2020-08-31: News Headlines

Lee Siu Hin, Immigrant Solidarity Network (2020-08-31). Fall 2020 National Immigrant Solidarity Network Immigrant News Alert! indybay.org ICE Is Leaving Immigrants To Die In Detention, Trump Used Looted Venezuelan Public Money To Build Border Wall With Mexico…

Brian Mahoney (2020-08-31). NBA Playoffs resume after major strike for Black lives. peoplesworld.org LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The Milwaukee Bucks came to the arena and prepared for a game, just as they did three days earlier. This time, they played it. The rescheduled Game 5 of the Bucks' series against Orlando began Saturday as the NBA postseason resumed after a historic stoppage that players hope will bring change …

Binoy Kampmark (2020-08-31). Waiting for the Old Bailey: Julian Assange and Britain's Judicial Establishment. counterpunch.org On September 7, Julian Assange will be facing another round of gruelling extradition proceedings, in the Old Bailey, part of a process that has become a form of gradual state-sanctioned torture. The US Department of Justice hungers for their man. The UK prison authorities are doing little to protect his health. The end result, should

CounterPunch News Service (2020-08-31). Biggest Timber Sale in Memory Cancelled in Bitterroot National Forest. counterpunch.org The Bitterroot National Forest today formally withdrew its decision authorizing the Gold Butterfly Project. Friends of the Bitterroot and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed a lawsuit on July 10th against the Bitterroot National Forest seeking to stop the Gold Butterfly timber sale which was called "the largest project in memory" by the Ravalli

_____ (2020-08-31). The Democrat Gambit to Destroy Trump Has Failed. Their Only Hope Now Is to Destroy America. strategic-culture.org Since 2016, the Democratic Party has been preoccupied with the single-minded goal of ousting Donald Trump, a political outsider who promised to drain the fetid swamp. But now that the Democrat's efforts have failed, the left seems perfectly content embracing a scorched-earth policy rather than face the prospect of defeat, or jail time, in 2020. | "In politics, nothing happens by accident," observed Franklin D. Roosevelt, the four-term Democratic president who certainly knew a thing or two about political predetermination. "If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." | FDR's quote perfectly sums up the la…

Jessica Corbett (2020-08-31). Lawsuit against Trump Administration over 'Reckless and Unprecedented' Gutting of Bedrock US Environmental Law. globalresearch.ca A coalition of 27 U.S. states, commonwealths, territories, counties, and cities filed a federal lawsuit on Friday challenging the Trump administration's "unlawful, unjustified, and sweeping revisions" to a 50-year-old law that the president claimed would "streamline" infrastructure projects by limiting …

sputniknews (2020-08-31). Video Shows Moment Before Deadly Portland Shooting Amid Rival BLM, Pro-Trump Protests. sputniknews.com A man was shot dead in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Saturday night as violence erupted between supporters of President Donald Trump and Black Lives Matter protesters. The city has become a flashpoint for demonstrations against police brutality and racism since the death of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May.

Binoy Kampmark (2020-08-31). The Sentencing of Brenton Tarrant: Jailing the Man, not the Great Replacement. dissidentvoice.org Brenton Tarrant was sentenced last week. The Australian national who butchered, with relish, 51 individuals in Christchurch at Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre, found himself facing something unique in New Zealand: jail for life without parole. He pleaded guilty to 51 charges of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one of …

Hana Kiros (2020-08-31). A Tale of Two Teens: When White Killers Are Treated Better Than Black Victims. commondreams.org A protester holds a Black Lives Matter sign during a demonstration against the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 26, 2020. (Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/saytheirnames.jpg

_____ (2020-08-30). Teen Who Organized BLM Rally Billed $2500 For Police Overtime. popularresistance.org A teen who organized a Black Lives Matter rally in her northern New Jersey town said she has been sent a $2500 bill from officials for police overtime. | NJ Advance Media reported Friday Emily Gil, 18, of Englewood Cliffs received a letter earlier this month from Mayor Mario M. Kranjac looking for payment of $2,499.26 "for the police overtime caused by your protest." | A civil liberties advocate called the move "shocking." | Gil, a recent high school graduate, had organized a protest on July 25 in the town, just across the river from the uppermost parts of Manhattan. She said she called for action like increasing…

yenisafak (2020-08-30). Missing persons in Syria near 100,000: Watchdog. yenisafak.com In a report released on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said a vast majority of these people were picked up by the Syrian regime forces, followed by the ISIS/Daesh.A total of 84,371 were forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime forces, including 1,738 children and 4,982 women, it said.An additional 8,648 individuals, including 319 children and 225 women, were disappeared by ISIS [Daesh], the report added.Stating that disappearances were on the rise since 2011, the report said 991 people according to the Syrian regime died in detention. T…

_____ (2020-08-29). Assange 'In A Lot Of Pain' Says Partner After Prison Visit. popularresistance.org Julian Assange's partner has visited him in prison for the first time in almost six months, and said he looked much thinner than last time she saw him. | Stella Moris took the couple's two young children to meet their father, who is being held in Belmarsh Prison in south-east London, awaiting an extradition hearing on behalf of the United States government. | Ms Moris and the WikiLeaks founder had to wear face masks and visors for the 20-minute meeting and were not allowed to touch each other. "We had to keep social distancing and Julian was told he would have to self-isolate for two weeks if he touched the child…

