Shooting rampage in Nova Scotia leaves 16 dead
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-20
At least 16 people have been killed after a 51-year-old man went on a shooting rampage across the northern part of Nova Scotia over the weekend, Canadian police said.It is the deadliest such attack in Canadian history.The man was identified as Gabriel Wortman and authorities said he disguised himself as a police officer in uniform at one point and mocked up a car to make it seem like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) vehicle.He was arrested by the RCMP in a petrol station in Enfield, north west of capital Halifax. Police later announced that he had died.”In excess of 10 people have been killed,” RCMP Chief S…
thecanary.co/global/world-news/2020/04/2…

Stanford’s Antibodies Study Wraps Up, Shows Covid-19 Is 50x More Prevalent and 50x Less Deadly than Believed
John P.A. Ioannidis | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
The heavily anticipated ( at least by Anti-Empire) Stanford University antibodies test of a representative population has now concluded. | Background | Addressing COVID-19 is a pressing health and social concern. To date, many epidemic projections and policies addressing COVID-19 have …
globalresearch.ca/stanford-antibodies-st…

Smearing China a Lame Trick to Aid Reelection for White House
Global Times | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
US President Donald Trump tried to prove his effective leadership in the COVID-19 fight during the White House briefing on Saturday. He said that the US mortality rate was 11.24 per 100,000 people, lower than that of Spain, France and …
globalresearch.ca/smearing-china-aid-ree…

Fake Coronavirus Data, Fear Campaign. Spread of the COVID-19 Infection
Prof Michel Chossudovsky | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
Do not let yourself be misled by the fear campaign, pointing to a Worldwide coronavirus calamity with repeated “predictions” that hundreds of thousands of people are going to die. | According to the WHO, the death rate pertaining to Seasonal Influenza globally is between 6 to 12 times higher than COVID-19.
globalresearch.ca/fake-coronavirus-data-…

Fake Coronavirus Data, Fear Campaign. Spread of the COVID-19 Infection
Prof Michel Chossudovsky | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
Do not let yourself be misled by the fear campaign, pointing to a Worldwide coronavirus calamity with repeated “predictions” that hundreds of thousands of people are going to die. | According to the WHO, the death rate pertaining to Seasonal Influenza globally is between 6 to 12 times higher than COVID-19.
globalresearch.ca/fake-coronavirus-data-…

A Universal Basic Income is Essential and Will Work
Ellen Brown | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
According to an April 6 article on CNBC.com, Spain is slated to become the first country in Europe to introduce a universal basic income (UBI) on a long-term basis. Spain’s Minister for Economic Affairs has announced plans to roll out a UBI “as soon as possible,” with the goal of providing a nationwide basic wage…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/a-universal-…

A Universal Basic Income Is Essential and Will Work
Ellen Brown | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
According to an April 6 article on CNBC.com, Spain is slated to become the first country in Europe to introduce a universal basic income (UBI) on a long-term basis. Spain’s Minister for Economic Affairs has announced plans to roll out …
globalresearch.ca/universal-basic-income…

Selected Articles: A Universal Basic Income Is Essential and Will Work
Global Research News | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
A future without independent media leaves us with an upside down reality where according to the corporate media “NATO deserves a Nobel Peace Prize”, and where “nuclear weapons and wars make us safer” | | | If, like us, this is a …
globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-univ…

Human Rights Watch cabildea por sanciones letales contra Nicaragua y Venezuela, mientras arrecia la crisis de Covid-19
Ben Norton | thegrayzone.com | 2020-04-20
Human Rights Watch está orgullosamente asumiendo el crédito por sanciones devastadoras contra Nicaragua, mientras busca escalar la guerra económica en…
thegrayzone.com/2020/04/20/human-rights-…

As Flint Water Crisis Enters Sixth Year, ‘Astounding’ Report Exposes Lies of Ex-Gov. Rick Snyder and Other Officials
Jessica Corbett | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
VICE on Thursday published an ” astounding” and ” important” exclusive report on how Rick Snyder, a Republican who served as Michigan’s governor from 2011 to 2019, “knew about Flint’s toxic water–and lied about it.” | The report, based …
globalresearch.ca/flint-water-crisis-ent…

How a Trump media dump mainstreamed Chinese lab coronavirus conspiracy theory
Max Blumenthal | thegrayzone.com | 2020-04-20
A conspiracy theory about Covid-19 escaping from the Wuhan Institute of Virology is the Trump administration’s Iraqi WMD. And the…
thegrayzone.com/2020/04/20/trump-media-c…

Colombia, the Oligarchs and Washington
Prof. Vijay Prashad | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
Last year, on November 21, the Colombian people took to the streets in massive numbers to reject the policies of the government led by President Iván Duque. In particular, the people called on the government to withdraw two policies….
globalresearch.ca/colombia-oligarchs-was…

Man Who Filmed Police Murder of Eric Garner Says Prison Guards Threatened to Give Him COVID-19
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-20
WeCopwatch, an activist organization dedicated to the nonviolent observation of police, says that corrections officers threatened to deliberately infect Ramsey Orta for weeks before he tested positive.
mintpressnews.com/ramsey-orta-says-priso…

COVID-19 and the Wasting Disease of Normalcy
Brian Terrell | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
“But what of the price of peace?” asked Jesuit priest and war resister Daniel Berrigan, writing from federal prison in 1969, doing time for his part in the destruction of draft records.
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/covid-19-and…

Trump’s Praise for Astroturf Protests Is a Divisive Reelection Strategy
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-20
President Trump’s daily coronavirus briefing rallies aren’t even attempting to be relevant to the ongoing pandemic anymore. To the extent it even comes up, it’s entirely Trump bragging about anything that’s gone right and blaming others for everything that’s gone wrong. If you want to know the latest information about the emergency, you’ll need to look elsewhere. These are Trump campaign rallies done for the strict purpose of energizing his base. | If you’re reading this, you have probably read and…
truthout.org/articles/trumps-praise-for-…

What Will You Do if They Try to Extend Coronavirus Lockdowns into Next Year?
Michael Snyder | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
We are seeing a massive backlash against the coronavirus lockdowns all over the United States, and it is likely that the protests against these lockdowns will only intensify in the days ahead. But some elected officials are doubling down and …
globalresearch.ca/what-will-you-do-if-th…

Pandemic and Protest
Ron Jacobs | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
It’s not surprising that certain individuals and groups in US society are starting to publicly protest the ongoing quarantine measures undertaken because of the COVID-19 virus. From the several hundred (mostly) men who strapped on their guns and drove around the capital of Michigan to the Brooklyn Orthodox community members protesting the fact that they…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/pandemic-and…

Massachusetts #FreeHer car protest demands the release of incarcerated women during COVID-19
Liberation Staff | liberationnews.org | 2020-04-20
COVID-19 is spreading in Massachusetts prisons and jails. As reported by WBUR, five incarcerated people have already died of the virus in Massachusetts, and over 150 cases of the virus have been confirmed among prisoners and prison staff.
liberationnews.org/massachusetts-freeher…

Israelis condemn Netanyahu’s anti-democratic COVID-19 measures
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-20
Scores of Israeli citizens gathered at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv on April 19, Sunday, to participate in a ‘Black Flag’ protest against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Protesters claim these measures are anti-democratic and violate privacy. Protesters also opposed Netanyahu’s continuing as prime minister. Negotiations between Netanyahu’s Likud party and the main opposition

Protesters clog Buffalo, demanding Cuomo lift the lockdown in New York, worst hit by Covid-19 (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)
rt.com | 2020-04-20
A motorcade of protesters has jammed up Niagara Square in Buffalo, New York. The demonstrators want lockdown measures lifted in their corner of the Empire State, but their defiance has angered some citizens. | Sticking to their cars to maintain social distance, a crowd of protesters blocked the streets of central Buffalo on Monday, calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to reopen the economy of New York State. While New York City has seen more than 130,000 cases of coronavirus and 10,000 deaths, Erie County, where Buffalo is located, has seen 2,200 cases and 143 fatalities. | Despite the discrepancy, Cuomo’s stay-at…
rt.com/usa/486384-protest-cuomo-new-york…

Anti-quarantine protesters inspired by Covid-19-denying former opera singer hurl stones, clash with police in Vladikavkaz
rt.com | 2020-04-20
A group of protesters neglected social distancing and surrounded the local government’s office in Vladikavkaz in Russia’s south. They demanded the coronavirus quarantine to be lifted and scuffled with the police. | Videos from the Svoboda (Freedom) Square in the capital of Russia’s Republic of North Ossetia showed the demonstrators trying to break police cordons and tossing stones at officers in full riot gear. | The unsanctioned rally began at noon on Monday with a group of people gathering outside the administration, with only a few wearing face masks and staying very close to each other. They were quite…
rt.com/russia/486351-vladikavkaz-russia-…

A Patriot’s Day Message
Chelli Stanley | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
For so long the world’s governments and media lied on Palestine. That is one of the biggest understatements of the century. They held a mask in front of Palestine and projected images on it, so that Palestine was not seen at all. All that was seen were the lies of the ones trying to steal…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/a-patriots-d…

Essential or Expendable? Gig Workers at Instacart & Grocery Stores Demand Safety Gear & Hazard Pay
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-20
Grocery stores are one of the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, with store workers and gig economy shoppers often working without protection, as demand for groceries soars and millions of Americans stay home. “At first, when the adrenaline was still there, we were essential. We were prideful. And now, as we get more into it, that’s wearing off, and it’s seeming more like expendable,” says Matthew Telles, a member of the Gig Workers Collective, who is a personal shopper who helped organize a strike by Instacart workers in March to demand the company implement appropriate safety measures and give them hazard…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/20/matthew_t…

Handcuffed: Black Miami Doctor Who Works with Homeless Says He Was Racially Profiled by Police
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-20
We continue our conversation with Dr. Armen Henderson, an African-American doctor in Miami who was handcuffed outside his home while preparing for a volunteer shift to help protect homeless people from the spread of COVID-19. The encounter has sparked widespread outrage, and Miami’s police chief has now tested positive for COVID-19 and is in self-isolation. Dr Henderson has taken a test himself and is waiting for results

Experts Warn: Years of US Intervention Have Set the Stage for a Deadly Coronavirus Outbreak in Haiti
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-20
Since 2004, successive administrations have partnered with Washington to loot Haiti, stripping away its assets to the point of collapse and leaving it woefully unprepared to face the coming pandemic.
mintpressnews.com/us-intervention-haiti-…

