UK could have the highest death rate in Europe because government was 'too slow', doctor warns
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-17
Britain will face "further waves" of coronavirus and will probably have the highest death rate in Europe because the government was "too slow" to act, a leading physician has warned.Professor Anthony Costello, of University College London's Institute for Global Health, told a committee of MPs that the "harsh reality" is that "we were too slow with a number of things"."If we're going to suppress the chain of transmission of this virus in the next stage we all hope that the national lockdown and social distancing will bring about a large suppression of the epidemic so far
Ride on Santa Rita Jail
#FreeThemAll | indybay.org | 2020-04-17
Lake Merritt BART | 800 Oak Street…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/15/18832400.php
Australian police use COVID-19 emergency powers to ban refugee detention protest
wsws.org | 2020-04-16
The police action, which state Premier Daniel Andrews' Labor government must have authorised, constitutes a direct attack on the right to protest.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/16/prot-a16.html
Bachelet: Countries Must Allow Safe Return of Its Citizens
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-16
Latin American governments must allow the return of their countries' citizens despite the COVID-19, urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on Thursday. | RELATED: | Bolivia Indigenous Denounce Añez for Discrimination | Even though the borders of many nations in the world and Latin America are closing, to stop the advance of COVID-19, "everyone has the right to refresh their country of origin," Bachelet said. | Bachelet's statements c…
telesurenglish.net/news/bachelet-countries-must-allow-save-return-of-its-citizens-20200416-0008.html
Cuba Calls for International Cooperation to Combat COVID-19
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-16
The impact of COVID19 can already be measured and will be assessed in the future by the striking numbers of people infected, the unacceptable numbers of deaths, the unquestionable damages to the world economy, production, trade, employment and personal income of millions of people. | It is a crisis that goes well beyond the scope of health. The pandemic has emerged and spread amidst a scenario previously marked by overwhelming economic and social inequalities within and among nations. With unprecedented migratory and refugee flows, xenophobia and racial discrimination have reemerged. The remarkable advances of…
telesurenglish.net/news/Cuba-Calls-for-International-Cooperation-to-Combat-COVID-19-20200416-0011.html
Fox News Defends Its COVID Lies, Saying First Amendment Protects "False" Speech
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-16
Fox News has moved to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Washington state group accusing the network of "deceptive" coronavirus coverage by arguing that the First Amendment protects "false" and "outrageous" speech. | The network's lawyers said in a motion seeking to dismiss the lawsuit that the "First Amendment does not permit censoring this type of speech based on the theory that it is 'false' or 'outrageous.' Nor does the…
truthout.org/articles/fox-news-defends-its-covid-lies/
Fox News Defends Its COVID Lies, Saying First Amendment Protects "False" Speech
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-16
Fox News has moved to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Washington state group accusing the network of "deceptive" coronavirus coverage by arguing that the First Amendment protects "false" and "outrageous" speech. | The network's lawyers said in a motion seeking to dismiss the lawsuit that the "First Amendment does not permit censoring this type of speech based on the theory that it is 'false' or 'outrageous.' Nor does the…
truthout.org/articles/fox-news-defends-its-covid-lies/
'Lock your doors': Manhunt underway in Wisconsin for two violent escaped inmates who fled MAX-SECURITY prison
rt.com | 2020-04-16
A major manhunt is underway in Portage, Wisconsin after two inmates
Ride on Santa Rita Jail
#FreeThemAll | indybay.org | 2020-04-16
Lake Merritt BART | 800 Oak Street…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/15/18832400.php
Where I'm Incarcerated, People With COVID-19 Are Warehoused in a Gym
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-16
Joe, a Michigan prisoner housed at the Macomb Correctional Facility where I am also incarcerated, considered contacting prison nurses a month ago. He had a cough that lasted more than a week, a fever and shortness of breath. Joe (whom I'm describing using a pseudonym here) thought he might have contracted "that virus talked about nonstop on the TV." | However, Joe had plenty of previous encounters with prison health care, and few
Donetsk, Kiev complete 1st E. Ukraine prisoner swap this year
rt.com | 2020-04-16
The first prisoner exchange in 2020 between the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Ukraine has been completed, according to an envoy to the Contact Group's humanitarian subgroup and DPR Human Rights Commissioner Darya Morozova. "The exchange is over," she was quoted as saying on Thursday. | The prisoner swap took place in the area close to the Gorlovka-Mayorsk checkpoint on the contact line and no incidents were reported. Due to risks relating to coronavirus, law enforcement officers and prisoners wore protective masks and tried to maintain the necessary social distance. | During the swap, Donetsk handed over…
rt.com/newsline/485973-donetsk-ukraine-complete-swap/
CROWN Act movement seeks to protect Black people from racial discrimination based on hairstyles
splcenter.org | 2020-04-15
Jordan Winder did not apply to the high school of his choice because the dreadlocks he's been growing nearly half his life are not allowed there.
