2021-03-17: News Headlines

G. Dunkel (2021-03-17). Greek unions say 'No!' to police violence. workers.org The banner of the Federation of Construction Workers (member of the All Workers Militant Front — PAME) at an anti-police violence march in Greece, March 9. Behind the union banner of the Federation of Construction Workers of Greece bearing the slogan "Money for health and education! No to repression and . . . |

UNICEF (2021-03-17). COVID-19 and Girls' Education in East Asia and Pacific. asia-pacificresearch.com

Juan Cole (2021-03-17). A Green New Deal: Arkansas School District goes Solar, Gives Teachers $1000s in Bonuses with Savings. juancole.com Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) — Climate Wire reported last fall on a remarkable story about the way renewable energy not only saves the earth from the destructive climate emergency but can at the same time improve our lives and those of our children. Our hero is Michael Hester, who some years ago became the superintendent …

Media Lens (2021-03-17). The Impossible Peter Oborne. dissidentvoice.org On the face of it, Peter Oborne is impossible. It's not possible to be educated at Sherborne independent school, at Cambridge University, to work as political editor of the Spectator, as chief political commentator of The Daily Telegraph, as a journalist at the Evening Standard, as a commentator at the Express, to make nearly 30 …

Joel Wendland-Liu (2021-03-17). 'Making it' in America as pure fantasy: Ayad Akhtar's 'Homeland Elegies: A Novel'. peoplesworld.org The book jacket describes Homeland Elegies as "art family drama, part social essay, part picaresque novel." The decision to confuse these genres is both tantalizing and frustrating. Its subtitle identifies it as "a novel." This pre-pandemic text refers often to real-life events, such as to his own plays and to main actors in those plays …

Staff (2021-03-17). Spain Plans to Begin Experimenting With a Four-Day Workweek. truthout.org As the coronavirus pandemic changes the way societies around the world view work, Spain has announced it will begin a limited trial of a four-day workweek in a bid to boost productivity, mental health, and the environment. | The Guardian

Staff (2021-03-17). Jackson Mayor Demands Help After Month-Long Water Crisis Amid Pandemic, Racism, Broken Infrastructure. democracynow.org Residents in Jackson, Mississippi, have been facing a water crisis over the last five weeks, with many people lacking reliable access to clean drinking water after deadly February winter storms caused pipes and water mains to burst. While water delivery has largely been restored, "boil water" orders remain in effect for most people. The city estimates it could cost $2 billion to fix the city's water system. The crisis in Jackson, which is 82% Black, highlights how climate catastrophe threatens much of the nation's aging infrastructure. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba says while the city "contributes millions of dollar…

RT (2021-03-17). CNN ripped for article admitting anti-lockdown Florida is 'booming' but implying Gov. DeSantis shouldn't be 'taking credit'. rt.com Critics are accusing CNN of playing politics and spinning the success of 'booming' Florida, which defied typical Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, as having nothing to do with Gov. Ron DeSantis. | "Everyone told me I was wrong," DeSantis said this week at a fundraiser about pandemic lockdowns. "I faced continued pressure from radical Democrats and the liberal media, but I refused to back down. It's clear: Florida got it right." | While many states are just beginning the process of reopening businesses and rolling back pandemic-era restrictions, Florida has been open for the better part of the last year — an…

Guest Contributor (2021-03-17). Pandemic NHS workers should be granted indefinite leave to remain — Aaron Gates-Lincoln. ukhumanrightsblog.com Migrant workers have been essential to the operations of the NHS ever since its inception in 1948. Over the decades, many programmes have been used to encourage and find overseas workers and help them migrate to the UK to be employed in the healthcare system, demonstrating our governments acknowledgment of how important they are. As …

Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche (2021-03-17). Video: Mass Vaccination in a Pandemic: Benefits versus Risks: Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche. globalresearch.ca Geert Vanden Bossche PhD, is an internationally recognised vaccine developer …

Betsey Piette (2021-03-17). 'The only acceptable treatment for Mumia Abu-Jamal is his freedom!'. workers.org Organized in less than 24 hours, around 50 supporters of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal rallied outside Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's office March 12. They demanded Krasner immediately release 66-year-old Abu-Jamal, who has tested positive for COVID-19. At a protest outside DA Larry Krasner's office, Pam Africa compares photos of . . . |

Peter Koenig (2021-03-17). COVID — Bioethics, Eugenics and "Death Panels": "A Warning" globalresearch.ca "There is a plot in this country to enslave every man, …

Anand Naidoo (2021-03-17). The Heat: COVID-19 in Brazil. america.cgtn.com Brazil is fighting to control a devastating COVID-19 outbreak while it tries to save its economy.

