Daily Archives: January 4, 2021

2021-01-04: News Headlines

WSWS (2021-01-04). A tale of two pandemics: Ontario's finance minister holidays in the sun while workers get infected and die. wsws.org During the 18 days Rod Phillips was living it up with his family at an ultra-exclusive Caribbean resort, 2,237 Canadians died from COVID-19.

Santa Cruz News (2021-01-04). Police Chief Mills says New Homeless Camping Ordinance will go to City Council this Month. indybay.org In the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has the local homeless population scrambling for places to camp and shelter in place, Santa Cruz Police Chief Andrew Mills is soliciting support from the public for a new camping ordinance that he says will go before the City Council for approval in January. "It will need our support," Mills said. "We Have not had an ordinance to enforce due to a SCOTUS decision and council suspending our ordinance," he added. (Photo: Correspondence between Police Chief Mills and a member of the public concerning the homeless.)…

teleSUR (2021-01-04). Mexico: 32,824 Health Workers Have Been Vaccinated So Far. telesurenglish.net Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) Sunday announced that 53,625 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been received in the country, 32,824 of which have been applied to health personnel. | RELATED: | He added that 50,000 more doses will arrive on Tuesday to continue the vaccination in the healthcare sector , which has at least 750,000 workers. | The elderly population will be vaccinated with the…

teleSUR (2021-01-04). Venezuela's New Assembly: the People's Hope for Economic Upturn. telesurenglish.net Venezuela's new National Assembly (AN) on Tuesday will be settled with the aim of promoting laws to confront the U.S. administration's hostile policy towards the Venezuelan government and people. | RELATED: | "The new lawmakers are our country's hope to begin a new cycle of dialogue and reconciliation," President Nicolas Maduro said as he called "disastrous" the outgoing Assembly. | The main challenges of the AN will be…

teleSUR (2021-01-04). Venezuela Denounces Obstacles To Access COVID-19 Vaccines. telesurenglish.net Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday denounced the blocking of resources by international banks and western nations against the country to prevent the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines, noting the moves are in line with the U.S. unilateral sanctions. | RELATED: | The Venezuelan assets to buy COVID-19 vaccines "have been stolen and frozen by the U.K, Portugal, Spain, and the U.S.," Maduro pointed out, recalling that his administration has ma…

Rick Sterling (2021-01-04). I Observed Venezuela's Elections Firsthand: Here's What the US Media Got Wrong. mintpressnews.com Rick Sterling traveled to Venezuela in early December as part of a group of international election observers and says that some in the US media have gotten the story seriously wrong.

Mehr News Agency (2021-01-04). West refusing to unfreeze Caracas funds for vaccine purchase. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Jan. 04 (MNA) — Venezuelan President says the EU nations and the United States have refused Venezuela's request to unfreeze its assets so that the sanctions-hit country could purchase a coronavirus vaccine.

teleSUR (2021-01-04). Brazil to Import 2 Million Doses of AstraZeneca Vaccine. telesurenglish.net Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) Sunday authorized the "exceptional import" of 2 million doses of the vaccine produced by Oxford University and the United Kingdom-based laboratory AstraZeneca. | RELATED: | The doses that will arrive in the country in the next days will not be supplied to the entire population. The immunizer will be used in emergencies, such as patients at high risk of dying due to the disease. | "More doses will…

teleSUR, CE (2021-01-03). Barbados Takes Action Following Covid-19 "Super Spreader" Event. telesurenglish.net The government of Barbados has issued a rapid response to a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases which were traced to a "super spreader" Boxing Day bus crawl. | RELATED: | Authorities have assumed that the island remains fully able to conduct mass testing and provide care and accommodation for persons who test positive for the illness, having secured a large quantity of test kits previously while having some on order, while added sta…

Roger Harris (2021-01-03). 2020 Latin America and the Caribbean in Review: the Pink Tide May Rise Again. zcomm.org The US continues to try to dominate Latin America and the Caribbean…

teleSUR, CE (2021-01-02). Taekwondo or Ballot Box: President Maduro Ready to Battle Opposition. telesurenglish.net The President of Venezuela is opting for prudence as the transition of power prepares to take place in the United States and as lobbying by extremists aims to continue the policies of hate and genocide towards Venezuela, namely the cruel economic sanctions (unilateral coercive measures) affecting all of the Venezuelan people in many areas of daily life. | RELATED: | President Nicolas Maduro joined Spanish journalist and professor, Ignacio Ramonet for…

