Journalist Cecilia Sala en route to Italy after release from Tehran prison

A plane carrying journalist Cecilia Sala has left Tehran and will soon arrive back in Italy, Italian authorities announced on Wednesday. Sala had been held in the Iranian capital's notorious Evin prison since she was arrested on December 19.


Issued on: 08/01/2025 
By: NEWS WIRES

Journalist Cecilia Sala is welcomed by the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as she arrives at the Ciampino airport in Rome, after being freed by Iranian authorities, on January 8, 2025 © Filippo Attili, AP

An Italian journalist arrested in Iran and jailed for three weeks has been freed and is returning to Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's office said on Wednesday.

"The plane taking journalist Cecilia Sala home took off from Tehran a few minutes ago" following "intense work through diplomatic and intelligence channels", Meloni's office said in a statement.

"Our compatriot has been released by the Iranian authorities and is on her way back to Italy. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expresses her gratitude to all those who helped make Cecilia's return possible, allowing her to re-embrace her family and colleagues," her office said.

Meloni personally informed Sala's parents of her release by telephone, it added.

Sala, 29, was arrested on December 19, soon after the United States and Italy arrested two Iranian nationals over export violations linked to a deadly attack on American servicemen.

The journalist, who writes for the Italian daily Il Foglio and is the host of a news podcast produced by Chora Media, was kept in isolation in Tehran's Evin prison.

Sala told her family she was forced to sleep on the floor in a cell with the lights permanently on.

Italy and Iran summoned each other's ambassadors last week after Rome warned that efforts to secure her release were complicated.

Sala travelled to Iran on December 13 on a journalist's visa. She was arrested six days later for "violating the law of the Islamic Republic of Iran", said the country's culture ministry, which oversees and accredits foreign journalists.

She had been due to return home the following day.

On Monday, Iran denied any link between Sala's arrest and that of Iranian national Mohammad Abedini, detained in Italy in December at the behest of the United States over export violations linked to a deadly attack on US servicemen.

(AFP)

Health experts downplay risk of severe illness from HMPV virus circulating in China

Health experts say that a flu-like virus currently circulating in China, HMPV, poses far less of a risk to health than the Covid-19 virus did when it emerged five years ago, since people around the world already have some immunity against it.


Issued on: 09/01/2025 - 
By: NEWS WIRES

People wearing masks wait in the respiratory department of a Beijing hospital this week. © Jade Gao, AFP

Reports that cases of a flu-like virus called HMPV are rising in China have sparked concern, but experts have dismissed fears that the situation is comparable to the beginnings of Covid-19 five years ago.

Here is what you need to know about HMPV:

Similar to flu

HMPV stands for "human metapneumovirus" and generally causes a mild infection of the upper respiratory tract.

It spreads via person-to-person contact or when someone touches a contaminated surface.

Common symptoms include coughing, fever and a blocked nose -- very similar to many types of cold and flu.

Vulnerable groups such as young children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems may have more severe symptoms.

Public health advice for HMPV is similar to that for flu, said John Tregoning, professor in vaccine immunology at Imperial College London.

"Protecting yourself by being in well-ventilated (spaces), covering your mouth when you cough (and) washing your hands will all help," he said.

Infected people should "rest, take on fluids (and) try not to spread it to others".
Not like Covid

The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 was unknown when it first emerged in humans in late 2019.

That meant people had never been exposed to it and had no immunity, raising the risk of severe illness.

In contrast, HMPV has been circulating for decades and people around the world already have some protection against it.

The virus "is part of the cocktail of winter viruses that we are exposed to", Tregoning said.

Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at Britain's University of East Anglia, said that "almost every child will have at least one infection with HMPV by their fifth birthday".

Many people catch the virus several times over the course of their lives, he said.
What has China said?

China's disease control authority held a wide-ranging press conference just before the new year to discuss its "progress and achievements".

Among other measures, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced it was "piloting active monitoring of pneumonia of unknown origin" as it developed its general prevention strategy.

Later, while answering a question about "the interweaving of multiple infectious diseases" this winter, top official Kan Biao gave a rundown on the state of play of various ailments in the country.

"Influenza virus has shown a clear upward trend recently... the positive rate of rhinovirus has shown a downward trend... respiratory syncytial virus in those aged 0 to 4 years has shown an upward trend recently, and the positive rate of HMPV in cases aged 14 and below has also shown an upward trend," he said.

However, he noted, "the scale and intensity of the spread of respiratory infectious diseases are lower than last year".

China's foreign ministry said last Friday that it was "safe to travel to China".
'Within normal range'

Images of patients in face masks filling hospital emergency rooms have circulated widely on Chinese social media in recent weeks, but such scenes are not unusual for winter.

Globally, worry has spread quickly, with those raising concerns pointing to Beijing's perceived lack of transparency throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

In late December, the World Health Organization (WHO) implored China to share more data on Covid-19's origins, saying it was a "moral and scientific imperative".

But on Tuesday, the WHO sought to allay fears around HMPV.

"China's reported levels of respiratory infections are within the normal range -- it's what we would expect to see for the winter season," spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.

(AFP)

PHOTO ESSAY

Seven years of torture by Assad’s executioners: ‘I will never forgive them’

From our special correspondent in Syria – Accused of belonging to the Palestinian group Hamas, which was then Bashar Al-Assad’s bête noire, Mohamar Ouda was arrested by the Syrian army in Yarmouk in 2015. He spent seven years in prison, where his executioners inflicted all kinds of torture on him that still haunt him day and night.

Issued on: 08/01/2025 -
AFP

FRANCE24
By: Assiya HAMZA

Mohamar Ouda in front of his devastated home in Yarmouk on January 4, 2024. 

© Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24


Once, they thought he was dead. Ouda was thrown on a pile of corpses. For two days, he remained there, among the remains of prisoners who had finally succumbed to their torture.

"I only lost consciousness," says Ouda, who languished in Syrian jails for years. "When I woke up in the middle of all these dead, I heard [the jailors] say: 'Look, he's still breathing! He's moving his head!'"
Mohamar Ouda was imprisoned by the Syrian regime for seven years. © Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24

Rendered unconscious, but not quite dead. Ouda had been unable to endure yet another torture session by the executioners of the "Palestine Branch", a prison in Damascus known for its cruelty. He may also have fainted due to hunger. "I have diabetes. They gave me honey and put me back in my cell."

Seven years being tortured and starved. Ouda was arrested at the age of 54 by the Syrian army in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, not far from Damascus, on July 7, 2015. He was then accused of possessing weapons and of belonging to Hamas, an enemy of the Assads because it had supported rebel groups during the Syrian civil war.



The repression was fierce against those who lived in "little Palestine". Hundreds of people were arbitrarily arrested. Some are still missing.

Read more'Palestinians by blood but Syrians at heart': Residents of Yarmouk refugee camp dream of revival

‘I suffered all kinds of torture’

Ouda’s flesh bears the marks of his years of incarceration. His cyan gaze is a constant reminder that he was tortured: He lost an eye. "They hit my head with a bar. It opened me up all the way here," he says, lifting his cap to reveal a huge scar on the right side of his skull. "They tore out all my toenails."

Ouda stops. He sobs. The painful memories never leave. How can he not be haunted, when for years everything was aimed at humiliating and breaking him?

But Ouda wants to continue telling his story, to bear witness to an inhumanity unimaginable for ordinary mortals.

"Since I was diabetic, they were forced to feed me. And that made them angry. They tortured me even more afterwards."

He struggles to find the words. The horror is unspeakable.

"I saw all kinds of torture. I suffered all kinds of torture. I saw people die." He chokes back a sob. "They didn't need us to talk during interrogations, they wrote whatever they wanted in their reports. I can't stop thinking about it. I can't sleep at night."

His health deteriorated rapidly in 2022. "Because I was sick, they threw me out on the street." He weighed only 45 kilos.

Ouda asked a passerby to lend him a phone. Despite the years of incarceration, he had not forgotten his wife's number. "When she picked up and I told her who I was, she didn't believe me. She screamed, 'You're a liar, my husband is dead!' And then she hung up."

After seven years without news, it was indeed impossible to believe that Ouda was still alive. Few detainees ever returned home before the sudden fall of the Assad regime on December 8.

An estimated 15,393 people died under torture, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. But Ouda did not give up. His only thought was of seeing his wife again; he needs her. So he decides to contact his sister.

"She told me that everyone thought I was dead. We had to send my photo to my wife for her to believe me. She kept saying, 'You were dead, you were dead.' And she was crying."

Mohamar Ouda's house is located in one of the most destroyed parts of the Yarmouk camp. © Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24

After being reunited with his loved ones, Ouda only wanted one thing: to settle back into his house in Yarmouk. But when he tries to do so, he is immediately summoned. Someone has seen him and probably reported him.

Under the Assad regime, every move Syrians made was spied upon and denunciation was encouraged. The former prisoner realises he needs to hide; he knows that if he is re-arrested, he will never make it out again.

Ouda and his wife are looking for a new apartment in Damascus. Far from the camp. He says he gets by, he "tinkers" here and there. He manages to survive.

In addition to the psychological after-effects of his detention and his litany of suffering, Ouda must live without his three children. "My first wife (Ouda has multiple wives) left with them when I was arrested. She supported Bashar al-Assad. I haven't seen them for ten years." He cries again. His gaze darkens.

Read more'Death camp': the haunting history of Syria's Sednaya prison

The kitchen of Mohamar Ouda's partially destroyed house. © Assiya Hamza France 24

‘I demand that they be judged for their crimes’

With the fall of the regime, everything has changed. Or almost. Ouda is now full of hopes and dreams. He has even rediscovered Yarmouk and started to clear out what remains of his house, which was largely destroyed by the years of war.

"Today, everything is going well, Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah). I wish for a happy and peaceful life. I would like to go and see my mother, who lives in Germany. Inshallah (If Allah wills), I will rebuild, little by little, and come back to live here," he says, in what was once the summer living room of his house.

It is a project that is undoubtedly key to his own rehabilitation. Like many Syrians, Ouda displays impressive resilience. The regime has not broken him.

"I won," he says.

Emotion overwhelms him again when asked about his tormentors. "I demand that they be judged for their crimes. And even if they are not judged on earth, I believe in the Last Judgement. I will never forgive them."

Mohamar Ouda in what remains of the summer living room of his house in Yarmouk. © Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24

'Palestinians by blood but Syrians at heart': Residents of Yarmouk refugee camp dream of revival

From our special correspondant in Yarmouk, Syria – The Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus was devastated by the Syrian civil war. The scene of violent clashes between Bashar al-Assad's regime and rebel militias, including the Islamic State (IS) group, little remains of a once-thriving area but ruins and desolation. Yet a number of its inhabitants have chosen to return, hoping to rebuild their “little Palestine”.


Issued on: 06/01/2025 
By: Assiya HAMZA

FRANCE24

AFP

A levelled part of the Yarmouk refugee camp seen on January 4, 2025. © Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24


It's an apocalyptic landscape, with ruined shells of buildings almost as far as the eye can see. Facades that are somehow still standing are riddled with bullets. The Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, in the southern suburbs of Damascus, bears the scars of 13 years of brutal war in Syria. With the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the remaining inhabitants of the camp dream of seeing their “little Palestine” reborn.

