The director of the National Institutes of Health, Jay Bhattacharya, stated on Steve Bannon’s podcast that contracts for mRNA research were being canceled because the public lacks trust in the technology. Bhattacharya blames declining uptake of the mRNA Covid-19 boosters on lack of public trust in the technology. But experts say that the public does generally trust mRNA vaccines. In May, a KFF poll found that only 16 percent of Americans do not trust mRNA vaccines, while 52 percent would like more information. Scientist and clinician Ferric Fang calls this an “educational opportunity, not a justification to terminate research. [It’s]…

Hever has worked with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement and recently testified at the UN Palestine Committee on its behalf. See his speech: “The Nakba Has Never Ended.” He said that a full global military embargo is “the bare minimum required by international law.” He drew parallels with sanctions placed on apartheid South Africa. See a recent report from them on a military embargo against Israel.

Writing in The Nation, social psychiatrist Eric Reinhart urges healthcare workers to resist the expansion of ICE into hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes, as well as the war on medical science and federal health programs for vulnerable U.S. residents. The Trump administration is “transforming medicine into a tool of authoritarian repression,” Reinhart contends. He writes that healthcare workers should engage in resistance training and teach-ins, use disobedient documentation and subversive record-keeping, and help educate community members to create a lay caregiving force. 

As of late 2024, across Gaza and the West Bank, 800,000 people had received some sort of mental health or psychosocial support for their trauma. For The New Yorker, Mohammed Mhawish chronicled the work of mental health clinicians attempting to offer these services in Gaza. He spoke with the Institute for Public Accuracy about the difficulty of reporting on the story. 

“The nuclear nonproliferation and arms control regime painstakingly constructed during the 20th century has been systematically and purposefully undermined, increasing the danger that nuclear weapons will be used again. George W. Bush’s decision to exit the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 undermined the United States and Russia’s working diplomatic relationship and opened the door wider to return to arms racing. This mistake was compounded by the first Trump administration’s abandonment of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty. Russia’s invasions of Ukraine, withdrawal from the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty in 2023, and ongoing threats…

“On the one hand, we have Netanyahu with his ‘Greater Israel,’ which is an old Zionist romantic idea of expanding Israel ‘from the Nile to the Euphrates,’ which has a false biblical claim to it and will draw support from Christian Zionist politicians like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Mike Huckabee, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, and many in the Trump orbit. Moreover, the extremist Israeli settler movement and Netanyahu’s cabinet members [Bezalel] Smotrich and [Itamar] Ben-Gvir love this vision which rallies the far right around Netanyahu.”

“Now that Palestine has formally requested protection forces, the UN General Assembly should move urgently to mandate such a force under a Uniting for Peace resolution. Israel has made clear for the past two years that no amount of pleading, pressure or negotiation will end its atrocities and deliberate starvation in Gaza; only international peacekeeping forces can achieve that.”

Just minutes before he was killed, al-Sharif said in a post on X that Israel was escalating its bombing of Gaza City. “Relentless bombardment,” he wrote. “For two hours, the Israeli aggression has intensified on Gaza City.” After the killing, a message was posted on his account: “This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.” Abed has been highly critical of reporting on the killing.

At a satirical press conference in Washington, D.C. this week, activists unveiled a new name and logo for the Environmental Protection Agency, which they called “the Environmental Pollution Agency.” On the new logo, buildings are swallowed up by rising sea levels. The event included a spokesperson from the Environmental Pollution Agency, “Joe Gasfracker” from the “American Petroleum Institute,” and a spokesperson from the “Energy Villains for Increased Leakage.” Participants in the action leaned into the satire and held signs with slogans such as “we support the freedom to pollute.”

The Guardian reports in “‘No one should act surprised,’ says UN expert who warned of starvation in Gaza last year.” The piece quotes Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food: “Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it’s always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024.” The Guardian also reports: “Fakhri argues that in light of the US persistent vetoing of ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council, it is incumbent on the UN General Assembly…