The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday it will greenlight the final phase of construction for the Dakota Access pipeline, prompting indigenous-led water protectors to call for a “last stand” against the $3.8 billion project. In a letter to Congress, acting Army Secretary Robert Speer said the Army Corps will cancel an environmental impact study of the Dakota Access pipeline and will grant an easement today allowing Energy Transfer Partners to drill under Lake Oahe on the Missouri River. The Army Corps also said it would suspend a customary 14-day waiting period following its order, meaning the company could immediately begin boring a tunnel for the final one-and-a-half miles of pipe. We speak to Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council Chair Dave Archambault II.
Democracy Now
4: The US Military Might Be Moving into Trump Tower
The Department of Defense said it’s looking to lease space in the president’s pricey Manhattan residence.
The Pentagon is reportedly looking into renting some space at Trump Tower, our president’s pricey Manhattan residence, in an effort to protect and assist him when he’s away from his new digs at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in DC.
“In order to meet official mission requirements, the Department of Defense is working through appropriate channels and in accordance with all applicable legal requirements in order to acquire a limited amount of leased space in Trump Tower,” a Defense Department spokesman told CNN Tuesday. “The space is necessary for the personnel and equipment who will support the POTUS at his residence in the building.”
The “mission” in this case would not only be to protect Trump and his family while they’re at the Tower, but also keep the so-called nuclear football close to the president. The “football” is just what the government calls the emergency suitcase filled with the materials the president would need should he have to authorize a nuclear attack while he’s away from the White House.
Vice News
THE LEAKED DRAFT of a presidential memorandum Donald Trump is expected to sign within days suspends a 2010 rule that discouraged American companies from funding conflict and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo through their purchase of “conflict minerals.”
The memo, distributed inside the administration on Friday afternoon and obtained by The Intercept, directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to temporarily waive the requirements of the Conflict Mineral Rule, a provision of the Dodd Frank Act, for two years — which the rule explicitly allows the president to do for national security purposes. The memorandum also directs the State Department and Treasury Department to find an alternative plan to “address such problems in the DRC and adjoining countries.”
The idea behind the rule, sponsored by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and former Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., was to drain militias of revenue by forcing firms to conduct reviews of their supply chain to determine if contractors used minerals sourced from the militias.
The Intercept
2: Trump lashes out again at judges over travel ban and calls hearing ‘disgraceful’
Donald Trump has lashed out at the appeals court weighing his travel ban, telling an audience of police chiefs and sheriffs that some of the deliberations he had heard were “disgraceful”.
The president insisted that his order banning travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations, which is currently blocked, was “done for the security of our nation” and should be respected.
The ninth US circuit court of appeals is examining the Department of Justice’s appeal for a stay on the temporary restraining order placed on the travel ban by a district court judge last week. In a hearing on Tuesday, a government lawyer faced tough questions over Trump’s campaign promise to close US borders to Muslims.
The Guardian
1: Israeli settlement law ‘violates rights and dignity’
Ramallah – Palestinian politicians and human rights groups are warning that a new law passed by the Israeli parliament violates international laws and is a step towards Israel annexing the occupied West Bank.
“The law sets a new legal framework that implements the Israeli political interest and puts it above international humanitarian law,” Suhad Bishara, a lawyer at the Adalah legal centre for Arab minority rights in Israel, told Al Jazeera.
Aljazeera
