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, July 2020
The coronavirus pandemic The ‘World news’ headlines page on A Socialist In Canada (here) reports each day on the evolving tragedy of the SARS-Co-V-2 pandemic, including facts and figures on the countries whose governments are the leading, criminally negligent governments, and those countries, such as Cuba and Venezuela, who are waging successful public health efforts to limit illnesses and deaths from the coronavirus.
Health care workers in Brazil file formal complaint before the International Criminal Court saying the conduct of the country’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro amidst the pandemic is a crime against humanity, Common Dreams, July 28, 2020
Related: Wife of Brazil’s far-right president tests positive for Covid-19, days after he says he is recovered, NPR, July 30, 2020
U.S. economy contracted at fastest quarterly rate on record from April to June as coronavirus walloped workers, businesses, Washington Post, July 31, 2020 …Economists say the second quarter stands as an urgent warning for what is at stake if the vestiges of a recovery from earlier this summer vanish…
Related:
* Record economic plunge and bleak jobs numbers in U.S. reveal virus toll, Associated Press, July 30, 2020
* Eurozone economy suffers record drop during lockdown months, Associated Press, July 31, 2020 The economy of the 19-country eurozone shrank by a devastating 12.1% in the April-June period from the quarter before – the largest drop on record… Spain, which along with Italy was among the first to get hit hard by the spread of the virus, suffered the region’s heaviest drop at 18.5%. France, Italy and Portugal also endured steep declines…
* Coronavirus leads to record drop in German GDP, Deutsche Welle, July 30, 2020
Public health experts issue urgent call for change of course as U.S. economy tanks, Washington Post, July 31, 2020
Related: Trump ups the ante by suggesting election delay, commentary in Deutsche Welle, July 31, 2020
Western media provides cover for the Covid-19 catastrophes of client regimes in Peru, Ecuador and Chile, by Lucas Koerner, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, July 30, 2020
[On July 29, the New York Times published an article titled Latin America is facing a ‘decline of democracy’ under the pandemic. The article has been widely re-published in other Western media outlets. It makes this one-sentence reference to the Covid-19 catastrophe that has struck Latin America: Latin America has become a global hot spot for the virus, with Brazil, Mexico and Peru among the 10 nations with the highest number of deaths. The focus of the article is centered around this sentence: There are now five Latin American and Caribbean nations with recent democratic histories — Venezuela, Nicaragua, Guyana, Bolivia and Haiti — where governments weren’t chosen in free and fair elections or have overstayed their time in office [sic]. Venezuela has conducted a highly successful public health campaign to limit the spread of Covid-19. Its per capita case numbers and deaths are a tiny fraction of those of the U.S. client regimes on or near its borders–including Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile. They are also a tiny fraction of the comparable rates of other large capitalist countries of the continent, including Mexico and Argentina. Nicaragua has one-fifth the per capita case numbers of its neighbouring U.S. client-state El Salvador and one quarter of El Salvador’s per capita death rate. Both numbers for Nicaragua are a tiny fraction of those of Mexico to its immediate north.]
Coronavirus makes a comeback around the world, Washington Post, July 29, 2020
Related:
* Spain records 1,153 daily coronavirus cases for July 29, the highest figure since May 1, El Pais (conservative Spanish daily), July 30, 2020 According to the latest data from the Spanish Health Ministry, the number of new infections is back to where it was when Spaniards were confined to their homes
* Coronavirus fears grow in Germany, The Guardian, July 29, 2020
* Nearly 1,400 new Covid-19 cases in France for the second day in a row, Reuters, July 30, 2020
Elon Musk and the overthrow of democracy in Bolivia in 2019, by Vijay Prashad and Alejandro Bejarano, published in MR Online, July 28, 2020
Trump and his allies respond with pseudo-science as U.S. death toll hits 150,000, CNN, July 30, 2020
Young people are infecting older family members in shared homes, Washington Post, July 29, 2020 As the death toll escalates in coronavirus hot spots, evidence is growing that young people who work outside the home, or who surged into bars and restaurants when states relaxed shutdowns, are infecting their more vulnerable elders, especially family members…
Oregon governor, federal officials announce withdrawal of most federal agents from Portland, but timelines differ, Washington Post, July 30, 2020 …As part of the agreement, officials said, most Department of Homeland Security agents will leave the front lines around the courthouse and withdraw from Portland entirely if what they have deemed nightly rioting ceases. But the timing of that exit remained unclear…
Related:
* Trump threatens to keep his paramilitary agents in Portland. Report in Washington Post, July 30, 2020
* New York police in plain clothes drag 18 year old woman into unmarked van, later explain she was wanted for damaging police cameras, CNN, july 29, 2020 (with video) and read: report by NPR, July 29, 2020 …People sharing the video of the event online compared it to the controversial tactics deployed by federal agents in Portland, Ore., who have in recent weeks used unmarked vans to snatch protesters quickly and covertly off the streets…
Researchers identify evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2, Penn State University News, July 28, 2020 An international research team of Chinese, European and U.S. scientists has discovered that the lineage that gave rise to the virus has been circulating in bats for decades and likely includes other viruses with the ability to infect humans…
A viral epidemic in the U.S. splintering into deadly pieces, New York Times, July 28, 2020 Once again, the coronavirus is ascendant. As infections mount across the country, it is dawning on Americans that the epidemic is now unstoppable, and that no corner of the nation will be left untouched… Each state, each city has its own crisis driven by its own risk factors: vacation crowds in one, bars reopened too soon in another, a revolt against masks in a third. “We are in a worse place than we were in March,” when the virus coursed through New York, said Dr. Leana S. Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner. “Back then we had one epicenter. Now we have lots.”… In most states, contact tracing is now moot — there are simply too many cases to track…
Related U.S. news:
* Coronavirus cases on the rise in the Midwest as they ebb in the Sun Belt, Washington Post, July 28, 2020
* Coronavirus outbreak in Major League Baseball casts pall over other reopenings, Washington Post, July 28, 2020 If pro sports teams, with their robust testing and elaborate safety protocols, couldn’t evade the virus, some worry what lies ahead for schools and businesses.
* What has happened to police filmed hurting protesters? So far, very little, report by Pro-Publica, July 29, 2020
Europe scrambles to avoid a second coronavirus wave as infections rise, Washington Post, July 28, 2020
Related news of Europe:
* Rising number of coronavirus cases in Spain sparks concern in Europe, El Pais, July 27, 2020
* Spain imposes new restrictions at nightclubs, beaches as coronavirus rebounds, The Associated Press, July 26, 2020 European countries are re-imposing quarantines on travelers returning from Spain.
Western media provides cover for the Covid-19 catastrophes of client regimes in Peru, Ecuador and Chile, by Lucas Koerner, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, July 30, 2020
[On July 29, the New York Times published an article titled Latin America is facing a ‘decline of democracy’ under the pandemic. The article has been widely re-published in other Western media outlets. It makes this one-sentence reference to the Covid-19 catastrophe that has struck Latin America: Latin America has become a global hot spot for the virus, with Brazil, Mexico and Peru among the 10 nations with the highest number of deaths. The focus of the article is centered around this sentence: There are now five Latin American and Caribbean nations with recent democratic histories — Venezuela, Nicaragua, Guyana, Bolivia and Haiti — where governments weren’t chosen in free and fair elections or have overstayed their time in office [sic]. Venezuela has conducted a highly successful public health campaign to limit the spread of Covid-19. Its per capita case numbers and deaths are a tiny fraction of those of the U.S. client regimes on or near its borders–including Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile. They are also a tiny fraction of the comparable rates of other large capitalist countries of the continent, including Mexico and Argentina. Nicaragua has one-fifth the per capita case numbers of its neighbouring U.S. client-state El Salvador and one quarter of El Salvador’s per capita death rate. Both numbers for Nicaragua are a tiny fraction of those of Mexico to its immediate north.]
Coronavirus makes a comeback around the world, Washington Post, July 29, 2020
Related: Coronavirus fears grow in Germany, The Guardian, July 29, 2020
Record economic plunge and bleak jobs numbers in U.S. reveal virus toll, Associated Press, July 30, 2020
Related U.S. news: Trump and his allies respond with pseudo-science as U.S. death toll hits 150,000, CNN, July 30, 2020
Young people are infecting older family members in shared homes, Washington Post, July 29, 2020 As the death toll escalates in coronavirus hot spots, evidence is growing that young people who work outside the home, or who surged into bars and restaurants when states relaxed shutdowns, are infecting their more vulnerable elders, especially family members…
Oregon governor, federal officials announce withdrawal of most federal agents from Portland, but timelines differ, Washington Post, July 30, 2020 …As part of the agreement, officials said, most Department of Homeland Security agents will leave the front lines around the courthouse and withdraw from Portland entirely if what they have deemed nightly rioting ceases. But the timing of that exit remained unclear…
Related:
* What’s going on in Portland?, by David Rovics, Counterpunch, July 30, 2020
* New York police in plain clothes drag 18 year old woman into unmarked van, later explain she was wanted for damaging police cameras, CNN, july 29, 2020 (with video) and read: report by NPR, July 29, 2020 …People sharing the video of the event online compared it to the controversial tactics deployed by federal agents in Portland, Ore., who have in recent weeks used unmarked vans to snatch protesters quickly and covertly off the streets…
Researchers identify evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2, Penn State University News, July 28, 2020 An international research team of Chinese, European and U.S. scientists has discovered that the lineage that gave rise to the virus has been circulating in bats for decades and likely includes other viruses with the ability to infect humans…
A viral epidemic in the U.S. splintering into deadly pieces, New York Times, July 28, 2020 Once again, the coronavirus is ascendant. As infections mount across the country, it is dawning on Americans that the epidemic is now unstoppable, and that no corner of the nation will be left untouched… Each state, each city has its own crisis driven by its own risk factors: vacation crowds in one, bars reopened too soon in another, a revolt against masks in a third. “We are in a worse place than we were in March,” when the virus coursed through New York, said Dr. Leana S. Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner. “Back then we had one epicenter. Now we have lots.”… In most states, contact tracing is now moot — there are simply too many cases to track…
Related U.S. news:
* Coronavirus cases on the rise in the Midwest as they ebb in the Sun Belt, Washington Post, July 28, 2020
* Coronavirus outbreak in Major League Baseball casts pall over other reopenings, Washington Post, July 28, 2020 If pro sports teams, with their robust testing and elaborate safety protocols, couldn’t evade the virus, some worry what lies ahead for schools and businesses.
* What has happened to police filmed hurting protesters? So far, very little, report by Pro-Publica, July 29, 2020
Europe scrambles to avoid a second coronavirus wave as infections rise, Washington Post, July 28, 2020
Related news of Europe:
* Rising number of coronavirus cases in Spain sparks concern in Europe, El Pais, July 27, 2020
* Spain imposes new restrictions at nightclubs, beaches as coronavirus rebounds, The Associated Press, July 26, 2020 European countries are re-imposing quarantines on travelers returning from Spain.
U.S. to withdraw 11,900 troops from Germany, about half to be redeployed in Europe, France 24, July 29, 2020 …A key aim of the rotation is to reinforce NATO’s southeastern flank near the Black Sea. Some could also go to Poland and the Baltic states if Warsaw follows through on an agreement already sketched out by the two sides…
Joe Biden is a trojan horse: Inside is the Democratic Party’s new right-wing coalition, by Russell Dobular, Due Dissidence, July 29, 2020
Related: How liberals (yes, liberals) hijack discourse to undermine the left, by Kristoffer Hellén, Due Dissidence, July 11, 2020
More federal paramilitaries being dispatched to Portland as protests also rise in other cities. Report in Washington Post, July 28, 2020 …As a policing tactic, the show of force in Portland has failed to suppress the protests. Escalation has been followed by larger, better-equipped and more-aggressive crowds, and — as the new reinforcements showed — it exhausted federal resources before it exhausted the protesters…
Related:
* Portland protesters tear gassed by federal agents at new protest action on July 27, The Oregonian, July 28, 2020 About 1,000 demonstrators returned to downtown streets on July 27 for the 61st consecutive day after a weekend featuring the largest protest crowds in weeks and numerous clashes with federal police [sic]. Waves of tear gas were unleashed by federal officials who labeled the gathering “unlawful” in response to repeated fireworks and a volley of trash thrown over a fence surrounding the federal courthouse…
* Portland city leaders seek ‘ceasefire’ and meeting with federal officials, Oregon Public Radio, July 27, 2020 …Earlier today, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler added his name to a letter urging Congress to craft legislation that would restrict the deployment of federal officers into the city and demanded the federal officers be removed. “These federal agents are not trained in modern community policing, crowd control, or de-escalation strategies,” read the letter, which was also signed by mayors of Chicago, Seattle, Washington DC, Albuquerque and Kansas City…
Trump regime national security adviser Robert O’Brien tests positive for coronavirus. NBC News, July 27, 2020 read also: report in Washington Post, July 28, 2020
Related U.S. news:
* Pandemic is overwhelming U.S. public health capacity in many states. What now?, NPR, July 28, 2020
* As rump Major League Baseball season opens, Covid-19 cases among Miami Marlins players and employees force team to postpone first two games, Report by Reuters, July 27, 2020 As many as 14 people associated with Florida team have reportedly tested positive read also: The COVID-laden Major League Bseball season now rests on a hope and a prayer, by Cathal Kelly, sports columnist, Globe and Mail, July 27, 2020 and: Marlins’ coronavirus outbreak won’t derail MLB’s just-opened season — at least not yet, Washington Post, July 27, 2020 …11 players and two coaches have reportedly tested positive. While MLB officials stressed the outbreak was limited to just one team, other teams, including the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves, have experienced multiple positive tests or symptomatic players in recent days. …The NBA and NHL open their seasons this week, the former in a bubble in Florida, the latter with a hub city model in Toronto and Edmonton…
As India is on course to surpass Brazil in Covid-19 cases, the government is denying that community transmission is taking place, Deutsche Welle, July 28, 2020
UK Labour party teeters on brink of civil war over history of false accusations of anti-semitism directed against former leader Jeremy Corbyn, by Jonathan Cook, Mondoweiss, July 27, 2020 New Labour Party leader Keir Starmer spurns two chances to clear Jeremy Corbyn’s name, preferring instead to pay damages to former staff (Jonathan Cook is a British journalist based in Nazareth. His website and blog are here.)
