2020-01-18: News Headlines

RT (2020-01-18). Pakistan's Supreme Court rejects Musharraf appeal to have treason conviction tossed, says he must surrender first. rt.com The Pakistani Supreme Court has shot down a bid by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to overturn a guilty verdict in his long-running treason case, arguing that he must turn himself in to authorities before making any appeal. | The self-exiled former president, who has stayed in India for medical treatment since 2016, was denied an appeal in Pakistan's highest court on Friday. A document purported to be the court's rejection notice circulated online, stating that Musharraf had "not yet surrendered himself" in compliance with previous judgements, and therefore his request was "not entertainable." | ÿ&…

Mark Gruenberg (2020-01-18). AFL-CIO to the nation: Make King's dream America's reality. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—Faced with the renewed and rising right-wing onslaught against women, workers, immigrants and people of color, unionists at the AFL-CIO's annual Martin Luther King Civil and Human Rights Conference spent their two days in D.C. focusing on reclaiming voting rights, battling voter suppression and educating and empowering workers to ensure they can vote this year …

RT (2020-01-18). Simpson's actor Hank Azaria quits Apu role amid continued 'racism' controversy over hit show's Indian character. rt.com One of the actors on the hit show The Simpsons, Hank Azaria, has said he will no longer be voicing the character of Apu, following years of tedious controversy and accusations of racism. | The veteran actor has voiced the Indian shopkeeper since 1990, but Azaria has now revealed that his time portraying the Kwik-E-Mart owner has come to an end. | The 55-year-old, who also plays Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum and various other characters in the long-running show, told Slashfilm: "All we know there is I won't be doing the voice anymore…

RT (2020-01-18). Simpsons actor Hank Azaria quits Apu role amid continued 'racism' controversy over hit show's Indian character. rt.com One of the actors on the hit show The Simpsons, Hank Azaria, has said he will no longer be voicing the character of Apu, following years of tedious controversy and accusations of racism. | The veteran actor has voiced the Indian shopkeeper since 1990, but Azaria has now revealed that his time portraying the Kwik-E-Mart owner has come to an end. | The 55-year-old, who also plays Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum and various other characters in the long-running show, told Slashfilm: "All we know there is I won't be doing the voice anymore…

Tom Anderson (2020-01-18). A British woman explains why she intended to cut the Gaza fence. thecanary.co This week Julia Lister, a British Palestine solidarity activist, was arrested with a group who were on their way to the Israeli fence separating the Palestinians of Gaza from Israel. | Gaza is surrounded by a fence on three sides. Israeli snipers shoot at any Palestinian who dares to go near it. Israeli drones and F-16s patrol the skies and military…

Sid Shniad (2020-01-18). Canada must not suppress free speech on Israel. zcomm.org We are opposed to all forms of racism. We advocate for justice and peace for both Israelis and Palestinians…

Staff (2020-01-18). Biden Prioritizes Israel While Overlooking Daily Anti-Semitism in US. truthout.org When, on January 2, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden responded to a questionnaire from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) about anti-Semitism, Zionism, and his relationship to Jews and Jewish culture in the U.S., there was a noticeable absence in his response: practically any mention of American Jews. | The interview, entitled "Joe Biden: My plan to fight anti-Semitism," included three concrete s…

Peadar O'Cearnaigh (2020-01-18). A hate crime worker rejects James Cleverly's ridiculous comments on racism in Britain. thecanary.co On 15 January, Conservative Party chair James Cleverly told ITV's Robert Peston that Britain isn't becoming more racist and it's an "infinitely, infinitely more open and tolerant country" than when he was growing up. Cleverly insisted that back then there was "casual racism" on the TV and in society. | "Racism is on the rise": | But Labour MP Nadia Whittome, who was a hate crime worker in Nottingham, hit back a…

Labor Video Project (2020-01-18). SF Treasure Island Conservation Corps Nightmare, Cover-up & Environmental Racism. indybay.org Workers at the California Conservation Corps Treasure Island training center talk about their contamination from radiation. Other residents of Treasure Island and Hunters Point connect their…

sputniknews (2020-01-18). Klansmen, Killers, Christians and Kooks. sputniknews.com DOJ investigating James Comey leaks; America's "remain in Mexico policy"; FBI arrests 3 white supremacists ahead of Virginia gun rally.

