The top general in the United States dodged questions on a timeline for U.S. withdrawals from Afghanistan after President TrumpDonald John TrumpDes Moines mayor says he’s worried about coronavirus spread at Trump rally Judiciary Committee Democrats pen second letter to DOJ over Barrett disclosures: ‘raises more questions that it answers’ Trump asks campaign to schedule daily events for him until election: report MORE said all U.S. troops “should” be “home by Christmas.”
In an interview with NPR that aired Monday morning, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark MilleyMark MilleyOvernight Defense: Pentagon retracing steps of top officials after positive coronavirus case | Trump suggests Gold Star families could have infected him | VP debate brings up military topics No. 2 Marine general tests positive for COVID-19 Portland: The Pentagon should step up or pipe down MORE would not discuss specific plans but insisted the United States would “responsibly” end the war.
“We’re on a plan to do a responsible, deliberate drawdown to about 4,500 here very shortly,” Milley said. “And then future drawdowns will be determined by the president. And I’m not going to disclose specific numbers and what those are. The whole agreement and all of the drawdown plans are conditions-based, and I expect that we’ll have further discussions on the conditions and ensure that they warrant.”
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“The key here is that we’re trying to end a war responsibly, deliberately, and to do it on terms that guarantee the safety of the U.S. vital national security interests that are at stake in Afghanistan,” he continued.
Milley gave the interview from his home in Virginia, as he continues quarantining after exposure to the coronavirus.
Trump last week sowed confusion about the U.S. plan in Afghanistan by tweeting that “we should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas.”
The wording of the tweet made it unclear if Trump had actually ordered a withdrawal or was trying to appeal to voters in the final stretch of the presidential campaign by claiming he is fulfilling his promise to end so-called forever wars.
Further stoking confusion, the tweet came hours after national security adviser Robert O’Brien announced a drawdown to 2,500 troops in Afghanistan by early 2021.
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Milley during the NPR interview dismissed O’Brien’s announcement as speculation in the first comments from a military official since the confusion last week.
“I think that Robert O’BrienRobert O’BrienMeadows: Decision expected later Monday on Trump return to White House National security adviser says Trump will stay a Walter Reed for ‘another period of time’ Trump aide Hope Hicks tests positive for COVID-19 MORE or anyone else can speculate as they see fit. I’m not going to engage in speculation,” Milley said. “I’m going to engage in the rigorous analysis of the situation based on the conditions and the plans that I am aware of and my conversations with the president. And then when we get to the point where we have further discussions and further decisions, those will be appropriately made public.”
The U.S. military drew down to about 8,600 troops over the summer, in line with the Trump administration’s agreement with the Taliban. Trump and other administration officials have previously said the U.S. military is now in the process of lowering that number to about 4,500 by Election Day.
The U.S.-Taliban deal, signed in February, called for a full U.S. withdrawal by May 2021. But the deal stipulates that will only happen if the Taliban upholds its commitment to deny safe haven to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups intent on attacking the West. U.S. military officials have previously said the Taliban has not yet broken with al Qaeda.
Trump’s talk of a full withdrawal also followed negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban, which got underway last month after months of delay.
Asked about the effect a full withdrawal would have on those peace talks and security in Afghanistan, Milley said that would be part of his consideration in advising the president, but again refused to “speculate” on specifics.
“I don’t think, frankly, it would be appropriate — and I know you wouldn’t want me to — to speculate in an open forum on what I might advise the president on what those risks are,” Milley told NPR. “I think that I owe that advice to him and I owe it in the confines and privacy of discussions between his military adviser and himself.”
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Iraqi officials and state television were reporting Sunday that airstrikes late Friday did wound Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Al-Baghdadi was “critically wounded” when a U.S.-led air strike targeted the western Iraqi border town of al-Qaim, tribal sources told Al Arabiya News Channel.
The Guardian reported earlier Sunday:
Some claimed that on Sunday, ISIS spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani tweeted: “Do you think the Caliphate would end with the Caliph’s death? We announce leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is in well, and wish him a speedy recovery.”
But others were skeptical, suggesting the account was fake and that the news of injury was a hoax.
