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, September 2020
The coronavirus pandemic as of Sept 30, 2020: View global as well as by-country statistics here at the website of Worldometer. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern over the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (Covid-19 illness). On March 11, WHO declared an worldwide pandemic. The following statistics are compiled daily on Monday-Friday on A Socialist In Canada. Total reported coronavirus cases in the world on Sept 30: 33,926,212, up from 33,627,402 one day earlier; total deaths are 1,014,163, up from 1,007,864.
Vaccine distribution challenge is looming, by Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, Sep 28, 2020 The COVID-19 vaccines furthest along in clinical trials are the fastest to make, but they are also the hardest to deploy …On the day that a COVID-19 vaccine is approved, a vast logistics operation will need to awaken. Millions of doses must travel hundreds of miles from manufacturers to hospitals, doctor’s offices, and pharmacies, which in turn must store, track, and eventually get the vaccines to people all across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with state and local health departments, coordinates this process. These agencies distributed flu vaccines during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic this way, and they manage childhood vaccines every day. But the COVID-19 vaccine will be a whole new challenge… The two leading vaccine candidates in the U.S.—one developed by Moderna, the other by a collaboration between Pfizer and the German company BioNTech—have progressed so quickly to clinical trials precisely because they are the fastest to make and manufacture. They rely on a novel vaccine technology whose advantage is speed, but whose downside is extreme physical fragility. These vaccines have to be frozen—in Pfizer/BioNTech’s case, at an ultracold –94 degrees Fahrenheit, colder than most freezers—which will limit how and where they can be shipped…
World surpasses death toll from Covid-19 of one million as death rate appears to decline and possible treatments loom, Associated Press, Sep 27, 2020
Related: India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reaches six million cases, Associated Press, Sep 28, 2020
Global partnership to make available 120 million affordable, quality COVID-19 rapid tests for low- and middle-income countries, press release by World Health Organization, Sep 28, 2020 and read: report in The Guardian, Sep 28, 2020 A set of agreements to make available for low and middle-income countries affordable, high-quality COVID-19 antigen rapid tests were today announced by the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator… The tests developed by U.S. firm Abbott and South Korea’s SD Biosensor are highly portable, reliable, and easy to administer, making testing possible in near-person, decentralized healthcare settings. Both companies’ tests are faster and cheaper than laboratory-based tests, enabling countries to increase the pace of testing, tracing and treating people for COVID-19 at the point of care particularly in areas with under-resourced health systems…
Turkey backs Azerbaijan in war with Armenia, making rival Russia vulnerable. Analysis by Amberin Zaman, Al-Monitor, Sep 30, 2020 As the four-day-old war pitting Azerbaijan against Armenia over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave continues to escalate with dozens of casualties on both sides, there are growing indications that the latest conflagration between the traditionally hostile former Soviet states was not sparked by accident but was preplanned by Azerbaijan and its regional ally Turkey…
[The writer speculates without evidence that Russia may end up supporting Azerbaijan’s territorial ambitions to take control of the autonomous Armenian territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. She hits much closer to the truth in her conclusion: “Through its intervention in the southern Caucasus, Turkey is seeking to create leverage over Russia in Libya but above all in Syria. Turkey’s ‘basic logic’, says analyst Kevork Oskanian, is, ‘If you meddle in my backyard, I’ll meddle in yours.’ “].
Related news:
* Armenian PM says Turkish high-ranking army officers and even army units are in Azerbaijan, TASS Russian news service, Sep 29, 2020
* Armenia says Turkey is sending drones and warplanes to Azerbaijan, The National (UAE), Sep 28, 2020
* Hawkish rhetoric against Armenia explodes in Turkey as Azerbaijan advances in contested enclave, Turkish Minute, Sep 28, 2020
Renewed Azerbaijan/Armenia conflict is a new threat to Russia’s delicate balancing act with key player Turkey, analysis by Professor Paul Robinson, published on RT.com, Sep 28, 2020 (Paul Robinson is a professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, and the author of numerous books on Russia and Soviet history. He publishes his views on current affairs on his website Irrussianality: Russia, the West and the world.)
Related: Russia’s role in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, Report in The Moscow Times (pro-Western weekly published in English in Russia), Sep 27, 2020
Sinophobia Inc: Understanding the anti-China industrial complex, by The Qiao Collective, published on its website Sep 13, 2020
Also by Qiao Collective: The Chinese territory of Xinjiang: An in-depth analysis and resource compilation, by The Qiao Collective, published on its website Sep 21, 2020
The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté testifies at UN on OPCW chemical weapons cover-up in Syria, video of testimony by journalist Aaron Maté (The Grayzone) before ‘Arria Formula’ meeting of members of the UN Security Council at ·September 29, 2020 (From the ‘Working Methods Handbook‘ of the UN Security Council: ‘Arria-formula meetings’ are very informal, confidential gatherings which enable Security Council members to have a frank and private exchange of views, within a flexible procedural framework, with persons whom the inviting member or members of the Council (who also act as the facilitators or convenors) believe it would be beneficial to hear and/or to whom they may wish to convey a message.)
Fake news hoax exposed: NY Times podcast star lied about joining ISIS, by Ben Norton, The Grayzone, Sep 27, 2020 The main source for the New York Times’ award-winning podcast, Caliphate, has been arrested and charged with lying about joining ISIS. The major media outlet had relied on this man’s fabricated story as the core of its reporting, and said two US government officials had independently confirmed his identity. The podcast has aggressively pushed the propaganda line of Syria’s Western government-backed opposition…
Related: Canada’s state broadcaster CBC acknowledges more than two years ago it had accepted the lies of the New York Times’ alleged ‘ISIS fighter’, CBC News, May 19, 2018 [CBC does not, however, acknowledge that its stance in favour of the West’s regime change war in Syria and the Canadian government role predisposed the info-tainment agency to freely spread the lies of ‘Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi’ (code for ‘Abu Huzaifa, the Canadian’). What’s more, as CBC reports, the man was allowed to freely return to Canada after admitting (falsely, it turns out) to committing grisly murders of ‘ISIS’ fighters in Syria.)
Turkey orders 82 arrests targetting pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party oncharges related to 2014 protests against attack on Syrian-Kurdish town of Kobani. Report by Reuters, Sep 25, 2020 and read: report in Al-Monitor by Amberin Zaman, Sep 25, 2020
Related: Selahattin Demirtas, jailed leader of the People’s Democratic party, is an ever-present threat to Erdogan, Turkish Minute, Sep 26, 2020
Turkey’s ‘Blue Homeland’ doctrine is stirring Mediterranean tensions with Greece, Washington Post, Sep 27, 2020
Related: Is Erdogan trying to split NATO with his Eastern Mediterranean gambit?, by Cengiz Candar, Al-Monitor, Aug 28, 2020 Confronted with various problems at home, including deepening financial woes, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan resorts to aggressive and expansionist foreign policy moves to consolidate his support base through fueling nationalism.
Press shows little interest in media trial of century deciding on the extradition of Julian Assange to the U.S. prison system, by Alan MacLeod, Fairness And Accuracy in Reporting, Sep 25, 2020
Related:
* Conflicts of interest in the Julian Assange case: Interview with Matt Kennard, broadcast on the YouTube channel of AcTVism, Sep 25, 2020 (Matt Kennard is an investigative journalist and co-founder of Declassified UK, a news outlet covering British national security issues. He was previously a director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism in Britain.)
* The Guardian’s deceit-riddled new statement denying it betrayed Wikileaks and Julian Assange betrays both Assange and journalism, by Jonathan Cook, published on his website blog, Sep 26, 2020
* A scandal and a crisis over British journalism’s failure to report the extradition trial against Julian Assange, by Jacob Ecclestone and Bernie Corbet, published on Jewish Voice for Labour, Sep 27, 2020 There is a scandal and a crisis in British journalism. For the past three weeks or so, a crucial extradition hearing has been taking place in the Central Criminal Court in London. You won’t know about it if you rely for your news on the established newspapers, the BBC, ITV or Channel 4. They have the resources to report it but they are not doing so…
* Trump is in charge of the political prosecution of Julian Assange, by John Rees, in Counterfire, Sep 23, 2020 A persistent story circulates in some quarters, dating from the 2016 U.S. election, that Donald Trump is a supporter of WikiLeaks. Odd that a U.S. administration headed by a ‘supporter’ of WikiLeaks would take out an 18-count extradition indictment threatening Wikileaks founder Julian Assange with 175 years in jail and causing him to be held in a British high security prison for many months.
* British writer and former diplomat of the UK government Craig Murray is reporting on his website each day of the extradition trial of Julian Assange in London. His latest report, on ‘Day 19’ of the trial, was published on September 29, here.
