News Releases

  • 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…


  • Vaccine Intentions of Parents

    A new study finds that between 35 and 40 percent of pregnant women and parents of young kids in the U.S. plan to fully vaccinate their child on schedule, including Covid and flu vaccines. Women in their first pregnancy expressed the most uncertainty about vaccinations, with 48 percent being unsure of how they would proceed in vaccinating their child. 


  • Not a War in Gaza — It’s Genocide

    “I don’t know of any comparable situation. Recent estimates show that about 70 percent of the structures in Gaza are either completely destroyed or severely damaged. The argument that the I.D.F. [Israel Defense Forces] is conducting a war in Gaza is simply cynical, there is no war in Gaza. What the I.D.F. is doing in Gaza is demolishing it. Hundreds of buildings are being bulldozed every week. This is not a secret, but mainstream media coverage has been insufficient.”


  • ​Medical Debt Rule Struck Down

    A federal judge in Texas has vacated a Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that removed medical debt from Americans’ credit reports. 


  • Pope Condemns “Barbarity” as Israel Kills People Waiting for Food

    The Guardian reports: “Pope condemns Gaza war’s ‘barbarity’ as 93 reported killed by Israeli fire while waiting for food” and “Christian patriarchs make joint visit to shelled church in Gaza.” The Guardian also reports: “‘Humanitarian city’ would be concentration camp for Palestinians, says former Israeli PM.” America magazine reports: “A Palestinian Christian community is the latest target of settler violence in the West Bank.” KATHY BOYLAN, [email protected]    Boylan is a member of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker community in Washington, D.C. and has been is holding a vigil at the Papal Nuncio there, imploring Pope Leo to go to Gaza immediately. See video. She said today: “Pope Pius XII should have visited the Nazi concentration…


  • HHS Moving to Restrict Head Start Access

    The Department of Health and Human Services has announced that it intends to redefine Head Start as a federal public welfare program, not a public education program, barring access to the program for undocumented immigrants. The change is at odds with the way that the Supreme Court has treated K-12 education since 1982, when it ruled that children have a right to free public education regardless of their immigration status. Historically, Congress has not considered Head Start a welfare program. Experts expect there to be legal challenges that would put a temporary restraining order on the change. 


  • Coke and Commercialization of Schools

    The Coca-Cola company announced on Wednesday that it intends to change the way it does business with school districts. The list of changes includes encouraging local representatives to negotiate non-exclusive contracts, supplying of vending machines that have school messages on the outside rather than Coke ads, and offering a wider variety of “nutritious” beverages. The…

  • A Year After Warning of Stock Collapse, Economist Cites Political Leaders’ “Negligence”

    An economist who predicted a collapse of stock prices a year ago, when the Nasdaq composite index was near its peak, said today that “the nation’s political leaders chose to ignore the stock market bubble” — and “as a result, millions of families have seen their dreams of a secure retirement or their children’s college…

  • Taxes and Triggers

    MAX SAWICKY Senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, Sawicky said today: “Because some members of Congress view President Bush’s proposed tax cut as a budget buster, they would like to make these large tax cuts subject to cancellation or postponement if economic and budget prospects begin to dim. The buzz word for such devices…

  • Repeal of Workers’ Safety?

    Last night, the Senate voted to roll back a new federal rule protecting workers from repetitive stress injuries. House action is expected later this week. The following analysts are available for interviews: PAMELA VOSSENAS Vossenas is co-chair of the health and safety committee of the National Writers Union, which is affiliated with the United Auto…

  • South Africa AIDS Trial

    With a historic trial underway in South Africa, as 39 pharmaceutical companies try to stop the South African government from importing cheaper versions of AIDS drugs, the following analysts in the United States and South Africa are available for interviews: ROBERT WEISSMAN Co-director of Essential Action and author of the recent paper “AIDS and Developing…

  • Below the Surface of Bush’s Speech

    WILLIAM SPRIGGS Director of the National Urban League Institute for Opportunity and Equality, Spriggs said today: “President Bush misspoke when he said that he was offering tax relief to the $25,000 a year waitress-mom who faced a 50 percent marginal tax rate for working overtime. Her high tax rate comes from being close to the…

  • Changes in Mideast Policy?

    In the aftermath of Secretary of State Colin Powell’s trip to the Mideast, the following analysts are available for interviews on the direction of U.S. policy in that region: PHYLLIS BENNIS Author of Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN and co-editor of Beyond the Storm: A Gulf Crisis Reader, Bennis said today: “The…

  • Opponents Vow to Defeat Fast Track

    At his news conference Thursday afternoon, President Bush expressed a desire to gain approval from Congress for presidential fast-track negotiating authority. “I’d love to have fast-track approval,” he said. “I think it’s going to be important to work with our neighbors to the south and Canada to the north to promote free trade throughout the…

  • How Do You Spell “Tax Relief”? Should the Estate Tax Be Repealed?

    With public debate intensifying over tax-cut proposals, the following policy analysts are available for interviews: JAMES K. GALBRAITH The author of Created Unequal: The Crisis in American Pay, Galbraith teaches economics at the University of Texas at Austin. He contends: “Bush and Cheney have rightly called for tax action to save our slumping economy. Congress…

  • The Economy and “Bushonomics”

    MARY SCHWEITZER An associate professor of economic history at Villanova University, Schweitzer said today: “From the standpoint of historical statistics, the most obvious abnormality is the ever-widening gap in the distribution of income and wealth in this country, made all the more alarming by the nature of the discrepancy. Since 1980, taxes on the labor…

Mastodon