RT (2020-08-29). Ticked off over TikTok stunt: Russian teen faces jail after lighting cigarette in church with candle, Bishop asks for mercy. rt.com Russia's Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against an 18-year-old after he lit a cigarette using a church candle. The youth posted a video of the incident on TikTok, and could now face a possible prison sentence. | In July 2020, the youngster, along with another teenager, entered a cathedral in Chita, a city in Russia's Far East. In the video, the boy behind the camera can be heard saying: "This will be the crime of the year," before the other lights a cigarette with a candle in the middle of the church. | The teenager is accused of insulting the feelings of believers, and faces a fine of up t…

WSWS (2020-08-29). US government executes only Native American prisoner on federal death row. wsws.org Under the pro-death penalty, law and order administration of President Trump, the federal government has executed more inmates this year than in all previous 56 years combined.

Peoples Dispatch (2020-08-29). 500,000 Kashmiri have lost their jobs because of digital apartheid, says JKCCS report. peoplesdispatch.org A report by the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society remarks that the multi-faceted and targeted denial of digital rights is a "systemic form of discrimination, digital repression and collective punishment" for the Kashmiri population…

_____ (2020-08-29). People Are Protesting The Desecration Of A Historic Black Cemetery. popularresistance.org This summer, on an industrial and commercial section of River Road near the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda, you can regularly find area musician Brian Farrow in the roadway playing "Potter's Hornpipe," a song written by Black composer Francis Johnson in 1816 in honor of a destroyed African American cemetery. Nearby, protestors hold signs that say "Black Ancestors Matter" and "Black Lives Matter from Cradle to Grave," while Marsha Coleman-Adebayo of the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition and Macedonia Baptist Church leads chants of "Save Moses Cemetery!"

_____ (2020-08-29). Kings Bay Plowshares Sentencing Delayed. popularresistance.org The six remaining Kings Bay Plowshares defendants have had their sentencing dates moved from September to October 15 and 16. They had requested a continuance because they want to appear in open court in Georgia and the virus situation there is still too out of control to safely allow it. | Steve Kelly has now served almost 29 months in county jails since the action in April 2018 so has already met the guidelines for his likely sentence. The court may not want to grant him further extensions. (You can send a postcard to Steve to let him know you're thinking of him. Directions on writing here.) | The other defendan…

sputniknews (2020-08-29). Wisconsin Dems Became 'Less Approving' of BLM Protests Before Kenosha Riots, Poll Shows. sputniknews.com By throwing their support behind the cause of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and anti-racism protests, Democrats may have picked the wrong social trend trend to chase after, recent poll data suggests.

Staff (2020-08-29). Watered-Down "Anti-Racism Training" in Schools Is Perpetuating Racism. truthout.org High school students have been in the streets all summer, and they're not backing down. Black Lives Matter protests have gone on for weeks. They've popped up in hundreds of small towns. More and more kids don't need to be taught that policing is racist, nor that police anchor a historic system of racial domination. They see it Now students are demanding deeper teaching o…

Staff (2020-08-29). Trump Admin Faces Lawsuit for "Insidious" Attack on Major Environmental Law. truthout.org A coalition of 27 U.S. states, commonwealths, territories, counties, and cities filed a federal lawsuit on Friday challenging the Trump administration's "unlawful, unjustified, and sweeping revisions" to a 50-year-old law that the president claimed would "streamline" infrastructure projects by limiting environmental reviews. | After

Sue Sturgis (2020-08-29). Saving the U.S. Postal Service is a Civil Rights Issue. commondreams.org Dozens of mail boxes sit in the parking lot of a post office on Lafayette Avenue in the Bronx borough of New York City on August 17, 2020 . Mayor Bill De Blasio has called for an investigation after receiving reports of mailboxes being removed throughout the city. (Photo: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/gettyimages-1228082630_1.jpg

yenisafak (2020-08-29). Palestinians appeal for return of martyrs' bodies. yenisafak.com It has been almost 50 years since Palestinian Ali Abu Maliha went missing.His brother, Mahmoud Amr, accused the Israeli occupation of being behind his brother's disappearance during an interview with Anadolu Agency.Amr, a resident of Dura, south of the West Bank, said he was in prison when his brother left home for a "struggle mission" against Israeli occupation in the early 1970s. It was the last time he and his family heard any news about Abu Maliha."The occupation is responsible for the disappearance of my brother," Amr said, adding that his family has communicated with the International Committee of the Red C…

WSWS (2020-08-28). Julian Assange receives first visitors in six months: "He is in a lot of pain" wsws.org The visit has underscored the brutal conditions in which Assange is imprisoned and has sparked renewed fears that his health is continuing to deteriorate.

