Elon Musk found himself bombarded with internet rage, after promising to pump out ventilators to treat Covid-19 patients – but only if hospitals needed them. People found this to be a rather ignorant thing to say. The digital fracas began after Musk signaled that he could use Tesla and SpaceX’s production capabilities to make medical equipment to aid those suffering from the global pandemic. The offer, however, came with a condition: Are there hospitals that currently lack enough ventilators to treat the respiratory illness? Tesla makes cars with sophisticated hvac systems. SpaceX makes space ..read more

Australia has become one of the latest countries to close its border to non-residents in an attempt to stem the coronavirus outbreak. A similar move was also announced by their neighbors in New Zealand. Australian PM, Scott Morrison, announced the entry ban on Thursday. Those, who were able to enter the country before the borders closed, were ordered to self-isolate for 14 days. As of Wednesday, there 450 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Australia, with the number jumping by around 100 over the last week. Also on rt.comAustralia’s home affairs minister tests positive for coronavirus New Zealand a ..read more

Opening a long-pending multi-modal transportation corridor via Iran will be a big boost for bilateral trade between Russia and India, but it’s not just the economy at stake. This is a bold move against the threat of US sanctions. India’s state-owned Container Corporation of India (Concor) and Russian Railways Logistics Joint Stock Company (RZD) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to transport cargo between India and Russia – based on a single invoice – via the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a 7,200-km multi-modal transportation network project cutting right across ..read more

Mainland China has had no new local coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours – the first time since the outbreak began in December. Beijing is still struggling to contain imported cases of the disease. Notably, the purported epicenter of the epidemic – Wuhan, in Hubei province – recorded no new locally-transmitted infections. The same was true across China, according to reports, citing the Chinese government. Health authorities reported 34 new cases on Thursday, but said that all involved people who had come to China from abroad. Twenty-one of the imported infections were in Beijing, mark ..read more

The Federal Reserve has introduced yet another emergency measure, injecting liquidity into markets, after interventions by European, Australian, South Korean and Japanese authorities failed to halt the global economic meltdown. The Fed announced the new Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (MMLF) late on Wednesday night, creating a program similar to a one rolled out during the 2008 financial meltdown. Managed through the Fed’s branch in Boston, the facility will help banks keep up with investors pulling their funds out of money markets. @FederalReserve broadens program of support for ..read more

Baltimore’s mayor has called on the city’s inhabitants to refrain from killing one another for the time being, asking them not to “clog up” hospital beds as the coronavirus pandemic spreads far and wide across the country. “I want to reiterate how completely unacceptable the level of violence is that we have seen recently,” Mayor Jack Young said at a press conference on Wednesday, adding “For those of you who want to continue to shoot and kill people of this city, we’re not going to tolerate it. We’re going to come after you and we’re going to get you.” We cannot clog up our hospitals, or thei ..read more

The Philippines’ major stock index, the PSE Composite, has seen a huge rout, falling by 24 percent soon after trading opened. The slide comes after markets were shuttered for two days as Covid-19 takes a toll on the world economy. The index took a beating almost immediately after trading began on Thursday morning, dropping by 12 percent and triggering a “circuit breaker” – in which all exchanges are halted for 15 minutes in hopes of preventing a wave of ‘panic-selling’.  But the decline continued apace when trading resumed, falling another 12 percent before 10am local time – before bouncing ba ..read more

Apparently chomping at the bit for a major conflict with a nuclear-armed rival, America’s top arms dealer Lockheed Martin has released a promotional clip imagining a simulated first strike on Russian positions and weapons systems. Boasting the superiority of US military tech – much of which appears only in concept and computer-generated graphics – the brief video was unveiled this week by Lockheed’s Advanced Development Program, also known as Skunk Works. The troublesome F-35 fighter jet seems to be the only system featured in the video to actually exist at present, however, the rest being pro ..read more

As the US teeters on the edge of abyss amid a Covid-19 pandemic, the crisis has revealed systemic flaws brought by years of two-party plutocracy that go far beyond a single president, says Lee Camp, host of RT's Redacted Tonight. While President Donald Trump bears a good portion of the blame for the sluggish US response to Covid-19, he is only one piece of a larger puzzle. America’s structural defects long predate Trump’s time in office, the comedian argued. “The fact that so many millions of Americans don’t have paid sick leave, or hardly make minimum wage and therefore can’t afford an emerge ..read more