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18 June 21
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Andy Borowitz | Ted Cruz Calls Obamacare a Democratic Plot to Keep People Alive So They Can Vote
Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "Outraged by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to preserve Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement, Senator Ted Cruz called the Affordable Care Act 'a thinly veiled Democratic plot to keep people alive so they can vote.'"
READ MORE
Rep. Matt Gaetz. (photo: AP)
Sources: As Gaetz Investigation Ramps Up, Feds Mount Sweeping Probe Into Central Florida Political Scene
Will Steakin and Katherine Faulders, ABC News
Excerpt: "The sprawling probe has revved up its focus on alleged corruption and fraud."
ince federal prosecutors obtained the cooperation of GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz's once close-ally in May, sources tell ABC News the ongoing investigation, which includes sex trafficking allegations involving Gaetz, has engulfed the tight-knit Central Florida political scene as prosecutors continue their investigation of the Florida congressman.
Former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, who reached a plea deal last month, has been assisting federal agents in the sprawling probe that has recently revved up its focus on alleged corruption and fraud stemming from Greenberg's time in office and beyond, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The former tax collector pleaded guilty in May to a host of crimes including charges of stalking, identity theft, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official, as well as a sex trafficking charge. Greenberg is prepared to hand over evidence and testimony that could implicate Gaetz and others, sources told ABC News.
Sources told ABC News that prosecutors believe a decision about whether or not to bring charges against Gaetz could come as early as July.
Sources said the probe into the congressman has ramped up in recent weeks. Investigators have started interviewing more women who were allegedly introduced to Gaetz through Greenberg, who last month pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl -- who later went on to work in pornography -- and introducing her to other "adult men." Since May, a new round of target letters and subpoenas in the wide-ranging investigation have been sent out, ABC News has learned.
Another avenue investigators have been focusing on recently, according to sources, are contracts that Greenberg handed out through the tax office totaling more than $1.5 million, which an independent audit late last year described as "unnecessary" and "considered to be a waste of taxpayer dollars," according to documents in the forensic audit of the tax office obtained by ABC News through a public records request.
Sources told ABC News that investigators have reached out to Keith Ingersoll, whose firm KI Consulting had a $48,000 contract with the tax office that ran between January 2017 and September 2020. The audit found that there was "no evidence of work product" by Ingersoll's group despite the multi-year contract and staff at the tax office being "unaware what this group did."
Ingersoll's attorney did not respond to multiple requests for comment from ABC News.
In May, Politico reported that investigators were seeking information from close associates of Greenberg, including Gaetz and long-time friend Joe Ellicott. A subpoena received by one associate allegedly stated that the grand jury is investigating alleged crimes "involving commercial sex acts with adult and minor women as well as obstruction of justice." It also requested any communications, documents, recordings and payments the individual had with Ellicott, Gaetz and Greenberg from 2016 until now, according to Politico.
Ellicott, who was also on the tax office payroll as an assistant deputy tax collector, has a long history with Greenberg; he was a groomsman at the former tax collector's wedding and the pair co-hosted a local sports-themed radio show before Greenberg ran for office.
Ellicott could emerge as a key witness in the ongoing sex traffic investigation, and appears to have information that may be damning to others beyond Greenberg, sources say. In a private text exchange over the encrypted messaging app Signal, Ellicott allegedly told Greenberg last August that a mutual friend was worried she could be implicated in the investigation into the sex ring involving a minor.
"She is scared because she knew [the minor] was underage the whole time, had sex with her, and they both went [to] see other guys they had met together," according to private messages obtained by ABC News. The exchange was first reported by The Daily Beast.
In separate private Snapchat messages with the same mutual friend, obtained by ABC News, Ellicott allegedly urged the friend to encourage the young woman who was no longer a minor at the time to avoid speaking with law enforcement as federal authorities were pursuing her for questioning.
"She needs to delay them, hold them off and just not answer them," Ellicott allegedly wrote over the messaging app before the text was automatically deleted, according to photos taken with a separate phone and later viewed by ABC News.
Ellicott later wrote that the minor needed to find a lawyer and that he would be heading over to speak with her that day.
"I'm heading over there now... The lady isn't doing her any favors -- she drove all the way to cause trouble for her," Ellicott allegedly wrote, referring to the officer looking to speak with the former underage girl.
