News Releases

  • U.S. Hospitals in Crisis

    Last month, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) joined Protect Our Care in relaunching the organization’s Hospital Crisis Watch. Protect Our Care hosts an interactive map and a report that outlines how the new federal budget will shutter rural hospitals, slash healthcare services, and leave communities in crisis. By limiting the ways that states fund Medicaid and reimburse hospitals for care, Protect Our Care states, the “GOP tax scam… will shutter struggling hospitals and make it nearly impossible for states to manage the burden of the largest cuts to Medicaid in history without kicking millions off their coverage and taking away benefits.…


  • Israel’s Attack on the UN Charter and How to Stop a Genocide

    An Israeli sniper detailed in comments to Haaretz the killing of unarmed Palestinians, including children, who were attempting to get aid in Gaza. AntiWar.com reports: “Israel Kills Over 100 Palestinians in Gaza as It Launches Ground Offensive to Conquer Gaza City.” The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry finds in their in-depth report released Tuesday that Israel is committing genocide, that top officials, including President Isaac Herzog have engaged in incitement to commit genocide and Israel has had “clear knowledge of the presence of Palestinian civilians along the evacuation routes and within the safe areas but nevertheless they shot at and killed civilians, some of whom (including…


  • IUD Insertions Do Not Need to Hurt

    Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are among the most effective forms of contraception, but they can create pain upon insertion. Reporting in Slate reveals that healthcare providers with a subspecialty in complex family planning are more likely to offer pain management––including paracervical blocks like lidocaine, or sedation––for IUD insertion. One insidious consequence of the closures of abortion clinics across the U.S. is that fewer clinics may end up offering pain management for IUDs.  Health journalist Sarah Boden notes that as abortion clinics shutter, more patients who want an IUD “to manage periods, prevent pregnancy, or reduce pain caused by conditions like endometriosis…


  • Flotilla, After Being Attacked, Sailing to Gaza

    The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Ireland, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain and Türkiye just issued a joint statement expressing “their concern about the security of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civil society initiative in which citizens of their countries are participating.”


  • New President of the UNGA Has Openly Backed Israel’s Genocide

    “Baerbock is not just any diplomat. As Germany’s foreign minister from 2021 to 2025, she tried to justify over and over again Israel’s war crimes as ‘self-defence,’ rejected ceasefires, and her country continued to provide Israel with hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons, making it its second biggest arms supplier. She de facto became one of Israel’s strongest defenders alongside United States officials, while bombs were falling on hospitals, refugee camps, and schools.”


  • UN Passes “Problematic” Resolution as Push for Measures to Stop Israel Continues

    “The UNGA voted overwhelmingly today to ‘endorse’ the New York Declaration put forward by France and Saudi Arabia.     Among its many problematic provisions, the Declaration supports a ‘stabilization force’ (with many bad elements as well), instead of a protection force as such.”


  • RFK Jr. Abandons Long COVID Patients

    Though Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged to tackle Long COVID during his HHS confirmation hearings, he has abandoned the plight of Long COVID patients by dismantling federal COVID prevention programs and the research infrastructure invested in researching and treating the condition. So far, RFK Jr. has fired key officials at CDC, created barriers to accessing COVID vaccines, and cut research funding for mRNA and intranasal vaccines, which showed great promise in preventing symptomatic disease. 


  • Census Figures Show Flat Uninsured and Poverty Rates for Kids

    U.S. Census figures released on Sept. 9 show that the U.S. has made little progress on poverty and healthcare coverage for children. Though child poverty plummeted in 2021 to 5.2 percent thanks to the passage of the Expanded Child Tax Credit, that rate more than doubled between 2021 and 2023. The new figures show no significant change from 2023 to 2024. Roughly 13.4 percent of all children still lived in poverty, while about 4.7 million total children, or 6.1 percent of children, had no health insurance.


  • U.S. Jews Oppose Trump’s Targeting of Colleges and Students

    More than 120 prominent Jewish Americans signed a statement released today voicing opposition to the Trump administration’s policy of “disingenuously” using accusations of antisemitism to facilitate attacks on colleges and the detention and deportation of campus activists. The statement reaffirms the signers’ support for free speech and independent scholarship and condemns the “heinous and anti-democratic policies of the Trump administration.”


  • Israel Obliterating Gaza City; Qatar, Tunisia, Lebanon and Syria Bombed

    “The Israeli military on Tuesday ordered the full evacuation of Gaza City, where famine is taking place, as it continues to escalate its offensive with the goal of cleansing the city of its Palestinian population and razing every building to the ground.”Drop Site News reports: “Israel Bombs Hamas Office in Doha, Issues Displacement Order for 1 Million in Gaza City.”


  • 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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