(2019-12-07). Nobel science laureates stress urgency of addressing the climate crisis. thecanary.co 
Three of this year's Nobel Prize laureates have said addressing the climate crisis is of great importance.Winners of the prizes in physics, chemistry and economics issued the warning at a news conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm ahead of next week's presentation of the awards.Their remarks came as a global summit on climate chaos was taking place in Madrid.Nobel physics laureate Didier Queloz (Jonas Ekstromer/TT News Agency/AP)Didier Queloz, who shared the physics prize for discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star, took issue with people who shrug off climate breakdown on the…
(2019-12-07). Corbyn dismisses controversy surrounding leaked NHS documents as 'nonsense'. thecanary.co 
Jeremy Corbyn has dismissed as "nonsense" the controversy surrounding the source of leaked documents used by Labour as proof the Tories are planning to sell the NHS.The Labour leader insisted the dossier was real after social media platform Reddit claimed the documents were disclosed as "part of a campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia".Corbyn used the leaked papers as evidence that the government was at an advanced stage of negotiations with the US to open up the health service to American pharmaceutical companies. Asked about the claims during a campaign visit to Barry, South Wales Corbyn to…
(2019-12-07). Federally Funded Health Researchers Report Millions in Conflicts of Interest. truthout.org The database of disclosures reported to the National Institutes of Health, which has not been made public before, details the financial relationships of researchers at universities, hospitals and nonprofit organizations. These outside interests range from stock holdings in companies that may benefit from the outcome of research to payments for royalties, consulting work and speaking engagements. The total value of the conflicts is likely much higher than $188 million, in part because 44% of…
(2019-12-07). Vote "no" on the FCA contract! Form rank and file committees to oppose UAW sellout! wsws.org The United Auto Workers is seeking to ram through a sellout contract at Fiat Chrysler which will lay the basis for the expanded use of temporary workers, further attacks on health care and integrate the union even more closely with corporate management.
(2019-12-07). Sound familiar? Reddit says US-UK trade deal leaks may be tied to Russia, citing speculation from… of course, Atlantic Council. rt.com 
A trove of secret papers cited by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in attacking the Tories may have links to Moscow, Reddit has announced. The proof? The US-UK-NATO-funded Atlantic Council says it isn't sure but it might be true. | The leaked documents, which were shared on the discussion site several weeks ago, point to evidence that the United States would demand a market share in the UK's National Health Service in any trade talks after Brexit. In a statement, Reddit said that it believed that the accounts that had shared the documents were "part of a campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia."
(2019-12-06). The Plot to Discredit and Destroy Julian Assange. truthdig.com 
A day after dozens of doctors around the world released a statement about their mounting concerns regarding Julian Assange's health as he's detained in a British prison, Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer spoke with Tariq Ali, a renowned British journalist and co-editor of a recent collection of essays titled " In Defense of Julian Assange." To Scheer, Ali and the book's many contributors, the case agains…
(2019-12-06). Donald Trump, the US Private Health Giant, and Top British NHS Officials — Special Relationships? globalresearch.ca In the UK, we have a simple take on the US healthcare system as a for-profit, private system that fleeces its customers and fails the poor. | But here's the secret: the US has its own 'mini NHS'. Smaller than the …
(2019-12-06). Israeli Soldiers Injure 37 Palestinians In Gaza. imemc.org The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported that Israeli soldiers injured, Friday, 37 Palestinians, including 10 children, during the Great Return March processions along the eastern parts of the besieged Gaza Strip. 0The Health Ministry said the four of the injured Palestinians were shot with live rounds, and ten with rubber-coated …
(2019-12-06). From Caesar's Last Breath to Ours. counterpunch.org Human Life is a sexually transmitted planetary disease, Climate Change is the disinfectant that will cure it. (I'll explain myself on this later.) Sam Kean's concluding 5 paragraphs, on CO2 in the atmosphere, from his book Caesar's Last Breath (And Other True Tales of History, Science, and the Sextillions of Molecules in the Air Around More
(2019-12-06). 'Where's the Party? Come On, Man': Biden Claims Democrats Not Down for AOC-Style Progress Like Medicare for All. commondreams.org www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-12-06). Calling Him Only 2020 Candidate Whose Plan 'Can Save Our Planet,' US Youth Climate Strike Leaders Endorse Bernie Sanders for President. commondreams.org As sit-ins targeted establishment Democrats nationwide to demand the Green New Deal, Sanders stood with climate campaigners in Iowa on Friday and applauded striking youth worldwide who are saying: "Hey, we want a planet that we can grow up in and have kids in that is healthy and inhabitable." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-12-05). UN team aids Samoa response to deadly measles epidemic. news.un.org UN teams are on the ground in Samoa as the country combats a deadly measles epidemic. So far, there have been more than 4,200 cases and 62 deaths, mainly babies, prompting authorities to declare a state of emergency on 15 November and launch a mass vaccination campaign five days later.
