(2018-10-28). "Still in Solitary Over Here in Baghdad": a Forgotten American's 14-Year Nightmare in Iraq. theintercept.com 
Shawki Omar's story began as an embodiment of the American Dream. Today, it shows how the so-called war on terror has turned sadistic and extralegal.
(2018-10-28). The #MeToo Movement's Roots in Women Workers' Rights. truthout.org Whenever new protest movements emerge, people look to history for lessons from activists and thinkers who came before. We all stand on the shoulders of those who struggled, sacrificed, and organized to push for a more humane society. | #MeToo is one such movement. It has not only raised awareness about the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and assault—particularly of women—but is also an example of what happens when those who are relegated to a second-class citizenship status come together to speak out. | History is filled with courageous and heroic women who launched crusades for women's liberation…
(2018-10-28). Trump's Gender "Science" is Reductive, Mean and Wrong. zcomm.org Trump's move — if he makes it — will serve to erase the civil rights of 1.4 million transgender Americans. An already vulnerable population will needlessly suffer more…
(2018-10-28). Mission Neighbors: Stand Up for Sex Workers' Rights and Safety! indybay.org Redstone Building 2940 16th Street, #217 @Capp Street…
(2018-10-28). How Can You Talk to Kids About Factory Farming? These Books Can Help. truthout.org Many children play with toys that evoke the bucolic life on a farm. And many will likely visit a small local farm, where animals have space and access to sunlight and the outdoors. But most kids are probably not aware that, for the vast majority of farmed animals, life is anything but happy. | Consider the life of a chicken trapped on a factory farm. If she is one of the 9 billion chickens who suffer and die on US factory farms for their meat, she is committed to a life of unending misery, fed an unnatural diet to spur abnor…
(2018-10-28). Teachers set to walk off for refugees. greenleft.org.au 
The Australian Education Union (AEU) Victorian Branch Council has endorsed a planned walk off by teachers and education support staff in support of refugees on November 20, Universal Children's Day. | There are currently about 60 refugee children being detained by the Australian government on Nauru. | More than 6000 doctors issued an open letter to the government on October 22, calling on it to remove children from Nauru due to very serious mental and physical health emergency on the Pacific island. | Doctors and health workers have spoken out about the significant trauma children suffer in detention. | Australia…
(2018-10-28). Investigate and Prosecute Pillage, Appropriation and Destruction of Palestinian Natural Resources. imemc.org On 26 October, 2018, Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) submitted, to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a 500-page file on alleged crimes committed by Israelis, in particular high-level Israeli officials, and individuals associated with corporations that are extracting and destroying …
(2018-10-27). 11 dead, 6 injured in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. rt.com 
Eleven people have been killed in a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, police have confirmed. The suspect has been detained.
(2018-10-27). Major Defeat For Trump: Int'l Court Of Justice Rules For Iran In Lifting Sanctions. iranian.com Iran brought a complaint to the ICJ on grounds that U.S. President Donald Trump's sanctions violated the 1955 Treaty of Amity signed between the two countries. On Wednesday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague issued a court ruling ordering the United States to remove sanctions imposed on Iran which affect humanitarian trade, food, […]
(2018-10-27). Julian Assange Should Be Thanked – Not Smeared – for Wikileaks' Service to Journalism. globalresearch.ca Twelve years ago this month, WikiLeaks began publishing government secrets that the world public might otherwise never have known. What it has revealed about state duplicity, human rights abuses and corruption goes beyond anything published in the world's "mainstream" media. …
(2018-10-27). Mumia Abu Jamal and the Prison Industrial Complex. globalresearch.ca "As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." | — Michelle …
(2018-10-27). Iran Sanctions Could Hurt European Economy. iranian.com Europe's economy could suffer from the refusal of European companies to work with Iran under pressure from the U.S. sanctions on Tehran, Rosneft Oil Company's chief executive Igor Sechin said at the Eurasian Economic Forum in Verona, Italy, on Thursday. Sechin, who has been on the U.S. list of sanctioned individuals in his personal capacity since 2014, criticized in […]
(2018-10-27). Can ICE Legally Force Immigrants to Cheer for Donald Trump? theintercept.com Do the First Amendment's protections prevent the government from targeting its most vocal critics for deportation? That's the central question that three judges for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals will be considering Monday, when lawyers for Ravi Ragbir, a New York City immigration activist, will argue for a preliminary injunction to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials from deporting him before he can press his First Amendment claim in court. | In the case, which comes before judges Christopher Droney, Pierre Leval, and John Walker Jr., the government contends that Ragbir's situation is straightfo…
(2018-10-26). International declaration against fascism in Brazil. greenleft.org.au 
Five hundred academics, Nobel prize winners, human rights activists and celebrities have released an international statement against the rise of fascism in Brazil. | Among the initial signatories are: Argentine Nobel Peace prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, African-American rights activist Angela Davis, US Senator Bernie Sanders, US actor Danny Glover, Chilean socialist academic Marta Harnecker, US academic Noam Chomsky, British-Pakistani writer Tariq Ali and economist Thomas Piketty. | A number of former heads of state have also signed on including: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina), Eduardo Duhalde (A…
