Sun: Justice Delayed Isn't Always Justice Denied

Russia Attack Civilian Targets.  Ukraine Attacks Military Targets

Ukrainian forces have struck a headquarters of Russia's Wagner mercenary group in eastern Ukraine, Luhansk's Ukrainian governor has said.

Serhiy Haidai said a hotel where the group was based in Kadiivka, Luhansk region, was hit. He added there were major Russian losses.

The BBC was unable to independently verify Wagner's presence at the hotel.

Wagner are state-sponsored mercenaries who act in the Kremlin's interests, according to Western experts.

It's HIMARS Does It Time!

It was HIMARS O’clock in Melitopol tonight.

Reports are that Ukraine has hit several key targets in Melitopol , possibly killing hundreds of Russians. I say it was HIMARS, but that is the assumption being made. It’s possible it could have been another system that was used.

Nyet to Nobel

The Russian co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize has said Kremlin authorities told him to turn down the award.

Yan Rachinsky, who heads Memorial, said he was told not to accept the prize because the two other co-laureates - a Ukrainian human rights organisation and jailed Belarusian rights defender - were deemed "inappropriate".

Memorial is one of Russia's oldest civil rights groups, and was shut down by the government last year.

Tis the Season to Not Give Starbucks, Fa, La, La La, La.  La, La, La, La.

Starbucks workers have been winning union elections for a year this week, and in that time more than 250 stores have unionized and more stores continue to file for union elections—but the company is still union-busting and refusing to bargain a contract in good faith with even one of those stores. Starbucks has been cited for more than 900 labor law violations by the National Labor Relations Board, and it’s still at it, from firing union activists to walking out of bargaining sessions.

As they keep up the fight for a good contract at each and every store with a union, the workers are trying to make Starbucks management feel public pressure. And at the holidays, one way to create that public pressure is to not buy Starbucks gift cards. Workers are asking for just that, Saurav Sarkar reports at In These Times. “Starbucks corporate [is] not going to do anything until the customers start making their voices heard about this, because I’ve for years seen people in the stores complaining about all the things that we are asking for, but the only time anything ever changes is when customers start demanding it,” Arlington, Virginia, shift supervisor Samuel Dukore told Sarkar.

The QOP Art of the Dumb Stunt

Work crews have steadily erected hundreds of double-stacked shipping containers topped by razor wire along Arizona’s remote eastern boundary with Mexico in a bold show of border enforcement by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey even as he prepares to leave office.

Until protesters slowed, then largely halted the work in recent days, Ducey pressed forward over the objections of the U.S. government, environmentalists and an incoming governor who has called it a poor use of resources.

Democratic Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs said last week she was “looking at all the options” and hasn't decided what to do about the containers after her Jan. 5. inauguration. She previously suggested the containers be repurposed as affordable housing, an increasingly popular option for homeless and low-income people.

“I don’t know how much it will cost to remove the containers and what the cost will be,” Hobbs told Phoenix PBS TV station KAET in an interview Wednesday.

Federal agencies have told Arizona the construction on U.S. land is unlawful and ordered it to halt. Ducey responded Oct. 21 by suing federal officials over their objections, sending the dispute to court.

Environmental groups say the containers could imperil natural water systems and endanger species.

“A lot of damage could be done here between now and early January,” said Russ McSpadden, a Southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity who has regularly traveled to the site since late October.

Ducey insists Arizona holds sole or shared jurisdiction over the 60-foot (18.2 meter) strip the containers rest on and has a constitutional right to protect residents from “imminent danger of criminal and humanitarian crises.”