13 April 2020 Archives

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Millions of immigrants pay taxes but won’t get coronavirus stimulus checks
Astrid Galván, Philip Marcelo, Claudia Torrens | peoplesworld.org | 2020-04-13
PHOENIX (AP)–The $2.2 trillion package that Congress approved to offer financial help during the coronavirus pandemic has one major exclusion: millions of immigrants who do not have legal status in the U.S. but work here and pay taxes. That includes Carmen Contreras Lopez, a 48-year-old housekeeper who, though she earns low wages, files a tax …
peoplesworld.org/article/millions-of-imm…

UN Ceasefire Defines War As a Non-Essential Activity
Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J. S. Davies | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
At least 70 countries have signed on to the March 23 call by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a worldwide ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic. Like non-essential business and spectator sports, war is a luxury that the Secretary General says we must manage without for a while. After U.S. leaders have told Americans for…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/un-ceasefire…

A Year Since the Arrest of WikiLeaks Publisher Julian Assange
Oscar Grenfell | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-13
Today marks 12 months since WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police and security officers after being illegally expelled from Ecuador’s London embassy, where he had lived and worked as a political refugee for seven years. | The sight …
globalresearch.ca/year-since-arrest-wiki…

Julian Assange: One Year in Belmarsh
Binoy Kampmark | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
It should not be a matter of distinction, but Julian Assange is a figure who is becoming the apotheosis of political imprisonment. This seems laughable to those convinced he is an agent without scruple, a compromiser of the Fourth Estate, a figure best packed off to a prison system that will, in all assuredness, kill…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/julian-assan…

Julian Assange’s partner Stella Morris speaks out: “His life is on the brink”
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
Morris’s comments are a moving refutation of the media smears directed against Assange and underscore the urgency of the fight for his immediate freedom.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/assa…

Indigenous celebrate victory against Dakota Access Pipeline, but remain wary of Judge Boasberg
Albert Bender | peoplesworld.org | 2020-04-13
On March 25, tribal nations won a notable victory in their long-standing war with the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) when U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg for the District of Columbia ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must develop a full environmental review of the much-maligned project. This was a historic triumph for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which with the support …
peoplesworld.org/article/indigenous-cele…

Fascist admirers and collaborators: New book exposes Hitler’s American friends
Tony Pecinovsky | peoplesworld.org | 2020-04-13
An emboldened right-wing, with an enabler in the White House, has reemerged since the 2016 elections. Its most reactionary elements are not shy about openly associating with hate groups–white supremacist, anti-immigrant, Holocaust deniers–which, of course, is cause for alarm. With this in mind, Bradley W. Hart’s Hitler’s American Friends: The Third Reich’s Supporters in the …
peoplesworld.org/article/fascist-admirer…

The COVID-19 Lockdown: Devastating Economic and Social Consequences. Trump Wants the Economy Reopened by May 1st
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-13
The way to defeat a highly infectious disease like COVID-19 is by instituting policies to prevent it from spreading. | Social distancing, sheltering in place, and lockdowns are emotionally draining and anxiety provoking. | According to psychologist Shauna Springer, | “we’re missing the | …
globalresearch.ca/trump-intends-reopen-u…

As Nicaragua confronts Covid, its US-backed opposition exploits the pandemic to create chaos
Ben Norton | thegrayzone.com | 2020-04-13
Nicaragua’s right-wing opposition is waging an information warfare campaign to undermine the elected Sandinista government, spreading fake news on coronavirus,…
thegrayzone.com/2020/04/13/regime-change…

As Nicaragua confronts Covid, its US-backed opposition exploits the pandemic to create chaos
Ben Norton | thegrayzone.com | 2020-04-13
Nicaragua’s right-wing opposition is waging an information warfare campaign to undermine Nicaragua’s elected Sandinista government, spreading disinformation about its response….
thegrayzone.com/2020/04/13/regime-change…

COVID-19: Reducing the risk of infection might increase the risk of intimate partner violence
N. van Gelder, A Peterman, A. Potts, M. O’Donnell, K. Thompson, N. Shah, S. Oertelt-Prigione, Gender and COVID-19 working group | thelancet.com | 2020-04-13
The ongoing pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, the causal agent of the acute respiratory distress syndrome COVID-19, is placing unprecedented stress on healthcare systems and societies as a whole. The rapid spread of the virus in the absence of targeted therapies or a vaccine, is forcing countries to respond with strong preventative measures ranging from mitigation to containment. In extreme cases, quarantines are being imposed, limiting mobility to varying degrees.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PI…(20)30092-4/fulltext?rss=yes

[Research Paper] Evaluating the evidence behind the surrogate measures included in the FDA’s table of surrogate endpoints as supporting approval of cancer drugs
Bishal Gyawali, Spencer P. Hey, Aaron S. Kesselheim | thelancet.com | 2020-04-13
Using breast cancer as an example, we evaluated the underlying evidence for the surrogate endpoints for solid tumors listed in the FDA’s Table of Surrogate Endpoints and found weak or missing correlations of treatment effects on these surrogates with treatment effects on OS . Surrogate measures should be predictive of clinical benefit to be useful in supporting regular FDA approval.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PI…(20)30076-6/fulltext?rss=yes

Thousands Still Have No Water in Detroit, a COVID-19 Hot Spot
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-13
Water shutoffs continue amid the coronavirus pandemic in Detroit, despite a moratorium and a program to help thousands of residents restore service last month. The lack of water access comes as nearly 1,500 people in Michigan have died from COVID-19, and 40% of those who have died are African-American, despite making up just 14% of the state’s population. We speak with community pastor and activist Rev. Roslyn Bouier, who has been working with residents to restore their water. | TRANSCRIPT: | AMY GOODMA…
truthout.org/video/thousands-still-have-…

Thousands Still Have No Water in Detroit, a COVID-19 Hot Spot
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-13
Water shutoffs continue amid the coronavirus pandemic in Detroit, despite a moratorium and a program to help thousands of residents restore service last month. The lack of water access comes as nearly 1,500 people in Michigan have died from COVID-19, and 40% of those who have died are African-American, despite making up just 14% of the state’s population. We speak with community pastor and activist Rev. Roslyn Bouier, who has been working with residents to restore their water. | Please check back later for full…
truthout.org/video/thousands-still-have-…

Colombia: Police Abuse Becomes Common During COVID-19 Outbreak
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-13
Colombian citizens denounced the police brutality and misuse of power during quarantine enforcement due COVID-19 outbreak inside the South American nation, a new report revealed. | RELATED: | Colombia’s Gustavo Petro Diagnosed with Cancer | Social media users shared videos showing police imposing arbitrary and random fines during the quarantine period in Colombia this past week. Colombian officers are also intimidating citizens who are seen outside of their homes. | Esteban Velazquez, a psych…
telesurenglish.net/news/colombia-police-…

