• Deposed Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir went on trial in Khartoum on Aug. 19, facing corruption and money laundering charges. During the first day of the trial, a police investigator claimed al-Bashir accepted $90 million in payments from Saudi Arabia’s royal family.
(“Sudan’s ex-president Bashir received $90 million from Saudi Arabia,” Al-Jazeera, Aug. 19, 2019; “Omar al-Bashir: Sudan’s ousted president,”BBC, Aug. 14, 2019; “Ex-Sudanese president’s cronies tried to break him out,” CNN, Aug. 20, 2019)
• According to the Center for American Progress, 70 percent of guns captured by law enforcement in Mexico were first purchased from licensed firearms dealers in the United States. Research found that when the 1994 U.S. ban on assault weapons expired in 2004, Mexican municipalities on the U.S. border saw a spike in homicides.
On the same weekend as the massacres in El Paso and Dayton Ohio, 17 shootings were reported in Toronto in more than 14 different incidents. Gun violence in Canada has spiked 40 percent since 2013.
(“Illicit border crossing: How US guns wind up in Canada and Mexico,” Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 12, 2019)
• The proposed construction of a controversial natural gas pipeline that would cross the iconic Appalachian Trail backed by the Trump administration, has been blocked by a federal court.
(“Can the Appalachian Trail block a natural gas pipeline?” American Prospect, Aug. 16, 2019)
