2022-02-01: News Headlines

Staff (2022-02-01). Headlines for February 1, 2022. democracynow.org U.S. and Russia Clash over Ukraine at U.N. Security Council, China Struggles to Stamp Out COVID Outbreaks Ahead of Beijing Winter Olympics, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Tests Positive for Coronavirus, Pfizer Vaccine Could Be Made Available to U.S. Children Under 5 by March, Trump Sought to Seize Voting Machines in Swing States He Lost to Biden, Atlanta-Area Prosecutor Asks FBI for Protection After Trump Urges Followers to Protest, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Accuses Democrats of "Smears" over Nazi Rallies, Amnesty Report Finds Israel Guilty of "The Crime of Apartheid Against Palestinians", Three Israeli O…

WSWS (2022-02-01). Omicron disaster intensifies political instability in Australia. wsws.org With little popular support for the Labor Party, except in the negative sense of wanting to oust the Coalition, there are mounting fears in the ruling class that any election will result in an unstable, minority government.

WSWS (2022-02-01). Denmark scraps all pandemic restrictions as Omicron subvariant runs rampant. wsws.org Like neighbouring Sweden, Denmark is emerging as one of the most ruthless proponents of a criminal herd immunity strategy that, unless opposed, plans to make mass infection and death a permanent feature of daily life.

WSWS (2022-02-01). Open letter to New Zealand rail workers: Form rank-and-file committees to fight for safe working conditions. wsws.org Commuter rail operator Transdev, assisted by the Rail and Maritime Transport Union, is imposing conditions that will allow Omicron to spread and infect rail workers and passengers.

Karen Conner (2022-02-01). Preview: What to Look for in the January Jobs Report. cepr.net The January jobs report is likely to look weaker than recent reports, first and foremost because of the spread of the omicron variant.

In Defense of Liberation! (2022-02-01). Morning Commute 2-1-2022 . anchor.fm In this episode I discuss how identity is tokenized and weaponization by the Capitalist and Imperialist system, as well as health Fascism manifests itself within the American society and capitalist society's historically. We also talk about the need for organizing and other things along the way. I hope you enjoy…

Martha Burk (2022-02-01). To protect women's health, pass the equal rights amendment. nationofchange.org Late January marked the 49th anniversary of Roe. V. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. It could very well be the last. In 1973, Roe codified the right to terminate a pregnancy up until viability — around 23-26 weeks. Anti-abortion forces have fought to negate the decision ever since, and now they …

Matt Sedlar (2022-02-01). Private Equity in Healthcare: Profits before Patients and Workers. cepr.net This was originally published in the magazine — Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA), Perspectives on Work. | On March 25, 2021, U.S Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), Chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Oversight, held hearings into the growing power of Wall Street firms in the healthcare industry. The hearings focused on recent research documenting higher than average death rates in private equity (PE) owned nursing homes. A rigorous study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), found that mortality rates in PE-owned nursing homes were 10 percen…

WSWS (2022-02-01). Two years since the WHO declared a public health emergency, COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten humanity. wsws.org Since the emergency was declared there have been 377 million confirmed infections and nearly 5.7 million deaths. Despite repeated government claims that the pandemic is over, it continues to rage.

WSWS (2022-02-01). Serco ancillary staff at St Barts NHS Trust begin two-week pay strike. wsws.org Barts Health NHS Trust is the largest in England and serves a population of over 2.5 million people in the capital.

Michael Welch (2022-02-01). Medical Marvel or the Second Coming of Al Capone? Pfizer's Sins and Crimes. "We have a Vaccine which is Killing People" globalresearch.ca . "This …

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2022-02-01). Video: Has Justin Trudeau Been Duly Vaccinated? Registered Nurse Expresses Doubt on Authenticity of Trudeau's Vaccine Jab. globalresearch.ca First published …

WSWS (2022-02-01). Expand and unite the global student and teacher walkouts into a mass movement against COVID-19! wsws.org The Southern Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committees stand in solidarity with students and teachers across the US and Europe, and call for a unified mass movement to stop school reopenings.

