Application for delay in Assange extradition hearing as COVID-19 sweeps through UK prisons
wsws.org | 2020-04-27
The vindictive suspension of the COVID-19 prisoner release programme demonstrates the criminal disregard of the British ruling class for the lives of prisoners.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/27/assa-a27.html

ACLU study predicts an additional 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in US prisons
wsws.org | 2020-04-27
America's 2.3 million inmates and 420,000 guards and staff are at high risk of infection, threatening tens of thousands of lives.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/27/prsn-a27.html

Incarceration Is Killing Us
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-27
Kelly Hayes talks with Alan Mills about COVID-19, prisons and making bold demands. | Note: This a rush transcript and has been lightly edited for clarity. Copy may not be in its final form. | Kelly Hayes: Welcome to Movement Memos, a Truthout podcast about things you should know if you want to change the world. I'm your host Kelly Hayes. | Tensions are high in the U.S. as lockdowns continue in some states, while others have begun to ease restrictions. Gun-toting right-wing protesters have staged astroturf protests, demanding the economy be reo…
truthout.org/audio/incarceration-is-killing-us/

Conservation Groups File Lawsuit to Stop Construction of Natural Gas Pipeline Through Inventoried Roadless Areas in SE Idaho
Mike Garrity | counterpunch.org | 2020-04-27
It's no great secret that the remaining tracts of roadless public lands are threatened every day by logging, grazing, mining, oil and gas drilling and the road-building to support those extractive industries. The effects are likewise no mystery. The wildlife that requires the security of roadless habitat, such as grizzlies, lynx, sage grouse, and wolverines, are being…
counterpunch.org/2020/04/27/conservation-groups-file-lawsuit-to-stop-construction-of-natural-gas-pipeline-through-inventoried-roadless-areas-in-se-idaho/

Colombia Delays Venezuelans From Returning to Their Country
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-27
The Colombian authorities have delayed nearly 12,000 Venezuelans from returning to their country, leaving them stranded on their side of the border. | RELATED: | Venezuela Announces International Lawsuit Against US | Venezuelans stranded at the Colombian border decided to return home due to the health crisis caused by the COVID-19. | According to teleSUR correspondent in Colombia Hernan Tobar, about 180 people are waiting since Thursday in Barrio Visión Colombia, west of Bogotá, for t…
telesurenglish.net/news/colombia-prevents-venezuelans-from-returning-to-their-country-20200427-0001.html

How Israel Legitimizes the Abuse of Palestinian Political Prisoners
Miko Peled | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-27
Each year Palestinian Prisoners Day comes and goes while the prisoners remain in their cells and their conditions worsen. The destructive effects that Israel's imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians has on society cannot be overstated. Israel justifies its treatment of these prisoners with false claims that the Palestinian men, women, and children who languish in its jails are terrorists. These false claims must be rejected in their entirety. Palestinian prisoners are political prisoners, they are prisoners of conscience and must be viewed and treated as such by the international community. | Israeli claims th…
mintpressnews.com/how-israel-legitimizes-abuse-palestinian-political-prisoners/267014/

Local-Level Fossil Fuel Fights Face Violent Retaliation From Industry
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-27
Fighting fossil fuel companies can be dangerous business. The people of County Mayo, Ireland, found that out when they rose up against Shell Oil in the early 2000s. The uprising lasted 15 years. Protesters were beaten and jailed. But they delayed the refinery's opening by 10 years, cost Shell billions of dollars and caused the company a public relations nightmare, as a new book by Fred Wilcox, Shamrocks and Oil Slicks, recou…
truthout.org/articles/local-level-fossil-fuel-fights-face-violent-retaliation-from-industry/

Local-Level Fossil Fuel Fights Face Violent Retaliation From Industry
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-27
Fighting fossil fuel companies can be dangerous business. The people of County Mayo, Ireland, found that out when they rose up against Shell Oil in the early 2000s. The uprising lasted 15 years. Protesters were beaten and jailed. But they delayed the refinery's opening by 10 years, cost Shell billions of dollars and caused the company a public relations nightmare, as a new book by Fred Wilcox, Shamrocks and Oil Slicks, recou…
truthout.org/articles/local-level-fossil-fuel-fights-face-violent-retaliation-from-industry/

Suffering in Kashmir and Palestine
Robert Fantina | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-26
While the world is pre-occupied with coronavirus and its impact on lives and the international economy, one must not forget that suffering due to oppression knows no season and has no vaccine, but is not without a cure. Sadly, for …
globalresearch.ca/suffering-kashmir-palestine/5710799

