The @WHO DG @DrTedros addressed @UN Security Council today abt #Ebola in #DRCongo. Highlights:
"First, the security situation. Even when I was in Beni at the beginning of the outbreak, there was an attack just 15 kms frm the town. Since then there has been an increase.."
[MORE] [2]
"...in the frequency & intensity of attacks by armed groups in very close vicinity to Beni. These include a full-scale attack on the #DRC armed forces base on 24Aug, ambushes on MONUSCO on Sept 3 & 9, a rocket explosion in the centre of Beni on Sept11 & an..."
[MORE]

The 11 take-home messages from @nytimes massive investigation of #Trump Family wealth:
1.) The Trumps’ tax maneuvers show a pattern of deception,
2.) Donald Trump began reaping wealth from his father’s real estate empire as a toddler [cont.2]
3.) That ‘small loan’ of $1 million was actually at least $60.7 million — much of it never repaid
4.) Fred Trump wove a safety net that rescued his son from one bad bet after another
5.) The Trumps turned an $11 million loan debt into a legally questionable tax write-off

New @OXFAM rpt "Prescription for Poverty" - how pharmaceutical cos hide their profits & pay off politicians to let it all happen: "result of using accounting tricks to deliberately shift profits from where they are actually earned to tax havens."
[MORE]
oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/hand… 2.) OXFAM: "@pfizer , @Merck & @AbbottGlobal are among the 20 US corporations with the greatest number of subsidiaries in tax havens; Johnson & Johnson is not far behind. All four were among the US corporations with the most money stashed overseas." untaxed.
[MORE]

On 9/11 there are a few things I need to underscore.
1.) It came as no surprise to New Yorkers that #AlQaeda was responsible. I interviewed people as I made my way to Ground Zero that morning and EVERY one knew who was responsible.
[more] To see much more, including photos: lgarrett.squarespace.com/i-heard-the-si…
and laurigarrett.com
[MORE]

STOP whatever you're doing and watch this LIVE:
cbsnews.com/news/barack-ob…
@BarackObama stops his silence and is coming out slugging, max eloquence, "to restore some sanity to our politics." Obama: "We know that #climatechange isn't just coming -- it's here."
"We can't just put walls up all around America. Walls don't keep out threats like terrorism or disease."

Measles cases hit record high in the Europe

Over 41,000 children & adults in European region have been
infected w/#measles in the first 6 mos, 2018 -- far exceeds the 12-mo totals reported for every other year this decade. 37 dead.

euro.who.int/en/media-centr…> Meanwhile, in the UK:
Between July2017 & June2018 just under 1000 cases of #measles in Britain, vs 531 cases for the whole of 2016.
There have been 760 cases in the 1st 6 mos of 2018 in the UK, versus 187 in the last half of 2017.
mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/r…

>350 papers today have editorials like this:
“We’ve been complacent. We thought everybody knew how important a free press was to our world and that all this talk about us being the enemy of the people would be dismissed for the silliness that it is." MORE
bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/edito… & this:
“#Trump’s declarations undermine not just journalists & news orgs but the communities & democracy we endeavor to serve. It is an attempt to blur the difference betwn fact-based news gathering & the lies & propaganda that spread like wildfire." MORE
tampabay.com/opinion/editor…

Thanks to the @washingtonpost for this:
Just to make this clear, let’s remind ourselves of the top Trump administration officials who have left in disgrace, been credibly accused of corruption or incompetence, or both. Here’s a partial list:
[MORE] [cont2]
#MichaelFlynn, natl security adviser: On job <1 month b4 resigning; pleaded guilty to lying to #FBI re contacts w/#Russia.
#ReincePriebus, chief of staff: Resigned after 6 mos, comically ineffectual.
#SeanSpicer, press sec: Terrible liar, resigned after 6 mos.
[MORE]

The #Trump effect on US economy:
1.) S&P 500, from inauguration to April 2 the following year.
Under Obama: +46.3%
Under Trump: +13.7%
2.) Real average hourly earnings:
$4.03-an-hour rate in Jan1973 = $26.38 in purchasing power today
[MORE] [Cont4]

"So all the benefits went to corporations and their shareholders—the investor class. No wonder real wages dropped two cents last year in a boom economy. It's almost like the entire system is structured to ensure the resources created by the..."