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Seven students at Harvard University, among the most prestigious and wealthiest educational institutions in the world, have filed a lawsuit against the corporate entity which governs the school charging that refusal to divest its financial holdings from the fossil fuel industry is a “mismanagement of charitable funds” and a violation of its obligations to the future of the university as well as the planet.
Filed in a Massachusetts court, the legal complaint (pdf) states that because the Harvard endowment is currently invested in the coal, gas, and oil companies to the tune of $79 million, the school is directly contributing to the industry most responsible for the destructive global warming and subsequent climate change fueled by carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases.
“[We are] suing on behalf of future generations. By investing in the extraction of fossil fuels, the Harvard Corporation is actively supporting the destruction of the earth’s atmosphere and the catastrophic consequences that will be visited upon our children and grandchildren. It is our duty to give voice to these coming generations and to hold the Corporation accountable for its reckless and shortsighted behavior.” —Harvard Climate Justice CoalitionAccording to Kelsey Skaggs, one of the plaintiffs and a graduate law student from Alaska, “The Harvard Corporation refuses to acknowledge the moral implications of its investments.” She said she hope the lawsuit will the school and its trustees face their “legal obligation to stop causing harm by supporting climate change and the fossil fuel companies that are working against solutions.”
Another plaintiff, graduate student Benjamin Franta from Iowa, added, “Climate change is now causing harm through mortality, economic damage and political instability. The Harvard Corporation has a moral and legal duty to avoid investing in activities that cause such grave harms to its students and the public.”
According to The Crimson, the university’s newspaper, the suit was filed in the Suffolk County Superior Court and “names the Harvard Corporation, the Harvard Management Company, and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha M. Coakley as defendants in the case. HMC oversees Harvard’s more than $36 billion endowment.”
In an op-ed published in the Boston Globe, the students, members of the Harvard Climate Justice Coalition, explained their motivations and the logic of the lawsuit:
According to the New York Times, which received an exclusive on the story:
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LIMA, Peur – For more than 10 years, Mildred Crawford has been “a voice in the wilderness” crying out on behalf of rural women in agriculture.
Crawford, 50, who grew up in the small Jamaican community of Brown’s Hall in St. Catherine parish, was “filled with enthusiasm” when she received an invitation from the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) to be part of a civil society contingent to the 20th session of the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP20), where her voice could be heard on a much bigger stage.
“Many countries are actually putting their own money into adaptation because they don’t have any other option, because they can’t wait for a 2015 agreement or they can’t wait for international climate finance flows to get to them.” —UNFCCC chief Christiana FigueresBut mere days after arriving here for her first-ever COP, Crawford’s exhilaration has turned to disappointment.
“I am weary, because even in the side events I don’t see much government representatives coming to hear the voice of civil society,” she told IPS.
“If they are not here to hear what we have to say, there is very little impact that will be created. Already there is a gap between policy and implementation which is very serious because we talk the talk, we don’t walk the talk.”
Crawford said women farmers often do not get the attention or recognition they deserve, pointing to the important role they play in feeding their families and the wider population.
“Our women farmers store seeds. In the event that a hurricane comes and resources become scarce, they would share what they have among themselves so that they can have a rebound in agriculture,” she explained.
WFO is an international member-based organisation whose mandate is to bring together farmers’ organisations and agricultural cooperatives from all over the world. It includes approximately 70 members from about 50 countries in the developed and emerging world.
The WFO said its delegation of farmers is intended to be a pilot for scaling up in 2015, when the COP21 will take place in Paris. It also aims to raise awareness of the role of smallholder agriculture in climate adaptation and mitigation and have it recognised in the 2015 UNFCCC negotiations.
The negotiations next year in Paris will aim to reach legally-binding agreements on limits on greenhouse gas emissions that all nations will have to implement.
Diann Black-Layne speaks for a much wider constituency – Small Island Developing States (SIDS). She said adaptation, finance and loss and damage top the list of issues this group of countries wants to see addressed in the medium term.
“Many of our developing countries have been spending their own money on adaptation,” Black-Layne, who is Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador on climate change, told IPS.
She said SIDS are already “highly indebted” and “this is borrowed money” for their national budgets which they are forced to use “to fund their adaptation programmes and restoration from extreme weather events. So, to then have to borrow more money for mitigation is a difficult sell.”
The executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres agrees that such commitments by developing countries needs to be buttressed with international climate finance flows, in particular for the most vulnerable.
