2020-04-07: News Headlines

RT (2020-04-07). Abe declares emergency in Japan's major centers until May 6, prepares $990bn stimulus. rt.com Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday declared a state of emergency to fight new coronavirus infections in major population centers. The measure, giving authorities more power to press people to stay at home and businesses to close, will last through May 6. It will be imposed in the capital, Tokyo, and six other prefectures — accounting for about 44 percent of the country's population. | The state of emergency will stop short of imposing a formal lockdown. "The most important thing now is for each citizen to change our actions," Abe said at a meeting of a government task force. "If each of us can…

Nicolás Maduro (2020-04-07). Venezuela's president sends message to U.S. population. workers.org Caracas, April 3, 2020 To the People of the United States of America: For weeks now, the world stands still, trying to control a pandemic that, without any doubt, is the greatest challenge we have faced together as a society and as international community. Our priority is confronting it, as . . . |

Vijay Prashad, Paola Estrada, Ana Maldonado, and Zoe PC (2020-04-07). Trump Sends Gun Boats to Venezuela While the World Partners to Fight a Deadly Pandemic. counterpunch.org On April's Fools Day, U.S. President Donald Trump gave a press conference where he announced a new "counter-narcotics effort" by U.S. Southern Command. "We're deploying additional Navy destroyers, combat ships, aircrafts and helicopters, Coast Guard cutters…doubling our capabilities in the region," he said. The point of this mission—which will be joined by other countries—is to

Nicolas Maduro (2020-04-07). Letter from President Nicolás Maduro to the People of the United States. globalresearch.ca In greeting you, with affection, I take the liberty of addressing you on the occasion of denouncing the severe events taking place against the peace and stability of Venezuela, at a time when the concern of the States and Governments …

en.mehrnews (2020-04-07). 60 Spanish associations call for lifting Iran sanctions. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Apr. 07 (MNA) — Some 60 Spanish political and social associations released a statement, calling for an immediate suspension of sanctions against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and Palestine in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Staff (2020-04-07). Headlines for April 7, 2020. democracynow.org Boris Johnson in Intensive Care for COVID-19, U.K.'s Foreign Secretary Deputized | , Most of U.S. Population Told to Stay Home as Medical Equipment Shortages Continue to Mar Response, Trump Ignored Coronavirus Warnings from His Own Administration as Early as January | , Grocery Stores Report Coronavirus Deaths as Workers Say They Are Not Receiving Adequate Protection, WI Primary Vote Goes Ahead After Ruling by State Supreme Court; SCOTUS Throws Out Mail-in Ballot Extension, New York Appears to Flatten COVID-19 Curve as Cuomo Tightens Preventive Measures, Gov't Called to Release Data on Racial Makeup of COVID-19 D…

teleSUR (2020-04-07). Italian Communists Send a Fraternal Hug to the People of Cuba. telesurenglish.net On Monday, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) issued a public thanks to the cooperation of the Cuban Health workers in this European country. | RELATED: | "For 60 years, you have been an example and an invaluable resource for all the peoples of the world… A nation that is giving a great lesson in solidarity and humanity. Its doctors, who have cured the sick in 64 countries, testify to the value of a socialist societ…

repost (2020-04-07). Venezuela Pres Maduro's Message to American people. indybay.org Oil rich Venezuela is again threatened with invasion, by Nazi Trump, with no opposition from any Democrat, sending an armada to Venezuela's shores, in the middle of a pandemic, under the obviously false pretext of drug-pushing, which the world knows Venezuela does not do. The democratically elected government of Nicolas Maduro has sent an open letter to the American people. See www.globalresearch.ca/letter-president-maduro-people-united-states/5708882

Telesur (2020-04-07). Venezuelan Leader Pens Open Letter to US Public. globalresearch.ca In a letter issued on Sunday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro warned the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump against making any unwise military decisions against the Bolivarian Republic. | Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza read a letter on Sunday that Venezuelan …

teleSUR (2020-04-07). Puerto Rico: The Number of COVID-19 Confirmed Cases Reaches 573. telesurenglish.net Puerto Rico's Health Department Tuesday announced that the number of positive cases for COVID-19 has reached 573 so far, 23 of which have died. | RELATED: | One of the deceased was a 79-year-old woman who died in a hospital in the Mayagàºez region. A 40-year-old man also died and became the Caribbean island's youngest victim. | "Every death confronts us with the unfortunate reality of the lethality of the ene…

graham (2020-04-07). World population stats verses CoVid-19. truepublica.org.uk Coronavirus since the beginning — infected 1.3 million, deaths 74,500. Births this year — 37 million, births today 175,000 Deaths this year — 15.7 million, deaths today 74,000 Net population growth this year 21.7 million, net population growth today 103,000 Source: Worldometer…

