(2021-12-04). Twitter Removes 277 Venezuelan Accounts for Supporting Nicolás Maduro (Social Media Censorship). orinocotribune.com 
Twitter is back at the center of the global controversy over freedom of expression. On this occasion, the US company undertook the task of censoring thousands of accounts for their supposed security violations and breach of regulations and for an alleged "disclosure of state-linked information." | Hay un dataset de 277 cuentas de Venezuela.
(2021-12-04). Bitcoin drops nearly $10,000 in an hour. rt.com 
The world's crypto pioneer, bitcoin, saw a sharp decline of nearly $10,000 in roughly an hour to as low as $42,000 before bouncing back to $45,000, extending the latest downtrend amid the emergence of the Omicron Covid-19 strain. | The price of bitcoin has dropped around $15,000 over the past 24 hours. It was trading at nearly $47,580 as of 08: 16 GMT, down 16.14% day over day, having dropped by 31.6% from the year's high of $69,000, which it reached on November 10. | Read more | | Meanwhile, ether, the sec…
(2021-12-04). Presidential victory in Honduras represents another loss for U.S. imperialism. fightbacknews.org Tucson, AZ – In the early hours of June 28, 2009, Honduran soldiers snatched President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya from his home and removed him from power in a coup d'état with tacit support from the U.S. What followed was a brutal dictatorship that murdered, disappeared and oppressed Hondurans. In close collaboration with criminal cartels, the Honduran power elite implemented neoliberal policies, while violence and drugs plagued the country. It should come as no surprise that waves of Hondurans poured out into caravans headed north to seek asylum in the U.S. only to be met by the cruel denial of President Trump and U.S…
(2021-12-04). Even Israel's Labor Party President signals that the Occupation of Palestinians in Permanent. juancole.com By Ashraf Al-Ajrami | — ( Middle East Monitor) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog chose to celebrate the Jewish Hanukkah holiday — the "Festival of Lights" — at the Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied Hebron, accompanied by a group of settler leaders. "The historical affinity of the Jewish people to Hebron, to the Cave of the …
(2021-12-04). Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021), giant of American musical theater. wsws.org An inventive lyricist, a collaborator and mentor to many, he created 19 full-length musicals.
(2021-12-04). Australian government in "chaos" as pandemic intensifies political disarray. wsws.org The Liberal-National government is in tatters, yet there is low popular support for the Labor Party and rising distrust in the entire parliamentary establishment.
(2021-12-04). Backed by AFRICOM, Corporations Plunder DR Congo for "Climate-Friendly" Materials and Blame China. orinocotribune.com 
By T.J. Coles — Nov 30, 2021 | Cobalt, a key metallic element used in lithium batteries and other "green" technology, is sourced from slave labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As the West points the finger at China, the US Africa Command is indirectly policing mining operations that profit US corporations. | Ever since Belgium's King Leopold II (1835-1909) established the Congo Free State in 1885, international powers have exploited the region's vast resources. Leading a regime that went on to kill an
(2021-12-04). China wants its casino paradise to become tech Mecca. rt.com 
The Chinese government plans to transform its largest casino den, Macau, into a regional technology hub, the South China Morning Post reported, citing technology industry executives and officials. | This comes as the Venetian Macao Convention and Exhibition Centre this week hosted a big technology-themed trade fair, which is expected to give rise to new industries and revitalize the regional economy. | The event's website portrayed Macau as "the new centre of international technologies" to connect the Asia Pacific tech ecosystem with the rest of the world. | "The Guangdong-Macau in-depth cooperation zone in He…
(2021-12-04). Video: The Corona Crisis and the Engineered Destabilization of the Global Economy. Michel Chossudovsky. globalresearch.ca First published on May 19, 2021 | Visit and follow us on Instagram …
(2021-12-04). Central Asian and Middle Eastern Countries Step Up Cooperation. journal-neo.org 
On November 28, the 15th Summit of the Leaders of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Member-States was held in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, with the participation of the heads of state and governments of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan, the countries that are members of the organization. The ECO summit …
(2021-12-04). Cheap Fun Saturday: Job Growth Under Biden and Trump. cepr.net 
The November jobs report left a number of people, including me, somewhat confused. The data from the survey of households was great. The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 4.2 percent, with over 1.1 million more people reporting that they were employed. This was far better than the consensus forecast, which put the drop at 0.1-0.2 percentage points. (My number was 4.3 percent.) | It's worth noting that 4.2 percent is a very low rate of unemployment by historical standards. The unemployment rate did not get this low from 1970 until 1999. Then, after the recession in 2001, it didn't again fall to 4.
