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Month: May 2018

In rebuke of Trump, Tillerson says lies are a threat to democracy

In rebuke of Trump, Tillerson says lies are a threat to democracy

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The New York Times reports: In a veiled but powerful rebuke of President Trump, former Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson warned on Wednesday that American democracy is threatened by a “growing crisis in ethics and integrity.” “If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom,” he said in a commencement address…

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North Korea stands by its past assessment of John Bolton

North Korea stands by its past assessment of John Bolton

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The Washington Post reports: Trump and his top aides, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, have repeatedly said that the United States wants the “complete verifiable irreversible denuclearization of North Korea” — a high standard that Pyongyang has previously balked at. Bolton, known for his sharply hawkish views, has said that North Korea must commit to a disarmament similar to “Libya 2004.” He was undersecretary of state for arms control in 2004, when Libyan…

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Glyphosate shown to disrupt microbiome ‘at safe levels’, study claims

Glyphosate shown to disrupt microbiome ‘at safe levels’, study claims

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The Guardian reports: A chemical found in the world’s most widely used weedkiller can have disrupting effects on sexual development, genes and beneficial gut bacteria at doses considered safe, according to a wide-ranging pilot study in rats. Glyphosate is the core ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide and levels found in the human bloodstream have spiked by more than a 1,000% in the last two decades. The substance was recently relicensed for a shortened five-year lease by the EU. But scientists…

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In Gaza, Palestinians feel abandoned to their fate by an indifferent world

In Gaza, Palestinians feel abandoned to their fate by an indifferent world

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Ian Black writes: Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are desperate. Not only because they are burying their dead while marking the anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948 that saw their grandparents flee or expelled from homes in what is now Israel, but also because their lives under blockade are intolerable, as is the sense that they have been abandoned to their fate by an indifferent world. Israel was their main enemy before and after the 1967 war. It unilaterally…

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Iraq’s shock election result may be turning point for Iran

Iraq’s shock election result may be turning point for Iran

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Simon Tisdall writes: The unexpectedly poor showing of Haider al-Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, in parliamentary elections has dealt a blow to US influence in the country. It was a poor return for American backing for the Baghdad government’s drive to extirpate Islamic State and regain lost territory. But the bigger loser may be Iran, whose allies in Iraq’s Shia militias known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces were pushed into second place by Moqtada al-Sadr, the veteran nationalist. Put simply, Sadr…

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Iran, Saudi Arabia and modern hatreds

Iran, Saudi Arabia and modern hatreds

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Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel write: President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear agreement is likely to add fuel to the fires of sectarianism in the Middle East. From the cataclysmic wars in Syria and Yemen to the volatile assemblages of Iraq and Lebanon, Sunni-Shiite relations are at a breaking point. But the cause of this spike in tensions is recent, not ancient. It is rooted in politics, not piety. To stop it from aggravating,…

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Ecuador spent millions on spy operation for Julian Assange

Ecuador spent millions on spy operation for Julian Assange

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The Guardian reports: Ecuador bankrolled a multimillion-dollar spy operation to protect and support Julian Assange in its central London embassy, employing an international security company and undercover agents to monitor his visitors, embassy staff and even the British police, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Over more than five years, Ecuador put at least $5m (£3.7m) into a secret intelligence budget that protected the WikiLeaks founder while he had visits from Nigel Farage, members of European nationalist groups and…

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Rising incomes result in expanding forests

Rising incomes result in expanding forests

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BBC News reports: Forests are increasing around the world because of rising incomes and an improved sense of national wellbeing say researchers. The authors refute the idea that increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are the key cause of the spread of trees. As countries become better off, farmers focus on good quality soils and abandon marginal lands, the authors say. As a result, trees are able to rapidly reforest these deserted areas. The study highlights the fact that…

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The next big discovery in astronomy? Scientists probably found it years ago – but they don’t know it yet

The next big discovery in astronomy? Scientists probably found it years ago – but they don’t know it yet

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An artist’s illustration of a black hole “eating” a star. NASA/JPL-Caltech By Eileen Meyer, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Earlier this year, astronomers stumbled upon a fascinating finding: Thousands of black holes likely exist near the center of our galaxy. The X-ray images that enabled this discovery weren’t from some state-of-the-art new telescope. Nor were they even recently taken – some of the data was collected nearly 20 years ago. No, the researchers discovered the black holes by digging through…

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Israelis kill 58 Palestinian protesters, over 2,700 wounded, as U.S. opens Jerusalem embassy

Israelis kill 58 Palestinian protesters, over 2,700 wounded, as U.S. opens Jerusalem embassy

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Tens of thousands of #Palestinians took to the #Gaza – #Israeli fence in the biggest massive protest in the history of Gaza , our producer in Gaza says more that 80,000 participated in the protest . #GreatReturnMarch pic.twitter.com/GusowmNWQV — Nasser Atta (@nasseratta5) May 14, 2018 NPR reports: Tens of thousands of Palestinians are protesting the opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, and Israeli army forces have killed 52 protesters, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry also…

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How the idea of return has shaped the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for 70 years

How the idea of return has shaped the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for 70 years

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Nathan Thrall writes: On the afternoon of May 14, 1948, hours before Britain’s Royal Navy flotilla would sail from Haifa harbor, marking the end of Britain’s mandatory rule over Palestine, leaders of the local Jewish community hastily assembled at the Tel Aviv Museum to hear the head of the Zionist leadership, David Ben-Gurion, declare, “The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. …We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish State … the State of Israel.” Palestine…

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Seven decades of struggle: How one Palestinian village’s story captures pain of ‘Nakba’

Seven decades of struggle: How one Palestinian village’s story captures pain of ‘Nakba’

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The Observer reports: In the middle part of the last century the inhabitants of the village of Al Walaja, not far from Jerusalem, considered themselves very lucky. Fertile hills, terraced for growing vegetables and fruit, led down to a valley where an Ottoman-era railway line connected Jerusalem with the Mediterranean port of Jaffa. Close to a station, Al Walaja’s farmers always had buyers for their lentils, peppers, and cucumbers. Mohammed Salim, who estimates he is approaching 80 as he was…

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Pastor who said Jews are going to hell led prayer at Jerusalem embassy opening

Pastor who said Jews are going to hell led prayer at Jerusalem embassy opening

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The New York Times reports: A Dallas evangelical pastor who once said that Jewish people are going to hell and a megachurch televangelist who claimed that Hitler was part of God’s plan to return Jews to Israel both played prominent roles on Monday in the opening ceremony of the new American Embassy in Jerusalem. Robert Jeffress, who spoke at President Trump’s private inaugural prayer service and is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, delivered a prayer at the…

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