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Category: Journalism

Netanyahu Demands Additional US Foreign Aid After Iran Deal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos. (YouTube screenshot)
February 5, 2016
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Netanyahu Demands Additional US Foreign Aid After Iran Deal

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

Israel receives billions of dollars in military aid from the United States each year, and it may start receiving even more next year, according to widely quoted statements from the nation’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Apartheid Israel currently receives $3.1 billion in aid annually which, together with Egypt, accounts for 75 percent of all U.S. foreign military aid. Israel also receives additional U.S. funds for other projects, including its Iron Dome missile defense system.

Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, Netanyahu insisted that Israel will need even more funding over the next 10 years to maintain its military edge in the wake of the nuclear deal with Iran.Agence France-Presse reported on Jan. 21:

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Leak Reveals Denver Police Use Undercover ‘Shadow Teams’ To Target Protest Leaders
In this November 12, 2011 photograph, a row of riot police block a path in Denver's Lincoln Park during the eviction of Occupy Denver. (Flickr / Daniel Holton)
February 4, 2016
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Leak Reveals Denver Police Use Undercover ‘Shadow Teams’ To Target Protest Leaders

Posted in Journalism, MintPress News, and Occupy Wall Street

A leaked police manual reveals how Denver police respond to marches and other forms of protest, including their use of undercover “platoons” of officers to pick out leaders for later arrest.

On Jan. 19, Unicorn Riot, an independent media collective with several members in the state, published a heavily redacted version of the 2011 edition of the “Denver Police Department Crowd Management Manual” obtained through a Colorado Open Records Act request. Days later, an anonymous source sent them an unredacted copy of the 2008 edition of the manual. The two editions appear to have few differences and the policies described in both versions match the behavior of police toward protests, according to activists and journalists interviewed by MintPress News.

“This manual has been a tremendous help to our reporting in terms of understanding the police apparatus that is deployed at protests,” representatives of Unicorn Riot told MintPress by email.

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After Bottling Michigan’s Clean Water, Nestle Comes Under Fire For Ties To Snyder Admin
In this January 21, 2016 photograph, a member of the U.S. Air Force, working with the Flint Water Response Team, distributes bottled water to Flint, Michigan residents. (Flickr / Michigan State Police)
February 3, 2016
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After Bottling Michigan’s Clean Water, Nestle Comes Under Fire For Ties To Snyder Admin

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

As celebrities, corporations and citizens alike donates thousands of gallons of bottled water to the lead-poisoned residents of Flint, Michigan, Nestle, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of bottled water, has come under fire for its ties to the state’s water woes.

The global food and drink giant teamed up with Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi to deliver up to 6.5 million bottles of water to 10,000 school students in Flint. Celebrities including Madonna and Jimmy Fallon have pledged tens of thousands of dollars toward relief efforts.

Although Nestle controls over 70 bottled water brands, some local activists are pushing back against the company’s involvement in relief efforts. On Sunday, New Era Detroit published a warning: “On the behalf of New Era Detroit we ask that you not purchase Nestle’s or Ice Mountain bottle (sic) water which is owned by Nestle.”

Read moreAfter Bottling Michigan’s Clean Water, Nestle Comes Under Fire For Ties To Snyder Admin
Local Doctor Tried To Warn About Flint Water Crisis In August
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha tells Democracy Now! how she fought to expose the poisoning of kids in the Flint Water Crisis. (YouTube screenshot)
January 30, 2016
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Local Doctor Tried To Warn About Flint Water Crisis In August

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Though widespread outcry has only recently erupted over the people of Flint, Michigan, being poisoned by lead in the city’s tap water, activists and local medical experts had been sounding the alarm about the issue well before it became a national headline. Lead poisoning leads to irreparable brain damage and may be linked to a recent outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease.

Gov. Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency earlier this month amid widespread demands for his resignation after it became apparent that the people of Flint have been drinking lead-contaminated water for two years.

Flint’s water crisis stretches back to April 2014, when Darnell Earley, the city’s state-appointed emergency manager, switched Flint’s water supply to the polluted and corrosive Flint River. In January 2015, the city warned 100,000 residents that their water may contain toxic levels of trihalomethanes, or THMs, a byproduct of chlorination that has been linked to cancer, kidney and liver failure, and birth defects.

Residents had been getting sick for months prior to that warning, according to an April 2015 report from Laura Gottesdiener. Writing for Al-Jazeera America, Gottesdiener relayed the experiences of one Flint family:

Read moreLocal Doctor Tried To Warn About Flint Water Crisis In August
Myanmar’s Rohingya Genocide Is Aided By Friends In High Places
In this September 9, 2015 photograph, a Rohingya woman and child stand by a dilapidated structure under a gray sky in a refugee camp. (Flickr / EU / ECHO / Pierre Prakash)
January 28, 2016
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Myanmar’s Rohingya Genocide Is Aided By Friends In High Places

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

In 2012, after centuries of tension, Myanmar’s Buddhist majority began oppressing the nation’s Muslim minority, forcing them into concentration camps and carrying out widespread murder and genocidal acts.

But more than racism and bigotry have inflamed tensions in this South Asian country, as the United States and its allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel enable the atrocities through their foreign aid and military power.

In June, The Economist called the Rohingya “the most persecuted people on earth,” noting that their suffering has intensified since 2012. That year, “140,000 Rohingyas were forced into squalid refugee camps after the local Buddhists turned on them,” and since then, “their situation has been especially dire.”

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Cobalt: Mined By Children For Use In Your Favorite Gadgets’ Rechargeable Batteries
A group of children work stones to extract cobalt by hand. Children as young as two years transport, wash, and crush minerals to earn half a dollar a day. (Photo: The Carter Center/ G. Dubourthoumieu)
January 28, 2016
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Cobalt: Mined By Children For Use In Your Favorite Gadgets’ Rechargeable Batteries

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

In recent years, activists and independent media have brought attention to “conflict minerals,” key components in technology that are often sourced from war-torn countries. And a recent report from a major human rights group sounds the alarm on a largely overlooked metal that’s being mined by thousands of children and underpaid adults in Africa.

Amnesty International issued the results of its detailed investigation into the sourcing of cobalt, a rare metal that forms a crucial ingredient of lithium-based rechargeable batteries, in a Jan. 19 report. According to the authors, more than half the world’s cobalt comes from Congo, including at least 20 percent which comes from so-called “artisanal miners” in the southern part of the country.

“These artisanal miners, referred to as ‘creuseurs’ in the DRC, mine by hand using the most basic tools to dig out rocks from tunnels deep underground,” according to the report, “This Is What We Die For.” “Artisanal miners include children as young as seven who scavenge for rocks containing cobalt in the discarded by-products of industrial mines, and who wash and sort the ore before it is sold.”

Read moreCobalt: Mined By Children For Use In Your Favorite Gadgets’ Rechargeable Batteries