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This evening's music features jazz piano player Fats Waller. Enjoy!

“The ends came to justify the means, and the means were inhumane and abhorrent. The debate should not be about whether the torture worked. The federal criminal law and the treaty have no exception for effective torture."

-- Erwin Chemerinsky

News and Opinion

Trump Administration Returns Copies of Report on C.I.A. Torture to Congress

Senators, spies and a president spent years in a pitched battle over how the history is told of one of the most controversial chapters of America’s campaign against terrorism, the detention and interrogation of prisoners in secret C.I.A. jails. But recent moves by the Trump administration have increased the likelihood that much of what is known about the macabre humiliations that unfolded in those jails around the world will remain hidden from public view.

Congressional officials said on Friday that the administration had begun returning to Congress copies of a 6,700-page Senate report from 2014 about the C.I.A. program. The move raises the possibility that most of the copies could be locked in Senate vaults indefinitely or even destroyed — and increases the risk that future government officials, unable to read the report, will never learn its lessons.

The classified report is the result of a lengthy investigation into the program by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, telling the story of how — in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — the C.I.A. began capturing terrorism suspects and interrogating them in secret prisons beyond the reach of the American judicial and military legal systems. The central conclusion of the report is that the spy agency’s interrogation methods — including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other kinds of torture — were far more brutal and less effective than the C.I.A. described to policy makers, Congress and the public. ...

The report is the most comprehensive accounting of the Bush-era program that exists. A declassified executive summary was made public in December 2014, and it laid bare some of the worst excesses of the war on terrorism, drawing broad condemnation both inside the United States and abroad. Officials who played important roles in the C.I.A. detention program remain at the agency, including its newly appointed deputy director, Gina Haspel, and the former head of the agency’s counterterrorism center, Michael D’Andrea. Mr. D’Andrea recently assumed control of the agency’s Iran operations.

Could Trump's White House Bury or Even Destroy the Landmark 2014 Senate Report on CIA Torture?

Hiding the Ugly Business of Torture

So, you did not believe in the power of the Deep State? Well, you may change your mind after reading a report in The New York Times that the powers-that-be in Washington are about to deep-six the 6,700-page Senate report based on original CIA cables and other documents that not only depict savage torture practices during the George W. Bush era, but also show that CIA officials consistently lied in claiming these heinous practices yielded information of any intelligence value.

In what amounts to a gross violation of the public trust – not to mention his oath to the Constitution – Senate Intelligence Committee chair, Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, has recalled all copies and will put the report under lock and key for good – dismissing it as a “footnote in history.”

The only hope for those of us who want to see torturers held accountable is that some patriotic truthteller has – or will – put the report on a thumb drive and send it off to WikiLeaks or some other brave outlet that will publish it.

Small wonder that those agencies and individuals involved in the torture and those – like Burr – who are afraid of the torturers want to keep the report from public view. According to the Times, the full report describes interrogation sessions “in great detail.” It also “explains the origins of the program, identifies the officials involved, and offers details on the role of each agency in the secret prison program” in which detainees were tortured.

Is that why, when copies of the original report were sent to Executive Branch agencies, no one was allowed to read them? Katherine Hawkins, senior counsel at the Constitution Project, immediately called the return of the report to the Senate committee “extremely disturbing.” She labeled “absurd” that no one in the Executive Branch was permitted to read the Senate report, five years in the making. What Burr’s subservience to the intelligence agencies that he is supposed to be overseeing tells me is that he will shy away from anything implicating former CIA Director John Brennan and his co-conspirators in other shocking activities.

More of The Intercept's excellent reporting on the DAPL protests and the growth of the fascist public-private surveillance of and disinformation campaigns run against dissenting citizens. Here's the intro to the latest reporting to get you started. It's well worth a full read.

Standing Rock Documents Expose Inner Workings of “Surveillance-Industrial Complex”

On a freezing night in November, as police sprayed nonviolent Dakota Access Pipeline opponents with water hoses and rubber bullets, representatives of the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, North Dakota’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, and local law enforcement agencies frantically exchanged emails as they monitored the action in real time.

