5: 

Extreme Weather Continues to Ravage Parts of U.S.

Extreme weather fueled by climate change continues to ravage parts of the United States. Severe flooding across the South caused two barges to sink in Mississippi while a road collapsed in South Carolina. In Wichita, Kansas, powerful winds forced a passenger jet carrying 160 people off the runway. Meanwhile, officials in Missouri say four international soldiers who were in the state for training are among the flooding victims. Their car was swept away as they drove.

Democracy Now!

4: 

Barack Obama will defend the Paris climate change agreement and forge ahead on his environmental agenda until his final days in the White House, according to analysts. And there is very little Obama’s opponents in Congress can do to stop him – unless they win the elections and install a Republican in the White House in 2017.

Republicans’ initial attempts to derail the Paris agreement fell flat, with Congress failing to deliver on threats to cut off climate aid to developing countries or block the deal.

But Obama still has a fight on his hands – from lawsuits and new resolutions intended to undermine the Paris agreement – during an election year which could give an unusual degree of attention to climate change.

The Guardian 

3: 

Why Isis fights

Jihadi fighters in Iraq and Syria reveal the apocalyptic motivations of the militant movement that has hijacked the Syrian uprising – and transformed the Middle East

The Guardian 

2: 

2015 Was a Huge Year for Weed — and 2016 Will Be Even Bigger

There’s an old adage in American politics: “As Ohio goes, so goes the nation.” While it might hold true for presidential campaigns — the last candidate to reach the White House without winning the state was John F. Kennedy in 1960 — stoners in the US can only hope that the saying doesn’t apply to marijuana legalization.

In November, a whopping 64 percent of Ohio voters rejected Issue 3, a ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational cannabis for adults 21 and over. The result was the opposite the national trend: 58 percent of Americans now say weed should be legal, an all-time peak in public support for the right to get high.

The fatal flaw in Ohio’s proposal was that it would have created the world’s first marijuana oligopoly by granting exclusive rights to grow the state’s legal weed to a handful of wealthy backers, including NBA legend Oscar Robertson, former boy-band member Nick Lachey, and a descendent of President William Howard Taft. Much like an overly potent pot brownie, the prospect of a select few reaping all of the profits from legalization was simply too much for the state’s voters to stomach.

Vice News

1: 

Iraq PM’s helicopter takes ISIL ground fire in Ramadi

Iraq’s prime minister visited the city of Ramadi on Tuesday, a day after claiming its capture from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) after a months-long siege by the armed group.

A source told Al Jazeera that ISIL fighters on the ground opened fire with small-arms on Haider al-Abadi’s helicopter, but were too far out of range to do any damage. Abadi arrived safe and sound with the province’s top military commander at the Anbar University complex in the city’s southern outskirts.

Iraqi forces on Monday raised the national flag above the main government complex in Ramadi after days of deadly fighting against ISIL. But there were still pockets of resistance in and around the city, the army said.

“The prime minister and the head of the armed forces Dr Haider al-Abadi visits the liberated city of Ramadi,” Abadi posted on his Twitter account.

Aljazeera