Sri Lanka: SEP meeting in Colombo demands release of Assange and Manning
wsws.org | 2020-01-07
Afterwards, a University of Colombo student, declared: "I agree with the point made in this meeting that the fight for the freedom of Assange is so crucial for the defence of democratic rights internationally."
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/01/07/meet…

Sri Lanka: SEP meeting in Colombo demands release of Assange and Manning
wsws.org | 2020-01-07
Afterwards, a University of Colombo student, declared: "I agree with the point made in this meeting that the fight for the freedom of Assange is so crucial for the defence of democratic rights internationally."
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/01/07/meet…

Iranian-Americans detained at US-Canada border in wake of Suleimani assassination
wsws.org | 2020-01-07
More than 60 US citizens were held at a border crossing in Washington state Saturday, subject to illegal detention and interrogation before being allowed to return to their own country.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/01/07/bord…

19yo Briton given suspended sentence for making up gang rape claims in Cyprus
rt.com | 2020-01-07
A young British woman, who recanted her claim that she was raped by a group of Israeli men in a Cyprus hotel, was given a four-month suspended sentence for what a local court termed 'public mischief'. | The court sentence for the 19-year-old was suspended for three years, and she has been ordered to pay €148 in legal fees. The ruling, closely watched by women's rights groups, brings good news for her family as it means that she can now return to the UK. | She was given "a second chance" according to judge Michalis Papathanasiou, who read out the verdict. He led a three-month trial in which the young woman…
rt.com/news/477629-cyprus-uk-woman-rape-sentence/

India: Chalking & The "Facebook Connection" Attack On Gayatri Khandhadai
APC | indybay.org | 2020-01-07
Chalking & The "Facebook Connection" | Gayatri Khandhadai, had a "Pakistan connection" since her Facebook page listed her as having collaborated with Bytes for All, Pakistan, a human rights organisation. He showed printed copies of her Facebook profile page along with another printed copy of Bytes for All's association with the Association of All Pakistan Citizen Journalists. Vishwanathan said her "link to Pakistan" would be investigated.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/01/05/18829464.php

NYC demands no war on Iran and Iraq
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-01-07
New York, NY – Over 1000 people gathered in New York City on January 4 in Times Square to demand no more U.S. troops to the Middle East, U.S. out of Iraq, and no war or sanctions on Iran. The action was called after a U.S. drone strike assassinated Iranian Quds Force general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, as well as the Pentagon stating they will send 3500 more troops to the Middle East. | The call was put out by ANSWER Coalition, with speakers from various organizations, including Freedom Road Socialist Organization, International Action Center, Struggle La – Lucha, International League of Peoples Struggle, BAYAN,…
www.fightbacknews.org/2020/1/6/nyc-deman…

Iraqi Parliament Resolves to Kick Out US Troops
Juan Cole | zcomm.org | 2020-01-07
Trump Threatens Mother of All Sanctions…
zcomm.org/znetarticle/iraqi-parliament-resolves-to-kick-out-us-troops/

Turkey deports foreign terrorist to US
yenisafak.com | 2020-01-07
Without naming the terrorist group, the ministry in a tweet said Turkey will continue returning foreign terrorists to their home countries.Turkey deported nearly 780 foreign terrorists back to their countries in 2019.The issue of handling of Daesh/ISIS members and their families detained in Syria — including foreign members of the terror group — has been controversial, with Turkey arguing foreign-born terrorists should be repatriated to their countries of origin, while several European countries have refused, saying the terrorists were denationalized.Since recognizing Daesh/ISIS as a terror group in 2013, Turke…
yenisafak.com/en/news/turkey-deports-foreign-terrorist-to-us-3509046

A Historian Reflects on the Return of Fascism
Lawrence Wittner | commondreams.org | 2020-01-06
As president, Trump has not only displayed a remarkable contempt for truth, law, civil liberties, the poor, civil rights, and women's rights, but catered to the wealthy, the corporations, white supremacists, and religious fanatics. (Photo: mathiaswasick/flickr/cc) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
commondreams.org/views/2020/01/06/historian-reflects-return-fascism?cd-origin=rss

