How a Turkish leftist gave his life to save Kurdish Kobane
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/22/turkish-activistisil.html
In the widening crisis emanating from Syria, Agirnasli’s profile stands out among the hundreds of men and women from Turkey — most of them ethnic Kurds — fighting in Kobane and the other parts of Syria.
Most of the estimated 15,000 volunteer foreign fighters who have been flooding into that theater of war are joining ISIL and other armed groups. But Agirnasli was fighting against them, making him one of the few non-Kurds, perhaps a few dozen men and women, who have taken up arms against ISIL.
Question for Obama’s Syria plan: Who are the ’moderate’ rebels?
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/2/syria-moderate-rebels1.html
The problem, analysts say, is that turning the foundering FSA into a force capable of beating both the Assad regime and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) would require far more help than anyone, including the U.S., is willing to give them. The FSA is currently the weakest force on the ground in Syria, a result not only of inadequate foreign backing compared with that of rival Islamist and extremist factions, but of its own internal divisions, byzantine leadership structure (based in Turkey) and rampant corruption. (...)
(...)
... Obama’s plan to give limited backing to “moderate” rebels is more widely interpreted as a means of equalizing the balance on the battlefield in the hope of forcing Assad to the bargaining table, not defeating him, and of creating viable ground forces to partner the ongoing U.S.-led airstrikes against ISIL in northern and eastern Syria.
According to Joshua Landis, a leading U.S. Syria scholar based at the University of Oklahoma, “the last thing we want to do is destroy the rest of government-controlled Syria. There would be millions more refugees pouring into Lebanon and Jordan, and we’d turn the rest of Syria’s cities into Aleppo and Homs," two cities that have been gutted by the three-year civil war.
“Frankly we’ve seen too many failed states fill up with jihadist militias,” he said. “The FSA wouldn’t bring unified rule in Syria, they would bring Somalia, just like you’ve already got in the north.”
Money for nothing: Mincome experiment could pay dividends 40 years on | Al Jazeera America
►http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/8/26/dauphin-canada-cash.html
Money for nothing: Mincome experiment could pay dividends 40 years on
Ukraine’s prosecution of former Slovyansk mayor alarms rights groups | Al Jazeera America
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/21/ukraine-s-prosecutionofformerslovyanskmayoralarmsrightsgroups.htm
The trial of Slovyansk’s former mayor Nelya Shtepa on charges of colluding with pro-Russian separatists — despite the fact that she says they held her hostage — has alarmed rights groups, who say her case is just one of many in which the right to a fair trial is taking a backseat to Kiev’s focus on putting down the rebellion in the east.
Shtepa is awaiting trial on charges that she violated the highest level of Ukraine’s law on separatism. If convicted, she could face life in prison. In April, armed pro-Russian separatists stormed administrative offices in Slovyansk, where she served as mayor from 2010 until this spring. Her lawyers say the rebels took her hostage for nearly three months, forcing her to make videotaped statements in support of the separatist movement. Her lawyers say she was released only when Ukrainian forces retook the city.
Only days later Shtepa was arrested by Ukrainian authorities, with prosecutors citing the videos as evidence that she collaborated with the rebel groups.
Le procès à Kharkiv inquiète les associations pour les Droits humains mais, surtout, n’est pas de bon augure pour l’application de l’amnistie prévue par les accords de Minsk…
Syria and Iraq : Why US policy is fraught with danger
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-and-iraq-us-policy-is-fraught-with-danger-9722276.html
Patrick Cockburn
En Irak, le nouveau gouvernement est à peine moins sectaire que le précédent,
The new [Iraqi] government may be less divisive than the old one – it would be difficult to be more – but only to a limited degree.
... the Sunni are more terrified of the return of vengeful Iraqi government forces than they are of Isis.
They have reason to be frightened since revenge killing of Sunni are taking place in Amerli, the Shia Turkoman town whose two-month siege by Isis was broken last month by Shia and Kurdish fighters aided by US air strikes. Mass graves of Shia truck drivers murdered by Isis are being excavated and local Sunni are being killed in retaliation. The family of a 21-year-old Sunni man abducted by militiamen was soon afterwards offered his headless body back in return for $2,000 (£1,240).
