If Biden Wants to “Stand With the Cuban People,” He Can Ease the Cruel...

The corporate media have been bashing the Cuban government in response to the recent protests in Cuba, while President Joe Biden claims, “We stand with the Cuban people.” But they ignore or minimize the leading cause of economic suffering in Cuba: the U.S.’s illegal and punishing economic blockade that Biden has left in place. Every U.S. president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has maintained the blockade against Cuba. Although former President Barack Obama was constrained by the 1996 Helms-Burton Act from completely lifting the blockade — which is now exclusively within the power of Congress — he took several steps to ease its effects on the Cuban people.

Tire company startup to use NASA technology to end flats and reduce waste

While millions of Americans tuned in to watch NASA perform another successful rover landing on Mars this past February, a new startup was preparing to announce Earthly intentions for a core...

Union Calls Foul Play as Amazon Unionization Vote Fails

Emails show that Amazon pressured USPS to install a mailbox on warehouse grounds for dropping off ballots.

Chuck Schumer’s Cannabis Reform Plan Is Becoming Clearer

The cannabis community has been sniffing around for the past month, trying to figure out what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer means when discussing the comprehensive cannabis reform bill he wants to pass this year. All of the evidence suggests that the U.S. Senate will hear legislation aimed at legalizing the leaf nationwide. However, the intentions of the highly anticipated bill, which Schumer says will be introduced “shortly,” are becoming clearer.

Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz Suggest FBI Attacked Capitol

The evolution — or devolution, if you will — of the right’s January 6 narrative continues apace, but is steering toward strange waters. When it happened, it was deemed an appalling attack against the very fabric of democracy … but Donald Trump didn’t like that, because the attackers were his people, and so the story began to change. It was antifa! Black Lives Matter protesters! No, that didn’t stick. Wait, they were peaceful tourists! See how they stay within the ropes as they carry their Confederate battle flags and lengths of pipe! Ten minutes with the footage from the front stairs and hallways batted that one down.

Israeli Bombs Destroy Gaza Media Center, Take Out AP, Al Jazeera and Others

Human Rights My Grandparents Lived Through the Nakba. Now It’s Happening Again. Economy & Labor COVID Has Catalyzed a Wave of Tenant Organizing That Was Long Overdue Human Rights Israeli Bombs Destroy Gaza Media Center, Take Out AP, Al Jazeera and Others Immigration Trump Officials Used Secret Terrorism Unit to Question Lawyers at Border Politics & Elections Pharma-Backed Dark Money Group Attacks House Democrats’ Lower Drug Pricing Plan Politics & Elections The Death of Democracy Looks Nearer Than Ever Israeli bombs destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other media outlets on Saturday, the latest step by Israel to silence reporting from Gaza amid its military bombardment. The Israeli air raid totally demolished the structure. The 11-storey residential building called Al-Jalaa has now collapsed. pic.twitter.com/VUFxxJCuW3 — Arwa Ibrahim (@arwaib) May 15, 2021 Live Al Jazeera video showed the 11-story al-Jalaa building, which also houses a number of residences and other offices, crashing to the ground after being bombed as dust and debris flew into the air. The strike came just hours after another Israeli bombing of a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City killed at least eight Palestinian children and two women from an extended family, in the deadliest single strike of Israel’s current assault. AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt has released the following statement: We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza. They have long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there. We received a warning that the building would be hit. We are seeking information from the Israeli government and are engaged with the U.S. State Department to try to learn more. This is an incredibly disturbing development. We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life. A dozen AP journalists and freelancers were inside the building and thankfully we were able to evacuate them in time. The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today. Al Jazeera’s Safwat al-Kahlout, reporting from Gaza City, said he had worked at the building for 11 years, and often did live reports from its roof. “I have been covering lots of events from this building,” he said. “We have lots of good memories with our colleagues.” It was not immediately made clear why the building was targeted by Israel. “Now, no one can understand the feeling of the people whose homes have been destroyed by such kind of air attacks,” al-Kahlout said. “It’s really difficult to wake up one day and then you realize that your office is not there with all the career experiences, memories that you’ve had.” If journalistic solidarity means anything whatsoever, it should mean, at the bare minimum, unreservedly speaking out about Israel wiping out the building housing media organisations such as Associated Press and Al-Jazeera pic.twitter.com/0rBdIt7dhU — Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) May 15, 2021 BREAKING: Israel airstrike flattens building housing Associated Press, Al Jazeera offices. Latest: https://t.co/6uVfDHJhk0 📷 Ashraf Abu Amrah / Reuters 📷 Mohammed Salem / Reuters pic.twitter.com/O0S1GcSP6e — MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 15, 2021 This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Striking Coal Miners Are Demanding $1.1 Billion From World’s Largest Asset Firm

History repeated itself as hundreds of miners spilled out of buses in June and July to leaflet the Manhattan offices of asset manager BlackRock, the largest shareholder in the mining company Warrior Met Coal. Some had traveled from the pine woods of Brookwood, Alabama, where 1,100 coal miners have been on strike against Warrior Met since April 1. Others came in solidarity from the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania and the hollows of West Virginia and Ohio. Among them was 90-year-old retired Ohio miner Jay Kolenc, in a wheelchair at the picket line — retracing his own steps from five decades ago. It was 1974 when Kentucky miners and their supporters came to fight Wall Street in the strike behind the film Harlan County USA.

Stadium Workers Are Paying Higher Tax Rates Than Sports Team Owners

At a concession stand at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Adelaide Avila was pingponging between pouring beers, wiping down counters and taking out the trash. Her Los Angeles Lakers were playing their hometown rival, the Clippers, but Avila was working too hard to follow the March 2019 game. When she filed taxes for her previous year’s labors at the arena and her second job driving for Uber, the 50-year-old Avila reported making $44,810. The federal government took a 14.1% cut.

Oxfam Slams Bezos Space Trip as Billions Suffer on Earth

With billionaire Jeff Bezos set to take flight into space Tuesday aboard an unpiloted Blue Origin rocket, the humanitarian group Oxfam International blasted the world’s richest man as the avatar of a system that allows a handful of people accumulate enough wealth to flee the planet amid widespread suffering on an increasingly polluted, warming, and pandemic-ravaged Earth. “We’ve now reached stratospheric inequality,” Oxfam’s Deepak Xavier said in a statement Monday. “Billionaires burning into space, away from a world of pandemic, climate change, and starvation.”

Bernie Sanders Invites Oil Executives to Testify at Hearing on Climate Crisis

The federal government provides fossil fuel companies with $15 billion in direct subsidies each year.