The False Choice Between Jailing Children and Separating Families
Candice Bernd, Truthout | alternet.org | 2018-06-14
The Trump administration is asking Congress to roll back protections for migrant children in immigration laws to allow DHS officials to more easily jail and deport them. | The Trump administration is giving Congress an ultimatum: overturn legal limits on the incarceration of children and expand family detention, or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will continue to separate families who illegally cross the border. The administration is asking Congress to roll back protections for migrant children in immigration laws to allow DHS officials to more easily jail and deport them. The changes would also make it more difficult for children to pursue asylum. Moreover, White House officials are blaming Democrats for an increase in migrants at the border, saying their refusal to spend more on border security has given immigrants fleeing Central America incentives to enter the US without permission. "The. . .
www.alternet.org/false-choice-between-jailing-children-and-separating-families

Scott Pruitt's Corruption Is Bad, But His Planetary Sabotage Is Worse
Jill Richardson, Common Dreams | alternet.org | 2018-06-14
Gutting protections against toxic chemicals is just one way in which Pruitt has assaulted the environment while in office. | Did you hear that the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt, is so corrupt that he spent $1,560 on 12 customized fountain pens? Or that he spent another $43,000 on a soundproof phone booth in violation of government spending laws? Pruitt's big spending on the taxpayer dime has earned him well-deserved scrutiny and outrage. But what's really outrageous is what he's doing with the EPA. While Pruitt was getting headlines for having taxpayer-funded aides do his private business, his EPA just gutted an Obama-era law to protect Americans from toxic chemicals. For four decades, the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 did little to require that all new chemicals (or untested old ones) were properly vetted for safety before. . .
www.alternet.org/scott-pruitts-corruption-bad-his-planetary-sabotage-worse

Amid Scathing Accusations of War Crimes, UN Votes to Condemn Israeli Violence Against Palestinians
Samantha Borek | truthout.org | 2018-06-14
Just hours after a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accused Israel of showing "blatant disregard for Palestinian lives" and commiting war crimes in its massacre of over 100 nonviolent demonstrators in Gaza over the past several weeks, the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution that condemns Israel's "excessive, disproportionate, and indiscriminate" use of live fire against peaceful Palestinians. | "We cannot remain silent in the face of the most violent crimes and human rights violations being systematically perpetrated against our people," Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the UN, said in a speech following Wednesday's vote. | The resolution denouncing Israel's murderous behavior–which was approved by a 120-8 vote, with 45 abstentions–also requests proposals from the UN Secretary General "ways and means for ensuring the safety, protection, and well-being of the…
truthout.org/articles/amid-scathing-accusations-of-war-crimes-un-votes-to-condemn-israeli-violence-against-palestinians/

Beating the US 'Veto': Palestinians Need Urgent Protection from Israel
Ramzy Baroud | counterpunch.org | 2018-06-14
What is taking place in Palestine is not a 'conflict'. We readily utilize the term but, in fact, the word 'conflict' is misleading. It equates between oppressed Palestinians and Israel, a military power that stands in violation of numerous United Nations Resolutions. It is these ambiguous terminologies that allow the likes of United States UN…
counterpunch.org/2018/06/14/beating-the-us-veto-palestinians-need-urgent-protection-from-israel/

Liberal Philanthropy is Dooming the Planet to Climate Disaster, Documents Reveal
Nafeez Ahmed | mintpressnews.com | 2018-06-14
One of the world's biggest philanthropic initiatives to address climate change is set-up to fail catastrophically, according to a strategy document setting out the initiative's five-year plan. | The strategy document, published by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in January, represents the third renewal of the Climate Works initiative originally founded in 2008. The initiative was executed through the Climate Works Foundation in coordination with other big philanthropic foundations, the Packard and McKnight Foundations. | The Hewlett Foundation strategy document, titled Climate Initiative Strategy 2018–2023, reflects on the strategic thinking behind the process that led to the announcement last December that the foundation would commit $600 million to address climate change over the next five years‚Ää–‚Ääa 20 percent increase from previous funding. | | The fifth largest foundation in the United States, the Hewlett Foundation is…

