Assange's 12-minute hearing presents a grim picture of judicial indifference
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-01-15
Assange's legal team has complained of not being given enough time, by both the court and prison authorities, to discuss the evidence in the case with the defendant. A hearing on January 13 was wound up in under 12 minutes…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/01/15/assanges-12-minute-hearing-presents-a-grim-picture-of-judicial-indifference/

An interview with historian Clayborne Carson on the New York Times' 1619 Project
wsws.org | 2020-01-15
Professor Carson is professor of history at Stanford University and director of its Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. He is the author and editor of numerous books on King and the civil rights movement.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/01/15/clay-j15.html

Uncle Sam the hit man
Nellie Bailey | mronline.org | 2020-01-15
Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation's best known political prisoner, says the U.S. is living up to its reputation as an international assassin with its hit on an Iranian general on Iraqi soil. "America is more hated today than ever," said Abu Jamal, co-author of the multi-volume book, "Murder, Incorporated." | Source…
mronline.org/2020/01/15/uncle-sam-the-hit-man/

We Must Remedy Discrimination in Our Media System
Jessica J. Gonz√°lez | commondreams.org | 2020-01-15
These bills could expand our understanding of sexism and racism in the media, and chip away at some of the barriers that have frozen out women and people of color from owning news outlets and shaping coverage. (Photo: Screenshot / Fox News) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/hannity_0.jpeg …
commondreams.org/views/2020/01/15/we-must-remedy-discrimination-our-media-system?cd-origin=rss

Former Ruling BJP Legislator Challenges Lifetime Jail Sentence for 2017 Rape of Minor
sputniknews.com | 2020-01-15
New Delhi (Sputnik): A former legislator of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from northern Uttar Pradesh Kuldeep Sengar was jailed for life for raping and attempting to murder an underage girl in 2017. He is also charged with killing the lawyer and aunt of the victim in an orchestrated truck accident.
sputniknews.com/india/202001151078044874-former-ruling-bjp-legislator-challenges-lifetime-jail-sentence-for-2017-rape-of-minor/

Cambodian opposition leader stands trial for 'treason'
yenisafak.com | 2020-01-15
Cambodia's main opposition leader has been put on trial for the first time on Wednesday, according to a local newspaper.The head of Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), Kem Sokha, was arrested on Sept. 3, 2017 and charged with treason.A speech given by Sokha in Australia in 2013, saying he had received advice from American pro-democracy groups, is now being used against him as evidence of allegations of collaborating with the U.S. to topple the Cambodian government, The Cambodia Daily reported Wednesday.Sokha was jailed for more than one year and was released on bail in September 2018, but was subsequently plac…
yenisafak.com/en/world/cambodian-opposition-leader-stands-trial-for-treason-3509729

Almost 1,000 Migrants Returned to Libya This Year Already: IOM
telesurenglish.net | 2020-01-14
More than 950 refugees and migrants, among them 136 women and 85 children were intercepted in the Mediterranean in the first two weeks of 2020 and returned to inhumane detention centers in war-ravaged Lybia, one of the least safe countries for them, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). | RELATED: | African Migrants in Egypt Face Increasingly Violent Racism | "
telesurenglish.net/news/Almost-1000-Migrants-Returned-to-Libya-This-Year-Already-IOM-20200114-0015.html

The US Is Waging a Stealth War at the Mexico Border
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-01-14
In recent decades, U.S. immigration policies have aggressively targeted families fleeing violence and poverty in Mexico and Central and South America, spawning a network of detention centers that now exist indefinitely along our southern border. The U.S.'s approach to tackling undocumented immigration has come under fire for its use of brutal tactics such as deliberately separating families, placing them in confinement under harsh conditions, and denying them adequate medical and legal counsel. | On today's program, Joh…
truthout.org/audio/the-us-is-waging-a-stealth-war-at-the-mexico-border/

The Trump Administration Weakens Standards for ICE Detention Facilities
Eunice Cho | aclu.org | 2020-01-14
Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officially released a new version of its National Detention Standards (NDS), which govern the treatment of immigrant detainees held in almost 140 facilities in 44 states. These facilities include local and state jails and prisons

Minutes After His Release, Soldiers Abduct A Palestinian Who Spent 18 Years In Prison
IMEMC News | imemc.org | 2020-01-14
The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers abducted, Tuesday, a Palestinian man just minutes after his release from prison, after he was held captive for 18 years. The PPS said the Palestinian political prisoner, Ismael Affana, from occupied East Jerusalem, was released from the Negev Detention Camp, …
imemc.org/article/minutes-after-his-release-soldiers-abduct-a-palestinian-who-spent-18-years-in-prison/

Israel Extends Detention of Two Palestinian Prisoners, Days Before Release
IMEMC & Agencies | imemc.org | 2020-01-14
The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) said the Israeli government renewed the administrative detention of Shorouq al-Badan, 25, for six more months, on Monday, only two days before her scheduled release, the Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported. Badan, from Bethlehem, was arrested July 2019, and was supposed to be …
imemc.org/article/israel-extends-detention-of-two-palestinian-prisoners-days-before-release/