US/UK media promotes evergreen Russian boozing stereotypes, but latest data shows alcohol sales down during Covid-19 pandemic
rt.com | 2020-04-20
Western media is a funny beast. While demanding balanced and sensible coverage of their own state’s internal affairs, stories about Russia seem to be treated as the follies of bonkers, backward people in a far-flung freakshow. | If all you knew about this country came from the likes of the Washington Post and the Guardian, you’d be forgiven for thinking Russian streets were teeming with balalaika-playing bears, AK-47-wielding communists, and KGB officers Cossack-dancing in the snow. By now, you’d have thought such caricatures would have gotten old, yet despite the current trend towards wokeness, lazy and hackn…
rt.com/russia/486379-russia-alcohol-sale…

One ‘gruesome’ trade is cashing in on the coronavirus pandemic
Tracy Keeling | thecanary.co | 2020-04-20
Many of the world’s businesses and workers have taken a financial hit due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Others are thriving, particularly those that provide life’s essentials. | But one “gruesome” trade is cashing in on the crisis too. As the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has revealed, a trader in Vietnam is marketing ‘glue’ made from tigers as a way to “invest in health”
thecanary.co/discovery/analysis-discover…

Sweden Is Right. The Economy Should be Left Open
Mike Whitney | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
Sometimes, the best thing to do, is to do nothing at all. Take Sweden, for example, where the government decided not to shut down the economy, but to take a more thoughtful and balanced approach. Sweden has kept its primary …
globalresearch.ca/sweden-right-economy-s…

‘The US Reaction to Pressure to Ease Sanctions Was to Double Down’ – CounterSpin interview with Joe Emersberger on sanctions under Covid-19
Janine Jackson | fair.org | 2020-04-20
“If there were an opposition movement in countries like Canada and the United States and Europe, the demand wouldn’t just be, ‘You gotta stop this’; the demand would actually be, ‘Hey, we’ve got to prosecute the people involved with this. This is killing people. This is a crime. People should be facing legal consequences for this.'”
fair.org/home/the-us-reaction-to-pressur…

And so, It’s Biden
William Stroock | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
Last week the socialist pest from Vermont, Senator Bernie Sanders, formally endorsed former vice president Biden in an awkward livestream in which the two septuagenarians told one another how wonderful they are and how awful Trump is. As of …
globalresearch.ca/and-so-its-biden/57101…

Sanders Won the War of Ideas
Erin McCarley | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
As Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama endorse Joe Biden, the final deathblow to the Bernie campaign is dealt. Beyond the sickening numbness I feel in my gut, there’s a terribly familiar cynicism setting in, the kind of deep-rooted anger that at present, has no place to go. Once again, I feel almost naàØve for thinking…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/sanders-won-…

Techno-Tyranny: How The US National Security State Is Using Coronavirus To Fulfill An Orwellian Vision
Whitney Webb | thelastamericanvagabond.com | 2020-04-20
Last year, a government commission called for the US to adopt an AI-driven mass surveillance system far beyond that used in any other country in order to ensure American hegemony in artificial intelligence. Now, many of the “obstacles” they had cited as preventing its implementation are rapidly being removed under the guise of combating the …
thelastamericanvagabond.com/top-news/tec…

Trumpian Nationalists Have Met Their Match in COVID-19
Patrick Cockburn | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
President Trump is showing a disastrous inability during the coronavirus pandemic to shift from his well-tried tactics of claiming non-existent successes and blaming everybody for his blunders aside from himself. It is his first true crisis in his three years in the White House and, like that German general, he is visibly incapable of changing the way he deals with it.
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/trumpian-nat…

Russian and Venezuelan Presidents Hold Solidarity Phone Meeting
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
Venezuela and Russia agreed on Monday to consolidate their bilateral relations at a strategic level in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro held a telephone conversation with his Russian colleague, Vladimir Putin. | RELATED: | Bolsonaro Closes Brazil’s Embassy and Consulates in Venezuela | Both leaders reiterated their condemnation of the imposition of coercive measures by the United States government against Venezuela. | The conversatio…
telesurenglish.net/news/Russian-and-Vene…

Corporate Media Cover for US Mob Threats Against Venezuela
Lucas Koerner | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
The Trump administration unveiled on March 31 a “democratic transition” plan to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from office, in favor of a “council of state” composed of both opposition and ruling party loyalists. | The plan was, however, less an …
globalresearch.ca/corporate-media-cover-…

COVID-19: A Diabolical US Anti-China Plot?
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
Is it coincidental that the first widely reported COVID-19 outbreak was in China. | It’s unknown if the virus was natural or man-made, the latter very much possible, perhaps originating in a US bio-lab. | The US has a long disturbing history …
globalresearch.ca/covid-19-us-anti-china…

Climate Crisis: KXL Roadblock, BP Spill at 10, and Dems Stand Down on Green Stimulus
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-20
Keystone XL has hit a new major roadblock, there’s oil industry infighting in Texas over production cuts. Meanwhile, the BP offshore oil spill happened 10 years ago and lessons from it have gone unheeded, while Democrats have chosen not to fight for a green stimulus in COVID-19 recovery talks.
therealnews.com/columns/climate-crisis-k…

Bogota residents donate $13M to help poor through quarantine
Adriaan Alsema | colombiareports.com | 2020-04-20
Residents of Colombia’s capital Bogota raised $13 million (COP52,000 million)on Sunday to help the city’s poor through a quarantine that is in place to slow down the spread of the…
colombiareports.com/bogota-residents-don…

Six months in office and Colombia’s prison chief already facing criminal charges
Adriaan Alsema | colombiareports.com | 2020-04-20
Colombia’s prison chief has barely been in office for half a year and is already facing multiple criminal charges amid accusations of sadism and intimidation. According to W Radio, prison…
colombiareports.com/six-months-in-office…

Colombia’s mayors and governors block Duque’s attempt to restart economy
Adriaan Alsema | colombiareports.com | 2020-04-20
Mayors and governors throughout Colombia blocked President Ivan Duque’s attempt to restart the economy on Sunday by maintaining their decrees restricting mobility. Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez, whose city has been…
colombiareports.com/colombias-mayors-and…

Duque’s most damning scandal to date left 1.8 million Colombians starving: report
Adriaan Alsema | colombiareports.com | 2020-04-20
Some 1.8 of 3 million people who were promised emergency aid by President Ivan Duque to make it through a quarantine never received a peso, weekly Semana reported Sunday. Not…
colombiareports.com/duques-most-damning-…

Latin America Surpasses 100,000 Infections From COVID-19
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
Latin America reported this Sunday more than 100,000 people infected with the new coronavirus, with Brazil being the country most affected by the pandemic. | RELATED: | Cuban Doctors Arrive in Honduras to Fight COVID-19 | With 210 million inhabitants, Brazil has 38,654 infections and 2,462 deaths, according to local media. | Despite the high number of deaths and infections, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced Friday his intention to reopen trade and borders. | The second most aff…
telesurenglish.net/news/latin-america-su…

Will America Launch a War on Iraq?
Elijah J. Magnier | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
The US administration views Iraq as an arena for confrontation with Iran, with the aim of subjugating the country to its hegemony and dominance. The US imposes harsh sanctions on Iran and is trying to close the Iraqi market to …
globalresearch.ca/will-america-launch-wa…

‘Armageddon’: When Coronavirus Struck a Tehran Hospital
Saheb Sadeghi | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
It was like scenes from an Armageddon-like movie made in Hollywood instead of a real-world Tehran hospital, Hesam Khezri said, describing the state of Masih Daneshvari during the first days of the coronavirus outbreak in Iran. | “Looking down from the | …
globalresearch.ca/armageddon-coronavirus…

US ‘Plunders’ $342m of Venezuelan Funds as COVID-19 Hotspot Breaks Out at Baseball Academy
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2020-04-20
The money has been transferred from a Venezuelan Central Bank account at Citibank to an account at the US Federal Reserve.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14850

Argentina to Soon Welcome 200 Cuban Doctors for COVID-19 Fight
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
Argentina’s government confirmed Sunday night that a contingent of 202 Cuban doctors will arrive in the South American nation to help local health professionals with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. | RELATED: | Cuban Doctors Arrive in Honduras to Fight COVID-19 | “The idea is for them to contribute and join medical resources. They won’t be at the front line,” Argentina’s Minister of Health Gines Gonzalez said, adding that the Cuban specialists won’t be making important decisions but w…
telesurenglish.net/news/Argentina-to-Soo…

Lies Won’t Stop COVID-19
Eric Margolis | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
Washington-based military think tanks constantly warn of possible attacks by the wicked North Koreans who have a large arsenal of chemical and biological weapons and missiles to deliver to North America. | So do Britain, France, Russia, India, Pakistan, China, India …
globalresearch.ca/lies-wont-stop-covid-1…

‘China Lied, People Died?’ Look Who’s Talking!
Thomas L. Knapp | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
“The costs of the pandemic keep piling up,” writes Marc Thiessen at the Washington Post. “Somebody has to pay for this unprecedented damage. That somebody should be the government of China.” | And why, pray tell, should China’s government be punished? …
globalresearch.ca/china-lied-people-died…

Amid US coronavirus disaster, Trump tries to shift focus to China with increasingly anti-Chinese messaging
Ed Sykes | thecanary.co | 2020-04-20
Donald Trump has insisted that deaths from coronavirus (Covid-19) are much higher in China than in the US, despite official statistics painting a far different picture. This comes as Trump and his supporters have been boosting anti-Chinese sentiment as part of his re-election campaign. | The stats: | China has more than four times the population of the US but has reported far fewer deaths. At the time of writing, China has reported 4,…
thecanary.co/trending/2020/04/20/amid-us…

Trump Was Real Time Informed During COVID-19 Outbreak in China
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
U.S. health experts briefed President Donald Trump in real time about the emergence of COVID-19 in China while working full-time at World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva in late 2019. | RELATED: | Scientists Prove That COVID-19 Can Survive Over 60 Degrees | A dozen U.S. researchers, doctors and experts were at WHO headquarters when the new coronavirus outbreak began in China. | They kept the Trump administration informed of its discovery and spread, U.S. and internation…
telesurenglish.net/news/trump-was-real-t…

The Coronavirus Pandemic and Our Civilizational Crisis
Fran Shor | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
Although the coronavirus pandemic is not unique in its global reach, it, nevertheless, reminds us of the deficiencies inherent in the systems within which we operate. Indeed, all such infectious diseases exist in specific contexts that determine how lethal they will be and what will be the extent of our capacities for dealing with the…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/the-coronavi…

