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For Immediate Release
May, 18 2022, 11:20am EDT
Contact:
Reps. Bowman, Pressley, Jayapal and Meng Call for Urgent Executive Action on Baby Formula Shortage
WASHINGTON
Yesterday, Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D. (NY-16) and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-7) led their colleagues Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) and Congresswoman Grace Meng (NY-06), in sending a letter to President Biden urging him to use all applicable executive authorities to end the baby formula shortage.
"In a country with innumerable resources available, our babies and anyone who relies on specialty powdered formula to meet their nutritional needs should never go without," said Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D (NY-16). "We are experiencing a severe and nationwide baby formula shortage due to Abbott Nutrition's corporate greed that prioritized profits over people. Abbott Nutrition and only three other powdered formula makers combined account for nearly 90% of the formula available across the country. President Biden must use every power available to him to work across his Administration, with the FDA and beyond to end this shortage now and to prevent a near monopoly such as this one from creating another crisis in the future. This includes his ability to utilize existing authority under the Defense Production Act and the recently renewed Public Health Emergency for COVID-19. Parents and caregivers' hands are tied when the grocery store shelves are empty and the cost of the limited formula available is skyrocketing. We are forcing our babies to go without or receive less than the nutrition they need at a time when their bodies and brains are rapidly developing. We have too much at stake to risk this happening again, which is why we need the FTC to conduct a wide-ranging study of the infant formula market and for the Biden Administration to create and enforce regulations that better protect us and our babies from corporate greed. Who we are as a nation is defined by our ability to provide and take care of the most vulnerable, who are undoubtedly our babies. They need their formula and they need it now."
"Our nation's greatest wealth is the health of our people, and today we call for protecting the health of our youngest - our babies. President Biden must use the full weight of the presidency to end the baby formula shortage so families can provide the sustenance necessary for the growth and survival of their infants," said Congresswoman Pressley (MA-07). "Our families, especially those in the Commonwealth, have been hit hard by the extreme baby formula shortage and need a reliable, safe, and affordable supply now. We have an infant hunger crisis looming and a whole of government response is required. I thank the President for his swift action, and we must continue to build on these efforts and work together to use every tool we have at the federal level."
"No family should have to scramble to find formula for their babies. Our youngest and most vulnerable deserve to have their needs met," said Congresswoman Jayapal (WA-07). "We need to address this crisis, and we need to address it now. The formula shortage has disproportionately impacted our low-income families, and our Black and Brown parents. Lives of millions of babies are in danger right now. I urge the President to use all the tools we have at our disposal to get formula back on the shelves, get our most vulnerable fed, and ensure this never happens again."
"Families not having access to safe and affordable baby formula is a national emergency which is why we are asking the President to immediately take action to address this vital problem," said Congresswoman Meng (NY-06). "The shortage has left parents scrambling, not knowing where to turn to obtain the formula they need. For millions of families, formula is crucial for the development of their children. Without it, we put the health of babies at risk. That's why the President must mobilize all available resources to end this shortage. I await the President's reply to our letter."
Jamaal Anthony Bowman is an American politician and educator serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 16th congressional district since 2021.
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In First Encyclical, Pope Leo Warns Against Unrestrained AI in Hands of Mega-Rich Few
"The pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs, because the human person is an end, not a means."
May 25, 2026
Pope Leo XIV on Monday released a 42,000-word encyclical calling for government regulation of artificial intelligence and implored world leaders to ensure the burgeoning technology is used for the benefit of all humankind—not concentrated in the hands of a powerful, profit-seeking few.
Leo warned in the first major theological document of his papacy that unrestrained AI and its potentially far-reaching impacts—including mass job loss, environmental degradation, and increasingly catastrophic warfare—heightens the "risk of dehumanization," subjugating much of humanity in the name of "greater efficiency" and technological advancement.
"As with every major technological shift, AI tends to amplify the power of those who already possess economic resources, expertise, and access to data," Leo wrote in the document, titled Magnifica Humanitas. "In light of the common good and the universal destination of goods, this raises serious concerns, since small but highly influential groups can shape information and consumption patterns, influence democratic processes, and steer economic dynamics to their own advantage, undermining social justice and solidarity among peoples."
Leo warned that eliminating jobs en masse by replacing human beings with robots—an aim of some of the most powerful companies in the world, including the e-commerce behemoth Amazon—without adequate protections and compensation for impacted workers would be morally obscene and calamitous to social order.
"A society that guarantees employment to only a small fraction of the population, despite having a high level of technical development, risks exposing many to forced inactivity, a lack of responsibility, and the absence of daily tasks and stimuli, resulting in human and cultural impoverishment," the pope wrote. "This creates a paradox of material progress and anthropological regression that undermines the foundations of a just and stable social peace."
In the era of #ArtificialIntelligence, when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human. We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us and revealed in its fullness in Christ, the splendor…
— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) May 25, 2026
Leo cautioned against the growing use of AI in military conflict, a warning delivered alongside the CEO of the artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, which was embroiled in a tense and public dispute with the Trump administration earlier this year over the use of the company's technology for military purposes and mass surveillance. The pontiff has also clashed with the Trump administration, which has attacked Leo for publicly criticizing the US-Israeli war on Iran.