A Palestinian Guide to Surviving a Quarantine
Ramzy Baroud | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
Call it a ‘quarantine’, a ‘shelter-in-place’, a ‘lockdown’ or a ‘curfew’, we Palestinians have experienced them all, though not at all voluntarily. Personally, the first 23 years of my life were lived in virtual ‘lockdown’. My father’s ‘quarantine’ was experienced much earlier, as did his father’s ‘shelter-in-place’ before him. They both died and were buried…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/a-palestinia…

Don’t Threaten Afghans…It Will Be Counterproductive
M. K. Bhadrakumar | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
The principal deputy assistant secretary at the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA) in the U.S. State Department, Alice Wells, dropped a bombshell on the Afghan government and the country’s political elites on April 4–and caught the international donors by surprise, too–by linking all aid to Afghanistan to the formation of an inclusive…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/dont-threate…

Exactly 18 Years After US Coup Against Venezuela, Pompeo and Abrams Warn Another is Coming
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-13
US regime change cheerleaders Mike Pompeo and Elliot Abrams warned Venezuala’s government not to resist the upcoming implementation of a “transitional government.”
mintpressnews.com/18-years-after-us-coup…

Interview with a retired Detroit school bus driver about the impact of COVID-19
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
The World Socialist Web Site spoke with Mary Coleman, a retired Detroit school bus driver, who spoke about the unfolding crisis and the deaths of five of her former coworkers.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/mary…

Three years since Indian court ordered 13 framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers jailed for life
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
The World Socialist Web Site urges workers around the world to redouble their efforts to free these class war prisoners, whose only “crime” was to challenge a brutal work-regimen, cheap-labour and precarious contract jobs.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/mswu…

Bodies in the Streets: IMF Imposed Measures Have Left Ecuador Unable to Cope with Coronavirus
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-13
Ecuador is near collapse under the strain of the coronavirus after the government of Lenin Moreno stripped state services nearly bare at the behest of the IMF.
mintpressnews.com/ecuador-unable-to-cope…

Wisconsin’s Unconscionable Sham
Jill Richardson | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
Wisconsin might have just decided the November election for Trump at the expense of its own citizens’ lives. As of April 7, the state’s primary election day, there were 2,511 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state, with the disease continuing to spread. Thanks to Wisconsin Republicans and the U.S. Supreme Court, the people of…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/wisconsins-u…

Sanders Says Congress Must Stop Trump From Privatizing the Postal Service
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-13
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday urged Congress to act immediately to stop President Donald Trump from using the novel coronavirus outbreak “as an opportunity to bankrupt and privatize…
truthout.org/articles/sanders-says-congr…

Biden Must Become the Climate-Commander-in-Chief
Karyn Strickler | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
Now that Bernie Sanders has suspended his run for President Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee. But not so fast. Sanders’ voters are going to support Biden when he earns it. Sanders blazed new trails of climate leadership, making it compulsory to have multi-billion dollar plans to decarbonize. He defined the terms of the…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/biden-must-b…

Thank You, Bernie; Screw You, New York Times
Laura Flanders | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
It is the essence of American liberalism to trash radical dreams and then dance on them. And that’s just what the New York Times did the day after Bernie Sanders bowed out of the Democratic race for the nomination. On that day, in a special editorial, the editors of the very same paper that disparaged…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/thank-you-be…

Wisconsin: Electoral Politics Gone Lethal
Paul Street | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything more depressing in United States political history than last Tuesday’s election in Wisconsin. Following days of legal wrangling and in cold-blooded defiance of the grim warnings of public health experts, Wisconsin held an in-person vote in the middle of a deadly pandemic.
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/wisconsin-el…

Infected with Passivity: Letter from Catalonia
Chris Gilbert | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
“Perseus wore a magic cap so that the monsters he hunted down might not see him. We draw the magic cap down over our eyes and ears so as to deny that there are any monsters.”

Moratoriums Won’t Save Us from the COVID-19 Depression
Ted Rall | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
At least 16 million Americans have lost their jobs to the shutdown ordered to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. That staggering number does not include those who were unable to file due to crashing state websites overwhelmed by new claims, or by freelancers whom the government doesn’t count as unemployed when they lose…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/moratoriums-…

Joe Biden is Your Enemy
David Swanson | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
There’s a video of Lawrence O’Donnell, spokesperson for MSNBC, saying in 2020 what he’s paid to say, namely that electing a candidate with a platform you approve of is somehow in conflict with electing a candidate who can win. The logic of this is that most people are expected to vote for a candidate with a less…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/joe-biden-is…

Ukraine Eyes America for Gas but Still Relies on Russia
Paul Antonopoulos | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-13
Despite strong attempts by Ukraine not to buy Russian pipeline gas, they will not be able to receive U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) for at least another five years according to Polish experts from the consulting company ESPERIS. According …
globalresearch.ca/ukraine-eyes-america-g…

Brazilian Democracy Is Dead
Fernando Horta | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-13
The word is that that General Braga Netto is the new “acting president” of Brazil. Firstly, this position does not legally exist. We live in a presidential system, and the power of the executive is in the hands of the …
globalresearch.ca/brazilian-democracy-de…

Apocalypse Now: Stop the Madness
Ronnie Cummins | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
“April is the cruelest month.” –T.S. Eliot, “The Wasteland,” 1922 COVID-19 has now violently emerged, alongside the Climate Emergency, as an existential threat. Our health, economic livelihoods, climate stability, democracy–our very survival as a human species–is under attack. If we’re going to survive this pandemic, and avoid the pandemics lying in wait, if we’re going…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/121523/

Unions back U.S. Postal Service’s $75B pandemic appeal, oppose right-wing privatization plans
Mark Gruenberg | peoplesworld.org | 2020-04-13
WASHINGTON–Faced with a crash in mail volume and revenue due to closures to battle the coronavirus pandemic–right when the country needs…
peoplesworld.org/article/unions-back-u-s…

Coronavirus hitting hard in Missouri cities
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
While the media has primarily focused on New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the US, the virus is now raging through the center of the country.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/miss…

COVID-19: Our hospital administrators do not care if we get sick or die
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-04-13
Editor’s note: The author of this article is not named due to the likelihood of retaliation by hospital administrators. | Every day I go to work, I walk into a complete disaster. I am a health care worker in a hospital in a major Midwestern city and our hospital administrators have no clue how to handle the coronavirus pandemic. | Every day I go into work, I’m expected to adapt to an ever-changing crisis. Workplace expectations are ranging from the new CDC guidelines to a continuously moving date as to when we will be having a rapid increase in patients This expected peak has now changed four times in the past th…
www.fightbacknews.org/2020/4/12/covid-19…