A century of struggle in Palestine, by Kaleem Hawa, The Nation, July 27, 2020 Here’s the script: Criminalize the boycotts, deport the human rights advocates, rebrand anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism, smear the leftist Jews, infiltrate the leftist organizations, defund the aid programs, torpedo the political campaigns, fire the high school teachers and speech pathologists and network commentators, and pinkwash the occupation. The tactics vary today, but the intent remains the same. For as long as I have been alive, the barriers in the West to advocating for Palestinian rights have deterred all but the most committed people…
Meng Wahzhou’s defence team is seeking release of secret gov’t documents that it says proves illegal collusion between U.S. and Canadian police in Trump regime efforts to extradite her into U.S. prison gulag. Report by Global News, July 27, 2020 read also: Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou seeks fuller access to CSIS files, Globe and Mail, July 27, 2020 read the article here in pdf format: Meng Wanzhou defense team seeking secret police documents
How much do countries spend on healthcare compared to the military?, by Iman Ghosh, Visual Capitalist, July 23, 2020
Protests in NATO-member Poland over government’s plan to exit European treaty protecting women from domestic violence. Report by Associated Press, July 27, 2020
Protests explode across the U.S.; police declare riots in Seattle, Portland, Washington Post, July 26, 2020
Related:
* U.S. cities in a bind as turmoil spreads far beyond Portland, New York Times, July 27, 2020
* Peaceful protests and violent clashes erupted this weekend. Here’s what happened in six cities, CNN, July 27, 2020
* Trump tries to appeal to ‘housewives’ and white suburbs, but his views seem outdated, NPR, July 26, 2020
Seven-day averages for new coronavirus cases hit fresh highs in more than a dozen U.S. states, Washington Post, July 27, 2020 …As of the evening of July 26, the seven-day averages for new cases hit fresh highs in many states, including Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Nevada, Texas and South Carolina set records for their seven-day averages of daily deaths, and Mississippi and North Carolina tied their previous highs…
International statement: A new cold war against China is against the interests of humanity. Statement issued on July 23 by organizations and individuals from 33 countries. A full list of initial signatories of the statement is at the weblink. Also at the weblink are translations of the statement in 17 languages. Signatories include ANSWER Coalition and Code Pink (U.S.); Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Stop The War Coalition (UK).
Why is much of the Western left not opposing the West’s new cold war with China?, by Chris Trotter, The Daily Blog (New Zealand), July 24, 2020 (Chris Trotter is a regular contributor to The Daily Blog and publishes a website blog here.)
China’s economy looks set for a much-vaunted V-shaped recovery, while the rest of the world lags behind. Here’s why, Business Insider, July 26, 2020
Boris Johnson’s government is privately ‘desperate’ for Trump to lose the election to Joe Biden, Business Insider, July 26, 2020
Cancellation of odius foreign debts is overdue, statement issued by signators below, published by Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, with introduction by Vijay Prashad, July 23, 2020 Signators: Dilma Rousseff (former President of Brazil), T. M. Thomas Isaac (Finance Minister, Kerala, India), Yanis Varoufakis (former Finance Minister, Greece), Jorge Arreaza (Foreign Minister, Venezuela), Fred M’membe (President, Socialist Party, Zambia), Juan Grabois (Frente Patria Grande, Argentina), Vijay Prashad (Tricontinental Institute for Social Research)
For Guatemalans in Florida, essential work leads to a coronavirus outbreak, Washington Post, July 25, 2020 The thousands of Guatemalan men who manicure the golf courses and gated communities of South Florida were deemed essential workers, so Alfredo continued taking the journey every morning, until almost everyone he knew was sick… More than 30 percent of those tested in Palm Beach County’s Guatemalan-Mayan community — a population of around 80,000 — have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, three times the state average. Many believe the infection rate to be far higher. Of 130 families enrolled in an early-childhood education program through Lake Worth’s Guatemalan-Maya Center, for example, 80 have been infected…
Related: Coronavirus ravages Florida after governor DeSantis sidelined scientists and followed Trump, Washington Post, July 25, 2020
[Florida will soon surpass New York as the state with the second-highest number of Covid-19 illnesses. As of July 26, the state has had more than 425,000 illnesses and nearly 6,000 deaths. Its per capita rate of illness is 50 per cent higher than the overall U.S. rate.]
Fires and pepper spray in Seattle as protests against police widen across U.S., New York Times, July 26, 2020 From Los Angeles to New York, protesters marched in a show of solidarity with demonstrations in Portland, Oregon
Related:
* Tens of thouands protest in Portland on July 26 chanting ‘Black Lives Matter’ and demanding ‘Feds go home’, smaller numbers later that evening topple reinforced fence surrounding federal courthouse, The Oregonian, July 26, 2020 (with photos and video) [Federal paramilitaries emerged from the federal courthouse in Portland beginning at 11 pm. By 12:30 am, the fence surrounding the redoubt was being breached and the federal paramilitaries announced, “This is the Federal Protective Service. If you continue to cut through our fence, you’re subject to arrest and chemical munitions.” The fence fell shortly after 1am and paramilitaries began to unleash their chemical weapons and projectiles.].
* Huge protest in Portland as standoff with feds continues, Associated Press, July 26, 2020
* Judge denies Oregon’s request for restraining order against federal officers, NPR, July 24, 2020
* Federal police buy 1,000 pairs of sunglasses to protect officers from protesters’ lasers, by Aaron Mesh, Willamette Week, July 25, 2020 Portland protesters and federal police are also in a battle of dueling leaf blowers.
* Seattle police arrest dozens, declare riot as thousands demonstrate in solidarity with Portland, condemn youth detention prisons. Report by Associated Press, July 26, 2020 …At an emergency hearing on the night of July 24, U.S. District Judge James Robart granted a request from the federal government to block Seattle’s new law prohibiting police from using pepper spray, blast balls and similar weapons. The temporary restraining order halts the law that the Seattle City Council passed unanimously last month after confrontations that have largely been peaceful but were occasionally marked by violence, looting and highway shutdowns. The law intended to de-escalate tensions between police and demonstrators was set to take effect on Sunday…
* Seattle police deploy blast balls and pepper spray, arrest dozens after declaring anti-police, Portland solidarity protest at Capitol Hill a ‘riot’, by Rich Smith, The Stranger, July 26, 2020
* An air force special operations plane is conducting surveillance over Portland during federal crackdown, by Sam Biddle, The Intercept, July 23, 2020
* The federal police in Portland don’t even understand what ‘arrests’ are, commentary by Andrew Manuel Crespo, Washington Post, July 25, 2020 (Andrew Manuel Crespo is a professor of criminal law at Harvard University.)
Trump regime decision to showcase federal power in Portland, Oregon is a culture war campaign pitch, report in Washington Post, July 24, 2020 …Sinking in the polls over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump seized a chance to appear as a field general in a wider American cultural conflict over racial justice, police misconduct and the reexamination of American history and monuments. In Portland, he found a theater for his fight. …Trump has taken a keen interest in tactical operations against the protesters in recent weeks, according to White House and administration officials at the center of the response. When the fog of tear gas is thickest in the wee hours of the morning in Portland, the president is sometimes up early on the other side of the country, phoning for real-time updates from the front… The scenes of militarized federal forces on the city’s streets have stunned many Americans and unnerved former Homeland Security officials, but they have not quieted the protests. In many ways, the agents and the barricades they have erected have re-energized the demonstrators and have converted the courthouse into a proxy for the Trump administration itself…
UK gov’t report on ‘Russian interference’ in UK politics can’t find any evidence, interview with Afshin Rattansi, broadcast on ‘Pushback’ (The Grayzone), with host Aaron Maté, published in The Grayzone, July 25, 2020 (Afshin Rattansi is a British journalist in London and host of RT’s ‘Going Underground‘ broadcast.)
Related: UK government’s ‘Russia Report’ failed to come to the conclusion of hardcore Russiagaters, interview with Max Blumenthal, broadcast on RT‘s ‘Going Underground’ program, with host Afshin Rattansi, July 25, 2020
Court documents filed in Vancouver by Meng Wanzhou’s lawyers claim Trump has ‘poisoned’ extradition proceedings against her and should be halted, report by CBC News, July 24, 2020
[A related news report is published in the Globe and Mail daily on July 25. It is a detailed, factual account of this latest court submission by Meng Wanzhou’s lawyers. The Globe and Mail has been leading the charge in Canada for the new cold war against China and the extraditon of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou into the U.S. prison gulag. The fact that the newspaper publishes a careful, factual account of her lawyers’ latest submission is evidence of the deep concern among Canada’s ruling class that its collaboration with the U.S. extradition process of Meng Wanzhou could fail and embarrass the federal government in Ottawa. Further complicating the ruling class’ collaboration with the Trump regime on this case is the unrelated decision of Canada’s Federal Court on July 22 saying that the U.S. cannot be considered a ‘safe third country’ for refugees and therefore the 2004 ‘safe third country’ agreement between Canada and the U.S. (Wikipedia) is in violation of Canada’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.]
U.S. media greatly concerned about Chinese ‘imperialism’ in Hong Kong. Concerns about U.S. imperialism in Puerto Rican and Palestinian colonies–not so much, by Joshua Cho, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR.org), July 24, 2020
Europe said it was pandemic ready, but pride was its downfall, special report in New York Times, July 20, 2020
Related first-world news:
* If Canada gets hit by a second COVID-19 wave this fall, government money could run out and some industries may not survive, special report by Joseph Hall, Toronto Star, July 25, 2020
* There’s a ‘death gap’ in Canada’s four most populous provinces. If COVID-19 isn’t killing these people, what is?, Toronto Star, July 23, 2020 Thousands of excess deaths are recorded in Canada’s four largest provinces during March, April, May 2020
How Canada’s world-class pandemic alert system failed, special report by Grant Robertson, Globe and Mail, July 25, 2020 Months before the COVID-19 outbreak, the federal government’s early warning system went silent, just as it was needed most. The change left Canada poorly prepared as the virus began to spread rapidly around the world.
[Successive Conservative and Liberal governments in Ottawa whittled away at Canada’s pandemic warning infrastructure formed in 2009 and known as the Global Public Health Intelligence Network. By the spring of 2019, the GPHIN had fallen silent. This contributed greatly to Canada’s failure to promptly recognize and act upon the danger of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Political leaders and medical officials acted with criminal negligence in repeatedly declaring the SARS-CoV-2 danger to Canada as “low” (January 15, 24 and 30, 2020) and “under control” (February 26). From the article: “…On March 11, with cases in 114 countries, the WHO formally declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. It wouldn’t be until March 16 that Canada finally decided to raise its own risk assessment for Canada from ‘low’ to ‘high’ and the government in Ottawa began to urge Canadians to practice social distancing…”] Previously reported: Ottawa had a playbook for a coronavirus-like pandemic 14 years ago. What went wrong?, by Grant Robertson, Globe and Mail, April 9, 2020 A 2006 report co-written by Dr. Theresa Tam – now Canada’s chief medical officer – predicted our current situation, and the steps needed to get out of it, with eerie accuracy. But the actual response has been very different.
How the U.S. compares with the world’s worst coronavirus hot spots, interactive feature in New York Times, July 24, 2020 [Ten U.S. states have higher per capita Covid-19 cases than any country in the world–Florida, Lousiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina, Texas, Idaho, Tennessee.].
Related:
* U.S. passes four million coronavirus cases as pace of new infections roughly doubles, Washington Post, July 23, 2020 …The rapid spread of the virus this summer is striking, taking just 15 days to go from 3 million confirmed cases to 4 million. By comparison, the increase from 1 million cases to 2 million spanned 45 days from April 28 to June 11, and the leap to 3 million then took 27 days… The rolling seven-day average of infections has doubled in less than a month, reaching more than 66,000 new cases per day Wednesday. The U.S. death toll now exceeds 141,000…
* In emotional whiplash, California is once again at the center of the virus crisis, New York Times, July 23, 2020
* Brazil reports record infections as coronavirus spreads to all regions, Washington Post, July 23, 2020
Beijing’s summer heat is more oppressive than usual, but most prefer the heat over the virus, Washington Post, July 23, 2020
How Australia’s coronavirus success story unravelled, The Guardian, July 24, 2020 Weeks ago, Australia was the envy of the world. Now it has more than 3,000 active coronavirus cases and Melbourne is in lockdown. What went wrong?
