(2020-12-25). 14 Female Migrants Sue US Immigration Services for Abuses. telesurenglish.net A class-action lawsuit was filed by 14 women against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), and Georgia's Irwin Immigration Detention Center (ICDC) for "non-consensual and invasive gynecological abuse". | RELATED: | A complaint was also submitted to Georgia's Medical Council in order to request the license revocation of gynecologist Mahendra Amin who is accused of performing surger…
(2020-12-25). Demonstrators Besiege California Prison Headquarters. popularresistance.org Sacramento, CA – Under the banner "From Balloons to Bullhorns," an angry group of protesters converged on the steps of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to demand mass releases of incarcerated people due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The vigil and rally organized by Sistas With Voices began with 104 seconds of silence to symbolize the 104 prisoners who have already died inside California state prisons from COVID-19. | According to the latest reports from the CDCR, there are 8,800 reported cases of COVID-19 among a prison population of 91,000. More than 3,000 guards and other prison staff [md…
(2020-12-25). Demonstrators besiege California prison HQ: 'Mass releases now!'. workers.org 
Sacramento, Calif. Dec. 17 — Under the banner "From Balloons to Bullhorns," an angry group of protesters converged on the steps of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to demand mass releases of incarcerated people due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The vigil and rally organized by Sistas With Voices . . . |
(2020-12-25). River of blood: Russia to investigate over ecology concerns after Karelian water turns red due to slaughter at local fish farm. rt.com 
Authorities in north western Russia have filed a lawsuit after a local river turned crimson. Blood from dead fish at a nearby trout farm had transformed the stream into a scene a politician likened to being out of an aliens film.
(2020-12-25). Mumia Gets a New Chance to Challenge His Murder Conviction. counterpunch.org 
State Supreme Court rejects Faulkner Widow's 'Evidence-Free' Effort to Block Mumia Appeal Mumia Abu-Jamal, the prison journalist long known as the "voice of the voiceless" for his compelling writings and short audio tapes about life behind bars, moved a step closer to getting a chance for a reconsideration of his earliest appeal of his conviction
(2020-12-25). Fatal Shore, the Sequel: the Fate of Australia's Refugees. counterpunch.org Dark irony There is a pitch-black irony about Australians imprisoning refugees on a foreign island. It makes you wonder what happened to the collective memories of the Fatal Shore. Yet island prisons, granted the Orwellian-bland name 'offshore processing' by successive Canberra governments, have been operating on and off for years. Of course, there are differences
(2020-12-25). Georgia's County Superior Court Rejects GOP Suit Seeking to Lock Ballot Boxes After Business Hours. sputniknews.com The lawsuit was supposed to ease GOP fears that local authorities would once again change the rules of voting just weeks before the election, which is to determine which party will control the Senate for the next two years.
(2020-12-24). The Covid-19 Numbers Game: The "Second Wave" is Based on Fake Statistics. globalresearch.ca "Red zones", travel bans, quarantines, "red lists". A "Second Wave". Millions of people are lining up for Covid-19 testing. The "Numbers Game". How statistics and "estimates" are used by politicians to justify the closure of the national economy and the derogation of fundamental civil rights.
(2020-12-24). Incarcerated People Should Get Priority Access to the COVID-19 Vaccine. It's the Smart and Human Thing to Do. aclu.org Governor Jared Polis of Colorado — otherwise a trailblazer when it comes to criminal legal reform — recently
(2020-12-24). Rights groups join Facebook in lawsuit against Israeli NSO Group. middleeasteye.net 
Rights groups join Facebook in lawsuit against Israeli NSO Group | In amicus brief filed in US Court of Appeals, rights groups say NSO prioritises profit over human rights | Thu, 12/24/2020 – 16: 21 | Israeli NSO Group is well known for selling hacking software to government clients (AFP/File photo) | A coalition of human rights groups has joined Facebook's legal fight against Israeli spyware vendor NSO, alleg…
(2020-12-24). Wearing a Cross But Violating Basic Christian Values. counterpunch.org Everything that comes out of the White House today — the lies, the false claims of election fraud, the absurd lawsuits — makes me retreat and recoil. But I feel a particular sense of dread whenever I am watching the TV news and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany steps up to the podium in the White
(2020-12-24). Civil Rights Groups Denounce Georgia Officials For Closing Early Voting Sites Ahead of Senate Runoffs. commondreams.org Voting rights groups on Wednesday accused officials in at least two Georgia counties of voter suppression, pointing to the closures of several early voting locations in majority-Black and Latino communities ahead of two key runoff Senate elections. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-1230129827_1.jpg …
(2020-12-24). Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Decision to Gut Tongass National Forest Protections. commondreams.org ______________________________…
(2020-12-24). Court orders release of those accused in Daniel Pearl killing. laprensalatina.com Islamabad, Dec 24 (efe-epa)- The Sindh High Court in Pakistan on Thursday declared null and void a warrant for the pre-trial detention of the main accused in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, and ordered his release. "The court ordered to release Khalid Sheikh and three other accomplices," the prosecutor general of the southeastern …