In the 127 villages retaken by the Kurds from Isis under the cover of US air strikes, the Sunni Arab population has mostly fled and is unlikely to return. Often Sunni houses are burnt by Shia militiamen and in one village Kurdish fighters had reportedly sprayed over the word “apostate” placed there by Isis and instead written “Kurdish home”.
(...)
En Syrie, la #CIA, peu convaincue par les « modérés » des wahhabites, a constitué ses propres « modérés »,
Isis will be difficult to defeat in Iraq because of Sunni sectarian solidarity. But the reach of Isis in Iraq is limited by the fact that Sunni Arabs are only 20 per cent of the 33 million population. In Syria, by way of contrast, Sunni Arabs make up at least 60 per cent of Syrians, so Isis’s natural constituency is larger than in Iraq. Motorised Isis columns have been advancing fast here, taking some 35 per cent of the country and inflicting defeats both on other Syrian opposition fighters, notably Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate, and on the Syrian army. Isis is now within 30 miles of Aleppo, the largest city in Syria before the war.
(...)
The US is now desperately trying to persuade Turkey to close the border effectively, but so far has only succeeded in raising the price charged by local guides taking people across the frontier from $10 to $25 a journey.
(...)
... Mr Obama (...) will (...) step up a pretence that there is a potent “moderate” armed opposition in Syria, capable of fighting both Isis and the Syrian government at once. Unfortunately, this force scarcely exists in any strength and the most important rebel movements opposed to Isis are themselves jihadis such as #Jabhat_al-Nusra, #Ahrar_al-Sham and the #Islamic_Front. Their violent sectarianism is not very different to that of Isis.
Lacking a moderate military opposition to support as an alternative to Isis and the Assad government, the US has moved to raise such a force under its own control. The Free Syrian Army (FSA), once lauded in Western capitals as the likely military victors over Mr Assad, largely collapsed at the end of 2013. The FSA military leader, General Abdul-Ilah al Bashir, who defected from the Syrian government side in 2012, said in an interview with the McClatchy news agency last week that the CIA had taken over direction of this new moderate force. He said that “the leadership of the FSA is American”, adding that since last December US supplies of equipment have bypassed the FSA leadership in Turkey and been sent directly to up to 14 commanders in northern Syria and 60 smaller groups in the south of the country. Gen Bashir said that all these FSA groups reported directly to the CIA. Other FSA commanders confirmed that the US is equipping them with training and weapons including TOW anti-tank missiles.
It appears that, if the US does launch air strikes in Syria, they will be nominally in support of the FSA which is firmly under US control. The US is probably nervous of allowing weapons to be supplied to supposed moderates by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies which end up in the hands of Isis. The London-based small arms research organisation Conflict Armament Research said in a report this week that anti-tank rockets used by Isis in Syria were “identical to M79 rockets transferred by Saudi Arabia to forces operating under the Free Syrian Army umbrella in 2013”.
In Syria and in Iraq Mr Obama is finding that his policy of operating through local partners, whose real aims may differ markedly from his own, is full of perils.
For US, finding right allies in Syria will be tough
Hannah Allam
▻http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/09/11/239590_turkish-aid-to-al-qaida-linked.html
Yet the Syrian Opposition Coalition, the closest thing Obama has to an alternative to the Assad government, called the explosion that killed the jihadists a deliberate attempt to “silence the voice of #moderation.” Only in polarized Syria, with the Islamic State skewing the curve, could such a group seriously be considered mainstream.
Joshua Landis :
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/15/why-syria-is-thegordianknotofobamasantiisilcampaign.html
U.S. intelligence estimates that Syrian rebels are organized into more than 1,500 groups of widely varying political leanings. They control a little less than 20 percent of Syrian territory. Those designated as moderate rebel forces control less than 5 percent of Syria. To arm and fund them without first unifying them under a single military and political command would be to condemn Syria to rebel chaos.
The U.S. is arming and funding 12 to 14 militias in northern Syria and 60 more groups in the south, according to the head of the Syrian Opposition Coalition. These militias have not, thus far, been particularly successful on the battlefield, and none has national reach. Most are based on one charismatic commander or a single region and have not articulated clear ideologies. All depend on foreign money.