Facebook Says Israeli Spyware Company Ran Vast Hacking Operation in the United States
Andrey Areshev | strategic-culture.org | 2020-04-26
Lawsuit reveals extent of Israeli spyware company's U.S. operation | Michael ARRIA | In 2019, nearly 1,400 WhatsApp users were hacked with a number human rights advocates and journalists targeted. The attack was allegedly the work the NSO Group, an Israeli spyware company. | Last October, Facebook (which owns WhatsApp) sued NSO over the breach, claiming that the company was unable to break Facebook's encryption, but infected the phones of many users. NSO denied the claims. "The sole purpose of…
strategic-culture.org/news/2020/04/26/facebook-says-israeli-spyware-company-ran-vast-hacking-operation-in-us/

Hilarious Kim Jong Un Jokes, And Other Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Caitlin Johnstone | thealtworld.com | 2020-04-26
Ha ha ha let's all laugh about rumors that Kim Jong Un might be dead because he runs a crazy backwards regime where the media are a propaganda arm of the state and the public is oppressed and surveilled and people are imprisoned for exposing the truth about the government. | ~ | "I sure hope those North Koreans get to have democracy someday like we have here. Lemme log off this search engine algorithmically stacked toward billionaire CIA-tied media and ponder whether I want Donald Trump or Joe Biden to continue the wars and oligarchic exploitation." | ~ | The US needs to constantly bully the world, drop bombs, pa…
thealtworld.com/caitlin_johnston/hilarious-kim-jong-un-jokes-and-other-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix

Brazil's Attorney General Demands Inquiry Against Bolsonaro
telesurenglish.net | 2020-04-25
Brazil's Attorney General Augusto Aras requested Saturday for the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to open an investigation against the nation's president, Jair Bolsonaro, following accusations presented by former Super-Minister of Justice Sergio Moro. | RELATED: | Brazil Justice Minister Quits in Bolsonaro's Worst Crisis Yet | Moro, the former judge who took former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to jail, accused Bolsonaro on Friday of political interference in the Federal Police…
telesurenglish.net/news/Fiscal-General-of-Brazil-Demands-Investigation-Against-Bolsonaro-20200425-0011.html

Joe Biden: no lesser, just evil
Eds. | mronline.org | 2020-04-25
The only thing Joe Biden and Donald Trump should be battling over is the top bunk of a prison cell. Instead, these two crooks are vying for the presidency of the United States. If Biden is this year's lesser evil, he is sorely testing the meaning of "lesser". No Democratic politician has worked longer and …
mronline.org/2020/04/25/joe-biden-no-lesser-just-evil/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=joe-biden-no-lesser-just-evil

They Were Willing to Make the Ultimate Sacrifice for the U.S., but Trump Won't Let Them Become Americans
Scarlet Kim | aclu.org | 2020-04-24
Ange Samma, a 22-year-old green card holder from Burkina Faso, came to the United States seven years ago, when he was still a teenager. After studying electrical engineering at community college, he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army in 2018. He wanted to give back to his adopted country and also hoped joining the military would help him achieve his goal of becoming an electrical engineer. , , Ange currently serves on active duty as a soldier in South Korea. But despite serving this country on a U.S. military base in a foreign country, he still hasn't been able to obtain citizenship through his military servic…
aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/they-were-willing-to-make-the-ultimate-sacrifice-for-the-u-s-but-trump-wont-let-them-become-americans

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Responds to CDC's Preliminary Release of COVID-19 Race Data
commondreams.org | 2020-04-24
______________________________…
commondreams.org/newswire/2020/04/24/lawyers-committee-civil-rights-under-law-responds-cdcs-preliminary-release-covid?cd-origin=rss

We're Going to Court on April 27 to Strike Down This Poll Tax for Good
Daniel Tilley | aclu.org | 2020-04-24
On April 27, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Florida, and our litigation partners will go to trial in U.S. District Court against the state of Florida to win the ability to vote for hundreds of thousands of eligible state voters now being denied that basic right. | In November 2018, more than 64 percent of Florida voters approved Amendment 4, returning the right to vote to Floridians convicted of felonies who completed their sentence and supervision. The only persons excluded are those convicted of homicide or sexual crimes. | Immediately, the Florida Legislature set out to undermine voters'…
aclu.org/news/voting-rights/were-going-to-court-on-april-27-to-strike-down-this-poll-tax-for-good

After a Lifetime Apart, COVID-19 Prison Release Reunites Mother and Daughter
Leila Rafei | aclu.org | 2020-04-23
"You're on the list.", , It took a few seconds for Chalana McFarland to grasp what was happening. Her name was one of just a few on the list of people who would be released from prison early due to COVID-19. Behind her stood a line of dozens of other women waiting to see if they made it. Only some of them had. But as Chalana received the news, they started cheering, and caused such an uproar that the correctional staff had to reprimand them. That's when it finally clicked for Chalana