(2018-10-26). Headlines for October 26, 2018. democracynow.org Investigators Narrow In on Florida in Ongoing Mail Bomb Case, Turkish President Urges Saudis to Reveal Who Ordered Khashoggi Murder, U.N. Calls for International Investigation into Khashoggi Murder, Trump Sends Troops, Threatens to Close U.S.-Mexico Border over Migrant Caravan, Caitlyn Jenner Denounces Trump's Attacks on Trans Rights in Op-ed, Trump Administration Approves Plan to Drill Off Alaska Coast, Officers Involved in Drowning Death of Two SC Women Detainees Fired, Sen. Grassley Asks DOJ to Investigate Avenatti and Julie Swetnick over Kavanaugh Statements, Reporter Body-Slammed by Rep. Gianforte Tells Cong…
(2018-10-26). Large #WontbeErased march resists Trump's anti-trans threats. greenleft.org.au 
Assembling in front of the White House on October 22, members of the LGBTI community and their allies gathered to deliver a clear message to President Donald Trump: transgender people "Won't Be Erased", writes Julia Conley. | The phrase became a rallying cry at demonstrations and on social media the day after reports surfaced of a Trump administration proposal to officially deny the existence of transgender people. The proposal would define gender as biological and determined o…
(2018-10-26). Israel is Lobbying Europe to Declare BDS "Fundamentally Anti-Semitic" mintpressnews.com In its ongoing battle against the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign Israel is pushing for European political parties to declare the movement "fundamentally anti-Semitic." The latest drive saw Israel's Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Ze'ev Elkin, attending a conference in Brussels backed by the Israeli government which proposed a text for prospective MEPs and political parties to sign up to before European elections in May next year. | The text, the Guardian reported, urges European parties to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) "working definition of anti-Se…
(2018-10-26). Will Israel's Gaza Massacres Finally Prod the ICC into Action? mintpressnews.com 
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, normally reserved in their criticism of Israel, have accused the occupying state of "war crimes." Some hope the sheer scale of Israeli fire against unarmed civilians, along with the copious documentation of it, will prod the ICC to action.
(2018-10-26). European Union steps up Internet censorship in the name of opposing "disinformation" wsws.org The EU summit threatened with sanctions and penalties any party that diverges from the prescribed political line in the 2019 European election campaign.
(2018-10-26). Trump, Saudi Arabia and the Khashoggi Murder. counterpunch.org 
Is there no crime so obvious, so egregious and so blatant that it won't be overlooked by United States President Donald Trump, if doing so suits his twisted needs? He looks past Israeli barbarity, despite the obvious, unspeakable human rights abuses that that rogue, racist apartheid nation commits. He ignores the abject suffering caused by More
(2018-10-26). White Ribbon's failures go well beyond reproductive rights backflip. greenleft.org.au 
Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi must have been furious when, in the space of less than 24 hours, White Ribbon Australia (WRA) back flipped on its decision to drop support for what he claimed was a "radical abortion policy". | WRA initially redacted its 2017 statement supporting reproductive rights on October 18, with CEO Tracy McLeod telling Buzzfeed that day that the organisation was now "agnostic" on reproductive…
(2018-10-26). Florida Man Detained in Sweeping Mail-Bomb Case. truthdig.com WASHINGTON — Federal authorities arrested a man in Florida on Friday in connection with the mail-bomb scare that widened to 12 suspicious packages, the Justice Department said. | Law enforcement officers were seen on television examining a white van, its windows covered with an assortment of stickers, in the city of Plantation. They covered the vehicle with a blue tarp. | The man was in his 50s, a law enforcement official said, but his name and any charges he might face were not immediately known. | Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said authorities planned to announce more information at a press co…
(2018-10-26). Anti-War Voices Applaud 'Must-Read' Sanders Op-Ed Demanding End to Yemen War. theantimedia.com 
(CD) — Anti-war voices are praising a new "must-read" New York Times op-ed in which Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Congress "to redefine our relationship with Saudi Arabia, and to show that the Saudis do not have a blank check to continue violating human rights" by revoking U.S. support for the Saudi and UAE-led war in Yemen. Noting that …
(2018-10-26). How can we make "Abolish ICE" a reality? mronline.org 
Two of the immigrant rights movement's historic demands provide a basis for actually closing the agency, and beyond that for building a movement to demand more fundamental changes. | Source
(2018-10-26). Trump's HHS and the Renewed Culture Wars. counterpunch.org 
The New York Times recently reported on a secret memo circulating within the Trump bureaucracy seeking to narrow the definition of gender to "a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth." The Times considers this "the most drastic move yet in a government wide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law." More
(2018-10-26). CIA director briefs Trump on Khashoggi torture tape. wsws.org CIA Director Gina Haspel, dispatched to Turkey to investigate the murder of the Saudi journalist, has intimate familiarity with acts of torture and tapes recording them.