Detainee Zahran Suspends Hunger Strike
IMEMC News | imemc.org | 2020-01-14
The Palestinian Commission of Detainees' and Ex-Detainees Affairs has reported that detainee Ahmad Zahran, 42, has suspended the hunger strike, which lasted for 113 days, after reaching an agreement with the Israeli Prison Authority regarding his continued Administrative Detention without charges or trial. Lawyer Jawad Bulus, the head of the …
imemc.org/article/detainee-zahran-suspends-hunger-strike/

Soldiers Abduct Nineteen Palestinians In The West Bank
IMEMC News | imemc.org | 2020-01-14
Israeli soldiers abducted, on Tuesday at dawn, nineteen Palestinians, including siblings, from several parts of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported. The PPS office in Jenin, in northern West Bank, said the soldiers invaded and ransacked many homes in several parts of the governorate, and …
imemc.org/article/soldiers-abduct-nineteen-palestinians-in-the-west-bank/

Iowa CCI, FWW Submit Brief to Supreme Court in Clean Water Lawsuit
commondreams.org | 2020-01-14
______________________________…
commondreams.org/newswire/2020/01/14/iowa-cci-fww-submit-brief-supreme-court-clean-water-lawsuit?cd-origin=rss

Trump Embraces Anti-LGBTQ Pastor Who Pushed "Conversion Therapy"
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-01-14
Evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress came under fire from civil rights groups last month after delivering a speech at the White House Hanukkah celebration because he had previously said that all Jews are destined for an afterlife in hell. Jeffress's opinions about LGBTQ people are similarly distressing

Review: "To The Promised Land," King's fight for economic justice
Tony Pecinovsky | peoplesworld.org | 2020-01-13
As we near the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday we would do well to reassess the role that economic justice played in the 1960s civil rights movements, especially for African Americans. Dr. King said in 1967, "It is the black man who to a large extent produced the wealth of this nation…the black man …
peoplesworld.org/article/review-to-the-promised-land-kings-fight-for-economic-justice/

Coercive Plea Bargaining Has Poisoned the Criminal Justice System. It's Time to Suck the Venom Out
Somil Trivedi | aclu.org | 2020-01-13
In 2006, George Alvarez was charged with assaulting a prison guard while awaiting trial on public intoxication. He knew he didn't do it

Report: Palestinian Child Prisoners Face Further Repression and Transfer
IMEMC News & Agencies | imemc.org | 2020-01-13
Palestinian child seized in Jerusalem. Older photo, illustrative. | Israeli occupation officials announced that child prisoners would be transferred away from the Ofer prison and separated into cells without the adult prisoner representatives who support them before the prison administration on Saturday, 11 January.
imemc.org/article/report-palestinian-child-prisoners-face-further-repression-and-transfer/

Act now: Prison activist-writer placed in solitary
Joe Piette | workers.org | 2020-01-13
Workers World writer and prisoner at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution at Albion, Jerome Coffey, was removed from his cell and placed in solitary confinement on Jan. 6. Jerome Coffey Coffey has been told he's in the hole while prison officials conduct a phony investigation for a disturbance last week . . . | Continue reading Act now: Prison activist-writer placed in solitary at Workers.org…
workers.org/2020/01/45452/

Israel Breaches Law, Transfers 34 Palestinian Minors From Prisons
telesurenglish.net | 2020-01-13
Israeli Prison Service (IPS) transferred Monday 34 Palestinian children from Ofer prison in Ramallah to Damoun in Haifa without any stated reason and without the presence of adults to represent them. | RELATED: | Embracing Palestine: How to Combat Israel's Misuse of "Antisemitism" | The transfer, common for adults but unusual for child detainees, was slammed by Palestinian activists and rights organizations as illegal and dangerous. | "This move puts the minors at risk o…
telesurenglish.net/news/Israel-Breaches-Law-Transfers-34-Palestinian-Minors-From-Prisons-20200113-0021.html

Mississippi prisoner deaths demand mass action
Dianne Mathiowetz | workers.org | 2020-01-12
Atlanta Jan. 13

Iraq air base housing U.S. personnel struck by rockets
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-01-12
Washington, DC – According to widespread press reports in the Middle East, the Balad Air Base, which houses U.S. personal was struck today, January 12, by multiple rockets. | The events come in the context of the Iraqi parliament passing a resolution telling the United States to remove its forces from the country, and the country's Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi requesting the U.S. to start talks on withdrawing military forces. The Trump administration says it will not leave Iraq. | In the past, the Balad Air Base housed a U.S. facility for holding and torturing Iraqi prisoners. | In related developments, Iraq's…
www.fightbacknews.org/2020/1/12/iraq-air-base-housing-us-personnel-struck-rockets

The Critical Role Auditing Plays in the Battle Against Police Surveillance
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-01-10
Auditors across the country are turning the tables on police surveillance. The Police Accountability Report spoke to an auditor who was arrested to understand how filming cops ultimately preserves our civil rights.
therealnews.com/stories/auditing-battle-against-police-surveillance

