This is an archived newsroll page on A Socialist In Canada, consisting of headlines and weblinks, with occasional news summary and brief analysis, for the indicated month(s) and year. See the current, ‘World news’ website page here. To find past stories on this and other news pages on this website, use the ‘find’ (word search) function on your web browser. Headlines in red denote items published on the main news page of A Socialist In Canada, mostly authored by Roger Annis.
World news headlines on A Socialist In Canada, June 2021
Tent cities erupt in Brazil due to pandemic negligence of Bolsonaro regime. Report in Washington Post, June 25, 2021
* Brazil could have stopped 400,000 Covid deaths with better response, Brazilian expert says, The Guardian, June 29, 2021
[There is much irony in the publication of the above two heartrending news articles by the Washington Post and The Guardian. Both newspapers regularly agitate in favour of the violent overthrow of the government of Venezuela, even though Venezuela has scored important success in combatting the cornavirus pandemic–certainly compared to the pro-Western regimes that surround it in Latin America. For example, Venezuela’s per capita Covid-19 infection rate is approximately ten per cent of those of Brazil and Colombia (Worldometer)]
The catastrophic mistakes over Covid made by the West’s political leaders may ultimately bring about societal destruction, by Marcello Ferrada de Noli, published in RT, June 29, 2021 [Marcello Ferrada de Noli is a professor emeritus of epidemiology in Sweden and editor of The Indicter, ‘a monthly magazine in Europe on epidemiology, geopolitics and human rights’. Under new editorship for the past five years or so, RT has become an eclectic news website mostly filled with right-wing populist viewpoints. It regularly mocks the gravity of the cornoavirus pandemic. This article above is an exception to its normal reporting.]
Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 shot around 90% effective against Delta variant, developers say, Reuters, June 28, 2021
U.S. media give new respect to ‘lab leak’ theory of coronavirus origins, though evidence is as scant as ever, special report by Joshua Cho, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, June 28, 2021
‘Sea Breeze’ naval warfare drills between the U.S. and Ukraine raise tensions with Russia, Deutsche Welle, June 29, 2021 Amid tensions surrounding the British destroyer off the annexed [sic] Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine and the US have launched Black Sea naval drills with dozens of warships, the largest maneuvers in decades?
Related:
* Warmongering British actions in the Black Sea, by Craig Murray, published on his website June 24, 2021 …The pre-positioning of a BBC correspondent on HMS Defender shatters the pretence that the BBC is something different to a state propaganda broadcaster. It also makes plain that this propaganda exercise [the sailing of HMS Defender into Russian (Crimean) territorial waters on June 23] to provoke the Russian military was calculated and deliberate…
* Black ops in the Black Sea, by Craig Murray, published on his website, June 23, 2021 (also published in Consortium News, June 23, 2021)
[Similar to a news report in Al Jazeera on June 23, 2021, writer Craig Murray considers the March 2014 referendum by the Crimean people to secede from Ukraine to be an act of ‘annexation’ by the Russian government and military. But this is false. The people of Crimea voted by a large majority on March 16, 2014 to secede from Ukraine and join (re-join) the Russian Federation. The referendum vote took place nearly four weeks following the extreme-right coup in Ukraine and in a context where the new, extreme-right government of Ukraine was threatening to unleash its murderous neo-Nazi battalions (the very ones that spearheaded the coup) on the Crimean people. This liberal argument with respect to Crimea would declare ‘illegal’ any future referendum vote of self-determination in, for example, Scotland or Catalonia should the dominant powers–Britain and Spain–declare such referendums to be ‘illegal’. It is regrettable that the respected Craig Murray, who is a firm supporter of independence for Scotland, would tie himself up in such anti-democratic argumentation.]
In Haiti, an armed ‘revolutionary force’ is announced, demanding resignation of U.S. subordinate president Jovenel, by Kim Ives, published in the English-language page of Haiti Liberté (print weekly in Kreyol and French), June 30, 2021
Related: A new revolutionary period is taking shape in Haiti, by Kim Ives, Haiti Liberté, June 23, 2021
mRNA vaccines to prevent Covid-19 generate immune structures critical for lasting immunity, by Tamara Bhandari, published by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, June 28, 2021 …Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found evidence that the immune response to such vaccines is both strong and potentially long-lasting. The results are published in the journal Nature on June 28…
Related vaccine news:
* Third dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine generates ‘strong’ immune boost, study finds, The Independent (UK), June 28, 2021
* WHO urges fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks as Delta coronavirus variant spreads, CNBC, June 25, 2021
Previously reported:
* Nearly all Covid deaths in U.S. are now among unvaccinated, Associated Press, June 25, 2021
* You can catch covid-19 twice, but the second bout is likely to be mild, by Graham Lawton , New Scientist, June 16, 2021 read the essay here in pdf format: Covid re-infection …Nine months since the first report of coronavirus re-infection, fears have receded. Not only is vaccination proving highly effective, a number of large studies in Europe and the U.S. have now shown that while reinfection is possible, it is rare and usually produces mild disease at worst…
* Long covid: Do I have it, how long will it last and can we treat it?, by Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Adam Vaughan and Helen Thomson, New Scientist, June 23, 2021 read the essay here in pdf format: Long covid
Cuba’s Covid vaccine rivals BioNTech-Pfizer, Moderna, Deutsche Welle, June 27, 2021
Previously reported:
* Cuba confirms 92.28% efficacy of Abdala vaccine it is manufacturing, Prensa Latina, June 21, 2021 read also: report in Reuters, June 21, 2021
* Cuba’s Covid vaccine could crush the Brazilian variant — and revive the country’s ailing economy, ABC.net.au, May 21, 2021 …Vaccine inequity has placed the majority of the global vaccine supply in the hands of wealthy nations. This has left Latin American countries with limited access to vaccines. Its vaccination campaign lags behind the rest of the world as the Brazilian variant spreads… Cuba is on track to inoculate 70 per cent of its 11 million population as early as August. If it is successful, it would become the first country in the world to immunise its entire population with its own vaccine…
Biden leaves changes to U.S. policy towards Cuba on hold, Washington Post, June 27, 2021 Five months into his administration, President Biden’s campaign promise to “go back” to the Obama policy of engagement with Cuba remains unfulfilled, lodged in a low-priority file somewhere between ‘too hard’ and ‘not worth it’…
Canada’s residential school reckoning prompts U.S. investigation into ‘boarding schools’ for American Indian children, Canadian Press, June 27, 2021 …In Canada, an estimated 150,000 Indigenous children are believed to have attended one of about 150 residential schools that operated between the 1880s and when the last one closed in 1996. “I think the numbers in the U.S. are fairly comparable,” said Circe Sturm, an anthropology professor and Indigenous issues specialist at the University of Texas at Austin. By the year 1900, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs had taken over Indigenous schooling from the Christian missionaries who started the effort. The bureau was operating 147 day schools and 81 boarding schools on U.S. reservations and another 25 boarding schools off-reserve, Sturm said… [According to a June 27 report in the Washington Post, “More than 100,000 Indigenous children were placed in an estimated 375 boarding schools throughout the United States from the late 1800s through the 1960s. All operated on the belief that such youth could be ‘civilized’ if removed from their tribal environment.”
