5: 

Proposed Canada pipeline project would threaten US tribal rights, lawyer says

A proposed pipeline-expansion project in Canada will put the fishing rights and cultural heritage of US tribes at risk, a lawyer representing several Washington state tribes told Canadian energy regulators.

Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain project would nearly triple pipeline capacity from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels of crude oil a day. It would carry oil from Alberta’s oil sands to the Vancouver area to be loaded on to barges and tankers for Asian and US markets. The project would dramatically increase the number of oil tankers that ply Washington state waters.

“This project will harm the cultures of the US tribes,” said Kristen Boyles, an Earthjustice attorney who spoke against the project Friday on behalf of the Swinomish, Tulalip, Suquamish and Lummi tribes. She made final arguments to Canada’s National Energy Board at a hearing in Burnaby, British Columbia, which was broadcast online.

The Guardian

4: 

Michigan Governor Releases Emails About Flint’s Water — But There’s a 7-Month Gap

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, whose administration has been embroiled in controversy over its response to the city of Flint’s contaminated water, released 274 pages of relevant emails on Wednesday in an attempt at transparency. But there’s a seven-month gap in the disclosed correspondence between February and September 2015 — a critical period during which many developments occurred and concerns over the public water supply reached a fever pitch.

The emails (see below for PDF) show that months before reports of lead poisoning hit the news, Snyder received a briefing from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality on February 1 that included an almost dismissive warning regarding the quality of Flint’s drinking water. The brief appeared to reject much of the public’s concern, noting that “the aesthetic values of water” are not subject to regulation. It also seemed to downplay the presence of total trihalomethanes, chemical compounds that can cause kidney and liver disease when consumed.

“It’s not ‘nothing,'” the brief says. “Flint’s results managed to exceed the annual average in three quarters, and they must develop a plan to address it. But it’s not like an eminent [sic] threat to public health.”

Vice News

3: 

Israeli guard shoots dead 13-year-old Palestinian girl

An Israeli security guard has shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian girl during an alleged stabbing attempt outside the Almon settlement in the occupied West Bank, situated near Jerusalem.

Ruqqayah Eid Abu Eid died on the scene, becoming one of at least 29 Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the last four months, according to Defence for Children International (DCI) – Palestine.

Luba al-Samri, spokeswoman for the Israeli police, told local media that Abu Eid had been in an argument with her parents before leaving home with the intention of carrying out a stabbing attack.

Abu Eid’s father arrived on the scene later and was arrested and taken in for questioning at a nearby Israeli settlement, Samri added.

Speaking to Arabic-language media, the child’s mother cast doubt on the claim that she tried to stab the security guard.

There have been conflicting reports over whether Ruqayyah in fact argued with her parents before leaving home, as the Israeli spokeswoman claimed.

Aljazeera

2: 

Wilders: Migrant men are Islamic testosterone bombs

Dutch anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders has handed out self-defence sprays to women fearful of what he described as “Islamic testosterone bombs”.

The publicity stunt, which occurred in the town of Spijkenisse near Rotterdam on Saturday, came in the wake of the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in Cologne.

Wilders, surrounded by bodyguards and police, visited a market to hand out the sprays, which contained red paint.

Aljazeera

1: 

Half the Foreign Policy Experts Signing Clinton’s Anti-Sanders Letter Have Ties to Military Contractors

Hillary Clinton’s campaign released a letter this week in which 10 foreign policy experts criticized her opponent Bernie Sanders’ call for closer engagement with Iran and said Sanders had “not thought through these crucial national security issues that can have profound consequences for our security.”

The missive from the Clinton campaign was covered widely in the press, but what wasn’t disclosed in the coverage is that fully half of the former State Department officials and ambassadors who signed the letter, and who are now backing Clinton, are now enmeshed in the military contracting establishment, which has benefited tremendously from escalating violence around the world, particularly in the Middle East.

Here are some of the letter signatories’ current employment positions that were not disclosed in the reporting of the letter:

• Former Assistant Defense Secretary Derek Chollet, former Pentagon and CIA Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash, and former Deputy National Security Adviser Julianne Smith are now employed by the consulting firm Beacon Global Strategies, a firm we profiled last year. Beacon Global Strategies’ staff advises both Clinton and Republican candidates for president, including Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. The firm makes money by providing advice to a clientele that is primarily military contractors. Beacon Global Strategies, however, has refused to disclose the identity of its clients.
• Former Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns is a senior counselor at the Cohen Group, a consulting firm founded by former Defense Secretary William Cohen. The firm “assists aerospace and defense firms on policy, business development, and transactions,” including deals in the U.S., Turkey, Israel, and the Middle East.
• Former Undersecretary of Defense Jim Miller is an advisory board member to Endgame Systems, a start-up that has been called the “Blackwater of Hacking.” Miller is also on the board of BEI Precision Systems & Space, a military contractor.

The Intercept