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/15/crown-act-movement-seeks-protect-black-people-racial-discrimination-based-hairstyles
2nd Appeal in COVID-19 Crisis: PCHR Calls for Immediate Release of Minors, Women, Patients and Elderlies among Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Jails
PCHR | imemc.org | 2020-04-15
At a time where the whole world is combating the coronavirus pandemic and States have adopted precautionary and preventive measures to defy the virus, Israeli authorities maintain the imprisonment of more than 5,000 Palestinians, including 180 children, 43 women and more than 700 patients in harsh and unsanitary conditions that …
imemc.org/article/2nd-appeal-in-covid-19-crisis-pchr-calls-for-immediate-release-of-minors-women-patients-and-elderlies-among-palestinian-prisoners-in-israeli-jails/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2nd-appeal-in-covid-19-crisis-pchr-calls-for-immediate-release-of-minors-women-patients-and-elderlies-among-palestinian-prisoners-in-israeli-jails
International Twitter/Media Storm & Phone Zap for Mumia!
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-04-15
Fight Back News Service urges all our readers to support this event | Mumia Abu-Jamal–father, husband and grandfather–is an internationally renowned US political prisoner, widely honored for his piercing indictments of the racial inequities and brutal imperialist powers of the US. Abu-Jamal was originally targeted for surveillance and "neutralization" when he was a 15 year-old spokesman for the Black Panther Party in Philadelphia, by the FBI. | By the age of 26, Mumia Abu-Jamal was an award-winning radio journalist with a wide following, known as the "voice of the voiceless" and outspoken in his defen…
www.fightbacknews.org/2020/4/15/international-twittermedia-storm-phone-zap-mumia
Week of action demands that all immigrants detained in Minnesota be released
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-04-14
Minneapolis, MN – In a press conference held by video on April 14, several immigrant rights organizations announced a week of action happening this week to demand that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and elected officials at the state and county level take action now to free all immigrants held in ICE detention in the state. | Immigration detainees are detained on civil charges and ICE has broad leeway to release people. In the current situation with the rapid spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus, the conditions in Minnesota jails are ripe for the infection and death to spread quickly. Speakers at the p…
www.fightbacknews.org/2020/4/14/week-action-demands-all-immigrants-detained-minnesota-be-released
Let's Stop the Scapegoating During a Global Pandemic
Cecillia Wang | aclu.org | 2020-04-14
Just like tens of millions of people sheltering in place in the U.S., I'm adjusting to the new realities and worries of day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. But on top of worrying about my elderly family members, U.S. hospitals' shortage of basic medical equipment, or where I can find toilet paper and eggs, I have another fear. Like other Americans of East Asian descent (including citizens and non-citizens), I worry that I might be attacked on the street or in a store because of my race., , There are so many news reports that spur my concerns. For example, on March 14, a man in Midland, Texas, attacke…
aclu.org/news/racial-justice/lets-stop-the-scapegoating-during-a-global-pandemic
Isolation, Before and During a Pandemic
aclu.org | 2020-04-14
As many Americans round out the end of their first month of social distancing, it's clear that the toll of "stay at home" orders during the COVID-19 pandemic is much more than economic. The anxiety and fear that wash over us each day that we spend alone, away from friends, coworkers, and family, inflict their own kind of emotional damage. , , The cost of social isolation is a worthy cost in this case
Palestine's Organic Intellectuals
Ramzy Baroud | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-04-14
"For my opinions," wrote Italian intellectual Antonio Gramsci, "I am willing to lose my life, not only to stay in prison. And this is why I am calm and at peace with myself." Gramsci spent 11 years in prison during the fascist reign over Italy, a brutal regime that crushed every form of political dissent …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/04/palestines-organic-intellectuals/
Israeli Troops Abduct Three Palestinians in Jenin and Al-Bireh
IMEMC & Agencies | imemc.org | 2020-04-14
Israeli troops reportedly abducted, on Tuesday, three Palestinians, including 2 minors, in both Al-Bireh and Jenin towns, in the West Bank. Palestinian Prisoners' Media Office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, announced that both Loui Alsho'la and Omar Abu Alrob from Al-Bireh town, in the central occupied West Bank, …
imemc.org/article/israeli-troops-abduct-three-palestinians-in-jenin-and-al-bireh/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=israeli-troops-abduct-three-palestinians-in-jenin-and-al-bireh
Survivor tells of friendship with British soldier after Bergen-Belsen liberation
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-04-14
A Holocaust survivor has paid tribute to the "remarkable" British soldier who came to liberate the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp 75 years ago.Mady Gerrard, 90, has a picture of Lieutenant John Randall
