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Amid warnings of surging worldwide poverty, planet's 500 richest people added $1.8 trillion to combined wealth in 2020
Jan 07, 2021 17:32Bloomberg’s year-end report on the wealth of the world's billionaires shows that the richest 500 people on the planet added $1.8 trillion to their combined wealth in 2020, accumulating a total net worth of $7.6 trillion.
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Hiding COVID-19: How Trump administration suppresses photography of pandemic
Jan 07, 2021 16:59The U.S. government has reinforced media restrictions at hospitals, reducing the flow of disturbing images of the pandemic.
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England to enter toughest COVID lockdown since March
Jan 06, 2021 11:15England will enter its toughest nationwide lockdown since March, with schools closed until mid-February, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the weeks ahead “will be the hardest yet”. As new figures put the UK on course to exceed 100,000 COVID-related deaths before the end of the month without urgent action, the prime minister said once again that people must stay at home, with exercise limited to once a day.
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Latin America’s pandemic of mounting troubles
Jan 03, 2021 07:04Many regions performed badly when confronted with COVID-19, but Latin America fared worse than most, in terms of both lives and livelihoods lost. As of November 2020, nine of the 20 countries with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths per capita were in Latin America.
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For COVID-19 vaccines, some are too rich — and too poor
Dec 31, 2020 06:14A few months from now, a factory in South Africa is expected to begin churning out a million doses of COVID-19 vaccine each day in the African country hardest-hit by the pandemic. But those vials will probably be shipped to a distribution center in Europe and then rushed to Western countries that have pre-ordered them by the hundreds of millions. None have been set aside for South Africa.
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Unbelievably cruel: Sanders slams Trump's intransigence as millions lose unemployment lifeline
Dec 30, 2020 16:15While the US president golfed, Americans suffered. "People are losing their extended unemployment benefits," said the senator from Vermont. "They're going to be evicted from their apartments because the eviction moratorium is ending."
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'Surge on a surge': Fauci leads health officials warning of post-holiday coronavirus spike
Dec 30, 2020 11:53The United States will most likely experience a "post-seasonal" spike in coronavirus infections largely due to holiday travel and gatherings, current and former U.S. health officials said. "We very well might see a post-seasonal—in the sense of Christmas, New Year's—surge... a surge upon a surge," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and an incoming chief medical adviser to President-elect Joe Biden, on CNN's "State of the Union."
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Trump’s wrecking ball of a transition
Dec 30, 2020 11:17US President Donald Trump’s 11th hour decision to blow up the stimulus negotiations has also jeopardized much needed financial relief for millions of Americans. Rather than showing a genuine effort to pressure Republicans to agree to legislation House Democrats passed in May, which would have provided $1,200 checks for individuals and up to $6,000 per household, Trump decided to intervene only after Congress finally agreed on individual payments of $600 – saying he wanted $2,000 checks instead.
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Trump signs pandemic relief bill after unemployment aid lapses
Dec 29, 2020 15:53President Trump on Sunday (27 Dec) abruptly signed a measure providing $900 billion in pandemic aid and funding the government through September, ending last-minute turmoil he himself had created over legislation that will offer an economic lifeline to millions of Americans and avert a government shutdown.
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US states say they’re decarcerating, yet 1 in 5 prisoners has had COVID
Dec 28, 2020 12:05The failure to meaningfully decarcerate jails and prisons in the US has led to increased cases in the community as staff travel between work and their home communities on a daily basis. Between California, Florida and Texas, mass incarceration contributed to a quarter million new COVID cases — or 20 percent of new cases in these states — from May 1 to August 1.