Workers walk off at Ontario care home due to unsafe conditions amid coronavirus outbreak
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
Nearly the entire staff walked off over concerns about the lack of personal protective equipment.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/canh…

What is behind the high percentage of COVID-19 deaths among African Americans?
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
The data shows the deadly impact of the virus on the entire working class, especially the most vulnerable workers of all races.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/race…

IYSSE (Australia) lecture this Tuesday: Socialism versus identity politics and post-modernism
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
Beams will explain that the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated that the fundamental division in society is class, not gender, race or sexual orientation.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/lect…

Trump Shared a Tweet Urging Fauci’s Firing. Will Fauci Be Axed as a Scapegoat?
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-13
President Donald Trump shared a tweet on Sunday that suggested he might be thinking about removing Anthony Fauci from the coronavirus task force, or possibly from his position within the National Institutes of Health, over his comments from this past weekend in which the doctor stated that an earlier implementation of mitigation efforts could have saved lives. | The tweet that the president shared came from a former candidate for Congress who had once sought the seat held by Speaker of the Hou…
truthout.org/articles/trump-shared-a-twe…

Solidarity in a Time of Pandemic, While the US Capitalizes on Disaster
Roger D. Harris | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-13
The virus does not discriminate, attacking oppressed and oppressor alike. Unfortunately, the US government does more than discriminate. Washington has seen the pandemic as an opportunity.
mintpressnews.com/solidarity-during-pand…

Disunited States: Government Failure to Address Coronavirus is Sparking a Mutual Aid Revolution
Eleanor Goldfield | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-13
As state and local authorities struggle and the federal government focus on saving Wall Street, a volunteer-driven mutual aid revolution is taking hold in disenfranchised communities across America.
mintpressnews.com/government-failure-add…

How to Convince the Recalcitrant That This Time Really is Different
Peter A. Coclanis | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
Although I personally agree with the “shelter in place” policy currently in effect in North Carolina and other states, and am more or less reconciled to “the way we live now”–to borrow from Trollope–a bit more context on the crisis provoked by the novel corona virus COVID-19 might at once provide some useful information to the public and allow the recalcitrant better to understand what all the fuss is about.
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/how-to-convi…

As COVID-19 death toll mounts, US ruling class demands a more rapid return to work
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
After a week in which more than 10,000 Americans died from the coronavirus, the US media and political establishment has launched a concerted effort to get workers back to work.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/covi…

Reality of American capitalism exposed: Millions line up for food aid as pandemic spreads
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
The desperate social reality for tens of millions in the US, typically hidden in “normal times,” has been exposed by the coronavirus outbreak for the world to see.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/pers…

European Union to spend half a trillion euros on imperialist interests in coronavirus bailout
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
After two days of bitter disputes, the EU finance ministers agreed on a coronavirus bailout worth ‚Ç¨500 billion.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/euro…

Science vs. Trump: The dangerous promotion of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
Neither chloroquine nor hydroxychloroquine has been proven to deliver any benefit against the impact of the coronavirus.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/drug…

Workers walk out at Ontario care home due to unsafe conditions amid coronavirus outbreak
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
Nearly the entire staff walked off over concerns about the lack of personal protective equipment.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/canh…

Rationing PPE Means Checking on COVID Patients Less Often. This Can Be Deadly
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-13
Every morning, between 7 and 8, at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, several coronavirus patients are pronounced dead. | It’s not that more people die at the beginning of the day, according to two medical providers at the hospital. But as a new shift arrives, doctors and nurses find patients who have died in the hours before and went undetected by a thin overnight staff. | Health care workers at several New York hospitals say they aren’t entering patient rooms as often as usual. Th…
truthout.org/articles/rationing-ppe-mean…

There’s No Reason to Turn Airtime Over to Trump’s Deceptive Coronavirus Campaign Rallies
Julie Hollar | fair.org | 2020-04-13
After the 2016 election, many journalists (e.g., New York Times, 3/27/16) lamented their role in elevating Donald Trump to victory by handing him billions of dollars of free publicity, in exchange for the ratings and clicks his outrageous rhetoric and behavior g…
fair.org/home/theres-no-reason-to-turn-a…

The Federal Reserve’s Coronavirus crisis actions, explained (Part 5)
Nathan Tankus | mronline.org | 2020-04-13
Muni Purchases Are Finally Here…
mronline.org/2020/04/13/the-federal-rese…

Trump Ignored COVID-19 Warnings Until It Was Too Late
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-13
As the United States surpasses the coronavirus death toll of any country in the world with more than 22,000 dead, we look how President Trump led the country to this point with Eric Lipton, lead author of The New York Times’s explosive new exposé, “He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus.” | Please check back later for full transcript.
truthout.org/video/trump-ignored-covid-1…

New York City Tops US With Over 100,000 Coronavirus Cases
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-13
New York City saw confirmed COVID-19 cases surpass the 100,000 mark to reach 103,208 by midnight Sunday with a death toll of 6,898, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. | RELATED: | The US Seeks to Set New Military Base in Syria Amid Pandemic | Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday that the city would open five new testing centers in hardest-hit communities to address previously-found disparities among different racial groups and between the rich and the poor. | ”
telesurenglish.net/news/New-York-City-To…

US: African-Americans Are More Vulnerable to COVID-19
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-13
The U.S.’ African-American population is more vulnerable to COVID-19, according to social and demographic studies on the virus. | RELATED: | New York City Tops US With Over 100,000 Coronavirus Cases | The reason for this exposure of the African-American population is not its genetics or physical conditions, but the systemic discrimination it suffers. Many of the non-white citizens of the United States are lacking health insurance, so they may also have underlying health problems tha…
telesurenglish.net/news/us-african-desce…

Puerto Rico braces for COVID-19 peak with lowest per capita testing
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
It took 15 days for the territory to register 100 confirmed cases, but it only took three days to register 100 more, indicating that the virus has already begun to spread rapidly through the population.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/puer…

South Korea to hold general election
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
This week’s election is seen as a barometer of the public’s feelings towards the government’s COVID-19 response and the declining economy.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/kore…

The US Seeks to Set New Military Base in Syria Amid Pandemic
Telesur | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-13
President Donald Trump administration on Friday deployed a military convoy in Syria to establish a new base in this Arab nation. | A caravan of 35 trucks loaded with vehicles and warfare and logistics materials headed for the city of Shadadi, …
globalresearch.ca/us-seeks-set-new-milit…

Venezuela: Community organization key to fighting COVID-19
Gsus Garcia | zcomm.org | 2020-04-13
Interview on how the communes are coping with the pandemic…
zcomm.org/znetarticle/venezuela-communit…