teleSUR (2020-04-07). Bolivian Authorities Request Protection for Vulnerable Group. telesurenglish.net Bolivia's Ombudsman Office requested the de facto government provide benefits to the population during COVID-19 outbreak that has affected most of the world. | RELATED: | The administrative body, who overlooks people's rights, asked the government to extend the "Family Coupon" program and a pension for the familiar basket. According to the people's defendant institution, these actions should benefit vulnerable and fe…

teleSUR (2020-04-07). Cuba Receives Medical Aid From China. telesurenglish.net Cuba received a large donation from China, as they delivered medical aid and supplies amid the COVID-19's outbreak on the island. | RELATED: | This batch contained 2,000 sanitary masks, 10,000 surgical masks. Also, as bio-safe equipment, China sent two thousand disposable protective suits, 500 infrared thermometers, two thousand protective goggles, two thousand pairs of surgical gloves and two thousand pairs of insu…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-04-07). US blocks export of crucial N95 masks to Canada and Latin America. peoplesdispatch.org At a time when countries like Cuba and China are offering assistance and providing doctors and medical supplies to others, the US move is being criticized as self-centered…

Nino Pagliccia (2020-04-07). A Simple Democratic Transition Framework for Venezuela: End All "Sanctions" counterpunch.org On March 31 the US Secretary of State issued a press statement proposing a "pathway" by which all Venezuelans would live happily ever after. At least that is what Mike Pompeo seems to wish. He "call[s] on all Venezuelans, whether military or civilian, young or old, of all ideological tendencies and party affiliations, to consider

Leonardo Flores (2020-04-07). Trump Should Fight COVID-19, Not Venezuela. mintpressnews.com Trump has been threatening military action against Venezuela since August 2017 and a naval blockade since August 2019. The recent deployment of the Navy towards Venezuela is the first step in backing up both threats.

yenisafak (2020-04-07). Coronavirus: Latest tally of deaths, cases in Americas. yenisafak.com Originated in China last December, coronavirus increases its effect on the Americas, and the continent can become the new epicenter after Europe, with the U.S. recording the highest case count globally.Although the number of coronavirus-related deaths and infections is not as alarming as the U.S., the tallies in Canada, as well as the Caribbean, Central and South American countries are rising each day.Many countries have restricted travel from the most affected areas, and implemented lockdowns as the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global pandemic.All figures shared below are compiled according…

John McEvoy (2020-04-07). UK extends its 'immense gratitude' to Cuba for helping British cruise ship. thecanary.co UK ambassador to Cuba Dr Antony Stokes has But the Cu…

Nicolás Maduro Moros (2020-04-06). Letter from President Maduro as U.S. threatens Venezuela with war. mronline.org In greeting you, with affection, I take the liberty of addressing you on the occasion of denouncing the severe events taking place against the peace and stability of Venezuela, at a time when the concern of the States and Governments should be focused on the protection of the life and health of their citizens, due …

teleSUR (2020-04-06). Nearly 60 Groups Demand End to Sanctions During COVID-19 Crisis. telesurenglish.net Approximately 60 organizations in Spain on Monday demanded the suspension of sanctions and blockades against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and Palestine so that they can face the COVID-19 outbreak with full force. | RELATED: | In a joint statement, the political groups indicated that these coercive measures are preventing various international organizations from supplying food and medicine to the population of these countri…

Fight Back (2020-04-06). President Maduro's Message to the People of the US. fightbacknews.org Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to the people of the US. The Trump administration is escalating attempts to bring down President Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution, making bogus charges against Maduro and other officials. The Trump administration also published a plan that would radically alter the Venezuelan government's branches of power. This is to prepare for yet another coup attempt by the U.S. in support of unelected scoundrels. This past week President Trump ordered a serious increase of US Naval ships patrolling Caribbean w…

Alan Macleod (2020-04-06). Amid Sanctions and Military Mobilization, Maduro Pens Letter Urging Americans to Question Trump. mintpressnews.com "I wholeheartedly ask you not to allow your country to be dragged once again into another unending conflict, another Vietnam, another Iraq, but this time, closer to home."

