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Sixteen months had passed since Hurricane Harvey tore through the Texas coast in August 2017, killing more than 80 people and flattening entire neighborhoods. And when Texas lawmakers gathered in Austin for their biennial session, the scale of the storm’s destruction was hard to ignore.

Legislators responded by greenlighting a yearslong statewide initiative to evaluate flood risks and improve preparedness for increasingly frequent and deadly storms. “If we get our planning right on the front end and prevent more damage on the front end, then we have less on the back end,” Charles Perry, a Republican senator from Lubbock who chairs a committee overseeing environmental issues, said at the time.

In the years that followed, hundreds of local officials and volunteers canvassed communities across Texas, mapping out vulnerabilities. The result of their work came in 2024 with the release of Texas’ first-ever state flood plan.

Their findings identified nearly $55 billion in proposed projects and outlined 15 key recommendations, including nine suggestions for legislation. Several were aimed at aiding rural communities like Kerr County, where flash flooding over the Fourth of July weekend killed more than 100 people. Three are still missing.

But this year, lawmakers largely ignored those recommendations.

Instead, the legislative session that ended June 2 was dominated by high-profile battles over school vouchers and lawmakers’ decision to spend $51 billion to maintain and provide new property tax cuts, an amount nearly equal to the funding identified by the Texas Water Development Board, a state agency that has historically overseen water supply and conservation efforts.

Although it had been only seven years since Hurricane Harvey, legislators now prioritized the state’s water and drought crisis over flooding needs.

Legislators allocated more than $1.6 billion in new revenue for water infrastructure projects, only some of which would go toward flood mitigation. They also passed a bill that will ask voters in November to decide whether to approve $1 billion annually over the next two decades that would prioritize water and wastewater over flood mitigation projects. At that pace, water experts said that it could take decades before existing mitigation needs are addressed — even without further floods.

Even if they had been approved by lawmakers this year, many of the plan’s recommendations would not have been implemented before the July 4 disaster. But a ProPublica and Texas Tribune analysis of legislative proposals, along with interviews with lawmakers and flood experts, found that the Legislature has repeatedly failed to enact key measures that would help communities prepare for frequent flooding.

Such inaction often hits rural and economically disadvantaged communities hardest because they lack the tax base to fund major flood prevention projects and often cannot afford to produce the data they need to qualify for state and federal grants, environmental experts and lawmakers said.

Over the years, legislators have declined to pass at least three bills that would create siren or alert systems, tools experts say can be especially helpful in rural communities that lack reliable internet and cell service. A 2019 state-commissioned report estimated flood prevention needs at over $30 billion. Since then, lawmakers have allocated just $1.4 billion. And they ignored the key recommendations from the state’s 2024 flood plan that are meant to help rural areas like Kerr County, which is dubbed “Flash Flood Alley” due to its geography.

Spokespeople for Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, did not answer questions about why the plan’s recommendations were overlooked but defended the Legislature’s investment in flood mitigation as significant. They pointed to millions more spent on other prevention efforts, including flood control dam construction and maintenance, regional flood projects, and increased floodplain disclosures and drainage requirements for border counties. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick did not respond to questions.

This week, the Legislature will convene for a special session that Abbott called to address a range of priorities, including flood warning systems, natural disaster preparation and relief funding. Patrick promised that the state would purchase warning sirens for counties in flash flood zones. Similar efforts, however, have previously been rejected by the Legislature. Alongside Burrows, Patrick also announced the formation of committees on disaster preparedness and flooding and called the move “just the beginning of the Legislature looking at every aspect of this tragic event.” Burrows said the House is “ready to better fortify our state against future disasters.”

But Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos, a Democrat from Richardson, near Dallas, said state lawmakers have brushed off dire flood prevention needs for decades.

“The manual was there, and we ignored it, and we've continued to ignore these recommendations,” said Rodríguez Ramos, who has served on the House Natural Resources Committee overseeing water issues for three sessions. “It’s performative to say we’re trying to do something knowing well we’re not doing enough.”

One recommendation from the 2024 flood plan would have cost the state nothing to enact. It called for granting counties the authority to levy drainage fees, including in unincorporated areas, that could fund local flood projects. Only about 150 of 1,450 Texas cities and counties have dedicated drainage fees, according to a study cited in the state assessment.

Kerr, a conservative county of 53,000 people, has struggled to gain support for projects that would raise taxes. About a week after the flooding, some residents protested when county commissioners discussed a property tax increase to help cover the costs of recovery efforts.

The inability to raise such fees is one of the biggest impediments for local governments seeking to fund flood mitigation projects, said Robert R. Puente, a Democrat and former state representative who once chaired the state committee responsible for water issues. Lawmakers’ resistance to such efforts is rooted in fiscal conservatism, said Puente, who now heads the San Antonio Water System.

“It’s mostly because of a philosophy that the leadership in Austin has right now, that under no circumstances are we going to raise taxes, and under most circumstances we’re not even going to allow local governments to have control over how they raise taxes or implement fees,” he said.

