Music: Wayne Shorter & Milton Nascimento — ‘From the Lonely Afternoons’
In first and only statement after completing his investigation, Mueller points towards impeachment
Announcing his resignation, Robert Mueller said: The order appointing me special counsel authorized us to investigate actions that could obstruct the investigation. We conducted that investigation, and we kept the office of the acting attorney general apprised of the progress of our work. And as set forth in the report, after that investigation, if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to…
What the Mueller report actually said
David Frum writes: Robert Mueller has advised Americans to go back and actually read his report if we want to understand what happened in 2016. “We chose those words carefully, and the work speaks for itself,” he said on Wednesday morning, speaking publicly for the first time since his appointment. But the words of the report are damning. “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,” Mueller wrote. This help “favored presidential candidate Donald…
Steve Bannon describes Trump as ‘just another scumbag’ running a criminal enterprise
The Guardian reports: The former White House adviser Steve Bannon has described the Trump Organization as a criminal entity and predicted that investigations into the president’s finances will lead to his political downfall, when he is revealed to be “not the billionaire he said he was, just another scumbag”. The startling remarks are contained in Siege: Trump Under Fire, the author Michael Wolff’s forthcoming account of the second year of the Trump administration. The book, published on 4 June, is…
The former Somali child refugee heading to Europe as one of Britain’s newly elected Green MEPs
Anoosh Chakelian writes: After weeks on the campaign trail, most politicians take a breather after the polls close. Not Magid Magid. The 29-year-old former Somali refugee – Sheffield’s outgoing Lord Mayor – was straight back out doing public events while waiting for the European election results. We meet two days before Magid was elected as a Green MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber. He was one of a record seven across Britain, following the party’s highest European election vote share…
The far right is here to stay
Ivan Krastev writes: It was a turning point but Europe did not turn. Despite fears of a right-wing populist surge, a majority of voters across the Continent cast their ballots for mainstream, pro-European Union parties in the recent elections for the European Parliament. The main center-right and center-left blocs have lost their majority, but they will continue to dominate the 751-member legislative body. The center has held for now. But the anti-Brussels, nationalist far right that includes parties like Marine…
Puffins are starving to death because of climate change
New Scientist reports: Hundreds of “severely emaciated” puffin carcasses have washed ashore on an Alaskan island, and researchers believe thousands more have died at sea as warming waters continue to shrink their food supply. Between October 2016 and January 2017, inhabitants of St Paul Island in the Bering sea found the starved bodies of more than 350 seabirds, primarily tufted puffins. Analysing the location of bird carcasses and wind data, Timothy Jones at the University of Washington in Seattle and…
Fears grow that ‘nuclear coffin’ is leaking radioactive waste into the Pacific
Trevor Nace writes: The tropical blue skies over the southern Pacific Ocean were enveloped by towering mushroom clouds lingering over the Marshall Islands in 1954 as the United States continued its testing of nuclear weapons. The United States conducted 67 nuclear weapon tests from 1946 to 1958 on the pristine Marshall Islands. The most powerful test was the “Bravo” hydrogen bomb in 1954, which was about 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The extensive nuclear…
Music: Wayne Shorter & Milton Nascimento — ‘Ponta de Areia’
Influential panel votes to recognize Earth’s new epoch: The Anthropocene
Nature reports: A panel of scientists voted this week to designate a new geologic epoch — the Anthropocene — to mark the profound ways in which humans have altered the planet. That decision, by the 34-member Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), marks an important step towards formally defining a new slice of the geologic record — an idea that has generated intense debate within the scientific community over the past few years. The panel plans to submit a formal proposal for…
‘Immigrants make Britain great’: Magid Magid’s unlikely journey to Green MEP
Magid Magid writes: I am honoured to have been elected as a Green party MEP. I can’t wait to get to work on behalf of all those who put their faith in me and in our movement’s vision of hope. We are truly building a common world, rooted in the aspirations of the young and set to deliver lasting change for all. On a personal level, I feel humbled by and grateful for the immense support I have received. Ten…
John Bercow defies Eurosceptics with vow to stay on as Speaker in UK parliament
The Guardian reports: John Bercow has said he plans to stay in his post as Speaker of the House of Commons despite previous expectations he was about to leave, risking the fury of hardline Eurosceptics who believe he wants to thwart a no-deal Brexit. The Speaker told the Guardian it was not “sensible to vacate the chair” while there were major issues before parliament. And, amid growing indications that frontrunners for the Conservative leadership are willing to depart the EU…
Romania’s most powerful politician is sent to prison for corruption
The New York Times reports: Romania’s most powerful politician, Liviu Dragnea, was ordered on Monday to begin serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for abuse of power, upending the political order in the East European country and handing a victory to those who view corruption as the chief threat to the health of the nation. The ruling by the Romanian Supreme Court, which declined to revisit a sentence handed down by a lower court in June 2018, is not subject to…
The U.S. military is locked in a power struggle with wind farms
Wired reports: When Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Goana takes off in his T-38 Talon training jet, he flies a loop north toward the Red River, which forms a meandering border between north Texas and southern Oklahoma. For decades, the remote farming area has been an ideal training ground for Air Force pilots like Goana. But in recent years, he says, there’s been a new obstacle: wind turbines that now generate a third of Oklahoma’s electricity and 17 percent of the power…
Elizabeth Warren gains ground in 2020 field, one plan at a time
The New York Times reports: To the crowd of Iowans gathered in a school gym on Saturday night, Senator Elizabeth Warren made a request: They should pose a question to the other presidential candidates who come to Iowa seeking their vote. “Ask them: Where do you get your money?” she said. “Are you getting it from a bunch of millionaires?” For Ms. Warren, the question highlighted one of the sharpest contrasts she has drawn with most of her top rivals…
Trump’s convinced he knows the best way to design aircraft carriers
Gizmodo reports: Donald Trump did a bizarre thing aboard the USS Wasp on Tuesday. After wishing the sailors “a very Happy Memorial Day,” the President conducted an impromptu poll, asking the crowd who preferred steam-powered catapult systems and who preferred electric. Steam won out in the poll, and now, Trump says he’s going to order old-fashioned steam catapults be installed on new American aircraft carriers. Trump evidently thinks the Navy is trying to innovate too much. The question of which…