How Portland, Oregon, one of America’s whitest cities, became the center of the Black Lives Matter protests, New York Times, July 24, 2020 In a state with a dark and brutal racist history, the Black Lives Matter protests in Portland have been overwhelmingly attended by white demonstrators
Related:
* Trump’s ‘Operation Legend’ police/paramilitary initiative in Kansas City was supposed to combat crime. But it has produced one arrest and some see a political stunt, Washington Post, July 23, 2020 …In Kansas City, the ‘Operation Legend’ federal police initiative [also including Chicago and Albuquerque)] has so far produced public charges against one person, even though Attorney General William P. Barr claimed inaccurately on July 22, “The FBI went in very strong into Kansas City, and within two weeks, we’ve had 200 arrests.”…
* Portland’s secret police, interview with Marjorie Cohen, broadcast on FAIR.org‘s ‘Counterspin’ program, with host Janine Jackson, July 23, 2020 (18-minute interview. Marjorie Cohn is past president of the National Lawyers Guild, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and contributor/editor on a number of books on legal and human rights.)
U.S. capitalism is in total meltdown, by Sarah Jaffe, The Progressive, July 22, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic is like Hurricane Katrina, but for the entire country. And things are only going to get worse
Related: Joe Biden’s misguided bid for American supremacy, by Nicolas J S Davies and Medea Benjamin, The Progressive, July 23, 2020 The former Vice President’s view of foreign policy is deeply out of touch with a multipolar world and America’s place in it
Cuba’s fight against Covid-19 is impressive, even compared to New Zealand’s, by Ian Powell, published on the website of Democracy Project (sponsored by Victoria University of Wellington), July 19, 2020 (Ian Powell is a health commentator and former executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists in New Zealand. He visited Cuba earlier this year to learn about its health care system.)
Related:
Covid-19 cases per million population, selected countries, as of July 22, 2020 (from Worldometer):
Japan (204), Cuba (217), South Korea (271), New Zealand (311), Venezuela (449), Australia (505), Germany (2,440), Mexico (2,762), Canada (2,966), Britain (4,364), Bolivia (5,586), Israel (6,367), Sweden (7,770), Brazil (10,475), United States (12,312)
Covid-19 deaths per million population, selected countries, as of July 22, 2020:
New Zealand (4), Venezuela (4), Australia (5), South Korea (6), Cuba (8), Japan (8), Germany (110), Canada (235), Mexico (313), Brazil (389), United States (440), Sweden (561), Britain (670)
Amid rising coronavirus cases and deaths, Trump media briefing paints a rosy picture of America’s present and future, Washington Post, July 22, 2020
Related:
* Where the virus is sending people to hospitals in U.S., special report in New York Times, July 23, 2020 (with interactive maps)
…Public health experts say detailed local data on where people are hospitalized — a real-time measure that does not depend on levels of testing — is crucial to understanding the epidemic, but federal officials have not made this data public. The New York Times gathered data for nearly 50 metropolitan areas, including 15 of the 20 largest cities in the country, from state and local health departments to provide the first detailed national look at where people are falling seriously ill. The data, as well as interviews across the country, show a far-reaching crisis…
* Random testing in Indiana shows Covid-19 is six times deadlier than flu, 2.8 per cent of the state’s population has been infected, by Nir Menachemi, (Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis), The Conversation, July 21, 2020
* The coronavirus-global warming-air conditioning nexus, by Stan Cox, The Hill, July 6, 2020
Trump regime announces ‘surge’ of its paramilitary police forces into Chicago. Report by NBC News, July 22, 2020
Related:
* Painting bleak portrait of urban crime, Trump sends more police agents to Chicago and other cities, New York Times, July 23, 2020
* Trump’s show of federal force sparking alarm in cities, Associated Press, July 21, 2020 …The Chicago plan appears to be an extension of a separate operation in which the administration sent more than 100 federal law enforcement officers to Kansas City, Missouri, to help quell a record rise in violence after the shooting death of a young boy there. The Justice Department doesn’t have the manpower to surge agents to high-crime areas, so it is borrowing from Homeland Security. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was at first highly resistant, but her tone changed after she and members of her administration, along with Police Superintendent David Brown, talked with officials about the government’s plan…
Portland’s anti-rascism protesters defy U.S. federal agents, Deutsche Welle, July 22, 2020
Related:
* Portland’s mayor tear gassed by federal agents, Associated Press, July 23, 2020
* Women form ‘Wall of Moms’ to protect protesters after Trump sends troops into Portland, interview with Portland mom Brenna Burnett, broadcast on CBC Radio One‘s ‘The Current’, July 20, 2020 (19-minute interview)
* Portland and the paramilitarization of the border patrol, by Paul Matzko, CATO Institute, July 21, 2020
* Federal agents object to exempting journalists, legal observers from crowd dispersal orders in Portland, Oregon Live, Tuesday, July 21, 2020
* Defense Secretary Mark Esper is worried federal agents in camouflage uniforms in Portland look like U.S. troops, Stars and Stripes, July 21, 2020
* I know how to cover a Portland protest, so why am I shaking?, by Karina Brown, Courthouse News Service, July 21, 2020
Police reform bill passed by Minnesota legislature doesn’t go far enough, critics say, Washington Post, July 22, 2020
South Africa records 60% rise in excess deaths, suggesting high Covid-19 toll, The Guardian, July 23, 2020
Previously reported: South Africa imposes curfew and alcohol ban as hospitals overwhelmed, Globe and Mail, July 12, 2020 …The SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread so swiftly in South Africa in recent weeks that the country now has the fifth-largest number of active cases in the world. It is also generating the fourth-largest number of new daily cases, behind only the United States, Brazil and India. As of the night of July 12, South Africa had recorded a total of 276,242 coronavirus cases and 4,079 deaths…
In first Covid-19 briefing in months, with no medical officials on hand, Trump says the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. will ‘get worse before it gets better’, Washington Post, July 21, 2020 President Trump on Tuesday delivered a grim forecast of soaring cases of the novel coronavirus across the country, acknowledging that “It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better.” The statement was a rare admission from Trump that all is not well with the response to the virus by his administration, which has rejected the advice of scientific experts, been reluctant to take responsibility and has issued contradictory and at times divisive public messaging…
Related:
* Trump revisits familiar falsehoods in first coronavirus briefing in months, staged solo, NBC News, July 21, 2020
* As Arizona struggles, neighboring New Mexico found a more cautious path to sustained growth, Washington Post, July 21, 2020
U.S. accuses China of sponsoring criminal hackers targeting coronavirus vaccine research, Washington Post, July 21, 2020 [According to Western media reports such as this one in the Washington Post, first there were ‘Russian hackers’, now there are ‘Chinese hackers’ seeking Covid-19 vaccine information. The media’s source for these reports? The secret police agencies of its respective countries. Those agencies are already engaged, for years now, in an anti-China and anti-Russia new cold war, and media has signed up for active duty (its journalists have little choice bu to sign up if they wish to keep their jobs).].
Related:
* China threatens retaliation after U.S. orders closure of Houston consulate, NBC News, July 21, 2020
* Pompeo praises Britain for hard line against ‘disgraceful’ China, denies U.S. pressure, Washington Post, July 21, 2020
* Cold wars and profit, by Craig Murray, published on his website, July 20, 2020 (and re-published here in Consortium News) ‘Do not forget that there is a massive armaments industry and a massive security industry all dependent on having an ‘enemy’. Powerful people make money from this Russophobia. Expect much more of it. There is money in a cold war.’
* Japanese gov’t pays 87 companies to break from China after pandemic exposed overreliance, Washington Post, July 21, 2020
How tiny Uruguay, wedged between Brazil and Argentina, has avoided the worst of the coronavirus, Washington Post, July 21, 2020 [Of note in this news report is the praise heaped on Uruguay and Paraguay for low Covid-19 cases compared to other Latin American countries while Venezuela is not mentioned. Venezuela’s case numbers per million population (449) are lower than Paraguay’s (535) and not much higher than Uruguay’s (315). The news of Cuba’s highly successful work to stem Covid-19 (217 cases per million population) is similarly shunned and boycotted.]
Russia aiming to be first to find Covid-19 vaccine, by Giovanni Pigni, Asia Times, July 22, 2020
Related: Stories in U.S. media dooming vaccine hopes overlook immunity’s complexity in search of easy clicks, by Julie Hollar, Fairnes and Accuracy In Reporting, July 22, 2020
Australia posts record number of new infections, Asia Times, July 22, 2020 A record 501 new cases are reported, the majority in the state of Victoria
Trump plans to send federal law enforcement personnel to Democratic-led U.S. cities, Reuters, July 20, 2020 read also: report in Washington Post, July 20, 2020
Related U.S. news:
* Georgia governor Brian Kemp stands alone among Republican governors in opposing mask wearing requirements, Washington Post, July 20, 2020 [The state of Georgia has the seventh highest number of Covid-19 cases among U.S. states–more than 145,000–while 3,176 people have died from the illness. Daily new cases are averaging 3,000.].
* Arizona reopened early to revive its economy. Now, its workers and businesses face even greater devastation, Washington Post, July 20, 2020 [Arizona has the eighth highest number of Covid-19 cases among U.S. states–more than 145,000–while 2,784 people have died from the illness. Daily new cases fluctuate around 2,500.]
Iran reports 2,414 new Covid-19 cases and 217 deaths for July 20, FARS News Agency, July 21, 2020
Over half of coronavirus patients in Spain have developed neurological problems, studies show, El Pais (Spain), July 20, 2020 New research indicates that Covid-19 is causing a wide range of disorders in the nervous system and may be directly attacking the brain
Related: In some COVID-19 survivors, lingering effects create a steep climb to full recovery, Globe and Mail, July 20, 2020
How to understand COVID-19 numbers, by Carolyn Chen, Pro Publica, July 21, 2020 Viewed in isolation or presented without context, coronavirus numbers don’t always give an accurate picture of how the pandemic is being handled.
Cold War escapades in the Pacific Ocean, by Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News, July 21, 2020
Related: Oil and gas fueling South China Sea tensions, Asia Times, July 22, 2020
Previously reported:
* U.S. picks a fight with China in South China Sea, by Richard Javad Heydarian, Asia Times, July 14, 2020 U.S. officially rejects China’s wide-reaching claims in the contested waterway in a move that promises to escalate tensions …The statement by the U.S. State Deptartment comes soon after the U.S. conducted its first dual aircraft carrier exercises in the South China Sea in six years, as the Pentagon ramps up its military presence to deter China’s rising assertiveness in the waters…
* The fallacy of denouncing ‘both sides’ of the U.S.-China conflict, by the Qiao Collective, published in Passage (Toronto), June 29, 2020 In order to challenge the New Cold War against China, the left must abandon equivalencies and disrupt the U.S. war machine.
* Trump regime ends Hong Kong’s special trade status with U.S., sanctions Chinese businesses and officials. Report by Deutsche Welle, July 15, 2020
Previously reported: Legal expert says threat of Hong Kong’s new security law is overblown, Globe and Mail, July 10, 2020 [The hysteria being whipped up by Western editorialists and government leaders over China’s new national security law is evidently on shaky grounds, if this news article is any indication. The article appears, surprisingly, in the anti-China Globe and Mail, authored by the newspaper’s lead anti-China writer, no less.]
A black man accused of rape, a white officer in the Klan, and a 1936 lynching that went unpunished, Washington Post, July 20, 2020 …The horrific killing was orchestrated by one of the men on Finch’s doorstep — Samuel Roper, a police officer who went on to lead the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and then, upon retirement, Georgia’s chapter of the Ku Klux Klan… “As painful as was Thomas Finch’s death, his relatives died knowing that their son, their brother, their uncle died with no recourse, with no justice whatsoever,” said Joyce Finch-Morris, his niece, 71, and last known surviving relative. “The difference now is that society is outraged. People are just tired of it. These things won’t just be swept under the rug like what happened to my uncle. We need justice.” …
Related: At least 2,000 more black people were lynched by white mobs than previously reported, new research finds, Washington Post, June 16, 2020 Racial terror followed passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in December 1865
NATO member Turkey’s crackdown on political opposition targets elected Kurdish mayors. Report in Washington Post, July 20, 2020
Related:
* Turkey’s constitutional court rules that the rights of Kurdish leader Selhattin Demirtas were violated in his 2016 arrest, Reuters, June 18, 2020 …A court ruled in September 2019 that Demirtas should be released while his main trial [on ‘terrorism’ related charges] continues. The Constitutional Court ruling concerns the detention for this period. Prosecutors then launched a new investigation into him and requested his arrest again after the lifting of the previous detention order…
* Selhattin Demirtas, former co-leader of the People’s Democrtic Party (HDP), Wikipedia [Selhattin Demirtaş was arrested along with HDP co-leader Figen Yüksekdağ in November 2016. They and other HDP members of Turkey’s legislature are falsely accused of spreading propaganda for Kurdish militants fighting the Turkish state. The HDP is the third largest party in the Turkish legislature; it draws very large support from Turkey’s Kurdish population, estimated at 15% to 20% of Turkey’s population of 84 million.]
In hour-long Fox News interview, Trump defends bungled handling of coronavirus with falsehoods and dubious claims, Washington Post, July 19, 2020 President Trump said in an interview aired on July 19 that the rising number of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus “is what it is”. He defended his fumbled management of the pandemic with a barrage of dubious and false claims, and revealed his lack of understanding about the fundamental science of how the virus spreads and infects people…
Related:
* Trump leans into false virus claims in combative Fox News interview, New York Times, July 19, 2020
* State and local officials acros the U.S. warn they lack key resources to confront surge in coronavirus cases, Washington Post, July 20, 2020
* Interview with Mary Trump, broadcast on ABC News, July 16, 2020 (58-minute interview)
[The term ‘bungled handling’ in the above Washington Post article headline is hardly an accurate description of the Trump regime’s handling of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. ‘Criminal negligence’ is the accurate description. Many of the closest allies of the Trump regime are similarly guilty, beginning with Brazil and many countries in Europe. Broad political/social movements are needed to oust these criminally negligent governments and prosecute their leaders. A pre-condition for this to develop is a deeper understanding of the science of the pandemic amongst the populations most deeply scarred by the pandemic. Most of the deaths and illnesses from SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (Covid-19 illness) were preventable, particularly as China’s battle against the pandemic unfolded beginning in January 2020, serving for all to learn from.]