“Everyone watch a different live feed,” Bismarck police officer Lynn Wanner wrote less than 90 minutes after the protest began on the North Dakota Highway 1806 Backwater Bridge. By 4 a.m. on November 21, approximately 300 water protectors had been injured, some severely. Among them was 21-year-old Sophia Wilansky, who nearly lost her arm after being hit by what multiple sworn witnesses say was a police munition.

The emails exchanged that night highlight law enforcement efforts to control the narrative around the violent incident by spreading propaganda refuting Wilansky’s story, demonstrate the agencies’ heavy reliance on protesters’ social media feeds to monitor activities, and reveal for the first time the involvement of an FBI informant in defining the story police would promote.

The exchange is included in documents obtained by The Intercept that reveal the efforts of law enforcement and private security contractors to surveil Dakota Access Pipeline opponents between October and December 2016, as law enforcement’s outsized response to the demonstrators garnered growing nationwide attention and the number of water protectors living in anti-pipeline camps grew to roughly 10,000. Although the surveillance of anti-DAPL protesters was visible at the time — with helicopters circling overhead, contingents of security officials watching from the hills above camp, and a row of blinding lights illuminating the horizon along the pipeline’s right of way — intelligence collection largely took place in darkness.

EU judges may be asked to rule on legality of UK surveillance powers

EU judges may be asked to decide whether the intelligence services’ bulk collection of email data in order to prevent terrorist attacks is legal. In a fresh challenge that could impact the Investigatory Powers Act, the campaign group Privacy International has argued in court on Monday that interception of social media that is not targeted and subject to sufficient safeguards is forbidden by a previous European judgment.

After a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the attack in London on Saturday, the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) said it was considering whether to refer the issue – concerning the use by GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 of bulk communication data – back to the court of justice of the European Union in Luxembourg.

“This case raises a fundamental political question as to the competing powers of the nation state and the EU,” the vice-president of the IPT, Mr Justice Mitting, told the hearing. In December, the European court if justice ruled that “general and indiscriminate retention” of emails and electronic communications by governments is illegal. The far-reaching judgment was in relation to previous surveillance legislation but it may now effect the Investigatory Powers Act – the so-called snooper’s charter. ...

Addressing the IPT on Monday, Thomas de la Mare QC, for Privacy International, said: “Communications data collected in aggregate about individuals is no less sensitive than the content [of emails].” UK citizens live in a country subject to a greater surveillance than any other, he said. “You should not forget that every single EU state has in the past five years been combatting Islamic terrorism of exactly the same form [as the Borough Market and Manchester attacks] and despite their efforts gross terrorist outrages have occurred ... “Notwithstanding such terrible threats to human life, the constitutional right to personal privacy sets limits on state surveillance powers,” he said.

May Pushes Internet Regulation After London Attack

British Prime Minister Theresa May wasted no time after yesterday’s London Bridge terror attack in announcing that she will be pushing a new series of international agreements aimed at global regulation of speech on the Internet, claiming that extremists have been using “safe spaces online” in their terror attacks.

While this is being couched today as a reaction to the London attack, the reality is that this is a long-standing goal of Britain’s Tory government, with the Conservative Party’s current manifesto vowing efforts to force Internet providers to participate in “counter-extremism” efforts that would tightly regulate speech.

Theresa May urged not to suppress report into funding of jihadi groups

Jeremy Corbyn and Tim Farron have challenged Theresa May over a long-delayed inquiry into foreign funding and support of jihadi groups in the UK, after the Home Office suggested the investigation may not be published. The inquiry into revenue streams for extremist groups was commissioned by David Cameron when he was prime minister and is thought to focus on Saudi Arabia. ...