Another one of the flood plan’s recommendations called for lawmakers to allocate money for a technical assistance program to help underresourced and rural governments better manage flood prone areas, which requires implementing a slew of standards to ensure safe development in those hazardous zones. Doing this work requires local officials to collect accurate mapping that shows the risk of flooding. Passing this measure could have helped counties like Kerr with that kind of data collection, which the plan recognized is especially challenging for rural and economically disadvantaged communities.

Insufficient information impacts Texas’s ability to fully understand flood risks statewide. The water board’s plan, for example, includes roughly 600 infrastructure projects across Texas in need of completion. But its report acknowledged that antiquated or missing data meant another 3,100 assessments would be required to know whether additional projects are needed.

In the Guadalupe River region, which includes Kerr County, 65% of areas lacked adequate flood mapping. Kerrville, the county seat, was listed among the areas identified as having the “greatest known flood risks and mitigation needs.” Yet of the 19 flood needs specific to the city and county, only three were included in the state plan’s list of 600. They included requests to install backup generators in critical facilities and repair low-water crossings, which are shallow points in streets where rainwater can pool to dangerous levels.

At least 16 other priorities, including the county’s desire for an early warning flood system and potential dam or drainage system repairs, required a follow-up evaluation, according to the state plan. County officials tried to obtain grants for the early warning systems for years, to no avail.

Gonzales County, an agriculture-rich area of 20,000 people along the Guadalupe River, is among the rural communities struggling to obtain funding, said emergency management director Jimmy Harless, who is also the county’s fire marshal. The county is in desperate need of a siren system and additional gauges to measure the river’s potentially dangerous flood levels, Harless said, but doesn’t have the resources, personnel or expertise to apply for the “burdensome” state grant process.

“It is extremely frustrating for me to know that there’s money there and there’s people that care, but our state agency has become so bureaucratic that it’s just not feasible for us,” Harless said. “Our folks’ lives are more important than what some bureaucrat wants us to do.”

For years, Texas leaders have focused more on cleaning up after disasters than on preparing for them, said Jim Blackburn, a professor at Rice University specializing in environmental law and flooding issues.

“It’s no secret that the Guadalupe is prone to flash flooding. That’s been known for decades,” Blackburn said. “The state has been very negligent about kind of preparing us for, frankly, the worst storms of the future that we are seeing today because of climate change, and what’s changing is that the risks are just greater today and will be even greater tomorrow, because our storms are getting worse and worse.”

At a news conference this month, Abbott said state committees would investigate “ways to address this,” though he declined to offer specifics. When pressed by a reporter about where the blame for the lack of preparedness should fall, Abbott responded that it was “the word choice of losers.”

It shouldn’t have taken the Hill Country flooding for a special session addressing emergency systems and funding needs, said Usman Mahmood, a policy analyst at Bayou City Waterkeeper, a Houston nonprofit that advocates for flood protection measures.

“The worst part pretty much already happened, which is the flooding and the loss of life,” he said. “Now it’s a reaction to that.”

Misty Harris contributed research.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Lexi Churchill and Lomi Kriel, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.

“Millions of Americans should brace for massive cuts to benefits and services they rely on for their survival under plans to target government spending and operations.

“On Tuesday, President-elect Trump announced he had appointed business executives Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a private commission tasked with recommending drastic changes to the federal government’s programs and operations, which Musk has said could cut federal spending by $2 trillion.

“Budget cuts of this magnitude, coupled with the massive tax reductions Trump has said he will implement, will affect vital programs that tens of millions of Americans currently rely on for their financial security and their health and safety. This includes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, food assistance for low-income families, veterans’ benefits and health care, and so much more.

“By their very nature, cuts of this size also would require slashing spending on our military, homeland security, federal law enforcement, and virtually every aspect of our government operations. This kind of financial pressure would lead to painful, widespread reductions in services that will affect Americans from every walk of life.

“To really attack government waste, the administration should target private contractors who are price gouging American taxpayers to deliver poorer service at higher cost while their corporate profits and executive pay skyrocket.”

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

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A special State Department panel recommended months ago that Secretary of State Antony Blinken disqualify multiple Israeli military and police units from receiving U.S. aid after reviewing allegations that they committed serious human rights abuses.

But Blinken has failed to act on the proposal in the face of growing international criticism of the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza, according to current and former State Department officials.

The incidents under review mostly took place in the West Bank and occurred before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. They include reports of extrajudicial killings by the Israeli Border Police; an incident in which a battalion gagged, handcuffed and left an elderly Palestinian American man for dead; and an allegation that interrogators tortured and raped a teenager who had been accused of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Recommendations for action against Israeli units were sent to Blinken in December, according to one person familiar with the memo. “They’ve been sitting in his briefcase since then,” another official said.

A State Department spokesperson told ProPublica the agency takes its commitment to uphold U.S. human rights laws seriously. “This process is one that demands a careful and full review,” the spokesperson said, “and the department undergoes a fact-specific investigation applying the same standards and procedures regardless of the country in question.”