Fight Back (2020-04-06). Carta del Presidente Maduro al Pueblo de EE.UU. fightbacknews.org Lucha y Resiste está promoviendo una declaración del Presidente de Venezuela Nicolás Maduro al pueblo de los Estados Unidos. El administracion del Trump esta subiendo el nivel de atentados a derrotar el Presidente Maduro y La Revolucion Bolivariana por poniendo cargas de narco-terrorismo al Maduro y otros en el gobierno. El administración del Trump también publicó un plan a alterar el gobierno Venezolano para permitir la oposición de los elites que toman más poder. Eso es a preparar un otro atentado del golpe del estado por los EEUU en apoyo de los no elegidos bobolongos. La semana pasada el Presidente Trump orde…

Stephen Lendman (2020-04-06). Henry Kissinger: "The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Forever Alter the World Order". Depopulation is on the Agenda. globalresearch.ca What a post-COVID-19 world will look like will best be known in hindsight. Some clues: | The manufactured 2008-09 financial crisis enabled powerful interests to consolidate to greater size and influence. | It facilitated an enormous transfer of wealth from ordinary people …

teleSUR (2020-04-06). Cuban Medical Team Arrives in Barbados to Help Fight COVID-19. telesurenglish.net A team of Cuban medical professionals including 100 intensive care specialists arrived Sunday in RELATED: | Barbados Health Minister Jeffrey Bostic held a virtual press conference Sunday in which he…

Staff (2020-04-06). Team Trump Won't Let a Pandemic Get in the Way of Its Far Right Agenda. truthout.org It's understandable that the media is almost entirely obsessed with the coronavirus crisis. After all, more than 70 percent of the U.S. population is on "stay at home" orders and deaths are rising exponentially. Needless to say, the Trump administration's erratic and inconsistent response to the crisis has requires tremendous media resources and attention simply to convey the basic facts on the ground and let people know what to do. | There has been plenty of criticism of the news networks for carry…

Dave DeCamp (2020-04-06). Washington Slams Cuba's Doctors as US Embargo Blocks Coronavirus Aid. globalresearch.ca The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the cruelty of US imperialism to the world as Washington's crippling economic sanctions remain in full effect. The decades-old US embargo on Cuba

teleSUR (2020-04-06). Cuban Medical Aid in Italy Shows Positive Results. telesurenglish.net One out of three patients with COVID-19 that were treated by Cuban doctors in Lombardy have already recovered and been discharged. | RELATED: | According to Dr. Carlos Pérez Díaz, head of the Cuban medical brigade in Italian territory, 12 of the 36 affected by the virus in Lombardy have already recovered. | Perez Diaz explained that the Cuban medical team received 16 cases on the first day of work. These patients came from the Intensive Care Unit…

Matt Sedlar (2020-04-06). Sanctioning the Way for COVID-19. cepr.net MarketWatch See article on original site While the United States is fighting COVID-19 here at home, US sanctions against other governments are aiding the virus' spread abroad. They've already likely contributed to many unnecessary deaths in Iran, and Venezuela's experience with the pandemic may also be much more deadly due to these punitive measures. COVID-19 …

Cesar Chelala (2020-04-06). Cuba's Promising Approach to Cancer. counterpunch.org In 1991, I headed a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) mission of Latin American physicians to evaluate a national Cuban project involving the use of interferon to treat inoperable lung cancer. At the time, there was a rumor that Fidel Castro had lung cancer and had a particular interest in the research about it. Castro

Carlos Miguel Pereira Hernández (2020-04-05). Message from Cuba's Ambassador to China, Carlos Miguel Pereira Hernández. liberationnews.org "The noble, massive, and commendable effort by the founder of Alibaba and the Jack Ma Foundation that had reached some fifty countries around the world could not touch Cuban soil."

teleSUR (2020-04-05). US Seizes Ventilators Destined for Barbados. telesurenglish.net The United States government seized 20 ventilators destined for Barbados, the island's Minister of Health and Wellness Jeffrey Bostic informed Sunday. | RELATED: | "They were seized in the United States. Paid for, but seized, so we are trying to see exactly what is going to transpire there," Bostic said, explaining that the ventilators donated to the Barbados government were barred from exportation. | "Ventilators…

teleSUR (2020-04-05). US Weaponizing COVID-19 Against Venezuela, Iran: Oliver Stone. telesurenglish.net "As a number of religious scholars have warned, 'plagues expose the foundations of injustice' in our societies," film director Oliver Stone wrote in an op-ed Saturday exposing the United States (U.S.) government "profound lack of human decency" amid the new coronavirus pandemic. | RELATED: | In the piece published by the New York Daily News, Stone denounces the U.S. government for refusing to remove murderous sanctions on Iran and Venezuela…

Shaoqing Lei, Fang Jiang, Wating Su, Chang Chen, Jingli Chen, Wei Mei, Li-Ying Zhan, Yifan Jia, Liangqing Zhang, Danyong Liu, Zhong-Yuan Xia, Zhengyuan Xia (2020-04-04). [Research Paper] Clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients undergoing surgeries during the incubation period of COVID-19 infection. thelancet.com In this retrospective cohort study of 34 operative patients with confirmed COVID-19, 15 (44 ∑1%) patients needed ICU care, and the mortality rate was 20 ∑5%.

