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Trump Administration Abandons Older Americans with HHS Cuts
Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, released the following statement in response to the Trump Administration’s sweeping staff cuts and reorganization at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):
“Donald Trump often claims, ‘We love our seniors,’ but today’s drastic cuts at HHS reveal just how empty those words are.
“Slashing staff at HHS will do nothing to help Americans live longer, healthier lives. Even worse, dismantling the Administration for Community Living—an agency that provides assistance so seniors can stay in their homes, access medical care, and support essential programs like Meals on Wheels and local senior centers—is short-sighted and harmful to a secure quality of life.
“These actions, along with the continued disruption at the Social Security Administration, send a clear and alarming message to older Americans: ‘You’re on your own.’”
The Alliance for Retired Americans is a national organization with 4.4 million members that advocates for retirement security for all Americans.
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David Hogg Says Any Democrat Who Supports War With Iran 'Should Be Primaried'
"Our generation grew up going through two multi-trillion dollar wars we should have never been involved in," said the youth organizer recently ousted by the DNC. "If you think this is a good idea read a history book."
Jun 17, 2025
With just a handful of Democratic lawmakers so far backing a push to prevent an overwhelmingly unpopular march to war with Iran, progressive organizer David Hogg on Tuesday said those who don't align themselves with the vast majority of Americans on the issue should face primary challenges in upcoming elections.
"Any Democrat who supports this war with Iran needs to be primaried," said Hogg, a gun control activist who briefly served as co-vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and angered leaders by pushing for primary challenges. "Our generation grew up going through two multi-trillion dollar wars we should have never been involved in. We are not fucking going back to that. If you think this is a good idea read a history book."
Hogg's comments came days after Israel launched sweeping attacks on Iran amid U.S.-Iran talks on the Middle Eastern country's nuclear development.
At least 224 people have been killed and 1,481 wounded since the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began launching air strikes on hundreds of targets last Friday, including nuclear facilities and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting headquarters.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that American forces "could get involved" in the conflict between the two countries, and the U.S. military has already had "full and complete coordination" with the IDF, as one Israeli official said after the bombing campaign began in Iran last week, with American fighter jets reportedly "patrolling the sky" in the Middle East and dozens of Air Force refueling planes headed for Europe over the weekend.
The reports intensified concerns among progressives of more direct U.S. involvement in the conflict, and led to renewed calls for the Trump administration to end its support for Israel as the IDF also continued its U.S.-backed slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
As Common Dreams reported Monday, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced a war powers resolution to stop Trump from attacking Iran without congressional approval.
The resistance to war with the Middle Eastern country has bipartisan backing, with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introducing a similar resolution in the House and garnering the support of progressive Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Don Beyer (D-Va.).
Zeteo reporter Prem Thakker said Monday evening that just over 2% of members of Congress have backed legislative efforts to stop the U.S. from expanding its involvement in Israel's bombardment of Iran—even as a Brookings Institution poll showed that more than two-thirds of Americans back diplomatic talks to limit Iran's nuclear program and just 14% of Americans support military action to stop Iranian nuclear development.
At the Center for International Policy, executive vice president Matt Duss said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was clearly starting a "war of choice" with Iran "to sabotage diplomacy" regarding its nuclear program after having pushed Trump to "make the terrible mistake" of withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
"Netanyahu has now outmaneuvered him to the severe detriment of U.S. interests and put American military and diplomatic personnel in harm’s way," said Duss. "Responsible lawmakers who prioritize American safety and security are rightly speaking out against Netanyahu’s irresponsible provocation, reflecting the views of an overwhelming majority of Americans who favor diplomacy over war to restrain Iran’s nuclear activities."
"Immediately ending this violence and finding a path back to viable negotiations should be the guiding priority for the U.S. government, rather than belligerent rhetoric and the continued supply of offensive weapons that enables yet another horrific conflict endangering millions," he added.
Lily Greenberg Call, a former Interior Department official who was appointed by former President Joe Biden but resigned in protest of his administration's support for Israel's assault on Gaza, condemned Democratic leaders for their "shameful fucking silence" on potential war with Iran.
"Most Americans, including their base, don't want the U.S. under Trump to go to war with Iran and have been horrified at almost two years of footage of murder in Gaza," said Greenberg Call. "We won't accept this and we won't forget in '26 and '28."
Hogg demanded that Democrats unite "against Trump and his war" and pointed out that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle regularly claim that broadly popular proposals for investments in effective programs like Medicare for All and universal childcare are unaffordable.
"Where are all the 'we can't afford it' politicians," asked Hogg, "now that we're on the brink of what could be another multi-trillion dollar war?"
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Banking on Climate Chaos Report Shows 'Tremendous' Financing Surge
"The time for climate justice is now, and that means ending fossil fuel investment at its source and holding banks and financial institutions accountable," said one Native American environmental activist.
Jun 17, 2025
The 16th annual Banking on Climate Chaos report, which was released Tuesday, found that dozens of the world's biggest banks committed $869 billion to firms engaged in fossil fuels in 2024—a "tremendous" increase from the overall fossil fuel financing that was recorded the year prior, according to the authors of the study.
The report comes a few months after the World Meteorological Organization announced a new milestone in the climate crisis: Not only was 2024 the warmest year in a 175-year observational period, reaching a global surface temperature of roughly 1.55°C above the preindustrial average for the first time, but each of the past 10 years was also individually the 10 warmest on record.
The new report analyzed the globe's 65 largest banks by assets according to S&P Global's annual rankings and was authored by several climate-focused groups, including Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Sierra Club, Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), and others.