(2019-12-05). Influenced by corporate America: Adoption of dangerous social policies 'destined to cause death'. mronline.org For the past ten years, I have been identifying and reporting the inevitable preventable harm created by the adoption of neoliberal politics, the planned demolition of the UK welfare state and the influence of Unum Insurance since 1992 with successive British government(s). | Source
(2019-12-05). Measles 'misinformation campaigns' through social media, fuel rising toll. news.un.org Measles deaths and infections in 2019 are set to "substantially exceed" last year's toll when more than 142,000 people died from the preventable disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
(2019-12-05). Sweden Provides Free Higher Education, Universal Healthcare, Free Daycare — Why Can't the U.S.? democracynow.org 
Medicare for All and tuition-free universities have been at the core of the 2020 Democratic presidential campaigns, creating a stark division between progressive candidates and their centrist counterparts. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have proposed to make Medicare for All and public universities cost-free by taxing massive corporations and the super wealthy, and earlier this year, Sanders introduced legislation that would cancel student loan debt. His plan would be paid for with a new tax on Wall Street, he says. It would also make public universities and community colleges free — a key pil…
(2019-12-04). Insurance Companies Are Spending Millions on Attack Ads Against Medicare for All. mintpressnews.com Healthcare corporations are spending millions of dollars on astroturfed attack ads against Medicare for All. The Partnership for America's Healthcare Future, for example, a coalition of hospitals and insurance companies, has spent $1 million on a television campaign against changes to the current healthcare system they profit from. | The commercial presents the Partnership as a grassroots organization of concerned citizens, rather than that corporate front group exposed by The Intercept that it is. It features a range of actors of different races, ages and occupations expressing their concern over Medicare for Al…
(2019-12-04). Malaria: Focus on pregnant women and children, stresses UN health agency report. news.un.org While more pregnant women and children are being protected against malaria than before, more fast-tracking and greater funding are needed to reinvigorate the global response, according to a new United Nations report launched on Wednesday.
(2019-12-03). Tuesday's Daily Brief: climate crisis reports, renewal in Iraq, Zimbabwe's hunger crisis, Disabilities Day. news.un.org A recap of Tuesday's stories: New climate change reports on human health and global warming; Zimbabwe's 'worst hunger crisis in a decade'; protests and civil unrest show 'renewed sense of patriotism' in Iraq; UN 'determined to lead by example' on disability rights.
(2019-12-03). Only one in five countries has a healthcare strategy to deal with climate change. news.un.org Protecting people's health from climate change dangers such as heat stress, storms and tsunamis has never been more important, yet most countries are doing too little about it, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
(2019-12-03). What the U.K. Election Tells Us About Universal Health Care. progressive.org Across the political spectrum, the British are clear: American-style health care is a terrible idea.
(2019-12-02). Plants, the 'core basis for life on Earth', under increasing threat, warns UN food agency. news.un.org Plants, which make up 80 percent of the food we eat, and produce 98 percent of the oxygen we breathe, are "under constant and increasing threat from pests and diseases", the UN food agency, FAO, warned on Tuesday, at an event at the agency's headquarters in Rome, to designate 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health.
(2019-11-17). Warren's Head Tax Is Not More Popular Than A Payroll Tax. peoplespolicyproject.org As we know by now, Elizabeth Warren's Medicare head tax proposal is a regressive mess ( I, II, III, IV). Warren's team knows this. The goal of the proposal i…
(2019-11-17). CAP's Topher Spiro Is Trying to Deceive Journalists By Lying. peoplespolicyproject.org 
It's been fun to see how the Center for American Progress (CAP) navigates this year's presidential election. For insider political reasons, they can't support Biden or Sanders. But for a long time, it was unclear who the alternative candidate they could support would be. | When Kamala Harris was rising, CAP's staff was doing overtime boosting her on Twitter and in the press, including boosting Harris's absurd health care proposal. But Harris's collapse put an end to that strategy. Recently Warren has risen as the alternative and so CAP has been working to promote her campaign, which puts CAP in the comical positi…
(2019-11-03). Warren's Medicare Head Tax Would Be About $9,500. peoplespolicyproject.org On Friday, I wrote a piece arguing that Elizabeth Warren's use of an employer head tax was not a good way to fund Medicare for All and that instead the more conventional choices of income and payroll taxes would be better. The reason they are better is because income and payroll taxes are based on how much income you receive while a head tax charges the same dollar amount for every worker regardless of their income, making it much more onerous on the lower and middle classes. | This point holds…
(2019-11-02). What Is a Middle Class Tax Hike? Am I Losing My Mind? peoplespolicyproject.org I have been swimming in the Medicare for All waters for over a decade now, going back to when I worked on the Ralph Nader presidential campaign that made Medicare for All its number one issue. And during this time, I developed a specific understanding of what we might call the M4A Financing Problem. | The Problem: | The M4A Financing Problem, in simple terms, is that even if you bring in existing federal spending on health care, existing state spending on health care, and a bunch of new rich-people taxes, you still fall short of financing the program. Thus to actually complete the financing, you have to u…
(2019-11-01). Warren's Perpetual Medicare Head Tax Is Unworkable and Bad. peoplespolicyproject.org 
Elizabeth Warren released her Medicare for All financing plan today. The main purpose of the proposal appears to be to find a plan that you can message as "not increasing middle class taxes," which is of course a nonsensical goal insofar, as Warren herself has said, what matters is middle class health care costs, not whether you categorize those costs as premiums, taxes, or out-of-pocket expenses. | Nonetheless, bowing to the stupid media discourse on this, Warren put forward a financing pro…
(2019-10-24). New Poll Finds Voters Strongly Oppose Employer Insurance. peoplespolicyproject.org Many centrist pundits have convinced themselves that Medicare for All (M4A) is unpopular because, when you include certain details about M4A in polling questions, support levels drop significantly. But in convincing themselves of this, centrist pundits seem remarkably incurious about whether this same thing occurs for employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) when you include certain details about it in polling questions. | Earlier this week, Emerson Polling helped answer this question when it aske…
(2019-06-19). House Casts Historic Vote to Repeal Authorization for Endless War. peaceaction.org Washington, D.C. — June 19, 2019 — In response to the House of Representatives passing H.R. 2740 (Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Legislative Branch, Defense, State, Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2020), which includes language to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) eight months after …