The revelations about Blinken’s failure to act on the recommendations come at a delicate moment in U.S.-Israel relations. Six months into its war against Hamas, whose militants massacred 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 240 more on Oct. 7, the Israeli military has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to local authorities. Recently, President Joe Biden has signaled increased frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the widespread civilian casualties.

Multiple State Department officials who have worked on Israeli relations said that Blinken’s inaction has undermined Biden’s public criticism, sending a message to the Israelis that the administration was not willing to take serious steps.

The recommendations came from a special committee of State Department officials known as the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum. The panel, made up of Middle East and human rights experts, is named for former Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chief author of 1997 laws that requires the U.S. to cut off assistance to any foreign military or law enforcement units — from battalions of soldiers to police stations — that are credibly accused of flagrant human rights violations.

The Guardian reported this year that the State Department was reviewing several of the incidents but had not imposed sanctions because the U.S. government treats Israel with unusual deference. Officials told ProPublica that the panel ultimately recommended that the secretary of state take action.

This story is drawn from interviews with present and former State Department officials as well as government documents and emails obtained by ProPublica. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.

The Israeli government did not respond to a request for comment.

Over the years, hundreds of foreign units, including from Mexico, Colombia and Cambodia, have been blocked from receiving any new aid. Officials say enforcing the Leahy Laws can be a strong deterrent against human rights abuses.

Human rights organizations tracking Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks have collected eyewitness testimony and videos posted by Israeli soldiers that point to widespread abuses in Gaza and the West Bank.

“If we had been applying Leahy effectively in Israel like we do in other countries, maybe you wouldn’t have the IDF filming TikToks of their war crimes now because we have contributed to a culture of impunity,” said Josh Paul, a former director in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs and a member of the vetting forum. Paul resigned in protest shortly after Israel began its bombing campaign of Gaza in October.

The Leahy Laws apply to countries that receive American-funded training or arms. In the decades after the passage of those laws, the State Department, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, followed a de facto policy of exempting billions of dollars of foreign military financing to Israel from their strictures, according to multiple experts on the region.

In 2020, Leahy and others in Congress passed a law to tighten the oversight. The State Department set up the vetting forum to identify Israeli security force units that shouldn’t be receiving American assistance. Until now, it has been paralyzed by its bureaucracy, failing to fulfill the hopes of its sponsors.

Critics have long assailed what they view as Israel’s special treatment. Incidents that would have disqualified units in other countries did not have the same result in Israel, according to Charles Blaha, the former director of the State Department’s Office of Security and Human Rights and a former participant in the Israeli vetting forum. “There is no political will,” he said.

Typically, the reports of wrongdoing come from nongovernment organizations like Human Rights Watch or from press accounts. The State Department officials determining whether to recommend sanctions generally do not draw on the vast array of classified material gathered by America’s intelligence agencies.

Actions against an Israeli unit are subject to additional layers of scrutiny. The forum is required to consult the government of Israel. Then, if the forum agrees that there is credible evidence of a human rights violation, the issue goes to more senior officials, including some of the department’s top diplomats who oversee the Middle East and arms transfers. Then the recommendations can be sent to the secretary of state for final approval, either with consensus or as split decisions.

Even if Blinken were to approve the sanctions, officials said, Israel could blunt their impact. One approach would be for the country to buy American arms with its own funds and give them to the units that had been sanctioned. Officials said the symbolism of calling out Israeli units for misconduct would nonetheless be potent, marking a sign of disapproval of the civilian toll the war is taking.

Since it was formed in 2020, the forum has reviewed reports of multiple cases of rape and extrajudicial killings, according to the documents ProPublica obtained. Those cases also included several incidents where teenagers were reportedly beaten in custody before being released without charges. The State Department records obtained by ProPublica do not clearly indicate which cases the experts ultimately recommended for sanctions, and several have been tabled pending more information from the Israelis.

Israel generally argues it has addressed allegations of misconduct and human rights abuses through its own military discipline and legal systems. In some of the cases, the forum was satisfied that Israel had taken serious steps to punish the perpetrators.

But officials agreed on a number of human rights violations, including some that the Israeli government had not appeared to adequately address.

Among the allegations reviewed by the committee was the January 2021 arrest of a 15-year old boy by Israeli Border Police. The teen was held for five days at the Al-Mascobiyya detention center on charges that he had thrown stones and Molotov cocktails at security forces. Citing an allegation shared by a Palestinian child welfare nonprofit, forum officials said there was credible information the teen had been forced to confess after he was “subjected to both physical and sexual torture, including rape by an object.”

Two days after the State Department asked the Israeli government for information about what steps it had taken to hold the perpetrators accountable, Israeli police raided the nonprofit that had originally shared the allegation and later designated it a terrorist organization. The Israelis told State Department officials they had found no evidence of sexual assault or torture but reprimanded one of the teen’s interrogators for kicking a chair.

Do you have any information about American arms shipments to countries accused of human rights violations? Contact Brett Murphy at brett.murphy@propublica.org or by Signal at 508-523-5195.

Alex Mierjeski contributed reporting.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Brett Murphy.