Ramzy Baroud (2020-01-17). Sealed Off and Forgotten: What You Should Know about Israel's 'Firing Zones' in the West Bank. counterpunch.org A seemingly ordinary news story, published in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on January 7, shed light on a long-forgotten, yet crucial, subject: Israel's so-called "firing zones" in the West Bank. "Israel has impounded the only vehicle available to a medical team that provides assistance to 1,500 Palestinians living inside an Israeli military firing zone in More

Vijay Prashad (2020-01-17). Not an Inch: Indian Students Stand Against the Far Right. counterpunch.org With her head bandaged and her arm in a sling, university student Aishe Ghosh went before the cameras to say that the students of the university she attends in New Delhi would move "not an inch back." The students would continue to agitate to defend Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and its union, and to fight More

Staff (2020-01-17). "They Must Conduct a Full and Fair Trial": Senators Sworn In for Historic Trump Impeachment Trial. democracynow.org For just the third time in history, the U.S. Senate has opened a trial to determine if a sitting president should be removed from office. The Senate trial comes a month after the House impeached President Trump for pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside over the impeachment trial in the Senate, later swore in senators who will serve as jurors when the trial officially begins on Tuesday. This comes as more information is coming to light about the actions of President Trump and his associates. On Thursday, the nonpartisan Governmen…

RT (2020-01-17). 'Be very careful with your words': Trump warns Iran's Khamenei after ayatollah delivers fiery sermon slamming 'American clowns'. rt.com US President Donald Trump has warned the supreme leader of Iran to watch his language, following a heated sermon in which Ayatollah Ali Khamenei slammed American leaders as "clowns." | Leading a prayer in Tehran on Friday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei boasted that Iran had the "spirit to slap an arrogant, aggressive global power" in its retaliation to the assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, which he said struck a "serious blow" to Washington's "dignity" — triggering a response from the US president. | "The so-called 'Supreme Leader' of Iran, who has not been so Supreme lately, had some nasty…

Staff (2020-01-17). Turkey Cuts Deal with Russia, Intensifying the War for Gas in Libya. therealnews.com Turkey sent Syrian fighters to Libya to back the government and keep its control of offshore natural gas reserves. Egypt, Russia, ExxonMobil, Israel, and Greece are expanding Libya's civil war in a fight over control of the natural gas that Europe needs.

Robert Scheer (2020-01-17). Noam Chomsky Makes the Case for the Lesser of Two Evils. truthdig.com In the second part of his interview with Robert Scheer, the renowned thinker shares his criticisms of Israel and his views on electoralism.

Jessicah Pierre (2020-01-17). MLK's final campaign lives on: The war against racism and poverty. peoplesworld.org As we celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., it's natural to remember his courageous advocacy for racial equity. But before he was assassinated, King had also begun to broaden his efforts to unify the movement around economic justice. That's worth remembering today. In December 1967, King, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and other …

Staff (2020-01-17). 3 Arrested for Plans to Incite Violence at 'Gun Rights' Rally in Richmond. therealnews.com Three suspected neo-Nazis were arrested, accused of planning to incite violence at the upcoming gun rights rally in Richmond, VA. The state's capitol is in a state of emergency after finding a pattern of communications sounding like the leadup to the 2017 Charlottesville rally that killed Heather Heyer.

IMEMC News (2020-01-17). Israel profited 54,000 Shekels from imprisoned children in December 2019. imemc.org The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs has stated that the Israeli occupation state has made 54,000 Shekel profit off the Palestinian children who were imprisoned in Ofer jail last December, Quds News Network reported. The Committee said in a report issued on Sunday that 38 Palestinian children were sent …

Peoples Dispatch (2020-01-17). Protest forces Israel to relocate adult overseers with Palestinian minor prisoners. peoplesdispatch.org 33 minor prisoners who had been transferred from the Ofer military camp and prison to solitary confinement in the Damon prison will be reunited with their adult caretakers…

IMEMC & Agencies (2020-01-17). Israeli Forces Bulldoze Tents and Barracks, Displaces Palestinian Family Near Bethlehem. imemc.org Israeli occupation forces bulldozed the barracks and tents of Palestinian civilian Muhammad Zreineh, in the Bir Ouna area of the town of Beit Jala, Bethlehem governorate, displacing his family and their livestock, for the fifth time. In an interview with PNN, Zreineh said that a large number of Israeli occupation …

