(2019-08-16). Ernest Coverson on Guns & Human Rights, Carey Gillam Under Attack From Monsanto. fair.org 
Media…
(2019-08-16). Israel Fears a Visit by Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. counterpunch.org On July 16, Somali-American Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, together with Representatives John Lewis and Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib, introduced bill HR-496 which is meant to affirm Americans' "right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad, as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution". Though not explicitly mentioned, HR-496 is at least More
(2019-08-16). Israel bans Representatives Omar and Tlaib from entering Palestine. fightbacknews.org Minneapolis, MN – U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) have joined the ranks of thousands of human rights activists and millions of diaspora Palestinians who have been denied entry to Palestine by the occupying Israeli regime. | Reps. Omar and Tlaib had planned a congressional trip to the West Bank for next week, initially agreed to by the Israeli regime "out of respect for the U.S. Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America." However, on August 15 Israel announced a reversal of its previous decision and banned the delegation's entrance. | The announcement came…
(2019-08-16). #CloseTheCamps: Protest by Public Health & Healthcare Workers for Migrant Rights. indybay.org Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 630 Sansome St, San Francisco 94111…
(2019-08-16). #CloseTheCamps: Protest by Healthcare & Harm Reduction Workers for Migrant Rights. indybay.org Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), | 630 Sansome St, San Francisco 94111…
(2019-08-16). Rashida Tlaib Blasts Israel for 'Oppressive Conditions'. telesurenglish.net U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib blasted Israel on Friday for imposing "oppressive conditions" on her visit to the occupied West Bank. | RELATED: | Israel Reverses Ban on US Congresswoman Tlaib | Israel, who was conditionally allowing Tlaib to visit the occupied West Bank, issued a list of demands for the U.S. congresswoman that prohibited her from promoting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) during her stay. | The U.S. congresswoman, in turn, said she would not visit her family there…
(2019-08-16). US Waging Wars on Multiple Fronts: Cold Wars, Hot Wars, Economic Wars, Propaganda Wars … globalresearch.ca Supported by both hawkish wings of its war party, the US is waging hot wars, cold wars, economic wars, financial wars, trade wars, anti-social justice wars, anti-human rights wars, anti-democracy wars, propaganda wars, sanctions wars, tariffs wars, protest wars, homeland …
(2019-08-16). Punishing the World with Sanctions. Intended to Cause Real Pain. globalresearch.ca Sanctions are economic warfare, pure and simple. As an alternative to a direct military attack on a country that is deemed to be misbehaving they are certainly preferable, but no one should be under any illusions regarding what they actually …
(2019-08-16). Ideas from hell: The far right's weaponized conspiracy theories. nationofchange.org Since the end of April, there have been three mass shootings that can be directly tied to white nationalism. The victims of these white supremacist terrorist attacks were almost all from minority communities, including Jewish people at a synagogue in Poway, California, Muslims in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand and most recently Latinx people …
(2019-08-16). Austerity without End. Neoliberal Reforms and Labour Rights. globalresearch.ca In 2019, the now 187-member International Labour Organization celebrated its 100th anniversary. As one of the oldest agencies of the United Nations, the ILO used the occasion to renew calls for improved opportunities and working conditions, social protections and collective …
(2019-08-16). How Federal Policies Dispossessed Black Americans of Millions of Acres. truthout.org | | Over the 20th century, black people in the U.S. were dispossessed of 12 million acres of land. Half of that loss — 6 million acres — occurred over just two decades, from 1950 to 1969, a period largely associated with the civil rights struggle. This mass land dispossession, which affected 98% of black agricultural land owners, is part of the pattern of institutional racism and discrimination that has contributed to the racial wealth gap in the United States. Many of the driving force…
(2019-08-16). The Great Land Robbery: How Federal Policies Dispossessed Black Americans of Millions of Acres. democracynow.org 
Over the 20th century, black people in the U.S. were dispossessed of 12 million acres of land. Half of that loss — 6 million acres — occurred over just two decades, from 1950 to 1969, a period largely associated with the civil rights struggle. This mass land dispossession, which affected 98% of black agricultural land owners, is part of the pattern of institutional racism and discrimination that has contributed to the racial wealth gap in the United States. Many of the driving forces behind this land theft were legal and originated in federal policies, as documented by Vann Newkirk, staff writer at Th…