“In 1957, UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) distributed land so that the Palestinians could build housing,” says Fahmi al-Mouhab, whose parents fled Galilee in 1948 during what he calls the Nakba, or catastrophe, the forced Palestinian exodus following the creation of the state of Israel.

“People lived in tents. There was nothing. No water or electricity,” he says.

Fahmi al-Mouhab never left the Yarmouk camp, even at the height of the war on January 4, 2025. © Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24

Wearing a traditional keffiyeh scarf, 60-year-old Mouhab talks about the history of the camp, a 2.5-square-kilometre area, from the comfort of his cousin Mona's living room. The small space, with pristine white walls, is furnished with burgundy sofas decorated with yellow motifs and two coffee tables covered by embroidered doilies. The well-kept decor almost makes you forget the devastation outside.

Mona al-Mouhab on the porch of the house that she rebuilt in 2021 in Yarmouk on January 4, 2025. © Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24

Mouhab remembers the early years of poverty when the isolated community had to fend for itself, with no help from the Syrian government, “without even transport to get to Damascus”. But then things began to change. “More Palestinians arrived and shopkeepers established shops with the stocks they had brought with them from the exodus,” says Mouhab, a former painter. “Little by little, there were jewellery and clothing stores. They created a real economy.”

Although Yarmouk was not officially recognised by the authorities as a refugee camp, UNRWA built schools and dispensaries. Built on land just 8km from central Damascus, the camp eventually became one of the capital's most important districts, a thriving commercial centre that attracted Syrian investment. The area increased in population and by 2011 totalled 160,000 Palestinians at the height of Yarmouk's prosperity.

Fahmi al-Mouhab's Syrian residency card on January 4, 2025. © Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24

Years of suffering under Assad

Mouhab is at times interrupted by his family members, who don't let him finish his sentences, but he remains unperturbed.

Mona al-Mouhab, on the other hand, is itching to tell her Yarmouk story. “We're not used to freedom of expression,” she says. “Before, when Syrian television came to the camp, we hid so as not to talk because we were afraid.”

Fahmi takes the opportunity to slip away for a smoke in the alcove.

“We suffered a lot. In the beginning, there were no toilets,” Mona says. “The children would come home covered in mud every evening because the streets were unpaved. My father had to dig a well so that we could get water, and my sisters and I had to haul up buckets of earth” as he dug.

“We worked very hard so that our children could go to school. Today, they are lawyers and writers. They've succeeded.”

Mona al-Mouhab left the Yarmouk camp in 2012 to escape the bombings. She moved back in 2021. Picture taken on January 4, 2025. © Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24

Mona pauses. Her round face, surrounded by a white hijab, lights up with a broad smile as Fahmi reappears. After settling back at the end of the sofa, he reminisces about the dark years of the 1980s. Bashar Assad's father Hafez al-Assad was still in power, and he had a visceral hatred of Yasser Arafat, then leader of the Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

At the time, the Assad regime considered Yarmouk an opposition stronghold and many Palestinians were imprisoned. “There were roadblocks at the entrance to the camp and the shabihas (literally “ghosts”, or government militias) questioned everyone,” Fahmi recalls.

Many of the buildings in the al-Mouhab family's neighbourhood in Yarmouk have been gutted, January 4, 2025. © Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24

Given the tensions with the Assad regime, the inhabitants of Yarmouk decided in the 1990s to focus on the camp’s economic development and turned away from politics.

But in 2011 the Syrian civil war, which saw diverse factions challenge the Assad government, upended the status quo in Yarmouk. Although the camp’s inhabitants argued for a neutral stance in the conflict, different Palestinian factions began to take sides. In December 2012, fighters from the Free Syrian Army and al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of al Qaeda, entered Yarmouk.

The camp’s various Palestinian groups were quickly routed. “People supported the revolution because they felt close to the Syrians. They looked after the wounded and hid fighters,” says Fahmi. “Then the fighting intensified on all sides. We had to hide in our homes because there were snipers everywhere.”
‘People used to eat grass’

On December 16, 2012, the Syrian air force fired a missile at the Abdul Qadir al-Husseini mosque, where hundreds of people had taken refuge. © Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24

Assad's regime bombed Yarmouk for the first time on December 16, 2012, a date Mona and the other inhabitants of Yarmouk will never forget. A missile killed dozens when it hit the Abdul Qadir al-Husseini Mosque, where more than 600 displaced people had taken refuge. This precipitated a mass exodus from Yarmouk, as 140,000 inhabitants fled the violence, leaving everything behind.

The exodus included Mona and Mayssa, Fahmi's wife. Fahmi himself didn't leave – he says the thought never crossed his mind. He stayed, like 20,000 other people. “The strikes were indiscriminate. Sometimes it was impossible to go out for days,” he says.
Abdul Qadir al-Husseini Mosque








Abdul Qadir al-Husseini Mosque © © Assiya Hamza France 24

And so began the darkest days in the history of Yarmouk. Located just a few kilometres from central Damascus, the camp became a strategic position for rebel groups. The regime responded by imposing a total blockade. No NGOs were allowed in. Food became scarce, prices soared, and then famine set in.

“People were eating grass and prickly pear leaves. I know a family who ate cats and dogs,” says Fahmi. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), more than 200 people died of hunger. “We had water for one hour a day and to heat ourselves, we burned everything we could find,” he recalls.
‘I was happy to come back and rebuild’

Jihadist groups took control of the camp in 2014. A year later, al-Nusra Front was ousted by the Islamic State (IS) group. The inhabitants of the camp were witness to further horrors, including atrocities committed by the IS group.

When the Syrian regime regained control of Yarmouk in 2018, only 200 inhabitants remained, according to the UN.

