2020-04-29: News Headlines

WSWS (2020-04-29). Protester killed in Lebanon during riots against soaring food prices. wsws.org Men, women and children marched through the streets of Tripoli, where more than half the population are living at or below the poverty line, shouting "Revolution, Revolution."

teleSUR (2020-04-29). Cuba: Interferon's Effectiveness Against COVID-19 Confirmed. telesurenglish.net Cuban scientific authorities confirmed this week that the use of Interferon to treat COVID-19 patients was indeed effective. | RELATED: | Eulogio Pimentel Vazquez, President of the Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), affirmed that the Interferon application complies with Cuban Health Ministry (Minsap) protocols. Pimentel stated that it is part of a patients' treatment but not for those in…

WSWS (2020-04-29). Cuban working class facing disaster due to coronavirus-related tourism collapse. wsws.org While Cuba appears to have effectively slowed the spread of COVID-19, the collapse of tourism has left huge numbers of workers unemployed and threatens imports of needed goods.

Mike Robinson (2020-04-29). The British Military Information War Waged on Their Own Population. globalresearch.ca Last Wednesday, during the daily We've been involved with the Cabinet Office Rapid Response Unit, with our 77th Brigade helping to quash rumours …

Jake Johnston (2020-04-28). Exporting COVID-19: ICE Air Conducted Deportation Flights to 11 LAC Countries, Flight Data Shows. cepr.net There were 232 likely ICE Air deportation flights to Latin America and Caribbean countries between February 3, 2020 and April 24, 2020, CEPR analysis shows. In 2019, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 267,258 individuals — 96 percent of whom were from the Latin America and Caribbean region. Though much of the media focus has …

Medea Benjamin (2020-04-28). During Coronvrius: Cuba to the rescue, but don't tell the American people. mronline.org Anti-Cuba zealots in the Trump administration have been enticing Cuban doctors working overseas to defect, paying journalists to write negative stories, slapping sanctions on Cubans in charge of the program, and strong-arming countries to expel Cuban doctors.

Tanya Wadhwa (2020-04-28). Spike in gender-based violence during quarantine in Latin America and the Caribbean. peoplesdispatch.org Feminists and women's rights activists across the region say that women are at greater risk and urge the governments to step up measures to address all forms of gender-based violence…

Ajamu Baraka (2020-04-28). Video: Venezuela and the Struggle Against Empire: Ajamu Baraka. globalresearch.ca Black Alliance for Peace National Organizer Ajamu Baraka discussed the role of U.S. activists in stopping the U.S. war machine during "An Inside View of Resistance to US Imperialism in Venezuela and How to Build International Solidarity," a webinar co-hosted …

teleSUR (2020-04-28). French NGO Nominates Cuban Doctors For Nobel Peace Prize. telesurenglish.net French organization Cuba Linda advocated Tuesday to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the Cuban Henry Reeves medical brigades, deployed in more than 20 countries to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. | RELATED: | "The international community is witnessing the solidarity of health professionals who leave their own country to provide services and share experiences in other parts of the world, which in the case of the pandemic…

(2020-04-28). U.S. uses 'drug' lies to menace Venezuela. workers.org By Raymond Tyler During a time when thousands are dying every day in the United States of COVID-19 and resources are dwindling, the United States has found the resources and money to plant "anti-drug" navy ships off the Venezuelan coast and threaten that country's leaders with arrest. The Pentagon ordered . . . |

Barbara Boland (2020-04-28). Is Trump Using the U.S. Military for Regime Change in Venezuela? globalresearch.ca U.S. policy towards Venezuela has been a head-spinning series of contradictions lately, with no end in sight. From placing a bounty on the heads of President Nicolas Maduro and a dozen current and former Venezuelan officials, to upping sanctions and …

teleSUR (2020-04-28). Venezuela Leads Region in COVID-19 Tests Per Million People. telesurenglish.net Venezuela has become the country with most screening tests for COVID-19 per million inhabitants in Latin America and the Caribbean, Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez announced Tuesday. | RELATED: | "Venezuela is the country in Latin America and the Caribbean that has carried out the most tests per million inhabitants. Today we are above 15,500 tests per million inhabitants," Rodriguez said duri…

commondreams (2020-04-28). New CEPR Analysis Shows 232 Likely Ice Air Deportation Flights to Latin America and the Caribbean During Pandemic So Far. commondreams.org ______________________________…

teleSUR (2020-04-28). Haiti: Food Crisis Persists Amid COVID-19 Pandemic. telesurenglish.net Haiti's UN representative, Elisabeth Byrs, said there is a famine and food crisis possibility in the Caribbean nation due to the economic COVID-19 impact. | RELATED: | Byrs requested immediate food aid to the World Food Program and stressed the COVID-19 emergency harmed food production. The UN representative expressed her concern about possible famines after the virus outbreak aggravated the severe social situation in Haitian territory…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-04-28). Cuban doctors arrive to South Africa. peoplesdispatch.org With a robust healthcare system and one of the world's highest ratios of the number of doctors in a country to its population, the communist state has already sent over 1,200 doctors to 22 countries.

