News Releases

  • Ethnic Cleansing Endgame in Gaza * No Ceasefire in West Bank

    On Tuesday evening, the Associated Press reported, President Trump “suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and proposed the U.S. take ‘ownership’ in redeveloping the area into ‘the Riviera of the Middle East.’ Trump’s brazen proposal appears certain to roil the next stage of talks meant to extend the tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.”


  • Federal Funding Freeze Rescinded: What Now?

    The Trump administration rescinded its controversial and illegal directive from the Office of Management and Budget to freeze federal funding. On Tuesday, states struggled to access Medicaid and Head Start portals, although the administration stated that programs that provided direct payments to individuals were supposedly exempt. The memo amounted to a partial government shutdown by decree. The fallout created chaos. 


  • Rural Public Health: “Less Messaging, More Listening”

    Instead of focusing on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., many public health experts based in rural communities are focusing on the social and economic landscape that gave rise to the popularity of extreme figures like RFK Jr. They are also concerned about the loss of healthcare infrastructure and the risk of H5N1, or bird flu, in rural areas. 


  • Netanyahu Pivots to Escalating Attacks on West Bank

    “It seems clear that Netanyahu only agreed to the nominal ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for a greenlight from Trump to escalate violence in the West Bank. When Trump was elected, Finance Minister Smotrich told his staff to prepare to annex the West Bank. American officials from Trump’s pick for UN Ambassador Elise Stefanik to even former President Bill Clinton have expressed support for the extreme right-wing Zionist position that Israel has a Biblical right to the West Bank. Yet if Israel annexed the West Bank,” this would tank Trump’s stated plans “for Israeli-Saudi normalization. …”


  • Trump’s “Manifest Destiny” and U.S. Treaty-Breaking Record

    “The United States is a treaty-breaking nation. In the first century of its existence, the United States signed more than 300 treaties with Indigenous nations, more than any foreign power. And it violated every single Indigenous treaty. Today, the United States has the worst record of ratifying international human rights and environmental treaties and has always broken its treaties, pacts, and promises. The recent U.S.-led and supported genocide in Palestine, in defiance of international law, is a case in point.”


  • The Hill: Genocide Lawsuits vs. Democrats Foreshadow Primary Challenges

    “Like other plaintiffs in the Northern California case, I believe that our lawsuit is on solid ground of justice,” Solomon wrote. “The arms shipments to Israel’s military have violated the Constitution, the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and U.S. federal laws – including the Leahy law, which prohibits the government from ‘using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights.’ The namesake of the law, former Sen. Patrick Leahy, says it is being violated.


  • The Legacy of the Polio Vaccine

    In an interview for Think Global Health, an immunization expert discussed the historic importance of the polio vaccine and the continued risk of future polio transmission. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and the presumptive nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, has previously suggested that the polio vaccine causes cancer and does more harm than good.  WALTER ORENSTEIN; [email protected]      Orenstein is a professor emeritus at the Emory School of Medicine and former head of the U.S. immunization program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In his interview with Think Global Health, Orenstein noted that the…


  • Is Blinken Trying to Stop a Ceasefire?

    Jeremy Scahill reports: “The Trump Factor: Gaza Ceasefire Deal Appears Close.” Al Jazeera reports that “Israel kills 62 in a day.” The Guardian reports: “Israel admits soldiers used ambulance in raid on refugee camp.” On Tuesday, protesters confronted Blinken, one shouting: “Secretary Blinken: Your legacy will be genocide. You will forever be known as Bloody Blinken, Secretary of Genocide. You have the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people on your hands…” 


  • Life Expectancy in the U.S.

    The U.S. is failing to keep pace with its peer nations when it comes to increases in life expectancy. Researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated that U.S. life expectancy is forecasted to increase from 78.3 years in 2022 to 80.4 years in 2050––a modest increase which lowers the country’s global ranking.


  • War Crimes: Who Are the Criminals?

