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Sunday, August 19, 2018

Maxime Bernier, Telesur English, Climate Change and Inequality & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List August 12-19

This week's list of articles, news items and opinion pieces that I see as must reads if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.


This list covers the week of August 12 - 19. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

There are two articles from prior to the period that have been integrated into the post.

1) A PALESTINIAN BEDOUIN VILLAGE BRACES FOR FORCIBLE TRANSFER AS ISRAEL SEEKS TO SPLIT THE WEST BANK IN HALF

Alice Speri, The Intercept

RAYYAH HAS LIVED in Khan al-Ahmar all of her 47 years. She raised nine children there, and 24 grandchildren; one more is on the way. Her family and neighbors, members of a Bedouin community known as the Jahalin, found refuge on this scorched patch of rocks and dust in the 1950s, after they were expelled from the land they had inhabited for generations, in the Negev desert, following the establishment of the Israeli state. The land Khan al-Ahmar stands on was under Jordanian control when the Jahalin arrived. Today, this smatter of tin roofs and tarps sits on the side of a highway in the occupied West Bank, surrounded by a fast-growing ring of Israeli settlements, which — while illegal — have become de facto suburbs of Jerusalem.

Read the full article.

2) THE U.S. IS TRYING TO BULLY BRITAIN TO SIDE WITH TRUMP ON IRAN

Tim Hume, Vice News

Britain should back the United States in its dispute over the Iran nuclear deal, the U.S. ambassador to the U.K. warned ­Sunday — threatening British companies with “serious consequences” if they continued to trade with Tehran.

Read the full article.

3) Marxist Economist Samir Amir Dies at 86

Telesur

Born in Cairo, Egypt, the prominent thinker died Sunday afternoon in France after serious complications following a brain tumor, reported his colleague Cherif Salif SY on social media.

Read the full article.

4) Massive Tel Aviv protest sees Palestinians and Jews in solidarity against nation-state law

Yumna Patel, Mondoweiss 

Tens of thousands of protesters, both Israeli Jews and Palestinian citizens of Israel, took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest the country’s widely condemned “Nation State Law.”

Read the full article. 

5) Egypt: Rights group demands probe of 2013 'Rabaa massacre'

Al Jazeera 

A human rights group called for an international inquiry into a deadly crackdown on supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood during a 2013 protest in Egypt.

Read the full article.

6) Conservative MP Maxime Bernier: Ethnic and Sexual Diversity is ‘Destroying’ Canada

Press Progress

Failed Conservative leadership candidate under fire for ‘racist diatribe’ that echoes ‘white supremacist talking points’.

Read the full article.

7) Maxime Bernier Doubles Down On Tweets About 'Extreme' Multiculturalism

Ryan Maloney, HuffPost

Conservative MP Maxime Bernier is once again lambasting what he sees as "extreme multiculturalism" and political correctness as other senior Tories appear to be distancing themselves from his views.

Read the full article.

8) Sign vandalized after MP Maxime Bernier calls out Winnipeg park for 'extreme multiculturalism'

Ian Froese · CBC News 

Days after Conservative MP Maxime Bernier singled out a Winnipeg park named after a Pakistani leader in an attempt to demonstrate that multiculturalism has gone too far, the park's new sign was vandalized.

Read the full article.

9) Liberals move to give survivors of domestic violence paid leave

Kathleen Harris · CBC News

The Liberal government is moving soon on its plan to give federally-regulated workers paid time off to deal with the trauma and turmoil of domestic violence.

Read the full article.

10) Argentina: After Abortion Vote, Thousands Renounce Catholic Church Membership

Telesur

The Argentine state contributes over US$682 million to the Catholic church, without taking into account the tax reductions, and this is proportional to the number of people baptized.

Read the full article.

11) How BC’s Gas Giveaway Fuels Alberta’s Oilsands

Ben Parfitt, TheTyee

In the past year, an energy dispute for the ages has played out in Canada, culminating in the federal government announcing that it will buy an aging oil pipeline for $4.5 billion and then twin it with a new high-capacity pipeline that would move massive amounts of diluted bitumen from Alberta to the British Columbia coast.

Read the full article.

12) 'This is the real Saskatoon': Muslim man walks with hundreds along route where he was attacked

Ashleigh Mattern · CBC News

The Muslim man who was attacked while walking home from a Saskatoon mosque walked that path again on Saturday — this time with hundreds of supporters.

Read the full article.

13) Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle.

