Rachel M. Cohen (2019-12-12). Environmental Activists Target Exxon\'s Lead Attorney in Climate Liability Case, a Prominent Democratic Donor. theintercept.com Ted Wells Jr., who defended Exxon against a lawsuit by New York\'s attorney general, has given half a million dollars to Democrats in recent decades.

C.J. Atkins (2019-12-12). Is the Democrats\' impeachment effort too narrowly focused? peoplesworld.org Among liberals, many centrists, and almost everyone on the left, there is agreement that Donald Trump has committed acts that merit impeachment and removal from the presidency. Given his conduct in life as a corrupt businessman, crooked real estate tycoon, serial womanizer, and outspoken racist, it was almost pre-ordained that as president he would abuse …

Associated Press (2019-12-12). Trump attacks climate activist Thunberg after Time honor. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg on Thursday, a day after she was named by Time as its Person of the Year, calling her selection \"ridiculous.\" The Swedish teenager has become a symbol of a growing movement of young climate activists after leading weekly school strikes in her country …

Alan Macleod (2019-12-12). Economist Dean Baker: Systemic Change Needed to Fight Big Pharma Price Gouging. mintpressnews.com \"We give companies patent monopolies that allow them to sell drugs at mark-ups of several thousand percent above their production costs. How can we be surprised when they lie or conceal information to push their drugs as widely as possible?\"

Mohamed Elmaazi (2019-12-12). Collapse of US charges against journalist raises serious questions about politically motivated prosecutions. thecanary.co Washington DC police have dropped criminal charges against award-winning journalist Max Blumenthal, in a press-freedom story which has received scant media attention. | Blumenthal: The police \"threatened to break down my door\": | On 25 October 2019, Blumenthal was arrested in a morning raid by police who threatened to \"break down\" his door. Blumenthal, who co-founded independent media outlet t…

Norman Solomon (2019-12-12). Will the Democratic Presidential Nomination Be Bought? indybay.org Billionaires on a shopping spree…

Fight Back (2019-12-12). MN withstands -10 windchill to demand human rights at home and abroad. fightbacknews.org Minneapolis, MN – On December 10, 25 protesters rallied outside of Senator Amy Klobuchar\'s office to mark International Human Rights Day. After chanting outside the senator\'s office, Brad Sigal from the MN Immigrant Rights Action Committee addressed the crowd to draw attention to Trump\'s record of human rights abuses against immigrants. The protesters then marched in -10 degrees windchill to the legendary May Day Books in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. | Tracy Molm of the Anti-War Committee spoke at the closing rally inside the bookstore. \"On Human Rights Day we come together to call attention to human rights…

Staff (2019-12-12). Uganda\'s First Fridays for Future Climate Striker Joins COP25 Protests in Madrid. truthout.org As we broadcast from the U.N. climate summit in Madrid, Spain, we speak with climate activist Vanessa Nakate, who was Uganda\'s first Fridays for Future climate striker. \"I wanted to do something that would cause change to the lives of the people in my community and my country,\" she says. \"My country heavily depends on agriculture, therefore most of the people depend on agriculture. If our farms are destroyed by floods, if the farms are destroyed by droughts and crop production is less, that m…

Michael Welch (2019-12-12). Award-Winning Journalist Vanessa Beeley Faces \"Deplatforming\" at Six Canadian Venues. globalresearch.ca Vanessa Beeley, the award-winning journalist who has gained notoriety for her on the ground reporting on the Syrian conflict has faced opposition in her efforts to speak to Canadian audiences at the invitation of local anti war activists. | According …

Staff (2019-12-12). Polluting Companies Are Sponsoring COP25 Talks in Exchange for Tax Breaks. truthout.org Big polluters are to blame for slow progress in the annual UN climate negotiations in Madrid, Spain, according to activists — with several companies sponsoring the talks in exchange for tax breaks. | Sponsors of the talks, known as COP25, include the electrical utilities company Iberdrola, which produced 24.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 20…

Staff (2019-12-12). Greta Thunberg Slams Response to Climate Crisis at COP25 as \"Creative PR\" truthout.org At the U.N. climate summit in Madrid, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed world leaders Wednesday, hours after she was named Time magazine\'s Person of the Year. Thunberg came to the talks after a trip to meet with climate leaders across North America in anticipation of the scheduled climate conference in Santiago, Chile, before the talks were abruptly moved to the Spanish capital. In her address, Thunberg warned that the planet\'s carbon budget is down to just eight years, an…

Miguel Salazar (2019-12-12). Colombia\'s Peace Deal Paved the Way for Its Historic Protests. thenation.com Colombia\'s Peace Deal Paved the Way for Its Historic Protests…

