TruthOut

New research finds that the amount of heat soaked up by the Earth’s oceans reached a record high for the sixth year in a row in 2022 — a show of the dire need to address the climate crisis to protect life as it is currently known on Earth. Research published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences on Wednesday shows that ocean heat content hit its hottest point in the historical record last year...

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On Tuesday, House Republicans voted to form a committee to supposedly investigate the bunk conspiracy theory that they have been planting for years that the right is being oppressed by the federal government — a committee that will almost certainly be used to advance the neofascism that has been increasingly embraced by mainstream Republicans. The formation of the committee passed on party lines...

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We speak with one of the 7,000 nurses on strike now in New York City at two hospital systems that account for more than a quarter of all hospital beds in the city, and a journalist who has documented how hospital CEOs are boosting their own pay by millions of dollars while slashing charity care. The strike began Monday after nurses failed to reach a new contract agreement with Mount Sinai Hospital...

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Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to vote on at least two anti-abortion bills this week. The bills are unlikely to go anywhere, as the Senate is controlled by Democrats and President Joe Biden will likely veto any anti-abortion bills that reach his desk. Instead, the votes are an attempt to demonstrate to the GOP’s base that the party intends to continue its anti-abortion crusade.

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More than 300 environmental and Indigenous rights groups said Wednesday that the Biden administration must take a number of concrete actions to protect the nation’s public lands and waters from fossil fuel industry exploitation and bring U.S. policy into line with climate science — and the president’s own campaign pledges. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland...

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Too many education activists have implicitly accepted the conventional wisdom that education’s purpose is preparing workers to compete for jobs in the global marketplace. Such a curriculum tends toward using standardized testing based on metrics set by international finance and governance organizations. Though there are important exceptions, many teachers, administrators and parents...

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A new report reveals the devastating cost of extreme weather events in the United States last year, with 18 events resulting in costs over $1 billion each and hundreds of lives lost. In total, 474 people in the U.S. died in 2022 due to those 18 weather events, according to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Last year placed third “for the highest number of...

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After canceling nearly 17,000 flights around the Christmas holiday — the worst customer service meltdown in the history of the U.S. airline industry — Southwest announced this week that it is promoting several of its executives, a move that watchdogs decried as a slap in the face of the travelers impacted by the company’s incompetence and greed. In a press release, Southwest said it is elevating...

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Journalists covering Palestine experienced an extremely difficult and horrific terrain in 2022. It was a year filled with human rights violations, censorship, detentions and outright killing. In this interview, international relations and legal expert Richard Falk discusses the growing awareness of the plight of the Palestinians and the ways repressive states have clamped down on a flow of...

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Many Americans know Medicare Advantage as the Medicare program heavily advertised during its enrollment periods, including its special enrollment period that ended just last month. The incessantly repeated television ad for Medicare Advantage, which has often been narrated by 1960s quarterback Joe Namath, is full of disinformation — and it’s a profitable scam for health insurers.

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Rep. George Santos (New York) is facing several government investigations and an increasing number of legal complaints, including the first one filed in Congress on Tuesday. Two House Democrats have filed an official complaint against Santos with the House Committee on Ethics, asking the committee to investigate him for potential violations of campaign finance laws in relation to his $705,000...

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Students and student-run organizations at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, are protesting the institution’s decision to invite a noted anti-trans activist to speak on campus on Tuesday. Lawyer Robert Wintemute is giving a speech at the university entitled “The Sex vs. Gender (Identity) Debate In the United Kingdom and the Divorce of LGB from T.” Wintemute is a member of the United Kingdom...

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In their new rules package passed on Monday, House Republicans moved to eliminate the union formed by congressional workers in recent years — a blatantly anti-worker move that signals their intentions for workers across the country under GOP House control. The Congressional Workers Union, which has successfully unionized six offices so far, all belonging to Democrats, was given the go-ahead to...

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After a week-long scuffle over the House speakership, House Republicans held their first vote with their new majority on a bill to slash over $70 billion for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) — funding that was pegged to allow the agency to go after wealthy tax cheats. Republicans have specifically targeted the IRS funding that Democrats passed in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act...

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A small number of documents marked as classified were found at a Washington, D.C.-based think tank linked to President Joe Biden. Fewer than a dozen documents were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, where Biden had an office. The documents, reportedly found in a closet, were from the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president.

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We go to Mexico City for an update on the North American Leaders’ Summit, where the presidents of Mexico, the United States and Canada are discussing migration, the economy, trade and security. The summit comes just days after Biden announced that the United States will start to block migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba from applying for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Republicans approved new House rules on Monday making it easier for lawmakers to cede federal public lands to state and local governments without accounting for the costs to taxpayers. Conservationists warn that cash-strapped cities and states could then sell off natural areas that were previously protected to private developers and extractive industries. Passing a rules package for House business...

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The Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical giant Moderna faced angry backlash on Tuesday following the CEO’s announcement that the firm is considering pricing its Covid-19 vaccine somewhere between $100 and $130 per dose in the United States. The upper end of that range, according to the People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA), would represent a 4,000% markup above the cost of manufacturing the shot...

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The longtime partner of a U.S. Capitol Police officer who died as a result of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of loyalists to Donald Trump is suing the former president for millions of dollars, alleging that his actions led to her partner’s death. Sandra Garza, whose partner Brian Sicknick died the day after the Capitol attack, is also suing two members of the Trump-inspired...

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Ambulance drivers in the U.K. are slated to strike on January 11 and 23, following a strike in December, when tens of thousands walked out, protesting low pay (the average salary for an ambulance worker is £25,000) and the inability to deliver prompt, safe services to patients. Thousands of nurses also walked off the job to protest similarly abysmal conditions — as they have done in New York...

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