This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
Advocates say that while renaming the BP Institute would be “symbolically important,” adopting a policy to reject “all fossil fuel industry funding and research partnerships” is what’s needed.
-
“I would expect this of the previous administration, but not this one.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
The city’s Black Democratic mayor vowed to cooperate but said that “this investigation is absurd, baseless, and without merit.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“Bannon is the tip of the insurrectionist iceberg,” said U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva. “More must be held accountable.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
The agreement, said António Guterres, will “bring relief for developing countries on the edge of bankruptcy” and “help stabilize global food prices which were already at record levels even before the war.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
The lawmakers are also advocating for increased vaccination efforts as well as an interagency appointee to coordinate federal strategy and combat stigmatization.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
Members of Congress arrested at a pro-choice rally have vowed that they won’t back down in fighting for freedom. read now…
This post was originally published on Independent Australia.
-
“The official introduction of this bill to finally end the policy nightmare of federal marijuana prohibition is the culmination of unprecedented leadership in the Senate and engagement with stakeholders across the political spectrum,” said NORML’s political director.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“The world’s burning up from California to Croatia, and right now Biden’s fighting fire with the trickle from a garden hose.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“It is clear that legislative reforms are needed to prevent any future illegal or unconstitutional efforts to interfere with the census and chip away at our democracy,” said the House Committee on Oversight and Reform chair.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“Aggressively use your executive powers to address the climate crisis, create good-paying union jobs in the United States, and liberate hard-working American families from volatile energy prices.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“Even though they arrested us, we won’t stop our organizing, agitating, and legislating for justice,” declared Rep. Cori Bush.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
An Indigenous attorney said that “support of U.S. congresspeople through this letter is vital so that we can continue to pressure the Brazilian government to protect the Javari Valley.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“Congress should pass the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Act and confirm Gigi Sohn to the FCC without further delay,” said a Free Press Action campaigner.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“We will not sit idly by as Republicans and their activist judges take our country backward. They started with reproductive rights and they’re targeting protections for same-sex marriage next.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“For far too long, congressional staff have dealt with unsafe working conditions, unlivable wages, and vast inequity in our workplaces.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
Despite Republican opposition, Democrats passed a bill to affirm the right to cross state lines for abortion care in response to attempts by anti-choice lawmakers to ban such travel.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
While fires rage and temperatures in Western Europe top the charts, the U.K.’s Met Office announced the first-ever red warning for extreme heat expected in the coming days.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
As U.S. President Joe Biden visits the Middle East this week, three senators introduced a joint resolution to end the United States’ involvement in the Saudi-led war on Yemen.
The resolution is sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — and, according to the trio, it is already backed by a bipartisan group of over 100 House members.
“We must put an end to the unauthorized and unconstitutional involvement of U.S. armed forces in the catastrophic Saudi-led war in Yemen and Congress must take back its authority over war,” Sanders said in a statement, detailing the dire conditions in the region.
“More than 85,000 children in Yemen have already starved and millions more are facing imminent famine and death,” he pointed out. “More than 70% of Yemen’s population currently rely on humanitarian food assistance and the U.N. has warned the death toll could climb to 1.3 million people by 2030.”
“This war has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis today and it is past time to end U.S. complicity in those horrors,” Sanders declared. “Let us pass this resolution, so we can focus on diplomacy to end this war.”
While a cease-fire in Yemen has held over the past few months, peace advocates and progressive lawmakers have continued to call for an end to U.S. support for the yearslong war.
We applaud @SenSanders for his leadership, introducing the Senate version of @RepJayapal, @RepPeterDeFazio, @RepAdamSchiff & @RepNancyMace’s War Powers Resolution.
Ending U.S. military involvement in Yemen now has support in both parties and chambers. We must bring it to a vote. https://t.co/RuuvFehCwc
— Progressive Caucus (@USProgressives) July 14, 2022
“The war in Yemen has been an unmitigated disaster for which all parties to the conflict share responsibility,” Leahy said Thursday. “Why are we supporting a corrupt theocracy that brutalizes its own people, in a war that is best known for causing immense suffering and death among impoverished, defenseless civilians?”
Both Leahy and Warren emphasized that U.S. participation was never congressionally authorized.
“The American people, through their elected representatives in Congress, never authorized U.S. involvement in the war — but Congress abdicated its constitutional powers and failed to prevent our country from involving itself in this crisis,” Warren said.
Not long after taking office last year, Biden announced an end to U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition’s “offensive operations” in Yemen. However, his administration has continued to allow arms sales and provide maintenance and logistical support.
The U.S. president is set to head to Saudi Arabia on Friday. Responsible Statecraft noted Thursday that “in an op-ed explaining the reasoning behind the trip, Biden touted an ongoing truce in Yemen, but didn’t say whether he would press for an end to the war.”
As the senators’ statement explains, their resolution — which comes after a similar one introduced in the House last month — would “follow through on Biden’s pledge” from last year by:
- Ending U.S. intelligence sharing for the purpose of enabling offensive Saudi-led coalition strikes;
- Ending U.S. logistical support for offensive Saudi-led coalition strikes, including the provision of maintenance and spare parts to coalition members flying warplanes which are bombing Yemen; and
- Prohibiting U.S. military personnel from being assigned to command, coordinate, participate in the movement of, or accompany Saudi-led coalition forces engaged in hostilities without specific statutory authorization.