Many thought no one would ever return to live in this devastated place, which had endured years of being shelled day and night by aircraft and artillery. But they underestimated the resilience of its inhabitants, who have gradually returned over the years even though nothing has yet been rebuilt.
Children play in front of the Abdul Qadir al-Husseini mosque in Yarmouk on January 4, 2025. © Assiya Hamza, FRANCE 24

Mona returned in 2021. There was almost nothing left of her house. “There were just a few walls, and the ceiling. But I could no longer live in my five square metres in Damascus,” she says, explaining that landlords in the capital wanted “millions” for rent. “I was happy to come back and rebuild.” Unable to return to the land of their ancestors, the inhabitants of Yarmouk cherish their “little Palestine”.

“My life and my heart are here, not elsewhere. Even if I watch YouTube videos of my grandparents' village, it all started here,” Mona says. “Our children were born here. I'm happy to be here, even if I'm also sad to see all the destruction. Hamdulillah (Praise be to God), we are well off compared to those who have nothing left.”

The Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus











The inhabitants are rebuilding their homes by themselves with simple bricks. Yarmouk, January 4, 2025. © © Assiya Hamza France 24

Today, around 3,000 families live in the camp, a total of around 9,000 people – some living in absolute squalor. This landscape of desolation and ruins is reminiscent of the images of Gaza, some 300 kilometres away.

“The Israelis were inspired by what happened in Yarmouk to destroy Gaza,” Mona surmises.

Like their Syrian brothers, the Palestinians of Yarmouk celebrated the fall of the “Butcher of Damascus” on December 8. “We took part in this revolution. Our children have known nothing but war,” says Mona. “Now we want to live in freedom.”

It is a message of hope hammered home by her cousin. “We'd like to rebuild, to start a new life, without injustice, with rights,” says Fahmi, who dreams of opening a small business.

“Life is a struggle. My blood is Palestinian – and my heart is Syrian.”

This article has been translated from the original in French.

US Declares Genocide in Sudan But Refuses to Acknowledge Genocide in Gaza

One journalist told the secretary of state that all the crimes cited for Sudan are "being committed by Israel in Gaza; the very genocide YOU have been proudly funding, arming, and covering up."


Goz al-Haj Camp, where civilians are fleeing the civil conflict in Sudan, is seen in Shendi city, north of Khartoum, Sudan on December 25, 2024.
(Photo: Osman Bakir/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Jan 07, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

While welcoming the United States' recognition that paramilitaries in Sudan have committed genocidal acts during the country's devastating civil war since 2023, human rights advocates on Tuesday said the declaration underscored the Biden administration's refusal to acknowledge what experts said is also clearly taking place in Gaza at the hands of the U.S.-backed Israel Defense Forces.


Both the mass killing of civilians in Sudan and Palestinians in Gaza "should be recognized and stopped," said Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch.

Biden administration officials reportedly hesitated to move forward with the declaration that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is fighting Sudan's military in a bloody civil war, is committing genocide, saying it could intensify criticism of continued U.S. support for Israel.

But U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on the declaration on Monday, saying the RSF's acts of genocide include systemic violence against the Masalit, a non-Arab ethnic group, between April-November 2023 in the western region of Darfur.

Humanitarian workers reported that they counted 2,000 bodies in a single day during that attack, while the United Nations estimated as many as 15,000 people were killed in one city.

Hundreds of thousands of Masalit people have fled to overcrowded camps in neighboring Chad.


The RSF, said Blinken on Tuesday, has "targeted fleeing civilians, [murdered] innocent people escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies."

The paramilitary group has also blocked aid from getting to some areas, contributing to what the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) identified as famine in at least five districts in Sudan last month.

Palestine-based journalist Muhammad Shehada demanded to know how the Biden administration could determine genocide is taking place in Sudan while repeatedly denying the same in Gaza—even as the International Court of Justice has found Israel placed at risk Palestinians' right to be protected from genocide and numerous human rights groups have accused Israel of acts of genocide.



"Literally every single one of the crimes you [cite] to conclude a genocide is happening in Sudan are all being committed by Israel in Gaza; the very genocide YOU have been proudly funding, arming, and covering up," said Shehada.

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the IDF began bombarding the enclave in October 2023, with hospitals, schools, refugee camps, and residential buildings among the places targeted. A majority of those killed have been women and children, according to the U.N., even as Israel and the U.S.—the largest international funder of the IDF—have insisted they are targeting Hamas fighters.

Israel's near-total blockade on aid has also pushed parts of the enclave into famine, according to experts.

"Blinken finds genocide in Sudan but not in Gaza," said Mark Seddon, director of the Center for United Nations Studies. "Really, you can't make this crap up."

Along with the State Department's determination, the U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it was sanctioning RSF leader, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, and seven companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the main international funder of the paramilitary group.

Roth pointed out that while private companies in the UAE were sanctioned, the U.S. did not name the government of the Middle Eastern country.

Last January, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) led a push to block a U.S. sale of $85 million in military equipment to the UAE, warning the country had "been violating the U.N. arms embargo in Darfur to support the RSF."

"Good to see the U.S. officially determine that the brutal RSF militia is committing genocide in Sudan," said journalist Nicholas Kristof. "But accountability is impaired when the U.S. fails to publicly call out the RSF's backer, the UAE, which enables the genocide."

Sanders Pledges to 'Do All That I Can' to Block Biden's $8 Billion Arms Sale to Israel

"The U.S. must not send more bombs to Netanyahu's extremist government," said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.


U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at a news conference on November 19, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
(Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Jan 07, 2025
COMMON DREAM

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders vowed late Monday to do everything in his power to block the Biden administration's newly proposed $8 billion arms sale to the far-right Israeli government, which has used American weaponry to commit atrocities across the Gaza Strip over the past 15 months.

