SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Veterans Send Letter to President Biden: "Read Our Nuclear Posture Review Before Releasing Yours"
Veterans For Peace has issued an Open Letter to President Biden, requesting that he take a look at their Nuclear Posture Review before issuing his own. The letter, prompted by the escalating war in Ukraine and the growing possibility of nuclear war, reads in part:
Dear President Biden,
WASHINGTON
Veterans For Peace has issued an Open Letter to President Biden, requesting that he take a look at their Nuclear Posture Review before issuing his own. The letter, prompted by the escalating war in Ukraine and the growing possibility of nuclear war, reads in part:
Dear President Biden,
We, members of Veterans For Peace who are concerned about the growing possibility of nuclear war, have researched and written our own Nuclear Posture Review, with the goal of reducing the risk of nuclear war and ultimately eliminating all nuclear weapons. Because your own Nuclear Posture Review has not yet been released, we strongly encourage you to put it on hold while you review the Nuclear Posture Review of Veterans For Peace.
The war in Ukraine, with its relentless escalation toward a possible nuclear confrontation, is of great concern to the American public, including those in uniform and veterans who have experienced the chaos and trauma of war; so we are also eager to see your Nuclear Posture Review, Mr. President. We deserve a full accounting of your nuclear planning. We want to know what you and your advisers consider reasonable during this time of confrontation between the US and Russia, which between them hold the lion's share of the world's 15,000 nuclear weapons.
The Veterans For Peace Nuclear Posture Review is attached to this letter. The product of many months of research and writing, our Nuclear Posture Review is a blueprint for a world of peace and cooperation - a world that uses its precious resources for global uplift rather than mutual annihilation.
We request that you issue a statement that your Nuclear Posture Review is on hold while you review the Nuclear Posture Review developed by concerned U.S. veterans. We look forward to seeing your own Nuclear Posture Review before long, Mr. President. It is important that all humanity will be able to see: Is the president of the United States working to reduce the risk of nuclear war? Or is U.S. nuclear policy being dictated by those who profit from war? We deserve an answer.
The veterans' letter also calls on President Biden to forswear the first use of nuclear weapons and take them off hair-trigger alert, to re-enter the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM} and Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaties, and to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
"These are not pie-in-the-sky ideas," said Veterans For Peace president Susan Schnall. "They are well-developed proposals from nuclear disarmament experts. It is our deep hope that President Biden will take our approach to heart, for the benefit of our country and of all humanity worldwide."
Veterans For Peace is a global organization of Military Veterans and allies whose collective efforts are to build a culture of peace by using our experiences and lifting our voices. We inform the public of the true causes of war and the enormous costs of wars, with an obligation to heal the wounds of wars. Our network is comprised of over 140 chapters worldwide whose work includes: educating the public, advocating for a dismantling of the war economy, providing services that assist veterans and victims of war, and most significantly, working to end all wars.
(314) 725-6005LATEST NEWS
Mifepristone Maker Appeals to US Supreme Court Amid Fears of 'National Abortion Ban'
"The safety of mifepristone has never actually been in question," said one advocate. "As this case moves towards the US Supreme Court, we will fight until every person has access to the care they need."
May 02, 2026
A pharmaceutical company which manufactures mifepristone filed an appeal to the US Supreme Court on Saturday asking for emergency relief from the "sweeping and dangerous" lower-court ruling Friday that would prohibit the mailing of the widely used abortion medication nationwide.
Danco Laboratories, which makes the popular drug and is part of ongoing litigation stemming from a legal challenge by the Republican-controlled state of Louisiana, said Friday's ruling by the Fifth Circuit of Appeals—a decision roundly condemned by reproductive rights advocates as an attack on women's health and the right to choose across the country—will cause "tremendous uncertainty" on the "legal status of mifepristone throughout the country” if it goes into effect.
The company further argued that the ruling as it stands leaves medical providers, patients, and pharmacies “all to guess at what is allowed and what is not," whether or not abortion is legal in the state where a patient is trying to obtain it.
The company asked the nation's highest court for an immediate administrative stay to the 5th Circuit's ruling while the challenge to the drug's availability makes its way through lower courts. It also urged the Court to take up the case itself prior to the upcoming summer recess.
According to Politico:
Even a temporary disruption of access to mifepristone will have massive implications. The medication is used in nearly two-thirds of all pregnancy terminations, and a quarter of patients depend on telehealth to obtain them. The ruling also cuts off telemedicine prescription of the drug for non-abortion purposes, such as easing miscarriages.
