2020-03-29: News Headlines

Eliza Egret (2020-03-28). When death dealers make ventilators, we know it's time to end the arms trade. thecanary.co Peace activists might be relieved to hear that UK arms companies are Meanwhile, arms company Babcock is working with a medical equipment company to make thousands of ventilators. Babcock is now seemingly concerned with saving lives, rather t…

The Lancet (2020-03-28). [Editorial] Building on the PrEP victory. thelancet.com On March 15, the UK Department of Health and Social Care announced funding to make pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication available on the National Health Service in England for HIV prevention. This decision will be met, finally, with a sense of achievement by HIV activists and care providers, who have fought long and hard to make tenofovir-based PrEP drugs widely accessible in the UK, 8 years after the US Food and Drug Administration approved them and more than 4 years after WHO recommended their use for people at high risk of acquiring HIV.

Justin Podur (2020-03-28). When Economists Try to Solve Health Crises, the Results Can Often Be Disastrous. zcomm.org Classical economics helped kill millions in the British Empire's famines—following economic orthodoxy today could be just as deadly…

Staff (2020-03-27). Headlines for March 27, 2020. democracynow.org U.S. Leads World in Reported COVID-19 Cases as Hospitalizations Surge, Trump Doubts New York City's Need for 30,000 Life-Saving Ventilators, Politico: President Trump Failed to Follow Pandemic Playbook, Squandering Precious Time, Detroit and Chicago Join New Orleans as U.S. Coronavirus Hot Spots, House to Vote on Record-Shattering $2.2 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Package, Three Unaccompanied Migrant Children Test Positive for COVID-19, Jailed Asylum Seekers Stage Hunger Strike, Demanding Release During Pandemic, Activists Demand Release of Aging Prisoners as Coronavirus Spreads, Hospitals in Spain and Italy on th…

Dave Zirin (2020-03-27). Athlete Activists Respond to the Coronavirus Pandemic. thenation.com Athlete Activists Respond to the Coronavirus Pandemic…

Hiroyuki Hamada (2020-03-25). Feudal Japan's Edo and the US Empire. dissidentvoice.org After the warlord period of 15th century, Japan was united by a few families and then by a shogun family. The period is called the Edo period. They disarmed civilians and established a mild caste system. The country was closed except for a few ports controlled by the central government, travel restrictions were put in …

Staff (2020-03-20). Solidarity Not Charity: Mutual Aid & How to Organize in the Age of Coronavirus. democracynow.org As lockdowns and layoffs sweep the U.S., mutual aid groups are forming to protect and provide for the vulnerable, including the elderly, incarcerated, undocumented and unhoused. We look at the incredible community networks across the country that are coming together to protect their neighbors during the coronavirus pandemic — and how you can get involved. From Washington state to the Bay Area, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota and New York City, thousands of mutual aid efforts are aimed at building solidarity, not charity. We speak with two longtime mutual aid organizers and activists in two hot spots of the pan…

Medea Benjamin (2020-03-02). Can the World's Second Superpower Rise From the Ashes of Twenty Years of War? zcomm.org If there is a lesson for peace-loving Americans in the Obama and Trump presidencies, it is that we cannot just walk out of the voting booth and leave it to a champion in the White House to end our wars and bring us peace. In the final analysis, it really is up to us…