Peoples Dispatch (2020-01-17). Israeli court bans media from Pegasus spyware case trials. peoplesdispatch.org In an apparent move to save the NSO group — owner of the Pegasus spyware — from public criticism, an Israeli court cited national security concerns and ordered a closed-door hearing in the case against the company. The case was filed by Amnesty International and they are demanding a ban on the export of Pegasus along with restrictions on the NSO group. The judge also imposed a ban on the media, preventing it from reporting on the proceedings of the case. | The Pegasus spyware has been used in recent years by various countries to target journalists and dissidents, including in India. The NSO group had ea…

teleSUR (2020-01-17). Abby Martin Banned From Speaking at US University. telesurenglish.net Former teleSUR presenter and creator of The Empire Files Abby Martin was blocked from delivering a keynote speech at Georgia Southern University for refusing to "sign a contractual pledge to not boycott Israel" to comply with the anti-Boycott, Divest and Sanctions state law. | RELATED: | YouTube Censors Empire Files' Abby Martin on Israeli Militarism | "After I was scheduled to give a keynote speech at an upcoming Georgia Southern conference, organizers said I must comply with…

IMEMC & Agencies (2020-01-17). Israel Demolishes School Foundation Near Hebron, Closes Two Schools in Jerusalem. imemc.org Israeli forces, Thursday, demolished the foundations of a new school that was in the process of being built, east of Yatta town, south of the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron, according to Rateb Jabour, member of the National and Popular Committee Resisting the Wall and Settlements. Jabour added …

Middle East Eye (2020-01-17). Israel Bombs Gaza Strip in Response to Incendiary Balloons. theantimedia.com (MEE) — The Israeli military said an attack helicopter struck a Hamas target in the northern Gaza Strip late Thursday in response to the launch of incendiary balloons into Israeli territory earlier in the day, the Associated Press reported. 2 milions in Gaza Can not sleep because Israel attacks on Gaza 9: 21 PM pic.twitter.com/JPbOkFBClU — Heba Khaled (@heba_khaled1998) …

Ryan Cristián (2020-01-17). Israel Bombs Gaza And Syria Killing 3 & Iran Says US Sabotage/Cyberattack Likely Behind 737 Downing. thelastamericanvagabond.com Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (1/16/19). As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth …

IMEMC & Agencies (2020-01-17). Israeli Forces Deliver Demolition Order, Raze Two Roads Near Bethleem. imemc.org Israeli bulldozers, on Thursday morning, razed two roads in the village of al-Walaja, located to the west of the southern occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem. WAFA correspondent stated that Israeli forces stormed Ein Jowaize area in the village and cordoned it off, before bulldozers razed the two roads. Soldiers …

splcenter (2020-01-17). Weekend Read: Dr. King's words inspire us to act. splcenter.org Nearly 52 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "The Other America" speech in a high school gym in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

Brigitte Amiri (2020-01-17). The Supreme Court Takes Up the Issue of Birth Control Coverage — Again. aclu.org The Supreme Court just announced that it will hear | yet another case about the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) birth control coverage | requirement. If you are experiencing déjà vu, you are not alone. Court battles | over the birth control coverage requirement have been raging for almost a | decade. How did we get here? | 2012: | The Birth Control Benefit is Established | Congress passed the Women's Health Amendment to the | ACA to try to close the disparity in health care costs that women have | historically experienced. In 2012, the independent, nonpartisan Institute of | Medicine was tasked with determining wh…

Staff (2020-01-17). Headlines for January 17, 2020. democracynow.org Senate Impeachment Trial Opens as Accountability Office Says Trump Broke Law by Withholding Aid, Pentagon Contradicts Trump and Says 11 U.S. Troops Injured in Iranian Strikes, Senate Votes to Approve USMCA, Report: Six Banks Reaped $18 Billion Last Year from Trump Tax Cuts, Guatemalan Protesters Demand Outgoing President Be Arrested for Corruption, Deported Immigrant Rights Leader Jean Montrevil Sues U.S. Government, FBI Arrests 3 Suspected Neo-Nazis Ahead of Pro-Gun Rally in Richmond, Virginia, Florida Supreme Court Upholds Law Limiting Voting Rights for People with Felony Convictions, Harvard Law Students Prote…

Staff (2020-01-17). As Senators Are Sworn In, Calls for a Full for Impeachment Trial Intensify. truthout.org For just the third time in history, the U.S. Senate has opened a trial to determine if a sitting president should be removed from office. The Senate trial comes a month after the House impeached President Trump for pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside over the impeachment trial in the Senate, later swore in senators who will serve as jurors when the trial officially begins on Tuesday. This comes as more inf…

WSWS (2020-01-17). The impeachment trial begins as Trump escalates fascistic appeals. wsws.org The Democratic impeachment process will not stop Trump's increasingly blatant assault on the constitutional foundations of basic democratic rights.

