Amnesty Urges War Crimes Probe of 'Indiscriminate' Israeli Attacks on Lebanon


"The latest evidence of unlawful airstrikes during Israel's most recent offensive in Lebanon underscores the urgent need for all states, especially the United States, to suspend arms transfers," said one campaigner.

A wounded man points to photos of civilians killed during an October 16, 2024 Israeli airstrike on the village of Aitou, Lebanon.
(Photo: Fathi al-Masri/AFP via Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Dec 12, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

Amnesty International on Thursday called for a war crimes investigation into recent Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon that killed dozens of civilians, as well as a suspension of arms transfers to Israel as it attacks Gaza, the West Bank, and Syria.

In a briefing paper titled The Sky Rained Missiles, Amnesty "documented four illustrative cases in which unlawful Israeli strikes killed at least 49 civilians" in Lebanon in September and October amid an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign of invasion and bombardment that Lebanese officials say has killed or wounded more than 20,000 people.

"Amnesty International found that Israeli forces unlawfully struck residential buildings in the village of al-Ain in northern Bekaa on September 29, the village of Aitou in northern Lebanon on October 14, and in Baalbeck city on October 21," the rights group said. "Israeli forces also unlawfully attacked the municipal headquarters in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on October 16."

Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty's senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns, said in a statement that "these four attacks are emblematic of Israel's shocking disregard for civilian lives in Lebanon and their willingness to flout international law."



The September 29 attack "destroyed the house of the Syrian al-Shaar family, killing all nine members of the family who were sleeping inside," the report states.

"This is a civilian house, there is no military target in it whatsoever," village mukhtar, or leader, Youssef Jaafar told Amnesty. "It is full of kids. This family is well-known in town."

On October 16, Israel bombed the Nabatieh municipal complex, killing Mayor Ahmad Khalil and 10 other people.

"The airstrike took place without warning, just as the municipality's crisis unit was meeting to coordinate deliveries of aid, including food, water, and medicine, to residents and internally displaced people who had fled bombardment in other parts of southern Lebanon," Amnesty said, adding that there was no apparent military target in the immediate area.

In the deadliest single strike detailed in the Amnesty report, IDF bombardment believed to be targeting a suspected Hezbollah member killed 23 civilians forcibly displaced from southern Lebanon in Aitou on October 14.

"The youngest casualty was Aline, a 5-month-old baby who was flung from the house into a pickup truck nearby and was found by rescue workers the day after the strike," Amnesty said.

Survivor Jinane Hijazi told Amnesty: "I've lost everything; my entire family, my parents, my siblings, my daughter. I wish I had died that day too."

As the report notes:

A fragment of the munition found at the site of the attack was analyzed by an Amnesty International weapons expert and based upon its size, shape, and the scalloped edges of the heavy metal casing, identified as most likely a MK-80 series aerial bomb, which would mean it was at least a 500-pound bomb. The United States is the primary supplier of these types of munitions to Israel.

"The means and method of this attack on a house full of civilians likely would make this an indiscriminate attack and it also may have been disproportionate given the presence of a large number of civilians at the time of the strike," Amnesty stressed. "It should be investigated as a war crime."

The October 21 strike destroyed a building housing 13 members of the Othman family, killing two women and four children and wounding seven others.

"My son woke me up; he was thirsty and wanted to drink. I gave him water and he went back to sleep, hugging his brother," survivor Fatima Drai—who lost her two sons Hassan, 5, and Hussein, 3, in the attack—told Amnesty.

"When he hugged his brother, I smiled and thought, I'll tell his father how our son is when he comes back," she added. "I went to pray, and then everything around me exploded. A gas canister exploded, burning my feet, and within seconds, it consumed my kids' room."

Guevara Rosas said: "These attacks must be investigated as war crimes. The Lebanese government must urgently call for a special session at the U.N. Human Rights Council to establish an independent investigative mechanism into the alleged violations and crimes committed by all parties in this conflict. It must also grant the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over Rome Statute crimes committed on Lebanese territory."

"Israel has an appalling track record of carrying out unlawful airstrikes in Gaza and past wars in Lebanon taking a devastating toll on civilians."

Last month, the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Israel's 433-day Gaza onslaught, which has left more than 162,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing in the embattled enclave.

The tribunal also issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged crimes committed during and after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, in which more than 1,100 people were killed and over 240 others were kidnapped.

Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice is weighing a genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel. Last week, Amnesty published a report accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.


The United States—which provides Israel with tens of billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover—has also been accused of complicity in Israeli war crimes in Palestine and Lebanon.


"Israel has an appalling track record of carrying out unlawful airstrikes in Gaza and past wars in Lebanon taking a devastating toll on civilians," Guevara Rosas said. "The latest evidence of unlawful air strikes during Israel's most recent offensive in Lebanon underscores the urgent need for all states, especially the United States, to suspend arms transfers to Israel due to the risk they will be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law."

Congressional Report Calls Trump Deportation Plan 'Catastrophic' for Economy

"All it will do is raise grocery prices, destroy jobs, and shrink the economy," JEC Chair Martin Heinrich said of the president-elect's plan to deport millions of immigrants.