(2018-10-26). Despite Trump's Best Efforts, Hundreds of Thousands of Immigrants Earn Reprieve From Deportation. aclu.org The Trump administration's attacks on the Temporary Protected Status program have been stopped — for now. | Last week, Jeff Sessions attacked a court ruling that gave a temporary reprieve to hundreds of thousands of immigrants facing imminent deportation after years of living lawfully in this country. | "Federal district court judges are not empowered to fashion immigration policy," Sessions said. "The Legislative and Executive branches — of federal and state government — a…
(2018-10-26). Hatewatch Headlines 10/26/2018. splcenter.org Judge restores funding to sanctuary cities; Civil rights groups call for tech hate-group crackdown; Shea wants to create a 51st state; and more.
(2018-10-25). My Boss Fired Me From My Funeral Home Job for Being Transgender. aclu.org 
Aimee Stephens spent most of her life struggling with her gender identity. When she finally came out to her boss, she was fired. | I was in funeral services for nearly three decades before I was fired in 2013 for being transgender. In March, a federal appeals court agreed that it was wrong to fire me just because of who I am. Now, the Supreme Court will consider whether to review that court ruling. | While studying to be a pastor in college, I needed a job, and I found one in a funeral home. There are a lot of different ministries people can pursue, and I realized comforting people during one of the most vulnerab…
(2018-10-25). ACTION ALERT: While Rangers Fight Wildfires, USA Today Fans Flames of Gun Paranoia. fair.org 
The story under this USA Today headline ( 10/25/18) never mentions the Second Amendment—because it's not relevant to the topic at hand. | The main front-page headline on USA Today's October 25 print edition reads: | Is the Second Amendment Under Fire in the West? | Online, the story's headline ( 10/24/18) asks a similarly alarmist headline—"Gun Rights Unde…
(2018-10-25). Tampa students stand against attacks on trans rights. fightbacknews.org Tampa, FL — More than 50 Tampa area students and community activists gathered at the University of South Florida's MLK Plaza, October 24, for a rally against Trump's attacks on transgender rights. The protest was organized by Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). | Earlier this week it was announced that Trump administration officials were moving to alter Title IX rules to exclude trans people from basic services and protection from discrimination. This is only the latest attack on the LGBTQ+ community from the Trump administration. | "We need to organize against Trump's attacks on trans righ…
(2018-10-25). Two Stories from the Propaganda War. mintpressnews.com Two recent stories about Russians have demonstrated how the news is selected and manipulated in the United States. The first is about Maria Butina, who apparently sought to overthrow American democracy, such as it is, by obtaining a life membership in the National Rifle Association. Maria, a graduate student at American University, is now in detention in a federal prison, having been charged with collusion and failure to register as an agent of the Russian Federation. She has been in prison since July, for most of the time in solitary confinement, and has not been granted bail because, as a Russian citizen, she i…
(2018-10-25). Sciences of inequality. mronline.org 
Last month, Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights (whose important work I have written about before), issued a tweet about the new poverty and healthcare numbers in the United States along with a challenge to the administration of Donald Trump (which in June decided to voluntarily remove itself from […] | Source
(2018-10-25). NAACP Partners with Members of the Faith Community to Galvanize Black Voters Ahead of Midterms. naacp.org In less than two weeks, Americans from coast to coast will take part in one of the most important elections of a generation, and as the nation's largest and foremost civil rights organizations, NAACP has partnered with its allies in the faith community to ensure the Black community is mobilized and ready to vote. Bishop […]
(2018-10-24). Aimee Stephens Was Fired Because She Is Transgender. That's Sex Discrimination. aclu.org The ACLU is asking the Supreme Court to let stand a lower court ruling that Aimee's firing was unlawful. | Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump think federal law shouldn't protect transgender people. They think it should be legal to fire someone just because she's trans. Five federal appeals courts disagree. On Wednesday, the ACLU asked the Supreme Court to let stand one of those rulings, in the case of Aimee Stephens. | Aimee had worked at a funeral home in Detroit for nearly six years when she wrote a letter telling her boss and coworkers that she is transgender. Two weeks after she came out as a woman to her employe…
