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For Immediate Release
January, 26 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
(202) 667-6982
EWG Applauds Kellogg for Pledge to End Pre-Harvest Use of Weedkiller Glyphosate
Kellogg will take steps to phase out the use of the herbicide glyphosate to dry oats and wheat before harvest, eliminating use of the potentially harmful chemical in the main ingredients of many of the company's breakfast cereals and other foods.
WASHINGTON
Kellogg will take steps to phase out the use of the herbicide glyphosate to dry oats and wheat before harvest, eliminating use of the potentially harmful chemical in the main ingredients of many of the company's breakfast cereals and other foods.
Kellogg pledged to work with its wheat and oat suppliers to end the use of the herbicide, sold under the name Roundup, as a pre-harvest drying agent in all of its major crop markets, including the U.S., by 2025, according to a statement published on the company's website and reported on by the Washington Post.
"We applaud Kellogg for working with their suppliers to address the risks posed by glyphosate," said EWG President Ken Cook. "It's no surprise that consumers don't want a controversial weedkiller in their cereal. Now it's time for General Mills and Quaker to listen to their customers and fall in behind Kellogg leadership and do the same - end this use of this notorious weedkiller."
In 2018 and 2019, EWG commissioned three rounds of laboratory tests of cereals and other foods sold by Kellogg, General Mills and Quaker, and found glyphosate in virtually every sample analyzed. Many of the samples contained levels of glyphosate far above the benchmark of 160 parts per billion that EWG scientists say is safe for children.
Since EWG released the results of its first round of tests, more than 310,00 consumers have signed the group's petition calling on Kellogg, General Mills and Quaker to remove the weedkiller from their products.
The Environmental Working Group is a community 30 million strong, working to protect our environmental health by changing industry standards.
(202) 667-6982LATEST NEWS
A $1.2 Trillion ‘Rip Off’: Report Spotlights Massive Scale of Medicare Advantage Fraud
"These private insurer-run plans are more expensive AND lead to worse outcomes for patients," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal. "It’s time to rein in Medicare DisAdvantage and protect traditional Medicare."
Jan 28, 2026
A report released earlier this month to little fanfare estimated that federal overpayments to privately run Medicare Advantage plans could total $76 billion this year—or potentially a staggering $1.2 trillion over the next decade if current trends persist.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), an independent congressional agency that advises lawmakers on Medicare, calculates overpayments by comparing spending on Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to what the federal government would have spent if MA enrollees were on traditional fee-for-service Medicare.
In a report published earlier this month, MedPAC showed that overpayments to MA plans this year are projected to be around $76 billion. Roughly $22 billion of that total is due to coding practices by MA providers, which are notorious for making patients appear sicker than they are to receive larger payments from the federal government. MA plans are paid lump sums to cover expected future healthcare services for patients based on their risk scores.
Another factor driving overpayments to MA plans—which now cover 55% of eligible Medicare beneficiaries—is a phenomenon known as favorable selection. MA enrollees tend to be healthier on average than recipients of traditional Medicare, resulting in higher payments to Medicare Advantage plans than are necessary based on patients' healthcare needs.
According to MedPAC, favorable selection will account for $57 billion of the expected overpayments to MA plans this year. The Trump administration gave Medicare Advantage plans a more than $25 billion boost in federal payments for 2026, even amid mounting bipartisan concerns about fraud in the program.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM) said the MedPAC analysis "confirms that these private plans are bleeding taxpayers for billions of dollars more than traditional Medicare would cost for comparable enrollees."
US Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote in response to the MedPAC findings that "Medicare DisAdvantage will rip off American taxpayers to the tune of $76 billion in 2026."
"These private insurer-run plans are more expensive AND lead to worse outcomes for patients," Jayapal, a leading supporter of Medicare for All legislation in the House, wrote in a social media post. "It’s time to rein in Medicare DisAdvantage and protect Traditional Medicare."
The MedPAC analysis was released days after Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee published a report revealing how UnitedHealth Group, the largest provider of MA plans in the US, "has turned risk adjustment into a major profit-centered strategy," reaping massive payments from the federal government through upcoding.
NCPSSM noted that "while UnitedHealth... has emerged as the worst offender, it’s abundantly clear that many MA insurers are engaged in these shady practices."
"Look no further than insurers’ reliance on prior authorizations for procedures and treatments that normally would be automatically covered in traditional Medicare," the group said. "This includes denying skilled nursing care that jeopardizes older patients who have nowhere else to turn."
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Iran Vows to 'Respond Like Never Before' as Trump Ramps Up War Threats
Tehran's admonition came after Trump said that a "massive armada" is heading to Iran—similar language he used before invading Venezuela and kidnapping its president.
Jan 28, 2026
As President Donald Trump escalated his renewed military aggression against Iran, Tehran warned Wednesday that any US attack would trigger unprecedented retaliation.
"Last time the US blundered into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it squandered over $7 trillion and lost more than 7,000 American lives," Iran's Permanent Mission to the United Nations said on X Wednesday. "Iran stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests—BUT IF PUSHED, IT WILL DEFEND ITSELF AND RESPOND LIKE NEVER BEFORE!"