Critics of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump protest against his planned immigration policies on November 9, 2024 in New York City.
(Photo: Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Dec 12, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

Echoing recent warnings from economists, business leaders, news reporting, and immigrant rights groups, Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee detailed Thursday how President-elect Donald Trump's planned mass deportations "would deliver a catastrophic blow to the U.S. economy."

"Though the U.S. immigration system remains broken, immigrants are crucial to growing the labor force and supporting economic output," states the new report from JEC Democrats. "Immigrants have helped expand the labor supply, pay nearly $580 billion a year in taxes, possess a spending power of $1.6 trillion a year, and just last year contributed close to $50 billion each in personal income and consumer spending."

There are an estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, and Trump—who is set to be sworn in next month—has even suggested he would deport children who are American citizens with their parents who are not and attempt to end birthright citizenship.

Citing recent research by the American Immigration Council and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the JEC report warns that depending on how many immigrants are forced out of the country, Trump's deportations could:Reduce real gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 7.4% by 2028;
Reduce the supply of workers for key industries, including by up to 225,000 workers in agriculture and 1.5 million workers in construction;
Push prices up to 9.1% higher by 2028; and
Cost 44,000 U.S.-born workers their jobs for every half a million immigrants who are removed from the labor force.

Highlighting how mass deportations would harm not only undocumented immigrants but also U.S. citizens, the report explains that construction worker losses would "make housing even harder to build, raising its cost," and "reduce the supply of farmworkers who keep Americans fed as well as the supply of home health aides at a time when more Americans are aging and requiring assistance."

In addition to reducing home care labor, Trump's deportation plan would specifically harm seniors by reducing money for key government benefits that only serve U.S. citizens. The report references estimates that it "would cut $23 billion in funds for Social Security and $6 billion from Medicare each year because these workers would no longer pay into these programs."



Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who chairs the JEC, said Thursday that "as a son of an immigrant, I know how hard immigrants work, how much they believe in this country, and how much they're willing to give back. They are the backbone of our economy and the driving force behind our nation's growth and prosperity."

"Trump's plan to deport millions of immigrants does absolutely nothing to address the core problems driving our broken immigration system," Heinrich stressed. "Instead, all it will do is raise grocery prices, destroy jobs, and shrink the economy. His immigration policy is reckless and would cause irreparable harm to our economy."

Along with laying out the economic toll of Trump's promised deportations, the JEC report makes the case that "providing a pathway to citizenship is good economics. Immigrants are helping meet labor demand while also demonstrating that more legal pathways to working in the United States are needed to meet this demand."

"Additionally, research shows that expanding legal immigration pathways can reduce irregular border crossings, leading to more secure and regulated borders," the publication says. "This approach is vital for managing increased migration to the United States, especially as more people flee their home countries due to the continued risk of violence, persecution, economic conditions, natural disasters, and climate change."




The JEC report followed a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that explored how mass deportations would not only devastate the U.S. economy but also harm the armed forces and tear apart American families.

In a statement, Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the advocacy group America's Voice, thanked Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) "for calling this important discussion together and shining a spotlight on the potential damage."

Cárdenas pointed out that her group has spent months warning about how Trump's plan would "cripple communities and spike inflation," plus cause "tremendous human suffering as American citizens are ripped from their families, as parents are separated from their children, or as American citizens are deported by their own government."

"Trump and his allies have said it will be 'bloody,' that 'nobody is off the table,' and that 'you have to send them all back,'" she noted, arguing that the Republican plan will "set us back on both border control and public safety."

Cárdenas concluded that "America needs a serious immigration reform proposal—with pathways to legal status and controlled and orderly legal immigration—which recognize[s] immigrants are essential for America's future."

'Make Polio Great Again': Alarm Over RFK Jr. Lawyer Who Targeted Vaccine

"So if you're wondering if Donald Trump is trying to kill your kids, yes, yes he is," said one critic.

Jessica Corbett
Dec 13, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

Public health advocates, federal lawmakers, and other critics responded with alarm to The New York Timesreporting on Friday that an attorney helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. select officials for the next Trump administration tried to get the U.S. regulators to revoke approval of the polio vaccine in 2022.

"The United States has been a leader in the global fight to eradicate polio, which is poised to become only the second disease in history to be eliminated from the face of the earth after smallpox," said Liza Barrie, Public Citizen's campaign director for global vaccines access. "Undermining polio vaccination efforts now risks reversing decades of progress and unraveling one of the greatest public health achievements of all time."

Public Citizen is among various organizations that have criticized President-elect Donald Trump's choice of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, with the watchdog's co-president, Robert Weissman, saying that "he shouldn't be allowed in the building... let alone be placed in charge of the nation's public health agency."

Although Kennedy's nomination requires Senate confirmation, he is already speaking with candidates for top health positions, with help from Aaron Siri, an attorney who represented RFK Jr. during his own presidential campaign, the Times reported. Siri also represents the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) in petitions asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "to withdraw or suspend approval of vaccines not only for polio, but also for hepatitis B."