Corbyn referenced May’s speech after the London Bridge attack on Saturday, in which she said challenging terrorism would “require some difficult and often embarrassing conversations”. In a speech that also criticised May for ignoring warnings about the impact of police cuts, he said: “Yes, we do need to have some difficult conversations, starting with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that have funded and fuelled extremist ideology.

“It is no good Theresa May suppressing a report into the foreign funding of extremist groups. We have to get serious about cutting off the funding to these terror networks, including Isis here and in the Middle East.”

The Conservatives were criticised last year for selling billions of pounds of arms to the Saudis. Cameron ordered the investigation as part of a deal with the Lib Dems in exchange for the party supporting the extension of British airstrikes against Islamic State into Syria in December 2015.

Saudi Arabia Lavishes Conservative U.K. Officials With Gifts, Travel, And Plum Consultancies

New figures released by British Parliament show that, at a time when U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s ties to Saudi Arabia have become an election issue, conservative government officials and members of Parliament were lavished with money by the oil-rich Saudi government with gifts, travel expenses, and consulting fees. Tory lawmakers received the cash as the U.K. backs Saudi Arabia’s brutal war against Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has made the U.K.’s uneasy alliance with the Saudis an election issue, with voters going to the polls on June 8. The Tories’ ties to Saudi Arabia, Labour leaders charge, have resulted in record weapons sales — conservative governments have licensed £3.3 billion ($4.2 billion) in arms sales to the Saudi military since the onset of the Yemen campaign — and a reluctance to criticize human rights abuses.

While Tory politicians have defended the arms sales to Saudis as a move to shore up Britain’s allies in the region, Tory members of Parliament have collected £99,396 ($128,035) in gifts, travel expenses, and consulting fees from the government of Saudi Arabia since the Yemen war began.

"Pot calling the kettle black" as Saudis accuse Qatar of sponsoring terrorism

Gulf plunged into diplomatic crisis as countries cut ties with Qatar

Arab nations including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain have cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of destabilising the region, in the biggest diplomatic crisis to hit the Gulf in years. The countries said they planned to halt all land, air and sea traffic with Qatar and eject its diplomats. The small but very wealthy nation was also expelled from a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

The coordinated move dramatically escalates a dispute over Qatar’s support of Islamist movements and its perceived tolerance of Saudi Arabia’s arch-rival, Iran. ... Saudi Arabia said it took the decision to cut diplomatic ties owing to Qatar’s “embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilising the region”, including the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, Islamic State and groups supported by Iran in Saudi Arabia’s restive eastern province of Qatif.

Qatar is home to the sprawling al-Udeid airbase, which houses the US military’s central command and 10,000 American troops. It was not clear if the decision would affect US military operations. ...

The row comes only two weeks after the US president, Donald Trump, visited the Middle East to seal major defence contracts with Saudi Arabia worth $110bn, set up an anti-extremist institute in Riyadh and urge the Gulf states to build an alliance against Iran. The Saudis are in part countering the allegation of funding extremism, frequently made in Washington and in the past by Trump himself, by pointing the finger at Qatar for backing terrorism.

Hacked Emails Show Top UAE Diplomat Coordinating With Pro-Israel Think Tank Against Iran

The email account of one of Washington’s most connected and influential foreign operatives has been hacked. A small tranche of those emails was sent this week to media outlets, including The Intercept, HuffPost and The Daily Beast, with the hacker promising to release a trove publicly. The hotmail account belongs to the UAE’s ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al-Otaiba. ...

The emails provided so far to the The Intercept show a growing relationship between the United Arab Emirates and the pro-Israel, neoconservative think tank called the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). On the surface, the alliance should be surprising, as the UAE does not even recognize Israel. But the two countries have worked together in the past against their common adversary, Iran.

On March 10 of this year, FDD CEO Mark Dubowitz authored an email to both the UAE’s ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al-Otaiba, and FDD Senior Counselor John Hannah — a former deputy national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney — with the subject line “Target list of companies investing in Iran, UAE and Saudi Arabia.” “Dear, Mr. Ambassador,” Dubowitz wrote. “The attached memorandum details companies listed by country which are doing business with Iran and also have business with the UAE and Saudi Arabia. This is a target list for putting these companies to a choice, as we have discussed.”