The vast majority of Syria’s rebel groups have been deemed too Islamist, too sectarian and too anti-democratic by the U.S. — and these are the groups ranged against the ISIL. They span the Salafist ideological gamut, from al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front to the 40,000-strong conglomeration of rebel forces united under the banner of the Islamic Front. Despite U.S. skepticism, some of the Sunni Arab regimes Obama has courted as key allies in the anti-ISIL effort have worked with these groups.
Gulf countries reportedly poured money into the Islamic Front until the U.S. convinced them to stop. Islamic Front leaders decried democracy as the “dictatorship of the strong” and called for building an Islamic state. Zahran Alloush, the military chief of the Islamic Front spooked Americans by insisting that Syria be “cleansed of Shias and Alawites.” The newly appointed head of Ahrar al-Sham and the political chief of the Islamic Front earned his stripes in the ranks of the Iraqi insurgency fighting the U.S.
Turkey insists that the U.S. arm these anti-ISIL Islamist rebel groups, including the Nusra Front. Disagreement over which rebels to back is one of the reasons Ankara has refused the U.S. requests to use Turkish territory to train rebel forces and as a base from which to carry out attacks on ISIL. The United States’ principal allies simply do not agree on which rebel forces are sufficiently moderate to qualify for support.
Money for nothing: #Mincome experiment could pay dividends 40 years on | Al Jazeera America
►http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/8/26/dauphin-canada-cash.html
In a 2011 study she reported an 8.5 percent drop in hospital visits, a decrease in emergency room visits from car accidents and fewer recorded instances of domestic abuse. There was also a reduction in the number of people who sought treatment for mental health issues. And a greater proportion of high school students continued to the 12th grade.
As with U.S. experiments during the same period, there was no evidence that it led people to withdraw from the labor market, according to her research. “It’s surprising to find that it actually works, that people don’t quit their jobs,” said Forget, a University of Manitoba professor. “There’s this fear that if we have too much freedom, we might misuse it.”
Israel to expel Palestinian MP from her home | Middle East Eye
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-expel-palestinian-mp-her-home-1780536963
Israeli army forces stormed the house of a Palestinian politician in the West Bank on Wednesday after a court decision to expel from her home on grounds of posing a threat to public security.
Khalida Jarrar, a prominent MP with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine party who lives in Al-Bireh, said the Israeli court did not say when she would be expelled.
Démocratie à l’israélienne. (Rien trouvé en français, mais ils vont certainement se réveiller !)
La camarade Jarrar objet d’une ordonnance d’expulsion à Jéricho par les forces d’occupation sionistes
Par FPLP / Traduction : André Comte
▻http://www.ism-france.org/communiques/La-camarade-Jarrar-objet-d-une-ordonnance-d-expulsion-a-Jericho-par-les-
20.08.2014 - La maison de Ramallah de la camarade Khalida Jarrar, dirigeante du Front Populaire pour la Libération de la Palestine, avocate de longue date des prisonniers politiques palestiniens et membre du Conseil Législatif Palestinien, a été attaquée par des soldats de l’occupation mercredi matin, 20 août, où il lui a été remise une « ordonnance de surveillance spéciale » ordonnant son transfert forcé à Jéricho dans les 24 heures.
L’ordonnance avait été rendue par un tribunal militaire d’occupation et les soldats d’occupation ont tenté de contraindre Jarrar à signer le document, qui était écrit en hébreu et lu à haute voix en arabe, affirmant que le tribunal militaire d’occupation avait ordonné son transfert forcé à Jéricho à cause des services de renseignement sionistes, ainsi qu’une carte des limites de la ville de Jéricho.
...El-Bireh (...) an area in which the PA is supposed to exercise full jurisdiction.
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/8/20/gaza-truce-fail.html
Une députée palestinienne refuse un ordre d’expulsion israélien de Ramallah
▻http://www.romandie.com/news/Une-deputee-palestinienne-refuse-un-ordre-dexpulsion-israelien-de_RP/509812.rom
Ramallah (Territoires palestiniens) - Une députée de la gauche palestinienne interdite de séjour par Israël à Ramallah a indiqué jeudi qu’elle refusait de partir et a entamé un sit-in avec d’autres parlementaires au siège du Conseil législatif dans cette ville de Cisjordanie occupée.
