(2021-04-08). Inequality in U.S. Education Goes Beyond the College Admissions Scandal. progressive.org The new Netflix documentary, "Operation Varsity Blues," looks into what happened in 2019, but what's needed are real solutions to the ongoing achievement gap.
(2021-04-08). Iraqis protest against unemployment, shut down major oil refinery. peoplesdispatch.org Protests against unemployment have been taking place for five days in a row in southern Iraq, causing massive fuel shortages in the region and adversely impacting oil production and refining at the Nasiriyah oil refinery…
(2021-04-08). The Heat: Vaccine inequality and Brazil battles COVID-19. america.cgtn.com 
Vaccinations are ramping up in the U.S., but President Joe Biden warns the country is still in a war against COVID-19. Meanwhile, in Brazil, hospitals and morgues are being stretched to the limit, and the prognosis for other low-income countries is similarly grim, as vaccine distribution continues to be a major challenge.
(2021-04-08). "Vaccine Passports": ACLU Warns of Privacy Nightmare That Could Create "Two-Tiered Society" democracynow.org 
As people try to find a safe way to gather and travel during the pandemic, there is growing interest in documenting who has been vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19. The World Health Organization has warned so-called vaccine passports may not be an effective way to reopen, and healthcare professionals argue vaccine certificates may further exacerbate vaccine inequality. New York is already testing a digital vaccine passport app made by IBM called the Excelsior Pass, while countries including the U.K. and Israel have issued their own versions of electronic vaccine certificates. The U.S. government has ruled…
(2021-04-08). "Vaccine Passports": ACLU Warns of Privacy Nightmare That Could Create "Two-Tiered Society" democracynow.org As people try to find a safe way to gather and travel during the pandemic, there is growing interest in documenting who has been vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19. The World Health Organization has warned so-called vaccine passports may not be an effective way to reopen, and healthcare professionals argue vaccine certificates may further exacerbate vaccine inequality. New York is already testing a digital vaccine passport app made by IBM called the Excelsior Pass, while countries including the U.K. and Israel have issued their own versions of electronic vaccine certificates. The U.S. government has ruled…
(2021-04-07). What is exploitation? mronline.org 
The word "exploitation" is special for Marxists because it contains a unique insight about the way wealth is produced in class societies. | April 7, 2021 | Newswire…
(2021-04-07). The case for expropriation: Billionaires' wealth surged 60 percent in first year of pandemic. wsws.org The newly released Forbes list reveals that in 2020, as COVID-19 was sweeping the world and killing millions, billionaire wealth skyrocketed as never before.
(2021-04-07). President Maduro Announced New Economic Measures to Counter COVID-19's Second Wave. orinocotribune.com Tuesday, April 6, President Nicolás Maduro announced new economic measures for the protection of the Venezuelan people in the midst of the fight against COVID-19. From Miraflores Palace, he reported that about 15.1 million cardholders, through the Patria System, will in the coming days receive a special support bonus from the Chavista government to face the pandemic, similar to US stimulus checks. | In this regard, the Head of State also announced the extension, until September, of the prohibition on the collection of credit guarantees, the prohibition on reclassifying credit risk, and the express prohibition of…
(2021-04-07). China Offers To Tutor Planet Following Extreme Poverty Elimination. popularresistance.org Home to nearly one-fifth of the world's population, China's social policies have a dramatic effect on humanity as a whole. Despite a shift toward allowing capitalist markets in the late 1970s, the socialist state has still accounted for nearly three-quarters of global poverty elimination since then. | China's State Council Information Office has published a white paper outlining how the socialist country can teach the rest of the world about how to alleviate poverty. In the last 40 years, China has lifted 770 million people out of poverty, declaring an end to its most extreme forms in November. | Titled "Poverty…
(2021-04-07). $20,000 dollars so far in FRSO fundraising campaign. fightbacknews.org Minneapolis, MN — In just a few weeks, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) Spring Fundraising campaign has netted more than $20,000. FRSO has grown rapidly in this past year and will use the funds to establish a national office. | FRSO members have active in many of the key struggles of working and oppressed peoples during the past year — especially the struggle against police crimes. | Linden Gawboy, an unemployed worker and activist in the fight against police terror in Minnesota is one of those who has contributed their stimulus checks. "This country is at a turning point, and we have to…
(2021-04-07). The UK's Official Report on Racism is a Travesty. counterpunch.org 
Protests over the killing of George Floyd occurred outside the US. In the UK these protests prompted the government to order an official report on racial inequality. The setting-up of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED, a sardonic appellation worthy of George Orwell's 1984) by Boris "BoJo" Johnson was a version of an age-old strategy, namely, appoint a commission of trusties who can then be guaranteed to deliver a whitewash (even though the 10-person commission had only 1 white member).
(2021-04-07). Biden And Yellen Are Pushing A Global Minimum Tax Rate: The EU Is Very Pleased — OpEd. eurasiareview.com 
By Ryan McMaken* | It has long been a dream of central planners and interventionists to set a global, uniform tax rates for all regimes. These globalists know that so long as sovereign states have the ability to freely set their own tax rates, some regimes are tempted to engage in "tax competition" in order to attract capital. When this happens "tax havens" which allows companies and individuals to "shop around" in terms of where to put their productive wealth. | The antidote to this "problem," we are told, is so-called tax harmonization. Under tax harmonization schemes, all governments are forced to impose a…
(2021-04-07). Experts Lay Bare Inequality, Disorganization of US Health Care. telesurenglish.net Seven researchers with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spoke up on the existing inequality and disorder in America's health care system, calling for reflection and changes. | RELATED: | The researchers, with various disciplinary backgrounds including medicine, anthropology, political science, and health economics, put down their opinions in an article published on the MIT website. Their arguments most con…
(2021-04-07). Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal and the blight of social inequality. wsws.org The Netflix docudrama recounts the college admissions scandal in the US. The criminal conspiracy involved influencing undergraduate admissions decisions at numerous elite American universities.
(2021-04-07). How America's 'Bootstraps' Myth Hurts Farmers — And All of Us. progressive.org When Black farmers received aid from the last stimulus package, it drew the ire of conservatives like Lindsey Graham, who cast them as less deserving than whites.
(2021-04-07). Financial Tyranny: Footing The Tax Bill For The Government's Fiscal Insanity — OpEd. eurasiareview.com 
We're not living the American dream. We're living a financial nightmare. | The U.S. government—and that includes the current administration—is spending money it doesn't have on programs it can't afford, and "we the taxpayers" are the ones who will be forced to foot the bill for the government's fiscal insanity. | We've been sold a bill of goods by politicians promising to pay down the national debt, jumpstart the economy, rebuild our infrastructure, secure our borders, ensure our security, and make us all healthy, wealthy and happy. | None of that has come to pass, and yet we've still been loaded d…
(2021-04-07). The Heat: China's white paper on poverty alleviation. america.cgtn.com 
China releases a new report to share its experience eliminating extreme poverty.
(2021-04-07). Hubble Telescope finds 2 'needles' in separate galactic haystacks with double-quasar discovery. rt.com 
Researchers wielding the almost all-seeing eye on board NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have detected not one, but two astronomical needles in two galactic haystacks; merging pairs of quasars that may reveal how galaxies form. | By leveraging the wealth of information collected by the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite and the ground-based Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the researchers narrowed down their hunt for these rare, though extremely bright dual quasars, hiding in plain sight among the stars across the universe. | A quasar is the extremely bright nucleus of a galaxy, fed by the insatiable appetite of…
(2021-04-07). IMF Reports Pandemic Economic Outlook Uncertain. indybay.org Amidst Rising Inequality, Ninety Million Could Fall into Extreme Poverty…
(2021-04-07). Monday 4/12: "The Wealth Hoarders": New Book Talk w/ Author Chuck Collins on Billionare Corruption. indybay.org Online via livestream…
(2021-04-07). Conflicts Compounded By COVID-19 Devastating Socio-Economic Development In Sub-Saharan Africa. eurasiareview.com 
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the terrible legacy of deliberately divisive and destructive policies that have perpetuated inequality, discrimination, and oppression across Sub-Saharan Africa, Amnesty International said in its annual report published early April 2021. | Across the Sub-Saharan region, the devastating impact of armed conflict in countries such as Ethiopia, Mozambique, Cameroon, and Nigeria, was compounded by the pandemic as a number of states weaponized it to crack down on human rights. The crackdowns included killings of civilians and arrests of opposition politicians and supporters and huma…