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“There is no doubt that adaptation finance needs to increase. That is very clear that that is the urgency among most developing countries, to actually cover their adaptation costs and many countries are actually putting their own money into adaptation because they don’t have any other option, because they can’t wait for a 2015 agreement or they can’t wait for international climate finance flows to get to them (so) they are actually already doing it out of their own pocket,” Figueres said.
Loss and Damage is a facility to compensate countries for extreme weather events. It also provides some level of financing to help countries adjust to the creeping permanent loss caused by climate change.
“At this COP we are focusing on financial issues for loss and damage,” Black-Layne said. “In our region, that would include things like the loss of the conch industry and the loss of the fishing industry. Even if we limit it to a two-degree warming, we would lose those two industries so we are now negotiating a mechanism to assist countries to adapt.”
In the CARICOM region, the local population is highly dependent on fish for economic and social development. This resource also contributes significantly to food security, poverty alleviation, employment, foreign exchange earnings, development and stability of rural and coastal communities, culture, recreation and tourism.
The subsector provides direct employment for more than 120,000 fishers and indirect employment opportunities for thousands of others – particularly women – in processing, marketing, boat-building, net-making and other support services.
In 2012, the conch industry in just one Caribbean Community country, Belize, was valued at 10 million dollars.
A landmark assessment presented Wednesday to governments meeting here at the U.N. climate summit said hundreds of billions of dollars of climate finance may now be flowing across the globe.
The assessment – which includes a summary and recommendations by the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance and a technical report by experts – is the first of a series of assessment reports that put together information and data on financial flows supporting emission reductions and adaptation within countries and via international support.
The assessment puts the lower range of global climate finance flows at 340 billion dollars a year for the period 2011-2012, with the upper end at 650 billion dollars, and possibly higher.
“It does seem that climate finance is flowing, not exclusively but with a priority toward the most vulnerable,” Figueres said.
“That is a very, very important part of this report because it is as exactly as it should be. It should be the most vulnerable populations, the most vulnerable countries, and the most vulnerable populations within countries that actually receive climate finance with priority.”
The assessment notes that the exact amounts of global totals could be higher due to the complexity of defining climate finance, the myriad of ways in which governments and organisations channel funding, and data gaps and limitations – particularly for adaptation and energy efficiency.
In addition, the assessment attributes different levels of confidence to different sub-flows, with data on global total climate flows being relatively uncertain, in part due to the fact that most data reflect finance commitments rather than disbursements, and the associated definitional issues.
© 2019 Inter Press Service
Wikileaks on Thursday has made public a never-before-seen internal review conducted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency that looked at the agency’s drone and targeted assassination programs in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere.
The agency’s own analysis, conducted in 2009, found that its clandestine drone and assassination program was likely to produce counterproductive outcomes, including strengthening the very “extremist groups” it was allegedly designed to destroy.
Here’s a link to the document, titled (pdf).
In one of the key findings contained in the CIA report, agency analysts warn of the negative consequences of assassinating so-called High Level Targets (HLT).
“The potential negative effect of HLT operations,” the report states, “include increasing the level of insurgent support […], strengthening an armed group’s bonds with the population, radicalizing an insurgent group’s remaining leaders, creating a vacuum into which more radical groups can enter, and escalating or de-escalating a conflict in ways that favor the insurgents.”
Wikileaks points out that this internal prediction “has been proven right” in the years since the internal review was conducted near the outset of President Obama’s first term. And despite those internal warnings—which have been loudly shared by human rights and foreign policy experts critical of the CIA’s drone and assassination programs—Wikileaks also notes that after the internal review was prepared, “US drone strike killings rose to an all-time high.”
Reached by the Washington Post on Thursday for response, CIA spokesperson Kali J. Caldwell said the agency would not comment “on the authenticity or content of purported stolen intelligence documents.”
According to a statement released by Wikileaks:
Given exclusive access to the CIA document ahead of its public release, the Sydney Morning Herald’s Philip Dorling reported earlier on Thursday:
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Dozens of people in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County brought work towards a natural gas pipeline to a halt on Monday, charging that the project threatens a Native American cultural site and their rural way of life.
