TDB Top 5 International Stories: Tuesday 18th July 2017

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5:  Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Visitor Logs Will Soon Be Public

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington group plans to release to the logs in September after the Department of Homeland Security turns them over.

The Department of Homeland Security will finally release Mar-a-Lago’s visitor logs, thanks to a recent lawsuit from government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the Hill reports.

The lawsuit is one of three that CREW, the National Security Archive, and the Knight First Amendment Institute filed against DHS for visitor logs to the White House, Trump Tower, and Trump’s “Winter White House.” In response to that ongoing suit, a federal judge ruled on Friday that the Secret Service would have to release all “responsive records of presidential visitors at Mar-a-Lago,” according to NBC News.

Vice News

4:  Outrage Mounts as Saudi Arabia Plans Imminent Executions for 14 Accused Pro-Democracy Protesters

As President Trump vows not to let human rights concerns interfere with U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, the country is set to execute 14 men, including Mujtaba’a al-Sweikat, who was only 17 when he was sentenced to death five years ago. He had planned to visit and attend Western Michigan University but was detained by airport authorities in Saudi Arabia for allegedly attending a pro-democracy rally earlier the same year. We speak with Maya Foa, director of the legal charity Reprieve. We also speak with Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which is speaking out against the planned execution.
Democracy Now

3:  THE INCREDIBLE LOST HISTORY OF HOW “CIVIL RIGHTS PLUS FULL EMPLOYMENT EQUALS FREEDOM”

WASHINGTON, D.C.’S THINK TANKS produce a tsunami of studies, reports and manifestos. Most of it has a readership that, outside of wonks and reporters, could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

It truly matters that this not be the fate of a new paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Fed Up, and the Center for Popular Democracy.

Titled “The Full Employment Mandate of the Federal Reserve: Its Origins and Importance” – WAIT, don’t switch tabs and check Facebook! – it’s a history of the economic policies of the civil rights movement, the movement’s focus on capturing the Fed’s power to generate full employment, how they partially succeeded, and why we have to fight right now to preserve their accomplishments. It deserves to be discussed and carefully studied by absolutely everyone on the left side of the political spectrum — Democrats, Greens, Hillaryites, Berners, Autonomous Collectives, and miscellaneous.

The Intercept

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

2:  Qatar lashes out at UAE over QNA hacking

Qatar accused the United Arab Emirates on Monday of violating international law after reports suggested Abu Dhabi orchestrated the hacking of the Qatari official news agency and social media sites.

“The information published in the Washington Post … revealed the involvement of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and senior Emirati officials in the hacking of Qatar News Agency,” Qatar’s government communication office said in a statement on Monday.

The report “unequivocally proves that this hacking crime took place”, the statement quoted Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al Thani, director of the government communication office, as saying.

Aljazeera

1:  Afghanistan: civilian deaths at record high in 16-year war, says UN

The number of civilian deaths in the Afghan war has reached a record high, continuing an almost unbroken trend of nearly a decade of rising casualties.

The number of deaths of women and children grew especially fast, primarily due to the Taliban’s use of homemade bombs, which caused 40% of civilian casualties in the first six months of 2017, according to UN figures released on Monday.

Child casualties increased by 9% to 436, compared with the same period last year, and 1,141 children were wounded. Female deaths rose by 23%, with 174 women killed and 462 injured.

US and Afghan airstrikes also contributed to the surge in civilian victims, with a 43% increase in casualties from the air, the figures showed.

The Guardian