The lost burial grounds of thousands of Louisiana’s enslaved people, ten-minute documentary film on New York Times, June 27, 2021
Key witness in Assange case admits to lies that were key in original indictment assembled by U.S. gov’t, Stundin (Iceland), June 26, 2021 A major witness in the United States’ Department of Justice case against Julian Assange has admitted in an interview with Stundin to fabricating key accusations in the indictment against the Wikileaks founder.
Related:
* Key witness in U.S. case against Julian Assange changes his story, by Joe Lauria, editor, Consortium News, June 27, 2021 An FBI informant on Julian Assange upon whose information the U.S. based a key part of its computer intrusion charge against Assange has now admitted that he lied
* Snowden declares ‘end of case against Julian Assange’ after newspaper reveals lies by key witness in U.S. extradition case, RT, June 26, 2021
* Key Assange witness recants—with zero corporate media coverage, by Alan MacLeod, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, July 2, 2021
New evidence reveals that Senator John McCain and other high-ranking Vietnam War POWs may have lied to the American public about being tortured, by Paul Benedikt Glatz, Jeremy Kuzmarov and Steve Brown, Covert Action Magazine, June 21, 2021
Related:
* Former U.S. senator Mike Gravel who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional record in 1971 dies at age 91, Common Dreams, June 27, 2021
* What Mike Gravel meant, by Joe Lauria, editor, Consortium News, June 28, 2021
* Revealing the Pentagon Papers in Congress, part six, published in Consortium News, June 27, 2021 This is part six of Consortium News’ multi-part series on the 50th Anniversary of the late Sen. Mike Gravel obtaining the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg and revealing the top secret documents in Congress.
Ancient ‘Benin Bronze’ sculptures looted from Africa by Britain and today present in many European museums prompt Germany and other looters to reckon with colonial past, Jakarta Post, June 24, 2021
Related: Palestinians must suffer so that Germany can feel better about its past, TRT news agency (Turkey), June 22, 2021 The formation of a new Israeli administration has provided German leaders with another occasion to reaffirm their staunch support for Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians.
U.S., Russia agree to strategic stability dialogue to reduce risk of nuclear war and set the stage for future arms control talks, by Kingston Reif and Shannon Bugos, Arms Control Association (U.S.), June 23, 2021
Russia mandates vaccinations for some as virus cases surge, Associated Press, June 25, 2021
Related: Hammered by infectious new Delta variant, Russia is now finding it has to get deadly serious about Covid-19 vaccine reluctance, RT, June 26, 2021
Brazil coronavirus cases surge to single-day record, The Hill, June 23, 2021 New coronavirus infections in Brazil reached 115,228 on June 23, a record for the number of Covid-19 cases recorded in a single day in the South American country.
Related:
* U.S. to send three million J&J vaccine doses to Brazil, Reuters, June 23, 2021
* Cuba’s Covid vaccine could crush the Brazilian variant — and revive the country’s ailing economy, ABC.net.au, May 21, 2021 …Vaccine inequity has placed the majority of the global vaccine supply in the hands of wealthy nations. This has left Latin American countries with limited access to vaccines. Its vaccination campaign lags behind the rest of the world as the Brazilian variant spreads… Cuba is on track to inoculate 70 per cent of its 11 million population as early as August. If it is successful, it would become the first country in the world to immunise its entire population with its own vaccine…
* Brazil gives Russian Covid-19 vaccine a chance, approving the import of limited doses, Science magazine, June 9, 2021
* Cuba confirms 92.28% efficacy of Abdala vaccine it is manufacturing, Prensa Latina, June 21, 2021 read also: report in Reuters, June 21, 2021
Let down by the rich and failing the poor, the Covax global vaccine scheme to be shaken up, Reuters, June 23, 2021
Black and Hispanic Americans suffer most in biggest decline in life expectancy in U.S. since WWII, Kaiser Health News, June 23, 2021 …In addition to killing 600,000 in the United States and afflicting an estimated 3.4 million or more with persistent symptoms, the pandemic threatens the health of vulnerable people devastated by the loss of jobs, homes and opportunities for the future… New research published on June 23 in the BMJ (nine-page paper) shows that life expectancy in the U.S. plummeted by nearly two years from 2018 to 2020, the largest decline since 1943. According to the study, white Americans lost 1.36 years while Black Americans lost 3.25 years and Hispanic Americans lost 3.88 years…
Related news of pandemic in U.S.:
* Spread of the ‘Delta’ coronavirus variant exposes poorly vaccinated regions in the U.S. to renewed danger, Washington Post, June 23, 2021 …One influential model, produced by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, predicts a modest overall surge in cases, hospitalizations and deaths this fall. Scott Gottlieb, a former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday that a fall surge could occur even if 75 percent of the eligible population is vaccinated. Experts think that most damage will occur in localized pockets where large numbers of people have declined to be vaccinated or have not gained access to the shots…
* Some 46,000 young children in U.S. lost parents to Covid. Where’s the help for them?, Kaiser Health News, June 23, 2021
* U.S. had nearly 17 million undiagnosed Covid-19 cases in early months of pandemic, ABC News, June 23, 2021
One percent own 45 per cent of the world’s personal wealth, while nearly three billion people have little or no wealth at all, by Michael Roberts (Marxist economist in UK), published on his website, June 24, 2021
Russia in showdown with UN and West over aid to Syria, saying the sovereign country should control its borders and aid distribution. Report by Associated Press, June 23, 2021
Forensic report by Canadian gov’t on the crash of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 (PS752) over Tehran on Jan 8, 2020 finds no evidence the aircraft’s destruction was ‘premeditated’, CBC News, June 23, 2021 [For the past 18 months, the Canadian government has kept up a stready drumbeat of conspiratorial accusations against the government of Iran, saying it was responsible for shooting down Flight PS752. Not a word, not a peep, is offered by Ottawa or Canada’s compliant media about the years-long military threats by the U.S. and its allies against the Iranian people that has obliged the Iranian military to maintain a hair-trigger state of military preparedness. The unrelenting threats by the U.S. and its NATO allies against the Iranian government and people are the ultimate reason for the aircraft tragedy.]
