Daily Archives: September 18, 2020

2020-09-18: News Headlines

MEE and agencies (2020-09-18). Ethiopia set to bring some migrants home as concern over Saudi camps mounts. middleeasteye.net Ethiopia set to bring some migrants home as concern over Saudi camps mounts | Reports say at least 16,000 migrants are being held in one camp within driving distance of the holy city of Mecca | Fri, 09/18/2020 – 09: 55 | Ethiopians are being held in camps, where people are dying of heatstroke, disease and suicide (AFP) | Ethiopia will repatriate nearly 2,000 migrants from Saudi Arabia in t…

yenisafak (2020-09-18). Trump official warns about law-breaking UK Brexit bill. yenisafak.com The US administration has waded into the growing controversy surrounding the British government's UK Internal Market bill, warning against creating a "hard border by accident" on the island of Ireland, the Financial Times reported on Friday.US President Donald Trump's special envoy to Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney told the FT in an interview: "Everyone assures me that no one is interested in seeing a hard border between the republic and Northern Ireland.""We appreciate that, we respect that and we agree with that. The one thing I keep trying to assure is on the front of everybody's mind is avoiding a border by a…

_____ (2020-09-17). Nurse Alleges Forced Sterilizations, Medical Malpractice At Immigrant Detention Center. popularresistance.org A whistleblower complaint filed on behalf of a nurse who worked at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in southern Georgia until July alleges that a number of immigrant women detained there were subjected to sterilization through hysterectomies without their consent. | In the complaint, filed by the legal advocacy group Project South, the former nurse describes conditions at the center as akin to an "experimental concentration camp." | The complaint also details the refusal of the center's administrators to carry out COVID-19 testing or implement protective measures, putting detainees an…

Areeb Ullah (2020-09-17). 'Gut punch': MSF staff wounded by decision to accept Blackrock donation. middleeasteye.net 'Gut punch': MSF staff wounded by decision to accept Blackrock donation | Employees criticise Doctors Without Borders for taking funds from controversial firm that has invested in arms companies | Thu, 09/17/2020 – 15: 09 | MSF staffers said the Blackrock donation was an insult to staff who died in a US air strike in Kunduz (AFP) | When Doctors Without Borders (MSF) accepted a $500,000 donation from Blac…

Staff (2020-09-17). Medical abuse allegations at ICE facility add to US history of forced sterilization. therealnews.com The imminent deportation of Pauline Binam, who alleges she was involuntarily sterilized in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year, was halted on Wednesday.

RT (2020-09-17). 'No force in the world can stop Indian soldiers from patrolling' contested border area amid tensions with China — New Delhi. rt.com Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh has said no one can prevent Indian soldiers from patrolling the border in Ladakh region. China has amassed troops in the area and will see India's counter-deployment, he added. | The spate of skirmishes between Indian and Chinese soldiers over the last few months was primarily over the issue of patrolling the Ladakh border, the minister said. The incidents resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian soldiers, though Beijing has yet to confirm Chinese casualties. | Singh denied allegations that Indian forces are not being allowed to patrol in certain parts of the Galwan va…

Julia Conley (2020-09-17). 'Ecological Disaster on Massive Scale': Hundreds of Thousands of Dead Migratory Birds in Southwest Linked to Wildfires, Climate Crisis. globalresearch.ca A combination of factors—all related to the climate crisis—is believed to be behind one of the largest mass bird die-off events in recent memory in the Southwest, according to biologists. | Scientists say thousands of dead migratory birds have been found …

WSWS (2020-09-17). Slow-moving Hurricane Sally makes landfall along Alabama-Florida border. wsws.org With close to 20 million people in its path, Sally brought coastal flooding, record rainfall, high winds and mass power outages to a large swath of the northern Gulf Coast, stretching from southeast Louisiana to the west central coast of Florida.

