TDB Top 5 International Stories: Monday 26th December 2016

0
0

Screen-Shot-2016-09-09-at-9.47.34-am

5: If This Was the Year of ‘Realising Stuff’, What Did We Realise?

We all took the piss out of Kylie Jenner when she said 2016 would be the year of “just realising stuff”.

How foolish we were.

Yeah we all took the piss, didn’t we, out of Kylie Jenner, that Lola-from-Shark’s-Tale looking motherfucker, the teen make-up monolith, the future of the Kardashian clan, the one who will outlast them all, surely, the one most likely to ascend to presidency long after the plastic remains of Kris Jenner have been incinerated to death: we all took the piss when, at the turn of the year, she said 2016 was, quote, “about like the year of just realising stuff”.

Vice News

 

4: Revealed: British councils used Ripa to secretly spy on public

Councils were given permission to carry out more than 55,000 days of covert surveillance over five years, including spying on people walking dogs, feeding pigeons and fly-tipping, the Guardian can reveal.

A mass freedom of information request has found 186 local authorities – two-thirds of the 283 that responded – used the government’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to gather evidence via secret listening devices, cameras and private detectives.

Among the detailed examples provided were Midlothian council using the powers to monitor dog barking and Allerdale borough council gathering evidence about who was guilty of feeding pigeons.

The Guardian

 

3: US envoy to Israel summoned over UN settlement vote

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has summoned the US ambassador to Israel hours after envoys of all other UN Security Council members were asked to appear before the foreign ministry for voting for a resolution condemning settlement activity on occupied Palestinian territories.

Dan Shapiro, who was excluded from earlier summons targeting 14 UNSC member states, was on Sunday called to discuss the US decision to abstain. Ahead of the vote, Netanyahu had called on the US to veto the resolution.

The Israeli leader said that he has asked the foreign ministry to prepare an “action plan” to present to the security cabinet within a month over how to handle Israel’s relations with UN institutions.

“We will do all it takes so Israel emerges unscathed from this shameful decision,” Netanyahu said.

Aljazeera

 

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

2: OBAMA’S CLEMENCY PROBLEM – AND OURS

EARLIER THIS WEEK, President Obama broke his own remarkable clemency record, granting an unprecedented 231 commutations and pardons in a single day. Headlines and tweets broadcast the historic tally; on the White House website, a bar graph tracks Obama’s record to date, which has dramatically outpaced that of his predecessors. With a total of 1,176 recipients, the White House boasted, Obama has granted clemency “more than the last 11 presidents combined.”

The president certainly deserves credit for making clemency a priority before leaving office. His efforts are especially laudable in contrast to the lazy rhetoric of President-elect Donald Trump, who has cluelessly condemned clemency recipients as “bad dudes.” In reality, to use language Trump might understand, all successful applicants go through a process of extreme vetting: only a fraction of people in federal prison are eligible in the first place, and selections rely on a careful review of each candidate’s history and behavior behind bars. A record of violence, including as a juvenile, is disqualifying.

Those who make the cut are, as the White House put it this week, “individuals deserving of a second chance.” Many have been serving long mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, crimes for which they have shown remorse. Applications list courses completed, prison jobs maintained, records untarnished by disciplinary write-ups. Last spring, Obama highlighted a handful of men and women who “have made the most of their second chances,” describing their ability to leave prison, get a job, and piece their lives back together as “extraordinary.”

The Intercept

 

1: Far-right protests draining police resources, figures reveal

South Yorkshire police have spent nearly £5m on policing far-right protests since the beginning of 2012, figures have shown.

Freedom of information requests by the Guardian have revealed that 99.5% of the force’s overall expenditure on protests from the beginning of 2012 to October this year went on policing demonstrations by far-right groups.

Between the start of 2012 and October 2016, the force spent £4,672,083 on policing demonstrations by the far right, with a single demonstration in Rotherham in September 2014 costing just over £1m. The figures provided by the force do not include salaries and planning costs, so the total figure is likely to be higher.

Of the police forces that responded to the Guardian’s request for information, South Yorkshire’s overall costs were by far the highest.

The Guardian