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19 November 19
Charles Pierce | Two Loony Bill Barr Speeches Show It Didn't Start With Trump
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "If this really is Attorney General William Barr's final go-round as a servant to radical conservative power, and we can only pray to god that it is, he's certainly going out with a bang."
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Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. (photo: Alexey Vitvitsky/Sputnik/AP)
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "If this really is Attorney General William Barr's final go-round as a servant to radical conservative power, and we can only pray to god that it is, he's certainly going out with a bang."
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Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. (photo: Alexey Vitvitsky/Sputnik/AP)
US Officials Made Aware of Trump's Pressure on Ukraine Month Before Infamous Call
Desmond Butler and Michael Biesecker, Associated Press
Excerpt: "U.S. State Department officials were informed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was feeling pressure from the Trump administration to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden even before the July phone call that has led to impeachment hearings."
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Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, appeared on Capitol Hill in February. (photo: Getty Images)
Desmond Butler and Michael Biesecker, Associated Press
Excerpt: "U.S. State Department officials were informed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was feeling pressure from the Trump administration to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden even before the July phone call that has led to impeachment hearings."
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Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, appeared on Capitol Hill in February. (photo: Getty Images)
Jeff Stein and Tom Hamburger, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Two senators are looking into a whistleblower's allegations that at least one political appointee at the Treasury Department may have tried to interfere with an audit of President Trump or Vice President Pence."
The IRS whistleblower complaint was first disclosed in an August court filing by Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. It raises the prospect that Trump administration officials at Treasury tried to improperly interfere with the IRS audit process. That process is supposed to be walled off from political interference.
Neal made the disclosure in court filings as part of his battle with the Trump administration over the president’s tax returns, which the Treasury Department has refused to furnish. At the time, Neal said the whistleblower complaint raises “serious and urgent concerns” about the integrity of the IRS audit process. A person close to Neal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the office’s position on the complaint is unchanged and that its investigation is ongoing.
The Treasury inspector general has opened a review of the Treasury Department’s handling of House Democrats’ request for Trump’s tax returns. Asked whether that review would look at the IRS whistleblower’s complaint, Rich Delmar, the acting inspector general, said in an email that “the inquiry is ongoing, and will take into account that aspects of the underlying matter are the subject of litigation.” The whistleblower also previously told The Washington Post that he had sent his complaint to Grassley, Neal and the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration, a separate watchdog at Treasury.
Spokespeople for Grassley and Wyden declined to confirm their meeting with the whistleblower, citing strict federal privacy laws related to taxpayer information. The White House, the Treasury Department and the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration also declined to comment.
In a statement in October, Grassley appeared to criticize Neal for not doing enough to verify the complaint before disclosing details about it, saying in a statement, “Talking about the existence of a complaint before taking the time to speak with the whistleblower or follow up on the whistleblower’s complaint is irresponsible.”
An inmate in a high-security yard at SCI Graterford. Last year, Graterford prisoners were moved to nearby SCI Phoenix. (photo: David Swanson/Philadelphia Inquirer)
Pennsylvania Will No Longer Hold Death-Row Prisoners in Endless Solitary Confinement
Samantha Melamed, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Melamed writes: "After nearly two decades in death row solitary confinement in a Pennsylvania state prison, Jimmy Dennis could no longer endure the humiliation of being strip-searched and shackled."
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Accelerationist ideas have been cited in mass shooters' manifestos - explicitly, in the case of the New Zealand killer - and are frequently referenced in white supremacist web forums and chat rooms. (photo: Chris Malbon/Vox)
Samantha Melamed, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Melamed writes: "After nearly two decades in death row solitary confinement in a Pennsylvania state prison, Jimmy Dennis could no longer endure the humiliation of being strip-searched and shackled."
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Accelerationist ideas have been cited in mass shooters' manifestos - explicitly, in the case of the New Zealand killer - and are frequently referenced in white supremacist web forums and chat rooms. (photo: Chris Malbon/Vox)
Accelerationism: The Obscure Idea Inspiring White Supremacist Killers Around the World
Zack Beauchamp, Vox
Beauchamp writes: "These killings are more tightly connected to a newer and more radical white supremacist ideology, one that dismisses the alt-right as cowards unwilling to take matters into their own hands."
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Zack Beauchamp, Vox
Beauchamp writes: "These killings are more tightly connected to a newer and more radical white supremacist ideology, one that dismisses the alt-right as cowards unwilling to take matters into their own hands."
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According to several United Nations Security Council resolutions, the most recent in 2016, Israeli settlements are illegal under international law as they violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. (photo: AFP)
Palestinians Slam US Policy Reversal on Israeli Settlements
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Palestinians, rights groups, politicians and others have sharply criticized the Trump administration after it announced the United States was no longer considered Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank 'inconsistent' with international law."
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Palestinians, rights groups, politicians and others have sharply criticized the Trump administration after it announced the United States was no longer considered Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank 'inconsistent' with international law."
EXCERPTS:
Washington is "not qualified or authorised to cancel the resolutions of international law, and has no right to grant legality to any Israeli settlement", Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeinah said in a statement.
Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran Palestinian negotiator and member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, said on Twitter before Pompeo's statement that the move represented another blow to "international law, justice & peace".
Another blow to international law, justice & peace by a Biblical absolutist waiting for the "rapture."
Israeli settlements not 'inconsistent with international law,' Pompeo set to announce haaretz.com/us-news/israel…
Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, warned that the US change of position would have "dangerous consequences" on the prospects of reviving the Middle East peace process.