In the wake of Friday’s ruling, medical and progressive advocacy groups stressed that doctors can still use telehealth to prescribe the other abortion pill — misoprostol. The drug can be used on its own to end pregnancies and carries fewer restrictions because it is used for an array of other purposes, including treating ulcers and stopping hemorrhages.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward who also the legal effort to make mifepristone available by mail during the COVID-19 pandemic as then-Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, issued the following statement
“Women’s ability to access mifepristone through the mail or from their pharmacy has revolutionized access to care. Now, as anti-abortion extremists seek to employ their anti-abortion playbook and reverse this hard-fought victory for patients, this decision needlessly blocks people around the country from critical healthcare, discriminating in particular against those who live in rural and other areas where healthcare is inaccessible.
"Here's what is very clear: mifepristone has an OUTSTANDING safety record," said the Center for Reproductive Rights on Saturday. "It has been FDA-approved for 25 years and used by more than 7 million people."
Following Friday night's ruling by the 5th Circuit, Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of the advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All, said the stakes could night be higher for the right to choose in the United States.
"The court’s decision moves us one step closer to a national abortion ban," Timmaraju warned.
"It is now much more difficult for people to access abortion care," she said. "Anti-abortion politicians know their policies are unpopular, so they are using every lever of government they can. Louisiana built this case on debunked, junk science. The safety of mifepristone has never actually been in question. As this case moves towards the US Supreme Court, we will fight until every person has access to the care they need."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'No Aggressor, No Matter How Powerful, Will Find Surrender in Cuba,' President Warns Trump
After the US president again threatened invasion, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said he would only "find a people determined to defend sovereignty and independence in every inch of the national territory."
May 02, 2026
President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez of Cuba on Saturday responded with stark and defiant words to the latest attacks coming from US President Donald Trump, who on Friday signed a new executive order authorizing even more aggressive sanctions against the island nation and later threatened to invade the country.
"The President of the United States escalates his threats of military aggression against Cuba to a dangerous and unprecedented scale," said Díaz-Canel in a statement. "The international community must take note and, together with the people of the United States, determine whether such a drastic criminal act will be allowed to satisfy the interests of a small but wealthy and influential group, driven by desires for revenge and domination."
"No aggressor, no matter how powerful, will find surrender in Cuba," he added. If Trump were to attack the country, the Cuban president said, "he will find a people determined to defend sovereignty and independence in every inch of the national territory."
"What does 'No Kings' mean when one man can snap his fingers and kill innocent Cubans on a whim?"
In addition "to blocking the US assets of foreign individuals and entities operating in Cuba's energy, defense, financial services, metals, mining, and security sectors, as well as anyone acting on behalf of the Cuban government," as Drop Site News notes, Friday's executive order also "authorizes sanctions on foreign financial institutions that conduct significant transactions with designated Cuban entities, potentially cutting them off from US correspondent banking."
As such, the outlet continued, the new sanctions "could further isolate Cuba from the international financial system, limit foreign investment, and exacerbate the island's already severely restricted access to medicine, food imports, and basic goods."
In addition to the signed executive order, Trump said during a Friday campaign-style event in Florida that the US "will be taking [Cuba] over almost immediately."
Upon their return from Iran, where Trump has waged a deeply unpopular war, the US president told the crowd, "We’ll have maybe the USS Lincoln [aircraft carrier] come in offshore, and they’ll give up."
In a floor speech earlier this week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) rebuked the Trump administration for the humanitarian disaster it has unleashed in Cuba, which follows what he described as a "failed" policy towards the island country over decades.
As Trump ramps up his threats of war against Cuba, we must understand what led us to this point: 65 years of a bankrupt Cuba policy.
If we want to avoid war with Cuba, we must rein in this lawless President & learn from the failed, bipartisan policies that led us to this point. pic.twitter.com/H9MqviSe6d
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) April 30, 2026
"If we want to avoid war with Cuba," said Van Hollen, "we must rein in this lawless president and learn from the failed, bipartisan policies that led us to this point."
David Adler, the co-general coordinator of Progressive International, condemned the relative silence of US opponents to the Trump administration, who have not done, in his mind, nearly enough to challenge the blockade or condemn the administration's repeated and ongoing threats to invade the island nation or overthrow its government.