As schools poised to reopen in New York City on Sep 29, principals vote ‘no confidence’ in mayor and request state gov’t take over operations, NBC News, Sep 28, 2020 and read: report by CNN, Sep 27, 2020 …As of last week, 46 percent of New York City students have chosen all-remote, up from 42 percent the week prior…
Related:
* How New York City schools are scrambling to reopen, New York Times, Sunday, Sep 27, 2020 …New York City is the only major school district in America restarting in-person classes this month, and that herculean task has not unfolded entirely as planned. Mayor Bill de Blasio has twice delayed the start of in-person classes for most students. On Sunday, the union representing the city’s principals called on the state to take over the reopening effort from Mr. de Blasio…
* New York state logs more than 1,000 daily Covid-19 cases; numbers in clusters in New York City continue to rise, NBC News, Sep 26, 2020
* Europe stays committed to in-person classes as school outbreaks remain rare, Washington Post, Sep 27, 2020
Revelations of Trump’s tax avoidance tarnish the image that fueled his rise into the select club of billionaires. Report by Associated Press, Sep 27, 2020 The New York Times has revealed that Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he won the presidency, and in 2017, his first year in office. He paid no income taxes whatsoever in 10 of the previous 15 years, largely because he reported losing more money than he made, according to the Times…
Related:
* Eighteen revelations from a trove of Trump tax records, New York Times, Sep 27, 2020
* The president’s taxes: Long-concealed records show Trump’s chronic losses and years of tax avoidance, investigative report by New York Times, Sep 27, 2020
* Facing financial ruin in 1990, Donald Trump fought to control of his elderly father’s estate. The family fight was epic, Washington Post, Sep 27, 2020
Joint statement by the foreign ministers of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, following their meeting in Moscow on September 11, 2020, translation into English published on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sep 11, 2020
Previously reported: Addresses to the annual meeting (virtual) of the UN General Assembly on Sep 21, 2020, by President Vladimir Putin (here) and President Xi Jinping (here)
The election that could break America, by Bartin Gellman, published online in The Atlantic, Sep 23, 2020 (Atlantic editor’s note: This story appears in the November 2020 print issue of The Atlantic; it is published early on the magazine’s website due to the urgency of the subject.)
Related: A real vaccine before the Nov 3 U.S. election? It would take a miracle, Pro-Publica, Sep 26, 2020
As pandemic winter looms and new cases rise sharply, leaders in Europe and Canada issue stark warnings, Washington Post, Sep 24, 2020
Related world news:
* Political incompetence: The simple reason Spain has been hard hit hard by the coronavirus, New York Times, Sep 23, 2020 Spaniards did their part, staying home and wearing masks. But politicians quarreled among themselves and repeated the mistakes of the first wave of the virus.
* As coronavirus cases soar, India’s hospitals race to secure badly needed oxygen, Washington Post, Sep 26, 2020
* In India, engineers and MBAs are turning to manual labor to survive the economic crash, Washington Post, Sep 24, 2020 …India’s economic output shrank by 24 per cent in the three months to June compared to the same period last year, worse than any other major economy. During the nationwide lockdown, more than 120 million jobs were lost, most of them in the country’s vast informal sector…
* Israel tightens COVID lockdown as infections climb, Associated Press, Sep 23, 2020 [Israel has one of the highest Covid-19 infection rates in the world, at 23,691 cases per million population. Its death rate is 154 per million. New case rates are rising sharply, reaching 11,316 on Sep 23 and 7,425 on Sep 24. Case rates and death rates in the Palestinian territories are one third those of adjacent Israel.].
* Sweden’s Covid-19 response is nothing to envy, by Eleanor Goldfield, Mint Press News, Sep 19, 2020 Eleanor Goldfield reports from Stockholm on how COVID-19 has laid bare the US-style capitalist reality creeping into Sweden’s already struggling socialized programs.
* A quick, corrected calculation on child Covid-19 deaths, by Jim Naureckas, Fairness And Accuracy in Reporting, Sep 25, 2020
Covid in the U.S.: Latest interactive map and case count, in New York Times, Sep 25, 2020
Related U.S. news:
* House leader Nancy Pelosi shifts course, restarts relief push amid signs economy is straining, Washington Post, Sep 24, 2020
* Feared coronavirus outbreaks in schools yet to arrive, early data shows, Washington Post, Sep 23, 2020 Thousands of students and teachers have become sick with the coronavirus since schools began opening last month, but public health experts have found little evidence that the virus is spreading inside buildings, and the rates of infection are far below what is found in the surrounding communities. This early evidence, experts say, suggests that opening schools may not be as risky as many have feared and could guide administrators as they chart the rest of what is already an unprecedented school year… [The findings reported in this news report are not related to colleges and universities.]
* A new, secretive data system by the federal Department of Health and Human Services is shaping federal pandemic response, The Center for Public Integrity, Sep 22, 2020
Is the rush to roll out a coronavirus vaccine undermining safety?, by Michael LePage, New Scientist, print issue of Aug 29, 2020 Read the article here in pdf format: Vaccine safety
Related vaccine news:
* Secret, powerful panels in U.S. will pick Covid-19 vaccine winners, NBC News, Sep 23, 2020 Data and safety monitoring boards work under a cloak of secrecy meant to prevent undue influence. In the Trump era, some worry the anonymity could actually invite undue influence.
* A single-shot coronavirus vaccine from Johnson & Johnson will be tested in 60,000 people in U.S. over several months, Washington Post, Sep 23, 2020 Three other vaccine candidates by U.S. manufacturers have a head start, but J&J’s vaccine could be easier to administer and distribute if it is proved safe and effective.
Debating advocates of ‘herd immunity’ for fighting Covid-19 The following two commentaries are written in response to the interview published in Jacobin Magazine on September 19 with two public health researchers at Harvard University, Katherine Yih and Martin Kulldorff. The commentaries are written by Tim Lacy, Director of the Medical Student Learning Environment at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and Michael Friedman, professor of biology at the American University of Antigua School of Medicine. Author and epidemiologist Rob Wallace drew the commentaries from Facebook and forwarded them as recommended readings; read the commentaries here in pdf format: Debating advocates of ‘herd immunity’ .
U.S. prosecutors at the Julian Assange extradition trial in Britain are using the Guardian to justify jailing Assange for life. Why is the newspaper so silent?, feature essay by Jonathan Cook, published on his website blog, Sep 22, 2020
Dismay over grand jury verdict of Breonna Taylor killing by police in Louisville in March 2020 spills into America’s streets, Associated Press, Sep 24, 2020 None of the three police officers who broke into Breonna Taylor’s apartment with guns blazing will face charges for her death. The grand jury decision relied on information provided by Kentucky attorney general David Cameron, a 34 year-old Black lawyer. He says two officers who killed Breonna Taylor with multiple shootings were justified.
Related:
* Protesters back in streets after Breonna Taylor ruling, Washington Post, Sep 24, 2020
* Portland police and federal agents break up protest in downtown Portland over Breonna Taylor grand jury decision, The Oregonian, Sep 23, 2020
* What were the results of the grand jury investigation of the police killing of Breonna Taylor?, Associated Press, Sep 24, 2020
* Why were police at Breonna Taylor’s home on March 13? Here’s what an investigative summary says, Louisville Courier Journal (USA Today), Sep 4, 2020
* Kentucky’s attorney general on Breonna Taylor case: ‘I understand as a Black man, but acting on outrage is no justice’ Washington Post, Sep 23, 2020
* Few police officers who cause deaths are charged or convicted, New York Times, Sep 24, 2020 …Union protections that shield police officers from timely investigation, legal standards that give them the benefit of the doubt, and a tendency to take officers at their word have added up to few convictions and little prison time for officers who kill. On top of that, misconduct and poor judgment do not always amount to criminality…
Canada, the U.S. and Britain are teaming up to impose sanctions against the people of Belarus. Report by CBC News, Sep 24, 2020 [The three members of the ‘Five Eyes’ spying alliance are acting unilaterally. They are bypassing the countries of the European Union in order to exert pressure on them to also impose sanctions. All this is happening in the midst of a global pandemic that remains out of control, including in the very countries taking aggressive sanctions. So much for distracting talk by politicians and corporate media mouthpieces that Western countries have a chance to create a ‘better world’ in the wake of the pandemic.]
Leaked documents expose massive Syria propaganda operation waged by Western governments, contractors and media, by Ben Norton, The Grayzone, Sep 23, 2020 Western government-funded intelligence cutouts trained Syrian opposition leaders, planted stories in media outlets from BBC to Al Jazeera, and ran a cadre of journalists. A trove of leaked documents exposes the propaganda network.
Isabel Wilkerson’s book ‘Caste’ reflects the the discontent of a ruling class in crisis, by Anthony Monteiro, Black Agenda Report, Sep 23, 2020 A New York Times reviewer called Isabel Wilkerson’s new book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent “an instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far”. It is neither. Oprah says it “might well save us”. It won’t. It is a book IN this time, not FOR this time…
At UN General Assembly, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns against a ‘new Cold War’ while Trump disparages China and the World Health Organization. Report by Deutche Welle, Sep 22, 2020
Vladimir Putin speaks to the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, calls for cooperation in fighting pandemic and lessening of arms race. Text of the speech published on the website of the President of Russia, Sep 22, 2020 Here are excerpts from the speech:
…I am convinced that this anniversary makes it incumbent upon all of us to recall the timeless principles of inter-state communication enshrined in the UN Charter and formulated by the founding fathers of our universal Organization in the clearest and most unambiguous terms. These principles include the equality of sovereign States, non-interference with their domestic affairs, the right of peoples to determine their own future, non-use of force or the threat of force, and political settlement of disputes.
