(2022-02-27). UK to Keep Secret Names of Thousands of Firms After Billions in COVID-19 Loans Lost – Report. sputniknews.com The UK government estimated recently that the bounce-back scheme, which granted loans up to 50,000 pounds ($67,000) to small firms during the COVID-19 pandemic, cost it approximately 4.9 billion pounds ($6.5 billion) in fraud.
(2022-02-27). Miami Beach Will Restrict Alcohol Sales to Prevent Last Spring's Calamity – Reports. sputniknews.com In March last year, Miami Beach, Florida authorities declare a state of emergency due to an influx of tourists who had been partying by the sea during the coronavirus pandemic.
(2022-02-27). COVID-Hit Queen Elizabeth II Postpones Key Diplomatic Reception. sputniknews.com On 20 February, Buckingham Palace announced that UK Queen Elizabeth II had tested positive for coronavirus, but that she would continue performing some duties at her Windsor Palace home while receiving medical care.
(2022-02-27). Chinese FM calls for stronger vaccine support for developing countries. ecns.cn Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday said it is impossible to be completely safe as long as there is an immunization "gap" in the world, calling for stronger vaccine support for developing countries.
(2022-02-27). Thousands of 'ghost flights' left UK during pandemic. rt.com 
Near-empty planes were flown between March 2020 and September 2021, new figures reveal | Nearly 15,000 flights with less than 10% of the seats sold departed from the UK during 19 months of the pandemic, according to official figures revealed earlier this month. | The data — released by the aviation minister Robert Courts on the UK Parliament website — shows that the near-empty flights departed from 32 UK airports. The note accompanying the release defines ghost flights as those with no more than 10% of seats occupied. | The highest number of international ghost flights — 4,910 — departed fr…
(2022-02-26). German workers speak out on war in Ukraine: "The only war we need is the war against the Coronavirus!" wsws.org "Russians and Ukrainians have a common history. The vast majority of people certainly do not want a war, which at most will benefit the gas and oil magnates in West and East, the billionaires, arms dealers and oligarchs."
(2022-02-26). [Comment] Waning effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. thelancet.com In The Lancet, Peter Nordstrà∂m and colleagues1 report the effectiveness of several COVID-19 vaccines and different vaccine schedules against any documented SARS-CoV-2 infection and against severe COVID-19, for up to 9 months of follow-up. Data for 842‚Äà974 matched pairs of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in this retrospective cohort study were retrieved from the Swedish national registers. These registers track health outcomes for all registered individuals nationwide. Both cohorts had a median age of 52 ∑7 years (IQR 37 ∑0—67 ∑5) and included mostly women (500&s…
(2022-02-26). Protest Canadian rulers' Emergencies Act attack on workers' protests, rights! themilitant.com 
MONTREAL — "The sweeping police operation carried out under the anti-working-class Emergencies Act against the three-week protest in Ottawa, Canada's capital, by truckers and others opposed to vaccine mandates is an assault on the political rights of all working people," said Philippe Tessier, Communist League candidate in a Quebec provincial by-election in the riding of Marie-Victorin. "It is one of the largest acts of police repression in modern Canadian history and should be opposed by all unions and supporters of democratic rights. | "As of today — Feb. 22 — even though the cops have shut do…
(2022-02-26). [Comment] Offline: There is no right to lie. thelancet.com Perhaps the most curious aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the flourishing of anti-science movements, despite the demonstrable triumphs of science in producing life-saving antivirals and vaccines. Mistrust of science is spreading well beyond COVID-19. Political challenges to climate action, notably the goal of net zero emissions, are growing, especially as economic stress impoverishes millions. 5G remains a target for many science sceptics. And libertarian politicians condemn scientists as unelected threats to democratic freedoms.
(2022-02-26). Communist Party of Russia Calls for Increased Nationalization, Dedollarization, an End to Digital ID and Mass Vaccinations. libya360.wordpress.com "The answer to external pressure should be a radical change in domestic policy". The 2014 coup d'état in Ukraine was carried out with the support of the United States and the European Union. It brought to power extremely reactionary forces imbued with the poison of Banderite Nazism and Russophobia. The burning of people in the…
(2022-02-26). 'Queremos Vivir': The Workers Who Wouldn't Die For The Pentagon. popularresistance.org Workers in the Mexican border city of Mexicali, many of them young migrant women, were fighting for their lives. It was the deadliest point of the pandemic in 2020 in one of the hardest-hit states in Mexico, Baja California. | By May 2020, a local news outlet reported that 432 of the 519 Covid-19 fatalities to date had been workers in maquiladoras—assembly plants on the border that mostly supply the United States.
