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Author: Common Dreams staff

  • Massive Credit Suisse Data Leak Reveals Criminals, Corrupt Autocrats, Human Traffickers

    ‘This situation enables corruption and starves developing countries of much-needed tax revenue’

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Take Common Dreams Reader Survey to Help Inform Our Work in 2022

    We’d like to learn more about what our readers think we should be covering and how we can improve.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Joe Manchin Gives New Reason for Why He Torpedoed BBB

    “The Build Back Better Better as has been presented,” said the West Virginia senator, “that bill will no longer exist.”

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Fridays For Future Announces Global Climate Strike for March 25

    “Join us for the Global Climate Strike as we demand policymakers and world leaders to prioritize #PeopleNotProfit!”

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • WATCH LIVE: Senate Debates Voting Rights

    The floor debate moves the upper chamber closer to a showdown over the 60-vote filibuster rule.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Tsunami Triggered by Huge Volcanic Eruption Hits Tonga

    The undersea volcano’s eruption also sparked tsunami warnings for Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand, and the West Coast of the United States.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • ‘Let Us Eat’: Kabul Protesters Demand Release of Frozen Afghan Assets

    “This money belongs to the people and should be freed,” one demonstrator insisted.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Amid Mounting Pressure, Biden Reportedly Considering Extension of Student Loan Payment Pause

    “An extension would be a good, popular decision. You should do it,” the Debt Collective said in response to the news. “Then cancel student debt.”

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • In Historic Win, Chile Votes for Socialism Over Fascism

    Gabriel Boric stands on stage while being showered in confetti

    Gabriel Boric defeated José Antonio Kast on Sunday — 56% to 44%.

    The Associated Press reports:

    A leftist millennial who rose to prominence during anti-government protests was elected Chile’s next president Sunday after a bruising campaign against a free-market firebrand likened to Donald Trump.

    Kast recognized defeat and called his opponent to congratulate him on his “grand triumph” as supporters of Boric gathered in downtown Santiago to celebrate.

    Chile chose Sunday between two presidential candidates offering starkly contrasting visions for their future — a far-right fascist and a Democratic Socialist candidate to lead the country through constitutional changes amid a widespread clamor for social reform.

    Polls closed at 6:00 pm (2100 GMT) after ten hours of voting in 95 degrees Fahrenheit heat, with voter turnout higher than the 47 percent who turned out for the first election round last month.

    The country of 19 million people fears mass protests in response to the outcome of the neck-and-neck race between the son of a Nazi, ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast, 55, and former student activist Gabriel Boric, a 35-year-old single, tattooed millennial.

    Common Dreams reported last month:

    The two candidates could hardly be more different. Kast, a 55-year-old former congressman and supporter of deceased military dictator Augusto Pinochet — who forcibly imposed neoliberal reforms after deposing democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende in a bloody U.S.-backed coup on September 11, 1973 — has drawn comparisons to other right-wing authoritarians, including Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and former U.S. President Donald Trump.

    Throughout his reactionary campaign, Kast, a Catholic opponent of abortion and marriage equality, has vowed to crack down on crime and migration, calling for the creation of a vast ditch to deter would-be immigrants.

    Congressman Boric, on the other hand, rose to prominence as a key leader, alongside fellow lawmakers Camila Vallejo and Giorgio Jackson, of the 2011 student movement for free, quality public higher education.

    The 35-year-old progressive has advocated for recovery from the coronavirus crisis that curbs inequality and environmental degradation, with a focus on expanding and improving the Chilean welfare state — underdeveloped and highly privatized since the Pinochet-era interventions of the Chicago Boys, a group of market fundamentalist economists trained by Milton Friedman and others.

    …David Adler, general coordinator of Progressive International, which sent delegates to Chile to observe the election, warned that Kast’s supporters — taking a page out of “the new authoritarian playbook” deployed by Trump and Bolsonaro — have preemptively attacked Chile’s electoral service in an effort “to sow distrust in democratic institutions and pave the way for false claims of fraud” if Boric wins next month.