Jerome Irwin (2019-12-12). No Israeli Peace, Joy or Goodwill at Christmastime for Palestinians. counterpunch.org Peace, Good Will and Joy on Earth at Christmas! But what does that mean for Palestine and Palestinians? Every year, on the 11th day of the 11th hour of the 11th month, the human spirit pauses to pay tribute to world peace, good will and joy towards all and commemorate that dark moment in modern More

Andrew Korybko (2019-12-12). Ukraine Might Finally See Peace, Unless the US \'Deep State\' Sabotages It First. globalresearch.ca The intense diplomatic efforts undertaken by Presidents Putin and Zelensky finally yielded credible hope that peace might eventually return to Ukraine following their first-ever face-to-face meeting during this week\'s Normandy Summit in Paris, but the greatest obstacle that both leaders …

Staff (2019-12-12). Indian Government Strips Naturalization Rights From Muslims, Sparking Protests. truthout.org Critics condemned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\'s government Tuesday after the Lok Sabha, the lower chamber of the country\'s parliament, passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill, stripping naturalization rights granted to other groups from the nation\'s 200 million Muslims living in the world\'s largest democracy. | \"We are now moving closer to Modi\'s dream of an India where a Muslim will have to walk the streets of his country with his gaze lowered, where democracy will be a privilege some…

Catherine Rottenberg — Neve Gordon (2019-12-12). From London to Beirut, From Santiago to New Delhi: Protesters Need to Build Solidarity Networks. counterpunch.org On Friday, December 1, two protest marches met in central London in what felt like a magical moment. A few thousand striking university lecturers had just reached the British Parliament at Westminster after marching from the Bloomsbury neighbourhood, when close to a thousand Extinction Rebellion teenagers came pouring down a parallel street and the two protests united. The More

teleSUR (2019-12-12). Algeria: Presidential Elections Close With Very Low Attendance. telesurenglish.net Algeria\'s presidential elections, which the opposition has billed as a farce, were marked by massive protests and empty polling stations on Thursday. | RELATED: | Algerian Gov\'t Paves the Way for Foreign Financial Institutions | Polling stations closed their doors with little attendance from citizens after a day marked by massive demonstrations and the boycott of elections, especially in the northern region of Kabylia. | In Algiers, polls closed at 7: 00 p.m. (local time) with…

Ted Rall (2019-12-12). The U.S. Government Lied about the Afghanistan War, They Couldn\'t Have Done It Without Media Lapdogs. counterpunch.org \"In ten years or so, we\'ll leak the truth,\" the Dead Kennedys sang. \"But by then it\'s only so much paper.\" But it might just score you a Pulitzer Prize. Award bait and bragging rights are no doubt the principal goals of The Washington Post\'s self-congratulatory data dump, \"The Afghanistan Papers.\" As the headline implies, More

Robert Fisk (2019-12-12). When You Follow the Gun Trail, You Can End Up in Expected Places. counterpunch.org I\'ve always wanted to find out where the guns came from. Who were the \'willing accomplices\' to the wars I witnessed? In 1996, I traced to its Boeing makers in the deep south of the US a missile fired by the Israelis at a Lebanese ambulance. It killed two women and four children. I even More

South Front (2019-12-12). Video: Militants Push Syrian Army Back in Southern Idlib. globalresearch.ca On December 11, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham\'s Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Army and the special forces unit, known as the \"Red Bands\", attacked and captured the area of al-Katibat al-Mahjura in southeastern Idlib. Units of the Syrian Army deployed there were caught …

Paul Antonopoulos (2019-12-12). Libya Is Likely to Become a Proxy Battlefront Between Greece and Turkey. globalresearch.ca Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoƒüan has certainly opened up pandora\'s box in Libya that is now difficult for him to close after he made a series of gross miscalculations and aggression against Greece. This has triggered a crisis all across …

Ralph Nader, Bruce Fein (2019-12-12). Donald Trump\'s Big Abuses of Power Demand a Big Impeachment. thenation.com Donald Trump\'s Big Abuses of Power Demand a Big Impeachment…

Ramzy Baroud (2019-12-12). Money, Power and Turf: Winning the Middle East Media War at Any Cost. counterpunch.org It is hardly surprising to see Middle Eastern countries at the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index, as the worst violators of freedom of the press. But equally alarming is the complete polarization of public opinion as a result of self-serving media and, bankrolled by rich Arab countries, whose only goal is to serve their specific, often sinister, agendas. More

