(2021-06-02). U.S. behind detention of Venezualan diplomat: Release Alex Saab! workers.org 
Editor notes: Sara Flounders is part of a humanitarian delegation to Cabo Verde, led by Cabo Verdean religious leader Bishop Filipe Teixeira of the Diocese Of Saint Francis of Assisi, Catholic Church of the Americas. The delegation has tasked itself with exposing the U.S. role in the kidnapping, torture and . . . |
(2021-06-02). US Moves Against Ethiopia and Eritrea: Atrocities Alleged, Sanctions Imposed (Interview). orinocotribune.com US hostilities towards Ethiopia and Eritrea look more and more like those preceding US wars in Yugoslavia, Libya, and Syria, writes Ann Garrison. | On May 20, the US Senate passed Senate Resolution 97 "calling on the Government of Ethiopia, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, and other belligerents in the conflict in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia to cease all hostilities, protect human rights, allow unfettered humanitarian access, and cooperate with independent investigations of credible atrocity allegations." The resolution also called on neighboring Eritrea to withdraw troops from Ethiopia. | On May 21, Camer…
(2021-06-02). Was Mark Ruffalo wrong to accuse Israel of Genocide? zcomm.org The precise characterization is less important than an acknowledgment that it is wrong to keep Palestinians in a condition of statelessness and without basic human rights…
(2021-06-02). Headlines for June 2, 2021. democracynow.org Biden Addresses Voting, Racial Wealth Gap as He Visits Tulsa Race Massacre Site on 100th Anniversary, 100+ Scholars Call for Congressional Action to Enact Federal Voting Rights Protections, Biden Ends Contested Trump-Era "Remain in Mexico" Policy, Rights Groups Call for End to Repressive, Invasive Technologies in Immigration Practices, Washington State's Most Populous County Bans Use of Facial Recognition Technology, Biden Administration Suspends Oil & Gas Leases in ANWR But Defends Massive "Willow" Project, Three Bombs Kill 10 People, Disable Electric Grid in Kabul, Sri Lanka Shoreline Coated in Plastic Debris f…
(2021-06-02). Bolivarian National Guard Detains Colombian Spy in Táchira. orinocotribune.com 
The Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) detained a member of the Armed Forces of Colombia in the border state of Táchira. According to sources, the detained individual was carrying out espionage operations within Venezuela. | According to a report from the GNB, the apprehended person, identified by the name of Jhorman Benjamín Ortega Tarazona, was incercepted by GNB personnel as he displayed "suspicious behavior" in the vicinity of a Citizen's Attention Post in Vega de Aza, a Venezuelan town located 68 kilometers away from the Colombian city of Cúcuta. | Identification documents of Jhorman Benjamín Ortega Tarazona, w…
(2021-06-02). Colombia's Partnership with NATO Allows It to Breach Human Rights Without Condemnation. globalresearch.ca Since Joe Biden's …
(2021-06-02). Syria's Truly Been a Site of World War, Their Vote for Peace & Against Foreign Interference Must be Respected. orinocotribune.com 
Daniel Kovalik teaches International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and is author of the Electing Assad for another term, Syrians have made an imperfect but rational choice, preferring their own leader over foreign fighters and governments who ruined the…
(2021-06-02). Hassan Diab is accused of a deadly explosion. Supporters say his continued persecution isn't justice. therealnews.com 
Roger Clark of the Hassan Diab Support Committee and author and human rights academic Monia Mazigh say officials based their case against Diab on problematic evidence.
(2021-06-02). Latest Law Pod UK episode: Bill Browder on the Magnitsky Act. ukhumanrightsblog.com 
In Episode 145, Emma-Louise Fenelon speaks to
(2021-06-02). Mexican Cartel Hunts Down Police Officers, Kills Them In Front Of Their Families. southfront.org 
Click to see full-size image | In Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) has started its own policy of terror. | The extremely violent organization has begun hunting police officers in their homes, abducting, torturing and ultimately killing them. | The cartel kidnapped several members of an elite police force in the state of Guanajuato, tortured them to obtain names and addresses of fellow officers and is now hunting down and killing police at their homes, on their days off, i…
(2021-06-02). Israel: Violence, hate speech, discrimination against Palestinian minority must stop — UN expert. juancole.com ( UN Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner) | GENEVA | — A UN human rights expert condemned attacks on Israel's Palestinian minority by extreme right-wing and vigilante groups, including settlers — at times with the reported backing of security forces — and urged Israel to fully and equally protect all of its citizens …
(2021-06-02). Dan Kovalik on Elections, Rebuilding and the Ongoing Proxy War in Syria. mintpressnews.com Despite the Western reaction, Assad, in power since 2000, looks set to govern for seven more years. His major task will be attempting to break armed opposition groups in Idlib and to repair a nation destroyed by 10 years of war and crippling sanctions.
(2021-06-02). United States Extends Authorization for Transactions with PDVSA—Made in USA Only. orinocotribune.com Washington extended the "licenses" of US companies Chevron Corp, Halliburton, Schlumberger Limited, Baker Hughes and Weatherford International to make transactions with Venezuela's state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). The licenses were extended until the end of the year, confirmed the United States Department of the Treasury, within the framework of illegal US sanctions. | In the midst of unilateral "sanctions" and an economic blockade against Venezuela, the "8H General License" extends until December 1, 2021 the deadline for some companies to reduce their activities with the state-owned Petról…
(2021-06-02). Activists protest Australia's role in arms trade, human rights abuses. greenleft.org.au Renee Lees reports that residents protested outside the site of the world's biggest arms dealers — Thales and BAE Systems — as part of the Disrupt Land Forces action.