Ellicott has not returned numerous calls or text messages from ABC News seeking comment. Greenberg's lawyer Fritz Scheller declined to comment. The United States Attorney's Office in Middle District of Florida declined to comment.
While prosecutors have Greenberg's cooperation in the probe, the former tax collector's credibility could be an issue if the investigation results in further indictments. According to his plea agreement, Greenberg admitted that he paid a 17-year-old girl for sex and "introduced the minor to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts."
When asked for comment, a spokesperson for Gaetz criticized the investigation as a "partisan smear job." Gaetz, who has not been charged with any crimes, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly denied ever paying for sex or having sex with a minor. He has defiantly launched a rally tour around the country and has at times joked about the allegations.
The investigation targeting Gaetz was launched last year when Donald Trump was still president, sources told ABC News. Then-Attorney General Bill Barr was briefed on the investigation's progress several times, the sources said.
Greenberg pleaded guilty in May to six of the 33 federal charges he was facing, including sex trafficking of a minor. While the plea deal states that Greenberg will be assisting prosecutors moving forward, the government also stated that it reserves the right to prosecute him on the other charges if Greenberg violates any terms of the cooperation deal.
Following Greenberg's plea hearing in May, his lawyer, Fritz Schiller, offered a teasing response when asked if the plea deal could mean trouble for other officials.
"Does my client have information that could hurt an elected official?" Schiller said. "I guess this is must-see television. You'll just have to wait and see."
Moments earlier on that day, a plane carrying a banner that read "Tick Tock Matt Gaetz" flew over the Orlando federal courthouse.
A March with Out Ancestors to mark Juneteenth last year in Phoenix, Arizona. (photo: Catherine Rafferty/The Republic)
ALSO SEE: Biden, Harris Sign Law Establishing Juneteenth Federal Holiday
Rep. Cori Bush | Juneteenth Freedom Should Also Mean Safety From Police Violence
Cori Bush, USA TODAY
Bush writes: "The original Juneteenth focused on promise of freedom from bondage and white supremacy. As we usher in new national holiday, let's expand that fight."
uneteenth has always been a symbol of freedom deferred. While in January 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation promised to free enslaved Black people in some states, the news of this emancipation did not reach much of the country, and enforcement was slow and inconsistent through 1865.
It was then that Juneteenth became a holiday celebrating the resilience of the Black community in Galveston, Texas – and eventually of Black communities across America. The celebration included formerly enslaved people and their descendants, and focused on the promise of freedom from slavery, bondage and white supremacy.
Unfortunately, that dream has yet to be fully realized.
The vestiges of slavery continue to deny us reparations, liberation and freedom.
This Juneteenth, I invite you to reflect on the promise of freedom. Freedom doesn't simply mean freedom from enslavement. Freedom is an affirmative goal, it is one that promises liberation, safety and peace of mind. It is the promise of a full and prosperous life. Yet, Black communities are still denied basic human rights protections. From the moment the first slave ships landed in 1619 to present day, Black communities have been denied basic lifesaving resources, locking us into cyclical trauma and violence.
Where I’m from in St. Louis, we’re dying. Over a seven-year period ending in 2020, our city has led the nation in police killings. And last year, the city had its highest homicide rate in half a century. If we haven’t lost a loved one to violence ourselves, someone we know certainly has. We survive domestic violence, we survive carjackings, we survive shootings, we survive state violence. It’s something that we live through routinely.
It’s not just cycles of violence that stem from slavery – slavery quite literally lives on today through our system of incarceration and policing. The 13th Amendment explicitly permits slavery “as a punishment for crime.” It is no wonder then that Black people and Black communities across this country are devastated by yet another system of bondage – policing and criminalization.
To address these crises, we must first assess the root causes of violence. We must eliminate our public safety system’s instinct to criminalize and replace it with an instinct to provide care. The clearest opportunity to immediately do so is our system’s response to substance use, homelessness and behavioral and mental health crises –crises that are rooted in centuries of trauma and disinvestment.
As it stands today, armed law enforcement agents, who lack expertise in health crises, are the first to respond to a variety of health emergencies, including those resulting from substance use and mental health issues. There are serious, and sometimes deadly consequences when police are asked to make instantaneous decisions involving people experiencing crises associated with mental health or other health complications. People with untreated mental health disorders have a risk of being killed when encountering police that is 16 times higher than those without.
These lives lost are more than statistics.
They are Daniel Prude, whose brother called for help after identifying that Prude may have been in crisis. The 41-year-old man was suffocated by Rochester, New York, police. They are Jason Moore, a man having a mental health crisis in St. Louis who was Tasered to death in the middle of the street. They are Pamela Turner, who had a known history of paranoid schizophrenia but was fatally shot by a Houston-area officer who was aware of her mental health struggles.
They are the scores of others whose lives could have been saved had we invested in a health-centered, care-focused, community-first approach to public safety.
We must build a world in which lives like theirs will never be taken from us. We all need a world in which not one more life is lost due to the criminalization of mental health crises. It is because of this that I will be introducing a proposal to transform public safety in America – to make public safety a public health issue. This means transferring responsibilities of public safety from the Department of Justice to the Department of Health and Human Services.
We, as a nation, must get to the root causes of violence by focusing first on preventing violence, and second, by ensuring that when there is a health emergency, an appropriately trained professional is sent to support those in need. The Department of Health and Human Services can provide those supports by sending unarmed health experts into communities to respond to health crises.
We must also fund state and local governments, along with community-based organizations, to create public safety programs and interventions that address the fundamentals of violence, such as poverty, housing instability, environmental hazards and chronically underfunded social services.
It is finally time we stop responding to trauma with more trauma and to violence with more violence. We must put public health at the center of public safety. Our communities need help, and it is our responsibility to provide it.
As we celebrate Juneteenth this year, I call on all Americans – starting with my peers in Congress – to make a commitment to freedom and liberation. We must dismantle anti-Black, white supremacist systems of violence in America and build a future of care.
Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV). (photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty)
Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin: The Business Lobby's Favorite Politicians
Julia Rock and Andrew Perez, Jacobin
Excerpt: "The US Chamber of Commerce presented 'bipartisanship' awards to Democrats like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin who blocked a $15 minimum wage. They're not even pretending to be on your side anymore."
he US Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s premier business lobbying group, brought lawmakers together on Thursday to give them awards for leading and working across party lines — in order to boost top corporate priorities
The Chamber is one of the most powerful, well-funded lobbying organizations in Washington. In 2018, the trade association brought in $168 million in revenue. Last year, it spent $82 million on federal lobbying efforts. The Chamber doesn’t publicly disclose its members, but its board of directors includes executives at major companies across all sectors of the US economy.
While the organization primarily backed Republicans for years, in 2019, the Chamber announced a new “strategic decision”: it would start rewarding bipartisanship and support politicians on both sides of the aisle. The change has mostly meant working to curry favor with conservative Democrats most likely to oppose key progressive agenda items, such as a $15 minimum wage, expanding Medicare, or implementing a Green New Deal.
On Thursday, the Chamber held its Second Annual Bipartisanship and Leadership Awards, where it announced the winners of its Jefferson-Hamilton Award for Bipartisanship. The organization explained that its bipartisanship scores are determined based on which lawmakers cosponsored the most bills introduced by a member of the other party — as long as the Chamber hadn’t formally opposed the proposals.
Conservative Democrats received some of the organization’s highest marks for bipartisanship. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey received perfect 100 percent scores. Other Democratic winners included Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas and Abby Spanberger of Virginia, as well as Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana, and Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
Manchin, Sinema, Tester, and King played key roles in blocking a $15 minimum wage. Sinema and Manchin have been the most public opponents of eliminating the Senate filibuster, a rule that allows Republicans to block most legislation if Democrats can’t find sixty votes, arguing that doing so would prevent Democrats and Republicans from working together.
Also included among the winners of the Chamber’s bipartisanship award were two Republican lawmakers who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election: Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Lee Zeldin of New York.
The awards followed the Chamber’s announcement that it would not suspend political support to lawmakers who voted against certifying President Joe Biden’s victories in Pennsylvania and Arizona.
While many corporate political action committees said they would no longer donate to Republicans who voted to sustain objections to the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, the Chamber wrote in March: “We do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification.”
The Abraham Lincoln Award
The Chamber also bestowed its Abraham Lincoln Leadership for America Award to lawmakers who had proved most eager to toe the Chamber’s corporate party line.
“Since the start of the 116th Congress, the Chamber has urged members to cosponsor certain bills and refrain from cosponsoring others,” the organization explained on its website. “This award is based on the number of times a member took the recommended actions.”