(2019-08-16). Refusing to Be Humiliated, Rashida Tlaib Rejects Israel's Restrictive Conditions on Visiting Palestine. commondreams.org "What Israel proposed to Rashida Tlaib was their age-old proposition: you can stay in your homeland as a humanitarian exception—without political rights—and on condition you surrender and cease to resist." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-08-16). After Public Outcry, Trump EPA Reverses Approval for Using 'Cyanide Bombs' to Kill US Wildlife. commondreams.org Conservation and animal rights advocates celebrated a rare Trump era victory Thursday after the Environmental Protection Agency reversed its approval of so-called "cyanide bombs" to kill wildlife on public lands, a decision made last week that provoked impassioned public outcry. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-08-16). Critics Denounce Trump's "Dangerous" Claim That Locking Away Americans With Mental Illnesses Is the Answer to Gun Violence. commondreams.org In comments that highlighted President Donald Trump's refusal to take meaningful action on gun control, his desire to demonize and detain vulnerable people, and his attacks on Americans' healthcare, the president repeated his claim on Thursday that people with mental illnesses are the cause of the country's epidemic of gun violence. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2019-08-16). New Trump Rule Allows Federal Contractors to Fire LGBTQ Employees. truthout.org | | Shortly after Donald Trump took office, he officially declared that his administration was "determined to protect the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community," following on his campaign promise to "do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology." (That would be a not-so-coded reference to Islam.) Despite such rhetorical gestures, Trump's administration can hardly be described as pro-LGBT. | On Wednesday, the De…
(2019-08-15). Truck Rams Anti-ICE Protest in Rhode Island. therealnews.com 
A corrections officer struck Never Again protestors with his truck outside of the Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island, hospitalizing two while other protestors were pepper sprayed by police. Update: A Captain involved in the incident was placed on leave pending an independent investigation, officials say…
(2019-08-15). Protesters Crash ALEC Conference to Resist Bill Criminalizing Pipeline Activists. truthout.org | | Four protesters with the Austin chapter of Extinction Rebellion were briefly detained and released Thursday after three activists disrupted a private lunch session inside the JW Marriott hotel in downtown Austin, where the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is holding its annual conference this week. Two other activists disrupted the event on the hotel's fourth and second floors. | Inside a private ballroom, the activists chanted and dropped a banner reading "People & Pla…
(2019-08-15). Google Employees Protest Proposed Contract With ICE, CBP. truthdig.com In a lengthy Medium post, more than 600 pledge not to work with the government agencies "until they stop engaging in human rights abuses."
(2019-08-15). Damning new evidence is yet another reason why selling arms to Saudi Arabia is illegal. thecanary.co New evidence that shows the Saudi-led coalition is breaking humanitarian law in Yemen has been published by the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Mwatana for Human Rights (Mwatana). Its research shows that the coalition: has continued to carry out apparently unlawful attacks throughout the course of the conflict, failed to credibly investigate, and whitewashed signif…
(2019-08-15). The US is already interfering in the upcoming Venezuelan elections. uwidata.com US President Donald Trump has maintained strong economic pressure against Venezuela, having signed numerous decrees blocking the assets of the Venezuelan authorities within US jurisdiction. Giants such as the Central Bank of Venezuela and the state-owned oil company PDVSA were also included in the sanctions list. Now, Washington has announced it will even impose sanctions …
(2019-08-15). Planned Parenthood demands federal court intervene to stop trump attack on abortion rights and Title X program. nationofchange.org Planned Parenthood warned Wednesday that, without intervention from a federal court, it will be forced out of the Title X Family Planning Program next week because of the Trump administration's ban on health clinics receiving federal tax dollars if they provide or refer patients for abortions. The Health and Human Services Department declared last month it would …
(2019-08-15). The Challenges of Breastfeeding as a Black Person. aclu.org How our workplaces and healthcare system create barriers to breastfeeding. | The fight to protect individual choices about reproductive care, including breastfeeding, is an ongoing battle. The central lesson of the reproductive justice movement is that choice means little without access. That lesson applies equally to breastfeeding. | Though laws, in the workplace and other contexts, are in place to protect the right to breastfeed, many low-income women and w…
(2019-08-15). Brazil: 8 Bodies Found in Secret Mass Grave Used by Rio Militia. telesurenglish.net Police and firefighters discovered Wednesday eight bodies in a clandestine cemetery used by far-right militias in Belford Roxo, a poor municipality ravaged by violence which is located at the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region. | RELATED: | Brazil: 100,000 Daisies in Defense of Working Women's Rights | Bullet wounds were identified on most bodies, some of which were also dismembered, Commissioner Moyses Santana Gomes said to local media. | The discovery of the Belford Roxo grave, w…
(2019-08-15). UK Snubs Trump, Orders Release of Iranian Oil Tanker. telesurenglish.net Gibraltar decided Thursday to free the Iranian oil tanker Grace 1, detained off the British overseas territory six weeks ago by Royal Marines, paving the way for a possible swap for a British-flagged tanker seized by Iran in the Gulf. | RELATE: | US Demands UK Hand Over Seized Iran Oil Tanker | The two tankers have become pawns in the standoff between Iran and the West, their fate tangled up in the diplomatic differences between the EU's big powers and the United States. | The Grace 1 was sei…
(2019-08-15). Truck drives into protesters blocking entrance to ICE detention center (VIDEO). rt.com 
A video made by protesters shows the moment a pickup truck drives into sit-in demonstrators blocking the street entrance to an ICE detention center in Rhode Island. A crowd starts banging on the car then gets pepper-sprayed.
