"In the name of the 'humanitarian sense of all,' Israel and Egypt must lift border restrictions on the Gaza Strip, said outgoing head of the United Nations Relief and Works Organization (UNRWA) Filippo Grandi on Tuesday. ..
As both import and export out of the occupied territory are tightly restricted, goods coming in through the single commercial border crossing with Israel meet only 35 to 50 percent of Gazans' needs, as Reuters reports.
The import blockade is 'illegal and must be lifted,' said Grandi, adding, 'I also want to make a strong appeal for export to resume because the lack of export is the main reason for the poverty of Gaza.'
-->The NYT is the great filter for these types of stories, making sure the American people never here the consequences of Israel's apartheid treatment of Palestinians. It didn't print this story.
------
Guardian UK:
"The Maine Medical Association recently updated a 2008 poll of their members that asked the question, 'When considering the topic of health care reform, would you prefer to make improvements in the current public/private system (or) a single-payer system, such as a Medicare-for-all approach?' In 2008, 52.3 percent favored the Medicare-for-all approach. In the updated poll, released last week, that number had risen to 64.3 percent. ...
A number of factors account for this impressive change, but the huge administrative burden on practicing physicians created by our plethora of private insurance schemes is certainly near the top of the list. ...
American physicians spend at least three times as much time, money and effort on administrative work related to payment and insurance coverage as our Canadian brethren, with their single-payer system. Administrative hassle is a major factor driving more and more American doctors to sell our practices to large corporations that take care of the back-office work. The Affordable Care Act has only added to that burden. Sixty percent of doctors now work for corporations, and that number is growing."
-->The NYT didn't print this story. The enormous waste associated with our medical system's privatization is often not covered.
------
Common Dreams:
"The biggest mystery may be why the Obama White House has been so solicitous of the CIA’s desire to keep secret the history of a torture program authorized by President George W. Bush and overseen by Vice President Dick Cheney. As Commander in Chief, President Obama has the ultimate say over what stays classified and what gets declassified.
Yet, as the CIA has dragged its feet about declassifying what are now historical records – by claiming factual inaccuracies – the Obama White House has adopted a posture of powerless supplicant. 'We’ve made clear that we want to see the report’s findings declassified,' said White House spokesman Jay Carney, as if the President has no power over this process. ...
If every government report required that the party being criticized agree to every detail of the allegations, no report would ever be issued. This idea that secretive CIA officials, who have already obstructed the investigation by destroying videotape of the torture sessions, should now have the right to block the report’s release indefinitely grants the spy agency what amounts to blanket immunity for whatever it does."
-->The NYT is not in the business of pointing out the secret links between the CIA, President Obama, and the previous administration. Of course, the release of the report will show horrible tortures done by the CIA, and covered up by both political parties. A bit too close to the truth for our newspaper of record, which didn't print this story.