While the Chamber awarded the honor to more than thirty lawmakers, two members of the group — Sens. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) — attended the event to accept the accolade.
“This is the kind of conversations that business leaders love to hear because we’re looking for solutions,” Chamber executive vice president Neil Bradley told the senators during the awards show. “The CEOs who are gathered here today, when they’re presented with problems, they don’t often get to blame someone else, they’ve got to come up with a solution. And I think what we like from talking with both of you, and the reason we’ve given you the Abraham Lincoln award is, you guys are both looking for solutions to problems.”
When Bradley asked the award winners how the Chamber could support them, Scott replied, “I would say to use President Lincoln, the way that he governed, as an example. Bring people who don’t agree together. His book, Team of Rivals, is a really important work when you think about the fact that he articulates and says very clearly that some of his mentors are people who ran against him, some of his mentors are people who disagreed with him.” (Doris Kearns Goodwin published the Abraham Lincoln biography, Team of Rivals, in 2005.)
Rosen also brought up Lincoln. “It’s hard to follow [Scott] because he’s so terrific,” she said. “But as Abraham Lincoln said, ‘A house divided cannot stand.’”
She also encouraged members of the Chamber to meet lawmakers over private dinners.
“What you can do, as a business roundtable, whether it is at the national level, [is] bring us together for some off-the-record dinners, let us just talk and get to know each other and get to know you,” Rosen said. “Or whether it’s in our own communities, we can do those same things. It’s important that you sometimes just sit down and get a chance to know people without necessarily a formal agenda. And that carries you through a lot of things.”
Police block a protest on May 30, 2020, in Seattle. In one case found by ProPublica that occurred the day before, a Seattle Police Department officer who struck a protester 'six to eight punches over six seconds' received a written reprimand. (photo: Jason Redmond/AFP)
Few Cops We Found Using Force on George Floyd Protesters Have Faced Discipline
Mollie Simon, ProPublica
Simon writes: "ProPublica compiled 68 videos that seemed to show officers using disproportionate force on protesters. A year later, police have disclosed discipline for a total of 10 officers."
ast summer, ProPublica compiled 68 videos that appeared to show police officers using disproportionate force against protesters during the nationwide events following George Floyd’s death in police custody.
We had culled the videos from hundreds circulating on social media in the wake of the protests and highlighted the cases that seemed to clearly show officers using disproportionate force. We then reached out to dozens of law enforcement agencies whose officers are in the videos and asked some straightforward questions: Have the officers’ police departments investigated the incidents? And what consequences, if any, have the officers in the videos faced?
As time passed, we’ve been checking in with the departments to get their answers.
After a year, we wanted to give a final update on what we know: Departments have disclosed discipline for 10 officers.
A Seattle Police Department officer received a written reprimand for striking a protester with “six to eight punches over six seconds.” In Grand Rapids, Michigan, an officer shot a man in the shoulder at close range with a long-range tear gas round. He received two days without pay. In Salt Lake City, an officer received “coaching and counseling” for using a shield to push an elderly man.
Six officers were initially fired, though two got their jobs back after a review. Criminal charges are also pending against 11 officers, including some who have already faced internal discipline.
In 17 cases that we followed, the departments have decided not to discipline the officers or could not identify them.
Investigations are still ongoing in 25 of the cases. This includes a high-profile case in Buffalo, New York, where two officers pushed a man backward, causing him to hit his head on the pavement. A grand jury dismissed felony assault charges against the officers, but a decision on departmental discipline is still pending.
Finally, in 18 instances, ProPublica could not determine the disciplinary outcome — either because the department did not respond or the department said it could not share the information.
The weaving journey of accountability has played out starkly around one of the cases in Atlanta.
In May 2020, the mayor announced the firing of two officers just a day after they were involved in the violent arrest of two college students who were pulled from a car.
But the officers quickly sued to get their jobs back, citing a lack of due process. In February, Atlanta’s Civil Service Board agreed. The two officers are once again employed by the department but remain on administrative leave. The incident remains under investigation. Criminal charges have also been filed against the officers, including assault, though the district attorney who brought them has since been voted out of office.
One reason departments have declined to comment on the status of cases is that the incidents have been subject to litigation. But the back and forth on such suits can be illuminating.
