WEEKLY NEWS REPORT (6 May 2018)

Vol. 1, №6

The mass media’s main functions are to divide, distract, and disinform. To consume news intelligently, we need filter out the distractions. Only then can we see how power works, in real time. This week, while the mass media was talking about Kanye West (still), these things happened:

INTERNATIONAL

Lebanon

El Arabiya reported that polling has begin in Lebanon’s first parliamentary elections in nine years. The election was postponed several times over security concerns.

Afghanistan

The Independent reported that a suicide bomber killed reporters from the BBC and Agence France-Presse, in an attack in Kabul targeted at journalists. In all, 25 people were killed.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) released its quarterly report to Congress. In sum, it shows that fifteen years of U.S. reconstruction efforts have completely failed to transform Afghanistan into a Western-style market economy. Some key findings were:

· In 2017, U.S. air operations killed 295 civilians, the highest number of civilians killed in a single year. That year, 336 civilians were wounded.

· In 2018, 1,186 bombs were dropped on Afghanistan in the 1st quarter, more than 2.5 times the number dropped in the same period of 2017, and the most since reporting began in 2013.

· With nearly half of its population under the age of 15, the Afghan economy will soon have to add 400,000 jobs a year, just to keep up with new entrants into the market. This situation has been called a “socio-economic time bomb.”

· The Afghan security forces have 36 thousand fewer troops than the year before.

· The Afghan government controls about the same number of districts as last year, but the overall trend is rising Taliban control.

· Currently, 90% of the areas where opium is grown are under Taliban control.

· In 2017, opium production increased by 68%. The 463,342 kg of opium seized by coalition forces since 2008 amounts to only .05% of the opium grown in 2017 alone. USAID reports it will not increase efforts to lower opium production.

· The World Bank is not following its own reporting guidelines, and cannot measure the effectiveness of reconstruction funds.

· In an international report on government corruption, with 100 being “clean,” and zero being “highly corrupt,” the Afghani government was rated a 15. SIGAR found that the U.S. contributed to Afghani corruption by aligning with “malign powerbrokers” in order to achieve stability and security objectives.

· Since 2002, the U.S. has spent $126 billion on Afghan reconstruction.

Syria

Sputnik reported that missile strikes in Hama and Allepo destroyed weapons caches, and killed between 16–26 Iranian troops stationed there. The New York Times reported that, while no one took credit for it, Israel was the presumed attacker.

Iran

SputnikNews reported that Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei charged that U.S. policy in the Middle East is aimed at having Muslims fight Muslims, and in response to the recent attack in Syria, he said, “the time of hitting and escaping is gone; now, if you hit, you will be hit back.”

The Hill reported that, citing national security concerns, the judiciary banned the messaging app Telegram.

Iraq

Middle East Eye reported that Muntazar al-Zaidi, the journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush, is running for parliament. His goal is to fight public corruption.

Israel

The New Arab reported that the Knesset authorized President Netanyahu to declare war, without the security cabinet’s approval. The vote was 62 for, 41 against.

Saudi Arabia

Axios reported that, in a closed-door meeting with heads of Jewish organizations in New York, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said that “It is about time the Palestinians take the [U.S. and Israeli] proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.”

Yemen

The Star reported that Canada has sent $65 million in humanitarian aid to Yemen, and at the same time, exported $284 million worth of weapons and military goods to the countries causing the humanitarian crisis.

AP reported that around 2.9 million women and children are acutely malnourished, that 8.4 million Yemenis rely completely on food aid or else they would starve, and that 18 million Yemenis do not know where their next meal is coming from.

The New York Times reported that a team of Green Berets are on the ground at the Saudi/Yemeni border. Their mission is to help locate and destroy caches of ballistic missiles and launch sites that Houthi rebels in Yemen are using to attack Riyadh and other Saudi cities

NATIONAL

Borders

The Intercept reported that Scott Warren, a college professor and volunteer with No More Deaths was arrested and charged with two counts of harboring illegal aliens and one count of conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens. No More Deaths is a ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson. Warren was arrested at a place called “The Barn,” where ministers give water and humanitarian assistance to migrants crossing the desert. He alleges that new evidence reveals that the border patrol was targeting the Unitarian effort, in violation of an unstated agreement that law enforcement would not deter people giving humanitarian aid.

Criminal Justice

The Verge reported that a Pentagon-funded study on “predictive policing” has yielded a computer program that would use algorithms to determine whether a crime was gang-related. In the paper, “Partially Generative Neural Networks for Gang Crime Classification” presented in February at the inaugural Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society (AIES) conference, the author proposed automating this usually complex and subjective assessment.

Defense

San Francico Gate reported that Richard Blum, husband to Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), is a major investor in URS Corporation and Perini Corporation, companies that recently got Pentagon contracts worth over $3.8 billion.