teleSUR (2020-04-28). Cuba-Vietnam Trade Agreement in Force Despite Pandemic. telesurenglish.net The Vietnam Trade and Industry Ministry Sunday stated new commercial trade will take place with Cuba. The agreement will come into effect on April 1st. | RELATED: | The commercial contract will regulate the certification processes needed for the inspection of goods. These norms apply to both countries in the merchandise exchange. Vietnamese Exportation and Importation Department also provides preferential tax rates on freights. | The Vietnam-Cuba trade a…

news.un (2020-04-28). COVID-19 could lead to millions of unintended pregnancies, new UN-backed data reveals. news.un.org Ongoing lockdowns and major disruptions to health services during the COVID-19 pandemic could result in seven million unintended pregnancies in the coming months, according to data released on Tuesday by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and partners.

Fight Back (2020-04-28). Venezuela: Solidarity vs. COVID-19 (and Capital). fightbacknews.org Chicago, IL – These are hard days for people the world over. The COVID-19 virus has forced billions of people to stay at home, bringing the global economy to a near standstill. At the moment of writing, nearly 3 million people have been confirmed to have COVID-19 across the world, and over 200,000 people have died. | It is in a crisis like this that society is tested, that the strength of human organization must prove itself. And if there is one thing that every American can see, it is that our society has failed this test. "American exceptionalism" means that our economy and our way of life is superior, that it…

Behnam Shakiba, Shirin Irani (2020-04-27). [Letter] Covid-19 and perioperative mortality; where do we stand? thelancet.com In the age of Covid-19, surgeons are facing some challenges when deciding to perform or postpone elective operations. Therefore, we read with great interest the paper by Lei and colleagues [1]. They reported the overall hospital mortality following selective surgeries during the incubation period of COVID-19 as 20.5%.

Alan Macleod (2020-04-27). A Soft Power Ploy? Cuba Continues to Aid the Poorest and Least Influential Nations. mintpressnews.com As the coronavirus pandemic grows worse in many countries, Cuba has answered an urgent South African request for aid, sending 217 medical personnel to the country.

Bill Hackwell (2020-04-27). Cuba's Covid-19 Medical Brigades Are Not Medical Diplomacy: They Are International Solidarity at Its Finest. dissidentvoice.org Cuban Medical Brigade going to Italy (Photo credit: Ismael Francisco Gonzalez) Today the latest medical brigade from Cuba's Henry Reeves contingent arrived in South Africa to join the front lines with those saving lives in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. After a 14 day quarantine the 216 member group, made up of family physicians, …

Andrey Areshev (2020-04-27). Defeating U.S. imperialism at Playa Girón. strategic-culture.org "We'd done some very important things, but we hadn't proclaimed ourselves as being socialists, or openly proclaimed Marxist-Leninist doctrines. Girón accelerated the revolutionary process." Cuban leader Fidel Castro's reflections about Playa Girón, discussed with Ignacio Ramonet during conversations which led to the publication of the revolutionary leader's autobiography, indicate the magnitude of defeat for U.S. imperialism at the Bay of Pigs invasion which lasted from April 17 until April 19, 1961. In less than 72 hours, the Cuban revolutionary forces had defeated the 1,500 CIA-trained infiltrators. | The U.S.

teleSUR (2020-04-27). COVID-19 Is Exacerbating Food Crisis in Haiti: UN. telesurenglish.net More than four million Haitians, almost a third of the island's population, are in need of emergency food assistance, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned Friday, highlighting that the COVID-19 crisis has worsened the situation. | RELATED: | "The situation was already very worrying in Haiti, but it has worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced the closure of ports and airports, as well as school…

Venezuelanalysis (2020-04-27). Venezuela Rolls out Cabinet Change, Economic Measures to Combat Inflation. venezuelanalysis.com Measures include a 60 percent wage increase and a push to bring food prices under control.

Jonathan Cook (2020-04-26). Palestinians Hunker Down for Ramadan, Facing a Virus that doesn't Discriminate but an Occupier that does. dissidentvoice.org As the holy fasting month of Ramadan begins, the coronavirus outbreak in Israel and the Palestinian territories is proving how inevitably intertwined the two populations' lives are, while also underlining the extreme differentials of power between them. While 15,000 Israelis have tested positive for Covid-19 so far, the numbers infected in the occupied territories are …

Gianluca Gaidano, Raffaella Balocco, Wael Al Essa, Andrea Turolla, Roberto Barbato, Umberto Dianzani, Menico Rizzi, Raffaella Ravinetto (2020-04-25). [Correspondence] European education corridors: opportunity for academic solidarity. thelancet.com In times of growing political tensions around migration, health-care providers can help to protect migrant populations from exclusion.1,2 The UCL—Lancet Commission on Migration and Health called for a strengthening, through regulatory and training bodies, of health professionals' and organisations' awareness of discrimination.2 We add that organisations engaged in health science and biomedical education can fulfil their moral and deontological duty to protect populations that are susceptible to discrimination by also promoting the right to education.

