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Trump’s honesty was on trial in the Roger Stone case. The verdict was harsh

Trump’s honesty was on trial in the Roger Stone case. The verdict was harsh

Ken Dilanian writes: In his final statement to the jury in the trial of political operative Roger Stone, federal prosecutor Michael Marando sought to boil the case down to a simple and stark premise. “I know we live in a world nowadays with Twitter, tweets, social media, where you can find any political view you want,” he said. “However, in our institutions of self-governance — courts of law or committee hearings, where people under oath have to testify — truth…

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Ambassador Sondland’s effort to boost immigration from Europe to U.S. seen as ‘fishing for white people’

Ambassador Sondland’s effort to boost immigration from Europe to U.S. seen as ‘fishing for white people’

The Washington Post reports: Not long after arriving [in Brussels], [Trump’s EU ambassador Gordon] Sondland started talking to subordinates about a need for more skilled and wealthy European immigrants in the United States in an attempt to ease tensions with the European Union, according to a person familiar with his views. Many U.S. diplomats in the mission were unsettled by the idea, viewing it as racially motivated. One diplomat said that “the way this was going to come off was…

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How to cut U.S. carbon pollution by nearly 40 percent in 10 years

How to cut U.S. carbon pollution by nearly 40 percent in 10 years

Robinson Meyer writes: In Washington, the immaculate solution to climate change has a name: a bipartisan, revenue-neutral carbon tax. The idea should have wide appeal. Under the plan, the government would charge companies for every ton of greenhouse gas they emit. Instead of spending that money, the government would immediately send it back to Americans as a tax cut or check. Over time, Americans would make greener choices (a win for Democrats) without growing the size of the government (a…

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The brief and inspiring life of James Le Mesurier

The brief and inspiring life of James Le Mesurier

Janine di Giovanni writes: On Monday morning, James Le Mesurier, the founder of Mayday Rescue, a charity that supported and trained the White Helmets, the Syrian civil defense group, was found dead in Istanbul. His body was found outside a building in the Beyoglu district where he had an apartment and office. It is unclear whether Mr. Le Mesurier, who was 48 and healthy, fell or was pushed from the balcony of his apartment. The Turkish authorities have started an…

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Quantum physics: Study suggests objective reality doesn’t exist

Quantum physics: Study suggests objective reality doesn’t exist

Gearoid Hayes/Flickr, CC BY-SA By Alessandro Fedrizzi, Heriot-Watt University and Massimiliano Proietti, Heriot-Watt University Alternative facts are spreading like a virus across society. Now it seems they have even infected science – at least the quantum realm. This may seem counter intuitive. The scientific method is after all founded on the reliable notions of observation, measurement and repeatability. A fact, as established by a measurement, should be objective, such that all observers can agree with it. But in a paper…

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The climate change health risks facing a child born today: A tale of two possible futures

The climate change health risks facing a child born today: A tale of two possible futures

Inside Climate News reports: A child born today faces two possible futures. In one, the world continues to burn fossil fuels, making the child more likely to develop asthma from air pollution, at greater risk of vector-borne diseases, and more vulnerable to anxiety as extreme weather events threaten his community. In the other, those risks are diminished because the world has responded quickly and adequately to climate change, with a large-scale shift away from fossil fuels. These two, starkly different…

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Trump’s Republican Party is built on lies

Trump’s Republican Party is built on lies

Peter Wehner writes: We are facing a profound political crisis. What the Republican Party is saying and signaling isn’t simply that rationality and truth are subordinate to partisanship; it is that they have to be obliterated for the sake of partisanship and the survival of the Trump presidency. As best I can tell, based on some fairly intense interactions with Trump supporters, there is no limiting principle—almost nothing he can do—that will forfeit their support. Members of Congress clearly believe…

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The evidence of wrongdoing by Trump is overwhelming

The evidence of wrongdoing by Trump is overwhelming

Noah Bookbinder writes: Impeachment is a constitutional procedure that should be reserved only for extraordinary times with the most extreme examples of abuse of power by a president. That is why, in our country’s history, only two presidents have been impeached. But this is one of those times. The evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump is overwhelming. The impeachment inquiry has been conducted so far in a sober, responsible way. As Wednesday’s hearing made clear, the witnesses are credible and…

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Trump’s feckless foreign policy consistently benefits Russia

Trump’s feckless foreign policy consistently benefits Russia

David Ignatius writes: As the House opens public impeachment hearings into the Ukraine scandal, the bottom-line question is dead simple: Did President Trump, for political reasons, manipulate military aid to an ally in a war that has cost 13,000 lives? When you think about the Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines of this nasty proxy battle against Russia, the debate becomes more visceral and perhaps less confusing. As Ukrainians were struggling with near-daily shellfire, Trump appeared to treat military aid…

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Impeachment: There’s only so much Republicans can do when Democrats have all the evidence they need

Impeachment: There’s only so much Republicans can do when Democrats have all the evidence they need

Renato Mariotti writes: If it looked like House Republicans were throwing a lot of mud at the wall to see what might stick during the first day of public impeachment hearings, that’s because they had settled into a strategy many defense attorneys adopt when the prosecution has the goods on their client—confuse the issues and distract the audience from the evidence at hand. I’ve tried many federal criminal cases, and Wednesday’s hearing looked a lot like trials in which the…

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Sondland’s cellphone call to Trump from Kyiv restaurant was a stunning breach of security, former officials say

Sondland’s cellphone call to Trump from Kyiv restaurant was a stunning breach of security, former officials say

The Washington Post reports: A U.S. ambassador’s cellphone call to President Trump from a restaurant in the capital of Ukraine this summer was a stunning breach of security, exposing the conversation to surveillance by foreign intelligence services, including Russia’s, former U.S. officials said. The call — in which Trump’s remarks were overheard by a U.S. Embassy staffer in Kyiv — was disclosed Wednesday by the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, William B. Taylor Jr., on the dramatic opening day of…

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Trump DC hotel sales pitch boasts of millions to be made from foreign governments

Trump DC hotel sales pitch boasts of millions to be made from foreign governments

CNN reports: In its effort to sell off the lease to the Trump International Hotel in Washington, the Trump Organization has put together a glossy investor brochure complete with pictures showcasing the hotel’s grandiose architecture, its central location and its spa’s Himalayan salt chamber. The hotel’s biggest selling point though, according to a copy of the brochure seen by CNN, is the one thing that the Trump family insists it didn’t take advantage of: profiting off foreign governments. “Tremendous upside…

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New testimony ties Trump more directly to Ukraine pressure campaign

New testimony ties Trump more directly to Ukraine pressure campaign

The Washington Post reports: A top diplomat on Wednesday tied President Trump more directly to the effort to pressure Ukraine to probe his political opponents, describing a phone call in which Trump sought information about the status of the investigations he had asked Ukraine to launch one day earlier. William B. Taylor Jr., the acting ambassador to Ukraine, told lawmakers that the phone conversation between the president and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland in Kyiv was overheard…

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‘I don’t remember’ Trump asking for news conference clearing him of wrongdoing in Ukraine call, Barr says — as though he’d forget

‘I don’t remember’ Trump asking for news conference clearing him of wrongdoing in Ukraine call, Barr says — as though he’d forget

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General William P. Barr said Wednesday that he did not remember President Trump ever asking him to hold a news conference declaring the commander in chief broke no laws in a controversial phone call with the leader of Ukraine, but he acknowledged discussions with the White House on how his department would communicate to the media about the matter. At an event in Memphis about a Justice Department crackdown on gun violence, a reporter inquired,…

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