A good diet and daily exercise must be accompanied with the right thoughts in order to work for the long life of the individual. Thinking properly is the most difficult part of the health equation to achieve, so we are asking the Black Nation to attack that which appears most difficult, which is to develop the Will to be completely wholesome in mind, body and spirit.
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Why do I say that development of the Will “appears” to be the most difficult thing to do in achieving complete health? We live in a world where scientists have developed all manner of artificial methods to eliminate the effects of wrong habits:
Pills to stop smoking; pills to curtail the appetite; surgery to staple the stomach, forcing a reduction in the intake of food; plastic surgery to mask the effects of living in rebellion against Divine Law.
In a society such as this, where pill pushers advertise that we can “eat all you want and still lose weight,” development of the Will of the individual to overcome all impediments to good eating habits “appears” to be the most difficult approach, but in the long run, it is actually the easiest and most simple path to follow.
To develop the Will of the American people (Black people in particular) to live good, wholesome lives, is to make it easier to change behavioral patterns that have led or are leading to the general destruction of the health and well-being of the overall population.
The approach of government and scientists—spending inordinate sums of money on health problems—has not worked. We, the followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, are proving, with very little money, that we have the ability to change the destructive behavioral patterns of our people, not only as individuals but as a society.
The stigma of hate, bigotry, intolerance, anti-Semitism and violence that the United States government, its agencies and others have deliberately attached to the Nation of Islam is causing the cure for America’s social ills to be obscured while the effects of these ills multiply in diametric proportion to America’s own efforts to suppress the Truth.
If President Bush and the United States government would see (as Pharaoh in the time of Joseph saw) the value of a Divinely guided group of people in her midst, then steps could be taken to take the Revealed Message of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and solve 100 percent of America’s social, spiritual and health problems.
I am trying with the Help of Allah (God) and the few persons working with me, to produce a healthy community of strong, able-bodied men, women and children who are willing to shoulder the responsibility of self-reliance, self-determination and self-independence.
The American food industry has gone a long way in destroying the health and well-being of the American people by its misuse of the knowledge of chemistry. The addition of coloring to change the appearance of food;
preservatives to lengthen shelf life; injection of hormones into livestock to produce speedy growth and a fatter animal—the sum of these profit-seeking actions brings in its wake an unprecedented growth of cancer and heart disease.
Both of which have increased more than 250 percent since the beginning of the century and are now the leading causes of death in this country.
The American Cancer Society reports that more than 35 percent of all cancers directly result from “bad diet,” defining a “bad diet” as one that is high in fat and low in fiber
Huey P. Newton, national defense minister of the Black Panther Party, raises his clenched fist behind the podium as he speaks at a convention sponsored by the Black Panthers at Temple University’s McGonigle Hall in Philadelphia, Pa., Saturday, Sept. 5, 1970. He is surrounded by security guards of the movement. The audience gathered is estimated at 6,000 with another thousand outside the crowded hall. AP Photo
While I don’t have many childhood memories of growing up in Baltimore, one experience had a major impact on my life and thinking. As a youngster, I visited the Black Panther Party headquarters in the city, probably with my aunts or mother, where I learned about Black history through Golden Legacy comic books, and saw Angela Davis, on a poster with her full-blown Afro, as the most beautiful woman in the world.
What struck me most were the powerful images of Panther Party leader Huey P. Newton, as well as images of Newton with Bobby Seale standing outside a Panther office.
I read “Revolutionary Suicide,” comrade Newton’s autobiography first published in 1973, in my early teens. Later as a teenager I read the “Autobiography of Malcolm X,” who was an inspiration for the Panthers.
The work of the Panthers, holding political education classes to awaken Blacks, standing against police brutality, running lunch and breakfast programs, free health clinics, early testing for sickle cell anemia, programs to teach and train Black children about themselves, race and oppression in America and beyond, was phenomenal.
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Many have been inspired by the bold examples of the Panthers and infused some of their activity into modern struggle, from boycotts, to prison advocacy, to political education and organizing, health awareness and services, to video monitoring of police and organizing Black youth.
We should respect the Panthers for their courage, love and even their militant style, complete with black leather jackets, sunglasses and berets, but we must never forget their intense suffering and slaughter.