Khalida Jarrar, cadre du Front populaire de libération de la Palestine (FPLP), a expliqué que des soldats israéliens étaient entrés par la force chez elle mercredi à l’aube pour lui signifier un ordre d’expulsion de Ramallah vers Jéricho, une autre ville de Cisjordanie, où elle devrait rester six mois.
Je ne respecterai pas cet ordre d’expulsion car c’est mon droit de vouloir rester dans mon lieu de résidence, a-t-elle dit, en ajoutant avoir contacté ses avocats pour suivre l’affaire.
Accompagnée par plusieurs membres du Conseil législatif palestinien (CLP, Parlement), des personnalités politiques et des membres d’associations de défense des droits de l’Homme, Mme Jarrar a installé une tente au siège du CLP où elle compte observer un sit-in pour protester contre cette mesure.
Une telle mesure est rare et il s’agirait de la première depuis le début des années 1990, selon Raji Sourani, directeur du Centre palestinien des droits de l’Homme (PCHR). Il a parlé d’une pratique d’un autre âge et contraire au droit international.
Selon Mme Jarrar, le tribunal militaire israélien l’accuse de mettre en danger la sécurité de la région. Mme Jarrar a dit ignorer complètement ce qu’on lui reproche exactement.
Les soldats, accompagnés de policiers, lui ont remis une carte lui spécifiant les zones de Jéricho dans lesquelles elle était autorisée à se déplacer, a-t-elle ajouté.
Mme Jarrar a été la première députée du FPLP élue au Parlement palestinien. Elle a été en charge du dossier des détenus palestiniens dans les prisons israéliennes au sein du CLP.
Selon le Club des prisonniers palestiniens, basé à Ramallah, une trentaine de membres du Parlement, y compris son président, Aziz Dweik, un dirigeant du Hamas, sont actuellement détenus par Israël.
(©AFP / 21 août 2014 21h04)
Families recall the hard choices behind decision to migrate
Beyond the rhetoric of the immigration debate, undocumented migrants tell their stories of danger and deliverance
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/18/undocumented-immigrantsusa.html
#témoignage #migration #USA #Etats-Unis #facteurs_push #motivation #raison #choix
#Canada tar sands linked to cancer in native communities, report says | Al Jazeera America
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/8/canada-oil-cancer.html
Canada’s tar sands development, in the Alberta province, has been linked to environmental contaminants in wildlife and increasing incidences of cancer in indigenous communities, a new report released this week said.
“This report confirms what we have always suspected about the association between environmental contaminants from [tar] sands production upstream and cancer and other serious illnesses in our community,” Mikisew Cree First Nation (MCFN) Chief Steve Courtoreille said in a press release Monday. “We are greatly alarmed and demand further research and studies are done to expand on the findings of this report.”
Et quelques articles en #Suisse sur la #Nati, l’#équipe_nationale de #foot qui est composée surtout de #joueurs d’origine étrangère, et notamment des #Balkans...
La #YugoSvizzera al Mondiale
Questione di qualche giorno, precisamente il primo luglio, e anche l’allenatore avrà un cognome slavo. Il tedesco Hitzfeld dirà «Auf Wiedersehen» lasciando il posto al croato/bosniaco/svizzero Petkovic sulla panchina de “La Nati”, la nazionale rossocrociata.
▻http://www.24emilia.com/Sezione.jsp?titolo=La%2520YugoSvizzera%2520al%2520Mondiale&idSezione=59842
#coupe_du_monde #football #Brésil
Et toute une polémique quand #Carlo_Sommaruga (PS) a écrit sur FB cette phrase, après la victoire de la Suisse :
La Suisse gagne. Les forces vives de la migration sont remerciées chaleureusement !
(je ne copie pas la polémique...)
Je posterai ici d’autres articles ou autres sur cette histoire de la #Yougosuisse
Quoi, la Nati ?
Comme tu le vois écrit, mais avec l’accent tonique sur le « a » —> essaie : Naaati !