…Experts are yet to fully assess the scale of the social and economic shock caused by the pandemic and all its long-term consequences. However, it is already evident that it will take a really, really long time to restore the global economy. Furthermore, even the proven anti-crisis measures will not always work. We will need new innovative solutions. The only way to elaborate such solutions is to work together… We have to do our utmost to prevent this unemployment from growing long-term and ensure that people return to work and can support their families instead of finding themselves imprisoned by poverty with no prospects in life… Russia is sure that all capacities of the global pharmaceutical industry need to be employed so as to provide a free access to vaccination for the population of all states in the foreseeable future.
Text of speech by Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Reublic of China, to the annual general meeting of the UN General Assembly, Sep 22, 2020. Read the text here.
On the day that world leaders gathered in New York City for the 71st annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, the New York Times editorial board publishes a harsh anti-Russia editorial. Sep 23, 2020
[The New York Times published a harsh editorial on September 22 directed against the people and government of Russia. It is titled ‘Vladimir Putin thinks he can get away with anything’. The editorial all-but accuses the Russian president of ordering the killing of fringe opposition politician Alexei Navalny. It reads, “In the face of Kremlin stonewalling, many questions remain unanswered and are likely to remain so. Chief among them is whether President Vladimir Putin ordered or approved the attempted assassination.” The sum total of evidence for the accusation of ‘poisoning’ of Navalny are claims made by police and government officials in NATO-member Germany. No evidence has been provided by Germany to the world or to the Russian government. The message is ‘trust us’.
[It is no coincidence that the Times editorial appeared on the very day when President Putin delivered his address to the annual (virtual) meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. His speech called for international cooperation in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and for ending the new arms race being spearheaded by Washington. These ideas are anathema to the military-industrial complex that rules in Washington and to the corporate media that serves it in the U.S. and in its allied countries.
[In his speech to the virtual UN gathering, Donald Trump praised his regime’s grim pandemic record, calling it a success. He opened with a racist meme: “Seventy-five years after the end of World War II and the founding of the United Nations, we are once again engaged in a great global struggle. We have waged a fierce battle against the invisible enemy — the China virus…” It was all downhill from there. Trump bragged and then repeated his racist accusation against China: “…We will distribute a vaccine, we will defeat the virus, we will end the pandemic, and we will enter a new era of unprecedented prosperity, cooperation, and peace. As we pursue this bright future, we must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world: China…”
[Like Trump himself, the New York Times editorial board lives in a fantasy world and is a threat to the safety and well being of the world’s people. That’s also true for the entirety of corporate media in the West. CNN has published a harsh, anti-China commentary on the speech to the General Assembly by China’s president Xi Jinping. The commentary notes the contempt with which the United States is increasingly held under Trump and the contrasting respect for China, including for its cooperative assistance in fighting the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. CNN notes uncomfortably, “Trump spent much of his UNGA speech attacking China, which he blamed for having ‘unleashed this plague onto the world’.” But the CNN commentary is nothing more than a harsh attack against China. Its headline summarizes the impossible balancing act in which the publication’s editors walk, and it also shows to whom CNN owes its ultimate loyalty: ‘Contrast couldn’t be greater between Trump and Xi at the UN, but Chinese leader is the true authoritarian’, reads the headline. The Washington Post, for its part, recently published a series of eight editorials arguing against a re-election of Donald Trump. But when it comes to Russia and China–even more when it comes to Venezuela and Cuba–the newspaper is no less aggressive and no less imperialist than its New York Times and CNN counterparts.
[One big reason for the hatred by corporate media in the West against Russia and China is the two countries’ principled defense of the sovereignty of countries that come under attack by imperialism. This was a centrepiece of the UN speeches by presidents Putin and Xi Jinping. Two countries most targetted by the imperialists are Cuba and Venezuela. A sharp reminder of this is delivered in a New York Times article on September 23 reviewing the grim toll of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the countries of Latin America. The article explains, “No part of the world has been as devastated by the pandemic as Latin America. Mexico, Brazil, Peru and other Latin American countries — hobbled by weak health systems, severe inequality and government indifference — have several of the highest deaths per capita from the virus in the world.” No mention whatsoever is made in the article of the record of Cuba and Venezuela, whose successes in combatting the pandemic stand in sharp relief to the record of the countries that live, and are dying, in the orbit of dominance by the U.S. and its imperialist allies in Canada and Europe.]
Russia rejects conditions set by Trump regime for renewing the 2010 ‘New Start’ nuclear missle treaty, report by Reuters, citing TASS, Sep 21, 2020 and read: U.S. scrambles to do nuclear deal with Russia before election, issuing ultimatum, Washington Post, Sep 22, 2020 [‘New Start was negotiated by the U.S. and Russia and came into force in February 2011 (Wikipedia). It is the last, remaining nuclear weapons treaty between the U.S. and Russia after the U.S. walked out on other treaties. See: U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control agreements at a glance, by Arms Control Association (based in Washington DC)]
After 200,000 coronavirus deaths, the U.S. faces a persisten pandemic, by Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, Sep 22, 2020
Related:
* Death toll from coronavirus in the U.S. hits 200,000; public health researcher at prestigious institute calls it ‘completely unfathomable’, Associated Press, Sep 22, 2020 Commenting on the grim milestone, Donald Trump said the toll would be 2.5 million if not for his regime’s actions
* Coronavirus case numbers are rising in 27 states, spurring warnings of autumn surge, Washington Post, Sep 22, 2020 Twenty-seven states and Puerto Rico have shown an increase in the seven-day average of new confirmed cases since the final week of August, according to analysis of public health data. Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Utah set record high, seven-day averages on September 21…
How QAnon conspiracy theories spread in my Colorado hometown, by Aída Chávez, The Intercept, Sep 23, 2020 During the pandemic, some of the people I grew up with got sucked into QAnon and the Q-adjacent ‘Save the Children’ movement
Face shields ineffective at trapping aerosols, says Japanese supercomputer, The Independent, Sep 22, 2020
CDC reverses itself and withdraws guidelines it posted on its website, saying its warnings of coronavirus airborne transmission were wrong, Washington Post, Sep 21, 2020
Related:
* No matter what the CDC says, here’s why many scientists think the coronavirus is airborne, news report in Washington Post, Sep 21, 2020
* Yes, airborne transmission is happening. The CDC needs to set the record straight, commentary in Washington Post, Sep 22, 2020
* The shortages of N95 masks that America can’t seem to fix, Washington Post, Sep 21, 2020
Russia has great confidence in its COVID-19 vaccine, unlike Western manufacturers it will share legal liability with those who buy it or receive it, Reuters, Sep 21, 2020
Previously reported:
* China and Russia adopt ‘one team’ mindset on SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccine development, report by Nikkei Asian Review, Sep 18, 2020
* China and Russia are ahead in the global coronavirus vaccine race, Washington Post, Sep 18, 2020
[Friday, September 18 was the deadline for wealthy countries to sign onto and pay into the international cooperative vaccine project for SARS-CoV-2 titled ‘Covax’. The project is led by the World Health Organization; GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance; and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). The list of wealthy countries that have signed a ‘commitment agreement’ and ‘confirmation of intent to participate’ is published here on the website of GAVI. The U.S. has specifically repudiated participation while some of its imperialist allies, including Canada, have been playing the double game of “expressing interest” in the project while simultaneously using their financial clout to pay pharmaceutical companies for guaranteed supplies of whatever successful vaccines the companies may eventually develop. Canada, for one, just signed its fifth such agreement, for a total expense of one billion dollars (CBC News). According to the CBC, Canada still has not made a specific financial commitment to Covax, though September 18 was supposedly the deadline date to do so (already postponed from August 31 due to laggard countries). Ninety two low- and middle-income countries have for some time signed on as member-beneficiaries of the project. The list of the 92 countries as well as details of how the project is to be administered is contained in this media release by GAVI dated July 31, 2020. China and Russia have not joined Covax because they are already producing vaccines with initial distributions and have committed to sharing their vaccines with poorer countries as the vaccines pass clinical tests. As well, the two countries are victims of economic sanctions by Western governments and so cannot depend on cooperation from such governments for critically important ventures such as vaccine development.]
U.S. to hit 200,000 dead from Covid-19 but Trump sees no need for regret, Associated Press, Sep 20, 2020
Related:
* What we know about coronavirus cases in K-12 schools in U.S. so far, interactive feature in New York Times, Sep 21, 2020 More than one month after the first school districts in the U.S. have welcomed students back for in-person instruction, it is nearly impossible to tally a precise figure of how many cases have been identified in schools. There is no federal effort to monitor coronavirus cases in schools, and reporting by school districts is uneven. One independent effort has counted more than 21,000 cases this school year…
* For most NYC students, back to school but not the classroom, Associated Press, Sep 20, 2020
Israel, France and Spain beat the coronavirus but are now reporting higher infection rates than the U.S., New York Times, Sep 19, 2020
Related Europe news: Sweden spared surge of virus cases but many questions remain, Associated Press, Sep 20, 2020 [For the past three months, the number of new Covid-19 cases in Sweden has largely fluctuated between 200 and 400. The latest counts for Sep 16, 17 and 18 are 295, 334, 224, respectively. That compares to 2021, 2177 and 2202 for Germany on the same dates. It has eight times the population of Sweden, meaning Sweden is suffering slightly higher rates of new infections. Meanwhile, Sweden has a grisly death rate from Covid-19, from the beginning of the pandemic in March into a long, slow decline to today’s very low daily numbers (below five since mid-July). The country’s death rate as of September 21, 2020 is 580 per million population, behind Brazil’s 643 and world-leading Peru at 948, but fives times that of Germany’s 113 and mega-times that of Venezuela’s 20 and Cuba’s 10. total deaths in Sweden are neearly 6,000, of which 88 per cent have been among those aged 70 and over.]