Strategic lawsuits against public participation, known as SLAPPs, are civil or criminal suits typically brought by individuals, institutions, or corporations to burden journalists and others with the distraction and cost of a legal defense—even if the plaintiffs do not expect to win the case.

The recommendations were published after public consultations in July 2023 and a two-year drafting process, which CASE praised for its transparency and inclusiveness. An April 5 statement by CASE said that if genuinely implemented, the recommendations could significantly limit the damage caused by SLAPPs.

CASE is a coalition of non-governmental organizations united in recognition of the threat posed to public watchdogs by SLAPPs.

Read the full statement here:

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

“CPJ is deeply disturbed by the disclosures that attackers used Pegasus spyware to infect the phone of exiled journalist Galina Timchenko, one of the world’s most prominent Russian media figures,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Journalists and their sources are not free and safe if they are spied on, and this attack on Timchenko underscores that governments must implement an immediate moratorium on the development, sale, and use of spyware technologies. The threat is simply too large to ignore.”

Timchenko’s phone was infected by Pegasus, a spyware produced by the Israeli company NSO Group, while she was in Berlin on or around February 10, 2023, according to a Meduza report and a joint-investigation by rights groups Access Now and research organization Citizen Lab. The investigation found that the infection took place shortly after Russia’s Prosecutor General designated Meduza as an “undesirable” organization –  a measure that banned the outlet from operating on Russian territory – and likely lasted several days or weeks.

According to the investigation, Apple had warned Timchenko and “other targets” in June that their devices may have been targeted with state-sponsored spyware. Meduza editor-in-chief Ivan Kolpakov told CPJ via messaging app that Apple’s warning prompted them to request that Access Now check Timchenko’s device.

According to Access Now, this is the first documented case of Pegasus surveillance of a Russian journalist; the investigation reported that the attack could have come from Russia, one of its allies, or an EU state may have been responsible for the attack.

The fact that some European government may have used Pegasus against Timchenko is “beyond our comprehension,’” Kolpakov said in a statement shared with CPJ. “As the developers claim, this software is used to fight terrorism — yet it is systematically used against the opposition and journalists.”

Meduza operates in exile, with most of its staff based in Berlin and the Latvian capital of Riga and covers various topics, including politics, social issues, culture, and the war in Ukraine. CPJ awarded Timchenko its 2022 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award.

“We often repeat to ourselves and our employees that Europe gives a feeling of complete security. But it is only a feeling – an illusion of security,” Kolpakov said in the statement.

Meduza journalist Elena Kostyuchenko recently reported that she may have been poisoned in Germany in October 2022.

Kolpakov said he hoped to be able to identify those responsible for the attack and obtain explanations from them as well as from the NSO Group.

NSO Group previously told CPJ that it licenses Pegasus to fight crime and terrorism, stating that it investigates “all credible claims of misuse and take[s] appropriate action,” including shutting down a customer’s access to the software.

A 2022 CPJ special report noted that the development of high-tech “zero-click” spyware like Pegasus– the kind that takes over a phone without a user’s knowledge or interaction – poses an existential crisis for journalism and the future of press freedom around the world. The report included CPJ’s recommendations to protect journalists and their sources from the abuse of the technology and called for an immediate moratorium on exporting this technology to countries with poor human rights records. CPJ has also joined other rights groups in calling for immediate action to stop spyware threatening press freedom.

CPJ emailed NSO Group and the German Federal Ministry of the Interior for comment on the Timchenko findings but did not immediately receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

“We are committed to the media within our cultural frameworks. Private media can continue to be free and independent. They can continue their activities,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said at the first news conference two days after the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021.

Two years later, the Taliban not only has reneged on that pledge, but intensified its crackdown on what was once a vibrant media landscape in Afghanistan.

Here is a look of what happened to Afghan media and journalists since the 2021 takeover:

What is the state of media freedom in Afghanistan?

Since the fall of Kabul, the Taliban have escalated a crackdown on the media in Afghanistan. CPJ has extensively documented cases of censorship, assaults, arbitrary arrests, home searches, and restrictions on female journalists in a bid to muzzle independent reporting.

Despite their public pledge to allow journalists to work freely, Taliban operatives and officials from the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) – the Taliban’s intelligence agency – have assaulted, arbitrarily arrested and detained journalists, while shutting down local news outlets and banning broadcasts of a number of international media from inside the country. Foreign correspondents face visa restrictions to return to Afghanistan to report.

Journalists continue to be arrested for their job. Since August 2021, at least 64 journalists have been detained in Afghanistan in retaliation for their work, according to CPJ’s research. They include Mortaza Behboudi, a co-founder of the independent news site Guiti News, who has been held since January.

Afghan journalists have fled in huge numbers, mostly to neighboring countries like Pakistan and Iran. Many who left are now stuck in legal limbo without clear prospects of resettlement to a third country, and their visas are running out, prompting fears they could be arrested and deported back to Afghanistan.

What trends have emerged in the last two years?

