(2020-08-11). How the Pandemic Defeated America: Ed Yong on How COVID-19 Humiliated Planet's Most Powerful Nation. democracynow.org 
As the world passes a grim milestone of 20 million coronavirus cases, we look at how the pandemic humbled and humiliated the world's most powerful country. Over a quarter of the confirmed infections and deaths have been in the United States, which has less than 5% of the world's population. Ed Yong, a science writer at The Atlantic who has been covering the pandemic extensively since March, says existing gaps in the U.S. social safety net and the Trump administration's "devastatingly inept response" made for a deadly combination.
(2020-08-11). Era Of US Domination Of Latin America Coming To An End. dissidentvoice.org 
Marcha en Venezuela contra las sanciones de Trump (Reuters) Despite its failings at home, the United States intervenes in countries across multiple continents seeking to control their governments and resources. This week, we look at the US' latest efforts in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Bolivia to undermine their independence and force them to serve the interests of …
(2020-08-11). New Alternative Left Alliance Forms In Venezuela. popularresistance.org Merida – Two major Venezuelan left-wing parties have announced that they will not be backing government candidates in the upcoming December 6 parliamentary elections. | For the first time, the Homeland for All Party (PPT) and Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) are set to lead a broad alternative coalition for the 277 seats up for grabs. Apart from the two parties, the inaugural Popular Revolutionary Alternative(APR) will look to incorporate trade unions, social movements, LGBTIQ groups, communes and campesinos organisations, as well as a range of smaller leftist currents.
(2020-08-11). Cuba's doctors to the rescue. peoplesdispatch.org The efforts by Cuba's Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade have been the most significant example of medical internationalism during the COVID-19 pandemic. The brigade was set up in 2005 by Fidel Castro.
(2020-08-11). 34 Attorneys General Call to Bust Gilead's Pharma Monopoly on COVID Treatment Remdesivir. counterpunch.org On August 4, nearly three dozen attorneys general representing nearly 60 percent of the U.S. population published an open letteraddressing top federal health officials. Even by the standards of an increasingly heated and high-stakes debate over drug prices, the letter is a remarkable document. With clarity and urgency, the signatories push the federal government to
(2020-08-11). Feds: High Extinction Risk for All Seven Leatherback Sea Turtle Populations. indybay.org Atlantic Population Faces 50% Drop by 2050, Pacific Declining 5% Annually…
(2020-08-11). The AFL-CIO Aided US Interference in Venezuela. popularresistance.org The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) Solidarity Center has a long history of working hand in glove with the U.S. government in undermining democracy and left labor movements throughout the world. | The center emphasizes it has shifted away from these Cold War tactics in recent years. But newly obtained documents show that the Solidarity Center has worked closely with the US to undermine the Venezuelan government in the recent past. Across much of the world, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) acted as an international a…
(2020-08-10). Headlines for August 10, 2020. democracynow.org Lebanon Unrest Mounting as Death Toll from Catastrophic Port Blast Tops 200, Trump Signs Executive Orders After Coronavirus Bill Stalls, Dems Say They Are Unconstitutional , U.S. COVID-19 Cases Top 5 Million, with More Evidence of Infections in Children and Teens, Coronavirus Surging Across India, Brazil as Europe and Cuba Reimpose Containment Measures, Hong Kong Arrests Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai Under National Security Law, Protesters Take to Streets of Belarus, Accuse Officials of Fraud After Lukashenko Claims 80% of Vote, Mauritius in State of "Environmental Emergency" as Tanker Leeches Fuel into Protected Areas,…
(2020-08-10). As Indigenous Peoples, We Are Resilient. globalresearch.ca Today, we celebrate the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples and all Indigenous leaders who have been fighting for our rights. Today, we remember the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations that took place in …
(2020-08-10). Era of US Domination of Latin America Coming to an End: Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia. globalresearch.ca Despite its failings at home, the United States intervenes in countries across multiple continents seeking to control their governments and resources. | This week, we look at the US' latest efforts in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Bolivia to undermine their independence and …
(2020-08-10). How the U.S. Failed at Its Foreign Policy Toward Venezuela. counterpunch.org 
On August 4, 2020, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on Venezuela. Appearing before the committee was U.S. State Department Special Representative Elliott Abrams. Abrams, who has had a long—and controversial—career in the formation of U.S. foreign policy, was assaulted by almost all the members of the Senate committee. The senators, almost
(2020-08-10). Venezuela Sentences Former US Green Berets to 20 Years in Jail. venezuelanalysis.com Venezuelan authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a third former soldier who orchestrated a failed coup attempt.
