Phyllis Bennis tells Al Jazeera that Israel’s inconclusive election results pose a new danger: a change in leadership could make it easier for U.S. lawmakers to continue enabling the same policies under a new face.
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Inside Story features Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, warning that regardless of who forms Israel’s next government, U.S. weapons, money, and diplomatic cover will continue to flow. “Whether it’s Netanyahu or someone else, they’ll be welcomed with open arms, open wallets, open armories,” Phyllis says, adding that a weakened Trump administration after the midterms could actually make a renewed assault on Iran more, not less, likely.
Associated Press quotes Bella DeVaan, director of the Charity Reform Initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies, on Anthropic’s expanded nonprofit support program, cautioning that without tax reform and stronger regulation, even public benefit corporations offer no guarantee of acting in the public interest. “Their wealth belongs to the public in the first place — it’s created by the country and there’s a sort of social wage owed to people who use their products,” Bella says.
Common Dreams publishes an op-ed by Basav Sen of the Institute for Policy Studies arguing that a bipartisan Senate permitting bill, framed as a boost for renewable energy, is in reality a giveaway to fossil fuel companies and data center developers that strips communities of their right to challenge polluting infrastructure projects. “This bill strips the public of their right to have a say in what gets built in their communities, in whose interest, and at what cost to human rights, air and water quality, public health, and culturally important places,” Sen writes.
Tavis Smiley Show, KBLA Talk 1580 features Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, offering her analysis of Barack Obama’s much-discussed Belfast speech on Israel and Palestine, arguing that while Obama’s words showed a glimmer of evolution, his failure to address U.S. weapons transfers to Israel rendered them incomplete. “What he failed to talk about – what he left out – was the role of the United States,” Phyllis says. “Stop sending the weapons. That’s what’s needed.”
Common Dreams publishes a co-authored piece by Khury Petersen-Smith and Phyllis Bennis, both fellows at the Institute for Policy Studies, arguing that the outcry over Pete Hegseth’s plan to live stream an execution exposed a deeper truth: the U.S. death penalty itself is a global outlier, with the country ranking among only 17 nations that carried out official executions last year, alongside China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
IPS’s Charity Reform Initiative tells Inc. that Musk’s SpaceX stock pledge deserves the same scrutiny applied to all billionaire philanthropy, starting with who really benefits and whether there’s any mechanism to hold him accountable.
Los Angeles Times publishes an op-ed by Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, arguing that the same corporations with the widest CEO-to-worker pay gaps — including Walmart (958-to-1) and Target (794-to-1) — have stayed silent as ICE detains, shoots, and terrorizes their own employees, while lobbying jubilantly for tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Truthout publishes an op-ed by Christine Ahn, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, arguing that while Trump’s push to scale back U.S.-South Korea military exercises deserves skepticism, progressives should seize the opening — noting that the drills cost U.S. taxpayers $5.6 billion annually and that diplomacy with North Korea, however imperfect, beats a permanent war footing on the Korean Peninsula.
Common Dreams cites research by Hanna Homestead of the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies finding that deploying the National Guard in Washington, D.C. is now nearly 9 to 10 times more costly than providing affordable housing for every homeless person in the city — in a piece examining a new Reuters investigation showing that despite costing taxpayers millions per day, the Guard has played a role in just 1.3% of criminal cases in the capital.
Latin Times cites an IPS analysis finding that National Guard deployment costs during Chicago’s “Operation Midway Blitz” immigration enforcement surge totaled $12.8 million between October 4 and November 15, 2025, in a sweeping examination of the economic toll of federal immigration enforcement raids across Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago.
Phyllis Bennis tells Al Jazeera that Israel’s inconclusive election results pose a new danger: a change in leadership could make it easier for U.S. lawmakers to continue enabling the same policies under a new face.
Bella DeVaan of IPS’s Charity Reform Initiative tells the AP that Anthropic’s public benefit corporation status is meaningful but insufficient without real federal regulation of corporate power and philanthropy.
IPS’s Basav Sen writes in Common Dreams that a bipartisan Senate permitting bill would lock in approvals for data centers and fossil fuel infrastructure while stripping communities of their legal rights to challenge them.
Phyllis Bennis tells the Tavis Smiley Show that Obama's Belfast speech on Israel-Palestine falls short by ignoring the U.S. role -- and that cutting weapons transfers, not words, is what would actually change the dynamic.