The Taliban have not ceased their efforts to stifle independent reporting, with the GDI emerging as the main driving force behind the crackdown. The few glimmers of hope that CPJ noted in its 2022 special report on Afghanistan’s media crisis are dimming as independent organizations like Ariana News and TOLO News face both political and economic pressures and Taliban intelligence operatives detained at least three journalists they claimed were reporting for Afghan media in exile.

The Taliban are also broadening their target to take aim at social media platforms, enforcing new regulations targeting YouTube channels this year while officials mull a ban on Facebook.

A clampdown on social media would further tighten the space for millions of Afghans to freely access information. The rapid deterioration of the media landscape has led to some Afghan YouTubers taking on the role of citizen journalists, covering issues from politics to everyday lives on their channels.

Meanwhile, the Taliban are seeking to end their international isolation. In recent weeks, they have sent a delegation to Indonesia and held talks with officials from the United States as the group tried to shore up the country’s ailing economy and struggle with one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. with more than half of its 41 million population relying on aid to survive.

A worsening media repression, however, is pushing Afghanistan deeper into isolation from the world, hurting its economy and people’s livelihoods, as CPJ’s Beh Lih Yi writes in an op-ed for Nikkei Asia.

What is CPJ hearing from Afghan journalists?

Even two years after the fall of Kabul, we hear from Afghan journalists on a near-daily basis – both from those who remain inside the country and those who are in exile – on the hostile environment they are facing.

Afghanistan remains one of the top countries for CPJ’s exile support and assistance to journalists. Since 2021, Afghan journalists have become among the largest share of exiled journalists getting support each year from CPJ, and contributed to a jump of 227 percent in CPJ’s overall exile support for journalists during a three-year period from 2020-2022. The support they received included immigration support letters and grants for necessities like rent and food.

We also increasingly received reports from exiled Afghan journalists who were being targeted in immigration-related cases. Afghan journalists who have sought refuge in Pakistan told us they have been arrested and extorted for overstaying their visas, and many are living in hiding and in fear.

What does CPJ recommend to end the Taliban’s media crackdown and help Afghan journalists forced into exile?

There are several actions we can take. Top of the list is to continue urging the international community to pressure the Taliban to respect the rights of the Afghan people and allow the country to return to a democratic path, including by allowing a free press.

The global community and international organizations should use political and diplomatic influence – including travel bans and targeted sanctions – to pressure the Taliban to end their media repression and allow journalists to freely report without fear of reprisal.

Foreign governments should streamline visa and broader resettlement processes, and support exiled journalists in continuing their work, while collaborating with appropriate agencies to extend humanitarian and technical assistance to journalists who remain in Afghanistan.

CPJ is also working with other rights groups to advocate for the implementation of recommendations that include those in its 2022 special report on Afghanistan’s media crisis. (Read CPJ’s complete list of 2022 recommendations here.)  

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Beh Lih Yi.

• Anti-abortion Texas judge holds oral arguments on bid to ban key abortion medication
• Warnings that big tech is trying an international end run against privacy and civil rights rules
• California dries out before a 12th atmospheric river is set to strike by early next week
• Cycle Freddy kills 100s in Malawai and Mozambique
• Reparations advisory committee briefs San Francisco Supervisors on its draft report and recommendations
• Bay Area school district sues social media companies for adverse impacts on youth and schools

Image by Robin Marty:https://www.flickr.com/photos/92599314@N00/

The post Conservative Texas judge holds hearing on abortion pill; Cyclone Freddy kills hundreds in southern Africa; S.F. Supervisors hear reparations recommendations: Pacifica Evening News March 15 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

The statement makes concrete recommendations in advance of this year’s report, which will be published in July.

The joint statement can be found here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jennifer Dunham.

The following recent books invite the application of the aphorism, Readers Think, Thinkers Read. They also make good gifts for this Holiday season.

1. Fashionopolis: The Secrets Behind the Clothes We Wear by Dana Thomas (Dial Books, 2022). I learned much from this eyewitness story of the textile and fashion industry worldwide.

2. Who’s Raising the Kids? The Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children by Susan Linn (The New Press, 2022) and You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of Tweens by Claire Nader (Essential Books, 2022). Both books will encourage you to rescue youngsters from controlling corporate hucksters and the addictive Internet Gulag.

3. 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting by E.J. Dionne Jr. and Miles Rapoport (The New Press, 2022). Even if you are skeptical about universal voting, the authors make it easy for you to change your mind.

4. The Greatest Evil is War by Chris Hedges (Seven Stories Press, 2022) and The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine by Andrew Cockburn (Verso, 2021) and War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data and Predict the Future by Roberto J. González (University of California Press, 2022). These clear writers may motivate you to join or create groups that wage peace, starting with recapturing Congress, focusing first on your two Senators and Representatives.

5. The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party by Dana Milbank (Doubleday, 2022) and Demolition Agenda: How Trump Tried to Dismantle American Government, and What Biden Needs to Do to Save It by Thomas O. McGarity (The New Press, 2022). These narratives show how Trumpsters adversely affected your family and community’s livelihood, health and safety and favored giant corporations.

6. Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial by Corban Addison (Knopf, 2022) is likely to become a movie about brave local people using tort law and jury trials to take on giant industrial Pig Farms in North Carolina. We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth by Dahr Jamail and Stan Rushworth (The New Press, 2022) gives voice to first Natives. Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America by Joshua Frank (Haymarket Books, 2022) – exposes the expanding deadly radioactive threats at the Hanford Washington Testing Site. This three-book trilogy can be called The Poisoning of America.

7. Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice by David Enrich (Mariner Books, 2022) and American Cartel: Inside the Battle to Bring Down the Opioid Industry by Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham (Twelve, 2022). Both books report commercial ravages against justice and safety, and explain how the corporate crooks were shielded by corporate law firms.

8. Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace by Marta L. Tellado (PublicAffairs, 2022). The head of Consumer Reports highlights the tools you can use to outfox tricky sellers.

9. In my two books on improving conditions for all Americans, Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think (City Lights Publishers, 2016) and The Day the Rats Vetoed Congress (Fantagraphics Books, 2020), I report how people made change, how to make greater overdue advances and offer a Fable that makes you laugh yourself serious and rejoice in the practical arousal of the people to reclaim their Congress from the corporatists and then get justice done pronto. We need to imagine so as to envision real possibilities.

10. Between your reading feasts, maybe you will want to sit down to delicious, nutritious food feasts, and use The Ralph Nader and Family Cookbook: Classic Recipes from Lebanon and Beyond includes mostly my mom’s great, simple recipes (Akashic Books, 2020). Parents looking for advice to convince children to be less picky eaters may want to read the introduction. Bon Appétit!

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Ralph Nader.

Cover art for the book Fashionopolis by Dana Thomas

The following recent books invite the application of the aphorism, Readers Think, Thinkers Read. They also make good gifts for this Holiday season.

1. Fashionopolis: The Secrets Behind the Clothes We Wear by Dana Thomas (Dial Books, 2022). I learned much from this eyewitness story of the textile and fashion industry worldwide.

2. Who’s Raising the Kids? The Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children by Susan Linn (The New Press, 2022) and You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of Tweens by Claire Nader (Essential Books, 2022). Both books will encourage you to rescue youngsters from controlling corporate hucksters and the addictive Internet Gulag.

3. 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting by E.J. Dionne Jr. and Miles Rapoport (The New Press, 2022). Even if you are skeptical about universal voting, the authors make it easy for you to change your mind.

4. The Greatest Evil is War by Chris Hedges (Seven Stories Press, 2022) and The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine by Andrew Cockburn (Verso, 2021) and War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data and Predict the Future by Roberto J. González (University of California Press, 2022). These clear writers may motivate you to join or create groups that wage peace, starting with recapturing Congress, focusing first on your two Senators and Representatives.

5. The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party by Dana Milbank (Doubleday, 2022) and Demolition Agenda: How Trump Tried to Dismantle American Government, and What Biden Needs to Do to Save It by Thomas O. McGarity (The New Pres

s, 2022). These narratives show how Trumpsters adversely affected your family and community’s livelihood, health and safety and favored giant corporations.

6. Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial by Corban Addison (Knopf, 2022) is likely to become a movie about brave local people using tort law and jury trials to take on giant industrial Pig Farms in North Carolina. We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth by Dahr Jamail and Stan Rushworth (The New Press, 2022) gives voice to first Natives. Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America by Joshua Frank (Haymarket Books, 2022) – exposes the expanding deadly radioactive threats at the Hanford Washington Testing Site. This three-book trilogy can be called The Poisoning of America.

7. Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice by David Enrich (Mariner Books, 2022) and American Cartel: Inside the Battle to Bring Down the Opioid Industry by Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham (Twelve, 2022). Both books report commercial ravages against justice and safety, and explain how the corporate crooks were shielded by corporate law firms.

8. Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace by Marta L. Tellado (PublicAffairs, 2022). The head of Consumer Reports highlights the tools you can use to outfox tricky sellers.

9. In my two books on improving conditions for all Americans, Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think (City Lights Publishers, 2016) and The Day the Rats Vetoed Congress (Fantagraphics Books, 2020), I report how people made change, how to make greater overdue advances and offer a Fable that makes you laugh yourself serious and rejoice in the practical arousal of the people to reclaim their Congress from the corporatists and then get justice done pronto. We need to imagine so as to envision real possibilities.

10. Between your reading feasts, maybe you will want to sit down to delicious, nutritious food feasts, and use The Ralph Nader and Family Cookbook: Classic Recipes from Lebanon and Beyond includes mostly my mom’s great, simple recipes (Akashic Books, 2020). Parents looking for advice to convince children to be less picky eaters may want to read the introduction. Bon Appétit!

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Ralph Nader.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Adam Bychawski.