U.S. Supreme Court sides with California farm owners in striking down 1975 law granting unions access to farmworkers, ABC News, June 23, 2021 and read: report in Common Dreams, June 23, 2021
Related: Union-busting Supreme Court decision over farmworker rights was a segregationist throwback, by Elie Mystal, The Nation, June 24, 2021
Covid surge in Africa raises fears of a calamity like India’s, New York Times, June 22, 2021 The pandemic is worsening in Africa as more contagious variants spread, vaccinations lag and hospitals in some places are pushed beyond their limits.
Related: WHO warns urgent action needed to stem surging cases of Covid-19 in Africa, CBS News, June 18, 2021
UK’s High Court delays as Assange remains in jail, by Craig Murray, published on his website, June 21, 2021 (also published in Consortium News, June 22, 2021)
Justice Dept. sues state of Georgia over new voting restrictions in first move by Biden regime against state-led wave of voting restrictions, Washington Post, June 25, 2021
Related:
* Voting rights bill fails in U.S. Senate, USA Today, June 22, 2021
* Dept. of Justice lawsuit against Georgia’s voter suppression law is probably doomed due to changes in Supreme Court composition, Vox, June 26, 2021
* Voting rights disparities grow in U.S. as some states drop barriers, others create them, Washington Post, June 23, 2021
* Biden faces growing pressure from the left over voting bill, Associatd Press, June 23, 2021
Previousy reported:
* How Republican states are expanding their power over elections, New York Times, June 19, 2021 In Georgia, Republicans are removing Democrats of color from local boards. In Arkansas, they have stripped election control from county authorities. And they are expanding their election power in many other states.
Following grim news of deaths at Canada’s genocidal residential schools for Indigenous children, U.S. gov’t to review dark history of ‘boarding schools’ that targetted Native American children, Associated Press, June 21, 2021 …Starting with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the U.S. enacted laws and policies to establish and support Indian boarding schools across the nation. For over 150 years, Indigenous children were taken from their communities and forced into boarding schools that focused on assimilation. By 1926, more than 80% of Indigenous school-age children were attending boarding schools that were run either by the federal government or religious organizations…
Being open, despite the past, op-ed by Vladimir Putin, published in the German weekly magazine Die Zeit, June 22, 2021 (English translation published on the website of the President of Russia) This commentary is timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic war (June 1941).
Related: Full transcript of exclusive interview by NBC News with Russian president Vladimir Putin (83 minutes) on June 11, 2021, video with English voiceover and full English transcript, on NBC News, June 11, 2021 [This interview took place five days before the meeting in Geneva on June 16, 2021 between U.S. President Joseph Biden and Russian president Vladimir Putin.]
Colombia’s COVID-19 deaths pass 100,000 in unrelenting third wave, Reuters, June 21, 2021
Related news of Latin America: Here are comparable rates of Covid-19 infections in leading countries in Latin America, total cases per million population (note that the three countries with the lowest rates are those being targetted by the U.S., Canada and Europe with sanctions, embargos and violent coup threats): Uruguay 102,000; Argentina 94,000; Brazil 84,000; Chile 79,000; Colombia 77,000; Peru 61,000; Cuba 15,000; Venezuela 9,000; Nicaragua 1,000 (source: Worldometer)
New book offers fresh details about chaos, conflicts inside Trump’s pandemic response, report in Washington Post, June 21, 2021 At one point, the president mused about transferring infected American citizens in Asia to Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba Reporting on: Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History, book by Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, Harper Collins, June 2021 (publisher’s summary here)
Previously reported: Book review: Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus, by Elsa Maishman, The Scotsman, April 21, 2021
As Covid-19 crisis ebbs, some in U.S. seeking 9/11-style commission of inquiry, Associated Press, June 21, 2021 [Tremendous resistance can be expected in all of the large imperialist countries to meaningful inquiries into the negligence of their governments in responding to the dire threat of a global pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. That’s because the negligence was universal, implicating not only the governments but also opposition political parties and public health officials. Each of the pandemic experiences in imperialist countries vary in intensity, but the negligence has been universal (exceptions being Australia and New Zealand).].
Related news: Nursing home deaths in U.S. rose 32 per cent in 2020 amid pandemic, reports U.S. gov’t watchdog, Associated Press, June 20, 2021
The Delta variant appears to have tripled to 31 per cent of all U.S. coronavirus cases in just 11 days. It’s more dangerous than other variants and could imperil the country’s recovery, Insider (formerly ‘Business Insider’, Springer media group in Germany), June 21, 2021
Related: A mix-and-match approach to COVID-19 vaccines could help vaccinate the world—and fight the variants, Fast Company, June 19, 2021
Vaccine imperialism at work: U.S. sends Taiwan 2.5 million vaccine doses, tripling previous pledge, Associated Press, June 20, 2021 [Vaccine imperialism is the possession and wielding of Covid-19 vaccines as instruments of imperialist domination of the world’s peoples. It is why the imperialist countries are resisting the sharing of vaccine manufacturing know-how and it is why they purchased vaccine doses from Big Pharma in numbers many times higher than their respective populations.].