According to the newspaper:

Mr. Siri is also representing ICAN in petitioning the FDA to "pause distribution" of 13 other vaccines, including combination products that cover tetanus, diphtheria, polio, and hepatitis A, until their makers disclose details about aluminum, an ingredient researchers have associated with a small increase in asthma cases.

Mr. Siri declined to be interviewed, but said all of his petitions were filed on behalf of clients. Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy, said Mr. Siri has been advising Mr. Kennedy but has not discussed his petitions with any of the health nominees. She added, "Mr. Kennedy has long said that he wants transparency in vaccines and to give people choice."

After the article was published, Siri called it a "typical NYT hit piece plainly written by those lacking basic reading and thinking skills," and posted a series of responses on social media. He wrote in part that "ICAN's petition to the FDA seeks to revoke a particular polio vaccine, IPOL, and only for infants and children and only until a proper trial is conducted, because IPOL was licensed in 1990 by Sanofi based on pediatric trials that, according to FDA, reviewed safety for only three days after injection."

The Times pointed out that experts consider placebo-controlled trials that would deny some children polio shots unethical, because "you're substituting a theoretical risk for a real risk," as Dr. Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, explained. "The real risks are the diseases."

Ayman Chit, head of vaccines for North America at Sanofi, told the newspaper that development of the vaccine began in 1977, over 280 million people worldwide have received it, and there have been more than 300 studies, some with up to six months of follow-up.



Trump, who is less than six weeks out from returning to office, has sent mixed messages on vaccines in recent interviews.

Asked about RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine record during a Time "Person of the Year" interview published Thursday, the president-elect said that "we're going to be able to do very serious testing" and certain vaccines could be made unavailable "if I think it's dangerous."

Trump toldNBC News last weekend: "Hey, look, I'm not against vaccines. The polio vaccine is the greatest thing. If somebody told me to get rid of the polio vaccine, they're going to have to work real hard to convince me. I think vaccines are—certain vaccines—are incredible. But maybe some aren't. And if they aren't, we have to find out."

Both comments generated concern—like the Friday reporting in the Times, which University of Alabama law professor and MSNBC columnist Joyce White Vance called "absolutely terrifying."

She was far from alone. HuffPost senior front page editor Philip Lewis said that "this is just so dangerous and ridiculous" while Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan declared, "We are so—and I use this word advisedly—fucked."

Ryan Cooper, managing editor at The American Prospect, warned that "they want your kids dead."

Author and musician Mikel Jollett similarly said, "So if you're wondering if Donald Trump is trying to kill your kids, yes, yes he is."

Multiple critics altered Trump's campaign slogan to "Make Polio Great Again."

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) responded with a video on social media:


Without naming anyone, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a polio survivor, put out a lengthy statement on Friday.

"The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease. Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed—they're dangerous," he said in part. "Anyone seeking the Senate's consent to serve in the incoming administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts."

'Belligerent critic': 75 Nobel Laureates beg senators to shut down major Trump nomination

Sarah K. Burris
December 9, 2024

RAW STORY

Former U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the stage at a campaign rally at the Gas South Arena on October 23, 2024 in Duluth, Georgia.
(Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)


A group of 75 Nobel laureates are concerned that there will be a disaster for public health, with someone like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leading the Department of Health and Human Services.

The New York Times reports that "it's the first time in recent memory that Nobel laureates have banded together against a Cabinet choice," according to 1993 winner, Richard Roberts, who helped draft the letter to Senators.

The physiologist called out Kennedy for "political attacks on science," which he called "very damaging."

"You have to stand up and protect it," Roberts added.

The letter says Kennedy, an environmental lawyer by trade, lacks " credentials" in medicine and science.

“Placing Mr. Kennedy in charge of DHHS would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences,” it continues.

Kennedy has a history of vaccine skepticism and seeks to withdraw fluoridation in drinking water.

The letter also points out that Kennedy has been a “belligerent critic” of the government agencies he would oversee, such as the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health.

Kennedy has already pledged to fire hundreds of NIH employees and alleged that the FDA waged a "war on public health."

“The leader of DHHS should continue to nurture and improve — not to threaten — these important and highly respected institutions and their employees,” the letter also said.

“Science is dependent on the political structures of this country," Roberts said. “I don’t think we should be burying our heads in the sand just because we’re scientists."

He added: “Maybe there are some who will read this and think, 'Well, we really do want to protect the health of our citizens. They didn’t elect us so that we could kill them.'”

Dr. Oz Had Up to Tens of Millions Invested in Companies Involved With CMS

"Seniors deserve a CMS leader who will protect and strengthen Medicare—not someone like Dr. Oz who wants to privatize this vital and hugely popular program for great personal gain," said the head of Accountable.US.

Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks to university students studying medicine, dentistry, and psychology in Ankara, Turkey on May 2, 2024.
(Photo: Ahmet Serdar Eser/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Dec 13, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the "former daytime television fixture" who U.S. President-elect Donald Trump picked to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, reported "up to $56 million in investments in three companies" with direct CMS interests, the watchdog Accountable.US highlighted Friday.