Pandemic Shutdown Separates Parents From Their Children in the Foster System
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-13
Mental health professionals diagnosed me with varying degrees of the same ailments: situational depression, adjustment disorder, PTSD

Cuba is Willing to Send More Medical Brigades to the World
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-13
Cuba is in condition to send more medical brigades to countries that need support to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cuban government said | RELATED: | Cuba: Government Implements New Measures to Prevent COVID-19 | “We defend solidarity, even in times of pandemic,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said on Sunday on the social network Twitter. | According to Rodriguez, new Cuban medical brigade from the Henry Reeve International Contingent left for Italy, in Europe, this…
telesurenglish.net/news/cuba-is-willing-…

Fired researcher Mauro Ferrari denounces EU inaction on COVID-19
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
Distinguished scientist Mauro Ferrari was forced to resign as European Research Council president after calling for a coordinated struggle against the pandemic.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/ferr…

Plague and Civilization
Evaggelos Vallianatos | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
The plague is a disease that raises its devouring and catastrophic head every so many decades and centuries, especially when humans violently disturb the natural world. The 2020 plague is one of a variety of pandemic diseases that have afflicted humans for millennia, not necessarily with the same intensity or virulence. The historical record of…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/plague-and-c…

Spanish unions support back-to-work order amid raging pandemic
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
The order threatens to lead to hundreds of thousands of more infections and tens of thousands of deaths, while big business reaps massive profits.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/spai…

Abolition in the time of Covid-19
Eds. | mronline.org | 2020-04-13
In the U.S., Covid-19 unfolds with temporal and spatial unevenness. The health system barely has the necessary resources to handle normal operations, let alone a pandemic.
mronline.org/2020/04/13/abolition-in-the…

Caricom Calls Emergency Summit Due to COVID-19
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-13
The Summit of Caribbean States (Caricom) will hold an extraordinary emergency meeting on April 15 to analyse the situation in the region in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. | RELATED: | Caricom Calls For Resilient Caribbean Community | The extraordinary meeting was convened this Sunday by the pro tempore President of the Summit and Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Amor Mottley. | At the meeting, the representatives of the member countries will discuss and exchange experiences on COVID-19,…
telesurenglish.net/news/caricom-calls-em…

Country singer-songwriter John Prine dies in pandemic
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
In his art and his very personality, Prine pursued an existence entirely opposed to the sort led by those whose criminal negligence made possible his death from COVID-19.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/prin…

The U.S. Government Pays 0.01 Percent of Its Budget to the World Health Organization
Dean Baker | cepr.net | 2020-04-13
That’s for those of you who saw the Washington Post article telling us that we are committed to paying $893 billion over two years to the World Health Organization (WHO). If Trump moves to cut back or eliminate this funding it is not going to have a major impact on our budget situation. On the …
cepr.net/the-u-s-government-commits-0-01…

The Elite’s COVID-19 Coup Against a Terrified Humanity: Resisting Powerfully
Robert J. Burrowes | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-13
I have previously explained how the COVID-19 infection is being used to frighten us into submitting powerlessly to the global elite’s latest move to take much greater control of our lives and how those who can perceive this, and wish …
globalresearch.ca/elite-covid-19-coup-ag…

Community organisation key to fighting COVID-19
Federico Fuentes | mronline.org | 2020-04-13
While, by April 9, Brazil to its east had registered more than 16,000 cases and 822 deaths and Colombia to its west, had seen its tally climb above 2000 cases and 54 deaths, Venezuela had only recorded 167 cases and 9 deaths.
mronline.org/2020/04/13/community-organi…

COVID-19 deaths surpass 76,000 in Europe as Spanish government sends millions back to work
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
More than 30 National Health Service workers are reported to have died as the UK’s death toll rises above 10,000.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/euco…

The Ultimate Stress Test
Rajan Menon | zcomm.org | 2020-04-13
The American World That Covid-19 Reveals…
zcomm.org/znetarticle/the-ultimate-stres…

Alberta Government Turns Hard to the Right- Making the Most of a Crisis
David DePoe | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-13
Education cuts | The Alberta United Conservative Party (UCP) premier and his Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange have announced they are redirecting $128 million dollars of K-12 education funding to the province’s COVID-19 response, following their decision to close schools on …
globalresearch.ca/alberta-government-tur…

COVID-19 infecting nursing homes across New England
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
As COVID-19 spreads through nursing homes across New England, inspections reveal that two out of three Massachusetts facilities broke rules for preventing outbreaks.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/mass…

We Need a Riot of Empathy
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-13
Kelly Hayes talks with Tanuja Jagernauth about collective grief and resisting the normalization of mass death. | Note: This a rush transcript and has been lightly edited for clarity. | Copy may not be in its final form. | Kelly Hayes: In a peak moment of tragedy in the COVID-19 crisis, our collective losses are mounting, and with each week, more and more of us know someone who’s been lost to this illness, including people we love. Today, we’re going to talk about how we can help each other survive these times while not becoming desensitized to t…
truthout.org/audio/we-need-a-riot-of-emp…

How “just-in-time” capitalism spread COVID-19
Kim Moody | mronline.org | 2020-04-13
Capitalism has accelerated the transmission of diseases. Historically, most epidemics have spread geographically through two common forms of human long-distance movement: trade and war. The timing, however, changed dramatically with the rise of capitalism.
mronline.org/2020/04/13/how-just-in-time…

Uruguay: Constructive Work Resumes Despite Measures by COVID-19
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-13
More than 45 000 construction workers will return to work on Monday after two weeks of preventive cessation, despite the COVID-19 threat in the South American nation. | RELATED: | Greg Mortimer Cruise Passengers to Be Repatriated From Uruguay | The Labor Ministry and the Unique National Union held several meetings to coordinate the possible resumption of work under the sanitary requirements. According to Daniel Diveiro, the organization will implement a preventive protocol. Among…
telesurenglish.net/news/uruguay-construc…

Organize a Worker Fightback in the Face of the COVID-19
Carl Rosen, Andrew Dinkelaker and Gene Elk | zcomm.org | 2020-04-13
Now is the time for all labor organizations committed to forging a better society for working people to step up and help launch workers into the kinds of fights needed to win that future…
zcomm.org/znetarticle/organize-a-worker-…

Navajo Nation institutes lockdown as COVID-19 cases climb
wsws.org | 2020-04-13
On Friday, the Navajo Nation instituted a three-day total lockdown as COVID-19 cases neared 600 and deaths climbed to 22.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/13/nava…

COVID-19, Smartphone Surveillance, and the State
Kurt Nimmo | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-13
For the state, there is one primary imperative–to remain in power at all cost. If this imperative is to be successful, the state must impose, by stealth or deception, a system capable of monitoring all individuals who may pose an …
globalresearch.ca/covid-19-smartphone-su…

