Saudi crown prince ‘tried to persuade Netanyahu to go to war in Gaza,’ say sources

Saudi crown prince ‘tried to persuade Netanyahu to go to war in Gaza,’ say sources

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Middle East Eye reports: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attempted to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to start a conflict with Hamas in Gaza as part of a plan to divert attention from the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, sources inside Saudi Arabia have told Middle East Eye. A war in Gaza was among a range of measures and scenarios proposed by an emergency task force set up to counter increasingly damaging leaks about Khashoggi’s murder coming from…

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After 17 years, many Afghans blame U.S. for unending war

After 17 years, many Afghans blame U.S. for unending war

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The Associated Press reports: When U.S. forces and their Afghan allies rode into Kabul in November 2001 they were greeted as liberators. But after 17 years of war, the Taliban have retaken half the country, security is worse than it’s ever been, and many Afghans place the blame squarely on the Americans. The United States has lost more than 2,400 soldiers in its longest war, and has spent more than $900 billion on everything from military operations to the construction…

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U.S. joins Russia, North Korea in refusing to sign cybersecurity pact

U.S. joins Russia, North Korea in refusing to sign cybersecurity pact

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Caroline Orr reports: More than 50 countries signed onto a historic cybersecurity pact Monday as part of the Paris Peace Forum, marking an important step forward in the global fight against cyberwarfare and criminal activity on the internet. In addition to the governments that pledged to work together to combat malicious online activities, at least 150 tech companies and 90 charitable organizations and universities also signed onto the agreement. However, there were a few notable absences from the list of…

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‘I see him as a modern day Pablo Escobar’: Inside Bill Browder’s war against Putin

‘I see him as a modern day Pablo Escobar’: Inside Bill Browder’s war against Putin

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Marie Brenner reports: Perhaps all you need to know to understand the essense of Bill Browder is what he carried with him in his briefcase when he lived in Putin’s Russia. “At all times,” he told me not long after we met, “I had $5,000 in cash in case I had to flee for the border and pay off the guards.” Bill Browder’s stories are melodramas. They often begin with a ringing phone—or a knock on a door. In May…

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Time for a Green New Deal?

Time for a Green New Deal?

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Grist reports: Democrats successfully flipped the House last week, and they’ve set their priorities for January: reforming voting, government ethics, and campaign finance laws. Surprise! Climate change isn’t on the list. Not exactly a shocker considering that Democrats don’t even have an economy-wide plan to tackle climate change yet. Guess who does? Young people and newly elected Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A group of 150 youth activists held an hour-long sit-in in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office in D.C….

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The war and the silence

The war and the silence

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At the end of the First World War at 11 AM, on November 11, 1918, the guns fell silent. A piece of film depicting a recording of that moment has been used by Coda to Coda to create an audio interpretation of this event. Their insertion of some birdsong after the gunfire stops appears to have been a bit of poetic license, although this detail has some historical basis. The German novelist Ernst Jünger (1895-1998) fought on the Western Front:…

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How World War I ushered in the century of oil

How World War I ushered in the century of oil

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The Navy converted to oil from coal a few years before the U.S. entered World War I, helping to solidify petroleum’s strategic status. Naval History and Heritage Command By Brian C. Black, Pennsylvania State University On July 7, 1919, a group of U.S. military members dedicated Zero Milestone – the point from which all road distances in the country would be measured – just south of the White House lawn in Washington, D.C. The next morning, they helped to define…

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What happened beyond the Western Front

What happened beyond the Western Front

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Priya Satia writes: Baghdad’s fall in 1917 was hailed as “the most triumphant piece of strategy … since war started.” It enforced the military establishment’s commitment to the “cult of the offensive” and convinced Prime Minister David Lloyd George to make Jerusalem a “Christmas gift” to his people—just when the Battle of Passchendaele, the major 1917 Allied offensive on the Western Front, ended in failure. These campaigns preserved British morale despite the grim news from France. The fall of Jerusalem…

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Trump fooled himself about North Korean nuclear disarmament

Trump fooled himself about North Korean nuclear disarmament

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The New York Times reports: North Korea is moving ahead with its ballistic missile program at 16 hidden bases that have been identified in new commercial satellite images, a network long known to American intelligence agencies but left undiscussed as President Trump claims to have neutralized the North’s nuclear threat. The satellite images suggest that the North has been engaged in a great deception: It has offered to dismantle a major launching site — a step it began, then halted…

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‘Tell your boss’: Recording is seen to link Saudi crown prince more strongly to Khashoggi killing

‘Tell your boss’: Recording is seen to link Saudi crown prince more strongly to Khashoggi killing

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The New York Times reports: Shortly after the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed last month at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, a member of the kill team instructed a superior over the phone to “tell your boss,” believed to be Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that the operatives had carried out their mission, according to three people familiar with a recording of Mr. Khashoggi’s killing collected by Turkish intelligence. The recording, shared last month with the C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel,…

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The health of an ecosystem (including your home) depends on its biodiversity

The health of an ecosystem (including your home) depends on its biodiversity

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William Foster writes: Rob Dunn invites us on a safari in pursuit of the wildlife teeming on our bodies and in every corner of our homes. For him, the creatures that sprawl in the human navel and under the bathroom shower head elicit the kind of wonder most of us would feel only on seeing the denizens of Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater or the Great Barrier Reef off Australia. Dunn is more than an informed and entertaining commentator, a David Attenborough…

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In remembering WWI, Macron warns of resurging ‘old demons’ of nationalism

In remembering WWI, Macron warns of resurging ‘old demons’ of nationalism

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The Associated Press reports: World leaders with the power to make war but a duty to preserve peace solemnly marked the end of World War I’s slaughter 100 years ago at commemorations Sunday that drove home the message “never again” but also exposed the globe’s new political fault lines. As Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and dozens of other heads of state and government listened in silence, French President Emmanuel Macron used the occasion, as its host, to sound a powerful…

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Saudis close to crown prince discussed assassinating enemies a year before Khashoggi killing

Saudis close to crown prince discussed assassinating enemies a year before Khashoggi killing

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The New York Times reports: Top Saudi intelligence officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked a small group of businessmen last year about using private companies to assassinate Iranian enemies of the kingdom, according to three people familiar with the discussions. The Saudis inquired at a time when Prince Mohammed, then the deputy crown prince and defense minister, was consolidating power and directing his advisers to escalate military and intelligence operations outside the kingdom. Their discussions, more than…

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