(2023-02-15). Headlines for February 15, 2023. democracynow.org U.N. Aid Trucks Enter Earthquake-Stricken NW Syria as Combined Death Toll with Turkey Tops 41,000, U.N. Seeks $5.6 Billion for Ukraine War Relief as NATO Says Russia's Latest Offensive Is Underway, Israeli Soldier Attacks Palestinian Activist Issa Amro During Intv with Reporter Lawrence Wright, Biden Admin Withdraws Nomination of Human Rights Attorney for Condemning Israeli Apartheid, India Orders Search of BBC Offices After Release of Documentary Critical of Narendra Modi, Papuan Independence Fighters Hold New Zealand Pilot Hostage, Demand Freedom from Indonesia, New Zealand Minister Slams Inaction on Clim…
(2023-02-14). President Petro: Peru's Security Forces Behaving Like Nazis. orinocotribune.com 
This weekend, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, described the Peruvian police as "Nazis" for killing their own people. | "In Peru, they stomp their own people, like Nazis, breaking the American Convention on Human Rights," said the president of Colombia. | In this sense, President Petro demanded that all governments in America, including the United States, apply the American Convention on Human Rights; since "it should not be applied only to leftist governments. Drop your double standards." | El Presidente de Colombia Gustavo Petro contra el silencio de los medios: "La Policía del Perú marcha como nazis c…
(2023-02-14). Israeli Far Right Ramping Up Violence Against Palestinian Prisoners, Human Rights Defenders. mintpressnews.com Israel is engaging in a strategy to "Judaize" East Jerusalem, the Galilee and the Naqab to make the areas more attractive to Jewish residents, with the hope of forcing Palestinians out.
(2023-02-14). Human rights complaints mount against Bukele's state of exception in El Salvador. wsws.org The massive scale of the roundups is comparable to those carried out by the military dictatorships in Central and South America during the 1970s and 1980s.
(2023-02-14). Communist Party of Swaziland Continues Campaign to Boycott 'Farcical' Elections Despite Arrests and Torture. libya360.wordpress.com Pavan Kulkarni Bongi Mamba (Right) and Mvuselelo Mkhabela (Center) after being released. Photo: Communist Party of Swaziland) In Swaziland, only individuals approved by the local chiefs of King Mswati III can contest elections, and the parliament cannot hold the monarchy accountable. Pro-democracy activists have been calling for a boycott of the elections which are scheduled…
(2023-02-14). Dozens Of Texas Prisoners Are Hunger Striking Against Solitary Confinement. popularresistance.org Across the US, some 50,000 incarcerated people are kept under conditions of solitary confinement. Advocates and prisoners have pushed to define the practice as a form of torture, pointing to the devastating psychological and physical effects it has on victims. In Texas, dozens of prisoners are now hunger striking against the use of solitary confinement in the state's prisons, which they say disproportionately targets Latinos. Jorge Antonio Renaud, National Criminal Justice Director of Latino Justice, joins Rattling the Bars to discuss the hunger strike and conditions of solitary confinement in Texas.
(2023-02-15). Headlines for February 15, 2023. democracynow.org U.N. Aid Trucks Enter Earthquake-Stricken NW Syria as Combined Death Toll with Turkey Tops 41,000, U.N. Seeks $5.6 Billion for Ukraine War Relief as NATO Says Russia's Latest Offensive Is Underway, Israeli Soldier Attacks Palestinian Activist Issa Amro During Intv with Reporter Lawrence Wright, Biden Admin Withdraws Nomination of Human Rights Attorney for Condemning Israeli Apartheid, India Orders Search of BBC Offices After Release of Documentary Critical of Narendra Modi, Papuan Independence Fighters Hold New Zealand Pilot Hostage, Demand Freedom from Indonesia, New Zealand Minister Slams Inaction on Clim…
(2023-02-14). President Petro: Peru's Security Forces Behaving Like Nazis. orinocotribune.com This weekend, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, described the Peruvian police as "Nazis" for killing their own people. | "In Peru, they stomp their own people, like Nazis, breaking the American Convention on Human Rights," said the president of Colombia. | In this sense, President Petro demanded that all governments in America, including the United States, apply the American Convention on Human Rights; since "it should not be applied only to leftist governments. Drop your double standards." | El Presidente de Colombia Gustavo Petro contra el silencio de los medios: "La Policía del Perú marcha como nazis c…
(2023-02-14). Israeli Far Right Ramping Up Violence Against Palestinian Prisoners, Human Rights Defenders. mintpressnews.com Israel is engaging in a strategy to "Judaize" East Jerusalem, the Galilee and the Naqab to make the areas more attractive to Jewish residents, with the hope of forcing Palestinians out.
