From the North Pole to Greenland to Antarctica, a series of recent scientific findings on ice loss has heightened alarm among experts, but a landmark study out Monday focuses on what the lead author called “the climate crisis you haven’t heard of”—the “shocking” amount of ice the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region is set to lose due to rising temperatures by 2100.
“It’s the projected reductions in pre-monsoon river flows and changes in the monsoon that will hit hardest, throwing urban water systems and food and energy production off kilter.” —Philippus Wester, ICIMOD
Even if policymakers around the world heed scientists’ urgent warnings and take immediate, ambitious actions to meet the primary goal of the Paris agreement—to limit global average temperature rise within this century to 1.5°C—about a third of the region’s glaciers will still melt, disrupting rivers across Asia, according to the new report from the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
If planet-warming carbon emissions are cut by half and the global average temperature rise hits 2°C, researchers predict the HKH region—home to Mount Everest—will lose about half of its ice. If carbon emissions continue unabated, global average temperature will soar 4-5°C, and a devastating two-thirds of glaciers will melt in what’s often called the world’s “Third Pole.”
No matter the degree of melt, the consequences are expected to be dramatic, particularly for the 1.9 billion people reliant on regional resources. As lead author Philippus Wester of ICIMOD put it, “Global warming is on track to transform the frigid, glacier-covered mountain peaks of the HKH cutting across eight countries to bare rocks in a little less than a century.”
“Impacts on people in the region, already one of the world’s most fragile and hazard-prone mountain regions, will range from worsened air pollution to an increase in extreme weather events,” Wester said. “But it’s the projected reductions in pre-monsoon river flows and changes in the monsoon that will hit hardest, throwing urban water systems and food and energy production off kilter.”
The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment, the first comprehensive analysis of its kind for the region, brought together more than 350 researchers and policy experts from 22 countries and 185 organizations over the course of five years. It was styled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports—the most recent of which warned that without “rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented” systemic changes, human-induced global warming could reach 1.5°C around 2040.
Such predictions are especially dire for mountainous regions like the HKH—which spans Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. At higher elevations, temperatures rise even more quickly, as the Guardian captured in a graphic inspired by the assessment’s findings:
“There are rocky times ahead for the region: between now and 2080, the environmental, economic, and social conditions laid out in the report could go downhill,” concluded Eklabya Sharma, deputy director general of ICIMOD.
“Because many of the disasters and sudden changes will play out across country borders, conflict among the region’s countries could easily flare up,” he noted. “But the future doesn’t have to be bleak if governments work together to turn the tide against melting glaciers and the myriad impacts they unleash.”
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The European Union and the Spanish government on Monday both rejected calls by the Trump administration and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to keep “every option on the table” to remove President Nicolas Maduro from power—saying they do not support, nor would they would participate, in military intervention.
“Not every option is on the table,” Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told the Spanish news outlet Efe on Sunday. “We have clearly warned that we would not support—and would roundly condemn—any foreign military intervention, which is something we hope won’t happen.”
“We must avoid a military intervention,” a spokeswoman for E.U. diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini, agreed. “What is explicitly quite clear, from our point of view, is that we need a peaceful political and democratic and Venezuelan-owned resolution of this crisis. This obviously excludes the use of force.”
The message from the EU and Borrell followed violence at the Venezuela-Colombia border over the weekend as Guaido supporters attempted to break through the Venezuelan border with food and medical supplies in what critics have characterized as a deliberate provocation disguised as a “humanitarian aid” mission led by the Trump administration. The U.S. has also led calls for the international community to recognize Guaido as the president of Venezuela.
Vice President Mike Pence is set to meet with Guaido Monday and to outline “concrete steps” to oust Maduro at the Lima Group summit in Bogota.
Maduro has been condemned by human rights groups for his persecution of political opponents—but progressive leaders including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have decried the Trump administration’s support for Guaido, who declared himself interim president eight months after Maduro won re-election.