The Next Coronavirus Bill Must Protect the 2020 Elections
Robert P. Alvarez | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
First, it was a public health crisis. Now, it’s decimating the economy. And for it’s next trick, the coronavirus is threatening to undermine the 2020 election. Unless, that is, Congress steps in to ensure we can vote by mail. If you’re curious what the worst case scenario is, look no further than Wisconsin, where a…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/the-next-cor…

The Massive Covid-19 Hoax
Tony Cartalucci | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
By all accounts and from the very beginning it was clear that Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) was at the very most a bad cold

Bank Stops Seizing Stimulus Checks After Exposé
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-20
The American Prospect’s David Dayen says the feds allowed banks to seize customer’s coronavirus stimulus checks to payoff outstanding debt.
therealnews.com/stories/bank-stops-seizi…

Gig Workers at Instacart and Grocery Stores Demand Safety Gear and Hazard Pay
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-20
Grocery stores are one of the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, with store workers and gig economy shoppers often working without protection, as demand for groceries soars and millions of Americans stay home. “At first, when the adrenaline was still there, we were essential. We were prideful. And now, as we get more into it, that’s wearing off, and it’s seeming more like expendable,” says Matthew Telles, a member of the Gig Workers Collective, who is a personal shopper who helped organ…
truthout.org/video/gig-workers-at-instac…

Governor Whitmer’s Lockdown Approval Rating Surpasses Trump’s
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-20
Despite Trump’s calls for residents of Michigan to “liberate” themselves against stay-in-place policies implemented by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a recent poll shows greater support and approval for Whitmer’s response to the coronavirus than the president’s among citizens of The Great Lakes State. | The poll, conducted by the Detroit Regional Chamber and the Glengariff Group, found that Trump’s net-approval rating on how he’s responded to the spread of COV…
truthout.org/articles/governor-whitmers-…

We are Currently Not Measuring the Incidence of Coronavirus Diseases, but the Activity of the Specialists Searching for Them
Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
The corona hype is not based on any extraordinary public health danger. | However, it causes considerable damage to our freedom and personal rights through frivolous and unjustified quarantine measures and restrictions. | The images in the media are frightening and the | …
globalresearch.ca/we-are-currently-not-m…

Yemen’s Civil War and Coronavirus: A Perfect Storm
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-20
As the first cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in war-torn Yemen, the sides agreed to a ceasefire which didn’t last one day. Information from the war-torn land is hard to come by, and yet arms dealers continue to fuel the war for profit.
therealnews.com/stories/yemens-civil-war…

COVID-19, Poverty and Structural Violence
J.P. Linstroth | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
As a nation, obviously, there are so many things we can do better. There always will be. Yet, what the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has made all too apparent is how we have not appropriately dealt with poverty in the United States. This is not just about the Trump Administration, it is about all past presidential…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/covid-19-pov…

Millions of Essential Workers Are Being Left Out of COVID-19 Safety Protections
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-20
As news emerged that the novel coronavirus was infecting hundreds of workers in meatpacking plants, Gregoria Rivas began worrying that her chicken processing facility in North Carolina wasn’t doing enough to protect workers like her from the virus. | There was no social distancing, she said. Everywhere she went at the Case Farms plant, there were dozens of workers crowded into a small space. In the locker room, where everyone put on their uniforms. On the cutting line, where she spent eigh…
truthout.org/articles/millions-of-essent…

The Occupation and the Pandemic: The Coronavirus and the Conditions of Palestinian Workers
G.N. Nithya | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
“Colonialism is not a thinking machine, | nor a body endowed with reasoning faculties. | It is violence in its natural state…” |

Covid-19 Exposes the Death Penalty’s Selfishness
Stephen Cooper | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
Capital punishment has always been perverse, but during our country’s struggle with the coronavirus, its selfishness sticks out like a sneeze, its sickly aerosols joining racism, classism, and festering immorality

Historic Collapse of US Oil Market as Price Goes Negative
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
The price of a barrel of U.S. oil fell sharply during Monday’s trading by more than 306%, recording the lowest level in its history. | RELATED: | OPEC+ Approve Biggest Ever Oil Cut Amid Coronavirus Pandemic | Reuters reported that U.S. crude futures tumbled 306% as the price of a barrel was -$ 37.63 below zero. This is the lowest level recorded by U.S. crude, “West Texas Intermediate” in its history. Brent crude futures fell 9.2 percent to $25.43 a barrel. | West Texas Intermediat…
telesurenglish.net/news/Historic-Collaps…

The coronavirus crisis in Southwest Georgia exposes a broken system
Brian Perez-Canto | liberationnews.org | 2020-04-20
The mainstream media has decided to blame the outbreak in Albany on individual actions.
liberationnews.org/the-coronavirus-crisi…

The US’s Failed Response to the Pandemic Is Rooted in Anti-Blackness
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-20
With the speed of lightning, the coronavirus crisis is waking all of the U.S. up to a reality most Black people have known for decades

Finding Hope During The COVID-19 Pandemic
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-20
Dr. Gerald Horne says workers organizing and fighting for basic rights offer hope during the coronavirus pandemic, increasingly catastrophic government response, dire economic outlook, and two unappealing options at the ballot box in November.
therealnews.com/stories/finding-hope-dur…

Russia sees highest daily rise in recorded cases of COVID-19 on Sunday
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-20
In the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Russian government has postponed the Victory Day parade held annually to celebrate the Soviet Union victory over Nazi Germany in the second world war…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/20/russia-se…

Has COVID-19 Testing Made the Problem Worse? Confusion Regarding “The True Health Impacts”
Kevin Ryan | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
Concerns about the virus SARS-COV-2 that causes the disease called COVID-19 have centered around reported mortality rates. However, errors in reporting those rates have led to confusion regarding the true health impacts. Because estimated rates are dependent on the test …
globalresearch.ca/has-covid-19-testing-m…

Donald Trump’s Governor Problem: Debates on Opening Up the Economy
Dr. Binoy Kampmark | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
Things are getting dizzy in the White House on what, exactly, is being done to “open the economy”. Cranky advocates for the financial argument over the restrictions of public health have been attempting to claw back some ground. As Jonathan …
globalresearch.ca/donald-trump-governor-…

Orwellian Lockstep and a Loaded Syringe
Colin Todhunter | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
Some years ago, the then vice-president of Monsanto Robert T Fraley asked, “Why do people doubt science”. He posed the question partly because he had difficulty in believing that some people had valid concerns about the use of genetically modified …
globalresearch.ca/orwellian-lockstep-loa…

Trump Admin Furloughed 4,000 Korean Workers in the Midst of a Pandemic to Punish South Korea
Kap Seol | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
The U.S. Forces in Korea (USFK) has furloughed about half of its 8,500 local hires, not for fear of the COVID 19 pandemic, but in a ploy to extract more subsidies from the South Korean government, using workers as pawns….
globalresearch.ca/trump-admin-furloughed…

“Donald J. Trump Ventilators”
Steve Klinger | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
Although it should have come as no surprise, Donald Trump’s unprecedented decision to add his name to stimulus checks going out to millions of Americans under the CARE Act still has left jaws dropping across the beleaguered land, which is approaching 650,000 cases of the COVID-19 virus Trump predicted would soon be down to zero…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/donald-j-tru…

How Ecuador Descended Into Corona Chaos
Guillaume Long | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
In the last few days and weeks, media outlets around the world have been publishing shocking stories and images of the COVID-19 crisis in Ecuador. Scenes of corpses abandoned in the streets of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second-largest city, have shaken audiences in Latin America and beyond. Statistics, even the highly untrustworthy official ones, have confirmed the dire picture of a fast accelerating crisis.
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/how-ecuador-…

Trump Disrupts the Distinction Between Personal Loyalty & Constitutional Allegiance
Nick Licata | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
Donald Trump was elected president to disrupt our government and society; to drain the swamp. The specifics were vague, but the understanding was that someone had to change the “system”. As Trump said at the 2016 Republican nominating convention in Cleveland, “Only I can fix it.” And, he wants explicit loyalty to him from government…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/trump-disrup…

De-Funding the World Health Organization: Unethical, Cruel, and Dangerous for the World
Ariel Gold | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse than a global pandemic that has reached all corners of the earth, infecting over 2 million people and killing over 146,000

The Mountains Sing
Matthew Hoh | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
Bringing The Enemy’s War Home; The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai I was born near New York City in 1973, the year the United States officially ended its war in Vietnam and brought home the last of its combat troops. The Vietnam War, known to the Vietnamese as The American War, was always something removed…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/the-mountain…

Feinstein Urges Newsom to Negotiate with Trump over Increasing Water Exports to Agribusiness
Dan Bacher | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
On April 15, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representatives Jim Costa, TJ Cox, John Garamendi, and Josh Harder sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom imploring him to reach an agreement with federal agencies through negotiation, rather than judicial action, on increasing water deliveries from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness interests. A coalition of…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/feinstein-ur…

Starving the Cities and States
Eve Ottenberg | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
Disaster capitalism is in high gear. The stock market plunged, so Trump, hysterical, whipped out the federal checkbook. The result? Unlimited bailouts of shoddily-run corporations, criminally managed banks and other assorted oligarchs with their hands out. But hey, it got the stock market soaring, because now investors know Washington will rescue them, whatever idiocies they commit. Everybody else is on their own.
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/starving-the…

The Fire Fauci Brigade
Binoy Kampmark | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
The intemperate volcano that is the US President has done much to burn its way through prominent appointments. As the title of former GOP strategist Rick Wilson’s book goes, Everything Trump Touches Dies. There seem few more important individuals in the United States than Dr Anthony Fauci, and that, for the White House, is a…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/the-fire-fau…

The Pleasures of Eating Matzo
Cesar Chelala | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
When the good weather allows it, I get together with my friend Manny Greer and sit on the bench in front of our favorite coffee-house in Soho, Ground Support, whose owner, Steven, is a good friend of ours. Although he is much younger than we are (he is in his forties, Manny is 95-years-old and…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/the-pleasure…

In Argentina, putting people over profits helps contain COVID-19
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-20
Manuel Fonseca, general internist and militant of the Health Movement Irma Carrica and Frente Patria Grande from Argentina, spoke to Peoples Dispatch about the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. He spoke about the measures taken by the government which have helped in containing the spread of the virus. He also spoke about the challenges the country is facing during this crisis because of the problems left behind by the neoliberal policies of the previous Mauricio Macri administration.
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/20/in-argent…