Responding to a lawsuit by a protester who was hit by a Los Angeles Police Department vehicle, the city wrote that the “force used against plaintiff, if any, was caused and necessitated by the actions of plaintiff, and was reasonable and necessary for self-defense.”
In about half of the cases we reviewed, including one resulting in discipline, the officer or officers involved have not been publicly identified. Sometimes, it’s not even clear which law enforcement agency they worked for.
In Minneapolis, where Floyd’s death occurred, sparking outrage across the world, a video captured the moment in May when officers patrolling a neighborhood fired paint rounds at a woman’s home while enforcing a curfew.
A Minnesota National Guard spokesperson told ProPublica the agency was “not involved” in the incident. The Minneapolis Police Department said the incident was “not our agency.” The Minnesota State Patrol said that it reviewed the video of the incident, and that “the officer who fired the marking round was not a State Patrol trooper.” When asked which agency the officers who fired the paint round were from, the spokesperson said it was “unclear.”
A nurse prepares a Covid-19 vaccine dose in Caracas, Venezuela, on June 7, 2021. (photo: Michael Mata/Getty)
US Sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela Hamper the Global Fight Against Covid-19
Cole Stangler, The Intercept
Stangler writes: "Critics say the sanctions undermine U.S. ambitions to vaccinate the world, while new polling shows a clear majority favor a policy change."
n Cuba, the smallest country in the world to produce its own Covid-19 vaccines, five immunizations are currently in clinical trials. Soberana 2 and Abdala have reached Phase 3, making the island nation the only country in Latin America to reach the final stage in vaccine development. In the meantime, three other kinds of Cuban Covid-19 shots are in early trial phases.
Last month, Cuban authorities opted to begin early distribution of those two most advanced vaccines, deciding the benefits of a mass inoculation campaign outweighed the risks. The director of Cuba’s Finlay Institute of Vaccines, which developed the Soberana 2 vaccine, has said the country could produce 100 million doses by the end of the year, 70 million more than what Cuba needs internally. And while the Cuban government is focused on vaccinating its own population first, vaccine exports from Cuba may soon become a reality.
According to a draft of a speech shared with The Intercept, Cuba’s vice-minister of public health will announce the country’s intention at the Progressive International’s Summit for Vaccine Internationalism to open a discussion about how to mobilize its vaccine candidates to support other countries that request aid.
But for the time being, any such plans are likely to be limited in scope as a result of the decades long U.S. trade embargo and sanctions against the country. The policies severely complicate Cuba’s access to international finance, and leaders in Havana say they contribute to crippling supply shortages. At the same time, harsh sanctions restrict access to vaccines and treatments in Venezuela, where immunization rates remain low as coronavirus cases continue to climb.
The conditions in the two countries offer clear examples of how U.S. sanctions could undermine the global fight against the pandemic. While the Biden administration has pledged to lead international efforts to distribute vaccines around the world, economic restrictions on doing business with Cuba and Venezuela threaten to undermine that very promise.
Many developing countries lack the financial means to secure bilateral deals with vaccine makers on their own. As a result, more than 130 nations are relying on COVAX, a vaccine-sharing initiative backed by the World Health Organization and funded largely by high-income countries and private donors. While COVAX has fallen well behind on its original targets, G7 countries nevertheless called the platform “the primary route for providing vaccines to the poorest countries” at their summit last weekend.
One state hoping to make use of the initiative is Venezuela, where the government claims attempts to access COVAX have been hampered by U.S. sanctions. As of early 2021, the U.S. had imposed financial sanctions on over 100 Venezuelan individuals and at least eight different entities, including the government, the central bank, and the state oil company. The list expanded under Donald Trump but remains in place under Joe Biden.
President Nicolás Maduro’s government says it has aimed to work around these measures. Back in March, Maduro even cut a deal with opposition head Juan Guaidó (still recognized as “interim president” by the U.S. State Department) to free up $30 million in offshore cash frozen under American sanctions to help pay for Covid-19 shots. A month later, Venezuelan authorities said they had finally closed in on making a crucial $120 million payment to COVAX required to access vaccines, without providing details about the origins of the funds. But last Thursday, the country’s vice president Delcy RodrÃguez announced that payments covering the final $10 million had been blocked.
According to a letter posted on Twitter by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, a representative of COVAX informed the government that it had received notification from Swiss bank UBS that four operations totaling over $4.6 million had been blocked and were “under investigation.”
