2021-01-06: News Headlines

Ben Norton (2021-01-06). UK judge justifies CIA spying on Assange citing debunked CNN report based on… CIA spying. thegrayzone.com UK judge Vanessa Baraitser justified CIA spying on Julian Assange by citing a falsehood-filled CNN report. Her judgment highlighted corporate media's enthusiastic role in a state-sponsored assault on press freedom. The British judge ruling in the US government's extradition against journalist Julian Assange justified a CIA spying operation targeting both the WikiLeaks publisher and the Ecuadorian government by pointing to debunked accusations published by CNN. Yet in a self-referential loop, the American media outlet's dubious claims about Assange themselves ironically …

Alexis Moncada (2021-01-06). Women's movement wins legal abortion in Argentina. liberationnews.org This progressive legislation makes Argentina the largest country to legalize abortion in Latin America, sending ripples throughout the continent.

teleSUR (2021-01-05). Brazil Detects Its First Two Cases of the UK Coronavirus Strain. telesurenglish.net Brazil's health authorities Monday confirmed in Sao Paulo the first two cases of patients infected by the new British COVID-19 strain. | RELATED: | The state-owned Adolfo Lutz Institute's Strategic Laboratory confirmed the cases after performing the genetic sequencing of samples sent by Sao Paulo's DASA private laboratory. | A 25-year-old woman is one patient affected by the new strain. She was infected after having contact wi…

WSWS (2021-01-05). Brazilian state governments push to reopen schools as COVID-19 deaths approach 200,000. wsws.org Brazil's ruling elite is declaring education an essential service in order to reopen schools, even as the pandemic spirals out of control.

Peoples Dispatch (2021-01-05). 2021 begins with more assassinations in Colombia. peoplesdispatch.org The humanitarian tragedy in Colombia continues into 2021. In the first four days of this year, two social leaders, two former combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and a family member of an ex-combatant have been assassinated in the country. | The Common Alternative Revolutionary Forces (FARC) political party

Ariel Dorfman (2021-01-05). America Can't Hide From This Drastic Reckoning. counterpunch.org What happens to a nation incapable of healing itself? I ask as an American citizen concerned about our damaged democracy but also as someone with roots in Chile, which after many years of dictatorship suffered the harmful consequences of failing to fully complete its democratic transition.

teleSUR (2021-01-04). Brazil: Police Accused of Killing Black Man on His Way To Work. telesurenglish.net The fatal event took place in the Cidade de Deus neighborhood, west of Rio de Janeiro. | Marcelo Guimarà£es, a 38 years old Afro-Brazilian man, was killed this Monday morning after being hit by a rifle bullet fired by the country's Military Police (PM) while he was en route to work. | RELATED: | Authorities said the man, who worked in a marble store, was shot during a gunfight between police and drug dealers, in…

Mehr News Agency (2021-01-04). Gen. Soleimani flag-bearer of fight against terrorism: envoy. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Jan. 04 (MNA) — Iranian Ambassador to Brazil pointed to sacrifice and braveries of Iran's top commander martyr Lt. Gen. Soleimani and said that he stood firmly in the face of a global threat against international peace and security.

teleSUR (2021-01-04). Brazil to Import 2 Million Doses of AstraZeneca Vaccine. telesurenglish.net Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) Sunday authorized the "exceptional import" of 2 million doses of the vaccine produced by Oxford University and the United Kingdom-based laboratory AstraZeneca. | RELATED: | The doses that will arrive in the country in the next days will not be supplied to the entire population. The immunizer will be used in emergencies, such as patients at high risk of dying due to the disease. | "More doses will…

teleSUR (2021-01-04). Another Ex-Guerrilla Member Shot to Death in Caqueta, Colombia. telesurenglish.net A former member of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was shot to death by a group of armed men in Cartagena del Chaira municipality, Caqueta Department. | RELATED: | Duvan Arled, 34, was killed on Saturday night, minutes after he left a public establishment in the Antioquia neighborhood. The perpetrators fled after the attack. | The victim was taken to the municipality's hospital, where he later died due to the sev…

