Recount of Wisconsin votes

Jill Stein, former U.S. presidential candidate representing the Green Party, has raised the necessary funds to cover a recount of votes in the state of Wisconsin. She has said that concern over potential statistical errors motivated her to make the request there and in other states, although she as of publication still has not obtained enough money for a recount in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Marc Elias, general counsel for the Clinton Campaign, has stated that there is a lack of evidence that the election had been rigged, or the results meddled with. He has said that rather they “have an obligation to the more than 64 million Americans who cast ballots for Hillary Clinton to participate in the ongoing proceedings to ensure that an accurate vote count will be reported.” Dr. Stein’s website indicates a shortage of $1M to fund the recounts in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, but has not begun to raise money for the recount in Michigan. Clinton would need to claim all three of these states in order to obtain the necessary electoral votes to win the presidency.

UN probe into Myanmar ethnic cleansing

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority group that live on the western side of Burma below Bangladesh. They have been historically, and still are, subject to ubiquitous discrimination. One month ago, a coordinated attack against a border post in Maungdaw, which is located on the coast close the Burma-Bangladesh border resulted in the death of nine police officers. The Rohingya community was blamed for this event, and is suffering violence at the hands of security forces who have launched a counter-insurgency operation since the attack. The operation’s atrocities have lead not only to immediate deaths and devastation of the community, but has caused a wave of Rohingya to flee across the border into Bangladesh. Bangladesh has acknowledging the violence, which include accounts of murder, torture, rape, and public executions, but does not wish to lift it’s policy forbidding anyone to enter the country illegally because it feels that would only encourage the continuation of violence and aid in the goal of ethnic cleansing. Head of the UNHCR, John McKissick has said there must be resolution of the “root cause” of this violence in Burma.

Charleston Shooter deemed competent

In June of 2015, Dylann Roof entered a bible study session at the historic Emanuel AME Churce in Charleston, South Carolina. Roof took out a gun that he had purchased himself just a few months earlier and opened fire on the group, killing nine people. Since he was apprehended, Dylann stands accused of nine counts of murder in the state of South Carolina, as well as an additional 33 hate crime charges on a federal level. In an effort to label Dylann ineligible for the death penalty, which is legal in SC and being called for by the prosecution, his defense team requested a psychiatric review of their client. Last week, Richard Gergel, the judge presiding over the case announced that the review had deemed Mr. Roof competent and fit to stand trial, although the reasons are not being shared with the public because some information might compromise his right to a fair trial. Now that the review is complete, however, the judge is free to schedule a trial.

Syrian government reclaims an Aleppo disctrict

The Syrian Army has been engaged in an offensive to reclaim the city of Aleppo for two weeks, and they are making steady progress. Just one day after reclaiming the Hanano district in the city of Aleppo, forces belonging to the Syrian Government have also seized the Jabal Badro district. This does significant damage to the stability of the rebel group. The rebels have held sway over the eastern part of the city for some time, but with the loss of these two districts, which they’ve held since 2012, they will have lost a sizeable portion of that eastern control. Taking back Hanano and Jabal Badro indicates that the Syrian Government means to push the rebels into the narrowest portion of the city, which would force the rebel force to divide itself into two in order to defend the remaining eastern territory they hold, spreading their forces too thin to withstand government attacks. Should this occur, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will likely have succeeded in his objective to reclaim the entire city