(2018-10-24). City Officials Stoke Mob Mentality in Front of Sex Offender's Home. aclu.org The city government of Providence, Rhode Island, is ignoring its own law on residential protests and feeding vigilantism. | When Richard Gardner, a convicted child sex offender, was released from prison after serving almost 30 years, he quietly moved into the Washington Park neighborhood in Providence. One would not have expected a welcome wagon — but an angry mob should not have been the result either. | Because his crimes were committed so long ago, Gardner is not subject to the community notification provisions that apply to more recent offenders under the state's Megan's Law. But the police leaked his a…
(2018-10-24). NAACP Sues Shelby County Over Allegedly Defective Voter Registration Applications. naacp.org Tennessee County Should Allow Voters to Fix Applications and Vote Regular Ballots on Election Day BALTIMORE (October 24, 2018) The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), America's foremost civil rights organization, announced today that its Memphis Branch filed suit yesterday against the Shelby County (TN) Election Commission for its refusal to allow […]
(2018-10-24). Stacey Abrams Stands By Burning the Racist, Segregationist Georgia State Flag in 1992. democracynow.org 
During Tuesday's debate, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams defended her actions in 1992 when she helped burn the Georgia state flag, which at the time contained a prominent Confederate battle flag. In a victory for civil rights advocates, the flag was later changed. We speak to Leah Wright Rigueur, professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
(2018-10-24). Who's Behind ICE? How Amazon, Palantir, Microsoft & Tech Giants Are Powering Trump's Deportations. democracynow.org 
A shocking new investigation by immigrant rights groups reveals how corporations like Amazon, Palantir and Microsoft are profiting from and expediting Trump's incarceration and deportation operations. Some 10 percent of the Department of Homeland Security's $44 billion budget is dedicated to data management. The report was published as new documents obtained by the Project on Government Oversight show Amazon is pushing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to start using its controversial facial recognition technology that could identify immigrants in real time by scanning faces in a video feed. We speak with Jacin…
(2018-10-23). Headlines for October 23, 2018. democracynow.org Turkish President: Khashoggi Murdered in Premeditated, Political Act, Mnuchin Meets Saudi Crown Prince as Trump Sends CIA Chief to Turkey, Hackers Target Saudi Investment Conference Website, Yemen: Tropical Storm Kills 12, Exacerbating Cholera Crisis, Bolton Meets with Russians as U.S. Plans Nuclear Treaty Withdrawal, Central American Caravan Continues Toward U.S. Despite Trump Threats, Mexico: Tropical Storm Vicente Kills 12 as Hurricane Willa Approaches, Human Rights Watch: British Academic Jailed by UAE Denied Rights, Trans Rights Protests Target Plans to Narrow Definition of Gender, Trump Admin to Expand Reli…
(2018-10-23). Fred Nile's foetal personhood bill is going to parliament, again. greenleft.org.au 
News that NSW MLC Fred Nile is using the last sitting weeks of state parliament before the March 2019 election to push his "Zoe's law" bill — which would give foetuses legal rights — should alarm us all. | Women's rights activists emailed MPs and organised a snap action outside NSW Parliament on October 25, the day Nile tried, but failed, to introduce his private member's bill. Greens MLCs Cate Faehrmann and Jenny Leong and Labor MLC Penny Sharpe joined the action, comm…
(2018-10-23). Thousands rally in Sydney for workers' rights. greenleft.org.au 
Thousands of trade unionists marched through Sydney streets on October 23 as part of nationwide "Change The Rules" mobilisations coordinated by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). | The spirit of the marchers was buoyed by the federal Coalition government's loss of its one-seat parliamentary majority after its defeat in the October 20 Wentworth byelection. | Several union leaders, including Maritime Union of Australia assistant national secretary Warren Smith and ACTU president Michele O'Neil, warned that this was not an "elect Labor campaign", but a campaign to change the rules that are currently stac…