Democrats

Buzzfeed reported that Jeff Weaver, a representative of the Bernie Sanders (I-VT) campaign, has approached Democratic leaders, including Hillary Clinton, to sign a letter recommending that the party eliminate the superdelegate system, where unelected party insiders help choose candidates. Meanwhile, the Free Beacon reported that former President Bill Clinton told DNC Chairman Tom Perez, to not let Sen. Sanders’ supporters become powerful in the party.

Environmental Protection

Think Progress reported that the EPA granted a financial hardship waiver to an Oklahoma refinery, which exempts it from requirements of a federal biofuels law — the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) — effectively allowing it to avoid tens of millions of dollars in costs. The refinery is owned by billionaire Trump supporter Carl Ichan, who was on the team that vetted EPA director Scott Pruitt.

National Debt

Bloomberg reported that, in the first quarter of 2018, the U.S. Treasury borrowed $488 billion dollars, the most it has borrowed in a single quarter since 2008.

Stock Buybacks

Reuters reported that Apple used its increased profits from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, to repurchase $23.5 billion dollars of stock, a record amount for any U.S. company.

Torture

The Middle East Eye and The Guardian reported that Ali al-Marri, a Quatari man, has recanted his confession to helping Al Queda, saying it was coerced through torture by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and FBI interrogators, during his detention at the Charleston Naval Brig between 2003 and 2009. Al-Marri alleges that, among other things, U.S. agents threatened to have his family arrested.

Veterans

VoteVets reported that Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s appointment of Robert Wilkie as Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs. They allege the appointment bypassed Deputy Secretary Thomas Bowman, who White House officials described as being opposed to the administration’s plans to privatize healthcare for the nation’s veterans. They claim that President Trump violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FRVA), the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, and other federal laws.

STATE AND LOCAL

Florida

New Times reported that a federal grand jury charged Antwan Johnson with one count of deprivation of civil rights and one count of conspiracy to deprive someone of his or her civil rights. Johnson was a prison guard accused of encouraging a group of young inmates to attack 17-year-old Elord Revolte, a detainee at a juvenile facility. Revolte died as a result of the beating. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle first investigated the incident, and in January 2017, claimed there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Johnson with a crime. During her 25-year tenure, Rundle has never charged an on-duty police officer in a shooting death.

NBC Miami reported that Florida prisons are cutting mental health, substance abuse and re-entry programs, to help make up for a $50 million shortfall in its healthcare and pharmaceuticals budgets.

Georgia

Huffington Post reported that a group of immigrants have sued private prison contractor CoreCivi for minimum wage violations. They allege that they are forced to work for as little as $1 an hour, or face retaliation or criminal charges. The lawsuit claims that that those detained under civil infractions like immigration violations should be entitled to receive the federal minimum wage.

Illinois

Chicago Tribune reported that lead was found in water drawn from nearly 70 percent of the 2,797 Chicago homes tested during the past two years. Tap water in 3 of every 10 homes sampled had lead concentrations above 5 parts per billion, the maximum allowed in bottled water by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Massachusetts

The Brennan Center reported that the state’s Governor Charlie Baker (R) signed a bill which changes nearly every aspect of the state’s criminal justice system. Among the reforms are: eliminating most mandatory minimum sentences, making court fees waivable, protections against unaffordable bail amounts, raised felony thresholds, and an increased use of diversion.

Missouri

The Hill reported that the legislature has convened a special session to consider impeachment proceedings against Gov. Eric Greitens (R). Greitens faces trial on criminal invasion of privacy charges later this month.

North Dakota

The Nation reported that a Federal District Court Judge struck down the state’s voter-ID law, finding it to be disproportionately burdensome on Native American voters.

Virginia

AP reported that George Mason University, the state’s largest public university, gave the conservative Charles Koch Foundation a say in the hiring and firing of professors, in exchange for millions of dollars in donations.

Puerto Rico

The Intercept reported that Robert Bishop (R-UT), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, laid out a plan to make the island “the energy hub of the entire Caribbean area.” The plan would include building natural gas ports. The plan would also benefit companies such as Shell North America, Kindle Energy, and ITC Holdings to privatize PREPA, the island’s electric utility.

STRANGE BUT TRUE

Home Depot

The Wall Street Journal reported that co-founder Ken Langone, worried about rising popular support for socialism, wrote a book entitled “I Love Capitalism!” Meanwhile, the employment law firm Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP announced a new class action lawsuit against Home Depot, alleging that a kick-back scheme allowed financial advisors to self-deal and charge excessive fees, in derogation of they employee’s 401k plans.

McClatchy

The news service has come under fire for a report which claims that people protesting Florida’s Sabal Trail Pipeline are Russian agents. As evidence, they cite the presence of the news service RT at a protest event in 2016.

The purpose of these summaries is to encourage curious readers to do further research. Links to, and summaries of, these news reports is not an endorsement of the source, or a representation that the stories are adequately sourced, unbiased, or are even accurately reported. Read critically!