Two Bengaluru Activists Who Helped Migrants Get Train Tickets Booked On Charges Of 'Provocation'

The activists were pressed with the charges of provoking the workers to act against their employers, leave the city and the complaint was filed by the builders.

https://thelogicalindian.com/

PM CARES Fund received huge donations from Chinese firms just ahead of conflict at LAC

Set up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an aim to collect funds for fighting the Coronavirus pandemic, the PM CARES Fund received huge donations from several Chinese companies just ahead of the conflict at the LAC between China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Indian armed forces.
According to an analysis of news reports published in sections of the media, these donations range from Rs 1 crore to Rs 30 crore. For example, Tik Tok – a Chinese video-sharing social networking service that has been at the receiving end of the call to boycott Chinese goods and services – has donated Rs 30 crore to the PM CARES Fund.  https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/

NASA will name its headquarters after Mary W. Jackson, the agency's first African American female engineer

NASA is renaming its headquarters after Mary W. Jackson, the agency's first African American female engineer who helped inspire the story behind the book and film "Hidden Figures."

"Mary W. Jackson was part of a group of very important women who helped NASA succeed in getting American astronauts into space," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in the agency's announcement Wednesday.

"Mary never accepted the status quo, she helped break barriers and open opportunities for African Americans and women in the field of engineering and technology."   https://edition.cnn.com/

George Floyd’s smiling daughter, 6, says ‘daddy changed the world’

In a statement, King, the CEO of The King Center, said she thinks about Gianna. “I was five years old when my father was killed by law enforcement. I know that pain, I know that void, I know the journey of anger. I know what people are feeling. I feel it.”

Yesterday, Gianna’s mother Roxie Washington, spoke during a press conference where she made an emotional plea for people to remember that Floyd was a good father.

“Gianna does not have a father,” she said, “He will never see her grow up, graduate. He will never walk her down the aisle. If there’s a problem she’s having and she needs a dad, she does not have that anymore.”   https://thegrio.com/

‘I Can’t Breathe’: Video Shows Cops Kneel on Motionless Man’s Neck — Until He Dies

Shocking video footage posted to social media Tuesday shows a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the back of a handcuffed man’s neck as he struggles to breathe, and onlookers repeatedly warn the cop that the man is choking.

The Minneapolis Police Department said in a statement Monday night that the man—who was identified Tuesday as George Floyd, died of an unspecified “medical incident” shortly after being transported to a hospital that is nearby.

“The police killed him, bro, right in front of everybody,” said Darnella Frazier, who filmed the incident and posted a clip on Facebook. “He was crying, telling them like, ‘I can’t breathe,’ and everything. They did not care… They killed this man.”   https://themindunleashed.com/

Chile\s health system near collapse

Chile's President Sebastián Piñera expressed concern Sunday about the survival of the national health system as the country registers nearly 70,000 positive cases of coronavirus.

"The health care system is close to collapse. It's very in demand and very stressed out," Piñera said during the inauguration of the Sótero del Río Modular Hospital, which will accommodate 100 basic beds for patients with COVID-19.  

Piñera warned about the increase in the needs and demands for medical care, and in intensive care unit and ventilator beds. 

"I suggest not looking for culprits, but for solutions. We are making every effort humanly possible," Piñera said.   https://www.telesurenglish.net/

Concerned Alarm Didn't Go Off During Vizag Gas Leak, Says Andhra CM

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy pointed a finger at the LG Polymers’s security measures during his press briefing on the gas leak at the plant in Visakhapatnam on Thursday which killed 11 people.
Reddy said, “I am concerned that an alarm did not sound when the gas leak took place.”
Reddy’s government announced  Rs. 1 crore as compensation for families for the eleven people who died after they inhaled aerosolised polystyrene that leaked from LG Polymers’s plant.
The government will also request the company to provide job for a family member of the deceased, the CM said.
Expressing concern over the mishap which took place even as the state is under lockdown, Jagan Mohan Reddy said, “The chemical was stored in high quantities in the facility. LG Polymers is a reputed multinational company. Such incidents happening in such a company is even more worrisome”.
The South Korean company which runs the plant is a part of the LG Corp. conglomerate. https://www.huffingtonpost.in/

Why are black communities hit so hard by coronavirus?

Ala Stanford speaks with doctors in Philadelphia who formed the Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium to offer to test and help address health disparities in the African American community. (Matt Rourke/AP)

Here’s yet another data point that shows how disproportionate the impact of coronavirus is on black Americans: Counties that have more black residents than the national average account for more than half of coronavirus cases and 60 percent of deaths, a new study finds.

The study comes from Amfar, the Foundation for Aids Research, reports The Post’s Vanessa Williams. So, why are black people more likely to be harmed by the virus? The Fix’s Eugene Scott explained recently:

1.Black people have higher rates of hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and lung disease and less access to high-quality medical care to deal with it all. “A 2014 National Institutes of Health study found that hospitals in predominantly black neighborhoods are more likely to close down than those in predominantly white neighborhoods,” Scott writes.