Declaring War on a Virus Ignores the Neoliberal Policies That Put Us Here
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-20
On March 30, CNN correspondent Miguel Marquez visited Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, and subsequently referred to hospitals treating COVID-19 patients as “medical war zones.” Political leaders like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and global media outlets have repeated this kind of language of war by reminding us that measures preventing public gatherings last occurred during Wor…
truthout.org/articles/declaring-war-on-a…

France: Violent Confrontations Between Police and Parisians
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
Parisian police confronted groups Sunday for the second consecutive night, as part of violent clashes occurred in the Villeneuve-La-Garenne suburb, during social isolation due to COVID-19. | RELATED: | Russian and Venezuelan Presidents Hold Solidarity Phone Meeting | The conflicts started after a 30-year-old motocross driver crashed against a police car door. According to local news media, the motorcyclist was riding at high speed, without a helmet, when he passed by the unma…
telesurenglish.net/news/-france-violent-…

UAE Companies Allegedly Violated Libyan Arms Embargo: Report
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
United Arab Emirates-based companies shipped nearly 11,000 tons of jet fuel to eastern Libya, the stronghold of General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army, in a suspected violation of an international arms embargo, according to a report published Monday by the Financial Times. | RELATED: | Libya: Tripoli Govt Retakes 2 Cities From Rival Haftar’s Forces | A set of documents, seen by the London-based news outlet, shows that an oil shipment worth nearly US$5 million was delivere…
telesurenglish.net/news/UAE-Companies-Al…

Trump’s Inaction on the COVID-19 Crisis Seems More Deliberate Each Day
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-20
Within the heart of the problem is this ventricle: Donald Trump defines “sacrifice” as “what other people do to make me happy.” Trump enjoys having his picture taken with evangelical ministers laying hands on him like he’s the very Rock of Ages, but in truth, the man wouldn’t know genuine sacrifice if it walked up and stuffed a live bat down his pants. | This is going to become a problem for Trump soon, because millions of Americans are making actual, often painful sacrifices every day to help him b…
truthout.org/articles/trumps-inaction-on…

Stranded migrant labor in Indian province of Maharashtra to be transported home
Pavan Kulkarni | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-20
The over 130,000 workers will be transported home in a safe manner ahead of the harvest season after the intervention of the Sugarcane Cutters and Transport Workers Union…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/20/stranded-…

Chile: Teachers Reject Resuming School Year Over COVID-19
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
Chile’s Professors College refused Sunday to resume the educational year in May. The union expressed its disagreement with the Chilean president’s administrative decisions. | RELATED: | Chile Registers 9,252 COVID-19 Cases, With 116 Deaths | Sebastian Piñeira, Chile ¥s president, announced administrative measures to resume social and economic activities amid the pandemic. Piñera stated gradual retake on productive and public labors April 27. Chilean mandatary also announced professor…
telesurenglish.net/news/chile-teachers-r…

Painting an epidemic: An interview with Li Zhong (李钟)
Tings Chak | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-20
Tings Chak of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research speaks to Li Zhong a Chinese painter who produced a series of paintings on the country’s heroic fight against the COVID-19 pandemic…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/20/painting-…

El Salvador: Bukele Imposes Total Closure of Municipality
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele implemented the closure of the Puerto de La Libertad municipality. The measure was imposed after several videos appeared on social media networks showing street crowding in La Libertad. | RELATED: Latam: COVID-19 Puts Imprisoned Environmental Defenders at Risk | “Everyone will have to be in their homes and 100% of businesses closed, until further notice,” Bukele tweeted. The president also posted on his Facebook official profile: “no one shal…
telesurenglish.net/news/el-salvador-buke…

Guatemala: Discrimination Against Domestic Workers Rises
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
Guatemalan domestic personnel are more vulnerable to the COVID-19 economic and social impact than other workers due to their livelihood and labor conditions. | RELATED: | Guatemala: Social Organizations Dennounces Massive Layoffs | According to the Union of Domestic, Maquila and Related Workers’ (Sitradom) president, Floridalma Contreras, domestic workforces are predominately women who are under no legal employment ways. From the 550 members of the union, the majority are illiterat…
telesurenglish.net/news/Guatemala-Discri…

Why agriculture remains a ‘sink’ for Indian capitalism
Prabhat Patnaik | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-20
Post-lockdown mass migration disproves tall talk about India emerging as an “economic superpower” or a “$5 trillon economy”, as its villages continue to be the “sink” to which distressed urban workers return…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/20/why-agric…

Canada: Gunman Dressed as Police Kill 16 People
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
The deadliest shooting in Canadian history occurred this weekend in the province of Nova Scotia after a gunman killed 16 people, including a police woman, local media reported. | RELATED: | Canada Ratifies New Trade Agreement with United States, Mexico | Gabriel Wortman, 51, was identified as the killer. He attacked his victims within 12 hours. | Wortman committed his first murder on Saturday afternoon in the town of Potapique. There, several bodies were found inside and outsid…
telesurenglish.net/news/canada-gunman-dr…

Argentina: Bondholders Reject Debt Restructuring Proposal
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-20
A group of bondholders on Sunday rejected the Argentinian government’s proposal, which aims to remove 62% of debt issued under foreign legislation, local media reported. | RELATED: | Argentina: Massive Marches Against International Monetary Fund | The proposal made by Argentina’s Ministry of Economy to the bondholders last Thursday provides a three-year grace period without any payments, with a reduced deduction on the capital and a 62% cut in interest, totaling US$ 41.5 billio…
telesurenglish.net/news/argentina-bondho…

Privacy must be at the heart of Covid-19 contact tracing apps, governments told
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-20
Contact tracing apps must be made with privacy at their heart and only keep data as long as necessary, governments have been told.Countries including the UK are looking to contact tracing technologies in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and a possible way to help end lockdown.As already seen in places like Singapore, this would use Bluetooth to keep an anonymous log of every person an individual has been in close contact with and alert them if one should test positive for Covid-19.While the technology has been welcomed as one potential solution to ease in a return to normality, it has also been met with…
thecanary.co/discovery/news-discovery/20…

Lab-based coronavirus test ‘can produce 46,000 results a day’
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-20
A diagnostics company has launched a new lab-based coronavirus antibody test which can produce 46,000 results a day. | Mologic said it will start manufacturing its laboratory diagnostic test for Covid-19 following validation by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and St George’s, University of London. | The test has also been sent to Public Health England for formal verification. | It will allow individuals to identify whether they have antibodies for the virus

Hospital workers angry at PPE delays as death toll tops 16,500
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-20
Anger over lack of supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS workers is growing as a desperately needed consignment of 400,000 gowns was delayed.The government has been under increasing pressure to ensure the safety of frontline health staff and one leading NHS figure revealed his “bitter experience” of the lack of basic items such as gowns in recent weeks.The number of hospital deaths of people who tested positive for coronavirus (Covid-19) passed 16,500. The figure does not include those who died in care homes. | The government scheme for workers who have been furloughed

Reports suggest many have had coronavirus with no symptoms
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-20
New research suggests that far more people have had the coronavirus without any symptoms, fuelling hope that it will turn out to be much less lethal than originally feared.Based on known cases, health officials have said the virus usually causes mild or moderate flu-like illness.Now evidence is growing that a substantial number of people may have no symptoms at all.Scientists in Iceland screened 6% of its population to see how many had previously undetected infections and found that about 0.7% tested positive.So did 13% of a group at higher risk because of recent travel or exposure to someone sick.Aboard the airc…
thecanary.co/discovery/news-discovery/20…

How Brexit Infected Britain’s Coronavirus Response
Natasha Hakimi Zapata | thenation.com | 2020-04-20
How Brexit Infected Britain’s Coronavirus Response…
thenation.com/article/world/brexit-infec…

In redwoods, tree sitting continues during pandemic
CP Editor | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-20
counterpunch.org/2020/04/20/in-redwoods-…

From Settler Violence to Attacks on Haredi Jews, Coronavirus is Laying Israeli Attitudes Bare
Miko Peled | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-20
The spread of coronavirus among Palestinians is dangerous to Israeli Jews, yet authorities and their various agencies continue to destroy clinics, demolish homes, and raid towns and neighborhoods rather than offer the help needed to ward off the virus.
mintpressnews.com/settler-violence-attac…

Are We Brewing a New Feudalism? The Economy is Being Destroyed
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-20
The answer to the question is “YES.” The large bailed-out creditors will end up with the property of the non-bailed-out debtors who are being pushed deeper into debt with “bail-out loans” and fees and penalties for missed debt payments. Write-offs …
globalresearch.ca/are-we-brewing-new-feu…

Pelosi Picks Friend With Corporate Ties to Oversee COVID-19 Bailout Fund
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-20
Rep. Katie Porter, a freshman California Democrat and consumer finance expert who quickly made a name for herself in Washington with viral grillings of corporate big-wigs, actively lobbied for a seat on the new congressional committee tasked with oversee…
truthout.org/articles/pelosi-picks-frien…

The Coronavirus Has Lessons for Journalists Covering the Climate Crisis
Mark Hertsgaard, Kyle Pope | thenation.com | 2020-04-20
The Coronavirus Has Lessons for Journalists Covering the Climate Crisis…
thenation.com/article/environment/corona…

Organizing on the Coasts Won’t Save the Planet
Jane Fleming Kleeb | thenation.com | 2020-04-20
Organizing on the Coasts Won’t Save the Planet…
thenation.com/article/environment/rural-…

Russian Officials Dawdled as the Coronavirus Took Hold
Alec Luhn | thenation.com | 2020-04-20
Russian Officials Dawdled as the Coronavirus Took Hold…
thenation.com/article/world/russian-offi…

How Sex Workers Are Using Mutual Aid to Respond to the Coronavirus
Jack Herrera | thenation.com | 2020-04-20
How Sex Workers Are Using Mutual Aid to Respond to the Coronavirus…
thenation.com/article/society/sex-worker…

Putting Food on the Table During a Pandemic
Arlene Mejorado | thenation.com | 2020-04-20
Photos from the grassroots food distribution networks that are keeping Los Angeles’s undocumented communities afloat.
thenation.com/article/society/undocument…

‘Biden Loves Kids’: Trump attacks Biden with meme video of his swimming pool gaffe
rt.com | 2020-04-20
President Donald Trump has shared a meme featuring Joe Biden rambling about children touching him in a swimming pool. Fresh from sparring with Biden over China, Trump may be previewing a new line of attack on his handsy opponent. | Posted by Trump on Monday, the meme is a send-up of an Allstate Insurance ad, and features a visibly embarrassed Barack Obama