(2023-02-14). Human rights complaints mount against Bukele's state of exception in El Salvador. wsws.org The massive scale of the roundups is comparable to those carried out by the military dictatorships in Central and South America during the 1970s and 1980s.
(2023-02-14). Communist Party of Swaziland Continues Campaign to Boycott 'Farcical' Elections Despite Arrests and Torture. libya360.wordpress.com Pavan Kulkarni Bongi Mamba (Right) and Mvuselelo Mkhabela (Center) after being released. Photo: Communist Party of Swaziland) In Swaziland, only individuals approved by the local chiefs of King Mswati III can contest elections, and the parliament cannot hold the monarchy accountable. Pro-democracy activists have been calling for a boycott of the elections which are scheduled…
(2023-02-14). Dozens Of Texas Prisoners Are Hunger Striking Against Solitary Confinement. popularresistance.org Across the US, some 50,000 incarcerated people are kept under conditions of solitary confinement. Advocates and prisoners have pushed to define the practice as a form of torture, pointing to the devastating psychological and physical effects it has on victims. In Texas, dozens of prisoners are now hunger striking against the use of solitary confinement in the state's prisons, which they say disproportionately targets Latinos. Jorge Antonio Renaud, National Criminal Justice Director of Latino Justice, joins Rattling the Bars to discuss the hunger strike and conditions of solitary confinement in Texas.
(2023-02-15). Webinar on Alex Saab case, Feb. 16. iacenter.org February 14, 2023 By National Lawyers Guild International Committee Caracas, Venezuela. 'Free Alex Saab.' Join the National Lawyers Guild International Committee Thursday, Feb. 16, at 7 p.m. EST (4 p.m. PST) for a webinar on the case of Alex Saab, the Venezuelan diplomat currently imprisoned in a U.S. federal detention center. Saab faces charges that are directly related to defiance of the U.S. attempt to impose regime change on Venezuela through the use of illegitimate, unilateral, coercive measures (sanctions). Recently, a delegation of two NLG and International Association of Democratic Lawyers members visited…
(2023-02-15). California Tribes, E.J. group file comments on voluntary water agreements with the State Water Board. indybay.org "As long as the state upholds historic water rights, that we all know to be racist and unfair, we will continue to have first- and second-class California communities," said Dillon Delvo, Executive Director, Little Manila.
(2023-02-15). Christian Democrats gain in repeat elections to Berlin State parliament. peoplesdispatch.org The conservative Christian Democratic Union emerged as the single largest party in Berlin even as the incumbent Social Democrats-Greens-Die Linke coalition retained its majority. Housing rights groups have urged the new State parliament in Berlin ensure the socialization of large housing stocks which was approved in a referendum in 2021…
(2023-02-14). Police Accountability Is A 'Non-Starter' Without Discarding The Qualified Immunity Doctrine. popularresistance.org Some reps in Congress assert that dismantling qualified immunity ("QI")—a police officer's so-called good faith defense to a civil rights lawsuit—is a "non-starter" in negotiations to pass the George Floyd Civil Rights Act. In reality, meaningful police accountability is a non-starter without discarding QI. | QI is a regressive framework which has turned federal civil rights lawsuits into sheer games of chance with bad odds. Under QI, the Supreme Court instructs judges to apply a two-pronged analysis, in a specific order: first to examine whether the right sought to be vindicated was clearly-establish…
(2023-02-14). UN envoy backs the rights of the child. ecns.cn A Chinese envoy to the United Nations on Monday emphasized the rights of the child and called for the international community to shield children from harm.
