(2021-01-08). Hunger strikes at three New Jersey prisons. workers.org 
The filthy conditions, indefinite incarceration and escalating COVID infections have touched off desperate hunger strikes at three New Jersey county jails. Each jail operates as a prison-for-profit, renting space at $120 a day for ICE to jail out-of-state migrant detainees. The N.J. counties use the contracts to generate tens of . . . |
(2021-01-07). Police Arrest Several People Near Court After Assange's Bail Denied. popularresistance.org London – The police arrested several supporters of Assange who did not have press IDs and refused to disperse as the city is currently under a lockdown and public gatherings prohibited. Among the detained are several women and an elderly man. | Journalists with proper identifications were allowed to continue their work. Earlier in the day, Westminster Magistrates Court refused to release Assange on bail, leaving him incarcerated while a US appeal against the decision not to extradite him to the United States is considered. | Assange was arrested in London in April 2019 and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jump…
(2021-01-07). Hong Kong: UN human rights office urges immediate release of arrested activists. news.un.org The UN human rights office (OHCHR) on Thursday voiced deep concerns over the arrests of over 50 individuals under the new National Security Law in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, and called for their immediate release.
(2021-01-07). Police Reform Advocates Press Minnesota Legislature For More. popularresistance.org Civil rights organizers were back at Minnesota's Capitol as a new legislative session got underway Tuesday, ready to mount another push for changes to police accountability laws less than a week after another fatal police shooting in Minneapolis. | "We know that George Floyd is not an anomaly," said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "George Floyd represents the history of state violence against people of color in this country and particularly against Black people." | Floyd's death last May in the custody of Minneapolis police officers made M…
(2021-01-06). "Miscarriage of Justice": No Charges Against White Kenosha Officer Who Shot & Paralyzed Jacob Blake. democracynow.org 
In Kenosha, Wisconsin, District Attorney Michael Graveley has announced that no charges will be filed against the white police officer who fired seven shots at Jacob Blake, paralyzing the 29-year-old Black man in August. Officer Rusten Sheskey fired the shots at point-blank range into Blake's back as he leaned into his car, with his three children, aged 3, 5 and 8, inside the vehicle. Prosecutors maintain the shooting was in self-defense because Blake had a small knife in the car. Video of Blake's shooting sparked an uprising in Kenosha in August against systemic racism and police brutality. Blake's family denoun…
(2021-01-05). Proud Boys Leader Arrested for Burning BLM Banner at Black Church. truthout.org As thousands are expected to descend on Washington, D.C., to join far right protests over the election results Wednesday, the leader of the Proud Boys hate group, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested on property destruction charges for burning a Black Lives Matter banner off a historically Black church during similar protests last month. Many churches have requested extra protection, and the Metropolitan AME Church is suing the Proud Boys. "Sadly, our nation has a very dark and sordid history of targeting historic…
(2021-01-05). Scientists Critique the BLM's Tri-State Fuel Breaks Proposal. counterpunch.org 
A week ago, eight prominent scientists sent a letter to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) declaring that the agency's proposed Tri-State Fuel Break (TSFB) is flawed and will endanger sagebrush ecosystems. The Final Environmental Impact Statement ("FEIS") and other project documents are available on the agency's website. To quote the scientists: "If implemented as
(2021-01-05). "Medical Apartheid": Israeli Vaccine Drive Excludes Millions of Palestinians in Occupied Territories. democracynow.org 
Israel has administered COVID-19 vaccines faster than any country in the world, with more than 14% of Israelis receiving vaccines so far. Despite the fast rollout, human rights groups are expressing alarm over Israel's decision not to vaccinate Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, where about 1,500 people have died during the pandemic. Israel has defended its actions citing the Oslo Peace Accords, which put Palestinian authorities in charge of healthcare in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian officials are facing a number of hurdles in launching their own vaccine campaign, including a shortage of mone…
(2021-01-05). Conspiracy theorist pharmacist who sabotaged Covid-19 vaccines claims they're 'not safe for people' and could 'change their DNA'. rt.com 
Wisconsin pharmacist Stephen Brandenburg is a self-confessed "conspiracy theorist" who destroyed over 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine as he thought they would change people's DNA, according to both the police and his wife. | Brandenburg was arrested on December 31 for allegedly sabotaging more than 500 doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, stored at the Advocate Aurora Health Hospital, believing they were unsafe for humans. | There is no evidence to suggest the vaccine alters human DNA in any way. Many vaccines use altered forms of viruses to train the immune system to fight off the real-life pathogens but d…
(2021-01-05). Renewed calls for community control of the police come to D.C. peoplesworld.org 
WASHINGTON——Community control of the police (CCOP)— a concept once brought to fruition by the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense by the likes of Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and Fred Hampton in the 1960s as a result of continued police terror in predominantly Black communities—is back. And in the nation's capital, it's a chapter of the …