Release WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from detention in UK, say current and former world leaders in open letter, NBC News, Sep 21, 2020
[On August 14, an open letter by legal professionals across the globe called on the British government to end the extradition hearing against Julian Assange and release him from detention. The ten-page letter provides a detailed review of Julian Assange’s legal saga in Britain, including his ongoing detention and the effort to extradite him into the U.S. prison gulag. Assange faces life imprisonment in the U.S. for publishing evidence of war crimes and global diplomatic conspiracies by the United States and its allies. The letter has now been signed by more than 170 political leaders and representatives in the world. Read the letter and both lists of signatories at the website of Lawyers For Assange. Writer Craig Murray is part of Assange’s defense effort and is providing daily reports directly from the Old Bailey courthouse, here on his website.].
Previously reported:
* Julian Assange show trial in UK resumes: Why the U.S. government wants him silenced, by Ron Ridenour, Covert Action Magazine, Sept 7, 2020 [Covert Action was founded in 1978 by former CIA officer turned agency critic Philip Agee along with William Schaap, James and Elsie Wilcott, Ellen Ray, William Kunstler, Michael Ratner, and Lou Wolf in 1978. It was created in order to carry on the work of the preceding publication CounterSpy Magazine, which had been shut down as a result of CIA harassment. Wikipedia].
* UK court weighs extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to U.S., by Matthias von Hein, Deutsche Welle, Sep 7, 2020
* WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange objects to U.S. extradition in London court, Deutsche Welle, Sep 7, 2020
* Human rights and press freedom advocates denied remote access to Assange extradition hearing, Common Dreams, Sep 7, 2020
Luxury cars, MAGA flags and Facebook invites: How an unknown Idaho family organized the extreme-right rally in Portland on August 29 that turned deadly, Washington Post, Sep 21, 2020
Related:
* Omaha reels as man accused of killing Black Lives Matter protester found dead near Portland, Oregon, Washington Post, Sep 21, 2020
* Federal agencies tapped protesters’ phones in Portland, by Ken Klippenstein, The Nation, Sep 21, 2020 The Department of Homeland Security has not yet come clean to the public about the full extent of its intelligence operations in Portland
* U.S. law enforcement’s warrior complex is on full display in the streets— and in the ‘Blueleaks’ documents revelations, by Chris Gelardi, The Nation, Aug 28, 2020
U.S. says Iran sanctions back on, but the world is ignoring Washington, Al Jazeera, Monday, Sep 21, 2020
Related: U.S. will never see return of ‘non-existent’ anti-Iran resolutions declares Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Press TV, Sep 21, 2020
[The Trump administration unilaterally declared on September 19 that it considers all ‘snapback’ UN sanctions against Iran to be restored. Most of the world will quietly ignore the pronouncement, though contrary to the impression left by Al Jazeera, most of the leading imperialist countries in the world do maintain restrictions if not sanctions in their relations with Iran. Canada, for example, closed its embassy in Tehran in 2012 and never re-opened it. (See: ‘Sanctions against Iran’, in Wikipedia.) ‘Snapback’ refers to the mechanisms in the 2015 nuclear energy agreement between Iran and member countries of the United Nations. The agreement lifted many of the most crushing sanctions then in place against the Islamic Republic, but these would ‘snap back’ into place should Iran be found in violation of the agreement. The United States walked out of the 2015 agreement on November 5, 2018, so it cannot invoke the snap back mechanisms because it is no longer a party to the agreement. The annual, high-level meetings of the UN General Assembly commence on September 21.]
U.S. image plummets internationally as most say country has handled coronavirus badly, report by Pew Research Center, Sep 15, 2020 (with extensive charts of polling results)
The tussle over TikTok between the U.S. and China shows an accelerted but uneven economic ‘decoupling’, Washington Post, Sep 20, 2020 The White House’s latest crackdown comes eight months after partial trade and investment deal was meant to boost economic ties
Related:
* U.S. restricts tech exports to China’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer in escalation of trade tensions, Washington Post, Sep 26, 2020
* Canada breaks off talks with China over new trade and investment rules, Reuters, Sep 18, 2020 [The Canadian government has ended talks with its Chinese counterpart for a broad trade and investment regime (so called free trade agreement). The news is reported in subscriber-only content in the anti-China Globe and Mail daily, citing an interview by it with Canada’s new foreign minister, François-Philippe Champagne. China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner. Total trade between the two countries topped $100 billion in 2018 and fell just under that mark in 2019. For several years, the Globe and Mail has waged a vigorous campaign to convince the Canadian government to follow in the footsteps of the Trump regime and harden its relations with China. The campaign has the participation of all of Canada’s corporate and state-run media.].
* U.S. issues sweeping new travel warning against China and Hong Kong, Associated Press, Sep 15, 2020
To beat the coronavirus, build a better fence [border control], feature essay with interactive maps and charts, in New York Times, Sep 14, 2020
Related U.S.news:
* California’s deadliest spring in 20 years suggests Covid-19 undercount, Kaiser Health News, Sep 21, 2020 By the end of July, California had logged about 9,200 deaths officially attributed to COVID-19 in county death records, leaving about 5,000 ‘excess’ deaths for those months
* As people in Oregon tried to avoid wildfires, coronavirus cases spiked, Washington Post, Sep 19, 2020 The weeks that Oregonians spent avoiding the outdoors because of wildfires and smoke have given America some insight into what cooler days may bring to a pandemic-ravaged nation as fall arrives this week…
* Urban hospitals of last resort in U.S. cling to life in time of Covid-19, by Jordan Rau and Emmarie Huetteman, Kaiser Health News, Sep 18, 2020
Stephen F. Cohen, influential historian of Russia, dies at 81, by Robert D. McFadden, New York Times, Sep 18, 2020
…Loosely identified with a revisionist historical view of the Soviet Union, Professor Cohen held views that made him a controversial public intellectual. He believed that early Bolshevism had held great promise, had been democratic and genuinely socialist and was corrupted only later by civil war, foreign hostility, Stalin’s malignancy and a fatalism in Russian history… Professor Cohen first came to international attention in 1973 with Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution, a biography of Lenin’s protégé Nikolai Bukharin who envisioned Communism as a blend of state-run industries and free-market agriculture [book review by Harrison Salisbury here]. Critics generally applauded the work, which was a finalist for a National Book Award… …In his 1985 book Rethinking the Soviet Experience, Professor Cohen offered a new interpretation of the nation’s traumatic history and modern political realities. In his view, Stalin’s despotism and Mr. Bukharin’s fate were not necessarily inevitable outgrowths of the party dictatorship founded by Lenin…
[The New York Times obituary of Stephen Cohen neglects to Cohen’s outspoken opposition to the new cold war gang-up against the Russian government and people by the imperialist countries in the NATO military alliance. The gang-up began in 2014 when the Russian government refused to accept the legitimacy of the extreme-right coup d’etat in Ukraine in February 2014. Most damning, from the NATO viewpoint, were the Russian government’s actions in defending the people of Crimea as they quickly came under threat by the new coup regime. Most Western leftists–confused by ultraleft dogma, influenced by the ingrained, anti-Russia prejudices dating from the Cold War era, and spoiled by the material comforts of living in the West–have turned their backs on the people of Russia and Crimea, refusing to oppose the harsh sanctions and constant military threats by the NATO powers against them. Stephen Cohen’s 1973 biography of Nicolai Bukharin has long been cast aside by these leftists because they reject the lessons of the successful, mixed-economy New Economic Policy that guided the early Soviet Union from 1921 until the policy’s abrupt ending in 1928 by the rising governing regime led by Joseph Stalin.
[Not to be silenced, some of the comfortable leftists are now, following the death of Cohen, penning assessments of Bukharin’s economic theories. Bukharin’s analysis of the rise of capitalist imperialism as well as his advocacy of the mixed-economy ‘New Economic Policy’ closely paralleled those of his colleague and acknowledged inspiration VI Lenin. But the modern-day epigones are casting Bukharin as an advocate of capitalist restoration in his time and an ideological inspiration for the capitalist penetrations that transformed the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China during the 1980s and 1990s. They are simultaneously ignoring Stephen Cohen’s magistral analysis of the economic policies of the Soviet Union during its first 20 years, as contained in his 1973 biography of Bukharin and in later writings.]