(et plus tu es bernois et plus il y a de aaaaa)
Quel cri pour encourager la Nati ?
Episode 4/16. Une capsule de Contre-pied, avec Philippe Leuba, Michel Chevalet, Marc Bonnant, Esther Mamarbachi, Mgr Alain de Raemy, Noé Philipona, Michel Zendali, Marianne Huguenin,...
▻http://www.rts.ch/video/web-sport/contre-pied/5918057-quel-cri-pour-encourager-la-nati.html
Moi je dirais « Hopp Suisse » (même si ce n’est pas de mon canton, ça... mais nous au Tessin on ne dit même pas la « Nati »... c’est un truc de swisstoto ça ("swisstoto" = suisses allemands).
Mais je dois dire que « Jura libre », c’est pas mal... même si ça n’a rien à voir !
Voici la composition de la Nati, si jamais vous voulez vous amuser avec les noms de famille...
Coupe du monde 2014, la sélection suisse
Gardiens :Diego Benaglio/Wolfsburg, Roman Bürki/Grasshopper, Yann Sommer/Bâle.
Défenseurs : Yohan Djourou/Hambourg, Michaël Lang/Grasshopper, Stephan Lichtsteiner/Juventus, Ricardo Rodriguez/Wolfsburg, Fabian Schär/Bâle, Philippe Senderos/Valence, Steve Von Bergen/Young Boys, Reto Ziegler/Sassuolo.
Milieux : Tranquillo Barnetta/Francfort, Valon Behrami/Naples, Blerim Dzemaili/Naples, Gelson Fernandes/Freiburg, Gökhan Inler/Naples, Admir Mehmedi/Freiburg, Xherdan Shaqiri/Bayern Munich, Valentin Stocker/Bâle, Granit Xhaka/Mönchengladbach.
Attaquants : Josip Drmic/Nuremberg, Mario Gavranovic/Zurich, Haris Seferovic/Real Sociedad.
L’équipe de Suisse est la plus multiculturelle de la Coupe du Monde
L’équipe suisse de football est celle de la Coupe du Monde dont les membres ont le plus d’attaches dans d’autres pays, met en lumière une #infographie.
▻http://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/5932449-l-equipe-de-suisse-est-la-plus-multiculturelle-de-la-coupe-du-monde.html
Pour voir l’infographie :
▻http://codehesive.com/wc-ancestry
Switzerland’s team challenges Europe’s anti-immigrant feeling
The Swiss squad in Brazil features a high concentration of players from an immigrant background
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/19/switzerland-immigrantssoccer.html
Peut-être que là, c’est un poil exagéré...
Coupe du Monde 2014 : la #Yougoslavie s’est reformée en Suisse
Neuf des vingt-trois membres de l’équipe suisse de football sont originaires de l’ex-Yougoslavie. De jeunes joueurs prometteurs, souvent nés en Suisse, et qui assument pleinement leur identité multiculturelle.
Statut FB d’@AldoBrina, de @StopExclusion, que je partage, évidemment...
Moi je me méfie beaucoup des analyses de société basées sur le football... tout le monde est uni dans le chaudron du multiculturalisme quand l’équipe gagne, mais quand l’équipe perd il se passe quoi ? Vous voyez, on vous l’avait bien dit, ça marche pas... Alors qu’au fond, tout ça ne dépend que d’une performance sportive. La France black-blanc-beur championne du monde en 1998 n’a pas empêché la montée du sarkozysme lepéniste. Et le multiculturalisme n’a pas empêché l’équipe de France de sombrer 4 ans plus tard. Sans parler de ce que dit de notre pays le fait qu’on retrouve des noms des Balkans dans l’équipe de foot, et pas au Parlement ni dans le CA de Nestlé. Alors bon ok le mondial, la bière et les buts provoquent l’euphorie, je comprends, mais faut pas trop déconner non plus.
Titre mieux réussi !
Mondial : la Suisse ne veut plus d’immigrés, sauf ceux qui la font gagner
L’adversaire de la France est composé à 60% d’enfants de l’immigration, souvent des Balkans. Un vivier en sursis depuis le référendum en Suisse contre l’immigration, en février.
