Daily Archives: December 18, 2020

2020-12-18: News Headlines

Stephen Lendman (2020-12-18). "Unhealthy Americans". Best Healthcare For the Rich. Highest Child Poverty Among Developed Nations. globalresearch.ca The world's richest country USA has one of the least healthy populations. | Among developed nations, Americans have shorter lifespans, more illnesses and injuries — despite around double the per capita amount spent on healthcare compared to other developed countries. | In …

Eds. (2020-12-18). Venezuela's Maduro proposes joint ALBA COVID-19 vaccination. mronline.org The Venezuelan president announced a strict quarantine for January.

Reese Erlich (2020-12-18). Foreign Correspondent: Are Cuban Protesters Freedom Fighters or U.S. Pawns? progressive.org Painters, musicians, and other artists are responding to what they call the 'lack of freedom of speech.' The government calls them agents of the U.S.

Peoples Dispatch (2020-12-18). Progressive International calls for end to US-imposed unilateral sanctions. peoplesdispatch.org In a statement released on Friday, December 18, the Progressive International called for "take urgent steps to put an end to the unilateral. Illegal (primary and secondary) sanctions" imposed by the US on over thirty countries, and in particular against Cuba, Iran and Venezuela. The statement was addressed to United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres, G-77 chair Moses Nagamootoo and United Nations High Commissioner for human rights Michele Bachelet. | The US-backed economic sanctions are causing massive suffering to more than one-third of humanity by blocking their access to global markets and damaging th…

news.un (2020-12-18). COVID-19: Avoid 'nationalistic footrace' in choosing vaccines. news.un.org As governments move to secure COVID-19 vaccines for their populations, choosing these treatments should not be viewed as "some kind of nationalistic footrace", with some countries winning and others losing, a senior official with the World Health Organization (WHO) told journalists on Friday.

Alan MacLeod (2020-12-17). US Embassy Caught Scrubbing Tweets Urging Venezuelans Not to Vote. globalresearch.ca The United States embassy for Venezuela has been caught deleting tweets undermining the integrity of the "Tomorrow in Venezuela there will be …

Staff (2020-12-17). As Wealthy Countries Hoard Vaccine Supply, Pandemic Could Rage in Poor Countries Until 2024. democracynow.org Health experts are raising concerns that wealthy countries have reserved enough coronavirus vaccine doses to immunize their populations multiple times over, while poorer countries may only have enough to vaccinate about 20%. Reuters reports the World Health Organization's global plan for delivering COVID-19 vaccines to 91 poor and middle-income countries faces a "very high" risk of failure and could leave billions of people with no access to vaccines until 2024. "What we see is that something like 90% of all the vaccine doses that have been purchased have actually been done directly by countries, mostly middle-in…

W. T. Whitney (2020-12-17). Confronting and Ending the US Blockade Against Cuba. counterpunch.org U.S. news reports rarely touch upon the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba. The blockade destroys people's lives and threatens the island's economy and Cuba's economic development. Damning evidence appears in the Cuba's Foreign Ministry's most recent report on adverse effects. Its authors refer to "the longest-lasting trade embargo in modern history."

teleSUR (2020-12-17). Venezuela Pays Tribute to Bolivar 190 Years After His Death. telesurenglish.net The Venezuelan government paid tribute on Thursday to the independence hero Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) on the occasion of the 190th anniversary of his death in Santa Marta, Colombia. | RELATED: | The Executive Vice President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, said during the commemoration ceremony that "today we remember two historical events of immense relevance, we celebrate the 201 years of the Fundament…

Joe Glenton (2020-12-17). Office for Veterans' Affairs doesn't collect data on ex-forces suicides or homelessness. thecanary.co The Office for Veterans' Affairs doesn't collect data on homelessness or suicides among the ex-military population, The revelations call into question exactly what the department is doing to address two of the most high-profile issues affecting ex-forces personnel in the UK. | Responding to the FOI, which asked that data and reports on the issues be shared, th…

_____ (2020-12-17). Infrastructure Advances Improve Lives Of All Nicaraguans. popularresistance.org During the neoliberal governments from 1990 to 2007, the Nicaraguan population suffered lack of electricity an average of five to twelve hours a day. Electricity was needed to pump water so Nicaraguans had even more hours without the precious liquid. In my Managua neighborhood, Ciudad Jardin, we prepared for the outages with candles, kerosene and stored water. We sat outside together in the dark in the early evenings — one good thing — and the kids played. But the frequent electricity cuts ruined refrigerators, televisions, etc. because, when the electricity returned, it would often spike. | I recentl…

Kim Scipes (2020-12-17). Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing Revolution. zcomm.org Review of Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing Revolution, by Don Fitz (Monthly Review Press)…

Manuela Solé (2020-12-16). Venezuela's Maduro Proposes Joint ALBA Covid-19 Vaccination. venezuelanalysis.com The Venezuelan president announced a strict quarantine for January.

Max Blumenthal (2020-12-16). Rafael Correa on Venezuela, Assange, and 'preventing the total destruction of our homeland'. mronline.org Max Blumenthal interviews former Ecuador President Rafael Correa, who was in Venezuela to observe its legislative elections and show support to a government under sustained economic and political attack by the U.S.

Kathy Durkin (2020-12-16). Las brigadas médicas de Cuba luchan contra la pandemia. workers.org La Cuba socialista encarna el espíritu de solidaridad internacional mediante su constante ayuda médica a países de todo el mundo, especialmente a los afectados por el imperialismo. Esta no es solo una frase vacía. El verdadero significado de la solidaridad lo demuestran todos los días equipos de trabajadores de la . . . |

Rachel Domond (2020-12-16). Week of solidarity with Haiti confronts U.S. imperialism. liberationnews.org December 16 is the 30th anniversary of the first free and democratic election in Haitian history.

John Catalinotto (2020-12-15). A look at Venezuela's National Assembly election. workers.org Venezuela's December 6 National Assembly (AN) elections overcame the prior pro-imperialist majority in that body and catapulted the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) into an overwhelming majority. President Nicolás Maduro, also of the PSUV, won big. Voting is smooth and fair in Venezuela. The imperialist politicians and corporate media, especially . . . |

RT (2020-12-15). 1 in 10 people in Spain have been infected with Covid-19, nationwide antibody test finds. rt.com A national seroprevalence study has shown that nearly 10 percent of Spain's population is, to some degree, immune to Covid-19, up from 5 percent in July. | Carried out by the ministry of health, the study published on Tuesday suggests that 9.9 percent of people in Spain have Covid antibodies and have already been infected with the virus.This figure infers that 4.7 million people have been infected across the country. | The new data is the fourth round of a nationwide seroprevalence study being undertaken by the government. The same study previously said that only 5.2 percent of the population had been infected…