Conspiracy theories by cops fuel far-right attacks against antiracist protesters, by Shane Burley and Alexander Reid Ross, Truthout.org, Sep 18, 2020 …Analysis from The Oregonian shows that of the 40 people killed by Portland police since 2003, a disproportionate number were Black. Of the 65 police who had fired their guns in these incidents, none were grand juried or faced discipline…
What happens with the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy following the death of Ruth Ginsberg?, Associated Press, Sep 19, 2020
Related:
* Does Trump have time to install a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg?, Deutsche Welle, Sep 19, 2020
* What the cult of Ruth Bader Ginsburg got wrong, Mother Jones, Nov 24, 2018 Fans defended her choice not to retire under President Obama. Now it may be too late. [Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized on November 7, 2018 with three broken ribs after falling in her office the day before. President Bill Clinton nominated Ginsburg for the Supreme Court in 1993, when she was 60. She was the second woman named to the court after Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who had been appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981.]
Coronavirus infection rates soar in U.S. college towns as students return, Associated Press, Sep 17, 2020
More U.S. news:
* New York City school plans shift as physical opening postponed to Sep 21 while most students will start remotely, Washington Post, Sep 17, 2020
* Coronavirus testing guidance issued in August by CDC was issued against the objections of the agency’s scientists; more ‘chilling’ examples of political interference are happening. Report by New York Times, Sep 17, 2020 and read: report in Common Dreams, Sep 18, 2020
* Trump contradicts health advisers on coronavirus vaccine timetable as death toll mounts, Washington Post, Sep 17, 2020
* More than 50,000 workers have taken time off for virus-related reasons, slowing mail delivery, by Maryam Jameel and Ryan McCarthy Pro-Publica, Sep 18, 2020
* More cities and states are opening bars and restaurants despite mounting evidence of potential danger, Washington Post, Sep 14, 2020
Testing and tracing for SARSCoV-2 virus: How do countries compare? report in The Guardian, Sep 18, 2020 In the absence of an effective treatment or vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, identifying and isolating infected people is currently the only option.
More world news: Health care workers make up one in seven Covid-19 cases recorded globally, WHO says, Washington Post, Sep 17, 2020
Showdown set with its allies as U.S. to unilaterally resume former UN sanctions against Iran, Associated Press, Sep 17, 2020 and read: report in Washington Post, Sep 17, 2020 …The United States claims that, as an original participant in the [internationally negotiated nuclear energy deal with Iran in 2015, Wikipedia], it has the legal right to force reimposed sanctions over the objections of the other countries that negotiated the agreement. The U.S. case was rebuffed in a Security Council meeting last month, as every member except the Dominican Republic argued the United States gave up the authority to do so when it left the deal…
Courts strike Green Party presidential campaign off the ballot, first in Wisconsin, now in Pennsylvania, Washington Post, Sep 17, 2020 and read: report in Courthouse News, Sep 17, 2020
Related:
* Wisconsin high court blocks Green Party presidential ticket from 2020 ballot, Courthouse News, Sep 14, 2020 …Republicans on the commission fought for the Green Party ticket to be added, while the commission’s Democrats resisted…
* Are liberal environmentalists too compromised to fight for real solutions?, commentary by Howie Hawkins (Green Party U.S. presidential candidate), published in CounterPunch, Sep 18, 2020 [This above commentary by Green Party U.S. presidential candidate Howie Hawkins is in reply to this story: The founders of the environmental movement have a message: Don’t vote for the Green Party, report in The Daily Beast, Sep 14, 2020 A group of some of the most revered and longest-active environmentalists issued a dire warning to the next generation of activists on Monday: Don’t vote for the Green Party this year. And don’t sit out the election either. The warning comes in the form of a letter signed by more than 170 top environmental leaders… The text of the two-page letter by environmental leaders is at the Daily Beast weblink. The list of signatories is not included there.]
Cage of gold: The corrupt business of deportation in the USA, essay and book review by Rachel Nolan, Harper’s Magazine, print issue of September 2020 read the essay here in pdf format: Cage of gold, Harper’s Mag., Sept 2020 reviewing: The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants, by Adam Goodman. Princeton University Press. 336 pp
Related:
* Trump cabinet officials voted in 2018 White House meeting to separate migrant children, say officials present at the vote, by Julia Ainsley and Jacob Soboroff, NBC News, Aug 20, 2020
* Interview with journalist and Jacob Sororoff, author of newly published ‘Separated: Inside an American Tragedy’, 22-minute interview broadcast on CBC Radio One, Sep 18, 2020 (interview begins at 22′ mark)
A small group of wealthy nations have bought up more than half the future supply of leading Covid-19 vaccine contenders, OXFAM charges, press release by OXFAM, Sep 17, 2020 …Oxfam and other organizations across the world are calling for a ‘people’s vaccine’–available to everyone, free of charge and distributed fairly based on need. This will only be possible if pharmaceutical corporations allow vaccines to be produced as widely as possible by freely sharing their knowledge free of patents instead of protecting their monopolies and selling to the highest bidder…
Related:
* Rich nations have bought up half of Covid vaccine future supply, Oxfam says, while Russia offers affordable options to developing countries, RT, Sep 17, 2020 …Completely omitted in the Oxfam report is the fact that Russia’s Gamaleya Federal Research Center – the state scientific institution behind the development of one of the five “most promising” vaccines mentioned by the charity – is ready and willing to share its technology with almost 30 nations. [Also omitted by OXFAM is any mention of the COVAX vaccine-sharing program spearheaded by the World Health Organization and others. The deadline for wealthy countries to join the program by making a financial commitment is September 18.].
* Russia’s sovereign wealth fund partners with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories in India for trials and distribution of Sputnik V vaccine in that country, Hindustan Times, Sep 16, 2020
After early warnings of the deadly threat from the coronavirus, Trump was distracted and downplayed the threat, Washington Post, Sep 16, 2020 In explaining why he repeatedly misled the American public about the early dangers posed by the novel coronavirus, President Trump has argued that he did not want to engender panic — and suggested that his actions showed he took the looming pandemic seriously. But a detailed review of the 10-day period from late January, when Trump was first warned about the scale of the threat, and early February — when he acknowledged to author Bob Woodward the extent of the danger the virus posed — reveals a president who took relatively few serious measures to ready the nation for its arrival. Instead, enabled by top administration officials, Trump largely attempted to pretend the virus did not exist…
Related:
* Trump disputes health officials, sees mass vaccinations soon and contests effectivenes of masks for Covid-19 protection, Associated Press, Sep 16, 2020 see also: report in New York Times, Sep 17, 2020
* Michael Caputo, the top communication official of U.S. Dep’t of Health and Human Services, is ‘on leave’ following conspiratorial rants accusing scientists of ‘sedition’ and warning of ‘insurrection’ should Trump lose Nov 3 election, Washington Post, Sep 16, 2020
[Caputo’s chief ‘advisor’ is a Canadian on leave from McMaster University with a record of denying the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic. Paul Alexander has lost his posting at the HHS.].
* Trump’s ABC town hall on Sep 15 revealed a president disconnected from reality, VOX.com, Sep 16, 2020
* New study confirms the rapid spread of Covid-19 in North America began in eastern U.S. by travelers from Europe, not in the west by travelers from China, Toronto Star, Sep 16, 2020
Top commander of Canadian army says he plans to issue special order to purge the army of its extreme-right cadre. Report by CBC News, Sep 16, 2020
Related:
* German officials call for tougher measures against far-right elements in the police after 29 officers are suspended in state of North-Rhine Westphalia, Deutsche Welle, Sep 17, 2020
* New figures showing rise of right-wing extremism in German military are ‘tip of the iceberg’, Deutche Welle, Jan 27, 2020
Scathing Congressional report on Boeing Max 737 crashes says engineers did faulty work, company covered up its failings, Associated Press, Sep 17, 2020 …”The fact that a compliant airplane suffered from two deadly crashes in less than five months is clear evidence that the current regulatory system is fundamentally flawed and needs to be repaired,” staff wrote in the report released early on September 17…
From doorknobs in Salisbury, England to water bottles in Russia: The Guardian’s top anti-Russia reporter cites Instagram video for accusation that Alexei Navlany was poisoned by ‘novichok’ smeared on hotel water bottle. Report in The Guardian, Sep 17, 2020 [The Guardian does not mention that the Instagram video cited as its source for its story appeared on the Instagram account of… Alexei Navalny. The Guardian is a pro-Western daily published in the UK which plays a double game. It publishes typical, corporate media news and analysis opposing the rights of the Palestinian people, favoring the violent overthrow of the Venezuela government, supporting sanctions and the new cold war against Russia, and on and on. Simultaneously, the newspaper publishes reputable environmental news and it provides space to willing writers with left-wing analysis of social affairs.]