The report has been endorsed by hundreds of organizations in dozens of countries, according to a statement from RAN, and all banks in the report were given the opportunity to review the financing attributed to them prior to the report's release.
Big picture, the report shows that Wall Street investment banks and other financial institutions are "complicit in the climate crisis," according to Tom BK Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network and study co-author.
"The time for climate justice is now, and that means ending fossil fuel investment at its source and holding banks and financial institutions accountable," Goldtooth added.
The bank financing compiled in the report includes things such as the role banks play in facilitating bond issuances or their lending of money, according to the methodology section. Banks play a crucial role in enabling fossil fuel production because, as senior research strategist at RAN Caleb Schwarz explained, fossil fuel companies are quite rich but they don't have enough capital to finance their projects solely on their own.
Fossil fuel financing had been in on the decline between 2021 and 2023, dropping by $215 billion during that time period to $707 billion—meaning the rise in 2024 is a turnaround of over $162 billion.
"This growth in fossil fuel finance is troubling because new fossil fuel infrastructure locks in more decades of fossil fuel dependence," according to the report. "While various macroeconomic and political factors likely influenced specific decisions, at the end of the day, what matters is the outcome: Banks poured even more money into the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, despite the clear societal need for them to do the opposite."
Other topline findings include that the 65 banks featured in the report have committed $7.9 trillion in fossil fuel financing since 2016, and over two-thirds of the banks upped their fossil fuel financing between 2023 and 2024.
The world's biggest offender when it comes to fossil fuel financing in 2024 was JPMorgan Chase, which tallied $53.5 billion in fossil fuel financing, per the report. Bank of America came in second place.
"This should be a wake-up call to national governments and regional supervisory bodies that they need to step in," said Allison Fajans-Turner, bank engagement and policy lead at RAN and one of the co-authors of the report, on Tuesday. "Banks are not policing themselves. Regulators need to set rules to manage the financial risk that banks are putting into the system."
The authors of the report lay out several demands for banks, including that they drop all finance for fossil fuel expansion, adopt "binding and mandatory emissions reduction targets for upstream, midstream, and downstream fossil fuels," and increase financing for a "just transition," among others.
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'The Never-Ending Hunger Games of Gaza': IDF Kills 70+ Palestinians Trying to Get Food Aid
"It was a massacre," said one witness, adding that Israeli troops continued firing on people as they fled.
Jun 17, 2025
With the world's eyes on the escalating Israel-Iran conflict, the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday killed at least dozens of people waiting for food trucks in the Gaza Strip, yet another IDF massacre of starving Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid.
Eyewitnesses told journalists that while Palestinians were gathered on a route used by humanitarian assistance trucks in Khan Younis, Israeli forces conducted an airstrike on a nearby home and then targeted the crowd with gun and tank fire.
The Gaza Health Ministry and Nasser Hospital initially confirmed that more than 50 people were dead and over 200 others were wounded. Al Jazeera later reported that the ministry said the death toll had risen beyond 70.
People in the crowd were "blown to pieces, body parts were scattered all over the place," witness Saeed Abu Lebda told the outlet. "The number of victims is way more than those brought to the hospital. But no one could reach them to provide help."
At Nasser Hospital, a witness named Alaa recalled to Reuters that "all of a sudden, they let us move forward and made everyone gather, and then shells started falling, tank shells."
"No one is looking at these people with mercy," Alaa added. "The people are dying, they are being torn apart, to get food for their children. Look at these people, all these people are torn to get flour to feed their children."
As The Associated Pressreported:
Yousef Nofal, an eyewitness, said he saw many people motionless and bleeding on the ground after Israeli forces opened fire. "It was a massacre," he said, adding that the soldiers continued firing on people as they fled from the area.
Mohammed Abu Qeshfa said he heard a loud explosion followed by heavy gunfire and tank shelling. "I survived by a miracle," he said.
"A witness who spoke with Haaretz said that the Palestinians were hit in an area that the army considers an active combat zone, and they were not in the vicinity of an established distribution center nearby," according to the Israeli newspaper.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that "earlier today, a gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of Khan Younis, and in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area."
"The IDF is aware of reports regarding a number of injured individuals from IDF fire following the crowd's approach. The details of the incident are under review," the Israeli military continued. "The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimize harm as much as possible to them while maintaining the safety of our troops."
The Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, the Israeli assault on the Palestinian enclave had killed at least 55,432 people, with thousands more missing in rubble and presumed dead.
Over the past 20 months, the IDF has repeatedly slaughtered Palestinians trying to access food assistance, including at hubs recently set up by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) following an Israeli blockade on aid.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a lengthy Tuesday statement that GHF "is directly responsible for the escalating Israeli crimes against starved Palestinian civilians near aid distribution points in central and southern Gaza."
"The foundation's operational model involves luring civilians to specific locations coordinated with the Israeli army, where they are subjected to killing, injury, and cruel and degrading treatment," Euro-Med Monitor said. "These points have effectively become death traps used as tools in Israel's ongoing genocide against the Palestinian population for over 20 months."
The monitor called for independent international investigations into the Tuesday killings and GHF's role "in facilitating and executing serious crimes committed against Palestinian civilians," as well as a halt on all financial or logistical support to the foundation, criminal probes against all individuals affiliated with it, and civil lawsuits for implicated entities and individuals.
"Euro-Med Monitor also calls on all states, individually and collectively, to uphold their legal obligations and take urgent action to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza in all its forms," the group added. "Finally, Euro-Med Monitor urges the international community to impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel in response to its systematic and grave violations of international law."
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