(2021-08-11). Taliban Gains pose risk to fragile Legal Protections gained by Afghan Women: HRW. juancole.com ( Human Rights Watch) — (New York) — The Afghan government's failure to provide accountability for violence against women and girls has undermined progress to protect women's rights, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Gains by Taliban forces as the United States completes its troop withdrawal leaves the current Afghan state, and …
(2021-08-11). Palestinians Are Calling For International Support For Those Arrested In May. popularresistance.org The fund's aims are to provide legal representation for defendants and to support the detainees' families, "many of whom already live in dire socio-economic conditions, by ensuring that they do not have to bear the financial burden of these legal costs alone". The fund has already raised over $67k of its $307k goal. Palestinians who joined the May uprising were struggling against Israel's ongoing colonisation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land. They were fighting against racism and state brutality, and for freedom and autonomy. They deserve our support.
(2021-08-11). New Iranian Missile Shipment Arrived In Syria's Deir Ezzor: Monitoring Group. southfront.org 
Iranian-backed forces massing around Deir Ezzor city. | A new Iranian missile shipment had arrived in the eastern Syrian governorate of Deir Ezzor coming from Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on August 11. | According to the London-based monitoring group, the missiles were hidden in trucks which were carrying a shipment vegetables as a decoy. The trucks unloaded its decoy cargo in the al-Hal market in al-Mayadin in southern Deir Ezzor before heading to al-Shibli remains in the outskirts…
(2021-08-11). Ethiopian And Eritrean Troops Raped Thousands Of Women During Offensive On Tigray: Amnesty International. southfront.org 
Click to see full-size image | Ethiopian and Eritrean troops have raped hundreds of women and girls during the Tigray war, subjecting some to sexual slavery and mutilation. | Human rights group Amnesty International released a report [ It is mostly based on interviews with 63 survivors, and it provides some insight into a scourge already being investigated by Ethiopian law enforcement officials, with a…
(2021-08-11). 3 Iraqis die after allegedly being tortured during detention. peoplesdispatch.org The report of these deaths comes just days after a UN report accused Iraqi and Kurdistan regional government officials of torture and ill treatment of detainees on a large scale…
(2021-08-11). Thursday 8/26: Defending the Displaced: Border Justice & Migrant Rights. indybay.org Online event (FREE)…
(2021-08-11). Tuesday 8/17: Santa Cruz: Rally & March to Demand DACA & Immigrant Citizenship Pathway Rights Now! indybay.org Town Clock at N. Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, then march to office of Congressman Jimmy Panetta | Wear a mask. Please follow all current COVID safety guidelines: covid19.ca.gov/…
(2021-08-11). "The End of Neoliberalism": Rep. Ro Khanna Hails "Historic" $3.5 Trillion Budget Plan. democracynow.org 
Senate Democrats passed a $3.5 trillion budget resolution early Wednesday morning that would vastly expand the social safety net, increase taxes on the rich and corporations, improve worker rights and include measures to combat the climate crisis. The budget blueprint passed 50-49, less than 24 hours after a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill was approved 69-30 in the Senate. Both spending packages now go to the House of Representatives, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated she will not bring the bipartisan bill to the House floor unless the reconciliation bill is considered at the same time. Califo…
(2021-08-11). TX Voting Rights Fight Takes Ugly Turn as House GOP Vote to Arrest Dem Lawmakers. truthout.org 
Texas lawmakers in the state's House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to order state law enforcement to forcibly return Democrats to the legislative chamber, including potentially arresting them, in order to force a vote on implementing restrictive voting provisions in future elections in the state. |
(2021-08-11). Poll: Majority of US Voters Want Biden to 'Fight' for Key Voting Rights Bill. commondreams.org "Maybe instead of boosting oil production, President Biden should have pushed for more electric vehicle and transit spending in the infrastructure bill?"
(2021-08-11). 'A Five-Alarm Voting Rights Fire': Senate Urged to Fight Back After GOP Blocks For the People Act Again. commondreams.org
(2021-08-11). Texas House Speaker Signs Arrest Warrants for 52 Democrats Who Fled to DC Over Voting Bill. sputniknews.com Last month, 52 Texas Democrats fled the state in an attempt to block a vote on an election bill that envisaged tougher voting requirements – a measure Democrats view as harming minorities and abusing voting rights.
(2021-08-11). Tennessee Compiled Secret Dossiers on Civil Rights Protesters. commondreams.org "In their assault on public education, the network has taken actions to increasingly privatize and corporatize K-12 institutions."