teleSUR (2020-04-04). Nearly 600 Venezuelans Return to Their Country From Colombia. telesurenglish.net The Venezuelans, who voluntarily decided to leave the national territory of Colombia for Venezuela, arrived in the city of Cúcuta in more than 20 buses in two different groups. | The first of them made up of 50 people, including six minors, who arrived in the city of Cúcuta late last night from the town of Soacha. | The second group arrived in the morning of today from the city of Bucaramanga. This group included 337 men, 167 women, and 35 children and adolescents. |

Presidente Nicolás Maduro (2020-04-03). Carta a los Pueblos del Mundo de Presidente Nicolás Maduro. liberationnews.org "Aprovecho esta oportunidad, para expresar mi solidaridad y la del Pueblo de Venezuela hacia todos los Pueblos que hoy también sufren graves consecuencias por los efectos de la pandemia."

Staff (2020-04-03). The $15 Million Bounty On Maduro Is One More Attempt To Unseat Him. therealnews.com The US says Maduro collaborated with the FARC to "flood the US with cocaine." It's an additional legal pressure to get Venezuela's president to step down.

news.un (2020-04-03). 'Overwhelmed' health systems have little room for sick refugees, migrants, UN agencies warn. news.un.org Four prominent United Nations system entities have called on countries to protect refugees, migrants, stateless persons and those forcibly displaced by disasters and conflict — some of the world's most vulnerable populations — against the rapidly expanding COVID-19 pandemic.

Anya Parampil (2020-04-03). Ex UN anti-narcotics chief & mob expert says US Treasury running 'mafia racket' against Venezuela. thegrayzone.com Pino Arlacchi, the former Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Prevention, says US is behaving…

Matt Sedlar (2020-04-03). ECLAC: Tens of Millions Will Be Pushed into Poverty Amid COVID-Induced Recession. cepr.net The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has lowered regional GDP growth projections from positive 1.3 percent to negative 1.8 percent in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic. ECLAC projects that, with such a growth rate, poverty and extreme poverty will increase by 34 million and 23.3 million, respectively. In an op-ed, …

VINS (2020-04-03). Indigenous Men, Suicides, Racism, and Health Care. Who is Watching? projectcensored.org The suicide rate for Indigenous men across North America, especially within Canada, is disproportionate to the rest of the population and racism may very well play a huge role in…

President Nicolás Maduro (2020-04-03). Message from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to the people of the world. liberationnews.org No imperialist aggression, however ferocious it may be, will divert us from the sovereign and independent path that we have forged for 200 years, nor will it distance us from the sacred obligation to preserve the life and health of our people in the face of the frightening global pandemic of COVID-19.

Staff (2020-04-02). What Happened To Cuba-US Relations Under Trump? therealnews.com Eddie Conway talks to Dr. Ken Morgan from Baltimore and Professor Luis Montero-Cabrera about Cuba's relief efforts and doctors, the cost of hostile relations with the US, and how Americans can still travel to Cuba under Trump's restrictions.

Aaron Maté (2020-04-01). Pompeo's 'transition' plan tells Venezuela to suffer into submission. thegrayzone.com Declaring that "Nicolas Maduro will never again govern Venezuela," Mike Pompeo unveils a so-called "transition" plan that tells Venezuelans to…

Alan Macleod (2020-04-01). Coronavirus Aid for Regime Change: Washington's 13 Point Plan for Venezuela. mintpressnews.com The State Department

Ben Norton (2020-03-31). Brazil's ex-President Lula on Venezuela: Maduro is democratic, Guaidó should be in prison, US blockade kills civilians. thegrayzone.com In comments ignored by English-language media, Lula da Silva slammed the US coup attempt against Venezuela, calling Nicolás Maduro a…

Ben Norton (2020-03-31). Southcom boosts US military presence in Latin America, citing China, Russia 'threats'. thegrayzone.com Southern Command is ramping up the US military presence in Latin America to counter China, Russia, and Venezuela, after signing…

Staff (2020-03-30). "Housing Is Health": Calls Grow for California to Give Vacant Homes to Unhoused People Amid Pandemic. democracynow.org We look at the crisis of homelessness during the coronavirus pandemic in California, where the number of cases has passed 6,000 with 132 deaths. The entire state has been ordered to shelter in place, leaving the state's massive unhoused population extremely vulnerable. As the state braces for a surge in cases, tens of thousands of people are living on the streets. A recent study estimates that nearly 2,600 unhoused people will need to be hospitalized for the virus in Los Angeles alone — and nearly 1,000 will need intensive care. We speak with Martha Escudero, a member of a group of unhoused mothers, elders…

Gloria La Riva (2020-03-27). Cuba closes border to protect citizens, sends doctors to help worldwide. liberationnews.org The Cuban government has established a national program of response and prevention.

CounterSpin (2020-03-13). Julio López Varona on Puerto Rico's Disaster Capitalism. fair.org Media…