‘Never in my country’
Jeanne Morefield | zcomm.org | 2020-04-13
COVID-19 and American exceptionalism…
zcomm.org/znetarticle/never-in-my-countr…

Gates’ Globalist Vaccine Agenda: A Win-Win for Pharma and Mandatory Vaccination
Robert F. Kennedy Jr | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-13
Vaccines, for Bill Gates, are a strategic philanthropy that feed his many vaccine-related businesses (including Microsoft’s ambition to control a global vaccination ID enterprise) and give him dictatorial control of global health policy. | Gates’ obsession with vaccines seems to …
globalresearch.ca/gates-globalist-vaccin…

The President and His Mob: the Autopsy of Governance
Melvin Goodman | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
The mainstream media have insufficiently explained the fundamental importance of the role of the Inspector General, particularly in the national security bureaucracy that dominates discretionary spending and can resort to secret funding. National security institutions, such as the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, are reluctant to admit that they have made mistakes, let alone allow the lifting of the veil on illegal practices. There are institutional concerns that drive this reluctance: vulnerability to legal action; reduced budgets, setbacks to programs considered important; and the possibility of ho…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/the-presiden…

Do You Want to Wait Until One Hundred Years Later: The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same
Ellen Birkett Lindeen | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
This year our country celebrates the 100-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment, the right to vote for women, although sadly, suffrage was only granted to white women in many states, and it would not be illegal to racially discriminate in voting rights until a much later movement precipitated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. My…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/do-you-want-…

COVID-Masks for Halloween?
Christopher Brauchli | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
One will rarely err if extreme actions be ascribed to vanity. . . .

A Basic Income Manifesto
Daniel Raventós, Julie Wark | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
A basic income isn’t a magic wand. It’s a measure, certainly wide-ranging (not least because it’s universal) of political economy, which also consists of taxation, monetary, employment, and other measures. Herein lies the difference between basic income proposals from left and right: how it is to be financed, which part of the population gains and which loses, and what other measures need to be applied, among them a reinforced public sector. “Rescuing” people (not banks and big corporations) means not only guaranteeing their existence but recognizing their rights as citizens (whether they have legal documents or…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/a-basic-inco…

The Use and Abuse of MMT
Michael Hudson, Dirk Bezemer, Steve Kern and T. Sabri àñncàº | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
Summary After being attacked by monetarists and others for many decades, MMT and the idea that running government budget deficit is stabilizing instead of destabilizing are suddenly gaining applause from the parts of the political spectrum that long opposed MMT: the banking and financial sector, especially the Republicans. But what is applauded is in many…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/the-use-and-…

The Price of Power and West Point’s Class of 1986
Danny Sjursen | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-13
Every West Point class votes on an official motto. Most are then inscribed on their class rings. Hence, the pejorative West Point label “ring knocker.” (As legend has it, at military meetings a West Pointer…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/13/the-price-of…

Trump Will Risk Lives If He Reopens Economy at the End of the Month
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-13
On March 24, President Trump held a Fox News town hall and sent shudders through every health care expert in the nation when he announced that he was planning to “open the country” on Easter Sunday. He said: | Look: Easter’s a very special day for me. And I see it sort of in that timeline that I’m thinking about. And I say, wouldn’t it be great to have all the churches full? … So I think Easter Sunday and you’ll have packed churches all over our country. I think it would be a beautiful time, and it’…
truthout.org/articles/trump-will-risk-li…

Minimum-Wage Workers Are Dying to Keep Everyone Else Alive. They Deserve More
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-13
The cashier at the grocery store was doing her job well. Bip-bip-bip went the barcode reader fast-fast-fast as the conveyor carried my food to her hands. Fruit and veggies over here, bread over there, heavy stuff down the middle, all to help the bagger organize the load without crushing anything delicate. The hum of the store’s clockwork went on around us like the drone of an active beehive. | It was all very mundane, but for the broad plexiglass blast shield standing between us, but for the…
truthout.org/articles/minimum-wage-worke…

More Than 800 Bolivians Will Receive Refuge in Chile
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-13
More than 800 Bolivians were forced to remain in the Chilean city of Iquique after the Bolivian government prevented their return to the country. | RELATED: | Over 530 Bolivians Remain Stranded at the Border With Chile | For almost a week, 825 Bolivians were stranded in the Chilean municipality of Colchane, after the de facto government of Jeanine Añez denied them entry with military protection. | With their belongings in suitcases or wrapped in tablecloths, 10 buses with 450 Bolivi…
telesurenglish.net/news/more-than-800-bo…

Evidence emerges of child deaths linked to ‘stay at home’ COVID warnings
graham | truepublica.org.uk | 2020-04-13
By James Cusick: A mother is on the telephone to NHS 111 for 60 minutes. There is no answer. Her child stops breathing while she is on the call. She had been to her GP. There is a seven-week history of headaches and vomiting. The child dies in hospital. Another child is waiting for a …
truepublica.org.uk/united-kingdom/evidence-emerges-of-child-deaths-linked-to-stay-at-home-covid-warnings/

Trump, pushing for May 1 “re-opening,” attacks Dr. Fauci
John Wojcik | peoplesworld.org | 2020-04-13
President Donald Trump warned the nation’s governors this weekend that they had better “get their act together” and make arrangements for the testing and just about everything else their people need because he is determined, come hell or high water, to re-open the economy on May 1. Implied also in his warning is that they …
peoplesworld.org/article/trump-pushing-f…

Climate after corona
Benjamin Wehrmann | zcomm.org | 2020-04-13
Green stimulus package could boost the economic recovery…
zcomm.org/znetarticle/climate-after-coro…

Greece ‘to guard border’ as it voices concern over asylum-seekers ‘gathering on Turkey coast’
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Officials in Greece expressed concern on Monday that migrants and refugees are gathering on Turkey’s coast with plans to cross the Aegean Sea to Greek islands, despite movement restrictions in both countries to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. | Daily clashes between border police and asylum-seekers broke out at the land border between Turkey and Greece in March, after Ankara said it would no longer stop people from trying to enter Europe. | Authorities “have seen signs of activity” on the shores of Turkey, Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas stated. “We will… continue to do whatever it takes to…
rt.com/newsline/485687-greece-border-tur…

‘Use your own fortune’: Church of Sweden grilled after seeking coronavirus aid packages for migrants
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Senior religious leaders in Sweden have urged the government to provide relief for asylum seekers, sparking anger from native Swedes who claim the calls for Christian charity don’t seem to extend to the country’s own citizens. | As the Covid-19 pandemic sends shockwaves through the global economy, the Swedish government should extend special support for the homeless, asylum seekers, temporary labor migrants and those awaiting deportation, the Christian Council of Sweden argued in an open letter. The group includes Antje Jackelen, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden, as well as the leaders of several other Chris…
rt.com/news/485634-sweden-coronavirus-mu…