David Glosser, Politico Magazine

Most damning is the administration's evident intent to make policy that specifically disadvantages people based on their ethnicity, country of origin and religion. No matter what opinion is held about immigration, any government that specifically enacts law or policy on that basis must be recognized as a threat to all of us. Laws bereft of justice are the gateway to tyranny. Today others may be the target, but tomorrow it might just as easily be you or me. History will be the judge, but in the meantime the normalization of these policies is rapidly eroding the collective conscience of America. Immigration reform is a complex issue that will require compassion and wisdom to bring the nation to a just solution, but the politicians who have based their political and professional identity on ethnic demonization and exclusion cannot be trusted to do so. As free Americans, and descendants of immigrants and refugees, we have the obligation to exercise our conscience by voting for candidates who will stand up for our highest national values and not succumb to our lowest fears.

Read the full article.


14) Australian senator calls for 'final solution to immigration problem'

Katharine Murphy and Amy Remeikis, The Guardian

An Australian crossbench senator has invoked the term “the final solution” in an inflammatory speech calling for a plebiscite asking voters whether they want to end all immigration by Muslims and non-English speaking people “from the third world”.

Read the full article.

15) Heat: the next big inequality issue

Amy Fleming with Ruth Michaelson and Adham Youssef in Cairo, Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem, Carmela Fonbuena in Manila and Holly Robertson in Phnom Penh, The Guardian

When July’s heatwave swept through the Canadian province of Quebec, killing more than 90 people in little over a week, the unrelenting sunshine threw the disparities between rich and poor into sharp relief.

Read the full article.

16) Out-of-province workers crossing picket line to set up CNE, locked-out union says

Muriel Draaisma · CBC News 

Out-of-province replacement workers are setting up the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto as Exhibition Place continues to lock out unionized stagehands, says the union representing skilled labourers on the picket line.

Read the full article.

17) Petition: John Tory: Save the CNE!

IATSE 58

It’s been almost a month since ExPlace locked out the 400 members of IATSE Local 58 from their jobs on the grounds. In that time, they’ve brought in replacement workers from Quebec and the United States to do jobs that should be done by Torontonians. And these workers have been careless with safety on the job – even wearing flip-flops to unload trucks! – meaning that it’s only a matter of time until someone gets hurt.

Sign the petition.

(Related: Boycott the CNE! Solidarity with IATSE 58!)

18) Facebook vanishes Venezuela-based left-leaning news network again

RT News

Telesur English, a multi-state-funded Latin American news network, says that Facebook has removed its page for the second time this year “without any specific reason being provided.”

Read the full article.

19) After Large Solidarity Campaign, teleSUR English Facebook Page Restored!

Telesur

Supporters and media outlets expressed Solidarity with teleSUR after the unexplained brief removal.


Read the full article.

20) What Is Behind Facebook Deleting teleSUR English's Page?

Michael Blosser, Telesur

Suddenly without warning, between 4 and 5 pm on Monday, August 13th, the Facebook page of teleSUR English was unpublished for the second time this year.

Read the full article.

21) Venezuelan President Announces New System of Wages and Prices

Telesur


"We are heading towards normalization, to a country of stability with the Recovery, Growth and Economic Prosperity plan," said the Venezuelan President.



Telesur

Several EU governments deny 141 people on a humanitarian aid boat from docking on their European shores. Italy says: "It can go where it wants, not in Italy!" 

Read the full article.

23) Defend Jeremy Corbyn: time to fight back - Counterfire statement

Counterfire

The concerted and slanderous campaign depicting Jeremy Corbyn and the left as antisemitic has reached a dramatic climax over the last month.

Read the full statement.

24) It's about racism' - Spain's street vendors caught up in immigration row

Stephen Burgen, The Guardian 

Street vendors in major Spanish cities have found themselves at the centre of an immigration row as rightwing political parties try to reverse their poll slump.

Read the full article.

25) Sun disappears as B.C. smoke invades Prairies

Colette Derworiz, The Canadian Press

Air quality warnings were issued across the Prairies on Wednesday as smoke from forest fires in British Columbia continued to waft across most of Alberta and parts of Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba.

Read the full article. 

26) Smog that’s erasing Vancouver’s skyline also causing health concerns

Susan Lazaruk, The Vancouver Sun

Hospitals generally see an increase of trips to the emergency departments because of respiratory complaints during times of smog.

Read the full article.

27) INDIA IS INTRODUCING FREE HEALTH CARE—FOR 500 MILLION PEOPLE

David Brennan, Newsweek

The Indian government will pay for health care for around 500 million of its poorest citizens, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi declaring that the country can reach its potential only with a healthy population.

