Daily Archives: June 19, 2020

2020-06-19: News Headlines

Joanna Palmer (2020-06-20). [Comment] Framing health stories: Highlights 2020 photography competition open for submissions. thelancet.com The video and pictures of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN, USA, as police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck while he pleaded that he could not breathe, as well as photographs of subsequent anti-racism protests around the world, are some of the most powerful images this year. These pictures highlight the devastating impacts of structural racism and the deep inequities in our societies, and have given renewed urgency to the Black Lives Matter movement. This year has also brought moving and sometimes shocking photographs of health-care staff working in challenging conditions—too often…

IMEMC & Agencies (2020-06-19). Russia Denies that Putin Tried to Block UN Security Council Recognition of Palestine. imemc.org Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, denied that President Vladimir Putin had blocked a 2016 UN Security Council's resolution that recognizes Palestinian statehood on the 1967 border lines. Zakharov's remarks came during a press briefing on Wednesday, in which she responded to claims by an Israeli online newspaper, Israel …

Ramzy Baroud (2020-06-19). The 'Palestinian Chair': Exposing Israel's Direct Role in US Violence. counterpunch.org The banning of deadly police practices by many American states and cities following the murder of an African American man, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis police officers is, once more, shedding light on US-Israeli collaboration in the fields of security and crowd-control. From California to New York, and from Washington State to Minneapolis,

Combined Sources (2020-06-19). United Nations calls for reparations to confront legacy of slavery and colonialism. peoplesworld.org GENEVA—Reparations should be paid and countries must confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism to better understand continuing "systematic discrimination," according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. She was speaking at the UN session in Geneva on Wednesday in an urgent debate in response to the killing of George Floyd at the …

Alan Macleod (2020-06-19). Speight of Black Men Found Hanged Sparks Fears of Wave of Racist Terror. mintpressnews.com As the nation grapples with long-simmering racial tensions reignited by the murder of George Floyd, a series of suspicious hanging deaths of black men is sparking fears of a new wave of anti-black terror.

Eds. (2020-06-19). Antifa movement: Anti-establishment rebels. mronline.org A day after Donald Trump's election victory, Hispanic students at Royal Oak High School in Michigan were harassed by their classmates who started chanting, "Build the wall!" Once installed in office, the White House occupant announced the immigration ban on Muslims and a few hours later, someone set fire to the local Islamic Center in …

Ron Jacobs (2020-06-19). The Israeli Defense Forces is a Misnomer. counterpunch.org Unless one defines defense as attacking others with overwhelming force, the Israeli Defense Forces have never been a defensive force. As scholar and author Haim Beshreeth-Zabner makes clear in his just published history An Army Like No Other, the IDF was designed to be an offensive armed force intended to take and keep territory. In

Monica Moorehead (2020-06-19). The 1921 Tulsa massacre: U.S. 'ethnic cleansing'. workers.org Since Trump announced that his first campaign rally would be in Tulsa, Okla., on June 19, there has been renewed interest in the 1921 racist Tulsa massacre that targeted "Black Wall Street." The rally has since been rescheduled for June 20. Decades later, Tulsa has continued its white supremacist legacy . . . |

Staff (2020-06-19). Climate Crisis: Keystone XL Supreme, Cap and Trade Takes Hit and California Geoengineering. therealnews.com The Trump administration tries to push Keystone XL to the US Supreme Court, California's appellate court rules on cap and trade, and California's governor backs away—but not really—from airstream radiation geoengineering.