Kenneth Surin (2021-03-17). The EU's Vaccination Lag. counterpunch.org The advanced industrial countries are now inoculating their populations with the Covid-19 vaccines. A Vaccine Tracker provided by Bloomberg indicates that of the following three countries, the UK's rollout has been the most effective (36.03 doses per 100 people), followed by the US at 28.83 doses per 100 people (as one would expect, the US's individual state variation is considerable—extending from North Dakota (36.84) to Georgia at 13.4), while the EU is far behind at 10.64 doses per 100 people.

MEE staff (2021-03-17). Covid-19: West Bank receives first Covax vaccine doses. middleeasteye.net Covid-19: West Bank receives first Covax vaccine doses | World Health Organisation's vaccine-sharing initiative adds 62,000 doses to the occupied West Bank's struggling inoculation programme | Wed, 03/17/2021 – 18: 00 | A worker unloads a refrigerated truck carrying the first Covax delivery to a Palestinian Authority storage facility in the West Bank city of Nablus on 17 March (AFP) | The Palestinian Authority…

MEE staff (2021-03-17). Nepal probes Bahraini prince's 'gift' of 2,000 vaccines to Himalayan village. middleeasteye.net Nepal probes Bahraini prince's 'gift' of 2,000 vaccines to Himalayan village | Nepal's medicines regulator said vaccine doses were brought into the country without a licence or prior knowledge of the health ministry | Wed, 03/17/2021 – 19: 32 | Sheikh Mohamed Hamad Mohamed al-Khalifa (second right) poses for pictures upon arriving at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (AFP) | An investigation has bee…

MEE staff (2021-03-17). Covid-19 and Ramadan: UAE issues strict social measures. middleeasteye.net Covid-19 and Ramadan: UAE issues strict social measures | UAE said residents and citizens must avoid evening gatherings and the exchanging of food to break the fast, except for members of the same household | Wed, 03/17/2021 – 12: 17 | A man registers before receiving a Covid-19 vaccine at the Dubai International Financial Centre, UAE, 3 February 2021 (AFP) | The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday introduced a nu…

John Wojcik, C.J. Atkins (2021-03-17). Biden administration 'tackling' difficult border situation, progressives say step up the pace. peoplesworld.org In its attempts to deal with rising numbers of immigrants at the southwest border, the Biden administration is facing strong criticism from many different sources, some of it legitimate but much of it outrageously hypocritical. The administration's head of Homeland Security insisted yesterday that the situation is "under control." He made that assertion during a …

Staff (2021-03-17). "Suave": New Podcast Follows One Man's Journey to Freedom After a Life Sentence Without Parole at 17. democracynow.org A new Futuro Media podcast, "Suave," tells the story of one person's journey to freedom after receiving a life sentence without parole at the age of 17. David Luis "Suave" Gonzalez met journalist Maria Hinojosa in 1993 during a talk at the prison in Pennsylvania where he was serving a sentence for first-degree homicide. For years, Gonzalez and Hinojosa stayed in touch through letters, visits and phone calls that Hinojosa recorded. The seven-part podcast series chronicles Gonzalez's experience as he is eventually given the opportunity to experience life on the outside for the first time, after the 2016 Supreme Cou…

Staff (2021-03-17). With First Native Interior Secretary, Deb Haaland, Hope Grows U.S. Will Confront Toxic Uranium Legacy. democracynow.org Deb Haaland, a tribal citizen of the Laguna Pueblo, is being sworn in as secretary of the interior and will be the first Native American ever to serve in a U.S. presidential cabinet. Just four Republicans joined Democrats in voting to confirm Haaland, who will manage 500 million acres of federal and tribal land. Haaland will also oversee government relations with 574 federally recognized tribal nations and is expected to address the legacy of uranium mining on Indigenous land and other areas. Leona Morgan, a Diné anti-nuclear activist and community organizer, says that while it's "impossible to expect one person…

Mark Taliano (2021-03-17). War Crimes and Fake News: Peering into Syria — with Mark Taliano. globalresearch.ca Today March 17, 2021 marks the tenth anniversary of the US-NATO-Israel war against the people of Syria. | Our thoughts are with the People of Syria. | Ten Years Ago: The onset of the The War on Syria | This article was first …

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2021-03-17). War Crimes: From Bloody Sunday in Derry, Northern Ireland to Croatia, Kosovo and Iraq. globalresearch.ca Almost forty years later: The 5000 page Saville Commission Report into the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry, Northern Ireland, fails to identify who were the perpetrators, both within H.M government and the British Army.

