2020-06-22: News Headlines

Jill Richardson (2020-06-22). A Ridiculous Debate on Sexual Orientation, But a Welcome Ruling. counterpunch.org The Supreme Court just affirmed a right I thought I always had: not to be fired for my sexual orientation. The 6-3 ruling found that, under existing civil rights legislation against sex-based discrimination, it's illegal for employers to discriminate against their employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity. It feels ridiculous that this needed

Fight Back (2020-06-22). DACA stays, fight for legalization for all! fightbacknews.org Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by Legalization for All Network (L4A). | Los Angeles, CA – Early Thursday morning, June 18, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration's attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA was an executive order signed June 15, 2012 by then-President Barak Obama and it protects hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth, allowing them to work and go to school without fear of arrest and deportation. | The 5-4 ruling was written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena…

Kevin Reed (2020-06-22). CIA Acknowledges Its Trove of Cyber Warfare Tools Was Exposed by WikiLeaks in 2017. globalresearch.ca A newly-released 2017 internal review of security practices at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) confirms that the top secret agency had developed an arsenal of cyber espionage tools and would not have known about the massive "Vault 7" data hack …

Matthew Ehret-Kump (2020-06-22). The Multiple Hands of British Intelligence. "The Real British Empire is A Nasty Beat" globalresearch.ca

_____ (2020-06-22). Lawyers Press Downing Street To Publish Russia Report. truepublica.org.uk By James Ball and Isobel Koshiw: Lawyers acting for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism have written to Number 10 urging it to publish a long-overdue report by parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) into Russian interference in the UK. The report by the ISC, parliament's watchdog on intelligence matters, had been cleared for release by the …

Binoy Kampmark (2020-06-22). Secret Trials Down Under: Witness J, Witness K and Bernard Collaery. dissidentvoice.org There are few more spiteful things in political life than a security establishment attempting to punish a leaker or whistleblower for having exposed an impropriety. Such a tendency has no ideological stripe or colouring: it is common to all political systems. In Australia, it has become clear that secret trials are all the rage. The …

yenisafak (2020-06-22). Germany arrests suspected Assad regime torturer. yenisafak.com German police arrested a Syrian former secret service employee on suspicion of crimes against humanity, officials said on Monday. | Alaa M., who arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2015, was arrested in the central state of Hesse on Friday, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office said in a statement. | The suspect worked for the military intelligence as a doctor, and he was strongly suspected of torturing inmates in 2011 at an Assad regime prison in the city of Homs. | The prosecutors accused the Assad regime of using brutal force to suppress the political opposition, torturing and murdering many of them in prisons…

_____ (2020-06-22). U.S. Threats Cannot Deter Cuba's Internationalist Approach. strategic-culture.org As the U.S. continues its defunding of international organisations, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) is next in line, as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared his country's funding conditional upon "U.S. values". The mismanagement of funds, particularly at UN institutions, is a well-known occurrence. However, the corruption existing at international institutions reflects the obscure, or non-existent process, of accountability, which capitalism encourages in order to maintain the monopoly over human rights rhetoric. | Under U.S. President Donald Trump, pointing out corruption is becoming a veneer…

RT (2020-06-21). 'Just blame the Russians!' Moscow's deputy UN envoy mocks Nikki Haley over blaming US unrest on Russia. rt.com The only task US officials seemingly have is finding a way of pinning the blame for literally any incident on Moscow, Russia's deputy UN envoy jokingly said as former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley did just that. | The ex-UN envoy apparently decided to jump on the bandwagon of Russia bashers and put all the blame for the massive riots gripping the US following the murder of an African American by a cop on Moscow. | Haley stated in a Twitter post that "playing up" the "allegations" of police abuse in America has been the new tactics of Russian intelligence apparently hell bent on disrupting yet another US…

yenisafak (2020-06-21). British police say Reading stabbing attack treated as terrorist act. yenisafak.com British police on Sunday said that a stabbing attack in a southern English town that left three people dead and another three injured was being treated as a terrorist attack but that there was no intelligence on any further attacks."This was an atrocity," Britain's top counter-terrorism officer, Neil Basu, said, adding that unarmed police officers had tackled the attacker.Basu said that counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation and that the attack is not linked to the Black Lives Matter protest in the same park in Reading a few hours before Saturday's attack.