Peoples Dispatch (2020-01-17). Anti-fascists protest far-right manifestations in Austrian universities. peoplesdispatch.org Various anti-fascist groups in Austria have started campaigns and begun mobilizing to resist the far-right and fascist manifestations in country's universities. The latest action took place at the University of Vienna on January 14, Tuesday, where 200 anti-fascist activists blocked the entrances to the lecture hall and forced the cancellation of a lecture by the controversial historian, Lothar Hà∂belt, a staunch advocate of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPàñ). Activists from the Austrian Students Union (OH) in the Vienna University, Radical Left Platform, Offensive Against the Right-wing, Au…

teleSUR (2020-01-17). Brazil's Secretary of Culture Fired After Quoting Goebbels. telesurenglish.net Brazil's former Secretary of Culture Robert Alvim was fired Friday after he released a video in which he paraphrased a speech by former Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. | RELATED: | Brazilian Army Pays Tribute to Former Nazi Commander | "The Brazilian art of the next decade will be heroic and national. It will be endowed with a great capacity for emotional involvement and will be equally imperative, since it is deeply linked to the urgent aspirations of our people, or else it will…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-01-17). Bolsonaro's Culture secretary fired after quoting Nazi Goebbels. peoplesdispatch.org Brazil's Culture secretary, Roberto Alvim, was fired on Friday, a day after his office posted a video on social media in which he quoted parts of a speech delivered by the Nazi propaganda boss, Joseph Goebbels. | The video was posted by the Special Culture Office of the Jair Bolsonaro administration to promote a national arts prize. | "Brazilian art in the next decade will be heroic and national," said Alvim, with the Brazilian flag and a portrait of Bolsonaro in the background. The video played to Wagner's Lohengrin, infamously said to be Hitler's favorite opera. | The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, rel…

Steven Sahiounie (2020-01-17). Iraq Set to Buy Russian S-400 Air Defense System and Assert Its Sovereignty. globalresearch.ca Iran attacked US forces stationed at two bases in Iraq with 15 missiles on January 8th, but it does not appear missile defense systems were used to counter them. Eric Gomez, a missile defense policy analyst at the Cato …

JULIA (2020-01-17). Trump's Racist Demagoguery Only Works, Says Sanders, Because Too Many Americans Feel Establishment Has 'Failed Them'. commondreams.org Trump's Racist Demagoguery Only Works, Says Sanders, Because Too Many Americans Feel Establishment Has 'Failed Them' | julia | Fri, 01/17/2020 – 14: 11 | Julia Conley, staff writer…

RT (2020-01-16). 'Are we seriously doing this again?' New phony 'White Power' controversy 'investigated' by MSM. rt.com CBS news has blown the lid off the hate crime of the century: a crew of firefighters making the upside-down "okay" hand gesture in a group photo. Yet again, a reputable media outlet fell for a well-worn 4chan prank. | According to CBS affiliate WUSA-TV, a group of recruits with the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services posed for a team photo back in March 2019. The network sounded the alarm on Wednesday when it noticed several of them were making the thumb-and-index finger "okay" hand gesture – a gesture CBS pointed out is "a possible 'white power'" symbol. | D.C. Fire Department recruits mi…

IMEMC News (2020-01-16). Soldiers Abduct Four Palestinians, Injure One, In Jenin. imemc.org Israeli soldiers abducted, on Thursday at dawn, four Palestinians and injured one, after the army invaded Jenin and its refugee camp, in northern West Bank. Media sources said several army jeeps invaded Jenin city, and Jenin refugee camp, before the soldiers stormed and ransacked many homes. They added that the …