(2023-02-14). 'The Memphis 7' stand up to Starbucks with the help of Bernie Sanders. peoplesworld.org 
WASHINGTON—Sen. Bernie Sanders wants Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to explain why he illegally fired Narbetta Hardin last year—two weeks after Martin Luther King's Birthday. To Hardin, it's very plain: She's one of the "Memphis 7," fired for standing up for her rights and trying to organize the union at her store, with aid from Starbucks …
(2023-02-14). Special Drawing Rights: Development Without the Debt Trap? w/ Andres Arauz. thealtworld.com Andrés Arauz, former Ecuadorian presidential candidate, central banker and research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, joins the show to discuss how Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) could be the solution to the Debt Crisis stalking the Global South. SDRs are a special IMF currency that can be traded for hard currency, providing a much-needed injection of liquidity for countries, without adding to debt burdens.
(2023-02-14). Headlines for February 14, 2023. democracynow.org Syria Agrees to Open Two More Border Crossings as Earthquake Death Toll Tops 37,000, CDC Warns U.S. Teen Girls Are "Engulfed in a Growing Wave of Violence and Trauma", Gunman Found Dead After Killing 3, Injuring 5 at Michigan State University, Nikki Haley Enters Race for 2024 Republican Presidential Nomination, Derailed Ohio Train Released More Toxic Chemicals Than Initially Reported, WHO Warns of Potential Human-to-Human Spread as Bird Flu Spills Over to Mammals, Guatemalan Rights Defenders Challenge Ban from Presidential Ballot, Family Says Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda Was Poisoned After Pinochet’…
(2023-02-15). US Says There're 'No Discussions' on Reviving Iran Nuclear Deal. news.antiwar.com The State Department said Monday that the US has not engaged in any discussions on reviving the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, in the latest sign that the crippling economic sanctions on Iran aren't going anywhere. "There has been no discussion of resuscitating the JCPOA. That is not on the agenda. It hasn't …
(2023-02-14). Sanctioning Syrians Under the Rubble. strategic-culture.org By some estimates, there are many more thousands of bodies still under the rubble as the death toll from last week's catastrophic earthquake in Turkey and Syria soars past 34,000. The quake and tremors that followed resulted in an additional 80,000 injured being treated in hospitals and well over a million left homeless across an impact zone twelve times the size of Belgium.
(2023-02-14). Venezuela Voices Solidarity with Syria & Turkey as Earthquake Rescue Missions Continue. venezuelanalysis.com Syrian President Bashar al-Assad expressed his gratitude for the aid from the Venezuelan people despite also suffering from US sanctions.
(2023-02-14). Sanctions Keep Syrians Under Rubble—MES EP.197. thealtworld.com Today, the United States of America is the hub of global savagery, the source of absolute evil, and the real repository of terrorism that usurps peoples. After years of directing armed terrorist groups and seeking funding from Persian Gulf oil farms to destroy Syria, its infrastructure and foundations of the state's entity, strike its service institutions and logistical equipment, provide a complete cover for DAESH and support it to tear the nation's map through religious fascism, the American occupation sits on the Syrian oil wells, relying on its cheap tools to steal it. | It is truly a continuation of organize…
(2023-02-14). GoFundMe Refusing to Fund Syria Relief Effort, Funding White Helmets. orinocotribune.com 
GoFundMe is refusing to send aid to Syria over sanctions from the US Treasury despite the devastating earthquake that struck the country earlier in the week. | GoFundMe, a proclaimed leading platform for fundraising, has been found to be complicit in the US-waged war on Syria, complying with US sanctions prohibiting aid from making it to the disaster-stricken country. | Several social media users went on Twitter to report on the issue after the fundraising firm suspended the fundraisers for Syria after the earthquake struck the country, with many highlighting the severe repercussions that the sanctions on Syria h…
(2023-02-14). Russia To Install Iranian-Made Turbines in Hydroelectric Plants: Report. orinocotribune.com Moscow will reportedly replace German-made turbines as western sanctions prevent these from receiving maintenance | Russia will replace German-made turbines in its hydroelectric plants with Iranian-made ones after Berlin-based multinational Siemens pulled its operations out of the country due to western sanctions. | According to a report by state-owned RT News, Moscow has already started to produce the parts designed in Iran to replace Sanctions imposed…
(2023-02-14). Calls to withdraw sanctions on earthquake-hit Syria grow louder. peoplesdispatch.org Despite the US announcing temporary exemption from its sanctions on Syria, no Western country except Italy has come forward to provide any kind of assistance to Syria's earthquake relief efforts…