_____ (2020-09-17). Climate Change Will Force A New American Migration. popularresistance.org August besieged California with a heat unseen in generations. A surge in air conditioning broke the state's electrical grid, leaving a population already ravaged by the coronavirus to work remotely by the dim light of their cellphones. By midmonth, the state had recorded possibly the hottest temperature ever measured on earth — 130 degrees in Death Valley — and an otherworldly storm of lightning had cracked open the sky. From Santa Cruz to Lake Tahoe, thousands of bolts of electricity exploded down onto withered grasslands and forests, some of them already hollowed out by climate-driven infestations o…

yenisafak (2020-09-16). UN sends six aid trucks to Idlib, Syria. yenisafak.com The UN on Wednesday dispatched six trucks with humanitarian aid to northwestern Syria, where millions of people remain in need of assistance due to internal conflict.The trucks crossed over into Syria's Idlib province from the Cilvegozu border gate in Turkey's southern Hatay province.The aid will be distributed among residents of Idlib and nearby rural areas.Syria has been ravaged by a civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters.Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN estimates.Idlib falls within a de-escal…

WSWS (2020-09-16). Nurse alleges forced sterilizations, medical malpractice at Georgia immigrant detention center. wsws.org The chilling report provides further evidence of the sadistic abuse meted out by the Trump administration in its fascistic war on immigrants.

yenisafak (2020-09-16). Greece struggles to bring migrants into temporary camp after fire. yenisafak.com Greek authorities were still struggling on Wednesday to move thousands of migrants sleeping rough into a temporary camp, a week after the overcrowded Moria migrant camp burned down, while fears grew over a coronavirus outbreak on the island of Lesbos.More than 12,000 people, mostly refugees from Afghanistan, Africa and Syria, were left without shelter, proper sanitation or access to food and water by the fire that tore through Moria, Greece's biggest camp for migrants reaching its islands by sea.No one was killed or hurt in the fire, which broke out after quarantine measures were imposed following the discovery o…

commondreams (2020-09-16). HHS is Withholding Health and Safety Data on Active Migrant Detention Center. commondreams.org ______________________________…

MEE and agencies (2020-09-16). Saudi Arabia 'holding 16,000 Ethiopian migrants' in single detention centre: Report. middleeasteye.net Saudi Arabia 'holding 16,000 Ethiopian migrants' in single detention centre: Report | Ethiopia's consul general in Jeddah says migrants are being held in all city's jails, with one facility holding 16,000 people | Wed, 09/16/2020 – 18: 46 | Thousands of Ethiopians made dangerous journey through Yemen into Saudi Arabia to seek employment (AFP/File photo) | Dozens of prisons in Saudi Arabia…

Staff (2020-09-15). Headlines for September 15, 2020. democracynow.org Trump Doubles Down on Climate Crisis Denial as West Coast Burns, World's Largest Vaccine Maker Says It Could Take 5 Years for Universal COVID-19 Vaccination, Trump Calls COVID-19 "The Plague" in April Interview with Woodward as He Called for U.S. to Reopen, Nevada City Fines Venue That Hosted Trump Rally Which Violated State's Coronavirus Restrictions, Appeals Court Gives Trump Greenlight to End Immigration Protections for 400,000 TPS Holders, Whistleblowing Nurse Says Georgia Immigration Jail Performing Forced Hysterectomies, Palestinians Form Unified Front as Israel, UAE and Bahrain Sign Deal Normalizing Relati…

RT (2020-09-15). 'Humanitarian crisis' unfolds on Ukraine-Belarus border as Jewish pilgrims left stranded after Kiev tightens Covid-19 restrictions. rt.com Hundreds of Hasidim pilgrims, seeking to visit a venerated rabbi's grave in Ukraine's Uman to mark Jewish New Year, have reportedly become stuck between Belarus and Ukraine after Kiev tightened border controls over coronavirus. | Between 1,000 and 2,500 pilgrims are stranded at several border crossing points, according to media reports. Roughly a half of them crossed the Belarus frontier yet were unable to enter Ukraine, where they were met by a strong militarized border guard force. | –ù–∞ –≥—Ä–∞–Ω–∏—Ü–µ &nd…

G. Dunkel (2020-09-15). Fire exposes desperate plight of refugees. workers.org The Sept. 8 fire that burned the largest asylum camp in Europe, the Moria Reception and Identification Camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, shows how the 13,000 people there are disregarded and disrespected. Migrant families flee burning asylum camp on island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 8. The camp was . . . |