Liberal Philanthropy is Dooming the Planet to Climate Disaster, Documents Reveal

Antarctica's Melting Is Speeding Up
Staff | truthdig.com | 2018-06-14
The speed of Antarctica's melting has begun to gather pace. Between 1992 and 2017, the rate of loss of ice from West Antarctica has risen threefold, from 59 billion metric tons per year to 159bn. The West Antarctic peninsula, one of the fastest warming places on Earth, has seen ice loss soar from 7bn to 33bn tonnes a year in that timespan, as ice shelves have collapsed. | Altogether, in those 25 years, Antarctica has lost more than a trillion tonnes of ice. Since the southern continent is the biggest store of freshwater on the planet — if it all melted, the sea levels would rise by 58 metres — the news is ominous. It means that melting in Antarctica alone has raised global sea levels by 8mm, as global average temperatures rise, in response to ever-higher levels of carbon dioxide in…
truthdig.com/articles/antarcticas-melting-is-speeding-up/

Labor's New Terrain: Working on the Supply Chain Gang
Samantha Borek | truthout.org | 2018-06-14
A factory fire recently illustrated just how vulnerable are the supply chains at the heart of the global economy. The fire was at a single supplier–yet it forced Ford to temporarily halt production of the nation's bestselling truck, the F-150. | Think how much leverage workers could have if we acted like the fire. | This is exactly how large-scale organizing happened in the auto industry. In late 1936, members of the newly organized Auto Workers (UAW) struck several General Motors plants to win union recognition. A month later, GM still hadn't budged. | But in February 1937, workers in Flint, Michigan, occupied Chevrolet Plant 4. In less than two weeks, one of the most powerful corporations on earth capitulated. | What made the Flint plant occupation so much more powerful than the prior strikes? It was Chevy 4's strategic position: this single…
truthout.org/articles/labors-new-terrain-working-on-the-supply-chain-gang/

Slam dunk: Flat-Earther logic obliterated by Reddit basketball stunt (PHOTO)
RT | rt.com | 2018-06-14
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. …
www.rt.com/usa/429775-flat-earth-basketball-experiment/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Trauma at the Texas-Mexico Border: Families Separated, Children Detained & Residents Fighting Back
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-06-14
We look at growing outrage over the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant families who cross the U.S.-Mexico border, many fleeing dangerous conditions and seeking asylum. At least 600 immigrant children were removed from their parents last month, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the new rule. On Wednesday, 10 members of Congress protested by blocking the entrance to the headquarters of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency tasked with carrying out the forced removal of children from their parents. More protests in at least 60 cities are planned today by the group Families Belong Together, which formed in response to the new policy. We go to the epicenter of this "zero tolerance" crackdown, the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, where more than half of all migrant families and children have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents since mid-May, for a special report by Democracy Now! correspondent Renée Feltz, who spoke with residents taking action in response to the widely condemned practice of separating families.
www.democracynow.org/2018/6/14/trauma_at_the_texas_mexico_border

South Korean Women are Fed Up with Inequality
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2018-06-14
South Korean women march through the streets of Seoul. | © 2018 Courage to be Uncomfortable | On June 9, about 22,000 South Korean women marched through the streets of Seoul. The protest — reportedly the largest by women in South Korean history — focused on the proliferation of so-called "spy cams," tiny cameras used to invade women's privacy, filming them in toilets and up skirts, with images often posted online. Activists say the government is not taking the issue seriously — except in the rare case where a man is the victim. | Spy cam use is one of many rights violations women face in South Korea. The World Economic Forum recently ranked the country an abysmal 116 out of 144 countries in gender equality. In a…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/14/south-korean-women-are-fed-inequality

Obamacare's Pre-Existing Condition Protections at Risk
Staff | truthdig.com | 2018-06-13
Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision that the Justice Department will no longer defend key parts of the Affordable Care Act in court could hurt people with employer coverage, law and insurance experts say. | The post Obamacare's Pre-Existing Condition Protections at Risk appeared first on Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists.
truthdig.com/articles/pre-existing-condition-protections-at-risk-in-move-against-obamacare/

Knesset Foils Efforts to End Israeli Apartheid
Jonathan Cook | counterpunch.org | 2018-06-13
For most of the seven decades after its establishment, Israel went to extraordinary lengths to craft an image of itself as a "light unto the nations". It claimed to have "made the desert bloom" by planting forests over the razed houses of 750,000 Palestinians it exiled in 1948. Soldiers in the "most moral army in the world" reputedly cried as they were compelled to shoot Palestinian "infiltrators" trying to return home. And all this occurred in what Israelis claimed was the Middle East's "only democracy".
counterpunch.org/2018/06/13/knesset-foils-efforts-to-end-israeli-apartheid/

Volcanic eruptions may sap oxygen from oceans, lead to 'mass extinction' of life on Earth — study
RT | rt.com | 2018-06-13
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. …
www.rt.com/usa/429588-volcano-study-mass-extinction/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