2.Black Americans hold a lot of “essential jobs” that don’t allow them to stay home and telework, like bus drivers or gig economy workers or security guards.

3.A majority live in the South, and “states like Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia are all headed by governors whose messaging on how to stay safe was often inconsistent with the guidelines of the federal government,” Scott writes.

4.There are also housing disparities. “People of color are more likely to live in densely packed areas and in multigenerational housing situations, which create a higher risk for the spread of highly contagious disease like covid-19,” U.S. Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams said at a White House briefing last month.

But this is not just an urban issue. The new study found that the highest death rates among black Americans from the virus were in smaller metropolitan areas and rural communities.

Read:

Timeline: The more than 50 times Trump has downplayed the coronavirus threat

https://www.washingtonpost.com/

Banks technically write off loans worth over Rs68,000 crore, Mehul Choksi among 50 top wilful defaulters: RTI

Indian banks have technically written off a staggering amount of Rs 68,607 crore due from 50 top wilful defaulters, including absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi, according to a reply under RTI from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Prominent RTI activist Saket Gokhale had filed an RTI query with the RBI seeking details of the 50 top wilful defaulters and their current loan status till February 16.
"I filed this RTI because Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur had refused to reply to this starred question asked in the Parliament by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in the last Budget Session on February 16," Gokhale told IANS.https://www.moneylife.in/

By Withholding Information on PM-CARES and the Lockdown, the PMO Has Violated the RTI Act

The Prime Minister’s Office must have deliberately ignored the will that the parliament had expressed in the RTI Act, and the spirit of the Rules and Office Memoranda (OM) issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) when it comes to responding to RTI requests.

The DoPT is the nodal agency to implement people’s access to the government’s records in the entire nation. The PMO is one of the Ministries in Central Cabinet, under which the DoPT functions. The PMO’s Chief Public Information Officer cannot say that it has no knowledge of the Rules and OMs issued by its own wing – DoPT.

As has been reported by now, the PMO, perhaps, did not repose confidence in its own PM National Relief Fund, for reasons not explained, and created another fund called ‘PM-CARES’ in the wake of the coronavirus attack. 

PM-CARES did not care for RTI, as PMO refused to give information about the thousands of crores of rupees of public money given into the accounts of government-controlled PM CARES fund. 

In response to Vikrant Togad’s RTI application dated April 21, 2020, the PMO wrote back within six days refusing to furnish documents and information sought.

https://thewire.in/rights/pm-cares-pmo-rti-act-office-memoranda

The economic crisis India is facing due to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns is “probably bigger” than the 1991 balance of payments crisis, which resulted in the country liberalizing its economy, said Nobel Prize-winning economist Abhijit Banerjee. In an interview to HuffPost India, Banerjee, who is the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also warned that India’s gross domestic product (GDP) could go down by 10-15%.

Banerjee, who shared the prize last year with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, also called for increased spending on anti-poverty programmes, and suggested that the government shed all concerns regarding macroeconomic instability and go for printing money to tide over a limited fiscal space.

Speaking on Friday, as India extended its ongoing lockdown by two more weeks, Banerjee said that increased testing is a way out of a cycle of total lockdowns, which, he warned, would be damaging and difficult to enforce if prolonged. “Given that there is uncertainty, the right thing to do is to predict where the new upsurges might be, and test, test, test, test, test,” Banerjee told HuffPost India.

Banerjee, who has been critical of credit rating agencies in the past, also asked the government to ignore any threats of a sovereign rating downgrade by them and go ahead with increased spending by way of fiscal easing. 
“I would ignore them and do what it takes [for the economy],” he said.
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/

News > Venezuelan Constituent Assembly on Foiled Terrorist Attack

The President of the Constituent Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, slammed on Sunday the latest attempt by armed terrorists to infiltrate Venezuela's border by means of a naval invasion from Colombia. 

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US: Tape Exposes Pompeo's Real Opinion on Venezuelan Opposition, ‘They Plot for Themselves’

US: Tape Exposes Pompeo's Real Opinion on Venezuelan Opposition, ‘They Plot for Themselves’

During the failed attempt, Venezuelan forces have killed about 6 terrorists related to different destabilization plans.

Also, 10 rifles were seized, two machine guns, six trucks and a boat, all that would be used to carry out terrorist acts.

Cabello said that the incident is still under investigation by the Venezuelan authorities, but he vowed, on behalf of the Constituent Assemby, to confront these terrorists that seek to harm the South American nation.