We must also do more than just remember and lionize these soldiers in the Black Power and Black liberation struggle. According to the Jericho Movement, Black political prisoners languish in federal and state institutions, including Panthers and revolutionaries jailed some 55 years ago.
“Six Black radicals have endured decades of incarceration because of their 1970s membership in the Black Panthers or its offshoot, the Black Liberation Army. In 2018, there were 19 such political prisoners (and who knows how many before then).
After being incarcerated for 40 to 50 years, the other 14 were either released, died in prison, or died shortly after release. (Assata Shakur escaped prison, in 1979, to Cuba where she lives under asylum. She is now 76.),” said the Jericho Movement, which fights to free these freedom fighters.
“It is generally understood that the crimes for which these prisoners were arrested and convicted were pinned on them and/or led to disproportionate sentences by officials eager to neutralize and punish these political activists. They are political prisoners,” said the Jericho Movement.
Imam Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as Black Panther and Black revolutionary H. Rap Brown, is among these prisoners. We need to do more than quote him from 1967, “Violence is a part of American culture. It is as American as cherry pie,” or talk about him during Black History Month.
We need to act now to save him.
The family and supporters of Imam Al-Amin are fighting to get him emergency medical treatment through a transfer to a different federal prison, one with a hospital. He was an enemy of the state according to the FBI and the U.S. government and was targeted as such.
Imam Jamil Al-Amin, on left, in prison. Photo courtesy of @_freeimamjamilInstagram
During the 1960s and 1970s, he chaired the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and organized for Black voting rights and against southern segregation.
A leader of the Black Panther Party, he demanded justice for Black and oppressed people and condemned U.S. evils at home and abroad.
After years of being hunted by federal authorities, local officials and prosecutors, he served five years in a New York prison, where he converted to Islam in the 1970s, taking the name Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
Upon release, he moved to Atlanta, setting up a mosque in the city’s West End and organizing against violence, prostitution, crime and supporting the gang truce and urban peace movement of the 1990s.
“As far as my father’s health goes, it is deteriorating relatively rapidly. We’re dealing with a situation now where we’re in real time watching the system murder my father,” said Kairi Al-Amin, who is the imam’s son and attorney, alongside Atty. Maha ELKolalli. They talked about his life and death struggle in late December during an online forum hosted by the Islamic Circle of North America.
In Atlanta, he was accused of fatally shooting one and injuring another Fulton County deputy while facing some minor charges. He was convicted in 2000 of murder, despite another man confessing to the crime, say supporters. The man matches the description that the surviving officer gave and has a bullet wound in his shoulder the surviving officer said they put in him, they add.
Though convicted of a state crime, the imam served time in a federal Supermax prison in Colorado through an agreement where Georgia pays to have state inmates housed in federal institutions. Pressure led to his being moved to a federal penitentiary in Tucson, where he is still held far from his family and suffers today.
The 81-year-old imam’s medical issues include cancer, problems with his eyesight, blood clots in his legs, using a walker and massive swelling in his face, Kairi Al-Amin explained.
“He had a baseball-sized knot in his face and I’m just glad we were able to get that picture out to the public because saying is one thing, seeing it is another. They claim that they took him to the hospital for that knot,” he continued. But after talks with his father in December, the son said Imam Al-Amin hadn’t seen a doctor since November.
“No hospital in America is going to see a human being walk in with a baseball on their face and tell them, ‘well, you should see another doctor in two months. Maybe they can do something about that.’
And that’s essentially what they’ve done to my father. Not essentially, that’s exactly what they’ve done to my father,” he added. Pressure from supporters moved the appointment with doctors up; it was supposed to happen in January.
According to his son and Atty. ELKolalli, the growth has increased, leaving the imam unable to eat solid food, unable to see out of one eye, and having difficulty hearing.
They are pushing for his transfer to a federal prison in Butner, N.C., which has a hospital. “We want him free because he didn’t do this. But we also have to make sure that while they are holding him, that he’s being cared for adequately and that also is not being done,” said Kairi Al-Amin.
“Unfortunately, you see that Cointelpro still lives; it’s alive and well and kicking. There are things that happen that you just kind of sit back and you say, ‘oh wow, this is interesting how this is playing out.’ This is really just a simple process of transferring this man to a hospital,” Atty. ELKolalli observed.