Iranian American Organizations Urge ICE to Immediately Release Dr. Sirous Asgari
The Iranian | iranian.com | 2020-04-13
Iranian American organizations PAAIA, NIAC, IABA have come together to campaign for the release of Dr. Sirous Asgari from Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Dr. Asgari is currently unjustly detained in a civil immigration detention center in Louisiana, which has put his health at serious risk amidst the likelihood of COVID-19 exposure. We, the undersigned …
iranian.com/2020/04/13/iranian-american-organizations-urge-ice-to-immediately-release-dr-sirous-asgari/
Federal Wardens Must Immediately Flatten the Curve in our Nation's Prisons
Kanya Bennett | aclu.org | 2020-04-13
With 10 deaths and more than 500 positive COVID-19 cases in the nation's federal prisons, wardens must " move with dispatch" to " move vulnerable inmates out of these institutions." These are the words that Attorney General William Barr used on April 3rd when he directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to reduce the federal prison population in the wake of COVID-19…
aclu.org/news/prisoners-rights/federal-wardens-must-immediately-flatten-the-curve-in-our-nations-prisons
Including An Elected legislator, Israeli Soldiers Abduct Seven Palestinians In West Bank
IMEMC News | imemc.org | 2020-04-13
Israeli soldiers abducted, on Monday at dawn, seven Palestinians, including an elected legislator and former political prisoner, from their homes in several parts of the occupied West Bank, including the occupied capital, Jerusalem. The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has reported that the soldiers invaded and ransacked the home of legislator …
imemc.org/article/including-an-elected-legislator-israeli-soldiers-abduct-seven-palestinians-in-west-bank/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=including-an-elected-legislator-israeli-soldiers-abduct-seven-palestinians-in-west-bank
Civil Liberties Never Sleep: The ACLU in the Pandemic
David Cole | aclu.org | 2020-04-10
The COVID-19 pandemic has closed down many businesses, but the work of preserving civil liberties and civil rights continues, as essential as ever. Reports of courts closing down can be misleading. While public trials that require jurors and in-person testimony have been suspended, most courts and lawyers can do their work remotely. The filing of legal briefs continues, and oral arguments and hearings are being held remotely. The work of securing justice continues., , At the ACLU, our most immediate focus has been on civil liberties and civil rights issues arising from the government's response (or lack thereo…
aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/civil-liberties-never-sleep-the-aclu-in-the-pandemic
ACLU Lawsuit Over Baltimore Spy Planes Sets Up Historic Surveillance Battle
Jay Stanley | aclu.org | 2020-04-09
Imagine a day in the future when everyone, from the moment they step outside their home, has to live with the knowledge that their every movement is being recorded by powerful cameras circling in the skies above. Not just where they work, shop, eat and drink, and whose homes they visit, but details about their political, religious, sexual, and medical lives
I'm Queer and I've Been in Solitary. Ellen Isn't Experiencing What I Did
Dominique Morgan | aclu.org | 2020-04-09
On Monday, I ended a 12-hour day returning emails to incarcerated queer folks, providing direct aid for housing to folks living with HIV & AIDS who have been incarcerated and challenging the state of Nebraska to provide humane conditions for incarcerated individuals and decided to mindlessly scroll on Twitter. , , I found the quote from the show Ellen DeGeneres filmed from her multimillion-dollar, multi-room mansion: "One thing that I've learned from being in quarantine is that people
"They Don't Care if You Die": Immigrants in ICE Detention Fear the Spread of COVID-19
Ashoka Mukpo | aclu.org | 2020-04-08
Mario Rodas, Sr. first found out there was a deadly virus spreading through the country while he was watching television at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts. In early March, Rodas had been pulled over and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while driving to the supermarket with his wife, a legal resident and the mother of his three U.S. citizen children. Since then, he'd been in the custody of ICE, mostly at Plymouth. | The more Rodas heard about the disease, the more fearful the 59-year-old became. | "I was scared for my health," he told the ACLU. "I was worr…
aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/they-dont-care-if-you-die-immigrants-in-ice-detention-fear-the-spread-of-covid-19
Nativist Hate Groups Want to Keep People in ICE Detention Despite COVID-19 Threat
splcenter.org | 2020-04-08
Anti-immigrant think tanks are pushing for the U.S. to detain immigrants and asylum seekers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, even as prisoners stage hunger strikes and other protests in response to what they describe as deteriorating health conditions in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/04/09/nativist-hate-groups-want-keep-people-ice-detention-despite-covid-19-threat
If COVID-19 Doesn't Discriminate, Then Why Are Black People Dying at Higher Rates?
