Obama and his Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are under fire for persisting in their practice of rubber-stamping Big Pharma’s production of addictive and deadly opioid painkillers, and pushing them on medics to over-prescribe. For months, Federal and state lawmakers have appealed to the FDA and other agencies to stop this. There has been a rise in opioid overdoses (up 200 percent since 2000) linked to the rising rate of opioid pill prescriptions for painkillers.

Obama rebuffed an appeal made to him Monday at the National Governors Association event in Washington, D.C., to have the FDA imposer tighter controls on the prescription opioids. Obama duplicitly said, “If we go to doctors right now and say, ‘Don’t overprescribe,’ without providing some mechanisms for people in these communities to deal with the pain that they have or the issues that they have, then we’re not going to solve the problem, because the pain is real, the mental illness is real.”

Tuesday, three Senators held a press conference slamming Obama’s FDA—Edward Markey (D-MA), Joe Manchin (D-W VA), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). They publicized the crisis, on the eve of today’s Senate vote to confirm Obama’s new choice to head the FDA, Dr. Robert Califf. Last month, both Markey and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) put procedural holds on the nomination of Califf, who is currently deputy FDA commmisioner, because of his close ties to Big Pharma.

Markey said, “We need the leader of the FDA to be a tough cop on the beat, not a rubber stamp approving the latest Big Pharma painkillers that are the cause of this deadly scourge of opioid addiction and overdoses. The FDA must begin by agreeing to convene advisory committees for all opioid approval decisions, period. We are hemorrhaging lives by the day, and reforming the FDA is the first step needed to staunch the flow of suffering and death.”

Manchin said, “With 51 Americans dying every day due to an opioid overdose, the FDA now more than ever needs a champion who is committed to changing the way the agency handles opioids.”

According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Yahoo News reports, 47,055 people died from a drug overdose in the U.S. in 2014—more than any other year on record. Some 61% of those fatal overdoses involved opioids, mostly prescription painkillers such as OxyContin or Percocet, and heroin.

According to a release from Markey’s office, the FDA has approved 11 so-called “abuse-deterrent opioids” (a term Markey calls an oxymoron) since 2010. Of those 11, the FDA sought advisory committees’ advice on only four, in many cases even after “warnings from the medical community about potential abuse—concerns borne out by subsequent experience with the drugs.”

Before arriving at the FDA last September, Califf spent years at the Duke Clinical Research Institute, which, unlike most academic research institutions, gets 60% of its finances from industry, according to the Triangle Business Journal. Califf’s financial disclosure lists seven drug companies and a device maker that paid him for consulting, and six others—including Merck, Novartis, and Eli Lilly—which supported his university salary, according to Sanders.

That there is a way out of geopolitics and permanent war, if the United States is freed from the grip of the British empire—that is, Obama is removed—was demonstrated also in the press conference held by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Secretary of State John Kerry, following their meetings in Washington Tuesday. The nuances of their nearly hour-long conference await the transcript and review, but the spirit is exemplified by the following.

The press conference was opened, 45 minutes later than scheduled, by a strong statement by Secretary Kerry that both nations understand that the U.S. and China share one of the most consequential relationships in the world, and that they must act accordingly. Both nations are deeply committed to dialogue, and recognize that their two powerful nations, with the two largest economies in the world, have the ability to make good things happen, despite clear differences in specific areas. Areas of cooperation on global affairs were identified, and only within that context were the contentious areas of North Korea and the South China Sea diplomatically elaborated.

Foreign Minister Wang agreed; we have more points of agreement than disagreement. As diplomats, our responsibility is to identify problems and resolve them; to clear the way ahead and remove obstacles.

Both emphasized the necessity of talks, and knowing each other’s thinking, if “misjudgements” which could become dangerous are to be avoided. Kerry specified military-to-military talks as crucial, and referenced the Cold War time, when the U.S. and Soviet Union had tens of thousands of nuclear warheads pointed at each other, until Reagan and Gorbachov decided at Rejkavik that this was “insane.” So, we must understand each other.

In his final answer, Wang said that Middle East peace, African development, fighting diseases, non-proliferation, all require U.S.-China cooperation. Our two countries should make “the pie of our common interests” bigger, he suggested. We should look through a telescope to visualize the future, rather than a microscope to magnify our differences! 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced in the evening of Feb. 22, that an agreement had been reached on conditions for a ceasefire in Syria between all but the jihadi terrorists. All parties involved in the conflict, outside those terrorists, have until Feb. 26 at noon, to indicate their willingness to participate, with the ceasefire then to go into operation the following day. Taskforces have been set up to work out details.

The address given by President Vladimir Putin to the Russian people on the agreement on Monday night, following a conversation with President Obama which he initiated, best summarizes the terms reached and commitments made. Putin made clear this was no “quick fix,” but rather grew out of much work, including making “use of the positive experience we accumulated over the course of cooperation in eliminating chemical weapons in Syria.”

Enforcement of the ceasefire between the groups who agree to participate is to proceed thusly: “Russian and American troops will jointly delineate the territories where these groups are active. No military action will be taken against them by the Armed Forces of the Syrian Arab Republic, Russian Armed Forces and the US-led coalition. In turn, the opposition will cease all military action against the Armed Forces of the Syrian Arab Republic and other groups supporting them,” Putin stated.

Strikes against ISIS, Al-Nusra and other UNSC-designated terrorist groups will continue.

A communication hotline and, if necessary, a working group to exchange information, will be set up. “Russia will conduct the necessary work with Damascus and the legitimate Syrian leadership. We expect that the United States will do the same with regard to their allies and the groups they support,” said Putin. These actions “will be enough to radically reverse the crisis situation in Syria. We are finally seeing a real chance to bring an end to the long-standing bloodshed and violence.”

Most importantly: “Russian-American agreements on the cessation of hostilities in Syria, and their joint implementation in coordination with all nations participating in the International Syria Support Group, can become an example of responsible actions the global community takes against the threat of terrorism, which are based on international law and UN principles,” he concluded. A far cry from the disasters in Somalia, Iraq, Libya, Yemen which resulted from “one-sided actions not sanctioned by the UN.”

Less than 24 hours later, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenko reported that Russia had provided the U.S. the contacts for the hotline, and had set up a “coordination center” at its airbase near Latakia, Syria, tasked to monitor compliance with the ceasefire, facilitate contacts between the Syrian government and opposition, and provide humanitarian aid.

Syrian President Bashir Assad announced that parliamentary elections will be held on April 13, and Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen that “Damascus has agreed to stop military operations” against all but the terrorists.

In a joint press conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Tuesday afternoon, Secretary Kerry reported that he hoped to hear soon that the Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC), then meeting, also accepted the ceasefire. All parties involved, Syrian government and opposition, and other countries, must make the commitment to implement the agreement, he said—singling out no party in particular (unlike the British).

Reflecting the global effects and efforts which went into this accord —which now must be made to stick over British imperial sabotage— Kerry cited the Chinese role in creating conditions for this ceasefire. Kerry pointed out that Foreign Minister Wang had flown the longest and the farthest of any Foreign Minister, to participate in the international discussions on an end to the Syrian conflict held in Munich.