Archive for June 2025

Medical credit cards have gone mainstream, preying on sick people at their most vulnerable…. The typical medical credit card has an annual percentage rate (APR) of 26.99 percent interest, compared to an average of 16 percent for regular credit cards. Consumers who aren’t able to pay off the charges before the deferred interest kicks in end up paying about one-quarter more than the original amount they were charged. American consumers paid $1 billion in deferred interest between 2018 and 2020.

A brief overview of BASW’s recent impact in parliament

Four experts on public education in the US spoke to The Nation about how the dismantling of the Department of Education will hurt students immediately and in the years to come.

The European Trade Union Confederation is urgently calling for a new directive to protect workers from the escalating dangers of extreme heat.

The chicly futuristic branding of IQOS, a heated tobacco product owned by Philip Morris International, is one of several things worrying researchers and anti-tobacco advocates. The company is rolling out pilots of the device in Austin and Fort Lauderdale, peddling IQOS (pronounced “eye-koss”) as “the next step in tobacco harm reduction.” In its marketing, the company positions the devices as a better alternative for smokers compared to cigarettes, reducing the production of harmful chemicals while containing “real tobacco,” “less lingering smell,” and no fire or ash.

Last week’s budget allocated NZ$472 million in new funding to deal with a growing prison population caused by greater use of prison remand and proposals to increase prison sentence lengths. The new funding comes on top of $78 million provided in the 2024 budget to extend rehabilitation to remand prisoners, enabled by an amendment to the Corrections Act late last year. The question is, will any of this make New Zealanders safer?

Teaching, nursery, midwifery and social work students to benefit, as government urged to expand eligibility and increase pay to minimum wage