Related analysis: Vaccine donations aren’t enough, by Chelsea Clinton and Achal Prabhala, The Atlantic, June 20, 2021 The pandemic won’t be over until it’s under control around the world.
Progressive International hosts ‘vaccine summit’, participants call for ‘vaccine internationalism’ to end pandemic, Common Dreams, June 20, 2021
Related: The unequal distribution of Covid vaccines is a preview of the coming climate apartheid, by Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, June 19, 2021 …When it comes to climate finance, public-private charity models in the vein of Covax are already failing…
‘Squad’ members in U.S. House of Representatives failing to live up to their billing as left-wing activists for change. Analysis in the pro-imperialist Guardian daily, June 20, 2021
Massive protests in Brazil as the country’s death toll from Covid-19 tops 500,000, Common Dreams, June 20, 2021 and read: Brazilians protest pandemic negligence of Bolsonaro-led government in all the country’s large cities as country hits 500,000 coronavirus deaths, RT, June 20, 2021 (with video)
Germany’s ‘Die Linke’ (The Left) party approves platform for Sept 2021 election, callling for scrapping NATO and ending troop deployments abroad, Deutsche Welle, June 20, 2021
Nicaragua’s political opposition as organized crime, commentary by Stephen Sefton, in Telesur, June 15, 2021 (Stephen Sefton is the publisher of the Spanish-language website Tortilla con Sal.)
Related: The ‘left wing’ (Trotskyist) argument favoring regime change in Nicaragua.
[The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest circulation daily newspaper, has published a virulent attack against the Nicaraguan government in its edition of Saturday, June 12, 2021, authored by a ‘Carole Jerome’. This attack is mirrored in a new article by writer Dan La Botz published in two Trotskyist (right-socialist) publications in the U.S.–‘New Politics’ and ‘Against The Current’. The writer continues his ‘left-wing regime change for Nicaragua’ argument and that of the two publications where his article appears.–Roger Annis].
Background:
* The CIA is attempting coups in Nicaragua with tax dollars through U.S. agencies and corporate foundations, by Nan McCurdy, Dissident Voice, June 18, 2021 (Nan McCurdy is a United Methodist Missionary and 36 year resident of Nicaragua)
* The schizophrenic right in Nicaragua and the forgetful empire, by Carlos Fonseca Terán, in Tortilla con sol, June 17, 2021 (Carlos Fonseca Terán is Secretary for International Relations of the Sandinista National Liberation Front.)
* How billion-dollar foundations fund NGOs to manipulate U.S. foreign policy: A case study from Nicaragua, by Rick Sterling, Covert Action Magazine, June 8, 2021
* Nicaragua’s green revolution, by Rohan Rice, People’s Dispatch, June 6, 2021 While large polluting countries have refused to take necessary measures to slow the climate crisis, Nicaragua, one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, has taken impressive steps to shift to more sustainable energy
High hopes for Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine have fizzled in the U.S., New York Times, June 17, 2021 When Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine was authorized for emergency use in late February, it was seen as a breakthrough for reaching vulnerable and isolated Americans, a crucial alternative to vaccines that require two shots weeks apart and fussier storage… Public health experts say, the United States missed a critical opportunity to address health disparities with a vaccine that should have been ideal for reaching vulnerable populations…
Related pandemic news:
* UK records over 10,000 virus cases, highest daily count since February, as more contagious ‘Delta’ variant spreads, Associated Press, June 17, 2021 and read: Five years before a vaccine can ‘hold the line’ against Covid variants, England’s medical chief says, CNBC, June 18, 2021 England’s top medical officer has warned that the coming winter will continue to be difficult for the country’s health system despite the country’s successful coronavirus vaccination program. A further easing of lockdown restrictions in England was delayed this week due to a surge in cases of the delta variant first discovered in India…
* China is about to administer its billionth coronavirus shot. Yes, you read that right, CNN, June 18, 2021 Within days, China will reach a staggering 1 billion doses in its Covid-19 vaccination drive — a scale and speed unrivaled by any other country in the world. As of Wednesday, China had administered more than 945 million doses — three times the number delivered in the United States, and almost 40% of the 2.5 billion shots given globally…
* The maddening persistence of ‘hygiene theater’ in Covid-19 prevention, Washington Post, June 17, 2021
* Mucormycosis fungal disease become an epidemic in India in the wake of coronavirus infections, New York Times, June 19, 2021 The number of cases of the disease in three weeks has shot up to more than 30,000 from negligible levels. States have recorded more than 2,100 deaths, according to news reports.
Text of Vladimir Putin press conference following his two-hour meeting on June 16 in Geneva with U.S. president Joseph Biden, published on the website of the President of Russia, June 16, 2021
Related: The upcoming U.S.-Russia summit meeting in Geneva, by Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News, June 14, 2021
Previously reported:
* Biden kicks off first NATO summit with threats against China and Russia. Report by NBC News, June 14, 2021
* U.S. aircraft carrier group headed by USS Reagan enters South China Sea on ‘routine mission’, Al Jazeera, June 15, 2021
* After a 17 year war over jet subsidies, U.S. and EU eye a truce, Al Jazeera, June 15, 2021 …Trade experts say a deal to freeze the conflict over jet subsides will give both sides more time to focus on broader agendas such as concerns about China’s state-driven economic model…
* Biden eases trade friction with EU ahead of Putin summit, Associated Press, June 14, 2021
* China fires back at NATO’s claims, says it won’t sit back in face of systemic challenges, editorial, Global Times, June 15, 2021
NATO has been called greatest threat to world peace; Biden plans dangerous expansion that will increase military spending and escalate the risk of war, by Jeremy Kuzmarov, Covert Action Magazine, June 17, 2021
What’s the fairest way to share Covid-19 vaccines around the world?, by Michael Le Page and Layal Liverpool, New Scientist, May 19, 2021 read the article here in pdf format: Fair sharing of Covid vaccines
Related pandemic news:
* Cuba’s Covid-19 vaccines: A journey of collaboration and revolutionary solidarity, by Jyotsna Singh, People’s Dispatch, June 17, 2021 With its development of five COVID-19 vaccines and the promise of sharing know-how with developing countries, Cuba has remained faithful to Che Guevara’s values of international solidarity and people-oriented medicine
* Covid-19 cases in Africa cross 5 million mark but less than one per cent of the population (1.4 billion) is vaccinated, by Peoples Dispatch, June 16, 2021 11 countries, including Nigeria (population 80 million), do not have enough supply to cater even to one percent of their respective populations. Tanzania, Burundi, Eritrea and the Sahrawi Republic are yet to receive any vaccine doses at all.