The celebrity heart surgeon is already under fire for his record of peddling "baseless or wrong" health advice and pushing Medicare Advantage (MA)—an alternative to the government-run program administered by private health insurance companies—on The Dr. Oz Show, as well as his stake in UnitedHealth and CVS Health.

The new Accountable.US report—based on disclosures from Oz's unsuccessful 2022 run against U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.)—adds to conflict of interest concerns and fears that Oz may thwart the Biden administration's new rule intended to rein in privatized Medicare Advantage plans.

"Dr. Oz's conflicts of interest pose a serious threat to seniors' health security."

"In 2022, Oz's 'single biggest healthcare holding' was up to $26 million in Sharecare, a digital health company Oz co-founded that became the 'exclusive in-home care supplemental benefit program' for 1.5 million MA enrollees across 400 MA plans through its CareLinx service in 2022," the watchdog detailed. "By 2023, CareLinx was available to over 2 million MA enrollees. Sharecare was taken private in a $518 million private equity deal in 2024, and it is unknown if Oz still holds a stake."

Nick Clemens, Oz's spokesperson on the Trump transition team, told USA TODAY—which first reported on the Accountable.US findings—that Oz sold his stake in Sharecare but did not address further questions.

The group noted that "in 2022, Oz disclosed holding up to $25 million in Amazon and up to $5 million in Microsoft, which CMS called its 'two primary cloud service providers' in its FY 2025 budget document, which requested over $3.3 billion in information technology funding for the year. Notably, Amazon Web Services hosted 74 million Medicaid records as early as 2017 and the company has been contracted to streamline Healthcare.gov, the federal health insurance portal run by CMS."

Accountable.US "reviewed filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and was unable to find evidence that Oz sold stocks in Amazon or Microsoft since the 2022 filing," according to USA Today—which found that Oz's stakes could be as high as $26.7 million for Amazon and $6.3 million for Microsoft.

When asked if Oz still owned the stocks in the two tech giants, Trump transition spokesperson Brian Hughes only said that "all nominees and appointees will comply with the ethical obligations of their respective agencies."

"Seniors deserve a CMS leader who will protect and strengthen Medicare—not someone like Dr. Oz who wants to privatize this vital and hugely popular program for great personal gain," said the head of Accountable.US.."

Given the nominee's TV and investment history, Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk declared Friday that "seniors deserve a CMS leader who will protect and strengthen Medicare—not someone like Dr. Oz who wants to privatize this vital and hugely popular program for great personal gain."

"If Dr. Oz and Project 2025 had their way, Medicare as we know it would end, replaced with private insurance plans that cost taxpayers more and leave patients vulnerable to denials of care and higher premiums," Carrk continued, citing the Heritage Foundation-led playbook for the incoming Republican president.

"Dr. Oz's conflicts of interest pose a serious threat to seniors' health security," he added, "but as long as big insurance industry megadonors are happy, President-elect Trump doesn't seem to mind."

While Trump has the power to pick the next CMS administrator, the selection requires Senate confirmation—unless the president-elect works around it to install his most controversial nominees.

On Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and six colleagues wrote to Oz to express their concerns about his qualifications, "advocacy for the elimination of traditional Medicare," and "deep financial ties to private health insurers."

"As CMS administrator, you would be tasked with overseeing Medicare and ensuring that the tens of millions of seniors that rely on the program receive the care they deserve, including cracking down on abuses by private insurers in Medicare Advantage," they pointed out. "The consequences of failure on your part would be grave. Billions of federal healthcare dollars—and millions of lives—are at stake."

The lawmakers sent Oz a list of questions, requesting responses by December 23. They inquired about his views on traditional Medicare and revelations that "private companies overcharge taxpayers and unlawfully deny care." They also asked whether, as administrator, he would commit to "fully divesting of any and all financial holdings related to the insurance industry" and "recusing from any decisions that may impact insurers" in which he has a stake.

Sharing the letter on social media Wednesday, Accountable.US said that Warren "is right: this glaring conflict of interest endangers seniors and puts billions in corporate pockets."

Sanders Says 'Political Movement,' Not Murder, Is the Path to Medicare for All

"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at NHTI Concord's 

Community College on October 22, 2024 in Concord, New Hampshire.
(Photo: Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Dec 13, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.

"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.

"The reason we have not joined virtually every other major country on Earth in guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right is the political power and financial power of the insurance industry and drug companies," he told Jacobin. "It will take a political revolution in this country to get Congress to say, 'You know what, we're here to represent ordinary people, to provide quality care to ordinary people as a human right,' and not to worry about the profits of insurance and drug companies."

Asked about Thompson's alleged killer—26-year-old Luigi Mangione, whose reported manifesto railed against the nation's expensive healthcare system and low life expectancy—Sanders said: "You don't kill people. It's abhorrent. I condemn it wholeheartedly. It was a terrible act. But what it did show online is that many, many people are furious at the health insurance companies who make huge profits denying them and their families the healthcare that they desperately need."

"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."

"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system," he continued, noting the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year because they can't get to a doctor.

"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."

"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.

The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.

