California regulators have overwhelmingly voted to approve the nation’s most extensive steps toward offering financial incentives for the owners of power plants, refineries and other major industrial polluters to emit fewer greenhouse gases, reported The New York Times. The groundbreaking 2006 climate law was approved almost unanimously by the state’s Air Resources Board, and will limit greenhouse gases beginning in 2012. California is hoping to send an example to other states in light of “the vacuum created by the failure of Congress to pass any kind of climate or energy legislation for many years now,” said Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the Air Resources Board.
Interview With Bradley Manning’s Lawyer Releases Details of his Solitary Confinement
Bradley Manning, the man who allegedly released hundreds of thousands of classified government documents to the whistleblowing web site WikiLeaks, will be turning 23 in jail on Friday. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, Manning’s attorney reported that since his arrest in May, Manning has spent the majority of his detention (more than seven months) in solitary confinement. Manning spends 23 hours a day alone in a cell with a sink, a toilet and a bed at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. He is not allowed sheets or a pillow. Though Manning is allowed a television for one hour each day, Manning’s attorney said the prolonged confinement is weighing on his client’s psyche.
North Korea Vows to Strike Back if South Holds Island Drill
Tensions between the Koreas has heightened Friday as North Korea threatened South Korea with firepower if South Korea conducts a live-fire drill on a border island, which was shelled by North Korea last month. The South’s one-day drill is scheduled for some time between Saturday and Tuesday – the North said it “will deal the second and third unpredictable self-defensive blow” to protect its territorial waters, reported Agence France-Presse. The two countries are currently separated by the world’s most militarized border.
Four Corporate Managers Arrested in an Insider Probe
In their most significant arrest yet in a grand insider-trading investigation, federal prosecutors have charged four corporate managers with peddling insider information for cash. The four corporate managers who worked on the side as consultants and leaked financial details about prominent technology companies as well as consumer secrets were found by an insider-trading probe that has already led to a string of raids and subpoenas of hedge funds and mutual funds, with more arrests expected in the months ahead, reported the Wall Street Journal.
US to Sign UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights
Following years of opposition, President Obama has announced the United States will sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which grants the “right to self-determination.” The US was the last major country to sign on to the declaration and the decision was hailed by Indian-rights groups in the US as a significant step, reported Democracy Now!
Inmate Executed With Animal Drug
Oklahoma has used a sedative commonly used to euthanize animals in its lethal injection formula due to a nationwide shortage of a key ingredient in the usual combination. John David Duty, a death-row inmate, challenged the state’s decision to use the sedative pentobarbital, arguing that it could be inhumane since it could paralyze recipients and leave them aware while the third drug is administered, reported AP. But the ruling was upheld and Duty was the first person in the United States to be executed with pentobarbital. In late November, the UK placed a ban on the export of legal execution drugs to the US, but it is unclear if this is related to the drug shortage in Oklahoma.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy