5: What Nonsense Universe Is Donald Trump Living in?
One where people get conked on the noggin with bags of drugs, apparently.
Donald Trump has said a lot of stupid things, both as a private citizen and as a presidential candidate. But now that he’s president, he’s been given a bigger platform for his freeform bullshit, and we all have to pay attention, because you never know which of these ideas will suddenly become true. Out of all the stupid ideas Trump has put forth, though, the wall he wants to build along the Mexican-US border might be the most childish—an infantile solution to the immensely complex issue of illegal immigration that he’s maintained a stubborn allegiance to.
The details of the wall, however, keep shifting. (Remember when Mexico was going to pay for it?) He intends to make the wall solar-powered, he recently announced, and that’s not all. “One of the things with the wall is you need transparency,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday. Transparency in government is good, you might naïvely think. But hold your horses.
Vice News
Amnesty International’s new report entitled “At Any Cost: The Civilian Catastrophe in West Mosul, Iraq” states the U.S. coalition may have committed war crimes in Mosul. We speak with Nicolette Waldman, co-author of the report and the Iraq researcher at Amnesty International.Democracy Now
3: MEXICAN JOURNALIST CARMEN ARISTEGUI SLAMS GOVERNMENT SPYWARE TARGETING HER TEENAGE SON
AS THE SON of Mexico’s most famous journalist, Emilio Aristegui Flores is used to people clamoring for a moment of his mother’s time. Carmen Aristegui, the dogged investigator and press freedom advocate, draws near-constant attention from her fellow reporters and citizens in the street alike. In a country long ruled by corrupt and powerful strongmen, Aristegui, a relentless woman with a microphone, has been an inspiration — and irritant — to many. For 18-year-old Emilio, it’s a dynamic he’s grown up with, and one that makes sense. What’s harder for him to wrap his head around is that his own government would go so far as to deploy multimillion-dollar spying tools designed to take down terrorists and other national security threats against him, a teenage kid, in order to get at his mother.
The Intercept
2: Qatar considers seeking damages over Gulf blockade
Qatar has announced that it is considering legal action against four Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, demanding compensation for losses incurred owing to the ongoing blockade.
Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar’s economy minister, met on Tuesday the heads of international trade organisations in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the case for compensation.
Qatar has contracted a specialised legal team to study the actions taken by the blockading countries against it, according to a statement from the economy ministry in Doha.
Aljazeera
1: Trump pivots from Obamacare repeal to ordering Republicans to ‘let it fail’
Donald Trump said Republicans should “let Obamacare fail”, after the dramatic collapse of efforts to repeal and replace Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA).
