This Week’s Under-reported News Summary July 17, 2019

Compiled by Bob Nixon

  • Sudan’s opposition agree power-sharing deal with military
  • Democrats get serious about affordable housing
  • How border patrol occupied the Tohono O'odham nation

• A month after a brutal crackdown in Sudan, a power-sharing agreement was negotiated between the ruling military council and a coalition of opposition civil society groups. The deal came after a weekend of mass protests and behind the scenes maneuvering by the United States and powerful Persian Gulf states. The accord establishes a sovereign council which will govern the nation for three years. The council will be led for the first 21 months by the military, and for the final 18 months by civilians leading to national elections. Both sides agreed to open an independent investigation into the brutal killing of 140 Sudanese civil society activists by pro-government paramilitary groups during a sit-in on June 3.

(“Sudan’s Opposition Agree Power-Sharing Deal With Military,” Reuters, July 4, 2019; “Abandoned by UAE, Sudan’s Bashir Was Destined to Fall,” Reuters, July 3, 2019; “Sudan: Is It Being Exploited by Foreign Powers?” BBC, July 10, 2019) 

• Democrats running in the 2020 presidential campaign are proposing plans to address America’s affordable housing crisis, which has been spreading into many rural areas.  Thus far, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Julian Castro have released plans to increase the supply of affordable housing, and strengthen protections for renters and homeowners. The plans call for an increase in funding for the Housing Trust Fund which provided states funding to build new housing and maintain existing affordable units.

( “Democrats Get Serious About Affordable Housing,” American Prospect, June 26, 2019)

• Tohono O’odham aboriginal land, in what is now southern Arizona, historically extended 175 miles into Mexico, before being sliced off—without the tribe’s consent—by the 1853 Gadsden Purchase treaty. As many as 2,500 of the tribe’s more than 30,000 members still live on the Mexico side of the border. Tohono O’odham people used to travel between the U.S. and Mexico fairly easily on roads without checkpoints to visit family, go to school, visit a doctor or perform ceremonial duties.

( “The Most Militarized Community in the USA,” In These Times, June 12, 2019)

This week’s News Summary was narrated by Elaine Osowski.

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