More Rockets Fired At US Embassy, US Iranians Detained & Trump Says Twitter Is "Notifying Congress"
Ryan Cristián | thelastamericanvagabond.com | 2020-01-06
Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (1/5/19). As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth …
thelastamericanvagabond.com/daily-wrap-up/more-rockets-fired-at-us-embassy-us-iranians-detained-trump-says-twitter-is-notifying-congress/

SPLC Statement on the Detainment of Iranians and Iranian Americans
splcenter.org | 2020-01-06
The following statement is by Southern Poverty Law Center Interim President and CEO Karen Baynes-Dunning following reports that Iranians and Iranian Americans are being detained and questioned at U.S. ports of entry:…
splcenter.org/news/2020/01/06/splc-statement-detainment-iranians-and-iranian-americans

The Government is Torturing Chelsea Manning! Does Anyone Give a Damn?
Howard Lisnoff | counterpunch.org | 2020-01-06
Chelsea Manning is being tortured for her refusal to testify before a federal grand jury. She already has told a military court as a whistleblower while in the Army about documents pertaining to alleged war crimes that were committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has already been tortured and imprisoned for releasing that information once ("Collateral Murder" video,…
counterpunch.org/2020/01/06/the-government-is-torturing-chelsea-manning-does-anyone-give-a-damn/

Close Guant√°namo, End Torture
commondreams.org | 2020-01-06
______________________________…
commondreams.org/newswire/2020/01/06/close-guantanamo-end-torture?cd-origin=rss

Trump threatens Iraq with 'very big sanctions' unless it pays back BILLIONS for an airbase if US troops are forced to withdraw
rt.com | 2020-01-06
Iraq should brace for sanctions that will make the ones placed on Iran look weak in comparison if it kicks out the US troops without first covering the costs for an airbase, US President Donald Trump said. | "We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that's there. It cost billions of dollars to build, long before my time. We're not leaving unless they pay us back for it," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. | The punitive measures that the US is ready to slap on its supposed ally in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) will be even harsher than the crippling sanctions al…
rt.com/news/477539-iraq-sanctions-base-withdrawl/

Trump's Killing of Qassem Soleimani Means "Rules of the Game Have Totally Changed" in Middle East
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-01-06
The Iraqi Parliament voted Sunday to expel all U.S. military forces from Iraq. President Trump responded by threatening to impose sanctions on Iraq "like they've never seen before." Iraq has already been the target of some of the harshest sanctions the world has even seen. U.S.-backed sanctions killed more than a million Iraqis, including over 500,000 children, between 1990 and 2003. From Baghdad, we talk to Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, correspondent for The Guardian newspaper.
www.democracynow.org/2020/1/6/ghaith_abd…

US DoD Denies Letter Announcing Withdrawal of Troops From Iraq
telesurenglish.net | 2020-01-06
United States Secretary of Defense Mark Esper stated that the U.S. has no plans to withdraw its 5,000 troops from Iraq after reports from Reuters and AFP claimed that the U.S. military wrote to Iraq Monday announcing it would begin to pull out of the country and would reposition its forces over the next few days and weeks. | RELATED: | Trump Threatens Iraq With Sanctions Over US Troop Withdrawal | "There's been no decision to leave Iraq. Period," Esper told reporters at the Pen…
telesurenglish.net/news/US-DoD-Denies-Letter-Announcing-Withdrawal-of-Troops-From-Iraq-20200106-0007.html

Trump threatens all-out war against Iran
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-01-06
US president Donald Trump has been issuing a flurry of threats against Iran, asking it to desist from retaliating against the assassination of major general Qassem Soleimani in Iraq on Friday, January 3. Trump claimed that the US is ready to attack crucial cultural sites in Iran, if his warning is not heeded. | As per the United Nations' resolutions of 2017 and the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property, attacking a cultural site is a war crime. | Trump also threatened strong sanctions against Iraq if the country's government asked for the withdrawal of all foreign forces. The Iraqi parliam…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/01/06/trump-threatens-all-out-war-against-iran/

Weinstein Accusers Gather at New York Courthouse to Witness 'Moment of Justice' Two Years After #MeToo Movement Began
Julia Conley, staff writer | commondreams.org | 2020-01-06
Women's rights advocates called the first day of film executive Harvey Weinstein's criminal trial on Monday a "moment of justice" and reckoning, more than two years after accusations of sexual assault and harassment against Weinstein set off the global #MeToo movement. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
commondreams.org/news/2020/01/06/weinstein-accusers-gather-new-york-courthouse-witness-moment-justice-two-years-after?cd-origin=rss

