(2019-12-02). Threat to Our Digital Rights Revealed in US-UK Trade Talks Leak. commondreams.org The leaked documents suggest that there could be no limitations on the export of data, potentially applying even in sensitive areas such as health data. (Photo: Yuri Samoilov/Flickr, CC 2.0) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-12-02). Are numbers of species a true measure of ecosystem health? mronline.org 
A recent study that found no general decline in the numbers of species in individual ecosystems has sparked controversy. Some scientists see it as evidence of how species adapt, while others see it as a sign that common invasive species, such as rats and mosquitoes, are the real winners. | Source
(2019-12-02). Greater Manchester Unite community branch hears report on fight to free Julian Assange. wsws.org The branch listened attentively as an SEP member reported the growing public concern over the plight of Assange and his declining health.
(2019-12-02). Top Democratic Consultants Have Worked for Anti-Medicare for All Campaign. truthout.org As health insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital companies fight to prevent more politicians from backing Medicare for All, the industry's front group has turned to top Democratic consulting firms and pro-business nonprofits for help, according to its 2018 tax return. The array of consultants includes presidential candidate Joe Biden's pollster. | The Partnership for America's Health Care Future (PAHCF), a nonprofi…
(2019-12-02). Wages Have Risen Due to Minimum Wage Increases and the Fed's Obama-Era Policies. truthout.org There are a lot of things — like high health care costs, unaffordable housing and crushing student loan debt — which are not going right for people right now. However, it is worth noting one important way in which things are going in the right direction. The low current unemployment rate, coupled with minimum wage increases in many states and cities, is leading to real wage gains at the middle and bottom end of the wage ladder. | The data on this are very clear. The weekly wage…
(2019-12-02). Detention of al-Badan Continues Despite Deterioration of Health. imemc.org Israeli occupation authorities continue to administratively detain a Palestinian mother of two, Shorouq Mohammad al-Badan, 25 years old, from Bethlehem, despite her deteriorated health condition, the Commission of Detainees' Affairs said, on Sunday. The committee pointed out, after the detainee's lawyer visited her at al-Damon Prison, that she is suffering …
(2019-12-02). Palestinian Minister of Health Rejects Proposed US Field Military Hospital. imemc.org Palestinian Minister of Health, Mai al-Kaila, vehemently criticized and rejected the establishment of a US field military hospital in the northern Gaza Strip under the sponsorship of Hamas and the Israeli occupation, the Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported. Speaking on 'Voice of Palestine' radio, al-Kaila stated that the …
(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.
(2019-12-02). The Pentagon's "Mother of All Bombs" (MOAB) Dropped on Afghanistan (2017): Devastating Health Impacts, Ruined Farmland. globalresearch.ca Almost two and a half years after the United States dropped the "mother of all bombs" onto a Daesh hideout in eastern Afghanistan, locals say they have been afflicted by "many diseases" and agricultural lands are not yielding crops. | TOLOnews …
(2019-12-02). Political solution 'long overdue' to protect the children of eastern Ukraine. news.un.org Nearly half a million children in eastern Ukraine continue to face "grave risks" to their physical health and psychological well-being, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday.