Peoples Dispatch (2021-01-02). Erika Farías on strengthening the Bolivarian Revolution amid the blockade. peoplesdispatch.org Erika Farías, mayor of Caracas, Venezuela, spoke to Peoples Dispatch about the challenges of sustaining the Bolivarian process amid the blockade and the efforts by the Venezuelan government to further build the revolution…

Mehr News Agency (2021-01-02). Iran, Cuba to co-produce COVID-19 vaccine. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Jan. 02 (MNA) — Iran is cooperating with Cuba in producing a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a senior official at the Iranian Health Ministry.

Dorothy E Roberts (2021-01-02). [Perspectives] Abolish race correction. thelancet.com Several years ago my daughter sent me an alarming text. She copied the results of her routine blood work and wrote, "Look at eGFR!". Under the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were listed two numbers—one for non-African Americans and a higher one for African Americans. I was floored. Did this automatic adjustment mean the doctor interpreted my daughter's eGFR differently based simply on her racial identity? The test's categories themselves made no biological sense. "African American", like all racialised populations, is a socially constructed grouping.

Online News Editor (2021-01-01). Muted New Year's celebrations bid farewell to 2020. laprensalatina.com Madrid Desk, Jan 1 (EPA-EFE).- The coronavirus pandemic has forced traditional New Year's Eve celebrations to be cancelled as millions of people around the world said goodbye to 2020 from behind closed doors, away from large crowds. With most of the world's population under some form of restrictions to fight Covid-19, including lockdowns and bans …

Gloria La Riva (2021-01-01). Cuba welcomes 2021 in victory, introduces new monetary policy. liberationnews.org Today, January 1, the 62nd anniversary of Cuba's revolutionary victory, the government is implementing a sweeping economic policy with reorganization of the monetary system to promote more efficiency and greater production.

Eds. (2021-01-01). Don't You Mess With Cuba — video. mronline.org World Premiere!!!..üòâüòâüòâ…subtitled version of the video clip "Don't You Mess With Cuba"

Staff (2021-01-01). People's Vaccine: Calls Grow for Equal Access to Coronavirus Vaccine as Rich Countries Hoard Supply. democracynow.org While the United States, Britain and other wealthy countries race to vaccinate their populations against the coronavirus, a new report finds that as much as 90% of the population in dozens of poorer countries could be forced to wait until at least 2022 because wealthy countries are hoarding so much of the vaccine supply. A growing movement is calling for the development of a people's vaccine and the suspension of intellectual property rights to expand access. We speak with Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni, a policy adviser to the People's Vaccine Alliance, and Achal Prabhala, a public health advocate and coordinator of the…

teleSUR (2021-01-01). Venezuela: Opposition-Controlled Parliament To Fade Next Week. telesurenglish.net Venezuela's new Parliament will elect its Board of Directors on January 5, thus renewing the Legislative branch that has promoted foreign aggression and economic sanctions against the country over the last five years. | RELATED: | Since its installation in Jan. 2016, the outgoing opposition-controlled National Assembly advanced an agenda aimed at delegitimizing President Nicolas Maduro's administration and supporting for…

teleSUR (2021-01-01). Venezuela Announces Return of 7+7 Quarantine. telesurenglish.net Venezuelans are resuming, as of this Monday, the conscious and voluntary quarantine under the 7+7 scheme, according to an announcement from today by Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. | RELATED: | A total of 437 new cases of COVID-19, all of which were community transmitted, were detected in the last 24 hours of 2020 by Venezuelan health authorities, bringing the total number of infections to 113,558, while the rate…

teleSUR (2021-01-01). Cuban Revolution Marks 62 Years of Heroic Resistance. telesurenglish.net The Cuban Revolution Friday marked 62nd years of resistance to the U.S. blockade, which was intensified during President Donald Trump's administration. | RELATED: | On New Year's Eve, President Miguel Diaz-Canel congratulated the people and called for unity, the only possible way for the Revolution to keep moving forward. | "We went through a year of challenges, tensions, and aggressions. I extend my gratitude to the Cu…