Nick Licata (2020-09-15). Three World War II Books That Mirror Our Current Crises. counterpunch.org The 75th Commemoration of the End of World War II is Sept. 2, 2020. This fall, three new books cover foreign-policy issues from the conclusion of that war. Those issues are still with us today: how to care for the plight of millions of displaced and desperate immigrants, how to apply international laws to punishing

Patrick Cockburn (2020-09-15). America's War on Terror is the True Cause of Europe's Refugee Crisis. counterpunch.org Desperate refugees crammed into cockle-shell boats landing on the shingle beaches of the south Kent coast are easily portrayed as invaders. Anti-immigrant demonstrators were exploiting such fears last weekend as they blockaded the main highway into Dover Port in order "to protect Britain's borders". Meanwhile, the home secretary, Priti Patel, blames the French for not doing enough to stop the flow of refugees across the Channel.

Peoples Dispatch (2020-09-15). US appeals court approves Trump's move to end protected status for 300,000 immigrants. peoplesdispatch.org The court overturned earlier injunctions by federal judges against the government's decision to end the Temporary Protected Status for people from four countries…

teleSUR (2020-09-15). Malta Denies Port To Dock 278 Migrants Aboard the Open Arms. telesurenglish.net The Spanish NGO Open Arms denounced that Malta denied its ship a port to disembark and assistance for urgent evacuations of people with complicated health conditions. | RELATED: | "Of the 278 people on board, all of them need to disembark and immediate assistance, some for the violence suffered, others for rape, for burns. In addition, we have 50 unaccompanied minors. All of them also need psychological assistance for the…

Staff (2020-09-15). Whistleblower on Doctor at ICE Facility: "Everybody He Sees Has a Hysterectomy" truthout.org A whistleblower complaint directed toward the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleges that detainees at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Georgia were medically neglected, including not being tested for COVID-19, and that an alarmingly large number of hysterectomies were being performed on detainees. | The complaint, filed with the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for DHS, states that the hysterectomies were performed on several immigrants held within the Irwin C…

yenisafak (2020-09-15). Germany plans to take in around 1,500 migrants from Greek islands. yenisafak.com German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer are planning to take in around 1,500 refugees from the Greek islands, German news agency dpa reported on Tuesday.Dpa cited politicians focussed on domestic policy as saying that these would be families with children.More than 12,000 people, mostly refugees from Afghanistan, Africa and Syria, were left without shelter, proper sanitation or access to food and water after a fire tore through the overcrowded Moria migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last Wednesday.

Walter Smolarek (2020-09-15). "The height of cruelty": Judges give green light to planned expulsion of 300,000 refugees. liberationnews.org A three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a major blow to hundreds of thousands of refugees in a September 14 ruling on Temporary Protected Status. The judges overturned a 2018 lower court decision to freeze a move by the Trump administration revoking this status for refugees who came to the United …

B. Nimri Aziz (2020-09-15). Is Nepal Skirting, Denying or Defying the Covid Pandemic? counterpunch.org News from the Himalayas is scant this year. No Everest or K2 summiting; nothing about the railway from China; no new Sherpa biographies. Demonstrations in Kathmandu protesting India's territorial claim on Kalapani, a spur of land at Nepal's furthest northwestern border subsided after a talk between their respective prime ministers. Then military skirmishes between India and

LEON (2020-09-15). Proof: ICE San Francisco Still Has Bloody Hands. indybay.org Photo taken August 8 shows demonstrators placing bloody hand prints on the building that houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement at 630 Sansome St. in San Francisco. See what remains of their handiwork one month later. | Photos by Leon Kunstenaar.

teleSUR (2020-09-15). Ethiopians Suffer Displacement Crisis Amid COVID-19 Pandemic. telesurenglish.net Thousands of people in Ethiopia need urgent help as there are 1.8 million internally displaced individuals suffering the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Organization for Migration warned on Tuesday. | RELATED: | The UN organization revealed that conflict is the leading cause of the crisis, which has resulted in 1.233.557 displaced people in the country. Moreover, drought has forced 351.0…