Clare Wenham (2020-04-25). [Perspectives] Modelling can only tell us so much: politics explains the rest. thelancet.com I've been self-isolating with my family because we developed fevers. Whether this is any illness or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is hard to say given the UK Government's position on community testing. How this infection started, how many people I might have infected, and how adhering to public health guidance to remain at home alters patterns of disease transmission is crucial information. For this knowledge, policy makers need epidemiologists and mathematical models of how diseases spread in different populations, as described by Adam Kucharski in The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread—and Why Th…

yenisafak (2020-04-29). NYC mayor urges zero tolerance against large gatherings. yenisafak.com New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that large gatherings amid the fight against coronavirus will not be tolerated, adding "the time for warnings has passed."His remarks came late Tuesday following a major Jewish gathering for a rabbi's funeral in Brooklyn, where a large Jewish population resides."Something absolutely unacceptable happened in Williamsburg tonite: a large funeral gathering in the middle of this pandemic," the mayor said on Twitter. "When I heard, I went there myself to ensure the crowd was dispersed. And what I saw WILL NOT be tolerated so long as we are fighting the Coronavirus."The mayor sai…

sputniknews (2020-04-29). Sticky Habits? 60 Percent of Brits Going Cashless as Rural Regions Left Behind Amid COVID-19 Crisis. sputniknews.com More people are paying for goods and services with contactless payment systems amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but vulnerable groups in the British population, who depend on cash, should be safeguarded, reports revealed.

Susan Price (2020-04-28). Venezuela: Bolivarian Revolution stopping COVID-19 in its tracks. greenleft.org.au

Fight Back (2020-04-25). Cuban workers mark Lenin's 150th birthday, May Day plans announced. fightbacknews.org According to April 23 report in Granma, "On Havana's Lenin Hill, a small group of trade union leaders, headed by Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, Party Political Bureau member and general secretary of the Cuban Workers Federation (CTC), dedicated a floral tribute to the legendary Bolshevik, who played a key role in the Russian Revolution, the greatest lesson in the annals of history of what the emancipated working class can achieve in unity of thought and action, guided by socialist principles." | The newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba also reported on the plans for this year's traditionally massive May…

news.un (2020-04-25). Liberia: Ebola contact tracing lessons inform COVID-19 response. news.un.org Lessons learned during the Ebola outbreak in Liberia six years ago are helping the West African country to confront the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) which is working alongside the World Health Organization (WHO) on surveillance and the coordination of contact tracing.

Lucas Koerner (2020-04-23). Venezuela: Guaido to Use Funds Frozen in US to Pay Loyalists $5000 Monthly Salaries. venezuelanalysis.com Pro-Guaido lawmakers and diplomats will take nearly a third of an $80 million "Liberation Fund."

Staff (2020-04-23). Global Health Doctor: Hire 1000s of Contact Tracers to Stop COVID-19, Save Lives and the Economy. democracynow.org As parts of the United States and Europe consider reopening, most of the world's population remains susceptible to the coronavirus. We look at new efforts to stop the deadly spread of COVID-19 with contact tracing — finding who infected patients have been in contact with so they can get tested and isolated. We'll speak with global health expert Dr. Joia Mukherjee, with Partners in Health, about a contact tracing project she is working on now in Massachusetts.

Staff (2020-04-22). Bill McKibben on Earth Day at 50: We Must Stop Subsidizing Fossil Fuel Industry Wrecking the Planet. democracynow.org Today marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, when more than 20 million Americans joined in actions to protect the environment — 10% of the U.S. population at the time. Half a century later, in the middle of a pandemic, protests planned around the world have moved online, and the Trump administration has gutted the Environmental Protection Agency — established not long after Earth Day — rolled back fuel economy standards and eased the enforcement of pollution regulations. "The countries that flattened the coronavirus curve early on are doing far better than those like ours, which delayed," says…

Lucas Koerner and Ricardo Vaz (2020-04-22). Trump Administration Orders Chevron to Shutter Venezuela Operations. venezuelanalysis.com The latest measures followed reports of fresh dialogue between the government and the opposition.

Udi Ofer (2020-04-22). New Model Shows Reducing Jail Population will Lower COVID-19 Death Toll for All of Us. aclu.org The Trump administration optimistically projects that "substantially under" 100,000 people will die from COVID-19 in the United States. Horrific as that statistic is,

Matt Sedlar (2020-04-22). Tracking COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean. cepr.net The COVID-19 data tracker will be continually updated as the pandemic spreads throughout the region and CEPR experts will be providing regular analysis on The Americas Blog.

Bill Lueders (2020-04-22). Wisconsin Confirms 19 Cases of COVID-19 Related to April 7 Election. progressive.org More reported cases are likely as two-week incubation period ends.

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

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

ACLU (2020-04-17). A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform. aclu.org