"The U.S. must not send more bombs to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's extremist government, which has already killed 45,000 people; destroyed Gaza's housing, healthcare, and educational systems; and caused starvation by blocking humanitarian aid," Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on social media. "I will do all that I can to block these arms sales."

The State Department formally notified Congress of the proposed sale late last week, and reports indicate that the latest weapons package Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), missiles for attack helicopters, and 500-pound bombs.

The new sale adds to the tens of billions of dollars worth of arms and other military assistance the U.S. has provided Israel since its large-scale assault on the Gaza Strip began in the wake of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack. In at least two cases, the Biden administration bypassed Congress to deliver the weapons to Israel.




Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is seen at a press conference on his effort to block U.S. arms sales to Israel on November 19, 2024. (Photo: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Sanders is one of the few members of Congress who has vocally opposed continued offensive weapons sales to Israel and attempted to block the transactions, arguing that they violate U.S. laws prohibiting arms transfers to countries blocking American humanitarian aid.

Late last year, the U.S. Senate rejected a Sanders-led effort to thwart a sale of JDAMs, tank rounds, and other weaponry.

The newly proposed $8 billion weapons sale comes just days before U.S. President Joe Biden is set to leave office, which Haaretz correspondent Ben Samuels called "a fitting end to four years of policy that seemed to please no one and antagonize anyone unhappy with the status quo."

"The proposed arms sale is yet another wrinkle after a series of missed opportunities to press the Israeli government as hostages remain captive and Gaza's humanitarian crisis worsens," Samuels wrote.

In a statement on Monday, a top United Nations humanitarian relief official said that "despite our determination to deliver food, water, and medicine to survivors, our efforts to save lives are at breaking point."

Tom Fletcher, the U.N.'s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, pointed to several recent Israeli attacks on aid operations in Gaza, including a strike "at a known food distribution point where a partner of the World Food Program was operating" and an attack on a clearly marked WFP convoy.

"These incidents are part of a dangerous pattern of sabotage and deliberate disruption," said Fletcher. "Israeli forces are unable or unwilling to ensure the safety of our convoys. Statements by Israeli authorities vilify our aid workers even as the military attacks them. Community volunteers who accompany our convoys are being targeted."

"I call on U.N. member states to insist that all civilians, and all humanitarian operations, are protected," Fletcher added. "This should not need to be said."

CFPB Bans Medical Debt From Credit Reports—But GOP Wants to Reverse It


The agency "effectively dared the incoming Trump administration and its Republican allies in Congress to undo rules that are broadly popular," wrote one healthcare reporter.


A health insurance claim form is seen on a medical bill.
(Photo: Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Jan 07, 2025

Months after more than half of respondents to an Associated Press poll said it was "extremely or very important" for the federal government to take action to help people with medical debt, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday finalized a rule to keep such debt off credit reports.

With broad public support, the rule appeared to be an uncontroversial slam dunk for the Biden administration in the last days of President Joe Biden's presidency—but Republicans, who now have majorities in Congress and are poised to take over the White House in less than two weeks, have signaled that they would take action to undo the CFPB's regulations, including the medical debt rule.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the new chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said last month that the CFPB should halt all rulemaking until President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

"It is paramount that President Trump can begin his administration on January 20 with a fresh slate to implement the economic agenda that the American people resoundingly voted for," Scott said.

The senator's comments suggested that Americans who voted for Trump did so in order to continue paying overdraft fees, having their personal information sold by predatory data brokers, and being penalized for owing medical bills—all of which the CFPB has taken action on since the November elections.

As Noam N. Levey wrote at KFF Health News, the CFPB on Tuesday "effectively dared the incoming Trump administration and its Republican allies in Congress to undo rules that are broadly popular and could help millions of people who are burdened by medical debt."

"People who get sick shouldn't have their financial future upended."

The new rule would remove $49 billion in unpaid medical debt from credit reports by amending Regulation V, which implements the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Lenders are restricted from obtaining or using medical information to make lending decisions. But federal regulators have created an exception to that restriction, allowing companies to consider medical debt. The new rule ends that exception by banning medical bills on credit reports, which the CFPB said has led to a practice of using the credit reporting system to coerce payments even if bills are inaccurate, as they frequently are, according to the agency.

About 15 million people will be helped by the new regulation, said the CFPB, with credit scores of people with medical debt boosted by an average of 20 points.

An estimated 100 million Americans owe debt for healthcare they've obtained, forcing many to cut spending on groceries, housing, and other essentials.


An informal KFF Health News poll of people facing eviction or foreclosure in the Denver area in 2023 found that nearly half of people surveyed said medical debt played a role in their housing insecurity.

The inclusion of medical debt on credit reports by companies like Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion can harm Americans' ability to obtain jobs, mortgages, and rental apartments, even as CFPB research shows that medical debt is a poor predictor of whether a consumer will repay a loan.

"People who get sick shouldn't have their financial future upended," said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. "The CFPB's final rule will close a special carveout that has allowed debt collectors to abuse the credit reporting system to coerce people into paying medical bills they may not even owe."

Billionaire Trump megadonor Elon Musk, who has become a top adviser to the president-elect and was picked to co-lead the proposed Department of Government Efficiency, has made clear that the CFPB would be a key target of the advisory body, calling for the agency to be "deleted" in November.

Despite Republicans' repeated claims that Trump will lead the party in securing an agenda that serves working families, lobbying by the credit reporting industry over the medical debt rule has made clear whose side the GOP is on.

Equifax said in August, two months after the CFPB proposed the rule, that the government is "not permitted" to regulate the industry in such a way.


House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) also called the proposal "regulatory overreach."

Chopra said last month that despite Republicans' objections, the CFPB would not "be a dead fish" ahead of Trump's term.


"We will continue to defend consumers' rights," he said, "and to hold companies accountable."

