Daily Archives: June 18, 2020

2020-06-18: News Headlines

_____ (2020-06-19). Hancock promises shielding announcement imminent — leak confirms end July. truepublica.org.uk An announcement on a possible end to the coronavirus shielding programme in England will come "very soon", the UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, said Tuesday 17th June, after healthcare charities called for clarity on the government's plans. The scheme affects roughly 2.2 million "clinically extremely vulnerable" people, a category that includes those who have had transplants, are having …

_____ (2020-06-19). DfID merger — "signals a hollowed out state forced to rely on corporate partners to function" truepublica.org.uk By TruePublica: Following the election, Boris Johnson wanted the Department for International Development (DfID) to merge into the Foreign Office. This move would accelerate the hijacking of the aid budget into a tool for the benefit of British interests, rather than a means of fighting global inequalities, which is what the British taxpayer has always …

Philip Giraldi (2020-06-18). America's Recessional: Time to Bring the Troops Home. globalresearch.ca Two weeks ago a senior Trump Administration official revealed that the president had decided to

Ali Salam (2020-06-18). Armed Israeli Settlers Level Palestinian-owned Land near Jericho. imemc.org An Israeli settler, on Wednesday, levelled vast amounts of Palestinian-owned lands in the Bedouin al-Malihat area, northwest of Jericho, in the eastern occupied West Bank, local sources said. Fatah official, Suleiman Malihat, told Palestinian WAFA News Agency that an armed settler levelled 350 dunams (87 acres) of nearby Palestinian-owned land, …

Ali Salam (2020-06-18). Israeli Colonists Raze Palestinian-owned Lands near Nablus. imemc.org Illegal Israeli settlers, on Wednesday, razed several dunams of land that belongs to the Palestinian village of Qusra, south of Nablus city, in the northern occupied West Bank, to be used for a road for illegal colonial projects, according to a settlements-watch group. Palestinian official, Ghassan Daghlas, chief monitor of …

Norman Solomon (2020-06-18). California "Berning" for Ro Khanna to Chair the State's Delegation to DNC. zcomm.org Sanders defeated Biden by a margin of 8 percent in the California primary. But hidebound tradition as well as raw political power are arrayed against the Bernie delegates pushing for Khanna to chair the delegation…

Andrew Korybko (2020-06-18). Modi's Major Himalayan Mistake Crushed The Indian Military's Morale. thealtworld.com The death of at least 20 members of the Indian military during non-firearm clashes with China along their disputed frontier in Kashmir has been extremely demoralizing for this already distressed institution, but it's all due to Modi's major Himalayan mistake in thinking that he can reap immediately tangible benefits from his new American patron by making a show out of "containing" China. | Modi's Latest Mistake Was His Worst One Yet | At least 20 members of the Indian military were killed during non-firearm clashes with China earlier this week along their disputed frontier in Kashmir, which crushed the morale of…

Ben Norton (2020-06-18). Leaked documents reveal right-wing oligarch plot to overthrow Mexico's AMLO. thegrayzone.com Mexico's economic oligarchs and establishment political parties have united in a secret alliance to try to remove left-wing President López…

Ed Rampell (2020-06-18). If Black Lives Matter, must 'Gone with the Wind' be gone? peoplesworld.org In 1953 author Simone de Beauvoir asked Must We Burn De Sade? regarding the French Marquis and his sadomasochistic books. Today, as the multiple plagues of COVID-19, widespread economic displacement and police brutality disproportionately ravage the African-American community, we're likewise asking: Must Gone with the Wind be gone? On June 10, the birthday of Hattie …

Betsey Piette (2020-06-18). Too late to reform, time to disband Philly police. workers.org Philadelphia The Philadelphia Police Department, the fourth largest in the U.S., is one of the oldest municipal police agencies, founded in 1854. Its history has been marked by patterns of police brutality, intimidation, coercion and disregard for constitutional rights. Philadelphia protest, June 6. Recently, a statue of former Police Commissioner . . . |

Adriaan Alsema (2020-06-18). Alleged election fraudster to preside Colombia's senate while in court. colombiareports.com Controversial Senator Arturo Char will have a tough year presiding over Colombia's senate while trying to prevent the Supreme Court from destroying President Ivan Duque's coalition. The conservative Radical Change…

