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15 November 19
Garrison Keillor | What I'm Planning to Do This Winter Maybe
Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Website
Keillor writes: "It turned cold and gray in Minnesota last week and snow fell, which some people talk about as being depressing, but it's not, it's reassuring."
READ MORE
Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. (photo: Mikhail Palinchak/AP)
Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Website
Keillor writes: "It turned cold and gray in Minnesota last week and snow fell, which some people talk about as being depressing, but it's not, it's reassuring."
READ MORE
Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. (photo: Mikhail Palinchak/AP)
David Uberti, VICE
Uberti writes: "Right as ex-Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch testified she felt threatened by President Donald Trump, he proved her point."
The back-and-forth came after she responded to excerpts from the July 25 call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky that sparked the formal impeachment investigation. Trump described Yovanovitch as “bad news” multiple times to the Ukrainian head of state, adding, “Well, she’s going to go through some things.”
Fmr. Ambassador Yovonovitch said she felt threatened by Trump's comments. Moments later the president was attacking her on Twitter. #ImpeachmentHearing
Yovanovitch told Congress Friday that she was disturbed by the remarks. They were part of a wide-ranging smear campaign by Trump and his allies to discredit diplomats with knowledge of alleged attempts to force Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
“Again, shocked, appalled, devastated that the President of the United States would talk about any ambassador like that to a foreign head of state,” she said. “And it was me. I couldn’t believe it.”
“I was very concerned,” Yovanovitch added. “It sounded like a threat.”
Just after she shared those fears Friday, Trump engaged in yet more character assassination via Twitter.
Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff interrupted the hearing to allow Yovanovitch to respond. "Some of us here take witness intimidation very seriously,” he said.
READ MORE
Sen. Bernie Sanders announces the introduction of public-housing legislation as part of the Green New Deal in Washington on Thursday. (photo: Erin Scott/Reuters)
Los Angeles Teachers' Union Endorses Bernie Sanders
Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post
Strauss writes: "The leadership of the 34,000-member United Teachers Los Angeles voted late Thursday to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders to be president, throwing its support to him more than two months before the first Democratic votes are counted in the nomination contest."
READ MORE
Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post
Strauss writes: "The leadership of the 34,000-member United Teachers Los Angeles voted late Thursday to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders to be president, throwing its support to him more than two months before the first Democratic votes are counted in the nomination contest."
READ MORE
Supporter of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival holds a sign. (photo: Alex Brandon/AP)
"This Is My Home": Meet the Lead Plaintiff in the Supreme Court Case to Save DACA
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "Martin Batalla Vidal is the lead plaintiff in the New York federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's attempt to terminate DACA. His case was in the Supreme Court."
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "Martin Batalla Vidal is the lead plaintiff in the New York federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's attempt to terminate DACA. His case was in the Supreme Court."
Children's belongings found in the rubble after an Israeli air strike in the Deir al-Balah neighborhood in Gaza Strip. (photo: Fatima M. Shbair/MEE)
'All That's Left Are Their School Uniforms': Israeli Air Strike Kills Palestinian Family of Eight
Maha Hussaini, Middle East Eye
Hussaini writes: "A large hole now stands where, only one day earlier, two homes were torn to the ground by Israeli air strikes. Looking over the debris, dozens of relatives and neighbors gathered to remember the eight members of the al-Sawarka family, who were killed in the attack."
Maha Hussaini, Middle East Eye
Hussaini writes: "A large hole now stands where, only one day earlier, two homes were torn to the ground by Israeli air strikes. Looking over the debris, dozens of relatives and neighbors gathered to remember the eight members of the al-Sawarka family, who were killed in the attack."
The Sawarka family members were in bed when the attack took place after midnight on Wednesday, turning their homes into rubble.
The Gaza Strip witnessed an onslaught for two consecutive days, following Israel’s assassination of senior Islamic Jihad commander Bahaa Abu al-Atta and his wife on Tuesday.
The Palestinian armed group retaliated by launching a barrage of rockets into Israel for two days, before the two parties agreed on a ceasefire on Thursday following joint Egyptian and UN mediation.
The relatives who died in the attack have been identified by the Gaza Ministry of Health as Rasmi al-Sawarka, 45; Yusra al-Sawarka, 43; Mariam al-Sawarka, 45; Waseem al-Sawarka, 13; Muhannad al-Sawarka, 12; Moaz al-Sawarka, 7; and at least two other children whose names and ages were not specified.
‘Everything was red’
“I was sleeping when the house was bombarded,” 11-year-old Diyaa Rasmi al-Sawarka, told Middle East Eye. “I woke up terrified and everything around me was red, I could not see anything.”
“I tried to run away but my foot was stuck under the rubble. I started screaming but no one heard me, all my family members were under the rubble. I was trying to pull my foot [out] when I found my little brother struggling to get out from under the rubble. I helped him out, then pulled out my foot and rushed behind him,” the young boy recalled.
Diyaa, who sustained minor injuries to the leg and head, was then transferred to the hospital, where he found out that he had lost his father and a number of his cousins.
