(2020-06-05). Goliath is not invincible. mronline.org 
Last year, I walked with Mariela Machado in her housing complex known as Kaikachi in the neighbourhood of La Vega (Caracas, Venezuela). After Hugo Chávez was inaugurated president in 1999, a group of working-class residents of the city saw an empty piece of land and occupied it. Mariela and others went to the government and …
(2020-06-05). [Letter] Preparing for a COVID-19 surge. thelancet.com As of May 12, 2020, over 4.2 million cases of COVID-19 across 187 countries have been reported, of which 1.3 million have occurred in the United States (US) alone [1]. Although many infected individuals will have mild symptoms, older patients are disproportionately more likely to progress to severe disease (US adults aged 65—84 are hospitalized at a rate of 31—59%, and infected adults over 85 at a rate of 31—70%) [2]. As hospital capacity and the population density of older adults vary considerably across the country and worldwide, understanding which regions will face disproportionate burden fr…
(2020-06-05). How do you resist a hybrid war amid a pandemic? peoplesdispatch.org The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a series of unexpected challenges in countries across the world. However amid the uncertainty, crisis and tragedy, we have seen traces of a more humane society based in solidarity. In several countries, States have committed to paying the salaries of workers that lost their jobs, some have implemented a basic income, and the healthcare systems have been re-nationalized. These measures have shown not only that it is not antagonistic to protect and support the people but long term it is actually better for the economy. On the international level, China and Cuba stand out for showi…
(2020-06-05). Smartphone Cameras Are The Windows Into Society's Soul. thealtworld.com In ages past we knew hardly anything about what was going on in a given civilization. Mythology about a population's history were handed down around campfires in the form of verbal tradition from generation to generation. When the written word came around we invented something called "history", which was really just records of the ancient propaganda from whoever happened to have won the most recent war. Then later on we got very clever and invented something called "journalism", which was really just whatever stories the people who controlled the media wanted told. | None of these presentations were particularly…
(2020-06-05). Taxing large fortunes, a tool of social justice. peoplesdispatch.org Several countries around the world are discussing a tax on large fortunes to deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The question of combating extreme inequality is a political decision that governments have to make. | According to an Oxfam study, since 2015, the richest population, which accounts for 1% of the total, has more wealth than the rest of the planet. Small elites of countries seize an increasing proportion of national income, while hundreds of millions of people still do not have access to potable drinking water or enough food for their families. | The gap between rich and poor people wid…
(2020-06-04). Operating Outside the Rule of Law: Washington Pressures International Criminal Court. globalresearch.ca There is apparently no limit to what the United States and Israel can get away with without any consequences. The United States has been waging devastating economic warfare against Iran and Venezuela while also blaming China for a global health …
(2020-06-04). Venezuelan Government and Opposition Reach Deal to Fight Coronavirus. venezuelanalysis.com Spain has agreed to transfer $10 million in frozen Venezuelan funds to the Pan American Health Organization's medical efforts in the country.
(2020-06-04). Leading by Example: Cuba in the Covid-19 Pandemic. counterpunch.org The response of socialist Cuba to the global SARS-CoV2 pandemic has been outstanding both domestically and for its international contribution. That a small island nation, subjected to hundreds of years of colonialism and imperialism and, since the Revolution of 1959, six decades of the criminal United States blockade, can play such an exemplary role is due to Cuba's socialist system.
(2020-06-04). [Commentary] Governments and international institutions should urgently attend to the unjust disparities that COVID-19 is exposing and causing. thelancet.com During the COVID-19 pandemic, world leaders should pay more attention to those populations living in the poorest conditions, such as the homeless, those in prisons, poor ethnic & racial minorities, and millions of distressed migrants and refugees in unsanitary camps, settlements, shelters or detention centres. These vulnerable groups are most likely to suffer the consequences of inadequate and equitable access to testing, treatment and medical care [1]. Socio-economic circumstances determine the distribution of health conditions in populations and the severity of outcomes.
(2020-06-04). The UN's Anti-Poverty Proposal for Latin America: a "Basic Emergency Income" counterpunch.org The economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Latin America could be potentially devastating, according to a new Special Report by the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The report, based on the available data in mid-April, has estimated a -5.3 percent drop for the region's GDP growth in 2020 —
(2020-06-04). The OAS Picks Sides in Haiti … Again. cepr.net Haitian president Jovenel MoàØse, governing without parliament after terms expired in January without new elections taking place, is facing increasing questions over when, exactly, his own presidential mandate ends. MoàØse assumed the presidency after 2015 presidential elections, which had to be rerun after the discovery of widespread irregularities that undermined the credibility of the vote. …
(2020-06-04). Defending Land and Water From Mining Profiteers in the Time of Covid-19. counterpunch.org Over the years, the mining industry has taken advantage of dictatorship, disasters, and a variety of distractions to expand operations in Latin America. In the time of Covid-19, with entire populations under lockdown and economies falling apart, mining companies have also hopped on the pandemic profiteering bandwagon. The potential implications are wide-reaching. In Latin America,
(2020-06-03). Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective wins legal victory in face of hostile Obama-appointed judge & govt prosecution. thegrayzone.com The sentencing of the final four from the Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective marked another defeat for Juan Guaidó and his…
(2020-06-03). CoronaShock and the Hybrid War against Venezuela. mronline.org 
CoronaShock is a term that refers to how a virus struck the world with such gripping force; it refers to how the social order in the bourgeois state crumbled, while the social order in the socialist parts of the world appeared more resilient.