Mark Gruenberg, Roberta Wood (2020-06-19). Latino groups, AFL-CIO hail Supreme Court's pro-DACA decision. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—Immigrant rights groups, the AFL-CIO and other human rights organizations hailed the U.S. Supreme Court's June 18 decision which effectively leaves in place the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and blocks President Donald Trump's long campaign to end DACA and toss its 700,000 recipients — the Dreamers — out of the country. …

Mark Gruenberg (2020-06-19). High Court says California can stay a sanctuary state. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—By a 7-2 vote, but without a written decision being issued, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled California can stay a sanctuary state for undocumented people — a position the state's union movement strongly pushed to passage several years ago. Technically, the justices rejected the anti-Hispanic anti-migrant GOP Trump regime's demand the justices hear the …

WSWS (2020-06-19). Supreme Court blocks Trump administration's plan to "immediately end" DACA. wsws.org A 5-4 majority cited the administration's failure to provide a "reasoned explanation" as the basis for Trump's decision to rescind an executive order issued by Obama in 2012.

Maria Young (2020-06-19). 'We move forward in our fight'. zcomm.org Local unions march from Oakland to Berkeley in support of Black Lives Matter…

Roger Harris (2020-06-19). Containing the Black Lives Matter Movement: Democrats and Republicans Play Good Cop/Bad Cop. counterpunch.org A long smoldering and now massive popular response to injustice has been catalyzed by the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th. Even Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson concedes, "this was without precedent in the modern era." A broad consensus critical of the coercive police function of the US state is building.

_____ (2020-06-19). City Bar Calls For Investigation Following Arrests Of Legal Observers. popularresistance.org The New York City Bar Association on Wednesday called on Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York Police Department to "immediately investigate" the alleged targeting of nine legal observers earlier this month during a protest against police brutality in the Bronx. | In a statement, the City Bar said it was "gravely concerned" by what it called "concerted efforts" in New York, and across the country, to interfere with the work of observers at mass demonstrations protesting systemic racism and police killings of black Americans. | The City Bar specifically cited reports that legal observers associated with the Nation…

_____ (2020-06-19). 'Black Lives Matter' Is International. popularresistance.org Corte Madera, California – The police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th was the spark that ignited the tinder of accrued injustice throughout the US and globally. This injustice has deep antecedents in the US and indeed in much of what is now called the Global South. There is a shared history of colonial conquest of the Indigenous and the abominable institution of the enslavement of African peoples. | What happened has its roots in systemic oppression that has resonated internationally. Just as the police suffocated George Floyd, US unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua,…

RT (2020-06-19). EU Parliament meddles into US affairs as it condemns Trump's response to protests and declares 'BLACK LIVES MATTER'. rt.com A lengthy resolution by the European Union legislators denounced US President Donald Trump for wanting to use force against rioters and condemned the "appalling death of George Floyd" and arrests of journalists. | In a Condemning the "appalling death of George Floyd" — a Minneapolis,…

RT (2020-06-19). Beatles-glorified Penny Lane NOT actually named after slave trader, museum finds. rt.com There's no evidence linking the legendary Liverpool street Penny Lane to slave trader James Penny, the city's slavery museum has said. The street was recently vandalized, amid Black Lives Matter protests. | The widespread misconception that the road was named after an 18th-century slave merchant was debunked by the Liverpool-based International Slavery Museum (ISM) on Friday. | Penny Lane shot to international fame back in 1967, thanks to the Beatles song named after it, and its original street sign was included in the ISM's display when the museum first opened in 2007. Now, however, "comprehensive research" h…

Milestone in History (2020-06-19). Columbus Statue Finally Removed from Telegraph Hill. indybay.org After decades of protest, going back in memory to 1992, the 500th Anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Americas, when we were able to move the Columbus Genocide Parade from Market to Fisherman's Wharf, the latest anti-racism movement, Black Lives Matter, finally moved the City & County of San Francisco to take down the Columbus monument outside Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill today.