Pandemic still soaring in India as it surpasses five million cases, Associated Press, Sep 16, 2020 …The world’s second-most populous country has added more than one million cases this month alone and is expected to become the pandemic’s worst-hit country within weeks, surpassing the United States where more than 6.6 million people have been infected…
‘A World In Disorder’: Report by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board condemns global failure to heed COVID-19 warnings, Agence France presse, Sep 14, 2020
[A collective failure by leaders of the world’s wealthiest countries to heed warnings and prepare for an infectious disease pandemic has transformed “a world at risk” into a “world in disorder”, according to a new report on international epidemic preparedness. “Financial and political investments in preparedness have been insufficient, and we are all paying the price,” says the 52-page report by The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) issued on September 14.] Related:
* Text of ‘A World In Disorder’, the annual report (2020) by The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. Read the 52-page report here, issued on September 14, 2020
* A world in disorder: Text of remarks by WHO Director-General at the release of the 2020 annual report by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, published on Relief Web, Sep 14, 2020
* Timeline of WHO’s Covid-19 response, published on the World Health Organization website
Climate change will force a new American migration, in-depth essay by Abrahm Lustgarten, published by Pro Publica, Sep 15, 2020
Related: New climate maps show a transformed United States, by Al Shaw and Abrahm Lustgarten of ProPublica, and Jeremy W. Goldsmith, published by ProPublica, Sep 15, 2020 (with extensive interactive maps) According to new data from the Rhodium Group analyzed by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, warming temperatures and changing rainfall will drive agriculture and temperate climates northward, while sea level rise will consume coastlines and dangerous levels of humidity will swamp the Mississippi River valley. Taken with other recent research showing that the most habitable climate in North America will shift northward and the incidence of large fires will increase across the country, this suggests that the climate crisis will profoundly interrupt the way we live and farm in the United States…
City of Louisville, Kentucky reaches $12 million lawsuit settlement with family of Breonna Taylor, mother says criminal charges against the police needed. Report in Michigan Live, Sep 15, 2020
The Trump regime’s perverse election campaign, talking of the moment when ‘the shootings’ and ‘martial law’ will begin. Column by Jamelle Bouie, in New York Times, Sep 15, 2020
Related:
* Trump’s shredding of civil liberties won’t stop with Antifa, column by Michelle Goldberg, in New York Times, Sep 14, 2020 [Michael Forest Reinoehl was hunted down and killed by deputized federal agents on September 3 in Lacey, Washington state. A key eyewitness disputes the claim by agents, repeted as fact by corporate media, that Reinoehl had a gun and fired at them. He was accused by police of killing far-right paramilitary Aaron Danielson in Portland on August 29. The president called his killing “retribution”. ‘We are so far gone,’ writes NYT columnist Michelle Goldberg.].
* Michael Caputo, appointed by Trump in April to head Covid-19 related communications, attacks health scientists and urges armed revolt if Trump loses Nov 15 election, New York Times, Sep 14, 2020
The United States’ technological dominance gives it an immense power, including its drive to decapitate Huawei. But how long will that last?, commentary by Christopher Miller, in New York Times, Sep 15, 2020 (Christopher Miller is an economic historian at Tufts University and the author of a forthcoming book on the political history of the computer chip.)
Trump ignores science at dangerous indoor rally in Nevada, CNN, Sep 14, 2020 President Donald Trump offered a glaring new example of his refusal to put medical science before politics with a large indoor rally in Henderson, Nevada on September 13 that made a mockery of social distancing, while the pandemic he mismanaged has now claimed more than 194,000 American lives. The event was his second rally in as many days in the state did not only risk the health of those present, thousands of whom were packed together inside a manufacturing facility in defiance of the state’s ban on local gatherings of 50 people or more. It also has the potential to turn into a super spreader event…
Related: Devastating wildfires in western U.S. inject climate change into the presidential campaign, Washington Post, Sep 14, 2020 …While heavily criticizing the president for what he called a lack of vision, Biden stuck to promoting climate policies with wide support and avoided addressing politically thorny topics like the Green New Deal many liberal activists have demanded…
USDA and meatpacking industry collaborated to undermine Covid-19 response, documents show, Common Dreams, Sep 15, 2020
Related: More than 200 meat plant workers in the U.S. have died of Covid-19. Federal regulators issued just two modest fines, Washington Post, Sep 13, 2020
Hospitals in U.S. prepare for ‘nightmare’ scenario of flu and coronavirus striking at same time, Washington Post, Sep 11, 2020 …Every year over the past decade, influenza has caused between 140,000 and 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 and 61,000 deaths in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
Defeating COVID-19 calls for global solidarity, not a vaccine power play. Open letter by the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research and the Canadian Society for International Health, September 11, 2020. Read the open letter here. Read a related Canadian Press news story here.
Related news reports:
* The Covid-19 vaccine gamble: where bets have been placed and why.
[This news report appears in The Guardian on September 11 and provides detail on where the COVAX project stands. The Guardian is a pro-Western daily published in the UK which plays a double game. It publishes typical, corporate media news and analysis opposing the rights of the Palestinian people, favoring the violent overthrow of the Venezuela government, supporting sanctions and the new cold war against Russia, and on and on. Simultaneously, the newspaper publishes reputable environmental news and it provides space to willing writers with left-wing analysis of social affairs.].
Previously reported:
* World Health Organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu warns that ‘vaccine nationalism’ will prolong pandemic, Reuters, Sep 4, 2020
[COVAX is an international partnership aiming to speed vaccine development, secure doses for all countries, and distribute them to the most high-risk segment of each population. It is led by three organizations—the World Health Organization; GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance; and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Ninety two low- and middle-income countries are member-beneficiaries of the project. The U.S. has specifically repudiated the COVAX project while other wealthy countries, including Canada, are dallying in meeting the September 18 deadline. Most wealthy countries are striking private deals with vaccine manufacturers to assure supplies of whichever vaccines are manufactured and pass clinical trials. The deadline for joining COVAX (and paying financial support for it) was extended from August 31 due to wealthy-country dallying. See the report on the COVAX project below on this website page, entry dated September 1, 2020.].
* The global race for a COVID-19 vaccine is underway. Here’s Canada strategy to emerge a winner, Toronto Star, Sep 6, 2020 [The Toronto Star introduces this article as follows: ‘This is the first in an ongoing series of stories — The Road to a Vaccine — that will look at Canada’s quest to secure a COVID-19 vaccine amid the global pandemic, as well as the hurdles and history it faces to do so.’ The article describes Canada’s privileged and greedy quest to obtain its own supply of Covid-19 vaccine-to-be-developed. The article briefly mentions the contrasting ‘COVAX’ project, led by the World Health Organization and two other organizations, which is a cooperative venture to ensure, among other goals, that poor countries receive equal access to whatever vaccines are produced (and pass clinical trials) by pharmaceutical companies or state health care agencies. The article falsely presents Canada as a participant in COVAX. It is not. Months ago, Canada joined a list of wealthy countries formally ‘expressing interest’ in the project. But many of these ‘interested’ countries, including Canada, failed to meet the August 31 deadline to pay a required financial commitment. (The deadline has been extended to September 18 due to the large number of other deliquent wealthy countries; the U.S. has formally refused to join COVAX.) The article mentions the Covid-19 vaccine that Russia has developed, but fails to mention the recent report by The Lancet medical journal reporting positive, initial results.].
* Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine shows positive antibody response in initial trials, Reuters, Sep 4, 2020
* The Russian vaccine for COVID-19, by Talha Khan Burki, The Lancet, Sep 4, 2020
The Franco-American designs on Lebanon, by As’ad AbuKhalil, Consortium News, Sep 13, 2020
Despite appearances to the contrary, French president Emmanuel Macron is implementing a phased version of a U.S. plan that has failed so far to exclude and boycott Hizbullah
Israel’s home demolitions in West Bank have spiked during pandemic says UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Al Monitor, Sep 12, 2020
The current ‘Great Depression’ in jobs in the U.S., by Jack Rasmus, published on his website, Sep 9, 2020
Related:
* Medicaid rolls swell amid the pandemic’s historic job losses, straining state budgets, Washington Post, Sep 14, 2020 Medicaid is medical insurance for the poor that is a shared responsibility of the federal government and states, begun as a pillar of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society expansion of government help of the 1960s.
