All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Italy announces plan to vaccinate at least 80% of population by September | Reuters

Italy said on Saturday it aims to vaccinate at least 80% of its population by September through ramping up the daily vaccination campaign.

Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, the new special commissioner for coronavirus, released a national plan to issue 500,000 vaccine doses a day, according to a statement released by the cabinet office.

Italy has registered 101,881 deaths since the outbreak emerged in the country in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. The country has reported 3.2 million cases of infection to date.

Source: Italy announces plan to vaccinate at least 80% of population by September | Reuters

With 150-Person Weddings Set To Resume, NYC Vendors Are Skeptical All Rules Will Be Followed – Gothamist (More people will get sick and some die needlessly – because people are denying the truth – it is still too soon to loosen up!!!)

Weddings with up to 150 attendees will be allowed to resume in New York next week under new state rules, including COVID-19 testing requirements and strict dance floor guidelines. But wedding industry workers told Gothamist/WNYC that based on their experience this past year, they’re skeptical all these rules will — or can — be enforced. Source: With 150-Person Weddings Set To Resume, NYC Vendors Are Skeptical All Rules Will Be Followed – Gothamist

Myanmar: Curfew-defying protests turn deadly | News | DW | 13.03.2021

At least seven people were killed Saturday during anti-coup protests in Myanmar, as security forces continue to use deadly force against peaceful demonstrators.

Four people were reported killed in Mandalay after police opened fire on a sit-in protest. Another two people died in the town of Pyay and one in a suburb of Yangon, reported the Associated Press.

What evidence exists of police violence?

Security forces have been using increasingly brutal tactics to suppress a nationwide protest movement opposing the military takeover of the democratically elected government on February 1.

Graphic images circulating among activists on social media Saturday showed bodies lying in the street and people disfigured by bullet wounds.

Domestic media reported that two protesters were killed overnight in Yangon’s Tharketa district after police shot at a crowd of people who had gathered outside a police station demanding the release of detained demonstrators.

Source: Myanmar: Curfew-defying protests turn deadly | News | DW | 13.03.2021

Sri Lanka to ban burqas over ′national security′ concerns | News | DW | 13.03.2021 (Religious bigotry posing as protecting society)

The authorities in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka pledged to close over 1,000 Islamic schools and formally ban burqas. The government also granted itself powers to detain suspects for “deradicalization.”

Source: Sri Lanka to ban burqas over ′national security′ concerns | News | DW | 13.03.2021

Hundreds of covid cases reported at Tesla plant following Musk’s defiant reopening, county data shows (‘I got my money and they got Covid-19…)

(FILES) In this file photo Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and founder of SpaceX, speaks during the Satellite 2020 at the Washington Convention CenterMarch 9, 2020, in Washington, DC. -  In May, Elon Musk dared officials to arrest him when he defied Alameda County coronavirus protocols to reopen Tesla's facilities in Fremont. Now, county-level data obtained by a legal transparency website reveal the production plant recorded hundreds of positive covid-19 cases in the months that followed.(Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Tesla’s Bay Area production plant recorded hundreds of positive covid-19 cases following CEO Elon Musk’s defiant reopening of the plant last May, according to county-level data obtained by a legal transparency website.

The document, obtained by the website PlainSite following a court ruling this year, showed Tesla received around 10 reports of covid-19 in May when the plant reopened, and saw a steady rise in cases all the way up to 125 in December, as the disease caused by the novel coronavirus peaked around the country.

Source: Hundreds of covid cases reported at Tesla plant following Musk’s defiant reopening, county data shows

Brazil’s catastrophic management of COVID-19 threatens the entire world | openDemocracy

To add on top of the catastrophic denialism of President Jair Bolsonaro in the face of the virus, comes the variant that emerged in the state of Amazonas in northern Brazil, which has put the country – and the world – at risk. This development also provides lessons about COVID-19 and the crucial importance of taking epidemics seriously.

Known as P.1, the variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is not only more contagious, but preliminary studies suggest that it is also capable of infecting people who have already recovered from other versions of the virus.

Source: Brazil’s catastrophic management of COVID-19 threatens the entire world | openDemocracy

The ultimate beginner’s guide to Marianne Faithfull

Few artists have reinvented themselves as often— and as successfully— as Marianne Faithfull. From a career that began when she was just 16 years old and continues at age 74, her discography in-between features an expansive, often experimental, set of songs that continues to delight fans and critics alike.  Source: The ultimate beginner’s guide to Marianne Faithfull

Police in England ‘using Covid lockdown rules to halt any protests’ | Protest | The Guardian

Police officers are using coronavirus regulations to break up socially distanced demonstrations even though the country’s largest police force has conceded in a landmark legal case that people have a right to protest during the current national lockdown.

The Metropolitan police admitted in the high court on Friday that it had discretion on how to respond to protests and it could not impose a blanket ban on demonstrations, after the force was challenged by the organisers of the planned vigil to remember Sarah Everard in south London.

As anger mounts over the police’s failure to find a way to hold the vigil safely and concerns grow about the government’s proposed permanent restrictions on the right to protest, other campaigners have come forward to reveal how the police have been using these wide-ranging emergency powers to clamp down on all forms of protests since January.

Source: Police in England ‘using Covid lockdown rules to halt any protests’ | Protest | The Guardian