    Voters around the country complained Sunday that there was a serious shortage of public transportation to take them to their polling stations.

    Videos circulating on social media showed long lines at bus stops — in brutal heat — as well as parking lots full of parked buses.

    Telesur reported:

    Using social networks to make themselves heard on Sunday morning, Chileans denounced that businessmen are prompting a shortage of transport services in Santiago City to sabotage an election in which the leftist presidential candidate Gabriel Boric is the favorite to defeat the far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast.

    The absence of transportation occurs on a day with temperatures above 96.8°F and mainly affects low-income people who are walking long distances to get to their polling stations. People blame President Sebastian Piñera’s administration for being an accomplice in this attempt to prevent citizens from voting en masse against the neoliberal candidate Kast.

    “The government chose the worst path: it boycotts public transport services so that voters from poor neighborhoods do not reach the polling stations,” citizen Pedro Calama tweeted, commenting that the maneuver will only manage to widen the favorable vote to Boric.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • ‘Historically large win’: Chile votes for socialism over fascism

    Common Dreams Logo

    This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Dec. 19, 2021. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

    Gabriel Boric defeats José Antonio Kast – 56% to 44%.

    The Associated Press is reporting:

    A leftist millennial who rose to prominence during anti-government protests was elected Chile’s next president Sunday after a bruising campaign against a free-market firebrand likened to Donald Trump.

    Kast recognized defeat and called his opponent to congratulate him on his “grand triumph” as supporters of Boric gathered in downtown Santiago to celebrate.

    EARLIER:

    Chile chose Sunday between two presidential candidates offering starkly contrasting visions for their future—a far-right fascist and a Democratic Socialist candidate to lead the country through constitutional changes amid a widespread clamor for social reform.

    Polls closed at 6:00PM (2100 GMT) after ten hours of voting in 95 degrees Fahrenheit heat, with voter turnout higher than the 47% who turned out for the first election round last month.

    The country of 19 million people fears mass protests in response to the outcome of the neck-and-neck race between the son of a Nazi, ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast, 55, and former student activist Gabriel Boric, a 35-year-old single, tattooed millennial.

    Common Dreams reported last month:

    The two candidates could hardly be more different. Kast, a 55-year-old former congressman and supporter of deceased military dictator Augusto Pinochet—who forcibly imposed neoliberal reforms after deposing democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende in a bloody U.S.-backed coup on September 11, 1973—has drawn comparisons to other right-wing authoritarians, including Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and former U.S. President Donald Trump.

    Throughout his reactionary campaign, Kast, a Catholic opponent of abortion and marriage equality, has vowed to crack down on crime and migration, calling for the creation of a vast ditch to deter would-be immigrants.

    Congressman Boric, on the other hand, rose to prominence as a key leader, alongside fellow lawmakers Camila Vallejo and Giorgio Jackson, of the 2011 student movement for free, quality public higher education.

    The 35-year-old progressive has advocated for recovery from the coronavirus crisis that curbs inequality and environmental degradation, with a focus on expanding and improving the Chilean welfare state—underdeveloped and highly privatized since the Pinochet-era interventions of the Chicago Boys, a group of market fundamentalist economists trained by Milton Friedman and others.

    …David Adler, general coordinator of Progressive International, which sent delegates to Chile to observe the election, warned that Kast’s supporters—taking a page out of “the new authoritarian playbook” deployed by Trump and Bolsonaro—have preemptively attacked Chile’s electoral service in an effort “to sow distrust in democratic institutions and pave the way for false claims of fraud” if Boric wins next month.

    Voters around the country complained Sunday that there was a serious shortage of public transportation to take them to their polling stations.

    Videos circulating on social media showed long lines at bus stops – in brutal heat – as well as parking lots full of parked buses.

    Telesur reported:

    Using social networks to make themselves heard on Sunday morning, Chileans denounced that businessmen are prompting a shortage of transport services in Santiago City to sabotage an election in which the leftist presidential candidate Gabriel Boric is the favorite to defeat the far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast.

