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Nation's Leading Health Experts Urge GSA Administrator to Immediately Begin Presidential Transition
Experts Warn that Every Day the Transition is Delayed Puts American Lives at Risk Amid the Pandemic
WASHINGTON
Amid surging COVID-19 cases nationwide, over 140 former public health officials, public health and medical school deans, and public health and medical experts and researchers are sounding the alarm today in a letter to General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator Emily Murphy.
"Refusing to ascertain Biden as President-elect means the transition team must plan for a crisis response without access to essential information about vaccine development, the nation's supply chains for protective equipment and testing supplies, and coordination with federal, state, and local authorities," said Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "The costs are clear: delays mean more Americans will suffer and die."
The letter warns that further delays in the presidential transition process will risk the lives of many more Americans. Murphy's refusal to ascertain Joe Biden as President-elect has hindered the presidential transition team from liaising with key health officials in the Trump Administration and prevents the incoming administration from developing a robust, coordinated response to the pandemic. View the letter and the signatories here.
Notable signatories available for interview include Georges Benjamin (Executive Director of the American Public Health Association), Leana Wen (Former Health Commissioner of Baltimore), Perry Halkitis (Dean and Professor of Biostatistics and Urban-Global Public Health at the School of Public Health at Rutgers University), and Sten Vermund (Dean, Yale School of Public Health).
"A seamless transition is necessary to ensure that the incoming administration is prepared to confront the COVID-19 pandemic from day one," said Dr. Peter G. Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "Administrator Murphy must fulfill this responsibility immediately, as every extra day of delay can only add to the death toll."
Coordination between administrations is critical to the Biden team's ability to prepare plans for vaccine distribution and development, fully understand the current capacity for testing and contact tracing, develop specific mitigation strategies for businesses and schools, assess the national production capacity and supply chains for essential medications and protective equipment, gauge hospital bed and intensive care unit capacity, and much more.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School, Protect Democracy and Public Citizen are responsible for organizing this letter.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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Unlawful US Attack, Says Cuban President, 'Would Trigger a Bloodbath With Incalculable Consequences'
"Cuba, which already endures a multidimensional aggression from the US, does have the absolute and legitimate right to defend itself against a military onslaught," said President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
May 18, 2026
As the Trump administration seeks to justify a war with Cuba using what Cuban officials have called “increasingly implausible accusations” that it poses a danger to national security, President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned on Monday that an American assault would trigger a "bloodbath with incalculable consequences."
US President Donald Trump has imposed a punishing fuel blockade on Cuba for months that has devastated the island's civilian population with the explicit goal of forcing its government from power and has, on many occasions, threatened to use military force, including to outright "take" the island.
The densely populated island of nearly 11 million people is already in the midst of a humanitarian crisis as a result of "energy starvation" from the blockade, which has left the country's renowned healthcare system struggling to function, with 100,000 patients awaiting surgery, according to a recent United Nations report.
"The threats of military aggression against Cuba from the world's greatest power are well-known," Díaz-Canel said in a post to social media on Monday. "The threat itself already constitutes an international crime. If it were to materialize, it would trigger a bloodbath with incalculable consequences, plus the destructive impact on regional peace and stability."
His comments came after Axios reported Sunday on "classified intelligence" shared by unnamed senior US officials stating that Cuba possesses around 300 drones acquired from Russia and Iran and had been considering plans to attack the US military base at Guantánamo Bay, various US military vessels, and Key West, Florida.
Reporter Marc Caputo described the intelligence as a possible "pretext for US military action" against the island and quoted an unnamed senior official as saying it was "a growing threat."
Republican legislators, particularly those in South Florida, have seized on the report to argue for even harsher action against Cuba. US Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart and Elvira Salazar both said it was further evidence that Cuba poses a "threat to national security." Rep. Carlos Gimenez said it must be "dealt with accordingly."
However, buried deep within the report was the acknowledgment that "US officials don't believe Cuba is an imminent threat, or actively planning to attack American interests." Rather, the drones would be reserved for a scenario in which "hostilities erupt" in the event of a US military attack, which has been telegraphed for weeks by the Trump administration.
Cuba has not denied having drones, with its embassy saying on Sunday that it "has the right to defend itself against external aggression." But Cuba denied any intent to attack the US preemptively, saying that US officials were "distorting as extraordinary the logical preparation required to face a potential aggression."