Mark Gruenberg (2020-06-18). 'Workers First' car caravans drive mass turnouts nationwide. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—From Fairbanks to San Juan and from Bangor to Honolulu, workers nationwide turned out June 17 in car caravans, at press conferences, and in call-ins to lawmakers to demand solons "Put Workers First For Racial And Economic Justice." Their top demands are additional economic aid during the coronavirus pandemic, for workers, not bosses, and for …

Mark Gruenberg (2020-06-18). Study of key nations: Pandemic could have been 90 times worse. peoplesworld.org BERKELEY, Calif.—It may be stating the obvious, but while the coronavirus pandemic is bad — 6.2 million sufferers and 444,563 dead worldwide as of mid-morning June 17 — it could have been worse, a lot worse, a new comprehensive study shows. Try almost 90 times worse. What would that mean, in practical terms? Though the …

Yves Engler (2020-06-18). Justin Trudeau Continues the Conservatives Pro-Corporate/Empire International Policies. dissidentvoice.org The international community's rejection of Canada's bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council isn't a surprise. In the below introduction to my recently published House of Mirrors: Justin Trudeau's Foreign Policy I detail how Liberal foreign policy has largely mimicked that of Stephen Harper who lost a bid for the Security Council …

Editor (2020-06-18). 'We are unified as Pueblo on the removal of monuments that glorify murderers'. workers.org Pulling down hated statue of conquistador butcher, Juan de Oñate. The uprising in response to the murder of George Floyd has become a movement against white supremacy. Generations of anger have exploded against settler colonialism and slavery and all white-supremacist historical monuments. In New Mexico, the Pueblo Nations still seethe . . . |

Olujimi Alade (2020-06-18). Reflections on the protests and Black Liberation — a WW commentary. workers.org Philadelphia On May 30, after sleeping in after a long work shift, I decided to make my way down to City Hall for the protests planned in the wake of George Floyd's murder. Making my way down to the parkway and to the art museum, I was astonished by the . . . |

Betsey Piette (2020-06-18). Delbert Africa, Warrior for the people! workers.org Delbert Africa's daughter Yvonne Orr-El: 'They murdered my father.' Delbert Orr Africa passed away on the evening of June 15 surrounded by friends and his MOVE family. A June 16 press release from MOVE describes Africa as "an early counterpart 42 years before George Floyd." In 1978, Delbert Africa was . . . |

Conn Hallinan (2020-06-18). Trump threatens to re-start nuclear weapons tests, undoing 50 years of agreements. peoplesworld.org If the Trump administration follows through on its threat to restart nuclear tests, it will complete the unraveling of more than 50 years of arms control agreements, taking the world back to the days when school children practiced "duck and cover" and people built backyard bomb shelters. It will certainly be the death knell for the Comprehensive …

A Guest Author (2020-06-18). 'We marched against the system' in Austin, Texas. workers.org Austin protest, June 7. By Ananya Sabharwal and Isabella Ricks Austin, Texas On June 7, the Austin Justice Coalition, an activist-led organization founded by Chas Moore and oriented toward battling institutional racism, led a protest spanning two miles from Huston-Tillotson University to the Texas State Capitol to bring awareness to . . . |

Al Neal (2020-06-18). Possible framework for restarting the baseball season? peoplesworld.org Will there be a season, or won't there be a season? It's the urgent question—almost heartfelt plea for divine intervention—hanging over all baseball fans as June double-times it toward July; the initially projected month to restart the 2020 Major League Baseball season. As of now, the chances of us seeing live baseball are 50/50. But …

Mike Davis (2020-06-18). How LAPD chief William H. Parker influenced the depiction of policing on the TV show Dragnet. mronline.org LAPD Chief William H. Parker was initially wary of Dragnet but also saw the opportunity to publicize his views on law and order. LAPD advisors closely examined the script to guarantee that the LAPD officers on Dragnet were ethical, efficient, terse and white.

