2020-02-08: News Headlines

RT (2020-02-08). 'Flammable ice' discovery offers 'tantalizing clue' to potential ALIEN life — study. rt.com Researchers have discovered the existence of life encased in tiny bubbles within sheets of 'flammable ice' in a potential breakthrough that could reveal how aliens exist on other planets. | Flammable ice occurs when ice traps methane in its molecular structure. An international team of researchers studying the phenomenon in the Sea of Japan made the startling discovery of life within the microscopic bubbles. | Also on rt.com | | The discovery, which…

RT (2020-02-08). 'Senseless act of violence': High school basketball players brutally beat up coach after game (VIDEO). rt.com Four high school students from Malcom X. Shabazz High School in Newark have been suspended and face criminal charges on suspicion of beating up their assistant coach after an away game. | The reason for the conflict remains unclear, but footage shared on social media shows the coach getting kicked and punched by the players for more than 25 seconds. | The four members of JV basketball team are seen…

teleSUR (2020-02-08). Ontario Teachers Are Strongly United to Defend Public Education. telesurenglish.net Over the last week, Canadian elementary school teachers have intensified their protest against Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford's policies, which seek to cut the number of teachers and increase the number of students per classroom. | RELATED: | Instead, Canadian teachers demand more resources to serve students with special needs, the protection of the preschool education program, and fairer wages. | Despite having br…

Staff (2020-02-08). Government Report Finds Trump's Trade War Is Harmful to Americans' Incomes. truthout.org President Donald Trump's trade war is projected to reduce the average family's real income by $1,277, according to a new report from the The CBO, a nonpartisan congressional research arm, projected that the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and retaliatory tariffs imposed by countries like China will reduce economic growth while increasing prices to consumers. | "Tariffs are expected to reduce the l…

WSWS (2020-02-08). Australian coronavirus travel ban blocks thousands of Chinese students. wsws.org The blanket ban by the Morrison government affects any foreign national trying to enter Australia from mainland China.

sputniknews (2020-02-08). Scientist Claims that Earth Is 'Unique' to Other Planets to Host Life. sputniknews.com Peter Ward, a geologist and evolutionary biologist, said it is very unlikely that any planet will be able to hold life apart from ours because of the number of geological and biological complexities.

sputniknews (2020-02-08). Second Software Glitch in Boeing's Starliner Could Have Caused In-Space Collision. sputniknews.com Boeing's Starliner faced a number of glitches during its orbital flight test before it was used in an attempt to reach the International Space Station. One of which could have seen a disastrous collision between two of the aircraft's components.

sputniknews (2020-02-08). Hunter Becomes the Hunted? NATO General Complains About Russia's 'Stalking' of US Spy Satellites. sputniknews.com Last month, a Purdue University graduate student specializing in astrodynamics reported that Russia's Kosmos-2542 satellite had begun shadowing USA-245, an American reconnaissance satellite. Kosmos-2542's mystery mission quickly sparked hysteria among the US media, with some observers suggesting it could be preparing to "attack" its US counterpart.

Julia Conley, staff writer (2020-02-08). 'Something Big Is Shifting': As Georgetown Announces Fossil Fuel Divestment, Students Across US Demand Their Schools Follow Suit. commondreams.org Student-led anti-fossil fuel campaigns at universities across the country pointed to Georgetown University Friday as the school's board of directors announced it would divest from fossil fuels and redouble its efforts to invest in renewable energy instead. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

C.J. Atkins (2020-02-07). Chinese national describes life inside the coronavirus quarantine zone. peoplesworld.org SINGAPORE—It's been more than two weeks since authorities in the city of Wuhan quarantined 11 million people in an attempt to contain the coronavirus outbreak spreading across China and around the world. Except for a few foreign nationals whose governments have ferried them out on charter flights, the capital of epidemic-hit Hubei province remains, essentially, …

Johanna Ross (2020-02-07). Assange's Case Represents 'Failure of Western Law' — Says UN's Nils Melzer. globalresearch.ca An interview was recently given by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, to

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-02-07). Who is Behind "Fake News"? Mainstream Media Use Fake Videos and Images. globalresearch.ca The mainstream corporate media is desperate. They want to suppress independent and alternative online media, which they categorize as "fake news". Readers on social media are warned not to go onto certain sites. Our analysis confirms that the mainstream media are routinely involved in distorting the facts and turning realities upside down.