Online News Editor (2021-01-04). Colombia's capital puts 2.5 mn people under strict quarantine. laprensalatina.com Bogota, Jan 4 (efe-epa).- Alarmed by the high number of Covid-19 patients in intensive-care units and the rapid spread of that respiratory disease, Colombia's capital is set to put 2.5 million residents of three hard-hit neighborhoods under new strict quarantines. Bogota, the main focal point of the pandemic in Colombia, has registered 480,219 confirmed coronavirus …

sputniknews (2021-01-04). UK Court Ruling Against Assange's Extradition Victory for All Journalists, Lawyer Says. sputniknews.com MONTEVIDEO (Sputnik) – The decision of a UK court to block WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition to the United States is a victory for all journalists, the whistleblower's Ecuadorean lawyer, Carlos Poveda, told Sputnik on Monday.

teleSUR (2021-01-04). Worldwide Activists Back UK Verdict Against Assange's Extradition. telesurenglish.net Human rights defenders, social activists, and political figures worldwide Monday reacted with joy to the United Kingdom Criminal Court's refusal to extradite Australian journalist Julian Assange to the U.S. | RELATED: | Judge Vanessa Baraitser, who denied the extradition on health grounds and high risk of Assange committing suicide, "accepted all the U.S. persecution motives," Former Consul of Ecuador in the U.K. Fidel Narvaez condemne…

Jasmine Norden (2021-01-04). Argentina legalises abortion in historic victory for reproductive rights. thecanary.co Argentina has The new law will allow abortions until the 14th week of pregnancy, where they were previously only allowed if the mother's health was at risk or if she had been raped. | The Argentine Senate voted in favour of the bill at the end of December, after the lower house did the

teleSUR (2021-01-04). Chilean High School Students Occupy the Ministry of Education. telesurenglish.net Student union leaders of the Coordinating Assembly of Secondary Students (ACES) took over the Ministry of Education (Mineduc) in protest of the country's University Transition Test (PTU). | The incident was recorded on Monday morning when the protesters arrived at the Mineduc headquarters and chained themselves to the front of the building. | RELATED: | After this action, Carabineros personnel arrested nine people, including a…

teleSUR (2021-01-04). China and Argentina To Strengthen 'Belt and Road' Cooperation. telesurenglish.net China's President Xi Jinping said that his country stands ready to work with Argentina to promote the development of the "Belt and Road" Initiative. | RELATED: | "Argentina could become the biggest economy in Latin America to join the Belt and Road Initiative," Buenos Aires Times commented, adding that such action that would allow President Alberto Fernandez to "deepen trade and investment ties with China even further."

teleSUR (2021-01-04). Chile: Piñera Seeks To Redeem Himself With Victims of Crime. telesurenglish.net Chile's President Sebastian Piñera Sunday signed a bill that seeks to implement a new institutional framework to strengthen victims' access to justice in case of human rights violations. | RELATED: | The project creates the National Service for Access to Justice (SNAJ) and an Ombudsman's Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), thus unifying other existing legal defense public organizations and specialized aid programs such as "My Lawyer" (fo…

teleSUR, CE (2021-01-03). Ecuador's Leftists Launch Presidential Campaign. telesurenglish.net Ecuador's leftist Centro Democrático has launched its presidential campaign at an event in Quito on Saturday, with an official presentation of candidate Andres Arauz expected in the coming days. | RELATED: | The official event scheduled for Saturday was dialed back in response to recent medical reports on the tests performed on presidential candidate Arauz, who despite substantial improvements in health, may still have Covid-19, havin…

Michael Albert (2021-01-03). Participatory Economics, Ecology, and Anarchism. zcomm.org The following was written for a collection to be entitled Anarquismo contemporáneo y ecología (Contemporary anarchism and ecology) to be published In Chile…