(2019-08-15). Prison Guard Drives Truck Into Crowd of Peaceful Anti-ICE Protesters. truthdig.com 
Activists who were sitting at the entry to the detention facility's parking lot in Rhode Island are shaken but remain as committed as ever.
(2019-08-14). Labor's problem: Overcoming Mitch McConnell's blockade. peoplesworld.org 
WASHINGTON — Worker rights. Clean elections. Campaign finance reform. Stronger job safety and health laws. Restoring the right to vote and banning voter suppression. Collective bargaining rights for public workers. Raising the minimum wage. Putting financially troubled multi-employer pension plans on fiscally sound footings without severely slashing benefits. The Green New Deal. What do all …
(2019-08-14). 40 Percent of ICE Detainees Held in Solitary Confinement Have a Mental Illness, New Report Finds. theintercept.com The report from the Project on Government Oversight builds on an ICIJ and Intercept investigation into ICE's widespread use of solitary confinement.
(2019-08-14). "River of Fire": In New Memoir, Sister Helen Prejean Reflects on Decades of Fighting Executions. democracynow.org 
The Trump administration is moving ahead with plans to resume the death penalty after a more than 15-year moratorium. This week Attorney General William Barr proposed fast-tracking executions in mass murder cases, and last month ordered the execution of five death row prisoners beginning in December. The federal government has executed just three people since 1963 — the last being in 2003. The death penalty is widely condemned by national governments, international bodies and human rights groups across the world. Experts say capital punishment does not help deter homicides and that errors and racism in the…
(2019-08-13). SPLC joins brief opposing Kansas law targeting immigrants. splcenter.org The SPLC and 29 worker and immigrant rights organizations filed an amicus brief today urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a court decision stating that a Kansas identity theft law cannot be used to turn local law enforcement into immigration agents.
(2019-08-13). Tuesday's Daily Brief: Hong Kong airport disruption, Geneva Conventions at 70, new Ebola drug, French fighters in Iraq, Mediterranean migrant and Aden updates. un.org Our main stories today cover: Human rights chief on chaos at Hong Kong airport; Geneva Conventions have been 'limiting brutality' for 70 years; breakthrough drug in DR Congo Ebola fight; France pushed to repatriate nationals on death row in Iraq; 'Race against time" for migrants in Mediterranean…
(2019-08-13). 'Act with restraint' UN human rights chief urges Hong Kong authorities and protestors, following airport disruption. un.org After two consecutive days of chaos at Hong Kong International Airport, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Michelle Bachelet expressed her concern and condemned "any form" of violence or destruction of property and urged the demonstrators to "express their views in a peaceful way".
(2019-08-13). On the 3-month anniversary of his death, community rallies for #Justice4Jalen. fightbacknews.org Jacksonville, FL – On August 2, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) and the family of Jalen Mays held a vigil to remember his life on the three-month anniversary of his death. At the vigil, the protesters chanted, "Justice for Jalen." | The family has been calling for accountability and transparency since his death on the morning of May 2, at Orange Park Medical Center. His death occurred a day after being detained after what is believed to be a violent arrest by Jacksonville Sheriff's Officers S.R Maddox and M.J Reddish. Those two officers had previously been placed on administrative leave accordi…
(2019-08-13). Expanding Involuntary Confinement is Not the Answer to Solve Gun Violence. aclu.org Institutionalizing people against their will is usually a mistake. | In the wake of last weekend's tragic shootings, President Trump did what he does best: stoked fear and cast blame. He proclaimed that "we must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people, not only get treatment, but when necessary, involuntary confinement." | There are two things wrong with the idea of involuntary commitment as a solution to gun violence. First, focusing on people with identifiable mental disabilities won't help. The data is clear: men…
(2019-08-13). Unequal Justice: John Roberts' Dark Legacy of Voter Suppression. progressive.org Plaintiffs are litigating voting rights cases in Alabama, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, and several other states. Some will succeed, some will fail, but all will be more uncertain and expensive thanks to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
(2019-08-12). U.S. starts blockade of Venezuela. fightbacknews.org Chicago, IL – On August 6, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton attended a gathering of representatives from the right-wing governments of Latin America. There, he announced the next stage in the U.S. campaign to defeat the Bolivarian Revolution: A total blockade of Venezuela. All U.S. citizens are banned from doing business with "the Maduro regime," and any company – U.S. or international – that does business with the Venezuelan government will be subject to fines, asset seizures and sanctions. While the announcement did not include the immediate deployment of the U.S. Navy to enforce the blockade, Bolton…
(2019-08-12). Venezuela Secures New Chinese Oil Investment. venezuelanalysis.com The move defies the US embargo's secondary sanction provisions targeting foreign firms trading with Venezuela.