(2020-08-10). Venezuela Parliamentary Elections: PCV & PPT Build 'Alternative' Left Alliance. venezuelanalysis.com The Popular Revolutionary Alternative (APR) looks to include grassroots movements but not the ruling PSUV.
(2020-08-10). Nicaragua — Singing in the Rain. The USAID Project to Destroy the Sandinista Movement. globalresearch.ca Only the most perverse kind of ideology-derived inertia explains the stupidity, incompetence and criminality of current US foreign policy towards Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Stupid for being based on the insane messianic 19th Century Monroe Doctrine vision of Manifest Destiny, …
(2020-08-10). La partition du Liban est-elle maintenant envisagée? thealtworld.com À l'issue de la guerre civile de 1975 au Liban, l'accord de Taef (un des pires accords de l'histoire) a été signé entre les belligérants. Il remettait le pays entre les mains des seigneurs de la guerre qui dirigent aujourd'hui le Liban avec leurs enfants. Ils s'emploient diligemment depuis à s'accaparer les deniers publics, à mal gérer le pays et à offrir à la population un minimum d'infrastructure vitale. Ils se cachent derrière les chefs religieux, qui sont prêts à offrir leur protection à ces seigneurs tant qu'ils conservent leur part du gâteau gouvernemental attribué à chacune des 18 religions libanaises, en…
(2020-08-09). How The US Failed At Its Foreign Policy Toward Venezuela. popularresistance.org On August 4, 2020, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on Venezuela. Appearing before the committee was U.S. State Department Special Representative Elliott Abrams. Abrams, who has had a long—and controversial—career in the formation of U.S. foreign policy, was assaulted by almost all the members of the Senate committee. The senators, almost without exception, suggested that Abrams had been—since 2019—responsible for a failed U.S. attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro.
(2020-08-09). New US rep. for Iran indicates Trump's confusion. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Aug. 09 (MNA) — Iranian Ambassador to Venezuela Hojjatollah Soltani said that the new US special representative for the Islamic Republic of Iran indicates Trump's confusion.
(2020-08-08). CODEPINK Denounces Elliott Abrams' Appointment As US Special Representative For Iran. popularresistance.org The appointment of Elliott Abrams to replace Brian Hook as the next U.S. Special Representative for Iran is another low point for the Trump administration's disastrous policy towards Iran. The dangerous conflict resulting from Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear agreement will be exacerbated by a man committed to Washington's failed policies of regime change, including in his present-day position as Trump's representative for Venezuela. | Elliott Abrams has made a career of lying and committing criminal acts that have led to the death and suffering of innocent people from Guatemala to Iraq.
(2020-08-08). Trump Scuttles Economic Stimulus Negotiations What Next? zcomm.org The McConnell-Trump strategy is not to bail out state and local governments. It's about making the high urban population centers—located largely in 'blue' states—to bear the brunt of the continuing economic crisis…
(2020-08-08). Venezuela's Maduro Demands Investigation into Landlord Violence. venezuelanalysis.com The Venezuelan president ordered the armed forces to protect campesinos from landowner attacks.
(2020-08-08). Trudeau government remains silent on corruption and repression in Haiti. mronline.org 
One way to evaluate the seriousness of the Trudeau government's stated objectives in seeking to oust Venezuela's elected government is to examine their policies elsewhere in the region.
(2020-08-08). Eviction wave looms in Idaho's Treasure Valley. liberationnews.org 
The story of the housing crisis in the Treasure Valley has once again risen sharply in pitch, spurred on by the unremitting COVID-19 pandemic. The Treasure Valley — also known as the Boise Metropolitan Area — comprises nearly 40 percent of Idaho's total population and is home to more than 730,000 people. Approximately 42 percent …
(2020-08-08). Doctors sound alarm as deadly tick-borne virus re-emerges in China, kills 7 so far. rt.com 
As if Covid-19 wasn't enough, Chinese doctors are warning that the country's population is threatened by yet another virus. The infection is passed by tick bites, but could also be transmitted between humans, experts say. | The SFTS virus has already infected around 60 people this year in China's eastern Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces, and seven of them have died. | Symptoms of the potentially deadly infection include fever, cough, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting, as well as a decline in white blood cells. | SFTS isn't exactly new, as the first cases of the tick-borne disease were reported in rural parts of the Hub…
(2020-08-08). UN experts renew call for removal of US anti-human sanctions. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Aug. 08 (MNA) — A group of UN experts has once agian called for unilateral US sanctions to be lifted on countries including Iran, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, and Cuba.