“We want to see an immediate transfer; we want to see immediate medical treatment. We want people to make the calls and send the emails,” she added.
Supporters of the imam are producing a documentary. It’s a fundraiser. The hope is the project will be completed by summer and ready for resubmission to Netflix or other streaming platforms.
For more information about the campaign or to support the documentary, “What Happened To H. Rap Brown,” visit freeimamjamil.com.
“Confusion among the heads of the government of the wicked is destroying the foundation of their world. ‘AS THOU HAST DONE SO SHALL IT BE DONE UNTO THEE.’ This World of the wicked has confused the Black Man’s world for six thousand (6,000) years. Now, their world must be removed to make way for a better world and the All-Wise Omnipotent God Is Able and Capable of Confusing us so that we will do the things that we would not do if we were free to exercise sanity of mind and wisdom.
“IN ALL of America’s confusion, which some may refer to as her dilemma—but her condition is beyond that word—this is a grievous confusion of the head officials.
“THE BASIS of this confusion is due to the injustice that the American White people has done to her Black once-slave. Her confusion is also due to her effort to thwart the Aims and Purposes of Almighty God, to Bring About the resurrection of the blind, deaf and dumb Black Man. Allah (God) Who Came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom Praises are due forever, Will Do the reverse and Make you (White America), blind, deaf and dumb in what you are trying to do for your own security.” The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Muhammad Speaks, July 13, 1973
It has been less than a month since Donald J. Trump returned to the White House and he has kept some promises: Freeing 1,500 Jan. 6 insurrectionists who fought police and tried to overthrow the 2020 election.
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Clearing out the leadership of the Justice Department and threatening FBI employees as part of his retribution. Halting spending and shutting down U.S. aid programs as well as offering federal employees a dubious buyout, which thousands have taken.
Moving to close federal agencies, like the Education Department, empowering billionaire Elon Musk to break government and conducting witch hunts to make sure federal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs are dead.
Pushing tariffs against Mexico and Canada that led to “concessions” in a policy that shook Wall Street. Going after immigrants, sometimes detaining U.S. citizens and Native Americans, and at times using military planes to remove people from the United States.
On the global stage, he made a major announcement Feb. 4, while hosting accused war criminal and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House. “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Mr. Trump declared at a news conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
“You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza,” the president also said. “This has been happening for years. It’s all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.”
Mr. Trump said the U.S. will “own” Gaza, redevelop the area as the “Riviera of the Middle East,” and would use military force to accomplish his goals if necessary. It is estimated that just removing Gaza’s rubble, after decimating Israeli bombings, will take 15 years.
“I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East,” Mr. Trump said from the East Room of the White House. “This was not a decision made lightly.
Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent,” he added.
With his clear words dominating global headlines and news coverage, White House officials and supporters were “Trump-splaining” the next day, backing away from military intervention, America owning Gaza, the permanent removal of 1.8 million people and much of what the president said.
Confusion and anger rose in the Muslim world and among other nations.
There was even confusion inside the president’s party. “I thought we voted for America first,” Republican Senator Rand Paul said on social media. “We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers blood,” he posted on X.
The Democrats are confused about how to respond to the president and leader of the free world. They don’t know which way to go, which Trump challenge to address and how to appeal to White voters. They are lost, bereft of new ideas to solve serious problems the U.S. faces. Apparently not even Democratic strategists have found the magic political key.
Lawsuits were filed and federal courts held up some monarchical Trump dictates. Confusion grew. Were the president’s actions legal, would the Supreme Court get involved? What would that mean?
The American people are confused with politics dividing families, growing extremism and anger, economic uncertainty, personal insecurity and fear for the future.
Is any of this good for the United States? Does it bode well for her survival? Can she stop or check her fall? Can she end the confusion?
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, warn she cannot as God Himself is bringing her to ruin for her evil done to her once slaves and their children and evil perpetrated on the Indigenous people of this land.
“I APPEAL to you Black Brothers and Sisters, you should unite with me and enjoy heaven while you live, now, or suffer the consequences through the lack of the necessities of life,” wrote the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad in a July 1973 edition of the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, which was published by the Nation of Islam.