The list includes a number of major international firms, including France’s Airbus and Russia’s Lukoil. ...

The hacked emails demonstrate a remarkable level of backchannel cooperation between a leading neoconservative think tank — FDD is funded by pro-Israel billionaire Sheldon Adelson, an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is one of the largest political donors in the United States  — and a Gulf monarchy.

A 50-Year Occupation: Israel’s Six Day War Started With a Lie

Fifty years ago, between June 5 and June 10, 1967, Israel invaded and occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. The Six Day War, as it would later be dubbed, saw the Jewish David inflict a humiliating defeat on the Arab Goliath, personified perhaps by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt.

“The existence of the Israeli state hung by a thread,” the country’s prime minister, Levi Eshkol, claimed two days after the war was over, “but the hopes of the Arab leaders to annihilate Israel were dashed.” Genocide, went the argument, had been prevented; another Holocaust of the Jews averted.

There is, however, a problem with this argument: it is complete fiction, a self-serving fantasy constructed after the event to justify a war of aggression and conquest. Don’t take my word for it: “The thesis according to which the danger of genocide hung over us in June 1967, and according to which Israel was fighting for her very physical survival, was nothing but a bluff which was born and bred after the war,” declared General Matituahu Peled, Chief of Logistical Command during the war and one of 12 members of Israel’s General Staff, in March 1972.

A year earlier, Mordechai Bentov, a member of the wartime government and one of 37 people to sign Israel’s Declaration of Independence, had made a similar admission. “This whole story about the threat of extermination was totally contrived, and then elaborated upon, a posteriori, to justify the annexation of new Arab territories,” he said in April 1971.

Even Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, former terrorist and darling of the Israeli far right, conceded in a speech in August 1982 that “in June 1967 we had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches did not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us, We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.”

Isis surrenders Iraqi hideout of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Islamic State has surrendered the key town of Baaj in north-west Iraq, a known hideout of the terrorist group’s leader which had been under Islamist militants’ control throughout 14 years of war and insurgency. The few remaining Isis fighters fled the town on Saturday night, allowing Shia militia forces to enter unopposed.

A statement from the Popular Mobilisation Front, an umbrella organisation for pro-government paramilitaries that is dominated by Iran-backed Shia militias, announced the “total liberation” of the Baaj district and declared: “The Iraqi flag has been hoisted above its buildings.” Throughout Sunday, the Front’s fighters raised Iraqi flags and banners where Isis flags had flown since mid-2014, securing a victory that resonates far beyond the formerly untamed corner of north-west Iraq. ...

Isis fighters who remain in western Mosul have barricaded themselves in the old city district and have little chance of escape. The withdrawal leaves just that pocket of Mosul and the town of Bukamal as the only urban centres in Iraq, or on the Syrian border, with a significant Isis presence. The fight to reclaim lands seized by Isis is now expected to shift focus to Syria, where the next, and potentially final, leg of the campaign to eradicate the group’s presence is intensifying.

US escalates pressure on China over South China Sea and North Korea

The United States continues to escalate pressure on China over the twin issues of the South China Sea and North Korea, telling Beijing that with growing global influence comes increased responsibilities that it is failing to live up to.

[!?! cough, cough, Paris, cough, climate agreement, cough, cough. mutters something about the mote in China's eye. !?! - js]

Speaking in Sydney as part of AusMin – Australia and America’s annual bilateral foreign, security and defence meeting – [Rexxon] Tillerson said there was no room for negotiation on China’s island-building in the South China Sea, which was found unlawful by the permanent court of arbitration in the Hague last year.

“We oppose China’s artificial island construction and their militarisation of those features in international waters,” Tillerson said. "China is a significant economic and trading power. We desire productive relationships, but we cannot allow China to use its economic power to buy its way out of other problems, whether it’s militarising islands in the South China Sea or failing to put appropriate pressure on North Korea. They must recognise that, with a role as a growing economic and trading power comes security responsibilities as well.”

