Here’s a thing I keep noticing, and it drives me nuts. In Italy, a ship captain is arrested for bringing immigrants to shore after rescuing from them near death at sea: The number of migrants reaching Italy’s shores has drastically diminished – just 2,800 so far this year – and the country is now led… Continue reading They Say There’s No Room for Immigrants While Desperate Rural Towns Lie Empty All Across the Western World

भुवनेश्‍वर। दुनिया कोरोनोवायरस महामारी के कारण संकट में हैं वहीं इसके चलते किए गए लॉकडाउन में प्रकृति के कई चमत्कार देखने को मिल रहे है। कोरोना संकट के बीच प्रकृति का अद्भुत और बड़ा ही सुंदर नजारा उड़ीसा के समुद्र तट

चंड़ीगढ़। कोरोना वायरस ने पूरी दुनिया में अपना कहर बरपा रखा है। दुनिया में इस वायरस से संक्रमितों मरीजों की संख्या 39 लाख से अधिक है जबकि दो लाख 70 हजार से अधिक लोगों की मौत हो चुकी है। कोरोना संकट के

As much of the U.S. remains on lockdown, abortion rights are under attack nationwide. We get an update on the fight for abortion access with Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "Our bodies have literally been deemed essential," she says, "and yet the control of our bodies and the right to control our own bodies has not."

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."

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.

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."

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden denied sexual assault allegations against him on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday, breaking his silence after weeks of mounting pressure to respond to claims put forward by former staffer Tara Reade, who says he sexually assaulted her in 1993. In a statement, Biden said, "I want to address allegations by a former staffer that I engaged in misconduct 27 years ago. They aren't true. This never happened." Tara Reade first came forward with her allegations in March, saying Biden pushed her up against a wall and digitally penetrated her. In a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive, we speak with Reade's former neighbor Lynda LaCasse, who says that Reade told her about the encounter and described it in detail in the 1990s. LaCasse is a lifelong Democrat and Biden supporter. She says of Tara Reade, "I believe her 100%." We also speak with investigative journalist Rich McHugh, who first interviewed LaCasse for Business Insider.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

The two white men caught on camera shooting and killing Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old African American man, were arrested and charged Thursday with murder. The arrests came two days after video of the attack in February was shared with the public, sparking widespread outrage. Today would have been Arbery's 26th birthday. We speak with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents the Arbery family and formerly represented Trayvon Martin.

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.

As more than 40 states begin to reopen, President Trump is downplaying the need for mass COVID-19 testing, even as he himself is now being tested every day for the virus. We speak with emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen, who says, "Widespread testing is so critical. … Why shouldn't this testing be available to all Americans?"

Smart bands are some of the best accessories that one can buy. On this mother's day, you can also gift one for your mom which will help her monitor aspects like the number of steps walked, calories burned, and real-time heart rate.

Since the coming into force of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) and operationalisation of National Company Law Tribunal(s) in India, various new legal issues have cropped up over the last 3 years before the NCLTs and NCLAT, which finally reached before the Hon'ble Supreme Court and still c

Recently Gujarat High Court ([TS-858-HC-2018(GUJ)-NT-Torrent Power Ltd]) has held that when a company is engaged in the business of supply and distribution of electric power which is principal supply, the ancillary and related supply such as application fee for release of connection, meter testing f

GST law was introduced with the objective of seamless flow of input tax credit but on actual implementation of CGST Act, 2017, admissibility of input tax credit has been restricted subject to provisions contained in section 17(5) of the CGST Act, 2017. The input tax credit on motor vehicles was disp

The applicant is engaged in the business of providing the tour operators with the ‘Ancillary services’ such as Elephant Ride, guide charges, assistance charges, home host dinner, lunch/dinner at local restaurants, boat ride, camel ride, and saree turban tying, etc. Moreover, ancillary services do no

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

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

A new book captures the pioneering, propaganda-infused visions of mid-20th-century Soviet space exploration

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

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

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

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

The supersensitive system can also glean clues about health

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Its sting is excruciating to people, but it is a bigger threat to honeybees vital for agriculture

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Preliminary North American Class 8 truck orders saw steep declines, driven on by the impact of COVID-19, or coronavirus, according to recent data issued respectively freight transportation consultancy FTR and ACT Research, a provider of data and analysis for trucks and other commercial vehicles.

United States Postal Service (USPS) announced that it has named Louis DeJoy as its 75th Postmaster General and CEO. DeJoy will be replacing Megan Brennan, whom has been serving in the position since 2015, and will take over on June 15. The incoming USPS chief will be the fifth Postmaster General to come over from the private sector, going back to when the USPS, in 1971, became an independent establishment within the Executive Branch.

U.S. rail carloads in April—at 980,535—were off 25.2%, or 329,693 carloads, annually, and intermodal containers and trailers—at 1,095,423—slipped 17.2%, or 227,165 units.

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.

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

Originally posted on - blogs by NPG staff

Originally posted on - blogs by NPG staff

Originally posted on - blogs by NPG staff

A.Z. Foreman (to quote his blog profile) “is a translator and poet who has been obsessed with languages and literature since childhood”; you should check out his translation blog, with lots of poems accompanied by his translations (and sometimes audio files of him reading the original) in languages from Arabic to Yiddish. But right now […]

Last night, having just watched a documentary on the Connecticut River flood of 1936, my wife and I discovered that our basement had flooded — apparently the sump pump had failed. So this morning we called the Barstows (it’s great to have contractors you can rely on in emergencies) and they sent a crew over […]