“The solution in Venezuela can only be reached through a democratic solution agreed by Venezuelans and the calling of presidential elections,” said Borrell.
At least four people were killed and hundreds were injured over the weekend as Guaido’s supporters attempted to let the “humanitarian aid” mission through.
The International Federation of the Red Cross and the United Nations have both condemned the mission as politically-motivated—and critics including activist and musician Roger Waters have warned that the sending of aid which has not been requested by Venezuela’s democratically-elected president is a step towards military intervention and regime change.
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Surrounded by fellow co-sponsors and scores of supporters, Rep. Pramila Jayapal officially introduced the ‘Medicare for All Act of 2019’ on Tuesday, arguing that the nation’s for-profit system has failed its people and the time for a more affordable and universal healthcare system is now.
“Every day too many Americans are sick and dying because they can’t afford insulin or cancer treatments, and that is even as the price of prescription drugs is soaring and the price of insurance premiums is going up by double digits overnight,” Jayapal declared during introductory remarks outside the U.S. Capitol Building.
“Americans are filled with worry – foreclosing on homes, cutting their pills at the kitchen table in half to tried to make them stretch out longer, and not going to the doctor unless it’s an emergency,” she continued. “Two-thirds of bankruptcies in the United States of America are because of medical issues. And GoFundMe is becoming one of the most popular insurance plans in the country.”
And so, she asked, “Why is it that other major countries can guarantee universal health care for half—literally half—the cost of what the United States spends, and yet we can’t do it?”
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The reason, she explained, “It comes down to a profit-making motive that is baked into a system – a system that puts profits over patients.”
Watch the “absolute must-watch” portion of her introduction:
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Over a dozen progressive House Democrats on Thursday condemned the Trump administration’s “unacceptable” push for regime change in Venezuela.
The comments came in a letter addressed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and signed by Reps. Ro Khanna (Calif.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), and 13 other House Democrats.
“President Donald Trump and other senior United States (U.S.) officials have generated alarm in Venezuela and throughout the region with actions and statements—such as the recent threat that ‘all options are on the table’—which indicate a pursuit of American military-led regime change,” reads the letter.
“Here’s the mistake we make: We’re quiet when these interventions are happening. Instead, we need to speak up right in the beginning when we see signs of interventionism that are going to make situations worse.” —Rep. Ro KhannaThe progressives also slammed the Trump White House for “crippling” millions of ordinary Venezuelans with unilateral sanctions.
“[T]he president’s recent economic sanctions threaten to exacerbate the country’s grave economic crisis, causing immense suffering for the most vulnerable in society who bear no responsibility for the situation in the country,” the letter states.
Khanna, who spearheaded the letter, urged his Democratic colleagues to unite against U.S.-backed regime change and sanctions in an interview with HuffPost on Thursday.
“Here’s the mistake we make: We’re quiet when these interventions are happening,” said Khanna, who has been an outspoken opponent of U.S. interference in Venezuela. “That was a mistake in Iraq, that was a mistake in Libya. Then afterwards we say, ‘These interventions were a mistake and how do we rectify it?’ Instead, we need to speak up right in the beginning when we see signs of interventionism that are going to make situations worse.”
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The progressives’ letter comes as Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser John Bolton continue to lob threats at Venezuela’s elected President Nicolás Maduro.
In an interview with Telemundo Wednesday night, Pence reiterated the White House’s support for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, but said there is “no timeline” on the U.S. push for regime change.
Trump’s Venezuela envoy Elliott Abrams—whose role in U.S.-backed massacres and genocide and Latin America during the 1980s has come under scrutiny since his appointment in January—said during a Senate subcommittee hearing on Thursday that the administration is planning to “expand the net” of sanctions against Venezuelan institutions.
While condemning the Maduro government for violence against protestors and “disregard of the rule of law,” House progressives said the Trump administration’s meddling is “making life worse for ordinary Venezuelans” and urged the White House to support peaceful negotiations.
