One of the world’s largest oil and gas companies is being sued for its contribution to planetary climate change. The lawsuit filed Friday is part of a rising tide of environmental litigation across the globe.

Environmentalists are taking Shell to court for destroying the climate

The recent trial in Boston of a Rwandan refugee for alleged crimes in 1994 is a sad commentary on the tendency of western courts to make presumptions about guilt or innocence--much influenced by Washington's embrace of General Paul Kagame and Hollywood melodramas that are entirely fiction.

Taylor Report

Taylor Report Facebook

For Rwandan Refugees There is a Presumption of Guilt

Ann Garrison comments on the game, and also Paul Kagame's involvement with the Raptors' management.

Raptors Can Win Playoffs, but should ditch links to Dictator Kagame.

Phil interviews Zafar Bangash, editor of Crescent International, about Trump's dramatic announcement of a U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria.

In addition, Phil questions Bangash about the street demonstrations and rioting in Iraq's capital, Baghdad. According to Bangash, observers in the streets of Baghdad report that snipers are firing on both police and demonstrators, in exactly the same manner as snipers did in 2011 in Daraa, Syria, at the beginning of the war, (and as they did in Ukraine's Maidan Square in 2014, we might add). The sniper's purpose is to escalate the conflict into a regime-change operation. A catalyst for these riots occurred when the Iraqi Prime Minister demoted a top Iraqi general who was being touted by the USA as a coup leader for Iraq.

Zafar also describes an attack on the Iranian consulate in Basra. The purpose behind it was to foment sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'a.

The Very Latest on Iraq, Syria

At a time when U.S. interventionism rampages in more countries than one can count, people who think of themselves as 'liberals,' 'progressives,' and 'anti-war' are standing around with their hands in their pockets. (or even aligning themselves with the U.S. state.)

It is in this atmosphere that journalist Max Blumenthal was snatched by militarized police for his earlier action in defending the Venezuelan embassy. Ajamu Baraka will be speaking on all these issues: how "humanitarian intervention" and the "responsibility to protect" are part of a neo-colonial U.S. drive to dominate the Global South. From the colonial era to the present, Euro-Americans have employed violence to reorder the world. And when the colonial state becomes stronger abroad, it has more forces to deploy at home. Baraka explains the need for Canadians to join the growing resistance.

Hamilton Event

Ajamu Baraka: Canadians should join resistance to neo-colonialism

Since 1995 there have been thousands of Rwandan refugees, the majority being Hutus, living in Congo as refugees, and recognized as such by the UNHCR. These refugees have been attacked and massacred several times over the years. The latest has taken place in South Kivu where the Rwandan and forces of the Democratic Republic have combined in an attempt to forcibly repatriate the refugees. All this is taking place outside the law and without the involvement of the UN. It must by stopped.

Rwanda's general/president has been given impunity by the US and its allies. Justin Bahunga calls on us to rally to the cause of the Rwandan refugees in Congo.

Stop Forced Repatriation of Rwandan refugees

Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza remains in Rwanda, where President Paul Kagame’s government has forbidden her to leave. Earlier this month, gospel singer Kizito Mihigo, whom the government had also forbidden to leave Rwanda, died after being apprehended trying to cross Rwanda’s southern border into Burundi. The government said that he committed suicide, but few Rwandans believe that.

Victoire Ingabire and International Women's Day

KPFA News Anchor: The spread of coronavirus has disrupted the Pentagon's normal operations, including the US Navy's operations in the Pacific. Ann Garrison reports.

AG: As of this broadcast, the USS Aircraft Carrier Chester Nimitz is docked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. The shipyard is the centerpiece of Naval Base Kitsap, which also includes a nuclear weapons depot elsewhere in Kitsap County. The Nimitz is at the shipyard despite the Navy’s plans to deploy it to the Pacific more than ten days ago, to relieve the USS Aircraft Carrier Theodore Roosevelt. 

In a departure from the Navy’s strategic norms, the Roosevelt is already docked at US Naval Base Guam because of an outbreak of COVID-19 among its crew. The Nimitz and the Roosevelt are both nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed aircraft carriers, two of 11 in the US Navy, each of which carry around 80 fighter jets. They are the largest aircraft carriers in the world with a total combined deck space over twice that of all other nations combined.

At the beginning of APRIL, the US Defense Department announced that 1000 servicemen, military contractors, and other personnel had developed COVID-19, but at the same time ordered specific military installations worldwide to stop announcing new cases of COVID-19, particularly among their nuclear forces, for fear that military adversaries might exploit such information. These perceived adversaries are presumably Russia, China, and North Korea, all of which have Pacific coastlines. 
The Navy canceled the deployment of the USS Nimitz to relieve the USS Roosevelt amidst a disagreement between the Pentagon and Navy brass about whether or not coronavirus had spread among its crew. On April 14, the Navy announced that the Nimitz would deploy “shortly,” without specifics.
 
In any case, with the Nimitz at Naval Base Kitsap, and the Roosevelt docked a Naval Base Guam, the Navy is not in its normal operational mode in the Pacific at this time.

In Berkeley, for Pacifica, KPFA Radio, I’m Ann Garrison.

COVID-19 Disrupts US Naval Operations in the Pacific

The State of Louisiana incarcerates more of its citizens per capita than any other state in the US and a majority of them are Black. Now the largely Black prison population is threatened by COVID-19.

Louisiana activists call state's prisons a COVID-19 death trap

Phil asks if it is possible to bring the nations of the world together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Apparently not, as long as the "Five Eyes" back the USA in its attempt to slough off its responsibility to support the WHO. "Five Eyes" is "an anglophone intelligence alliance." [Wikipedia].

Canada and Australia were part of a US-backed effort to damage China and the WHO in two ways: 1) Trying to criticize China's handling of the pandemic, and 2) arguing for the representation of Taiwan at the WHO.

The Canadian-Australian attempts flopped, because the rest of the WHA membership weren't interested in creating problems, but instead in finding common solutions in the COVID-19 crisis.

The US has been regularly abrogating its international agreements and treaties. Trump's defunding of the WHO is part of a pattern of undermining multilateral organizations and international co-operation.

Don't let "Five Eyes" block international co-operation

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COVID-19 Disrupts US Naval Operations in the Pacific

KPFA 94.1-FM Berkeley

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