(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…
(2020-06-20). 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.
(2020-06-20). Massive Uprisings Confront White Supremacy. zcomm.org This transformational moment is becoming a transformational movement. The time to effect revolutionary change is now.
(2020-06-20). Black Lives Matter in Bastrop, Texas. workers.org 
With the whole world exploding in support of the Black Lives Matter movement that is sweeping through large U.S. cities and small towns alike, Black Lives Matter may finally become a reality in Bastrop, Texas, for death row prisoner Rodney Reed. Outside court hearing for Rodney Reed, February 2015. WW . . . |
(2020-06-20). NYC marches for Juneteenth. fightbacknews.org New York, NY – At noon, June 19, several hundred gathered outside of City Hall Park to celebrate, rally and march for Juneteenth. It was the first of several dozen actions happening throughout the boroughs and was called by the December 12th Movement. | Dozens upon dozens of the red, black and green flags were waving in the hands of protesters, as music played. The organizers ensured that protesters were wearing masks and kept social distance by lining them up to march. | This year's Juneteenth has reached mainstream levels of attention as the country enters its 22nd day of protesting for Black lives. As protes…
(2020-06-20). Israeli Navy Forces Palestinian Fisherman off the Coast of Gaza. imemc.org The Israeli Navy, early on Friday, forced Palestinian fishermen to flee the coast fearing for their lives, blocking their ability to provide for their families. According to Palestinian sources in the besieged coastal territory, Israeli Navy vessels intercepted fishermen sailing in the north of the Gaza strip, in the Al-Sudaniya …
(2020-06-20). Arab Leaders Express Criticism of Israeli Annexation Plans. imemc.org Three key Arab countries, including Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have expressed their opposition to the Israeli leadership's plan to expropriate Palestinian lands, expected to be implemented in July. For his part, King Abdallah II of Jordan, asserted, in a phone conversation with the Emir of Abu …
(2020-06-20). Washington DC protesters topple statue of Confederate general Albert Pike. thecanary.co Black Lives Matter protesters have toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the US capital and set it on fire on Juneteenth — the day marking the end of slavery in the US. | Cheering demonstrators jumped up and down as the 11ft statue of Albert Pike, wrapped with chains, wobbled on its high granite pedestal before falling backwards. | Protesters then set a bonfire and stood around it in a circle as the statue burned, saying "No justice, no peace!" and "No racist police!". | Eyewitness accounts and videos posted on social media indicated that police were on the scene but did not intervene. | Donal…
(2020-06-20). Friday 6/19: #SixNineteen: M4BL Juneteenth Livestream to Defend Black Lives (online). indybay.org Online livestream…
(2020-06-20). Street in Front of Fresno City Hall painted with "Black Lives Matter" indybay.org Over four hundred people came out to downtown Fresno June 18 to paint "Black Lives Matter" in twenty foot tall letters on P Street where it passes in front of City Hall.
(2020-06-19). A time of reckoning for monuments to racism and genocide. nationofchange.org With so many ongoing crises arguments about history may seem esoteric, but only by honestly redressing the sins of the past can we find ways to make a better future. Toppling monuments is just a start.
(2020-06-19). Human Rights Council calls on top UN rights official to take action on racist violence. news.un.org The UN's top rights official, Michelle Bachelet, is to spearhead efforts to address systemic racism against people of African descent by law enforcement agencies, the Human Rights Council decided on Friday. The resolution — decided unanimously without a vote – follows a rare Urgent Debate in the Council earlier in the week, requested by the African group of nations, following the death of George Floyd in the US state of Minnesota.
(2020-06-19). Scheer Intelligence: The Powerful Past, Present And Future Of Black Lives Matter. popularresistance.org Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 after the murder of Trayvon Martin highlighted the dangers Black children, women and men face daily because of the color of their skin. The grassroots movement has protested against police violence and anti-black racism since then, and advocated for policy changes to address racial injustices. Despite having been active for the better part of a decade now, Black Lives Matter was recently launched into the global spotlight after the police assassination of George Floyd rocked the world. | On this week's episode of "Scheer Intelligence," Dr. Melina Abdullah, one of the Black L…
(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). European Parliament Condemns Racism in Any Form, Police Violence in US. sputniknews.com BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — The European Parliament has adopted a resolution to condemn all forms of racism as well as the violence of US police during the ongoing protests.
(2020-06-19). New York City Marks Juneteenth as Thousands of Protesters Demand End to Police Brutality. sputniknews.com NEW YORK (Sputnik) – Thousands of New York residents took gathered in lower Manhattan on Juneteenth to march to end police violence and systemic racism in the United States, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene.
(2020-06-19). Celebrating Juneteenth, the day the last enslaved Black people were freed in the US. thecanary.co 
People across the US and beyond are celebrating a key national day which has a much higher profile this year amid widespread anti-racism protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.Juneteenth — celebrated each year on 19 June — marks the day in 1865 when slavery was abolished in Texas — two and a half years after president Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.Now, with support growing for the racial justice movement, 2020 may be remembered as the year the holiday reached a new level of recognition.While the Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved Black people in the South in 1863…
(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). 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…
(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 …
(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,
(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,…
(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.
(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 …
(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 …
(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
(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 . . . |
(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.
(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. …
(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 …
(2020-06-19). PANDERMONIUM: Snapchat yanks cringeworthy Juneteenth filter that asked users to 'smile to break chains'. rt.com 
Snapchat has removed a Juneteenth-themed that encouraged users to "smile" to break the chains of slavery, something that was quickly flagged by social media users as an offensive attempt to pander to Black Lives Matter activists. | If users chose to use the filter, they could photograph themselves in front of an African flag with the words "Juneteenth" and "Freedom Day" captioned. The user was then told to smile as chains appear and then suddenly break, a clear nod to the day being a celebration of the end of slavery in the US. | The filter was disabled after numerous complaints and removed from the service in…
(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,…
(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…
(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…
(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…
(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). 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)…
(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…
(2020-06-19). Ezra Young on Supreme Court LGBT Ruling. fair.org 
Media…
(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…
(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.
(2020-06-19). Supreme Court extends life of DACA in 5-4 ruling. nationofchange.org "We took our power to the streets, the hallways of Congress, to the highest court in the land and we won."
(2020-06-19). Supreme Court DACA Win Shows "Sustained Pressure of Activism" Works. truthout.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 ou…
(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 …
(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). 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.
(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.
(2020-06-19). 'We move forward in our fight'. zcomm.org Local unions march from Oakland to Berkeley in support of Black Lives Matter…
(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."