“Unilateral measures and violent threats only threaten to stoke chaos and instability,” the letter concludes. “Instead, the U.S. must abide by its obligation under the Organization of American States (OAS) Charter to abstain from using armed force or ‘any other form of interference or attempted threat” against another state. We urge you to support efforts by Uruguay, Mexico, and the Vatican to promote dialogue and help Venezuelans resolve their own problems.”
Read the full letter, which was first obtained by HuffPost:
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Privacy advocates raised alarm on Monday as documents revealed the U.S. government is “scrambling” to deploy a facial recognition program to screen international travelers at the nation’s 20 busiest airports.
“This is opening the door to an extraordinarily more intrusive and granular level of government control, starting with where we can go and our ability to move freely about the country.” —Edward Hasbrouck, Identity Project
The 346 pages of government records—obtained by the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and shared exclusively with BuzzFeed News—bolster mounting concerns among privacy advocates about sweeping, secretive government surveillance as well as the pitfalls of facial recognition technology.
“Facial recognition is becoming normalized as an infrastructure for checkpoint control,” said Jay Stanley, an ACLU senior policy analyst. “It’s an extremely powerful surveillance technology that has the potential to do things never before done in human history. Yet the government is hurtling along a path towards its broad deployment—and in this case, a deployment that seems quite unjustified and unnecessary.”
Stanley is just one of many privacy advocates critical of efforts by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—to implement the “Biometric Entry-Exit System.”
Through the program, according to three internal documents (pdfs) from DHS, “CBP will transform the way it identifies travelers by shifting the key to unlocking a traveler’s record from biographic identifiers to biometric ones—primarily a traveler’s face.”
Specifically, according to one of the documents, “CBP will build a backend communication portal to support TSA, airport, and airline partners in their efforts to use facial images as a single biometric key for identifying and matching travelers to their identities.” The portal “will enable them to use verified biometrics for check-in, baggage drop, security checkpoints, lounge access, boarding, and other processes.”
The facial recognition program’s implementation began with a pilot program at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2016, under a law enacted by the Obama administration.
In 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order instructing DHS to expedite efforts to use biometric verification on people crossing U.S. borders.
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To meet Trump’s desired timeline, BuzzFeed noted, CBP aims to use “facial recognition technology on travelers aboard 16,300 flights per week—or more than 100 million passengers traveling on international flights out of the United States—in as little as two years.”
The program has generated a wide range of concerns about how third-parties and government agencies store and use the photos of travelers as well as a general lack of regulation and oversight.
“I think it’s important to note what the use of facial recognition [in airports] means for American citizens,” Jeramie Scott, director of EPIC’s Domestic Surveillance Project, told BuzzFeed. “It means the government, without consulting the public, a requirement by Congress, or consent from any individual, is using facial recognition to create a digital ID of millions of Americans.”
Some critics charge that the ongoing implementation of the program may violate federal law. According to BuzzFeed, the documents obtained by EPIC “suggest that CBP skipped portions of a critical ‘rulemaking process,’ which requires the agency to solicit public feedback before adopting technology intended to be broadly used on civilians, something privacy advocates back up.”
Ultimately, “this is opening the door to an extraordinarily more intrusive and granular level of government control, starting with where we can go and our ability to move freely about the country,” warned Edward Hasbrouck, a consultant to the group Identity Project. “And then potentially, once the system is proved out in that way, it can literally extend to a vast number of controls in other parts of our lives.”
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An in-depth video report detailed Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s growing list of scandals and deep ties to Brazil’s “most violent, lawless, and murderous paramilitary gangs” just before Bolsonaro is set to meet with his right-wing American counterpart Donald Trump in the White House Tuesday afternoon.
“The facts around this trip are vital for the American media—and especially the American press covering the White House—to understand, so that they can report properly and question Bolsonaro during his trip to the White House about the realities of his presidency,” said The Intercept‘s Glenn Greenwald, “rather than the branding and perception the Brazilian government is trying to sell around the world.”
The image Bolsonaro is attempting to convey is one of a “strong” and “honest” leader, Greenwald said, but recent revelations have severely undermined this narrative while raising disturbing questions about the Brazilian president and his sons.
