2020-08-10: News Headlines

Alan MacLeod (2020-08-10). Trump Appoints Disgraced Iran-Contra Hawk Elliott Abrams as Iran Envoy. globalresearch.ca Activists, the UN, and even mainstream news outlets expressed dismay at the Trump administration's decision to appoint regime-change champion Elliot Abrahams to the role of Special Representative for Iran. | *** | The Trump administration has appointed disgraced neoconservative hawk Elliott …

Medea Benjamin (2020-08-10). Elliott Abrams' Appointment as the Next U.S. Special Representative for Iran. Spells Disaster. globalresearch.ca The appointment of Elliott Abrams to replace Brian Hook as the next U.S. Special Representative for Iran is another low point for the Trump administration's disastrous policy towards Iran. The dangerous conflict resulting from Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear agreement …

Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers (2020-08-10). Era of US domination of Latin America coming to an end. nationofchange.org As U.S. empire fades, so might the Monroe Doctrine come to an end.

Labor Video Project (2020-08-10). Free Them All! Care Not Cages! March & Rally In SF Against ICE & Republicrats. indybay.org Activists protested at the ICE office in San Francisco against the imprisonment of children in cages and the ICE terrorism against immigrants and people of color. They also attacked California Governor Newsom, Pelosi and the Democrats for supporting these policies.

Staff (2020-08-10). Climate Activists Push Biden to Cut Ties With Industry-Friendly Energy Advisers. truthout.org With President Trump's poll numbers sinking, he is increasingly turning to the fossil fuel industry for support. Rallying oil patch workers and executives during a stop

Robin Tress (2020-08-10). BP Plans to Keep It in the Ground, Sort Of. commondreams.org Greenpeace activists delivered 500 solar panels with a total area of over 800 square meters to BP's London headquarters in St. James Square Feb. 5, 2020. Activists locked to oil barrels blocked all six office doors around the building. (Photo: Suzanne Plunkett/Greenpeace) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

RT (2020-08-09). Abuse of power or social justice witch hunt? PC police come for gay mayor who had consensual sex with students. rt.com Left-wing college activists are up in arms after it emerged that a Massachusetts mayor used dating apps to sleep with students at a university he guest lectured at. While some deemed him "abusive," others say he did nothing wrong. | As mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, and lecturer at nearby University of Massachusetts Amherst, Alex Morse is a mainstay of progressive politics in the blue state. He's a regular guest at Democratic events on campus, and got to know progressive activists at the college well. | However, the College Democrats of Massachusetts claim he got to know some students a little too well. The…

_____ (2020-08-09). Occupy The Block For The Neville Family On Third Week. popularresistance.org On day 22 of Occupy the Block #OccupyWSNC, demonstrators gathered at Bailey Park at 10 am. | At 3 pm, approximately 300 occupiers, supporters, and the Neville Family gathered on the sidewalk outside the Forsyth County Courthouse for the Rally of Support for the Neville Family. Activists spoke of love for the Neville family and called for transparency and accountability from our officials. Sean Neville offered words of thanks for the movement. | Meanwhile, officers lined the windows at the entrance of the courthouse. Bike cops stalked the gathering, following the group even as they marched and threatened participa…

_____ (2020-08-08). CODEPINK Denounces Elliott Abrams' Appointment As US Special Representative For Iran. popularresistance.org The appointment of Elliott Abrams to replace Brian Hook as the next U.S. Special Representative for Iran is another low point for the Trump administration's disastrous policy towards Iran. The dangerous conflict resulting from Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear agreement will be exacerbated by a man committed to Washington's failed policies of regime change, including in his present-day position as Trump's representative for Venezuela. | Elliott Abrams has made a career of lying and committing criminal acts that have led to the death and suffering of innocent people from Guatemala to Iraq.

Staff (2020-08-08). Abolishing Police Is a Step Toward Ending White Supremacy and Capitalism. truthout.org Something has come unstuck. The common sense about policing has abruptly changed. | This shift was a long time coming: Prison abolitionists — a movement of scholars and activists, notably spearheaded by Black women such as Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore — have spent decades organizing toward a goal of abolishing the prison system. The Black Lives Matter movement and a new generation of Black-led organizing have kindled a new moment in which a world without police feels truly pos…

commondreams (2020-08-07). CODEPINK Denounces Elliott Abrams' Appointment as the Next U.S. Special Representative for Iran. commondreams.org ______________________________…