* WHO warns urgent action needed to stem surging cases of Covid-19 in Africa, CBS News, June 18, 2021
* As pandemic recedes in U.S., calls are growing for an investigative commission, New York Times, June 16, 2021
The lab leak theory of pandemic origins doesn’t hold up, by Justin Ling, Foreign Policy Magazine, June 15, 2021 The rush to find a conspiracy around the COVID-19 pandemic’s origins is driven by narrative, not evidence
Related:
* Trump administration’s hunt for pandemic ‘lab leak’ went down many paths and came up with no smoking gun, Washington Post, June 15, 2021 …The February 1, 2020 teleconference call of top U.S. government and public health officials, unreported until now, was the beginning of an ongoing, sometimes politicized and so far fruitless effort inside the U.S. government to determine whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be the result of engineering or a lab leak…
* Jon Stewart faces online pushback after going all in on Covid-19 lab leak theory on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show, Forbes Magazine, June 15, 2021
How Washington is positioning founder of Al-Qaeda in Syria as its ‘asset’, by Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton, The Grayzone, June 16, 2021
On global warming and Covid-19 emergencies, G7 meeting in England judged a ‘colossal failure’ for all the world to see, Common Dreams, June 13, 2021 Anti-poverty groups, climate campaigners, and public health experts reacted with outrage and howls of disappointment Sunday after the G7 leaders who spent the weekend at a summit in Cornwall, England issued a final communique that critics said represents an extreme abdication of responsibility in the face of the world’s most pressing and intertwined crises—savage economic inequality, a rapidly-heating planet, and the deadly Covid-19 pandemic…
Previously reported: Imperialist G7 alliance and invited allies meet in Cornwall, by Michael Roberts, published on his website, June 10, 2021
Covid-19 brain fog has links to brain disease: study, by Dave Yazvinski, Healthing.ca, June 14, 2021 …Brain fog is one of the more debilitating symptoms experienced by long haulers — the term used to describe the roughly 10 per cent of COVID sufferers who still have symptoms of the virus months after infection…
Related:
* Cleveland Clinic study identifies how Covid-19 is linked to Alzheimer’s disease-like cognitive impairment, Science Daily, June 10, 2021 A new Cleveland Clinic-led study has identified mechanisms by which Covid-19 can lead to Alzheimer’s disease-like dementia. The findings, published in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, indicate an overlap between Covid-19 and brain changes common in Alzheimer’s, and may help inform risk management and therapeutic strategies for COVID-19-associated cognitive impairment…
* Being vaccinated doesn’t eliminate need for masks. Here’s why, Kaiser Health News, June 14, 2021
Coronavirus infections are dropping in U.S. states where people are vaccinated, rising where they are not, Washington Post, June 14, 2021
Related:
* As Covid-19 death toll in U.S. nears 600,000, racial gaps persist, Associated Press, June 14, 2021
* California is lifting Covid restrictions as cases and hospitalizations fall thanks to vaccinations, Associated Press, June 15, 2021
* China passes 500 million vaccine doses in campaign to vaccination 40 per cent of population by end-June, South China Morning Post, June 14, 2021
2020 was the deadliest year in decades for gun violence in the U.S.. So far, 2021 is worse, Washington Post, June 14, 2021 …Through the first five months of 2021, gunfire killed more than 8,100 people in the United States, about 54 lives lost per day, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research organization. That’s 14 more deaths per day than the average toll during the same period of the previous six years…
Related:
* U.S. military guns keep vanishing, some used in street crimes, Associated Press, June 14, 2021
* Grocery store cashier shot to death in Georgia after mask dispute, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 15, 2021
Trudeau-led government tolerates the torure of prisoners in federal prisons in Canada, ignoring federal court orders to cease the practice, commentary by Anthony Doob and Jane Sprott, in Ottawa Citizen, June 14, 2021 (Anthony N. Doob is Professor Emeritus of Criminology at the University of Toronto and chaired the now defunct ‘Structured Intervention Units — Implementation Advisory Committee’ established in 2019 by Public Safety Canada. Jane B. Sprott is Professor of Criminology at Ryerson University (Toronto). Together they have written four publicly available reports using Correctional Service Canada’s own data on the operation of Canada’s new solitary confinement regime.)
Virus-ravaged Brazil doesn’t want the Copa America football tournment, but Bolsonaro says it’s hosting it anyway, Washington Post, June 12, 2021 The coronavirus is still killing on average nearly 2,000 Brazilians per day. A third wave is on the near horizon and hospitals are again barreling toward capacity.
Related pandemic news:
* Reports say UK gov’t to extend Covid restrictions in England, CNBC, June 13, 2021 [Britain is #7 in the world for total Covid-19 cases at 4.6 million. Daily new Covid-19 cases were in the low 2,000s during the past two months and have risen in June to 7,000 to 8,000. The country has less than one half the population of Russia.].
* Moscow city gov’t orders new restrictions as Covid-19 infections soar in the city, Associated Press, June 13, 2021 [Russia is #6 in th eworld for total Covid-19 cases at 5.2 million. Daily new Covid-19 cases have averaged 9,000 during the past three months; they have surged to 14,000 in recent days.].
