2019-07-04: News Headlines

Orion Edmonson (2019-07-04). Basta !!! Free Chelsea Manning & Julien Assange Oakland Weekly Friday Vigil. indybay.org MacArthuR and fruitvale oakland 94602…

WSWS (2019-07-04). Australian filmmaker James Ricketson calls on journalist Peter Greste to defend Assange. wsws.org Ricketson's "Open Letter" debunks Greste's claim that Assange is not a journalist and therefore not deserving of support, and calls on him to defend the WikiLeaks founder, as he did Ricketson who was wrongly jailed in Cambodia.

WSWS (2019-07-04). Video: Watch the Sydney Free Assange rally. wsws.org The demonstration is one of a series of rallies organised by the Socialist Equality Party to defend Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning; the next will be in Brisbane on Saturday followed by Melbourne on Sunday July 14.

Special To The Black Star News (2019-07-03). Lawyers' Committee For Civil Rights "Pleased" Justice Department Will Print 2020 Census Questionnaire Without Bigoted Citizen Question. blackstarnews.com In response to the Department of Justice confirming the decision has been made to print the 2020 Decennial Census questionnaire without a citizenship question, and that the printer has been instructed to begin the printing process, Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, issued the following statement: | "The Supreme Court's ruling left little opportunity for the administration to cure the defects with its decision to add a citizenship question and, most importantly, they were simply out of time given the impending deadline for printing forms. We are…

splcenter (2019-07-03). SPLC urges Supreme Court to preserve workplace protections for LGBTQ people. splcenter.org Soon after Y.B. took the night shift as a forklift operator, her boss started harassing her because she is a lesbian.

Staff (2019-07-03). Four Takeaways From the Supreme Court's Census Citizenship Question Ruling. truthout.org A divided Supreme Court ruled last week that the Commerce Department's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census violated federal law. The opinion delivered a setback to the Trump administration's last-minute attempt to add an untested citizenship question to the census. Here's what the court said and what it means for the upcoming census. | 1. The citizenship question is currently blocked from appearing on the 2020 census. | The Supreme Court upheld in part the ruling of a lower federal court barring the question. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts declared that the Commerce D…

ACLU (2019-07-03). Thousands of Voices Are Telling the Supreme Court: Don't Roll Back LGBTQ Rights. aclu.org Businesses, women CEOs, civil rights organizations, Republicans tell the Supreme Court to protect LGBTQ employees like Aimee Stephens and Don Zarda. | President Trump has told the Supreme Court it should be legal to fire someone just because they're LGBTQ. The President may be a bully, but he's just one voice. Today, more than 2,000 voices from across the country joined together to tell the Supreme Court: Don't roll back our rights. | The message came in the form of friend-of-the-court briefs—nearly 50 in all—filed in a…

Keegan Hankes, Intelligence Project (2019-07-03). SPLC: Hate groups have long adopted symbols of U.S. history to promote white supremacy. splcenter.org As America prepares to celebrate the Fourth of July this week, the display of some of the nation's earliest regalia has rekindled a debate about racist symbolism.

Staff (2019-07-03). Assange Is Trapped in the Web of the US Legal Empire. truthout.org WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may have been described by British foreign affairs minister Alan Duncan as a " miserable little worm," but his situation is in fact far more like that of a fly, trapped in the web of a powerful predator. | On June 13, British Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed off on the United States's request to extradite Assange from the U…

RT (2019-07-02). Is CIA Behind Hong Kong Protests? dissidentvoice.org RT America's Michele Greenstein joins Rick Sanchez to discuss the ongoing protests in Hong Kong and the "National Endowment for Democracy," the US-based NGO funding the protesters.

RT (2019-07-02). Trump administration orders printing 2020 census forms without citizenship question. rt.com Opponents of returning a question about US citizenship onto census forms in 2020 are rejoicing as the Trump administration confirmed it would start printing the forms without it, following a mixed opinion from the Supreme Court.

Robert Mackey (2019-07-02). 2020 Census Form Will Not Include Citizenship Question, Trump Administration Says. theintercept.com The Trump administration admitted defeat on Tuesday, confirming that forms for the 2020 U.S. census will not include a question asking residents who respond to the survey if they are U.S. citizens. The change of plans follows last week's Supreme Court decision that the Commerce Department had failed to provide a valid reason for adding the question. | The news was conveyed in an email from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to lawyers who had contested the effort in lawsuits, and confirmed to The Intercept by…

susan_p (2019-07-02). If war breaks out with Iran, it won't be an accident. greenleft.org.au Some things are still unclear about US President Donald Trump's recent decision to bomb Iran — and his rapid-fire follow-up decision not to. | We still do not know what he or his bomb-Iran cheerleaders — National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — thought the bombing would actually accomplish. | We also do not know why Trump decided to recall the bombers. (Trump claimed it was because a general told him 150 people would die in the attack. But given Trump's indifference to civilian c…

Fight Back (2019-07-01). Interview with Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez on original Rainbow Coalition. fightbacknews.org There are many 50-year anniversaries being celebrated these days, including the founding of the Young Lords on September 23, 1968, and the Rainbow Coalition in April 1969. | Fight Back! interviewed the founder of the Young Lords, Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez, about the original Rainbow Coalition. The powers ruling Chicago were struck with fear when the Rainbow Coalition came together. The United States government and the FBI repressed the groups of the Rainbow Coalition with the courts and violence in the form of COINTELPRO, the counter-intelligence program. The Rainbow Coalition inspired many activists in the late 196…

RT (2019-07-01). Intel agencies may be reined in after Russiagate fiasco – ex-Trump adviser Papadopoulos. rt.com The "deep state" that helped orchestrate Russiagate is now running for cover, George Papadopoulos told RT's Going Underground, predicting that US intelligence agencies could face new oversight as a result of the scandal. |

John Kiriakou (2019-06-28). The Military Industrial Complex Loves Left Wing Hawk Adam Schiff. mintpressnews.com If there was any doubt at all that Adam Schiff is in the grip of the military-industrial complex, one doesn't have to rely just on his stated positions on Iran, Venezuela, and China to make the situation any clearer. Just take a look at his donors.