IMEMC & Agencies (2020-01-16). Israeli Warplanes Strike Gaza Strip Overnight. imemc.org Israeli warplanes, Wednesday night, bombed at least two posts across the besieged Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported. An Israeli drone targeted a post, northwest of Gaza city, causing fires to break out. In addition Israeli F-16 fighter jets pounded the same post with …

IMEMC News (2020-01-16). Israeli Soldiers Demolish A Home In Hebron, Abduct Two Palestinians. imemc.org Israeli soldiers invaded, Thursday, Yatta town, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, demolished a home and abducted two Palestinians, in addition to wounding many others. Rateb Jabour, the Coordinator of the National and Popular Committee against the Annexation Wall and Colonies in southern West Bank, said the …

IMEMC News (2020-01-16). PPS: "Israeli Soldiers Abduct Eleven Palestinians In West Bank" imemc.org Israeli soldiers abducted, on Thursday at dawn, eleven Palestinians, including an elderly man, from their homes in Jenin, Jerusalem and Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported. The PPS said the soldiers invaded and searched many homes in Jenin, in northern West Bank, and …

teleSUR (2020-01-16). Israel's Arab Students Drop out Twice as Much as Jewish: Report. telesurenglish.net The number of middle and high school students who withdraw before completing their studies in Israel's Arab schools is nearly twice as high as that of students in Jewish schools, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Council for Children in Israel. | RELATED: | Israel Announces Seven 'Nature Reserves' in Occupied West Bank | In Israel's Jewish schools the dropout rate was 1.6 percent for the 2017-2018 school year whereas for students in the Arab educational syst…

IMEMC News (2020-01-16). Detainees Committee: "Political Prisoners In Nafha Prison Face Dire Living Conditions" imemc.org The Palestinian Detainees Committee has reported, Thursday, that the political prisoners who were transferred from Ramon prison to Nafha are facing extremely dire living conditions. In a statement, the Committee said that the prison administration in Ramon has transferred around 100 detainees from Ramon prison to sections three and four …

splcenter (2020-01-16). Conspiracy Theories, Threats of Violence Loom Over Coming Gun Rally in Richmond. splcenter.org Gun-rights activists and antigovernment extremists are planning a protest in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday fueled by antigovernment conspiracy theories and accompanied by online calls for violence.

The Canary (2020-01-16). Twitter apologises for allowing adverts targeted at hate groups. thecanary.co Twitter has apologised for letting adverts on the platform target hate groups including neo-Nazis and homophobes. | The firm allows advertisers to target people using specific keywords based on what they share in tweets, like, or what they search for. | An investigation by the BBC found terms such as "transphobic", "white supremacists" and "anti-gay" were not being excluded during the ad set-up process. | "Neo-Nazi", which also slipped through the net, could reach an estimated audience of between 67,000 and 81,000 people in the UK, the report claims. | Meanwhile, 92,900 to 114,000 accounts were predicted for the…

Michele Goodwin (2020-01-16). Arkansas Legislators' Attack on Abortion is Unconstitutional. aclu.org The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled time and again that | reproductive privacy is "central to personal dignity and autonomy, [which] are | central to the liberty protected by" the Constitution. The Court has made | eminently clear that under the Constitution, the right of a pregnant person to | terminate a pregnancy prior to viability is a right so essential to our freedom | that our government cannot ban or impose an undue burden on its exercise. But | despite the long-standing clarity of this principle, reproductive health and rights | continue to come under blistering, unrelenting attack. | Nowhere is this cl…

Fred_F (2020-01-16). Catastrophic fires and the far-right's denialism. greenleft.org.au Climate Jeff SparrowIssue 1249 Australia far-rightJanuary 16, 2020For most people, "ecofascism" sounds nonsensical, a portmanteau made up of irreconcilable opposites. | Environmentalists adhere, for the most part, to progressive politics, with fascists glorifying everything th…

pip.hinman (2020-01-16). Relatives demand answers after Yorta Yorta woman dies in custody. greenleft.org.au First Nations Chloe de SilvaIssue 1249 Australia Racism death in custody MelbourneJanuary 16, 2020Disgracefully, Victorian authorities t…

Ramzy Baroud (2020-01-15). Sealed Off and Forgotten: What You Should Know About Israel's West Bank "Firing Zones" mintpressnews.com Throughout the 1970s, the Israeli military declared roughly 18% of the West Bank as "firing zones," effectively wresting control from the local Palestinian population.