Monday's announcement marked another significant instance in which the Trump administration has sided with Israel and against stances taken by the Palestinians and Arab states even before unveiling its long-delayed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
In 2017, Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and, in 2018, the US formally opened an embassy in the city. US policy had previously been that the status of Jerusalem was to be decided by the parties to the conflict.
In 2018, the US also announced it was cutting its contributions to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
And in March, Trump recognised Israel's 1981 annexation of the occupied Golan Heights in a boost for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that prompted a sharp response from Syria, which once held the strategic land.
Netanyahu on Monday welcomed the shift in policy, saying the US move "rights a historical wrong".
Yousef Munayyer, the executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, called Pompeo's announcement "another gift to Netanyahu and a green light to Israeli leaders to put settlement building further into overdrive and advance formal annexation".
Announcing that the US no longer considers illegal Israeli settlements illegal. This is another Trump gift to Netanyahu and a green light to Israeli leaders to put settlement building further into overdrive and advance formal annexation. twitter.com/mkraju/status/…
Netanyahu is currently facing domestic pressure on two fronts after Israel held inconclusive elections earlier this year. His main political rival, former military chief of staff Benny Gantz, has two days to try and form a government to replace Netanyahu, who is also facing potential indictment in three corruption cases.
In the last election campaign, Netanyahu pledged to annex large parts of the West Bank, a move that would further imperil a two-state solution.
Gantz welcomed the US move, saying in a tweet that the "fate of the settlements should be determined by agreements that meet security requirements and promote peace".
Pompeo denied a motivation to prop up Netanyahu, saying: "The timing of this was not tied to anything that had to do with domestic politics anywhere in Israel or otherwise."
Reaction
A spokesman for the UN's human rights office (OHCHR) said that it "shares the UN long standing position on the issue that Israeli settlements are in breach of international law."
Rupert Colville also said there are several UN resolutions as well as decisions by the International court of Justice (ICJ) relating to the issue.
"On 9 July 2004, the ICJ stated in its Advisory Opinion that Israel's construction of the separation wall and expansion of the settlements are illegally altering the demographic composition of the OPT and thus severely impede the Palestinians’ ability to exercise their right to self-determination," he told reporters on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the European Union said that it continued to believe that Israeli settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory was illegal under international law and eroded prospects for lasting peace.
"The EU calls on Israel to end all settlement activity, in line with its obligations as an occupying power," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement following the US move.
Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, tweeted: "Pompeo's fictional statement changes nothing. Trump can't wipe away with this announcement decades of established international law that Israel's settlements are a war crime."
US Senator Bernie Sanders, a leading US Democratic presidential hopeful, also weighed in on Twitter, saying "Israeli settlements in occupied territory are illegal."
"This is clear from international law and multiple United Nations resolutions. Once again, Mr Trump is isolating the United States and undermining diplomacy by pandering to his extremist base," Sanders said.
An endangered Key deer in Florida. (photo: Valerie Preziosi)
Nearly All America's Endangered Species Will Struggle to Adapt to Climate Crisis
Oliver Milman, Guardian UK
Milman writes: "The climate crisis is poised to deliver a severe blow to America's most threatened animals, with a new study finding that almost every species considered endangered is vulnerable in some way to global heating."
Oliver Milman, Guardian UK
Milman writes: "The climate crisis is poised to deliver a severe blow to America's most threatened animals, with a new study finding that almost every species considered endangered is vulnerable in some way to global heating."
Of the 459 animal species listed as endangered by the US government, researchers found that all but one, or 99.8%, have characteristics that will make it difficult for them to adapt to rising temperatures.
An array of threats faces these species. The California condor, once close to being completely wiped out, faces increased risk of contamination in hotter conditions. Key deer, found only in the Florida Keys, face losing habitat to the rising seas.
Whole classes of animals including amphibians, mollusks and arthropods are sensitive to the greatest number of climate-related threats, such as changes in water quality, shifting seasons and harmful invasive species that move in as temperatures climb.
Mammals, such as the north Atlantic right whale and Florida panther, also face increased hardships, albeit on fewer fronts than amphibians, mollusks and arthropods.
Despite the overwhelming peril faced by America’s endangered species due to the climate crisis, the report, published in Nature Climate Change, found a patchy response from the US government. Federal agencies consider just 64% of endangered species to be threatened by the climate crisis, while just 18% of listed species have protection plans in place.
“This study confirms that the climate crisis could make it even harder for nearly all of our country’s endangered species to avoid extinction,” said Astrid Caldas, a study co-author and a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“While agencies have increasingly listed climate change as a growing threat to species whose survival is already precarious, many have not translated this concern into tangible actions, meaning a significant protection gap still exists.”
Aimee Delach, senior policy analyst for climate adaptation at Defenders of Wildlife and Caldas’s co-author, said the Trump administration’s decision to weaken its interpretation of the Endangered Species Act was “disastrous” and likely to further slow down the response to climate threats.
In May, a landmark UN report warned that 1 million species around the world were at risk of extinction, with global heating one of the main pressure points on biodiversity.
This year a small brown rat called the Bramble Cay melomys, which lived on a small island off northern Australia, became the first mammal known to have become extinct due to human-driven climate change. Nearly half of Australian species are threatened by the climate crisis, researchers have found.
A spokesman for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the endangered species list, said that while a species may be sensitive to changes in the climate, this sensitivity may not be so severe as to warrant being put on the list.
“Our process for determining this looks at five factors: threats to a species’ habitat, overutilization, disease or predation, existing regulatory mechanisms, and other factors that may affect its continued existence,” he said. “Through this scientifically rigorous process we examine and account for the effects of climate change.”
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