This, after Trump said on his Truth Social network that "a massive armada is headed to Iran" with "great power, enthusiasm, and purpose."
Trump said nearly the same thing before invading Venezuela and kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife earlier this month.
"It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela," Trump continued. "Like with Venezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary. Hopefully Iran will quickly 'Come to the Table' and negotiate a fair and equitable deal—NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS—one that is good for all parties."
"Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!" the president added. "As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was 'Operation Midnight Hammer,' a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again."
Allies of both the United States and Iran added to mounting tensions.
Alluding to the recent street protests that were brutally crushed by the Iranian government at the cost of at least hundreds and possibly thousands of lives, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday: "A regime that can only hold onto power through sheer violence and terror against its own population; its days are numbered. It could be a matter of weeks, but this regime has no legitimacy to govern the country.”
Meanwhile, the Iran-aligned militia Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq said it is ready for "total war" if the US attacks. There are still thousands of US troops in Iraq nearly 23 years after the second American invasion of the country; Iranian forces have attacked US military assets in the Middle East following past American strikes on Iran or its officials.
After a joint phone call, the foreign ministers of Iran and its regional rival, Saudi Arabia, said any attack on Iran would have "dangerous consquences."
Their call followed a Tuesday phone conversation between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
"The threats and psychological operations of the Americans are aimed at disrupting the security of the region and will achieve nothing other than instability," Pezeshkian told the crown prince, according to Iranian media.
Bin Salman told Pezeshkian that Saudi Arabia "will not allow the use of its airspace or territory in any military actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran or any attacks from any side, regardless of its destination," a transcript of the call said.
Last June, Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure, killing hundreds of people. Later that month, Trump ordered US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran retaliated with a massive but limited missile attack on Israel, killing around two dozen people and injuring hundreds more.
Responding to Trump's renewed threats, Lebanese-British journalist Hala Jaber said on X Wednesday that "this is not diplomacy. It is coercion by force, publicly framed as negotiation. The language leaves little room for de-escalation."
Sniping at Trump's claim that Iran's nuclear sites were destroyed by last year's strikes, Palestinian-American writer and political analyst Yousef Munayyer said, "I thought Trump told us his strikes last summer obliterated Iran's nuclear program? Also, threatening to bomb a country unless it abandons pursuit of a nuclear deterrent is a pretty counter-productive line of argument."
US investigative journalist and Drop Site News co-founder Jeremy Scahill took aim at Trump's claim that US intervention in Iran is about protecting the lives of Iranian protesters—a dubious assertion given his administration's deadly repression in Minneapolis—saying Wednesday that "at the end of the day... this is about US imperial aims. It’s about oil. It’s about gas. It’s about geopolitical war.'
Donald Trump claimed today that “a massive Armada is heading to Iran,” warning that the US is “ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary.”
On the Drop Site News livestream, @jeremyscahill noted that Iran is signalling a shift… pic.twitter.com/FyDcTbGTAN
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) January 28, 2026
"This is what it's been about in terms of US policy toward Iran for decades," Scahill said. "It was what it was about in 1953 when the CIA and British intelligence orchestrated the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh. It was what it was about when the US was supporting the brutal regime of the Shah of Iran, all the way up until the dying days of his regime. This has been what the US sanctions policy against Iran has been about."
"And in June, when the US and Israel launched 12 days of heavy bombing of Iran in the name of degrading and destroying potential Iranian nuclear capacity, those bombings killed more than 1,000 people," he continued. "And remember that Donald Trump used the veneer... of negotiations with Iran... to provide cover to do a surprise 12-day bombing of Iran."
"Nothing the US is doing right now—and I mean absolutely nothing—is about supporting any Iranians," Scahill added, "except those that the US and Israel believe will be pliable."
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‘Streets of Minneapolis’: Springsteen Releases Anthem to Honor Uprising Against ICE
Springsteen dedicated the song "to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors, and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good."
Jan 28, 2026
Rock icon Bruce Springsteen on Wednesday released a song called "Streets of Minneapolis," a tribute to activists who have been leading the uprising against federal immigration enforcement operations in the Twin Cities.
In a statement posted on social media, Springsteen explained his inspiration for the song, which he wrote in the wake of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti being gunned down by federal agents on Saturday, just weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three.
"I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis," Springsteen said. "It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors, and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good."
The lyrics to the song can be found below.
Through the winter’s ice and cold
Down Nicollet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ice
‘Neath an occupier’s boots
King Trump’s private army from the DHS
Guns belted to their coats
Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes Against smoke and rubber bullets By the dawn’s early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringing through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
Here in our home they killed and roamed In the winter of ’26
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Trump’s federal thugs beat up on His face and his chest
Then we heard the gunshots
And Alex Pretti lay in the snow, dead
Their claim was self defense, sir
Just don’t believe your eyes
It’s our blood and bones
And these whistles and phones
Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Crying through the bloody mist
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Now they say they’re here to uphold the law
But they trample on our rights If your skin is black or brown my friend
You can be questioned or deported on sight In chants of ICE out now
Our city’s heart and soul persists
Through broken glass and bloody tears
On the streets of Minneapolis
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
Here in our home they killed and roamed In the winter of ’26
We’ll take our stand for this land And the stranger in our midst
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
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