TDB Top 5 International Stories: Sunday 6th November 2016

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5: Republican Kelly Ayotte Lost Millions of Dollars by Defying Koch Brothers on Climate Change

CLIMATE CHANGE IS urgent, human-caused, and real, yet all but one of the Republican Senate candidates in competitive races this year say they have doubts. If enough of them win to retain a GOP majority in the Senate, ambitious climate-change legislation is presumably doomed.

So why are Republicans so wed to a conclusion that defies science? New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s experience offers a clue. Ayotte is the only Republican senator in a competitive race who acknowledges humans are behind climate change and who backs President Obama’s plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Her stance came at a cost: millions of dollars in lost funding from the climate-denial-funding oil billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch.

In January 2015, senators voted yes or no on whether “human activity significantly contributes to climate change,” and only five Republican senators voted “yes,” including Ayotte.

The Intercept

 

4: Michael Moore: How I Moved from Supporting Bernie Sanders to Hillary Clinton for President

With the U.S. election only days away, Michael Moore has released a surprise new film about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton titled “Michael Moore in TrumpLand.” Democracy Now! sat down with the Academy Award-winning filmmaker and talked about how he moved from supporting Bernie Sanders during the primary to now supporting Hillary Clinton. “My hope was that on Tuesday we would have the great decision … between the socialist and the billionaire,” Moore says. On Clinton, he notes: “She is a hawk. She is to the right of Obama. That’s the truth. … We’re going to have to be active.”

Democracy Now

 

3: ISIL counter-attacks in Mosul as fierce fighting rages

ISIL fighters launched ferocious counter-attacks on Saturday in territory Iraqi special forces captured in Mosul’s eastern edges, highlighting the tough battle ahead as troops push into densely populated neighbourhoods.

Fighters from the armed group emerged from deeper in the city to target Iraqi soldiers with mortars and suicide car bombs. They also attacked the southern edge of the Gogjali district, which Iraqi forces declared “liberated” earlier this week, pushing back some gains.

Aljazeera

2: Dakota Access: company under scrutiny over sacred artifacts in oil pipeline’s path

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

North Dakota regulators are filing a complaint against the oil company building the Dakota Access pipeline for failing to disclose the discovery of Native American artifacts in the path of construction.

The allegations mark the state’s first formal action against the corporation and add fuel to the claims of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which has long argued that the $3.7bn pipeline threatens sacred lands and indigenous cultural heritage.

The Guardian

 

1: What’s Happened to the Refugees Who Were in the Calais Jungle? 

Last Monday, French authorities began to dismantle the Calais “jungle”. Bulldozers and armed officers moved in, clearing the settlement, while buses drew up to take refugees to temporary shelters in Normandy, Brittany and elsewhere in France.

The tents, makeshift restaurants, temporary libraries and places of worship that made up the camp have all been dismantled, leaving only a secure section of steel containers, which currently house the remaining unaccompanied children. Demolition is almost complete, with the final children expected to be off the site by the end of this week.

Most of the refugees in Calais were seeking a way into the UK. In September of 2015, David Cameron announced that Britain would aim to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020. So far, only 2,800 have been taken in, and MPs are concerned the UK will never meet this target.

Vice News