WSWS (2022-02-01). Canada records highest daily COVID-19 death toll since start of pandemic. wsws.org A grim milestone was reached on January 27 as 309 COVID-19 deaths were recorded nationally, the highest-ever daily total since the start of the pandemic.

Fight Back (2022-02-01). Texas A&M University students push for COVID safety measures. fightbacknews.org College Station, TX – Students at Texas A&M University gathered in a silent sit-in on January 28 for improved COVID-19 policies on campus. The coalition, consisting of individuals and organizations such as Grad Aggies for Worker Safety (GAWS), Feminism4Aggies and TAMU Students for a Democratic Society, organized the protest in solidarity with the students of the University of North Texas, who were also calling for improved COVID-19 policies at universities across Texas. | Participating students held signs with demands, statements about the TAMU student who died of COVID-19 complications, and a QR code linked to…

Sarah Hathway (2022-02-01). Socialist: 'Government neglect to blame for COVID-19 crisis in aged care'. greenleft.org.au The Socialist Alliance candidate Sue Bull said said the federal government hand-out to aged care workers won't solve the mounting pandemic death toll among the aged. Sarah Hathway reports.

WSWS (2022-02-01). Detroit students, parents angered as schools open amid COVID surge. wsws.org A WSWS reporting team spoke with students and parents at Cass Technical High School in Detroit after the resumption of in-person classes on Monday, January 31.

Staff (2022-01-31). Headlines for January 31, 2022. democracynow.org U.N. Security Council Meets over Russia-Ukraine Tensions as Ukraine Calls Out Western "Panic", U.N.: 2,000 Children Died Since 2020 After Being Forced into Combat in Yemen, Taliban Killed Dozens of Former Gov't and Allied Forces Workers Since Takeover, Sudanese Security Forces Kill Another Demonstrator as Protests Continue 3 Months After Coup, North Korea Tests Most Powerful Ballistic Missile Since 2017, Pipeline Bursts on Indigenous Land in Ecuadorian Amazon; Thailand Rushes to Contain Coastal Oil Spill, Spotify Adds Advisory to Podcasts About COVID; Joni Mitchell Removes Music from App, Ahmaud Arbery's Family,…

WSWS (2022-01-31). Spanish Morenoites attack China's "Zero COVID" strategy. wsws.org The Revolutionary Workers' Current (CRT) is denouncing essential public health measures that allowed China to rapidly bring the pandemic under control.

WSWS (2022-01-31). Expiration of expanded tax credit throws millions of US children into poverty. wsws.org Amid a surge in the Omicron variant which has sickened millions, the Democrats have allowed expanded child tax credit (CTC) payments to expire with 30 million families not seeing the payments on January 15 after just six months of the program.

Editor (2022-01-31). Replacing imports to guarantee greater biotechnological sovereignty in the production of medicine. mronline.org Interview with president of Cuba's leading pharmaceutical enterprise group, BioCubaFarma, working to strengthen the country's technological sovereignty and contribute to the population's quality of life.

William Briggs (2022-01-31). COVID-19 vaccines a 'testament' to capitalism? greenleft.org.au There was no altruism in the speed in which pharmaceutical companies developed successful vaccines. The very future of capitalism relied on science's ability to keep the wheels turning, argues William Briggs.

Jake Johnson (2022-01-31). Pharma Hikes Cost of 866 Drugs While Lobbying to Kill Build Back Better. truthout.org Major pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. hiked the prices of nearly 870 prescription medications during the first month of the new year as lock-step Republicans and right-wing Democrats — Through January 20 of this year, according to an analysis released Sunday…

William Briggs (2022-01-31). COVID-19 vaccines, a 'testament' to capitalism? greenleft.org.au There was no altruism in the speed in which pharmaceutical companies developed successful vaccines. The very future of capitalism relied on science's ability to keep the wheels turning, argues William Briggs.