Javier Guerrero (2020-06-20). Supreme Court rules against Trump in DACA case. liberationnews.org Until another victory is won in the streets, the current more than 600,000 DACA recipients will continue to renew their permits.

RT (2020-06-20). Bolton can release book, but actions may have caused 'irreparable harm' & raise 'national security concerns,' judge rules. rt.com A federal judge has ruled that John Bolton may proceed in releasing his book about his time in Donald Trump's administration, but warned the former national security advisor's conduct "raises grave national security concerns." | "For reasons that hardly need to be stated, the Court will not order a nationwide seizure and destruction of a political memoir," DC District Judge Royce Lamberth wrote in his ruling. He warned, however, that "without securing final approval from nationals intelligence authorities," Bolton may have caused "irreparable harm" to the country. | Bolton is still facing a civil case over pos…

RT (2020-06-20). Vote by hypocritical UN Human Rights Council on race and policing in US is 'new low' — Pompeo. rt.com The US has slammed the UN Human Rights Council for holding a vote on a resolution that criticized America's record of police brutality and racism, saying the vote demonstrated "hypocrisy" and showed why the US quit the body. | The UN rights body "has long been and remains a haven for dictators and democracies that indulge them," Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a statement. | "If the Council were honest, it would recognize the strengths of American democracy and urge authoritarian regimes around the world to model American democracy and to hold their nations to the same high standards of accountabilit…

Lawrence Goldstone (2020-06-20). How the Supreme Court undermined the Black vote. nationofchange.org Black Americans braved police violence at Selma and galvanized support for the Voting Rights Act. Fifty years later, the Supreme Court's Shelby decision ushered in a new era of racially targeted voter suppression.

Stephen Lendman (2020-06-20). US Supreme Court Rules for Dreamers. globalresearch.ca From inception, "America the beautiful" was and remains pure fantasy. | Throughout US history, its "lamp beside the golden door (alone welcomed) huddled masses yearning to breathe free" of the "right" race, ethnicity, and religion. | The welcome mat for people of …

Mark Gruenberg, Roberta Wood (2020-06-19). Latino groups, AFL-CIO hail Supreme Court's pro-DACA decision. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—Immigrant rights groups, the AFL-CIO and other human rights organizations hailed the U.S. Supreme Court's June 18 decision which effectively leaves in place the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and blocks President Donald Trump's long campaign to end DACA and toss its 700,000 recipients — the Dreamers — out of the country. …

Staff (2020-06-19). Climate Crisis: Keystone XL Supreme, Cap and Trade Takes Hit and California Geoengineering. therealnews.com The Trump administration tries to push Keystone XL to the US Supreme Court, California's appellate court rules on cap and trade, and California's governor backs away—but not really—from solar radiation geoengineering.

Mark Gruenberg (2020-06-19). High Court says California can stay a sanctuary state. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—By a 7-2 vote, but without a written decision being issued, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled California can stay a sanctuary state for undocumented people — a position the state's union movement strongly pushed to passage several years ago. Technically, the justices rejected the anti-Hispanic anti-migrant GOP Trump regime's demand the justices hear the …

Brian Cloughley (2020-06-19). Floundering NATO Tries to Surface by Confronting China. anti-empire.com On June 8 Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of the U.S.-NATO military alliance, gave a speech at NATO's new New on the Stoltenberg list is China, which is a long way from the North…

Staff (2020-06-19). How DREAMers Defeated Trump: Supreme Court DACA Win Shows "Sustained Pressure of Activism" Works. democracynow.org In a 5-4 decision led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court on Thursday blocked President Trump's attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The federal program created by President Obama in 2012 protects from deportation about 700,000 immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children. Luis Cortes, one of the lawyers who defended DACA at the Supreme Court, says the key to the victory was being able to share the stories of DACA recipients. "What moved Chief Justice Roberts in our case was the stories," says Cortes, who is a DACA recipient himself. We also speak with Erika Andiola, advo…

CounterSpin (2020-06-19). Ezra Young on Supreme Court LGBT Ruling. fair.org Media…

Staff (2020-06-19). Headlines for June 19, 2020. democracynow.org Supreme Court Blocks Trump from Ending DACA in Victory for Immigrants, Global COVID Death Toll Tops 450,000 as Cases Keep Growing in 77 Nations, Navajo Nation Reinstates Lockdown Due to New COVID Surge, "Trump Death Clock" Heads to Tulsa for Trump Speech, Juneteenth: Longshore Union Shuts Down West Coast Ports; Trump Claims He Made Holiday "Very Famous", Atlanta Officers Involved in Killing of Rayshard Brooks Turn Themselves In, Probe Launched over Use of Military Surveillance Planes to Monitor Protesters, High-Ranking Black State Dept. Official Resigns to Protest Trump's Actions, Klobuchar Removes Herself from V…

WSWS (2020-06-19). Supreme Court blocks Trump administration's plan to "immediately end" DACA. wsws.org A 5-4 majority cited the administration's failure to provide a "reasoned explanation" as the basis for Trump's decision to rescind an executive order issued by Obama in 2012.