Eduardo, Bolsonaro’s youngest son and a member of Brazil’s Congress, is accompanying his father on the U.S. trip.
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“Key news events of the last several weeks—including the arrests of two former Rio de Janeiro police officers for the March 2018 assassination of Rio City Council Councilor Marielle Franco—have highlighted the most damaging and, to many, most terrifying revelations about Bolsonaro and his three politician sons: their extensive, direct, multilayered, and deeply personal ties to the paramilitary gangs and militias responsible for Brazil’s most horrific violence,” wrote Greenwald and Victor Pougy, both journalists based in Brazil.
Read The Intercept‘s full report here. Watch the video:
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“This could be the single most important moment for net neutrality this year.”
That was Fight for the Future’s urgent message to internet users across the U.S. on Thursday as the group announced a massive online protest to prevent telecom-backed lawmakers from gutting the Save the Internet Act while no one’s looking.
“Telecom lobbyists are working overtime to convince these lawmakers to add bad amendments that could completely gut the bill.” —Josh Tabish, Fight for the Future
On Monday, the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee is expected to begin marking up Democrats’ net neutrality legislation, which has been hailed as the best plan to restore the open internet.
To stop telecom-friendly lawmakers from using the amendment process to eviscerate the Save the Internet Act, Fight for the Future is attempting to make the livestream of the committee hearing go viral.
The goal, said Fight for the Future, is to send lawmakers a simple warning: “The whole internet is watching.”
“Politicians seem to still be under the false impression that they [can] put the interests of giant telecom companies ahead of the basic rights of their constituents and get away with it,” Evan Greer, deputy director of the advocacy group Fight for the Future, said in a statement. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
In an effort to “plaster the livestream everywhere on the internet,” Fight for the Future is calling on websites, online communities, and individual internet users to spread the hearing using its embeddable widget.
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A committee vote on the Save the Internet Act is expected as early as Tuesday.
“Telecom lobbyists are working overtime to convince these lawmakers to add bad amendments that could completely gut the bill and leave gaping loopholes for Internet providers to block, throttle, and charge users new fees,” Josh Tabish, a tech fellow at Fight for the Future, wrote in an email to supporters on Thursday.
“If we get the bill out of committee without any bad amendments, then we have a solid shot of winning the next big vote on the House floor,” Tabish said. “But if the bill gets gutted, we’re back to square one.”
The online protest to ensure the Save the Internet Act emerges out of committee intact comes as a new poll found that 80 percent of Americans overall—and 77 percent of Republicans—support net neutrality.
“The overwhelming majority of voters want real net neutrality protections restored, they’re not going to tolerate any funny business or trojan horse amendments pushed for by telecom lobbyists,” Greer said.
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The Muslim month-long holiday Ramadan is traditionally a time for reflection and celebration—and, in 2019, a time to take measures against active shooters.
That’s the new reality in the U.S. for the American Muslim community, which has seen a spike in hate speech, threats, and attacks over the last three years.
To deal with the increase in threats and attacks, Muslims across the U.S. are turning to active shooter training to deal with the danger.
Reporting this week from The Washington Post and HuffPost details the situation these houses of worship find themselves in as they get ready for Islam’s biggest holiday.
Per HuffPost:
“With #Ramadan in full swing, no one is taking any chances,” said HuffPost reporter Rowaida Abdelaziz, who wrote the news site’s coverage.
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In Austin, at the North Austin Muslim Community Center mosque, imam Islam Mossad told HuffPost he was taking preventative measures in response to four separate incidents targeting the building, including a man last week attempting to burn it down with gasoline.
“We want to do everything we can after putting our trust in Allah that we take the means necessary for people’s safety as well,” said Mossad.
Saif Rahman, a staff member at the Dar Al-Hijra mosque in Virginia, told The Washington Postthat he hoped active shooter drills are not the new reality.
