News Releases

  • Pesticides Causing Antimicrobial Resistance

    A coalition of conservationists, farmworkers and public health groups petitioned the Trump administration to ban the use of drugs as pesticides when they are crucial for humans, citing the dangers of cross-resistance to medically important antibiotics and antifungals. This fall, the World Health Organization warned that antimicrobial resistance threatens families worldwide. The petition requests that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cancel registrations for these drugs under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. 


  • U.S. Bombs Somalia for 100th Time this Year

    “AFRICOM said the strikes targeted the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region. … AFRICOM said that the airstrikes were launched on November 21 and November 22 about 37 miles southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso, where U.S.-backed forces have been fighting against an ISIS affiliate in the Caal-Miskaad Mountains.”


  • Psychotherapists Challenging Insurance Company Denials

    The Psychotherapy Action Network has created an Insurance Toolkit that includes an Insurance Guide and Insurance Tracker. The guide outlines what psychotherapists and patients should know when insurance companies deny or question care, while the tracker aims to document obstacles dealing with insurance and reimbursement. 


  • Israel Strikes Beirut, Has Violated Lebanese “Ceasefire” 10,000 Times in Last Year

    “The strike comes after an unprecedented escalation in threats of launching a major military campaign that would not amount to a war according to Israeli officials. It was the first time the southern suburbs were hit since July. It comes only two days after Lebanese president Joseph Aoun said in a speech, on the occasion of independence day, that the state of Lebanon is ready to negotiate [with Israel] under U.S. or U.N. supervision”


  • “The UN Embraces Colonialism” and Israel Escalates Bombing Gaza, Moving Yellow Line

    Not since the UN partitioned Palestine in 1947 against the will of the indigenous people, setting the stage for 80 years of Nakba, has the UN acted in such a baldly colonial (and legally ultra vires) way, and trampled so recklessly on the rights of a people.


  • “How to Monkeywrench a Genocide”

    Police in England and Wales arrested more than 140 people on Tuesday, the first day of coordinated protests against the UK government’s proscription of the direct action group Palestine Action. This is happening as a trial of members of the group begins.


  • “America First Global Health Strategy”

    The State Department’s new America First Global Health Strategy and reorganization of foreign assistance “fundamentally change the structure and goals of U.S. foreign aid in a way that marginalizes children,” writes an advocate for international children’s issues and global health. The shift moves foreign assistance toward a focus on serving the U.S.’s “national security” interests. The Trump administration has sought to justify the changes by claiming that the foreign aid system is “inefficient and wasteful.” 


  • Israel Continuing to Block Aid to Gaza

    Dr. Sidhwa said: “Israel continues to block approximately half of healthcare workers with Emergency Medical Teams. No reason for the denials is given.”


  • UNSC Reported to Back Trump Plan, Palestinians Outraged

    “The U.S. is pushing for a vote on the U.N. Security Council by Monday on the U.S.-Israel colonial land grab in Gaza. The U.S. draft would ignore the findings of the International Court of Justice and U.N. human rights bodies, violate key provisions of international law, reward and normalize the perpetrators of the genocide, punish the victims, consolidate the unlawful occupation, and further deny Palestinian self-determination.“


  • U.S. and Israel Trying to Consolidate “Land Grab in Gaza” Using U.N.

    “The co-perpetrators of the genocide are seeking U.N. authorization to take over the lives of the survivors and normalize the status of the perpetrators. Russia and China must stand firm against this abomination, and the UNGA must move now under Uniting for Peace to provide protection for Palestine and accountability for the Israeli regime.”  


  • Power Struggles in Haiti and Venezuela: Interviews Available

    BILL FLETCHER Executive director of TransAfrica, Fletcher said today: “In recent weeks, the Haitian crisis has been deepening. In addition to mass protests against President Aristide, demanding his resignation, there have been military assaults in several cities and what appears to be a move toward insurrection. The alleged rebels have been described in different ways,…

  • Scandal on Pre-War U.N. Spying by U.S. Now Mushrooming in Mexico and Chile

    Statements from Mexican and Chilean government officials in recent days are bringing renewed interest to the subject of U.S. spying at the United Nations in early 2003 prior to the Iraq war. The story first broke in March 2003 when the Observer newspaper in London published a U.S. National Security Agency memo describing a “surge”…

  • New Support for British Whistleblower Katharine Gun

    Members of Congress today released an open letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair in support of Katharine Gun, the former British intelligence employee who faces two years in prison for leaking a memo to the press that exposed a U.S. surveillance “surge” against countries on the U.N. Security Council aimed at securing authorization for…

  • Bush’s Nuclear Proposal: Hypocrisy Charged

    JOHN BURROUGHS Burroughs is executive director of the New York-based Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy. He said this afternoon: “While Bush proposes ad hoc measures to limit the capacity of other countries to produce nuclear materials usable in reactors or bombs, his administration has yet to agree to start negotiations on a verified treaty (the…

  • * Bush: A Call for Censure * Prosecuting Protestors

    TREVOR FITZGIBBON Fitzgibbon is a contact person for a campaign being launched today by MoveOn.org and the national coalition Win Without War to censure President George W. Bush for misleading the American people in the lead-up to the war in Iraq. This afternoon a news conference at the National Press Club included a father of…

  • * Bush Iraq Deceptions — Then and Now * Skull vs. Bones?

    JOHN R. MACARTHUR, [via] Author of Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War, MacArthur repeatedly scrutinized Bush’s claims during the buildup to the Iraq invasion, writing the article “Sounds Fishy, Mr. President” in October 2002 [See: www.commondreams.org/views02/1028-09.htm]. In December 2002 he was quoted on an IPA news release: “Recently, Bush cited an IAEA…

  • * Cheney Scandal * Tauzin/PHARMA * Candidates and War Powers

    PRATAP CHATTERJEE Chatterjee, recently back from Iraq, is program director at Corpwatch. He said today: “Newsweek reported Wednesday that the Justice Department has opened up an inquiry into whether Halliburton paid $180 million in bribes to win a contract in Nigeria when Dick Cheney was chairman of the company…. Last year Cheney received two dollars…

  • “Intelligence Failure”?

    RAY McGOVERN McGovern worked as a CIA analyst for 27 years. Before the invasion of Iraq he co-authored the article “Cooking Intelligence for War” with other members of the steering group for Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He said today: “The ‘investigation’ is slated to go past the election. Members will be picked by the…

  • The Economy: Nine Months Before Election Day * Budget * Job Training * The Deficit

    CHRIS HARTMAN, [via Christina Kasica] Research director for United for a Fair Economy, Hartman said today: “Tax cuts by the current administration have shifted the tax burden to the middle class and widened the wealth gap into a chasm…. The annual deficit is of historic proportions, over half a trillion for this year alone. With…

  • Prominent Americans Support British Whistleblower

    An array of high-profile Americans — including Rev. Jesse Jackson, feminist Gloria Steinem, Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic, leaders of the ACLU and the Newspaper Guild, and artists such as Sean Penn, Bonnie Raitt and Martin Sheen — released a joint statement Thursday (Jan. 29) in support of Katharine Gun, a British whistleblower. Ms. Gun faces…

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