(2021-12-04). [Perspectives] The many worlds of disability. thelancet.com Jan Grue is a phenomenon in the disability world: a 40-year-old with a congenital muscular atrophy, who is an author of fiction for adults and children and is also Professor of Qualitative Research at the University of Oslo, Norway. In this eagerly awaited book, I Live a Life Like Yours: A Memoir, he tells the story of his life and his daily existence. Grue is expert at capturing sights, sounds, and even smells. The stories he relates are likely to represent the reality for many educated people in high-income countries with lived experience of disability who have stumbled, fallen, and wheeled through school, clin…
(2021-12-04). [Correspondence] Obligations in a global health emergency — Authors' reply. thelancet.com We thank Felipe de Carvalho Borges da Fonseca and colleagues, and Kayvan Bozorgmehr and Rosa Jahn for their comments on our Viewpoint.1 We agree with de Carvalho Borges da Fonseca and colleagues about the need for "a more equitable, sustainable, and accountable medical innovation system". Whether waiving patent rights will meaningfully improve access to COVID-19 vaccines for low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in the short term, is an empirical matter. There is wide agreement that intellectual property (IP) for mRNA vaccines is not a primary barrier to vaccinating the world;2,3 vaccine pr…
(2021-12-04). Censorship, the Myth of Free Data and the False Solutions on the Table. zcomm.org Social media has never been a free service for any of us. But it has certainly given a lot of advertisers, wealthy investors, intelligence agents and politicians a free ride…
(2021-12-04). [Editorial] Reinstating universal health coverage on the global agenda. thelancet.com Who remembers universal health coverage (UHC)? The World Health Organization defines UHC as all individuals and communities receiving the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, achieving this target was a top priority in global health, as it underpins Sustainable Development Goal 3: to ensure health and wellbeing for all. But as countries focused on the pandemic, the world's health community has neglected to sustain the momentum needed to achieve UHC.
(2021-12-04). Chile's election: Boric and pseudo-left offer no defense against threat of fascism. wsws.org International and historical experience demonstrates that once in power, the pseudo-left abandons all pretense of reform, bowing to the international financial and corporate elite.
(2021-12-04). Lives before profits! Stop the pandemic! wsws.org Ending the COVID-19 pandemic requires rejecting the concept that profit interests must be "balanced" against saving lives.
(2021-12-04). Watsonville Community Hospital nurses to hold press conference to demand hospital remain open. indybay.org Nurses who work at Watsonville Community Hospital will hold a press conference on Friday, Dec. 3, to demand that the hospital remain open, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) today. The event is being held in response to a recent letter from the hospital to employees citing plans to sell the facility as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization process.
(2021-12-04). Joseph McCarthy Censured by US Senate Dec 2nd 1954. indybay.org The Anti-communist crusade of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy came to a close in 1954 after his own committee shifted focus to investigate him for abusing army general Ralph W. Zwicker.
(2021-12-03). An Obscure Agency Is Threatening to Hand Medicare Over to Wall Street. truthout.org 
In the face of massive support for Medicare for All and the failure of the U.S.'s for-profit health care system, the inevitable fall of the medical-industrial complex can be predicted, if not with precision, with certainty. Everyone is aware of the impending demise, none more so than those in charge of the for-profit health care system and their supporters in Congress, as evidenced by the frenetic activity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to transfer the traditional Medicare p…
(2021-12-03). Strikers at John Deere win COLA adjustments. liberationnews.org 
One of the most significant gains by United Auto Workers members at John Deere as a result of their five-week strike against this multinational corporation was the restoration of quarterly cost of living adjustments (COLA) to their wages.
(2021-12-03). Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa. wsws.org Danish nurses organise wildcat stoppage and mass resignation in protest at pay and working conditions in defiance of government and unions; French transport workers, including bus, tram and train drivers, continue wave of strikes over pay and conditions; South African gold miners at Sibanye-Stillwater poised to join strikes of Clover dairy and Massmart store workers over pay; protests in Lebanon over continuing economic crisis plunging six million into poverty…
(2021-12-03). Puebla Group Rejects US Harsh Policy Against Cuba. telesurenglish.net On Thursday, Cuba's Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez welcomed that the Puebla Group condemned the U.S. smear campaign and economic blockade against his country. | RELATED: | "We appreciate the solidarity of the Puebla Group with our people, who suffer the consequences of coercive policies that go against international conventions and obey the anachronistic logic of the Cold War," Rodriguez stated. | The forum also condemned th…
(2021-12-03). Why Amazon Is Terrified of Its U.S. Workers Unionizing. independentmediainstitute.org The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has just ruled that a historic union vote held earlier this year among Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) was not valid. The highly publicized vote, which took place over several weeks in February and March 2021, resulted in a …
(2021-12-03). Marginalized Workers Facing Labor Market Discrimination See Largest Jobs Gains. truthout.org 
The unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage points in November, even though the economy added just 210,000 jobs. The drop in the unemployment rate went along with an increase in the employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) of 0.4 percentage points, corresponding to a rise in employment of more than 1.1 million in the household survey. The unemployment rate had not fallen this low following the Great Recession until September 2017. | The 210,000 job growth in the establishment survey is slower th…
(2021-12-03). Canadian Armed Forces providing military training to Ukrainian neo-Nazis. wsws.org The Canadian military has been training and collaborating with neo-Nazi groups active in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with the knowledge and tacit approval of successive Canadian governments.
