This list covers the week of June 23 - 30.
1) 'Hell is coming': week-long heatwave begins across Europe
Jon Henley, The Guardian
Authorities have urged children and older people to stay indoors and issued severe warnings against dehydration and heatstroke as an unprecedented week-long heatwave begins its advance across continental Europe.
2) It's so hot in Spain that manure self-ignited, sparking a 10,000-acre wildfire
Ivana Kottasová, CNN
Firefighters in Spain are battling a major wildfire that probably started after a heap of manure self-ignited amid the intense European heat wave.
3) France records all-time highest temperature of 45.9C
Jon Henley, Angelique Chrisafis, and Sam Jones, The Guardian
France recorded temperatures nearly two degrees higher than its previous record and firefighters continued to battle historic wildfires in Spain as much of western Europe remained in the grip of an extreme early-summer heatwave on Friday.
4) Europe has had five 500-year summers in 15 years. And now this.
Stephen Leahy, National Geographic
Another deadly heat wave has Europe in its sweaty grip this week. Record temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) in parts of France, Germany, Poland and Spain, with hotter days to come. The same thing happened last year—record-breaking heat was responsible for 700 deaths in Sweden and more than 250 in Denmark, countries that have never needed air conditioning before this new era of climate-change-driven extreme events.
5) On 'Hottest Day in History of France,' World Told 'Do Not Look Away' as Police Tear-Gas Climate Campaigners in Paris
Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams
French riot police tear-gassed climate protesters in Paris on Friday as the county sweltered under record heat.
6) US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries – shrinking this war machine is a must
Benjamin Neimark, Oliver Belcher and Patrick Bigger, The Conversation
The US military’s carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ships, trucks and cargo planes to supply its operations with everything from bombs to humanitarian aid and hydrocarbon fuels. Our new study calculated the contribution of this vast infrastructure to climate change.
7) B.C. First Nation has change of heart, now opposes Trans Mountain pipeline project
Angela Sterritt · CBC News
A First Nation that was once in full support of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is now standing in opposition, at least until it feels confident the project won't destroy one of their ancient villages.
8) Economist Marc Lee dispenses with "big lie" that LNG will help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions
Charlie Smith, The Georgia Straight
Late last week, Green MP Paul Manly drew attention to the Liberal government's wish to obtain carbon credits for shipping liquefied natural gas out of the country.
10) Twerps, the Apocalypse, Pipelines and Vonnegut
Andrew Nikiforuk, TheTyee
“Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
11) Canadian Communist leader Rowley hits Trudeau Liberals’ OK of pipeline
Mark Gruenberg, People's World
Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to build a controversial pipeline to transport Alberta’s heavy, polluting tar sands oil to a port on the British Columbia coast is a top broken promise to the Canadian people, Communist Party of Canada leader Liz Rowley says.
12) Swept Away
Katie Daubs, The Toronto Star
The 85-year-old wasn’t home at the time, but word spread quickly, as it always does in this 149-person town. The tiles upstairs looked the same as the day they were installed, but the roof was cut clean and deposited about 100 metres away in the not-yet-frozen harbour where it sat upright before the tide took it away.
13) No Drips, No Drops: A City Of 10 Million Is Running Out Of Water
Sushmita Pathak, NPR
In India's sixth-largest city, lines for water snake around city blocks, restaurants are turning away customers and a man was killed in a brawl over water. Chennai, with a population of almost 10 million, is nearly out of water.
14) Shit Show in Toronto
Myles Hoenig, Dissident Voice
Alabama of the 50s and 60s has migrated to Toronto. The ghost of South Africa has a consulate here. Israel’s apartheid government must be jealous over how well Toronto’s NDP runs its elections. So what the hell happened?
(Related: The optics of the Parkdale NDP's federal nomination meeting are not good)
15) Egypt rounds up prominent leftist activists, journalists
Middle East Eye
Egyptian authorities rounded up at least five left-wing and liberal activists on Tuesday in the latest crackdown against dissent led by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
16) New generation of Quebecers resists Legault's discriminatory law
Karl Nerenberg, Rabble
Today, June 24, is la Fête nationale in Quebec, what they used to call St-Jean-Baptiste Day, a holiday that has greatly evolved over the years.
