BlackRock is a global financial giant with customers in 100 countries and its tentacles in major asset classes all over the world; and it now manages the spigots to trillions of bailout dollars from the Federal Reserve. The fate of a large portion of the country’s corporations has been put in the hands of a megalithic private entity with the private capitalist mandate to make as much money as possible for its owners and investors; and that is what it has proceeded to do.
Ellen Brown
To most people, if they are familiar with it at all, BlackRock is an asset manager that helps pension funds and retirees manage their savings through “passive” investments that track the stock market.
But working behind the scenes, it is much more than that.
BlackRock has been called “the most powerful institution in the financial system,” “the most powerful company in the world” and the “secret power.”
5 July 2020 (Wall Street International)* – In June 2020, Mexico dropped out of the top 25 countries for foreign investment for the second time in over 20 years. For the second largest economy in Latin America, this is bad news.
What has precipitated this decline in confidence by the global investment community? This article explores the central reasons for this reality.
The world has been worried about pandemic diseases for many years. Before COVID-19, attention was focused on influenza viruses as the most likely cause. A recent paper reminds us that the threat from flu remains very real. It reports that a swine flu virus is circulating in China that has the potential for pandemic spread in humans. This sounds highly alarming, but just how worried should we be?
Main symptoms of swine flu in humans | Public Domain
There are millions of cases of flu each year, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths. These are caused by “seasonal” or type B influenza viruses.
There are also other types of flu viruses that are harboured by animals, notably the type A viruses of birds.
Thankfully, most of these infect humans poorly. But as they are different from the seasonal viruses, humans have no or little existing immunity to them.
“The time for manufacturing of weapons of war has passed as a viable industry for our nation, despite the way some of our political leadership clings to economies of the past.” — Lisa Savage, U.S. Senate candidate in Maine
Fincantieri Marine Group
On 25 June 2020 President Trump’s re-election efforts took him to the “battleground” state of Wisconsin, where he toured the Fincantieri MarinetteMarine shipyard. He railed against the Democrats as a scarier enemy than Russia or China.
He also celebrated Wisconsin’s win over domestic enemies like the state of Maine in securing a key shipbuilding project.
3 July 2020 (WMO)* — Climate change impacts are affecting water availability and are exacerbating the damages floods and drought cause worldwide. Climate related water action is a key for bringing us back on track to deliver Sustainable Development Goal 6, to ensure access to water and sanitation for all and to sustain a healthy environment.
WMO hosted a virtual diplomatic briefing on 2 July on plans for a Water and Climate Coalition aimed at building momentum on water and climate action through implementing concrete activities at the national, regional and global levels.
Afghanistan’s shortage of decent and affordable housing is one of the biggest challenges facing millions of displaced and returning refugees. A new project is offering some a solution. |Français | عربي
3 July 2020 (UNHCR)* — Mohammad Daud and his family fled fighting and insecurity in their home area and came to Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan more than eight years ago. But until recently, they still lacked a secure roof over their heads.
As of Friday [3 July 2020] morning, Brazil had reported 1,508,991 COVID-19 cases and 62,304 deaths.
Crosses installed in tribute to the victims of COVID-19, Brasilia, Brazil, June 28. | Photo: EFE
(teleSUR)* — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro Friday [3 July 2020] passed a bill on the mandatory use of masks against COVID-19 but vetoed some provisions that required their use in places where people gather such as shops, religious temples, and schools.
The far-right politician, who has always downplayed the importance of physical isolation, argued that wearing masks in such cases “incurs a possible violation of residence” contrary to the Constitution.
“We don’t want to be used as government’s propaganda,” Indigenous leader Parana Yanomami said.
Members of the Yanomami community arrive at a military brigade, Surucucu, Brazil, 2020. | Photo: EFE
3 July 2020 (teleSUR)* — Indigenous leaders from the isolated Brazilian Yanomami community complained that a military mission sent to protect them from the coronavirus brought instead a risk of infection to their people through contact with journalists among other outsiders.
Federal prosecutors said they were investigating the visit for ignoring the wishes of Yanomami communities to remain isolated from society, violating rules of social distancing, and distributing chloroquine to Indigenous people.
If climate change directly affected white Westerners, action would have come quicker.
Climate activist Oladosu Adenike organising with schoolchildren in Abuja, Nigeria, 2019 | Oladosu Adenike (All rights reserved)
1 July 2020 (openDemocracy)* — We have known about climate change for decades. As early as 1992 the threat was sufficiently obvious, and the science sufficiently clear, to justify a UN treaty on the topic. Yet we’ve only even begun to get our act together in the last five or so years. Why?
By Walid Saleh and Warda Al-Jawahiry in Tripoli, Lebanon | UNHCR*
In Lebanon, the capacity of local community and Syrian refugees to provide mutual support is being stretched to breaking point by economic turmoil and the COVID-19 crisis. |Español | Français| عربي
Behind the counter of her small convenience store in a rundown neighbourhood of Tripoli, northern Lebanon, 35-year-old Kawkab Mustafa keeps a list of debts owed to her by customers she has allowed to buy goods on credit. In recent months, the list has grown so long she needs four separate notebooks to record all the entries.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 