Monthly Archives: December 2016

Terror Attack in Berlin – Terroranschlag in Berlin

Deutsche Welle: Deutsche Behörden fahnden öffentlich nach Anis Amri. “Der tatverdächtige Tunesier ist ins Zentrum der Ermittlungen nach dem Anschlag auf den Berliner Weihnachtsmarkt gerückt. Den Sicherheitsbehörden ist der 24-jährige indes schon länger bekannt.”

Gesuchter Tatverdächtiger von Berlin sollte abgeschoben werden. “Im Zusammenhang mit dem Anschlag auf den Berliner Weihnachtsmarkt fahndet die Polizei nach einem verdächtigen Tunesier. Über ihn kommen immer mehr Informationen ans Tageslicht.”

Deutsche Welle: Official: Tunisian suspect in Berlin attack already under investigation for terror plot. “German officials are searching for a Tunisian man whose ID was found under the driver’s seat of the truck used in Monday’s attack. The suspect was said to already have been under investigation for a terror plot.”

See also my posting from two days ago.

Longreads of 2016

Longreads: Longreads Best of 2016: Here Are All of Our No. 1 Story Picks from This Year.

Link via MetaFilter: Time to put your feet up.

Some recommendations:

San Francisco Chronicle: Last Men Standing. “They had the remarkable luck to survive AIDS, and the brutal misfortune to live on.” By Erin Allday.

Outside: The Most Successful Female Everest Climber of All Time Is a Housekeeper in Hartford, Connecticut. “Lhakpa Sherpa ​​has climbed Everest more than any other woman—​and now she’s on the mountain trying for her seventh summit​. So why doesn’t anyone know her name?” By Grayson Schaffer.

Buzzfeed News: Here Is The Powerful Letter The Stanford Victim Read Aloud To Her Attacker. “A former Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman was sentenced to six months in jail because a longer sentence would have “a severe impact on him,“ according to a judge. At his sentencing Thursday, his victim read him a letter describing the “severe impact“ the assault had on her.” By Anonymous.

Deadspin.com: The Writer Who Was Too Strong To Live. “Jennifer Frey’s obituary in the Washington Post, her last full-time employer, merely gave “multiple organ failure“ as the cause of her March 26 death. But alcohol killed her as surely as a bullet killed Lincoln.”

And some articles I still want to read:

The Guardian: Alexander Litvinenko: the man who solved his own murder. “This week, the inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko will deliver its findings. The former Russian spy was poisoned with a cup of tea in a London hotel. Working with Scotland Yard detectives, as he lay dying, he traced the lethal substance to a former comrade in the Russian secret service.” By Luke Harding.

Mother Jones: My four months as a private prison guard. “I started applying for jobs in private prisons because I wanted to see the inner workings of an industry that holds 131,000 of the nation’s 1.6 million prisoners. As a journalist, it’s nearly impossible to get an unconstrained look inside our penal system. When prisons do let reporters in, it’s usually for carefully managed tours and monitored interviews with inmates. Private prisons are especially secretive.” By Shane Bauer.

Atavist Magazine: A Family Matter. “Each year, California’s child protective services agencies remove thousands of kids from their homes. The story of how some parents decided to fight back.” By Jessica Weisberg.

Charlotte Magazine: Poverty in Charlotte: ‘It Was Never Okay’.“A working mother fights to give her kids a better life in a city where that’s next to impossible.” By Lisa Rab.

New Republic: Secret Lives of Tumblr Teens. “That feeling when you hit a million followers, make more money than your mom, push a diet pill scheme, lose your blog, and turn 16.” By Elspeth Reeve.

LA Times: ‘You want a description of Hell?’ Oxycontin’s 12-hour problem. “Over the last 20 years, more than 7 million Americans have abused OxyContin, according to the federal government’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health.” By Harriet Ryan, Lisa Girion and Scott Glover.

Terror attack in Berlin

Deutsche Welle: Live-Ticker: LKW rast in Weihnachtsmarkt – mehrere Tote. “In Berlin ist ein Lkw in einen Weihnachtsmarkt gerast – mindestens neun Menschen wurden nach Angaben der Polizei getötet. Mindestens 50 Menschen wurden verletzt.”

Deutsche Welle: Truck drives into crowd at Berlin Christmas market, several fatalities – live updates. “Police confirm at least nine people have been killed in the apparent attack. A suspect has been taken into custody.”

“Pure democracy … have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property.”

The Atlantic: The Electoral College Was Meant to Stop Men Like Trump From Being President. “The founders envisioned electors as people who could prevent an irresponsible demagogue from taking office.” By Peter Beinart, November 21, 2016.

“Donald Trump has changed the way I view American government. Before this year, I would have considered Hamilton’s demand for independent-minded electors who could prevent candidates with “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity“ from winning the presidency to be antiquated and retrograde. Now I think the framers were prescient and I was naïve. Eighteen months ago, I could never have imagined President Donald Trump. Now I’m grateful that, two hundred and twenty-seven years ago, they did.”