“Houses of worship should not be military barracks,” Rahman said. “I just hope instead of us thinking along those lines, we think about how we can heal wounds and fight ignorance together.”
“These preventative measures aren’t necessarily solving the root cause, which is ignorance,” he added. “Ignorance breeds hate.”
Lanham, Maryland, is the home of the Diyanet Center of America. Director of security Bilal Qudah saidthat members of the congregation are concerned for their safety.
“A lot of people, after New Zealand, are apprehensive about coming to pray,” Qudah told the Post. “They want to see someone in uniform walking around.”
With Ramadan comes greater fears, Qudah said, because of the importance of the holiday and the amount of people in the mosque on a nightly basis.
“People ask me about coming for Ramadan,” he said. “I reassure them that by the grace of God, everything will be okay.”
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Former Republican Sen. John Warner (Va.) is endorsing Democratic House candidate Leslie Cockburn in her bid to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I’m still a Republican,” Warner said on Saturday before a fundraiser west of Washington, D.C., according to the Fauquier Times. “You can’t take that away from me. But you’ve got to have the courage to do what’s right for the country and what’s right for your state.”
ADVERTISEMENTCockburn, a former producer for “60 Minutes,” is vying to replace Rep. Tom Garrett (R) in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District. She is in a race against GOP candidate Denver Riggleman, whom President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE endorsed on Monday.
Warner, who held a U.S. Senate seat from 1979 to 2009, called Cockburn “an exceptional candidate” and added that he agreed with her views on health care, education and “commonsense gun laws.”
“I know guns pretty well. And there’s things we’ve got locked in, they’re just wrong. I don’t know how we’re going to break that one,” Warner, who was U.S. secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974, said.
The Fauquier Times notes that Warner has also extended his support to Sen. Tim KaineTimothy (Tim) Michael KaineWarren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Senate panel passes amendment to bar using troops against protesters Defense bill turns into proxy battle over Floyd protests MORE’s (D-Va.) bid for reelection against GOP nominee Corey Stewart.
He said his endorsement of the Democrat was rooted in his friendship with Kaine’s father-in-law, Linwood Holton. Holton served as governor of Virginia from 1970 to 1974.
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Wednesday that he won’t attend an event next week with a Democratic House candidate accused of beating his then-wife years ago.
Clyburn had previously planned to attend a fish fry with Archie Parnell on the eve of next week’s midterm elections, according to the Associated Press.
But Clyburn said Wednesday that he won’t be there and doesn’t endorse Parnell.
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“In view of the misrepresentations of the purpose of the end-of-the-campaign fish fry in my district and hometown of Sumter, SC, I will not attend the event and I still do not endorse Archie Parnell,” Clyburn wrote in a tweet.
“The goodness of America is on the ballot this year, and I will spend the next five days continuing my work to elect Democratic candidates,” he added in a second tweet.
In view of the misrepresentations of the purpose of the end-of-the-campaign fish fry in my district and hometown of Sumter, SC, I will not attend the event and I still do not endorse Archie Parnell.
— Jim ClyburnJames (Jim) Enos ClyburnHoyer: Infrastructure package to hit floor this month Lobbying world House Democratic whip pushes back on calls to defund police: We need to focus on reform MORE SC-06 (@ClyburnSC06) October 31, 2018
Parnell is the Democratic nominee in South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District. In 1973, Parnell’s then-wife accused him in court documents of beating her twice in one night, accusations that surfaced in May.
Parnell apologized earlier this year for the incident, saying in a statement to The Post and Courier that he “did something that I have regretted every single day since.”
“Forty five years ago, while still a college student, I did something that I have regretted every single day since. In response to actions I feel unnecessary to specify, I lashed out and became violent with other people, including my former wife, which led to a divorce and monumental change in my life,” he said.
When the allegations against Parnell surfaced this spring, Clyburn urged him to end his campaign for Congress.
“Due to the unfortunate circumstances recently revealed, I hereby urge @Archie4Congress to end his campaign,” Clyburn tweeted at the time.