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Scientific American: As Trump Touts Dangerous Cures, Here's What We Know About COVID-19 Drug Tests

President Trump dangerously suggested injecting disinfectants could help patients sick with the coronavirus, then said he was being "sarcastic." But his remarks led to a spike in calls to helplines about taking disinfectants. We look at "What We Know About the Most Touted Drugs Tested for COVID-19" with Tanya Lewis, associate editor for health and medicine at Scientific American.




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Trump Attacks Post Office While Carriers & Clerks Die from COVID-19

President Trump has lashed out at the U.S. Postal Service as the pandemic brings it to the brink of collapse and more people than ever are relying on the mail. Trump claims the agency is only losing money because it is undercharging Amazon and other companies for shipping. "It just isn't true," says American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein.




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Education Crisis: From Pre-K to Higher Ed, Students Face Unequal Access During Coronavirus Shutdown

We look at the impact of the pandemic on schools, universities, students, parents, teachers and professors — and who is at the table to shape what happens next. "We now have an economic crisis on top of the public health crisis, and the ways that we're choosing to educate children is simply unequal and is going to lead to an educational crisis,” says education scholar and Cornell University professor Noliwe Rooks, author of "Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education."




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Economist Thomas Piketty: Coronavirus Pandemic Has Exposed the "Violence of Social Inequality"

As nearly 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment in just six weeks and millions worldwide face hunger and poverty, we look at the global economic catastrophe triggered by the pandemic and its impact on the most vulnerable. As the World Food Programme warns of a massive spike in global hunger and more than 100 million people in cities worldwide could fall into poverty, can this crisis be a catalyst for change? We ask French economist Thomas Piketty. His 2014 internationally best-selling book, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century," looked at economic inequality and the necessity of wealth taxes. His new book, "Capital and Ideology," has been described as a manifesto for political change.




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May Day People's Strike! Target, Amazon, Instacart Workers Demand Safe Conditions & Pandemic Relief

This May Day, an unprecedented coalition of essential workers from Amazon, Instacart, Whole Foods, Walmart, Target and FedEx are calling out sick or walking out during their lunch break to demand better health and safety conditions, along with hazard pay. Others are joining them for May Day actions that include rent strikes, car caravan protests and online organizing calling for a "People's Bailout" and economic recovery plan that prioritizes workers. We speak with Kali Akuno, co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, which issued a call for a people's strike starting May 1. "The corporations and the government are willing to sacrifice tens of thousands of us," Akuno says. "We have to put people before profits."




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Caravan for Life: Protesters in Puerto Rico Demand More Tests & Resources to Combat the Coronavirus

On Thursday in Puerto Rico, activists in dozens of cars held a "Caravan Por La Vida," or "Caravan for Life," through San Juan to demand the government provide more COVID-19 tests and sufficient resources for people to stay at home during the pandemic. At least 92 people have died from COVID-19 in Puerto Rico, and last week the island was reporting a testing rate lower than any U.S. state, at an abysmal average of 15 tests a day for every 100,000 people. No one in Puerto Rico has received $1,200 checks from the government, according to San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. Police stopped the caravan and said their sound trucks were illegal. When organizer Giovanni Roberto demanded that police describe the laws they were breaking, he was arrested. Roberto was released later in the night, and his charges of obstruction of justice were dropped. We hear voices from the protest. Special thanks to _Democracy Now!_ correspondent Juan Carlos Dávila.




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"It's Very Scary": COVID Surges in Meat Plants as Activists Demand Worker Safety & Meatless Mondays

At least 20 workers at meat processing plants have died from COVID-19, and around 5,000 have tested positive, but President Trump invoked an executive order to bar local governments from closing meat plants. We hear from meat plant workers and organizers about conditions during the pandemic and speak with Sindy Benavides, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, which is supporting the workers with a virtual town hall on food worker safety with presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and calling for Meatless May Mondays.




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As Workers Get Sick & Die from COVID-19, McConnell Demands Corporate Immunity in New Stimulus Bill

As the Senate reconvenes today, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is demanding that Congress use the next stimulus bill to protect corporations from liability for workers. "He wants to protect their right to engage in egregious misconduct," says Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.