(2018-10-22). Headlines for October 22, 2018. democracynow.org Trump to Withdraw from 1987 U.S.-Russia Nuclear Deal, Plans to Establish Biological Definition of Gender Threatens Trans Rights, Saudi Arabia Says Khashoggi Killed in "Fistfight" Amid Mounting U.S. Pressure, NYT: Saudi Troll Farm Targeted Khashoggi, Other Critics on Twitter, Afghanistan: 27 Killed, 100 Injured as Voters Head to Polls, Gaza: Israeli Forces Shoot and Injure 130 Palestinian Protesters, Israel Delays Plans to Evict Bedouin Village in West Bank, Central American Caravan Crosses into Mexico as Trump Threats Mount, Honduras: Lawyers for Victim Berta Cáceres Removed from Murder Trial, Florida: $339 Milli…
(2018-10-22). "Reminiscent of South Africa's Grand Apartheid": Israeli Human Rights Group Slams Israel at U.N. democracynow.org 
Shortly after Israel announced a new "zero tolerance" policy toward demonstrations in Gaza, some 130 Palestinians were injured Friday while protesting ongoing Israeli occupation and demanding the right of return. Four paramedics and 25 children were among the injured. Ten thousand protesters gathered along Israel's heavily militarized separation barrier with Gaza as part of the weekly Great March of Return protests that began March 30. Since then, Israeli forces have killed at least 170 Palestinians, including more than 30 children, and injured thousands more. We speak with Hagai El-Ad, the executive director of…
(2018-10-22). Blaming Saudis for Corrupting Otherwise Human Rights—Loving US. fair.org 
As FAIR has noted for years, one of the primary ideological functions of US corporate media is to maintain the mythology that the US is a noble protector of democracy and arbiter of human rights. When material facts—like wars of aggression, massive spying regimes, the funding and arming right-wing militias and the propping up of dictators—get in the way of this mythology the response by most pundits is to wave away these inconsistencies (FAIR.org, 2/1/09), ignore them altogether (FAIR.org, (2018-10-22). SPLC statement on Trump administration's efforts to remove civil rights protections from transgender Americans. splcenter.org The Trump administration has apparently redoubled its efforts to exclude transgender Americans from the protection of federal civil rights laws.
(2018-10-22). The Trump Administration Is Trying to Erase Trans People, but the Law Clearly Protects Them. aclu.org A recently leaked memo is attempting to undermine decades of court decisions saying federal law protects transgender and nonbinary people. | Over the weekend, The New York Times revealed that officials within the Trump administration are pushing for a definition of the term "sex" in federal civil rights laws that would eliminate non-discrimination protections for transgender people. Transgender people and their families understandably panicked at that news. | The reality, though, is that transgender pe…
(2018-10-22). FRSO leader condemns Trump administration's attacks on transgender rights. fightbacknews.org Minneapolis, MN — Steff Yorek, the Political Secretary of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, sharply condemned the Trump administration, October 22, for orchestrating attacks on the democratic rights of transgender people. | According to widespread media reports, officials in the Trump admiration are moving to alter Title IX rules to exclude transgender people for any legal protections. | "The reactionary and right-wing bigots of the Trump administration are preparing an attack on the democratic rights of transgender people. They are attempting to erase people's existence, and roll back the framework fo…
(2018-10-22). Trump Admin Attempts to Erase Existence of Trans People After Years of GOP-Led Attacks on Freedoms. democracynow.org 
The New York Times reports that the Trump administration is attempting to eliminate the rights of transgender people by creating a narrow legal definition of gender. Citing a government memo, the Times reveals that the Department of Health and Human Services has undertaken an effort across several government agencies to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex. That definition would be either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals a person is born with. The Times reports that the memo says, "Sex means a pers…
(2018-10-19). Don't Board Our Buses Without Probable Cause or a Warrant. aclu.org The president of the Greyhound bus drivers' union urges management to stand up to Trump's deportation machine. | When I first started working at Greyhound 28 years ago, I was told that I would never be able to drive a bus. I'm a woman of color. But I got trained, and I became a bus driver. Soon after, I joined Local 1700 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, and today I am the local's president. | Local 1700 represents 3,500 Greyhound drivers, mechanics, and terminal workers. My job, as the president, is to advocate on behalf of our members for fair pay, safety, and wellbeing. But today, I'm advocating for our custom…