Federal officials dismiss Portland leaders’ calls to leave city as clashes with protesters continue, Washington Post, July 19, 2020
Related:
* Fifty days of protest in Portland and a violent police response. This is how we got here, Oregon Public Broadcasting, July 20, 2020
* ‘Wall of moms’ formed at Portland protests to protect demonstrators, USA Today, July 20, 2020
* A Navy vet asked federal officers in Portland to remember their oaths. Then they broke his hand, Washington Post, July 19, 2020
Coronavirus’ unique factors complicate vaccine discovery process, by Ivan Semeniuk, science reporter, Globe and Mail, July 18, 2020
What lies ahead for the U.S. economy, by Jack Rasmus, published on his website, July 17, 2020 This essay is a follow-up to this earlier essay: Why a third quarter economic rebound in the U.S. will falter, lengthy essay by Jack Rasmus, published on his website Predicting the Global Economic Crisis, July 6, 2020
Related: The rot in the world economy exposed by pandemic augurs a future of fear, by Vijay Prashad, published in Consortium News, July 16, 2020
With U.S. support, Taiwan planted deception about early warning to World Health Org of Covid-19, by Ajit Singh, The Grayzone, July 17, 2020 Taiwan’s claim that it provided early warning to the WHO about Covid and “human-to human-transmission” has been exploited by the Trump administration to attack the multi-lateral body and turn up the heat on China. There’s just one problem: it’s totally false.
Media conceal, or celebrate, depriving Syrians of food and medicine, by Greogory Shupak, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR.org), July 14, 2020
Nancy Pelosi, leader of corporate Democrats, challenged for Democratic Party congressional nomination by leftist Shahid Buttar, interview with Shahid Buttar, broadcast on ‘Pushback’ (The Grayzone), with host Aaron Maté, July 16, 2020
Influential Ukrainian think tank based in Washington DC hosts neo-Nazi activist convicted for racist violence, by Moss Robeson, The Grayzone, July 20, 2020 The US-Ukraine Foundation hosted notorious neo-Nazi militant Diana Vynohradova in a webinar this month. While legitimizing Ukrainian white supremacists, the think tank has forged close ties with foreign policy elites in Washington.
Did neocon ‘cancel queen’ Bari Weiss stage her exit from the New York Times to fuel her next move?, by Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton, The Grayzone, July 17, 2020
Inside Trump’s failure: The rush to abandon leadership role on the virus, New York Times, July 19, 2020 …Mr. Trump missed or dismissed mounting signals of the impending crisis in the early months of the year. Interviews with more than two dozen officials inside the administration and in the states, and a review of emails and documents, reveal previously unreported details about how the White House put the nation on its current course during a fateful period this spring…
Related U.S. news:
* Trump dismisses rising cases as deaths mount, Washington Post, July 19, 2020 …Coronavirus infections rose in states from every region of the country over the past week. More than a dozen states reached record highs on July 18 in their seven-day averages for new daily cases. Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Kentucky reported new single-day case records on July 18, while states from Vermont to North Dakota to Oregon showed significant increases in their weekly averages, according to tracking by The Washington Post…
* Trump administration pushing to block new money for testing, tracing and CDC in upcoming coronavirus relief bill, Washington Post, July 18, 2020
‘Superspreading’ events, triggered by people who may not even know they are infected, propel coronavirus pandemic, Washington Post, July 19, 2020 ‘It is becoming clear that the pandemic is driven by superspreading events and the best explanation for many of those events is aerosol transmission.‘
Related science news: How deadly is the coronavirus? The true fatality rate is tricky to find, but researchers are getting closer, by Justin Silverman and (Pennsylvania State University) and Alex Washburne (Montana State University), The Conversation, July 15, 2020
Covid-19 case numbers are rising across the U.S., so are coronavirus-related deaths, Washington Post, July 17, 2020
Related: California returns to stricter lockdown as Governor Gavin Newsom announces statewide ban on indoor restaurants and bars, Globe and Mail, July 17, 2020
To end ‘unconstitutional nightmare,’ ACLU sues Trump administration over use of secret police in Portland, Common Dreams, July 18, 2020 …The ACLU said the suit is “one of many” it plans to file against the Trump administration over its deployment of federal agents to Portland against the wishes of state and local political leaders, who have demanded the withdrawal of all federal law enforcement. Federal officials have reportedly been patrolling Portland in unmarked vehicles and arresting demonstrators since at least July 14… read also: Oregon attorney general sues federal agencies for allegedly violating protesters’ civil rights, Washington Post, July 18, 2020
Related:
* Federal government agents in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles from unknown agencies are grabbing protesters off Portland streets using Trump regime ‘executive order’, report by Oregon Public Broadcasting, July 17, 2020 [Western media is full of skewed and misleading reporting of protests in Hong Kong. All day, every day. Not so much reporting about secret police operations by the Trump regime against social rights protesters in Portland, Oregon. Now the cover has being blown.].
* Portland city officials decry aggressive tactics of secret Trump regime agents in their city, want them gone. Report in Washington Post, July 17, 2020
Germany is not the anti-racist model the U.S. is looking for, by Ursula Moffitt, Deutsche Welle, July 17, 2020 (Ursula Moffitt received her doctorate in psychology from the University of Potsdam in Germany. She is now a postdoctoral scholar at Northwestern University.)
Related:
* ‘Race’ has no place in the German constitution — or does it?, Deutsche Welle, July 13, 2020
* German police infested with right-wing extremists. Report in Deutsche Welle, July 16, 2020
* Germany disbands elite army unit infiltrated by neo-Nazis, Associated Press, July 1, 2020
[Since the coup in Ukraine in 2014, the German government has been providing vital political cover for the post-coup government in Kyiv. Ukraine’s police and military have been overhauled to integrate neo-Nazi paramilitaries into their ranks, all with the blessing, funding and training by NATO and European Union governments.]
As India rockets past one million coronavirus cases, a mystery surrounds its low death toll, Washington Post, July 17, 2020 …Experts say government data on deaths is certain to be incomplete in a country where a large majority of people die in rural areas and without any medical attention, making them less likely to be tested or diagnosed. Already there are numerous signs that coronavirus deaths are being missed or misreported. Testing rates per capita in India remain low… The number of deaths against confirmed cases for Russia is 1.6 percent. India’s stands at 2.6 percent. The rate in the United States is 3.9 percent. But experts caution that such figures are highly sensitive to testing rates and death reporting, so they have limited value…
Related: Experts tackle the mystery of Africa’s low death rate, Globe and Mail, July 17, 2020 …The African continent today has a case fatality rate of just 2.2 per cent – far less than the global rate of 4.4 per cent. This compares to a case fatality rate of 8 per cent in Canada and 15 per cent in Britain… South Africa now has more confirmed coronavirus cases than Britain or Italy. Yet, it has barely one-tenth as many deaths as Britain, and only one-seventh as many deaths as Italy…
[South Africa now has the sixth largest number of Covid-19 cases in the world, more than 337,000.]
Regime change, not disarmament, was always Colin Powell’s policy towards Iraq under Saddam Hussein, by Scott Ritter, published in Consortium News, July 18, 2020
Britain pauses daily coronavirus death toll update over data concerns, Reuters, July 18, 2020 (and read: report in The Guardian, July 18, 2020)
Liberal Zionism begins to make the journey towards a one-state solution, by Jonathan Cook, published originally in Middle East Eye, July 17, 2020 Peter Beinart, a bellwether for American Jews, has provoked a storm by renouncing the two-state solution and urging equality for all
Previously reported:
* A Jewish case for equality in Israel-Palestine, essay by Peter Beinart, published in Jewish Currents, July 7, 2020 (Peter Beinart is editor at large of Jewish Currents.)
* I no longer believe in a Jewish state, op-ed commentary by Peter Beinart, New York Times, July 8, 2020 For decades I argued for separation between Israelis and Palestinians. Now, I can imagine a Jewish home in an equal state.
* Peter Beinart on the end of the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, interview with Peter Beinart, published in Jacobin, July 13, 2020
U.S. shatters daily coronavirus case record for 11th time this month, Ecowatch, July 17, 2020
The U.S. shattered its daily record for new coronavirus cases on July 16 with more than 75,000 new cases. Johns Hopkins University put the record caseload at 77,300 while a Reuters tally recorded 77,217 new cases and The New York Times reported more than 75,600. July 16 marks the 11th time in the last month that the U.S. has broken a new case record. The daily counts have more than doubled since June 24, when a record was set with 37,014 new cases…
Related U.S. news:
* Clashes intensify across U.S. over rules requiring mandatory wearing of masks, New York Times, July 16, 2020
* As Covid-19 burns through Georgia, governor is suing cities to stop them from requiring mask wearing in public venues, Associated Press, July 16, 2020 (and read: report in Washington Post, July 16, 2020) ‘As of today, 3,104 Georgians have died and I and my family are amongst the 106,000 who have tested positive for COVID-19. A better use of taxpayer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing. If being sued by the state is what it takes to save lives in Atlanta, then we will see them in court.‘–Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms, July 16, 2020
* Why the coronavirus pandemic became Florida’s perfect storm, by Tiffany A. Radcliff and Murray J. Côté (Texas A&M University), The Conversation, July 17, 2020 …If you look closely at Florida’s economy, its vulnerabilities to the pandemic become evident. The state depends on international trade, tourism and agriculture – sectors that rely heavily on lower-wage, often seasonal, workers. These workers can’t do their jobs from home, and they face financial barriers to getting tested… They also struggle with health care – Florida has a higher-than-average rate of people without health insurance, and it chose not to expand Medicaid…
* Sun Belt hospitals are feeling the strain from virus’ surge… and bracing for worse to come, Washington Post, July 16, 2020 …In a nation gripped by a record number of coronavirus cases — with severe outbreaks across multiple states and regions — medical systems are increasingly showing the strain, with shortages of critically needed personnel, equipment and testing… “We can withstand a surge. We can withstand a disaster. But we can’t withstand a disaster every single day,” said Jason Wilson, associate medical director of the emergency department at Tampa General Hospital…
* Texas orders extra body bags, mortuary trucks as it braces for more coronavirus deaths, NBC News, July 17 2020
Why Laos, Vietnam and China have beaten the virus while India, Brazil and the U.S. have not, by Vijay Prashad, published in Consortium News, July 16, 2020 (This article is drawn from the newsletter and website of Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, with offices in Argentina, South Africa, India and Brazil.) …No medical teams from the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, or India could be seen anywhere. Marinating in racism, the dangerously incompetent leaders of these states tried to hypnotize their populations into carefreeness. The price being paid by the population is very high. This is the reason why the writer Arundhati Roy has called for a tribunal to investigate the governments of Trump, Modi, and Bolsonaro for what amounts to a “crime against humanity”…
Related: China’s economy bounces back more quickly than expected from coronavirus, Washington Post, July 16, 2020
The Great American Firewall: Censorship in the age of imperialism’s new cold war, by Danny Haiphong, contributing editor, Black Agenda Report, July 15, 2020
‘Das Kapital’ comes to America: Charles H. Kerr & Company and the cross-Atlantic journey of Karl Marx’s master work, lengthy essay by Allen Ruff, published on the website of Historical Materialism, July 15, 2020
From dream job to nightmare at Washington Redkins NFL football team, feature article in Washington Post, July 16, 2020 …Most of all, Emily Applegate and her fellow female employee cried about the realization that their dream job of working in the NFL came with what they characterized as relentless sexual harassment and verbal abuse that was ignored — and, in some cases, condoned — by top team executives… Applegate is one of 15 former female Redskins employees who told The Washington Post they were sexually harassed during their time at the club. The other 14 women spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a fear of litigation because some signed nondisclosure agreements with the team that threaten legal retribution if they speak negatively about the club…
Disappearance of covid-19 data from CDC website spurs outcry, Washington Post, July 16, 2020
Previously reported:
* Public health officials in U.S. blast COVID-19 data reporting change imposed on hospitals, Health Care Dive, July 16, 2020
* U.S. coronavirus data has already disappeared after Trump administration shifts control from CDC to Dept. of Health and Human Services, NBC News, July 16, 2020
‘Russian hackers’ shout the secret police agencies of U.S., Britain and Canada, already up to their eyes in an aggressive new cold war against China and Russia. Corporate media reaches for the megaphone:
* Russian hackers accused of trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine research from Canada, U.K. and U.S., by Paul Waldie and Michelle Carbet, Globe and Mail, July 17, 2020 (page one) …A group known as APT29 has begun a “campaign of malicious activity” against “government, diplomatic, think tank, health care and energy targets to steal valuable intellectual property,” Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre said in an advisory issued on Thursday along with Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and the U.S. Department for Homeland Security…
* Russian hackers target Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine research, recovery efforts, cyber defence agency says, by Alex Boutilier, Toronto Star, July 17, 2020 (page three) Russian hackers are targeting Canadian, U.S. and U.K. organizations working on COVID-19 vaccine research and recovery efforts, a rare joint statement from the three countries’ cyber defence agencies says…
[The Washington Post relegated its first report on this latest ‘Russian hacking’ story to page A13, on July 17. The New York Times gave it front-page exposure, on July 16. Their cited sources, were, respectively, “security officials in the United States, Britain and Canada” and “the American, British and Canadian governments”.]