Staff (2019-06-28). Headlines for June 28, 2019. democracynow.org Supreme Court Says Partisan Gerrymandering Can't Be Challenged in Federal Courts, Trump Threatens to Delay Census After Supreme Court Blocks Adding Citizenship Question, Kamala Harris Takes on Joe Biden over Working with Segregationists and His Opposition to Busing, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Decries New Border Bill as an Unacceptable Betrayal, U.S. Helps Block Progress at German Climate Summit as Europe Sizzles in Record Heat, With a Smile, Trump Tells Putin at G20 Not to Meddle in U.S. Elections, Trump's Chief of Diplomatic Protocol Resigns After Accused of Carrying Whip at Work, Brazilian Air Force Officer…

Staff (2019-06-28). Supreme Court Hands GOP Big Victory on Gerrymandering, Ensuring "Massive Election Rigging" democracynow.org The Supreme Court hands down two major decisions. The first is a victory for Republicans, allowing extreme partisan gerrymandering to continue. The other temporarily blocks the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question on the 2020 census. We get response from Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones, a reporting fellow at the Type Media Center and author of "Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America." He says the ruling that federal courts can't resolve claims of partisan gerrymandering is "almost guaranteed to facilitate massive election rigging in the future."

ACLU (2019-06-28). Georgia Tried to Ban Abortion, So We Sued. aclu.org Abortion bans place people in danger, and Georgia's is no exception. | Alabama. Arkansas. Kentucky. Ohio. And today, Georgia. That's the list of states where the ACLU has had to go to court over the last few months to challenge laws banning abortion. | The Georgia law bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy and is in clear violation of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade. In fact, that is the whole point of the law. Georgia politicians, including Governor Brian Kemp, emboldened by President Trump's appointment of two new justices to the Supreme Court, think this is their chance to get the court to take aw…

Keegan Hankes, Intelligence Project (2019-06-28). SPLC: Sentencing of James Alex Fields Jr., who killed Heather Heyer at 'Unite the Right,' will not heal victims or their families. splcenter.org James Alex Fields Jr., who was sentenced to life in prison today for murdering a woman who was protesting a white supremacist rally two years ago, is a remorseless killer and a domestic terrorist.

Staff (2019-06-27). Supreme Court's Gerrymandering Decision a Danger to Democracy. therealnews.com Justice Kagan's minority opinion calls out the threat that the decision represents to our right to vote and to our democratic future. Suzanne Almeida of Common Cause discusses the implications…

Austyn Ross (2019-06-27). Statements by Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, on Supreme Court's Democracy Rulings. naacp.org Statement on Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek: "The Court's rulings today upend our democratic principles by allowing party politics to determine the outcomes of our elections. Extreme partisan gerrymandering has infected our electoral process for far too long. Exercise of the franchise, which many fought and even died for, must not be …

splcenter (2019-06-27). SPLC: Supreme Court decision not to stop politicians from rigging voting maps hurts our democracy. splcenter.org The Supreme Court decided today that federal courts have no role in regulating state legislatures' gross abuses of power when drawing political lines.

ACLU (2019-06-27). Supreme Court Finds that Wilbur Ross Lied To Put Citizenship Question on the 2020 Census. aclu.org The ruling affirms that the Trump administration cannot offer pretextual reasons to cover up its anti-immigrant attacks. | This morning, the Supreme Court told the country what we and our clients have long known: that Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross provided a false reason for his decision to add a citizenship question to the Decennial Census. The court explained that the Trump administration's stated reason for adding a citizenship question—enf…

Paul Dobson (2019-06-26). Abrams Welcomes Venezuela's Former Intelligence Chief to the US, Reaffirms Trump's Commitment to Ousting Maduro. venezuelanalysis.com The press conference came as the Venezuelan military called for respect from those looking to fracture it.

Brian Becker (2019-06-19). Exposed: The Pentagon's cyberwar against Russia. liberationnews.org Five years before Robert Mueller was appointed Special Counsel to investigate the allegation that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and had conspired with the Trump campaign, the Pentagon had been waging secret cyberattacks against Russia's electrical grid.

Paul Dobson (2019-06-06). Venezuela: Pompeo Exposes Frustration Over Opposition Divisions as China, Russia Call for Non-Interference. venezuelanalysis.com The US Secretary of State claims efforts to unify the opposition have been "devilishly difficult."

CGTN America (2019-06-03). Why is the US targeting Huawei? cgtn.com Huawei is the world's largest provider of smartphones, but the U.S. is accusing it of spying on behalf of the Chinese government, increasing tensions ahead of a looming trade war. The Heat Podcast talks with senior correspondent Nathan King about the controversy.