"No algorithm can make war morally acceptable," reads the pope's encyclical. "AI does not remove the intrinsic inhumanity of conflict; indeed it can only bring about conflict more quickly and render it more impersonal, lowering the threshold for resorting to violence, transforming defense into threat prediction and thus reducing victims to data. In this way, it will accustom us to the idea that violence is inevitable and needs only to be optimized."
Leo, whose warnings about the implications of rapid advancements in AI technology echoed concerns expressed by progressive lawmakers in the US and around the world, made clear that he doesn't view new technology, including AI, as inherently "antagonistic to humanity," noting that "technological development has significantly improved the living conditions of humanity."
"At the same time, each phase of progress has also revealed the ambiguity of tools that can cause harm when not oriented toward the good," Leo wrote. "It is necessary to establish adequate regulatory tools capable of upholding justice and curbing the distorting effects of technological power."
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"We will defeat the oligarchy and the political system that it maintains," said Graham Platner. "The politics of Susan Collins."
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US Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday rallied in Orono, Maine with progressive Senate candidate Graham Platner, who called for transformative political change to reclaim the wealth that has been "stolen by corrupt politicians and the corporations that bought them."
Platner, who effectively locked up the Maine's US Senate Democratic primary after Gov. Janet Mills exited the race last month, placed five-term incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins among the corrupt lawmakers who have sold out workers and advanced the interests of the billionaire class, which is shelling out millions to protect Collins' seat.
"We will not just fight the oligarchy," Platner told an audience of 1,400 gathered at the University of Maine, the location of the 40th stop of Sanders' (I-Vt.) nationwide "Fighting Oligarchy" tour. "We will defeat the oligarchy and the political system that it maintains... The politics of Susan Collins. A politics that turns politicians into millionaires but tells you to be grateful for crumbs. It is a lie."
Platner declared that "we need a political revolution," something he said Sanders "has been fighting for for 60 years."
"When we beat back fascism, when we defend our democracy and our freedom, let it be a different kind of freedom," said Platner. "A freedom to not be condemned to scraps and struggle, but to live with the dignity and fulfillment that gives us the society we deserve."
Watch the full rally:
Sanders, who became the first US senator to endorse Platner last August when he was widely seen as a long shot to win the Democratic nomination, said that "what we're talking about"—from Medicare for All to a living wage to union rights for all workers—"is not radical."
"What is radical is when so few have so much," said Sanders. "What is radical is when billionaires control our political system."
Sunday's "Fight Oligarchy" rally came days after a survey showed Platner leading Collins—who has held her seat for nearly three decades—by seven percentage points among likely voters, who appear unfazed by an intensifying wave of attacks on Platner from pro-Collins super PACs and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
"Susan Collins is spineless and corrupt," Platner wrote on social media ahead of the rally. "And in 163 days, we will defeat her."
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Viral Video Compilation Shows Top Iran War Booster Making One Failed Prediction After Another
"He’s the Jim Cramer of Iran war predictions," said one critic.
May 24, 2026
Conservative commentator Dave Rubin, who for months has been a top booster of President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran, was inundated with mockery on Sunday after a viral video exposed months' worth of his failed predictions about the conflict.
The video, which was posted on social media Saturday, begins with Rubin telling viewers to not listen to any of the prognostications being made by critics of the war, which Trump launched in late February without any authorization from Congress.
"I'm pretty good with predictions," Rubin says. "And my prediction here is that everything the media is now going to say about Iran—it's going to close the Strait of Hormuz, and energy prices are going to go crazy—none of this is going to come to pass."
Iran war: greatest hits from the last 12 weeks pic.twitter.com/9pgXyvmsgF
— Dave Rubin Clips II (Parody) - Retired Jan.20/2025 (@DaveClips) May 24, 2026
The video then cuts to Rubin wrongly predicting that gas prices during the conflict "will continue to come down," before switching to claims that Iran lacks the military capability to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed in the face of US military power.
"If the United States wants to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, which it does," says Rubin, "and Donald Trump says we'll escort ships through if we have to, it's going to stay open."
From there, the video shows Rubin hyping of the prospect of Iranian dissident Reza Pahlavi swooping in to take over the country after the war, and then getting fooled by a fake artificial intelligence-generated video of Iranians giving thanks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bombing their country.
The video compilation of Rubin's failed predictions drew immediate ridicule from critics.
"He’s the Jim Cramer of Iran war predictions," joked Krystal Ball.
Commentator Adam Mockler wrote of Rubin that "it’s brutal watching him make failed predictions week after week."
Journalist Glenn Greenwald argued that the video should be the last nail in the coffin of whatever credibility Rubin had left.
"Imagine having sat through and listened to all of this Israeli propaganda, which turned out to be (predictably and completely) false," commented Greenwald, "and then thinking there was some value in continuing to listen to this person."
The Bulwark's Tim Miller said that while he knew Rubin was "a smooth-brained hack," he still "couldn’t even fathom how bad these war takes would be."
Political analyst Omar Baddar, meanwhile, said the video should erase any doubt that Rubin is "the dumbest man on the internet."
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