(2019-08-12). Trump admin sabotages Iran diplomacy at every turn. thegrayzone.com With its recent sanctions on Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Trump administration continues to undermine any possibility of diplomacy…
(2019-08-11). Israel's Flagship Lobby Organization Collapses. therealnews.com 
Richard Silverstein discusses the fall of The Israel Project (TIP), the best-funded organization promoting pro-Israeli propaganda in the United States and around the world. Why did TIP collapse and what does this mean for organizing around Palestinian rights?
(2019-08-09). Over 132,400 Opposed Trump's Anti-Trans Health Care Plan. aclu.org A proposed rule would undermine protections for transgender people and others facing discriminatory denials of health care and insurance coverage. | The Trump Administration has shown it will stop at nothing to undermine access to health care for marginalized communities. Most recently, the Administration has proposed to undermine critical protections against sex discrimination in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the Health Care Rights Law. Instead of combatting discrimination in accessing health care a…
(2019-08-08). Fordham U students win fight to have Palestine rights club. liberationnews.org 
On Aug. 5, Justice Nancy Bannon of the Supreme Court of the State of New York annulled Fordham University's decision to ban Students for Justice in Palestine from its campus.
(2019-08-07). Headlines for August 7, 2019. democracynow.org Dems and Grieving Communities Voice Resistance to Trump Visits to El Paso and Dayton, FBI Investigating Gilroy Mass Shooting as Domestic Terror, Dems Call on Congressional Leaders to Pass Bills Addressing White Supremacy, Civil Rights Groups Rally Against Gun Violence and White Supremacy at White House, Walmart Workers Plan Walkout to Protest Gun Sales, Toni Morrison, Visionary Author and Nobel Laureate, Dies at 88, Nigerian Journalist and Political Activist Omoyele Sowore Arrested After Calling for Revolution, U.S Warns Turkey Against Syria Attacking Kurdish Forces in Syria, 25% of World's Population Under "Extr…
(2019-08-06). Washington Escalates Venezuela Sanctions into Full-Fledged Embargo. venezuelanalysis.com The latest measures amount to a total trade embargo impacting both US and foreign entities.
(2019-08-05). New Civil Rights Memorial to be installed on 54th anniversary of Voting Rights Act. splcenter.org Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten and shot by Alabama state troopers during a peaceful voting rights march on Feb. 18, 1965.
(2019-08-01). US Sanctions Iran's Foreign Minister; Move Seen as Rebuke of Diplomatic Offer. theantimedia.com The latest US sanctions on Iran are very specific, hitting FM Javad Zarif, blocking all property and financial interests he has in the US.
(2019-07-30). NYC power outage reveals a profit-hungry and racist system. liberationnews.org 
Electricity, transportation, decent water and other services are basic human rights.
(2019-07-25). Hawaiians are Taking to the Streets and Exercising their First Amendment Rights. aclu.org We're ensuring the right to protest and cultural access at the world's tallest mountain. | Driving up Daniel K. Inouye Highway on the Big Island of Hawai'i at 4: 30 in the morning is a sight few will forget: a silent, pitch-black road, with black lava and sparse trees. The dark air is a chilly 50 degrees. In our backpacks are packaged tuna, crackers, water, walkie talkies, and a voice recorder. However, the most important items are without a doubt our blue ACLU of Hawai'i legal observer vests and first aid kit, which is stocked with goods like antacid (to rinse our eyes of pepper spray) and earbuds. Sitting in the…
(2019-07-25). Venezuela: US Sanctions Target Subsidized Food Program as Foro de Sao Paulo Kicks Off. venezuelanalysis.com Washington has targeted companies and individuals it alleges are profiteering from the CLAP food initiative.
(2019-07-23). Non-Aligned Movement Condemns US Sanctions Against Venezuela. venezuelanalysis.com The 120-member movement held a ministerial meeting in Caracas as a US spy jet reportedly violated Venezuelan airspace.