Pregnant Workers Are Still Fighting for the Right to Work
Vania Leveille | aclu.org | 2020-01-10
In 2015, | Michelle Durham, an ACLU client, was faced with an impossible choice: | continue working and risk the health of her pregnancy or give up her paycheck. | She was working | as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for Rural/Metro Corporation, a company | in Alabama that provides emergency medical care to people living in areas that | lack basic medical services. Shortly after joining Rural/Metro Corporation in | Alabama, Michelle learned she was pregnant with her first child and was advised | by her health professional not to lift more than 50 pounds. She was confident | the company would grant her a…
aclu.org/news/womens-rights/pregnant-workers-are-still-fighting-for-the-right-to-work

Weekend Read: SPLC sues Trump administration over family separation policy
splcenter.org | 2020-01-10
The SPLC and its allies have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration policy that has separated and traumatized thousands of migrant families.
splcenter.org/news/2020/01/11/weekend-read-splc-sues-trump-administration-over-family-separation-policy

"Clemency:" Exposing the Machinery of Death
Stephen Rohde | aclu.org | 2020-01-09
People on death | row are the direct object of a deeply flawed system of state killing that is infected | by racial and economic disparities and riddled with fatal errors. We currently | know of at least 166 | innocent people who were wrongfully condemned to die. | "Clemency," a new film starring Alfre Woodard as a prison | warden, explores the brutalizing effect the death penalty has on everyone else | in the system

International Criminal Court Prepares to Try Israelis over War Crimes
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-01-09
Shawan Jabarin of the Al-Haq human rights organization discusses the International Criminal Court decision to prepare a lawsuit against the state of Israel regarding war crimes committed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities are already panicking.
therealnews.com/stories/international-criminal-court-prepares-israel-war-crimes

It Is Time for a New Way Forward
Madhuri Grewal | aclu.org | 2020-01-07
In 1996, at the height of the "tough on crime" era, President Bill Clinton signed two laws that dramatically changed the criminal legal system and radically altered the U.S. immigration system. Just as the 1994 crime bill instituted unjust mandatory minimum sentences and ballooned the prison population, the immigration bills of that same era led to similarly disastrous consequences for immigrants

'This Is a Moment to Be Really Vigilant Against All Forms of Oppression' – CounterSpin interview with Audrey Sasson on antisemitism
Janine Jackson | fair.org | 2020-01-07
Janine Jackson interviewed Jews for Racial and Economic Justice's Audrey Sasson about antisemitism for the January 3, 2020, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. | Media…
fair.org/home/this-is-a-moment-to-be-really-vigilant-against-all-forms-of-oppression/

Venezuelan Government and Opposition Fraction Announce Release of 14 'Political Prisoners'
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2020-01-06
The National Roundtable for Peaceful Dialogue also offered its backing to the new National Assembly president, Luis Parra.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14757

Former Head of Identity Evropa Taken Into Custody for Contempt of Court
splcenter.org | 2020-01-06
Elliott Kline, the onetime leader of Identity Evropa, is in federal custody after being found in contempt of court for failing to cooperate in a civil lawsuit stemming from the violent "Unite the Right" rally.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/01/06/former-head-identity-evropa-taken-custody-contempt-court

Boston anti-prison organizers oppose $50 million project
Liberation Staff | liberationnews.org | 2020-01-03
Liberation News reports from the final 2019 meeting of the Panel on Justice-Involved Women in Boston.
liberationnews.org/boston-abolitionists-oppose-50-million-prison-project/

Prison gave me a greater will to fight
Luiz ignacio lula Da silva | zcomm.org | 2019-12-28
Interview on the reality that Brazil is experiencing and the social protests that have occurred in several Latin American countries…
zcomm.org/zvideo/prison-gave-me-a-greater-will-to-fight/

Across the Country Harsh Sentencing Laws are Tearing Apart Families and Communities
Nicole Zayas Fortier | aclu.org | 2019-12-24
During the holiday season, in the picturesque town of Petoskey, Michigan, Kimiko Uyeda, and her son Marshall celebrate with an annual tradition of selecting a new ornament to add to their tree. Year after year, Kimiko and Marshall add to their collection of ornaments as a part of their tradition. | For years, however, they were separated from one another and unable to enjoy this holiday tradition together. It all began in 2013 when Kimiko was arrested for filing what the local sheriff believed to be a false police report. Because of broken sentencing laws, the prosecutor in the case was able to add four additi…
aclu.org/news/smart-justice/across-the-country-harsh-sentencing-laws-are-tearing-apart-families-and-communities

He spent 36 years in prison because he stole $100 in cash and $4 in food stamps. Now Willie Parker is free
Will Tucker | splcenter.org | 2019-12-16
It was pouring rain the day Willie Parker left William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility after 36 years in prison.
splcenter.org/news/2019/12/17/he-spent-36-years-prison-because-he-stole-100-cash-and-4-food-stamps-now-willie-parker-free