5: MEET THE MASKED VIGILANTES FILLING POTHOLES IN OAKLAND
OAKLAND, Calif. — For a state where the car is king, California’s roads are in pretty terrible shape. This is particularly true in Oakland where tens of thousands of unfilled potholes wreak havoc on Bay Area drivers every day.
“You can’t can’t go one block without hitting a massive pothole and having your coffee jump out of the coffee holder,” Brian, who asked that his last name be withheld, told VICE News. “After so many years, we just decided to do something about it.”
Vice News
4: PA condemns US envoys’ presence at Israeli settler-linked event
Palestinians have condemned the attendance of two United States officials at the inauguration of a tunnel at a contested archaeological site in occupied East Jerusalem that was organised by an Israeli settler-linked group.
White House adviser Jason Greenblatt and Ambassador to Israel David Friedman took part in Sunday’s event, which marked the completion of the project next to the Old City in the neighbourhood of Silwan, according to the group, the City of David Foundation.
In a statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it viewed “the American attendance and celebration of the Judaisation activities in occupied East Jerusalem as hostile acts against the Palestinians”.
Aljazeera
3: HOW LOBBYISTS AND INSIDERS COULD OVERRIDE VOTERS TO CHOOSE THE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE
THE ERA OF smoky backroom deals and political power brokers in charge of the Democratic Party could come roaring back in Milwaukee next year, when thousands of party faithful convene to formally select the party’s presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention.
The party’s delegate allocation rules, combined with the large number of candidates and an early election calendar for key states, have laid the groundwork for a small group of lobbyists and party officials to potentially play a deciding role in choosing the nominee.
If no single candidate receives a majority of pledged delegates in the initial vote of the convention, called the first ballot, the nomination goes to what is known as a brokered convention, in which so-called superdelegates participate in subsequent rounds of nomination votes.
Given that there are more than 25 candidates, including four to five with significant support in the polls, it’s possible that there will be no clear frontrunner by the convention in July next year. In that scenario, around 764 superdelegates — a group comprised of elected officials, party elders, and prominent consultants unbound by the will of voters — could dramatically remake the path to the nomination.
The Intercept
Immigration was among the top issues in the second night of the first Democratic presidential debates, with California Senator Kamala Harris saying she would reinstate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that provides a temporary work permit and deportation relief for undocumented youth, on her first day in office. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg spoke of the criminalization of immigration as the basis for family separation, referring to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance “policy as “dead wrong.” While most candidates are running on different platforms to address the criminalization of immigration and the separation of refugee families at the border, they all agreed on one thing: providing healthcare to undocumented people living in the U.S. When asked if they agreed, all candidates raised their hand. Prior to the debate night, many of the candidates, including Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, visited the Homestead detention facility, where hundreds of migrant children are currently incarcerated, located just a few minutes from Miami. We speak with Andrea Mercado, executive director of New Florida Majority.
Democracy Now
1: Trump in North Korea: history as farce first time round
