March, 09 2021, 11:00pm EDT
Progressive Health Care and Global Justice Groups to Rally Across Country and Push Pharmaceutical Companies to Commit to Just Global Vaccine Distribution
On "Free the Vaccine" Day of Action, activists to gather at big pharma hqs and call on President Biden to end vaccine apartheid against countries in global south.
WASHINGTON
Tomorrow, Thursday, March 11th, a progressive coalition of health care and global justice advocates will rally across the country to push for pharmaceutical companies and the Biden administration to commit to a just, global vaccine distribution. Activists will gather at pharmaceutical company headquarters in Washington, D.C., New York City, Cambridge, and Philadelphia as part of a "Free the Vaccine" Day of Action.
Advocates will call on President Biden to support sharing vaccine intellectual property through the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool and a proposed waiver on World Trade Organization intellectual property rules that are blocking global production of desperately needed COVID vaccines and treatment and prioritizing intellectual property over human health.
WHO: Health care, progressive, and global justice advocates with People's Action, Center for Popular Democracy Action, Health Global Access Project (Health GAP), Student Global AIDS Campaign, the People's Vaccine Alliance, Right to Health Action, and Universities Allied for Essential Medicine
WHAT: "Free the Vaccine" Rallies for Just Vaccine Distribution
WHEN: TOMORROW, THURSDAY, March 11, 2021
11 AM ET - Washington, D.C.
12 PM ET - New York City, Cambridge, Philadelphia
WHERE: PhRMA headquarters at 950 F St. NW in Washington, D.C.; Pfizer headquarters at 235 E 42nd St. in New York City; Moderna headquarters at 200 Technology Square in Cambridge; and Pfizer headquarters at 500 Arcola Rd. in Collegeville, outside of Philadelphia.
To follow the actions on social media, follow these accounts and hashtags: @PplsAction; @peoplesvaccine; @HealthGAP; @UAEM; @CPDAction; @actupny; @ftv_boston; #FreetheVaccine; #TRIPSWaiver.
People's Action builds the power of poor and working people, in rural, suburban, and urban areas to win change through issue campaigns and elections.
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One advocate called the CFPB's new rule "a major milestone in its effort to level the playing field between regular people and big banks."
Dec 12, 2024
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one of President-elect Donald Trump's top expected targets as he plans to dismantle parts of the federal government after taking office in January, announced on Thursday its latest action aimed at saving households across the U.S. hundreds of dollars in fees each year.
The agency issued a final rule to close a 55-year-old loophole that has allowed big banks to collect billions of dollars in overdraft fees from consumers each year,
The rule makes significant updates to federal regulations for financial institutions' overdraft fees, ordering banks with more than $10 billion in assets to choose between several options:
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The rule is set to go into effect next October, but the incoming Trump administration could put its implementation in jeopardy. Trump has named billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory body he hopes to create. Musk has signaled that he wants to "delete" the CFPB, echoing a proposal within the right-wing policy agenda Project 2025, which was co-authored by many officials from the first Trump term.
"The CFPB is cracking down on these excessive junk fees and requiring big banks to come clean about the interest rate they're charging on overdraft loans."
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In recent decades, banks have used overdraft fees as profit drivers which increase consumer costs by billions of dollars every year while causing tens of millions to lose access to banking services and face negative credit reports that can harm their financial futures.
The Federal Reserve Board exempted banks from Truth in Lending Act protections in 1969, allowing them to charge overdraft fees without disclosing their terms to consumers.
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Government watchdog Accountable.US credited the CFPB with cracking down on overdraft fees despite aggressive campaigning against the action by Wall Street, which has claimed the fees have benefits for American families.
Accountable.US noted that Republican Reps. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina and Andy Barr of Kentucky have appeared to lift their criticisms of the rule straight from industry talking points, claiming that reforming overdraft fee rules would "limit consumer choice, stifle innovation, and ultimately raise the cost of banking for all consumers."
Similarly, in April Barr claimed at a hearing that "the vast majority of Americans" believe credit card late fees are legitimate after the Biden administration unveiled a rule capping the fees at $8.
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The new overdraft fee rule follows a $95 million enforcement action against Navy Federal Credit Union for illegal surprise overdraft fees and similar actions against Wells Fargo, Regions Bank, and Atlantic Union.
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Arrests and detainments of journalists in the United States surged in 2024 compared to the year prior, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a project of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
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President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has chosen Kari Lake, a far-right election denier and failed U.S. Senate candidate, to lead the federally funded international broadcast network Voice of America, a move that critics said underscores Trump's effort to transform government entities into vehicles to advance his own interests.
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Lake, a former television news anchor in Arizona who has echoed Trump's insidious attacks on journalists, wrote in response to the president-elect's announcement that she was "honored" to be asked to lead VOA, which she characterized as "a vital international media outlet dedicated to advancing the interests of the United States by engaging directly with people across the globe and promoting democracy and truth." VOA, which is supposed to have editorial independence, has long faced criticism for its coverage and treatment of employees.
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"Six members of the board are named by the president and require Senate consent, and the seventh member is the secretary of state," the Post explained.
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