(2020-08-01). Sri Lankan SEP to hold online meeting to conclude its election campaign. wsws.org The SEP is the only party fighting for an international socialist perspective against deepening social inequality, the danger of imperialist war and the threat of dictatorship.
(2020-08-01). The 1 Percent's Attack on Unemployment Benefits is a Sign of Our Broken Democracy. commondreams.org The long-term systemic reason that working people are willing to accept jobs that cannot provide enough income to cover basic needs is because they are unable to organize and demand higher wages. Unionization is clearly tied to higher and more equal wages. (Photo: SEIU via Twitter) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/union_0.jpg …
(2020-08-01). US unemployment supplement expires, setting the stage for mass hunger and homelessness. wsws.org The congressional stalemate over an extension of the unemployment pay supplement, which is certain to result in the total elimination or a major cut in the benefit, is a declaration of war against the entire working population.
(2020-08-01). Stimulus Plan Negotiations Turn to Student Debt. indybay.org Student debt relief is now included in round the clock stimulus package negotiations on Capitol Hill.
(2020-08-01). "They're Playing With Us": Anger With GOP Growing as $600 Unemployment Benefit Lapses. commondreams.org "All our government wants is money in their pockets, while the people are poor and starving and scrounging." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/lines.jpg …
(2020-07-31). Here's How We Remake The Economy. popularresistance.org To defend the $600 unemployment payments as both morally and economically necessary is not to suggest that the CARES Act is a sufficient solution to our economic problems. Nor, says Pavlina Tcherneva, Associate Professor of Economics at Bard College and a Research Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute and advisor to Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, is the Democratic-led HEROES Act, which would extend the payments through January 2021 if Senate Republicans and the Trump administration would support it. Dr. Tcherneva studies the impact of unemployment on growth, income inequality and public health, an…
(2020-07-31). ECLAC and PAHO Call on Nations to Think About Health First. telesurenglish.net The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Thursday assured that the economies could only be reactivated if countries manage to flatten the COVID-19 curve. | RELATED: | High levels of inequality, poverty, and informality, as well as limited access to quality health care on time, explain why the pandemic is hurting Latin America so much. | T…
(2020-07-31). Health must come before the economy, insists top UN official for Latin America and the Caribbean. news.un.org In Latin America, where much of the region has dealt with years of sluggish growth, the economic crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing millions more into poverty, says Alicia Bárcena, the head of the UN regional body for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
(2020-07-31). Chile Records The Highest Unemployment Rate In A Decade. telesurenglish.net Chile reached the highest overall unemployment rate in a decade amid the COVID-19 pandemic, 12.2 percent, the National Statistics Office (INE) revealed on Friday. | RELATED: | According to the institution during the second quarter of this year, from April to June, the number of unemployed people soared to 996.900, an increment of 299.100 compared to the same period in 2019. | "The national unemployment rate was 12.2 pe…
(2020-07-31). Federal $600 a week addition to unemployment insurance runs out. fightbacknews.org San José, CA – 25 million Americans or more are losing their additional $600 a week in unemployment insurance benefits even as the number of people applying for unemployment benefits continues to rise. Up to one-third of all renters have already lost eviction protection from the federal government, and the Republican proposal does not include extending it. Millions of other households are under threat of losing their electrical power for not paying their bills. | The depth of the economic crisis stoked by the uncontrolled COVID-19 pandemic was shown this morning, July 30, in the Commerce Department's report on Gr…
(2020-07-31). As U.S. Eviction Crisis Looms, Remember That Poverty Is Weaponized by the Elite. strategic-culture.org Caitlin JOHNSTONE | CNBC News "On Friday, the federal moratorium on evictions in properties with federally backed mortgages and for tenants who receive government-assisted housing expired." CNBC reports. "The Urban Institute estimated that provision covered nearly 30% of the country's rental units." | "It's li…
(2020-07-30). Chomsky on Cuba's "Internationalist" Response to Pandemic & Need to Make Vaccine Globally Accessible. democracynow.org 
As the world races to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Noam Chomsky says any successful treatment must be accessible to everyone, and he warns that President Trump's withdrawal from the World Health Organization will hamper the international body's efforts to distribute medicine in countries racked by poverty and war. "There's at least one country in the world that is showing genuine internationalism, providing medical aid and support for people that need it," Chomsky says, and that is Cuba.
(2020-07-30). 'A momentary lapse of honesty?' WATCH US Defense Secretary Esper saying NATO must 'avoid PEACE in Europe'. rt.com 
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper seemingly mistook the word 'peace' for 'war' when he made a gaffe in the middle of a speech on the relocation of American troops in Europe. | Esper was delivering important news to reporters: the Pentagon has laid out a plan to withdraw nearly 12,000 American soldiers from its NATO ally Germany. | The blunder occurred just when Esper was arguing that Germany, as the "wealthiest country in Europe," can and should boost its defense spending. | I've said that very publicly, I've said that very privately to my counterparts as well — about the importance of NATO, any alliance, s…
(2020-07-30). Boris Johnson has made several inaccurate statements on child poverty, investigation finds. thecanary.co 
The government has been accused of being in denial about a rising level of child poverty in the UK.It comes after the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) concluded Boris Johnson has made several inaccurate claims on the issue since being elected in December last year.The OSR responded to a complaint from the End Child Poverty Coalition over three incidences when the prime minister made what the coalition described as "misleading" statements.A complaint was lodged by the End Child Poverty coalition over the Prime Minister's use of statistics (Danny Lawson/PA)Writing to the OSR, the coalition said Johnson's clai…
(2020-07-30). COVID-19: UN chief outlines path to sustainable, inclusive recovery in Southeast Asia. news.un.org Tackling inequality, bridging the digital divide, greening the economy, and upholding human rights and good governance will be critical for Southeast Asia to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday.
