Readings from Civil Liberties United: Diverse Voices from the SF Bay Area
Oakland Asian Cultural Center | indybay.org | 2019-08-06
Oakland Asian Cultural Center | 388 9th St., Suite 290 | Oakland, CA 94607…
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/05/18825224.php

Jailed Sri Lankan writer Shakthika Sathkumara defends Julian Assange
wsws.org | 2019-08-06
"The system that has put Assange behind bars is the same system responsible for putting me behind bars in Sri Lanka."
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/06/shak-a06.html

Sri Lanka: Colombo University students call for release of Julian Assange
wsws.org | 2019-08-06
"American imperialism is now seeking its revenge against Assange because he told the truth."
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/06/assl-a06.html

India's Hindu supremacist government abrogates Kashmir's autonomy
wsws.org | 2019-08-06
Yesterday's actions will enflame tensions with Pakistan, and constitute a further stage in the Indian ruling elite's turn toward authoritarian forms of rule and promotion of Hindu communal reaction.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/06/kash-a06.html

Labour-controlled Tower Hamlets council refused to host Palestinian charity event, citing "anti-Semitism" fears
wsws.org | 2019-08-06
The decision is a blatant attack on free speech and confirms that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism provides a mechanism for censoring, silencing and even criminalising individuals and organisations that oppose Israel's brutal suppression of the Palestinians, while slandering the entire left as "anti-Semitic."
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/06/towe-a06.html

Tens of thousands of workers strike throughout Hong Kong
wsws.org | 2019-08-06
The ruling class throughout the world is deeply fearful of the spread of social discontent as the working class moves into open struggle for its democratic and social rights.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/06/hong-a06.html

US Secretary of State demands greater Australian involvement in war drive against China
wsws.org | 2019-08-06
The support for Pompeo's aggressive remarks in Canberra is a warning that behind its back, the Australian population has been placed on the frontline of a confrontation with China that threatens a catastrophic nuclear war.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/06/ausm-a06.html

US-China trade conflict escalates to currency war
wsws.org | 2019-08-06
Stock markets fell sharply around the world yesterday, amid fears of a currency war, after China allowed its currency, the renminbi, to pass through the benchmark of 7 to the US dollar.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/06/usch-a06.html

Trump's Trade War with China: Imagine What Would Happen if China Decided to Impose Economic Sanctions on the USA?
Prof Michel Chossudovsky | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-05
In formulating these veiled threats, the Trump administration should think twice. These measures would inevitably backlash on the U.S. economy. China is not dependent on US imports. Quite the opposite. America is an import led economy with a weak manufacturing base, heavily dependent on imports from the PRC.
globalresearch.ca/imagine-what-would-happen-if-china-decided-to-impose-economic-sanctions-on-the-usa-2/5598941

A Syrian Leader Tells His Country's Story: An Interview with SAA General Hassan Hassan
Eva Bartlett | mintpressnews.com | 2019-08-05
For years, international headlines spotlighting Syria have claimed that the Syrian government, army, and its allies were guilty of a variety of atrocities. Yet as time has passed, many of the accusations levied at government and its allies have been shown to have been either falsified, staged (as in the case of allegations of chemical attacks in eastern Ghouta), or actually committed by the myriad terrorist groups operating in the country. | For their part, Syrian leadership has maintained from the start that the uprising…
mintpressnews.com/syria-interview-with-syrian-arab-army-general-hassan-hassan/261146/

World War II: US Military Destroyed 66 Japanese Cities Before Planning to Wipe Out the Same Number of Soviet Cities
Shane Quinn | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-05
The number of Japanese cities destroyed was the exact figure that the Pentagon compiled when finalizing plans, in mid-September 1945, to eviscerate the Soviet Union. Indeed, 66 Soviet cities were earmarked to be wiped out — with 204 atomic bombs — less than 2 weeks after Japan's surrender.
globalresearch.ca/us-military-destroyed-66-japanese-cities-before-planning-wipe-out-same-number-soviet-cities/5680934

Patterns of Occupied Palestine: Part 2 of Uncountable
Priti Gulati Cox | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-05
What do Shahed Amer al-Bayoumi, Abdel-Raouf Salha, Arafat Jaradat, Ayoub Asaleya, Mohammed Suleiman, Sawsan Ali Dawud Mansour, Mohammad H., Isma'il Muslem Hamad Abu Bteihan, Ala Ziad Abu 'Aasi, Fadi al-Darbi, Atef al-Maqousi, Jaber Ibrahim Abu Hweige,Fadiyah Jaber Abu Hweigeand MuhammadJaber Abu Hweigehave in common? They are Palestinians between the ages of 9 and 69 who…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/05/patterns-of-occupied-palestine-part-2-of-uncountable/

Rivers of Dust: Water and the Middle East
Conn Hallinan | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-05
Syria and Iraq are at odds with Turkey over the Tigris-Euphrates. Egypt's relations with Sudan and Ethiopia over the Nile are tense. Jordan and the Palestinians accuse Israel of plundering river water to irrigate the Negev Desert and hogging most of the three aquifers that underlie the occupied West Bank.
counterpunch.org/2019/08/05/rivers-of-dust-water-the-middle-east/

