5: Trump Launches “Blue Lives Matter Regime” with Three New Executive Orders on Law Enforcement
On Thursday, President Trump signed three new executive orders addressing crime and immigration. One seeks to increase penalties on those found guilty of assaulting police officers. A second order directs law enforcement agencies to increase intelligence sharing while going after drug cartels. A third order directs Attorney General Sessions to prioritize fighting “illegal immigration” alongside drug trafficking and violent crime. This is “the beginnings of what we are calling a blue lives matter regime,” explains our guest, Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Democracy Now
4: How and When You Should Leak Government Secrets
A guide for federal employees who need to get something off their chests.
So you’re a government employee, and you’re thinking about leaking government secrets to the press. Congratulations! As you’re no doubt aware, your boss, President Donald Trump, has a “war on the media” going on. He’s said that people in the media are “among the most dishonest human beings on Earth” and once claimed that journalists are actually “the lowest form of humanity.” His advisor Steve Bannon said he views the media as “the opposition party.”
Except your colleagues don’t seem to view journalists the same way. Though the Trump administration tried early on to clamp down on federal workers communicating with the press (or even Congress), leaks from inside government have been coming fast and furious about details big and small.
“Leaking is ubiquitous in Washington,” according to Esha Bhandari, staff attorney at the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “Officials from the highest levels on down leak for a variety of reasons, whether it’s self-interest, whether it’s public interest motivation, whether it’s to advance their political goals.”
Vice News
3: UN: Refugees from South Sudan cross 1.5m mark
The number of refugees who have fled South Sudan has crossed the 1.5 million mark, putting the country third after Syria and Afghanistan in terms of producing refugees, according to the UNHCR.
The UN refugee agency said on Friday that unless rival government and rebel forces agreed to talk, the ongoing flow of refugees within the country and abroad will continue this year.
More than 2.1 million people are internally displaced, the UNHCR said.
Aljazeera
2: Trump Intends to Follow Up Botched Yemen Military Raid By Helping Saudis Target Civilians
DONALD TRUMP’S FIRST concrete decision as commander in chief was a major fiasco that killed nine children, eight women, and a U.S. soldier in a botched raid on al Qaeda in Yemen.
The operation — which Trump reportedly approved over dinner — also failed to catch its reported target and severely damaged a local clinic, mosque, and school.
It’s hard to imagine Donald Trump making the situation worse in Yemen, but he did.
Impoverished to begin with, Yemen is two years into a civil war that has killed 10,000 people and displaced millions. A U.S.-supplied bombing campaign has turned schools, hospitals, essential infrastructure, and ancient heritage sites into rubble. And a U.S.-backed blockade is preventing the trade of food and basic goods, starving a country that previously relied on imports for 90 percent of its food.
The Intercept
1: Ireland to legalise cannabis for specific medical conditions
Ireland is set to legalise the use of cannabis for treating specific medical conditions, after a report commissioned by the government said the drug could be given to some patients with certain illnesses.
The Irish health minister, Simon Harris, said he would support the use of medical cannabis “where patients have not responded to other treatments and there is some evidence that cannabis may be effective”.
The report said cannabis could be given to patients with a range of illnesses including multiple sclerosis and severe epilepsy, and to offset the effects of chemotherapy.
The Guardian