Sanders—one of the few members of Congress who regularly talks about Medicare for All—isn't alone in suggesting that unsympathetic responses to Thompson's murder can be explained by a privatized healthcare system that fails so many people.

In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.

Khanna—a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, led in the House of Representatives by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—made the case that you can recognize those stories without accepting the assassination.

"You condemn the murder of an insurance executive who was a father of two kids," he said. "At the same time, you say there's obviously an outpouring behavior of people whose claims are being denied, and we need to reform the system."

Two other Medicare for All advocates, Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), also made clear to Business Insider that they oppose Thompson's murder but understand some of the responses to it.

"Of course, we don't want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents," said Ocasio-Cortez. "We also don't want to see the extreme suffering that millions of Americans confront when your life changes overnight from a horrific diagnosis, and people are led to just some of the worst, not just health events, but the worst financial events of their and their family's lives."



Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."

"Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far," she continued. "This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the healthcare to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone."

After facing some criticism for those comments, Warren added Wednesday: "Violence is never the answer. Period... I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder."

Michael Moore: Rage at health insurers is 'justified' — we should 'pour gasoline' on it

Matthew Chapman
December 13, 2024 
RAW STORY

Michael Moore / Shutterstock

Left-leaning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore doesn't support the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — but he feels the public anger this crime brought to the surface about the health insurance industry is "1,000 percent justified," reported The Independent.

Moore is well known for his 2007 documentary "Sicko," in which he explored how the U.S. health care system exploits and neglects vulnerable people. The accused killer of Thompson, Luigi Mangione, cited "Sicko" himself, saying it "illuminated the corruption and greed" of insurers.

Mangione himself comes from a family that is likely even wealthier than the slain CEO.

Since then, the landmark Affordable Care Act has reined in many of the worst ways health insurance companies used to abuse people — but that doesn't mean people don't still have reason to be angry, he said.

“It’s not often that my work gets a killer five-star review from an actual killer,” Moore wrote in Substack. “Do I condemn murder? That’s an odd question. In Fahrenheit 9/11, I condemned the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi people and the senseless murder of our own American soldiers at the hands of our American government.”

The killing was undeniably wrong, he emphasized. That being said, “Some people have stepped forward to condemn this anger. I am not one of them. The anger is 1000 percent justified. It is long overdue for the media to cover it. It is not new. It has been boiling. And I’m not going to tamp it down or ask people to shut up. I want to pour gasoline on that anger.”

The public response to the killing has included a vocal chorus of online activists celebrating, as well as attacking anyone who helped police capture Mangione, with the McDonald's where he was caught getting hit with a deluge of bad reviews about "rats in the kitchen."

In Wake of Killing, UnitedHealth CEO Admits 'No One Would Design a System Like the One We Have'

One critic said UnitedHealth Group chief executive Andrew Witty should "resign and then dedicate every dollar he has to dismantling the current system brick by brick and building one based on public health in its stead."

UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill on May 1, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
(Photo: Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Jake Johnson
Dec 13, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty wrote in a New York Times op-ed Friday that the for-profit U.S. healthcare system "does not work as well as it should" and that "no one would design a system like the one we have," admissions that came as his industry faced a torrent of public anger following the murder of UnitedHealthcare's chief executive.

Witty declared that his firm, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare and the nation's largest private insurer, is "willing to partner with anyone, as we always have—healthcare providers, employers, patients, pharmaceutical companies, governments, and others—to find ways to deliver high-quality care and lower costs."

But critics didn't buy Witty's expressed commitment to reforming an industry that his company has helped shape and profited from massively. Witty was the highest-paid healthcare executive in the U.S. last year, and 40% of the private insurance industry's total profit since the passage of the Affordable Care Act has flowed to UnitedHealth Group.

"It is (barely) true that UnitedHealth didn't design the U.S. system of corporate insurance, which kills tens of thousands of people a year through denial of care," Alex Lawson, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Social Security Works, told Common Dreams. "But they certainly have perfected it and turned it into a medical murder apparatus at industrial scale. They not only block all attempts to change the system in the direction of public health, they bribe and bully with their billions in blood money to make it even crueler."

"Andrew Witty is the high priest of the temple to Moloch and Mammon, murder and money," Lawson added. "And there is no way for him to wash his hands of it, except perhaps to resign and then dedicate every dollar he has to dismantling the current system brick by brick and building one based on public health in its stead."

"Medicare for All is the only proposal on the table capable of delivering universal, continuous coverage for everyone, while also securing the efficiency and savings only possible through the elimination of private insurance."

While publicly pledging to cooperate with reform efforts, Witty has defended his company's care denials in private and urged his employees not to engage with media outlets in the aftermath of Thompson's murder.

Contrary to Witty's depiction of his company in his Times op-ed, UnitedHealth has historically been an aggressive opponent of reform efforts aimed at mitigating the harms of for-profit insurance and building public alternatives. The Leverreported in 2021 that UnitedHealth Group "held a webinar to pressure its rank-and-file employees to mobilize against efforts in Connecticut to create a state-level public health insurance option."

At the national level, UnitedHealth has spent over $5.8 million this year lobbying federal lawmakers, according to OpenSecrets.