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The @WhiteHouse just posted
TAKING ACTION TO PUT AMERICAN PATIENTS FIRST: President Donald J. Trump’s blueprint includes new actions and proposals to drive down drug prices for all Americans.
Every action point is code for pro-industry stances. [MORE]
whitehouse.gov/briefings-stat… [cont2] Example: "Work across the Administration to address intellectual property theft and foreign freeloading."
Means oppose WTO TRIPS accord that allows tiered pricing for poor countries. And scream at Europe for having single-payer hlth that negotiates cheap [MORE]

Mr. @POTUS #Trump the #MendocinoComplexFires now = LARGEST in #California history, yet you haven't shown a modicum of compassion or concern. Rather, you've made bizarrely blamed "bad environmental laws," failure to chop down trees & water dumping.
Let's look at reality:
[more] 1.) Western America is historically prone to drought cycles, but the last 20 yrs have broken all records. Groundwater is no longer replenished, and year-2-yr changes are visible from Space. (red = 100% loss of ground H20) [more]
water.ca.gov/LegacyFiles/wa…

Every late night comedian last nite had a field day w/ #RudyGiuliani & his bizarre comments on @CNN & @FoxNews . Today #Trump officially adopted Rudy's insanity, saying there was no collusion, but if there was, it's not a crime so shut up Fake News. [more]
politico.com/story/2018/07/… We NY'ers have seen this whack-a-mole Rudy before. In May 2000 Mayor Rudy held a press conference & announced he'd been seeing Judith Nathan, and was using this press event to tell his wife, Donna Hanover, that he was divorcing her & wanted she & the kids out of {MORE}

. @BarackObama gave an historic speech in #SouthAfrica. Highlights:
Globalization sired, "an explosion in economic inequality. It’s meant that a few dozen individs control the same amt of wealth as the poorest 1/2 of humanity. That’s not an exaggeratn; that’s a statistic."
[MORE] [2] #Obama
"In many middle-income & devel'ing countries, new wealth has just tracked the old bad deal that people got, bcuz it reinforced or even compounded existing patterns of inequality; the only diff is it created even greater opps for corruption on an epic scale."
[MORE]

From the great @JamesFallows re #HelsinkiSummit
"Those who could do something are the 51 #Republican senators and 236 Republican representatives who have the power to hold hearings, issue subpoenas, pass resolutions of censure, guarantee the integrity..."
[MORE] [CONT 2]
"...of Robert #MuellerInvestigation , condemn the past #Russian election interference, shore up protections against the next assault, & in general defend their country rather than the damaged & defective man who is now its president.
[MORE]

The American #HepatitisA epidemic is out of control. Cases reported in nearly every State, mostly in #Homeless and/or #opioid using populations. Examples [multiple tweets]:
West Virginia (since Mar2018)
404 cases
280 hospitalized
1 dead
outbreaknewstoday.com/west-virginia-…
[More] Utah (since Jan 2017)
271 cases
138 hospitalizations
Risk factors
Homelessness + drug use = 37%
Drug use = 27%
Homelessness = 8.5%
Epi-Linked =14%
Travel = 1.5%
Unknown =12.4%
Incarcerated =14.7%
[MORE]
health.utah.gov/epi/diseases/h…

The least noted #refugee crisis is the flow of more than 1 million people OUT of #Venezuela, many of whom have had no real medical care for years amid collapse of V's govt syst. Unvaccinated, they are spreading #measles where they go. Example: Colombia: rcnradio.com/salud/casos-de… [cont] At least 11 countries are affected by #measles due to the mass migration of more than 1 million #Venezuelans -- many of whom have never been properly vaccinated thanks to V govt catastrophe.
medicalxpress.com/news/2018-06-m…

Stop whatever you're doing and read the @WhiteHouse plan for complete reorganization of the entire federal government. I have tweeted some highlights, but honestly can't begin to capture the horror.
Overall, it privatizes a lot, cuts, & consolidates power.
whitehouse.gov/wp-content/upl… Under the Plan, the govt sells off the US Postal Service, FAA, eliminates more than a 1/3rd of the US Public Health Corps, restructures all foreign aid & development programs, and places every single domestic program for poor families & children under a single welfare authority.

It's impossible to overstate the impact on Americans' lives if this @Whitehouse masterplan for transformation of US govt goes into effect: whitehouse.gov/wp-content/upl…
1.) Food safety moves out of @FDA to @USDA so ag/food industry can self regulate. Call it Fedl Food Safety Agcy.
MORE [cont] 2.) Depts of Labor @USDeptLabor & of Education are eliminated. A new Dept. is created to regulate all labor, framing children's education as a teacher/labor issue.