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350.org on Trump Replacing Tillerson with Pompeo: "From Exxon's CEO to the Koch Brothers' Most Loyal Lapdog"
In response to Donald Trump's decision to replace Rex Tillerson with Mike Pompeo as U.S. Secretary of State, 350.org Executive Director May Boeve gave the following statement:
WASHINGTON
In response to Donald Trump's decision to replace Rex Tillerson with Mike Pompeo as U.S. Secretary of State, 350.org Executive Director May Boeve gave the following statement:
"We've gone from Exxon's CEO to the Koch Brothers' most loyal lapdog. Pompeo received over a million oil and gas dollars during his political career, has deep ties to the Kochs, and is a climate denier to the core. Trump's state department is a vehicle for big oil and billionaires, regardless of whether Tillerson or Pompeo are at the helm.
"For true climate leadership, we look towards the groundswell of grassroots movements leading pipeline fights, running local campaigns to transition communities to 100% renewables, and enacting state climate policies. We will continue to expose the Trump Administration's climate deception in our fight to secure the fossil free world we deserve."
As fossil fuel elites run the federal government, 350.org has launched Fossil Free, a global distributed campaign for a fast and just transition away from fossil fuels toward community-led renewable energy. In the U.S., communities will generate hundreds of local resolutions for 100% renewables, while directly challenging dangerous projects to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
LATEST NEWS
Thousands of Cubans Protest US Assault on Venezuela, Demand Maduro's Release
"No, imperialists, we have absolutely no fear of you... and we don't like to be threatened," said Cuba's president.
Jan 16, 2026
A day after receiving the remains of the 32 Cubans killed during the Trump administration's invasion of Venezuela and abduction of its leader, Cuba's president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, addressed thousands gathered outside the US Embassy in Havana on Friday.
"The current US administration has opened the door to an era of barbarism, plunder, and neo-fascism," Díaz-Canel declared to a massive crowd protesting the recent killings and demanding the US release Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Participants in the "anti-imperialist" action, including members of the armed forces, waved Cuban and Venezuelan flags, and held signs honoring the 32 people who were killed while carrying out missions representing Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior.
"No one here surrenders," the Cuban leader said Friday, according to the Associated Press. "The current emperor of the White House and his infamous secretary of state haven't stopped threatening me."
While the Biden administration aimed to remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, President Donald Trump reversed that decision after returning to office last January and restored a list of "restricted entities" created during his first term. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also expanded a visa restriction policy that targets Cuba's medical missions around the world.
Since US forces slaughtered dozens of Cubans while seizing Maduro, Trump and Rubio have warned that Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia could also be targeted by the US military. Trump has also urged the Cuban government to make a deal with him and pledged to prevent oil and other resources from reaching the island nation, which has been subjected to US sanctions for decades.
"No, imperialists, we have absolutely no fear of you... and we don't like to be threatened," Díaz-Canel said Friday, waving his finger at the embassy, according to Reuters. "You will not intimidate us."
"Cuba does not have to make any political concessions, and that will never be on the table for negotiations aimed at reaching an understanding between Cuba and the United States," he asserted. "It is important that they understand this. We will always be open to dialogue and improving relations between our two countries, but only on equal terms and based on mutual respect."
The demonstration in Havana came a day after Venezuelan workers led a march through Caracas, chanting, "Free Maduro!"
"He is our president and we want him back, we are in the streets, and we will not rest," said labor leader Anais Herrera. "The president prepared us for this, and that is why we are in combat, in the streets with the Venezuelan working class."
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were brought to New York City after their abduction. They were arraigned last week, and both pleaded not guilty to federal narco-terrorism charges. At the time, Maduro said in Spanish that "I am the president of Venezuela, and I consider myself a prisoner of war."
At the arraignment, Maduro's lawyer, Barry Pollack, said that he "is the head of a sovereign state and is entitled to the privileges and immunities that go with that office... In addition, there are issues about the legality of his military abduction."
Federal prosecutors and Trump have given no indications that they are willing to free Maduro or Flores. The US administration is also continuing its efforts to take control of Venezuela's oil resources.
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Palestine Action Prison Hunger Strike Ends After UK Rejects Contract for Israeli Arms Firm
One campaigner said the hunger strike "will be remembered as a landmark moment of pure defiance; an embarrassment for the British state."
Jan 16, 2026
Three British activists jailed for alleged involvement with the banned anti-genocide group Palestine Action ended their monthslong hunger strike late Wednesday after the UK government rejected a $2.7 billion contract for a subsidiary of Israel's largest weapons maker, Elbit Systems.
Prisoners for Palestine (P4P), which represents the hunger strikers, said that Hamran Ahmed, Heba Muraisi, and Lewie Chiaramello would accept food again. Muraisi hadn't eaten in 73 days, while Ahmed refused food for 66 days and Chiaramello, who has Type 1 diabetes, fasted every other day for 44 days.
"It is definitely a time for celebration," Chiaramello said Thursday. "A time to rejoice and to embrace our joy as revolution and as liberation."
P4P spokesperson Francesca Nadin told the New Arab that the hunger strike "will be remembered as a landmark moment of pure defiance; an embarrassment for the British state."
"Banning a group and imprisoning our comrades has backfired on the British state, direct action is alive, and the people will drive Elbit out of Britain for good," P4P added. "This is just the beginning. Even though the people who have just finished their hunger strike will have some time to recover, they’re also really motivated and want to continue doing as many things as possible."