Deirdre Griswold (2020-08-28). Bannon's arrest exposes fraud at the top. workers.org Stephen K. Bannon may be in big trouble. Or maybe not. Pals of the very rich rarely pay for their crimes. It is generally the poor who are held in jail — which can be a death sentence in this COVID-19 pandemic. Advertising for money for the "privately-funded" We Build . . . |

W. T. Whitney (2020-08-28). Under Capitalism Black Lives Are Adrift and Vulnerable. counterpunch.org It's true. Too often, in too many circumstances, for too long, the lives of Black people in the United States don't matter. Black people fill prisons; their children fill terrible schools; many are poverty-stricken. But at issue here are the killings and people being left to die. Post-Civil War arrangements by which the victorious North

The Canary (2020-08-28). March on Washington commemorations expected to be attended by thousands. thecanary.co Civil rights advocates in the US will highlight police and vigilante violence against Black people at a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.Thousands are expected at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic I Have A Dream address about racial equality.They are gathering after another shooting by a white police officer of a Black man — this time 29-year-old Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on 23 August — sparking days of protests and violence that left two dead."We've got to create a different consciousness and a different clim…

Kristen Lee (2020-08-28). 100 Years and Counting: The Fight for Women's Suffrage Continues. aclu.org One hundred years ago this month, the

Daniel Brown (2020-08-28). Kenosha: An American City Confronts White Supremacy and State Violence. progressive.org Following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, and the murder of two Black Lives Matter activists by a white teenage vigilante, protesters are still taking to the streets.

WSWS (2020-08-28). New Zealand: Christchurch terrorist jailed for life. wsws.org There are many unanswered questions about how fascist gunman Brenton Tarrant was able to carry out his attack without being stopped by the police or intelligence agencies.

Peoples Dispatch (2020-08-28). Communists allege discrimination in official commemoration of Slovak resistance. peoplesdispatch.org Slovak National Uprising Museum authorities have denied permission to the KSS, saying the 76th anniversary of the uprising will be held as an apolitical event. This is despite ruling party representatives being invited…

Michael Payne (2020-08-28). Trump and DeJoy's main objective: To incapacitate the US Postal Service. nationofchange.org What we need now is to see a plethora of other states joining in these lawsuits that are charging Trump and DeJoy with deliberate voter suppression.

_____ (2020-08-28). Racialized Austerity: The Case Of CUNY. popularresistance.org In the aftermath of the covid outbreak and in a moment of Black Lives Matter national organizing in response to police brutality the issue of racial justice has lit up cities and towns across the country. Racist policing practices have had a huge impact on public opinion, with polling data showing that even more white suburban voters favor policy reforms. The shift has been public, sudden, and potentially electorally-decisive during this political season. | What remains less visible are racialized and racist choices to deepen state disinvestment in institutions critical to the health and welfare of Black and brow…

Brett Wilkins, staff writer (2020-08-28). 'Never Give Up': Ronnie Long, Wrongfully Convicted by All-White Jury, Freed After 44 Years in Prison. commondreams.org Sentenced to life behind bars for a rape he did not commit, Long's attorneys learned in 2015 that investigators withheld exculpatory evidence proving his innocence. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/long.jpg

Julia Conley, staff writer (2020-08-28). 'Get Your Knee Off Our Necks': On 57th Anniversary of Historic Civil Rights Rally, Tens of Thousands March on Washington. commondreams.org Fifty thousand people are expected to attend the "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" March in Washington, D.C. on Friday as racial justice advocates gather to mark the 57th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech at the 1963 March on Washington and commit to fighting for meaningful criminal justice reform. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-1228239145_1.jpg

commondreams (2020-08-28). Amnesty International USA Joins March on Washington's Call for Police Reform and Justice for Black Lives. commondreams.org ______________________________…

Kenny Stancil, staff writer (2020-08-28). 600+ Groups Representing Over Half of Jewish People in US Sign Full-Page Ad in NYT to 'Say Unequivocally: Black Lives Matter'. commondreams.org "By supporting this movement, we can build a country that fulfills the promise of freedom, unity, and safety for all of us, no exceptions." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/blm_ad.jpg

Ramzy Baroud (2020-08-27). Netanyahu vs Gantz: Gaza Escalation as Reflection of Israel's Political Rivalry. dissidentvoice.org Only recently, the Palestinian group, Hamas, and Israel seemed close to reaching a prisoner exchange agreement, where Hamas would release several Israeli soldiers held in Gaza while Israel would set free an unspecified number of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons. Instead of the much-anticipated announcement of some kind of a deal, on August 10, …

Sarah Jaffe (2020-08-27). Don't Call It a Boycott: NBA Players Are Inspiring a Strike Wave. progressive.org The Milwaukee Bucks refusal to play, and the wave of pro-athlete strikes they've inspired, has forced the message of Black Lives Matter into our living rooms.

_____ (2020-08-27). Is Movement Journalism Needed During Reckoning Over Race And Inequality? popularresistance.org Last summer I found myself at the M.W. Stringer Grand Lodge in Jackson, Mississippi. Considered "the epicenter of the civil rights movement," the well-worn building was once the training site for the Freedom Riders and home to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It seemed a fitting place to launch Freedomways, a journalism fellowship prioritizing women of color and LGBTQ+ people rooted in the American South and committed to doing reporting that advances justice.