▻http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/2014/06/20/suisse-veut-plus-dimmigres-sauf-ceux-font-gagner-coupe-monde-253054
La Mannschaft « new look », un baromètre de la diversité migratoire
Jusqu’à très récemment, la sélection allemande comptait peu ou pas de joueurs d’origine immigrée. Explications.
Here’s What World Cup Teams Would Look Like If Immigrants Weren’t Allowed To Play
It’s not just morons throwing bananas on the field.
Far-right political parties are gaining ground in France and the Netherlands.
Most of Germany’s soccer hooligans are now neo-Nazis. And this spring, Switzerland voted to curb immigration, defying the spirit of laws that allow citizens freedom of movement across the European Union.
▻http://www.businessinsider.com/world-cup-teams-without-immigrants-2014-6
Switzerland’s unlikely World Cup heroes
The name of Switzerland’s most famous historical hero is, of course, William Tell. More recently, a man called Roger Federer has joined the hall of fame.
RTS | La Suisse et ses #héros nationaux
Regarez cette balle de la 6ème minute. Le ballon qui s’envoute, qui frôle le fer. Une seconde seulement, qui libère tout un pays, et un homme aussi : Shaqiri. Un seul homme, un autre suisse, un autre héro avait jusque là réussi à tirer pareil. C’était #Guillaume_Tell. (…) Techniquement parfait, sur ce coup-là Shaqiri a mérité son statut de héro national. (…) Oui, bien sûr, il y a le talent, mais quand on est capable de mettre trois buts dans un match de Coupe du monde, c’est qu’il y a autre chose. Il y a du papa et maman, des mots que seul un fils connaît. La Suisse aujourd’hui serait bien inspirée de dire merci à toute la famille #Shaqiri.
La méthode EIIL en Syrie et en Irak : terreur et action sociale
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2014/06/18/entre-terreur-et-soft-power-l-eiil-conforte-son-pouvoir_4439163_3218.html
l’action sociale de l’EIIL (ça vient d’Al-Jazeera, c’est dire si c’est critique !) ▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/10/with-the-fall-ofmosulmalikilosesmoreiraqiground.html
For at least the past year, elements of the ISIL have been running an extortion racket in Mosul, targeting trucking companies and taxing local businesses for “protection” — further bolstering their financial independence from other armed groups.
Ah là là, ces journalistes fâchés avec les maths : il semble nécessaire de citer un quotidien américain qui a trouvé une source pour calculer 425 millions divisés par (12 fois 450), et obtenir 60.000. C’est un procédé journalistique que j’ai toujours trouvé amusant : il faut un argument d’autorité pour exposer une bête division (pour être vraiment impartial, je pense qu’il faudrait citer une autre source contestant ce résultat mathématique…)
Rien qu’à Mossoul, l’EIIL aurait dérobé 425 millions de dollars, a indiqué au Monde son gouverneur en exil. Une somme, estime l’analyste Brown Moses, cité par le Washington Post , lui permettant de « verser à 60 000 soldats une solde mensuelle de 450 euros pendant un an ».
Bon, alors d’accord, 425 millions divisé par (12x450), ça fait 78.700, pas 60.000. Brown Moses qui était jusqu’ici présenté comme un data-blogueur spécialiste de l’apparition des différents types d’armes en Syrie, semble désormais cité comme calculatrice approximative.
(Après, dilemme classique : on créé de nouveaux emplois ou on s’augmente nos salaires ?)
Hunter Biden, Joe’s Son, Joins Ukraine Gas Company - Business Insider
▻http://www.businessinsider.com/hunter-biden-joes-son-ukraine-gas-company-burisma-holdings-2014-5
Hunter Biden, the youngest son of Vice President Joe Biden, has been appointed to the board of directors of Ukraine’s largest private-gas producer.
The company, Burisma Holdings, announced Biden’s appointment on its website Tuesday. Burisma said Biden would be the new head of the company’s legal unit.
Biden’s Son, Kerry Family Friend Join Ukrainian Gas Producer’s Board - WSJ.com
▻http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303851804579560542284706288?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F
Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings Is Controlled by Former Energy Official Under Yanukovych
“I believe that my assistance in consulting the company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine,” Biden said, according to a statement released by the company.