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-02-07). Why Nancy Pelosi is "A National Disgrace" globalresearch.ca Nancy Pelosi tears up Trump's State of the Union Address. | "I thought it was a terrible thing," said Trump. "It's illegal what she did. She broke the law." | On one thing I agree with Donald Trump: | Speaker of the House …

teleSUR (2020-02-07). Pope Francis Rejects Tax Cuts for the 'Richest People'. telesurenglish.net Pope Francis criticized the practice of tax cuts for the rich in the name of "investment and development," calling it a "structure of sin" at the seminar set up by the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, Thursday. | RELATED: | He lamented the fact that "billions of dollars" end up in "tax haven accounts" instead of funding "healthcare and education," something that in his own words impede "the possibility of the digni…

Simon Watkins (2020-02-07). Iraq Is on the Brink of an Energy Crisis. globalresearch.ca As the deadline for the U.S. to renew its waiver on Iraq importing gas and electricity from Iran approaches later this month, the three key players in this ongoing geopolitical saga have been preparing for all possible outcomes. As always …

Michael Lynk (2020-02-07). Video: "The Deal of the Century", Palestine and International Law: UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk. globalresearch.ca Michael Welch's GRTV feature interview with UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in occupied Palestine, Prof. Michael Lynk. | The plan will take us backward. It violates international law. | It is an unilateral arrangement between Israel and the …

Eric Waddell (2020-02-07). World Conquest: The United States' Global Military Crusade (1945- ). globalresearch.ca The first period was characterized by US military intervention in Europe, the second by a concern to confine the Communist bloc and to prevent the emergence of pro-communist regimes elsewhere in the world, and the third, focused on gaining control over the former Soviet republics and the oil-rich Middle East.

Steven Sahiounie (2020-02-07). Syria and Turkey Face War as Syrian Arab Army Poised to Take Idlib. globalresearch.ca Tensions between Damascus and Ankara have never been higher over the past nine years. Turkey's

Canada Palestine Association (2020-02-07). Canada, Palestine and the 'Deal of the Century': Four Statements. globalresearch.ca Reject Trump's Plan: Exist, Resist, Return | by Canada Palestine Association | The Trump Administration has just unveiled the details of its "Deal Of The Century." This plan includes, but is not limited to: | Giving legitimacy to illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. …

Asoka Bandarage (2020-02-07). Neocolonialism and Geopolitical Rivalry in Sri Lanka. globalresearch.ca Sri Lanka's historical narrative has been defined by geopolitical rivalry, external aggression and internal resistance to that aggression. The early historical era experienced successive waves of invasion from South Indian kingdoms. These were followed by European conquest and consecutive rule …

Renee Parsons (2020-02-07). Election Politics: From Chaos to an Emerging Political Consciousness? globalresearch.ca The disintegration of Iowa's Democratic caucus before the nation's disbelieving eyes could not be a better metaphor for what some are calling the Evolutionary Shift of the Ages. In a nutshell, a shift in the nature of reality is underway …

Scarlet Kim (2020-02-07). CBP Lied About Iranian-American Detentions, Leaked Memo Suggests. globalresearch.ca Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Shane Quinn (2020-02-07). China, Iran and North Korea Are Almost Encircled by 500 US Military Bases. globalresearch.ca China is ringed by at least 400 of these bases stretching from northern Australia, up through the Pacific, across eastern and central Asia. This encirclement of China involving warships, submarines and bombers, was implemented by president Obama following his announcement in late 2011 of a "pivot" towards Asia.

Maurizio Vezzosi (2020-02-07). Italy and the Changing — But Not Waiting — World. globalresearch.ca Recently the French President, Mr. Emmanuel Macron, admitted that NATO should be considered cerebrally dead. Such a statement, although influenced by the search for domestic consent, certainly reflects a deep impatience with European and Atlantic limitations by French intellectuals …

Coery Eiesbnreg (2020-02-07). J31 "Fare Strike" Protest at New York's Grand Central Station. globalresearch.ca Just a few hours before the J31 Fare Strike convened at Grand Central Station, I had the opportunity to speak with Mayor de Blasio as a call-in to the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I alerted the Mayor to the …

Michael Jansen (2020-02-07). Break-up of Astana Partnership Was Inevitable. The Turkey-Russia Relation in Jeopardy? globalresearch.ca Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered his forces to strike Syrian army positions in retaliation for targeting a Turkish military convoy bound for the Saraqeb in Syria's north-western Idlib province. His forces obeyed on Monday and allegedly struck a …

Colin Todhunter (2020-02-07). Genetically Modified Bt Cotton: Cultivating Farmer Distress in India. globalresearch.ca Later this month, India's Supreme Court will hold a lengthy hearing on the commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) mustard, which would be the country's first GM food crop. The court has asked the chair of the Technical Expert Committee to …

