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  • Federal Funding Freeze Rescinded: What Now?

    The Trump administration rescinded its controversial and illegal directive from the Office of Management and Budget to freeze federal funding.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?”


  • * Military Tribunals * Ashcroft’s “Voluntary” Interviews

    MARJORIE COHN An associate professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Cohn said today: “The new rules for military tribunals violate due process by allowing the admission of hearsay evidence that hasn’t been authenticated and providing no guidelines for sentencing. They raise serious separation of powers problems because the appellate panels are…

  • Campaign Finance: Reform or Scam?

    STEPHANIE WILSON Executive director of the Fannie Lou Hamer Project, Wilson said today: “We were supporters of McCain-Feingold until the limit for individual contributions was raised from $1,000 to $2,000…. This is now actually deform, not reform…. Less than 1 percent of the population contributes 80 percent of the money that funds political campaigns. This…

  • What’s Driving the Military Budget?

    FRIDA BERRIGAN Senior research associate with the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute, Berrigan said today: “If President Bush has his way, total military spending for 2003 will reach $396 billion, an $87 billion increase from January 2001. It would be the largest increase since the Reagan administration. But this spending spree…

  • Interviews Available: Andersen Indictment

    RUSSELL MOKHIBER Editor of Corporate Crime Reporter, Mokhiber said today: “Much of the history of corporate crime and violence in this country has never seen the light of day because corporate executives follow closely the advice of corporate counsel — when in doubt, shred it. Corporate lawyers have become so cavalier about the subject that…

  • Nuclear Posturing: Interviews Available

    In his news conference on Wednesday afternoon, President Bush responded to several questions about nuclear policies. The following analysts are available for interviews: JOHN BURROUGHS Executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy, Burroughs said: “Contrary to what Bush said today, the Nuclear Posture Review [NPR] expands the circumstances in which nuclear weapons could…

  • Israel-Palestine: What Paths to Peace?

    KHADER SHKIRAT A visiting fellow at Harvard Law School and director of the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment based in Jerusalem, Shkirat said today: “This is not ‘a war by two sides’ — two armies poised against each other. Israel is occupying and oppressing Palestinians. The Israeli military forces…

  • * Shadow Government * “Bunker Busters”

    CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON Professor of communication at American University and author of National Security Directives of the Reagan and Bush Administrations, Simpson is available for limited interviews. He said today: “Senate Majority Leader Daschle knew or certainly should have known that there are contingency plans for a shadow government. But he apparently did not know that…

  • Interviews Available on Domestic Policy Issues

    WENONAH HAUTER Hauter is director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project. She said today: “It is outrageous that the Department of Energy had to be taken to court to be forced to release the documents relating to Vice President Cheney’s energy task force. We will look forward to the documents becoming public and seeing…

  • Back from Afghanistan: Interviews Available

    KELLY CAMPBELL DAVID POTORTI Family members of Sept. 11 victims have formed a non-profit organization seeking effective alternatives to war as a response to the terrorist attacks. Peaceful Tomorrows favors the creation of an Afghan victims fund to match the outpouring of support for U.S. victims. Four family members have recently traveled to Afghanistan to…

  • War in Colombia

    A fierce assault by thousands of U.S.-backed Colombian government troops — launched on Friday to retake a large safe-haven region controlled by rebels for three years — has already resulted in confirmed reports of civilian deaths. The Bush administration is now seeking more than $500 million in additional aid to the Bogota regime, which would…

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