Common Dreams publishes a co-authored piece by Khury Petersen-Smith and Phyllis Bennis, both fellows at the Institute for Policy Studies, arguing that the outcry over Pete Hegseth’s plan to live…
IPS’s Charity Reform Initiative tells Inc. that Musk’s SpaceX stock pledge deserves the same scrutiny applied to all billionaire philanthropy, starting with who really benefits and whether there’s any mechanism…
IPS's Sarah Anderson writes in the Los Angeles Times that Low-Wage 100 corporations cheered the One Big Beautiful Bill's tax cuts while saying nothing about the ICE raids targeting their own workers — and that cracking down on excessive CEO pay must be part of any plan to revive American democracy.
IPS fellow Christine Ahn argues in Truthout that reducing U.S.-South Korea war drills — costing $5.6 billion a year — is the right policy, and that progressives should support diplomacy with North Korea even when the messenger is Trump.
Common Dreams cites IPS's Hanna Homestead finding that the National Guard deployment in D.C. costs nearly 9 to 10 times more than it would to house every homeless person in the city — while a Reuters investigation finds the troops have had almost no impact on violent crime.
Latin Times cites IPS data on National Guard deployment costs during Chicago's immigration enforcement surge, as part of a broader accounting of how federal immigration raids have cost the economies of Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago billions in lost output, jobs, and tax revenue.
Phyllis Bennis tells Al Jazeera English that Netanyahu's rejection of a phased Gaza withdrawal exposes the limits of US pressure that exists only in words — and that as long as weapons and money keep flowing, the genocide continues.
Newsweek cites IPS's National Priorities Project finding that Trump's mass deportation plan will cost U.S. taxpayers $268.9 billion, illustrated with a county-by-county breakdown of where that money is being spent.
IPS Wallace Fellow Julian Castañon Villa writes in The Nation that Fulbright's central warning — that militarism eventually becomes ordinary — deserves renewed attention as the U.S. pursues an unauthorized war and a record-breaking defense budget.
Phyllis Bennis tells Al Jazeera English that Israeli settler violence in the West Bank constitutes deliberate war crimes, and that only cutting US weapons and money — not words — will stop them.
Fortune cites a July 2025 IPS report on the Giving Pledge finding that just one couple among the original 57 signatories has actually given away half their wealth, and that the 32 original U.S. pledgers who are still billionaires have grown roughly 283% richer since signing — labeling the pledge "unfulfilled, unfulfillable, and not our ticket to a fairer, better future."
IPS fellow Sanho Tree is quoted in Raw Story pushing back on Trump's exploitation of fallen soldiers' deaths to justify the Iran war, calling it "using dead soldiers as sock puppets."
IPS's Chris Mills Rodrigo writes in In These Times that the indictment of Raúl Castro follows a familiar script — from Iraq to Libya to Venezuela — of manufacturing pretexts for U.S. military aggression, warning that Americans need to push back before the invasion narrative takes hold.
Common Dreams cites IPS research on the hidden costs of US military presence in Hawaiʻi in a piece arguing that RIMPAC 2026 prioritizes war preparations over the climate disasters and housing crises already devastating Pacific communities.
The Travel cites IPS research on fare evasion penalties in a viral piece about an Amtrak passenger who rode the Acela 100 miles without a ticket, sparking debate over whether U.S. transit systems need harsher consequences for fare dodgers.
Hanna Homestead of IPS's National Priorities Project is quoted in The Hill warning that Congress should not fund an unauthorized war with Iran, citing polls showing Americans have opposed the conflict from the start.
Fortune cites IPS's 2025 Giving Pledge report in a profile of John and Laura Arnold, identifying them as the only billionaire signers in compliance with the pledge's promise to give away at least half their wealth.
Mongabay covers a new IPS report finding that solar development in southern Honduras has harmed local communities through environmental damage and broken promises, while failing to transition the country away from fossil fuels.
WVUA23 covers a new IPS and Alabama Arise report showing a modest $25 million state investment in public transit could create over 2,500 jobs and generate $207 million in new GDP in Alabama.
The co-director of IPS's New Internationalism Project, warns in Salon that the US-Iran conflict could become another open-ended forever war, drawing on two decades of low-boil military operations in the Middle East as a precedent.
CBS News cites IPS data finding that the nation’s 905 billionaires are now worth a combined $7.8 trillion — an increase of more than 25% in a single year —…
Kate Hess Pace, executive director of Hoosier Action and IPS Wallace Rural Organizing Fellow, speaks with The New Republic about the growing grassroots backlash against data centers in rural communities.…