“THE WORLD OF CONFUSION is breaking up with all kinds of disagreement between factors and factors. Take for instance—never has America had so many strikes. Everyone is against the other. If this is not a CONFUSED WORLD, then point out to me one that is more confused,” he continued.
“IN the government of America, there is nothing that is at peace in it. There is no agreement. Everybody is dissatisfied. Everybody is showing their dissatisfaction by disregarding the way that they have been going. Worker is against worker. Politician is against politician. —A CONFUSED WORLD, AMERICA.”
Protesters walk through chemical irritants dispersed by federal agents at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Thursday, July 23, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Following a larger Black Lives Matter Rally, several hundred demonstrators faced off against federal officers at the courthouse. (APK Photo/Albi)
Portland activists first got word of federal agents in the city a few days before they arrived. Through the organization Don’t Shoot Portland, Tai Carpenter would receive messages from hotel owners who had turned down contracts from people trying to house agents or from people saying they saw federal agents at the airport.
After about two months of nonstop protest since the death of George Floyd, Portland has now become a city of unrest and social injustice, as federal officials target, teargas and pick up protesters. Some say President Trump sent federal agents to the city as a trial for cities such as Chicago, where he has plans to carry out Operation Legend, a federal law enforcement initiative created “to fight the sudden surge of violent crime” in U.S. cities, according to the Department of Justice.
But why would he start with Portland?
“Trump knows he’s comfortable here. Portland isn’t this, a lot of people watch the show Portlandia or they think that Portland is this very liberal, mostly White, but very liberal place and it’s not,” said Ms. Carpenter, who is the board president of Don’t Shoot Portland, a social justice nonprofit that uses art and community engagement to create social and legislative change.
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Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore state’s attorney, pauses while speaking during a media availability, Friday, May 1, 2015 in Baltimore. Mosby announced criminal charges against all six officers suspended after Freddie Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody.(APK Photo/Albi)
“Our mayor sits down with the Proud Boys, who are a very dangerous far-right extremist group. Our police bureau escorts White supremacists when they come to town so that they can protest and engage in violent behavior with counter protesters,” she said.
She said people weren’t surprised when federal agents arrived because there has been a long period of distrust between Black people and the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). She said the bureau and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler were condemning the protests before the agents arrived.
“They were complaining about the graffiti. They were complaining that some protesters were angry and shouting and throwing water bottles in response to being murdered and systematically marginalized,” the activist said. “People are going to be angry and have a reaction, but the fact that they weren’t condemning the police for brutalizing people exercising their right to protest, it’s funny that now they’re trying to say that. They’ve changed their tune now because the spotlight is on Portland and they’re like, ‘oh wait, hold on. We’re supposed to be super liberal, right?’ ”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler speaks to Black Lives Matter protesters on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Late Wednesday Wheeler joined protesters at the front of the crowd and was hit with chemical irritants several times by federal officers dispersing demonstrators. (APK Photo/Arhó)
On the contrary, she said, Portland was founded as an all-White state, and Black people could not own property until the 1920s.
“Portland has a unique history, but I think it’s because of that, people are so defiant. Stop killing us. Stop. Why do we have to keep saying it? Portland has their list of names that have been murdered by PPB. We have our own list of countless community members who have lost their lives,” she said.
President Trump cited crime statistics to justify deploying federal agents under Operation Legend. Attorney General William Barr said 200 federal agents have already been sent to Kansas City, Missouri, along with $3.6 million in grants to help hire more police officers. Chicago will see a similar number of grants and agents, according to communication between the president and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
“If Donald Trump wants to send feds to arrest the White drug traffickers and gun traffickers who are bringing guns into Chicago and into Illinois, fine,” said Father Michael Pfleger, senior pastor of the faith community at St. Sabina. “We’ve heard for years that we know where guns come from, Gary, Indiana and Mississippi and other places. If we know where they’re coming from, my question is, why are we not stopping it?”
He sees what’s happening in Portland as an appetizer of what will happen in Chicago and other cities around the country.