Israeli Forces Detain and Summon Palestinians, Seize 4,000 Shekels
IMEMC & Agencies | imemc.org | 2020-01-05
Israeli occupation forces arrested, at dawn Sunday, a young man from the city of Qalqilia, northern occupied West Bank, Palestine News Network reported. On Saturday night, the Israeli occupation forces detained Ahmed Tawfiq Radayda, 37, from al-Ubeidiya, at the Za'tara military checkpoint, south of Nablus. Israeli forces searched Radayda, seized …
imemc.org/article/israeli-forces-detain-and-summon-palestinians-seize-4000-shekels/

Students learn in the streets: struggle wins release of Connecticut teen from ICE custody
Chris Garaffa | liberationnews.org | 2020-01-05
The struggle for Mario's freedom is not over, and neither is the fight for immigrant rights overall.
liberationnews.org/students-learn-in-the-streets-struggle-wins-release-of-connecticut-teen-from-ice-custody/

Trump Threatens Iraq With Sanctions Over US Troop Withdrawal
telesurenglish.net | 2020-01-05
United States President Donald Trump said Sunday that if Iraq forces the withdrawal of U.S. military personnel it would have to pay the costs of the U.S. airbase built there or prepare for sanctions so "strong that those imposed on Iran would pale in comparison." | RELATED: | Iraqi Parliament Votes To Expel US Military From Country‚Äã‚Äã‚Äã‚Äã‚Äã‚Äã‚Äã | "We h…
telesurenglish.net/news/trump-threatens-iraq-with-sanctions-over-us-troops-withdrawal–20200105-0014.html

US Pressure Gets Cuban Team Out of Baseball Caribbean Series
telesurenglish.net | 2020-01-05
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel denounced Sunday that United States pressure towards the Caribbean Confederation of Professional Baseball (CBPC) has prevented the participation of the winning team of the Cuban National Series in the next edition of the Caribbean Series. | RELATED: | Cuba Reject US Sanctions Against Minister | "Cuban sport is also attacked by the empire," wrote Diaz-Canel on Twitter after the released statement from the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) denouncing the obstac…
telesurenglish.net/news/us-pressure-gets-cuban-team-out-of-baseball-caribbean-series-20200105-0013.html

Trump's march to war on Iran aided by Democrats' weakness on sanctions, nuclear deal
Aaron Maté | thegrayzone.com | 2020-01-04
The US assassination of Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian military commander, is the culmination of three years of Trump administration…
thegrayzone.com/2020/01/04/trumps-march-to-war-on-iran-aided-by-democrats-weakness-on-sanctions-nuclear-deal/

Trump's march to war on Iran aided by Democrats' weakness on sanctions, nuclear deal
Aaron Maté | thegrayzone.com | 2020-01-04
The US assassination of Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian military commander, is the culmination of three years of Trump administration…
thegrayzone.com/2020/01/04/trumps-march-to-war-on-iran-aided-by-democrats-weakness-on-sanctions-nuclear-deal/

Fighting gentrifiers for the rights of the homeless
Martha Grevatt | workers.org | 2020-01-04
On New Year's Eve, Cleveland City Councilwoman Dona Brady looked out her upstairs window at demonstrators outside her home. A noisy group was holding a vigil and chanting, "Who're we out here for? The homeless." Cleveland, Ohio WW photo: Martha Grevatt Councilwoman Brady has attempted to prevent the progressive Denison . . . | Continue reading Fighting gentrifiers for the rights of the homeless at Workers.org…
workers.org/2020/01/45301/

Trump Order Aimed at Palestine Solidarity, Not Antisemitism
Gregory Shupak | fair.org | 2020-01-04
Antisemitism is a very real problem–which Donald Trump is exploiting to advance an anti-Palestinian agenda. | President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month to deny funding to post-secondary schools that violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against Jewish people. The order notes that such bigotry is rooted in antisemitism, and says that it will determine whether discrimination has occurred by using the non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism adopted by the…
fair.org/home/trump-order-aimed-at-palestine-solidarity-not-antisemitism/