Michael Lighty, president of HealthyCalifornia Now, offered condolences to the family of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in an email to Common Dreams and argued that supporters of healthcare justice must reject reform paths "controlled by economic elites such as collaborations like Andrew Witty invites."

"Our demand is actually simple: free healthcare paid for by our taxes (like firefighting). Let's build on this powerful moment of righteous outrage to change what's possible," Lighty added. "The healthcare industry needs to understand that they are not putting this genie back in the bottle: The healthcare system is a cancer that will take down anyone who defends it."

Witty, who was born in a country with a public healthcare system, did not detail the kinds of reforms he would support in his op-ed Friday, but it's clear he would oppose a transition to a single-payer system such as Medicare for All, which would effectively abolish private health insurance and provide coverage to all Americans for free at the point of service—and at a lower total cost than the status quo.

In a column for The Nation on Friday, writer Natalie Shure argued that "the appalling amount of resources and energy we put into maintaining the existence of health insurance is wasted on an industry with no social value whatsoever."

"You could eliminate every one of these corporations tomorrow and build a system without them that works better, for less money, and with less hassle," Shure wrote. "Other countries already have systems like this. Medicare for All is the only proposal on the table capable of delivering universal, continuous coverage for everyone, while also securing the efficiency and savings only possible through the elimination of private insurance."

"None of that means that murder is justified or useful," Shure added. "But anger can be. Some politicians, from Bernie Sanders, to Elizabeth Warren, to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have begun to make public statements ascribing the reaction to Brian Thompson's murder to widespread fury over the health insurance industry. The next step is to harness it, and to build something new."

This story has been updated to include comment from Michael Lighty, president of HealthyCalifornia Now.

Chinese spy claims add to Prince Andrew's woes

Agence France-Presse
December 13, 2024 

Prince Andrew withdrew from frontline royal duties in late 2019 after public outrage at a BBC television interview in which he defended his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein 

(Adrian DENNIS/AfP)

A former UK security minister said Friday that it was "extremely embarrassing" that a suspected Chinese spy had become a confidant of disgraced royal Prince Andrew.

The story dominated the UK's front pages on Friday, the latest humiliation for a prince whose reputation is already in tatters over his ties to accused sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Judges on Thursday upheld a ban on the businessman, identified only as H6, from entering the country, and said the prince's troubles had left him "vulnerable" to exploitation.

In the ruling, judges assessed H6 was in a position to "generate relationships between senior Chinese officials and prominent UK figures which could be leveraged for political interference purposes by the Chinese State".

Asked whether the prince's advisers should have been more alert to the danger, former minister of state for security Tom Tugendhat told the BBC that "it's not quite as black and white as it may first appear –- but it's certainly extremely embarrassing".

The tribunal heard that the prince's aide Dominic Hampshire told the suspected spy that he could help in potential dealings with Chinese investors.

"Outside of his (Andrew's) closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on," Hampshire told H6 in a 2020 letter.

H6 also received an invitation to the prince's birthday party.

Former interior minister Suella Braverman banned H6 from entering the country in 2023 after her ministry found he had engaged in "covert and deceptive activity" on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The tribunal upheld the ban on Thursday, ruling that Braverman "was entitled to conclude that his exclusion was justified and proportionate".

Andrew withdrew from frontline royal duties in late 2019 after public outrage over a BBC television interview in which he defended his friendship with Epstein.

The former Royal Navy helicopter pilot, 64, in February 2022 settled a US civil case brought by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 17.

Andrew's mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, stripped him of his honorary military titles and patronages soon afterward, effectively shutting him out of royal life.

Ex-Man City striker set to be Georgia's new far-right president

THE COUNTRY NOT THE STATE 

Agence France-Presse
December 13, 2024 

Mikheil Kavelashvili is known for his expletive-laden parliament speeches and tirades against government critics (Georgian Dream party's press service/AFP)

by Irakli METREVELI

Georgian ex-footballer turned far-right politician Mikheil Kavelashvili is set to become Tbilisi's next figurehead president in an indirect election denounced as "illegitimate" by the current pro-EU leader.

Picked by the governing Georgian Dream party as a loyalist, the former forward for the English Premier League's Manchester City is known for his expletive-laden parliament speeches and tirades against government critics and LGBTQ people.

He is expected to be voted into the role by an electoral college controlled by Georgian Dream, after the party abolished the use of popular votes to elect the president under controversial constitutional changes passed in 2017.

Kavelashvili being catapulted to the role comes at a dramatic moment as thousands of anti-government protesters have flooded Tbilisi for weeks, furious at Georgian Dream for shelving EU accession talks.

Protesters have described Kavelashvili as a "puppet" of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream's founder, who in turn has called him "the embodiment of a Georgian man".

Sporting a mustache and combed back hair, his comments on LGBTQ people have raised alarm, as Georgian Dream has adopted Kremlin-style laws curbing their rights.

The ex-footballer slammed the West for wanting "as many people as possible (to be) neutral and tolerant toward the LGBTQ ideology, which supposedly defends the weak but is, in fact, an act against humanity."

