(2021-05-22). [Correspondence] Refugee access to COVID-19 vaccines in Lebanon. thelancet.com Lebanon is currently experiencing multiple unprecedented crises—political, infrastructural, and economic. The Beirut port explosion, in August, 2020, damaged 36% of health facilities.1 The Lebanese pound has lost 90% of its value, pushing more than half of the population into poverty.1 Complicating its desperate plight, Lebanon hosts the largest refugee population per capita in the world.2 The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this situation, leaving an ill-equipped health-care system overwhelmed.
(2021-05-22). IMF Proposes $50 Billion Vaccine Plan to End Pandemic and Boost Economy. indybay.org As worldwide COVID cases peak, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva unveiled a $50 billion proposal to support vaccinations of 60% of the world's population. During a G20 and European Commission summit, Georgieva argued the global vaccine investment would end the pandemic and spur $9 trillion in economic gains by 2025.
(2021-05-22). [Perspectives] Yee-Sin Leo: a leader in Singapore's fight against infectious diseases. thelancet.com In January, 2020, Yee-Sin Leo, Executive Director of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) in Singapore, and her team followed an unexplained pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China, very closely for any evidence of human-to-human transmission. Given population movement in the region, they knew that if they saw that evidence it meant "that Singapore will get hit with COVID-19 cases", Leo says. So the National Public Health Laboratory at NCID prepared to detect and diagnose cases, drills were done to smooth workflow, and the COVID-19 Research Workgroup was set up.
(2021-05-22). [Perspectives] An ironic guide to colonialism in global health. thelancet.com There is something axiomatic about the idea of an evidence-based approach to global health. Who could argue against such a noble enterprise? The uses of evidence and its applications—extended from individual patients to populations at large—are attractive whether in the boardrooms of Geneva or among humanitarian doctors in South Sudan's refugee camps. This approach rationalises complex and diffuse social processes, subtly reconstituting them as discernible medical problems to be solved through technical intervention.
(2021-05-22). Venezuelan Opposition Parties to Present Unified Ticket for Regional Elections. venezuelanalysis.com The country will choose mayors and governors in "mega-elections" on November 21.
(2021-05-22). The End of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. popularresistance.org U.S. representatives have introduced two bills that would finally end Puerto Rico's subordinate Commonwealth status. But continued colonial rule may be the only option Congress seriously considers.
(2021-05-21). Assimilate or Die: the Horrific Settler-Colonial Annexation Strategy Israel Shares with the US. orinocotribune.com In his 1961 work The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon observed that "Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions." | With the ongoing expansion of the manufactured country of "Israel" into Palestinian lands, the European colonists are replicating this model of exporting their evils. This is what Israel's current invasion of Gaza is about: destroying a population like how the Europeans destroyed the Natives, wh…
(2021-05-21). Brazil: Indigenous Articulation Takes Attacks against Yanomamis to the Supreme Court. libya360.wordpress.com Martha Raquel Sonia Guajajara, one of the leaders who denounced the unpunished attacks against the indigenous population — Mídia Ninja The population suffers with the escalation of wildcat miners' violence in their lands; the attacks continue The Brazilian Indigenous People Articulation (Apib) issued a petition in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) on Wednesday, May 19, asking…
(2021-05-21). US Extradition of Alex Saab is Illegal & Unfounded: Lawyers & Legal Experts. libya360.wordpress.com Saheli Chowdhury & Steve Lalla Alex Saab: "I'm the object of an unprecedented legal persecution to oust President Nicolás Maduro." Venezuelan businessman and diplomatic envoy Alex Saab, held in Cape Verde and facing extradition to the US, is a victim of political persecution and his case is comparable to that of Julian Assange or Chelsea…
(2021-05-21). US Extradition of Alex Saab is Illegal & Unfounded: Lawyers & Legal Experts (International Delegation Proposed). orinocotribune.com May 20 (Special for OrinocoTribune.com)—Venezuelan businessman and diplomatic envoy Alex Saab, held in Cape Verde and facing extradition to the US, is a victim of political persecution and his case is comparable to that of Julian Assange or Chelsea Manning. Saab, who had engaged in brokering deals that would evade the US economic blockade against Venezuela and bring fuel, food, and other needed materials to the South American country, was detained in the African island nation of Cape Verde last June. | Over the course of the past year, Saab's case has made waves on the African continent and in Venezuela, wh…
(2021-05-21). How to Save Lives in Jail During the Opioid Crisis. aclu.org Three million Americans currently suffer from Opioid Use Disorder, or an addiction to opioids. Today, adults between the ages of 25 and 44 are more than twice as likely to die from opioid overdose than from COVID-19. When we zoom in on the prison population, the numbers are even more jarring: 85 percent of people in prison or jail have some kind of substance use disorder, compared with 9 percent of the general population. Yet people who are incarcerated are less likely to get access to the care they need to treat their addiction. | Most prisons and jails don't let people take prescription medications like meth…
(2021-05-21). CNE Confirms Opening Date of Electoral Registry Ahead of 21N Regional Elections in Venezuela. orinocotribune.com 
With the approval of one thousand registry locations for the special day, the National Electoral Council (CNE) confirmed the approval of the opening of the Electoral Registry, between June 1 and July 15 of this year. | In this way, the electoral power will consolidate the data, by updating and registering new voters, in preparation for the regional and local elections scheduled for November 21 in Venezuela. | This was reported by the president of the CNE, Pedro Calzadilla, at the end of the board of directors' meeting. They defined the new steps to follow as part of the electoral schedule drawn up by the CNE auth…
(2021-05-21). Saudi-Led Forces Blew Up Dozens Of Oil Tankers In Yemeni Marib (Videos, Photos). southfront.org 
Saudi troops at their base in Yemen's southern port city of Aden in 2015. IMAGE: Reuters | On May 20, the Houthi-appointed Governor of Ma'rib province in central Yemen, Ali Muhammad Toaiman, condemned a recent attack on a fuel market in al-Arqain area. | The market, which hosted dozens of tankers, was set ablaze a day earlier after clashes between Saudi-backed forces and local tribesmen. In a statement to the pro-Houthis Saba News Agency, Toamian claimed that it was the Saudi-backed forces which targeted the market. | "The a…
(2021-05-21). Venezuela's Attorney General 'Works Blindfolded' Due to Silence from International Criminal Court. orinocotribune.com The Attorney General of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, regretted the absence of communication from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to reports sent by the Public Prosecutor's Office, in which the office detailed progress made in legislative matters, and institutional adjustments that Venezuela has implemented following ICC recommendations. | "We emphasize once again that the Venezuelan state works completely blindfolded in its submission of information to the ICC Prosecutor's Office, since it has not received official notification from this body regarding the facts that are under investigation,"
(2021-05-21). West Africa: ECOWAS Court Orders Cape Verde to Release Venezuelan Diplomat Saab. orinocotribune.com Abuja — Eight days after the African Bar Association's (AfBA) warning to Cape Verde Island over the detention of a Venezuelan diplomat, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court has ruled that the arrest and detention was illegal. | On Monday, the ECOWAS court in Abuja said diplomat Alex Saab should be released and paid $200,000 for unlawful detention. | The AfBA on March 8 had also ordered Cape Verde Island to immediately release Mr. Saab, an accredited Venezuelan special envoy and alternate permanent representative to the African Union. | Mr. Saab was arrested by the Cape Verdean author…