Trump Order Aimed at Palestine Solidarity, Not Antisemitism
Gregory Shupak | fair.org | 2020-01-04
by Gregory Shupak Antisemitism is a very real problem–which Donald Trump is exploiting to advance an anti-Palestinian agenda. | President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month to deny funding to post-secondary schools that violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against Jewish people. The order notes that such bigotry is rooted in antisemitism, and says that it will determine whether discrimination has occurred by using the non-legally binding working definition of antisemiti…
fair.org/home/trump-order-aimed-at-palestine-solidarity-not-antisemitism/

World Braille Day marks key communication tool for millions
news.un.org | 2020-01-03
Being marked for only the second time ever, World Braille Day on Saturday raises awareness of the importance of the tactile global communication system which helps enable blind and visually impaired people, to realize their full human rights.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/01/1054761

Nord Stream 2: US Sanctions
Peter Koenig | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-01-03
Does Mr. Trump really not grasp that his sanctions left and right — and now on the Russian-German gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 — is committing economic suicide, not for himself, of course, but for the United States? He attempts to punish not only Russia, but all the corporations, construction companies, Russian, German and from …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/01/nord-stream-2-us-sanctions/

UNICEF chief hopes 2020 will be 'a year of peace' for Syria's children
news.un.org | 2020-01-02
Only an end to the war in Syria can bring safety to children there, the head of the UN child rights agency said on Thursday.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/01/1054661

First Lady of the World: Eleanor Roosevelt's Impact on New Deal to U.N. Declaration of Human Rights
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-01-01
2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote, and we begin the new decade with a New Year's Day special about one of the most influential women in U.S. politics: first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She served as the first lady of the United States from 1933, when her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, until his death during his fourth term in office in 1945. She went on to serve as United States delegate to the United Nations General Assembly and spearheaded the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights. President Harry Truman later called her the "First Lady…
www.democracynow.org/2020/1/1/eleanor_ro…

France's Undocumented Migrants Are Fighting for Their Rights
Harrison Stetler | thenation.com | 2019-12-31
France's Undocumented Migrants Are Fighting for Their Rights…
thenation.com/article/france-migrants-macron-refugees/

Headlines for December 31, 2019
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-12-31
Protests Rage Outside U.S. Embassy in Iraq After U.S. Airstrikes Kill 24, Hate Crime Charges Filed Against Suspect in Hanukkah Stabbing in NY, Texas Church Shooter Had Long Criminal History, NYT: Top Officials Failed to Convince Trump to Release Withheld Ukraine Aid, Death Toll from Crackdown on Protests in India Rises to 27, Five Kashmiri Political Leaders Released from Detention, Sudanese Court Sentences 29 to Death for Killing Teacher in Anti-Protest Crackdown, Thousands Flee to the Ocean to Escape Australia Wildfires, Former Nissan Head Flees Japan to Lebanon to Escape Trial on Financial Crimes, New York Sett…
www.democracynow.org/2019/12/31/headline…

Israel/Palestine war crimes probe 'momentous step forward', says UN rights expert
news.un.org | 2019-12-31
An independent UN human rights expert hailed on Tuesday, the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to consider a formal criminal investigation into allegations of war crimes in Palestine as a "momentous step forward in the quest for accountability" in the five-decade-long Israeli occupation.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/12/1054541

China detaining millions of Uyghurs? Serious problems with claims by US-backed NGO and far-right researcher 'led by God' against Beijing
Ajit Singh | thegrayzone.com | 2019-12-21
Claims that China has detained millions of Uyghur Muslims are based largely on two studies. A closer look at these…
thegrayzone.com/2019/12/21/china-detaining-millions-uyghurs-problems-claims-us-ngo-researcher/

One appalling detail in the Queen's Speech shows voting Tory was a vote to ruin your children's future
Tracy Keeling | thecanary.co | 2019-12-20
The Queen's Speech on 19 December unveiled Boris Johnson's plans for Britain. | It confirmed that the pledge he made during the election campaign for a £10.50 living wage was, frankly, nonsense — as was the promise not to further weaken workers' rights. And i…
thecanary.co/discovery/analysis-discovery/2019/12/20/one-appalling-detail-in-the-queens-speech-shows-voting-tory-was-a-vote-to-ruin-your-childrens-future/