White House: No conflict with Biden’s son working for Ukraine gas company | Al Jazeera America
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/14/ukraine-biden-gas.html
Youths sue U.S. government over climate inaction | Al Jazeera America
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/4/youth-sue-governmentforclimateinaction.html
Supported by more than 30 environmental and constitutional professors, the young plaintiffs name six federal agencies in their suit — the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and Defense departments.
“The welfare of youth is directly affected by the failure of government to confront human-made climate change, and unless the government acts immediately to rapidly reduce carbon emissions ... youth will face irrevocable harm: the collapse of natural resource systems and a largely uninhabitable nation,” reads the complaint.
In addition to the federal suit, actions were filed in all 50 states, with help from Our Children’s Trust, an Oregon-based nonprofit that supports young people through legal efforts.
The scale of the campaign is unprecedented, according to law professor Mary Wood, faculty director at the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program at the University of Oregon.
“Never before in the history of our laws have we seen a coordinated set of legal actions on this scale,” she said.
The monumental campaign matches the magnitude of the problem, supporters say.
Réchauffement climatique : des milliers de jeunes Américains attaquent leur gouvernement devant les tribunaux | Slate.fr
▻http://www.slate.fr/monde/86751/rechauffement-climatique-jeunes-americains-attaquent-gouvernement
Problème : cette cour a annoncé qu’elle annulait l’audition des arguments des plaignants qui devait avoir lieu le 2 mai 2014, se fondant sur les documents écrits. Pour l’avocat des jeunes, Thomas Beers, cela signifie que la cour estime que le cas est assez clair et n’a pas besoin d’auditions en plus du dossier, épais de plusieurs centaines de pages et disposant d’un appui scientifique fort en la personne de James Hansen, chercheur de la Nasa à la retraite qui se consacre à la défense de la cause environnementale, explique Al Jazeera.
Mais des experts juridiques estiment qu’il s’agit en revanche d’un mauvais signe pour les jeunes plaignants, qui ont auparavant essuyé plusieurs rejets en première instance. Professeur de droit soutenant la cause des jeunes, Patrick Parenteau regrette ce choix :
« Il est dommage que la cour choisisse de ne pas donner aux jeunes plaignants l’opportunité d’une audience dans un cas d’une telle importance pour lequel les enjeux sont nouveaux et impliquent des réclamations solides. »
L’argument juridique avancé, la doctrine dite de la confiance commune (« Public trust doctrine »), dérive du droit romain et du concept de propriété commune de certains biens comme les ressources naturelles, lesquelles doivent être protégées par le gouvernement. C’est la juriste Mary Wood, explique le site Policy Mic, qui a développé la stratégie juridique portée par les adolescents.
Selon elle, la doctrine était déjà bien établie par la jurisprudence pour ce qui concernait la protection de l’eau et de la vie sauvage. Son travail a consisté à l’adapter à la protection de l’atmosphère. L’objectif est d’obliger les institutions fédérales à prendre des mesures de régulation en faveur de l’environnement, en arguant du droit constitutionnel à une atmosphère saine et à un climat stable.
(...)
Karl Coplan, professeur de droit à New York qui fait partie des soutiens aux plaignants, affirme que « ce cas, qui cherche à établir des protections constitutionnelles pour les générations de la même manière que le cas Brown contre le Board of Education a établi une protection pour les Africains-Américains, pourrait être le cas en appel le plus important que a cour d’appel de Washington aura à entendre avant longtemps », relate Nature World News. Les décisions des cours d’appel des #Etats-Unis, organisées par grandes régions, ayant historiquement une influence politique forte.
Emails reveal close Google relationship with NSA | Al Jazeera America May 6, 2014 by Jason Leopold
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/6/nsa-chief-google.html
But Al Jazeera has obtained two sets of email communications dating from a year before #Snowden became a household name that suggest not all cooperation was under pressure.
On the morning of June 28, 2012, an email from Alexander invited Schmidt to attend a four-hour-long “classified threat briefing” on Aug. 8 at a “secure facility in proximity to the San Jose, CA airport.”