A Guest Author (2020-06-18). Bolivia. Morales alerta a comunidad internacional: àÅñez se aferra al poder. workers.org Por Resumen Latinoamericano Según concluyó una investigación independiente, el informe hecho por la misión de observación electoral de la OEA a las elecciones del 20 de octubre de 2019 en Bolivia, y que sirvió a la oposición para generar un golpe de Estado contra el presidente Evo Morales, tenía serias . . . |

Workers World Boston bureau (2020-06-18). Multinational unity wins another battle at Harvard. workers.org Harvard University custodial staff take a knee. During the recent worldwide upsurge for justice, the Black and Brown workers' fight to save their jobs — at the flagship bourgeois enterprise Harvard — led to the university's first antiracist action on June 9. A multi-union worker-organizing initiative drew close to 70 . . . |

Monica Moorehead (2020-06-18). Why the police cannot be reformed. workers.org These edited remarks were made at a June 11 webinar sponsored by Workers World Party: "Why we must abolish the police." What a historical, earth-shattering shift just three months has made! Who would have thought the main debate in the country and the world would be whether the police should be . . . |

Judy Greenspan (2020-06-18). Close to victory: Campaign to end the Oakland School Police Department. workers.org Black Organizing Project banner, Oakland, Calif., June protests. Oakland, Calif. June 14 — For nearly 10 years, the Black Organizing Project has been fighting to defund and dismantle the Oakland School Police Department. Oakland is the only school district in Alameda County with its own police system. After years of . . . |

Al Jazeera (2020-06-18). Planet Earth Police Department Blew Up Seven Innocent Black People in Somalia, Including a Child. anti-empire.com The United States military has not adequately investigated two air raids in Somalia earlier this year that have killed at least seven civilians, including a child, according to the Human Rights Watch (HRW). [HRW is a major lobbyist for regime-change wars, and as such they're very tame on the Pentagon. If they say seven there was likely more.] | In a report released on Tuesday, the rights group said the killing of the civilians was in apparent violation of the laws of war. The HRW was referring to incidents on February 2 and March 10 in Jilib and Janaale, where no evidence of a military target involving the al-Sha…

Mike Walter (2020-06-18). The Heat: China-U.S. Relations and COVID-19. america.cgtn.com Top diplomats from the United States and China meet in Hawaii. Could this be a turning point for better relations?

RT (2020-06-18). No mask, no service: American Airlines bans #WalkAway founder for not complying with Covid-19 rules. rt.com Conservative activist Brandon Straka has been banned from flying with American Airlines after he was booted from a plane for refusing to wear a mask as part of the company's Covid-19 guidelines. | "American Airlines thoroughly reviewed an incident on June 17 involving one of our customers, Brandon Straka," the company said in a statement on Thursday. "As a result of this review, Mr. Straka will not be permitted to fly American, as he failed to comply with our stated policy and crewmember instructions." | Straka is the first person in the US to be banned by an airline for not wearing a mask. He will continue t…

RT (2020-06-18). 'Independent' Facebook fact-checker exposed as partisan smear factory packed with CNN alumni. rt.com Facebook fact-checker Lead Stories is a biased outfit bristling with ex-CNN staffers that presents itself as neutral, despite most of its employees having donated to the Democratic Party, a conservative outlet has revealed. | The National Pulse (TNP), whose story about supposed financial links between Black Lives Matter, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and fundraiser ActBlue was flagged as "partly false" by Lead Stories on Facebook, did some

_____ (2020-06-19). Britain to join despised TTP: Wikileaks — "a huge transfer of power from people to big business" truepublica.org.uk TruePublica Editor: I have always maintained from the soon after the EU referendum that Brexit was a con. The team here at TruePublica have relentlessly warned that far from taking back control, Brexit was a trojan horse for big business, to gain control and dominate our lives. Half of our modest lobbying budget went to …

RT (2020-06-18). Berlin's threats will 'not be left unanswered' Russian ambassador says, after Germany links Chechen ex-militant's murder to Moscow. rt.com The Russian envoy to Germany, Sergey Nechaev, has blasted Berlin for blaming the murder of a former Chechen insurgent leader on a Russian "state entity". Such accusations lack proof and only hurt bilateral relations, he said. | "We consider the accusations leveled against the Russian authorities to be baseless and unsupported by evidence," Nechaev said in a statement, commenting on the latest indictment issued by the German prosecutors in relation to a high-profile murder that took place in Berlin's Tiergarten Park last August. | A 40-year-old man, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, was shot by a suspect identified as a…

RT (2020-06-18). Putin: 75 years after WW2, new global crisis calls for victorious anti-Nazi coalition to work together again. rt.com In 1945, they defeated Hitler and Imperial Japan. Now, 75 years on, Vladimir Putin believes that the present global health and economic crisis requires the Second World War allies to unite once more. | In a lengthy op-ed, first published in American foreign policy journal 'The National Interest' on Thursday, the Russian president discusses the reasons behind the rise of Adolf Hitler. He also outlines the benefits of…