A spokesperson for UBS said it was “unable to comment on matters relating to potential client relationships” but noted that the bank “complies with applicable legal and regulatory requirements across jurisdictions, including respective sanction regimes, which includes at least those sanctions currently imposed by Switzerland, the UN, the UK, the EU and the USA.”
For their part, Venezuelan authorities say U.S. sanctions are to blame.
“The news that Venezuela’s last 4 payments to COVAX have been blocked—thus preventing the Venezuelan people from accessing the vaccine distribution mechanism—confirms once again the criminal nature of the unilateral, illegal, and coercive measures that the United States has imposed on Venezuela,” Arreaza told The Intercept in a statement.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department rejected the notion that the U.S. bears responsibility, noting that sanctions on Venezuela include broad exceptions for humanitarian goods but that banks sometimes delay transactions on their own.
“For a high-risk jurisdiction such as Venezuela, financial institutions review payments to ensure compliance with various legal requirements, including the prevention of fraud, corruption, money-laundering, and sanctions violations,” the spokesperson said. “These reviews may result in delays for payments involving Venezuela, even when U.S. economic sanctions do not prohibit such payments.”
As it stands, Venezuela is the only country in South America that has not received any shipments from COVAX, according to the UNICEF Covid-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard. When asked about the recent blocking of payments, a spokesperson for Gavi, a public-private partnership that helps coordinate COVAX, underlined the organization’s intent to distribute shots to the country.
In the meantime, Venezuela’s vaccination campaign is lagging far behind the rest of the continent. The government has received around 2.7 million vaccine doses from Russia and China, but the shots have gone out to a small share of health professionals and senior citizens. According to the Our World in Data Project at the University of Oxford, Venezuela has vaccinated just 2 percent of its population with at least one dose — well behind neighboring Colombia and Brazil, at 18 and 27 percent respectively.
In Cuba, where 18 percent of the population has received at least one dose, vaccine breakthroughs are the product of unique circumstances: heavy state spending on education and health care, close ties between researchers and public health officials, and a biotech sector that has flourished since the 1980s. They’re also reflective of how the Cuban government is accustomed to getting by without international support. The country has navigated around the U.S. trade embargo since 1962, making painful adjustments after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. According to José Angel Portal Miranda, Cuba’s health minister, 85 percent of the country’s Covid-19 “treatment protocol” has been developed using “national sources.”
Despite a “commitment to technological sovereignty,” as Portal Miranda described it, the Cuban government says various U.S. sanctions are hindering its ability to fight the pandemic — and not just when it comes to exporting vaccines.
The list of U.S.-imposed restrictions on Cuba in place today is lengthy. After a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations under President Barack Obama, the Trump administration tightened sanctions by implementing a new blacklist of Cuban businesses; imposed a policy change that allows Americans to sue firms profiting from property nationalized after the 1959 revolution; and enacted a ban on the use of “U-turn transactions,” cracking down on the ability of banks to process fund transfers outside the U.S. and thereby sidestep some of the sanctions. All the while, a broad-reaching trade embargo — known in Cuba as “the blockade” — remains in effect.
Early in the pandemic, while Havana dispatched more than 2,000 doctors to assist nations around the world, the country struggled to obtain critical foreign-made medical supplies to treat its own population. In April 2020, the Cuban government said a Colombian cargo carrier declined to deliver a large shipment of masks and ventilators sent by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma because the shipper had an American shareholder. Cuban authorities also hoped to obtain ventilators from familiar Swiss suppliers, but claim new business was made impossible after the firms were acquired by a U.S.-based owner.
Similar challenges have continued well into this year, amplified by one of Trump’s last maneuvers as president: Just days before leaving office, he reclassified Cuba as a state sponsor of international terrorism. As Reuters reported in March, that new designation restricts Cuba’s access to international financing as its economy emerges from a massive recession, having slid 11 percent in 2020. And while Cuba has no problem producing vaccines, it does claim to face a significant shortage when it comes to syringes, as many pharmaceutical producers are based in or have ties to the U.S.
According to Global Health Partners, a New York-based NGO focused on international medical aid, Cuban authorities need some 30 million syringes for their vaccination campaign but are 20 million short of that goal. Last month, the Commerce Department granted a special license allowing Global Health Partners to raise money from Americans to distribute supplies.