Exposed by their criminally negligent Covid-19 responses, Western governments and media raise new ‘Russian hacking’ fables, this time said to target vaccine research. Report by CBC News, July 15, 2020 [This news report by CBC, Canada’s state-run broadcaster, is typical of Western media’s new and latest ‘Russian hacking’ story. The story is a variant of the ‘Russian hacking of 2016 U.S. election’ story that has been thoroughly disproven and discredited but is kept alive by dogged media and governments in the West, anxious to distract attention from their criminal negligence causing tens of thousands of deaths and millions of debilitating illnesses from COVID-19.]
As the coronavirus crisis spins out of control, Trump issues directives but still no clear plan, Washington Post, July 15, 2020
Related:
* White House backs away from Fauci attacks days after promoting them, Washington Post, July 15, 2020
* Covid-19 testing in the U.S. is on the brink of paralysis and that’s very bad news, by Dr. Margaret Bourdeaux, Dr. Beth Cameron and Professor Jonathan Zittrain, New York Times, July 16, 2020 As Covid-19 cases surge to their highest levels in dozens of states, the nation’s testing effort is on the brink of paralysis because of widespread delays in getting back results. And that is very bad news, because even if testing is robust, the pandemic cannot be controlled without rapid results…
Chris Hedges says America faces a historic choice: ‘ugly corporate tyranny’ or revolution, story by Chauncey DeVega, published in Salon.com, July 16, 2020 (Text and audio of 20-minute interview with Chris Hedges.) These are ‘the good times’, says Hedges, compared to what may lie ahead. But there’s real hope in the streets.
Julian Assange’s father speaks out, calls oppression of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a ‘great crime of 21st century’, interview with John Shipton (father of Julian Assange), broadcast on The Grayzone (30-minute interview), broadcast on July 15, 2020
Related:
* Film ‘Not in Our Name’ tells the story of the persecution of Julian Assange, report in Consortium News, July 13, 2020
* Damage to the soul: The legal persecution of Julian Assange, by Craig Murray, published on his website, July 14, 2020
U.S. Justice Dept. carries out second federal execution after another late-night, divided Supreme Court ruling, Washington Post, July 16, 2020 and read: In another dead-of-night ruling, U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing majority approves execution of man with dementia, Common Dreams, July 16, 2020
Previously reported: U.S. gov’t carries out its first execution since 2003 after Supreme Court waves objections aside, Associated Press, July 13, 2020 and read: report in Common Dreams, July 14, 2020 Two more executions are scheduled this week as the Trump regime presses to resume the macabre practice …The execution of Daniel Lewis Lee came over the objection of the victims’ relatives and following days of legal wrangling and delays…
A global surge in coronavirus cases is happening in the developing world… and in the U.S., Washington Post, July 14, 2020
Related:
* The pandemic could get much, much worse in the U.S. We must act now, commentary by John M. Barry, in New York Times, July 15, 2020 (John M. Barry is professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans and the author of the 2004 book The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.)
* Warnings of possible cover-up in progress as Trump regime orders hospitals to stop sending coronavirus data to CDC, Common Dreams, July 15, 2020 Public health experts are warning that coronavirus statistics will soon be newly vulnerable to political manipulation after the Trump administration ordered hospitals to send Covid-19 patient data directly to a Department of Health and Human Services system rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which usually receives the information and releases it to the public…
China and U.S. power, lengthy essay by Tony Norfield (UK economist), published on his website Economics of Imperialism, July 14, 2020 [This very informative essay noentheless belies the title of the website where it is published by failing to address the exact character of the social formation known as present-day China. Is China an ‘imperialist’ rival to the cabal of Western imperialist countries headed by the Trump regime in the U.S., as many leftists in the West falsely assert, or is China’s social formation something different? China’s economy is capitalist, but the large, state-owned sections of its economy along with the crucial role of government and state planning of the economy make it something quite different than other capitaolist economies. Meanwhile, its foreign investment profile and activity are non-imperialist.].
Related: Lenin’s theory of imperialism: A defence of its relevance in the 21st century, by Sam King, published in Marxist Left Review (Australia), issue dated winter 2015-16 This essay is divided into three parts. The first outlines Lenin’s theory of imperialism and the key ideas necessary to apply it in today’s conditions. The second section focuses on misunderstandings within the ‘International Socialist’ tradition and of various writers at one time associated with it. The final section applies the Leninist theoretical framework to show that China is not a rising imperialist power, and that even its full development as a capitalist economy is blocked by imperialism.
Ukrainian journalist forced to flee abroad following threats from far-right, by Oliver Carroll, The Independent, July 14, 2020 Ekaterina Sergatskova was targeted after documenting alleged links between neo-Nazis in Ukraine and a local Facebook fact-checking organisation called ‘Stop Fake’ …Ms Sergatskova left the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with her family on the evening of July 13, citing fears for her life. Those fears are consistent with a history of extreme violence from Ukraine’s far-right fringe and concerns about links between neo-nazi groups and law enforcement. In 2015, Oles Buzyna [Wikipedia], a pro-Russian [sic] journalist and writer was murdered one day after his address was leaked, along with that of hundreds of other journalists, by Myrotvorets, a snitch website that has been linked to the Ukrainian interior ministry. Fifteen months later, journalist Pavel Sheremet [Wikipedia] was assassinated in his car in central Kiev…
Don’t be fooled by the ‘cancel culture’ wars, by Chris Hedges, published in Consortium News, July 14, 2020
Listen: ‘Cancel culture’ hypocrites cancel open debate and the people of foreign countries, interview with Max Blumenthal, broadcast on ‘Pushback’ (The Grayzone), with host Aaron Maté, July 13, 2020 (Max Blumenthal is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Grayzone. He is the author of the 2019 book The Management of Savagery: How America’s National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump.)
Previously reported: Writers’ open letter against ‘cancel culture’ is about stifling free speech, not protecting it, by Jonathan Cook, published on his website blog, July 9, 2020 An open letter published online on July 7 by Harper’s magazine [print monthly] and signed by dozens of prominent writers and public figures has focused attention on the apparent dangers of what has been termed a new “cancel culture”. The letter brings together an unlikely alliance of genuine leftists such as Noam Chomsky and Matt Karp, centrists such as J K Rowling and Ian Buruma, and neoconservatives such as David Frum and Bari Weiss, all speaking out in defence of free speech…
The White House called a news conference. Trump turned it into a one-hour, meandering monologue, New York Times, July 14, 2020
Related: Pro-Trump, right-wing radio host in New Hampshire loses her job after broadcasting racist rant against Spanish-speaking landscape workers, New York Times, July 14, 2020 …In the video, which she recorded then posted to Facebook, Ms. Ploss is confronted by a man who asks why she is harassing the workers. She tells the video, “He’s a Black man and he’s going to protect the brown man from this white woman who’s practicing white privilege because she happened to walk by and heard this guy talking to all of these guys, doing this work, in Spanish.” …
Ten reasons why defunding police should lead to defunding war, by Medea Benjamin and Zoltán Grossman, Common Dreams, July 14, 2020 (Medea Benjamin is a co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace. She has authored many books exposing the crimes of U.S. foreign policy. Zoltán Grossman is a professor of geography and Native studies at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He is author of Unlikely Alliances: Native Nations and White Communities Join to Defend Rural Lands.)
California orders new closures as U.S. retreat from coronavirus reopenings accelerates, Washington Post, July 13, 2020 While states such as Florida and Arizona for weeks have been major hot spots for the U.S. outbreak, figures for July 13 show that the virus continues to spread widely beyond the hard-hit Sun Belt states. Virginia, West Virginia, Alaska, Missouri, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Minnesota all saw the average rate of new infections rise between 41 and 55 percent compared with the week of July 6. Colorado, Kentucky, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota and the Virgin Islands saw increases of average new infections at a rate of 63 percent or higher…
Related:
* Despite pressure from Trump, major city school districts say schools will stay closed in fall, Washington Post, July 13, 2020
* Restaurant and cafe owners, workers bearing brunt of ‘culture war’ opposing Covid-19 safety measures, Washington Post July 13, 2020
* How to fix the Covid-19 dumpster fire in the U.S., by Helen Branswell, STAT News, July 14, 2020
* Why the U.S. is losing the battle with Covid-19, feature essay in New York Times, July 14, 2020 The escalating crisis in Texas shows how the chronic underfunding of public health has put America on track for the worst coronavirus response in the developed world.
* Trump undercuts doctors, questions their expertise on Covid-19 while citing game show host’s accusation that CDC is ‘lying’ about pandemic, Washington Post, July 13, 2020
* Trump’s incompetence has wrecked the U.S. Where are the calls for him to resign?, by Michelle Goldberg, columnist, New York Times, July 13, 2020
Indoor bars, parties with alcohol pose a major risk to COVID-19, medical experts warn, by Carly Weeks, health reporter, Globe and Mail, July 14, 2020 …There have been many instances of COVID-19 outbreaks linked to bars, clubs and private gatherings in Canada in recent weeks…
[Warnings of Covid-19 infections at alcohol-fueled bars and restaurants are being issued by medical experts as new infections soar in ‘reopened’ U.S. states and province of Ontario prepares to ‘reopen’ bars and restaurants as part of its ‘phase three reopening’.].
Related:
* Raise a glass? Alcohol and the fiasco to date of ‘reopening’ bars and restaurants, by André Picard, health columnist, Globe and Mail, July 13, 2020
* Ontario begins new stage of Covid-19 ‘reopening’ as U.S. ‘reopenings’ collapse, interview with André Picard, health columnist at Globe and Mail daily, broadcast on CBC Radio One‘s ‘The Current’, July 14, 2020 (eight-minute interview, begins at 22′ mark of the weblink)
A century after its 1921 race massacre, Tulsa finally digs for suspected mass graves, Washington Post, July 13, 2020 …The massacre began May 31, 1921 after a black teenager working as a shoe shiner in downtown Tulsa was accused of assaulting a white woman in an elevator. A white mob marched on Greenwood, one of the most affluent black communities in the country. Historians believe that as many as 300 black people were killed, and 40 square blocks of what was known as Black Wall Street were destroyed by fire. The destruction included more than 1,250 homes, churches, schools, businesses, a hospital and library…
Witnesses say Australian SAS soldiers were involved in mass shooting of unarmed Afghan civilians in 2012, by Mark Willacy and Alexandra Blucher (ABC Investigations), published by ABC.net.au, July 13, 2020 Australian special forces killed up to 10 unarmed Afghan civilians during a 2012 raid in Kandahar Province, ABC Investigations can reveal.The raid is believed to be the worst one-day death toll uncovered to date of alleged unlawful killings by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan…
Florida shatters Covid-19 infection record with 15,300 new cases reported on July 12 from previous 24 hours, Washington Post, July 12, 2020 Florida has shattered previous highs of 11,694 reported by California last week and 11,571 reported by New York on April 15. …new cases reached record levels in states across the United States over the weekend, even as weekly testing plateaued. Seven-day averages for new cases hit new highs in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Puerto Rico. Deaths were trending sharply up in nearly every major region of the country… The seven-day average for cases nationwide, considered a more reliable indicator of the virus’s impact than single-day totals, has risen almost 165 percent over the past month, from 20,594 in the second week of June to 54,499 at the end of last week, according to tracking by The Washington Post… Despite the soaring numbers, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has stuck to an aggressive reopening plan. State officials recently ordered schools to reopen five days a week in the new academic year, drawing objections from local leaders. The state is also set to hold the Republican National Convention next month in Jacksonville…
Air pollution exposure linked to higher COVID-19 cases and deaths, new study conducted in The Netherlands finds, by Matt Cole and Ceren Ozgen (University of Birmingham) and Eric Strobl (Université de Berne), The Conversation, July 13, 2020
WHO now says airborne transmission of COVID-19 may be possible in some settings. A Toronto infectious diseases expert explains and offers advice, Toronto Star, July 10, 2020
Related:
* Aerosols are a bigger coronavirus threat than WHO guidelines suggest – here’s what you need to know, The Conversation, July 9, 2020
Let’s defund the Pentagon, too, by John Horgan, Scientific American, July 8, 2020 (John Horgan directs the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology (New Jersey). For many years, he wrote the immensely popular ‘Cross Check’ blog for Scientific American.)
Biden’s vision comes into view, and it’s much more liberal than it was, Washington Post, July 12, 2020 …“I think the compromise that they came up with, if implemented, will make Biden the most progressive president since FDR,” Senator Bernie Sanders told MSNBC…
Previously reported:
* Biden pledges New Deal-like, ‘America first’ economic agenda to counter Trump, Associated Press, July 9, 2020
* Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders deepen their cooperation, New York Times, July 8, 2020
* Liberals want more from Biden than an anti-Trump message, Washington Post, July 8, 2020
Samoa’s deadly measles outbreak in 2019, despite the availability of a highly successful vaccine, is a lesson for Covid-19 pandemic, Washington Post, July 7, 2020 ‘Vaccines don’t save lives, vaccinations save lives. A vaccine dose that remains in a vial is zero-percent effective.’