US Rolls Back Protections for Asylum Seekers, Again
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2018-06-13
The Trump administration continues its no-holds-barred attack on asylum seekers. | U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions stands during a news conference to discuss "efforts to reduce violent crime" at the Department of Justice in Washington, U.S., December 15, 2017. | © 2017 Reuters | This week, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions raised the bar to make asylum nearly impossible for people fleeing domestic abuse and gang violence who cannot be protected in their home countries. His decision undoes established US precedent and goes against international law, which clearly recognizes people fleeing persecution by groups or individuals as refugees when their governments fail to protect them. | Because of the nature of the US immigration and asylum system, the attorney general, as head of the Department of Justice, has the power to unilaterally change decisions made by…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/13/us-rolls-back-protections-asylum-seekers-again

Israel: Apparent War Crimes in Gaza
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2018-06-13
Tear gas fired by Israeli forces fall near Palestinian protesters on May 14 east of Jabalya in the Gaza Strip. | © 2018 Mahmoud Abu Salama | (New York) — Israeli forces' repeated use of lethal force in the Gaza Strip since March 30, 2018, against Palestinian demonstrators who posed no imminent threat to life may amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli forces have killed more than 100 protesters in Gaza and wounded thousands with live ammunition. | The United Nations General Assembly should support a resolution that calls for exploring measures to guarantee the protection of Palestinians in Gaza, and a UN inquiry mandated to investigate all violations and abuses should identify Israeli officials responsible for issuing unlawful open-fire orders. The killings also highlight the need for the…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/13/israel-apparent-war-crimes-gaza

How is This Legal?
Don Qaswa | counterpunch.org | 2018-06-12
In the U.S. it is possible to secure a list of Superfund sites from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by simply writing to them. I've had my list for awhile, but just the other day I noticed something shocking. West Salem High School is an active Super Fund site located at 1776 Titan Drive in Salem, Oregon. The EPA…
counterpunch.org/2018/06/12/how-is-this-legal/

Anti-LGBT, anti-Islam, anti-immigrant rhetoric featured alongside racist dog-whistles and Trump cabinet officials at WCS 2018
Hatewatch Staff | splcenter.org | 2018-06-12
The ostensible headliners of the Western Conservative Summit in Denver on June 8 and 9 were embattled Trump cabinet members Attorney General Jeff Sessions (still under fire from the president for not recusing himself from the Russia investigation) and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt (under fire from everyone but the president for having government aides and his Secret Service detail run embarrassing personal errands for him).
www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/06/12/anti-lgbt-anti-islam-anti-immigrant-rhetoric-featured-alongside-racist-dog-whistles-and

Left forum 2018: Making Real News in the Age of Trump
Hezvo Mpunga | therealnews.com | 2018-06-12
'The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!' Corporate news is consumed with covering the Trump/Russia affair, but it pales in comparison to the real threats in people's lives–climate change, underemployment, poverty, lack of health care, lack of clean water–just to name a few. How should independent news cover the most pressing issues of our… | The post Left forum 2018: Making Real News in the Age of Trump appeared first on The Real News Network.
therealnews.com/stories/left-forum-2018-making-real-news-in-the-age-of-trump

Pope Francis to Big Oil Executives: 'There is no time to lose'
Jared Porter | therealnews.com | 2018-06-12
Dan DiLeo, Justice and Peace Studies Director at Creighton University, discusses the Vatican's climate change conference | The post Pope Francis to Big Oil Executives: 'There is no time to lose' appeared first on The Real News Network.
therealnews.com/stories/pope-francis-to-big-oil-executives-there-is-no-time-to-lose

Livestock Industry Greatly Underestimates Carbon Emissions, Endangering Paris Climate Agreement
Jared Porter | therealnews.com | 2018-06-11
By greatly underestimating their greenhouse gas emissions, the livestock industry is placing the Paris Climate Agreement in jeopardy because we do not know just how big an impact this industry is having on climate change | The post Livestock Industry Greatly Underestimates Carbon Emissions, Endangering Paris Climate Agreement appeared first on The Real News Network.
therealnews.com/stories/livestock-industry-greatly-underestimates-carbon-emissions-endangering-paris-climate-agreement

A year of earthquakes in 1 month: Hawaii stricken by 12,000 tremblers since eruption
RT | rt.com | 2018-06-09
An astonishing 12,000 earthquakes have been recorded in Hawaii since the island nation's Kilauea volcano erupted in early May. …
www.rt.com/usa/429258-volcano-earthquakes-kilauea-hawaii/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

