5: 

Allies back Saudi Arabia in showdown with Iran

Saudi Arabia’s regional allies have stepped up diplomatic pressure on Iran, breaking or downgrading relations with the country following an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, which followed executions in the kingdom.

Bahrain announced on Monday that it was closing its embassy in Iran, and called upon Iranian diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours.

Bahrain frequently accuses Iran of being behind protests among its majority Shia population.

Within hours of the announcement, Sudan also said it was cutting off diplomatic relations with Iran “in solidarity with Saudi Arabia.”

Aljazeera

4: 

Women’s Refuge houses struggle with demand

Women’s Refuge chief executive Ang Jury said refuges across the country were struggling, and it was worse in metropolitan areas.

She said the housing crisis, difficulty accessing state houses, and the cost of private rentals contributed to the problem.

Dr Jury said most of the women who left a safehouse were dependent on welfare, and had chequered rental histories and poor credit ratings – often through no fault of their own.

She said safehouses were not suitable once an immediate crisis had passed.

“They need some stability and privacy and peace. I don’t think it is an ideal situation for them to be staying more than three or four weeks, and we’re closing on six weeks and sometimes a lot longer than that, depending on where in the country.”

RNZ

3: 

Spying on Congress and Israel: NSA Cheerleaders Discover Value of Privacy Only When Their Own Is Violated

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the NSA under President Obama targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top aides for surveillance. In the process, the agency ended up eavesdropping on “the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups” about how to sabotage the Iran Deal. All sorts of people who spent many years cheering for and defending the NSA and its programs of mass surveillance are suddenly indignant now that they know the eavesdropping included them and their American and Israeli friends rather than just ordinary people.

The Intercept

2: 

Trade in Services Agreement

Today, Thursday, December 3, 10am EST, WikiLeaks releases new secret documents from the huge Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) which is being negotiated by the US, EU and 22 other countries that account for 2/3rds of global GDP.   Coinciding with the ongoing climate talks in Paris, today’s publication touches on issues of crucial relevance including the regulation of energy, industrial development, workers’ rights and the natural environment. WikiLeaks is also publishing expert analyses of the documents.

Wikileaks

1: 

If the Oregon militiamen were Muslim or black, they’d probably be dead by now

If, in a vacuum, I told you that a bearded man with his head covered had posted a video on social media calling on his followers to leave their homes with weapons, migrate to a new area, take over government property “as long as necessary” and use violence if confronted by law enforcement, you’d probably assume that I was talking about the latest propaganda video released by Isis, filmed in Iraq or Syria and intended to recruit violent Muslim extremists.

But that exact call was recently issued on Facebook by white rancher Ammon Bundy, the son of Cliven Bundy who also engaged in an armed standoff with law enforcement in 2014 and who currently owes the government more than $1m in fees. The younger Bundy’s goal this time was to encourage his fellow American “patriots” to take up arms against the US government in protest of the arson convictions of ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr and his son, Steven.

Militia leaders claim approximately 150 followers accepted Ammon Bundy’s call, although reporters on the ground are saying it’s far fewer. The armed men are currently occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon to, in their words, “assist in helping the people of Harney County claim back their lands and resources”. Ammon Bundy has said that his people won’t “rule out violence” if law enforcement “tries to remove them”.

But, don’t worry America: he promised everyone that “we are not terrorists”. What a relief.

Of course they’re not “terrorists”: Bundy and his followers are just your average angry white “freedom fighters”, who use weapons and ammunition to protect the US constitution and American values from the government and other Americans who want them to abide by federal laws like everyone else.

But if Bundy and his followers were like the 38% of Americans who aren’t white, people across America wouldn’t be watching this surreal, dangerous episode unfold and wondering what they could do to be labeled a “militia” when occupying a federal area with guns instead of “terrorists”, “thugs”, “extremists” or “gangs”.

The Guardian