" Donald Trump has given [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio the green light to annihilate a peaceful nation and its people—and the ‘resistance’ is silent," said Adler. "What does 'No Kings' mean when one man can snap his fingers and kill innocent Cubans on a whim?"
Keep ReadingShow Less
'I Don't Hate the Americans': Latest Lego Video Promotes Empathy Between People of US and Iran
'Love for the people, but the system must cease... From Tehran to DC, we're screaming for peace."
May 02, 2026
The creative team behind many of the viral sensations featuring Lego characters and storytelling critical of the war launched by US-Israeli forces against Iran two months ago, posted a new video on Saturday that seeks to forge solidarity between everyday Iranians and Americans suffering from the conflict, and who desperately want to see the fighting brought to an end.
"The Iranian AI Lego team has another video out," said Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a DC think tank focused on US foreign policy. "The music, lyrics, and imagery are all designed to appeal to disillusioned Americans."
With the video—featuring dramatic scenes from daily life in both Iran and the United States under the shadow of war—the makers behind it, said Parsi, "are doubling down on building bridges between Americans and Iranians while depicting the US government and 'system' as the real enemy."
Touching on themes of shared empathy between people and a political system in the US that insulates the people in power, like US President Donald Trump and lawmakers in Congress, from the will of the voters, the chorus of the song states, "Same sun rising, but we're living in hell; While the leaders are ringing the funeral bell."
'Love for the people, but the system must cease," the chorus continues, "From Tehran to DC, we're screaming for peace."
WOW!
The Iranian AI Lego team has another video out. They are doubling down on building bridges between Americans & Iranians while depicting the US gov and "system" as the real enemy.
The music, lyrics, and imagery are all designed to appeal to disillusioned Americans. pic.twitter.com/9jV6aQgulm
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) May 2, 2026
The lack of peace, the music video argues, is not a reflection of what the American people want but comes from the leaders of the country, motivated by profits, wealth, and geopolitical power.
Your politicians are puppets, strings pulled by their greed,
Selling weapons to anyone, ignoring the need.
They sit in ivory towers, completely out of touch,
Making billions on bombs while the world suffers so much.
They point fingers at us; call us the axis of bad
While they fund the worst violence that the world ever had.
While the imagery shows Iranians suffering in food lines and terrified by US and Israeli bombs being dropped on cities, the message from the Iranian production team behind the video is that the people of Iran do not blame the people of America for the bad behavior of their government.
It's not you, America. It's the ones who lead you.
Listen to my heart...
I don't hate the Americans who are living in fear,
To the working class people trying to make ends meet
To the students protesting, marching out on the street,
We are one and the same, just trying to survive,
Just trying to keep our cultures and our families alive.
I see you standing for justice, fighting the system of hate.
It's your corrupt politicians that are sealing our fate.
I say love to the citizens from coast to coast,
You're victims of the same machine that hurts us the most.
So I wrote this track to try to bridge the divide,
To lay down the weapons, to swallow the pride.
We don't need another missile, no more tactical strikes.
We need conversations on what the future looks like.
My purpose is peace. Let the hostility cease.
Let the eagles and lions finally sit at the feast
From the Persian Gulf straight to the American Shore.
Let our generation be the one that finishes war.
Put the guns in the dirt. Let the healing begin
Because if we keep shooting, then nobody will win.
The "peace" the song concludes, is not for the benefit of "the leaders" waging the war, but for "the innocent souls" harmed by war and the "next in line" in future generations.
The new video on Saturday builds on a previous video from earlier in the week that represented a pivot away from simply ridiculing Trump and slamming the Israelis for their aggression by focusing more on trying to reach the American people who oppose the war and are also being harmed by it.
🎶 Iran’s Latest AI Lego Song Video
The latest entry in Iran’s viral series of AI-generated Lego-style propaganda music videos takes a different tone than its predecessors, with less mockery of Trump and Hegseth, and a direct appeal to ordinary Americans.
The track opens: “I… https://t.co/fqYFEyCZLV pic.twitter.com/sCVE1l0H3l
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) April 30, 2026
The earlier video released Thursday, noted Drop Site News, invokes "the 1953 CIA-backed coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh," and "references the human cost of sanctions," and "draws a parallel between Iranian and American working people"—all to break through possible barriers of understanding between civilians in the US and those living under the scourge of war in Iran.
"They want us to hate, they want a wall made of glass," the song says. "But we’re both just the victims of a ruling class.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular