2020-04-06: News Headlines

WSWS (2020-04-06). As it releases thousands of prisoners, UK government keeps Julian Assange locked-up in danger. wsws.org The WikiLeaks founder is currently held on remand pending extradition to the US, not charged with any crime or serving any sentence, in Belmarsh maximum security prison.

John Nichols (2020-04-06). Wisconsin's In-Person Voting Threatens Health and Democracy. thenation.com Wisconsin's In-Person Voting Threatens Health and Democracy…

John Nichols (2020-04-04). 'We Will Not Sit Back and Let Transit Workers Be Treated Like Cannon Fodder'. thenation.com 'We Will Not Sit Back and Let Transit Workers Be Treated Like Cannon Fodder'

The Iranian (2020-04-04). Iran Develops Its Own AI Software to Swiftly Detect COVID-19. iranian.com Head of Coronavirus Management Center in Tehran Alireza Zali said that Iranian researchers have launched a new system based on artificial intelligence which can diagnose infection to COVID-19 virus in patients without access to a specialized physician. "The system is used in regions where there is no (specialized) doctor or radiologist and it gives precise …

Julia Conley, staff writer (2020-04-04). 'Pure Retaliation, Retribution, and Reprisal': Trump Fires Inspector General Who Sounded Alarm About Ukraine Whistleblower Complaint. commondreams.org Democratic lawmakers and government watchdogs on Saturday condemned President Donald Trump's abrupt dismissal of Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who informed Congress last year of the whistleblower complaint which kicked off Trump's eventual impeachment proceedings. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-1173692047_1.jpg

RT (2020-04-03). 'Not even a little bit!' Trump sees no witch-hunt in US Navy firing Covid-19 whistleblower captain. rt.com US President Donald Trump rejected claims that a recently sacked Navy captain was unfairly persecuted for blowing the whistle on an inadequate response to a Covid-19 outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, calling for evacuation. | Asked whether the aircraft carrier commander, Captain Brett Cozier, was being "punished" for sending a letter directly to senior officials urging them to save the lives of his crewmen, the president was dismissive. | "No, I don't agree with that at all. We're going to wait for a little while… but I don't agree with that at all," Trump told reporters at a White House briefing on Th…

Tony Pecinovsky (2020-04-03). 'A Threat of the First Magnitude': A history of FBI counterintelligence and infiltration. peoplesworld.org During the 1960s and 1970s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation infiltrated, spied on, and harassed progressive and radical organizations and individuals across the country, often employing informants and provocateurs to disrupt, disorganize, and discredit leftist movements and groups. FBI surveillance and the use of paid informants were nothing new to the U.S. domestic security apparatus. …

John Nichols (2020-04-02). 'People Should Not Be Forced to Put Their Lives on the Line to Vote'. thenation.com 'People Should Not Be Forced to Put Their Lives on the Line to Vote'

Christian Sorensen (2020-04-02). War Profiteering in the Time of Corona. dissidentvoice.org On 11 March, executives from the war corporation CACI, which sells goods and services to CIA, NSA, and the U.S. Armed Forces, rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. That ceremony embodies the war industry's business as usual approach to the coronavirus. Industry executives are doing their best to keep the gears …

Aaron Maté (2020-04-01). Pompeo's 'transition' plan tells Venezuela to suffer into submission. thegrayzone.com Declaring that "Nicolas Maduro will never again govern Venezuela," Mike Pompeo unveils a so-called "transition" plan that tells Venezuelans to…

Steven K. Choi (2020-04-01). The Added Importance of the Census, in Light of COVID-19. aclu.org Last year around this time, my biggest worry was how the inclusion of the Trump administration's proposed citizenship question would depress participation in the decennial census. Thankfully, our Supreme Court victory means there is no citizenship question on the census. Now, I have a new worry: a global pandemic and the health of my loved ones. As it turns out, the 2020 Census plays a role here too, as it will have enormous implications on our health care for decades to come. | Specifically, the census will determine the allocation of $300 billion dollars of federal aid for the states' health care — mo…

Kathryn Casteel and Will Tucker (2020-03-24). Arbitrary & excessive: Marijuana trafficking sentences in Alabama. splcenter.org Alabama resident Lee Carroll Brooker garnered national attention in 2016 when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the marijuana trafficking case that put Brooker, in his 70s at the time, in prison for life.

Staff (2020-03-20). Senator Dumped Up to $1.7 Million of Stock After Reassuring Public About Coronavirus Preparedness. truthdig.com Soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions. As the head of the intelligence …

Justin Stebbing, Anne Phelan, Ivan Griffin, Catherine Tucker, Olly Oechsle, Dan Smith, Peter Richardson (2020-02-27). [Comment] COVID-19: combining antiviral and anti-inflammatory treatments. thelancet.com Both coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) are characterised by an overexuberant inflammatory response and, for SARS, viral load is not correlated with the worsening of symptoms.1,2 In our previous Correspondence to The Lancet,3 we described how BenevolentAI's proprietary artificial intelligence (AI)-derived knowledge graph,4 queried by a suite of algorithms, enabled identification of a target and a potential therapeutic against SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; the causative organism in COVID-19).

Jason Ditz (2020-02-17). DOJ Investigating Former CIA Director's Role in Russiagate. theantimedia.com The Justice Department is investigating the role of John Brennan in the assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.