Zero Hedge (2020-02-07). Just a Little Sloppy Record-Keeping? The Pentagon's $35 Trillion 'Accounting Black Hole'. globalresearch.ca Over the past two weeks of coronavirus headlines and heightened global anxiety, along with impeachment coverage and after over the Super Bowl weekend Americans huddled in living rooms in blissful oblivion, a story which in more normal times would be …

John Stanton (2020-02-07). How the World Ends. Personal Reflections On "The Situation Everyone is In" globalresearch.ca I'm writing this letter to myself. I need to talk to someone, even it is only myself. I need to believe that what happened to us was real. | All that I know of the past was learned by word-of-mouth histories …

Patrick Martin (2020-02-07). Democrats Seek to Suppress Sanders Victory in Iowa. globalresearch.ca The effort by the Democratic Party establishment to conceal or suppress reports of Senator Bernie Sanders' victory in the Iowa caucuses reached a new stage Thursday with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to …

Ajamu Baraka (2020-02-07). Venezuela "Embassy Protectors" Will Not be Able to Tell Jury that Coup Leader Juan Guaido Is "Not President", or Mention International Law. globalresearch.ca On February 4, Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell issued a ruling on what the jurors will be allowed to be told in the trial of the Embassy Protectors scheduled to begin on February 11. She granted most of the government's …

Andrew Korybko (2020-02-07). Expansion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Tehran Wants to Build "the Golden Ring" globalresearch.ca BRI-led Eurasian integration processes are one of the defining characteristics of contemporary International Relations, and the Golden Ring could eventually become the centerpiece of these efforts if Ambassador Hosseini's W-CPEC+ proposal succeeds, especially if it's done in parallel with N-CPEC+….

WSWS (2020-02-07). UK: Tory health secretary signals ditching Accident and Emergency targets as crisis in NHS worsens. wsws.org Research by the Patient Association found that 5,500 NHS patients died over the past three years due to spending so long on a trolley in overcrowded hospital A&E units.

Jessica Corbett (2020-02-07). Trump's Final Plan to Open Treasured Public Lands in Utah Called 'Sellout' to Big Oil. globalresearch.ca The administration's new managment plans "are the latest in a series of insults… that began when Trump illegally dismantled Bears Ears and Grand Staircase at the behest of corporate interests two years ago." | *** | Tribal and conservation groups on Thursday …

Carey Gillam (2020-02-07). It's Farmer v. Monsanto in Court Fight over Dicamba Herbicide. globalresearch.ca A showdown is underway in the Midwest as the owner of a large Missouri peach farm seeks to hold the former Monsanto Co. accountable for millions of dollars in damage to his crops—losses the farmer claims resulted from a corporate …

Larry Romanoff (2020-02-07). Biological Weapons: A Useful and Timely Factual Overview. globalresearch.ca A US Army operating manual from 1956 stated explicitly that biological and chemical warfare were an integral operating portion of US military strategy, were not restricted in any way, and that Congress had given the military "First Strike" authority on their use.

commondreams (2020-02-07). 'Consistent With a Mass Extinction': New Study Warns Climate Chaos Driving Rapid Decline of Bumblebees. commondreams.org The rising frequency of extremely hot temperatures tied to human-caused global heating is creating "climate chaos" that drives widespread declines of bumblebees, some of the planet's most important pollinators, according to a new study published in the journal Science. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Fight Back (2020-02-07). UW-Parkside SDS lead rally to free Chrystul Kizer, confront DA Graveley. fightbacknews.org Kenosha, WI – Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organized a #FreeChrystul rally at UW-Parkside on February 5 that saw 40 protesters attend. The demonstrators congregated outside the building where District Attorney Mike Graveley, Chrystul Kizer's prosecutor, was teaching his first class of the spring semester, on criminal law. | The group began with chants that echoed across the campus thanks to the excellent acoustics between campus buildings. Coinciding with the start of the class period, speakers from different organizations and backgrounds shared their messages. These included Adelana Akindes, a leader…

Staff (2020-02-07). In Spite of Economic Gains, Wage Growth Is Slowing. truthout.org The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the economy added 225,000 jobs in January. With modest upward revisions to the prior two months' data, this brought the three-month average to 211,000 jobs. While the unemployment rate edged higher to 3.6 percent, the employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) rose 0.2 percentage points to 61.2 percent, a new high for the recovery. The EPOP for prime-age workers (ages 25 to 54) rose by 0.2 percentage points to 80.6 percent, also a high for the recovery. | The January data a…