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Biden DOJ Sues Major Landlords Over Algorithmic Price Fixing

"If you mess with the price of rent, be prepared to meet the DOJ on the other side of that scheme!" wrote the American Economic Liberties Project.

Then-Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki of the Antitrust Division speaks at a news conference at the Justice Department on March 07, 2023 in Washington, DC.
(Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Eloise Goldsmith
Jan 07, 2025
COMMON DREAMS


The U.S.Justice Department on Tuesday announced that it has added six landlords as defendants in an antitrust lawsuit that the agency initially filed against the real estate software company RealPage, which the DOJ accused of engaging in a price fixing scheme that allows reduced competition between landlords so they can increase rents.

At the center of the case is RealPage's "algorithmic pricing software," which generates rent price recommendations using software based on their and their rivals' "competitively sensitive information," which they submit to RealPage, according to an August statement from the Department of Justice regarding the initial complaint.

The new complaint alleges that the six companies—Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC; Blackstone's LivCor LLC; Camden Property Trust; Cushman & Wakefield Inc and Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC; Willow Bridge Property Company LLC; and Cortland Management LLC—"participated in an unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing, harming millions of American renters," according to a Tuesday statement from the Department of Justice.

The landlords collectively operate more than 1.3 million units in 43 states and the District of Columbia, according to the agency.

The Department of Justice alleges that in addition to using RealPages's "anticompetitive pricing algorithms," the companies coordinated in a number of ways, including "communicating with competitors' senior managers about rents, occupancy, and other competitively sensitive topics" and participating in "user groups" hosted by RealPage, during which landlords would discuss, for example, how to modify the software's pricing methodology and the companies' own pricing strategies.

"While Americans across the country struggled to afford housing, the landlords named in today's lawsuit shared sensitive information about rental prices and used algorithms to coordinate to keep the price of rent high," said Doha Mekki, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, in the Tuesday statement.

Two states, Illinois and Massachusetts, have also joined the suit as plaintiffs.

The American Economic Liberties Project, a group that urges government to confront corporate concentration, touted the updates to the lawsuit, writing Tuesday, "If you mess with the price of rent, be prepared to meet the DOJ on the other side of that scheme!"




Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog Accountable.US, said in a Tuesday statement that "corporate landlords like Camden Property Trust, one of the landlord companies included in today's complaint, have reaped hundreds of millions in profits while using RealPage's algorithm, and that's just the tip of the iceberg."

According to the Tuesday release from the Department of Justice, pending a consent decree which must be approved by the court, the DOJ may resolve its claims against one of the landlords, Cortland, which would then cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation and litigation.

With 12 Days Left, Donziger Says Pardon From Biden Would Send Clear Message to Big Oil

"It would send a signal that President Biden, who claims to be a climate president and a rule of law president, can walk the walk, not just do the talk," said human rights attorney Steven Donziger.


Human rights lawyer Steven Donziger joins climate activists and lawmakers at a rally in front of the White House on June 12, 2024.
(Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Jan 08, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

With Joe Biden's White House term ending in less than two weeks, human rights attorney Steven Donziger on Tuesday urged the outgoing president to send a message to Chevron and other oil giants around the world by granting him a pardon.

"I think it would bring enormous recognition that this is just fundamentally wrong and a violation of the Constitution," Donziger said of a pardon in an interview with Amnesty International, one of many advocacy organizations backing his petition to the president. "But more importantly, it would send a signal that President Biden, who claims to be a climate president and a rule of law president, can walk the walk, not just do the talk. And it would be a really important opportunity for him to stand up for the principles that he purports."

Donziger faced a yearslong legal assault from Chevron after he helped win a $9.5 billion settlement against the company in 2011 over oil dumped on Indigenous lands in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador.

Donziger has spent more than 1,000 days in prison or under house arrest since 2019, when he was charged with six counts of criminal contempt of court—charges for which he was found guilty in 2021 by Loretta Preska, a judge who has served on the advisory board of the Chevron-funded Federalist Society.

The United Nations condemned Donziger's prosecution and prolonged detention as violations of international law.


Donziger, who walked free in 2022, has said he is "the only person in U.S. history to be privately prosecuted by a corporation."

"More specifically," he wrote in a blog post last year, "the government (via a pro-corporate judge) gave a giant oil company (Chevron) the power to prosecute and lock up its leading critic."




In his interview with Amnesty volunteer Elizabeth Haight, Donziger argued that "there was no basis to charge me with contempt, either civil or criminal."

"But even if there was, this was handled in an extremely irregular, and I would argue, questionable, if not outright corrupt, way," he continued. "In my case, the prosecutor looked at the evidence and refused to take the case forward. That should have been the end of it. Instead, this judge appointed a private corporate law firm to step into the shoes of the U.S. government and prosecute me directly."

Donziger said that while "the case in Ecuador does not depend on me getting a pardon... a pardon would make it clear, or even more clear, to any judge in any country who might consider enforcing the judgment against Chevron, that Chevron's entire theory that somehow they were the ones victimized by the people of Ecuador rather than the other way around, is a completely false and manufactured narrative."

With time running out, Donziger urged people to sign his petition to the Biden White House calling for a pardon—a demand backed by dozens of U.S. lawmakers.

"Sign the petition to the White House, donate—as I can't work and am reliant on the goodwill of people all over the world to help pay my legal fees and keep me and this work moving—and call the White House at +1-202-456-1111," Donziger said. "What that means is, when the operator at the White House answers, you simply say, 'I'm calling to urge President Biden to pardon Steven Donziger, this is a grave injustice, this is a stain on the reputation of our country, and it must be corrected.'"

Seeking 'Better Future,' Kentucky EV Battery Workers File for Election to Join UAW

"We're forming our union so we can have a say in our safety and our working conditions," said one worker.