The protesters, who include area residents and a local chapter of the American Indian Movement, gathered along the Conestoga River and encircled a rig which was drilling for core samples at the site of a proposed pipeline, according to a statement from the group.
The drilling was for part of the Oklahoma-based Williams Partners’ proposed $3 billion Atlantic Sunrise Project, a pipeline network that would pass through ten Pennsylvania counties, bringing gas from the Marcellus Shale to as far south as Georgia. It is slated to be in service in 2017.
The project has met strong opposition from area communities, and Lancaster County resident Carlos Whitewolf of the American Indian Movement vowed in November: “We will stand in front of your bulldozers. We will show up in big numbers, and you will have a war on your hands.” But the pipeline opponents were dealt a defeat last month, when a Community Bill of Rights Ordinance that would have blocked the pipeline from Conestoga Township failed.
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Monday’s action, the protesters say, marks the first time they’re using civil disobedience to disrupt Williams Partners’ operations. But it might not be the last.
“Well over half of registered voters in Conestoga support an ordinance outright banning this pipeline,” Leslie Bunting of Conestoga said in a media statement. “This action is an enforcement of the will of the people of Conestoga Township. The people of Conestoga Township are stopping this drilling today and any day in the future that Williams attempts it.”
Follow NoPipelinesLancaster’s Twitter feed as the action unfolds: Tweets by @NoLancPipelines
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In the wake of the NSA mass surveillance scandal, an overwhelming majority of investigative journalists believe that the U.S. government is spying on them, and large numbers say that this belief impacts the way they go about their reporting, a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday reveals.
The findings are based on a December online survey, conducted in association with Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, of 671 journalists who are members of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., which is a non-profit organization for journalists.
According to the poll, approximately two out of three investigative journalists believe the U.S. government “has probably collected data” from their phones, emails, or online communications.
For national security, foreign affairs, and federal government reporters, the number is even higher at 71 percent.
Eighty percent of respondents think that their status as a journalist makes them more likely to be snooped on.
These beliefs have real repercussions.
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Under the threat of surveillance, journalists are changing the way they go about their work, as the following graph summarizing report data shows:
According to the study, journalists have little faith in their internet service providers, and mixed trust in the outlets and organizations they work for, to protect the security of their communications.
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The survey follows numerous warnings from journalists that, in a digital age, the threat of federal snooping threatens the basic fabric of reporting, including establishing and communicating with sources.
“As the government stores more and more data, it will become next to impossible for journalists to keep sources confidential,” wrote Geoffrey King of the Committee to Protect Journalists in an article published last year.
“Regardless of whether the NSA’s programs are as carefully targeted as it claims, the agency’s infamous secrecy and expansive capabilities have cast a deep shadow on press freedom worldwide,” he continued.
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Russia on Friday reported its highest daily increase in newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to The Associated Press.
The government’s coronavirus task force recorded 12,126 infections Friday, bringing the country to a total of nearly 1.3 million cases, with 22,000 deaths.
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Russia has the fourth-highest number of reported COVID-19 cases, behind the United States, India and Brazil.
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The AP reported that the Russian government has no plan to impose a second lockdown after the country has already lifted most of the restrictions it had placed on businesses and activities in the spring.
However, Moscow has encouraged businesses to have one-third of employees work from home, with this month’s school holidays in the capital extended from one to two weeks, according to the AP.
In August, Russian President Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinOvernight Defense: Pentagon retracing steps of top officials after positive coronavirus case | Trump suggests Gold Star families could have infected him | VP debate brings up military topics Not treason, not a crime — but definitely a gross abuse of power Pence targets Biden over ISIS hostages, brings family of executed aid worker to debate MORE announced that the country had become the first in the world to grant regulatory approval for a COVID-19 vaccine.
The Russian leader claimed during a government meeting broadcast on state television that the vaccine underwent clinical testing and had proven to offer immunity from the coronavirus.
However, Reuters noted at the time that the approval was granted by Russian health officials after just two months of human testing.
The approval of the vaccine came ahead of the start of critical third phase of trials, which normally take months and involve thousands of participants.
More than 100 possible COVID-19 vaccines are being developed around the world, including four in the U.S., as countries race to come up with a treatment that could stop the spread of the infection.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released Friday warned that there is an “urgent need” to address the spread of the coronavirus among young adults.