Background: 2019 Samoa measles outbreak, Wikipedia
Is the COVID-19 pandemic cure really worse than the disease? Here’s what our research found, The Conversation, July 7, 2020 …We estimate that by the end of 2020, public health measures to mitigate COVID-19, including shelter-in-place orders, school and business closures, social distancing and face mask recommendations, would save between 900,000 and 2.7 million lives in the U.S. The economic downturn and loss of income from shelter-in-place measures and other restrictions on economic activity could contribute to between 50,400 and 323,000 deaths, based on an economic decline of 8%-14%…
* Five COVID-19 myths that U.S. politicians have repeated but that just aren’t true, The Conversation, July 8, 2020
Coronavirus deaths in U.S. take an expected turn for the worse, Asscociated Press, July 11, 2020 …According to an analysis by Associated Press of data from Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day rolling average for daily reported deaths in the U.S. has increased from 578 two weeks ago to 664 on July 10 — still well below the heights hit in April. Daily reported deaths increased in 27 states over that time period, but the majority of those states are averaging under 15 new deaths per day. A smaller group of states has been driving the nationwide increase in deaths. California is averaging 91 reported deaths per day while Texas is close behind with 66. Florida, Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey and South Carolina also saw sizable rises…
Related U.S.news:
* After months of decline, coronavirus death rate in the U.S. is rising, Washington Post, July 10, 2020 …The death count has begun to rise, surpassing 800 deaths each of the past four days. Although still below the highs in April and May, when more than 2,000 people per day were regularly dying from the virus, experts warn that the trend could continue to get worse…
* U.S. death toll rises as new infections reach record levels, Washington Post, July 11, 2020
* Are U.S. states doing enough coronavirus testing?, New York Times, July 10, 2020 The number of daily coronavirus tests conducted in the United States is only 39 per cent of the level considered necessary to mitigate the spread of the virus…
* Corporate media team with Trump to disparage public health experts, by Julie Hollar, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, July 10, 2020
After the fastest recession in U.S. history, the economic recovery may be fizzling, Washington Post, July 11, 2020 Experts see signs of an extended recession
Two U.S. Marine bases in Japan’s Okinawa locked down after at least 61 Covid-19 cases confirmed, South China Morning Post, July 11, 2020 …Okinawa has about 150 cases of the coronavirus. In all, Japan has some 21,500 cases and almost 1,000 deaths, with Tokyo reporting more than 200 new cases for a third straight day on July 11… [Okinawa is home to more than half of the approximately 50,000 American troops based in Japan under a bilateral treaty. Many Okinawans have long campaigned to close the U.S. military bases in Okinawa; many consider Japan to be an occupying power, too.].
Related:
* Coronavirus outbreak at U.S. bases in Japan (Okinawa) roils an uneasy relationship, New York Times, July 12, 2020 The Marines reported 94 new cases on Okinawa, an island that had seen just 148 other infections. Local officials say the military is not doing enough.
* Highly contested relocation of U.S. Marine ‘Futenma Airbase’ in Okinawa to be built on pillars of sand, by C. Douglas Lummis, CounterPunch, July 13, 2020
The impact of the economic war on Venezuela, by Pasqualina Curcio, translated and published in Resumen LatinoAmerica and the Third World, July 6, 2020
Related: On Venezuela, Biden and Trump are two sides of the same coin, by Leonardo Flores, published by Code Pink, July 9, 2020
China views U.S. attempts to involve it in talks on New START Treaty as political hoax, TASS news service, July 9, 2020 …The head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Department of Arms Control says China is ready to join the U.S.-Russia disarmament talks only on condition that the U.S. reduces its arsenal to match that of China… “We are urging the U.S. to respond to Russia’s appeal to renew the New START Treaty and on that basis continue the further reduction of its large nuclear arsenal in order to create conditions for other nuclear powers to take part in the nuclear disarmament talks.”…
Related:
* Remembering the ‘Nuclear Freeze’ movement of the 1980s and its futility, by Howard Lisnoff, CounterPunch, July 13, 2020 The problem with the movement to reverse the global arms race was that while it raised consciousness about nuclear war and nuclear proliferation, it made no demands on power.
* The Russiagate spectacle: Season two?, by Gerald Sussman, CounterPunch, July 13, 2020
[There are many important truths explained in this article. But this, from the article, is not one of them: “Trump seems to understand that it’s in the interest of the United States to work with Putin, a position seen by others as threatening to the national security state and the war machine.” Many of the writers who are critical of the U.S.-led new cold war against Russia and China nevertheless continue to peddle the myth that the Trump regime in Washington is less hawkish than its Democratic Party predecessors and a hoped-for Democratic replacement to be led by war criminal Joseph Biden.]
‘Qualified immunity’ is how the U.S. police state stays in power, by John Whitehead, published by The Rutherford Institute, June 16, 2020 (John Whitehead is the founder and president of The Rutherford Institute, a civil and political rights organization based in Virginia.)
UN report links disease outbreaks to global warming crisis and industrial farming, interview with Delia Grace, broadcast on Democracy Now!, July 9, 2020 (16-minute interview. Delia Grace is the lead author of report by the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Livestock Research Institute.)
Related: Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission, report by United Nations Environment Programme and the International Livestock Research Institute, issued on July 6, 2020 (full report, 82-page pdf, is at the weblink)
Writers’ open letter against ‘cancel culture’ is about stifling free speech, not protecting it, by Jonathan Cook, published on his website blog, July 9, 2020 An open letter published online on July 7 by Harper’s magazine [print monthly] and signed by dozens of prominent writers and public figures has focused attention on the apparent dangers of what has been termed a new “cancel culture”. The letter brings together an unlikely alliance of genuine leftists such as Noam Chomsky and Matt Karp, centrists such as J K Rowling and Ian Buruma, and neoconservatives such as David Frum and Bari Weiss, all speaking out in defence of free speech…
Related: Rich, famous transphobes ask you to stop being so mean to them, in terrible Harper’s Magazine open letter, by Vivian Kane, published in The Mary Sue, July 8, 2020
Africa’s confirmed COVID-19 cases surge past 500,000 with South Africa as the continent’s hotspot, The Associated Press, July 8, 2020
Related: COVID-19 crisis in South Africa exposes the fault lines of the country’s inequalities, Globe and Mail, July 5, 2020 …Four months after early Covid-19 cases involving tourists returning from Europe, the virus has become a devastating disease of inequality and poverty. It has ripped through South Africa’s poorest and most vulnerable communities, killing thousands of people from the crowded streets and shacks where people cannot afford to distance…
Why a third quarter economic rebound in the U.S. will falter, lengthy essay by Jack Rasmus, published on his website Predicting the Global Economic Crisis, July 6, 2020 (Jack Rasmus holds a PhD in political economy and teaches economics at St. Mary’s College in California. He is the author of numerous books on the world economy. ) …Economies experiencing deep and rapid contractions—which is typical of both great recessions and economic depressions—inevitably experience periods of leveling off for a time, or even a slight bounce back—i.e. a rebound. But that’s not a recovery. ‘Recovery’ means a sustained, quarter to subsequent quarter economic growth that continues more or less unabated until the lost economic ground is ‘recovered’…
Related: Escalating plunder, essay by Robert Brenner, published in the May-June 2020 issue of New Left Review The Fed’s 23 March declaration [Federal Reserve System, Wikipedia] that it intended to provide loans to non-financial corporations was decisive in indicating the Fed’s assumption of leadership of the government’s corporate bailout, signalling what was expected of Congress and the Treasury, and specifying the intended form and level of support for big business in the coronavirus economic crisis…
U.S. Supreme Court rules that much of eastern Oklahoma remains Indian land, Washington Post, July 9, 2020 read also: report by Associated Press, July 9, 2020 …Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter and leaders of five tribal groups issued a joint statement after the ruling indicating they have made “substantial progress toward an agreement” to submit to Congress and the Justice Department that would put in place a framework of shared jurisdiction. “We have a shared commitment to maintaining public safety and long-term economic prosperity for the Nations and Oklahoma,” according to the statement from Hunter and the Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole nations…
The Supreme Court just dealt a huge blow to Congress’s power to investigate Trump, Vox.com, July 9, 2020 The Supreme Court handed down two decisions on July 9 concerning whether the president of the United States enjoys special immunity from criminal investigation or from congressional oversight… The latter case, however, is a significant shift in the law governing congressional investigations, and an equally significant victory from Trump. The upshot of Trump v. Mazars is that House investigators almost certainly will not see potentially damning records concerning Trump’s finances until after the November election… Though Mazars does not preclude the House from seeing those records eventually, by the time those records become available Trump will almost certainly either be an ex-president, or he will be firmly entrenched in his second term…
Related:
* U.S. Supreme Court rules that Trump must release his tax records to New York state prosecutors, but shields them from public release, Associated Press, July 9, 2020 Rejecting President Donald Trump’s complaints that he’s being harassed, the Supreme Court ruled on July 9 in favor of a New York prosecutor’s demands for the billionaire president’s tax records. But in good political news for Trump, his taxes and other financial records almost certainly will be kept out of the public eye at least until after the November election. In a separate case, the justices kept a hold on banking and other documents about Trump, family members and his businesses that Congress has been seeking for more than a year. The court said that while Congress has significant power to demand the president’s personal information, it is not limitless. The court turned away the broadest arguments by Trump’s lawyers and the Justice Department that the president is immune from investigation while he holds office…
* Trump on releasing his tax returns: From ‘absolutely’ to ‘it’s a political prosecution’, New York Times, July 9, 2020
* Democrats could have moved faster to get Trump’s tax records. Now he can run out the clock, commentary by Daniel Hemel, Washington Post, July 10, 2020 (Daniel Hemel is a professor of law at the University of Chicago.)
Scientists study, debate the science and dangers of airborne COVID-19 infection, by Carly Weeks, health reporter, Globe and Mail, July 8, 2020
Related:
* Calling COVID-19 ‘airborne’ is misleading, Canadian experts say, Canadian Press, July 8, 2020
* Airborne transmission of COVID-19 a ‘real risk’, 239 scientists tell WHO in open letter, Canadian Press, July 6, 2020
* 239 experts with one big claim: The coronavirus is airborne and can transmit that way, New York Times, July 4, 2020 read also: report by Reuters, July 5, 2020 A group of 239 scientists in 32 countries have written a letter to the United Nations, to be published next week in a scientific journal, explaining their research showing that small coronavirus particles lingering in the air can infect people. They are calling for the World Health Organization to revise its recommendations, which presently say otherwise.
Drug overdoses are soaring in the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic, Washington Post, July 1, 2020 Suspected overdoses nationally jumped 18 percent in March, 29 percent in April and 42 percent in May, data from ambulance teams, hospitals and police shows.
Related: Overdose deaths increase by 93 per cent among B.C.’s First Nations in first five months of 2020, The Canadian Press, July 6, 2020
‘Miss Confederacy’ statue removed as workers rid Richmond, Virginia of Confederate icons, Washington Post, July 8, 2020
In Trumpland, it’s America vs. the world as coronavirus spreads and hospitalizations rise. Report in Washington Post, July 7, 2020 Amid a resurgent pandemic and rising hospitalizations, President Trump pitted America against the world on July 7, formally moving to pull the United States out of the World Health Organization while his FBI director accused China of hacking U.S. health-care companies that are researching the novel coronavirus.
Related U.S. news:
* Florida invited the country to its reopening, then it became a new coronavirus epicenter, Washington Post, July 7, 2020 Nearly one out of every 100 Florida residents has contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
* Churches in U.S. emerge as major sources of coronavirus cases, New York Times, July 8, 2020
* Coronavirus deaths are rising in U.S. hotspots, Axios, July 7, 2020
* Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar claims that health care workers don’t get infected with Covid-19; in fact, 94,000 have contracted the illness, Common Dreams, July 8, 2020
* The U.S.’s second peak may be less deadly than the first, but coronavirus fatalities in the next three months could still rival U.S. combat deaths during WWI, Business Insider, July 5, 2020
* The ugly truth about millions of American jobs: They are not coming back, CNN, July 7, 2020
* Here are some of the billionaires who got PPP loans while small businesses went bankrupt, NBC News, July 7, 2020
* Over 5,600 fossil fuel companies have taken at least $3bn in US Covid-19 aid, The Guardian, July 7, 2020
Sweden has become the world’s Covid-19 cautionary tale, New York Times, July 7, 2020 Covid-19 has claimed 5,420 deaths in Sweden. Per million people, the country has suffered 40 per cent more deaths than the United States, 12 times more than Norway, seven times more than Finland and six times more than Denmark.
Trump’s worldview forged by neglect and trauma at home, his niece says in her new book, Washington Post, July 7, 2020
Related: The best and most damning parts of Mary Trump’s upcoming tell-all book, by Vivian Kane, The Mary Sue, July 10, 2020
As statues of Founding Fathers topple, debate rages over where protesters should draw the line, Washington Post, July 7, 2020
Related: Columbus statues are falling across the country. Will ‘Columbus’, Ohio, fall, too?, Washington Post, July 7, 2020
White House struggles to defend Trump’s racist and pro-Confederate outbursts, Washington Post, July 6, 2020
Related: The state of Virginia is quickly dropping Confederate names from its schools, this time ignoring calls to ‘preserve history’, Washington Post, July 6, 2020
Rush to reopen led to spikes in cases that threaten to overwhelm hospitals in some states, Washington Post, July 5, 2020 … “We’re right back where we were at the peak of the epidemic during the New York outbreak,” former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on ‘Face the Nation’ on CBS. “The difference now is that we really had one epicenter of spread when New York was going through its hardship, now we really have four major epicenters of spread: Los Angeles, cities in Texas, cities in Florida, and Arizona. Florida looks to be in the worst shape.” …FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn was pressed to analyze President Trump’s comments on July 3 that a vaccine would be ready “long before the end of the year” and that 99 per cent of the cases have been “totally harmless”. Hahn dodged both in appearances on Sunday talk shows…
Related U.S. news:
* As the virus surged, Florida partied. Tracking the revelers has been tough, New York Times, July 6, 2020 [Florida recorded a near-record number of new cases on July 5, at 10,059. It has surpassed California as the state with the third-highest number of Covid-19 cases in the U.S., at 200,111.].