(2021-06-01). Steven Donziger and Chris Hedges on Corporate Tyranny. scheerpost.com Read Chris Hedges' original piece on Steven Donziger's case and listen to Robert Scheer's interview with the environmental justice attorney on "Scheer Intelligence." On this week's "On Contact," Chris Hedges talks to Steven Donziger, the human rights environmental justice attorney about the grim reality exposed when we confront the real centers of power. Donziger has …
(2021-06-01). Rinse and Repeat: Will Biden Make Normalizing Relations With Cuba a Priority? mintpressnews.com Despite talk that his administration's Cuba policy will be guided by human rights concerns, Biden seems more concerned about catering to right-wing Cuban Americans in southern Florida than changing the decades of entrenched American policy.
(2021-06-01). Chris Hedges: "Dying for an iPhone" mintpressnews.com The suffering of the working class, within and outside the United States, is ignored by our corporatized media, and yet, it is one of the most important human rights issues of our era.
(2021-06-01). International #FreeAlexSaab Solidarity Delegation on Its Way to Cabo Verde. orinocotribune.com New York, June 1, 2021— The International #FreeAlexSaab Solidarity Committee emergency delegation is going to be in its way to Cabo Verde in the next hours to meet with kidnapped Venezuelan diplomat, Alex Saab, who has been held on isolation in the African island nation for the past year. The US is trying to extradite the Venezuelan diplomat for the "crime" of securing food for the hungry in "violation" of the illegal US sanctions. | Leading the humanitarian delegation is Cabo Verdean religious leader Bishop Felipe Teixeira, joined by Cabo Verdean politician Pericles Tavares along with human rights activist…
(2021-06-01). Rights Groups Call on Biden Administration to End 'Digital Prisons' for Immigrants. commondreams.org "The technologies that these programs employ only further entrench the criminalization of immigration and pose barriers to social and economic wellbeing," reads a new report about ICE's "Alternatives to Detention." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
(2021-06-01). No such thing as a ceasefire under occupation. therealnews.com 
As part of our ongoing series "Not in Our Name," we hear a poem from E. Ethelbert Miller. Host Marc Steiner also speaks with scholar and human rights defender Majed Abusalama, and civil rights activist Dorothy Zellner.
(2021-06-01). Lummi totem pole heads for nation's capital with appeal: Find missing women. peoplesworld.org 
PORT ANGELES, Wash.—Woodcarvers from the Lummi Tribe brought their 24-foot cedar totem pole to the North Olympic Peninsula for a ceremony here, urging President Joe Biden and Congress to take stronger measures to protect sacred places, the rights of the people, and to save salmon and orca whales and planet Earth itself. The totem's message …
(2021-06-01). Manchin Is Showing He Considers Filibuster More Important Than Voting Rights. truthout.org 
To Sen. Joe Manchin's
(2021-06-01). The Weekly Round-up: Further sanctions for Belarus and the end of the legal road for Hillsborough. ukhumanrightsblog.com 
In the news: The arrest of opposition activist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega in Minsk last Sunday, following the forced grounding of Ryanair flight FR4978 from Athens to Vilnius has captured headlines this week. Mr Protasevich is a former editor of Nexta, an online dissident group with the most popular Telegram messaging channel …
(2021-06-01). German Courts: more questioning of the legality of Coronavirus restrictions. ukhumanrightsblog.com 
On 28th of April I wrote up a judgment by Weimar District Court Judge Dettmar against masks and social distancing in schools, and his subsequent handling by the police and District Prosecutor. Judge Dettmar's decision of the 8th of April was overturned last week and the proceedings were discontinued. The same court had produced a …
(2021-06-01). A New Consensus Around Transparency and National Security Surveillance. aclu.org This piece first appeared in The opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) sometimes have far-reaching implications for Americans' privacy and free speech rights. Until very recently, though, the notion that the First Amendment should be understood to protect a qualified right of access to the FISC's opinions was popular only among a small coterie of civil libertarians. | But the world is different now. Among the intelligence community elite, there seem…
(2021-06-01). Strong Unions Make for Better Workplaces. progressive.org Biden is doing more to strengthen worker rights inside the federal government than any president in a generation.
(2021-06-01). Torture sites and mass graves reported in Colombia. popularresistance.org A May 23 report prepared by the human rights organization Justicia y Paz stated that fascistic paramilitary groups, which operate in concert with the far-right and US-backed regime of Colombian President Ivan Duque, have created torture sites and mass graves in an attempt to suppress protests in the city of Cali, which has been the epicenter of continuing countrywide demonstrations.
(2021-06-01). Kamloops discovery prompts call for framework to investigate mass graves. popularresistance.org The discovery of a mass grave at a former Kamloops residential school highlights the need for a formal, legal and human rights framework to investigate similar sites in Canada, says a B.C. legal scholar and advocate. | Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond heads the University of British Columbia's Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, and formerly served as the province's advocate for children and youth. | "A mass grave is a crime scene, it is not a historic site or a heritage site," Turpel-Lafond told Global News. | "It is well and past the time that Canada and provinces, they need to stop treating the find…
(2021-06-01). Nonprofit housing developer EBALDC attacks just cause tenant protections. indybay.org Oakland tenants facing eviction after a nonprofit housing developer violates their rights under just cause eviction protections a number of years ago.