Blood tests by video and suspect social media chats: Are drug cheats & match-fixers winning as sport remains stuck in shutdown?
rt.com | 2020-04-20
As some players and fixers desperately try to restore their incomes and athletes risk the temptation of performance enhancers and other drugs while sport stands still, anti-doping and governing bodies are feeling the pressure. | With little sport to bet on and few serious contests taking place, the issue of organized cheating has perhaps never been further from public consciousness than now. | While betting companies have been forced to focus on obscure competitions and eSports, the only athletic records that are there for the taking in the foreseeable future are those for the longest periods spent indoors by…
rt.com/sport/486365-doping-match-fixing-…

Serbia to let some businesses, markets reopen in partial easing of lockdown
rt.com | 2020-04-20
The Serbian government said on Monday it would allow some businesses and markets to reopen, in a cautious easing of its nationwide lockdown following signs of a fall in the rate of coronavirus infections. | Businesses allowed to reopen from Tuesday include food markets, small retail stores, car mechanics, tailors, cobblers and dry cleaners. The government also shortened a night curfew by one hour and said a 24-hour lockdown for people aged 65 and above would be eased, allowing them to leave their homes for 30 minutes on three evenings a week. | Authorities called on employers in the construction industry to re…
rt.com/newsline/486354-serbia-businesses…

UK nurses’ anti-coronavirus haka denounced by Maori as ‘racist’ and ‘cultural appropriation’
rt.com | 2020-04-20
A viral video of a group of British nurses dancing and chanting against Covid-19 was deleted from Twitter after complaints that it amounted to mockery of a sacred tradition of the Maori natives of New Zealand. | Over 600,000 people viewed the video, posted on Saturday by nurses working at Tavistock Hospital in Devon, England. It shows them attempting to do a ‘Ka Mate’ haka while wearing headbands and face paint. | “This is the message we wish to affirm, you’ll never beat us

Historic oil plunge: Massive bailouts in US inevitable but recovery still a distant dream, industry figures tell RT
rt.com | 2020-04-20
As US oil prices suffered a historic collapse, industry insiders told RT that the unprecedented fall in demand will lead to bankruptcies and bailouts, with the coronavirus pandemic crippling the market’s chance of recovery. | West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil prices dropped into negative territory on Monday, with vanishing demand and a glut in supply slashing prices to -$37.63 a barrel, the first time crude oil futures dropped below zero since the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) began trading them in 1983. | “If the WTI is at zero, it means that there’s no place to pour into left in America anymore,” econ…
rt.com/business/486383-oil-bailouts-cras…

‘Hungary to have plan by May 3’: Orban speaks on gradual return to normal life
rt.com | 2020-04-20
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday he expected to present a plan early next month for a gradual return to normal life from the coronavirus lockdown. | The prime minister said in an interview with Catholic station Radio Maria that by May 3 Hungary would be prepared to handle any rise in infections. From that point onwards, the country could afford to seek ways to get back to normal life, step by step, MTI quoted him as saying. | Hungary has 1,984 confirmed infections and 199 deaths, according to Reuters. The country, which has a population of just under 10 million, has done 48,057 tests so far…
rt.com/newsline/486355-hungary-plan-orba…

Will US troops stop guarding Syrian oil fields? Negative oil prices provide that extra bit of coronavirus surrealism
rt.com | 2020-04-20
US benchmark oil futures plummeted to negative numbers on Monday, as if the coronavirus epidemic hadn’t already pushed the world into the Twilight Zone. Social media took time to appreciate the icing on a very surreal cake. | Futures contracts for West Texas Intermediate (WTI)

Negative-value oil futures prices provide that extra bit of coronavirus surrealism no one knew they needed
rt.com | 2020-04-20
US benchmark oil futures plummeted to negative numbers on Monday, as if the coronavirus epidemic hadn’t already pushed the world into the Twilight Zone. Social media took time to appreciate the icing on a very surreal cake. | Futures contracts for West Texas Intermediate (WTI)

Trump says US will add 75mn barrels of oil to national reserve amid ‘record-low’ prices
rt.com | 2020-04-20
US President Donald Trump said that up to 75 million barrels of oil will be added to the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, citing rock-bottom prices that only continue to plunge downward, in some cases into the negatives. | “Based on the record-low price of oil … we’re filling up our national petroleum reserves, the strategic reserves,” Trump said at a White House press briefing on Monday. “We’re looking to put as many as 75 million barrels into the reserves themselves, that would top it out.” | West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures prices hit an unprecedented low on Monday, falling from over $18 per ba…
rt.com/business/486386-trump-adds-strate…

It’s a storage problem, not a market problem that is driving down oil prices to historic lows
rt.com | 2020-04-20
US oil was cheaper then dirt on Monday, with futures trading below zero for the first time in history. But where is this cheap oil to be stored? That’s the real problem. | West Texas Intermediate futures for May delivery, which expire on April 21, plunged more than 100 percent to -$37.63 a barrel as no traders were willing to take delivery of the oil as there is no storage for it. Brent crude oil prices, which have already rolled over to June-delivery contracts, fell 8.9 percent to settle at $25.57 per barrel. Russia’s Urals blend was trading at $24.55 on the same day. | Not all oil prices have crashed. It is…
rt.com/business/486385-oil-prices-less-t…

More Shake Shacks are sitting quiet on small business Covid-19 bailout money, aided & abetted by big banks while mom & pops suffer
rt.com | 2020-04-20
Restaurant chain Shake Shack has dutifully returned bailout money small businesses should have gotten as the US government’s bailout fund for mom-and-pops runs dry. But their virtue signaling doesn’t fix an institutional problem. | Shake Shack announced on Sunday it is returning a $10 million loan received through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

‘PR posturing’: Richard Branson savaged after offering Caribbean island to secure UK govt bailout as Covid-19 knocks airline
rt.com | 2020-04-20
British billionaire Richard Branson has incited a furious backlash after trying to tempt the UK government to agree to a major bailout of Virgin Atlantic airlines by offering up his Necker Island in the Caribbean as collateral. | The 69-year-old business magnate

Breathtaking VIDEO recreates enormous smash-up between two black holes
rt.com | 2020-04-20
A colossal collision of two black holes 2.4 billion light years away was detected by astronomers last year, but fresh developments show that the reverberations

Scientists reveal ‘dramatically different’ discovery about first interstellar comet ‘Oumuamua
rt.com | 2020-04-20
A strangely-shaped rocky object that journeyed into our solar system last year is emitting an unexpected amount of carbon monoxide, according to a team of experts

Herd immunity? 1 in 3 test positive for Covid-19 ANTIBODIES in pilot Massachusetts street study
rt.com | 2020-04-19
Nearly a third of 200 randomly tested residents of Chelsea, Massachusetts were found to have Covid-19-related antibodies in yet another indication that the virus could be far more widespread and much less lethal than believed. | All of the participants “generally appeared healthy,” but around half of them admitted that they had suffered at least one coronavirus symptom in the past month, according to the Massachusetts General Hospital researchers. Those who had previously tested positive for Covid-19 in the regular nasal swab were deliberately excluded from the study. | A total of 64 out of 200 blood samples t…
rt.com/usa/486235-massachusetts-covid-19…

US Blacks Toll Hit by COVID-19 Grows as More Data Emerges
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-19
As a clearer picture emerges of COVID-19’s decidedly deadly toll on Black people, leaders are demanding a reckoning of the systemic policies they say have made many Blacks far more vulnerable to the virus, including inequity in access to health care and economic opportunity, Associated Press (AP) reported. | RELATED: | Latinos, Blacks | Disproportionately
telesurenglish.net/news/US-Blacks-Toll-H…

Ethiopia to Close Refugee Camp Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-19
Ethiopia plans to shut down a camp for Eritrean refugees and resettle thousands in other camps that the United Nations already considers full, an official said Sunday amid fears that COVID-19 could make them more vulnerable. | RELATED: | UN Sends One Million Masks to Africa to Stop COVID-19 Spread | “We are ready to start. But we cannot start with a big number. We can start with a small number,” Deputy Director-General of Ethiopia’s Agency for Refugee and Returnee Affairs Eyob Aw…
telesurenglish.net/news/Ethiopia-to-Clos…

Israel’s Anti-Netanyahu Protesters Demonstrate Despite Pandemic
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-19
Under strict COVID-19 restrictions, thousands of people in Tel Aviv, Israel, demonstrated Sunday against the possible extension of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s term under the current alliance negotiations between him and former rival Benny Gantz. | RELATED: | A Palestinian Guide to Surviving a Quarantine | Wearing face masks, waving black flags as a symbol of threats against democracy, the protesters who observed the social distancing rule to fight coronavirus, called on Gantz’s Blue…
telesurenglish.net/news/Israels-Anti-Net…

While whining about declining civility in politics, right-wing pundits have given the real culprits a free pass
Peter Bolton | thecanary.co | 2020-04-19
It was perhaps fitting that the end of Jeremy Corbyn’s term as leader of the UK Labour Party and the suspension of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign in the US happened just a few days apart. There have undoubtedly been numerous parallels

Colombia Reports invites lab workers to report irregularities and abuses
Adriaan Alsema | colombiareports.com | 2020-04-19
Colombia Reports invites employees of laboratories testing coronavirus samples for the National Health Service (INS) to report irregularities and abuses. This website has received complaints and seen evidence that lab…
colombiareports.com/colombia-reports-inv…

Iran Will Allow Low-Risk Businesses to Resume Work
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-19
Iran’s capital Tehran was allowed to resume low-risk businesses on Saturday, a week after kindred deregulations were adopted in other parts of the country amid the COVID-19 epidemic. | RELATED: | COVID-19 Mideast Updates: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel | The move came as per the smart distancing plan, whereby Iran loosened quarantine regulations and allowed the re-opening of businesses with lower risk indices. | According to Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education, high-r…
telesurenglish.net/news/Iran-Will-Allow-…

Brazil, Ecuador Record Highest Death Tolls From COVID-19
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-19
The deaths and confirmed cases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America continued to increase this Saturday, with Brazil, Ecuador and Chile being the countries most affected by the virus in the region. | RELATED: | Bolsonaro Closes Brazil’s Embassy and Consulates in Venezuela | Brazil, the nation most affected by the pandemic in the region, increased the death toll to 2,347 and 36,599 positive cases of COVID-19 in the country. | The state of Sao Paulo is the region most affected…
telesurenglish.net/news/Brazil-Ecuador-R…