teleSUR (2021-01-01). Two Dormant Volcanoes Raise Eruption Alarms in the Caribbean. telesurenglish.net Two Caribbean volcanoes that had been dormant for decades in suddenly awoke, triggering eruption alerts in Martinique and St. Vincent & the Grenadines. | RELATED: | Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency informed that La Soufriere volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines could erupt within 24 hours. | "People living nearby should leave their homes immediately," authorities urged as they asked inhabitants to ke…

teleSUR (2021-01-01). Implementation of New Monetary System Begins in Cuba. telesurenglish.net The so-called Restructuring Task, promoted by the government, implies unifying the current exchange rates, the cessation of the circulation of the convertible peso, and a general reform of salaries and prices, with the gradual elimination of excessive subsidies and undue gratuities. | RELATED: | These procedures find legal backing in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba in its extraordinary edition number…

Dr. Birsen Filip (2021-01-01). The 62nd Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution: An Unprecedented Chapter in World History. globalresearch.ca January 2019: Cubans are commemorating the 60th anniversary of their independence. On this day in 1959, the Cuban Revolution was successfully conducted by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement[i] and became an enduring symbol of resistance to neo-colonialism, capitalism, and hegemony.

_____ (2021-01-01). UK MPs Nominate Cuban Doctors For Nobel Peace Prize. popularresistance.org The Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the United Kingdom announced Thursday that four more members of the British Parliament have nominated the Cuban doctors for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. | According to a message spread through Twitter, MPs from Liverpool Paula Barker, Ian Byrne, Kim Johnson and Dan Carden joined other MPs and academics from the UK who had previously formally nominated the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade from Cuba for the award. | The online petition, published by the solidarity campaign on its website, had accumulated by November's end, more than 6,400 signatures of legislators, academics,…

sputniknews (2021-01-01). US Sanctions Cuban Bank for Alleged Ties With Military, Pompeo Says. sputniknews.com WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The United States has added Cuban Banco Financiero International to its list of sanctioned entities, saying it is controlled by the country's military, State Secretary Mike Pompeo said Friday.

Michael Klundt (2021-01-01). Corona Measures: When children are the ones who suffer (I and II). indybay.org The government seems to be abdicating its responsibility by 1) not supplying the population with masks, 2) not compensating people so they can stay away from workplaces, 3) eliminating school meals for hundreds of millions of children and 5) not including children in decision-making.

WSWS (2020-12-31). Best films and television of the year and the devastation of cultural life. wsws.org It is not possible to discuss any aspect of artistic life, or life in general, in 2020 without central reference to the COVID-19 pandemic, which the various ruling elites have permitted to ravage the world's population.

teleSUR (2020-12-31). Venezuela: Top Court Supports New Parliament's Inauguration. telesurenglish.net Venezuela's Supreme Court (TSJ) Wednesday ruled to void a legislative reform submitted by opposition lawmakers of the outgoing Parliament, which sought to prevent the inauguration of a new legislative period set to begin on January 5. | RELATED: | The TSJ ruling responds to an appeal requesting a mandate extension of the 2015 Parliament which is currently in contempt and is set to end with the installation in…

teleSUR (2020-12-31). Putin Highlights Strategic Partnership with Venezuela in 2020. telesurenglish.net The Foreign Ministry of the Eurasian country highlighted the Russian-Venezuelan strategic partnership, thanks to the interest of Presidents Nicolas Maduro and Vladimir Putin. | The Russian Head of State expressed his hope to continue the joint work, the development of bilateral relations and to coordinate efforts in the international arena. | RELATED: | In early December 2020, President Nicolas Maduro…

Mehr News Agency (2020-12-31). Rouhani congratulates Cuba on Liberation Day. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Dec. 31 (MNA) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani felicitates Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on the country's Liberation Day, hoping for further expansion of relations between the two nations.

_____ (2020-12-31). US Blockade Prevents Venezuela From Funding COVAX. popularresistance.org Venezuela's Health Minister Carlos Alvarado on Sunday said that the economic blockade imposed by the United States is preventing his country from funding the COVAX initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO). | He recalled that his country offered to place US$18 million into the COVAX fund, but as a result of the U.S. blockade, Venezuela has not "been able to free those resources to pay the fund." | Alvarado added that the U.S. sanctions have affected other vaccination programs previously conducted through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) revolving fund. | "We have not been able to pay the re…