Welcome to the latest edition of NewsHero (beta), November 2, 2019.
NewsHero stories are the result of scanning the entire field of news platforms that cover the spectrum from left to right.
We are always on the lookout, not just for facts and the truth—we are on the lookout for the heroes. When we say there are more heroes in the world than those causing harm, we believe it. You’ll see it in our headlines, our coverage, our editorials and cartoons.
We give you what you need to keep you in the know, but NewsHero readers are always invited to continue the investigation by following our many links to sources into further detail.
Weekly Brief
This week it was reported that while months of democratic protests have gained momentum for governmental change, the demonstrations have also sent Hong Kong into an official recession. There’s been a major drop in tourism, and many U.S. businesses are said to be considering moving assets out of the city.
The People’s Vote campaign for a second Brexit referendum suffered a blow as the group’s head moved to fire two senior staffers. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he’ll abandon the bill for December’s general election if an amendment passes allowing 16-year-olds and EU citizens the eligibility to vote. It was reported on Friday that Johnson is being accused of suppressing a report on Russia’s influence over Brexit. Amid the unrest, six female British lawmakers resigned this week, some claiming intimidation and abuse as the reason. British Parliament speaker John Bercow has also stepped down.
School was back in session Friday as the teachers’ strike in Chicago officially ended. After 11 days of negotiations, the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools reached an agreement that includes reduced class sizes and more nurses and social workers on campuses.
A federal judge has blocked a near-total abortion ban from going forward in Alabama.
More than a dozen family members of victims were scheduled to meet with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg when he testified before Congress this week in his first appearance since two deadly 737 Max crashes.
After nearly two weeks spent inside Manila's international airport, an Iranian beauty queen says she will be killed if sent back home. Bahareh Zare Bahari, a contestant in the recent Miss Intercontinental pageant in Manila, is seeking asylum in the Philippines. She claims Tehran is attempting to silence her because of her public stand against the government.
Amid ongoing mass anti-government protests, Iraq has declared a curfew. Authorities say the night-time curfew is to be in place until further notice. Two protesters have been reported dead with more than 100 wounded.
For months journalists, Indian lawmakers and an American senator had been denied access to the locked-down region of Kashmir, but the Indian government has now allowed a visit by mostly far-right members of the European Parliament.
Human rights groups are investigating the actions of security forces in Chile. Dozens of protesters have been reported as partially blinded by rubber projectiles and gas canisters during weeks of civil unrest. Chile has withdrawn as host of an APEC summit scheduled for this month.
Following a European Union delegation meeting with Sudan’s foreign minister on Wednesday it was announced that EU countries will give Sudan $516 million in grants and humanitarian aid.
South Korean leaders are maintaining readiness as North Korea fires two unidentified projectiles into the sea. The launches are assumed to be weapons testing amid stalled nuclear talks with the U.S.
UN Refugee Agency Expands Syrian Aid
Raid named for U.S. humanitarian results in ISIS leader’s suicide
A Syrian woman is comforted by a UNHCR staff member after arriving at Bardarash refugee camp. UNHCR/Rasheed Hussein Rasheed
UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, is expanding response in northern Iraq amid the continuing Syrian refugee influx. At a press briefing in Geneva, UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said more than12,000 Syrian refugees have now sought shelter in neighboring Iraq. Refugee families are receiving services and humanitarian assistance, including include hot meals, transportation, registration, shelter and protection services. UNHCR teams also conduct protection monitoring, child protection and identification of unaccompanied children and those with specific needs.
The UN, some 30 international aid groups, and approximately 200 non-governmental organizations are still active in northeast Syria, working to provide water, sanitation, shelter, and protection for refugees unable to return home. “Access is limited and the situation on the ground is dire,” said Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs and government relations for Samaritan’s Purse, a U.S.-based NGO that works in northeast Syria. “Neighbors are helping neighbors, which is critical in a situation like this.”
Since military operations increased in northeast Syria early last month, more than 130 civilians have been killed and more than 160,000 have fled, including at least 70,000 children, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Marc-Andre Hensel, World Vision’s Syria response director, said “The situation is complicated, but we know that children will need help with everything from basic items like blankets and soap to mental health services.”
A joint U.S.-British military operation in the outskirts of Barisha, Syria led to the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Operation Kayla Mueller, named for the American human rights activist and humanitarian aid worker killed in 2015 after being captured leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria two years prior, led to the location of al-Baghdadi and his subsequent deployment of a suicide vest.
A U.S. military dog that was injured in the raid is said to be making a full recovery. Conan, a Belgian Malinois, is being hailed as a hero and will soon visit the White House.
The Pentagon has released video of the raid that led to the killing of al-Baghdadi. There are concerns that the leader’s death could usher in a new era for ISIS. We reported last week that more than a hundred ISIS members had escaped since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Syria, while thousands more held captive are causing overcrowding in prisons.