“There are multiple exemptions and authorizations under the U.S. embargo on Cuba, and the United States has, for decades, permitted the export to Cuba of agricultural products, medicine, medical devices, and other humanitarian supplies,” said a State Department spokesperson. “In cases where prior U.S. government licensing is required, we note our continued willingness to review requests from those interested in providing such humanitarian items.”
At this weekend’s Progressive International summit, Cuba will be joined by delegations from Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, and Vietnam, alongside other politicians, health experts, and a handful of pharmaceutical manufacturers. While the summit will likely feature criticism of the World Trade Organization’s inability to agree to suspend patent rights on vaccines and highlight what participating countries view as lackluster commitments from global superpowers, organizers also hope the meeting will result in deals to share technology and expand manufacturing capacity.
“We hope that we’ll come out with tangible agreements and also build a future alliance that can work to confront the system which is restricting vaccine rollout around the world,” James Schneider, communications director for Progressive International, told The Intercept.
According to a Data for Progress poll the group commissioned and shared with The Intercept ahead of publication, a majority of Americans believe Washington’s policies toward Cuba and Venezuela need to change for the sake of fighting the pandemic.
66 percent of those polled said they support “lawmakers suspending the US embargo so Cuba can provide life-saving treatment to poor countries,” including 79 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of Republicans. Meanwhile, 67 percent said they “support the US waiving sanctions on certain countries to enable them to receive the medication, equipment, and vaccines they need to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.” Just 22 percent oppose the idea.
Schneider said the data shows Americans recognize the importance of international cooperation to fight the virus. In an earlier poll from Data for Progress, 60 percent of respondents called on Biden to support the WTO proposal to waive patents and remove intellectual property barriers from Covid-19 vaccine and treatment technology.
“Promoting global health in the midst of a pandemic all around the world is also in the interests of citizens of the U.S., because when they say no one is safe until everyone is safe, in this pandemic that is absolutely true,” Schneider said. “The longer that it goes on for, the more likely there are mutations that will drag everything backwards.”
“Only the joint action of countries and their governments, based on respect, solidarity and cooperation, will guarantee success in the battle against this pandemic—and protect the planet from similar crises,” said Portal Miranda in a statement to The Intercept.
On the campaign trail, Biden expressed interest in reverting to Obama-era policies on Cuba, arguing that better engagement with the nation improved ties with the region at-large. But in office, Biden has yet to move toward détente or make a significant break from his immediate predecessor. Last month, the State Department listed Cuba — along with Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela — as states “not cooperating fully with United States antiterrorism efforts.” The move was a renewal of one made last year under Trump.
“We’re having political opposition to states being put ahead not only of the health interests of the people that live in those countries, but [also the ability] of those countries to help other countries in their region,” Schneider said. “This ultimately sets back the ability to end the pandemic everywhere around the world, including in the U.S.”
A home destroyed in the 2020 North Complex Fire sits above Lake Oroville on Sunday, May 23, 2021, in Oroville, California. (photo: Noah Berger/AP)
'Potentially the Worst Drought in 1,200 Years': Scientists on the Scorching US Heatwave
Maanvi Singh, Guardian UK
Singh writes: "The heatwave gripping the US west is simultaneously breaking hundreds of temperature records, exacerbating a historic drought and priming the landscape for a summer and fall of extreme wildfire."
Researchers had long forewarned of this crisis and now they’re seeing their studies and models become real life
Salt Lake City hit a record-breaking 107F (42C), while in Texas and California, power grid operators are asking residents to conserve energy to avoid rolling blackouts and outages. And all this before we’ve even reached the hottest part of the summer.
Among the 40 million Americans enduring the triple-digit temperatures are scientists who study droughts and the climate. They’d long forewarned of this crisis, and now they’re living through it. The Guardian spoke with researchers across the west about how they’re coping.
The paleoclimatologist: ‘Potentially the worst drought in 1,200 years’
Kathleen Johnson, California
Associate professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine
I feel a little bit lucky because I’m in Orange county, relatively close to the coast – so the temperatures are not as severe here as they are in other parts of California and the west. I’m worried about this summer – this doesn’t bode well, in terms of what we can expect with wildfire and the worsening drought. This current drought is potentially on track to become the worst that we’ve seen in at least 1,200 years. And the reason is linked directly to human caused climate change.