New Model Shows Reducing Jail Population will Lower COVID-19 Death Toll for All of Us
Udi Ofer | aclu.org | 2020-04-22
The Trump administration optimistically projects that "substantially under" 100,000 people will die from COVID-19 in the United States. Horrific as that statistic is, a new model suggests it could be a huge underestimate. The government models fail to consider the impact of the virus on the incarcerated population, who will be infected and die at higher rates. And any prison or jail outbreak is bound to spill over into the broader community

First person to die in Alabama's prisons with COVID-19 spent more than four decades behind bars
splcenter.org | 2020-04-22
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/22/first-person-die-alabamas-prisons-covid-19-spent-more-four-decades-behind-bars

Death Trap Jail: Pepper-Sprayed, Otay Mesa Detainees Demand Release as COVID-19 Spreads Inside
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-21
We look at the mounting number of COVID-19 cases inside immigration jails across the country and one of the largest outbreaks at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near San Diego, run by private prison company CoreCivic. Prisoners were told to sign contracts, written only in English, in exchange for receiving face masks. When some refused to sign, guards pepper-sprayed them. This comes as activists say hundreds imprisoned in detention centers in California are on hunger strike. We get an update from Ruth Mendez, community activist and volunteer with Otay Mesa Detention Resistance.
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/21/otay_mesa_immigrant_detention_center_coronavirus

Death Trap Jail: Pepper-Sprayed, Otay Mesa Detainees Demand Release as COVID-19 Spreads Inside
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-21
We look at the mounting number of COVID-19 cases inside immigration jails across the country and one of the largest outbreaks at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near San Diego, run by private prison company CoreCivic. Prisoners were told to sign contracts, written only in English, in exchange for receiving face masks. When some refused to sign, guards pepper-sprayed them. This comes as activists say hundreds imprisoned in detention centers in California are on hunger strike. We get an update from Ruth Mendez, community activist and volunteer with Otay Mesa Detention Resistance.
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/21/otay_mesa_immigrant_detention_center_coronavirus

Defying Medical Experts, Lawmakers are Weaponizing COVID-19 to Restrict Abortion Access
Ashoka Mukpo | aclu.org | 2020-04-21
In the latest development in a fast-moving court case, on Monday the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to block nearly all abortion services in the state. The ruling came after a legal challenge to Abbott's inclusion of abortion care in a March 22 executive order instructing health care facilities across the state to "postpone all surgeries and procedures that are not immediately medically necessary.", , For Abbott and his allies, the COVID-19 pandemic is proving to be exactly…
aclu.org/news/reproductive-freedom/defying-medical-experts-lawmakers-are-weaponizing-covid-19-to-restrict-abortion-access

What it's Like in ICE Detention During a Pandemic
aclu.org | 2020-04-17
As millions of people in the U.S. shelter in their homes, and millions more who aren't able to stay indoors practice social distancing or other measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, a crisis is brewing in the facilities where immigrants are detained. Cramped conditions and inadequate access to hygiene or medical care have created what one medical expert called a "tinderbox" for the disease in a letter to Congress., , Many of those in detention are asylum seekers, who came to the U.S. to ask for protection after fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries. Many others were long-time U.S. resi…
aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/what-its-like-in-ice-detention-during-a-pandemic

A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform
aclu.org | 2020-04-17

| For decades, marijuana laws have been used to criminalize Black and Brown peo…
aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/a-tale-of-two-countries-racially-targeted-arrests-in-the-era-of-marijuana-reform

SPLC lawsuit challenging Mississippi's failure to provide a uniform public school system moves forward
splcenter.org | 2020-04-17
When Precious Hughes looked down the long, dark halls of Raines Elementary School in Jackson, Mississippi, she saw lights flickering, water spots staining the ceilings and paint chipping off the walls.
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/24/splc-lawsuit-challenging-mississippis-failure-provide-uniform-public-school-system-moves

Apple and Google Announced a Coronavirus Tracking System. How Worried Should We Be?
Jennifer Stisa Granick | aclu.org | 2020-04-16
Apple and Google last week announced a joint contact tracing effort that would use Bluetooth technology to help alert people who have been in close proximity to someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Similar proposals have been put forward by an MIT-associated effort called PACT as well as by multiple European groups., , These proposals differ from…
aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/apple-and-google-announced-a-coronavirus-tracking-system-how-worried-should-we-be

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

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

COVID-19: UN expert urges US to free detained migrants
yenisafak.com | 2020-04-27
The US must urgently use available alternatives for the detention of migrants held in overcrowded and unsanitary administrative centers in order to counter the risk of a novel coronavirus outbreak, a UN human rights expert said Monday."It is very difficult to keep the necessary physical distance in overcrowded detention facilities," said the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Felipe Gonzalez Morales."Significantly reducing the number of detained migrants by releasing them into alternative settings can easily solve this," he said in a statement.Gonzalez Morales said that UN human rights expert…
yenisafak.com/en/news/covid-19-un-expert-urges-us-to-free-detained-migrants-3518019

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

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