In the Race for Immunity, Sweden Leads the Pack
Mike Whitney | globalresearch.ca | 2020-05-15
In a pandemic, there is no substitute for immunity, because immunity provides the best protection against reinfection. That's why Sweden set its sights on immunity from the very beginning. They crafted a policy that was designed to protect the old …
globalresearch.ca/immunity-sweden/5713003
"My Job Is to Make Syria a Quagmire for the Russians": CIA Doctrine Made Official Policy
Zero Hedge | globalresearch.ca | 2020-05-15
Like with the disastrous Iraq quagmire years before the US war machine came to Syria under Obama, Washington's rationale and justification for occupying the Syrian Arab Republic has shifted and changed drastically multiple times over. | When ultimately what started …
globalresearch.ca/make-syria-quagmire-russians-cia-doctrine-made-official-policy/5712991
Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa
wsws.org | 2020-05-15
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/15/wor2-m15.html
Jordan's king warns Israel of 'massive conflict' if it proceeds with West Bank annexation plans
rt.com | 2020-05-15
Jordan's King Abdullah II warned Israel of a "massive conflict" if it proceeds with plans to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank. | Israel has vowed to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley. The move could spell the end of the long-stalled peace process by making it virtually impossible to establish a viable Palestinian state. | "Leaders who advocate a one-state solution do not understand what that would mean," Jordan's king said in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel. | European Union foreign ministers met on Friday to discuss what action the bloc might take in response to Israe…
rt.com/newsline/488812-jordan-israel-conflict-annexation/
Give Peace a Chance: Saudi Arabia and the UAE Jostle for Position in War-Ravaged Countries for Contracts
Andrey Areshev | strategic-culture.org | 2020-05-15
Is the coronavirus, which has hit GCC countries quite hard, going to fuel proxy wars further with the economic objective of fortunes to be made, once the fighting stops? Or dig them in deeper? Don't overlook Russia in the scramble for reconstruction contracts. | The bigger they are, the harder they fall. This certainly applies to countries in the GCC which are attempting to pick themselves up again. It's a cruel irony, some might argue, that the UAE's diversification in its economy away from oil dependency, made it more vulnerable than Saudi Arabia's and so was hit harder by the virus. An economy dependent on tou…
strategic-culture.org/news/2020/05/15/give-peace-chance-saudi-arabia-and-uae-jostle-for-position-war-ravaged-countries-contracts/
Finland: Schools Reopen Despite Health Situation
telesurenglish.net | 2020-05-15
Finland's Education Ministry reopened Thursday schools after a two-month closure period due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Pre-school and elementary school children were the first to return their activities. | RELATED: | Tense Calm in Montenegro After Day of Mass Protests | "Experts affirm schools reopening would have a minimal impact on the pandemic, but grand benefits for children," Education Minister Li Andersson said, adding that her office instructed municipality authorities to enforce p…
telesurenglish.net/news/finland-schools-reopen-despite-health-situation-20200515-0002.html
500,000 Germans apply to take part in Stuttgart lockdown protest, but police RESTRICT rally to 5,000 due to 'social distancing'
rt.com | 2020-05-15
The city of Stuttgart has reluctantly agreed to let a demonstration go ahead on Saturday, ordering that masks be worn on public transport and people stay apart, after dissent over the lockdown swept across Germany last weekend. | Five thousand protesters are set to hit the streets of the southwestern city to protest Covid-19 restrictions. And that's only one percent of the half a million who applied to take part in the rally against Covid-19 prevention measures. | The local government has permitted only a limited number of protestors, and also requires them to maintain social distancing. Anyone caught travelin…
rt.com/news/488790-social-distancing-protesting-germany/
Nord Stream 2 to challenge German regulator's decision denying waiver of 'discriminatory' EU rules for gas pipeline from Russia
rt.com | 2020-05-15
The company building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has vowed to appeal Germany's refusal to remove the multibillion-dollar project from the restrictions laid out in the "discriminatory" EU Gas Directive. | The latest amendment to the EU rules was greenlighted in April last year, long after Nord Stream 2 construction began. The legislature made the rules governing the European gas market apply to all pipelines to and from third countries. The new rule means Russia's Gazprom, which designed the project, will be allowed to use not more than 50 percent of the pipeline capacity while allowing third parties to use…