Shadowy Chinese Conglomerate Cultivated Ties to the Most Powerful U.S. Politicians

A few years ago, Guo Wengui, a pugnacious Chinese billionaire known for his hardball business tactics, left his native China to live in self-imposed exile in Manhattan. He recently began unleashing a torrent of purported insider information on how China’s political power brokers have enriched themselves.

Among the dizzying array of allegations, Guo claimed that a mysterious Chinese conglomerate has illicitly enriched the family of one of the most senior members of the Communist Party. The conglomerate, HNA Group, has attracted attention with a multibillion-dollar spending spree, acquiring stakes in over 20 multinational firms from across the globe.

Those allegations remain far from proven — Guo has yet to substantiate many of them — but the attention on HNA Group may raise eyebrows over attempts by the conglomerate to court American political elites. Over the years, the firm has built relationships with everyone from Obama to Trump administration officials, as well as members of the Bush and Clinton dynasties.

Mexico state election heads to court amid alleged intimidation and vote-buying

A hotly contested state election in Mexico is heading to court after the president’s cousin was declared the victor amid widespread allegations of voter intimidation, vote buying, and misuse of public resources. Alfredo del Mazo Maza, the candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was declared the winner after early results in the state of Mexico gave him a two-point lead over Delfina Gómez of the leftwing National Regeneration party (Morena).

But with the vote so close, Morena – led by the populist firebrand Andres Manuel López Obrador – is refusing to accept the initial results. The full count will not be completed before 7 June, after which Morena will almost certainly seek that the election be annulled.

The PRI has governed the state (known as Edomex) for almost 90 years, and the vote was seen as a key indicator for next year’s presidential election. Both parties simultaneously claimed victory shortly after polling stations closed on Sunday night, and the stage is set for another messy court battle over coming weeks. The outcome will depend on whether other parties join forces with Morena to contest the results, or negotiate with PRI in order to limit the gains of López Obrador who has emerged as an early favourite in presidential race. ...

The Specialized Office for Electoral Crimes has received hundreds of complaints, many for alleged vote buying. Juan Cortéz told the Guardian that he was one of hundreds of state government employees who were forced to work on the PRI campaign.

Cortez said that he set up committees of 10 people in a small community in the municipality of Tultitlan. Committee members were given cash benefits in exchange for assuring 10 votes each, which they did by telling their neighbours that the community would lose basic services and social programmes if the PRI lost, he said. “Our job was to ensure people vote for the PRI, or don’t vote at all,” said Cortez, who requested his name be changed to avoid repercussions. “The tactics we’re forced to use are illegal but working for the government means we’re forced to work for the party.”

Bilderberg conference: attendees dodge the press as secretive meeting ends

Michael O’Leary hopped out of his limousine, saw me scuttling towards him with my camera, and darted off into departures. I hurried in after him. ... I cornered him next to a terrible-looking airport steakhouse and, wearily, he agreed to answer a couple of questions. ...

I asked him about the top item on this year’s agenda: “The Trump Administration: A progress report”. What was Bilderberg’s verdict? O’Leary thought for a moment. “I would say … reasonable. He’s got things done, but there’s more to do.”

It sounds like Trump’s regulatory bonfire isn’t quite the howling blaze the CEOs and industrialists of Bilderberg would prefer, but it’s a step in the right direction. He’s got potential. Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, must have made a good case. Ross was a clever choice of envoy: a private equity billionaire, a former trustee of Brookings and a former Rothschild investment banker. He’d fit right in at Bilderberg.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Wants People in Georgia to Self-Diagnose Before Heading to the Emergency Room

Blue Cross Blue Shield is quietly telling its individual market patients in Georgia that it will stop reimbursing some emergency room visits. The revelation comes from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which reports that Georgians are getting letters warning them that the insurer will no longer cover emergency room visits unless it determines them to have been necessary.