Abayomi Azikiwe (2019-12-12). Sudanese Transitional Government Faces Profound Challenges. globalresearch.ca Interim Prime Abdallah Hamdok of the Republic of Sudan visited the United States during early December seeking to have sanctions lifted against his newly-created administration. | In meetings with members of Congress and the National Security Advisor Robert O\'Brien, who …

teleSUR (2019-12-12). US Senate Committee Approves Sanctions Against Turkey. telesurenglish.net A U.S. Senate committee backed legislation on Wednesday to impose sanctions on Turkey after its offensive in Syria and purchase of a Russian S-400 missile system, the latest move in the chamber to push Republican President Donald Trump to take a harder line against Ankara. | RELATED: | US Military Finishes Pullback From Northeast Syria | The Republican-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted by 18-4 to send the \"Promoting American National Security and Preventing the Resurgence of ISIS Act of 2019\" for a vote in the full Senate. | \"Now\'s the time for the Senate to come together and take this opportunit…

WSWS (2019-12-12). Trump signs executive order aimed at suppressing criticism of Israel. wsws.org The purpose of the order signed Wednesday is to squelch free speech at publicly funded universities, targeting in particular the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Peter Bolton (2019-12-12). The video of Labour legend Tony Benn that captures the spirit we all need to have right now. thecanary.co There\'s one hard-hitting speech from left-wing Labour legend Tony Benn that we all need to rewatch right now. Because it captures the spirit that we so badly need, both today and every day from here on out. | The struggle continues: | Benn gave the speech years after leaving parliament. And making an impassioned case for the need to keep up the fight for social protections and access to public services at all times, he stressed that: every single generation has to fight the same battles again…

WSWS (2019-12-12). Turkey\'s Erdoğan threatens to send troops into Libya. wsws.org With Ankara and Moscow backing rival regimes in the ravaged country, any escalation threatens to spill over into a far wider and more dangerous war.

Alex Anfruns (2019-12-12). Bolivia: The 21st Century Coup d\'État and Its Crimes Against Humanity. globalresearch.ca After the coup d\'état, repression is advancing by leaps and bounds in Bolivia. The dictatorship persecutes the \"narco-traffickers\", \"vandals\" and \"terrorists\", that is to say: the social movements, former members of the government, peasants and indigenous people who demonstrate and …

Staff (2019-12-12). Progressives Rebel as House Hands Trump War Spending Package. truthout.org The House voted 377-48 to advance a $738 billion military spending authorization package on Wednesday despite a rebellion among progressive Democrats angered by the loss of provisions that would have curtailed endless wars and put President Trump\'s most violent foreign policy ambitions in check. | The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is often described by the dominant media as a \"must-pass\" piece of legislation glowing with bipartisanship, but this year negotiations were different. Democrats clashed…

Peter Koenig (2019-12-12). NATO Summit — and 2020 Planned Aggression. globalresearch.ca A recent article \" NATO is Brain Dead\" described the obsolescence Of NATO and NATO\'s defense mechanisms against non-existence enemies. Amazing — with pretense of protection and security in Europe and the world, against Russia and China and fighting …

Cynthia Chung (2019-12-12). NATO Secretary General Targets \'Rising China\': Why Cold War Newspeak Never Went Away. globalresearch.ca On December 3rd, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that NATO must address the \"security implications\" of China\'s rise as a \"military power\", and in true Orwellian doublespeak, insisted that he did not want to make an adversary …

WSWS (2019-12-12). US renews insults and threats against North Korea. wsws.org The Trump administration has made clear that it has no intention of meeting North Korea\'s end-of-year deadline for meaningful talks, thus setting the stage for confrontation and conflict.

DLI (2019-12-12). USA Still Lying on Imperialist Motive in Afghan war. indybay.org The recent release of an Inspector General\'s report on the 18-year(and counting!) Afghan war found lies and deceit by 3 consecutive White House administrations(Bush, Obama and Trump) are at the heart of the longest US war in its 243 years of history. And its $Trillion + cost–along with the other Imperialist aggression in Iraq–will be the most expensive overseas misadventure since 1776!

Tho Bishop (2019-12-12). The Warfare State Lied About Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. They Will Lie Again. globalresearch.ca Today the Washington Post published a bombshell report titled \"The Afghanistan Papers,\" highlighting the degree to which the American government lied to the public about the ongoing status of the war in Afghanistan. Within the thousands of pages, consisting …

James A Haught (2019-12-12). Zealots in High Office. counterpunch.org Back in 2003, in a top-secret international phone call, President George W. Bush urged French President Jacques Chirac to join America in invading Iraq on grounds that Christian nations must thwart the Satanic forces of Gog and Magog. Chirac was baffled by such crackpottery. A few French newspapers wrote derisive sneers about the born-again U.S. More

news.un (2019-12-12). Thursday\'s Daily Brief: South Sudan floods, Somalis leave Yemen, LATAM economic slowdown. news.un.org In today\'s Daily Brief: Flooding could push millions in South Sudan into humanitarian crisis, Somalis return home from war-torn Yemen; historically low growth in Latin American and Caribbean economies; UN\'s top court will deliberate on Myanmar genocide accusations; and alpinism\'s classified a \"cultural treasure\".