As EPA Scandals Mount, Scott Pruitt Is Radically Reshaping Agency to Aid Polluters and Big Business
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-06-08
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is again facing a slew of ethics and spending scandals amid mounting calls for his resignation. On Thursday, The Washington Post reported Pruitt enlisted members of his $3.5 million security detail to pick up his dry cleaning and search for his favorite skin moisturizing lotion, even though federal rules prohibit public officials from receiving gifts from subordinates, including unpaid services. Meanwhile, Pruitt is continuing to radically reshape the EPA. The New York Times reports today the EPA has given the chemical industry a big victory by scaling back the way the federal government determines health and safety risks associated with the most dangerous chemicals on the market. Pruitt has also been accused of radically reshaping the EPA rulemaking process and weakening Obama administration efforts to tighten fuel economy standards. We speak to Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.
www.democracynow.org/2018/6/8/as_epa_scandals_mount_scott_pruitt

Trump will stay at G7 for women's rights, but not ecology
RT | rt.com | 2018-06-08
The White House says US President Donald Trump will cut his trip to the G7 summit short, skipping a climate change session while staying for one on women empowerment. Trump is increasingly at odds with the other group members. …
www.rt.com/usa/429098-trump-g7-visit-short-climate/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Maduro & Workers Push to Stimulate Venezuela's Oil Industry amid Collapsing Production
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-06-07
It is alleged that PDVSA does not possess sufficient stocks to fulfill its June export orders.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13864

"A Source of Positivity All the Time": Remembering Palestinian Medic Razan al-Najjar, Killed by IDF
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-06-04
Witnesses say Israeli soldiers shot dead 21-year-old Palestinian medic Razan al-Najjar as she ran toward the border fence to provide medical aid to a wounded protester. Since nonviolent protests began at the end of March, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 119 people, including 14 children. More than 13,000 have been wounded. "It was clear to everybody that she was a paramedic, that that was murder. I mean, that was a crime committed before cameras," said Dr. Medhat Abbas, director of Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip. We also speak with Najjar's cousin, Dalia al-Najjar, who says the response of the international community to the Gaza crisis has been "really disappointing," and notes the U.S. vetoed a draft U.N. resolution urging the protection of Palestinians on Friday, the same day Najjar was killed. "It's a shameful side that the United States decided to take."
www.democracynow.org/2018/6/4/a_source_of_positivity_all_the

Venezuela Slams New US Sanctions as Washington Hints at Oil Embargo
Cira Pascual Marquina | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-05-22
The latest measures fly in the face of international concern about the living conditions of Venezuelans.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13833

ConocoPhillips Moves to Seize Venezuelan Oil Assets as PDVSA Maneuvers to Safeguard Tankers
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-05-09
In response to the threat, PDVSA has allegedly ordered its fleet of tankers stationed in the Caribbean to return to Venezuelan waters.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13803

Settlers Continue to Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan
INA | imemc.org | 2018-06-03
Groups of Israeli settlers, on Sunday morning, stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, under heavy protection of Israeli police. The move was seen, by the elders of the mosque, as a provocation and a challenge to the feelings of Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. According to local PNN …
imemc.org/article/settlers-continue-to-storm-al-aqsa-mosque-during-ramadan/

Deportation Looms for 9,000 Nepali Immigrants Displaced by Devastating Earthquake
Merula Furtado | truthout.org | 2018-06-03
The Trump administration's decision to revoke the temporary protected immigration status of immigrants from Nepal will take effect this June, leaving roughly 9,000 Nepali immigrants in the US facing deportation and an end to their ability to support relatives in Nepal through remittances. | Rajesh, a Nepali immigrant who has been working in the US under temporary protected status and sending money back to Nepal for the last few years to support two girls, told Truthout that his house in Nepal was damaged as a result of the earthquake. | "I was injured [in the earthquake] and my house is still damaged," Rajesh told Truthout, asking that his last name not be used for fear of being targeted. "It's very difficult to find a job there. There are so many people there with problems." | On April 26, Nepal became the fifth country…
truthout.org/articles/deportation-looms-for-9000-nepali-immigrants-displaced-by-devastating-earthquake/

Renowned Economist Turns Psychologist on Donald Trump: 'He's a Delusional, Psychopathic Threat&#039
Hal Brown , Daily Kos | alternet.org | 2018-06-03
Jeffrey Sachs wants to remove the president using the 25th Amendment | The word is getting out. Finally. After numerous psychotherapists weighed in on assessing Trump as being not only psychologically unfit to be president, but alarmingly (as the expert contributors to a best selling book put it in their title) a dangerous case. Jeffrey Sachs is an " American economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor, the highest rank Columbia bestows on its faculty. He is known as one of the world's leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty. " ( Wikipedia). Renowned Economist Jeffrey Sachs Rips Trump As A Gibbering, 'Delusional' Threat He calls for removal of the president using the 25th Amendment. American economist Jeffrey Sachs…
www.alternet.org/renowned-economist-turns-psychologist-donald-trump-hes-delusional-psychopathic-threat