Heavy fighting between Syrian army troops and Turkish forces erupted near Ras al-Ain as Turkish-backed forces seized villages surrounding the border town. Turkish-backed rebels said there were intermittent clashes between the two militaries in recent days south of the town, which Turkey seized from Syrian Kurdish-led forces earlier this month.
By a vote of 405 to 11, the House of Representatives defied the Turkish government’s intimidation and, for the first time in 35 years, passed a resolution on Tuesday that recognized the Armenian genocide. In acknowledging the Ottoman Empire’s killing of more than one million Armenians as “genocide,” the House follows more than two dozen countries and 49 of 50 states.
House Endorses Trump Impeachment Inquiry
Key testimonies continue; Kelly warned Trump of impeachment
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday cast votes on a resolution that sets up the next steps in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. Tom Brenner/Reuters
A divided House of Representatives voted Thursday to endorse the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry into President Trump. The vote was 232 to 196 to approve a resolution that sets out rules for an impeachment process. It was only the third time in modern history that the House had taken a vote on an impeachment inquiry into a sitting president.
This week's run of closed-door interviews with witnesses as part of the impeachment probe has fueled a political war over House Democrats' handling of the process, with Republicans accusing their counterparts of tipping the scale during these sessions even as Speaker Nancy Pelosi tries to clarify rules for the inquiry going forward. In a contentious Rules Committee meeting on Wednesday, Democrats systematically rejected Republican attempts to alter the ground rules that lawmakers will use, as Republicans argued that the proposed procedures are unfair.
House Democrats will put the Intelligence Committee in the lead of the next phase of its impeachment inquiry as the investigation moves into public hearings under the terms of a resolution released this week.
As testimonies from key witnesses continue, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly says he told President Trump during his final days on the job not to hire a “yes man” to succeed him, warning the president that he risked impeachment if he did so. Kelly, in an interview with the Washington Examiner, seemed to place responsibility on acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney: “I said, whatever you do—and we were still in the process of trying to find someone to take my place—I said whatever you do, don’t hire a ‘yes man,’ someone who won’t tell you the truth—don’t do that. Because if you do, I believe you will be impeached.”
Next week lawmakers are scheduled to question John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser, about his frustration with Trump’s allies, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who were pressing Ukraine to investigate Democrats.
The State Department has agreed to turn over records featuring communications with Giuliani on matters related to Ukraine.
Tim Morrison, a White House official asked to testify Thursday in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, is expected to leave the National Security Council imminently, three sources told NPR.
A top National Security Council official testified Thursday that he was told President Trump wanted a top Ukrainian official to announce an investigation that would help the President politically before U.S. security aid to Ukraine would be released, corroborating a key part of U.S. diplomat Bill Taylor's testimony.
UN Releases New Report On Hate Speech
Twitter bans political ads, Facebook defends them
Protest against Islamophobia and hate speech. Flickr/Fibonacci Blue
A new report from the United Nations addresses hate speech as one of the biggest ongoing challenges in the regulation of online speech. David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the freedom of opinion and expression, says that social media companies manage hate speech on their platforms “almost entirely without reference to the human rights implications of their products.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spoken out about his belief in the importance of protecting freedom of expression online, while critics say Zuckerberg takes a limited view on the choices that exist between free expression and censorship.
With Facebook under scrutiny for its recent decision to let politicians post any claims they want, its employees this week drafted a letter asking Facebook leaders to re-think the stance. While the number of signatures on the letter represents just a portion of Facebook’s 35,000-plus team, the company is clearly facing resistance internally over how it treats political ads.
Campbell Brown, Facebook's Head of News Partnership, said she was “astonished” by the response to the company’s decision to run paid political ads with false information, claiming Facebook should not be responsible for deciding which ads are factually correct.
In an apparent response to Facebook’s stand, Twitter has announced that it will ban political advertising from its platform. “We've made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally,” said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. “We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought.” The decision won praise from Democrats and scorn from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
It was reported this week that Facebook has agreed to pay a fine imposed by the U.K.’s data protection watchdog for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The agreement though states that Facebook has made no admission of liability.
In related news, Facebook said it suspended three Russian-backed networks of accounts that were targeting people in eight African countries, while the ACLU is suing the FBI and the Department of Justice over the use of facial recognition technology, citing unprecedented surveillance secrecy.
NewsHero Editorial
Art by Mark Minnig
In a week that saw the announcement that Twitter would remove political advertising from its platform while Facebook defended keeping it (when clearly not for the sake of the revenue it generates), today's cartoon feels especially apt. The notion that the reach of ideas is available to those who can pay the most may be fundamentally at odds with maintaining a healthy and functioning democracy. The same platforms designed to allow the free flow and sharing of ideas, and that have striven for connection, are now facing the fact that what they have created has warped the public discourse by tilting the scales in favor of ideas whose creators have or can raise the most money. Whilst today's social networks did not invent this way of making money and wielding influence they have most certainly improved upon it.