- Football roots -


Born in Georgia's tiny southwestern town of Bolnisi in 1971, Kavelashvili began his career as a professional footballer in the 1980s, playing for clubs in Georgia and Russia and becoming a striker for his country's national team.

The 53-year-old played for Manchester City between 1995-1997, scoring on debut against bitter crosstown rivals Manchester United.

He then joined Swiss club Grasshoppers, where he spent most of his time on the bench, before stints elsewhere in Switzerland at Zurich, Luzern, Sion, Aarau and Basel.




AFP Mikheil Kavelashvili played for Manchester City in the mid-1990s and represented Georgia internationally

Kavelashvili was disqualified from running for president of the Georgian Football Federation in 2015 due to a lack of higher education, a requirement for the role.


He has served as an MP for Georgian Dream since 2016 and was elected to the legislature on the party's list in October 2024 polls -- which opposition groups say were rigged and do not recognize.

In 2022, Kavelashvili, alongside other Georgian Dream lawmakers, established a parliamentary faction called People's Power -- an anti-Western group that officially split from the governing party but was widely seen as its satellite.

His political affiliations align with far-right ideologies.

- 'Oligarch's puppet' -

He is known for obscenity-laced statements against opponents and has accused Western leaders of trying to drag Georgia into Russia's war on Ukraine.

Georgian Dream nominated Kavelashvili for the largely ceremonial post in late November, aiming to strengthen its grip on power.

But the nomination outraged many in Georgia, especially those who have been taking to the streets daily for two weeks to protest Georgian Dream's drift from its aim of joining the EU.

On the 14th day of mass protests this week, demonstrators did not hold back in expressing their disdain for Kavelashvili.

"I can hardly imagine anyone less suited for the role of head of state," historian Nika Gobronidze, 53, told AFP.

He said Ivanishvili, the businessman widely believed to be pulling the strings in Georgian politics, chose Kavelashvili as a tool he could control.

"Caligula wanted his horse to be a consul, our oligarch wants his puppet Kavelashvili to be a president," he said, referring to the Roman emperor.

- 'Illegitimate' -

The new electoral process makes it a foregone conclusion that Kavelashvili will be the next president, with incumbent Salome Zurabishvili set to lose office.

But Kavelashvili will see his legitimacy undermined from the onset, with constitutional law experts -- including an author of Georgia's constitution, Vakhtang Khmaladze -- saying the election will be "illegitimate".

Tbilisi is currently engulfed in a constitutional crisis, with Zurabishvili demanding a re-run of October's parliamentary elections.

Parliament had approved its own credentials in violation of a legal requirement to await a court decision on Zurabishvili's bid to have the election results annulled.

Zurabishvili has declared the new parliament and government "illegitimate" and vowed not to step down at the end of her term on December 29 if Georgian Dream does not organize a fresh vote.

Trump's latest demand: An end to ‘inconvenient’ Daylight Saving Time

Erik De La Garza
December 13, 2024 4:15PM ET

President-elect Donald Trump wants to end Daylight Saving Time changes – and he said Friday the Republican Party will work to do just that.

Americans have grown increasingly irked by the need to adjust the time every spring and fall, and many have called for a change — though abolishing the seasonal changes would require an act of Congress.

“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” Trump said Friday in a post to his Truth Social platform. “Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”

A bipartisan push in the Senate to end the time change and make Daylight Savings Time permanent gained steam in 2022 when the Sunshine Protection Act was passed by unanimous consent. It ultimately failed to pass when the House did not act on it.

ALSO READ: The reckoning: Plenty of hurts coming for the people who didn't care about their country

Trump’s announcement drew mixed reaction across social media, with some users showing support for the idea, while others raised questions surrounding the change.

“Get in losers, we’re ending Daylight Savings Time,” Townhall columnist Dustin Grage told his followers on X. “We are so back.”

"Donald Trump says he wants to get rid of Daylight Saving Time. He needs to make it permanent,” artist Art Candee wrote in a social media post. “It shouldn't get dark at 4:30 in the afternoon in the winter.”

“Ok does he mean permanent standard time?” reporter Emily Brooks wrote to her followers on X. “Or permanent daylight savings time like a lot of people want? Because there is a big (1 hour) difference!”

HuffPost reporter Arthur Delaney pointed out to his followers on X: “The US Tried Permanent Daylight Saving Time in the ’70s. People Hated It.”

IT DRIVES YOU MAD

'Alternate reality': NYT experiment immerses reporter in far-right media

Carl Gibson,

 AlterNet
December 13, 2024 

Alex Jones speaks with media after day six of trial at the Travis County Courthouse, in Austin, U.S. August 2, 2022. Briana Sanchez/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

One common explanation for the outcome of the 2024 presidential election is that the far-right's vast social media ecosystem was able to reach more Americans than traditional media, influencing a decisive number of voters in key battleground states. One New York Times reporter decided to put himself in those Americans' shoes for a week and document the results.