Mark Gruenberg (2022-01-31). Workers, allies push California fast food law. peoplesworld.org

WSWS (2022-01-31). The NHS vaccine mandate: Corbyn, pseudo-left and trade unions join Tory and libertarian right. wsws.org Like the Tory right, the union bureaucracy, their spokesperson Corbyn and their backers in the pseudo-left see no sense in requiring vaccination against a disease which they have accepted will be widespread throughout society forever.

Ann Brown (2022-01-31). Largest DNA Study On African Ancestry: Black Americans Have Altered DNA From Slavery And Trauma. moguldom.com Black trauma, which has its roots in slavery, has affected the physical and mental health of generations of Black Americans, and the proof can be found in their altered DNA, studies have found. In 2020, a large DNA study traced the violent history of American slavery and found that trauma changed the DNA of Black …

Ann Brown (2022-01-31). Driver Video Shows Road Rage Bustin' On Highway: 'Always Assume Americans Have Guns Without Mental Healthcare'. moguldom.com A violent road rage incident on a Florida interstate in which a driver fired nearly a dozen shots toward another car is leaving some on Twitter worried about Americans without adequate mental healthcare. Dashcam footage of the shooter, Eric Popper, 30, was recently released from an incident that took place in June 2021. Around 6: 53 …

Sameena Rahman, Zach Farber (2022-01-31). The socialist case for CalCare. liberationnews.org Single-payer universal healthcare is within reach for Californians. On Jan. 20, Assembly Bill 1400, also known as CalCare, passed the California state assembly appropriations committee. If CalCare passes the assembly floor by Jan. 31 it will advance to the state senate.

WSWS (2022-01-31). Fascist podcaster manipulates tragic case of Minnesota COVID patient to attack health care providers. wsws.org Far-right elements are using the case of Scott Quiner, a ventilated COVID-19 patient who died after being moved from Mercy Hospital in Minnesota to a Texas hospital, as a rallying point for anti-vaccine forces.

Sharon Akunda (2022-01-31). Kenya: Minibus blast kills 7. plusnews.ug At least seven people were killed and 13 others wounded after a vehicle they were traveling in ran over an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Mandera county on Monday, health and police officials said. County director of health Services Abdi Maalim said Mandera Referral Hospital had received seven bodies and 13 injured patients, among them …

Peoples Dispatch (2022-01-31). US Navy's toxic boot-print on Hawaii. peoplesdispatch.org Hawaiian activist Kawena ªulaokalƒÅ Kapahua speaks to Globetrotter's Vijay Prashad on how the US Navy has poisoned the largest water source on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. This public health disaster has been years in the making, as the Navy's fuel tanks have been leaking into Oahu's water supply on a regular basis for decades. | Kapahua also talks about how conditions on Hawaii have worsened since the US overthrew the island government in 1893 and occupied a third of its land, including a rapid rise in pollution and food imports.

Rehad Desai (2022-01-31). Joining the dots: Pandemics and political economy. greenleft.org.au Climate Justice puts the people most affected by the crisis at the centre of the solution. Health Justice must do the same, argues Rehad Desai.

WSWS (2022-01-31). Thousands of Sri Lankan health workers hold one-day strike in Western Province. wsws.org Repeated struggles in the health sector indicate that the working class will not accept the government's attack, and is determined to defend its living conditions and social rights.

WSWS (2022-01-31). SEP (Australia) files objection to party deregistration. wsws.org The SEP is demanding the basic democratic right to stand candidates in its name at the looming federal election in order to advance, in the broadest possible way, the necessary socialist perspective, based on the protection of health and lives, not private profit.

_____ (2022-01-31). Union Membership Resumes Its Fall. popularresistance.org Union membership fell by almost 2% in 2021 as employment rose by over 3%. That took union density—the share of the workforce belonging to unions—down from 10.8% in 2020 to 10.3% last year, where it was in 2019. Density rose in 2020 because more nonunion workers lost their jobs in the covid crisis than their unionized counterparts, but 2021's return to employment undid that. | For the private sector, just 6.1% of workers were unionized last year, down from 6.3% in 2020, an all-time low for a series that goes back to 1900. (Official numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics began in 1983; I've assembl…