ahtribune (2020-06-19). Do Not Belittle Protesters in U.S. By Calling Their Struggle A "Color Revolution"! ahtribune.com For almost a decade, I have been covering "Color Revolutions" in virtually all parts of the world. While making a film for TeleSur, I was facing Egyptian tanks, risking my life under sniper fire, getting roughed-up in the middle of clashes of the supporters of al-Sisi and Morsi. | Together with Syrian commanders, I was also facing the terrorists in Idlib; challenged the Ukrainian fascists; encountering Bolivian indigenous elders high in the Altiplano, after the revolution of Evo Morales and MAS was crashed by the U.S.-sponsored coup in 2019. I regularly worked in Venezuela, Lebanon, and Iraq. And of course, ag…

ahtribune (2020-06-19). European Court of Human Rights Upholds Right to Boycott Israel. ahtribune.com "Criminal conviction of activists involved in the BDS campaign boycotting products imported from Israel had no relevant and sufficient grounds and violated their freedom of expression" | That is the heading on the 11 June 2020 press statement from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), announcing that it had overturned the conviction by a French court of eleven individuals for engaging in BDS activity. | The Court ruled that their conviction violated Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights — the right to freedom of expression — which states: | "Everyone has the right to freedom o…

Miachael Arria (2020-06-19). Biden VP Front Runner Susan Rice Has a History of Criticizing Israel…While Also Letting Its Government Do Whatever It Wants. anti-empire.com The Associated Press

_____ (2020-06-19). So It's OK to Erase Soviet Statues, but Not Western Imperialist Ones? strategic-culture.org Statues commemorating colonizers, slavers and imperialists are toppling from their pedestals on both sides of the Atlantic in the wake of mass protests over the U.S. police killing of African-American man George Floyd. The surge in anti-racist public anger has widened to target other icons seen as glorifying racism and oppression of other peoples. | In recent days, the U.S. has seen

_____ (2020-06-19). Heroless America Is Losing Ideological Ground Quickly. strategic-culture.org Right now, as statues across America and beyond are being defaced and/or destroyed by Black Lives Matter protestors it is a good time to reflect on who the heroes on our monuments should be and ask ourselves if we even need any of these pieces of brass and concrete at all in the 21st century. Why does seemingly every country on Earth bother with using public space for the secular worship of dead political and military figures? What point do monuments even serve? | Regarding heroes it seems very evident that children have over time moved from having historical heroes to fantasy ones. It is hard to imagine, that in…

_____ (2020-06-19). Defending History or Double Standard? strategic-culture.org There is no equivalence between Western imperialists, colonizers and racists and Soviet war heroes. But there is a clear double standard in how demolishing the latter statues is somehow acceptable to Western governments. Because it fits a geopolitical agenda of rewriting the history of World War II to demean Russia. | (Click the image to enlarge)…

Staff (2020-06-19). 99 Years Later, Wounds of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Have "Never Been Remedied" democracynow.org President Trump's first campaign rally since the start of the pandemic takes place Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, despite a spike of COVID-19 cases there. Trump rescheduled the rally to Saturday after facing backlash for saying it would happen on Juneteenth — a celebration of African Americans' liberation from slavery — amid a nationwide uprising against racism and police brutality. Tulsa is also the site of one of the deadliest massacres in U.S. history, when a white mob in 1921 killed as many as 300 people in a thriving African American business district known as "Black Wall Street." For more on this…

Staff (2020-06-19). How DREAMers Defeated Trump: Supreme Court DACA Win Shows "Sustained Pressure of Activism" Works. democracynow.org In a 5-4 decision led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court on Thursday blocked President Trump's attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The federal program created by President Obama in 2012 protects from deportation about 700,000 immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children. Luis Cortes, one of the lawyers who defended DACA at the Supreme Court, says the key to the victory was being able to share the stories of DACA recipients. "What moved Chief Justice Roberts in our case was the stories," says Cortes, who is a DACA recipient himself. We also speak with Erika Andiola, advo…