17) Quebec’s ban on religious symbols will only embolden the far right
Emily Laxer, The Globe and Mail
Earlier this month, Quebec became the first jurisdiction in North America to prohibit some public servants from wearing religious symbols on the job. Bill 21 – which has already been challenged in the courts – contains unprecedented monitoring and surveillance measures to enforce a ban of such symbols in positions of authority, including judges, Crown prosecutors, police officers and teachers.
18) Trouble in Paradise: the rise and fall of Germany's 'brothel king'
Hilke Lorenz, The Guardian
Rudloff is now serving a five-year sentence for aiding and abetting trafficking. His trial laid bare the misery and abuse of women working as prostitutes at his club who, according to court documents, were treated like animals and beaten if they didn’t make enough money. His imprisonment has dismantled the idea of Germany’s “clean prostitution” industry and raised troubling questions about what lies behind the legalised, booming sex trade.
19) Why we must act to stop prostitution becoming an ordinary ‘job’
Jacci Stoyle, The Scotsman
Prostitution is not ‘empowering’ for women, it’s a miserable life of exploitation and violence.
20) How the war on drugs attacks indigenous people
Ryan Hesketh, Green Left Weekly
In an ongoing and under-publicised tragedy, indigenous peoples around the world routinely have their rights violated under the name of the global war on drugs.
21) Canada’s labour movement must take a stand against the Saudi arms deal
Simon Black and Anthony Fenton, The Conversation
The CLC must be a voice for peace and human rights and demand that the Canadian government immediately cancel its arms deal with Saudi Arabia and use its considerable resources to co-ordinate labour movement opposition to the deal. Yemen can’t wait.
22) U.S. Communists elect new leaders to begin party’s second century
John Wojcik and C. J. Atkins, People's World
The Communist Party USA elected two new leaders with deep connections to the labor and democratic movements as co-chairs at its 31st National Convention here on June 23. Rossana Cambron, a Mexican-American woman from Los Angeles, and Joe Sims, an African-American man from New York, were picked to lead the 100-year old party into its second century.
23) Brazil Top Court Rejects Temp Freedom for Lula, Habeas Corpus Trial Suspended
Telesur
Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (SFT) rejected on Tuesday two appeals that attempted to grant freedom to former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The third motion, which was the Habeas Corpus hearing initiated on December 2018, was suspended once again and rescheduled for this year’s second semester.
24) Brazilian Army Sergeant Arrested for Trafficking 39 Kilos of Cocaine on Presidential Plane
Telesur
Spanish security forces arrested a member of President Jair Bolsonaro's military entourage at the Sevilla airport for possession of 39 kilos of cocaine in his suitcase.
25) Manitoba’s Government Said They’d Find ‘Efficiencies’ in Healthcare. Now They’re Shutting Down Emergency Rooms.
Press Progress
Nurses are burning out, working overtime and dealing with overcrowded hospitals as Manitobans await the third ER closure since the election of the province’s Progressive Conservative government.
26) Man who killed a woman when he rammed his car into Charlottesville counterprotest gets life in prison
Ellie Kaufman, Ralph Ellis and Steve Almasy, CNN
James A. Fields Jr., the man who drove into a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville's "Unite the Right" rally two years ago, leaving one woman dead, was sentenced Friday to life in prison in his federal hate crimes case.
27) Honduras protests: Military police open fire on students injuring four
CNN
Honduran military police opened fire on students protesting at a university in the capital, Tegucigalpa, injuring at least four people, officials say.
28) Ugly Canadian supports status quo in original banana republic
Yves Engler
In 1901, US author O. Henry coined the term “banana republic” to describe Honduras, which was dominated by the US-based United Fruit Company. According to Wikipedia: “Typically a banana republic has a society of extremely stratified social classes, usually a large impoverished working class and a ruling-class plutocracy, composed of the business, political and military elites of that society.”
29) Ontario Legal Aid Cuts Force Injured Workers Clinic To Lay Off Staff
Emma Paling, HuffPost
A legal clinic that serves workers injured on the job is laying off 40 per cent of its staff in the wake of cuts to legal aid made by Ontario’s government.
