2021-01-17: News Headlines

Kaamil Ahmed (2021-01-17). Scores killed in militia raid in Sudan's Darfur. middleeasteye.net Scores killed in militia raid in Sudan's Darfur | The attack on an IDP camp reportedly killed at least 48 people, weeks after UN voted to withdraw peacekeeping mission | Sun, 01/17/2021 – 10: 41 | Sudanese forces stationed in El-Geneina in 2016 (AFP/File photo) | At least 48 people have been killed in ongoing militia attacks around a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in Darfur's El-Geneina ci…

Chris Gilbert (2021-01-17). How the Left Got Where It Is in Venezuela. counterpunch.org By the end of Hugo Chávez's presidency, a vague social contract had come to exist in Venezuela. It was not unlike the social contract which sustained real socialism for many decades, as described by Michael Lebowitz in his book Contradictions of Real Socialism. Both situations involved a vanguard that guaranteed a certain level of welfare

_____ (2021-01-17). Martin Luther King's Revolutionary Dream Deferred. popularresistance.org We kill the most beautiful among us—anyone, it seems, who reveals the nastier, brutish elements of American society and has the audacity to imagine, demand even, a better path: peace, unity and tolerance. Abraham Lincoln, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and so many others. | This year marks the 50th anniversary of King's tragic assassination, and though countless publications will brim with commemorations and retrospectives of this misunderstood icon, most will miss the mark. Long ago co-opted and sanitized by mainstream political figures, the King of memory bears little resemblance to the radical, comple…

Ecumenical Peace Institute (2021-01-17). Friday 1/22: Vigil Opposing Nuclear Weapons. indybay.org UC Berkeley West Gate lawn, Oxford & Addison…

Prabhat Patnaik (2021-01-16). Engels on the Peasant War in Germany. mronline.org At a time when peasant masses in the country are engaged in a valiant struggle for the repeal of the Central government's three infamous laws, and have laid peaceful siege to Delhi, braving rains and bitter cold, it is worth recalling Friedrich Engels' study of the peasant war in Germany in 1525, that also celebrated …

news.un (2021-01-16). Peacekeepers under attack again in Mali, as one Egyptian blue helmet dies, another seriously injured. news.un.org The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned another fatal attack carried out against a peacekeeping convoy that left a 'blue helmet' from Egypt dead, and another seriously injured on Friday.

Peoples Dispatch (2021-01-15). Venezuela sends oxygen tanks to the Brazilian Amazonas state amid COVID-19 surge. peoplesdispatch.org The sudden surge in numbers of COVID-19 cases in the state has caused a collapse in the public health system with a lack of ICU beds and oxygen…

teleSUR (2021-01-15). Venezuela Offers Oxygen to Attend COVID-19 in Manaus, Brazil. telesurenglish.net Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza Thursday informed that his country will provide oxygen to Brazil so it can face Manaus city's health emergency. | RELATED: | "On instructions from President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela will support the brotherly Brazilian people. For our nation, solidarity is a duty," Arreaza tweeted. | On Thursday, Amazon State's governor Wilson Lima thanked the solidarity gesture that will end the…

news.un (2021-01-15). Central African Republic: Displacement reaches 120,000, as another deadly attack leaves one UN peacekeeper dead. news.un.org "Worsening" election violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) has forced 120,000 people from their homes, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday, as the UN Secretary-General also condemned another attack by combatants on a UN convoy, which left a peacekeeper from Burundi dead, and two others wounded.

RT (2021-01-14). UK bans all arrivals from Portugal and South America after discovery of Brazil Covid-19 variant. rt.com The UK will ban all travel from South America and Portugal from 4am GMT on Friday after the discovery of a new Covid-19 variant in Brazil, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Thursday. | UK-bound travellers from Argentina, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela who do not live in the UK will be banned from entering the country. | "This measure does not apply to British and Irish Nationals and third country nationals with residence rights — but passengers returning from these destinations must self-isolate for 10 da…

Ricardo Vaz (2021-01-14). Venezuelan Oil Industry Continues to Struggle as Private Sector Set to Play Bigger Role. venezuelanalysis.com The Maduro government is pursuing increased private investment in the oil sector.

news.un (2021-01-14). Four UN peacekeepers killed, five wounded in attack in Mali. news.un.org Four United Nations peacekeepers in Mali were killed and five others wounded in an attack by unidentified armed elements on Wednesday, the UN mission in the country has said.

Jonathan Cook (2021-01-14). Israel is losing the fight to obscure its apartheid character. dissidentvoice.org For more than a decade, a handful of former Israeli politicians and US diplomats identified with what might be termed the "peace process industry" have intermittently warned that, without a two-state solution, Israel is in danger of becoming an "apartheid state". The most notable among them include Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, two former Israeli prime …

teleSUR (2021-01-14). Study: US Police 3x More Likely to Use Force Against the Left. telesurenglish.net The data find that police have used tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and beatings at a significantly higher percentage at Black Lives Matter protests than at pro-Trump protests. | Whether or not protests remained peaceful or not, police were far more likely to use force against the left-wing demonstrators. | RELATED: | The study's statistics are based on police interactions in the United States since April 2020, demonstrating a clear d…

teleSUR (2021-01-14). Colombian Lawmakers Back Resumption of Peace Talks in Cuba. telesurenglish.net Members of Congress from different political coalitions sent a letter to Colombia's President Ivan Duque requesting the resumption of talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas while also highlighting the Cuban government's meaningful role in the peace process. | RELATED: | More than 20 congressmen signed the letter that condemned the inclusion once again of Cuba in the U.S. blacklist of state sponsors of terror…