MEE staff (2021-03-17). Egypt's mass demolitions of Sinai homes 'likely war crimes'. middleeasteye.net Egypt's mass demolitions of Sinai homes 'likely war crimes' | Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 12,350 buildings have been demolished by the Egyptian military in the restive Sinai | Wed, 03/17/2021 – 11: 32 | Image grab, taken from a video released by the official Facebook page of Egypt's military spokesman on 8 December 2020, shows Egyptian army vehicles driving in the desert (Screengrab)
| The…

RT (2021-03-17). False alarm or malicious rumor? Twitter account claiming to be Ecuadorian FM falsely announces death of Julian Assange. rt.com A Twitter account purporting to belong to Ecuador's newly promoted foreign minister has falsely reported Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's death, acknowledging the news is "unconfirmed." It's not clear who's behind the report. | A recently created Twitter account supposedly belonging to Ecuadorian FM Manuel Mejía Dalmau posted an "URGENT" message on Wednesday declaring "diplomatic sources in London" had reported "the news of the death of Julian Assange," the Wikileaks founder's partner Stella Moris revealed on Wednesday, posting a screenshot of the tweet that noted the report was "unconfirmed." | pic.t…

Basma Qaddour (2021-03-17). Mark Taliano's 'Voices from Syria" Debunks Lies Fabricated by the Western Media. globalresearch.ca Today March 17, 2021 marks the tenth anniversary of the US-NATO-Israel war against the people of Syria. Below is a review of Mark Taliano's book entitled "Voices from Syria" | Our thoughts are with the People of Syria. Telling …

Kathy Durkin (2021-03-17). Philippine activists demand: 'Stop the killings and arrests!'. workers.org "Kill them all!" ordered Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, addressing the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines on March 5. Two days later, state forces following the dictator's edict carried out a deadly attack on progressive activists in the Southern Tagalog region. Protest against the March 7 massacre . . . |

Staff (2021-03-17). Asian Americans Reel in Response to Gun Attack on Massage Parlors in Georgia. truthout.org A 21-year-old white man was taken into custody Tuesday night as the primary suspect in three metro Atlanta massage parlor shootings that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian descent. | While law enforcement officials have yet to determine suspected gunman Robert Aaron Long's motive, advocacy groups and lawmakers feared that the massacre was an anti-Asian hate crime given the establishments targeted and the victims, which also included a white man and woman. | Stop AAPI Hate, a…

RT (2021-03-17). Georgia mass shooting suspect may have 'SEX ADDICTION' and wanted to 'eliminate temptation' at massage parlors — police. rt.com The suspect behind a string of shootings at massage parlors in Georgia has told police he wanted to "eliminate" sexual temptation and the massacre was not racially motivated. | Robert Aaron Long, 21, told police he was trying to eliminate the temptation of the spas, which he allegedly visited, and claimed he had an addiction to sex. | "He gave indications that he has some issues, potentially sexual addiction," Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds told reporters, adding that Long "may have frequented some of these places in the past" and could have been "lashing out." | Eight people were killed in the shootin…

Zero Hedge (2021-03-17). US Admits Waging InfoWar Against Russia's Sputnik Vaccine to "Combat Malign Influence" globalresearch.ca The Kremlin on Tuesday called out

Alan Macleod (2021-03-17). Twitter Deletes QAnon to Protect US from Upheaval; Russia May Delete Twitter for the Same Reason. mintpressnews.com With American social media companies increasingly controlled by the national security state, Russia is considering bans on the likes of Twitter and YouTube.

Binoy Kampmark (2021-03-17). The University Deception: Rankings and Academic Freedom. counterpunch.org Forget the global university rankings of any list. The global university promotion exercise is filled with snake oil and perfumed refuse, an effort to corrupt the unknowing and steal from the gullible. The aim here is to convince parents, potential students and academics that their institutions of white collar crime are appealing enough to warrant

Stephen Lendman (2021-03-17). RussiaGate 3.0: The Myth of "Foreign Threats" to US Elections Prevails. US Intelligence (ICA) Assessment. globalresearch.ca Whenever US intelligence community reports claim foreign interference in or threats …

Stephen Lendman (2021-03-17). Upcoming Sino/US Talks in Alaska. globalresearch.ca On Thursday, China's Central Committee official/Foreign Affairs Director Yang Jiechi and …

Andrew Korybko (2021-03-17). The US Director of National Intelligence (DNI)' Report on "Russian Meddling" Report Denigrates Dissident Americans. globalresearch.ca The Director of National Intelligence's

Judy Greenspan (2021-03-17). California rally: 'Union busting is disgusting!'. workers.org San Francisco, March 12 San Francisco March 12 — Labor union and community members rallied today in front of the offices of Morgan Lewis, a law firm with offices in 31 cities around the world with a sordid history of union busting. Morgan Lewis was recently hired by Amazon to . . . |

