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For Immediate Release
May, 06 2016, 02:45pm EDT
Contact:
Tim Shenk,Press Officer,Direct: 212-763-5764,E-mail:,tim.shenk@newyork.msf.org
MSF Reaction to the United Nations Secretary General Report on HIV/AIDS
Sharonann Lynch, HIV policy advisor at Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres' (MSF) Access Campaign,made the following statement on the release of the United Nations Secretary General report on HIV/AIDS ahead of the June UN High Level Meeting on HIV--"Implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declarations on HIV and AIDS: On the Fast-Track to End the AIDS epidemic."
NEW YORK
Sharonann Lynch, HIV policy advisor at Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres' (MSF) Access Campaign,made the following statement on the release of the United Nations Secretary General report on HIV/AIDS ahead of the June UN High Level Meeting on HIV--"Implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political Declarations on HIV and AIDS: On the Fast-Track to End the AIDS epidemic."
"We saw a doubling of the number of people on lifesaving HIV treatment over the last five years in order to exceed the global commitment of reaching 15 million people with treatment by 2015. The number of people on treatment will need to double again in the next five years to reach the new goal of 30 million people on HIV treatment by 2020. Every day, we need to see more people starting HIV treatment than the day before if the world wants to get ahead of the wave with this epidemic.
We also need to see much more done in countries where still so few people who need HIV treatment are receiving it, like in the West and Central Africa regions, where only a quarter of people in need are on treatment.
Governments must recommit to their shared global responsibility to cover the costs for HIV treatment to achieve the 90/90/90 targets*, including making strong pledges at this year's Global Fund replenishment conference."
*The 90/90/90 goals refer to the UNAIDS treatment target that by 2020, 90 percent of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90 percent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 90 percent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have "undetectable" levels of virus in their blood (viral suppression).
Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971. MSF's work is based on the humanitarian principles of medical ethics and impartiality. The organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people caught in crisis regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. MSF operates independently of any political, military, or religious agendas.
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Sanders Calls on Biden to Fight for Working People as GOP Wages 'War' in Debt Limit Proposal
"We have already too much inequality in America," said Sanders. "Let's not make it worse."
Apr 30, 2023
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday said President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party must do everything in their power to defend middle- and low-income people in potential budget negotiations, after the Republicans said they will raise the country's debt limit only in exchange for cuts to green jobs, food assistance, healthcare, and other social services that millions of Americans depend on.
Sanders spoke to CNN's "State of the Union" about the debt ceiling days after the GOP introduced the so-called Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would raise the country's borrowing limit to avoid an unprecedented default on its debt obligations and threaten the U.S. and global economies—but also includes cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Social Security Administration, and Internal Revenue Service funding meant to prevent tax-dodging by the richest Americans, among other programs.
"What the Republicans are saying in their budget proposal is that, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when the richest people are becoming much richer, while working-class people are struggling, what they want to do is to cut programs for nutrition, for education, for healthcare," said the Vermont independent senator.
Sanders noted that the GOP proposed cuts over the next decade to non-military spending, but nothing to reduce the Pentagon budget, which ballooned to $858 billion this year.
"I think we can move toward cutting military spending," said Sanders. "I'm certainly open to demanding that the largest corporations in this country and the wealthiest people start paying their fair share of taxes."
He added that he is willing to address "waste" within the federal government and said Democrats should ensure the legislation won't "go to war against the working class of this country, lower-income people."
"Don't tell kids that they can't afford to go to college or cut back on public education in America," he said. "We have already too much inequality in America. Let's not make it worse."
He continued that the Democrats "can start negotiating tomorrow," but reiterated the president's position that raising the arbitrary debt limit to protect against a default is non-negotiable.
Senator Bernie Sanders' Interview On CNN's State Of The Union(FULL)www.youtube.com
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Saturday repeated Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) statement that the package will be "dead on arrival" in the Senate, and said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is well aware that the proposal is "a joke" that was only passed out of the Republican-controlled House to drive Biden and the Democrats to the negotiating table.
Economists say lawmakers have until at least early June to hammer out a deal to avoid a debt default.
On CNN, Sanders suggested that fighting for working people and low-income households to keep their healthcare, food assistance, and other essential services could be the first step in ensuring Biden wins a second term "in a landslide" in 2024.
"What I do believe is, the Democrats and the president have got to be stronger on working-class issues," said Sanders. "They have got to make it clear that we believe in a government that represents all, not just the few, take on the greed of the insurance companies, the drug companies, Wall Street, all the big money interests, and start delivering for working-class people."
Biden announced he is running for reelection last week, and Sanders endorsed the president's run soon after.
"Look, it is no great secret—I ran against Biden," said Sanders on Sunday. "No great secret that he and I have strong differences of opinion. But... if you believe in democracy, you want to see more people vote, not fewer people vote, I think the choice is pretty clear, and that choice is Biden."
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Climate Campaigners Stage Blockade at White House Correspondents Dinner
"We disrupted the rich and powerful because Joe Biden's approval of deadly new oil and gas projects is killing the planet," said the campaign group Climate Defiance. "We will continue to disrupt until we end fossil fuels."
Apr 30, 2023
Members of the corporate media were greeted by hundreds of climate action organizers Saturday night as they arrived at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. for the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.