* Factory workers making goods for export to the West bear brunt of virus surge in south-east Asia, The Guardian, June 13, 2021
* Absence of patent waiver will add over $70 billion tothe cost of vaccinating the world, Oxfam reports, Common Dreams, June 12, 2021
* Covid negligence update: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is still raging and experts say herd immunity remains out of reach. Report by Deutsche Welle, June 11, 2021
Book review: Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus, by Elsa Maishman, The Scotsman, April 21, 2021 In April 2020, The Sunday Times ‘Insight’ investigations team published a report on the UK government’s actions in the early days of the pandemic. ‘Revealed: 38 days when Britain sleepwalked into disaster’ was a bombshell report that made headlines around the world and became the most-read article in the history of the Times’ website. The editor and deputy editor of the Insight team, have collected their revelations from that piece as well as months of reporting since then into a book…
The lie perpetrated by ‘progressive Democrats’ that a kinder, gentler U.S. empire is possible, by Caitlin Johnstone, published on her website, June 11, 2021 (also published in Consortium News) …In case it wasn’t already clear to you, progressive Democrats are a joke. They’re not a real thing. Being literally barred from even meaningfully criticizing the U.S. empire, let alone actually working to dismantle it, they’re a joke. They will never succeed in advancing any kind of real progressive agenda…
The imprisonment of Julian Assange and the collapse of the rule of law, speech by Chris Hedges, delivered to ‘People’s Forum’ event in New York City on June 10, published in Scheerpost, June 11, 2021
Related: Family of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on speaking tour in U.S. to demand his release from prison, interview with John and Gabriel Shifton (father and brother resp.), broadcast on Democracy Now!, June 11, 2021
For the past three months, Ukraine has prevented the contact group on the conflict in Donbass from working, by Christelle Néant, founding editor, Donbass Insider, June 6, 2021 [The ‘Contact Group’ is the formal group charged with implementing the ‘Minsk 2’ ceasefire and peace agreement of February 2015. (The text of the Minsk 2 Agreement is here). The Ukrainian government was obliged to accept the agreement following its military defeat at the hands of pro-autonomy rebels in Donbass (the former Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk). The autonomous (‘peoples’) republics of Donetsk and Lugansk were founded in late 2014 following the extreme-right coup in Ukraine in February 2014 and following the refusal of the new coup government to negotiate political autonomy for Donbass. The two republics receive essential economic, political and diplomatic support from Russia. Minsk 2 was signed by the Russian and Ukrainian governments and representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk. It was endorsed by the governments of France and Germany as well as the UN Security Council. But the NATO-member countries, including France and Germany, have supported Ukraine in its ongoing sabotage of the agreement. Indeed, NATO-member countries continue to arm and train the Ukrainian armed forces, including their neo-Nazi paramilitary units. They continue to wage a ‘low intensity’ war against Donbass.]
Deaths from Covid-19 in 2021 have already eclipsed the toll in 2020, Wall St. Journal, June 10, 2021 Excerpt: More people have died from Covid-19 already this year than in all of 2020, according to official counts, highlighting how the global pandemic is far from over even as vaccines beat back the virus in wealthy nations. It took less than six months for the globe to record more than 1.88 million Covid-19 deaths this year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University. On June 10, the university’s count for 2021 edged just ahead of the 2020 death toll…
After six weeks, the mobilizations in Colombia continue, by Peoples Dispatch, June 9, 2021 Fresh mobilizations have been called to demand that the national government sign the pre-agreement guaranteeing the right to protest and negotiate the demands raised by the mobilizing population
Related news of Latin America: Oil production in Venezuela bounces back as experts condemn ‘devastating’ sanctions, by Andreína Chávez Alava, Venezuela Analysis, June 10, 2021
So much for ‘The Squad’: How the much-hyped ‘progressive bloc’ in the U.S. House of Representatives has caved to corporate power, by Leonard C. Goodman, CounterPunch, June 11, 2021
The truth about defunding police, by Margaret Kimberley, senior columnist, Black Agenda Report, June 9, 2021
Related: The push to remake policing takes decades, only to begin again, Washington Post, June 10, 2021 Police revert to entrenched practices when monitors move on, leadership changes and public scrutiny wanes
Peace-washing: A network of major donors with connections to the Democratic Party are seeking to neutralize activism in the peace movement?, by Dave Lindorff, Consortium News, June 10, 2021 [This otherwise informed commentary makes the absurd claim that former president Donald Trump pursued “fawningly friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un”. This is exactly the language of the very sources–including Democratic Party officials–which the writer claims are undermining efforts to build a robust antiwar movement.]
G7 to roll out ‘green’ rival to China’s ‘Belt and Road’ investment project as U.S. rallies its allies and subordinates to confront China. Report by South China Morning Post, June 10, 2021
Related:
* U.S.-China tech war: American tech bill locks Huawei on Washington’s trade blacklist as the company plays up its cybersecurity credentials, South China Morning Post, June 9, 2021
* My trip to Europe is about America rallying the world’s democracies, commentary by President Joseph Biden, in Washington Post, June 5, 2021 …Whether it is ending the Covid-19 pandemic everywhere, meeting the demands of an accelerating climate crisis, or confronting the harmful activities of the governments of China and Russia, the United States must lead the world [sic] from a position of strength… honing the ability of democracies to compete and protecting our people against unforeseen threats requires us to invest in infrastructure. The world’s major democracies will be offering a high-standard alternative to China for upgrading physical, digital and health infrastructure that is more resilient and supports global development…
* G7 leaders will issue fresh call for WHO inquiry into Covid origins while stepping up use of vaccines to counter China and Russia. Report by iNews (Britain), June 10, 2021
* UK gov’t cutting foreign aid spending as country hosts meeting of G7 leaders, Associated Press, June 7, 2021
A Nobel laureate backs off from claiming a ‘smoking gun’ for the Covid-19 lab-leak theory, by Michael Hiltzik, columnist, LA Times, June 8, 2021 read the column here in pdf format: ‘Lab leak’ theory for coronoavirus origins
Related: Inside the fight to uncover the ‘lab leak’ origins of the coronavirus pandemic, report in Vanity Fair, June 3, 2021
[This article in Vanity Fair is the most extensive of the articles published to date in corporate media examining the claim that a ‘leak’ in the security of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China caused the outbreak of the coronovirus pandemic in late 2019 and early 2020. As such, it is worth reading for what it inadvertently shows: the ‘theory’ is nothing more than a collection of innuendo and conjecture, strung together by experienced journalists in such a way as to make it ‘appear’ as reality. Nature magazine, meanwhile, has published its own conjecture on the story on June 8, titled ‘The Covid lab-leak hypothesis: What scientists do and don’t know’. Though couched in language that ‘something’ might be going on, the first sub-headline of the article reads, ‘There’s not yet any substantial evidence for a lab leak. Why are scientists still considering it?’ In answer to that question, the article makes no mention of the anti-China new cold war by the Western imperialist powers that is driving the ‘coronavirus lab leak’ story. Later, the article examines the claim that the coronavirus was collected from bats in a working mine in China nearly ten years ago. It writes, “There’s no evidence of this, but it can’t be ruled out.” Seasoned readers of the ‘Russiagate’ conspiracy theories which have dominated state and corporate media in the West for some five years now will recognize the telltale signs of a government and media campiagn designed, first and foremost, for imperialist political objectives.]
