaza. For 20 months, the governments of the world were on…


  • Pro-Bush Forces Working to Help Nader in Push to Get on Oregon Ballot

    The Oregonian newspaper reported Friday that “groups allied with President Bush are encouraging their conservative members to do the seemingly unthinkable: attend a convention Saturday to help put left-leaning independent candidate Ralph Nader on the Oregon presidential ballot. The groups — with the encouragement of some Republican political operatives — are telling their members that…

  • * Cost of Iraq War * Negroponte’s Record in Honduras * Bush’s AIDS Claims * Survivors of Torture Speak Out * Regime Change in Guatemala: 50 Years Later

    PHYLLIS BENNIS, [via Emily Schwartz Greco] A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis is the primary author of the just-released report “Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War,” which is available at the above web page. More Information LARRY BIRNS Birns is director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, which…

  • Clinton’s Domestic Legacies

    IDA HELLANDER, M.D. Executive director of Physicians for a National Health Program, Hellander said today: “The HMOs — which rose during the 1990s — are, in effect, practicing medicine by deciding which tests and treatments will be covered. They skimp on coverage to maximize their profits. When they deny medically necessary care for patients, they…

  • Electronic Voting — Danger for Democracy

    DAN WALLACH Wallach is an assistant professor of Computer Science at Rice University in Houston specializing in building secure and robust software systems for the Internet. Along with colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Wallach co-authored a groundbreaking study that revealed significant flaws in Diebold’s AccuVote-TS electronic voting system. He said today: “Neither the source code [for…

  • Military Contractors in Iraq: Privatizing Unaccountability and Torture?

    PRATAP CHATTERJEE Program director for CorpWatch, Chatterjee is the author of the recent articles “Controversial Commando Wins Iraq Contract” and “Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraq.” He said today: “Occupation authorities in Iraq have awarded a $293 million contract effectively creating the world’s largest private army to a company headed by Lieutenant Colonel…

  • Why Is Dick Cheney Still Lying About Iraq and 9/11?

    “The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks reported Wednesday there was ‘no credible evidence’ that Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda target the United States.” — Associated Press, June 16 www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0616-01.htm Vice President Richard Cheney on Saddam Hussein: “He had long established ties with al-Qaeda.” — Associated Press, June 14 www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/06/14/cheney.terrorism.ap ANDREW RICE COLLEEN KELLY BOB McILVAINE…

  • “A Nation of Laws”? Presidential Authority, Immunity and Torture

    REED BRODY “The torture and mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was the predictable result of the Bush administration’s decision to circumvent international law,” Human Rights Watch said in a new report. Brody is special counsel with Human Rights Watch and author of that report, titled “The Road to Abu Ghraib.” He said…

  • * G-8 Summit Backstory * Iraq Resolution

    NEIL WATKINS, [in Georgia], MARIE CLARKE, [in Georgia Watkins is the outreach coordinator for Jubilee USA Network. He said today: “In this critical moment, Jubilee USA Network calls for … 100 percent cancellation of the debts of all impoverished nations without harmful conditions, not piecemeal and partial relief…. Jubilee USA Network recognizes Iraqi debt as…

  • Reagan’s Foreign Policies: Beyond the Myths

    BILL FLETCHER President of TransAfrica Forum, Fletcher said today: “Reagan had this ability to project warmth and compassion while implementing incredibly draconian foreign and domestic policies. One example of this was his stubborn resistance to sanctions against the apartheid regime of South Africa.” More Information JOSEPH GERSON Director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Peace…

  • From Reagan to Now: Assessing Domestic Policies

    JILL NELSON Author of the book Straight, No Chaser: How I Became a Grown-Up Black Woman, Nelson is critical of “the current orgy of accolades” for Reagan. She said today: “On civil rights Reagan was a complete disaster. He tried to gut the Civil Rights Commission, to stop the extension of the Voting Rights Act…

Mastodon