* The big corporate rescue and the America that’s too small to save, Pro-Publica, Sep 12, 2020
* From Hoovervilles to Trumpvilles: Homeless crisis in U.S. deepens, by David Rosen, CounterPunch, Sep 11, 2020 (The author’s website is here)
* Trump’s $300 weekly unemployment funding announced is already running out, leaving millions in crisis again, Washington Post, Sep 11, 2020
* A pandemic, a motel without power and a potentially terrifying glimpse of the future in Orlando, Florida, Washington Post, Sep 12, 2020
More gasoline tankers en route to Venezuela, defying U.S. sanctions threats. Report by Associated Press, Sep 8, 2020 and read: report by Reuters, Sep 9, 2020
Related: Venezuela launches Simón Bolívar Institute for Peace and Solidarity among Peoples, report by People’s Dispatch, Sep 10, 2020
Confederate monument taken down in Charlottesville near the site of violent 2017 rally, Washington Post, Sep 12, 2020
Few masks in sight at packed Trump campaign rally in Michigan on September 10 that medical officials fear could be a ‘superspreader event’, Common Dreams, Sep 11, 2020
Related: Trump tries to blow past admissions he played down coronavirus at Michigan rally, Associated Press, Sep 10, 2020
Four anti-racism protesters in Portland tell of being scooped up in unmarked vans by federal agents in the middle of the night, Washington Post, Sep 10, 2020
Trump admits to concealing the true threat of coronavirus, new Woodward book reveals, CNN, Sep 9, 2020
Related:
* Trump told author Bob Woodward he knew in February that COVID-19 was ‘deadly stuff’ but wanted to ‘play it down’, NBC News, Sep 8, 2020
* Audio tapes reveal Trump knew Covid-19 was ‘deadly stuff’ for months while publicly downplaying threat, Common Dreams, Sep 8, 2020
* Behind Bob Woodward’s September surprise: White House aides saw a train wreck coming, then jumped aboard, Politico, Sep 9, 2020
* Bob Woodward to appear on CBS ’60 Minutes’ September 13 in first interview about new Trump book, CBS News, Sep 9, 2020
Moscow says concerns voiced about Navalny are not about his health but imposing more sanctions against Russia, TASS news service, Sep 9, 2020 …Russia’s foreign ministry has noted that Russia had been demanding that Germany provide data on Navalny’s medical examination, including on the results of biochemical tests while in hospital in Germany, in accordance with the August 27 official request by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office. “Despite all our requests, Berlin did not consider it possible to react swiftly and constructively,” …
The hot mess of hypocrisy at the heart of Fox News, by John Doyle, television critic, Globe and Mail, Sep 9, 2020
Reviewing: Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, by Brian Stelter, Simon and Schuster, Aug 2020, 368 pp Read the review here in pdf format: Book review Fox News
‘Green’ billionaires behind professional activist network that led suppression of ‘Planet of the Humans’ documentary film, anaysis by Max Blumenthal, founder and editor, The Grayzone, Sep 7, 2020 (includes a weblink to ‘Planet of the Humans’, 100-minute film)
Australia revokes Chinese scholar visas and targets media officials, prompting furious China response, ABC.net.au (Australia state broadcaster), Sep 9. 2020
Related:
* Australia targets Chinese journalists, scholars, pushes anti-China witch-hunt, Global Times (published online in China), Sep 9, 2020
* Beijing blasts Australia’s search of Chinese state media employees’ homes, Washington Post, Sep 9, 2020
* Leading ecosocialist John Bellamy Foster takes a pass on opposing the U.S.-led new cold war (and nuclear arms race) against China and Russia. Interview with John Bellamy Foster, appearing in MR Online, Sep 5, 2020 From the interview: ‘…Every advance of China economically and in every other way—for example the Belt and Road initiative—is now viewed by the ruling interests in the United States as a threat to the U.S. imperium. The reign of capital, which is incompatible with any kind of global government, pushes us inevitably in the direction of global Armageddon, just as it is pushing us toward climate conflagration. The only answer is to leave the burning house, and build a socialist future, geared to a world of sustainable human development…’
[Building a socialist future is inextricably tied to opposing the rising militarism and wars of the imperialist countries. China is not an imperialist country, nor is Russia. They are sovereign, state-capitalist states which the imperialist powers wish to subjugate. They are the targets of imperialism’s militarism drive, including its new cold wars and its new nuclear arms race. Socialists must oppose the prevailing anti-Russia and anti-China hysteria and integrate this into their antiwar strategy.]
Russia calls Germany’s ‘bluff’ on accusations of ‘poisoning’ of fringe politician Alexei Navalny. Report in Deutsche Welle, Sep 8, 2020 …The German government has so far refused to publish the full results of the toxicology tests which were carried out on Alexei Navalny in a Berlin hospital…
[The refusal of the German government to release the results of the toxicology tests of Alexei Navalny follows the pattern of the 2018 accusations by Britain that agents of the Russian government poisoned former GRU (Soviet military intelligence) double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia Skripal in London on March 4, 2018. Recall that according to the official UK government investigation, the Skripals are alleged to have contracted ‘novichok’ from the doorknob of their house upon leaving to go to a local pub and then to a local restaurant for lunch. After all that, they collapsed while sitting on a park bench. Colonel Alison McCourt, chief nurse of the British Army, no less, and her daugher Abigail just happened to be walking by and administered first aid and called an ambulance. (That information was inadvertently released by the daughter ten months later.) All three alleged victims ‘miraculously’ escaped death from the ‘novichok’ class of neurotoxin poisons, said to be one the deadliest poisons on Earth.].
Related: Ten points I just can’t believe about the official Skripal narrative, by Craig Murray (former UK diplomat), published on his wewbsite, Mar 7, 2019
In Navalny poisoning accusations, rush to judgment threatens new Russia-NATO crisis, interview with Fred Weir, broadcast on ‘Pushback’ (The Grayzone), with host Aaron Maté, Sep 5, 2020 (32′ interview. Fred Weir is a Moscow-based journalist with the Christian Science Monitor.)
First COVID-19 global forecast: The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington (Seattle) projects three-quarters of a million lives could be saved by January 1, 2021, report published on Sep 3, 2020 (with extensive charts)
Democratic Party leaders say Covid-19 relief plan proposed by Republican Party is dead on arrival, Common Dreams, Sept 8, 2020
‘Horrifically catastrophic’: Report at Brown University finds U.S. so-called war on terror has displaced as many as 59 million people, Common Dreams, Sept 8, 2020 ‘We need a reckoning. We can’t simply move on.’
Coronavirus daily cases soar by 2,988 in UK on Sep 5, biggest rise since May, The Independent, Sep 5, 2020 [New cases in other imperialist countries on Sep 5 were: France 7,071; Spain 4,503; Italy 1,297; Germany 668; Canada 400; Australia 72. Daily cases have risen steeply in Spain since the beginning of July and in France since the beginning of August. They have risen in Italy since mid-August.]
A new front in America’s pandemic: College towns, New York Times, Sep 6, 2020 The coronavirus is spiking around campuses from Texas to Iowa to North Carolina as students return
India reports global daily record of new, daily coronavirus cases, Reuters, Sep 5, 2020 [India has now surpassed Brazil as the country with the second-highest total cases of Covid-19, at 4,131,690; second to the U.S. total of 6,434,526.] Previously reported:
* Coronavirus crisis shatters India’s big dreams, The New York Times, Sep 4, 2020 The country’s ambitions to become a global power, lift its poor and update its military have been set back by a sharp economic plunge, soaring infections and a widening sense of malaise.
* India is in denial about the COVID-19 crisis, Scientific American, Aug 25, 2020 The country is headed for disaster as the pandemic devastates health services and livelihoods
For years, journalists cheered the abuse of Julian Assange; now they are paving his path to a U.S. gulag, by Jonathan Cook, published on his website blog, Sep 2, 2020
New round of anti-Russia frenzy in Western media, sparked by Germany’s unproven claim that fringe, pro-Western politician Alexei Navalny was ‘poisoned’ by ‘somebody’ in the Russian government apparatus, Sep 4, 2020 [Below are three readings on the subject. The German government claims that ‘someone’ in the Russian government arranged to poison Alexei Navalny. But it is offering no evidence; only the specious claim that the ‘novichok’ chemical that was allegedly used against the fringe politician dates from the era of the Soviet Union and therefore must have been the act of an organ of the Russian government. (‘Novichok’ is not a chemical, it is a name for a class of chemicals.) This accusation follows the script of earlier, anti-Russia accusations, in which the preceeding, unproven accusation(s) are newly presented as fact. In this latest case, Western media and governments calmly present the ‘poisonings’ of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia in London in March 2018 and ‘interference’ by Russia in the 2016 U.S. election as established facts. (The Skripals ‘miraculously’ survived their alleged poisonings by ‘novichok’–said to be one the deadliest poisons on Earth–and now live quietly in New Zealand.) One of the big questions raised by the German government declaration is why the government is prepared to risk completion of the ‘Nordstream 2’ gas pipeline that will carry large volumes of gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Germany already receives half of its natural gas from Russia and needs to boost that supply due to the phasing out of its nuclear energy and the popular pressure to end its very large use of coal. The U.S. wants the project cancelled in order to weaken Russia and boost sales of U.S. liquefied natural gas. Politicians across the mainstream spectrum in Germany, including in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own party and the Green Party as well as anti-Russia media commentators and editorialists are now also calling for cancellation in the midst of the new, anti-Russia frenzy. Most of the political left in the Western countries is greeting this latest salvo in the new cold war against Russia with a blank stare and silence, including the groups of ultraleft Trotskyism that have morhped into right-wing socialists over the course of the past several decades. They have forgotten, or never learned, that socialist principle obliges the working classes of the world to defend peoples and governments that come under attack by imperialism, for example, as the people of the world did in 2003 at the time of the imperialist attack against the people of Iraq. The former leftists comfort themselves by claiming that the state capitalist systems in Russia and China are themselves ‘imperialist’ and therefore unworthy of defense, but this argument is vacuous and factually inaccurate; it is phraseology in place of materialist analysis.].