Singapore prepares ‘floating hotels’ for migrant workers as alternative to dormitories
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Authorities in Singapore are preparing to house hundreds of foreign workers in accommodation vessels typically used for offshore and marine industry staff. Tens of thousands of migrant workers, many from South Asia, live in cramped dormitories across Singapore, which have become the biggest source of coronavirus infections in recent days. | Some of the healthy residents of those facilities are being moved to other sites including military camps, an exhibition center, vacant public housing blocks and the accommodation vessels, dubbed “floating hotels.” | “Each facility can hold a few hundred occupants and can b…
rt.com/newsline/485674-singapore-floatin…

China reduces number of people crossing its borders by 90%
rt.com | 2020-04-13
The number of people crossing Chinese borders has been cut by 90 percent as part of Beijing’s efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, an official said on Monday. Liu Haitao of the National Immigration Administration said the number of cases was still on the rise in the countries along China’s borders. | China was working to limit all non-essential crossings, but it remained a huge challenge to control the large number of mountain passes, ferries and roads along the country’s long border, the official said. | A total of 108 new coronavirus cases were reported in mainland China on Sunday, up from 99 a…
rt.com/newsline/485642-china-control-cro…

US envoy urges Afghanistan & Taliban to accelerate prisoner releases
rt.com | 2020-04-13
The US special envoy who negotiated a deal with the Taliban has said that an initial prisoner exchange between the insurgents and the Afghan government was an “important step” toward peace. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Taliban on Sunday released 20 Afghan security-force prisoners. The move came after the government last week released hundreds of insurgent captives. | “The release of prisoners is an important step in the peace process and the reduction of violence,” US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad tweeted on Monday. “Both sides should a…
rt.com/newsline/485646-us-afghan-taliban…

Billionaire Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta says he did 45,000 workers ‘a favor’ by laying them off quickly
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Texas billionaire Tilman Fertitta claimed he was doing 45,000 members of staff “a favor” by laying them off quickly as the Houston Rockets mogul discussed the impact of the coronavirus crisis on his restaurant and casino empire. | Fertitta, 62, said he was “holding up pretty damn good” when discussing the affects of the Covid-19 on Fox New s at the weekend. | “But I’ve got 45,000 employees out there that we’ve had to furl…
rt.com/sport/485641-tilman-fertitta-do-s…

China denies discriminating against ‘African brothers’ & says accusations by US govt are attempt at diplomatic sabotage
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Beijing has rejected allegations that it had enacted prejudiced anti-coronavirus policies against Africans in China, describing the accusations as a ploy by Washington to undermine its standing on the world stage. | China values its strong relationship with its “brothers” in Africa, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Monday, adding that reports of discriminatory acts against foreigners living in the city of Guangzhou were an attempt by the United States to damage Beijing’s relations with African nations. | The Chinese diplomat stressed in a statement released on Sunday that local officials “attach…
rt.com/news/485644-africa-china-guangzho…

Huawei urges UK to stick with 5G collaboration as Chinese firm becomes target of Covid-19 conspiracies
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Huawei has argued that ending its role in 5G development in Britain would be a disservice to the country, as a Tory-backed review of the deal

Oil climbs more than 4% as OPEC+ agrees record output cut
rt.com | 2020-04-13
The OPEC+ cartel’s milestone decision to cut production has seen prices rise on Monday, bringing temporary relief to the oil markets that were severely hit in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic. | As of Monday morning, Brent crude futures rose to roughly $33 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) advanced to $24.15 a barrel, after hitting a high of $24.74, Bloomberg and Reuters report. | Read more | | OPEC+ strikes last-minute deal to cut almost 10 mn barrels a day of oil production | Oil prices have been in nosedive since the…
rt.com/business/485633-oil-prices-rise-p…

German politicians debate easing restrictions as new infections drop
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Senior politicians in Germany have begun debating a potential easing of restrictions imposed over the coronavirus epidemic. Their meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled for Wednesday. | Merkel and the premiers of Germany’s 16 states expect to get recommendations from the German National Academy of Sciences on Monday. The chancellor has said the advice will weigh heavily in considerations for a possible loosening in movement and social distancing rules in place since around mid-March. | The discussion takes place as the number of new infections and deaths declines in Germany, which has weathered the…
rt.com/newsline/485640-germany-debate-ea…

Spain lifts lockdown for non-essential workers amid harsh debate & fears of new wave of Covid-19 cases
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Staff in food distribution, communications, sanitation and other non-essential sectors are now allowed to go to work in Spain, despite the country’s status as the world’s second-largest Covid-19 hotspot with over 17,000 deaths. | These workers will be able to return to work this Monday following a 14-day self-isolation regime that saw all industries

‘We weren’t prepared’: Macron extends France’s lockdown till May 11
rt.com | 2020-04-13
France will remain locked down until at least May 11, PM Emmanuel Macron has revealed, calling on citizens to continue to respect the rules his government has imposed to slow the spread of coronavirus. | Macron announced the lockdown extension during a public address on Monday as the growth of the epidemic in France was appearing to plateau, with 574 new deaths declared in the preceding 24 hours. | Also on rt.com | | Lockdown in France will last as long as ‘it needs to’ as peak of pandemic not yet reached

Indonesia will rapidly expand coronavirus testing, president says after criticism
rt.com | 2020-04-13
President Joko Widodo said Indonesia will be able to conduct more than 10,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests a day for the new coronavirus. The president rejected criticism that he favored economic considerations over public health. | Widodo told foreign media on Monday that Indonesia had sourced new PCR kits from Switzerland and its extra testing capability would be on stream by next week, with plans to expand testing to 78 labs. The world’s fourth most populous nation has one of the lowest testing rates for the coronavirus, drawing criticism from the World Health Organization and public health experts…
rt.com/newsline/485678-indonesia-expand-…

Lavrov & Zarif discuss coronavirus fight, lifting sanctions involving medicines
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif discussed in a phone call on Monday coordinated action to fight the novel coronavirus and the necessity of lifting sanctions that involve supplying medicines. | They “paid specific attention to the task of multilateral coordinated efforts in battling the coronavirus infection, including a waiver of unlawful individual sanctions and other restrictions linked to the supplies of medicines and essentials,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. | The diplomats also exchanged opinions on the situation in Afghanistan, given the role…
rt.com/newsline/485701-lavrov-zarif-iran…

