NOEL KING, HOST: Britain is hosting the U.N. Summit on Climate Change in Glasgow next week. One of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's goals, he says, is to phase out coal. But the U.K. government is also considering a plan to open its first deep coal mine in decades. NPR's Frank Langfitt has this from West Cumbria in the north of England.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: In the lead-up to the summit, Johnson's been clear.
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PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON: We are committed to ending coal, running our cars on clean electricity and planting millions more trees.
LANGFITT: He says the time to act is now to avoid catastrophe, as he explained at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
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JOHNSON: We are approaching that critical turning point when we must show that we are capable of learning and maturing and finally taking responsibility. It's time for humanity to grow up.
LANGFITT: But the view 300 miles northwest of London is different. West Cumbria's economy relied on the mines before they closed, and local mayor Mike Starkie wants to bring coal back.
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MIKE STARKIE: I am legitimately pleased to speak on behalf of our people, and the message is clear - give us our mine, give us our future.
LANGFITT: Cumbria County officials approved the mine overwhelmingly last year, but the U.K. government set up an inquiry amid outrage from environmentalists. Starkie told the panel in September that his community desperately needs jobs, and one coal mine won't make any difference to the planet. He points out that five countries - China, the United States, India, Russia and Japan - produce nearly 60% of all global CO2 emissions and the U.K., only 1%.
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STARKIE: That's where the challenge lies. We've got to focus on where we can make the big gains, not little marginal gains that hardly register on the scale.
LANGFITT: John Ashton, who worked on climate change for six years in the British government, said the project could undermine the U.K.'s credibility.
You think? More and more, it appears our governments around the world have failed us -- and have willfully failed us.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Ooh, still waiting
I'm just a fool
Ooh, I'm a fool
I'm just a fool to keep waiting
To keep waiting
“We will try to unify the vision of Nineveh candidates this time so that we go to the Iraqi parliament as a strong Nineveh parliamentary lobby” with a single vision, Muzahim al-Khayat said at an interview with Rudaw’s Bestoon Khalid on the sidelines of the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) forum in Erbil.
The coalition aspires and seeks to build an “institutional civil administration” in all its sectors in Nineveh, he added.
Iraqis headed to the polls in an early vote on October 10. The election was held in response to Tishreen (October) 2019 protests complaining of corruption and ineptitude among the ruling class and political system. Turnout was a record-low 41 percent, reflecting voter disillusionment and mistrust in the country’s political system.
Starting in Iraq, REUTERS reports, "Islamic State militants killed 11 people including a woman on Tuesday in an attack on a village in Diyala province, east of Iraq, the country's Joint Operations Command said in a statement." Is it ISIS? It may be. ISIS has never been vanquished. And the reasons ISIS took root in Iraq were never addressed. If the issues continue to go unaddressed, ISIS will actually grow stronger. AFP notes, "The attack on Al-Rashad in Diyala province left "11 dead and 13 wounded", a local security source said." In a Tweet, Barham Salih, president of Iraq, states this was a cowardly attack He calls for stronger borders and backing of the security forces.
Hundreds of villagers have fled their homes in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province amid rising fears of another violent sectarian conflict breaking out there following an Islamic State (ISIS) attack earlier this week.
On Tuesday night, ISIS attacked the al-Rashad village in Sharaban (Muqdadiya) town in Diyala, killing 15 civilians and wounding many others.
Al-Rashad’s population is primarily Shiite Muslim. Reports indicated that local villagers took up arms and attacked the nearby Sunni-majority village of Nahr al-Imam in retaliation the following day. They reportedly killed a dozen people and set fire to houses.
The attacks come despite the fact that Iraq has been actively arresting IS leaders over the last few months. The deputy leader of IS, the group's finance chief and many other prominent commanders are among those killed or arrested by the government.
After the Diyala attack, tribal men from the victims' families attacked the nearby Sunni village of Nahr Al-Imam, accusing them of betrayal and siding with IS.
According to security officials who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, approximately 3,000 fighters from the Bani Tamim tribe (from which the victims hail), supported by Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), surrounded the village of Nahr Al-Imam from all sides. They also destroyed and burned villagers' gardens and houses with bulldozers.
Many villagers escaped from the area and called on the government to protect them. Some were able to seek refuge in the mosques of Baquba, the capital city of Diyala, leaving all their belongings behind. This could lead the Sunni tribes to retaliate against Bani Tamim members and eventually to a tribal conflict within the Diyala province.
A homeless Iraq War veteran's service dog was allegedly tased by police while her owner was being arrested for panhandling, leading to a series of events that ended in the dog's death.
Gastonia, North Carolina police officers encountered veteran Joshua Rohrer and his dog Sunshine, who was trained to help him cope with post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his time in the Army National Guard, after responding to a call about alleged panhandling.
Witnesses told WCNC in Charlotte that police officers got violent with Rohrer shortly after arriving at a median on October 13 where the veteran and his dog were seated.
“The cop demanded his identification,” stated witness Justyn Huffman. “He couldn’t move fast enough, so he reached into his pocket for his ID. He was slammed against the automobile. He was placed in handcuffs.” Sunshine, according to Huffman and two other witnesses, jumped into action and bit one of the officer’s boots. Sunshine was allegedly hit with a stun gun by an officer, leading her to flee with one of the prongs still attached to her body.
“‘Don’t shoot the dog!’ we’re yelling from the rooftops. ‘Don’t shoot the dog,’ says the narrator “Huffman stated. “‘My dog! My dog!’ exclaimed [Rohrer]. They dragged him behind the police car and slammed him down on the pavement.” The 911 call that led to the confrontation was made public by police. A lady can be heard on the conversation asking if it’s “legal for an adult to be standing on the junction with a dog asking for money,” claiming that the scenario is “bullcrap,” and accusing Rohrer of “using the dog to gain money.” Rohrer, who fought in Iraq and Kuwait from 2004 to 2005, told Military Times that he was not panhandling but had accepted money without asking for it. He claimed that the police confronted him and arrested him “aggressively.”
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