"We must summarize that terrorists captured are not the only ones who came in the operation. It is under investigation.  We don't know if there are people who died at sea, or run away," he said.https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/

Irrfan Khan Made Even The Most Average Film Watchable With His Sheer Presence

In Meghna Gulzar’s Talvar—an unnerving drama about the exploitation and manipulation of truth to appease a certain sentiment—Irrfan Khan is exceptional. It’s perhaps his finest turn in a long, long list of great performances.https://www.huffingtonpost.in/

https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/the-resurrection-of-irrfan-khan_in_5cc94721e4b0913d078a8f53??ncid=newsltinhpmgnews

Why The US Religious Freedom Report Is Bad News For India

After the diplomatic embarrassment over the outrage in Gulf countries over Islamophobia by Indians, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended this week that India be designated as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) in its 2020 annual report. It’s for the first time since 2004 that USCIRF has recommended that India be designated a CPC, where governments engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing, egregious” violations of religious freedom. India is in the dubious company—countries on the list this year include Pakistan, China, North Korea, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. https://www.huffingtonpost.in/

News > Cuba and Venezuela Reject Mike Pompeo's Threats

Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, demanded on Wednesday that the Government of the United States stop using Venezuela to hide its faults and failures.

The North American nation has now become the epicenter of the global pandemic generated by Covid-19, which has already reached 60 thousand deaths and more than a million confirmed cases. In contrast with the Bolivarian nation, where, "we have achieved a recovery rate of 43% and 0.3 deaths per million inhabitants," according to Arreaza.https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/

News > Panama Protests Mount in Panama Over Hunger Amid COVID-19 Lockdown

Hunger protests in Panama are increasing as despair grips people who do not have access to food distributed by the government, local media reported Wednesday.

RELATED: 

Hunger Protests Grow in Colombia Amid Coronavirus Lockdown

The stay at home measures imposed by Panama's government to curb the spread of the coronavirus has led to layoffs in the Central American country plunging thousands of people into dire economic straits while street vendors and informal workers struggle to survive.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, the leftist Communal Movement "Federico Britton,"  has been repeatedly questioning the lack of aid provided to some sectors and communities. In various areas of the capital, Panama City, vulnerable people and families are being neglected.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/

The economic effects of COVID-19 around the world

Confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus have surpassed 3 million globally. Businesses are coping with lost revenue and disrupted supply chains as factory shutdowns and quarantine measures spread across the globe, restricting movement and commerce.

Unemployment is skyrocketing, while policymakers across countries race to implement fiscal and monetary measures to alleviate the financial burden on citizens and shore up economies under severe strain.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 9 April said the coronavirus pandemic had instigated an economic downturn the likes of which the world has not experienced since the Great Depression.

On 29 April, the scale of IMF's warning was seen as the US Commerce Department reported a rapid decline in gross domestic product (GDP) in the first three months of the year.

GDP dropped by 4.8% in the first quarter of 2020 - the sharpest contraction since the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 - bringing to an end the longest economic expansion in US history.https://www.weforum.

Irrfan Khan, Versatile Actor of Modern Bollywood Classics, Passes Away Aged 53

Irrfan Khan, one of the most versatile and respected actors in the Hindi cinema, has passed away in Mumbai today. He was 53. 

The actor was admitted to Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital due to a colon infection, his spokesperson had confirmed.https://www.news18.com

Oscars and Golden Globes pay tribute to Irrfan Khan: ‘Left his imprint on global cinema, he will be greatly missed’

The Academy and Golden Globe Awards have paid tributes to late actor Irrfan Khan on his death on Wednesday. Irrfan died in Mumbai at 53 after a two-year-long battle with neuroendocrine tumour. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (Oscars) remembered the internationally acclaimed star and shared a tweet about him. “A mainstay of Bollywood cinema and incredible talent in films like Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pi and The Namesake, Irrfan Khan left his imprint on global cinema. An inspiration to millions, he will be greatly missed,” tweeted the Academy. Khan’s Slumdog Millionaire was a recipient of the Oscar award in many categories. https://www.hindustantimes.com/

No human role in creating or modifying coronavirus, US intelligence agencies say

U.S. intelligence agencies don’t believe the Covid-19 coronavirus was created by humans or genetically modified in China, a controversial finding that comes as President Donald Trump increasingly tries to pin blame on Beijing for the global pandemic.

The intelligence community “concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the Covid-19 virus was not man made or genetically modified,” according to a statement from the DNI office on Thursday.

https://theprint.in/

Will COVID-19 lead to half a billion more people living in poverty in developing countries?

The impacts of COVID-19 in developing countries are starting to be felt. The Economist went as far as to call it the ‘next calamity’, noting how overlooked the impact on poorer countries has been. One relevant question is this: What will be the impact of COVID-19 on global poverty numbers? Chris Hoy, Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez, and myself decided to take a look at a new WIDER Working Paper. Our estimates show that, regardless of the scenario, global poverty could increase for the first time since 1990, and, depending on the poverty line, such an increase could represent a reversal of approximately 10 years in the world’s progress in reducing poverty. In some regions, the adverse impacts could result in poverty levels similar to those recorded 30 years ago.https://www.wider.unu.edu/