For all governments

• Implement an immediate moratorium on the development, export, sale, transfer, servicing, and use of spyware technologies until governments have enacted robust regulations that guarantee its use in line with international human rights standards.
• Bar government agencies from purchasing or licensing the export of spyware technology from companies that sell to governments with a track record of attacking press freedom and/or journalists, or that lack mechanisms to prevent their clients from unlawfully targeting the press. 
• Commit to not using spyware technology against journalists and pursue efforts to make it explicitly illegal in national legislation. 
• Establish accountability and remedy mechanisms in documented cases of abuse against the media 
• Where governments continue to engage in the use or sale of this technology, require public reporting and consultation about spyware purchases and exports 
• Use targeted actions – including visa and economic sanctions and export control listings – to hold accountable those who have spied or facilitated spying on journalists through the sale or use of spyware, and to deter future spying. 
• If not a member, join the Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative, an international effort to codify rights-respecting policy approaches to surveillance technology exports, and use it to build consensus for global action through concrete action.

For the U.S. government 

• Comply with the Congressional requirement to create a list of companies known to sell such spyware to countries with a record of using it unlawfully or with poor human rights records. [Note: the State Department was required to do this by National Defense Authorization Act 2021 but hasn’t complied yet. State said they are working on it.] 
• Continue to use the Department of Commerce’s (DoC) Entity List for Malicious Cyber Activities to impose export controls on spyware-producing companies, such as was done with NSO Group. 
• Stringently enforce a new DoC rule establishing controls on the export, reexport, or transfer of items that can be used to spy on journalists.
• Ensure U.S. businesses are complying with the State Department’s September 2020 Guidance on “Implementing the UN Guiding Principles for Transactions Linked to Foreign Government End-Users for Products or Services with Surveillance Capabilities.”
• Congress should adopt the Surveillance Technologies Disclosure Rule, which would require companies to conduct human rights due diligence and provide transparency in the surveillance technologies’ supply chain.
• Congress should adopt the Foreign Advanced Technology Surveillance Accountability Act, which would require the U.S. State Department to report on the wrongful use of surveillance technologies in the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. 

For European Union institutions 

• EU member states should fully implement the European Parliament regulation on the export of dual-use surveillance technology by EU-based companies and prevent the export of this technology from harming human rights in countries where journalists are targeted and under surveillance because of their work. 
• The European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry into Pegasus and equivalent spyware should conduct full and independent investigations into all allegations of abuse of Pegasus in EU member states and in third countries. The committee should issue ambitious and robust recommendations to EU member states, and the institutions, with a structured plan for continued scrutiny and timely monitoring to ensure all recommendations are implemented in full.
• EU member states should fully and independently investigate all national reports that Pegasus has been used to spy on journalists, providing full access to remedy for journalists targeted, including guarantees of non-repetition and restitution.
• The European Commission should assess the extent to which the Pegasus revelations have breached EU law, seek all sanctions against violating member states, including infringement procedures, and consider its own competencies to defend EU citizens against such abuse in the future.

For companies

• Embrace corporate accountability by making  a public commitment to press freedom and protecting journalists and media outlets from covert surveillance. 
• Prohibit clients from deploying technology to spy on journalists by inserting explicit terms in contracts and licenses. 
• Revoke access to spyware when abuse is detected, and report abuse to affected individuals, relevant authorities, and oversight bodies. 
• Establish procedures to review complaints and support human rights monitors investigating allegations of abuse involving specific products. 

For international organizations 

• Consult with civil society, report on the use of spyware against journalists around the world, and raise cases with governments. 
• Use human rights review mechanisms, including the Universal Periodic Review, and related processes to ensure that commitments to limit the abusive use of surveillance technologies, including spyware, translate to appropriate action, laws and policies that align with international human rights standards on targeted surveillance. 
• Promote public debate about the abusive use of spyware and encourage member states to adopt policies and laws to stem the problem by requiring corporate actors to respect human rights and implement measures as prescribed by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

See CPJ’s 2021 policy brief for summarized recommendations.  

Read CPJ’s complete special report on how spyware threatens journalists, their sources, and global press freedom.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Madeline Earp.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary-General, told reporters on Thursday that Guterres hopes China would “take on board the recommendations” made in the report released by the High Commissioner a day earlier, according to Al Jazeera. Dujarric said the report “confirms what the Secretary-General has been saying on Xinjiang for quite some time, that human rights must be respected and the Uyghur community need to be respected.”

Thursday's statement marks the first time the Secretary-General has openly called on China to follow through on the recommendations in the Xinjiang report released in the last minutes of Bachelet’s last day in office as the UN Human Rights High Commissioner. Prior to the release of the report, High Commissioner Bachelet’s office had faced tremendous pressure from China not to publish it.

The 46-page report found that human rights violations documented in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) assessment, flow from “a domestic ‘anti-terrorism law system’ that is deeply problematic from the perspective of international human rights norms and standards.”

The report covers the period beginning in early 2017 during which Chinese authorities arbitrarily detained up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in internment camps in Xinjiang, according to numerous investigative reports by rights groups, researchers, foreign media and think tanks.

The predominantly Muslim groups have also been subjected to torture, forced sterilizations and forced labor, as well as the eradication of their linguistic, cultural and religious traditions, in what the United States and several Western parliaments have called genocide and crimes against humanity.