Factory workers and UAW union members rallied outside Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant during a strike on October 14, 2023 in Louisville, Kentucky.
(Photo: Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Jan 08, 2025
COMMON DREAM

Workers at a new electric vehicle battery plant in Kentucky filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday requesting an election to join the United Auto Workers, a union that's making a concerted effort to organize in the U.S. South.

The UAW said Wednesday that a supermajority of workers at BlueOval SK (BOSK)—a joint venture of the U.S. car manufacturer Ford and the Korean firm SK On—have backed the organizing effort, citing the need for improved safety protections as well as better pay and benefits. The plant in Glendale, Kentucky is set to begin production this year.

"We're forming our union so we can have a say in our safety and our working conditions," said Halee Hadfield, a quality operator at BOSK. "The chemicals we're working with can be extremely dangerous. If something goes wrong, a massive explosion can occur. With our union, we can speak up if we see there's a problem and make sure we're keeping ourselves and the whole community safe."

According to the UAW, the Kentucky workers' NLRB petition marks "the first major filing in the South in 2025 and continues the movement of Southern autoworkers organizing with the UAW."

Andrew McLean, a logistics worker in formation at BOSK, said Wednesday that "with a union, we'll be on a level playing field with management."

"That's so important when you're getting a new plant off the ground," McLean added. "The union allows us to give honest feedback without fear of retaliation."

In a video posted to YouTube on Wednesday, one worker said she will be voting yes on unionization because she wants "a better future for not only myself, but future generations and everyone that works here with me."





The Washington Postnoted that, "if successful, the effort could lead to the first unionized Ford-backed EV battery venture, at a time when EV sales in the United States are picking up."

BOSK has made clear that it will fight the organizing drive. A spokesperson for the joint venture said in a statement to the Post that the union election petition is "premature" and claimed that it "puts at risk the freedom and opportunities of our current and soon-to-be-hired Kentucky team members."

The UAW said Wednesday that BOSK "has responded to the campaign by hiring anti-union consultants who are trying to block the workers from organizing."

Angela Conto, a production operator in formation at BOSK, said that "instead of listening to our safety concerns, management has been ordering people to work without proper protective equipment."

"Now they're trying to stop us from forming our union to win a strong voice for safety," said Conto. "But the strong supermajority of workers who've signed union cards shows we're going to fix what's wrong at BOSK and make it the leading manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries in America."

Amid LA Inferno, Home Insurers Under Fire for Policy Cancellations

One observer said it "really feels like the climate crisis is putting the home insurance industry on a fast track to being almost as reviled as the health insurance industry."

LA LIBERTARIANS WANTED TO REPLACE THE STATE 

WITH AN INSURANCE COMPANY


Firefighters battle winds and flames as multiple beachfront homes burn along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California during the Palisades Fire on January 7, 2025.
(Photo: David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Jan 08, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

As deadly wildfire incinerated more than 1,000 homes and other structures in Los Angeles County this week, insurance companies are sparking outrage for having recently canceled homeowners' policies across California—including in some of the areas hit hardest by the current blazes.

More than 1,000 homes, businesses, and other buildings have burned in the Palisades, Hurst, and Eaton fires—the latter of which has killed two people, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday. Fueled by fierce Santa Ana winds and extraordinarily dry conditions, all three fires were at 0% containment as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).

Authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders for more than 80,000 residents. Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone told reporters Wednesday morning that a "high number of people who didn't evacuate" suffered serious injuries. Hundreds of thousands of area residents are also without power.

CAL FIRE said on Wednesday afternoon that the largest of the three blazes, the Palisades Fire, had burned more than 11,000 acres, while the Eaton Fire had scorched over 10,600 acres and the Hurst Fire topped 500 acres burned. Firefighters battling the Palisades Fire reported hydrants coming up dry.

Amid increased extreme weather events driven by the climate emergency, insurance companies have faced criticism for canceling policies and pulling out of states with elevated wildfire or hurricane risk.


State Farm, one of California's largest insurers, announced last year that it would not renew 30,000 home insurance policies throughout the state—including at least hundreds in areas affected by the current wildfires—explaining that the move was meant to avert a "financial failure" that would "detrimentally impact the entire market."

Other insurance companies have taken similar action, leaving their customers scrambling to find coverage.

Michael DeLong, research and advocacy associate at the Consumer Federation of America, told Common Dreams Wednesday that while climate-driven extreme weather has "made many areas riskier to insure," insurance companies are also canceling policies because "they're trying to take advantage of the situation of rising risks and rising costs to weaken consumer protections."

"They've been waging a campaign against Proposition 103… a ballot initiative that got passed in the late 1980s that, among other things, puts in place a lot of consumer protections about insurance," he added. "This has been a big deal for consumers and it's helped keep rates down. But insurance companies really hate these consumer protections and have been trying to weaken them."

In a Wednesday interview with Common Dreams, Jamie Court, president of the Los Angeles-based group Consumer Watchdog, noted that "under Prop 103, we could challenge rate hikes, and we saved $1 billion by challenging rate hikes that were too high last year."

However, advocates say that California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara's new "sustainable insurance strategy" will make it harder to challenge rates and lacks transparency and public input.

DeLong said Lara is "allowing the net cost of reinsurance to be passed on to consumers."

Reinsurance is an arrangement in which insurance companies transfer risk to another insurer to mitigate damages.


"Until a few weeks ago, California's regulations didn't allow the cost of reinsurance to be passed on to consumers, and now they do," DeLong explained. "So that's probably going to drive up costs for consumers. The commissioner and the department say it's going to make the insurance industry more stable—we're kind of skeptical of that."