(2020-12-23). COVID and prisons / No walls, no borders in the workers' struggle. workers.org 
Texas "It's a nonviolent protest going on right now because the officers [in an unnamed Texas prison], in the middle of the coronavirus, have refused us electricity for several hours, no showers or anything." The voice is that of an incarcerated human being on video taken inside a Texas prison. . . . |
(2020-12-23). Best of 2020: I'm a public defender. My elderly client might die in prison from COVID-19. salon.com Our 2020 retrospective continues with this essay on why releasing some from prison won't fix a broken system…
(2020-12-23). Black Panther in struggle: The continued imprisonment of Russell Maroon Shoatz. workers.org 
Since 1972 — nearly half a century ago — Russell Maroon Shoatz has languished in a prison cell built on stolen land, poisoned and irradiated by the fossil fuel industry. A Black Panther Party member and soldier in the Black Liberation Army, Shoatz was falsely accused of killing a cop . . . |
(2020-12-23). Black Lives Matter and France's Global Security Law. workers.org 
It is sometimes hard to realize the worldwide impact of the Black Lives Matter movement. Language, culture and media indifference can all get in the way. Some countries just don't have the type of events — protests, marches, rallies — for a variety of reasons, where the influence of BLM . . . |
(2020-12-23). My wish for 2021? We all start fighting back, now. thecanary.co 
Boom. Bam. You know who it is. Yung Drilly, aka Drillminister — writing for The Canary. I'm running for London Mayor in 2021. And with the mess that our politicians have made in the past 12 months, we need radical change and quickly. So, here's my message as we head to towards the New Year.Black Lives Matter. But do they really?: This year has laid bare the open corruption and political violence in our society. It held a magnifying glass to the hate. And even though it's obvious for all to see — nothing has changed.The UK saw the reverberations of George Floyd's murder echo across the streets of…
(2020-12-23). Remembering William Winter: Mississippi governor championed public education and civil rights. splcenter.org  …
(2020-12-23). Arkansas Politicians' Relentless Push to End Abortion Access, and Humiliate and Shame Abortion Patients. aclu.org This week, the ACLU is back in court working to protect the constitutional right to abortion in Arkansas. In 2017, the state legislature passed four anti-abortion laws to severely restrict access to abortion. If allowed to take effect, these laws would ban the only method of abortion provided in Arkansas after approximately 14 weeks in pregnancy; require that patients' partners or others be notified of their abortion; force the health care center to report teenage patients' abortion to local police where there is no reason to suspect a crime; and force physicians to request a vast number of medical records for…
(2020-12-23). Turkey sentences former Kurdish parliamentarian to 22 years in prison. peoplesdispatch.org Leyla Gàºven — former Kurdish parliamentarian in Turkey has been sentenced to over 22 years in prison for alleged links with a "terrorist group" and disseminating "terrorist propaganda." Gàºven has been vocal about the plight of Kurdish people.
(2020-12-23). A Tale of Two Body Camera Videos. aclu.org Over the past month, two high-profile incidents reaffirmed why police body cameras cannot serve as a police transparency and accountability tool as long as state law empowers the police to determine what footage the public gets to see. As we have said
(2020-12-23). Colombian social organizations hail release of peasant leaders, condemn 'frame-up'. peoplesdispatch.org Following mobilizations calling for their release, the judge overseeing the case ruled that the three leaders – Teófilo Acuña, Adelso Gallo and Robert Daza – will not be held in preventative detention while they await trial…
(2020-12-23). Jacobin glorifies Dolores Ibárruri, Stalinist executioner of the Spanish Revolution. wsws.org The Stalinist suppression of the Barcelona working class and ensuing blood purge broke the back of the revolution and ensured the victory of Franco's fascist forces. Ramon Mercader, the GPU operative who murdered Leon Trotsky in Mexico in August of 1940, cut his teeth as a Stalinist killer during the mass repression in Spain. None of this is even mentioned in the Jacobin article.
(2020-12-23). Black Lives Matter. thenation.com Black Lives Matter…
(2020-12-23). The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project (GERD) and the Quest for African Unity. globalresearch.ca Since November 4, the focus of the international community in their observations of the internal conflict in Ethiopia has largely been centered on the central government's suppression of a rebellion against its authority in the northern region of Tigray. | Within …
(2020-12-23). NY Attorney General subpoenas pro-Trump troll Jacob Wohl for voter suppression scheme. salon.com Wohl and Jack Burkman have been criminally indicted in Ohio and Michigan in connection with the robocall scheme…
(2020-12-23). Outrage After Sacramento Police Illegally Detain and Terrorize 14-Year-Old African-American. indybay.org An African-American mother has expressed outrage at the ongoing practice of illegal detention by the Sacramento Police Department after the City's police officers detained and harassed her under aged son without provocation for the second time in fifteen months.