Read the full article.

28) Venezuela Top Prosecutor: 34 Involved In Failed Assassination of Maduro

Venezuela Analysis 

The Public Prosecutor's office has delivered the information to Interpol in a record time and with great detail about those involved in the failed attack, Saab reported.

Read the full article. 

29) Aretha Franklin, singing sensation known as the 'queen of soul' and civil rights icon, dead at 76

New York Daily News

Aretha Franklin, the incomparable singer regarded as the "queen of soul," whose soaring voice left an indelible mark on American popular music, died Thursday at her home in Detroit, her publicist said. She was 76.

Read the full article.

30) Democracy is a class concept

Bruce Bostick, People's World

In today’s rapidly shifting political climate one of the debates taking place concerns the status of “democracy” in the United States. As with “freedom,” everyone, from every political shade, is for it while surprisingly fewer have a solid, objective understanding of what it actually means.

Read the full article.

31) Trudeau's slavish support for Saudi monarchy

Yves Engler, Rabble

Governments, like gardeners, reap what they sow. Trudeau's continuation of Harper's Conservative foreign policy in the Middle East has reaped the current mess with Saudi Arabia.

Read the full article.

32) Canada’s Hypocrisy on Display in Middle East

Statement by the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada

The ongoing diplomatic dispute between Canada and Saudi Arabia is a tragic reflection of the catastrophic abuses of human rights in our world today – but not in the way presented by Canadian political leaders and the corporate media. The Communist Party of Canada says that this situation reveals the hypocrisy of both sides, neither of which has any claim to moral superiority.

Read the full statement.

33) Doug Ford Passes ‘Vindictive’ Gerrymandering Law Aimed at Rigging Toronto’s 2018 Municipal Election

Press Progress

Even Doug Ford’s closest allies say the Premier of Ontario is redrawing boundaries to settle old scores with his political rivals.

Read the full article.

34) The schoolboys on a field trip in Yemen were chatting and laughing. Then came the airstrike

Nima Elbagir, Salma Abdelaziz, Sheena McKenzie and Waffa Munayyer, CNN

For a group of boys in northern Yemen, Thursday was supposed to be a celebration -- a much-anticipated field trip marking their graduation from summer school.

Read the full article. 

35) 138 Mexican Journalists Killed between 2000 and 2018: Report

Telesur

A recently released report by the Mexican National Commision for Human Rights (CNDH) has revealed that between 2000 and March 2018, 138 journalists have been murdered in Mexico, 14 of those are women. The report, which was released as a part of the "With Violence There Is No Freedom of Speech," detailed the challenges faced by journalist and media workers in that country.

Read the full article.

36) UK playwrights condemn bombing of Gaza theatre

Oliver Holmes, The Guardian

Leading playwrights and directors in Britain have severely criticised the bombing of a major cultural centre in the Gaza Strip by Israel’s air force, calling it a “devastating loss for the already isolated community”.

Read the full article.

37) How Croatia's World Cup party highlighted 'fascist nostalgia'

Mersiha Gadzo, Al Jazeera 

Observers say the inclusion of a singer who glorifies the fascist Ustasha in celebrations signifies rising intolerance.

Read the full article.

38) Canada's Tax System Is Rigged To Help The Rich, 9 In 10 CRA Professionals Say

Daniel Tencer, HuffPost 

Canadians have long suspected that the country's tax system disproportionately benefits the wealthy, but now they have some credible voices backing that argument: Canada Revenue Agency's own professionals.

Read the full article. 

39) Tackling the trolls: how women are fighting back against online bullies

Sian Norris, 50.50

Refusing to be silent, women are leading research, campaigns and new strategies to stop trolls and create safer online spaces.

Read the full article.

40) Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis Deepens As Authorities Lag In Response

Tom Gjelten, NPR

A two-year grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania resulted in what the state's attorney general, Josh Shapiro, called "the largest, most comprehensive report into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church ever produced in the United States."


Read the full article.

41) Earth will enter an abnormally warm period from 2018-2022

The Weather Network

Five of the warmest years on record have happened since 2010, and the cooling fluctuations in the global climate that have helped us buffer climate change's roasting temperatures are wrapping up and making way for the years 2018 to 2022 to be abnormally warm.

Read the full article. 

See also: Hothouse Planet, Saudi Arabia, Missouri Voters Stop "Right-to-Work" & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List August 5 - 12

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