(2020-06-03). Big banks profit from COVID-19 as food, shelter, even water at risk for millions. workers.org 
On top of COVID-19, another epidemic — one of growing hunger, evictions and foreclosures — now looms over millions of poor people in the United States. They are disproportionately Indigenous, African Americans, Latinx and other people of color. Many live far from big population centers. From March to the end . . . |
(2020-06-03). U.S. campaign against Cuba's medical brigades targets healthcare, not 'forced labor'. mronline.org 
For decades, Cuba has sent tens of thousands of its medical professionals abroad to work in countries where natural disasters or poverty have left people without healthcare. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the catastrophic U.S. response to it, the absurdity of a propaganda war against Cuban medical missions has become more obvious …
(2020-06-03). The UK Compared With Other Countries on the Pandemic. counterpunch.org As I write (the weekend of 30-31 May), the UK's death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic has reached 38,489. Even the rightwing Financial Times regards this figure as an under-estimate, and says the actual toll is 60,300. The Murdoch-owned Sky News reports that the UK's population-adjusted COVID19 death toll has now overtaken Italy's: UK: 543
(2020-06-02). Top Venezuelan opposition leaders blame The Grayzone and Nicolas Maduro for US uprising against police brutality. thegrayzone.com Unhinged right-wing Venezuelan opposition leaders point to Max Blumenthal's t-shirt as evidence of a devious plot by the government of…
(2020-06-02). Nicaragua — False Witness, False Memory. COVID-19 and Nicaragua's Community Approach to Health Care. globalresearch.ca On Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The standard Western canonical sources of record, namely international institutions, non-governmental organizations and media outlets, practically universally contend that all three countries are authoritarian or even tyrannical regimes, denying their peoples' basic democratic rights. The …
(2020-06-02). US Sanctions Shipping Companies, Torpedoes Venezuela Oil-for-Food Deal. venezuelanalysis.com Washington is cracking down on swap deals that provide Venezuela with food, fuel and other vital imports in exchange for crude oil.
(2020-06-01). Public Health Interventions for Lowering Dietary Sodium Intake. jamanetwork.com The link between dietary sodium intake and hypertension has been well established, with reductions in dietary sodium intake being associated with decreases in blood pressure and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The World Health Organization recommends reducing sodium intake (limit sodium intake to <5 g [87 mmol] per day for adults) as one of the most cost-effective measures that countries can take to improve general population health outcomes.
(2020-06-01). Venezuela Inaugurates New Fuel System, Increases Local Production. venezuelanalysis.com The new model features dual prices, dollar payments and private import permits, ending the state's 50-year monopoly on fuel supply.
(2020-06-04). Across Colombia, Red Flags of Despair Fly as Harsh COVID Lockdown Is Extended for a Third Time. anti-empire.com 
Bogota, Colombia — Red flags hang draped from the doors, rooftops and windows of Bogota's impoverished southern neighborhoods. They symbolize the suffering wreaked by a now thrice-extended house-arrest and quarantine policy purportedly aimed at containing the Coronavirus. While the pandemic has infected only a few thousand people out of a population of more than thirty million in Colombia, the quarantine has caused prolonged unemployment, a wave of housing evictions, and rioting; fueling scourges like domestic violence while pushing many to the edge of starvation. | Colombia's tragedy mirrors those of the m…
(2020-06-01). Thierry Deronne :"The Revolt That Is Happening in the United States Is the Same One That Founds the Resistance of the Venezuelan People" ahtribune.com 
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: What is the current situation in Venezuela? | Thierry Deronne: The daily problems derived from the US blockade and sabotage, such as the lack of water, gas, electricity, petrol, or the price war of a predominant sector, which have brutally reduced the purchasing power, have not caused the popular revolt that the United States is hoping for. On the one hand because the government continues to invent restraint barriers, allowances, food at low prices, on the other hand because the population has been in a resistance school for at least six years, helps each other and adapts very quickly. The…
(2020-06-05). Paris denies that Guaido is hiding in French Embassy in Caracas as Venezuela demands he be handed over. rt.com 
France has rejected allegations that Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has been holed up inside the nation's diplomatic mission in Caracas. Venezuelan authorities earlier labeled Guaido a "fugitive from justice." | "Juan Guaido is not at the French residence in Caracas. We have repeatedly confirmed this to the Venezuelan authorities," French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Agnes von der Muhll said. | Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza earlier claimed that Guaido, who was named 'interim president' by the opposition-controlled parliament last year, has been hiding inside the French Embassy, and deman…
(2020-06-05). Venezuelan FM says Guaido is holed up in French Embassy in Caracas, calls on Paris to 'hand over the fugitive'. rt.com 
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has taken refuge at the French Embassy in the country's capital, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said. Guaido previously sought to shoot down the rumors, insisting he is "with the people." | "We cannot enter the premises of any country's embassy whatsoever, in this case Spain or France," Arreaza said on Thursday, referring to both Guaido and fellow opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who fled to a Spanish diplomatic compound soon after a failed attempt to spark an insurrection in April 2019. Arreaza said this means that any arrest of the two men "is not possible." | We hop…
(2020-06-02). Is the Republican Party Fascist? mronline.org 
Donald Trump is the culmination of how the Republican Party has been developing for years. Together they threaten to establish an authoritarian state in the service of big capital. They endanger the lives, health, and living standards of the working class and the rest of the population. But supporting the Democratic Party is not the …
(2020-06-04). Protectors Of The Venezuelan Embassy Victorious After Federal Charges Are Dropped. popularresistance.org Federal charges against the four protectors of the Venezuelan Embassy, who defended the building in Washington DC against violent opposition crowds for several weeks between April 10 and May 16 of 2019, were completely dropped in a case that was brought directly by prosecutors of the Trump administration. | After several months of proceedings that produced a mistrial in February 2020, the four activists expressed in a public statement that "Today's sentence marks yet another victory in the effort to protect the Venezuelan Embassy. The Embassy Protection Collective broke through the blockade and got supplies to th…