As a result of the attack, eight relatives, including five children and two women, were killed, and 12 others were injured.
Among the crowd surrounding the remains of the house stood friends of 12-year-old Muhannad al-Sawarka, who was killed in the attack.
“We heard the massive explosion at midnight and immediately rushed to their house,” said Mohammed Mehsen, 14. “I was shocked. Muhannad’s house completely disappeared, as if it had never been there.”
Although Muhannad was two years younger than Mohammed, he was his “closest friend”.
“I knew Muhannad since we were in kindergarten, we were friends and neighbours, and used to go to school together,” the boy said.
“Muhannad and I used to play with our bicycles every day after school, but when it got dark at night, we loved to play hide and seek,” he smiled. “He loved animals and especially dogs, he always wanted to adopt one”
Following the attack, the Israeli army's Arabic media spokesman Avichay Adraee justified the overnight strike in a tweet, claiming that Diyaa’s father Rasmi al-Sawarka, 45, who was killed in the attack, was “a leader at the Islamic Jihad and of the rocket unit in the central brigade of the organisation”.
But for Ramy Abdu, chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, “even if Israel explains the attack by claiming it hit a member of the Islamic Jihad, this does not and can never be an excuse for targeting two homes containing dozens of civilians, including children and women”.
“The mass killing of a whole family reflects Israeli disregard for the lives of innocent civilians and children, which was translated in practice during its repeated attacks on Gaza,” he added.
Abdu said Israel’s attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip this week could amount to war crimes under international law.
“This constitutes a flagrant violation of the principles of distinction and proportionality, which prohibit direct attacks on civilian populations or on civilian objects, and obliges all parties to adopt precautionary measures,” he stated.
According to a relative of the Sawarka family, Taleb Mesmeh, 46, there were around 22 persons in the two homes when they were targeted.
“When we heard the explosions, we thought they were just air raids on empty agricultural land or military sites,” he told MEE. “We never expected that all these missiles targeted a civilian home that looked like any normal house.”
According to Mesmeh, although the two homes were made of wood and tin, they were hit by at least three missiles.
“I saw the neighbours and the Civil Defence retrieving their bodies from the rubble. They were torn into pieces and there was blood everywhere,” he continued.
‘All what’s left are their school uniforms’
As he collected children’s clothes from the rubble, shaking the dust off the small school uniforms, Mesmeh screamed: “This is Israel, targeting children inside their homes.”
“Look at this, all that’s left are their school uniforms,” he said. “This is Mariam’s school uniform, she was still in first grade. What did she do to be killed?”
The Gaza Ministry of Health has yet to confirm that a younger Mariam Sawarka was among those killed in the attack.
Rasmi Sawarka’s 15-year-old daughter, stood in shock, barely able to speak as she processed the loss of her family.
“He had always encouraged me to go to school and pursue my education,” was all she could say about her father.
Rasmi’s sister Umm Moataz, 35, said that the last time she saw her brother was on Tuesday, when the family gathered for lunch.
“I found out about the attack about an hour later. Someone called my husband and he got nervous. He did not tell me anything, but his attempts to conceal the news made me suspicious,” she told MEE.
“I cannot explain what happened, there is no reason for all these children and civilians to be targeted,” she told MEE. “All that I can say is that we have always witnessed Israel’s attitude of acting above the law.”
Demonstrators march against the coup that ousted Bolivian former president Evo Morales. (photo: teleSUR)
Bolivia: Coup-Born Government Threatens Independent Journalists
teleSUR
Excerpt: "Independent journalists who are covering protests in Bolivia were accused of carrying out 'sedition' by Communications Minister Roxana Lizarraga, who was paradoxically appointed by a US-backed government that emerged from a coup d'etat against the socialist President Evo Morales."
teleSUR
Excerpt: "Independent journalists who are covering protests in Bolivia were accused of carrying out 'sedition' by Communications Minister Roxana Lizarraga, who was paradoxically appointed by a US-backed government that emerged from a coup d'etat against the socialist President Evo Morales."
EXCERPT:
According to identity documents to which international journalists had access, however, the detainees are cooperating technicians who are part of the Cuban Medical Brigade.
Physician Ramon Emilio, economist Idalberto Delgado and electromedical engineer Amparo Lourdes are currently being held at the Police Operations Tactical Unit (UTOP) in La Paz. The fourth detainee's identity is not yet known.
#LaOEAEsGolpista y deberá responder por su complicidad en los secuestros, torturas y muertes de ciudadanos bolivianos que resisten y denuncian el Golpe De Estado perpetrado con la injerencia de EEUU a Bolivia
Basta de blindaje mediático
Que la @ONU_es difunda e intervenga
The Organization of American States (OAS) is a coup plotter and must answer for its complicity in kidnappings, torture, and deaths of Bolivian citizens, who are resisting and denouncing Bolivia's coup d'etat that was executed with interference from the U.S. Enough of media censorship! The United Nations should disseminate information and intervene.