Ashley Curtin (2020-06-19). Supreme Court extends life of DACA in 5-4 ruling. nationofchange.org "We took our power to the streets, the hallways of Congress, to the highest court in the land and we won."

Staff (2020-06-19). Supreme Court DACA Win Shows "Sustained Pressure of Activism" Works. truthout.org In a 5-4 decision led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court on Thursday blocked President Trump's attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The federal program created by President Obama in 2012 protects from deportation about 700,000 immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children. Luis Cortes, one of the lawyers who defended DACA at the Supreme Court, says the key to the victory was being able to share the stories of DACA recipients. "What moved Chief Justice Roberts in ou…

Stephen Lendman (2020-06-19). Loose Cannon Pompeo. No Breakthroughs in US-China Meeting in Hawaii. globalresearch.ca On Wednesday, Pompeo met with China's Yang Jiechi. | He holds several high-level positions in Beijing, including CPC Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission director. | Both officials met in Hawaii, the meeting requested by Pompeo at at a time of dismal …

Binoy Kampmark (2020-06-19). The Narrative of the Leakers: "Collateral Murder" and the Assange Indictment. counterpunch.org When the superseding indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia against Julian Assange on May 23, 2019, there was one glaring omission. It was an achievement, it might even be said the achievement, that gave the WikiLeaks publisher and the organisation justified notoriety. Collateral Murder, as the leaked

_____ (2020-06-19). Scheer Intelligence: The Powerful Past, Present And Future Of Black Lives Matter. popularresistance.org Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 after the murder of Trayvon Martin highlighted the dangers Black children, women and men face daily because of the color of their skin. The grassroots movement has protested against police violence and anti-black racism since then, and advocated for policy changes to address racial injustices. Despite having been active for the better part of a decade now, Black Lives Matter was recently launched into the global spotlight after the police assassination of George Floyd rocked the world. | On this week's episode of "Scheer Intelligence," Dr. Melina Abdullah, one of the Black L…

yenisafak (2020-06-19). Two wanted Daesh terrorists caught in SE Turkey. yenisafak.com Two women, both Russian citizens, who were wanted by Interpol for being members of the Daesh terrorist group, were arrested in Turkey's southeast in a joint operation by Turkish security and intelligence units on Friday.After being tipped off that a group of terrorists from Syria's war zones were entering Turkey illegally, an operation was conducted in coordination with the prosecutor's office in Kilis province.In the joint operation by police and the National Intelligence Organization, two women were apprehended in the central district of Kilis.The suspects were identified by the initials S.K (29) and R.E. (33),…

ACLU (2020-06-18). A Landmark Supreme Court Decision Affirms LGBTQ Rights. aclu.org It's been more than 50 years since Black and Brown trans women led the revolutionary Stonewall Riots, fighting back against police brutality and discrimination and launching a movement for equality. This week, we celebrated another incredible landmark in the fight for LGBTQ rights. , , In a 6 to 3 decision, the Supreme Court affirmed that it is illegal for employers to fire or otherwise discriminate against someone simply because they are LGBTQ. Though more work remains to protect the rights of the LGBTQ community, this decision will go a long way towards affirming legal protections in education, housing, cred…

teleSUR (2020-06-18). The US Supreme Court Backs the Dreamers' DACA Program. telesurenglish.net With 5 votes in favor and 4 against, the United States Supreme Court Thursday decided to keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in place, which protects hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth known as "the dreamers" from deportation. | RELATED: | The Supreme Court declared illegal President Donald Trump's decision to end the program that for the past eight years has benefited many undocume…

commondreams (2020-06-18). United States Supreme Court Upholds Immigrant Rights by Ruling Rescinded DACA Program As Unlawful. commondreams.org ______________________________…