rt.com/business/488738-germany-denies-waiver-nord-stream/
Why Capitalism Can't Cure Global Pandemics
Prabir Purkayastha | counterpunch.org | 2020-05-15
We frequently hear that COVID-19 is the worst pandemic since the influenza of 1918. It is forgotten that another pandemic known as "the third plague" (because it was "the third major bubonic plague outbreak to affect European society") killed millions from the 1890s to the 1950s in Asia's southern, southeastern, and eastern regions, continuing well…
counterpunch.org/2020/05/15/why-capitalism-cant-cure-global-pandemics/
Czech Republic to allow gatherings of up to 300 people
rt.com | 2020-05-15
The Czech Republic will take major steps to relax its coronavirus lockdown measures from May 25, as the government seeks to jump-start the economy, health officials said on Friday. | The central European country of 10.7 million people has reported fewer than 100 new cases a day throughout May. As of Friday morning, it had recorded a total of 8,352 cases of which 5,249 have recovered. It has reported 293 deaths, Reuters said. | Indoor dining and hotel stays could resume on May 25 under strict hygiene rules, Health Minister Adam Vojtech said. "After May 25, there won't be establishments in retail which would be…
rt.com/newsline/488794-czech-gatherings-hundreds-people/
Germany in recession with economy in worst plunge since global financial crisis
rt.com | 2020-05-15
Germany's economy shrank by 2.2 percent in the first quarter compared to the final three months of 2019, preliminary official statistics have shown. It's the biggest slump in a decade for Europe's largest economy. | Figures for the final three months of 2019 were revised to show a contraction of 0.1 percent, which means German GDP growth has been negative for two consecutive quarters, the technical definition of a recession. | The numbers are expected to get worse; Germany's Statistical Office has forecast a ten percent plunge in GDP for the second quarter, depending on the success of lifting lockdown measures…
rt.com/business/488749-germany-sharp-recession-financial-crisis/
Growth figures underscore economic crisis amidst COVID
C.P. Chandrasekhar | mronline.org | 2020-05-15
Early evidence on the intensity and drivers of the COVID-induced crisis in the U.S. and Europe suggests that the official response may lengthen the recession and delay recovery…
mronline.org/2020/05/15/growth-figures-underscore-economic-crisis-amidst-covid/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=growth-figures-underscore-economic-crisis-amidst-covid
First child dies in France from rare Kawasaki-like disease unwisely linked to Covid-19
rt.com | 2020-05-15
A nine-year-old boy in France has died from the mysterious Kawasaki-like disease, which some medics link to Covid-19. It's the first such case in that country, but similar child fatalities were earlier recorded in the US and UK. | The cause of the boy's death was "neurological injury related to a cardiac arrest," Fabrice Michel, head of the pediatric intensive care unit at La Timone hospital in Marseille, said. | The child was rushed to hospital with heart problems in early May. Doctors have been fighting for his life for a whole week, but the young patient passed away on Saturday. | While in hospital, the bo…
rt.com/news/488814-first-child-death-france-kawasaki/
"Corona demonstrations" in Germany: Neo-Nazis join hands with Free Democrats, Christian Democrats and Left Party
wsws.org | 2020-05-15
The FDP's leader in Thuringia, Thomas Kemmerich, participated in a demonstration against the measures put in place to restrict the spread of the coronavirus. Like other such mobilisations in Germany, it was dominated by the extreme right.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/15/kemm-m15.html
Rushed relaxation of coronavirus measures in Germany puts thousands of lives at risk
wsws.org | 2020-05-15
With the general relaxation of the coronavirus measures, cases in schools, retirement homes, local transport, industry and the entire working population are inevitably on the rise again.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/15/rela-m15.html
Should "Slavery in California" be considered in CA Reparations Bill AB 3121
Michael Harris | indybay.org | 2020-05-15
Slavery in California, a hidden secret by design, may be included in the consideration for AB 3121, the trade in human cargo is known to have source documents that predate the year 1450 Spain, Portugal, Danish governments and countless other vessels are raiding the vast African coastal villages for the express purpose of trade in human cargo for economic exploitation.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/05/14/18833033.php
'We were totally helpless': Russian woman jailed for SLAPPING 'abusive' Californian husband, mother tells RT
rt.com | 2020-05-15