Staff (2020-02-07). Human Rights Watch: 200 Salvadoran Asylum Seekers Killed, Raped or Tortured After U.S. Deportation. democracynow.org A shocking new report says at least 200 Salvadoran asylum seekers were either killed, raped or tortured after being deported from the United States back to El Salvador. Human Rights Watch found that some 138 people deported to El Salvador were murdered by gang members, police, soldiers, death squads or ex-partners between 2013 and 2019. The report says most of the victims were killed within two years after being deported, by the same perpetrators the asylum seekers had fled from. From Denver, Colorado, we speak to Clara Long, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. And joining us from El Salvador, we speak to "

splcenter (2020-02-06). SPLC sues Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School safety commission for not allowing students to voice concerns. splcenter.org Kinsey Akers had to take the PSAT but was determined to make her voice heard at a public meeting on school safety that same day.

RT (2020-02-05). Don't be confused by Romney jumping ship — impeachment is about sticking to party lines. rt.com Impeachment supporters earned two more allies in Senators Mitt Romney and Doug Jones, but this process is about sticking to partisan camps when it comes to Donald Trump, not looking for truth. | Romney is the latest conservative hero to the left as he has announced he will vote to impeach the president on one of the two counts against him, abuse of power. Trump has been accused of attempting quid pro quo with Ukraine by withholding federal aid in exchange for an investigation into Joe Biden. | After an "unbiased look at the evidence," Romney says he has no choice but to follow his "conscience." | Since Romney…

Shawgi Tell (2020-02-05). Waste and Failure in Cyber Charter Schools. dissidentvoice.org While waste, corruption, and failure have plagued the segregated and nontransparent charter school sector for decades, privately-operated-owned cyber charter schools, even by the admission of the most dogmatic supporters of charter schools, are the worst of the worst. The academic performance of cyber charter schools is consistently abysmal; they have a very high failure rate. …

splcenter (2020-02-04). Alabama Charter Schools: Principles for Ensuring Equity and Access. splcenter.org

Fight Back (2020-02-03). Kenosha, WI: Students plan rally in support of Chrystul Kizer outside DA Graveley's classroom. fightbacknews.org Kenosha, WI – As the semester approaches, members of the UW-Parkside chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) have been hard at work. Kicking off the new year, SDS is leading a rally in support of the release of Chrystul Kizer, a Milwaukee teenager accused of killing her sex trafficker, Randall Volar III. | Upon learning that Kenosha's district attorney, Michael Graveley, would be teaching a class at their campus, the students of the organization knew they had to act. | "I felt angry knowing that Graveley will be showing his face at Parkside," said Lana Akindes, a member of SDS. "He's proudly vouching f…

Martha Rosenberg (2020-02-02). Why is Animal Research So Seldom in the News? zcomm.org The animal-research industry is a vast, macabre enterprise richly supporting medical centers and individual researchers with almost no transparency or accountability…

Staff (2020-01-30). "Coded Bias": New Film Looks at Fight Against Racial Bias in Facial Recognition & AI Technology. democracynow.org A new documentary looks at the dangers of artificial intelligence and its increasing omnipresence in daily life, as new research shows that it often reflects racist biases. Earlier this month, Cambridge, Massachusetts, became the latest major city to ban facial recognition technology, joining a growing number of cities, including San Francisco, to ban the artificial intelligence, citing flawed technology and racial and gender bias. A recent study also found that facial recognition identified African-American and Asian faces incorrectly 10 to 100 times more than white faces. The film "Coded Bias" begins with Joy B…

Arianna Demas (2020-01-30). The Government Is Trying to Strip Student Workers of the Ability to Unionize. aclu.org The federal government recently

Jay Stanley (2020-01-28). What You Need to Know About the Coronavirus Outbreak: A Civil Liberties Perspective. aclu.org The world is watching anxiously to see what happens with the | coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China. As scientists and public health | officials in the United States learn more about the virus, and as we all see | how bad the outbreak turns out to be, it is important that public policymaking | remain firmly centered around science. | Unfortunately, our history of reactions to infectious | disease outbreaks suggests that if this outbreak becomes severe, we're likely | to see strong pressure to the contrary. In particular, we can expect three | things: | We can expect some to | panic.: | Unfortu…

splcenter (2020-01-28). SPLC sues Alabama school district for violating students' due process rights after cell phone is mistaken for gun. splcenter.org Andre and his friend were taking turns on a cell phone, playing a video game called Last Day on Earth: Survival — about staying alive on a zombie-infested planet — when a real-life gunshot rang out.