(2021-08-10). Covid & Capitalism: Millions Of Families In The U.S. Facing Imminent Eviction. liberationnews.org 
Brian Becker, Esther Iverem, Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek discuss the battle over the fate of millions of people in the United States facing eviction as the movement for housing rights gains momentum. Meanwhile, the new COVID wave worsens, the Taliban seized a series of key cities in Afghanistan, and more.
(2021-08-10). A Shocking List of 52 Zionist- & Apartheid Israeli-Nazi Germany Comparisons. orinocotribune.com By Dr Gideon Polya — Aug 7, 2021 | The cruel and genocidal oppression of the Indigenous Palestinians by nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run and genocidally racist Apartheid Israel invites comparison with the cruelties of Nazi Germany. However such comparisons made by anti-racist Jewish and non-Jewish humanitarians invite false and defamatory Zionist assertions of racism and anti-Semitism. To counter this, provided below is a shocking and detailed list of 52 Zionist- and Apartheid Israeli-Nazi Germany comparisons. | The following 52-item list of appalling abuses and human rights violations by genocidally ra…
(2021-08-10). If the US Really Cared About Freedom in Cuba, it Would End its Punishing Sanctions. orinocotribune.com By Helen Yaffe — Aug 4, 2021 | The violent protests that
(2021-08-10). United States: Biden panders to right-wing Cuban Americans. greenleft.org.au United States president Joe Biden has imposed further sanctions on Cuba — targetting two leaders of the Cuban national police as well as the organisation as a whole, reports Ian Ellis-Jones.
(2021-08-10). The CIA's outsourced torture is lost to history. mronline.org 
The CIA's notorious practice of kidnapping and displacement gave birth to…
(2021-08-10). In the Shadow of the Blockade: Stories of Resistance from El Maizal Commune (Part I). orinocotribune.com 
First-hand accounts of the impact of the US sanctions on one of Venezuela's flagship communes. | El Maizal Commune lies in the fertile lands between the Lara and Portuguesa states in western Venezuela. Founded in 2009, this rural commune has since become an important political and economic force in both the region and the country. It not only produces huge amounts of corn every year, but also raises cattle and pigs, along with a growing number of additional side enterprises. Most importantly, El Maizal Commune forges new social relations and new human beings: people committed to the socialist project that Chávez…
(2021-08-10). Poland's disciplinary chamber for judges threatens rule of law — ECJ. ukhumanrightsblog.com 
I have posted on the extraordinary goings-on in Thuringen, Germany where two Weimar judges, one family and one administrative, have been subject to searches by the public prosecutor's office following their respective rulings containing comments critical of the various lockdown and testing measures during the C-19 pandemic. You can find my posts here, here and …
(2021-08-10). The Ballot or the Brick: On Elizabeth Hinton's 'America on Fire' and Vicky Osterweil's 'In Defense of Looting'. mronline.org 
Two new books trace anti-police uprisings to the urban riots of the Civil Rights era. But as twenty million people took to the streets in 2020, why did so few pick up a brick? And would the movement to which they belong be better off if they had?>
(2021-08-10). Moroccan journalist ends hunger strike against illegal detention after 122 days. peoplesdispatch.org Soulaimane Raissouni's trial has been called "unfair" and one of the many "arbitrary and abusive prosecutions" by the Moroccan authorities against journalists critical of the government…
(2021-08-10). This Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Is a Drop in the Bucket of What Is Needed. commondreams.org "We have seen time and time again that where racial justice protests flourish, anti-protest laws follow. And we know that police and prosecutors don't need more tools or power to abuse our constitutional rights."
(2021-08-10). Tuesday 8/10: Voting Rights Now! Democracy Can't Wait Virtual Rally & Actions. indybay.org Virtual rally and voting rights actions event…
(2021-08-10). Sanctions May Impoverish Nicaraguans, But are Unlikely to Change Their Votes. counterpunch.org In 1985, when President Reagan declared Nicaragua "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," his words were followed by a trade blockade, a ban on commercial flights and—most seriously of all—the financing of the "Contra" war, which led to 30,000 deaths. When, 33 years later, Donald
(2021-08-10). Sanctions May Impoverish Nicaraguans, But is Unlikely to Change Their Votes. counterpunch.org In 1985, when President Reagan declared Nicaragua "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States," his words were followed by a trade blockade, a ban on commercial flights and—most seriously of all—the financing of the "Contra" war, which led to 30,000 deaths. When, 33 years later, Donald