Ginger Thompson (2018-06-19). You Can Now Listen to Children Who've Just Been Separated From Their Parents at the Border. mintpressnews.com ProPublica obtained audio from inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, in which children can be heard wailing as an agent jokes, "We have an orchestra here."

Samantha Borek (2018-06-19). "Trump Creates Crises and Preys on Fear": Rep. Jayapal on Policy of Separating Kids From Parents. truthout.org Outrage is growing over the Trump administration's separation of children from their parents along the US-Mexico border. On Monday, ProPublica released audio from inside a US Customs and Border Protection facility, in which children estimated to be between the ages of 4 and 10 years old are heard crying "Mama" and "Papi" after being separated from their parents. In another part of the audio, a Border Patrol agent is heard joking, in Spanish, "Well, we have an orchestra here. What's missing is a conductor." Video footage released by the US Border Patrol Monday shows migrant children in concrete-floored chain-link cages, in an old warehouse in McAllen, Texas. A new Quinnipiac Poll shows roughly two-thirds of US voters oppose separating children from their parents at the border. About 7 percent of Democratic voters support the Trump policy, while 55 percent of Republicans support…

Mark Trahant (2018-06-19). As America Separates Families at the Border, a Look Back at the Cruel Practice. mintpressnews.com Indian Country remembers. This is not the first administration to order the forced separation of families. | The Trump administration has initiated a zero-tolerance policy on the border. Zero tolerance means that people caught crossing the border are treated as criminals. | On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security said the Trump administration separated 1,995 children from the adults they were traveling with at the U.S. border between April 19 and May 31. | "The act of ripping children away from their parents is nothing new for the United States. Separating children and their families to 'kill the Indian to save the man' by sending Native children to boarding schools, and doing it in the name of religion, is one generation removed from my family," wrote Peggy Flanagan on Twitter. Flanagan, White Earth, is a candidate for lieutenant governor in Minnesota. "Trump's 'zero…

Venezuelanalysis.com (2018-06-19). Watch | Abby Martin Warns MSM Talk of Venezuela Coup Motivated by Oil. mintpressnews.com The American empire and its media openly talk coup in Venezuela because it sits on vast — and nationalized — oil resources, and this is US expansionism at its finest, The Empire Files host Abby Martin told Lee Camp. | Venezuela's oil — nationalized by Nicholas Maduro's socialist government — is key in understanding why the US neoliberal establishment and their media openly talk regime change, Abby Martin, who hosts a show on Venezuelan Telesur, told Lee Camp in an interview edition of Redacted Tonight. | The situation in the Latin American country is now so dire and Maduro is so undemocratic that only a splendid coup might help Venezuela become a democracy again, she said, jokingly citing some of the MSM narratives. | "Here is the bottom line: the US has done enormous damage to Venezuela. Let's start just with the…

Staff (2018-06-18). Unapologetic Trump Digs In on Immigration Despite Outrage. truthdig.com WASHINGTON — An unapologetic President Trump defended his administration's border-protection policies Monday in the face of rising national outrage over the forced separation of migrant children from their parents. Calling for tough action against illegal immigration, Trump declared the U.S. "will not be a migrant camp" on his watch. | Images of children held in fenced cages fueled a growing chorus of condemnation from both political parties, four former first ladies and national evangelical leaders. The children are being held separately from parents who are being prosecuted under the administration's "zero-tolerance" policy for illegal border crossings. | "I say it's very strongly the Democrats' fault," Trump said Monday as his administration rejected criticism that the policy has resulted in inhuman and immoral conditions. | Trump pointed to more lenient policies under past administrations that had not charged all migrants who had crossed illegally.

Debbie Nathan (2018-06-18). Desperate Asylum Seekers Are Being Turned Away by U.S. Border Agents Claiming There's "No Room" globalresearch.ca U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are systematically violating U.S. and international law by blocking immigrants at international ports of entry on the southern border from entering the country so they can claim asylum. Immigration civil rights advocates have been …

Steve Early (2018-06-18). Requiem for a Steelworker: Mon Valley Memories of Oil Can Eddie. counterpunch.org In progressive circles in the upper mid-west today, if you've heard the name Sadlowski, it's probably because you were involved in the Wisconsin labor uprising of 2011, where you might have linked arms with AFSCME organizer and state capitol occupier Edward A. Sadlowski. Or maybe you applauded the electoral victory of his sister, Susan Sadlowski More

Human Rights Watch (2018-06-18). EU: Summit Leadership Needed on Migration. hrw.org A girl holds a placard during a protest held by migrants and refugees to call for the reopening of the borders at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni on March 23, 2016. | © 2016 ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/Getty Images | (Brussels) – The failure by European Union governments and institutions to develop an effective and rights-based policy response to migration causes real suffering and fuels a sense of political crisis around migration, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. EU heads of state will meet in Brussels on June 28-29, 2018, to discuss migration and asylum policy. | The report, " Toward an Effective and Principled EU Migration Policy: Recommendations for Reform," contains concrete recommendations to ensure EU global leadership on refugee protection, uphold the right to…