The study found that increases among transmission in younger people are often a precursor to transmission among older, higher-risk people.
The study examined 767 counties in June and July that were “hot spots,” meaning they had high levels of virus spread. The study found that the spread of the virus, measured by the percentage of positive tests, began rising first in people aged 24 and under, before later rising in older, more vulnerable age groups.
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The findings “provide evidence that among young adults, those aged 18–24 years demonstrate the earliest increases in percent positivity; and underscore the importance of reducing transmission from younger populations to those at highest risk for severe illness or death,” the study said
“Addressing transmission among young adults is an urgent public health priority,” it added.
The CDC study’s emphasis on slowing the spread of the virus among young people stands in contrast to the strategy often articulated by President TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden campaign raises over M on day of VP debate Trump chastises Whitmer for calling him ‘complicit’ in extremism associated with kidnapping scheme Trump says he hopes to hold rally Saturday despite recent COVID-19 diagnosis MORE to “protect the vulnerable” while allowing younger, lower-risk people to go on with their lives.
“We are aggressively sheltering those at highest risk, especially the elderly, while allowing lower-risk Americans to safely return to work and to school,” Trump said in his Republican National Convention speech in August.
Many experts have warned that given that young people can transmit the disease to older people, the best way to protect the vulnerable is to reduce the spread of the virus overall.
“As we often say in public health: there is no peeing section of the swimming pool,” tweeted Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, tweeted last month. “We’re in this together.”
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The study found that positivity rates began increasing for people aged 24 and under 31 days before a county was identified as a hot spot. Older groups’ positivity only started rising later and also peaked after the spread of the virus had already peaked among younger people.
There was regional variation, as the South and West saw more of the trend of transmission among the young later becoming transmission among the old than the Northeast and Midwest.
A separate CDC study released Friday found that young people reported “social or peer pressure to not wear a mask,” as well as “exposure to misinformation” and “conflicting messages” about the importance of masks.
“Exposure to misinformation and unclear messages has been identified as a driver of behavior during an outbreak, underscoring the importance of providing clear and consistent messages about the need for and effectiveness of masks,” the study states.
A major energy company is seeking to reach net-zero methane emissions by 2030 in its gas business.
Duke Energy, which provides energy in the South and Midwest, hopes that methane emissions from its natural gas operations will be net-zero at that time.
Net-zero emissions does not mean that there won’t be any emissions, but rather that companies may try to limit emissions, and the impacts of those that remain may be offset by environmental projects.
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As part of an overall net-zero strategy by 2050, the company released a plan stating that it intends 49 percent of its energy to be coming from natural gas in 2030. It will also aim to have 20 percent coming from renewables and 12 percent from coal.
Methane is the main component of natural gas, but other gases like carbon dioxide may also be emitted and the net-zero methane goal does not apply to those other gases. Methane is significantly more potent than carbon dioxide.
The strategy for getting to net-zero methane involves using new technology to improve monitoring emissions and carrying out damage-prevention initiatives to reduce accidental leaks.
Although some of the initiatives are based on new technologies and pilot programs, Duke’s senior vice president for natural gas Sasha Weintraub expressed optimism that they would be successful.
“The technology is developing fast,” he said. “The fact that there’s satellites now focused on methane detection is relatively new. I think they’ll get better and better over the next decade. We’re pretty confident that the technology’s going to be there to allow us to get to a net zero goal.”
Duke also funds forestry or agriculture projects to try to offset the remaining emissions. Weintraub said that he hopes that the majority of the effort will be based on emissions reductions rather than offsets.
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He said the company would try to drive emissions reductions “as much as we can,” but added that “there will always be some remainder just by the nature of having a pipeline system” that would need to be tackled with offsets.
Advocates tout natural gas as a cleaner solution than other fossil fuels because burning it emits less carbon. However, many environmentalists oppose its usage because its emissions still contribute to climate change.
In response to Duke’s announcement, Dave Rogers, Southeast deputy regional campaign director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, criticized the company’s continued reliance on gas.
“Making these changes will further cement Duke’s dependence on gas, which is a dangerous fossil fuel that is not, and never will be, clean or renewable. Duke should not be praised for a plan that further endangers our climate, health, safety, and economy,” Rogers said. “Instead it should make a plan to phase gas out and use those savings to meet its own clean energy goals.”
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