What looked like an intercontinental fairytale romance turned into a story of domestic violence, when a Russian woman was arrested for slapping the American husband her mother says abused her. | When she married a Californian man last year, 30-year-old Krasnodar native Alina Alipatova couldn't have imagined that the line between romance and fear could be crossed so fast. She met her future husband while holidaying in Miami and quickly fell in "big love" with him, the woman's mother, Elena Gertsog, told RT this week. | Once engaged, the happy couple spent two months at the Californian's house in San Luis Obispo…
rt.com/russia/488726-russian-woman-abused-us/
Russia ends federal COVID-19 shutdown measures as it surges to second place in infections worldwide
wsws.org | 2020-05-15
There are now more coronavirus infections in Russia than anywhere else in the world, with the exception of the United States and Spain.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/15/russ-m15.html
Declassified Mueller investigation transcripts confirm no evidence WikiLeaks colluded with Russia
wsws.org | 2020-05-15
The "Russian connection" was baldly asserted by the Democratic Party, US intelligence officials and the corporate media…
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/15/assa-m15.html
"Truth in America R.I.P.": In America there is only Official Truth, and It's a Lie
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts | globalresearch.ca | 2020-05-15
In "freedom and democracy" America there is only official truth, and it is a lie. A person or website that speaks real truth is shunted aside as a "conspiracy theorist," "Russian agent," "racist," "anti-semite," or other such name with the …
globalresearch.ca/truth-america-r-i-p/5712999
NYT Has Trouble Talking Seriously About the Swedish Approach
Dean Baker | cepr.net | 2020-05-15
Opinion columns are always given more leeway than news articles, but it would be reasonable to expect that an opinion column in a major newspaper have some connection to reality. That does not appear to be the case with this one that tells us "I live in Sweden. I'm not panicking." The piece is a …
cepr.net/nyt-has-trouble-talking-seriously-about-the-swedish-approach/
The positive side of Colombia: ambassador can eat two families' monthly income in just one lunch
Adriaan Alsema | colombiareports.com | 2020-05-15
Many Colombians may have no food, but that doesn't mean their Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland, can't have lunch that could sustain two families for…
colombiareports.com/the-positive-side-of-colombia-ambassador-can-drink-two-families-monthly-income-in-just-one-lunch/
Western media concerned coronavirus 'hasn't killed more Russians'
rt.com | 2020-05-14
US and allied media outlets seem frustrated that the pandemic isn't killing more Russians, so they're claiming the death toll is higher, despite a lack of evidence
Tense Calm in Montenegro After Day of Mass Protests
telesurenglish.net | 2020-05-14
Montenegro was under a cloak of tense calm on Thursday, after mass protests in several cities, which were strongly repressed by the police and during which people were arrested and injured, including minors. | RELATED: | Montenegrin Police Violently Repress Religious-Law Protesters | The origin of the situation was the detention of Orthodox Archbishop Joanikij and eight other clergymen who were saying mass in honor of Saint Vasilije Ostrovski on May 12, when thousands of people…
telesurenglish.net/news/Tense-Calm-in-Montenegro-After-Day-of-Mass-Protests-20200514-0021.html
Slovenian Left protests amendments to Nature Conservation Act
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-05-14
The amendments proposed by the Slovenian government make it more difficult for organizations to attain the status of a nature conservation organization in public interest. This is believed to be a step towards the sale of the country's resources…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/05/14/slovenian-left-protests-amendments-to-nature-conservation-act/
COVID-19 Vaccine Could Be Ready Within a Year: EU
telesurenglish.net | 2020-05-14
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready for approval within a year in an "optimistic scenario". | RELATED: | Cuba: In Test Phase Vaccine That Activates Innate Immune System | "I don't think a vaccine could be ready by September of this year," EMA vaccine department chief Marco Cavaleri said at a press conference. | For Cavaleri, the world could look on the optimistic side that the vaccine will be ready within a year, in 2021. | C…
telesurenglish.net/news/covid19-vaccine-could-be-ready-within-a-year-eu-says-20200514-0013.html
At Least 100,000 Health Workers Contracted COVID-19 Worldwide
telesurenglish.net | 2020-05-14
