News Releases

  • Biden’s Executive Order on Asylum Seekers

    “The current numbers [of border crossings] are much lower than in 2023, but still higher than 2,500 daily. These new quotas exclude various groups, including people who arrive with previously-scheduled appointments made with CBPOne App, the app used by Customs and Border Patrol. People from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela also have a special [Temporary Protected Status] program for them. In practice, [the new cap] also probably excludes people from Ukraine, people with young children, and unaccompanied minors. It is unclear who will be counting the entrances: Border Patrol––which tends to overcount people in Mexico––could manage lists and meter entrances…


  • Nuclear Peril: One Year After Death of Daniel Ellsberg

    The one-year anniversary of Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg’s death on June 16 is being marked by Daniel Ellsberg Week and the release of a new documentary directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Judith Ehrlich, with never-before-seen footage of Ellsberg warning about heightened dangers of nuclear war. Now premiering online without charge, the 37-minute film “A Common Insanity: A Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg About Nuclear Weapons” can be viewed here. Ellsberg’s last book, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, points to scientists’ conclusions that a thermonuclear war would cause “nuclear winter” and doom almost all of the Earth’s inhabitants.


  • Biden Allowing More Israeli Atrocities

    A London Times investigation recently found: “The Israeli government insists that Hamas formally sanctioned sexual assault on October 7, 2023. But investigators say the evidence does not stand up to scrutiny.” The piece quotes Orit Sulitzeanu, the executive director of Israel’s Association of Rape Crisis Centers: “The politicization of rape by the Israeli government was part of the political agenda of this government. … I did not think that was sensible. … They didn’t mean ‘believe Israeli women.’ They meant ‘believe Israel.’”


  • U.S. Jury Holds Chiquita Liable for Colombian Death Squad’s Murder of Banana Workers

    Common Dreams reports: “U.S. Jury Holds Chiquita Liable for Colombian Death Squad’s Murder of Banana Workers” that: “In what case litigants are calling the first time an American jury has held a U.S. corporation legally liable for atrocities abroad, federal jurors in Florida on Monday found that Chiquita Brands International financed a Colombian paramilitary death squad that murdered, tortured, and terrorized workers in a bid to crush labor unrest in the 1990s and 2000s.


  • U.S. “Ceasefire” a “Ploy to Sabotage the Rule of Law”

    Reports indicate that the U.S. government is pushing for a vote in the UN Security Council today on a resolution it drafted. UN whistleblower Craig Mokhiber commented: “A distorted U.S. draft that would (1) divert diplomacy from the UN to a U.S. controlled process (2) compel Hamas to accept but not Israel (3) dictate to the Palestinians who will govern them (4) ignore Palestinian prisoners (5) return to the failed two-state ruse (6) NOT demand a ceasefire.”


  • New U.S. ICBM Tests Spark Criticism

    The coordinator of the coalition, Emma Claire Foley, is the author of the landmark report “The Real Cost of ICBMs.” After this week’s tests, in an article titled “America’s Nuclear Missiles Make Its Citizens Less Safe,” she wrote that ICBMs “are not only strategically impractical but a threat to the lives of millions.”


  • The Corporate Power Brokers Behind AIPAC’s War on the Squad

    “AIPAC wading into elections was nothing new. … But the sheer scale of AIPAC’s spending – enabled by Supreme Court decisions that have unleashed the distorting influence of big money in elections – and the tactics being used are more recent developments. These pro-Israel groups now directly intervene in Democratic primary races, flooding the airwaves with negative ads defaming progressives in the eyes of loyal Democratic voters. …”


  • Assessing Race-Neutral Tests for Lung Function

    A new study shows the implications of adopting race-neutral equations when physicians are testing for lung function.


  • 1967 War Myths Key to Gaza Today

    “Most people, even those knowledgeable about the Middle East, if asked how Israel portrayed its invasion of Gaza and Sinai in 1967, will say that it claimed self-defense on a rationale that Egypt was about to invade. In fact, that is inaccurate. In the Security Council, Israel claimed that Egypt had initiated hostilities by shelling three Israeli settlements just across the frontier from Gaza. The United States knew that claim was false, because Foreign Minister Abba Eban had just been in Washington trying to convince the Lyndon Johnson Administration that Egypt would attack. Johnson’s response to Eban was that there…


  • Palestinian Groups Call to Declare Gaza a Famine-Stricken Area

    The groups “call on the United Nations and the Palestinian Authority to immediately declare Gaza a famine-stricken area due to famine, environmental pollution, and the spread of diseases.”


  • Global Warming: A Crucial Moment

    In recent days, the Bush administration has moved away from restricting emissions of carbon dioxide. Today, it is being reported that the Bush administration plans to pull out of the Kyoto protocol on global warming altogether. The following analysts are available for interviews: ROSS GELBSPAN Author of The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis, the…

  • Erin Brockovich and Bill Moyers Put Toxic Chemicals in National Spotlight

    The night after Julia Roberts won an Oscar for her fact-based portrayal of environmental activist Erin Brockovich, the chemical industry is set to take another blow on national television Monday evening as PBS airs “Trade Secrets” — an expose of “secrets buried in thousands of confidential documents from America’s chemical companies.” The following researchers and…

  • Eighteen Years After “Star Wars” — What’s Behind NMD?

    Today is the 18th anniversary of President Reagan’s announcement of his intention to begin a massive missile defense research program for the Strategic Defense Initiative. Reports are circulating today about a major reassessment of weapons systems by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who is a major proponent of National Missile Defense. The following analysts are available…

  • Campaign Finance Reform

    STEPHANIE WILSON Executive director of the Fannie Lou Hamer Project, Wilson said today: “During the civil rights movement of the last century, voices rose in resistance to racism, inequality, brutal oppression and disenfranchisement, and they could not be silenced. Their cries resulted in both the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts — legislation that Congress…

  • Sharon’s Visit

    SUSAN AKRAM An associate professor at Boston University School of Law who specializes in refugee issues, Akram said today: “The deteriorating situation is a reflection of a complete lack of focus on the international law principles that should guide a just solution for the millions of Palestinian refugees and for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict generally. Israeli…

  • 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…

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