    The absence of transportation occurs on a day with temperatures above 96.8°F and mainly affects low-income people who are walking long distances to get to their polling stations. People blame President Sebastian Piñera’s administration for being an accomplice in this attempt to prevent citizens from voting en masse against the neoliberal candidate Kast.

    “The government chose the worst path: it boycotts public transport services so that voters from poor neighborhoods do not reach the polling stations,” citizen Pedro Calama tweeted, commenting that the maneuver will only manage to widen the favorable vote to Boric.

    This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

  • Manchin Rejects Build Back Better Bill, Likely Killing Social and Climate Agenda

    joe manchin making a statement on capitol hill

    “I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,” Mr. Manchin said on “Fox News Sunday, “I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there. This is a no.”

    The comments from Mr. Manchin dealt a fatal blow to the legislation that is central to President Joe Biden’s agenda.

    “I think he’s gonna have a lot of explaining to do to the people of West Virginia,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

    Sanders said Manchin “doesn’t have the guts to stand up to powerful special interests.” “We’ve been dealing with Mr. Manchin for month after month after month. But if he doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in front of the whole world,” Sanders added.

    In a statement following his CNN appearance, Sanders said:

    “If Sen. Joe Manchin wants to vote against the Build Back Better Act, he should have the opportunity to do so with a floor vote as soon as the Senate returns. He should have to explain to West Virginians and the American people why he doesn’t have the courage to stand up to powerful special interests and lower prescription drug costs; expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and eyeglasses; continue the $300 per child direct monthly payment which has cut childhood poverty by over 40%; and address the devastating impacts of climate change. He should also have to explain why he is not prepared to demand that millionaires and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes.

    “I also find it amusing that Sen. Manchin indicates his worry about the deficit after voting just this week for a military budget of $778 billion, four times greater than Build Back Better over ten years and $25 billion more than the president requested.”Manchin, a rightwing Democrat, put out a statement after his FOX News appearance detailing his decision to vote against the bill, pointed to rising prices, inflation, dependence on foreign supply chains and the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), also on CNN’s “State of the Union, said “He has continued to move the goalposts, he has never negotiated in good faith. and he is obstructing the President’s agenda. 85 percent of which is still left on the table. And in obstructing the president’s agenda, he is obstructing the people’s agenda.”

    “We cannot allow one lone senator from West Virginia to obstruct the president’s agenda, to obstruct the people’s agenda. Jake, all I want for Christmas is a senator that has compassion for the American people and not contempt,” Pressley added.

    Pressley was one of just six progressive lawmakers who voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill in November to show their opposition to moving forward with the legislation without also passing the social spending and climate package.

    Rep. Ilhan Omar, (D-Minn.) in a tweet Sunday morning, said: “Let’s be clear: Manchin’s excuse is bullshit. The people of West Virginia would directly benefit from childcare, pre-Medicare expansion, and long term care, just like Minnesotans. This is exactly what we warned would happen if we separated Build Back Better from infrastructure.”

    President Biden, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer had promised that the Build Back Better bill would be passed after the bipartisan infrastructure bill, reversing previous vows to approve the two measures at the same time.

    Back in June, Pelosi said: “Let me be really clear on this: There ain’t gonna be no bipartisan bill, unless we have a reconciliation bill.” She reiterated: “As I said, there won’t be an infrastructure bill, unless we have a reconciliation bill. Plain and simple. In fact, I use the word ain’t. There ain’t going to be an infrastructure bill, unless we have the reconciliation bill passed by the United States Senate.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • ‘Historically Large Win’: Chile Votes for Socialism over Fascism

    With 68% of 46,887 polling stations reporting Sunday, Gabriel Boric had 55% of the votes, compared to 45% for his opponent

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • US Air Wars Killed Thousands of Civilians, Including Children, NY Times Reports

    A relative weeping over the casket of a child killed by U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan

    Thousands of previously hidden Pentagon documents show that the U.S. air wars in the Middle East have been marked by “deeply flawed intelligence” and have killed thousands of civilians, many of them children, according to a shocking new report in The New York Times Saturday afternoon.