Staff (2020-06-19). Headlines for June 19, 2020. democracynow.org Supreme Court Blocks Trump from Ending DACA in Victory for Immigrants, Global COVID Death Toll Tops 450,000 as Cases Keep Growing in 77 Nations, Navajo Nation Reinstates Lockdown Due to New COVID Surge, "Trump Death Clock" Heads to Tulsa for Trump Speech, Juneteenth: Longshore Union Shuts Down West Coast Ports; Trump Claims He Made Holiday "Very Famous", Atlanta Officers Involved in Killing of Rayshard Brooks Turn Themselves In, Probe Launched over Use of Military Surveillance Planes to Monitor Protesters, High-Ranking Black State Dept. Official Resigns to Protest Trump's Actions, Klobuchar Removes Herself from V…

Dr. Davood Rahni (2020-06-19). Racism in the U.S. is far deeper and broader than ever thought, let alone acknowledged. iranian.com In commemoration of Juneteenth Day The 8 minutes, 46 seconds lethal knee-jerking, chokehold, and neck crushing of excessive police brutality force inflicted on the late slain George Floyd and now endured heavily by his family and the Nation and the world over as a whole, has had far more adverse American and global ramifications and …

CounterSpin (2020-06-19). Ezra Young on Supreme Court LGBT Ruling. fair.org Media…

John Feffer (2020-06-19). Conservatives Are Comparing Racial Justice Protestors to Maoists. zcomm.org Right-wing "intellectuals" uncomfortable with the Black Lives Matter movement have latched onto a dubious historical analogy.

Karen Dolan (2020-06-19). The Movement for Black Lives Is a Small-Town Movement, Too. zcomm.org In small towns around the country, often the places you would least expect, people are having protests with signs that say "Black Lives Matter," "I Can't Breathe," and "Defund the Police."

Mnar Muhawesh (2020-06-19). Podcast: How the Democratic Party Unleashed Decades of Racial Injustice and Police Brutality on Communities of Color. mintpressnews.com Margaret Kimberly and Monique Cullars Doty join MintCast to discuss how Democrats attempt to save face by co-opting justice movements, including Black Lives Matter, and the party's roots in White supremacy.

OCHA (2020-06-19). OCHA — Protection of Civilians Report ( 2-15 June 2020 ). imemc.org United Nations Office For The Coordination Of Humanitarian Affair: Protection of Civilians Report (2 — 15 June 2020) Biweekly highlights: Seventy Palestinian-owned structures were demolished or seized in the West Bank due to the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, displacing 90 people and affecting over 280.

Elijah J. Magnier (2020-06-19). The US "Caesar's Law" Sanctions Regime against Syria. How It Will Affect Lebanon: Israel Will be Targeted. globalresearch.ca The enactment of "

IMEMC News (2020-06-19). Israeli Soldiers Abduct Three Palestinians In Jenin. imemc.org Israeli soldiers invaded, on Friday at dawn, into Jenin city and Jenin refugee camp, in northern West Bank, and abducted three young Palestinian men. Eyewitnesses said the undercover soldiers, driving a car with Palestinian license plates, infiltrated into Jenin, and kidnapped two young men, who remained unidentified at the time …

Ali Salam (2020-06-19). Israel To Demolish A Palestinian Home Near Occupied Jerusalem. imemc.org The City Council in occupied Jersusalem informed, Thursday, a Palestinian family of a demolition order targeting their home in the Sawahra town, southeast of the occupied Palestinian capital. The home is owned by Yassin Taha Zaatra, and was built 10 years ago, sheltering him and his family. The property is …

IMEMC News (2020-06-19). Soldiers Abduct Four Palestinians In Tulkarem. imemc.org Israeli soldiers abducted, on Friday at dawn, four young Palestinian men in Qaffin town, north of the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, after invading and ransacking their homes. Media sources in Tulkarem said several army jeeps invaded the town, before the soldiers violently searched homes, causing damage, and abducted …

Peoples Dispatch (2020-06-19). What does the Israeli annexation plan mean for Palestinians? peoplesdispatch.org On July 1, Israel is set to begin the annexation of as much as 30% of the West Bank. This move violates multiple international laws and treaties and has been met with widespread protests.

