Daily Archives: December 19, 2020

2020-12-19: News Headlines

Prensa Latina (2020-12-19). Cuba sends medical brigade to Mexico to fight COVID-19. mronline.org The second group of a Cuban medical brigade to contribute to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic traveled to Mexico City on Thursday.

Joe Parkin Daniels (2020-12-19). [World Report] Caribbean rainy season batters health care. thelancet.com This year's rains, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, are putting immense strain on the health systems in Colombia and elsewhere. Joe Parkin Daniels reports from Bogotá.

Online News Editor (2020-12-19). Malaysia set for first Covid-19 vaccines in February. laprensalatina.com Bangkok, Dec 19 (efe-epa).- Malaysian authorities on Saturday said they expected to receive the country's first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines in February, the state news agency Bernama reported. The Asian country has some 12.8 million doses of the jab on order so far, enough to cover 6.4 million people, roughly 20% of the total population. …

A Guest Author (2020-12-19). How long will Peru last? History weighs on today's events. workers.org By Sergio Rodriguez Gelfenstein The writer was the director of international relations in Venezuela's presidential office and the country's ambassador to Nicaragua. Currently, he is a guest professor at Shanghai University in China. This article was posted at sergioro07.blogspot.com on Nov. 13. Translation: Michael Otto. Mariategui's magazine, Amauta. Credit: Juan . . . |

_____ (2020-12-19). Urgent Call To End The Illegal Sanctions. popularresistance.org U.S.-backed economic sanctions impact nearly one-third of humanity in some thirty countries, causing untold death and devastation by denying them access to global markets restricting the ability to generate wealth, stabilise currency, and provide basic human essentials for their people. For the past several decades, the United States of America has used its considerable institutional power (over finance and diplomacy) to strangle countries that do not fall in line with its global political and economic agenda. The most dramatic case is Cuba, which has faced a blockade for six decades, a blockade that the UN Gener…

Rob J Hallifax, Steven Walker, James Walters, Nick Maskell, Najib M Rahman (2020-12-19). [Correspondence] Management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax: less is more — Authors' reply. thelancet.com We thank Simon Brown and colleagues for their comments regarding our study.1 We agree that generally less is more in terms of management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax and that, together, our two randomised studies provide important data that should be incorporated into future guidelines.1,2 However, we feel that the studies might reflect two differing populations of patients with primary spontaneous pneumothorax. The median scores for pain and breathlessness at enrolment in Brown and colleagues' study2 were lower (interventional group: pain 2/10 and breathlessness 1/10; conservative group: pain 2/10 and bre…

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.

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.

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.

Ricardo Vaz (2020-12-18). Venezuela: Oil Production Stagnant as Iran Deepens Cooperation. venezuelanalysis.com A fleet of Iranian fuel tankers is reportedly en route to the Caribbean nation.

teleSUR (2020-12-18). Venezuela's ANC Closes its Historic Mandate. telesurenglish.net Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro participated in the Special Session of the Plenipotentiary National Constituent Assembly on Friday, at the closing of its mandate. | RELATED: | The President thanked the 545 lawmakers for the work they have carried out in the country during these "hard-hitting" times. Likewise, the he recalled the historic conditions which forced the government to activate the constitutional power in 2017. | The Na…

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…

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."

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…

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)…

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 . . . |

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.

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.

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.