(2020-08-08). War And Pandemic Journalism. popularresistance.org The struggle against Covid-19 has often been compared to fighting a war. Much of this rhetoric is bombast, but the similarities between the struggle against the virus and against human enemies are real enough. War reporting and pandemic reporting likewise have much in common because, in both cases, journalists are dealing with and describing matters of life and death. Public interest is fueled by deep fears, often more intense during an epidemic because the whole population is at risk. In a war, aside from military occupation and area bombing, terror is at its height among those closest to the battlefield.
(2020-08-08). Venezuela And Trump's Irrational Electoral Policy. popularresistance.org Caracas, Venezuela – Elections always have an interesting effect on public policy, in particular if the person in charge of designing and implementing a certain policy is up for reelection. In politics, it is logical that an incumbent candidate decides to show successful policies and accomplishments while minimizing failures or shortcomings. However, what is irrational is that a candidate insists on presenting, preserving and deepening a policy that has proven to be a failure and that the candidate himself only supports half-heartedly.
(2020-08-08). [Perspectives] Together in a time of physical distancing. thelancet.com Could there be a stranger time for a book about social connections than during a period when we have seen the most dramatic global effort ever to keep people away from one another? In the first half of 2020, the world was in the grip of fear about the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries instituted some form of physical distancing for their whole populations to mitigate the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Emerging data from this period showed that reports of loneliness and attendant depression and anxiety increased compared with 2019.
(2020-08-08). [Perspectives] Moral responsibility in medicine: where are the boundaries? thelancet.com All doctors have responsibilities to protect and promote health. These responsibilities lie at the heart of medicine, providing its moral foundation. Some doctors meet their responsibilities treating individuals with diseases, some teach or do research, while others safeguard or promote the health of populations. These responsibilities arise from the social role of doctors that is enshrined—but not always clearly delineated—in social, legal, ethical, and professional standards and norms. The health and wellbeing of the patient is, according to various codes, the pre-eminent responsibility of medicine,…
(2020-08-08). [Correspondence] COVID-19—a very visible pandemic. thelancet.com Johan Giesecke1 referred to the COVID-19 pandemic as an invisible pandemic, estimating that 25% of the Stockholm population was infected by the end of April, 2020, of which 98—99% are unaware of being infected. On April 1, 2020, the media reported that half of the Swedish population might be infected by the end of April, 2020.2 More conservative estimates suggested that at least one-third of the Stockholm population may be seropositive by mid-May, and later that Stockholm might reach herd immunity by mid-June.
(2020-08-07). Venezuela Ratifies Commitment Against Drug Trafficking. telesurenglish.net The President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro ratified on Friday Venezuela's commitment in the fight against drug trafficking, on the 15th anniversary of the expulsion of the United States (U.S.) Agency for Drug Control (DEA). | RELATED: | "On a day like today 15 years ago, Commander Hugo Chavez (1954-2013) cut off relations with the largest drug cartel on the continent, the DEA. Since then, we have reinforced th…
(2020-08-07). When the Chickens Came Home to Roost In Portlandistan. counterpunch.org Well folks, it's official, Donald Trump has declared war on America. Probably should have saw that coming. After all, I've long argued that our dayglow duce isn't an isolationist but merely the world's shittiest imperialist. After trying and failing miserably to bring fascism to Nicaragua and Venezuela, Trump has set his sites on targets much
(2020-08-07). US Has Lost 12,881,000 Jobs Since February. Lowest-Paid Workers Are Hit Hardest. truthout.org The July employment report showed the economy adding another 1,761,000 jobs in July. This follows gains of 2,725,000 in May, and 4,791,000 in June, leaving the economy down 12,881,000 jobs from its February level. | The unemployment rate fell from 11.1 percent to 10.2 percent, while the employment to population ratio (EPOP) rose from 54.6 percent to 55.1 percent. These gains likely overstate the true improvement from June, since the Bureau of Labor Statistics has largely fixed a misclassification p…