Youth-led direct action group Climate Defiance staged a blockade of the event to demand that President Joe Biden fulfill his campaign promise to end fossil fuel extraction on public lands.
The protest came weeks after the Biden administration approved Willow, the massive oil drilling project on federal lands in Alaska, and a month after an oil and gas lease sale of 1.6 million acres of offshore waters in the Gulf of Mexico went forward.
"The president promised us an end to new leasing on federal lands but failed to deliver. Now, he needs to hear from the voting bloc that delivered him the 2022 midterm elections," said Climate Defiance ahead of the protest, referring to research showing that voters between the ages of 18 and 29 were crucial to Biden's victory in 2020.
According to Pew Research, 62% of young voters support a complete phaseout of fossil fuels.
Climate Defiance is backed by the Climate Emergency Fund, a nonprofit run by climate psychologist Margaret Klein Salamon. The group was joined by organizers from the Sunrise Movement, which has helped push more than 100 Democratic lawmakers to co-sponsor Green New Deal legislation.
\u201cIt was an honor to join forces with comrades from West Chicago to West Virginia and everywhere in between to fight for our planet and future. Thank you @ClimateDefiance for bringing us together. \u270a\ud83c\udf0e\u201d— Sunrise Movement NYC \ud83c\udf05 (@Sunrise Movement NYC \ud83c\udf05) 1682834158
Documentarian Ford Fischer posted a video of a government vehicle attempting to drive through the protesters before retreating.
\u201cVIDEO THREAD: Tonight, climate activists attempted to blockade the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.\n\nOne government vehicle attempted to drive through the protesters, pausing right in front of them and then hitting the gas again, pushing into them, but then\u2026\u201d— Ford Fischer (@Ford Fischer) 1682834130
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a Green New Deal co-sponsor, thanked the demonstrators for the action as he walked past them, and climate scientist Peter Kalmus joined the group at one point, telling them, "You guys are on the right side of history... President Biden is on the wrong side of history [for] expanding the fossil fuels during a climate emergency."
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Tennessee state Reps. Justin Jones (D-52) and Justin Pearson (D-86), who were recently expelled from the state House for participating in a gun control protest before being reinstated, also joined the campaigners to say that the interconnected fights "for democracy, climate justice, and an end to mass shootings require a coordinated emergency response."
"We're fighting a system that is trying to put the profits of the gun industry, the profits of the fossil fuel industry, the profits of the for-profit healthcare over the lives of our people," he said. "So we must stand together. We must let them know that if you come for one of us, you come for all of us."
\u201cWATCH: \u201cOur fights for democracy, climate justice, and an end to mass shootings require a coordinated emergency response.\u201d\n\n@brotherjones_ joined @ClimateDefiance outside the #WHCorrespondentsDinner in DC as they fight fossil fuels. \nhttps://t.co/WngL0CM0p5\u201d— The Tennessee Holler (@The Tennessee Holler) 1682819207
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Watchdog Sends Mobile Billboard to Roberts' Country Club, Demanding: 'Clean Up Court'
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Apr 29, 2023
As the latest polling showed a majority of Americans believe U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should step down from his lifetime appointment, government watchdog Accountable.US deployed several trucks to Capitol Hill Saturday to display mobile billboards plastered with Thomas' and other right-wing justices' images and recent headlines regarding allegations of ethics violations.
An image of Thomas was shown alongside a headline reading, "America's Supreme Court Faces a Legitimacy Crisis," while Chief Justice John Roberts was displayed with the message: "Justice Roberts: Clean Up Your Court."
"It's never a bad day to remind SCOTUS Chief Justice Roberts of the rampant corruption and scandals that plague his Court," said the group, which also sent a mobile billboard to Roberts' country club.
\u201cIt\u2019s never a bad day to remind SCOTUS Chief Justice Roberts of the rampant corruption and scandals that plague his Court\u2026\n\n\u2026and we went to some of his fave spots (hello country club) to make sure he got the message.\u201d— Accountable.US (@Accountable.US) 1682792645
The campaign took place a day after progressive think tank Data for Progress published survey results showing that 53% of respondents believed Thomas should resign following revelations that he's financially benefited for years from trips and other gifts given to him by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, as well as from a property sale to Crow.
Seventy percent of people told Data for Progress the previously undisclosed property sale was unethical and 64% said the same about his vacations and gifts.
Thomas was the first right-wing judge in recent weeks to come under scrutiny for his failure to disclose his financial ties—a violation of federal law, according to legal experts.
Earlier this week Politico reported that Justice Neil Gorsuch sold a property to a law firm CEO days after being confirmed to the court—but didn't disclose the name of the buyer on federal forms. The CEO's firm has been involved in nearly two dozen cases that have gone before the court since Gorsuch was appointed.
On Friday, whistleblower documents sparked renewed interest in the earnings of Roberts' wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, who made $10.3 million in commissions from a legal recruiting firm she worked at between 2007 and 2014, placing lawyers at firms—including at least one that argued a case before the high court. Roberts did not specify that his wife had earned that money in commissions from law firms on his federal disclosure forms.
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Watson Coleman also called for an expansion of the court, which has been endorsed by numerous progressives in Congress and legal advocacy groups.
The Supreme Court is not bound by a code of ethics, as other federal courts are. Forty-eight percent of respondents told Data for Progress that they supported binding rules, including 67% of Democrats.
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