Cuban Doctors Arrive in Honduras to Fight COVID-19
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-19
Cuban doctors and Honduran specialists studying on the island arrived at Tegucigalpa Sunday as part of Cuba’s medical missions across the world to fight the novel coronavirus. | RELATED: | Solidarity vs. Sanctions in Times of a Global Pandemic | “Right now, we’re seeing that health personnel is making us sick, health personnel who are insufficiently qualified, health personnel who definitely have to be replaced because they are fatigued,” Honduran Health Minist…
telesurenglish.net/news/Cuban-Doctors-Ar…

China Denies the Coronavirus Came from One of Its Labs
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-19
Authorities at a maximum-security laboratory in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus outbreak emerged last December, rejected claims that they could be the source of the COVID-19 surge, following recent accusations by the President of the United States, Donald Trump. | RELATED: | G7 to Back Debt Relief for the Poorest Countries If China Joins | “In no way has this virus left us,” said researcher Yuan Zhiming, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, capital of central Chi…
telesurenglish.net/news/China-Denies-the…

COVID-19 Lockdowns Harmfully Impacting Millions of Children: UN
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-19
Millions of children worldwide are being vulnerable to countless threats due to the lockdowns arising from the global coronavirus pandemic, a new United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report has revealed Thursday. | RELATED: | Children Political Prisoners Face Hell in Egypt | The document called “The Impact of COVID-19 on children” details the different areas in which children could possibly be harmed, including lack of access to healthcare, domestic life, education, and risks as a resu…
telesurenglish.net/news/COVID-19-Lockdow…

Putin Assures Russians that COVID-19 Situation is Under Control
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-19
President Vladimir Putin assured on Sunday that the situation regarding the new COVID-19 virus in Russia is under control, and he was convinced that the European nation will successfully pass this test. | RELATED: | Russia: Putin Launches New Financial Support for Workers | “All levels of power work at a good pace, in an organized and responsible manner. The situation is under total control. Our entire society is united in the face of a common threat,” he said in a video message broad…
telesurenglish.net/news/Putin-Assures-Ru…

Time to Claim Food Sovereignty: Int. Day of Peasant Struggle
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-19
International peasants organization La Via Campesina (The Campesino Way) marked Friday the International Day of Peasant Struggle, a particularly important commemoration against the backdrop of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. | RELATED: | Cuba Prioritizes Food Production During COVID-19 Outbreak | “This April 17 (the International Day of Peasant Struggle) was of vital importance because we put on the table the issue of the food situation in the context of a pandemic,” Political Coor…
telesurenglish.net/news/Time-Has-Come-to…

Decision on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s temporary release delayed again
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-19
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe faces another “deeply unsettling” couple of days as the wait continues to find out if her temporary release from a prison in Iran has been extended.The British-Iranian mother was temporarily freed from Evin prison in Tehran in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s furlough was extended by two weeks in late March, and she was scheduled to return to prison on Saturday 18 April.When her family had not received a decision by Saturday on whether or not her furlough is to be extended, they were told to return to the prosecutors office in Iran on 19 April

Michael Gove adds to the government’s coronavirus chaos and incompetence
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-19
Michael Gove has added to the government’s chaotic response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.He confirmed Boris Johnson had not attended five meetings of the key government Cobra committee in the build-up to the coronavirus outbreak.It followed an investigation in the Sunday Times in which a Whitehall source claimed the government “missed the boat on testing and PPE” (personal protective equipment) and “just watched” as the death toll mounted in Wuhan, China.The wide-ranging report said that Johnson missed five meetings of the key Cobra committee in the run-up to the outbreak and stated a number of opportun…
thecanary.co/uk/news/2020/04/19/michael-…

Corporate journalists are in full panic mode after the Sunday Times’ exposé
Steve Topple | thecanary.co | 2020-04-19
The Sunday Times’ exposé of Boris Johnson’s handling of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has inadvertently revealed something else. And it’s that corporate journalists are terrified for the future of the establishment media. But it’s also shone a light on the wilful ignorance about how the UK got into this mess in the first place. | The Sunday Times: shock, horror!: | As The Canary reported, the Sunday Times revealed that Johnson missed five Cobra meetings during the early…
thecanary.co/opinion/2020/04/19/corporat…

More evidence that official figures don’t reflect the true scale of care home deaths from coronavirus
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-19
A study of deaths linked to Covid-19 in care homes predicts that thousands more people have died than official figures show. | The National Care Forum (NCF), which represents not-for-profit care providers, has estimated that more than 4,000 people may have died after contracting Covid-19 across all residential and nursing homes before April 13. | This is significantly higher than the official weekly figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which recorded 217 care home deaths connected to the virus up until April 3. | The NCF collected data from 47 care homes which support more than 30,000 peo…
thecanary.co/uk/news/2020/04/19/more-evi…

Young Afghan women work on lifesaving mission to build ventilators from car parts
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-19
Five Afghan young women are spending their days on a lifesaving mission to build a ventilator from car parts as the war-stricken country battles coronavirus.Nearly every morning, Somaya Farooqi and four other members of Afghanistan’s prize-winning girls’ robotics team pile into her father’s car and head to a mechanic’s workshop.They use back roads to avoid police checkpoints set up to enforce a lockdown in their city of Herat, one of Afghanistan’s hotspots of the coronavirus pandemic.”If we even save one life with our device, we will be proud,” said 17-year-old Somaya.Their pursuit is particularly remarkable in c…
thecanary.co/global/world-news/2020/04/1…

David Attenborough issues a vital plea to ‘cherish’ our ‘precious world’
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-19
David Attenborough has urged people to “stop waste of any kind”, saying the world is precious and should be “celebrated and cherished”.The broadcaster and naturalist warned humans have a “last chance” to change their behaviour and save the planet, as he urged politicians to address “the biggest problem humanity has ever faced”.In an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Attenborough said it will be the younger generation who will have to make changes because “they will be able to see the consequences of what they do”. | He added: “My lot are dying off and we are the ones that caused the problem.”He suggested p…
thecanary.co/global/world-news/2020/04/1…

NHS staff being asked to ‘sacrifice’ themselves over lack of PPE
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-19
Officials responsible for the UK’s “disgraceful” lack of adequate personal protective equipment need to be held “fully accountable for their abject failure” to protect frontline health staff, the hospital doctors’ union has said.Hospitals and employers will now be able to use new official guidance on reusing items or wearing different kit to “coerce health workers … to risk their own lives when caring for Covid-19 patients”, said HCSA president Dr Claudia Paoloni.Amid fears hospitals could run out of supplies, Paoloni said it was an indictment of the UK’s response to the pandemic that it was drawing on the emer…
thecanary.co/uk/news/2020/04/19/nhs-staf…

US coronavirus death toll rises to 40,000, almost double Italy’s figures
rt.com | 2020-04-19
The number of people who have died in the US due to Covid-19 climbed to over 40,000 on Sunday, according to calculations by Reuters and Johns Hopkins University. | The American death toll is the highest in the world and is almost two times larger than the figures from Italy, which is currently ranked second in terms of fatalities. | The death toll has jumped from 30,000 to 40,000 in just four days after the untested but probable coronavirus fatalities were added to the numbers. The first American succumbed to the coronavirus on February 29. | Italy, which remained the world’s hardest hit country for weeks, has…
rt.com/usa/486267-coronavirus-death-toll…

Caribbean Organizations Unite Against US Attacks, Support Caricom
Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration | telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-18
Caribbean Anti-imperialist and Peace Organisations in a Zoom Meeting on the 16th April 2020, supported Caribbean Community (Caricom) called for the Caribbean to remain a zone of peace. | RELATED: | Caricom Demands End of US Sanctions Against Cuba and Venezuela | They expressed their opposition to the American military and naval build up off the Venezuelan coast, and the U.S. sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela. | The Caribbean Organizations Further objected to the seizing of medi…
telesurenglish.net/news/Caribbean-Organi…

US right-wing protesters, supported by Trump, organize against stay-at-home orders
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-18
Different States in the United States are faced with threats of armed resistance from right-wing and conservative groups who are opposing measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. So far, Michigan and a few others States have had or are set to have thousands of protesters defying stay-at-home orders passed by their respective governments. Unsurprisingly, president Donald Trump has come out in support of such dangerous acts. | On April 17, president Donald Trump tweeted in support of these right-wing protests in the States which are led by Democratic governors. The tweets include content like “LIBERATE MICHIGAN”,…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/18/us-right-…

‘Fire Fauci, let us work’: No social distancing as Alex Jones joins hundreds in rally against Covid-19 lockdown measures in Texas
rt.com | 2020-04-18
Texans flocked to the state’s Capitol in Austin to protest Covid-19 lockdown measures, refusing to practice social distancing and cheering for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be fired by President Donald Trump. | In attendance at Saturday’s ‘You Can’t Close America’ Rally were InfoWars founder Alex Jones and host Owen Shroyer, who led the crowd of some 200 people in chants against the mainstream media and officials like Fauci. | Shroyer, who referred to the doctor as “fascist Fauci,” asked the crowd: “Do you think Anthony Fauci should be fired?”, before leading them in chants of “Fire Fauci.” | Lots of protest speakers s…
rt.com/usa/486227-alex-jones-coronavirus…

Colombia: Not Even the Pandemic Halts Killing of Social Leaders
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-18
Colombia’s National Agrarian Coordinator (CNA) denounced that social leader Teodomiro Sotelo was assassinated on Friday while working on his farm in the El Tambo municipality. | RELATED: | Latam: COVID-19 Puts Imprisoned Environmental Defenders at Risk | “Armed individuals entered his property to murder him in front of his family and workers,” local outlet El Colombiano reported and recalled that several farmers are migrating out of the area to avoid being new victims of violen…
telesurenglish.net/news/Colombia-Not-Eve…

Students across Europe fight COVID-19 and the neoliberal state
Muhammed Shabeer | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-18
As of April 16, more than 2 million people have contracted coronavirus and around 144,104 people have died. Countries across Europe have been devastated by the pandemic and all sectors of society have been impacted. However, the working class and migrant communities across Europe are those facing the brunt of the crisis. They have been pushed to the brink by sheer negligence and insensitivity of the governments amid this public health crisis. | Students and youth in these countries are particularly in distress due to the shutting down of schools, colleges, and universities as part of the lockdown. The majority of…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/18/students-…

“All gas no mask!”: In life and death situation, inmates rebel amid pandemic
Steven Powers | liberationnews.org | 2020-04-18
Spontaneous prison actions of resistance have become increasingly regular in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic.
liberationnews.org/all-gas-no-mask-in-li…