Sam Bahour (2020-06-19). America's Intifada Must Dig Deeper. counterpunch.org Palestinians' sustained struggle for freedom and independence offers many lessons The murder of George Floyd and the White House's mishandling (to put it politely) of the COVID-19 pandemic may be providing the perfect toxic storm to fix America. The road to creating an equitable American society will be long and hard, but the U.S. civil rights

Margaret Kimberley (2020-06-19). Statues and Colonial History: Churchill, Columbus and Leopold Fall Down. globalresearch.ca Millions of white people glorify mass murderers because their sense of identity and place in society is deeply tied to white supremacy. | "It is important to name and shame the mass murderers." | The perpetrators of crimes against humanity are often …

_____ (2020-06-19). Juneteenth: Strike For Black Lives. popularresistance.org We are calling for disruptive actions aimed at shutting down the city: Strikes, sick-outs, blockades, occupations, and spontaneous marches. | We've watched a wave of grieving and rebellion take hold of the nation, and we say it's about time. We seek justice for Terrence Sterling, Jeffery Price, D'Quann Young, Marquees Alston, Miriam Carey, and Ralphael Briscoe, as well as the many hundreds of Black people who have been killed by MPD, ICE, or other white men with badges and guns. | We remember families separated by prison walls and by state borders. We mourn all the community members we've lost doing sex work, def…

Sit.Walk.Listen. and SF Sanghas (2020-06-19). Sunday 6/21: Sit. Walk. Listen. Because Black Lives Matter. indybay.org Civic Center Plaza (Polk & McAllister)…

Palo_Alto_Action_4 _Justice (2020-06-19). Friday 6/19: Defend Black Lives Event in Palo Alto. indybay.org Palo Alto City Hall's King Plaza | 250 Hamilton Ave. | Palo Alto 94301…

Abayomi Azikiwe (2020-06-18). Ballots, Bullets and the African American Struggle in Georgia. globalresearch.ca Continuing problems with voter suppression and the brutal execution of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta highlights racism and national oppression in the contemporary South | *** | "This is why I say it's the ballot or the bullet. It's liberty or it's death. …

Jeff Cohen (2020-06-18). Let Us Name the System: "Racial Capitalism" zcomm.org At every stage in U.S. history — beginning with the brutal dispossession of Native Americans and continuing through modern methods of injustice from redlining to mass incarceration and private prisons — U.S. racism has been inextricably embedded in the system of profiteering.

Staff (2020-06-18). Tearing Down White Supremacist Monuments Isn't Empty Symbolism. therealnews.com The monuments represent more than just the people they honor. They symbolize the brutal legacy of white supremacy, racism, colonialism, and genocide we live with today.

Patrick Munger and Monica Johnson (2020-06-18). Rebellions against racism continue in Atlanta after police killing of Rayshard Brooks. liberationnews.org Patrick Munger and Monica Johnson On June 17, protests assembled across Atlanta in response to the police killing of Rayshard Brooks and in solidarity with all victims of racism and police violence. The night before, community members and local activists had mobilized immediately after learning that another Black man, Brooks, had been killed by the …

Eds. (2020-06-18). Abolition will not be randomized. mronline.org In the wake of the current uprising in support of Black Lives Matter, there has been increasing interest in the use of mainstream empirical methods in economics—like randomized control trials (RCTs) and administrative data evaluation—to address issues of racism and violence in the institution of policing.

A Guest Author (2020-06-18). 'We marched against the system' in Austin, Texas. workers.org Austin protest, June 7. By Ananya Sabharwal and Isabella Ricks Austin, Texas On June 7, the Austin Justice Coalition, an activist-led organization founded by Chas Moore and oriented toward battling institutional racism, led a protest spanning two miles from Huston-Tillotson University to the Texas State Capitol to bring awareness to . . . |