1. COVID-19 is engulfing India. 360,000+ new cases were reported in the last day, a record-shattering high.
On May 5, @POTUS can help end this horror by sharing our vaccine know-how with the world.
Time is running out. This is a crisis.
2. The crisis has consumed the nation. India's government says 200,000 people have died, but it's likely far worse.
People are dying on hospital steps without oxygen tanks. COVID drugs are selling for 10x their value on the black market. thedailybeast.com/black-market-h…
3. India's crematoriums are at a breaking point. They've been forced to build makeshift funeral pyres on spare patches of land.
"We start at sunrise and cremations continue past midnight," a priest told @AFP next to smoldering piles of ash.
4. People are scrambling to save their families. Hospitals are overrun, patients turned away.
"There are no beds. What will I do? I can't even take him anywhere else as I have already spent so much money and don't have much left," one man told the BBC.
5. Doctors are taking to social media to plead for oxygen and other critical supplies.
“I need 50 cylinders, we are getting only 10. We have not slept for 4 days looking for oxygen. Please help us.”
6. A generation of Indian children are experiencing irreparable harm during the pandemic.
Even before the second wave began, studies estimated 375 million children there would suffer long-lasting health and economic impacts. cseindia.org/the-pandemic-w…
7. Now, more kids than ever are coming down with COVID-19 themselves.
The mutations of the virus in India are causing them to experience more — and more serious — symptoms.
8. Next week, at the World Trade Organization, President Biden will make a pivotal decision.
He can either protect the profits of Big Pharma, or help end the pandemic worldwide by allowing nations like India to manufacture their own COVID vaccines.
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The FTC is suing the biggest alcohol distributor in the country, and it matters a whole lot more than you think.
It could even change the price of your groceries.
Here’s why you should know about the Robinson-Patman Act. Thread.
The Robinson-Patman Act requires suppliers to offer the same prices and terms to all buyers. Passed in 1936 to protect small businesses, the law meant that big chains and corporations couldn’t get discounts that weren’t available to mom and pop shops. ilsr.org/articles/the-c…
But in the 1980s, the FTC simply stopped enforcing it.
Since 1982, the market share of independent retailers has fallen from 53 percent to 22 percent, according to the @ilsr.
The Lambeau Field vendors who provide endless beer for Green Bay Packers fans have approved a new union contract with huge raises — doubling pay for some workers. 🧵
More than 90 drink vendors work at Lambeau Field, employed by the corporation Delaware North. They unionized last year with the independent union @MASHworkers, which also represents workers at the home arena of the Milwaukee Bucks.
The FTC has also recently reached a settlement with Invitation Homes, the biggest owner of single family homes in the U.S.
The company is returning nearly $50 million to tenants after concealing the true price of rent and skimming security deposits. /3 substack.perfectunion.us/p/this-corpora…
THREAD: Amazon, Tesla, and Meta are among the biggest threats to democracy, a new report by the International Trade Union Confederation shows.
These companies and the billionaires behind them are trying to subvert laws, attack unions, and challenge the foundation of democracy 🧵
The ITUC determined that Amazon, Tesla, and Meta are among the worst offenders by looking at the ways each company opposes unionization efforts among their employees, as well as violations of union and human rights law and their contributions to the climate crisis.
In Amazon’s case, it is the 5th largest employer in the world and yet it has a track record of not cooperating with trade unions and flouting all kinds of international regulations. Amazon is currently refusing to engage in union talks in Germany. verdi.de/themen/geld-ta…