    “Who are the criminals? U.S. news coverage of five former or current presidents gathered for the funeral of President Jimmy Carter never hinted that hideous wars of choice along with massive increases in weapon sales had marked the administration of each of the five. There was no mention of President Biden’s order to send $8 billion of weapons to Israel. This gathering of U.S. presidents is referred to as ‘The World’s Most Exclusive Club.’ Exclusive indeed. What other club of so few has caused so much suffering to so many?”


  • Saddam in Context: Interviews Available

    MICHAEL RATNER Ratner is president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. More Information JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley was an expert witness in Pol Pot’s trial. EDWARD HERMAN Professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, Herman is author of many books including The Real Terror Network. He said today:…

  • Interviews Available: Bush vs. International Law?

    “International law? I better call my lawyer; he didn’t bring that up to me.” — George W. Bush, responding yesterday to a question about U.S. policy in Iraq violating international law BENJAMIN FERENCZ Ferencz was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials for Nazi war crimes after World War II and is available for a limited…

  • Controversial “Enola Gay” Exhibit: Interviews Available

    SAYURI MIYAZAKI PAT ELDER Miyazaki and Elder will accompany Japanese survivors of the atomic bomb [Hibakusha] as they deliver signatures on a global petition to the Smithsonian Museum. The petition states: “The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has announced that it has completely restored the B-29 bomber Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb…

  • Unspinning Today’s Unemployment Numbers

    HEATHER BOUSHEY An economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Boushey said this afternoon: “Payroll employment grew by only 57,000 jobs in November and unemployment fell to 5.9 percent. November’s employment is still 235,000 jobs fewer than last year, even though the economy has added 328,000 jobs since July. While there are some…

  • Nuclear Weapons Push

    GREG MELLO Director of the Los Alamos Study Group, Mello said today: “The Energy and Water Appropriations Bill signed by President George W. Bush yesterday is a milestone in the further nuclearization of U.S. foreign policy. The weapons to be developed are explicitly for potential use against targets in many countries, not just one or…

  • U.S. Military Families in Iraq

    Relatives of U.S. military personnel stationed in Iraq are currently in Baghdad. They are meeting with members of the Governing Council and ordinary Iraqis, as well as with U.S. soldiers including their loved ones stationed in Iraq. Today they expressed surprise at the dire conditions of schools and hospitals that they have visited. They also…

  • Relatives of U.S. Soldiers in Iraq Decry Bush’s “Photo Opportunity”

    FERNANDO SUAREZ DEL SOLAR Fernando Suarez del Solar (whose primary language is Spanish) is the father of Jesus Alberto Suarez del Solar Navarro, who died in Iraq on March 27. He will be leaving on a delegation for Iraq this Saturday and is available for a limited number of interviews. He said today: “Bush goes…

  • * Death Penalty * AARP’s Financial Interests * Buy Nothing Day

    BRYAN STEVENSON Executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, Stevenson said today: “The legitimacy of the death penalty in the United States has been so undermined — by inadequate legal services to the poor, unreliable administration of criminal justice and political exploitation by elected officials trying to prove they’re tough — that it…

  • Live, From Iraq

    The following people are available for interviews. Note that Baghdad is 8 hours ahead of Eastern Time. JAMES JENNINGS President of the humanitarian aid organization Conscience International and a longtime professor of Middle East and Islamic Studies, Jennings has worked extensively in Iraq. He last traveled to Iraq with Congressman Nick Rahall and former Senator…

  • * Bogus Benefits? * Medicare’s Death Spiral? * AARP Betrayal?

    GAIL SHEARER Shearer is senior health policy analyst for Consumers Union and author of the just-released report “Medicare Prescription Drugs: Conference Committee Agreement Asks Beneficiaries to Pay Too High a Price for Modest Benefit.” Among the report’s findings: * “The funds set aside for this ‘benefit’ — $400 billion over 10 years — cover just…

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