Human Rights Watch (2018-06-18). 'Whatever' — What Happens to Kids Taken from Families at US Border. hrw.org A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border on June 12, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is executing the Trump administration's 'zero tolerance' policy towards undocumented immigrants. | © 2018 John Moore/Getty Images | I've had a chance over the past few days to see what happens to kids right after they're separated from their parents by US immigration officials. White House chief of staff John Kelly said we shouldn't worry about these kids because they'll be " put into foster care or whatever." | "Whatever" seems to be what they're aiming for, judging from my time interviewing children and their parents in McAllen, Texas. There are no specific services for kids at US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detention facilities…

Human Rights Watch (2018-06-18). Sudan: UN's Planned Cuts to Darfur Mission Risk Rights Protection. hrw.org United Nations Mission in Darfur peacekeepers stand guard in Shagra village, North Darfur, October 18, 2012. | © 2012 Reuters | (New York) — The United Nations Security Council should ensure that its peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur region continues to conduct human rights monitoring and public reporting in all of Darfur. The mandate of the joint African Union-United Nations mission in Darfur (UNAMID) is due for renewal by the end of June 2018. | The Security Council is expected to approve drastic cuts in the mission, including closing 14 UNAMID team sites and a plan for withdrawal in two years. The African Union Peace and Security Council has already approved the plan. The plan under discussion would limit the mission's area of operation to 13 sites around Jebel Marra, the mountainous area where government…

Whitney Webb (2018-06-17). Russian-Syrian Warnings of a Coming False-Flag Chemical Attack Have Ring of Truth. globalresearch.ca In recent days, speculation has swirled regarding whether another chemical-weapons attack will soon take place in Syria, as sources in both Syrian intelligence and the Russian military have warned that U.S.-backed forces in the U.S.-occupied region of Deir ez-Zor are …

RT (2018-06-17). MSM talk coup in Venezuela because it sits on oil US empire wants — Abby Martin. rt.com The American empire and its media openly talk coup in Venezuela because it sits on vast — and nationalized — oil resources, and this is US expansionism at its finest, The Empire Files host Abby Martin told Lee Camp.
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Debbie Nathan (2018-06-16). Desperate Asylum-Seekers Are Being Turned Away by U.S. Border Agents Claiming There's "No Room" theintercept.com U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are systematically violating U.S. and international law by blocking immigrants at international ports of entry on the southern border from entering the country so they can claim asylum. Immigration civil rights advocates have been documenting this illegal behavior since late 2016, from Texas to California. It was sporadic then, and appears to have been based at least in part on CBP's difficulties with handling large numbers of people. | Even so, the practice of turning immigrants away has suddenly become routine, creating chilling scenes of immigrants and children camped out near the bridges, exposed to sun, wind, and rain, amid make-do bedding, scattered clothing, and trash. A few times a day, the immigrants walk to the middle of the bridges and ask to be admitted to the port of entry building on the U.S. side so…

Louisa Willcox (2018-06-15). New Information on 2017 Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Deaths Should Nix Trophy Hunting in Core Habitat. counterpunch.org Wyoming officials are barging ahead with a September hunt of Yellowstone grizzly bears despite new information about bear deaths that shows that no hunting should occur this year. This according to protocols adopted by the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho when 2017 federal endangered species protections were removed ("delisting"). The considerable confusion among state More

Natasha Lennard (2018-06-15). The Misogynistic Logic of Jeff Sessions's Horrifying New Asylum Policy For Domestic Violence Victims. theintercept.com When the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in 1993, it gave long overdue recognition to the fact that gendered domestic violence is not a private issue, but a public health and human rights concern for the international community. Attorney General Jeff Sessions's decision this week to stop giving asylum protections for domestic violence victims stands in grim conflict with this principle. | On Monday, Sessions reversed an immigration court's ruling that granted asylum to a woman from El Salvador whose husband had repeatedly abused her physically, sexually, and emotionally. The court ruled in 2014 that domestic violence victims constitute a social group when it comes to asylum considerations. But in a 31-page ruling with profound implications for immigration policy, Sessions wrote that "generally" claims on domestic and gang violence will no longer qualify for asylum…

RT (2018-06-14). Slam dunk: Flat-Earther logic obliterated by Reddit basketball stunt (PHOTO). rt.com A Reddit user has poked major holes in flat-Earther 'logic' with a clever — and easy-to-replicate — experiment deploying a digital camera with a macro lens, plenty of light… and a basketball. |
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RT (2018-06-13). Volcanic eruptions may sap oxygen from oceans, lead to 'mass extinction' of life on Earth — study. rt.com Devastating volcanic eruptions, caused by excess carbon in the atmosphere, could one day lead to the mass extinction of all marine animals, and possibly all life on Earth — so says a new study.
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Paul Dobson (2018-06-07). Maduro & Workers Push to Stimulate Venezuela's Oil Industry amid Collapsing Production. venezuelanalysis.com It is alleged that PDVSA does not possess sufficient stocks to fulfill its June export orders.

Cira Pascual Marquina (2018-05-22). Venezuela Slams New US Sanctions as Washington Hints at Oil Embargo. venezuelanalysis.com The latest measures fly in the face of international concern about the living conditions of Venezuelans.