Despite the blockade that mainstream media are making to what is happening in the Andean country, expressions of international solidarity with the Bolivian people are multiplying.
In Mexico City, for instance, human rights defenders and social activists on Friday will hold a rally in front of the U.S. embassy in rejection of the coup d'etat, which is being consummated under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS).
"We are all invited to denounce the U.S. empire blatant interference in this country," the rally organizers said and added that the Bolivians will keep a stubborn resistance against the racist oligarchy.
Among the organizations summoning the rally are local solidarity committees with Bolivia, Cuba, and Venezuela, as well as the Metropolitan Compass and the Citizens' Mailbox.
St. Mark's square (Piazza San Marco) during a new exceptional high tide on Nov. 15, in Venice, Italy. (photo: Simone Padovani/Getty)
Venice Council Chamber Flooded Just Minutes After Rejecting Action Climate Change
Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
Rosane writes: "The historic 'acqua alta' that swamped Venice Tuesday night also flooded the Veneto regional council for the first time, just moments after it had apparently rejected measures to address the climate crisis."
Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch
Rosane writes: "The historic 'acqua alta' that swamped Venice Tuesday night also flooded the Veneto regional council for the first time, just moments after it had apparently rejected measures to address the climate crisis."
"Ironically, the chamber was flooded two minutes after the majority League, Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia parties rejected our amendments to tackle climate change," Democratic Party councilor and environment committee deputy chairman Andrea Zanoni wrote in a Facebook post reported by CNN.
The League and Brothers of Italy are far-right parties, and Forza Italia is a center-right party, HuffPost explained.
The rejected amendments included plans to fund renewable energy, replace diesel buses with cleaner and more efficient vehicles, replace high-polluting stoves and tackle plastic pollution, Zanoni said.
Zanoni further said that Veneto regional president and League member Luca Zaia presented a budget "with no concrete actions to combat climate change," CNN reported.
Zanoni joined Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro in blaming climate change for Venice's massive flooding Tuesday, according to HuffPost, though he acknowledged it was one of many factors responsible. The city saw its highest tide in more than 50 years when water levels peaked at more than six feet.
"If the voters of Veneto continue to close their eyes, Zaia's League will bring us all underwater," Zanoni said, according to HuffPost.
Regional council spokesman Alessandro Ovizach confirmed to CNN that the flooding occurred during the 2020 budget discussion, but did not specify which budget items were being addressed at the time.
But council president and League member Roberto Ciambetti disputed Zanoni's depiction of the council's actions on climate.
"Beyond propaganda and deceptive reading, we are voting (for) a regional budget that spent €965 million over the past three years in the fight against air pollution, smog, which is a determining factor in climate change," he said in a statement to CNN. "To say that we do nothing is a lie."
Ciambetti did acknowledge the flooding, and posted videos of it on his Facebook page.
"Never had such a situation occurred here (at the Council)," he told local paper Giornale di Vicenza, according to CNN.
The Italian government declared a state of emergency Thursday to help Venice recover, NPR reported.
The flooding has also continued after Tuesday, though at lower levels. On Thursday, the high water mark came to three feet, eight inches, and rain is expected to bring more flooding to the city.
"It hurts to see the city so damaged, its artistic heritage compromised, its commercial activities on its knees," Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said, according to NPR.
Flooding damaged almost a third of the city's raised walkways, destroyed hundreds of books in the Acqua Alta Library and filled the crypt of St. Mark's Basilica, causing major damage. The Teatro La Fenice opera house was also damaged, The Guardian reported.
#AquaAltaVenezia Ecco la situazione marciana dopo l'eccezionale marea del 12 novembre scorso. Venticinque cm d'acqua sono entrati dalla parte del bacino e hanno inondato le sale di consultazione dei manoscritti, bagnando per fortuna solo volumi moderni, che stiamo recuperando.
"An apocalypse happened," Antonella Rossi, who owns a handmade jewelry store on St. Mark's Square, told The Guardian. "We haven't seen anything like this in 55 years. The water has destroyed everything, and I will have to redo so much – work that took a lifetime was wrecked in seconds."
BBC News meteorologist Nikki Berry explained how the climate crisis contributed to the historic flooding. While it is difficult to attribute any one extreme weather event to climate change, five of Venice's 10 highest tides took place in the last 20 years. Since Venice is sinking, it is especially susceptible to sea level rise.
The storm surge that contributed to the flooding also shows the fingerprints of climate change, Berry explained:
The weather patterns that have caused the Adriatic storm surge have been driven by a strong meridional (waving) jet stream across the northern hemisphere and this has fed a conveyor belt of low pressure systems into the central Mediterranean.
One of the possible effects of a changing climate is that the jet stream will be more frequently meridional and blocked weather patterns such as these will also become more frequent. If this happens, there is a greater likelihood that these events will combine with astronomical spring tides and hence increase the chance of flooding in Venice.
Conte said the government would work to "accelerate" construction on the long-delayed Mose project, designed to protect Venice from flooding using a series of barriers, according to BBC News.
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