This raises the worry from some public health advocates that patients will be afraid to go to the emergency room out of the fear that their treatment will not be reimbursed by their insurer. Laura Harker, a policy analyst who studies Georgia’s health care system at the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute, explained some of the possible outcomes to The Intercept.

“Patients do not always know if they are having a true emergency or not. This policy could make some patients more likely to put off care that they need,” Harker said. “Many hospitals in rural Georgia are already struggling financially, and this policy could further hurt their bottom line. If BCBS decides that a visit does not count as an emergency, the hospital would most likely not get paid at all. Many patients wouldn’t be able to afford the full cost of an ER visit or they could end up with medical debt.” ...

As the AJC reports, BCBS is the only insurer in the health insurance marketplace in 96 of Georgia’s 159 counties. Particularly in rural Georgia, it has a monopoly over patients. As the Washington Post noted in 2014, southwest Georgia is “one of the most expensive places in the nation to buy health insurance.”

Senators preview plans for James Comey hearing as suspense builds

Two members of the Senate committee that will interrogate James Comey this week have previewed their questions for the former FBI director, saying they intend to ask him in detail about his interactions with Donald Trump and about the activities of Trump associates including Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

The Democratic senator Mark Warner said the intelligence committee hearing on Thursday would include discussion of contacts “I don’t think that have been fully revealed” between Russian operatives and Trump associates. An air of historic suspense has been building in Washington in anticipation of Comey’s testimony. It will be the first time Comey has spoken publicly since he was fired by Trump a month ago.

The firing of Comey was followed by a flood of leaks from the executive branch pertaining to an FBI investigation, which Comey had been overseeing, of possible collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russian operatives, and other matters.

One such leak alleged Trump had told Russian officials in the Oval Office that firing Comey “took the pressure off”. Similar leaks indicated that the former national security adviser Michael Flynn had contacts with Russians the White House explicitly denied.

Deutsche Bank fails to provide Trump-Russia details, Democratic aide says

Germany’s largest bank has failed to respond to a request from Democrats on a House of Representatives panel for details about Donald Trump’s possible ties to Russia, a Democratic staffer said on Sunday. Several Democrats on the House financial services committee sent a letter last month to John Cryan, chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank, seeking details that might show if loans for Trump’s real estate business were backed by the Russian government.

The letter asked for details of internal reviews of Trump’s transactions and gave the prominent German bank until Friday to respond. The bank’s response did not address any of the questions posed in the letter and its Frankfurt headquarters declined to comment, as it has in the past.

“Deutsche Bank’s outside counsel has confirmed receipt of our 23 May 2017 letter but did not provide substantive responses to our requests,” a Democratic member of the staff told Reuters in an email on condition of anonymity.

The congressional inquiry is also seeking information about a Russian “mirror trading” scheme that allowed $10bn to flow out of Russia.

“Congress remains in the dark on whether loans Deutsche Bank made to President Trump were guaranteed by the Russian government or were in any way connected to Russia,” the Democrats wrote in their request to Deutsche Bank.

CEOs Praised For Backing the Paris Accord Also Funded Lobbyists Pushing Trump to Withdraw

The chief executives of Dow Chemical and Corning Inc., among other business leaders, were portrayed in the media as environmental champions for opposing President Donald Trump’s move on Thursday to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

Andrew N. Liveris, the chief executive of Dow, said in an initial statement that he was “disappointed” with Trump’s decision. “Leaders don’t leave tables,” he later said, “Leaders stay.” In May, Liveris and Corning chief Wendell Weeks were among the signatories to an open letter in the Wall Street Journal in to “express our strong support for the U.S. remaining in the Paris Climate Agreement.”

Yet both companies back one of the few business groups to openly lobby the Trump administration in support of withdrawing from the plan.