In a Friday article, journalist Stuart A. Thompson — who covers right-wing media — dove head-first into Rumble, which is a preferred video news platform for the extreme right. As Thompson noted, Rumble began as a YouTube alternative that was known for cat videos until the January 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol. Once YouTube banned multiple accounts for their defense of insurrectionists, those content creators migrated their channels and audiences to Rumble.

As part of his research process, Thompson wrote that he watched approximately 47 hours of Rumble content for his report. For one week, Thompson deactivated all of his news apps, filtered out emails from news outlets and newsletters and exclusively watched Rumble content creators like Dan Bongino, Roseanne Barr, Candace Owens, Russell Brand and Clayton Morris, among others.

READ MORE: Far-right influencer suggests 'shooting everyone involved' with immigrant aid charities

These are just a few of the most popular Rumble commentators. Other top Rumble contributors include conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and misogynist influencer Andrew Tate. Another is Stew Peters — a former bounty hunter who has roughly 556,000 followers and has praised Adolf Hitler and called for shooting nonprofit workers who help undocumented immigrants.

"Just a few hours into the experiment, it was clear that I was falling into an alternate reality fueled almost entirely by outrage," Thompson wrote, noting that he could feel his worldview and perspectives shift the more he was exposed to far-right narratives.


"When I described to my wife what I was hearing on Rumble, she said I was right to feel uneasy because the world I was immersing myself in sounded genuinely awful," he continued. "Hour by hour, Rumble’s hosts stoked fears about nearly everything: culture wars, transgender Americans and even a potential World War III."

Thompson reported that while he expected blowback from Rumble contributors after his article went live on the Times' site, he was surprised to get public backlash before publication. He recalled one interaction in which Jake Pentland — Roseanne Barr's son, who co-hosts her podcast — posted an email inquiry he sent to X, which resulted in him getting doxxed and brigaded with hate from Rumble viewers.

READ MORE: Trump campaign advertising on channel of pro-Nazi commentator who called Hitler a 'hero'

"Rumble’s chief executive reposted [Pentland's tweet], then Elon Musk reposted that to his more than 200 million followers," Thompson wrote. "My phone number was visible, and apparently seen more than 50 million times on the platform, so I was soon flooded with angry phone calls and texts calling my article (which hadn’t yet been published) a 'hit job' focused on World War III."

After the election, Pew Research found that roughly 37% of Americans under 30 — and approximately 20% of all American adults — get their news from "social media influencers" rather than from traditional news outlets. 63% of those influencers are men, and 77% of those influencers have no background or ties to any news organization. A majority of influencers lean conservative, and 85% of them have a presence on X. 50% of news influencers are active on Instagram, and 44% also have a YouTube presence.

"These Americans also say they get a variety of different types of information, from basic facts and opinions to funny posts and breaking news," Pew reported last month. "When it comes to opinions, most who see them say they are an even mix of opinions they agree and disagree with (61%), but far more say they mostly agree with what they see (30%) than mostly disagree (2%)."

Click here to read Thompson's report for the Times in its entirety (subscription required).

Dogs may be taught to communicate by pressing buttons: study

Travis Gettys
December 13, 2024 
RAW STORY

A new study suggests dogs can learn to express themselves by pressing buttons to create two or more word combinations.

Researchers have been following several thousand dogs since 2022 whose button presses are logged through an app designed by Fluent Pet, which makes soundboards, and they then selected 152 dogs who were pressing two or more buttons in a sequence and found they frequently selected their own name, followed by "want" and then topics like "food" or "outside," reported the Washington Post.

“If we know that they are using the buttons intentionally, they can use them in ways that seem smart, like a young child, “said Federico Rossano, an associate professor of cognitive science at the University of California at San Diego. “This should lead owners to a renewed appreciation of the intelligence of their pets and help them provide for their dogs.”

The data was self-reported by dog owners, but those selected for the multi-word combination study were not informed about it to avoid bias, and the researchers conducted computer simulations on probability to determine whether the combinations were random.

“This is how we know that most dogs in this pool were doing multi-button combinations in nonrandom ways,” Rossano said. “Note that nonrandomness can be caused by many things, including imitating the training they received, though the first analysis comparing button presses by owner and their dogs suggests that this is unlikely to be the main explanation.”

However, he said some of the dogs were pressing the buttons at random, which he said bolstered the credibility of their findings.

"If the data lined up as if they were all extremely systematic," Rossano said, "it would seem very hard to believe."

"The dogs understand the meaning of the more frequently used words on these soundboards and suggest that dogs are capable of using these soundboards to communicate with humans about their needs and wants,” Rossano added. “It further raises the possibility that they might be communicating the way a 2-year-old human might, which is more sophisticated than previously believed.”

Amritha Mallikarjun, a researcher at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center who was not involved in the study, said the dogs' first button press might have been random but led to more button presses through reinforcement.

“Dogs trained on buttons will often like to try things and will take a guess at what we want by performing a random behavior,” she said. “The button-trained dog presses ‘want outside’ one time just to try it. There is no real knowledge of what the concept of the verb ‘want’ is. ‘Outside’ usually means the dog’s person lets you in the backyard, and sometimes you hear your owner press ‘want food,’ so the dog associates the ‘want’ button with good things.”