(2019-12-02). Insurance Industry Is Clearly 'Terrified,' Says Sanders, As Lawmakers Admit Lobbyists Helped Them Write Attacks on Medicare for All. commondreams.org "We are taking on the big-money interests who have an army of lobbyists trying to defeat Medicare for All." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-12-02). 5 more years of Yemen war will cost $29bn aid — relief group. rt.com 
An international relief group has said another five years of fighting in Yemen will cost as much as $29 billion just to sustain the current level of humanitarian aid — more than the entire annual global humanitarian budget. | The International Rescue Committee said in a report on Monday that with the current rate of aid, it will take 20 years to return Yemen to pre-conflict levels of child hunger. | The IRC says Yemen has the world's worst humanitarian crisis with 24 million Yemenis, or 80 percent of the population, needing humanitarian aid and 16 million living on the verge of famine. | A Saudi-led coali…
(2019-12-01). Poland Proposes Raising Carcinogenic 5G Emission Levels as a "National Norm" globalresearch.ca Hundreds of letters are pouring into the office of Polish Minister of Health, Lukaz Szumowski, from Polish citizens and people all over the world, responding to Mr Szumowski's proposition to exponentially raise the officially recognised limit for cell phone …
(2019-11-30). Labour pledges to make England more cycling-friendly. thecanary.co 
England would become one of the best countries in the world for walking and cycling if Labour wins the general election, the party has promised.A new healthy streets programme, modelled on towns in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, would aim to make towns and cities cleaner and greener.Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: I love walking and cycling so I'm proud of the policies we've announced today to give millions of people the freedom to walk and cycle along convenient, attractive routes, safe from traffic danger. | These policies will slash carbon emissions, tackle air pollution, save our NHS billions and boos…
(2019-11-29). The American Health Care Dilemma. dissidentvoice.org 
That the U.S. is a nation divided is a statement few knowledgeable individuals would challenge. These divisions have been exacerbated, to some degree, by the impending 2020 election wherein Americans will go to the polls to elect their next President and a cadre of senators, congressmen and a multitude of lesser known local politicians. These …
(2019-11-28). Armed groups kill Ebola health workers in eastern DR Congo. news.un.org Deadly night-time attacks by armed groups have once again claimed the lives of frontline healthworkers helping to confront the deadly Ebola virus in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
(2019-11-27). WHO working to save lives following powerful earthquake in Albania. news.un.org Staff from the World Health Organization (WHO) are assisting authorities in Albania following an earthquake which killed at least 25 people and left more than 650 injured.
(2019-11-26). Riding Out for Medicare for All with a Back Full of Arrows. progressive.org The barrage of false narratives being fired from influential Democrats, including Barack Obama, is obscuring Medicare for All's unique programmatic strength and broad political support in rhetorical smoke.
(2019-11-25). Headlines for November 25, 2019. democracynow.org Navy Secretary Ousted amid Dispute over Accused War Criminal Eddie Gallagher, Released State Dept. Emails Implicate Pompeo in Giuliani Ukraine Plot, Bloomberg Jumps into 2020 Race by Buying Millions in Campaign Ads, Sen. Graham Blocked Armenian Genocide Resolution at White House Request, Ruth Bader Ginsburg Released from Hospital in Good Health, Hong Kong: Pro-Democracy Candidates Win Nearly 90% Seats in Local Elections, Security Forces Raid Offices of Egypt's Last Independent Media Outlet, Iraqi Security Forces Kill 13 Protesters amid Anti-Government Demonstrations, Israel Deporting Head of Human Rights Watch's…
(2019-11-21). Congress Just Temporarily Extended the Government's Spying Powers. aclu.org Congress today temporarily extended the NSA's spying powers that time and again have been used to violate our rights. Disturbingly, this three-month extension was snuck into a broader funding bill, forcing members of Congress to choose between extending this program and causing a government shutdown. The extension is an unnecessary lifeline to spying programs that are plagued with compliance violations, have no proven intelligence value, and violate our rights. | Under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, one of the spying | powers extended, the government believes it has the right to collect our | personal inform…
(2019-11-20). Make Dental Care a Health Care Benefit. progressive.org Dental care is not a luxury—it is essential for overall health.
(2019-11-19). All out for relaunching of the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression. fightbacknews.org Fight Back! interviews Frank Chapman on the November 22-24 Chicago conference to refound the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression. | Fight Back!: Could you say a few words about what the conference to relaunch the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression will look like? | Frank Chapman: The most powerful incentive for the relaunching of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is the national epidemic in police crimes and state violence being perpetrated against Black and brown people, LBGTQ and trans people. Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than th…
(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 …