30) Ontario reviewing political appointments after latest accusation of nepotism
The Canadian Press
Ontario's government says it will review all its upcoming appointments to office, after three such appointments were scuttled by accusations of nepotism in less than a week.
31) Tory MPP Kinga Surma’s dad landed policy job in minister’s office: sources
Marieke Walsh, IPolitics
Ontario MPP Kinga Surma’s father scored a job in Premier Doug Ford’s government after the spring 2018 election, according to sources in the Progressive Conservative Party.
32) Ford government deliberately spread misinformation about autism program, internal review says
Caroline Alphonso and Laura Stone, The Globe and Mail
An internal review of changes to Ontario’s autism program calls for an immediate reset, saying the government purposely spread misinformation about the costs and the backlog for treatment to justify a funding model that would leave families “destitute.”
33) Doug Ford: A year of living stupidly
Bob Hepburn, The Toronto Star
Doug Ford will mark the one-year anniversary of being sworn in as Ontario’s 26th premier on June 29, a year that can only be described as a complete disaster.
34) Ford government cuts will blow $2-billion hole in municipal budgets, Moody's warns
Michael Smee · CBC News
Ontario municipalities should brace for a $2-billion shock in the decade ahead, as cuts in provincial transfers sink in, according to the credit rating service Moody's.
35) Shocking photo of drowned father and daughter highlights migrants' border peril
The Guardian
The grim reality of the migration crisis unfolding on America’s southern border has been captured in photographs showing the lifeless bodies of a Salvadoran father and his daughter who drowned as they attempted to cross the Rio Grande into Texas.
36) Ratcheting up of Iran-US tensions
Robert Bechert, Committee for a Workers' International
The apparent last minute cancellation by Donald Trump of US military retaliation - after Iran shot down a US surveillance drone - has not significantly lessened the chances of new military clashes given the continuing tensions in that region.
37) Independent Jewish Voices Condemns NDP Removal Of Federal Candidate For Tweets Criticizing Israel
IJV
The federal New Democratic Party has removed noted Halifax activist Rana Zaman from the party’s candidacy in the Dartmouth – Cole Harbour riding, which she won on May 1 by a vote of party members. The ostensible reason for her removal is several tweets that Zaman made in August 2018 when Israeli forces were shooting thousands of unarmed Gazans during the “Great March of Return.”
38) Palestinian Gov't: US-led Bahrain Conference 'Stunning Failure'
Telesur
Palestine's refusal to attend the conference sends “a clear message to Mr. Trump and his administration that the policy of dictates, threats and coercion is no longer effective."
39) Sudan: One Protester Killed as Tens of Thousands Protest Demanding End to Army Rule
Telesur
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Khartoum Sunday demanding the military hand over power to civilians, in the largest demonstrations since a deadly security service raid on a protest camp three weeks ago which is being called as the “June 3rd massacre.”
40) Why Venezuela Is the Vietnam of Our Time
Celina della Croce, Black Agenda Report
Hybrid warfare combines military force with “unconventional” warfare, such as covert campaigns to destabilize the economy of targeted nations.
41) Sad legacy continues of taking Indigenous children from their parents
The Guardian
We know all too well in Canada the results of separating Indigenous children from their families without forethought or regard. Let’s not have this shameful and discriminatory practice in health care continue to add to that sad legacy.
42) Missing and murdered: Canada's genocide cover-up
Pamela Palmater, NOW Magazine
Canada’s denial of race-based genocide has allowed systemic violence against Indigenous women and girls in particular to continue in plain sight. The only question now should be what is Canada going to do about it?
43) Jesse Wente on the mainstream media's odious defence of genocide
Jesse Wente, NOW Magazine
We have witnessed the harm the media can do. I hope, for the media’s sake and ours, that the relationship hasn’t been harmed beyond the point of reconciliation.
44) Indigenous drummers say they faced racist confrontation in Toronto park
Jamie Mauracher, Global News
A group of Indigenous women say they are “disgusted” after being yelled at for drumming in a Toronto Park.
See also: Iran Tensions, Police Misconduct, Climate Emergency & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos June 16 - 23