Four Lawyers. Four Projects. One Non-Stop Year
Leila Rafei | aclu.org | 2019-12-20
It isn't news that the Trump administration has kept ACLU attorneys working at breakneck speed for the past three years. In 2019 alone, we saw historic moments and victories–from defeating the citizenship question on the 2020 census and bringing the first trans civil rights case to the Supreme Court, to blocking a wave of abortion bans and many of the administration's attempts to dismantle the asylum system. To name a few. | Here are some of our attorneys' takes on 2019 and the year ahead–what's changed for the better and for the worse, and how the outcome of the 2020 presidential election will a…
aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/four-lawyers-four-projects-one-non-stop-year

BDS movement defiant after Tories announce anti-boycott measures and threaten international solidarity
Tom Anderson | thecanary.co | 2019-12-20
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigners have responded defiantly to Tory plans to pass an anti-BDS law. | The law is a threat to any international solidarity campaign which seeks to boycott companies or products because of the state policies of another country. As such, it presents a threat to international solidarity efforts as a whole. | Boycotting Israeli apartheid: | BDS is an international movement calling for a boycott of Israeli goods. It also calls for grassroots groups to initiate boycott campaigns against companies complicit in Israel…
thecanary.co/opinion/2019/12/20/bds-movement-defiant-after-tories-announce-anti-boycott-measures-and-threaten-international-solidarity/

A Secret CBP Team is Targeting and Detaining Innocent Travelers. We're Suing
Tarek Ismail | aclu.org | 2019-12-18
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is deploying secret teams that target, detain, and interrogate innocent travelers. We're suing to expose their activities. | In November 2018, three CBP officers detained Andreas | Gal, a former chief | technology officer at Mozilla Corporation and current Apple employee, at San | Francisco International Airport after he landed from a business trip to Sweden. | Andr…
aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/a-secret-cbp-team-is-targeting-and-detaining-innocent-travelers-were-suing

A Tennessee City Banned Surgical Abortion Within the City Limits. We're Taking Them to Court
Melissa Grant | aclu.org | 2019-12-18
For 30 years, I have | worked in reproductive health care. In my current role as Chief Operating | Officer of carafem, a nonprofit with a national network of health centers, I | know the difference compassionate and comprehensive reproductive health care | makes in the lives of our clients. I have witnessed the personal impact when | people who have the legal right to have a child or to have an abortion are denied | those rights due to outrageous societal barriers. Abortion providers are used | to opposition, but we've never experienced the kind of explicit targeting we | received from politicians in the city…
aclu.org/news/reproductive-freedom/a-tennessee-city-banned-surgical-abortion-within-the-city-limits-were-taking-them-to-court

For Many of the World's Children, Education Proves Elusive
Elin Martinez | progressive.org | 2019-12-17
Especially in countries with widespread human rights abuses, kids–especially girls–don't get the chance to go to school.
progressive.org/dispatches/for-many-children-education-proves-elusive-martinez-van-esveld-191217/

UN Counters US Claims Of "Proof" Iran Attacked Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu Impunity & Turkey Sanctions
Ryan Cristián | thelastamericanvagabond.com | 2019-12-13
Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (12/12/19). As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth …
thelastamericanvagabond.com/daily-wrap-up/un-counters-us-claims-of-proof-iran-attacked-saudi-arabia-netanyahu-impunity-turkey-sanctions/

Perth Pride: LGBTI community challenges corporatisation
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2019-12-12
LGBTIQ rights Petrina HarleyIssue 1248 Australia Rainbow Rebellion PerthDecember 12, 2019Perth Pride assembled its biggest parade to date on November 30, with 115 floats. But many in the LGBTIQ comm…
greenleft.org.au/content/perth-pride-lgbti-community-challenges-corporatisation

Aboriginal leader Sam Watson's farewell draws big numbers
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2019-12-10
Aboriginal rights Jim McIlroyIssue 1248 Australia BrisbaneDecember 11, 2019More than 1000 people attended the funeral for Wangerriburra and Birri Gubba leader Sam Watson in Musgrave Park on December 6. | Watson passed away on November 26, just two weeks after his 67t…
greenleft.org.au/content/aboriginal-leader-sam-watsons-farewell-draws-big-numbers