Positive responses to the coronavirus pandemic could be a sign of the communities to come
Peadar O’Cearnaigh | thecanary.co | 2020-04-18
Amidst the tragedy and lockdown of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, people have started discussing changes occurring across the UK. In addition to the work being done by frontline staff in the NHS, local people are responding in their communities. | Such efforts include helping people forced to self-isolate to get food essentials and prescriptions. Some projects already underw…
thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2020/04/18/posi…

Nigerian President’s Chief of Staff Dies of COVID-19
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-18
Abba Kyari, the trusted chief of staff to Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari has died from complications related to COVID-19 after a nearly month-long battle with the virus. | RELATED: | Nigeria: Police Brutality Is More Lethal Than COVID-19 | “The Presidency regrets to announce the passage of the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari,” presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said Friday on Twitter. Kyari had been hospitalized in the commercial capital, Lagos, after testing pos…
telesurenglish.net/news/Nigerian-Preside…

Philadelphia failure to empty jails causes COVID-19 death
Joe Piette | workers.org | 2020-04-18
The first COVID-19 death in Philadelphia jails occurred on April 14. She was Yvonne Harris, a 48-year-old woman incarcerated at Riverside Correctional Facility. In the meantime, city judges have mocked the danger our incarcerated neighbors face and have only reduced the jail population by 13 percent in the past month . . . | Continue reading Philadelphia failure to empty jails causes COVID-19 death at Workers.org…
workers.org/2020/04/47797/?utm_source=rs…

U.S. economy crumbles as millions of workers lose jobs
G. Dunkel | workers.org | 2020-04-18
At least 17 million workers in the United States lost their jobs from the second week of March to the second week of April. That’s 10 percent of the total workforce. The real number of workers without a job is higher, since the computer systems used to enroll workers in . . . | Continue reading U.S. economy crumbles as millions of workers lose jobs at Workers.org…
workers.org/2020/04/47801/?utm_source=rs…

‘Under capitalism, there is no solution for COVID-19 crisis’
Muhammed Shabeer | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-18
The world continues to reel under the COVID-19 pandemic. Spain is one of the worst hit countries in the world with over 190,000 cases and 20,000 deaths. Earlier this month, Peoples Dispatch(PD) spoke to àÅstor García of the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE), regarding the plight of the people in Spain who have been affected by the pandemic and the response from the government. | Peoples Dispatch (PD): How has COVID-19 become so widespread in Spain and what has been its impact on public life in the country? | àÅstor García(AG): In Spain, as in many other countries, the effect of COVID-19 w…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/18/under-cap…

‘Who believes these numbers?’ Trump claims China MUST be hiding its true Covid-19 death toll, because ‘everybody knows it’
rt.com | 2020-04-18
President Donald Trump opened up his daily Covid-19 task force press conference by blasting the media for reporting official data that makes the US look bad, instead of pursuing allegations of a Chinese conspiracy. | “When the fake news gets out there and they start talking about the United States is number one… China’s number one by a lot. It’s not even close. They’re way ahead of us in terms of death,” Trump said just minutes into his daily briefing. | China could not have possibly done better than the “highly developed healthcare delivery systems of the United Kingdom, in France in Belgium, in Italy, in S…
rt.com/usa/486234-trump-china-covid-19-d…

Trump slams ‘rude & nasty’ Dems admitting Covid-19 cooperation bad between parties
rt.com | 2020-04-18
Donald Trump slammed Democrats for a “rude and nasty” phone call with the vice president over the Covid-19 pandemic, and theorized nothing will satisfy them as they try to “fool” America in November’s election. | “No matter what you do for the Do Nothing Democrats, no matter how GREAT a job you are doing, they will only respond to their Fake partners in the Lamestream Media in the negative, even in a time of crisis,” Trump tweeted on Saturday. | He added that his working relationship with Democrats during the Covid-19 pandemic has been “even worse” than before and revealed senators held a “rude and nasty” conf…
rt.com/usa/486230-trump-coronavirus-dems…

‘Journos are living this like everyone else’: CNN’s Brian Stelter has Twitter Covid-19 breakdown
rt.com | 2020-04-18
CNN host Brian Stelter claimed through Twitter that he “hit a wall,” “crawled in bed” and “cried for our pre-pandemic lives,” but many aren’t buying his Covid-19 breakdown. | “Disturbed by the [government’s] shortcomings” and “dismayed by political rhetoric that bears no resemblance to reality,” Stelter says it was all too much to bear for him on Friday night, crying “tears that have been waiting a month to come out” over worries about “friends who are losing jobs; kids who are missing school; and senior citizens who are living in fear.” | The ‘Reliable Sources’ host said on Saturday he was motivated to share…
rt.com/usa/486232-brian-stelter-breakdow…

New York sees lowest Covid-19 death toll in April, but reopening would require ‘ARMY’ for contact tracing and more tests
rt.com | 2020-04-18
New York had its lowest death toll from Covid-19 since April 1, but Governor Andrew Cuomo warned a lot is still required before the state can start to reopen, including an ‘army’ of tracers and more coronavirus tests. | Though announcing 540 new Covid-19 deaths at his daily press briefing represents a fairly sharp decline from past weeks, Cuomo warned the numbers are still “soul-crushing,” and coronavirus hospitalization rates remain steady at about 2,000 new patients a day. | Remember: We still have about 2,000 new COVID hospitalizations daily. | And we lost 540 New Yorkers yesterday. | That is a soul-crushin…
rt.com/usa/486222-new-york-coronavirus-t…

ICE is Deporting COVID-19 Positive Detainees from Private Immigration Prisons
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-17
By continuing deportations of quarantined detainees during a pandemic, ICE is greatly increasing the risk of spreading the deadly virus to other countries officials and activists warn.
mintpressnews.com/ice-deporting-covid-19…

‘The President Is Not a King’: NY Attorney General Tish James
Sasha Abramsky | thenation.com | 2020-04-17
‘The President Is Not a King’: NY Attorney General Tish James…
thenation.com/article/politics/coronavir…

Trump’s Xenophobia Will Exacerbate Crisis
Eliane Fersan | progressive.org | 2020-04-17
Trump has repeatedly chosen opportunism over public health, but crises should not be used for promoting restrictionist policies against immigrants.
progressive.org/op-eds/trump-xenophobia-…

Frontline Medical Workers Protest New NYC Policy Demanding Doctor’s Notes When They Are Sick
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-17
A new policy at New York City’s public hospitals requires medical workers who call in sick to produce a doctor’s note. “We know that people just need a mental health day,” says Sean Petty, a registered nurse at a public hospital in the Bronx who is organizing a protest against the policy. “Thousands of us have been exposed. Health workers are the least tested group of people in this city.” Petty is a member of the board of directors of the New York State Nurses Association.
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/17/nyc_nurse…

‘We’re being held hostage!’ Minnesota governor eases coronavirus lockdown after angry outcry from #ReopenMN protesters
rt.com | 2020-04-17
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has relaxed the state’s Covid-19 containment measures, scaling back restrictions on outdoor activities with an executive order as outraged residents take to the streets to demand an end to the lockdown. | While some forms of outdoor recreation were permitted under a previous directive, an array of businesses will be allowed to reopen after Friday’s executive order, including golf courses, privately managed trails and parks, marinas and docks, bait shops, showrooms and repair…
rt.com/usa/486191-minnesota-lockdown-eas…

Covid-19 Speculation Goes From Margin to Center
Ari Paul | fair.org | 2020-04-17
Government-funded NPR ( 4/10/20) covers government charges that government-run VOA “speaks for America’s adversaries.” | The fact that President Donald Trump attacked the official US state broadcasting outlet, Voice of America, as an organ of Chinese government propaganda (NPR, 4/10/20) is a testament to just how important anti-China rhetoric is to his political strat…
fair.org/home/covid-19-speculation-goes-…

“Gangster in the White House”: Noam Chomsky on COVID-19, WHO, China, Gaza and Global Capitalism
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-17
We continue our conversation with world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky. He responds to President Trump’s cuts to U.S. support for the World Health Organization and the surge in deaths in the United States to another record high, and discusses conditions in Gaza, the rise of authoritarianism around the world, and the progressive response. “This is typical behavior of autocrats and dictators. When you make colossal errors which are killing thousands of people, find somebody else to blame,” say Chomsky. “In the United States, it’s unfortunately the case, for well over a century, centu…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/17/noam_chom…

Sanders and Palestine: a Post Mortem
Steven Salaita | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-17
Let me start with a story about the Democratic primary. Now, I’m no operative, so this story has nothing to do with voting choices or electability. It’s about how Palestine disappears in US electoral discourses, even when people who identify as Palestinian purport to make it visible.
counterpunch.org/2020/04/17/sanders-and-…

BJP Capitalizes on Coronavirus Fears to Take India’s Fascist Creep to the Next Level
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-17
Last week, 22-year-old Dilshad “Mehboob” Ali was dragged into a field on the outskirts of Delhi and beaten with sticks and shoes by an enraged crowd demanding to be told, “who else is behind this conspiracy?” His attackers believed he was part of a “corona Jihad: ” an evil plot by India’s Muslim minority to spread the disease and kill as many Hindus as possible. Ali was dragged to a temple and told to convert to Hinduism before they would allow him to go to the hospital. Images of the incident went viral, illustrative of a nationwide assault on the country’s nearly 200 million Muslims. | Ali is part of the Tabligh…
mintpressnews.com/coronavirus-takes-indi…

A Very Unstable Coronavirus Briefing
Mark Fiore | progressive.org | 2020-04-17
This is not how you show leadership during a deadly pandemic .
progressive.org/covid-19/very-unstable-c…

The Great Gray Hope: Bernie Sanders Tests the Limits of US Political Systems
Roger D. Harris | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-17
For all his remarkable accomplishments, Sanders’ legacy in 2020 will likely be that of 2016, which was to be the sheepdog that herded progressives into the Democratic Party and got nothing in return.
mintpressnews.com/great-gray-hope-bernie…

As US Shale Oil Plunges, Trump Admin Takes Aim at Venezuela
Whitney Webb | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-17
WASHINGTON DC ( The Last American Vagabond)

Seeking psychotherapy under capitalism during a pandemic
Sue Harris | workers.org | 2020-04-17
Harris is a clinical psychologist in New York City. To paraphrase Marx, a society’s mode of production

Stir Crazy! Episode #16: The Ineptitude of Power
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-17
Episode #16 of Stir Crazy, on The Real News Network. Political consultant Marcus Ferrell talks with TRNN Climate Reporter Steve Horn and Executive Producer Lisa Snowden-McCray about how Big Pharma and others are taking advantage of COVID-19. Hosted by TRNN reporter Kim Brown.
therealnews.com/stories/stir-crazy-episo…