OHCHR’s report makes 13 recommendations to the Chinese government, including promptly releasing those detained arbitrarily in vocational education and training centers, prisons or other detention facilities and releasing details about the location of Uyghurs in Xinjiang who have been out of touch with relatives abroad, establish safe means of communication for them, and allow travel so families can be reunited.

The report also recommends that China investigate allegations of human rights abuses in the vocational education and training centers, including allegations of torture, sexual violence, forced labor and deaths in custody.

Chinese condemnation

China immediately condemned the release of Bachelet’s report. China’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. Office at Geneva was the first one to dismiss it.

“This so-called ‘assessment’ runs counter to the mandate of the OHCHR, and ignores the human rights achievements made together by people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang and the devastating damage caused by terrorism and extremism to the human rights of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang,” the mission said in a statement.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin blamed the U.S. and its Western allies as the mastermind behind the release of the U.N. Xinjiang report.

Wang said during a regular press briefing on Thursday, “This so-called assessment is orchestrated and produced by the US and some Western forces and is completely illegal, null and void. It is a patchwork of disinformation that serves as a political tool for the US and some Western forces to strategically use Xinjiang to contain China.”

While Wang attacked the legitimacy and credibility of the report, he went on to use it to justify China’s narrative denying that atrocities taking place in Xinjiang.

“The fact that this assessment, despite its illegality and zero credibility, did not go so far as to play up false allegations such as “genocide”, “forced labor”, “religious oppression” and “forced sterilization” shows that the lies of the century concocted by the US and some Western forces have already collapsed,” he said.

Global reaction

On Thursday, the U.S. and other governments welcomed Bachelet's report.

White House press secretary Katrine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the Biden Administration welcomed the report and stated, "The report deepens our grave concern regarding the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity that China is perpetrating. Our position on the atrocities in Xinjiang has been clearly demonstrated with our words and in our actions."

“We call on China to immediately cease committing these atrocities,” she said.

The White House statement followed one by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said Washington would work closely with its partners, civil society and the international community to seek justice and accountability for Uyghur victims and continue to hold China to account.

Joseph Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also welcomed the report and said, “As the report states, the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region requires urgent attention by the Chinese government, the United Nations, in particular, its human rights bodies, as well as the international community more broadly.”

“The EU joins the call by UN experts reporting to the Human Rights Council to closely monitor, report, and assess the human rights situation in China.”

Other statements applauding the report's findings came from the foreign ministries of the U.K., Germany, and Japan.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alim.

To the Taliban, the de facto authorities in Afghanistan

1. Respect and guarantee the ability of all journalists and media workers to report and produce news freely and independently, without fear of reprisal, in keeping with the Taliban’s public commitments of August 2021.

2. End the involvement of the General Directorate of Intelligence and the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in developing or enforcing media policy, or intervening in media operations and interfering with the work of journalists.

4. Ensure access to effective remedies and due process for journalists who have been targeted for their work and penalize members of the Taliban engaging in such violations.

5. Continue interaction and engage constructively with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Human Rights Unit to address the situation of journalists in the country.

6. Continue to engage with and facilitate country visits by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, including the ability to meet privately with journalists and news executives.

*CPJ directs these recommendations to the Taliban as the de facto authority of Afghanistan and thereby the duty-bearers of human rights in the country. 

To all governments 

1. Accept Afghan journalists who are seeking emergency relocation and enact emergency visa programs to create a pathway specifically for at-risk journalists. 

7. Support the continuation of the human rights mandate of U.N. experts including the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and ensure adequate resources are available for human rights monitoring, documentation and accountability efforts, including on issues of press freedom.

To international organizations 

1. The U.N. Security Council should reimpose the travel ban originating from a 1988 U.N. sanctions regime on all Taliban leadership involved in human rights violations, including specifically those responsible for attacks on the press.

2. U.N. special rapporteurs should meet with journalists in Afghanistan and those living in exile and include their experiences in any reporting and engagement with the de facto authorities.

3. The International Criminal Court (ICC) should pursue investigations into crimes against journalists, as part of its relaunch of investigations into crimes committed by the Taliban and the Islamic State.

4. The Media Freedom Coalition, a partnership of 52 countries working together to advocate for media freedom and safety of journalists, should suspend Afghanistan’s membership in the body and seek meaningful, concrete steps to improve press freedom.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On the one-year anniversary of the report’s publication, the statement says that although the report “provided a historic opportunity” for the Maltese authority to restore the rule of law and avoid an assassination like that of Daphne Caruana Galizia ever happening again, Maltese authorities failed to implement necessary changes. “The changes introduced so far are token gestures, rather than urgently needed, radical and effective change,” the statement said.

The full statement can be read here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Jennifer Dunham.

The post Episode 85 – ATL Recommendations: What to Watch, Read, and Listen Too in Quarantine appeared first on Project Censored.

This content originally appeared on Project Censored and was authored by Project Censored.

The post Episode 75 – The CDC’s Lackluster COVID-19 Recommendations and teaching in quarantine journalist Justin Tatum appeared first on Project Censored.

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