(2021-12-03). Israel's Illegal Occupation of the Golan Heights Remains an Obstacle to Peace. journal-neo.org 
During the period of the last Labor government in Australia, the general policy of that government, which was in power for six years from 2008 to 2014, was to abstain on votes in the United Nations critical of Israel. When the Liberal government has been in power, as it has continuously since 2014, the vote …
(2021-12-03). WA Labor's electoral reforms: one step forward, two steps back. greenleft.org.au Under the cover of applying "one vote, one value" to elections for the Legislative Council, last month WA Labor also pushed through legislation that disadvantages smaller political parties, writes Sam Wainwright.
(2021-12-03). Haitian Asylum Seekers Held Under Del Rio Bridge Now Face Inhumane Conditions in New Mexico ICE Jail. democracynow.org 
The world was shocked by images of Haitians whipped by U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback as they sought refuge. Thousands were soon deported, but dozens are now detained in an ICE jail in New Mexico where they face inhumane conditions and lack access to legal services. We speak with a lawyer who describes medical neglect, deteriorating mental and physical health, and poor treatment by the staff. "They cannot get the basic tools and have the basic human contact that they need to save their own lives," says immigration attorney Allegra Love of the El Paso Immigration Collaborative.
(2021-12-03). Cuba Celebrates Health Workers on Day of Latin American Medicine. telesurenglish.net On the day commemorating Latin American Medicine, teleSUR English reproduces in full the speech offered by Cuban Minister of Health Jose Angel Portal Miranda to the health workers of Cuba and the region. | Cuba celebrates Latin American Medicine Day every December 3, to commemorate the birth of Cuban epidemiologist Carlos J. Finlay, an occasion to thank doctors, nurses, scientists, and collaborators for their successful efforts against Covid-19.
(2021-12-03). US Sent Wheat Seeds Containing Pests To Syria. telesurenglish.net Syrian agriculture officials have been complaining that the wheat seeds, recently provided by the United States for farmers in the Al-Hasakah province, contain a high degree of nematode (plant-parasitic worm) infection that would harm the soil. | RELATED: | In the laboratory examination that used saline solution, researchers found a number of grains are infected with wheat allele, which is a nematode infection. In the visual examination of the sample, the…
(2021-12-03). "Only the people can save the people!" Xiomora Castro's presidential win in Honduras. nationofchange.org "I believe firmly that the democratic socialism I propose is the solution to pull Honduras out of the abyss we have been buried in by neo-liberalism, a narco-dictator and corruption."
(2021-12-03). Unemployment Falls to 4.2 Percent in November as Economy Adds 210,000 Jobs. cepr.net The rise in the index of aggregate hours would be equivalent to more than 630,000 jobs with no changes in workweeks.
(2021-12-03). Peru's Officers Must Put Aside Political Differences: Castillo. telesurenglish.net On Friday and Monday, Peru's President Pedro Castillo will meet with lawmakers to coordinate policies to promote economic reactivation, political stability and help the citizens affected by the 7,2-magnitude earthquake, which shook the country on Nov. 28. | RELATED: | "We need to put aside political differences to work together in favor of our people," Castillo said and condemned the position assumed by the Attorney General'
(2021-12-03). Flattening the curve or flattening the global poor? How Covid lockdowns obliterate human rights and crush the most vulnerable. thegrayzone.com Marketed as life-saving public health measures, lockdowns triggered death and economic devastation on a global scale while doing little to slow the spread of Covid-19. Now, they're back with a vengeance. In October 2021, it seemed as though the lockdowns that still paralyzed societies from Australia to New Zealand and Singapore were coming to an end, as these countries threw in the "Zero-COVID" towel following a year and a half of rolling restrictions and closures. But with COVID-19 cases rising …
(2021-12-03). Media don't factcheck right-wing migration myths. mronline.org 
Increases and declines in unauthorized immigration mostly correlate with changes in job opportunities and other economic conditions in the United States and in nearby countries.