The Industrial Energy Consumers of America, a trade group that lobbies on behalf of industry, petitioned the administration to consider ditching the Paris accord. The membership packet for the group lists Dow and Corning as members

As Trump Withdraws from Paris Climate Accord, California Vows 100 Percent Clean Energy by 2045

Grand Canyon at risk as Arizona officials ask Trump to end uranium mining ban

A coalition of influential officials in Arizona and Utah is urging the Trump administration to consider rolling back Obama-era environmental protections that ban new uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.

They argue that the 20-year ban that came into effect in 2012 is unlawful and stifles economic opportunity in the mining industry. But supporters of the ban say new mining activity could increase the risk of uranium-contaminated water flowing into the canyon. Past mining in the region has left hundreds of polluted sites among Arizona’s Navajo population, leading to serious health consequences, including cancer and kidney failure.

The new appeal to the Trump administration appears in the draft of a letter expected to be sent on Monday to the US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, by the Mohave county board of supervisors, whose region borders the north side of the Grand Canyon, in Arizona. Similar letters are being drawn up by other regional leaders in neighboring county governments in southern Utah, to be sent to Washington by the end of the week, according to officials.

The Mohave leaders also plan to dispatch a second letter on Monday asking the federal government to scrap national monument protections for lands of natural wonder “throughout Arizona”, claiming their designation is unconstitutional and prevents economic development of coal, oil and gas deposits. Utah leaders will follow with letters requesting the government shrink national monuments in southern Utah, such as Bears Ears and Grand Escalante, in order to open up a greater area for mineral exploitation, the Guardian has learned.

Backers of Honduran dam opposed by murdered activist Berta Cáceres withdraw funding

The international funders behind the hydroelectric dam opposed by murdered Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres are withdrawing from the project, the Guardian can reveal. Three financial institutions had pledged loans worth $44m for the Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque river, which is considered sacred by the Lenca people and which Caceres campaigned against before her death.

Her murder last year triggered international outrage and piled pressure on the international backers to pull out of the project amid a campaign of intimidation against communities opposed to the dam. The Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh) - the campaign group Caceres co-founded – has long demanded that investors withdraw and make reparations for the human rights violations linked to the project.

Desarrollos Energeticos SA (Desa) secured loans from Dutch bank FMO, Finnish finance company FinnFund and the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (Cabei). Caceres wrote to FMO in 2013 after the murder of her colleague Tomás Garcia, asking them not to finance Agua Zarca amid violence against the community. Despite her plea, the loan was granted. Caceres was killed in March 2016 after receiving multiple death threats linked to her campaign, and just a few months after her name appeared on a military hitlist, a Guardian investigation found.

FMO and FinnFund suspended their loans after police arrested a Desa employee in connection with the murder in May 2016. ... The Cabei, the largest investor, has simply stopped loan payments rather than seek a formal break in contract. ... Desa received $17m – just under 40% – of the loans before payments were suspended. The loans have not been sold, the Guardian was told.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Mattis: US Remains Committed to Global Intervention

Hillary Clinton’s war in Libya continues to wreck our national security

Farewell to Scott Pelley, Who Once Asked the Worst Question Possible About the Iraq War

The Kissinger Backchannel to Moscow

Erik Prince’s dark plan for Afghanistan: Military occupation for profit, not security

Clinton Democrats Are Literally Neocons

California's would-be governor prepares for battle against job-killing robots

Bob Dylan delivers 'extraordinary' Nobel lecture – in the nick of time

A Little Night Music

Fats Waller - All That Meat And No Potatoes

Fats Waller - Your Feet's Too Big

Fats Waller - Lookin' Good But Feelin' Bad

Fats Waller and his Rhythm - Do Me A Favour

Fats Waller - Basin Street Blues

Fats Waller - Rump Steak Serenade

Fats Waller - If You're A Viper

Fats Waller and His Rhythm - Until the Real Thing Comes Along

Jeni LeGon, Bill Robinson and Fats Waller - Living In A Great Big Way

Fats Waller - The Joint Is Jumping