Red Friday (2020-06-18). Military COIN Experts Claim They Can End US Unrest in Just 17 Years. anti-empire.com Military experts in counterinsurgency and nation-building claim they can bring nationwide protests against police brutality under control in just 17 years, sources report. | "The unrest in our country is something we can fix, no problem," Bob Egon, CEO of the Center for Perpetual War, said today. "We have a civilian population upset at their government. They're overwhelmingly peaceful, and they have a positive view of the US Military. This is a situation we've dealt with many times before." | "If we send in the troops now, we can have these protesters making IEDs inside a week." | "We had some random guy in the o…

Stephen S. Roach (2020-06-18). Walking on Thin Ice: Can America's "Exorbitant Privilege" and King Dollar Survive a 17.9% Budget Deficit? anti-empire.com The era of the U.S. dollar's "exorbitant privilege" as the world's primary reserve currency is coming to an end. Then French Finance Minister Valery Giscard d'Estaing coined that phrase in the 1960s largely out of frustration, bemoaning a U.S. that drew freely on the rest of the world to support its over-extended standard of living. For almost 60 years, the world complained but did nothing about it. Those days are over. | Already stressed by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. living standards are about to be squeezed as never before. At the same time, the world is having serious doubts about the once widel…

Marko Marjanoviƒá (2020-06-18). Kim Jong Un's Well-Timed 'Surprise' Portends Another Nuke Crisis. anti-empire.com If there is one thing I have learned about making a career out of studying North Korea it is this: the Kim regime loves to tell those who pay attention to its unique propaganda many times what it is going to do before it does it—sometimes even telegraphing for us in clear language the next crisis it intends to start. | If that holds constant now, then Pyongyang seems once again hellbent on sparking

Sheren Khalel (2020-06-18). The Empire Declares a "Maximum Pressure" War of Economic Strangulation on Devastated Syria. anti-empire.com The United States has imposed a sweeping set of new sanctions against any country, individual or entity that provides support to the Syrian government – a campaign that experts warn may devastate the lives of ordinary Syrians trying to survive and rebuild after nine years of war. | The Caesar Act, passed in Congress

Matt Purple (2020-06-18). America: Too Weak to Rein in Its Own Empire. anti-empire.com A grievous blow to international security has just been dealt. President Donald Trump has announced that American troops are to be withdrawn from…Germany. Yes, Germany. Why are American troops in Germany? Because we have to fight them over there so we don't fight them here, you see, and there are few generators of terrorism and chaos in the world today quite like the Berlin club circuit. | The real surprise isn't that we're pulling troops out of Germany; it's that they're still there 75 years after World War II ended. And according to the White House, they aren't even all being withdrawn, just a quarter of them…

Staff (2020-06-18). "Movements Work": As Activists Occupy Seattle's Capitol Hill, City Bans Tear Gas, Expels Police Union. democracynow.org In Seattle, the fight to demilitarize and defund the police continues as the King County Labor Council voted to expel the Seattle police union Wednesday, following weeks of protest. Seattle police sparked outrage for responding to massive protests against police brutality by using pepper spray, tear gas and flashbangs on demonstrators and reporters. Activists then formed an autonomous zone in response to the police department's abandonment of a precinct building. On Wednesday, President Trump threatened to send troops into Seattle to dismantle the community-run Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, which extends over se…

Staff (2020-06-18). Rashad Robinson on Recent Spike in Hanging Deaths, the Cancellation of "Cops" & Boycotting Facebook. democracynow.org For more than a decade, the racial justice organization Color of Change led a push to cancel the long-running TV show "Cops," which glorifies police aggression. Now the show has been cancelled, along with A&E's "Live PD." "The thing about these shows is that they call themselves reality programming, but they are only from the vision of the police officers," says Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change. "These shows have served as a PR arm for law enforcement." He is now calling on Netflix to cancel "Border Security: America's Front Line."

Staff (2020-06-18). "Tear Gas Is a Weapon": Amnesty Report Reveals Police Use of Tear Gas Fuels Rights Abuses Worldwide. democracynow.org As police officers in nearly 100 U.S. cities and towns have fired tear gas on protesters in recent weeks and left many with severe injuries, a new Amnesty International report finds the use of tear gas continues to grow each year, and fuels police human rights violations against peaceful protesters on a global scale. "Everywhere we look, police are just very quick to use tear gas, which is not a safe product and can cause real injuries," says Brian Castner, senior crisis adviser on arms and military operations for Amnesty International.