    The 5-year Times investigation received more than 1,300 reports examining airstrikes in Iraq and Syria from September 2014 to January 2018, more than 5,400 pages in all. None of these records show any findings of wrongdoing on the actions of the U.S. military.

    The Times reporting confirms many of the previous reports by whistleblowers Daniel Hale, Chelsea Manning and others. On July 27, 2021, whistleblower Hale was sentenced to 45 months in federal prison for exposing the true civilian toll of the U.S. drone program. “I am here because I stole something that was never mine to take — precious human life,” Hale said at his sentencing.

    From the Times report:

    The trove of documents — the military’s own confidential assessments of more than 1,300 reports of civilian casualties, obtained by The New York Times — lays bare how the air war has been marked by deeply flawed intelligence, rushed and often imprecise targeting and the deaths of thousands of civilians, many of them children, a sharp contrast to the American government’s image of war waged by all-seeing drones and precision bombs.

    The documents show, too, that despite the Pentagon’s highly codified system for examining civilian casualties, pledges of transparency and accountability have given way to opacity and impunity. In only a handful of cases were the assessments made public. Not a single record provided includes a finding of wrongdoing or disciplinary action. Fewer than a dozen condolence payments were made, even though many survivors were left with disabilities requiring expensive medical care. Documented efforts to identify root causes or lessons learned are rare.

    The air campaign represents a fundamental transformation of warfare that took shape in the final years of the Obama administration, amid the deepening unpopularity of the forever wars that had claimed more than 6,000 American service members. The United States traded many of its boots on the ground for an arsenal of aircraft directed by controllers sitting at computers, often thousands of miles away. President Barack Obama called it “the most precise air campaign in history.”

    Dr. Assal Rad, Senior Research Fellow at the National Iranian American Council reacted via Twitter:

    “Daniel Hale, Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning have all been jailed for trying to reveal the same thing. We’ve known US airstrikes have been killing civilians all this time, but the war crimes go on bc we jail the whistleblowers instead of the war criminals.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • ‘Bullshit’: Manchin Called Out for Killing Biden’s Build Back Better

    Bernie Sanders: Manchin “doesn’t have the guts to stand up to powerful special interests”

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • NY TIMES: US Hid True Toll of Air Wars; Thousands of Dead Civilians, Many of Them Children

    President Barack Obama called it “the most precise air campaign in history”

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • US Senate Recesses for the Year Without Build Back Better, Voting Rights

    But somehow managed to confirm Rahm Emanuel as ambassador to Japan

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Jayapal Laments That Progressives ‘Don’t Have Enough Control’ in Congress

    As Sen. Joe Manchin himself said earlier this year, "elect more liberals" if you want better legislation passed in Congress.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Watch: Bernie Sanders Hosts ‘Saving American Democracy’ Town Hall

    "Republicans in state after state are working to make it harder and harder to vote. We can't let them succeed."

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • ‘Hold the Line’: Progressives Push to Block Vote on Weaker Bill Without Final Text of Build Back Better

    "By holding firm on keeping the Build Back Better Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill firmly linked, progressives are giving their colleagues in the Senate the space and the leverage to negotiate the strongest package possible."

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Watch: Bernie Sanders Argues ‘We Must End the Greed of Big Pharma’

    The live address comes as the Senate Budget Committee chair continues to push for including Medicare expansion and drug pricing reforms in the Build Back Better package.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Breaking: FDA Panel Recommends Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine for Kids 5 to 11

    With just one abstention, the advisory panel voted 17-0 to approve the vaccine for younger children which scientific review has deemed both safe and effective against the deadly virus.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Sanders to Host “What’s in the Damn Bill” Online Panel Discussion About Democrats’ Package

    The Senate Budget Committee chair will be joined by other progressive lawmakers and leaders at 8:00 pm Wednesday.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Tory Lawmaker Stabbed to Death During Meeting With Constituents in UK

    "Horrific and deeply shocking news," said Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer in response to the assassination of MP David Amess.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Over 70,000 March in Brussels to Demand Green New Deal, Urgent Climate Action

    "What do we do when we destroy the planet?" asked one demonstrator. "We have nothing else."