Minister Ishmael Muhammad, the Student National Assistant Minister to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, echoed Father Pfleger. He noted all of the problems that exist in the Black community that create the current conditions, including health disparities, food deserts, unemployment and the lack of education.
He quoted Victor Hugo, who said, “If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin but he who causes the darkness,” and he questioned the hidden hand behind conditions and crime in the Black community.
“Now we have this other pandemic of Black on Black crime, but all of this is focusing America and the world on the Black problem. So Allah who has permitted all of these circumstances has everyone talking about the Black problem,” he said. “But out of that now comes the solution that Allah gave through the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, that the only solution to our problem is separation.”
Minister Farrakhan has been warning for decades that America would send federal troops into Black communities, said Ishmael Muhammad.
“He warned us that when it starts, the slaughter will be so horrible, because they are not coming in to make peace. They’re going to come in with full force,” he said.
Many mayors and local officials are rejecting the president’s plan, including Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who tweeted, “If President Trump sends militarized federal agents to Baltimore City to attack our citizens by making illegal arrests, kidnapping people, assaulting them, or committing any other crime, they will be prosecuted by my office.”
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot has also expressed concern. Though she has approached Mr. Trump’s plan cautiously and hesitantly, she is allowing a partnership to help deal with Chicago’s crime.
“We welcome actual partnership, but we do not welcome dictatorship, we do not welcome authoritarianism, and we do not welcome unconstitutional arrest and detainment of our residents,” she said.
Afrika Porter, CEO of Afrika Enterprises, a consulting and public relations firm, said she’s optimistic about the mayor.
“I think we have a mayor that’s fierce and unafraid. When I think of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, I think of Shirley Chisholm,” she said. “I was nine years old watching this Black woman run for president of the United States of America. I will never forget it. I see Lori Lightfoot in that same way. She challenges the president, Donald Trump.”
Many have been issuing lawsuits against the federal agents, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Don’t Shoot Portland.
“What is happening now in Portland should concern everyone in the United States. Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street, we call it kidnapping. The actions of the militarized federal officers are flat-out unconstitutional and will not go unanswered,” said Jann Carson, interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon.
One ACLU lawsuit “seeks to block federal law enforcement from dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, or using physical force against journalists or legal observers.” Another one argues that “the law enforcement attacks on medics violates the First and Fourth Amendments.”
In response to the first lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon blocked federal agents in Portland from dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, or targeting force against journalists or legal observers at protests, according to an ACLU press release.
Ms. Carpenter said Don’t Shoot Portland has two class action lawsuits in the works and said that they are still taking statements from people who have been affected.
Similar to the language of the ACLU lawsuits, Attorney Barbara Arnwine called President Trump’s actions unconstitutional.
“By his own admission, he is singling out what he calls liberal, Democratic cities. That kind of unequal, discriminatory targeting of African-Americans, Latinos and Democratic strongholds is absolutely outrageous,” said Ms. Arnwine, president and founder of the organization Transformative Justice Coalition.
She said “secret police” exist in fascist and dictatorial nations to squash dissent and opposition.
“You cannot have freedom of thought. You cannot have a democratic process, a competition of ideas. You cannot have freedom of press and freedom of the right to assembly when you are having police, a secret police, unidentified police running around in militarized uniform intercepting, kidnapping and disrupting protests,” she said.
Several interviewees commented that the president’s actions are rooted in an attempt to play on the fears of the public in order to win reelection.
“This has nothing to do with protests, but it has everything to do with him rolling out and testing how he can disrupt the federal election in October and November,” Ms. Arnwine said. “I think this is all a test run for his ability to occupy, intimidate and scare voters during the electoral season, and we and every American should raise their voice in utter opposition.”
Interviewees also said that President Trump’s actions were a call back to Bill Clinton’s 1994 “three strikes” crime bill.
“That’s a part of their wicked policy, to blame the country’s woes and problems on the most vulnerable in the society, and they are the architects and they are responsible for creating the conditions and circumstances out of which violence has become a byproduct of,” Minister Muhammad said.
Father Pfleger said Americans have to be smarter and not fall for the cheap trick of the law and order card.