* Joplin, Missouri thought it had dodged the coronavirus. Now it is hitting hard, Washington Post, July 5, 2020 …The one measure that medical experts say could turn the coronavirus tide — widespread use of masks — has become mired in politics. Joplin’s city council spent nearly five hours debating whether to require them last week, only to reject the proposal by a single vote… “Eighty per cent of people here are watching one channel and it’s downplaying the epidemic,” said Toby Teeter, president of the Joplin Chamber of Commerce, referring to Fox News. “So there’s a lot of confusion.”…
The fullest look yet at the racial inequity of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in the U.S., New York Times, July 5, 2020 A trove of data collected by the Centers for Disease Control reveals the racial inequities of the Covid-19 illness. The New York Times had to sue the CDC to obtain the data. …Latino and African-American residents of the United States have been three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors, according to the new data… And Black and Latino people have been nearly twice as likely to die from the virus as white people, the data shows… The data also showed several pockets of disparity involving Native American people. In much of Arizona and in several other counties, they were far more likely to become infected than white people…
What makes a ‘wave’ of disease? An epidemiologist explains that the concept matters little, by Abram Wagner, University of Michigan, The Conversation, July 6, 2020
Statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass toppled by unknown vandals in Rochester, New York, Associated Press, July 6, 2020 The statue was vandalized on the anniversary of one of Douglass’s most famous speeches, delivered in Rochester on July 4, 1852, ‘What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?‘.
America explodes as Trump wages domestic war, by Adam Shatz, London Review of Books, June 5, 2020 (in print edition dated June 18, 2020) (Adam Shatz in an author and regular contributor to the London Review of Books. He lives in New York City.)
‘Bountygate’: Scapegoating for the systemic military failure of the U.S. in Afghanistan, feature essay by Scott Ritter, published in Consortium News, July 5, 2020 The story of the alleged scheme in which the Russian military is alleged to have paid gunmen in Afghanistan to kill U.S. soldiers has arisen in the context of top U.S. brass blaming Russia since at least 2016 for America’s defeat in Afghanistan. …On July 2, the House Armed Services Committee voted on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which required the Trump administration to issue several certifications before U.S. forces could be further reduced in Afghanistan, including an assessment of whether any “state actors have provided any incentives to the Taliban, their affiliates, or other foreign terrorist organizations for attacks against United States, coalition, or Afghan security forces or civilians in Afghanistan in the last two years, including the details of any attacks believed to have been connected with such incentives”—a direct reference to the ‘Russian bounty’ leak. … On a weekend [July 4] where America is collectively celebrating the birth of the nation, celebrations will be marred by the knowledge that elected representatives voted to sustain a war everyone knows has already been lost. That they did so on the backs of bad intelligence leaked for the purpose of triggering such a vote only makes matters worse.
(Scott Ritter is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who took part in the 1991 Gulf War. He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty and was a UN weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-1998. Prior to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, he declared that the country possessed no significant weapons of mass destruction capabilities. His books include Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein (Nation Books, 2006).)
Previously reported:
* The New York Times takes anti-Russian hysteria to new level with report on Russian ‘bounty’ on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, commentary by Scott Ritter, in RT, June 28, 2020 …The Times‘ story has been quickly “confirmed” by the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers and has taken social media by storm… There is just one problem — nothing in the New York Times could be corroborated. Indeed, there is no difference between the original reporting conducted by the New York Times, and the “confirming” reports published by the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal…
* U.S. claim of ‘Russian bounty’ paid to fighters in Afghanistan to kill U.S. soldiers is dubious and dangerous, interview with Max Blumenthal, broadcast on ‘Pushback’, on The Grayzone, with host Aaron Maté, June 30, 2020
* ‘Russian bounty’ story shifts: New York Times now claiming Afghan criminals, not Taliban militants, were paid to kill U.S. soldiers, is still citing anonymous sources for its claims, RT, June 30, 2020
The pandemic’s big mystery: How deadly is the coronavirus?, New York Times, July 4, 2020
Related: How the world missed Covid-19’s silent spread by asymptomatic carriers, New York Times, June 27, 2020
Sleeping outside in a pandemic: Evictions on the rise as U.S. states abandon renter protections, New York Times, July 4, 2020
Related U.S. news:
* Trump’s push to amplify racism unnerves Republicans who have long enabled him, Washington Post, July 4, 2020
* With department stores disappearing in the U.S., malls could be next, New York Times, July 5, 2020 …Malls were already facing pressure from online shopping, but analysts now say that hundreds are at risk of closing in the next five years. That has the potential to reshape the suburbs, with many communities already debating whether abandoned malls can be turned into local markets or office space, even affordable housing…
* The impending retail apocalypse, by Jennifer Kingson, Axios, July 6, 2020
* The U.S. is lagging behind other wealthy countries in per capita income and life expectancy, commentary in New York Times, July 2, 2020 The United States is different. In nearly every other high-income country, people have both become richer over the last three decades and been able to enjoy substantially longer lifespans. But not in the United States. Even as average incomes have risen, much of the economic gains have gone to the affluent — and life expectancy has risen only three years since 1990. There is no other developed country that has suffered such a stark slowdown in lifespans…
In ‘Russian bounty’ story, evidence-free claims from nameless spies became fact overnight, by Alan MacLeod, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR.org), July 3, 2020 Based upon a bombshell New York Times report (6/26/20), virtually the entire media landscape has been engulfed in the allegations that Russia is paying Taliban fighters bounties to kill U.S. soldiers…
In the name of anti-Trumpism, media elevate lying warmonger John Bolton, by Bryce Greene, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR.org), July 3, 2020
Trump uses speech at Mount Rushmore spectacle to deliver divisive culture war message, New York Times, July 3, 2020 …”Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children,” Mr. Trump said, addressing a packed crowd of sign-waving supporters, few of whom wore masks. “Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.” Mr. Trump barely mentioned the frightening resurgence of the pandemic, even as the country surpassed 53,000 new cases and health officials across the nation urged Americans to scale back their Fourth of July plans… As the president departed Washington for South Dakota on Friday, at least five states — Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, North Carolina and South Carolina — reported their highest single day of cases yet. Newly reported cases of the virus were rising in all but a handful of states, and many large cities, including Houston, Dallas, Jacksonville and Los Angeles, were seeing alarming growth… Mr. Beschloss compared Mr. Trump to Woodrow Wilson, who presided over the influenza pandemic in 1918 by trying to pretend it was not happening, and to Herbert Hoover, who in 1932 tried to project that the Great Depression was not as bad as people were saying… Despite his rosy outlook, the coronavirus on Friday for the first time infiltrated Mr. Trump’s family circle. The president’s elder son, Donald Trump Jr., and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, had traveled to South Dakota separately with plans to meet up with the president. But they left before Mr. Trump’s arrival after learning Ms. Guilfoyle tested positive for the virus…
Related:
* Full transcript of Trump sppech at Mt. Rushmore spectacle on July 3, 2020, here
* Pence’s visit to Arizona this week postponed for a day after Secret Service agents due to accompany him contract coronavirus, Washington post, July 3, 2020
* Police and Pentagon are bringing our wars home, commentary by Rev. Dr. William Barber II and Phyllis Bennis, published in Orlando Sentinel, June 28, 2020
At coronavirus crossroads, U.S. weighs ‘one more chance’ to quell escalating outbreak, Washington Post, July 4, 2020 …On July 3, the U.S. recorded 51,468 new infections and reached a new high in its seven-day average of cases, as it has done consecutively for the past 25 days. At least 35 states this past week reported single-day increases that eclipsed new cases in all of Italy, the center of the European outbreak…
Can we become immune to the coronavirus? What the evidence says so far, by Graham Lawton, New Scientist (print weekly), July 1, 2020 (print edition of July 4, 2020)
Some Canadian businesses want to let Americans back in. Most Canadians don’t, Washington Post, July 3, 2020
Related: Mexican border states raise new concerns about Americans bringing coronavirus south, Washington Post, July 3, 2020
The flag of Mississippi is finally coming down. Goodbye to a symbol that told Black Americans to ‘know your place’, commentary by Natasha Trethewey (former poet laureate of the United States and former poet laureate of Mississippi), in New York Times, July 3, 2020
Related: The Confederate flag finally falls in Mississippi, by W. Ralph Eubank, The New Yorker, July 1, 2020 …Retiring the flag has been an idea that Mississippi has tried to kill for decades. What made the difference this time is that the voices involved were so loud and numerous that they could finally not be ignored. First, a multiracial gathering of thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters converged on the state capitol [see photo gallery at weblink] on June 6 to protest police violence against African-Americans. They chanted ‘Change the flag’ as well as the names of those killed by police violence. This was the largest protest in Jackson since Freedom Summer, in 1964. The rallying cry grew louder… When Mississippi’s now-discarded flag was adopted, in 1894, the Reconstruction era was over. The flag represented a reassertion of power by conservative Democrats, which also meant unifying the state’s whites, who were divided politically, economically, and socially. The so-called Mississippi Plan disenfranchised most African-Americans, and Jim Crow laws followed…
Rapid Arctic meltdown in Siberia alarms scientists, Washington Post, July 3, 2020 …Already this year, springtime fires arrived earlier and with more ferocity compared to last year’s record fire season… In Siberia and across much of the Arctic, profound changes are unfolding more rapidly than scientists anticipated only a few years ago… Shifts that once seemed decades away are happening now, with potentially global implications… Scientists have long maintained that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. But in reality, the region is now warming at nearly three times the global average…
Related:
* New research shows the South Pole is warming faster than the rest of the world, by Kyle Clem (University of Wellington), published in The Conversation, June 29, 2020
* Heatwave trends accelerate worldwide, by the Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEx) at the Australian Research Council, published in Phys.org, july 3, 2020 The first comprehensive worldwide assessment of heatwaves down to regional levels has revealed that in nearly every part of the world heatwaves have been increasing in frequency and duration since the 1950s. The research published in Nature Communications has also produced a new metric, cumulative heat, which reveals exactly how much heat is packed into individual heatwaves and heatwave seasons. As expected, that number is also on the rise…
Analyzing the ‘Green wave’ that washed across the June 28 municipal elections in France, by Ethan Earle, published on the website of the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, July 1, 2020
The U.S. military his its knee on the throat of the world, by Ellen Taylor, in CounterPunch, July 3, 2020
Coronavirus cases are peaking again in the U.S. Here is how it’s different this time, New York Times, July 2, 2020
Related:
* What media aren’t telling you about reopening risks, by Neil Demause, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR.org), July 3, 2020
* As coronavirus rebounds, more patients are being hospitalized and capacity is stretched, Washington Post, July 2, 2020 Patients suffering from covid-19 are rapidly filling hospitals across the South and West, with Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Nevada and Arizona setting records for hospitalizations Thursday, a sign that the coronavirus pandemic is entering a dangerous new phase. In Arizona, where the virus appears to be spreading out of control, hospitals rushed to expand capacity and adopted practices similar to those employed at the height of the outbreak in New York City and Italy…
* As coronavirus cases skyrocket across Texas, hospitals grapple with patient influxes, Washington Post, July 2, 2020
Sioux tribal leaders will protest the Trump regime spectacle to take place at Mount Rushmore on July 3, Washington Post, July 2, 2020
Surge in demand in U.S. for guns, ammunition is unprecedented, Daily Tribune (Mississippi), June 2, 2020
Related: Bolstered by lax gun laws, armed protesters confront anti-racism rallies, American University Radio (Washington DC), July 2, 2020 …Armed counterprotesters, mostly white and some members of the militia movement, have confronted anti-racism rallies in at least 33 states, according to a review of reporting and social media by Guns & America. Some say they’re there to protect businesses. Others oppose the Black Lives Matter movement. Some have acted like police, stopping protesters and demanding identification. And it has led to violence…
Deaths in Mexico City during Covid-19 pandemic are three times normal, Washington Post, July 2, 2020 …”Certainly it’s on a par with what we’ve seen in the most hard-hit areas of the United States,” said Daniel Weinberger, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health who has studied excess deaths during the pandemic…
[Mexico is #10 in the world for Covid-19 cases and #10 in the world for population. Its per capita rate of Covid-19 illness is one fifth that of the U.S. but eight times that of Venezuela.]
Venezuela’s borderlands have been assaulted by COVID-19, by Vijay Prashad, Eduardo Viloria Daboín, Ana Maldonado and Zoe PC, published on MR Online, July 1, 2020 (also published in CounterPunch, July 3, 2020)
Related:
* Venezuela tightens quarantine measures in COVID-19 hotspots along Colombia border and capital city region as daily new cases rise, Venezuela Analysis, June 29, 2020 Government sources estimate that over 70,000 Venezuelan emigrants have returned to the country since the start of the pandemic, principally from the Covid-19 hotspots of Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. [Venezuela, population 28.9 million, has suffered 6,273 total cases of Covid-19, including 1,710 during the past week. It is simultaneously suffering economic sanctions and threats of military intervention by the U.S., Canada and Europe. Colombia, population 49.7 million, has suffered 106,110 total cases of Covid-19, including 25,511 during the past seven days. The country is governed by a violent, repressive regime and is a subordinate of the triumvirate of imperialist countries seeking the violent overthrow of the government of neighbouring Venezuela.].