Judy Greenspan (2022-01-31). Free Leonard Peltier! COVID-19 inside prison. workers.org In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic currently raging through the jail, prison and detention centers of this country, Leonard Peltier (Turtle Mountain Band, Chippewa Nation), an Indigenous leader and political prisoner, has issued a cry for help. Leonard Peltier Peltier, 77 years old, who has been imprisoned for 45 . . . |

Minnal Kunnan (2022-01-31). Pasadena residents demand better housing. liberationnews.org Over the last five years, Pasadena residents have come together and organized the Pasadena Tenants Union to combat the city's rising housing costs. PTU was able to quickly mobilize during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to protect tenants by successfully campaigning for an eviction moratorium and are currently fighting for a city charter amendment that would establish rent control, just cause eviction, and a rental housing board.

Staff (2022-01-31). PSUV Training System to be Relaunched Within '3 Rs Dot Net' Strategy. orinocotribune.com The National Training System of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) will be reactivated throughout Venezuela within the framework of the "three Rs dot net" initiative carried out by the president of the party, Nicolás Maduro, to build the new era of transition to socialism. | Reading circles, courses, and diplomas, as well as the Institute of Higher Studies, will return to their activities "with more force," following the exceptional situation created by COVID-19. The pandemic will force them to adapt to a new work methodology, said PSUV Vice President for Training, Héctor Rodríguez, in this regard. Th…

WSWS (2022-01-31). Mass school reopenings in Australia amid record COVID deaths. wsws.org Governments admit that the reopening of schools in NSW and Victoria this week will result in mass transmission among teachers and students.

Staff (2022-01-31). Leonard Peltier Has COVID; His Lawyer — an Ex-Federal Judge — Calls for Native Leader to Be Freed. democracynow.org Jailed 77-year-old Native American activist Leonard Peltier has tested positive for COVID-19 less than a week after describing his prison conditions as a "torture chamber." Peltier was convicted of aiding and abetting the killing of two FBI agents during a shootout on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975 while a member of the American Indian Movement. He has long maintained his innocence and is considered by Amnesty International as a political prisoner. We speak with his lawyer and former federal judge Kevin Sharp, who says Peltier's case was riddled with misconduct, including witness intimidation and w…

David Renton (2022-01-31). Will Boris Johnson's COVID Hypocrisy Finally Break His Political Grip in the UK? truthout.org A much-awaited report on booze-soaked parties attended by top U.K. officials — including Prime Minister Boris Johnson — in violation of COVID rules was finally released today by senior civil servant Sue Gray. It marks the worst crisis of Boris Johnson's premiership. | For 17 of the last 22 months, the U.K. has been in one form or another of COVID lockdown, as the government has tried to negotiate between two instincts. On the one hand, there has been a medical consensus that all…

WSWS (2022-01-31). Teachers denounce forced reopening of Australian schools amid COVID explosion. wsws.org An educator in Melbourne, where classes return today, said: "It is COVID roulette for teachers."

Michael Lord (2022-01-31). Klaus Schwab's WEF "School for Covid Dictators", a Plan for the "Great Reset" globalresearch.ca Economist Ernst Wolff believes that a hidden alliance of political and corporate leaders is exploiting the pandemic with the aim of crashing national economies and introducing a global digital currency. | How is it that more than 190 governments from all …

Amy Goodman (2022-01-31). Leonard Peltier Has COVID. Will Biden Finally Consider Freeing Him? truthout.org Jailed 77-year-old Native American activist Leonard Peltier has tested positive for COVID-19 less than a week after describing his prison conditions as a "torture chamber." Peltier was convicted of aiding and abetting the killing of two FBI agents during a shootout on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975 while a member of the American Indian Movement. He has long maintained his innocence and is considered by Amnesty International as a political prisoner. We speak with his lawyer and former fede…

WSWS (2022-01-31). New York, Michigan and Ohio end contact tracing. wsws.org Many of the largest American states have officially ended their contact tracing programs as part of a coordinated nationwide policy to allow virtually the entire American population to be infected with the potentially deadly and debilitating COVID-19.

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