“Instead of sending the federal government to bring more military that we don’t need, send your housing department to help build some affordable housing. Send your department of human services to create jobs and funds for infrastructure. Send your office of economic development to help bring in and to support and build Black businesses,” he said. “Send in your department of health to develop health clinics and mental health access. You can send in the federal government. Just send in the right departments. We don’t need more militarism and law enforcement. We need investment and opportunity.”
For Ms. Porter, the Black community can do better at rebuilding the Black family and doing for self.
“Part of it, to me, is doing for self, which is part of what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us. We have to continue to do for self,” she said.
Minister Muhammad described the deployment of federal agents in American cities as the perfect storm set up to exterminate Black people.
“Since you don’t want us anymore, since you don’t care for us, we’re fine with that. But we want the opportunity to exercise independence and to be a sovereign nation. We do not want from you that which you are unwilling to give to us, but we want to do what your fathers did when they found conditions unbearable, intolerable, under the King of England,” he said. “And they separated from England to become a nation. That’s the only solution to the problem of Black and White. That’s the only solution to the problem of ignorance and despair and hopelessness in the Black community.”
Lawmakers and green groups on Mondaysoundedthe alarm on the energy and environmental provisions in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee's section of a Republican-backed tax and spending megabill, which is slated to bemarkedup in a committee meeting on Tuesday.
Critics are warning the proposal will harm regular Americans by seeking savings through a take back of funds from various programs in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the signature climate legislation signed into law under former U.S. President Joe Biden, and includes "giveaways" for oil and gas companies.
Congressional Republicans are pressing ahead with a spending and tax cuts bill that will primarily benefit the wealthy and would be paid for in part through steep cuts to Medicaid, despite widespread opposition. Those cuts were first fleshed out in a House budget blueprint earlier this year and are part of the budget bill from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the text of which was unveiled on Sunday. But Medicaid cuts are not the only aspect of the bill drawing scrutiny.
"Giving giant tax breaks to billionaires while increasing electric bills for American families is wrong. Republicans are sacrificing America's energy dominance while setting up a 'pay to play' scheme for polluters to bribe the Trump Administration to obtain energy permits," said Energy Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) on Monday. "Dismantling our landmark Inflation Reduction Act will kill jobs, hurt businesses, and drive-up Americans' energy costs."
The legislation includes a provision that would allow energy developers to access an expedited permitting review if they pay $10 million or one percent of the anticipated cost of the construction of the project.
Another provision would have companies applying to export or import natural gas pay a nonrefundable $1 million fee and in return have their project "deemed to be in the public interest."
"The idea that corporate polluters can pay a fee to freely pollute our communities is beyond the pale," said Mahyar Sorour, a director of the Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy at the Sierra Club, on Monday.
"While it slashes much-needed support for clean energy and climate resilience, it would allow fossil fuel companies to pay to get their project approved. That's not just wrong, it's un-American," said Alexandra Adams, chief policy advocacy officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
According to E&E News, the legislation aims to rescind "the unobligated balance" of IRA funds for multiple Department of Energy programs, such as money meant for the Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program.
"Republicans just proposed cutting thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in clean energy funding, and billions of dollars in healthcare funding from their own districts. Why? Because Big Oil and healthcare CEOs told them to. This is not how a democracy should function. This is oligarchy in action," said Sunrise Movement executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay in a statement on Monday.
"Young people fought tooth and nail for the funding now on the chopping block," added Shiney-Ajay, invoking the organizing and activism that went into pressuring lawmakers to pass the IRA.
Republicans are also planning to rescind the unobligated balances from the Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, an IRA program that is supposed to support clean energy projects primarily for historically marginalized and low-income communities, per E&E.
What's more, according to E&E, the plan would go after a variety of IRA programs, such as those designed to reduce air pollution at schools and ports and limit emissions from diesel engines. Also it takes aim at the IRA's methane fee, which levies a fee on oil and gas companies who produce too much planet-warming methane.
"House Republicans are bending over backwards to give handouts to big polluters while their constituents pay the price of worse pollution and higher energy bills," said Sorour. "This is a terrible bill for the American people. The House should get their priorities straight and reject this proposal."