* Novichok, Navalny, Nordstream, nonsense, by Craig Murray, published on his website, Sep 3, 2020
* One year on, the Skripal poisoning case is still riddled with questions that no one wants to answer, by Mary Dejevsky, The Independent, Mar 4, 2019
* Where’s Sergei Skripal?, published on The Blogmire (Rob Slane, Salisbury UK), Oct 18, 2018
Experts project autumn surge in coronavirus cases, with a peak after Election Day, Washington Post, Sep 4, 2020 …A model produced by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and published Friday forecasts a “most likely” daily death toll of 1,907 on Election Day, roughly double the current toll. Under the IHME forecast, the numbers would continue to rise until early December, peaking at more than 2,800 deaths daily. By year’s end, 410,000 people in the United States will have died under the model’s most-likely scenario. That’s more than double current fatalities…
Related: Many unemployed Americans don’t qualify for the the new $300 federal jobless benefit, Associated Press, Sep 2, 2020 Because of a raft of restrictions and bureaucratic hurdles, more than one million of the unemployed won’t receive that $300 check and their financial struggles will deepen
Prosecutors are charging more police after the police killing in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, but struggle to win convictions. Will that change after George Floyd?, Washington Post, Sep 4, 2020
Portland on edge after suspect in Aug 29 killing of far-right paramilitary is fatally shot by police. Report in Washington Post, Sep 4, 2020
Related:
* Oregon state troopers respond to Portland protests on Sept 4 as Governor Kate Brown calls for calm, The Oregonian, Sep 5, 2020
* Far-right Republican candidate in Georgia for Congress poses in photo with rifle and images of three Democrat women members of Congress, vowing to ‘go on the offense’, Washington Post, Sep 4, 2020
Police acting as U.S. marshalls kill man in Washington state who they say shot and killed far-right protester in Portland on Aug 29, Associated Press, Sep 4, 2020 and read: report in New York Times, Sep 3, 2020
Related: Michael Reinoehl, linked to Aug 29 killing at Portland protest, says he acted in self-defense, VICE News, Sep 3, 2020 …Shortly after VICE News reported his conversation with freelance journalist Donovan Farley, shared with VICE News, Reinhoehl was killed in an encounter with officers when the federal fugitive task force attempted to arrest him…
Black man died of asphyxiation after officers placed hood on him, New York Magazine, Sep 3, 2020 …Prude’s encounter with police occurred on March 23 of this year but the incident only came to public attention on September 3 after his family — alongside a group of activists and lawyers — held a news conference during which they unveiled the footage and called for murder charges to be brought against the three officers involved…
Related:
* Seven police officers suspended as video reveals suffocation of Daniel Prude by police. They were responding to a call by his family that he was in mental distress. Report by CBS News, Sep 4, 2020
* Seven police officers suspended as a Black man’s suffocation roils Rochester, New York Times, Sep 3, 2020
Trump says Americans who died in wars are ‘losers, suckers’, says exclusive report in The Atlantic, by Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic, Sep 3, 2020 The president has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades, multiple sources tell The Atlantic. (Jeffrey Goldberg is the editor in chief of The Atlantic, a conservative print monthly.)
Related:
* Did Trump call U.S. war dead ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’? The controversy, explained, VOX.com, Sep 4, 2020 Three other news sources–Associated Press, the New York Times and the Washington Post–have confirmed from their own sources elements of the original report in The Atlantic
* Veterans groups condemn Trump as ‘a national disgrace’ over reports he called fallen soldiers ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’, Common Dreams, Sep 4, 2020
* Under fire for alleged comments disparaging military veterans, Trump has a long history of disparaging military service, Washington Post, Sep 6, 2020
How the Green New Deal of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saved the career of conservative Massachusetts senator Edward Markey. Column by Michelle Goldberg, New York Times, Sep 3, 2020 …The young environmentalists of the Sunrise Movement — who’ve championed the Green New Deal more than any other organization — made saving Markey a major political priority. In concert with other young progressives, they embarked on one of the most successful branding exercises in recent political history, turning a fairly establishment 74-year-old into a youth culture icon… In boosting Markey, Sunrise sent a message to Democrats, especially those in blue states. You don’t need an impeccable record. If you champion the Green New Deal, the movement will have your back and that support can be priceless…
President Maduro grants pardons to 110 opposition figures in Venezuela, Venezuela Analysis, Sep 2, 2020 The decision comes three months ahead of the National Assembly election slated for December 6
Related:
* Venezuela’s Maduro tries to recast his authoritarian image, and Guaidó confronts a rebellion, Washington Post, Sep 3, 2020 [The Washington Post has long been a vociferous proponent of the violent overthrow of the government of Venezuela and its elected president, Nicolas Maduro.].
* Washington’s point man for violence against Venezuelan people says sanctions to be tightened. Report by Reuters, Aug 31, 2020
* U.S. to tighten Venezuela sanctions after high-seas seizure of cargo on four gasoline tankers destined for the country, Venezuela Analysis, Aug 21, 2020 The White House is moving to tighten the screws on Venezuela ahead of the U.S. election in November
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest map and case count, by the New York Times, updated Sep 3, 2020
Related:
* Tactics of White House trade adviser Peter Navarro draw new scrutiny as some of his pandemic moves unravel, Washington Post, Sep 2, 2020
* Debate rages over whether FDA should use emergency powers to clear a coronavirus vaccine early, Washington Post, Sep 2, 2020
* One death, 260 confirmed cases so far stemming from huge biker rally staged in Sturgis, South Dakota during second week of August, Washington Post, Sep 2, 2020
U.S. says it won’t join WHO-linked global effort to develop, distribute coronavirus vaccine, Washington Post, Sept 1, 2020 …More than 170 countries are in talks to participate in the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility, which aims to speed vaccine development, secure doses for all countries and distribute them to the most high-risk segment of each population…
Related:
* WHO sweetens terms to join struggling global COVAX vaccine facility, Reuters, Aug 28, 2020 …The United States, Japan, Britain and the European Union [and Canada] have struck their own deals to secure millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses for their citizens, ignoring the WHO’s warnings that “vaccine nationalism” will squeeze supplies…
* Canada still equivocating on its commitment to COVAX, the international Covid-19 vaccine alliance, while simultaneously using its financial clout to guarantee future vaccine supply from U.S. pharmaceuticals, Sep 2, 2020
[COVAX is an international partnership aiming to speed vaccine development, secure doses for all countries, and distribute them to the most high-risk segment of each population. It is led by three organizations—the World Health Organization; GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance; and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). There are 172 countries involved. The following is from an August 24, 2020 report published by WHO: Eighty higher-income economies, which would finance the vaccines from their own public finance budgets, have so far submitted ‘Expressions of Interest’ ahead of the deadline of 31 August for confirmation of intent to participate. The higher-income countries would partner with 92 low- and middle-income countries that will be supported by the ‘Advance Market Commitment’ (AMC) if it meets its funding targets. Together, this group of 172 countries represents more than 70% of the world’s population. (End citation)
[One month ago, Canadian Press reported that Canada was a “part of” COVAX, citing Karina Gould, Canada’s international development minister. It was a clever use of words by the minister, repeated by a gullible reporter. Canada is part of the 80 wealthier countries that have formally ‘expressed interest’. But 43 of the 80 ‘interested’ countries missed the August 31 deadline to pay a financial commitment, including Canada. So the deadline has been extended to September 18. A spokesperson for Karina Gould says he is sure Canada will pay up by the new, extended deadline date. (source: Canadian Press) The U.S. government is formally boycotting COVAX. Simultaneously, Canada is following a different vaccine path, by virtue of its financial clout. On August 31, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a special announcement that Canada has struck an agreement with two U.S. pharmaceutical companies (Johnson & Johnson and Novafax) for a guaranteed supply of the vaccines the companies develop (subject to approval of the vaccines by Health Canada). Earlier in August, similar deals were announced with Moderna and Pfizer. Unlike its allies in other wealthy countries, the Canadian government is not revealing how much it is paying or other details.]
The week that changed everything, again, in New Zealand’s coronavirus battle, Stuff.co.nz, Sep 2, 2020
Related: Expert says masks should have been introduced at Level Four. A ‘sense of complacency’ led to government ‘failings’, One News (TV New Zealand), Aug 29, 2020 Otago University professor Nick Wilson told TVNZ1’s ‘Q+A’ this morning that mask use is one of the proven ways to limit the spread of Covid-19, as witnessed in successful countries like Taiwan. Instead, Auckland is currently dealing with a second lockdown and mask use is only becoming mandatory on public transport from Level 2 and above tomorrow…
Trump visits Kenosha, calls violence ‘domestic terrorism’, Associated Press, Sep 1, 2020
Related:
* Trump’s 2020 re-election mantra channels the ‘law and order’ racist messaging of Richard Nixon, George Wallace campaigns in 1968. Analysis by Associated Press, Sep 1, 2020
* Trump spins baseless tale of ‘thugs’ flying to protests, Associated Press Sep 2, 2020
A Ukraine-style Maidan in Belarus? Interview with a representative of Poligraf Red, a Marxist group in Belarus, transcripted interview published on the website of Anti-imperialist Camp, Sept 1, 2020
New Zealand should not buy into Trump’s tech war with China, by Keith Locke, The Daily Blog, Sep 2, 2020
Background: Trump’s assault on Huawei dangerous for New Zealand, by Keith Locke, The Daily Blog, May 27, 2019
The triumph and tragedy of Poland’s Solidarity movement, by David Ost, Jacobin Magazine, Aug 24, 2020 (Jacobin is marking the 40th anniversary of the ‘Solidarność’ trade union movement in Poland with a series of articles exploring aspects of Polish history and politics, from the origins of socialism in Poland to the conservative backlash in the country today.)
Related:
* Isaac Deutscher and the fate of Polish communism, excerpts from an interview and from writings by Isaac Deutscher in 1956 and 1957, published in Jacobin Magazine, Aug 25, 2020
* How Poland’s road to socialism in the early 1980s was blocked, by Jan Toporowski, Jacobin Magazine, Aug 26, 2020