As a paleoclimatologist my main point, always, is that we are able to look into the past. By looking at tree rings and other paleoclimate records, we’re able to gain really important perspectives about how climate has varied and changed in the past. And having done that, it’s clear that what we’re experiencing now is not natural. This is undoubtedly being caused by human activities, by greenhouse gas emissions.
The more we see these extreme events, piled on top of each other, and not just in the western US but globally, the more I think the reality of climate change becomes inescapable. And it feels absolutely overwhelming and sad. We are going to have less water, increased wildfires and more extreme heatwaves. But it’s also motivating. We need to continue to push for urgent action on climate change
The climate scientist: ‘The most distressing part? This was predictable’
Daniel Swain, Colorado
Climate scientist, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability,University of California, Los Angeles
This is really, really bad. Here on the eastern side of the Rockies, here in Boulder, we’re seeing record high temperatures. That’s the case in other parts of the state and in other states. And we’re seeing smoke plumes – not from local fires but from fires in Arizona and Utah. I think for a lot of people, it’s traumatic. The fires we saw in the last couple of years were really awful, and this year it seems like we’re on that same trajectory. It kind of feels like deja vu.
It does get rough sometime – talking about these things year after year. I live in the west, and all my family, pretty much, lives in the west. Most of my friends live in the west. It’s where I grew up, and seeing the landscape-scale transformations that are happening here, and seeing how it’s affecting people is overwhelming sometimes. But actually to me, the most distressing part is that this is very much in line with predictions. Climate scientists have been repeating essentially the same messages and warnings since before I was born.
Climate change is a major contributor to, if not the dominant factor, in a lot of the changes that we’re seeing out west and elsewhere. And it just is going to keep getting worse unless we do something about it. And so far, you know, we have yet to do the kinds of things, on a large enough scale, that are actually going to make a meaningful difference.
The atmospheric scientist: ‘It’s surreal to see your models become real life’
Katharine Hayhoe, Texas
Climate scientist and chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy
The extreme heat and the wildfires aren’t surprising. But it is just surreal to see what you only ever saw before in your research studies and models, actually happening in real life. And you’re almost dumbfounded by the speed at which your projections have become reality.
Climate change is loading the weather dice against us. We always have a chance of rolling a double six naturally, and getting an intense record breaking summer heatwave. But decade by decade as the world warms, it’s as if climate change is sneaking in and taking one of those numbers on the dice and turning it into another six, and then another six. And maybe even a seven. So we are seeing that heatwaves are coming earlier in the year, they are longer, they are stronger.
Still, public opinion data shows that there’s a disconnect, where even though about 72% of people in the US say global warming is happening, only 40% say that they think that it will affect them directly. But we actually did a recent study, looking at climate and weather extremes – and we found that really hot, dry conditions are the only thing that most people in the US directly connect to climate change. So right now is a really important time for scientists to communicate with the public that climate change is here, and climate action matters.
The meteorologist: ‘The ground is burning like a hotplate’
Simon Wang, Utah
Professor of climate dynamics at Utah State University
Yesterday, when Salt Lake City hit record temperatures, we went to one of our grad students’ back yards to barbecue some burgers and do some work. But it was so hot – oh my gosh, 107F (42C). So hot that, actually three out of five students’ computers overheated and broke. I was the first to throw in the white flag and ask to go home – I really hurting.
As a meteorologist, of course this isn’t a surprise. The warming climate is making these dry, hot periods even drier and hotter. Since we’re in a drought, we don’t really have much moisture in the soil. And without that moisture, the sun really heats up the ground and the air much faster. So, really what we’re seeing in the south-west is, the ground is burning like a hotplate. And we’re standing on it.
But you know, I actually feel kind of optimistic. In the restaurants and beer houses right now, everybody is talking about the weather, and how hot it is. And a few of them will even comment, “This is the new normal.” And I mean – we’re in Utah! Whatever people believe in, they know it’s really hot, and the climate is changing – and they don’t like that. These compounding extreme weather events are really bad – but they’re going to keep happening, no matter what. Maybe if there’s some good to come out of it, it’s that people are becoming more aware. And the sooner the general public starts to become aware of this issue, the sooner, hopefully, they’ll push for changes to address the crisis. So actually, if you saw me walking around outside this week, I probably had a smile on my face as I listened to some of these conversations.
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