T.J. Coles (2020-08-07). Fighting Over Kashmir Could Blow Up the Planet. counterpunch.org Jammu and Kashmir, widely referred to as Kashmir, has had many designations since India and Pakistan were partitioned by Britain and gained their respective independence from the Empire: a Princely State, a State, a Union Territory. The 86,000 mile, Muslim-majority region sits in the Himalayas on the border with China. It is of strategic significance

Staff (2020-08-07). DNC Platform Condemns BDS But Not Israel's Occupation of Palestine. truthout.org Due to a series of decisions by the Democratic National Committee's (DNC's) platform committee, progressives are concerned that the Biden-led Democratic Party's foreign policy toward Israel and Palestine will more closely resemble that of Republicans than that of the Democratic rank-and-file. | There has already been much consternation among party activists over

Bradley Allen (2020-08-07). Coalition Calls for Shut Down of Calpella Wood Pellet Plant. indybay.org Local tribes, activists and statewide organizations are joining forces to demand closure of the Calpella wood pellet plant during the COVID-19 pandemic.

_____ (2020-08-07). Anti-Occupation Activists Find Their Place In Israeli Protests. popularresistance.org he growing presence of Israeli anti-occupation protesters has been one of the most notable aspects of the wave of demonstrations that started on July 14 outside the Prime Minister's Residence on Balfour Street, Jerusalem. Among other things, this bloc of protesters have demanded justice for Iyad al-Hallaq, a Palestinian with autism whom Israeli police shot dead in the Old City of Jerusalem in late May. | The anti-occupation bloc, comprising several hundred protesters, are not on the margins of the demonstrations. Last Saturday night, for example, it was possible to hear them chanting "Justice for Iyad" at the Pri…

_____ (2020-08-07). Professor Mounts High-Altitude Protest Against Pipeline. popularresistance.org Tim Takaro is by himself but insists he isn't alone. | Takaro, 63, is protesting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project by camping out in a cluster of trees in Burnaby, B.C. | Takaro is a professor of health sciences and environmental health at Simon Fraser University and a former physician, having retired from clinical medicine in December 2019. | He and other environmental activists say trees along the Brunette River near the boundary between Burnaby and New Westminster are slated to be felled between now and Sept. 15 as part of pipeline construction.

Lowell B. Denny, III (2020-08-06). Attacks on Margaret Sanger are cover for right wing's assault on women. peoplesworld.org Recently, Planned Parenthood took steps to publicly disavow their founder, Margaret Sanger. The organization announced it was removing her name from a clinic in Manhattan, citing her support for eugenics. This decision has not satisfied right-wing "right to lifers" who continue to attack Planned Parenthood, but it has garnered support from pro-choice, anti-racist activists, who …

Joelle Fishman (2020-08-06). Connecticut activists take up Hiroshima mayor's call: "Unite against all threats" peoplesworld.org NEW HAVEN, Conn.—"Civil society must reject self-centered nationalism and unite against all threats," warned Mayor Kazumi Matsui of Hiroshima, Japan on the 75th commemoration of the horrific devastation of its people when the atomic bomb was dropped on the city and three days later on the city of Nagasaki. The mayor's statement was read as …

Robin Valenzuela (2020-08-06). Dreamers' Children: Up to 200,000 American Kids Could be Left Parentless. commondreams.org Immigration rights activists take part in a rally in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC on November 12, 2019. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

NARAL Pro-Choice America (2020-08-06). Saturday 8/8: Our Freedom, Our Fight: NARAL Activists' Summit for Reproductive Rights (Day 1). indybay.org Online via Hopin…

yenisafak (2020-08-06). 'India not releasing jailed critics despite virus risk'. yenisafak.com India is among several countries where human rights defenders and activists imprisoned for criticizing the government have been kept in jail despite the risk of COVID-19, Amnesty International said in a report released on Thursday.The new briefing, Daring to Stand up for Human Rights in a Pandemic, states that India is one of the countries that has "left prisoners of conscience to languish in appalling conditions despite widely publicized prisoner release programs."According to the report, 131 people who speak up for human rights have been harassed, prosecuted, killed, or imprisoned on COVID-19-related pretexts i…

Julia Conley, staff writer (2020-08-06). On 55th Anniversary of Voting Rights Act, Advocates Call on Congress to Fully Restore Law to Honor John Lewis's Fight for Justice. commondreams.org Civil rights advocates on Thursday marked the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, both in celebration of the hard-won victory of activists in the 1960s and in honor of the late Rep. John Lewis, whose tireless organizing helped pressure lawmakers to sign the legislation. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…