(2020-07-30). The Clock Is Ticking: 5 Key Demands for the New Coronavirus Bill. commondreams.org Extend unemployment benefits to help people survive the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. (Photo: Screenshot) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/screen_shot_2020-07-30_at_3.18.36_pm.png …
(2020-07-30). How Bad is the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act? counterpunch.org Somehow, Congress couldn't find the time last week to renew extended unemployment benefits or the federal moratorium on evictions. Congress had something more pressing to think about than 30 million unemployed Americans: the Pentagon budget. On July 21 and 23, the House of Representatives and the Senate approved their versions of the Pentagon's annual spending
(2020-07-30). Here's How We Remake the Economy. commondreams.org Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Friday, July 24, 2020, on the extension of federal unemployment benefits. (Photo: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/screen_shot_2020-07-30_at_3.05.54_pm.png …
(2020-07-30). Stimulus Checks in Next Coronavirus Package Shouldn't Penalize One-Parent Households. cepr.net Both the HEROES Act passed by the House in May and Senate Republicans' HEALS Act announced this week would provide a new round of stimulus in the form of one-time cash payments to most Americans, but with some major differences. One of these differences is in how the bills treat one-parent households with children, the …
(2020-07-30). Democrats Offer Half-Hearted Measures To Impending Eviction Crisis. popularresistance.org The best defense against a raging pandemic that has already claimed over 152,000 American lives is simply to stay home. But even this could soon become impossible for millions, as the United States is facing an impending eviction crisis of "biblical proportions," according to the Housing Rights Initiative. Earlier this week, the federal moratorium on evictions expired, meaning the nation's 12 million renters are now at risk of losing their homes. Renters tend to be poorer, many of whom are among the 52 million that have filed for unemployment benefits as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. | Instead of extending t…
(2020-07-29). Headlines for July 29, 2020. democracynow.org U.S. Records Highest One-Day Coronavirus Death Toll Since May, Trump Retweets Doctor Who Warned of Sex with Demons and "Alien DNA", Twitter Suspends Donald Trump Jr. for Spreading COVID-19 Misinformation, Progressives Say GOP Coronavirus Bill Would Bring "Mass Poverty and Mass Hunger", Teachers' Union Prepared to Strike If Schools Aren't Made Safe from Coronavirus, World Health Organization Warns Summer Weather Isn't Slowing Coronavirus, Argentina Reports Record COVID-19 Death Toll as Guatemala Reopens Economy, Attorney General Barr Grilled over Police Violence Against Peaceful Protesters, Portland Demonstrators…
(2020-07-29). Forget basic income—In Canada, the new normal should bring a public housing revolution. mronline.org 
"I had like $500 left in my account," my friend Jordan excitedly tells me. "I was seriously fucked for rent." Like millions of others, Jordan had entered his final few weeks of eligibility for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the government's $2,000 per month unemployment program.
(2020-07-29). Libya-born diplomat Richard Moore to head MI6 intel service. rt.com 
Britain's overseas spy agency — better known as MI6 — has installed diplomat Richard Moore as its new chief, the UK Foreign Office announced on Wednesday. | Libya-born Moore succeeds Sir Alex Younger, who will relinquish duties as head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in the autumn. The 57-year-old will also be known as 'C' — a role made famous in the James Bond movies. | Moore's current role is Director General for Political Affairs in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), a position he has held since April 2018. He has previously worked in other director roles in the SIS and has…
(2020-07-29). Impasse in Congress over CARES 2. workers.org 
As COVID-19 spreads exponentially in most of the United States where the ruling class has rushed to "open" the capitalist economy, unemployment has again exploded. Personal economic disaster looms for most working people. Congress must pass new emergency measures to aid the tens of millions of workers — disproportionately Black, . . . |
(2020-07-29). Security Council: Poverty deepens, along with need, across Syria. news.un.org Humanitarian operations across war-shattered Syria are reaching 6.8 million people a month, but a worsening economic crisis is deepening poverty and pushing more and more Syrians into humanitarian need, the Security Council heard Wednesday.
(2020-07-29). The Tories getting a Dimbleby to advise them on poverty sums up the problem. thecanary.co Henry Dimbleby, a restaurant Dimbleb…
(2020-07-29). South African government to release funds following BidAir workers' protest. peoplesdispatch.org Following a picket outside the labor department, the commissioner of Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has committed to release funds for the payment of workers' wages for the month of May by July 30…
(2020-07-29). Congress prepares to scrap $600 weekly unemployment payment. wsws.org The expiration of the enhanced federal unemployment benefit this week will drive millions of working class people across the US into desperate financial circumstances.
(2020-07-29). New GOP Stimulus Bill Shows They Are Perfectly Happy to Watch You Die. zcomm.org We are being led by the worst people at the worst possible time, and the Republican reaction to this stimulus package debate is exactly the kind of thinking that will leave this nation a bowl of ashes far sooner than we think…
(2020-07-29). Anti-Government Propaganda Is a Republican Ploy Meant to Disarm Progressives. truthout.org Social justice activists win myriad campaigns on specific issues each year, but when we step back, it still looks like we're losing the broader struggle for a livable future. | Despite our best efforts, we still face unprecedented concentrations of wealth and power, expanding economic insecurity (the "gig" economy), environmental catastrophe and systemic racism. | Why have progressives failed to mobilize a force capable of governing the U.S.? | Recently, I found a compelling explanation [mdas…