Filmed over 20 years, Sabbath Queen follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie's epic journey as the dynastic heir of thirty-nine generations of Orthodox rabbis who rejects his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer father, and the founder of Lab/Shul: an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation. Sabbath Queen joins director Sandi DuBowski and his rabbi, Amichai, on a lifelong and cinematic quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion, ritual, and love for a challenging, rapidly changing twenty-first century.
Countries set to adopt ‘vital’ pandemic preparedness accord
Albi Arhó
During the pandemic, this health centre in Indonesia was forced to close three times due to a high number of COVID-19 infections among staff (file, 2021)
Could the world be better prepared for the next pandemic? As nations continue to deal with COVID-19’s lasting effects, that question is at the heart of an international agreement set to be negotiated in Geneva.
The stakes are high for this year’s World Health Assembly, the UN’s premier health forum, where officials will tackle a sweeping agenda – from pandemic readiness and climate-related health risks to mental health, maternal care, and environmental justice. But with geopolitical tensions running high, international collaboration on these and other vital issues will be tested.
Here are some of the key areas set to dominate discussion:
1. ‘Cautious optimism’: Signing off on a pandemic accord
The COVID-19 pandemic showed that there are stark inequities in access to diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines, both within and between countries. Healthcare services were overwhelmed, economies were severely disrupted and nearly seven million lives were lost.
This was the motivation for countries to come together to work on an accord to ensure that the world handles the next pandemic in a fairer and more efficient way. When the delegates arrive in Geneva on Monday 19 May, they will thrash out the text of the agreement, which Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), described as “vital for future generations.”
If the agreement is adopted, it will be a major breakthrough in the way the world handles pandemics and health crises. Negotiations, though, remain politically delicate: several nations, including the United States, have raised concerns about national sovereignty and intellectual property rights. Still, in recent weeks, Dr. Tedros has expressed “cautious optimism” that consensus can be reached.
Albert Arhó Malawi
A woman wearing a mask, Malawi.
2. Climate Change: An existential threat
The climate crisis isn't just about rising temperatures – it’s putting lives at risk. Extreme weather and disease outbreaks are on the rise, threatening the health of millions. An action plan created by WHO calls for climate and health policies to work together, strengthens resilience, and ensures funding to safeguard vulnerable communities.
A draft version of the plan was released following a resolution adopted at the 2024 conference and, this year, delegates are expected to finalise the draft, which includes strategies to adapt to and mitigate climate-related health risks.
3. Health for all: Getting universal health care back on track
Ensuring that all people have affordable access to the full range of quality health services they need is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which all UN Member States signed up to in 2015. However, the health target is way off track: in fact, improvements to health services have stagnated over the last ten years.
Nevertheless, universal health care (UHC) will be a top priority at the Assembly, where delegates will discuss strategies to strengthen primary healthcare systems, secure sustainable financing and provide care for vulnerable populations.
Albert Arhó
4. Healthy Beginnings: Maternal and newborn health
Close to 300,000 women lose their life during pregnancy or childbirth each year, while over two million babies die in their first month of life. In April, WHO launched a year-long campaign to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
Titled “Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures”, it will urge governments and the health community to ramp up efforts to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths, and to prioritize women’s longer-term health and well-being.
Expect new targets and renewed commitments to end preventable deaths to be announced at the Assembly.
5. Closing the gaps: Noncommunicable diseases
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, kill tens of millions of people each year. Around three-quarters of those deaths are in low and middle-income countries.
Many lives could be saved if more countries had strong national responses, providing detection, screening and treatment, as well as palliative care.
In preparation for a WHO meeting on NCDs and mental health in September, delegates will review the way the UN health agency collaborates with governments, civil society, and the private sector to prevent and control these diseases, and address ways to improve access to essential medicines and health technologies.
Albert Arhó
6. Getting the finances in order
This year has been described as one of the most challenging ever at the UN, which is being buffeted by extreme pressures on its finances. The US, a major donor announced that it would be leaving WHO in January, and other countries have also cut development and aid funding.
This year’s Assembly will see Member States negotiating a 50 per cent increase in the base budget, something that has been in the works since the 2022 meeting. If a funding boost is approved, it will provide a vital boost at a challenging time. WHO is also seeking additional voluntary contributions, and additional pledges are anticipated from member states and philanthropic organisations.
Follow the sessions at the World Health Assembly here.
