Inside Italy’s COVID War (full film) | FRONTLINE

FRONTLINE PBS | Official

Premieres May 19, 2020

A rare and harrowing look inside a hospital hard-hit by the coronavirus in northern Italy, following the stories of an ER doctor, her staff and patients battling COVID-19.

With unprecedented and intimate access, FRONTLINE goes inside a besieged hospital unit in the region at the epicenter of Italy’s coronavirus outbreak, where doctors and nurses try to save the lives of patients battling COVID-19 without contracting the highly infectious disease themselves. Filmed during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, “Inside Italy’s COVID War” documents haunting, heroic scenes — from the darkest days, to the signs of hope

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella on the Future of Work and Innovation Amid COVID-19 | Amanpour and Company

Amanpour and Company

Published on May 19, 2020

Today was the kickoff of the annual Microsoft Global Conference, which–like most mass gatherings these days–will be conducted digitally for the first time ever. Satya Nadella, the company’s third CEO, has drawn praise for transforming the company. His unique leadership style, rooted in empathy–a quality he says he learned while growing up in India, and later reached a still deeper understanding while raising his son, who has cerebral palsy. Walter Isaacson speaks with Nadella about tech world innovations in this new reality.

A LIVE Interview with Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky & Stan Cox – Crowdcast

3:00pm EDT, 19 May 2020.

See:

• https://www.crowdcast.io/e/a-virtual-conversation/119
• A LIVE Interview with Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky & Stan Cox – Crowdcast

 

Trump threatens to permanently cut WHO funding, pull U.S. out of global health organization – The Washington Post

President Trump on May 18 threatened to permanently freeze funding to the World Health Organization if they did not “commit to major substantive improvements.” (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP/Reuters)

By Teo Armus May 19, 2020 at 8:46 a.m. EDT

President

Trump threatened Monday to permanently halt U.S. funding to the World Health Organization and “reconsider” the country’s membership in the United Nations body if it does not “commit to major substantive improvements” within the next 30 days.

In a letter to the WHO posted in a late-night tweet, Trump said the global health agency floundered in its early responses to the coronavirus outbreak. In particular, he continued to attack the organization and its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, accusing them of being too soft on China, where the virus is believed to have originated.

Trump temporarily suspended U.S. payments in April for 60 days, an unpopular move that critics said was aimed at distracting from his own administration’s response to the pandemic. His ultimatum Monday, which came as WHO member countries conferred about the pandemic, may provoke more backlash at the international level.

The president did not specify what changes were needed for him to restore U.S. donations, the WHO’s largest single source of funding. But he said discussions between the United States and the agency’s leaders were already underway.

“It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world,” Trump wrote.

WHO was “considering the contents of the letter,” it said in a statement.

Although Trump at first praised China’s efforts to combat the outbreak earlier this year, he has since shifted to slamming the WHO for allegedly promoting misinformation from Beijing. His letter reiterated many of his accusations.

“The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China,” Trump wrote.

World Bank estimates 60 million people could fall into extreme poverty

The World Bank warned Tuesday that the coronavirus pandemic could push 60 million people into extreme poverty, another startling statistic aiming to quantify the massive human suffering the virus has wrought globally.

“The pandemic and shutdown of advanced economies could push as many as 60 million people into extreme poverty — erasing much of the recent progress made in poverty alleviation,” World Bank Group President David Malpass said in a statement. “To return to growth, our goal must be rapid, flexible responses to tackle the health emergency, provide cash and other expandable support to protect the poor, maintain the private sector, and strengthen economic resilience and recovery.”

In a report issued a month ago, the World Bank estimated that 49 million people would probably be pushed into extreme poverty, based on the pandemic’s trajectory then, though it set a possible range of 40 million to 60 million people depending on how developments unfolded.

At that time, the global financial organization also warned that sub-Saharan Africa could be the world’s hardest-hit region in terms of economic decline.

World leaders urge unity at conference, U.S. blames WHO for outbreak

CGTN

May 19, 2020

China’s call for global solidarity was backed by many world leaders. They also reiterated their support for the WHO. It came as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to reconsider its membership in the organization, and freeze its contributions.

Will Washington allow the WHO to investigate its military bio labs?

CGTN

May 19, 2020

In Fort Detrick, Maryland, the U.S. Army has cutting-edge labs researching viruses. In August 2019, Ft. Detrick labs were closed and a number of pneumonia cases, or illness with similarities to pneumonia, occurred in Maryland. What happened when the labs were shut down? What does the U.S. need the labs for? Dr. Qiao tries to connect the dots and get closer to the facts.

President Donald Trump threatens to permanently cut funding for the WHO

CNBC Television

May 19, 2020

President Donald Trump threatened to permanently cut off U.S. funding of the World Health Organization, in a letter dated Monday that he shared on Twitter. Last month, Trump halted U.S. funding for the WHO as his administration conducted a review of the agency’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Decade of Oil: From Deepwater Horizon to Deflation

Climate One

After decades spent trying to reach 100 million barrels of daily production, the oil industry is devastated from the sudden evaporation of demand. Renewables are also taking a big hit with projections that half of America’s solar workers will lose their jobs. Federal relief packages are bailing out airlines and public transportation, while excluding any help for clean energy.

What are the energy impacts of the COVID-19 recTen years ago, a very different crisis was gripping the country as 500 million gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, taking lives and threatening fishing, tourism and more. The nation’s worst oil disaster cost BP an estimated $145 billion in cleanup costs and penalties. Now, the industry is experiencing another crisis within a pandemic, as oil prices collapsed to historic lows in April and are expected to remain volatile.

What’s next in the industry’s uncertain future? How will the collapse of oil prices impact gradual efforts to shift away from fossil fuels? Join us for a conversation on the past, present and future of oil with Bill Reilly, former EPA administrator and co-chair of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Heather Richards, energy reporter at E&E News, and John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil Company.

Connected to Stan Cox: Discussing the Eco-Sphere

Salina Media Connection

Apr 24, 2020

SMC’s Greg Stephens sits down with author and Land Institute researcher Stan Cox to discuss various subjects including the environment and COVID-19.