TruthOut

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill into law on Thursday that LGBTQ advocates have warned will allow health care providers to deny critical medical care to LGBTQ people. The law — coined the “Let Them Die Act” by opponents — allows health care providers and payers in the state to deny service on the basis of “a conscience-based objection,” including ethical, moral or religious beliefs.

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Reproductive rights organization Planned Parenthood has issued a press release calling for major reforms to the federal judiciary — including the U.S. Supreme Court — almost a year after the Court upended federal abortion rights established in Roe v. Wade. The organization specifically called for an expansion of the number of Court justices and an end to lifetime appointments, as well as strict...

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Palestinians across the globe are marking the 75th anniversary of the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic), when some 700,000 Palestinians fled from or were violently expelled from their homes upon Israel’s founding in 1948. The occasion comes as five days of fighting, that killed 33 Palestinians in Gaza and two people in Israel, was brought to a stop this weekend after the Israeli army and the...

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An elementary school teacher in Florida is under investigation by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) for showing a Disney movie featuring a gay character, an action that a right-wing member of the school board claims is in violation of the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. Jenna Barbee, a fifth-grade teacher in the Hernando County School District, showed her students the film “Strange World” as...

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The United States’ astronomical levels of economic inequality are poised to become further entrenched in the coming years as what The New York Times described Sunday as “the greatest wealth transfer in history” gets underway, with the richest members of the Baby Boomer generation set to pass trillions of dollars in assets on to their descendants — often paying little or nothing in taxes.

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Seventy-five years ago today, the Jewish state of Israel was established and the Palestinian state of despair and homelessness began. Palestinians refer to this day as “al-Nakba,” the catastrophe that resulted in the ethnic cleansing of nearly 750,000 natives and the destruction of more than 500 Palestinian villages and towns. May 15, 1948, is a date forever etched in the collective memory of...

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As LGBTQ Pride Month approaches, anti-drag bills are endangering pride events and businesses that serve LGBTQ people across the country, LGBTQ organizers have warned. Just since April, Port St. Lucie, Florida, canceled its pride parade after Florida lawmakers passed a bill targeting businesses that host drag performances; the largest performing arts center in northwest Arkansas announced that it...

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Growing up in Mingo County, West Virginia, my life was shaped by the fossil fuel industry. Coal was integral to our existence. It kept us alive, and slowly killed us. White House Senior Advisor John Podesta recently reiterated his support for my senator’s dirty deal that seeks to fast track the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). “The president frankly doesn’t love everything in the bill...

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Thai voters turned out in record numbers on Sunday to reject a decade of military rule and deliver what was seen as a stunning upset for Move Forward, a youth-backed pro-democracy party that is poised to win the most seats in Thailand’s House of Representatives. Pita Limjaroenrat, Move Forward’s leader, said Sunday that he is prepared to succeed 2014 coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha as Thailand’s...

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It was supposed to be the first time the two main rivals for the Republican nomination faced off on GOP territory at the same time and the media couldn’t have been more excited. Despite still being undeclared, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was making a foray into Iowa, the first Republican primary state, on the same day as former president Donald Trump. What was going to happen when these two manly...

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — At the Anacostia roller skate park in Washington, D.C., Lakeasha Coley cradled her baby grandson against her chest while watching her 24-year-old daughter, Leara Davis, jump double dutch on a chalk-covered sidewalk. Coley cheered as Davis laughed while hopping over the ropes, her long locs bouncing around her white T-shirt with bold black letters on the front that read “Free...

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In what Governor Ron DeSantis likes to call his “freedom state” of Florida, the freedom to belong to an effective union is under a ferocious attack. DeSantis, with the school year winding down, has just appeared at a Miami charter school to sign a new slate of bills that aim to undermine quality public services. One of the bills — described preposterously by DeSantis as “paycheck protection”...

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President Joe Biden claims that the United States is leading “democracies” in a fight against “autocracies” to establish a peaceful international order, but his administration approved weapons sales to nearly three-fifths of the world’s authoritarian countries in 2022. That’s according to a new analysis conducted by Security Policy Reform Institute co-founder Stephen Semler and published Thursday...

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Following what the Air Line Pilots Association called “more than four years of empty promises,” 3,000 off-duty United Airlines pilots represented by the union protested at major airports across the U.S. on Friday, demanding the finalization of a contract with higher pay and humane scheduling practices. “Thousands of United pilots are picketing coast-to-coast today to deliver management a message...

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As President Joe Biden tangles with Republican lawmakers over whether to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, a key question looms over the negotiations: When, exactly, will the U.S. government run out of money? No one knows the answer, but one factor is making it harder to pin down: climate change. A barrage of climate-fueled disasters has slowed down the pace of federal tax collection...

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With abortion bans becoming increasingly unpopular, Republican-led statehouses are walking a delicate line: Trying to advance bills that would restrict access to the procedure without drawing attention, circumventing normal processes to cram new policies through as legislative sessions come to a close. Last year, Republican lawmakers across the country pushed restriction after restriction in...

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After the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday confirmed that a 17-year-old Honduran in the United States without a parent or guardian died in government custody earlier this week, CBS News revealed another recent death. “CBS News learned that a 4-year-old child from Honduras in HHS custody died in March after being hospitalized for cardiac arrest in Michigan...

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It should come as no surprise that the United States has fully backed Israel in its latest assault on Gaza. In the hours before Israel began raining down more bombs on the besieged territory, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen over the phone. While the readout of their call did not mention what were, at the time, escalating tensions with the Palestinian...

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One of the central tenets of the movement to end intimate partner violence is accountability: the idea that people who use violence should be held responsible for their actions. For many in the movement, accountability has been linked to intervention by the criminal legal system. Some anti-violence advocates have argued that those who used violence could best — or only — be held accountable...

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On April 18, the Biden administration announced a set of executive orders aimed at mitigating the ongoing crises that have wracked the U.S. child care industry. At first glance, it appeared that President Joe Biden was taking steps toward fulfilling a longtime promise of his campaign and revisiting a priority of his signature (and failed) “Build Back Better” (BBB) initiative.

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