Coronavirus vaccine team secures funding to move towards human trials
imperial.ac.uk | 2020-04-17
Imperial researchers working on a vaccine for COVID-19 have been awarded government funding to take the work forward towards human trials.
imperial.ac.uk/news/196775/coronavirus-vaccine-team-secures-funding-move

Further government funding secured for Imperial coronavirus research
imperial.ac.uk | 2020-04-17
Three Imperial research projects have received £2.4 million of national funding to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
imperial.ac.uk/news/196802/further-government-funding-secured-imperial-coronavirus

Consumer spending in Spain has halved during coronavirus lockdown says analysis
imperial.ac.uk | 2020-04-17
Economic activity in Spain has fallen in the first three months of 2020 compared to the same period last year, says a new analysis.
imperial.ac.uk/news/196957/consumer-spending-spain-halved-during-coronavirus

The Self-Centered Rich Country Response to Pandemics and Crises is Wrecking Poor Countries
Tamara Pearson | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-17
I’m squatting on a round piece of concrete, and a 72-year-old man is sitting in the gutter, his walking stick beside him. He tells me that after being deported from the United States, he has been hiking the streets of Mexico City trying to find somewhere to stay. But all the refuges are closed due to the pandemic, including the one we’re sitting outside of, where I volunteer. He has run out of insulin for his diabetes and says he can’t walk any more.
counterpunch.org/2020/04/17/the-self-cen…

The meek won’t inherit the Earth: Mass action will save the planet
Sam Marcy | workers.org | 2020-04-17
This article by Workers World Party founding member and chairperson Sam Marcy was published in WW on April 26, 1990. Some language, spelling and punctuation have been updated. Back in the Middle Ages, when a natural catastrophe like a crop failure or storm devastated large areas of a country, reducing . . . | Continue reading The meek won’t inherit the Earth: Mass action will save the planet at Workers.org…
workers.org/2020/04/47781/?utm_source=rs…

Why we need a WW Prisoners Page
Mirinda Crissman | workers.org | 2020-04-17
Houston This article is based on remarks given by Crissman during a Workers World Party webinar on April 9: “Free Them All! COVID-19 and Racist Mass Incarceration.” Workers World Party provides nearly 1,000 free newspaper subscriptions to incarcerated people. Readers interested in supporting this can donate at patreon.com/wwp. We’re particularly . . . | Continue reading Why we need a WW Prisoners Page at Workers.org…
workers.org/2020/04/47777/?utm_source=rs…

Solidarity needed; non-citizen ‘essential workers’ under increased attack
Ana Santoyo | liberationnews.org | 2020-04-17
Immigrant detainees fight back against unsafe conditions in ICE centers.
liberationnews.org/solidarity-needed-non…

Naomi Walker on Covid-19 Relief, Johanna Bozuwa on the Last ‘New Normal’
CounterSpin | fair.org | 2020-04-17
The $150 billion designated for state, local and tribal governments as relief from the Covid-19 crisis is nowhere near what those governments will need–and not just that, but forcing them to cut budgets just as they need to be spending more is going to drive a cycle that only hurts more those already hurting.
fair.org/home/naomi-walker-on-covid-19-r…

Hegemonic Policing: The COVID-19 Law Enforcement Strategy
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-17
The Police Accountability Report talks with two victims of mass incarceration and police brutality, and reveals a distinct theory of how American policing has evolved to dangerous ends.
therealnews.com/stories/police-accountab…

Essential worker strike wave: ‘We fight COVID-19 for ourselves & the public’
Paul Wilcox | liberationnews.org | 2020-04-17
The strike wave is an angry response to a corporate establishment that has shown no social obligation to them during the pandemic.
liberationnews.org/essential-worker-stri…

LGBTQIA People Face Unique Barriers To COVID-19 Care
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-17
Congressional candidate Bre Kidman says profit-driven medicine depends on maintaining the unequal access to healthcare faced by trans, LGBTQ, and other marginalized groups.
therealnews.com/stories/lgbtq-trans-barr…

We Can’t Save the Economy Without Universal Child Care
Bryce Covert | thenation.com | 2020-04-17
We Can’t Save the Economy Without Universal Child Care…
thenation.com/article/economy/child-care…

How the Military-Industrial Complex Is Using the Coronavirus
William D. Hartung, Ben Freeman | thenation.com | 2020-04-17
How the Military-Industrial Complex Is Using the Coronavirus…
thenation.com/article/world/coronavirus-…

The Radical ’70s Magazine That Shaped the Hong Kong Left
Promise Li | thenation.com | 2020-04-17
The Radical ’70s Magazine That Shaped the Hong Kong Left…
thenation.com/article/world/hong-kong-le…

Republicans try for political leverage over China with bill allowing Americans to sue for ‘damage they caused’ with coronavirus
rt.com | 2020-04-17
Republican officials Tom Cotton and Dan Crenshaw have introduced a bill sure to stir up tensions between the US and China that would allow American citizens to sue for ‘damages’ caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. | The senator from Arkansas and the representative from Texas, both vocal critics of the Chinese government, want to amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to create an exception for people to recover “damages caused by China’s dangerous handling of the Covid-19 outbreak.” | The Immunities Act protects foreign nations and their official agencies from being sued in US courts. | Cotton says China is a…
rt.com/usa/486171-cotton-crenshaw-sue-ch…

Business as usual? Pompeo claims countries will ‘rethink’ Huawei partnerships after Covid-19
rt.com | 2020-04-17
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has predicted “many, many countries” will reconsider telecom partnerships with China’s Huawei after Covid-19, using Beijing’s supposed lack of “transparency” to take a whack at a favorite target. | Pompeo was “very confident” that the Chinese response to coronavirus would “cause many, many countries [to] rethink what they were doing with respect to their telecom architecture,” he told Fox Business Network on Friday. | “And when Huawei comes knocking to sell them equipment and hardware, they will have a different prism through which to view that decision,” he continued. | Also…
rt.com/usa/486140-pompeo-gloats-huawei-c…

‘Shut up Karen’: LA Times writer sweatpants-shames locked-down Americans during pandemic & gets roasted
rt.com | 2020-04-17
Sniffing that Americans working from home should “dress like the adult you’re getting paid to be” rather than prioritize comfort over office dress code, a Los Angeles Times writer got a digital spanking for his skewed priorities. | Adam Tschorn, deputy fashion editor at the Times, took on the Herculean task of imposing sartorial order on his housebound readership on Friday, attempting to shame them into upholding his arbitrary style standards while they worked in coronavirus-imposed isolation. It didn’t go well. | love that the @latimes is getting r…
rt.com/usa/486172-latimes-sweatpants-sha…

Covid-19 much more widespread than thought, and NO MORE DEADLY THAN FLU, new Stanford study suggests
rt.com | 2020-04-17
A study out of Stanford University tested California residents and found that the Covid-19 infection rate is likely far higher than has been reported, but the virus could also be far less lethal than commonly believed. | Researchers used 3,300 residents in Santa Clara County to conduct their tests, which found that the coronavirus could have infected far more people than has been reported. The study distinguishes itself from past Covid-19 research by using seroprevalence data, meaning the level of a pathogen measured in the blood streams of a specific population. | Titled ‘COVID-19 Antibody Seroprevalence in S…
rt.com/usa/486183-stanford-coronavirus-i…

Bolivian coup leader freaks out on The Grayzone for ‘fascist’ label in complaint to OAS ‘human rights’ arm
Ben Norton | thegrayzone.com | 2020-04-16
The director of far-right Bolivian coup leader Camacho’s presidential campaign threw a slander-laced tantrum against The Grayzone in a letter…
thegrayzone.com/2020/04/16/bolivia-coup-…

Locked-Up Immigrants Face Danger and Despair
James Goodman | progressive.org | 2020-04-16
Tens of thousands of immigration detainees fight to protect themselves from COVID-19.
progressive.org/covid-19/locked-up-immig…

Andrew Cuomo is NOT bae: exposing the governor’s thuggish record with Randy Credico
Anya Parampil | thegrayzone.com | 2020-04-16
Millions of dollars of free earned advertising from his brother on CNN can not cover up the real record of…
thegrayzone.com/2020/04/16/andrew-cuomo-…

Coronavirus stimulus bill funds State Dept/USAID operations that once helped trigger polio outbreak in Syria
Max Blumenthal | thegrayzone.com | 2020-04-16
A look at recent USAID schemes from Pakistan to Syria shows US empire can be very hazardous to your health….
thegrayzone.com/2020/04/16/coronavirus-s…

Pandemic Is a Portal: Arundhati Roy on COVID-19 in India, Imagining Another World & Fighting for It
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-16
Officials in India say six major cities are coronavirus hot spots, including the capital city, New Delhi. We go there to speak with writer and activist Arundhati Roy, who has a new essay on how “The Pandemic Is a Portal.” She says, “You have the sense that you’re sitting on some kind of explosive substance,” and describes how the government of Narendra Modi is using the pandemic to crack down on opponents and dissidents.
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/16/arundhati…

“Pure Baloney”: Zoologist Debunks Trump’s COVID-19 Origin Theory, Explains Animal-Human Transmission
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-16
With the largest one-day death toll in the U.S. yet

Is American Exceptionalism Shaping Our Scientific Response to the Coronavirus?
David Swanson | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-16
While New York City suffers through coronavirus, it’s worth recalling that in the name of science in 1966, the U.S. government released bacteria in the New York subways. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
mintpressnews.com/american-exceptionalis…

Venezuelan Crude Production Falls amid Coronavirus Crisis
Ricardo Vaz | venezuelanalysis.com | 2020-04-16
The Caribbean country has seen worsening gasoline shortages as the US ramps up secondary sanctions.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14847

Taxpayers Funded COVID-19 Research, And Big Pharma Profited
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-16
It’s definitely just a coincidence that one of Trump’s coronavirus task force members is a former lobbyist for Gilead Sciences, the company that won orphan drug status for its COVID-19 treatment.
therealnews.com/stories/taxpayers-fund-c…

Hate Groups and Racist Pundits Spew COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media Despite Companies’ Pledges to Combat It
Hannah Gais | splcenter.org | 2020-04-16
Hate groups and racist pundits have pushed misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic on mainstream social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube throughout the crisis, despite companies pledging to fight fake news about the virus.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/04/17/hate-…

La Iniciativa para la Liberación de Inmigrantes en el Sureste:Guía informativa de libertad condicional COVID-19 para patrocinadores
splcenter.org | 2020-04-16
splcenter.org/20200417/la-iniciativa-par…