The statement highlighted that the resolution “is considered privileged in the Senate and can receive a vote on the floor as soon as 10 calendar days following introduction.”
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
-
Democratic leaders and reproductive rights advocates swiftly blasted anti-choice Republican lawmakers on Thursday after U.S. Sen. James Lankford blocked a bill intended to protect the right of pregnant people across the country to travel for abortion services.
The GOP senator from Oklahoma — which banned nearly all abortions this year even before the Roe v. Wade reversal — objected to Democrats’ effort to pass by unanimous consent the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2022.
Introduced this week by Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Patty Murray (Wash.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), the bill would make clear that patients can cross state lines for abortion care and empower the U.S. attorney general and affected individuals to take legal action against those who attempt to restrict that right.
While Lankford took action to block the bill, its sponsors and other supporters emphasized that his party is behind the ongoing and sweeping assault on reproductive rights on a national scale.
MAGA Republicans don’t only want to take away women’s right to safe and legal abortion, they want to go further and take away the right to travel freely as well. That’s outrage on top of injustice. We need this bill to protect the right to travel. https://t.co/aWg37lrpz3
— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) July 14, 2022
Murray took aim at her GOP colleagues on the Senate floor, declaring that “Republican lawmakers have already set their sights on ripping away the right to travel. Let’s be really clear what that means: They want to hold women captive in their own states.”
“It’s disgraceful that anyone would object to making sure people can travel to other states for reproductive healthcare,” she added in a statement. “It’s morally repugnant. By objecting to this bill, Republicans are rejecting any appearance of fighting for people’s rights, and embracing all-out oppression of women like never before.”
Cortez Masto similarly said that “by objecting to my legislation, they’re allowing state legislators to reach across state lines to control not just what happens in their states, but what happens in every state across this country and to punish women for exercising their fundamental rights. It’s absolutely outrageous.”
President Joe Biden also called out the Republican Party for Lankford’s move:
Immediately after Roe was reversed, I laid out how our Administration would use executive action to protect a woman’s right to travel across state borders to get the care she needs.
Today, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would make that right a law. https://t.co/y86RWyziKl
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 14, 2022
Right-wing groups and state lawmakers are already working on legislation to try to stop residents of states hostile to abortion rights from traveling for care.
“Anti-choice state legislators in Missouri, Texas, and Arkansas have said they want to pass bills to fine or prosecute women who travel for healthcare, providers who offer abortion services, and the many employers who have said they will support their employees who need to seek reproductive care in another state,” noted Cortez Masto on the Senate floor.
“These bills are blatantly unconstitutional,” she added. “And merely proposing them has created profound uncertainty for patients, healthcare providers, insurers, and employers across the country.”
Cortez Masto’s legislation was endorsed by various rights organizations including the ACLU, Center for Reproductive Rights, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Women’s Law Center, Physicians for Reproductive Health, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Thank you @SenAmyKlobuchar, @SenatorBennet, @RonWyden, @SenatorHick, @SenWhitehouse, @SenatorCantwell, @SenSherrodBrown, & @PattyMurray for your passionate speeches about the heartbreaking reality of this abortion crisis and fighting to protect the critical right to abortion.
— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) July 14, 2022
Despite the bill’s defeat on Thursday, Cortez Masto vowed that “I won’t stop fighting for women’s freedom.”
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
-
“Congress abdicated its constitutional powers and failed to prevent our country from involving itself in this crisis,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a lead co-sponsor with Sen. Patrick Leahy.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“My heart breaks for all survivors of sexual assault and abuse. I am so sad that our country is failing them when they need us most,” said Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the targeted provider.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“By objecting to this bill, Republicans are rejecting any appearance of fighting for people’s rights, and embracing all-out oppression of women like never before,” said Sen. Patty Murray.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“We must ask ourselves why Rep. Gottheimer is working so hard to sabotage the party when he knows a climate and jobs bill would not only help communities across the country, but would help Democrats win seats this cycle.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“The Austin City Council refuses to allow our residents to live under the threat of 99 years in prison for the so-called crime of providing basic medical care,” said Council Member Chito Vela.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“Health experts warn that in the aftermath of this disastrous ruling, the U.S. maternal mortality rate—which is already the highest in the developed world—is certain to rise.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“Failing to even mention these slain reporters during his Middle Eastern trip would send exactly the wrong message to both foreign governments and vulnerable journalists around the world.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
One climate campaigner said the Canadian city “is taking responsibility for moving beyond fossil fuels and prioritizing the protection of people and planet.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“The military-industrial complex’s campaign spending spree gives war profiteers an outsized influence over Pentagon funding votes,” said a Public Citizen campaigner.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.
-
“The coordinated attempts by former President Donald Trump and his associates to discount and ignore the will of Georgian voters during the 2020 election cannot be swept under the rug,” said one activist.
This post was originally published on Common Dreams – Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community.