India & Pakistan may reopen some crucial industries amid Covid-19 lockdowns
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Despite strict quarantine measures due to the coronavirus pandemic, India and Pakistan are planning to partially open up some parts of their economies to cushion the financial impact of shutdowns across the region. | In India, which is under a 21-day lockdown, millions of people have been left without work. The World Bank has forecast the country’s economic growth to drop to 1.5 percent in the fiscal year that started on April 1. That would be the weakest pace in three decades. | Several states have already called for an extension of the shutdown, though they support less sweeping measures. The lockdown ends a…
rt.com/business/485677-india-pakistan-ec…

‘Covid-19 isn’t going to go away’: Having face masks on will become NEW REALITY to live with, WHO envoy warns
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Wearing face masks will become a “revolutionary” new norm of life the world needs to get accustomed to, just like it did when learning of cholera in the 19th century and of HIV in the 20th, a WHO coronavirus expert predicted. | …
rt.com/news/485685-wearing-masks-new-rea…

‘The UK is dead’: Near-unanimous disgust after British police threaten to ‘appear from shadows’ to bust rural picnics
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Central Bedfordshire police have triggered an avalanche of social media scorn after warning residents that their scenic picnics would be ambushed by eagle-eyed law enforcement tasked with supervising Covid-19 lockdown measures. | The police force, which serves a rural area of eastern England, took to Twitter to announce that they would be on the prowl for unruly locals trying to enjoy the nice weather outside. | “If you think that by going for a picnic in a rural location no one will find you, don’t be surprised if an officer appears from the shadows! We are covering the whole county,” they wrote, including a…
rt.com/uk/485665-british-police-fascist-…

Italy’s daily Covid-19 cases decline, deaths rise by 566 to 20,465
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Deaths from the coronavirus epidemic in Italy rose by 566 on Monday, up from 431 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said. The number of new cases dropped to 3,153 from 4,092 the previous day

Coronavirus death toll in New York state rises above 10,000 as governor says ‘worst is over’
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Over 10,000 people have died with the coronavirus in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo has revealed, calling for more testing and stringent precautions as the state mulls reopening with hospital admissions down. | “I believe the worst is over if we continue to be smart, and I believe we can now start on the path to normalcy,” Cuomo said in his daily coronavirus briefing on Monday, while urging caution in the reopening process. New York recorded 671 more deaths on Sunday, bringing the state’s total death toll to 10,056. | Cuomo unveiled a tentative plan for moving out of lockdown that calls for easing isolation,…
rt.com/usa/485708-new-york-coronavirus-d…

Russian unemployment may more than TRIPLE due to business shutdown amid coronavirus quarantine
rt.com | 2020-04-13
The economic crisis triggered by Covid-19 can leave up to 8 million Russians out of work and the situation in the labor market may not improve till the end of the year, the head of Russia’s Accounts Chamber has warned. | “According to forecasts, during this crisis the number of unemployed people in Russia will rise from 2.5 million to 8 million for some time,” Alexei Kudrin, who used serve as Russia’s Minister of Finance, told RBC business outlet on Monday. He added that the jobless rate can drop only when the economy rebounds with the rise in demand and consumption and businesses coming back to normal. | Also…
rt.com/business/485648-russian-unemploym…

Trump says record oil production cuts will soon DOUBLE
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Global oil producers have already agreed on the world’s largest ever production cut, but US President Donald Trump has said that cut may soon be doubled, to bring the world “back to business” from the coronavirus pandemic. | The Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC) and producers outside the bloc agreed on Sunday to cut their output for May and June by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd), an amount equal to ten percent of the world’s oil supply and the largest such cut in history. | “Having been involved in the negotiation,” Trump tweeted on Monday, “the number that OPEC+ is looking to cut is 20 Mill…
rt.com/business/485700-trump-opec-new-cu…

Washington welcomes ‘apparent consensus’ on forming Iraq govt, Pompeo says
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that the US welcomes an apparent agreement among Iraq’s Shia, Sunni and Kurdish groups to form a new government. | He added that it would need to be capable of confronting the coronavirus pandemic, helping the economy and bringing arms under control, Reuters reports. | “We welcome that Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish political leaders seem to have arrived at a consensus on government formation, and hope the new government puts Iraq’s interests first and meets the needs of the Iraqi people,” Pompeo said in a statement. | Iraq’s designated Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi,…
rt.com/newsline/485702-us-consensus-iraq…

Economic guru Kudrin warns Russia’s unemployment could TREBLE, as Kremlin labels talk of return to 1990s chaos ‘hysterical’
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Perhaps nobody in Russia is more responsible for the country’s fiscal stability than Alexei Kudrin. | As Finance Minister, he paid off most of the national debt and built financial stabilization funds that have twice helped avoid financial ruin. | While Russia is better prepared for the inevitable Covid-19-driven economic recession than most of its G20 peers, Kudrin still believes the level of unemployment in Russia could treble before the end of the year, reaching eight million. While far from the 20 percent JP Morgan predicts for the United States, an 11 percent rate would put considerable pressure on the Ru…
rt.com/russia/485703-kudrin-unemployment…

‘Game-changing machine’: Russian military get first batch of modernized T-90M tanks (VIDEO)
rt.com | 2020-04-13
With better protected turret, more powerful engine and a sighting system that guarantees high precision in nighttime, the modernized T-90M tank has now made it into the Russian army. | The first batch of the new war machines, called ‘Proryv’ (breakthrough) has been delivered to the elite Taman Armored Division near Moscow. | The arrival to their place of basing has been filmed by the Defense Ministry’s Zvezda channel and featured the sad trend of the current time, as servicemen were seen wearing protective masks over the raging and deadly Covid-19 pandemic. | “Those are game changing machines,” Sergey Kisel…
rt.com/russia/485706-russia-modernized-t…

More than 100 people evacuated from apartment block in Moscow as it is ravaged by blaze (VIDEO)
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Dozens of people have been evacuated from a multi-story building in Moscow in the middle of the night after a flat on its upper floor caught fire, prompting fears that the blaze could spread to the rest of the apartment block. | …
rt.com/russia/485630-fire-moscow-apartme…

Libya’s UN-recognized govt says 2 strategic cities retaken from forces backing Haftar
rt.com | 2020-04-13
The UN-recognized government in Libya said on Monday that its forces had seized two western cities on the coast between Tripoli and the Tunisian border from troops backing eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar, AFP reported. | “Our forces took control of Sorman and Sabratha and are pursuing [Haftar’s forces],” said a statement by Mohammed Gnunu, spokesman for the forces of the UN-recognized Government of National Accord. | Since 2014, Libya has been split between competing governments and military alliances based in Tripoli and the east. For the past year, the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) of Ha…
rt.com/newsline/485699-libya-tripoli-cit…

