HERE ARE THE TOP STORIES
U.S. President Barack Obama called the San Bernardino shooting “an act of terrorism” and highlighted his strategy to fight ISIS in a rare Oval Office speech.
Obama outlined his strategy to wipe out terrorism domestically and abroad in a rare address from the Oval Office on Sunday evening. He also warned against divisive anti-Muslim rhetoric and discrimination, BuzzFeed News writes. The speech came less than a week after a mass shooting at a social services center in southern California in which at least one of the perpetrators pledged allegiance to ISIS before they killed 14 people and injured 21 others.
The president began his speech by condemning the massacre with some of his strongest language to date, calling it “an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people.” He also called ISIS members “thugs and killers,” and said they do not “speak for Islam.”
The address outlined four tactics of a foreign anti-terrorism agenda:
Hunting down terrorists abroad.
Supporting forces in Iraq and Syria.
Working with allies to disrupt the terrorist groups.
Collaborating with other countries to reach a cease-fire in the Syrian War.
On the domestic front, Obama argued for a federal law that would make it more difficult to purchase military-style weapons, saying “what we must do is make it harder for them to kill.”
And a little extra.
The president didn’t announce any new policy initiatives. He did, however, implore Congress to reauthorize his right to use military force in the Middle East and reiterated that lawmakers should ban people on the country’s no-fly list from buying firearms.
Obama has addressed the country only twice from the Oval Office — to mark the end of combat in Iraq and to respond to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — and both in 2010.
You can watch the full speech here. And this is a great overview of America’s convoluted web of terror watch lists.
Venezuela’s opposition party has won a parliamentary majority, ending 16 years of socialist rule.
Venezuela’s opposition party, the Democratic Unity Roundtable, won a parliamentary majority Sunday. This ushers in a new political balance that poses a significant threat to the socialist government, which has been in power since 1999, BuzzFeed News’ Karla Zabludovsky writes.
Opposition parties grabbed 99 of the 167 seats in the National Assembly, while socialists won 46 seats. Under the ruling party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, there have been shortages of basic goods like milk and rice as well as rising inflation, which has made these same goods increasingly expensive. And violence has skyrocketed. President Nicolas Maduro has been unable to harness the devotion millions Venezuelans have for his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, who still looms large two years after his death.
And a little extra.
The opposition coalition has said it will seek the release of political prisoners and a change in government, though the factions differ on when the latter should take place. It’s the first time opposition parties have been able to set aside their significant differences and come together to form a successful election strategy.
WE’RE KEEPING AN EYE ON
A 29-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder following a knife attack at an east London underground station on Saturday night.
Muhaydin Mire appeared in court Monday morning charged with the attempted murder of a 56-year-old man who suffered serious but non–life-threatening injuries. Another man sustained minor wounds in the attack, which happened around 7pm on Saturday, while one woman was threatened but unharmed.
Eyewitnesses said the knife-wielding attacker shouted “this is for Syria”. Mire was placed in custody and will appear in court again on Friday.
And a little extra.
Londoners have since adopted the hashtag #YouAintNoMuslimBruv. It gained traction following a video that captured police holding the knife-wielding attacker down in which a person was heard shouting at him: “You ain’t no Muslim, bruv. You’re no Muslim, bruv.”
If you want the latest news and stories, download the BuzzFeed News app for iOS and Android.
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS?
A 19-year-old Syrian refugee used WhatsApp to share his journey through Europe in real time.
Abdul attempted to cross the Aegean Sea from Izmir, Turkey, to the Greek shoreline by boat in the first week of November, BuzzFeed News’ Rossalyn Warren writes. But Abdul, who was documenting his journey for BuzzFeed, didn’t make it across to Greece. His boat, like so many others on that route, sank. Abdul swam back to Turkey and survived.
This interactive story explores the repetitive pattern that refugees traveling to western Europe face: try to flee poverty or war, risk drowning at sea in unsafe boats, avoid violence and imprisonment while crossing through the interchangeable borders, and arrive in a country where a once-warm welcome has since been replaced by rising hostility. Yet “record numbers” of people continue to cross.
It’s Mental Health Week at BuzzFeed.
Media can play a huge role — for good or for ill — in how people see themselves and understand mental illnesses, writes BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith. This week, we’ll be publishing more than 100 posts, across five languages. We asked a few people to open up about their experience with mental illness, and how it has affected their lives. One of our writers tells her journey of learning to live with fear and anxiety. Another shares what she’s learned about friendship on pro-anorexia sites. Mental health matters for everyone, and we hope we can, as one reader wrote, “distract me from my thoughts and make me laugh.”
Quick things to know:
Three female suicide bombers killed at least 27 people on an island in Lake Chad. (BuzzFeed News)
Airstrikes in Raqqa, Syria, have killed at least 32 ISIS militants and injured 40 more, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. (BBC News)
France’s far-right National Front party has won its first round in regional elections, the first electoral test since last month’s Paris attacks. (The Guardian)
While HIV diagnoses have fallen in the U.S. from 2005 to 2014, infection rates among black and Latino gay and bisexual men continue to rise steeply. (BuzzFeed News)
The FBI is investigating how much of a role outgoing FIFA President Sepp Blatter played in a $100 million bribery scandal. (BuzzFeed News)
Former President Jimmy Carter said his cancer is “gone” after having been diagnosed last August. (BuzzFeed News)
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West welcomed their second child –– a baby boy. (BuzzFeed)
And a rocket carrying U.S. food and astronaut supplies is heading to the International Space Station after successfully launching Sunday, reigniting NASA's commercial delivery service (Associated Press)
Happy Monday
Sometimes (OK, most of the time) it can be hard to make it through a full week without feeling like you’re failing at this whole adulting thing, writes BuzzFeed News' Shannon Rosenberg. So here are 19 life hacks that will make your life a bit more ~zen~. Don’t have time to read all 19? A couple to get you started: Schedule mandatory appointments with yourself. And make your bed. If that’s not enough, here are seven easy ways to eat healthier this week, plus the best recipes of 2015, brought to you by BuzzFeed Life. Now go and have yourself a ~productive~ Monday.
If you want the latest news and stories, download the BuzzFeed News app for iOS and Android.
This letter was edited and brought to you by Laura Davis, Brianna Sacks, Brianne O’Brien, Stacy-Marie Ishmael, and Sam Kirkland. You can always reach us here.