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ER Doctor: Pulse Oximeters Detect Oxygen Deprivation Earlier from COVID-19, Help Avoid Ventilators

We speak with Dr. Richard Levitan, an emergency physician based in Littleton, New Hampshire, who volunteered at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan for 10 days at the height of the COVID-19 surge in April. Based on what he saw, he argues patients should be going to hospitals sooner and that medical professionals could use a small device you clip on your fingertip, called a pulse oximeter, to help detect the virus earlier by revealing oxygenation problems and elevated heart rates. "A pulse oximeter is just a measure of identifying how well the lungs are working, and, I believe, can be basically an early warning system in terms of patients to know who has COVID pneumonia," says Dr. Levitan.




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Remembering Valentina Blackhorse, Beloved 28-Year-Old Navajo Community Activist Who Died of COVID-19

After New York and New Jersey, the next highest number of coronavirus infections per capita in the United States is in the Navajo Nation, the largest Indigenous reservation in the country. We go to Kayenta, Arizona, to speak with Robby Jones, a member of the Navajo Nation and the partner of one of those to die from the virus: 28-year-old Valentina Blackhorse, a beloved community leader who promoted Navajo culture and left behind a daughter named Poet.




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Navajo Nation Suffers Third-Highest COVID-19 Infection Rate in U.S. with Limited Healthcare & Water

We get an update from two doctors treating patients with the Navajo Nation, the largest Indigenous reservation in the country, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Michelle Tom is a member of the Navajo Nation and a family physician treating COVID-19 patients at the Winslow Indian Health Care Center and Little Colorado Medical Center in northern Arizona near the Navajo reservation. In Gallup, New Mexico, Dr. Sriram Shamasunder is leading a medical volunteer group of 21 nurses and doctors from the University of California, San Francisco as part of the HEAL Initiative. He says the coronavirus hit harder on the Navajo Nation due to a "trajectory of an underfunded health system," and notes the Indian Health Service is funded at one-third the rate per capita as Medicare. "The level of inequity that you're seeing … it's part of this pattern."




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Calls Grow for Mass Release from Ohio's Marion Prison as 80% of Prisoners Test Positive for COVID-19

We get an update on one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the United States, at the Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio, where 11 prisoners and one staff member have died, and at least 80% of prisoners and half of the prison staff tested positive. Despite growing calls to release thousands of Ohio's nearly 50,000 incarcerated people as the coronavirus spreads, Governor Mike DeWine has only approved the release of more than 100 people in the state's prisons. "We're seeing a few people being released … but not anywhere near the 20,000 [we are] demanding," says Azzurra Crispino, whose husband, James, is incarcerated at Marion. She is co-founder of Prison Abolition Prisoner Support.




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The Case for Prison Abolition: Ruth Wilson Gilmore on COVID-19, Racial Capitalism & Decarceration

The spread of COVID-19 threatens the lives of more than 2.3 million people locked up in prisons and jails throughout the United States. We look at how the call to release prisoners during the coronavirus pandemic makes the case for prison abolition, with scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore, co-founder of California Prison Moratorium Project and Critical Resistance and the author of "Golden Gulag: Prison, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California." Her forthcoming book is "Change Everything: Racial Capitalism and the Case for Abolition."




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As Trump Claims "Fantastic Job" on COVID, Reporter Laurie Garrett Warns Pandemic May Last 36+ Months

As President Trump starts to reopen the country, Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Laurie Garrett predicts the pandemic will last at least 36 months. Meanwhile, a top government vaccine specialist says he was forced from his job after he resisted the administration's promotion of untested treatments for COVID-19. Garrett predicted the pandemic. In an extended interview, she discusses what's next.




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U.S. Mercenaries Captured in Venezuela After Failed Coup Attempt Compared to a "Bad Rambo Movie"

We look at an incredible story unfolding in Venezuela of a failed coup attempt. Did a former Green Beret mastermind it? Two Americans have been arrested in Venezuela. President Nicolás Maduro claims the U.S. was behind the plot. "It looks like a bad Rambo movie, or a really bad telenovela," says Miguel Tinker Salas, author of "The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela." He notes that "the U.S. is seeking regime change ... and the consequences for Venezuela could be very dire going forward.”