(2022-02-26). Chinese translation of "2022: Year Three of the pandemic and the emerging global class struggle" wsws.org The perspective outlines a socialist and internationalist perspective for the global working class and is of immense relevance to workers and young people in China, as well as the millions around the world who also read Mandarin.
(2022-02-26). Túnez recibe donación de vacunas anticovid enviadas por China. telesurtv.net El 25 de marzo de 2021 llegó a Túnez el primer lote de vacunas enviadas por el país asiático.
(2022-02-26). [World Report] The global COVID-19 treatment divide. thelancet.com Experts warn of huge global inequities in access to new treatments for COVID-19. Ann Danaiya Usher reports.
(2022-02-26). ONU reflexiona sobre desigual acceso a la vacunación anticovid. telesurtv.net El presidente de la Asamblea de la ONU apostó por la defensa de la acción colectiva y en la solidaridad de los países.
(2022-02-26). Chile supera los 3 millones de contagios por Covid desde 2020. telesurtv.net El país suramericano reporta un total de 42.070 fallecidos a causa del virus.
(2022-02-26). Omicron surge in Indonesia tops record for daily cases. wsws.org The death toll is climbing fast, increasing to 257 COVID fatalities on Tuesday from single figures three weeks ago. Over 100 people died every day for the past two weeks, mostly in the capital.
(2022-02-26). San Mateo County Community College District students and faculty speak out against unsafe return to campus. wsws.org A student asked, "How are we meant to put our focus on education if we are fearful and stressed out about contracting this potentially deadly virus? How are teachers meant to teach us to the best of their abilities if they are constantly put at risk?"
(2022-02-26). [Editorial] Our commitment to help accelerate progress against cancer. thelancet.com Cancer affects everyone, regardless of age, gender, or social status, and represents a tremendous burden for patients, families, and societies. In 2020, one in six deaths were caused by cancer, accounting for 10 million premature deaths worldwide. Cancer has been a leading cause of mortality since the 1970s, but only in 2016 did it become part of the UN global agenda, as part of Sustainable Development Goal target 3.4, aiming to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases. This step has helped raise the profile of cancer worldwide and led to an increased political commitment to accelerate cancer res…
(2022-02-26). [Comment] Preventing relapse in schizophrenia needs better evidence. thelancet.com Given the considerable contribution of schizophrenia spectrum disorders to the global burden of disease, implementing evidence-based treatments is a global health priority.1,2 Building on a previous network meta-analysis of randomised trials of antipsychotics for acute symptoms of schizophrenia,3 Johannes Schneider-Thoma and colleagues4 assessed 32 oral and long-acting injectable antipsychotics for 14 different efficacy and tolerability outcomes in a systematic review and network meta-analysis published in The Lancet.
(2022-02-26). Argentine: Massive Fire Devastation in Corrientes. telesurenglish.net The scarce rainfall in the last few hours and the firefighters deployed on the ground are insufficient to stop the numerous active outbreaks in the province, declared an environmental disaster. | RELATED: | The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, noted that all forces had been allocated to address this issue. The government has sent firefighters, security forces, hydrants and helicopters to fight the fires…
(2022-02-26). The campaign against Russian conductor Valery Gergiev: Middle-class hysteria in the service of war. wsws.org The announcement by New York City's Carnegie Hall that Gergiev would no longer be conducting the Vienna Philharmonic on Friday is the product of war fever whipped up by the US government with the help of the pliant capitalist press.
(2022-02-26). [Correspondence] Have we really failed to roll back malaria? thelancet.com The World Malaria Report (WMR) 2021 estimates that there were 241 million (95% CI 218—269) malaria cases in the world in 2020, which is the same number as in 2000 (241 [226—260] million).1 Has the global burden of malaria really not changed over 20 years, after spending more than US$30 billion on malaria control activities, and after distributing more than 2 ∑5 billion insecticide-treated bednets, 3 billion rapid diagnostic tests, and 3 ∑5 billion artemisinin combination treatments?
(2022-02-26). Merging Waltz: Caltech Finds Two Supermassive Black Holes Set to Collide, Warping Space & Time. sputniknews.com The object in space that showed evidence of the future collision is called a quasar. Quasars are galaxies' active cores, where a supermassive black hole sucks material from a disk that surrounds it. The supermassive black hole in some quasars produces a jet that travels at almost the speed of light.