5: GOP FRAUD CLAIMS IN NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR’S RACE REFLECT A STRATEGY TO SUPPRESS BLACK VOTES
FOR MORE THAN two decades, the Bladen County Improvement Association has campaigned for the interests of the black community in its poor, heavily rural county in southeastern North Carolina. In addition to speaking out for fair housing and against discrimination, the group’s political arm, which leans Democratic, assists and encourages people to vote in an area where access to polls has had a fraught history, according to its political action committee president, Horace Munn.
“A lot of our voters in Bladen County are afraid to go to the polls and a lot of elderly voters can’t get to the polls,” Munn said. “So if they have an absentee ballot we assist with that, or, for early voting, we’ll assist by bringing them to the polls to vote.”
For its entire existence, Munn’s group has worked in almost total obscurity, having rarely received attention outside the state’s sparsely populated southeastern edge. Yet last week that suddenly changed, as Munn’s group found itself the unlikely center of thunderous accusations from the state’s embattled Republican governor.
Falling behind his Democratic rival in a razor-thin margin after the November 8 election, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory took a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook and launched a vigorous campaign to cast doubt on the results of his state’s election by alleging pervasive voter fraud perpetrated by minority-focused voting groups.
In this effort, McCrory made dire — and highly public — accusations against black voting activists in Bladen County, although no formal investigation into the group has been completed. In a statement posted to the governor’s website November 15, McCrory alleged that Munn’s group had orchestrated “a massive voter fraud scheme” so large as to call the entire state election into question.
The Intercept
Several prominent computers scientists and attorneys are pushing Hillary Clinton to seek a recount in three key swing states that cost her the election, suggesting that statistical irregularities in results from counties that used electronic voting machines indicate the possibility of manipulation or hacking.
The states in question are Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, which combined to give Donald Trump 46 votes in the electoral college, propelling him to an upset victory over Clinton. According to New York magazine and CNN, several experts, including J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Computer Security and Society, have contacted the Clinton campaign and presented evidence that she may have been denied votes in several counties in these states.
Vice News
3: Israel slammed over its ‘war on NGOs’
Jerusalem – Last August, Pam Bailey, an American citizen and secretary of the Gaza-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, was denied entry to Israel upon arrival at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. Israeli authorities detained her for 11 hours, while the airline retained her passport until she landed back on US soil.
She was banned from returning for 10 years.
“I had a permit to enter Gaza,” said Bailey who had visited Gaza a number of times before. “Israel says it’s not occupying Gaza, but it won’t let visitors in. Isn’t that the definition of a prison? We don’t want to go into Israel; we want to go to Palestine,” Bailey told Al Jazeera. “Do you know of any other situation in the world where one country can decide who gets in and out of another?”
Bailey is among a number of activists, researchers and journalists who have recently been denied access by the Israeli authorities, as Israel tightens its grip on Palestinians and their international supporters.
Last September, the United Nations Human Rights Council called for international action to curb an “Israeli campaign to evict international workers”.
Aljazeera
2:Father of Activist Injured at Standing Rock Calls on Obama to Stop Dakota Access Pipeline Drilling
We get an update from Wayne Wilansky, the father of 21-year-old activist Sophia Wilansky, who was injured during the standoff at Standing Rock in North Dakota. Sophia has been undergoing a series of surgeries after reportedly being hit by a concussion grenade during the police attack against water protectors protesting the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota Sunday night. The Standing Rock Medic & Healer Council says 300 people were hurt in the attack, with injuries including hypothermia from being sprayed by water cannons in subfreezing temperatures, seizures, loss of consciousness, and impaired vision as a result of being shot by a rubber bullet in the face. “President Obama has to step in there and stop this,” says Wayne Wilansky. “They’re drilling now, even though they don’t have a permit.”
Democracy Now
1: India’s rape problem is exaggerated, says minister for women
India’s minister for women has been criticised for claiming that the country’s rape and sexual violence problem is exaggerated by the media, driving away tourists.
Maneka Gandhi, the minister for women and child development, told a workshop for female journalists that India ranks “among the lowest four countries in the world” for rape cases, according to a number of people in attendance.
Replying to a question about government inaction on rape, the minister said: “I went to Sweden two years ago when, because of the Nirbhaya incident, cases were being reported every day,” the Times of India reported her as saying, referring to the Delhi gang rape which focused international attention on India’s rape crisis.
“Someone said to me that no one wanted to travel to India. I had data with me and I took a look at it and then showed it to him. As per that data in the world, we ranked among the lowest four countries in terms of rape cases. Sweden was number one.”
The Guardian