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) Thursday informed that at least 100,000 health workers have contracted COVID-19 so far and asked governments to publish more complete figures on this worrying situation. | RELATED: | Southeast Asia Witnesses Significant Rise in COVID-19 Cases | In some European countries, over 10 percent of coronavirus-infected people are health workers. In Spain, the proportion of affected reached 19 percent, although the ICN stressed that international c…
telesurenglish.net/news/At-Least-100000-Health-Workers-Contracted-COVID-19-Worldwide-20200514-0009.html
Truth in America R.I.P
Paul Craig Roberts | thealtworld.com | 2020-05-14
In "freedom and democracy" America there is only official truth, and it is a lie. A person or website that speaks real truth is shunted aside as a "conspiracy theorist," "Russian agent," "racist," "anti-semite," or other such name with the purpose of discrediting the message and the messenger. | For example, when I told the truth that Russiagate was a hoax, which it has proved to be, an anonymous website, possibly a CIA or NATO operation called "PropOrNot," included this website among its fake list of 200 "Russian agents/dupes." The Washington Post, a believed long-time CIA asset, hyped the PropOrNot revelation a…
thealtworld.com/paul_craig_roberts/truth-in-america-r-i-p
US muscle-flexing threatens to open Arctic front in new Cold War with Russia
Scott Ritter | thealtworld.com | 2020-05-14
The US Navy is on the cusp of conducting confrontational freedom of navigation operations in the Arctic that threaten Russian economic and national security interests. | The recent resumption by the US Navy of a Barents Sea Patrol represents muscle-flexing on the part of Washington and its NATO allies unseen since the end of the Cold War. | Three American destroyers and a British frigate, accompanied by a supply ship, ventured into the Arctic body of water last week. The…
thealtworld.com/scott_ritter/us-muscle-flexing-threatens-to-open-arctic-front-in-new-cold-war-with-russia
Quarantined & lonely? Find a 'SEX BUDDY,' Dutch government advises
rt.com | 2020-05-15
Dutch authorities have decided that sex is a necessity, even in times of lockdown. Ever the pragmatists, they suggest that quarantined singletons "make arrangements" with a willing partner. | With more than 43,000 people infected with the coronavirus and a death toll of 5,600, the Netherlands has been on lockdown since late March. Citizens are allowed to have up to three visitors in their homes, provided they keep a distance of 1.5 meters from each other. Naturally, this precludes most sexual activity. | However, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has admitted that two se…
rt.com/news/488821-netherlands-coronavirus-sex-partner/
Flynn 'unmasking' documents show involvement of senior Obama administration officials, including Joe Biden
rt.com | 2020-05-13
A newly published list of US officials who were interested in National Security Agency (NSA) records on Trump adviser Michael Flynn includes President Barack Obama's chief of staff, as well as Vice President Joe Biden. | Biden is listed as requesting the unmasking on January 12, 2017, the same day the Washington Post published a story claiming that Flynn had misreported his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, based on leaked NSA information. | Flynn unmasking documents f… by
rt.com/usa/488579-flynn-unmasking-obama-administration/
'You Got to Move' Brings Resistance Back to the Spotlight
Frances Madeson | progressive.org | 2020-05-12
New short films extracted from the 1985 original offer organizers and teachers tools for political education.
progressive.org/dispatches/you-got-to-move-resistance-spotlight-madeson-200512/
Bombshell: Crowdstrike admits 'no evidence' Russia stole emails from DNC server
Aaron Maté | thegrayzone.com | 2020-05-11
Crowdstrike, the firm behind the Russian email hacking allegation at the core of Russiagate, makes a bombshell admission: "We did…
thegrayzone.com/2020/05/11/bombshell-crowdstrike-admits-no-evidence-russia-stole-emails-from-dnc-server/
HBO Docuseries Points To Many Suspects In Atlanta Child Murders, Including The Klan
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-05-09
Atlanta's mayor re-opened the 40-year-old case of 30 missing and murdered Black children in Atlanta. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation operated a secret investigation that pointed towards a Klan member for at least one of the murders.
therealnews.com/columns/hbo-docuseries-points-to-many-suspects-in-atlanta-child-murders-including-the-klan
Eyewitness: Russia's 70th V-Day
I.V. Sta | liberationnews.org | 2020-05-09
In addition to beautiful parades, fireworks and concerts, I was able to witness multitudes of people sharing with each other something wholly priceless: the gratitude of being alive thanks to those who fought fascism.
liberationnews.org/eyewitness-russias-70th-v-day-2/
The Connolly Youth Movement and the struggle to reclaim urban housing
Calvin Walantus | liberationnews.org | 2020-05-08
For over two years, members of the Connolly Youth Movement have been living in a reclaimed house near downtown Cork, Ireland.
