5: THE CLIMATE ACTIVISTS WHO GOT ARRESTED AT NANCY PELOSI’S OFFICE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED
The Sunrise Movement, a group of young environmental activists that organize throughout the United States, caused a stir last week when more than 150 of its members staged a sit-in at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office in Washington, D.C., to demand aggressive action against climate change. Ultimately, 51 young people were arrested.
The movement’s main goals are to convince legislators to stop taking money from the fossil-fuel industry and to pledge their support for a Green New Deal, a plan which charts a path to a 100 percent renewable energy economy in the 12 years before the effects of climate change become irreversible. Right now, the young activists — who range in age from 12 to 25 — are targeting Democratic representatives and representatives-elect in preparation for their retaking of the House.
Vice News
4: Jamal Khashoggi case: All the latest updates
Top Democrat on House intelligence committee says US president not telling truth in his response to journalist’s murder.
Aljazeera
3: THE COUNTERINSURGENCY PARADIGM: HOW U.S. POLITICS HAVE BECOME PARAMILITARIZED
DONALD TRUMP RAN a campaign promising to refill the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison, to “bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding,” to “take out” the families of suspected terrorists, to ban Muslims from entering this country, and to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Yet these policies didn’t start with Trump: Torture, indefinite detention, extraordinary renditions, record numbers of deportations, anti-Muslim sentiment, mass foreign and domestic surveillance, and even the killing of innocent family members of suspected terrorists all have a recent historical precedent.
Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, continued some of the worst policies of the George W. Bush administration. He expanded the global battlefield post-9/11 into at least seven countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen, and Syria. At the end of Obama’s second term, a reportby Council of Foreign Relations found that in 2016, Obama dropped an average of 72 bombs a day. He used drone strikes as a liberal panacea for fighting those “terrorists” while keeping boots off the ground. But he also expanded the number of troops deployed in Afghanistan. Immigrants were deported in such record numbers under Obama that immigration activists called him the “deporter-in-chief.” And then there were the “Terror Tuesday” meetings, where Obama national security officials would order pizza and drink Coke and review the list of potential targets on their secret assassination list.
For his liberal base, Obama sanitized a morally bankrupt expansion of war, and used Predator and Reaper drones strapped with Hellfire missiles to kill suspected terrorists, including U.S. citizens stripped of their due process. The Obama administration harshly prosecuted whistleblowers in a shocking attack on press freedoms. By the end of his presidency, official numbers on civilian deaths by drone were underreported; we may never know the true cost of these wars, which continue today.
The Intercept
As Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro prepares to take office in January, we return to our conversation with world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky shortly after the election. Bolsonaro’s impending presidency marks the most radical political shift Brazil since military rule ended more than 30 years ago. Bolsonaro is a former Army officer who has praised Brazil’s former military dictatorship, spoken in favor of torture and threatened to destroy, imprison or banish his political opponents. Bolsonaro has also encouraged the police to kill suspected drug dealers, and once told a female lawmaker she was too ugly to rape. Noam Chomsky calls Bolsonaro a “disaster for Brazil.”
Democracy Now
1: Russian special forces ‘seize Ukrainian vessels’ in Black Sea clash
The Ukrainian navy has accused Russia of opening fire on its ships in the Black Sea, injuring six crew members, and said Russian special forces have seized three of its vessels.
The Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, has called an emergency meeting of his war cabinet in response to the incident.
The FSB, Russia’s principal security agency, said there was “irrefutable evidence that Kiev prepared and orchestrated provocations” – adding that more information about the incident would be made public.
Sunday was a day of rising tensions between the two countries, with hostilities centering on the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea.
Earlier, Russia prevented three Ukrainian navy vessels from passing beneath a Russian-controlled bridge in the Kerch Strait by blocking their way with a cargo ship. Two artillery ships and a tug boat were subsequently fired on and seized, injuring six sailors, according to the Ukrainian navy.
I claim this World for Azathoth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL3osHj-Myc
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