The Forgotten Rohingya Refugees
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-08-05
Existence is resistance: a quarter of a million Rohingya refugees live in Malaysia with no legal rights or protections…
therealnews.com/stories/the-forgotten-rohingya-refugees

Iran's Foreign Minister Zarif Drives Trump to Insanity
M. K. Bhadrakumar | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-05
At a time when the Trump administration has no problem negotiating with the secretary of the Russian national security council Nikolai Patrushev, who is technically under US sanctions since April 2018, the cut and thrust of Washington's move to …
globalresearch.ca/irans-zarif-drives-trump-insanity/5685632

Mass Shootings, Militarism and Policing Are Chapters in the Same Manifesto
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-05
| This weekend, after two mass shooters killed and injured dozens of people in Texas and Ohio,?Rep. Steve Cohen?tweeted, "You want to shoot an assault weapon? Go to Afghanistan or Iraq. Enlist!" | Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, apparently did not take issue with the El Paso shooter's desire to slaughter people of color — he merely wanted to redirect his bullets toward people of color outside of the United States. His tweet was a chilling reminder of?how the United…
truthout.org/articles/mass-shootings-militarism-and-policing-are-chapters-in-the-same-manifesto/

Afghanistan: In Search of Monsters to Not Destroy
Thomas Knapp | counterpunch.org | 2019-08-05
America, John Quincy Adams said in 1821, "goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own." That's as good a summary ever spoken of the non-interventionist position. US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) disagrees. He…
counterpunch.org/2019/08/05/afghanistan-in-search-of-monsters-to-not-destroy/

Election annulment please
Tom H. Hastings | nationofchange.org | 2019-08-05
Russia hacked and attacked our 2016 presidential election and installed Donald Trump. This requires annulment. Trump didn't even come close on the actual popular vote, losing to Clinton by some three million votes, and yet seized the White House by the arcane and anti-democratic electoral college, but only due to Russian illegal interference. This makes …
nationofchange.org/2019/08/05/election-annulment-please/

U.S. imposes 2nd round of sanctions against Russia for poisoning ex-spy
Andrew Emett | nationofchange.org | 2019-08-05
The United States is announcing a second round of sanctions on Russia for its use of a 'novichok' nerve agent in an attempt to assassinate Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal.
nationofchange.org/2019/08/05/u-s-imposes-2nd-round-of-sanctions-against-russia-for-poisoning-ex-spy/

If the US Develops New Nuclear Missiles, We Will Too: Putin
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-05
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Monday that Moscow would start developing short and intermediate-range land-based nuclear missiles if the United States does so as well. | RELATED: | US Withdraws From 1988 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty | "If Russia obtains reliable information that the United States has finished developing these systems and started to produce them, Russia will have no option other than to engage in a full-scale effort to develop similar m…
telesurenglish.net/news/If-the-US-Develops-New-Nuclear-Missiles-We-Will-Too-Putin–20190805-0015.html

Arctic fires: "You have to go to a different planet to find a more persistent type"
Eds. | mronline.org | 2019-08-05
Here's a sentence for you: The Arctic is burning. Yes, that Arctic–the traditionally cold and wet one, large swaths of which are being consumed by an astonishing number of wildfires, from Russia to Greenland to Alaska. | Source…
mronline.org/2019/08/05/arctic-fires-you-have-to-go-to-a-different-planet-to-find-a-more-persistent-type/

India Moves to Strip Kashmir of Autonomy, Potentially Setting Up Conflict in Disputed Territory
Murtaza Hussain | theintercept.com | 2019-08-05
The change to Kashmir's status as an autonomous state, which both India and Pakistan lay claim to, comes after an unexpected lockdown in the province.
theintercept.com/2019/08/05/india-kashmir-autonomy-status/

Myanmar companies bankroll 'brutal operations' of military, independent UN experts claim in new report
United Nations | un.org | 2019-08-05
Money earned by the Myanmar military from international and domestic business deals, "substantially enhances its ability to carry out gross violations of human rights with impunity" according to a report released on Monday by an independent United Nations group looking into military-business ties in the South East Asian country.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/08/1043701

Syrian Army Resumes Operations After Attacks on Idlib
telesurenglish.net | 2019-08-05
The Government of Syria on Monday denounced the violations of the ceasefireby the groups terrorists , who continue attacks on civilians in the province of Idlib(northwest) and announced it would resume its military operations in that region. | RELATED: | Syrian Gov't Agrees to Conditional Ceasefire in Idlib | The General Command of the Army and the Syrian Armed Forces said that, despite the fact that the army accepted the ceasefire on August 1, terrorist groups refused to abide by…
telesurenglish.net/news/Syrian-Army-Resumes-Operations-After-Attacks-on-Idlib-20190805-0017.html

Stocks Plunge 3% in Worst Loss of Year as Trade War Escalates
Staff | truthdig.com | 2019-08-05
Rattled U.S. investors react to China letting its currency, the yuan, drop to its lowest level against the dollar in more than a decade.
truthdig.com/articles/stocks-plunge-3-in-worst-loss-of-year-as-trade-war-escalates/

Steve Bannon's Foreign Policy Crusade Against China
James Carden | thenation.com | 2019-08-05
Steve Bannon's Foreign Policy Crusade Against China…
thenation.com/article/steve-bannon-foreign-policy-crusade-china/