Staff (2020-06-18). Murder Charge for Atlanta Cop Who Shot & Killed Rayshard Brooks Shows the "Power of a Movement" democracynow.org Prosecutors have charged the Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks with felony murder, and accuse Garrett Rolfe of twice shooting Brooks in the back and then kicking him as he lay dying. A second officer, Devin Brosnan, faces four charges, including assault. We talk to Rashad Robinson of Color of Change about the charges in Atlanta and growing calls to defund the police. "For the last 20 years in this country, violent crime has basically steadily went down," Robinson says. "At the same time, police budgets have continued to rise, continued to expand. We've militarized police."

Liberation staff (2020-06-18). Milwaukee Pride for Black Lives Matter. liberationnews.org Well over 3,000 people turned out to a "March with PRIDE for #BLACKLIVESMATTER" rally and march, brought together in only a couple days by members of the Black and Brown LGBTQ community in Milwaukee. Signs such as "White Silence is Violence," "Queer and Trans for Black Lives Matter," and "Black and Brown Unity," put the …

Staff (2020-06-18). Headlines for June 18, 2020. democracynow.org Former Atlanta Police Officer Who Shot Rayshard Brooks Charged with Murder, Rayshard Brooks Described Struggles with Criminal Justice System in Video Recorded Before His Killing, Trump Calls Protesters "Anarchists, Terrorists and Looters" as Vigilantes Attack Peaceful Marches, George Floyd's Brother Calls on United Nations to Probe U.S. Racism and Police Brutality, Coronavirus Infection Rate Hits Record in States That Eased Social Distancing, Florida COVID-19 Cases Surge as Gov. DeSantis Promises to Keep Restaurants Open, Tulsa Mayor "Not Positive That Everything Is Safe" as 19,000 Plan to Attend Trump Rally, Bra…

Mark Taliano (2020-06-18). Trump's Order to Withdraw US Troops from Syria Good-for-Nothing. globalresearch.ca Mark Taliano, author and activist, says the US troops' deployment to the oil fields areas in Eastern Syria is an act of reoccupation, indicating the futility of US President's order to withdraw its forces from the Arab country. | *** | Speaking …

Paul Antonopoulos (2020-06-18). France's Call on NATO to Stop Ignoring the "Turkey Problem". Further Divides the Alliance. globalresearch.ca The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and this calls to question why NATO still exists today. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO has militarily intervened in many sovereign countries such as Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, while also expanding …

Aaron Maté (2020-06-18). Crippling new sanctions punish Syrian civilians for US defeat in proxy war. thegrayzone.com As Syria tries to recover from a nearly decade-long war, the US has imposed crippling new sanctions under the Caesar…

yenisafak (2020-06-18). US Supreme Court rules against Trump bid to end 'Dreamers' immigrant program. yenisafak.com The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a President Donald Trump a major setback on his hardline immigration policies, ruling against his bid to end a program that protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants, dubbed "Dreamers," who entered the United States illegally as children.The justices upheld lower court rulings that found that Trump's 2017 move to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, created in 2012 by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, was unlawful.

South Front (2020-06-18). Video: Idlib Militants Attack Turkish-Russian Patrols as Turkey Shifts Focus to Northern Iraq. globalresearch.ca On June 16, a joint convoy of the Turkish Army and the Russian Military Police became the target of a new IED attack during a patrol along the M4 highway in southern Idlib. The explosion damaged a BTR-82A armored personnel …

Zero Hedge (2020-06-18). USAF Paints Fighter Jet Russian Color Scheme to Prepare for Dogfights. globalresearch.ca A General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon at Hill Air Force Base, located in northern Utah, recently had an exterior makeover paint scheme that mimics the Russian Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter, reported The 576th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron painted …

Stephen Lendman (2020-06-18). The Plot to Make Trump a One-Term President? Why Do They Want him Out? Will a Biden Presidency Make a Positive Difference? globalresearch.ca Why would perhaps a majority of the US ruling class want Trump defeated in November? | Even though he's far from a prototypical Western leader — a businessman/reality TV personality turned politician — he aided and abetted the greatest wealth transfer …