Not a Paying Customer? Go Shit Somewhere Else
Scott Tucker | truthdig.com | 2018-06-03
Decent public bathrooms, and for that matter, public showers, ought to be free in all our cities and larger towns. That would be just one elementary kind of social democracy in this country. If we can afford endless wars and public bailouts for a rogue regime of banks and corporations, we can surely afford toilets, soap and water for we, the people. | Slaves gained freedom from masters, women gained freedom to vote, gay people gained freedom to marry in legal equality–or to refuse the legal bonds of marriage while still defending social equality beyond marriage. So all of us can still improve our public life. We would all gain in public relief of common animal needs, and it would not reduce our full humanity even by a fraction. | Megyn Kelly, however, thinks otherwise. Her tinsel star has risen from the depths…
truthdig.com/articles/not-a-paying-customer-go-shit-somewhere-else/

What Fossil Fuels and Factory Farms Have in Common
Anton Woronczuk | truthout.org | 2018-06-03
In 2008, Cabot Oil and Gas started fracking operations in Dimock, Pennsylvania. It was around that time the community started noticing their water was turning brown and making people and animals sick. One woman's water well exploded. Fracking had come to town. | It's a familiar story in other rural communities–from Pennsylvania to Montana and Texas–where fracking has contaminated drinking water resources and emitted toxic air pollution associated with higher rates of asthma, birth defects, and cancer. | But the story is similar in other communities where fracking or other extreme fossil fuel extraction isn't happening. Air and drinking water that's been dangerously polluted from industrial operations affect communities across Iowa, including the state's largest city, Des Moines. Polluting facilities are operating in Central Oregon, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Maryland. None of those places are fracking,…
truthout.org/articles/what-fossil-fuels-and-factory-farms-have-in-common/

Not So Fast With That Wyoming Grizzly Hunt
Erik Molvar | counterpunch.org | 2018-06-01
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department just authorized a plan to open a grizzly bear hunting season this September. Not so fast. A federal judge in Missoula could place the Yellowstone grizzly population back under Endangered Species Act protection before then, with a hearing on several lawsuits (full disclosure: including one by Western Watersheds Project…
counterpunch.org/2018/06/01/not-so-fast-with-that-wyoming-grizzly-hunt/

Jordon Peterson's Public Tantrum of Inner-Turmoil
Reverend Aaron | counterpunch.org | 2018-06-01
Jordon B. Peterson: The little known Canadian college professor who made his entre into the broader public perception by throwing down a public freak out over the use of pronouns and how to avoid being a complete piece of shit when you use them. That is to say, no one had ever heard of this…
counterpunch.org/2018/06/01/jordon-petersons-public-tantrum-of-inner-turmoil/

'Major Win': California Senate Passes Bill Restoring Net Neutrality
Andrea Germanos | globalresearch.ca | 2018-05-31
Featured image: The California state Senate votes Wednesday on SB 822, which would restore net neutrality protections. (Photo: Free Press/ Free Press Action Fund/flickr/cc) | Update: The California state Senate on Wednesday voted to pass a bill restoring net …
globalresearch.ca/major-win-california-senate-passes-bill-restoring-net-neutrality/5642473

Hungary: Bill Makes Aiding Migrants a Crime
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2018-05-31
An anti-immigration poster by Victor Orban's Fidesz party during Hungary's April 2018 elections, April 8, 2018, Gyongyos, Hungary. | © 2018 REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger | (Budapest) — A revised draft bill published by the Hungarian government on May 29, 2018, would criminalize efforts to help migrants and asylum seekers and curb their access to protection, Human Rights Watch said today. | The bill the government presented to parliament proposes amending nine existing laws related to asylum, the national border, and the police. It creates a new criminal offense in the Criminal Code of "enabling illegal immigration," which is defined to include helping asylum seekers who are "not eligible for protection," as well as to include border monitoring, producing and disseminating information, or "network building." If committed "regularly," or with the aim of "help[ing] several persons,"
www.hrw.org/news/2018/05/31/hungary-bill-makes-aiding-migrants-crime

