Tag: Breaking

Engineers halt the construction of DAPL pipeline across Standing Rock

Image: The Nation

It has been just about eight months since the Sioux tribe began protesting the construction of the DAPL pipeline construction that was planned to go through the Standing Rock Reservation and their water source. The $3.7 billion, 1,172-mile, 30-inch in diameter Dakota Access Pipeline was designed to carry about 470,000 to 570,000 barrels of crude oil from Bakken and Three-Forks oil production ranges to North Dakota,which originally planned to cross the Mississippi River, the part currently in dispute.

The odds were stacked against the protesters as the police force grew and grew with more backfire starting with pepper spray and rubber bullets being used against protesters, so it is quite a relief to hear that the Army Corps of Engineers had halted construction of the pipeline. The Army Corps of Engineers are now reviewing plans to try and avoid the Standing Rock Reservation and the Mississippi River.

The tribe had claimed that the pipeline that they described as a “black snake” would have caused environmental issues with leakage, destroying the soil and infecting the water source on which they so heavily rely. They have stated their appreciation to the Obama administration to taking a look into this matter, but the battle is not yet over. The backlash of the DAPL construction has been so widespread, there have been protests such as the one on Sunday when thousands of veterans went to Standing Rock with constant Twitter posts stating their disapproval of the pipeline with #NoDAPL.

There are ups and downs for the construction of the pipelines creating an agricultural-economic struggle. On one side, the pipeline may cause leakage which would harm the ecosystem and pollute water resources. At the same time, it would employ thousands of Americans as engineers and supply energy to much of the United States which in turn would lower much of the high gas prices we face as a nation and further improve our economy.

This strong win for the Sioux tribe has created new hope for the protests, yet it may be too early to actually say that it is a done deal. There is still a long waited dispute in Washington D.C. to truly say if the deal to go around the Mississippi River will stand or be denied, but until then, it is for the best to hope and pray for the deal to go through.

One dead, Nine Injured at Ohio State University After Attack

Image: USA Today

Earlier this morning, nine students at Ohio State University were stabbed by a local Somali student of the school who recently became a permanent citizen of the United States, and whose name was confirmed to be Abdul Razak Ali Artan. Initially, the police department believed that there was more than one attacker, but after observing multiple buildings that were supposedly hiding multiple shooters, they narrowed it down to just one.

Jerry Kovacich, a student at the university, said that the fire alarm had started to ring, and then the man whose motive was unknown used a family member’s car to drive onto the curb and injure the students standing outside of Watts Hall. Most likely, the large crowd of students was standing outside of the building because a fluorine leak was reported to have occurred inside of the university’s chairman of materials science and engineering Peter Anderson’s lab earlier that morning.

According to Chief Craig Stone, the silent attacker then exited the car and started to cut the students with his butcher knife, but luckily an officer arrived at the location in under a minute and stopped the man from continuing his attack. Soon after the policeman resolved the conflict, reports of a shooter inside of Watts Hall arrived. The University’s Emergency Management Twitter sent out a message to its followers that told them to stay safe and to find shelter. Students inside of the buildings on the massive campus barricaded doors and hoped to stay safe as the attacks subsided.

The man was then fatally shot by police during another attempt to stab students at the university with a large knife. Fortunately, these issues were resolved very quickly because the university’s highly trained police department arrived at the attacks just in time to prevent further harm to the students and staff. Many of the buildings reopened at around 11:15 this morning, but over a dozen remained closed for further inspection.

François Fillon Wins Nomination for French Presidency

Image: Sud Ouest

Former Prime Minister François Fillon has won the conservative primaries, beating a more centrist candidate, Alain Juppé, for next year’s presidential election in France. Fillon, 62, a man who has been involved in French politics for a long time, called for economic sacrifice, major crackdowns on immigration and Islam, has won 68.6% of the vote in the second round of his primaries on Sunday, defeating his opponent, Juppé, 71, with 31.4% of the vote.