Africa desperately short of Covid vaccines, Associated Press, June 8, 2021 …The World Health Organization says the continent of 1.3 billion people is facing a severe shortage of vaccine at the same time a new wave of infections is rising across Africa. Vaccine shipments into Africa have ground to a “near halt,” WHO said last week… In South Africa, just 0.8% of the population is fully vaccinated. In Nigeria, Africa’s biggest country with more than 200 million people, only 0.1% are fully protected. Kenya, with 50 million people, is even lower…
Related news of Africa: Malaria is far deadlier in Africa than the coronavirus. Why is the vaccine taking so long?, Washington Post, June 7, 2021
The secret IRS files: Trove of never-before-seen records reveal how the wealthiest avoid income tax, by Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen and Paul Kiel, special report by Pro Publica, June 8, 2021
Related:
* Analysis shows just how little the richest .001% pay in taxes, Common Dreams, June 7, 2021 The personal federal tax bill for the top 25 in 2018 was $1.9 billion. The bill for wage earners: $143 billion.
* The real tax scandal is what’s legal, commentary in New York Times, June 8, 2021
Top prosecutor for NATO-member Turkey re-files case to ban pro-Kurdish, People’s Democratic Party, Al Monitor, June 8, 2021 The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is Turkey’s third largest party. It faces the threat of closure once more after a top prosecutor refiled an indictment on June 7 seeking to ban nearly 500 members from politics on terror-related charges.
Related:
* Islamic State cells terrorize civilians in areas of northwest Syria controlled by Turkey’s ‘Free Syrian Army proxies. Report by Al-Monitor, June 9, 2021
* Turkish-backed Syrian armed groups unify forces, Al-Monitor, June 8, 2021
New report by corporate-funded think-tank reveals how profit-driven motives drive new cold war against China, by Danny Haiphong, Covert Action Magazine, June 5, 2021
Globalized capitalism impedes the development of a people’s vaccine against a mutating coronavirus, by Nicolas J.S. Davies, published in Dissident Voice, June 7, 2021
Vaccination rates in U.S. fall off, imperiling Biden regime goal of 70 per cent vaccinated by July 1, Washington Post, June 6, 2021 …The United States is averaging fewer than 1 million shots per day, a decline of more than two-thirds from the peak of 3.4 million in April… Polls have found that about one-third of Americans have no immediate plans to get vaccinated, with some holdouts saying their skepticism has intensified over time and others arguing the issue is moot because the pandemic has receded in the United States…
Related pandemic news:
* As India’s surge wanes, families deal with the devastation, Associated Press, June 6, 2021
* Covid variant chaos in the UK, by Kenneth Surin, CounterPunch, June 9, 2021
Biden cuts corporate taxes and infrastructure spending after promising to do the opposite, by Jack Rasmus, published on his website, June 3, 2021
Changes in per capita GDP, selected
countries, year 2000 to 2021 (projection):
The pandemic is getting worse, even as it seems like it’s getting better, by Ishaan Tharoor, columnist, Washington Post, June 3, 2021 …Coronavirus case counts worldwide are already higher in 2021 than they were in 2020. The death toll almost certainly will be… Southeast Asia, once a bastion of resistance to the virus as it ravaged Western countries, is in the grip of a harrowing spike in infections… In parts of Latin America, the virus rages on, largely unabated… Public health advocates and international organizations recognize the main problem: The global gap in vaccinations…
Related:
* As vaccines turn pandemic’s tide, U.S. and Europe diverge on path forward, New York Times, June 5, 2021
* Covid has claimed more than 600,000 lives in United States, NBC News, June 4, 2021
* Where the two billion global vaccination doses have gone, Axios, June 4, 2021
* China is vaccinating at a staggering pace, Associated Press, June 3, 2021
Poorest residents are bearing the biggest brunt of COVID-19 hit to India’s economy, study finds, by Neha Bhatt, special to the Globe and Mail, June 3, 2021
Previously reported:
* India’s latest surge of Covid-19 cases has killed more than 500 doctors and sickened hundreds of others since March, stretching staffs thin, Washington Post, May 28, 2021
* Just how big is the toll of Covid-19 in India?, New York Times, May 25, 2021
G7 health ministers won’t commit to timeline for sharing COVID-19 vaccines with low-income countries, Globe and Mail, June 4, 2021 Health ministers from the G7 countries have shied away from a firm pledge to donate doses of COVID-19 vaccines to developing nations, despite growing pressure from dozens of international groups and the World Health Organization. In a communiqué released on Friday after a two-day meeting in Oxford, England, the ministers said they are committed to sharing vaccine doses through the WHO’s COVAX program, but only when circumstances allow…
Related pandemic news:
* Biden administration announces plan to share first 25 million Covid-19 doses abroad, CNN, June 3, 2021 [In this news report, CNN neglects to provide global vaccination numbers; these would show the U.S. pledge of 25 million vaccines to be a drop in the bucket compared to needs in the non-imperialist countries of the world. But the report does provide a glimpse into how the U.S. will use vaccine ‘donations’ to bolster its predatory foreign policy.].