Staff (2021-03-17). Amazon Is Hiring Aggressive Firms to Bust Union Efforts. truthout.org Since the start of the year, Amazon has subjected its almost 6,000 warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, to a relentless and

A Guest Author (2021-03-17). Federación mundial del trabajo respalda a sindicato #Bamazon. workers.org La Federación Sindical Mundial (FSM) emitió el siguiente comunicado el 3 de marzo. EE.UU.: FSM en solidaridad con los trabajadores de almacén de Amazon en Alabama La Federación Sindical Mundial, que es la voz militante de 105 millones de trabajadores de 132 países de todo el mundo, extiende su solidaridad . . . |

Scott Ritter (2021-03-17). Ten Years On, the US Still Promotes Failed Regime-change Policy in Syria. globalresearch.ca The US has only one objective in Syria—regime change. The fact …

Eds. (2021-03-17). The watchdogs of imperialism and the Uyghur genocide slander. mronline.org MR Online

South Front (2021-03-17). Video: The Houthis Continue Their Push, but Is Erdogan Coming to the Saudi Kingdom's Rescue? globalresearch.ca Yemen's Ansar Allah are unrelenting in their offensive, both on positions …

Andrew Bankson (2021-03-17). Pittsburgh's city budget works for the police but not for the people. liberationnews.org The Pittsburgh city budget is a further entrenchment of the same capitalist status quo…

Ellis Cose (2021-03-17). Racial Justice and Civil Liberties: An Inseparable History at the ACLU. aclu.org After World War I, it quickly became clear that the war to make the world "safe for democracy" had not made America safe for equality. Anti-Black race riots ripped through Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., and even Elaine, Arkansas. In October 1919, after Black sharecroppers in Elaine convened a union meeting, newspapers labeled the effort a "Negro uprising." The state mobilized troops and mobs to quell the rebellion. The result was "possibly the bloodiest racial conflict in the history of the United States," concluded the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. | The American Civil Liberties Union's origin…

The Conversation (2021-03-17). Every day is war' — a decade of slow suffering and destruction in Syria. juancole.com By Ammar Azzouz | — Abduljalil sent me a photo of his ruined home in Homs, Syria. "It is the third floor", he told me over WhatsApp. The building still stands but it looks like an empty skeleton. Most of its facade has been destroyed, while piles of debris surround it. Residents have not been …

Tomdispatch (2021-03-17). On January 6th, the U.S. Became a Foreign Country. juancole.com By Kevin Tillman | — ( Tomdispatch.com) — Just about everyone was shocked by what happened at the Capitol building on January 6th. But as a former soldier in America's forever wars, horrifying as the scenes were, I also found what happened strangely familiar, almost inevitable. I thought that, if only we had taken our …

Tina Ngo, Wai Lee Chin Feman, Bethie Wang (2021-03-17). Why are hate crimes against Asian Americans on the rise? liberationnews.org Over the past year, we have seen an alarming surge in racist violence directed toward Asian Americans.

Parth M.N. (2021-03-17). India's Farm Crisis: "How Long Will the Lies Work?" counterpunch.org If it weren't for the violent blows of police lathi s, the farmers protesting in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district would not have left their protest site on January 27. "The protest had been going on for 40 days," says Brijpal Singh, 52, a sugarcane farmer from Baraut town, where the sit-in was held. "It was not

Chauncey K. Robinson (2021-03-17). One year later: Don't forget about Breonna Taylor. peoplesworld.org Her death sparked a movement for change. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demand accountability for months following the killing of Breonna Taylor and other African Americans at the hands of police. On the one-year anniversary of Taylor's death, there is still justice to be fought for. The fight goes beyond a trending …

Dianne Mathiowetz (2021-03-17). Killings of Korean women reflects U.S. misogyny and racism. workers.org Demonstrators at "Love Our Communities: Build Collective Power" rally to raise awareness of anti-Asian violence in Los Angeles, March 13. Atlanta Beginning at 5 p.m., March 16, the first horrific news of the murders of four people and the wounding of a fifth at Young's Asian Massage in Acworth, a . . . |

Editor (2021-03-17). Defend voting rights! workers.org The former Republican president may be absent from the corporate media these days, but his racist and pro-rich ideas live on in all reactionary political institutions and organizations. This ideology flourishes in the Republican Party's current assault on the universal right to vote. We are well aware of the limitations . . . |

Ramzy Baroud (2021-03-17). The Ongoing Calamity: US Collective Punishment of the Venezuelan People Must End. dissidentvoice.org Recent statements made by US officials suggest that Washington will continue to pursue a hardline policy on Venezuela. The new Biden Administration, however, needs to urgently rethink its approach. US State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, remarked on February 3 that he "certainly" does not "expect this administration to be engaging directly with (President) Maduro." Namely, …