ReNika Moore | aclu.org | 2020-04-08
COVID-19 is ravaging many parts of the United States, but nowhere more than in Black communities. Early data from the Midwest and the South reveal that Black people are contracting and dying from the virus at far higher rates than whites. Louisiana just released data which shows that African Americans account for 70 percent of all deaths in the state. In Milwaukee…
aclu.org/news/racial-justice/if-covid-19-doesnt-discriminate-then-why-are-black-people-dying-at-higher-rates
"A Systematic Issue of Disparity": Black People in Louisiana Account for 70% of COVID-19 Deaths
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-08
Louisiana faces one of the worst outbreaks of the coronavirus in the United States. New data shows black people account for 70% of all the state's coronavirus deaths, though they comprise just 32% of the state's population. Louisiana also has the highest incarceration rate in the country, and more than 65% of the people in its jails and prisons are black. At least 28 people are infected, and 22 corrections staff have tested positive. State corrections officials are sending infected prisoners to the Louisiana State Penitentiary
Albert Woodfox: COVID-19 Offers Public a "Small Window" into What Prisoners Face in Solitary Confinement
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-08
As millions shelter in place around the world, we speak with Albert Woodfox, who served the longest time in solitary confinement of any prisoner in the United States. Known as one of the Angola Three, along with Robert King and Herman Wallace, Woodfox was held in isolation for nearly 44 years at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola. He was convicted of killing a guard in jail, but always maintained his innocence. He says he was targeted for co-founding the first Black Panther chapter in Angola. He was released in 2016 and is now 73 years old. His memoir is "Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solit…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/8/albert_woodfox_solitary_confinement
Police are Enforcing Public Health Orders, but that Doesn't Make them Public Health Experts
Carl Takei | aclu.org | 2020-04-07
, In a desperate effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, state and local officials are following the advice of public health experts to impose severe restrictions on American life, such as social distancing and shelter-at-home orders. Unfortunately, the institutions that have the most resources available to carry out this task are not public health, medical, or housing authorities. They are our law enforcement and criminal legal systems, which typically operate by criminalization and punishment. , , There's a bitter irony to this: The tactics that law enforcement officials frequently use to protect people [mda…
aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/police-are-enforcing-public-health-orders-but-that-doesnt-make-them-public-health-experts
Louisiana's Suspension of Due Process Could Be a COVID-19 Catastrophe in Jails and Prisons
Alanah Odoms Hebert | aclu.org | 2020-04-07
, Louisiana has emerged as a COVID-19 hotspot, with among the highest contraction and growth rates in the nation. The state also has the highest prison and pretrial incarceration rates in the world. Those two facts might not seem related, but they are already interacting in a tragic way: Conditions in jails and prisons make them highly vulnerable to COVID-19, allowing the virus to spread like wildfire. The potential impact could…
aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/louisianas-suspension-of-due-process-could-be-a-covid-19-catastrophe-in-jails-and-prisons
Fighting for immigrant rights during a pandemic
Katrina Huber | splcenter.org | 2020-04-02
As people across the country are confined to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, little attention has been given to a group of people whose health is in danger because they are locked away from the outside world
Alabama prisons hold more than 1,100 older people at greater COVID-19 risk
Kathryn Casteel and Will Tucker | splcenter.org | 2020-04-02
More than 1,100 people age 65 or older are locked away in Alabama prisons, putting a group already highly susceptible to the deadly COVID-19 virus at an even greater risk, according to an SPLC analysis of the state's prison system.
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/02/alabama-prisons-hold-more-1100-older-people-greater-covid-19-risk
Evaluation of Association Between Gastric Acid Suppression and Risk of Intestinal Colonization With MDROs
Willems RJ, van Dijk K, Ket JF, et al. | jamanetwork.com | 2020-04-01
This systematic review and meta-analysis examines the association of use of gastric acid suppressants with the risk of colonization with multidrug-resistant microorganisms (MDROs).
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2761273
The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery played key role in launching SPLC's legal battle against Ku Klux Klan
splcenter.org | 2020-03-30
The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, who died on Friday at 98 years old, was a longtime friend of the Southern Poverty Law Center and played a leading role in the SPLC's first lawsuit against the Ku Klux Klan in 1980.
splcenter.org/news/2020/03/30/rev-dr-joseph-e-lowery-played-key-role-launching-splcs-legal-battle-against-ku-klux-klan
Weekend Read: SPLC demands ICE act amid pandemic to save the lives of countless immigrants trapped in its crowded detention centers
splcenter.org | 2020-03-27
splcenter.org/news/2020/03/30/weekend-read-splc-demands-ice-act-amid-pandemic-save-lives-countless-immigrants-trapped-its