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How Russia Became the Next COVID-19 Hot Spot: Infection Rate Soars with 10,000 New Cases Each Day

We go to Moscow for an update on the pandemic in Russia, where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly, with at least 10,000 new cases a day and the second-highest infection rate in the world, and more than 100 medical workers have died fighting the virus, and many have reported lack of personal protective equipment. Meanwhile, three Russian healthcare workers mysteriously fell from hospital windows over the past two weeks. Two died, and the one who is hospitalized had posted a video online to note the lack of medical equipment and said he had to keep working despite testing positive. We speak with Joshua Yaffa, Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker magazine.




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Profiting from the Pandemic: Will Pharmaceutical Giants Use Patents to Limit Access to COVID Drugs?

As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide approaches 4 million and the pandemic could be with us for months or years, we look at who can access drugs like remdesivir, being developed by pharmaceutical giant Gilead, which has the patent for the drug and is poised to make massive profits. We look at how much drugs like remdesivir will cost, and who can access them, with writer Achal Prabhala, coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa.




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Trump Death Clock: Times Square Billboard Tallies Lives Lost to COVID-19 Inaction

A 56-foot billboard called the Trump Death Clock was unveiled in Times Square in New York City. The tally of lives lost to government inaction was created by filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, who says, "On behalf of all of those who needlessly lost their lives to this failed leadership in a pandemic, we need a symbol, a symbol that cries out not only for accountability, but also for more responsible and responsive stewardship, going forward." As of the Friday morning broadcast, the death toll count was nearly 47,000 and growing.




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"A Terrible Price": Mardi Gras Story Lays Bare How COVID-19 Is Devastating Black America

We look at the deadly disparate impact of the pandemic on African Americans as told through an in-depth story for The New York Times Magazine by writer Linda Villarosa in her new piece, "'A Terrible Price': The Deadly Racial Disparities of Covid-19 in America," that tells what happened to the Zulu club, a Black social organization in New Orleans, during and after Mardi Gras. She reports that the experience is usually a joy, but the coronavirus made it a tragedy.




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Reliance Jio Likely To Have Two More Investors In the Coming Days: Report

It seems that Reliance Jio is likely to garner more funds as two companies might invest in its platform in the coming days. Now, it has been reported that the US-based private equity firm General Atlantic is expected to invest about




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BBCHindi.com




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GST update on statement taken during the course of investigation proceedings

The provision contained in section 136 of the CGST Act, 2017 also states that a statement made and signed by a person on appearance in response to any summons issued under section 70 during the course of any inquiry or proceedings under this Act shall be relevant for the purpose of proving in any pr




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GST Update on landmark decision that interest cannot be recovered without adjudication proceedings

The delay in retrospective amendment regarding computation of interest liability under GST regime has led to flood of writ petitions in High Courts seeking relief from recovery proceedings initiated by the government. The revenue authorities have consistently held that interest liability gets automa




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GST Update on whether Rajasthan AAR competent to decide on registration requirement in another State?

The present update intends to discuss the Advance Ruling given in the case of M/s T & D Electricals. The question placed before the Advance Ruling was the requirement of separate registration for executing works contract in another State and leviability of tax-whether CGST/SGST or IGST if separate r




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GST Update on requirement of separate registration for execution of contract in another state

The present update intends to discuss the recent advance ruling given by AAR Karnataka in the case of M/s T & D Electricals.




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Three Ways to Make Coronavirus Drugs in a Hurry

With no time to make treatments from scratch, researchers search for existing compounds that deflect harm

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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CRISPR Gene Editing May Help Scale Up Coronavirus Testing

An inexpensive assay based on the technique can provide yes or no answers in under an hour—perhaps even in the home soon

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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Antimatter Discovery Reveals Clues about the Universe's Beginning

New evidence from neutrinos points to one of several theories about why the cosmos is made of matter and not antimatter

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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How Blood Sugar Can Trigger a Deadly Immune Response in the Flu and Possibly COVID-19

Glucose metabolism plays a key role in the cytokine storm seen in influenza, and the link could have potential implications for novel coronavirus infections