* Critics call Biden’s vaccine sharing plan ‘woefully inadequate’, call for boosting vaccine manufacturing in place of charity and goodwill, Common Dreams, June 4, 2021
* Canada won’t join international Covid-19 vaccine-sharing campaign, by Geoffrey York, Africa correspondent, Globe and Mail, June 2, 2021 A new pledge of more than 50 million doses has boosted a campaign by a dozen high-income countries to share their vaccine stocks with poorer countries, but Ottawa says it is still too early for Canada to contribute any of its doses… Of the 1.8 billion vaccines administered globally so far, only 0.4 per cent have gone to low-income countries. “This is ethically, epidemiologically and economically unacceptable,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement on June 2…
We may never know where the virus came from. But evidence still suggests nature, essay by Angela L. Rasmussen and Stephen A. Goldstein, Washington Post, June 4, 2021 read the essay here in pdf format: Origins of SARS-CoV-2 virus (Angela L. Rasmussen is a virologist specializing in emerging viruses at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan. Stephen A. Goldstein is a virologist at the University of Utah studying virus evolution.)
Previously reported:
* The lab-leak origin claim for Covid-19 is in the news, but it’s still fact-free, by Michael Hiltzik, columnist, LA Times, June 3, 2021 …What’s missing from all this reexamination and soul-searching is a fundamental fact: There is no evidence — not a smidgen — for the claim that Covid-19 originated in a laboratory in China or anywhere else, or that the China lab ever had the virus in its inventory. There’s even less for the wildest version of the claim, which is that the virus was deliberately engineered. There never has been, and there isn’t now…
* Mounting pressure on China about Covid ‘lab leak’ could backfire, by Arthur Allen, Kaiser Health News, June 4, 2021 (Arthur Allen is the editor of ‘California Healthline’, published by Kaiser Health News.)
The conviction of Craig Murray by a court in Scotland: What happens next, by Kirstan MacDonnald, published on the website of Craig Murray, June 4, 2021
Lawyers in Canada call for International Criminal Court investigation of Canadian gov’t and Vatican over child graves at Kamloops residential school, Calgary Herald, June 3, 2021 read also: report by Global News, June 3, 2021 More than a dozen lawyers from across Canada have formally requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate the Canadian government and the Vatican for crimes against humanity following preliminary reports that the remains of an estimated 215 children were discovered at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School… The letter says that while the Rome Statute that gives the ICC its power only came into effect on July 1, 2002, and crimes committed before that date can’t be investigated under that agreement, any ongoing coverup can be. “It is (respectfully) submitted that those within the GOC and Vatican that covered up and oppressed the crimes against humanity in this complaint, continued to do so on and after July 1, 2002.”… The open letter is gathering more signatures from lawyers across the country…
Related: Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx offers resignation to Pope over’catastrophe’ of sexual abuse of children by priests, Deutsche Welle, June 4, 2021
Biden expands Trump-era sanctions against Chinese companies allegedly tied to military, surveillance, CNBC, June 3, 2021 and read: report in Washington Post, June 3, 2021
Huge U.S.-Mexico border influx brings fears of grim summer for migrant deaths, Washington Post, June 3, 2021 …U.S. agents took more than 111,000 single adult migrants into custody in April 2021, the highest total in more than a decade. The number increased again in May, according to preliminary enforcement data…
Related: U.S. gov’t taps groups to recommend which asylum-seekers to allow into country, Associated Press, June 4, 2021 …The U.S. government faces intensifying pressure to lift the public health powers instituted by former President Donald Trump and kept in place by President Joe Biden during the coronavirus pandemic…
Slow jobs recovery and increased inequality risk long-term Covid-19 scarring, news release by the Int’l Labor Organization (United Nations), June 2, 2021 …Global unemployment is expected to stand at 205 million people in 2022, greatly surpassing the level of 187 million in 2019. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent. Excluding the Covid-19 crisis period, such a rate was last seen in 2013… ILO projections highlight the danger of a Covid-19 labour market legacy of increased geographic and demographic inequality, rising poverty and fewer decent jobs.
Related:
* Global economy will still be 23 million jobs short next year, Bloomberg News, June 2, 2021 read the rticle here in pdf format: Global economy and jobs
* The productivity crisis of global capitalism, by Michael Roberts, published on his website, June 30, 2021
Palestinians are defeating the Oslo culture typified by bumbling Mahmoud Abbas, by Ramzy Baroud, Middle East Monitor, June 1, 2021
Related: How Palestinian resistance altered the equation, by Ramzy Baroud, Middle East Monitor, May 29, 2021
In Syria, a presidential election, rebuilding the country, and the ongoing proxy war against the Syrian people, interview with Dan Kovalik, published in Mint Press News, June 2, 2021 (video and transcript) Despite the hostile Western reaction, President Bashar al-Assad looks set to govern for seven more years. In power since 2000, Assad’s major task will be attempting to break armed opposition groups in Idlib province and repairing a nation destroyed by ten years of war and crippling sanctions.
Related news of Syria: Russia expands its Khmeimim air base on Syrian coast to boost regional presence, Al Monitor, June 3, 2021 and read: report by Reuters, June 2, 2021
Huawei to roll out its own operating system to smartphones, Associated Press, June 2, 2021
Related: Huawei calls on an old friend, Russia, as U.S. sanctions bite down, Washington Post, May 28, 2021
Two centuries of the ‘imperialist, warmongering, hate-filled’ Guardian newspaper in Britain, by David Cromwell, editor, Media Lens, June 2, 2021
Venezuela’s migration: Why they left, by Tatuy TV, translation to English by Venezuela Analysis, June 1, 2021 (part one)
Western media along with ‘Bellingcat’ agency failed to save the reputation of Ukraine neo-Nazi soldier Roman Protasevich, detained in Belarus after entering its airspace, Donbass Insider, May 28, 2021
Previously reported: U.S.-funded Belarusian regime-change activist Roman Protasevich, arrested on May 23 after entering Belarus airspace, served with neo-Nazis in Ukraine, by Ben Norton, The Grayzone, May 25, 2021