Teen Activist Turns Down Environmental Award
Green groups sue Trump administration, fires still rage in California
A firefighter works with a hose while working on a burning structure during the Kincade fire in Calistoga, California, U.S. October 29, 2019. Reuters/Stephen Lam
In climate news this week, teen activist Greta Thunberg turned down an environmental prize granted to her by the Nordic Council, saying “the climate movement does not need any more awards.” In an Instagram post explaining her decision, Thunberg said that while it was a great honor to receive the prize, what the climate movement needs “is for our politicians and the people in power to start to listen to the current, best available science.”
Two environmental groups, the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, are suing the Trump administration over its plan to open up more than 720,000 acres of federal land in California for oil and gas development. The lawsuit comes nearly four weeks after the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management approved a plan that would allow oil and gas leasing in 11 counties in the Central California coastal region.
A top scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the latest government whistleblower. According to Dr. George Luber, the CDC backed away from its fight against climate change over worries of upsetting the Trump administration. Luber, who worked at the CDC for 17 years, and was the head of its climate and health program until being reassigned last year, says he was even instructed by his superior to use a term other than “climate change” as it made the White House unhappy.
Latest reports indicate that six major wildfires continue to rage in California, with the latest erupting Thursday night just north of Los Angeles and quickly spreading to more than 8,000 acres. The powerful Santa Ana winds have been problematic in fueling the fires, though winds are said to be calming throughout the entire state. Apart from many homes, two of the fires are also threatening the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and the Getty Museum.
Pacific Gas & Electric says it has restored power to “essentially all” of the roughly 1.1 million homes and businesses it cut power to in an effort to prevent new blazes. While calls grow for PG&E to become a public utility, California Governor Gavin Newsom said he would welcome a sale of the bankrupt company to investor Warren Buffett. The troubled company is already fighting off a hostile takeover attempt from its bondholders, a group of hedge funds who have struck an alliance with lawyers representing wildfire victims. Newsom said he would like to see more than hedge funds look at the company.
Part of the Keystone 1 Pipeline in North Dakota was shut down after a leak of more than 380,000 gallons was discovered. TC Energy said the oil leak was discovered in the northeast part of the state and affected about 2,500 square yards of land. A drop in pressure was detected on Tuesday, and the pipeline was immediately shut down. The company says it is uncertain how the leak started, but that an independent party is examining the pipeline.
Meanwhile Al Gore says regenerative farming can help slow climate change, Trump is officially withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, and the Environmental Protection Agency is set to roll back rules to control toxic ash from coal plants.
Doctors Without Borders Reports Violence Against Migrants In Mexico
Arrests of migrant families up 342 percent; detainment conditions dismal
Asylum-seekers inside the Leona Vicario Federal shelter in Ciudad Juarez, October 9, 2019. Guillermo Arias/ACLU
Doctors Without Borders teams in Mexico are reporting an increase in kidnappings and an escalation of violence faced by migrants and refugees on Mexico’s southern border. In testimonies collected in recent weeks by staff providing medical and psychological care to migrants traveling through southeastern Mexico, patients described suffering abduction, torture, extreme violence, cruel treatment, and sexual assault for extortion purposes as soon as they crossed the border from Guatemala into Mexico. “What we are seeing is an exponential growth in the number of kidnappings in this area and an increase in the cruelty and torture methods used by criminal groups operating in this area,” said Gemma Pomares, head of medical activities.
A staff reporter for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently traveled to Mexico to report on the situation there. “Everywhere we went, people told us stories of being kidnapped or extorted while stuck in Mexico. Many were sleeping in tent encampments on the streets while safety across the border was literally within sight, but legally out of reach. Some were packed into shelters set up by the Mexican government, sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder on thin mattresses on the floor of converted warehouses. Others were living in privately-run shelters with no security protocols to prevent intruders from intimidating or preying on them, said the ACLU’s Ashoka Mukpo.
Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, blames the Trump administration and its policies for contributing to the humanitarian crisis in Mexico. “In the past few months, nearly 50,000 vulnerable asylum-seekers have been placed into a cruel program that forcibly returns them to Mexico before their applications are even processed by U.S. immigration authorities,” Jadwat said.
A Customs and Border Protection report released said that arrests of migrant families and unaccompanied children at the southern border reached record highs over the past year, driven by a surge in asylum seekers. Nearly 475,000 migrant families have been arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border, statistics indicating an increase of over 340 percent.
The report also stated that following arrests it was a struggle to “maintain hygienic conditions in the holding cells. With limited access to showers and clean clothing, detainees were wearing soiled clothing for days or weeks.”
In related news, the Trump administration has announced it will soon start sending asylum seekers to Guatemala.
President Trump is asking the Supreme Court to consider blocking California’s “sanctuary law,” which prevents state law enforcement officers from assisting federal immigration officers who seek to deport certain undocumented immigrants.
And Salvadorans living in the U.S. with temporary legal status will now be able to remain in the country for another year, after the Trump administration signed agreements this week expanding cooperation between American immigration authorities and their counterparts in El Salvador.
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