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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Shortcuts in COVID-19 Drug Research Could Do Long-Term Harm, Bioethicists Worry

Compassionate use of experimental medicine needs to coexist with scientific rigor to help patients, researchers write in the journal Science

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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At-Home Coronavirus-Sample-Collection Kits Aren't Perfect but Could Help Fill Testing Gap

LabCorp’s Pixel kits rely on self-swabbing and mailing samples, and they have yet to be scaled up for widespread use

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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How China's 'Bat Woman' Hunted Down Viruses from SARS to the New Coronavirus

Wuhan-based virologist Shi Zhengli has identified dozens of deadly SARS-like viruses in bat caves, and she warns there are more out there

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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Space Telescope Director Says Best Is Yet to Come for Hubble

Three decades into the life of the world’s most revered orbital observatory, Ken Sembach, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, reflects on its future

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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'Spider-Man' Immune Response May Promote Severe COVID-19

Clinical trials have begun to test drugs that counter toxic molecular webs linked to lung distress

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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How a Warming Climate Could Affect the Spread of Diseases Similar to COVID-19

A hotter planet could change the relationship among infectious agents, their hosts and the human body’s defense mechanisms

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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Mars Needs Money: White House Budget Could Prompt Retreat from Red Planet

Proposed cuts could end decades of U.S. leadership in exploring that world

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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Do Your Genes Predispose You to COVID-19?

Individual differences in genetic makeup may explain our susceptibility to the new coronavirus and the severity of the disease it causes

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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Camera Traps May Overcount Snow Leopards and Other Vulnerable Species

Markings on big cats are hard to distinguish, meaning one animal may be counted as two

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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A Shiny Snack Bag's Reflections Can Reconstruct the Room around It

Researchers used the light reflecting off the wrapper to build an image of its surroundings

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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Planet Nine Could Be a Mirage

Mysterious patterns in orbits of small bodies in the outer solar system could arise from the gravity of a massive disk of icy debris rather than an undiscovered giant world

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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What COVID-19 Antibody Tests Can and Cannot Tell Us

Assays that detect prior novel coronavirus infections could reveal the extent of outbreaks. But they may give individuals false security

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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'Magnetic Star' Radio Waves Could Solve the Mystery of Fast Radio Bursts

The surprise detection of a radio burst from a neutron star in our galaxy might reveal the origin of a bigger cosmological phenomenon

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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'Breakthrough' COVID-19 Tests Are Currently Cheap, Fast--and Not Very Accurate

Antigen-based assays could be used in the home, but critics say their error rates are still an issue

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com




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Q&A: Walter Kemmsies, JLL Economist and Chief Strategist

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently caught up with Walter Kemmsies, economist and chief strategist for industrial real estate firm JLL. Their wide-ranging conversation covered various topics, including: the impact of COVID-19 on logistics and supply chain operations, inventory management shifts, and why now is a great time to be in industrial real estate, among others.




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Consumer Brands Association introduces Critical Infrastructure Supply Chain Council

The CBA said that the objective of the CISCC is to advance uniform national policies that will strengthen United States supply chains and also ensure the timely flow of critical goods in various ways.




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Postal Service sees fiscal second quarter revenue gain and further net losses

Quarterly revenue—at $17.8 billion—headed up $348 million on an annual basis. But, despite the revenue gain, volume declined, falling 2.3% to 34,013 total pieces, and total operating expenses—at $22.3 billion—were up$2.8 billion, or 14.2%.




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Further COVID-19 U.S-bound import declines are expected, notes Port Tracker report

Heavy declines for imports at United States-based retail container ports, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, are expected to continue in the coming months, according to the new edition of the Port Tracker report, which was issued today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and maritime consultancy Hackett Associates.




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Despite recent setbacks, China is not down for the count

Two recent industry surveys indicate that China and other key Pacific Rim markets remain resilient as the recent pandemic recedes.




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The essay that inspired the collection’s title

For reasons that I cannot fathom, I can’t figure out how to change the sidebar of my blog anymore. It’s probably something simple, but since I don’t really use this blog much anymore, I’ve forgotten most of my PHP and CSS. Plus, WordPress keeps changing things to make them harder to figure out! Argh. Anyway. […]