- The White House is using state secrets privilege to prevent the nominated CIA deputy director from testifying about her role in the US torture program during her Senate confirmation hearings. [Link]
- The federal government’s sugar import quotas and tariffs on sugar cost American consumers over $3 billion every year. [Link]
- Five states have joined in a lawsuit against Trump’s new travel ban. The states argue that the restraining order preventing enforcement of the first travel ban should also apply to the new one. Hawaii is also challenging the new travel ban in a separate lawsuit. [Link]
- The FBI is dropping charges against a pedophile because the trail will force the FBI to reveal classified information. The pedophile on trial was caught during an FBI operation. The FBI took over a child pornography website called playpen and ran the website for a few weeks. [Link]
- Wikileaks offers to give tech companies detailed accounts of CIA files to allow them to fix holes in their software. [Link]
- The South Korean president has been removed from office after a court upheld the impeachment. [Link]
- Turkey says that US and Turkish relations will be damaged if the US moves forward with its plan to assist the Kurds in defeating ISIS in Raqqa. [Link]
- The top US military commander for the Middle East says a larger US force will be needed in Syria and the force will need to stay longer. The US forces will be used to occupy the city of Raqqa after ISIS is defeated in the city. [Link]
- 20 civilians including children were killed by an airstrike in villages outside of Raqqa. The US-coalition is likely responsible for carrying out the strike. [Link]
- Turkey attacks Syrian soldiers outside of the city of Manbij. Eight soldiers were killed in the attack. The attack is a violation of the ceasefire. [Link]
- Al-Qaeda forces in Yemen are appealing to the US government for help in repelling an advancing Houthi army. The US is supporting Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign against the Houthi and has been carrying out airstrikes against al-Qaeda. [Link]
- The people of the village where the botched US raid occurred are giving their accounts of what happened during the raid. [Link]
- Trump’s move to reinstate the blocked weapon sale to Saudi Arabia show that the US gives full support to Saudi Arabia’s war against the people of Yemen. [Link]