Díaz-Canel reiterated on Monday that Cuba "poses no threat, nor does it have aggressive plans or intentions against any country."
"It has none against the US, nor has it ever had any—something the government of that nation knows full well, particularly its defense and national security agencies," the Cuban president continued.
"Cuba, which already endures a multidimensional aggression from the US, does have the absolute and legitimate right to defend itself against a military onslaught," he added. "Yet that cannot be wielded, either logically or honestly, as an excuse for imposing war on the noble Cuban people."
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In Wake of NYT Uproar, UN Rights Office Calls for Independent Probe of Israel's Sexual Abuse of Detainees
While Israel said the claims amount to "blood libel," a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office said, "torture and ill-treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, are systematically perpetrated against Palestinian prisoners."
May 18, 2026
As Israel attempts to discredit New York Times reporting published last week that detailed systematic sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli forces, the United Nations Human Rights Office over the weekend called for an independent probe into what a spokesperson characterized as well-documented mistreatment.
"Torture and ill-treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, are systematically perpetrated against Palestinian prisoners under Israeli custody. This includes numerous cases of rape, involving children," said Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Saturday, in response to questions from the Anadolu Agency.
Al-Kheetan added that the human rights office had confirmed the deaths of at least 90 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody since October 7, 2023, including a 17-year-old who showed signs of starvation at the time of death.
Israel has announced that it will sue the Times for the report by opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof, which included testimony from 14 Palestinians who said they faced sexual assaults in Israeli custody or during attacks by the Israeli military or settlers. Threatening legal action, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government officials described the reporting as “blood libel.”
But Al-Kheetan said the OHCHR had “systematically documented the practice of torture and ill-treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, against Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons."
Reports from other human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Israeli group B'Tselem, have included similar testimonies in which Palestinian former detainees say they've experienced or witnessed sexual violence while in custody.
Al-Kheetan added that it was part of a “flawed Israeli detention and justice system,” which includes arbitrary detention, unfair trials, and violations of international law. "This system must end, and Israel, as an occupying power, must respect international human rights law and its obligations," he said.
While rejecting allegations of systemic abuse, Israel has denied requests by the UN and other agencies for access to its detention facilities. Last year, Israel refused a request from the UN to investigate possible sex crimes committed by Hamas militants against Israelis on October 7, 2023, because it would have also involved a probe into its own treatment of Palestinian detainees.
Al-Kheetan said, "independent, impartial, and transparent investigations must be conducted into every death, torture, ill-treatment, and other case of inhuman or degrading treatment, and those responsible must be held accountable."
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IEA Chief Warns Only 'Weeks' of Oil Inventories Left Thanks to Trump's Iran War
"We are living on borrowed time," said one economist about global oil prices.
May 18, 2026
With no end in sight to the Strait of Hormuz crisis caused by President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran, the head of the International Energy Agency warned Monday that global energy supplies are running dangerously low.
IEA executive director Faith Birol told reporters in Paris that the world only has weeks' worth of oil reserves left, raising the likelihood that energy prices will soar even higher in the near future.
Birol said that oil inventories are "declining rapidly" and added that there was "a perception gap in the markets between the physical markets and the financial markets," as the price of oil in futures markets has not yet risen to a level that accurately reflects the coming supply crunch.
In his remarks to the press, given on the sidelines of a G7 gathering taking place this week in France, Birol warned that it's only a matter of time before the supply shortage of fertilizer, which was also caused by the Iran War, leads to a surge in food prices that "might give a big push to inflation numbers."
The Financial Times reported on Sunday that energy markets are approaching a "tipping point" where prices could see another upward surge that would throw the global economy into a recession.
Paul Diggle, chief economist at fund manager Aberdeen, told The Financial Times that he has been modeling the economic impact of oil hitting $180 per barrel, which he said would set off a global inflation crisis.
“We are taking that outcome very seriously,” Diggle said. “We are living on borrowed time."
Oil prices briefly fell last month after the US and Iran announced a ceasefire agreement. However, the Strait of Hormuz has remained closed throughout that period, and Trump is reportedly preparing to restart attacks on Iran in the near future if no deal to reopen the strait is reached.
In a Sunday Truth Social post, Trump again threatened Iran with destruction unless it agrees to his demands.
"For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them,” the president wrote. “TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!”
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