Imagine there was a miracle drug that prevented HIV infections, but a huge corporation held back its release in order to squeeze billions out of the sick, dying and suffering. It is evil on the scale of comic book villains, a crime Bonnie and Clyde would balk at. That is exactly what pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences is accused of doing in a new lawsuit.
27-year-old UPS driver Frank Ordonez was killed as police officers riddled his vehicle with bullets Friday. A pair of suspected robbers had hijacked his truck as he drove through Broward County in Southeastern Florida. Ordonez was an unwilling participant in a long and dangerous chase, as police followed the truck speeding through red lights, finally stopping when they hit heavy, rush hour traffic.
Last month Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates surpassed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to once again become the world’s richest individual, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Buoyed by an enormous 48 percent increase in Microsoft’s share price this year, Gates has retaken the title he last held in 2017.
Healthcare corporations are spending millions of dollars on astroturfed attack ads against Medicare for All. The Partnership for America’s Healthcare Future, for example, a coalition of hospitals and insurance companies, has spent $1 million on a television campaign against changes to the current healthcare system they profit from.
For much of the world, donating blood is purely an act of solidarity; a civic duty that the healthy perform to aid others in need. The idea of being paid for such an action would be considered bizarre. But in the United States, it is big business.
The three smartest words that Donald Trump uttered during his presidential campaign are “NATO is obsolete.” His adversary, Hillary Clinton, retorted that NATO was “the strongest military alliance in the history of the world.” Now that Trump has been in power, the White House parrots the same worn line that NATO is “the most successful Alliance in history
Dozens of people were found dead in the Syrian city of Douma in April 2018 in what appeared to be a chemical weapons attack. The United States and its NATO allies immediately pointed the finger at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, accusing him of crimes against humanity. Almost immediately, NATO forces began a retaliatory bombing campaign, with many others calling for an invasion to protect civilians from a massacre.
After months of speculation, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg formally announced a high-profile, big-money campaign to become the Democratic Presidential nominee on November 24. The 77-year-old former Republican has decided that he is the perfect candidate to prevent the president from achieving a second term. Bloomberg has a long history of support for conservative positions, including endorsing George W. Bush’s War on Terror and defending Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza.
Bolivian President Evo Morales was overthrown in a U.S.-backed military coup d’état earlier this month after Bolivian army generals appeared on television demanding his resignation. As Morales fled to Mexico, the army appointed right-wing Senator Jeanine Añez as his successor.
The Presidential impeachment proceedings rumble on as House Democrats continue their attempt to remove Donald Trump from office. Their case centers around the revelation that the President used his office to lean on a foreign head of state to dig up dirt on a domestic adversary. Trump is widely accused of threatening to withhold financial aid to Ukraine if the country did not open an investigation into Barack Obama’s Vice President Joe Biden, currently a major contender for the Democratic Presidential nomination, thus effectively using his power to persecute political opponents.
