Census Results May Spell Bad News for Kucinich
Representative Dennis Kucinich may lose his House seat, according to The Hill. With Ohio losing two seats because of Census numbers, Kucinich told the newspaper, “My district could be absorbed into many other districts. It could literally disappear or I could end up with a new district with a core of my district intact.”
Kucinich says he respects the redistricting process. However, with Ohio Republicans in charge of both the Governor’s mansion and the Legislature next year, “redistricting lines will be drawn to favor GOP candidates,” according to The Hill.
Palestinians Take Israeli Settlement Fight to UN
Palestinians will bring their battle with Israel over settlements in the occupied territories to the United Nations, The Associated Press reports. According to the AP, Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, “said that shortly after the New Year the Palestinians’ Arab allies would present a resolution that will ‘declare that the Israeli settlement building is illegal and must be stopped immediately.'” While the Palestinians do not think the resolution will amount to much, they nonetheless hope it sends “a tough message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom they believe is not serious about pursuing peace.”
UN Reports Worsening Security in Afghanistan While Government Condemns Deadly Night Raid
Democracy Now! reports that “newly disclosed records show violence has increased in key areas across Afghanistan this year.” Southern Afghanistan, where “most of the fighting between the US-led NATO force and militants has taken place,” is said to be the most destabilized region.
DN! also reports that the Afghan government has condemned a deadly NATO-led night raid that killed two people in Kabul. While US officials said they targeted the building based on credible intelligence, “the Afghan government says two security guards were killed without provocation after foreign troops surrounded the compound.”
In Mexican Border Town, Last Police Officer Disappears
The last remaining police officer in the Mexican border town of Guadalupe is missing, the AP reports. Twenty-eight-year-old police officer Ericka Gandara of the border town of Guadalupe, Chihuahua, Mexico has been missing since December 23. She is suspected to have been kidnapped by drug cartels, which are fighting the police in “bloody battles for control of the Juarez Valley where Guadalupe is located.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.