New York City: Don't Exclude Certain Immigrants from Legal Services
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2018-05-31
Natalia Aristizabal speaks at a press conference organized by Make the Road New York demanding due process for all at City Hall Park on May 23, 2018 © 2018 Rebecca Chowdhury/Human Rights Watch | | (New York) — A New York City limit on legal services for immigrants will do far more harm than the Mayor's office claims and undercut the city's larger push to bolster immigrant rights protections, Human Rights Watch said today. | The policy, referred to as the criminal carveout, excludes immigrants with certain criminal convictions from city-funded immigrant legal services. It has been added to city contracts with organizations that provide immigrant legal services. Organizations that rely exclusively on city-funding will need to turn away clients with disqualifying felony convictions. Providers say this will increase the amount of misinformation and fear…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/05/31/new-york-city-dont-exclude-certain-immigrants-legal-services

Indigenous Women Have Been Disappearing for Generations. Politicians Are Finally Starting to Notice
Alleen Brown | theintercept.com | 2018-05-31
Women on the Yakama Indian Reservation in Washington state didn't have any particular term for the way the violent deaths and sudden disappearances of their sisters, mothers, friends, and neighbors had become woven into everyday life. | "I didn't know, like many, that there was a title, that there was a word for it," said Roxanne White, who is Yakama and Nez Perce and grew up on the reservation. White has become a leader in the movement to address the disproportionate rates of homicide and missing persons cases among American Indian women, but the first time she heard the term "missing and murdered Indigenous women" was less than two years ago, at a Dakota Access pipeline resistance camp at Standing Rock. There, she met women who had traveled from Canada to speak about disappearances in First Nations to the north, where Prime Minister…
theintercept.com/2018/05/31/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women/

Hungary: Bill Makes Aiding Migrants a Crime
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2018-05-31
An anti-immigration poster by Victor Orban's Fidesz party during Hungary's April 2018 elections, April 8, 2018, Gyongyos, Hungary. | © 2018 REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger | (Budapest) — A revised draft bill published by the Hungarian government on May 29, 2018, would criminalize efforts to help migrants and asylum seekers and curb their access to protection, Human Rights Watch said today. | The bill the government presented to parliament proposes amending nine existing laws related to asylum, the national border, and the police. It creates a new criminal offense in the Criminal Code of "enabling illegal immigration," which is defined to include helping asylum seekers who are "not eligible for protection," as well as to include border monitoring, producing and disseminating information, or "network building." If committed "regularly," or with the aim of "help[ing] several persons,"
www.hrw.org/news/2018/05/31/hungary-bill-makes-aiding-migrants-crime

Headlines for May 31, 2018
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-05-31
Pompeo Meets North Korea's Ex-Spy Chief in NYC, In Victory for Big Banks, Federal Reserve Votes to Loosen Volcker Rule, Report: U.S. Killed 50 Taliban Leaders in Helmand Province, Russian Journalist Admits Faking His Own Death, Trump Makes No Comment on Roseanne's Racist Tweets But Criticizes ABC for Not Apologizing to Him, Cable News Largely Ignores Deaths of 4,645 in Puerto Rico to Focus on Roseanne, Civil Rights Groups Urge DHS to Release Secret "Race Paper" Memo, Theology Student Studying Daniel Berrigan's Life Arrested for Protesting White Supremacist in Charlottesville, EPA Taps Chemical Industry Lawyer to Oversee Superfund Sites, Illinois Ratifies Equal Rights Amendment, Harvey Weinstein Indicted on Rape Charges in New York, 13-Year-Old Student Questions White House Inaction on School Shootings, Republican Congresswoman Says Pornography Is a "Root Cause" of School Shootings, Standing Rock Water Protector Sentenced to Three Years in Prison, U.N.: Mexican Security Forces Likely Involved in Recent Disappearances, Mexican Journalist Héctor González Killed in Tamaulipas, Report: U.S.-Backed Salvadoran Police Forces Involved in Extrajudicial Killings, Brazilian Oil Workers Stage Strike to Protest Plans to Privatize Petrobras, Florida Jury Awards Four Cents to Family of African-American Man Shot by Sheriff's Deputy…
www.democracynow.org/2018/5/31/headlines

Indigenous Activist: Trudeau's Purchase of Kinder Morgan Pipeline Is "Huge Step Backward" for Canada
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-05-31
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that the Canadian government will purchase Kinder Morgan's highly contested Trans Mountain pipeline, vowing to commit taxpayer money to expanding the pipeline despite widespread indigenous-led protests and a slew of lawsuits. If built, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will triple the amount of oil flowing from Alberta's tar sands to the coast of British Columbia. The Canadian government purchased the pipeline for 4.5 billion Canadian dollars–around 3.5 billion American dollars. The decision has sparked widespread condemnation from First Nations and environmental activists, who say that expanding the pipeline will increase pollution in Alberta's tar sands region, endanger indigenous communities and increase greenhouse gas emissions. We go to Edmonton, Canada, where we speak with Eriel Deranger, executive director of Indigenous Climate Action. She is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.
www.democracynow.org/2018/5/31/indigenous_rights_activist_purchase_of_kinder

Lawsuit Against Greenpeace Raises Freedom of Speech Concerns
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2018-05-31
A workers unloads a truckload of logs in Howe Sound near Squamish, British Columbia, Canada April 25, 2017. | © 2017 Reuters | Today, a US federal court heard arguments in a lawsuit against Greenpeace that raises serious concerns about freedom of expression. | In May 2016, Resolute Forest Products, a Canada-based logging company, filed a CAD$300 million lawsuit against Greenpeace and Stand.earth, as well as five staff members, under a US racketeering law enacted in 1970 and used to prosecute the mafia. This legal strategy has lead nongovernmental organizations and others to accuse Resolute of trying to silence environmental activists. | The lawsuit was apparently filed in response to one of its campaigns aimed at stopping what it considers is unsustainable logging in the Boreal forest, one of the world's largest…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/05/31/lawsuit-against-greenpeace-raises-freedom-speech-concerns

Trudeau's Reckless Support for Kinder-Morgan. Billions of Tax Dollars to Buy an Unbuildable, Financially Doomed Pipeline
Adam Scott | globalresearch.ca | 2018-05-30
With his reckless support for Kinder Morgan and other oil pipelines, Trudeau has willingly compromised his own commitments to address climate change and pursue reconciliation with Canada's Indigenous peoples. Now he's willing to risk billions of public tax dollars as …
globalresearch.ca/trudeaus-reckless-support-for-kinder-morgan-billions-of-tax-dollars-to-buy-an-unbuildable-financially-doomed-pipeline/5642333

Brazilian truck drivers reject union-government attempt to shut down strike
wsws.org | wsws.org | 2018-05-30
The government has sought to block the spread of social unrest with a ruling Tuesday that a planned strike by oil workers is illegal.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/05/30/bras-m30.html

Headlines for May 30, 2018
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-05-30
Study: Hurricane Maria Deaths 70 Times Higher Than Official Count, Israel Launches Airstrikes in Gaza, Blocks Flotilla Seeking to Break Blockade, Poor People's Campaign: Hundreds Arrested Across U.S. in Nonviolent Protests, NYT: Trump Ordered Sessions to Un-Recuse Himself from Russia Investigation, GOP House Oversight Chair Says FBI "Acted Properly" Using Trump Campaign Informant, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens to Resign Amid Sexual Misconduct & Corruption Scandal, ABC Cancels "Roseanne" Amid Outcry over Roseanne Barr's Racist Tweets, Arkansas Left with One Clinic for Medication Abortions as Supreme Court OKs Anti-Choice Law, French Police Evict 1,000 Migrants as Macron Welcomes Malian "Spiderman" Rescuer to Élysée Palace, Hungary: Offering Food, Water, Legal Advice to Migrants to Become Criminal Offense, Russian Journalist Arkady Babchenko Admits Faking His Own Death | , Justice Dept. Approves $66B Takeover of Monsanto by German Pharma Giant Bayer, Canada to Buy, Expand Trans Mountain Tar Sands Oil Pipeline, New Mexico: Trans Woman Seeking Asylum in U.S. Dies in ICE Custody…
www.democracynow.org/2018/5/30/headlines

Stolen sperm & cheese injustice: The most bizarre lawsuits in US history
RT | rt.com | 2018-05-30
The United States is known for being the most litigious country on Earth, and home to 80 percent of the world's lawyers. Some of the most bizarre and frivolous lawsuits in the world have taken place in the US. …
www.rt.com/usa/428292-crazy-us-lawsuits-list/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Headlines for May 29, 2018
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-05-29
In Historic Referendum, Ireland Votes to Repeal Abortion Ban, Top North Korean General Heads to U.S. as Officials Try to Salvage June 12 Summit, Israeli Military Jets Bomb Gaza After Mortar Rounds Fired Toward Israel, Family of Claudia González, Guatemalan Woman Killed by Border Agent, Demands Justice, Ellicott City, Maryland, Hit by Second "Once-in-a-Thousand-Year" Flood in 2 Years, Colombia: Presidential Election Heads to Runoff as Peace Deal Hangs in Balance, Mexican Journalist Alicia Díaz González Killed, Brazil: Nationwide Truckers' Strike Shuts Down Businesses, Transportation, Schools, Pakistan Passes Historic Protections for Transgender People & Residents of Tribal Areas, European Commission Seeks to Ban Plastic Plates, Cutlery and Straws, Starbucks Closing 8,000 Stores Today for Anti-Racial Bias Training, "I'm Never Plugging That Device In Again": Alexa Records & Sends Private Conversation by Accident, NYC Taxi Drivers Mourn Apparent Suicide of Driver Yu Mein Chow…
www.democracynow.org/2018/5/29/headlines