Demand for gold jewelry is crashing in China & India, consultant finds
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Sharp contractions in gold imports by major consumers suggest gold jewelry demand is being battered, says investment research group Capital Economics, though It projects that safe-haven buying should ensure a near-term price rise. | According to the group’s commodities economist Alexander Kozul-Wright, gold imports plunged 50 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2020. Withdrawals from Shanghai’s gold exchange tanked 56 percent during the same period. Physical sales in critical global markets, China and India, have fallen off a cliff so far this year. | Kozul-Wright says that he doesn’t expect to see…
rt.com/business/485638-china-india-gold-…

Most Germans oppose lifting restrictions as Merkel’s govt set to talk loosening Covid-19 lockdown
rt.com | 2020-04-13
In a surprising show of discipline (or silent rebellion), the majority of Germans opposed easing shutdown restrictions, which Berlin and states will consider this week, with some demanding that it become even tougher than now. | It’s been revealed that 44 percent of citizens supported the possibility of the nationwide lockdown being extended beyond the existing April 19 deadline, accord…
rt.com/news/485645-germans-oppose-easing…

Wildfire rips through Chernobyl’s exclusion zone, raging just TWO MILES from crippled nuclear plant (PHOTO, VIDEO)
rt.com | 2020-04-13
Ukrainian firefighters are struggling to contain a blaze raging near Pripyat, in the contaminated area heavily hit by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, as a wall of fire creeps dangerously close to its abandoned nuclear power plant. | Due to strong winds on Monday, the flames crossed over a firebreak and reached the Yanov railway station near the town of Pripyat, the agency in charge of exclusion zone said in a statement. Maps show that the station is located just three kilometers (1.9 miles) away from the ill-fated power plant. | The member of the public council at that agency, Yaroslav Emelianenko, described t…
rt.com/news/485714-chernobyl-wildfire-ex…

Collision course with Trump? Cuomo says governors will decide when to lift lockdown, not White House
rt.com | 2020-04-13
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and five regional governors have banded together to decide when to reopen their economies. The move clashes with President Donald Trump’s insistence on making that call himself. | Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Cuomo announced that he would work together with the governors of New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island to decide together when to lift the quarantine measures in their respective states. | Each state will nominate a public health official and an “economic health” official, who will lift restrictions in the region after consulting with…
rt.com/usa/485719-cuomo-governors-lockdo…

Selected Articles: Towards a New World Order
Global Research News | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-13
The US Seeks to Set New Military Base in Syria Amid Pandemic | By Telesur, April 13, 2020 | President Donald Trump administration on Friday deployed a military convoy in Syria to establish a new base in this Arab nation. | A …
globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-towa…

Trump Ignored COVID-19 Warnings Until It Was Too Late
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-13
As the United States surpasses the coronavirus death toll of any country in the world with more than 22,000 dead, we look how President Trump led the country to this point with Eric Lipton, lead author of The New York Times’s explosive new exposé, “He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus.” | TRANSCRIPT: | AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman. As the United States surpasses the death toll of any country in the world with mo…
truthout.org/video/trump-ignored-covid-1…

Murderous Fail After Fail
Futher Column, By Abby Zimet, Staff Writer | commondreams.org | 2020-04-13
commondreams.org/sites/default/files/sty… …

Indigenous Resilience & Activism in the East Bay (Virtual)
Richmond Museum of History & Culture | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
Online, see below.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/10/1883225…

Bernie’s Decision: Retreat Should Not Be Confused with Surrender
Norman Solomon | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
Class war continues without a letup…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/10/1883226…

Oakland has the most COVID-19 cases in Alameda County
Lynda Carson | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/11/1883228…

Coronavirus Outbreak: 70 cases at St. Vincent De Paul shelter for the unhoused
Lynda Carson | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/10/1883226…

Oakland has the most COVID-19 cases in Alameda County
Lynda Carson | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/11/1883228…

Front Line Advocates Speak Out About Homelessness Crisis and COVID-19 in Oakland
Dave Id | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
On April 9, homeless advocates held an online Town Hall to speak out about the crisis faced by Oakland’s curbside communities during the coronavirus pandemic. Over 100 people watched and/or participated. Questions from the media were taken at the end of main panel discussion.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/09/1883220…

Q&A w/ Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Coronavirus Relief that Puts People First
MoveOn, Congressional Progressive Caucus Cntr | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
Online via Zoom…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/13/1883232…

COVID-19 SF DPH Healthcare Workers Under Attack, Health & Safety, Racism & Retaliation
Labor Video Project | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
The COVID pandemic is being used to violate union contracts and retaliate against whistleblowers. This pandemic is also hitting Black workers and their families even more heavily. There is also no enforcement by Governor Newsom’s Cal-OSHA which has fewer than 200 inspectors for 18 million workers.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/09/1883222…

Reporting Your Neighbors for Violating Stay-At-Home Orders
MICK | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
David Cole, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated: “All kinds of constitutional liberties are being constrained right now. They are restricted because there’s a reason to restrict them. In a time like this, you have to defer substantially to public health experts.” But does this mean that we should be ratting-out our neighbors for violating COVID-19 stay-at-home orders?>…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/11/1883227…

Oakland Black Housing Union Organizes Mobile March to Demand Housing for Homeless
Sarah Belle Lin | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
Oakland Black Housing Union mobilized a caravan of 100 cars for a mobile march demanding housing for unsheltered individuals during the COVID-19 emergency. The action also highlighted the disproportionate amount of COVID-19 cases in Black communities.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/12/1883231…

Midstate Correctional where Ramsey Orta is incarcerated has been exposed to Covid-19
WeCopwatch | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
We have just learned that a staff member at Midstate Correctional Facility has tested positive for Covid-19 which means there are likely more cases that have either not been reported, or realized!
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/11/1883227…

Press Release: California Courts Suspend Most Evictions During Shelter-in-Place
Posted by Lynda Carson | indybay.org | 2020-04-13
On April 6, 2020, the Judicial Council, the head of California Courts, issued new rules for court cases in California during COVID-19.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/09/1883222…

FM Zarif discusses Afghan political situation with Turkish, Qatari counterparts
en.mehrnews.com | 2020-04-13
TEHRAN, Apr. 13 (MNA)

Hunger on the rise in corporate America amid COVID-19
en.mehrnews.com | 2020-04-13
TEHRAN, Apr. 13 (MNA)

Iranian, Indian FMs discuss COVID-19 on phone
en.mehrnews.com | 2020-04-13
TEHRAN, Apr. 114 (MNA)

Iran records 1,617 new cases, 111 deaths on Monday
en.mehrnews.com | 2020-04-13
TEHRAN, Apr. 13 (MNA)

Key Parl. cmt. to discuss government’s measures against outbreak
en.mehrnews.com | 2020-04-13
TEHRAN, Apr. 13 (MNA)

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Daily Archives: April 13, 2020

2020-04-13: Social Media Postees