Both Fillon and Juppé campaigned for cuts in federal spending and raising the retirement age, but Fillon’s proposals were more drastic and simply faster. These results from the first round were another large upset for pollsters (*cough* Donald Trump *cough*) when Fillon emerged with an unexpected victory on November 20th. Last Thursday, a televised debate between Fillon and Juppé was held, and it definitely did assist Fillon towards his victory.

French presidential elections are decided in two rounds. The first round winnows the race to two candidates who then face-off in the second round. The winner, Fillon, then is expected to be one of the two competitors in the general election.

It is now showing to be unlikely that the current governing party will present Fillon’s opponent due to disarray after five years of high unemployment rates and slow economic growth. The current president, François Hollande has not yet announced his candidacy, and many members of his party hope that he chooses not to run again. Instead, Fillon’s competition will be the leader of the far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen. Historically, her party has never been able to attract more than one-third of the electorate, but at least for the time being, few analysts predict that she could win the presidency. Their xenophobic, anti-immigration, far— almost “alt-right” party has been given a boost by the outcome of our election.

Fillon’s campaign promises of cutting 500,000 government jobs and cutting the national budget by 100 billion Euros could create vulnerability against his opponent, Le Pen, who has pledged to safeguard France’s substantial government protections and spending.

In Fillon’s victory speech, he emphasized the standard French conservative themes of restoring “authority” and “French values” as he did throughout his entire campaign. Juppé, on the other hand, fought for “unity” which led many conspiracy theorists to believe that he was a leftist in disguise.

With many citizens uneasy over immigration and Islam due to recent terror attacks, Fillon vowed to bring back a more traditional society by strictly regulating Islam and immigration. He also said that he would form an alliance with Russia to stomp out what he called “totalitarian” Muslims. Reporters have been showing Fillon’s close relations with Vladimir Putin as well.

Castro Dead at Age Ninety

Image: Ottowa Citizen

Fidel Castro, before handing his powers to his brother Raúl in 2008 ruled Cuba as a communist nation for almost half of a century. As a leader, he received extremely mixed reviews from calling him the leader that had given Cuba back to the people to the leader who starved and oppressed his people. Early Saturday, an announcement on the state-wide television was given by Raúl Castro stating that his brother had died on November twenty-fifth at 10:29pm. The impoverished citizens of Cuba had been riled up by Castro’s message after being oppressed by their previous dictator, Fulgencio Batista.

To his fans, he was a hero who educated, fed, provided health care to his citizens, and demanded, sometimes harshly, that the poor people of the world receive a fair deal. To his critics, he was in the list of the world’s most suppressive [self-appointed] leaders that banned the freedom of the press, banned freedom of assembly, and executed or jailed thousands of his political opponents. He rid Cuba of Christmas as an official holiday for thirty consecutive years. On the bright side, he sent Cuban vaccines and Cuban doctors to some of the poorest countries in South America… Then again, his own citizens were dry of basic medicine and were even forced to use buckets as toilets.

In the height of the Cold War, Castro had allowed the Soviets to create a base in Cuba that could carry nuclear missiles to the United States in no time which went down in history as the notorious Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Towards the end of his presidency, he became more popular because of rising anti-American views in countries in South America such as Venezuela.

Sadly or gladly, his reign over Cuba began to decline in 2006 when he temporarily gave his powers to his brother while he supposedly was undergoing intestinal surgery. His permanent transfer of power came on the nineteenth of February in 2008 which ended his 49-year reign. That is when the National Assembly unanimously chose Raúl Castro to be his replacement. Some might call the transition of power very anti-climactic because it had been in the process for two years.

As the Washington Post said, “With almost theatrical relish, Mr. Castro taunted ten successive U.S. presidents, who viewed the Cuban leader variously as a potential courier of Armageddon.” All of the ten presidents had enforced a strict trade embargo against Cuba, which George H.W. Bush had tightened, until Barack Obama announced had announced his efforts to re-establish diplomatic relations with them.

Today, for half of the world will be a day of mourning and remembering a great man while the other half rallies around the death of a dictator.