Media Quote Frank on Rolling Back Dodd/Frank–Not Disclosing He's Now a Bank Director
Justin Anderson | fair.org | 2018-05-25
The House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to roll back key provisions of the landmark Dodd/Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a 2010 law that increased regulatory scrutiny of banks following the 2008 financial crisis. | One of the many provisions of the original Dodd/Frank law subjected banks with over $50 billion in assets to annual economic "stress tests" to gauge their potential for collapse in the event of an economic crisis. The rollback bill raises that threshold to $250 billion, which would exempt at least two dozen "small" banks, including SunTrust, BB&T, Charles Schwab and American Express. By comparison, in 2008, key failed bank Countryside had only $172 billion in assets, and so would have avoided stress testing, while other financial dominos like Washington Mutual ($264 billion) and Bear Stearns ($289 billion) were close to the lower limit.
fair.org/home/media-quote-frank-on-rolling-back-dodd-frank-not-disclosing-hes-now-a-bank-director/

Focus on Pruitt's Scandals Obscures Environmental Degradation Under Trump
Justin Anderson | fair.org | 2018-05-23
Focusing on a $43,000 phone booth (Washington Post, 4/16/18), not on the $60 trillion that unchecked climate change is projected to cost (Nature, 7/25/13). | Scott Pruitt sure is busy these days. The climate change-denying head of the Environmental Protection Agency has been renting out a DC condo on the cheap from an energy lobbyist; installing a $43,000 soundproof booth for his telephone calls; passing out improper pay raises to aides; jet-setting around the world on first-class flights; hitting up Disneyland and the Rose Bowl with his oversized $3 million, 20-person security detail; receiving police escorts to trendy DC restaurant Le Diplomate; and even having a fancy dinner in Rome with Vatican treasurer, climate denier and recently charged child sexual abuser George Pell. | What's more, Pruitt's staffers at the EPA have continued to…
fair.org/home/focus-on-pruitts-scandals-obscures-environmental-degradation-under-trump/

Headlines for May 23, 2018
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-05-23
President Trump Casts Doubt on June 12 Summit with North Korea's Leader, Congress Passes Sweeping Bill to Roll Back Dodd-Frank Act Regulations, Palestinian Authority Asks ICC to Investigate Israel for War Crimes, Stacey Abrams Is First Black Woman to Win Major Party's Nomination for Governor, The Guardian: Giuliani Helped OxyContin Maker Continue Drug Sales, Afghanistan: 16 Die in Explosion in Kandahar; Taliban Kill 22 Police Officers in Ghazni, Pakistan: Severe Heat Wave in Karachi Kills At Least 65 People, IACHR Condemns Nicaragua for Bloody April Crackdown Against Protesters, EPA Officials Bar Multiple Journalists from Summit on Water Contamination, 10 McDonald's Workers File Sexual Harassment Complaints, Virginia Judge Rules in Favor of Transgender Student Gavin Grimm…
www.democracynow.org/2018/5/23/headlines

Venezuela Slams New US Sanctions as Washington Hints at Oil Embargo
Cira Pascual Marquina | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-05-22
The latest measures fly in the face of international concern about the living conditions of Venezuelans.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13833

ConocoPhillips Moves to Seize Venezuelan Oil Assets as PDVSA Maneuvers to Safeguard Tankers
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-05-09
In response to the threat, PDVSA has allegedly ordered its fleet of tankers stationed in the Caribbean to return to Venezuelan waters.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13803

Venezuela: Zulia Governor Blames Illegal Crypto Mining for Continuing Regional Power Shortages
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-05-07
Sabotage, lack of maintenance, and climate change have also been offered to explain the crippling blackouts.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13796

Venezuela Offers Petro-Based Oil Discount, Denounces "Kidnapping" of Funds
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-05-03
Maduro has accused Euroclear of withholding USD$1.2bn as part of international financial sanctions against Caracas.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13791