“The meeting discussion will be topic-specific, and decision-oriented, with a focus on Mobility Threats and Security,” Alexander wrote in the email, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the first of dozens of communications between the #NSA chief and Silicon Valley executives that the agency plans to turn over.
Alexander, Schmidt and other industry executives met earlier in the month, according to the email. But Alexander wanted another meeting with Schmidt and “a small group of CEOs” later that summer because the government needed Silicon Valley’s help.
“About six months ago, we began focusing on the security of mobility devices,” Alexander wrote. “A group (primarily Google, Apple and Microsoft) recently came to agreement on a set of core security principles. When we reach this point in our projects we schedule a classified briefing for the CEO’s of key companies to provide them a brief on the specific threats we believe can be mitigated and to seek their commitment for their organization to move ahead … Google’s participation in refinement, engineering and deployment of the solutions will be essential.” (...)
The classified briefing cited by Alexander was part of a secretive government initiative known as the Enduring Security Framework (ESF), and his email provides some rare information about what the ESF entails, the identities of some participant tech firms and the threats they discussed.
Un trafic e-mail révèle des liens étroits entre la NSA et Google - actualité - Datanews.be - Datanews.be
▻http://datanews.levif.be/ict/actualite/un-trafic-e-mail-revele-des-liens-etroits-entre-la-nsa-et-google/article-4000621362982.htm
In small towns with local investment, print journalism is thriving | Al Jazeera America
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/29/newspapers-localownership.html
via @cdb_77
MARYVILLE, Mo. — Newspapers aren’t dead yet.
Far from it in this town of 12,000 nestled among the rolling hills of northwestern Missouri, where the daily paper has returned to local ownership for the first time in decades and where a competing weekly continues to thrive.
In what’s been called a David and Goliath strategy, Phil Cobb, who previously worked as the general manager of The Maryville Daily Forum, bought the paper in December at what he called “a bargain basement price” from GateHouse Media as the company was going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Hunger strike by 750 immigrants at Washington state detention centre
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed that 750 detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Washington state have refused to eat and say they are on a hunger strike.
An immigrant activist said the hunger strike started on Friday as a protest against deportations as well as conditions at the centre.
The centre currently houses nearly 1,300 people being investigated for possible deportation.
An ICE spokesman, Andrew Munoz, said the agency respected the right of people to express their opinions without interference. The detainees are under continuous observation by centre staff and medical personnel.
Activist Maru Mora said the hunger strikers are seeking better food and treatment as well as better pay for centre jobs.
ICE detention standards state that a detainee who has not eaten for 72 hours is considered to be on a hunger strike.
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/08/hunger-strike-immigrants-washington-detention-centre
#grève_de_la_faim #grève_de_la_faim_de_groupe #détention #rétention #USA #Washington #migration #expulsion
#vidéo: 750 on Hunger Strike at Washington State Immigration Prison
Around 750 prisoners at a Washington state immigration jail have launched a hunger strike. The strikers at the Northwest Detention Center are protesting the Obama administration’s record deportations as well as poor conditions that include wages of just one dollar a day for prison labor. Some areas of the prison have been locked down, and around 30 people are reportedly being held in isolation or crowded cells. Speaking on Friday, two prisoners appealed for public support.
Prisoner 1: “So that they give us better food, so that they give us lower prices on what they sell here in the commissary, and so that they stop the deportations.”
Prisoner 2: “I’m hoping we can get some support from all the people who are listening, because, don’t believe what you hear, life in here is not very easy. They have us here working for one dollar a day. We work for four hours, five hours sometimes, and for just one dollar.”
The prison is run by The GEO Group, a contractor for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. According to The Nation magazine, GEO recently violated a pledge to refrain from lobbying Congress on immigration reform, presumably in favor of for-profit jails.
▻http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/10/headlines/750_on_hunger_strike_at_washington_st_immigration_prison
Immigrant detention centre hunger strike in fourth day
About 150 people are on the fourth day of a hunger strike at an immigration detention centre in the US state of Washington, officials say.
Lawyer: Immigrant hunger strikers threatened with force-feeding
As strike enters sixth day, Washington state detainees report increased retaliation
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/11/immigrant-hungerstrikersthreatenedwithforcefeeding.html