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Pope Francis: Catechism will be updated to define ecological sins

Pope Francis: Catechism will be updated to define ecological sins

America magazine reports: Following through on a proposal made at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, Pope Francis said there are plans to include a definition of ecological sins in the church’s official teaching. “We should be introducing — we were thinking — in the Catechism of the Catholic Church the sin against ecology, ecological sin against the common home,” he told participants at a conference on criminal justice Nov. 15. Members of the International Association of Penal Law…

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New American citizens could swing battleground states in 2020, study finds

New American citizens could swing battleground states in 2020, study finds

Politico reports: Immigrants who have become new American citizens in key swing states could prove influential in the 2020 election if effectively mobilized, according to a new study. An analysis conducted by the progressive group New American Leaders found that naturalized citizens make up hundreds of thousands of eligible voters in key presidential swing states such Georgia, Arizona and Michigan. New American Leaders, which helps immigrants run for elected office, released the numbers ahead of the fifth Democratic presidential debate…

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Trump’s deference to Putin

Trump’s deference to Putin

CNN reports: President Donald Trump has an Achilles’ heel when it comes to Russia. Over the years, he’s made no secret that he has a soft spot for the country and its authoritarian leader, President Vladimir Putin. Trump has proved that he is willing to reject widely held US foreign policy views and align himself with the Kremlin on everything from Russian interference in US elections to the war in Syria. Trump’s ties to Russians were so concerning that the…

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Urban unrest propels global wave of protests

Urban unrest propels global wave of protests

Chilean police clash with anti-government demonstrators during a protest in Santiago, Chile, Nov. 12, 2019. Santiago is one of a dozen cities worldwide to see mass unrest in recent months. AP Photo/Esteban Felix By Henry F. (Chip) Carey, Georgia State University Numerous anti-government protests have paralyzed cities across the globe for months, from La Paz, Bolivia, to Santiago, Chile, and Monrovia, Liberia, to Beirut. Each protest in this worldwide wave of unrest has its own local dynamic and cause. But…

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Climate change fueled the rise and demise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, superpower of the ancient world

Climate change fueled the rise and demise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, superpower of the ancient world

Ashurbanipal, last major ruler of the Assyrian Empire, couldn’t outrun the effects of climate change. British Museum, CC BY-ND By Ashish Sinha, California State University, Dominguez Hills and Gayatri Kathayat, Xi’an Jiaotong University Ancient Mesopotamia, the fabled land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, was the command and control center of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This ancient superpower was the largest empire of its time, lasting from 912 BC to 609 BC in what is now modern Iraq and Syria….

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Trump administration reverses decades-long alignment with international law on illegality of Israeli settlements

Trump administration reverses decades-long alignment with international law on illegality of Israeli settlements

Al Jazeera reports: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that the United States is softening its position on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration that reversed decades of US policy. Pompeo said the administration of President Donald Trump will no longer abide by a 1978 State Department legal opinion that the settlements were “inconsistent with international law”. “After carefully studying all sides of the legal…

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Leaked cables reveal what Iran is doing in Iraq

Leaked cables reveal what Iran is doing in Iraq

The Intercept reports: In mid-October, with unrest swirling in Baghdad, a familiar visitor slipped quietly into the Iraqi capital. The city had been under siege for weeks, as protesters marched in the streets, demanding an end to corruption and calling for the ouster of the prime minister, Adil Abdul-Mahdi. In particular, they denounced the outsize influence of their neighbor Iran in Iraqi politics, burning Iranian flags and attacking an Iranian consulate. The visitor was there to restore order, but his…

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U.S. officials knew of Ukraine’s anxiety over pressure from Trump

U.S. officials knew of Ukraine’s anxiety over pressure from Trump

The Associated Press reports: U.S. State Department officials were informed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was feeling pressure from the Trump administration to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden even before the July phone call that has led to impeachment hearings in Washington, two people with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press. In early May, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, including then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, were told Zelenskiy was seeking advice on how to navigate the difficult…

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Trump’s flagrant abuse of power in his efforts to punish Jeff Bezos as retribution for critical news coverage

Trump’s flagrant abuse of power in his efforts to punish Jeff Bezos as retribution for critical news coverage

Jonathan Chait writes: The saga of President Trump’s reprisals against Amazon has lurked on the margin of the news, largely overshadowed by the Ukraine scandal. Late Thursday night, Amazon revealed it had filed a protest in federal court of a Pentagon decision to deny it a $10 billion cloud-computing contract, the most recent piecemeal iteration of a saga that attracted precious little media attention even before the Ukraine scandal obscured it. Yet the story here is almost certainly a massive…

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Majority of Americans think Trump should be kicked out of the White House

Majority of Americans think Trump should be kicked out of the White House

Politico reports: Seventy percent of Americans believe President Donald Trump was wrong to pressure Ukraine’s leader to pursue probes into his political opponents, according to a new survey, and more than half of respondents now believe he should be removed from office. An ABC News/Ipsos poll published Monday found that 51 percent of those surveyed think Trump should be impeached by House lawmakers, as well as convicted in a Senate trial. Six percent say that while Trump’s actions were wrong…

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U.S. has world’s highest rate of children in detention

U.S. has world’s highest rate of children in detention

Reuters reports: The United States has the world’s highest rate of children in detention, including more than 100,000 in immigration-related custody that violates international law, the author of a United Nations study said on Monday. Worldwide more than 7 million people under age 18 are held in jails and police custody, including 330,000 in immigration detention centres, independent expert Manfred Nowak said. Children should only be detained as a measure of last resort and for the shortest time possible, according…

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U.S. suspends more oil and gas leases over what could be a widespread legal problem

U.S. suspends more oil and gas leases over what could be a widespread legal problem

Inside Climate News reports: The Trump administration’s relentless push to expand fossil fuel production on federal lands is hitting a new snag: its own refusal to consider the climate impacts of development. The federal Bureau of Land Management’s Utah office in September voluntarily suspended 130 oil and gas leases after advocacy groups sued, arguing that BLM hadn’t adequately assessed the greenhouse gas emissions associated with drilling and extraction on those leases as required by law. The move was unusual because…

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Trump begged Louisiana for a ‘big win’ and it delivered a hard loss

Trump begged Louisiana for a ‘big win’ and it delivered a hard loss

Politico reports: President Donald Trump campaigned hard in three conservative Southern states this fall, aiming for a string of gubernatorial wins that would demonstrate his political strength heading into impeachment and his own reelection effort. The plan backfired in dramatic fashion. The latest black eye came on Saturday, when Trump’s favored candidate in Louisiana, multimillionaire businessman Eddie Rispone, went down to defeat. The president went all-in, visiting the state three times, most recently on Thursday. Earlier this month, Kentucky Gov….

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Loyalty to Trump from his ‘West Point Mafia’ is putting them in conflict with their alma mater’s honor code

Loyalty to Trump from his ‘West Point Mafia’ is putting them in conflict with their alma mater’s honor code

Politico reports: On May 28, 1986, newly commissioned 2nd Lt. Michael Pompeo stood at attention in Michie Stadium at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, first in his class. The career he was about to launch would take him from commanding a tank platoon in Germany to a seat in Congress, and ultimately to the right hand of President Donald Trump as secretary of State. Also on the field that day was classmate Mark Esper, who this July landed…

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