liberationnews.org/the-connolly-youth-movement-and-the-struggle-to-reclaim-urban-housing/
How Russia Became the Next COVID-19 Hot Spot: Infection Rate Soars with 10,000 New Cases Each Day
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-05-07
We go to Moscow for an update on the pandemic in Russia, where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly, with at least 10,000 new cases a day and the second-highest infection rate in the world, and more than 100 medical workers have died fighting the virus, and many have reported lack of personal protective equipment. Meanwhile, three Russian healthcare workers mysteriously fell from hospital windows over the past two weeks. Two died, and the one who is hospitalized had posted a video online to note the lack of medical equipment and said he had to keep working despite testing positive. We speak with Joshua Yaffa, Mos…
www.democracynow.org/2020/5/7/russia_spike_in_coronavirus_cases_joshua
[Letter] Pandemic-related excess mortality (COVID-19), public health measures and funerary rituals
Eric Crubézy, Norbert Telmon | thelancet.com | 2020-05-05
Faced to COVID-19, the earliest public health recommendations in France [1] forbade washing of the body and mandated inhumation and cremation within 24 h, recommendations similar to those when case-patients were, more likely than non–case-patients, to have participated in funeral rituals. When a patient is hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2, family and friends were not allowed to be with him or her, and the farewells were done as the patient got into the ambulance. The grieving process, however, implies three phases [2]: viewing of the body, performing a collective ceremony to support those affected, and finally a…
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30102-4/fulltext?rss=yes
[Correspondence] Acute limb ischaemia in two young, non-atherosclerotic patients with COVID-19
Paolo Perini, Bilal Nabulsi, Claudio Bianchini Massoni, Matteo Azzarone, Antonio Freyrie | thelancet.com | 2020-05-05
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was announced a pandemic by WHO on March 11, 2020.1 As of May 3, 2020, Italy is one of the countries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, with 28‚Äà884 confirmed deaths.2 In addition to pulmonary insufficiency, COVID-19 is associated with other life-threatening complications such as sepsis, heart failure, and pulmonary embolism.3,4 Here we describe patients with COVID-19 who presented with acute limb ischaemia but did not have atherosclerosis, atrial fibrillation, or pre-existing blood clotting disorders.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31051-5/fulltext?rss=yes
[Comment] What policy makers need to know about COVID-19 protective immunity
Daniel M Altmann, Daniel C Douek, Rosemary J Boyton | thelancet.com | 2020-04-27
About a third of the world is under lockdown as a public health measure to curb the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Policy makers are increasingly pressed to articulate their rationales and strategies for moving out of lockdown; the process of re-emergence is already cautiously starting in Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Wuhan, and some US states. As the counterpoise between further disease spread and socioeconomic costs is debated, it is essential that policy makers in all affected countries have the best possible d…
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30985-5/fulltext?rss=yes
[Commentary] SARS-CoV-2 pandemic expanding in sub-Saharan Africa: Considerations for COVID-19 in people living with HIV
Paul K. Drain, Nigel Garrett | thelancet.com | 2020-04-21
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, started a global pandemic of respiratory illness, termed COVID-19 [1]. The spectrum of COVID-19 has ranged from a mild, self-limiting respiratory tract illness to severe progressive pneumonia, multi-organ failure, and death [2]. Older patients and those with a weaker immune system appear to have a greater risk of death [3]. Thus far, the vast majority of deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in Italy, China, Iran, and Spain–all Northern hemisphere countries with good health care resources and a low HIV prevalence.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30086-9/fulltext?rss=yes
[Correspondence] Kidney transplant programmes during the COVID-19 pandemic
Francesca Martino, Mario Plebani, Claudio Ronco | thelancet.com | 2020-04-16
We would like to express our concern about kidney transplant programmes during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Although we recognise the importance of kidney transplants for dialysis patients, we cannot ignore the potential safety issues during this pandemic.
thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30182-X/fulltext?rss=yes
[Correspondence] Impact of COVID-19 on people with cystic fibrosis
Carla Colombo, Pierre-Régis Burgel, Silvia Gartner, Silke van Koningsbruggen-Rietschel, Lutz Naehrlich, Isabelle Sermet-Gaudelus, Kevin W Southern | thelancet.com | 2020-04-15
Early and detailed characterisation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged principally through publications from China, where the disease was first identified.1 As the pandemic spread to Lombardia, Northern Italy and then globally,2 evaluating the impact on people with cystic fibrosis has become imperative, because the prevalence of this inherited condition is much higher in populations derived from Europe than in other populations.3 Since the beginning of the outbreak in Lombardia, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections have been reported in ten patients with cystic f…
thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30177-6/fulltext?rss=yes