* UK court rejects Venezuela’s effort to access its $1bn gold reserve stolen by Bank of England in late 2018, throws in recognition of ‘Juan Guaido’ as ‘president’ of Venezuela, Venezuela Analysis, July 2, 2020
* Venezuela expels ambassador from European Union after the imperialist bloc follows new U.S. sanctions against Venezuelan leaders, Venezuela Analysis, June 30, 2020
U.S. anti-Iran policy has trouble making headway at UN Security Council meeting on July 1, Press TV, July 2, 2020
Related:
* Iran charges ‘piracy’ as U.S. threatens seizure of more tankers bringing gasoline to Venezuela, Associated Press, July 2, 2020
India and China tussle on the roof of the world, by Arshad Khan, CounterPunch, July 3, 2020
Evidence casts new doubts over accusations of Russian athletic doping, by Thilo Neumann, Der Speigel English bulletin, July 3, 2020 …What is known about events [at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia] is largely attributable to the descriptions and records of a key witness: Grigory Rodchenkov, 61. The chemist headed Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory until 2015, when he moved to the United States. There, he shared his account of what allegedly happened in Sochi with the New York Times… Rodchenkov [who lives in hiding in the U.S.] provided the names of athletes who were allegedly doped in Sochi and presented lists of competitors who, he claimed, were provided with protection by the Sports Ministry. Three years ago, this led the IOC to sanction 43 athletes and remove them from the results lists of the Sochi Olympics. Almost all of those cases were appealed, and 28 were successful in getting the decision overturned. The decisions to reverse the sanctions were made due to insufficient evidence. Three rulings are still pending – the one for medal-winning biathelete Maria Zaitseva and the other two biathletes…
Coronavirus cases in the U.S. rose by nearly 50 per cent in June, led by states that reopened first, Washington Post, July 1, 2020 …The novel coronavirus continued its recent spread, especially in the South and Southwest. More than 52,000 new cases were reported in the United States on Wednesday, the highest total since the start of the pandemic, according to data collected by The Post. Record-shattering numbers of new cases were reported on July 1 in six states — California, Georgia, Texas, Alaska, North Carolina and Arizona… Los Angeles County has been the epicenter of the virus in the south of California, passing 100,000 cases earlier this week. But new cases also have risen sharply in the Bay Area and the capital, Sacramento…
Related U.S. news:
* Trump tells Fox News that Covid-19 is ‘going to sort of just disappear, I hope’ on same day that new cases in U.S. top 50,000 for first time, Common Dreams, July 2, 2020
* As cases surge in the U.S., lines for coronavirus tests stretch miles in the summer heat and stretch the limits of testing resources, Washington Post, July 1, 2020
* Myrtle Beach in South Caolina reopened to survive the summer, now, it’s a coronavirus ‘petri dish’, Washington Post, July 1, 2020 …”We all expected once we opened up and people started coming from other areas that we would see those [case] increases and we certainly have,” said Myrtle Beach mayor Brenda Bethune. “On the other hand, how do you keep things closed, and keep people out of work, when families have to pay their bills?”… The pandemic had just started to wane in some parts of the country when South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) lifted some of the restrictions he had imposed, paving the way in April for Myrtle Beach and its surrounding communities to open their hotels fully by mid-May, just in time for Memorial Day…
* Trump campaign is still contending with the political fallout from the June 20 rally in Tulsa, Washington Post, July 1, 2020 Previously reported: Campaign workers at Trump’s June 20 rally in Tulsa were directed to remove stickers from thousands of seats placed by arena owners to remind people of social distancing, Washington Post, June 20, 2020
* City of Richmond, Virgina takes down statue of Stonewall Jackson, followed by a second Confederate statue the following day, Washington Post, July 2, 2020
French government continues to resist recording the health data of racial minorities even as Covid-19 takes a deadly toll on them. Report in Washington Post, July 1, 2020
New Trump immigration policy would disqualify asylum for people from countries with spreading disease, Washington Post, July 1, 2020 …Sarah Pierce, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, said the Trump administration’s latest asylum proposal would allow the government to keep obstacles in place once the pandemic subsides and emergency border controls are lifted. And she said it is consistent with the administration’s wider effort of building layers of enforcement mechanisms into the immigration system. “They use multiple bureaucratic and policy tools to insulate their changes from litigation,” Pierce said. “The administration has been using the pandemic to move its immigration agenda forward.” …
Related: Federal judge strikes down Trump asylum rule targeting Central Americans, Washington Post, July 1, 2020 A federal judge in Washington struck down a Trump administration policy late June 30 that bars most Central Americans and other migrants from requesting asylum at the southern border, saying the government failed to justify making the sudden change last July without public notice or comment. The policy is aimed at blocking Central American migration by requiring asylum seekers from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and elsewhere first to apply for asylum in countries they pass through on the way to the United States, particularly Mexico or Guatemala….
Minneapolis had progressive economic policies but black families were still left behind, Washington Post, July 1, 2020
Ghislaine Maxwell arrested by FBI, accused of helping Jeffrey Epstein lure girls into sexual abuse, Associated Press, July 2, 2020
‘Massive case of denial, idiotic government policy, lack of any strategic planning’: Science writer Laurie Garrett slams Covid-19 response by U.S. federal and state governments, interview with Laurie Garrett, broadcast on Democracy Now!, June 29, 2020 (20-minute interview)
Related:
* COVID-19 messes with Texas: What went wrong, and what other states can learn as younger people get sick, by Murray J. Côté and Tiffany A. Radcliff (Texas A&M University), The Conversation, June 30, 2020 Previously reported: How Texas swaggered into a coronavirus disaster, commentary in New York Times, June 28, 2020
* New Covid-19 cases reported for June 30 in selected U.S. states: Texas 7,959 (a new record), California 7,906 (a new record), Florida 6,093, Arizona 2,228.
Mapping Covid-19 outbreaks in the U.S. food system, by Leah Douglas, Food and Environment Reporting Network, updated on July 1, 2020 (read also: Covid-19 outbreaks at meat-processing plants in U.S. being kept quiet, The Guardian, June 30, 2020) According to data collected by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, as of July 1 at noon eastern time, at least 363 meatpacking and food processing plants (262 meatpacking and 101 food processing) and 57 farms and production facilities have had confirmed cases of Covid-19. At least 37,297 workers have tested positive for Covid-19 (30,497 meatpacking workers, 3,263 food processing workers, and 3,537 farmworkers) and at least 127 workers have died (113 meatpacking workers, 12 food processing workers, and two farmworkers) …
Related:
* Ontario is repeating the mistakes on farms that it made with long-term care, by Robyn Urback, columnist, Globe and Mail, July 1, 2020 [The columnist uses the term ‘disaster’ to describe the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on long-term care homes for the elderly in Ontario. But she also uses the term ‘mistake’, as does the Globe and Mail headline writer. There have been 8,639 deaths in Canada caused by Covid-19, of which 81 per cent were residents of care homes for the elderly, the highest death rate among OECD countries. These were caused by ‘mistakes’? Hardly. They were they caused by ‘criminal negligence’ and ‘decades of cuts and privatizations to long-term care for the elderly’?].
* Ontario tops Canadian provinces for new Covid-19 cases with agricultural areas leading the numbers, Toronto Star, June 29, 2020
* Public health officer for Ontario’s Windsor-Essex county won’t allow the new Ontario gov’t policy that allows for ‘asymptomatic’ carriers of Covid-19 to continue working at farms and greenhouses, Globe and Mail, June 30, 2020 …Ontario has more than 940 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among migrant farm workers, with more than half in the Windsor area, according to a Globe and Mail count…
Hospitals in Bolivia close or collapse due to rises in Covid-19 cases, Telesur, June 30, 2020
[Bolivia suffered a coup following its general election on October 20, 2019. The re-elected president, Evo Morales, fled the country in fear of his life and those of his supporters. Today, he lives in Mexico. The coup was spearheaded by pro-U.S./pro-imperialist politicians. With a population of 11.4 million, Bolivia has suffered 33,219 Covid-19 cases and 1,123 deaths. Venezuela has succesfully resisted a threated coup as well as economic sanctions by the U.S./Canada/Europe imperialist nexus. With a population of 28.9 milllion, it has seen 5,832 Covid-19 cases (14 times less than Bolivia per capita) and 51 deaths.]
Scant evidence of anti-racism protests in U.S. causing increases in Covid-19 cases, Washington Post, June 30, 2020
Which drugs and therapies for Covid-19 treatment are proven to work and which ones don’t?, by William Petri (Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia), published in The Conversation, July 1, 2020
How the U.S. trained killer cops across the hemisphere, by Brett Heinz,Current Affairs, June 29, 2020
Police and big tech are partners in crime. We need to abolish them both, by Edward Ongweso Jr, Vice.com, June 25, 2020 Silicon Valley has made billions of dollars empowering the police by pitching surveillance and data analysis technology as unbiased. They are not.
Putin’s constitutional changes reflect the needs of a revitalized state, by Ernest Reid, conservative commentator, publidhed on RT, June 30, 2020
U.S. troops secure oil fields in northeast Syria oil as widespread contamination imperils lives, by Dan Wilkofsky and Amberin Zaman, Al-Monitor, June 30, 2020
Highlights from World news headlines on A Socialist In Canada, June 2020 (To view the full news headline archive for June 2020, click here.)
How the world missed Covid-19’s silent spread, New York Times, June 27, 2020 …Interviews with doctors and public health officials in more than a dozen countries show that for two crucial months — and in the face of mounting genetic evidence — Western health officials and political leaders played down or denied the risk of symptomless spreading…
Affluence is killing the planet, warn scientists in Australia, Britain, Germany, by Thomas Wiedmann, Julia K. Steinberger and Manfred Lenzen, published in The Conversation, June 24, 2020 Affluence trashes our planetary life support systems. What’s more, it also obstructs the necessary transformation towards sustainability by driving power relations and consumption norms. To put it bluntly: the rich do more harm than good. This is what we found in a new study for the journal Nature Communications. Together with co-author Lorenz Keyßer from ETH Zürich, we reviewed recent scientific literature on the links between affluence and environmental impacts, on the systemic mechanisms leading to overconsumption and on possible solutions to the problem. The article is one of a series of Scientists’ Warnings to Humanity…
Related: The affluent are consuming the planet to death, by Matthew Rozsa, Salon.com, June 23, 2020 A new study published this month in the academic journal Nature Communications argues that despite all of the talk about using green technology to address man-made environmental problems, the only way for human consumption to become sustainable is if we rein in the affluent…
Yes, defund the cops. And put them under community control, by Glen Ford, executive editor, Black Agenda Report, June 25, 2020
Essay by Vladimir Putin on the history of World War Two provokes the ire of editors of Germany’s state-run media outlet Deutsche Welle. Item published in Deutsche Welle, June 24, 2020 [In this item, the editors of Deutsche Welle seek out several journalists to echo the editors’ viewpoint sharply condemning an essay on the origins of World War Two by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The essay is dated June 18 and was published on the website of the Russian president. Putin wrote: “I would like to once again recall the obvious fact. The root causes of World War II mainly stem from the decisions made after World War I. The Treaty of Versailles became a symbol of grave injustice for Germany. It basically implied that the country was to be robbed, being forced to pay enormous reparations to the Western allies that drained its economy.” Deutsche Welle critiques one historical fact only in Putin’s essay, namely, the essay’s explanation that Poland’s pre-WW2 leaders helped bring disaster upon the country in 1938 by refusing to sign a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and collaborating with Nazi Germany in its invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia in October 1938. (See ‘German occupation of Czechoslovakia’, in Wikipedia.) In addition to that, the DW editors voice sharp criticism that Russian embassies are writing to news outlets and journalists in the West, including in Germany, inviting them to publish the president’s essay. The item in Deutsche Welle hitting out against the Russian president appears at the same time that the Russian Parliament has once again accused Deutsche Welle of fomenting hostility and spreading false information to its readers about Russia. See the following news headline item.].
Related:
* Deutsche Welle rejects new disinformation allegations against it by Russian parliament, News article/commentary in Deutsche Welle, June 24, 2020
* Australia’s ‘New Matilda’ alternative media outlet publishes Vladimir Putin’s lengthy essay on WW2, but not without inserting its own editorial comments and recommending a recent, lengthy propaganda article by the leading anti-Russia journalist in Canada. See ‘A Russian leader’s take on how the Soviets beat the Nazis’, published in New Matilda, June 24, 2020, with an editorial introduction [The editorial insertions by New Matilda editors into the text of Putin’s essay largely consist of tweets by an anti-Soviet historian which challenge Putin’s (and historians’) claim that the then-government of Poland chose to collaborate with Nazi Germany prior to the German invasion in September 1939 rather than enter into a defense pact with the Soviet Union. They also include a positive invitation to read a terribly biased, anti-Russia feature article published in Canada’s Globe and Mail daily on June 20: ‘We also recommend this article in the Globe and Mail, for a more critical analysis of Putin’s world view.’].
Previously reported: 75th anniversary of the great victory: Shared responsibility to history and our future, by Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, published on the website of the President of Russia, June 18, 2020 (9,000-word essay)