Ryan Cristián (2019-12-12). Trump Signs EO Saying Judaism Is Now A Nationality, New Toothless NDAA Allows Yemen & Iran Wars. thelastamericanvagabond.com Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (12/11/19). As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth …

teleSUR (2019-12-12). Colombian Police to be Investigated for Excessive Use of Force. telesurenglish.net The Attorney General of Colombia stated on Wednesday that it will conduct an investigation into what happened on Tuesday when agents of the questioned Mobile Riot Squadron ( Esmad ) of the National Police detained two young men and transported them in private vehicles. | RELATED: | Colombia: Medellin Will Host a Concert Pro National Strike | The Public Ministry indicated that it will open the preliminary inquiry without determining the agents subject to prosecution because the name…

news.un (2019-12-12). Unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Mali revealed in new report. news.un.org Escalating violence and insecurity in Mali have sparked an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, rendering 3.9 million people in need of assistance and protection — an increase of 700,000 since the beginning of the year, the UN said on Thursday.

teleSUR (2019-12-12). Evo Morales Arrived in Argentina to Request Political Asylum. telesurenglish.net Bolivia\'s former President Evo Morales, who was forced to resign after the mutiny of his country\'s security forces, arrived in Argentina as a refugee. | RELATED: | Bolivia One Month After the Coup: A Recount of Pivotal Events | \"He comes to stay in Argentina because he arrives as an asylee and then he will have refugee status,\" Argentina\'s Foreign Affairs Minister F…

Staff (2019-12-12). Judiciary Panel Takes First Steps Toward Impeachment Vote. truthdig.com WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee took the first steps Wednesday evening toward voting on articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, beginning a marathon two-day session to consider the historic charges. | The Judiciary meeting is to mark up, or amend, the two articles of impeachment that Democrats introduced Tuesday. Those articles charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress related to his dealings with Ukraine. | The articles aren\'t expected to be changed, though, as Democrats are unlikely to accept any amendments proposed by Republicans unified against Trump\'s impea…

George Ochenski (2019-12-12). Pride Goeth Before the Fall. counterpunch.org The hammer of impeachment is finally falling on Donald Trump\'s occupancy of the White House. For many, it\'s taken far too long to get to the point where an obviously corrupt individual with a very long record of shady dealings, illicit financial transactions and bankruptcies now faces a process in which he has no control. More

WSWS (2019-12-12). The impeachment crisis and its political consequences. wsws.org Regardless of the its final outcome in the House and Senate, the impeachment proceedings will have reactionary and dangerous repercussions.

Lenny Siegel (2019-12-12). Impeachment Eve Vigil. indybay.org Gateway Park, Castro Street and El Camino Real, Mountain View…

Kris De Decker (2019-12-12). We Can\'t Do It Ourselves. counterpunch.org How to live a more sustainable life? This question generates a lot of debate that is focused on what individuals can do in order to address problems like climate change. For example, people are encouraged to shop locally, to buy organic food, to install home insulation, or to cycle more often. But how effective is individual More

news.un (2019-12-12). \'Embrace the transformation\' to a carbon-neutral world by 2050, UN chief tells COP25. news.un.org With millions of workers increasingly affected by the climate crisis the route to securing livelihoods in the future lies in a wholesale transformation of how we power the planet and manage our resources, the UN chief said on Thursday, at a COP25 climate action event focused on greener jobs.

Basav Sen (2019-12-12). Most Americans Support Phasing-Out Fossil Fuels…Isn\'t That Worth a Headline? counterpunch.org Last month, The Washington Post reported on the results of a poll it conducted with the Kaiser Family Foundation earlier this year. The poll had remarkable finding: nearly half — 46 percent — of American adults believe the U.S. needs to \"drastically reduce\" fossil fuel use in the near future to address the climate crisis, while another 41 More

Michael T. Hertz (2019-12-12). Small steps against climate change. nationofchange.org Let\'s start thinking about ways such as this to stop necessary waste.

BPBNSP (2019-12-12). Author Talk: Peter Kalmus on \"Being the Change: Live Well & Spark a Climate Revolution\" indybay.org Book Passage Bookstore & Cafe in the Ferry Building, 1 Ferry Building Ste 42, San Francisco, California 94111…