P4P said other hunger-striking members of the "Filton 24"—Teuta Hoxha, Jon Cink, Qesser Zuhrah, and Amu Gib—were also accepting food following the UK government's announcement that it would not award a military training contract to Elbit Systems' British subsidiary.
The end of the strike came as Ahmed, Muraisi, and Chiaramello suffered deteriorating health, with Muraisi telling a friend earlier this week that she was "dying."
Two dozen alleged Palestine Action activists are accused of breaking into Elbit Systems' research and development facility in Filton in 2024. Alleged members of the group also staged direct action protests targeting other UK weapons factories that export arms to Israel as it wages a genocidal war in Gaza.
P4P hailed the contract cancellation as "a resounding victory for the hunger strikers, who resisted with their incarcerated bodies to shed light on the role of Elbit Systems, Israel's largest weapons manufacturer, in the colonization and occupation of Palestine."
British lawmakers voted last year to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist group after some of its members allegedly vandalized aircraft at a Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire. Members of the group also allegedly vandalized US President Donald Trump’s golf course in Turnberry, Scotland. Because of the vote, the nonviolent group is on the same legal footing in Britain as Al-Qaeda and Islamic State. Joining or supporting Palestine Action is punishable by up to 14 years behind bars.
Since Palestine Action was banned, more than 2,000 people have been arrested for supporting the group, often while simply holding signs.
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'A Dystopian Horror Story': Dr. Oz Slammed Over Praise for Robot Ultrasounds in Alabama
"It’s not safe to be an OB-GYN in red states, so they are turning to robots to care for pregnant woman. This is not an innovation success story."
Jan 16, 2026
Alabama is among the states that have seen a significant drop in the number of obstetrician-gynecologists working there since Roe v. Wade was overturned and cleared the way for states to ban abortion, resulting in doctors being unable to provide standard care and in a number of cases, placing patients in serious and even deadly danger.
On Friday, at a White House roundtable on healthcare in rural areas—some of the hardest-hit by the lack of OB-GYN care in states with abortion bans—one of President Donald Trump's top health officials suggested the exodus of doctors from Alabama and other crises in healthcare access have resulted in positive innovations as care is outsourced to "robots."
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said that since Alabama "has no OB-GYNs in many of their counties," the state is "doing something pretty cool."
"They're actually having robots do ultrasounds on these pregnant moms," said Oz.
Dr Oz: "Alabama has no OBGYNs in many of their counties, so they're doing something pretty cool. They're actually having robots do ultrasounds on these pregnant moms." pic.twitter.com/sEwd4OJss9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 16, 2026
CMS, which oversees the new Office of Rural Health Transformation, recently highlighted in a report about rural healthcare Alabama's Maternal and Fetal Health Initiative, which it said "provides digital maternity care by using telerobotic ultrasound devices and labor and delivery carts to rural hospitals."
Oz asserted that robotic ultrasounds will help to reduce Alabama's maternal mortality rate, which is the highest in the United States, as medical centers will be able to detect health issues and abnormalities.
But observers said that praising an outcome of the dearth of maternal healthcare in the state—which has been at least partially caused by Trump's push to overturn Roe and Republicans' efforts to ban abortion—was "horrific."
"The severe lack of OB-GYNs," said the labor-focused media group More Perfect Union, "is a crisis, especially in rural America."
Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, added: "It’s not safe to be an OB-GYN in red states, so they are turning to robots to care for pregnant woman. This is not an innovation success story. It’s a dystopian horror story."
A 2024 analysis by the Association of American Medical Colleges found that in the year following the US Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, applicants for OB-GYN residency programs plummeted 21.2%.
The ruling allowed Alabama's near-total abortion ban—which has only one ostensible "exception" for cases in which a pregnant person faces a serious health risk—to go into effect. Rights groups said that the law, one of the most extreme bans in the US, had been passed by the state's Republican legislature as part of an effort to force the court to reconsider Roe.
Robin Marty, executive director of WAWC Healthcare in the state, told the Alabama Reflector in 2024 that "when it comes to, especially, OB-GYN residencies, nobody wants to come out here because we can’t fulfill all of the requirements, which include being able to do abortions and manage miscarriage."
There had also been a 13.1% drop in applicants for OB-GYN programs in 2019-20 after the approval of the state's Sanctity of Life Act, which recognized “the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life."
“Legislative interference that imposes restrictions on full-scope reproductive healthcare, including abortion care, discourages medical students from pursuing residency training in states with restrictions, directly hurting patients by reducing the physician workforce in the communities that often need clinicians the most,” AnnaMarie Connolly, chief of education and academic affairs of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), told the Alabama Reflector.
In addition to the state's abortion ban, the worsening lack of prenatal care in rural Alabama has also driven the state's decision to turn to robotics to provide some aspects of healthcare.
Since 2020, more than 100 rural hospitals across the nation have stopped delivering babies; at least three of them have been in Alabama, where just 30% of rural health centers have labor and delivery units. Hospitals have cited staffing shortages and low Medicaid reimbursement payments—which were worsened by the Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act—as reasons for closing obstetric care units. Closures have left many families traveling an hour or more to receive prenatal care, and can worsen maternal mortality rates.
Regarding the robotic ultrasounds heralded by Oz, political analyst Drew Savicki said: "That is interesting but it represents a very small fraction of what an OB-GYN does. What is an ultrasound robot going to do for a woman who is coming in for her post-childbirth examination?"
In his comments, Oz unwittingly described the crisis the Trump administration has helped to make worse: "We have the best healthcare, if you can get to it."
One observer suggested Trump's healthcare officials "explain why no OB-GYNs want to work in Alabama, rather than bragging about robots."
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