"Another reform that he's done is allowing the use of catastrophe models in insurance," DeLong added, referring to a risk management tool that helps insurers assess potential financial impacts of disasters. "Every other state allows insurance companies to use them; California did not until recently. Catastrophe models can be helpful and useful; the problem is that many catastrophe models aren't that good; they're based on inaccurate or incomplete information and they don't have any transparency."

Court also decried the lack of transparency in catastrophe models, which he said "can say anything they want, and then we have to pay the rate." He also criticized Lara's proposal to allow insurers to hike rates in exchange for a purported commitment to cover more properties in wildfire areas.

Lara said last year that "insurance companies will write no less than 85% of their statewide market share in wildfire distressed areas,"


However, Court cautioned that Lara is assuming "that the companies are actually going to increase their footprint in wildfire areas."

"When you look at the details... there are these big loopholes," he said. "Insurance companies have to commit to 85% [wildfire area saturation] within two years—or they can do 5% more than they're doing now. So if they're at 0%, they can go to 5%. This is complete bullshit."


As coverage becomes more difficult to obtain, hundreds of thousands of California homeowners have turned to the state's FAIR Plan, an insurer of last resort, which has more than doubled the number of policies issued since 2020.

"If the FAIR Plan is the only thing you can do, take that," DeLong said. "In the meantime, you can reach out to the Department of Insurance and let them know that you want them to protect consumers and reject excessive rate increases."

"You can also try mitigation measures to reduce risk, like clearing brush around your home, improving your roof so it's a Class A roof, which means it's very difficult to catch on fire, you can take measures to prevent embers from starting fires on your property," he added. "The problem is that all of that costs money, and not everyone may be able to afford that… California has recently started some proposals to provide grants to consumers to undertake these measures, and these should be expanded even more."

"There is some good news," DeLong said. "The California Department of Insurance is working on a public catastrophe model, one that would have opportunities for input from consumers, that would be based on data that's fair and open."

"However, that's going to take at least a couple of years to get off the ground," he added.

Court concurred. "We're a long way away from that, and it's not even going to be something that companies have to use, it's something that would be supplemental," he said of the public model. "I think it's giving lip service, but I think it's the right direction. It just needs to be much more aggressive."

And the Winners of the 2024 Shkreli Awards for Worst Healthcare Profiteering Are...

"All these stories paint a picture of a healthcare industry in desperate need of transformation," said the head of the think tank behind the awards.


The Lown Institute's "Shkreli Awards"—named after convicted "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli—are given annually to the 10 most flagrant healthcare industry profiteers.
(Image: Lown Institute)

Brett Wilkins
Jan 07, 2025


The "winners" of the annual Shkreli Awards—named after notorious "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli and given to the 10 "worst examples of profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare"—include a Texas medical school that sold body parts of deceased people without relatives' consent, an alleged multibillion-dollar catheter scam, an oncologist who subjected patients to unnecessary cancer treatments, and a "monster monopoly" insurer.

The Shkreli Awards, now in their eighth year, are given annually by the Lown Institute, a Massachusetts-based think tank "advocating bold ideas for a just and caring system for health." A panel of 20 expert judges—who include physicians, professors, activists, and others—determine the winners.

This year's awardees are:

10: The University of North Texas Health Science Center "dissected and distributed unclaimed bodies without properly seeking consent from the deceased or their families" and supplied the parts "to medical students as well as major for-profit ventures like Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson," reporting revealed.

9: Baby tongue-tie cutting procedures are "being touted as a cure for everything from breastfeeding difficulties to sleep apnea, scoliosis, and even constipation"—despite any conclusive evidence that the procedure is effective.


8: Zynex Medical is a company facing scrutiny for its billing practices related to nerve stimulation devices used for pain management.

7: Insurance giant Cigna is under fire for billing a family nearly $100,000 for an infant's medevac flight.

6: Seven suppliers allegedly ran a multibillion-dollar urinary catheter billing scam that affected hundreds of thousands of Medicare patients.

5: Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico allegedly refused cancer treatment "to patients or demanding upfront payments, even from those with insurance."

4: Dr. Thomas C. Weiner is a Montana oncologist who allegedly "subjected a patient to unnecessary cancer treatments for over a decade," provided "disturbingly high doses of barbiturates to facilitate death in seriously ill patients, when those patients may not have actually been close to death," and "prescribed high doses of opioids to patients that did not need them." Weiner denies any wrongdoing.

3: Pharma giant Amgen was accused of pushing 960-milligram doses of its highly toxic cancer drug Lumakras, when "a lower 240mg dose offers similar efficacy with reduced toxicity"—but costs $180,000 less per patient annually at the lower dose.

2: UnitedHealth allegedly exploited "its vast physician network to maximize profits, often at the expense of patients and clinicians," including by pressuring doctors "to reduce time with patients and to practice aggressive medical coding tactics that make patients seem as sick as possible" in order to earn higher reimbursements from the federal government."

🥁🥁🥁

1: Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre was accused of orchestrating "a dramatic healthcare debacle by prioritizing private equity profits over patient care" amid "debt and sale-leaseback schemes" and a bankruptcy that "left hospitals gutted, employees laid off, and communities underserved" as he reportedly walked away "with more than $250 million over the last four years as hospitals tanked."

"All these stories paint a picture of a healthcare industry in desperate need of transformation," Lown Institute president Dr. Vikas Saini said during the award ceremony, according toThe Guardian.

"Doing these awards every year shows us that this is nothing new," he added. "We're hoping that these stories illuminate what changes are needed."

The latest Shkreli Awards came just weeks after the brazen assassination of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth subsidiary UnitedHealthcare. Although alleged gunman Luigi Mangione has pleaded not guilty, his reported manifesto—which rails against insurance industry greed—resonated with people across the country and sparked discussions about the for-profit healthcare system.