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Top Bernie Sanders Aide Details Just How Popular the $3.5 Trillion Package Truly Is

    "Opposing these policies doesn't make you a moderate," said Warren Gunnels. "It doesn't make you a centrist. It makes you an extremist."

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • FDA Panel Recommends Pfizer Booster Shots for People 65+ and Especially Vulnerable

    The scientific advisory committee voted down a recommendation for other adults.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Covid-19 Vaccine Makers Blasted for ‘Unconscionable Profits,’ Monopolies, and Low Taxes

    "Big Pharma's business model—receive billions in public investments, charge exorbitant prices for lifesaving medicines, pay little tax—is gold dust for wealthy investors and corporate executives but devastating for global public health."

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • Norway’s Leftist Opposition on Track to Oust Conservative Government

    "We will now give Norway a new government and a new course," declared Labor's Jonas Gahr Støre, who is expected to be the next prime minister.

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.

  • More Than 38,000 Species Are Now at Risk of Extinction, New Report Says

    Protesters hold a banner reading "Change the system not the climate" while demanding action against climate change on the sidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) congress in Marseille, France, on September 3, 2021.

    Of the 138,374 species assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for its survival watchlist more than 38,000 are now at risk of extinction, as the destructive impact of human activity on our planet deepens.

    An update of the ‘Red List of Threatened Species’ was released Saturday morning.

    Efforts to halt extensive declines in numbers and diversity of animals and plants have largely failed.

    In 2019 the UN’s biodiversity experts warned that more than a million species are on the brink of extinction — raising the specter that the planet is on the verge of its sixth mass extinction event in 500 million years.

    “The red list status shows that we’re on the cusp of the sixth extinction event,” the IUCN’s Head of Red List Unit Craig Hilton-Taylor told Agence France Presse on the eve of the congress.

    “If the trends carry on going upward at that rate, we’ll be facing a major crisis soon.”

    On Thursday, a group of human rights NGOs, including Survival International, Attac and Minority Rights Group, held a counter-summit presenting their alternative vision.

    Climate Home News reported: “They denounced calls for governments to protect at least 30% of the planet’s land by 2030 — up from a previous target of around 17% — as a ‘false solution’ which risks pushing local communities off their land and diverts attention away from the over-consumption and exploitation of natural resources, which they say is the root cause of the climate and biodiversity crisis.”

    Fiore Longo, of Survival International, told Climate Home News that expanding protected areas was “terrible from a human rights perspective” and could lead to one of the biggest land grabs in history.

    The main message from the IUCN World Conservation Congress, which opened Friday in Marseille, France, is that disappearing species and the destruction of ecosystems are no less existential threats than global warming.

    At the same time, climate change itself is casting a darker shadow than ever before on the futures of many species.

    Habitat loss, overexploitation and illegal trade have hammered global wildlife populations, but scientists say they are increasingly worried about the looming threats of climate change.

    Actor Harrison Ford made an impassioned plea to safeguard biodiversity at the opening of the Congress on Friday.

    “It’s hard to watch the rise of nationalism in the face of a global threat that requires global cooperation, global action,” he said. “It’s hard to read the headlines, floods, fires, famines, plagues and tell your children that everything is all right. It’s not all right. Damn it, it’s not all right.”

    “C’mon everybody,” he said. “Let’s get to work.”

    The Marseille conference runs from Sept. 3-11. Among topics are the links between climate change and biodiversity loss, and the ethics of genetic enhancement to increase species’ chances of survival. The talks are meant to inform COP26, the U.N.’s global climate summit, which will be held from November 1-12, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • ‘Red List of Threatened Species’: A Grim Tally of Those Facing Extinction

    “It’s hard to watch the rise of nationalism in the face of a global threat that requires global cooperation, global action”

    This post was originally published on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.