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For many Syrians, Qassem Suleimani is the man who brutalised millions just to save Bashar Al Assad

For many Syrians, Qassem Suleimani is the man who brutalised millions just to save Bashar Al Assad

Kareem Shaheen writes: The voice on the other end of the line sounded like nothing I had heard before. There was a gasping, exhausted weakness to it, as though the young man whose voice it was had put every ounce of energy he had left into articulating the words. It was the voice of somebody who was being starved to death. The young man was a resident of Madaya, a town of about 40,000 people near the Syrian-Lebanese border. It…

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‘We are not safe’: India’s Muslims tell of wave of police brutality

‘We are not safe’: India’s Muslims tell of wave of police brutality

The Guardian reports: It was midnight at a police barracks in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and in a freezing windowless room about 150 Muslim men and boys sat huddled, bloodied and bruised. Some of the shivering prisoners had raw gashes across their hands and faces, others had broken limbs splayed out at awkward angles. The beatings from police came frequently, according to multiple corresponding accounts; to those who asked for water or closed their eyes in drowsiness or…

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Army general denies request by officer pardoned by Trump to have his Special Forces tab reinstated

Army general denies request by officer pardoned by Trump to have his Special Forces tab reinstated

The Washington Post reports: An Army general has denied a request by an officer pardoned in an open murder case by President Trump to have his Special Forces tab reinstated, setting up a potential flashpoint with the commander in chief. The decoration for retired Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn was denied Dec. 3 by Lt. Gen. Francis M. Beaudette, the commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command, the Army disclosed Thursday. The service said in statement that it will next…

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In Australia’s burning forests, signs we’ve passed a global warming tipping point

In Australia’s burning forests, signs we’ve passed a global warming tipping point

InsideClimate News reports: As extreme wildfires burn across large swaths of Australia, scientists say we’re witnessing how global warming can push forest ecosystems past a point of no return. Some of those forests won’t recover in today’s warmer climate, scientists say. They expect the same in other regions scarred by flames in recent years; in semi-arid areas like parts of the American West, the Mediterranean Basin and Australia, some post-fire forest landscapes will shift to brush or grassland. More than…

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Trump’s deep state

Trump’s deep state

Politico reports: In recent days, one aide to President Donald Trump has blitzed the media to talk about troop deployments, deterrence and the likelihood of American bombs raining down on Iranian soil. It’s not the man who leads the Pentagon. Instead, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has seized the spotlight amid the escalating U.S. confrontation with Iran. As he’s done so, he’s come across to some observers as an unofficial secretary of defense, overshadowing the actual defense secretary. Pompeo’s omnipresence…

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‘Insulting and demeaning’: Two GOP lawmakers rip Trump administration after Iran briefing

‘Insulting and demeaning’: Two GOP lawmakers rip Trump administration after Iran briefing

NBC News reports: Lawmakers came away with vastly different interpretations of two classified briefings that top Trump administration officials held Wednesday about the airstrike last week that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, with two Republican senators sharply criticizing the officials. “It was probably the worst briefing I’ve seen at least on a military issue in the nine years I’ve served in the United States Senate,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said. Lee said he left the briefing “somewhat unsatisfied” with…

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Arsonist-in-chief: Republicans praise Trump for cooling a crisis of his own making

Arsonist-in-chief: Republicans praise Trump for cooling a crisis of his own making

Politico reports: Capitol Hill breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday as President Donald Trump pulled the nation back from the brink of all-out war with Iran — with even some of the GOP’s staunchest defense hawks applauding Trump’s restrained response to the Iranian counter-attack. “A homerun speech by President Trump about the challenges we face with Iran. It was measured and firm,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s top allies in Congress. On the other end of the…

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The Trump we did not want to see

The Trump we did not want to see

Jamelle Bouie writes: Much of the work of H.P. Lovecraft, an American horror and science fiction writer who worked during the first decades of the 20th century, is defined by individual encounters with the incomprehensible, with sights, sounds and ideas that undermine and disturb reality as his characters understand it. Faced with things too monstrous to be real, but which exist nonetheless, Lovecraftian protagonists either reject their senses or descend into madness, unable to live with what they’ve learned. It…

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Some administration officials believe Iran intentionally missed areas with Americans

Some administration officials believe Iran intentionally missed areas with Americans

CNN reports: There is a growing belief among some Trump administration officials that Iran’s missiles intentionally missed areas populated by Americans when they targeted two Iraqi bases housing US troops early Wednesday local time, multiple administration officials said. Iran fired a number of missiles aimed at the bases in retaliation for the American strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani last week, further escalating tensions between the two countries. Officials have said there were no US casualties as a result…

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U.S. officials knew Iranian missiles were coming hours in advance

U.S. officials knew Iranian missiles were coming hours in advance

The Washington Post reports: The Iranian missile strike on American locations in Iraq on Tuesday was a calibrated event intended to cause minimal American casualties, give the Iranians a face-saving measure and provide an opportunity for both sides to step back from the brink of war, according to senior U.S. officials in Washington and the Middle East. White House officials were bracing as early as Tuesday morning for Iran to respond to the U.S. killing last week of Qasem Soleimani,…

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Evangelicals using religion for political gain is nothing new. It is an American tradition

Evangelicals using religion for political gain is nothing new. It is an American tradition

Reverend William Barber writes: Last Friday the Trump 2020 campaign held its first rally at a megachurch. King Jesus international ministries, located outside of Miami, Florida, hosted the Evangelicals for Trump Coalition kick-off. Before boasting about his commitment to fight for the religious right’s agenda, the president bowed his head to receive prayers from prosperity preacher Paula White and other religious nationalists who offer spiritual cover for a corrupt and immoral administration. As a bishop of the church, I am…

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Shoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism

Shoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism

Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff wrote a monumental book about the new economic order that is alarming. “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism,” reveals how the biggest tech companies deal with our data. How do we regain control of our data? What is surveillance capitalism?  

Pelosi and McConnell are playing high-stakes poker

Pelosi and McConnell are playing high-stakes poker

Benjamin Wittes and Quinta Jurecic write: We are now entering the third week of the staring contest between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over when the House of Representatives will deliver its articles of impeachment to the Senate, and under what circumstances. It’s time for some game theory. The standoff stems from McConnell’s proposal for how to proceed with the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump: Pelosi has accused McConnell of violating his oath of…

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Americans face political interrogation by U.S. border patrol before being allowed to return home

Americans face political interrogation by U.S. border patrol before being allowed to return home

The New York Times reports: Arriving at the United States border in Washington State early Sunday morning after a skiing trip to Canada, Negah Hekmati and her family were pulled out of line for further questioning by Customs and Border Protection agents. The family found itself in a room filled with fellow Iranian-Americans, many of whom had already been held for hours. The agents wanted to know the identities of Ms. Hekmati’s parents, siblings, uncles and cousins. Her husband, a…

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Qassem Soleimani’s pivotal role in propping up the Assad dictatorship

Qassem Soleimani’s pivotal role in propping up the Assad dictatorship

Al-Jumhuriya reports: In 2011, Soleimani was promoted to the rank of Major General. It was no accident that this came at the height of the Arab Spring, which the Iranian regime saw as an existential battle to preserve its regional power. The strategy conceived by Tehran to confront the threat of democratic revolution had Syria at its very center. Following the outbreak of Syria’s uprising in the spring of 2011, Iran swiftly determined to stand by Bashar al-Assad and secure…

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