TDB Top 5 International Stories: Saturday 1st December 2018

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5: China built a $50 billion space base in Argentina to reach the dark side of the moon, but it’s casting a shadow on its neighbors

LAS LAJAS, Neuquen Province, Argentina — In the middle of the Patagonian desert, more than 40 miles from the nearest town, sits a $50 billion space base the Chinese say will be used to send a rocket to the dark side of the moon.

On the base, an enormous white satellite slowly rotates next to the Chinese scientists’ living quarters, all surrounded by fencing topped with barbed wire. The casual observer can’t get closer than the gates, about a hundred yards away from the structure, without an invitation.

Vice News

4: CNN fires contributor Marc Lamont Hill for criticising Israel

American Cable News Network (CNN) has severed ties with Marc Lamont Hill, a recurring political contributor, after he delivered a speech at the United Nations accusing Israel of “state violence and ethnic cleansing” and championed a one-state solution.

A CNN spokesperson said in a brief statement on Thursday that Hill, a professor of media studies at Temple University, was “no longer under contract”.

The network did not give a reason, but the move came amid objections to Hill’s speech by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other groups.

Aljazeera

3: As the Mueller Probe Heats Up, Donald Trump’s Lies Are Giving Way to the Truth

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

SPECIAL COUNSEL Robert Mueller is closing in on Donald Trump, and as one shoe after another drops in the Trump-Russia investigation, the pressure sometimes prompts the president to inadvertently blurt out the truth. Or at least as close to the truth as a serial liar like Trump can get.

On Thursday, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty in federal court to lying to Congress about a deal to build a Trump-branded skyscraper in Moscow. Most notably, he admitted that he had misled lawmakers when he told them that discussions about the project had ended by January 2016 when, in fact, the project was still under active consideration by Trump and his business organization just as the Republican Party was about to nominate Trump as its presidential candidate in the summer of 2016.

Cohen said that he lied in order to help Trump avoid the likely political fallout from the disclosure that the candidate was still trying to cut a business deal with people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin just as he clinched the Republican nomination.

Cohen’s latest admissions, including that he talked to Trump about the proposed deal more frequently than he had previously acknowledged and discussed it with others in Trump’s family, are very significant because they shed new light on the relationship between Trump and Russia during the height of the presidential campaign.

The Intercept

2: Full Bernie Sanders Speech on Economic Justice, Healthcare, Opposing Trump & Ending the War in Yemen

Hundreds of international progressive leaders have traveled to Burlington, Vermont for a gathering hosted by the Sanders Institute. Last night, former presidential candidate and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders kicked the event off with a keynote speech on healthcare, raising the minimum wage and his bipartisan resolution to end military support for the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led bombing of Yemen. He was introduced by Harvard professor Cornel West.

Democracy Now

1: No deal or no Brexit if MPs vote down May plan, says Tusk