(2021-12-03). David Miles to become top forecaster at UK fiscal watchdog. imperial.ac.uk Professor David Miles has been appointed to one of the most influential roles in UK economic policy.
(2021-12-03). Berkshire's Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett Partner: This Bubble is Crazier Than 2000 Dotcom Bust. moguldom.com Billionaire investor Charlie Munger is not here for the current state of global financial markets. The 97-year-old is the vice-chair of Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffet's closest confidante. He emphatically stated his position during the Sohn Hearts & Minds Investment Conference in Sydney, Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. "The dotcom boom was crazier on …
(2021-12-03). We Have to Stand on Our Ground, the Best Ground from Which to Reach the Stars. popularresistance.org The geographical distribution of low and high-income countries reveals the same old divides. This was the main focus of dossier no. 43 (CoronaShock and Education in Brazil: One and a Half Years Later, August 2021), summarised in our seven theses on the present and future of education in Brazil. These regional and gender inequalities predated the pandemic but have been exacerbated because of the lockdowns. Signs of improvement are not yet visible. Earlier this year, the World Bank and UNESCO noted that, since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, two-thirds of developing countries have cut their education budget…
(2021-12-03). Historic China-Laos Railway Commences Operations. telesurenglish.net The China-Laos Railway, a landmark project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, started operation on Friday. | Today the $6 billion China-Laos bullet train, which could raise the country's income 20%, starts to operate. What most people didn't know is that the U.S. made Laos the most bombed nation in human history, killing 10% of its population.
(2021-12-03). Go-Ahead drivers in London win support for petition against Unite collusion over Remote Sign On. wsws.org RSO is opposed by an overwhelming majority of bus drivers across London—84 percent according to a recent Unite survey. Bus companies plan to introduce it across the network to slash payroll costs and introduce full labour force "flexibility".
(2021-12-03). COP26: On The Outside, Always Looking In. popularresistance.org "It wasn't long until I realized why this was the case: even if I came from a country that is continuously being ravaged by the climate crisis, I wasn't the target audience of this conference. I wasn't white, I did not come from a position of power or wealth, and I wasn't significant enough to be let inside the negotiations. I did not belong in this theater of performative climate "action". So much for COP26 being the most inclusive COP ever."
(2021-12-03). Facing the Facts About Gun Violence in the U.S. zcomm.org U.S. gun-related homicide rates are 25 times greater than other wealthy nations…
(2021-12-03). Using Inflation as an Excuse, Corporations Raised Prices & Increased Profits. zcomm.org "Corporations are seizing the opportunity to engage in massive profiteering because they can…they don't care you have to pay more for your groceries"
(2021-12-03). A New Diplomacy for China. libya360.wordpress.com Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein No one will be able to say that China is trying to impose its model on the world, attack another country, organize coups, assassinate presidents, exert armed pressure or install military bases in other countries (Photo: Financial Times). The Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of…
(2021-12-03). Tentative agreement announced in Kellogg's strike. wsws.org The BCTGM union is bringing a contract for a vote by 1,400 workers striking at four company cereal plants on Sunday, December 5, proposing to preserve the two-tier system and to accept wage increases below the rate of inflation.
(2021-12-03). US House Approves Funding Bill Ahead Of Shutdown Deadline. telesurenglish.net On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a short-term spending bill that would keep federal agencies running through February, averting a partial shutdown just a day before government funding is set to expire. | RELATED: | The Democrats-held lower chamber approved the bill by a vote of 221-212. The measure now heads to the Senate, where a group of Republicans have threatened to delay the passage o…
(2021-12-03). Two Fake Stories about the DPRK in November 2021. journal-neo.org 
Anti-Pyongyang propaganda periodically delights the world with horror stories in the DPRK, which circulate well in the media and which now must be clarified. It happened twice in the second half of November. On November 16, Radio Free Asia, a private non-profit news service funded by the US government, told the world the heartbreaking story …
(2021-12-03). New Zealand rail union enters talks ahead of national strike. wsws.org Driven by the rising cost of living and stagnant wages, Kiwirail workers have voted overwhelmingly for a nationwide strike. The RMTU, however, has resumed talks with management.
(2021-12-03). Sri Lankan public sector workers hold nationwide protests to demand higher wages. wsws.org The island-wide actions, held on consecutive days beginning Monday, are another indication of mounting working-class opposition to the Rajapakse government's austerity measures and its escalating anti-democratic attacks.