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Six more countries join Trump-busting Iran barter group

Six more countries join Trump-busting Iran barter group

Reuters reports: Paris, London and Berlin on Saturday welcomed six new European countries to the Instex barter mechanism, which is designed to circumvent US sanctions against trade with Iran by avoiding use of the dollar. “As founding shareholders of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (Instex), France, Germany and the United Kingdom warmly welcome the decision taken by the governments of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, to join Instex as shareholders,” the three said in a…

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The damage done to Ukraine

The damage done to Ukraine

In an editorial, the Washington Post says: One easily overlooked aspect of the Ukraine affair is the ongoing damage it is doing to the young government of President Volodymyr Zelensky, who won a free and fair election in the spring by promising to tackle endemic corruption and end a grinding low-grade war with Russia and its proxies. Mr. Zelensky has made progress on both fronts, pushing anti-corruption measures through parliament and negotiating several confidence-building deals with the Russians, including prisoner exchanges…

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Bushfires in Australia’s Gondwana rainforests destroy areas that have historically been too wet to burn

Bushfires in Australia’s Gondwana rainforests destroy areas that have historically been too wet to burn

The Guardian reports: The Unesco world heritage centre has expressed concern about bushfire damage to the Gondwana rainforests of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, and asked the Australian government whether it is affecting their world heritage values. In a statement on its website, the centre said members of the media and civil society had asked about the bushfires affecting the areas inscribed on the world heritage list as the “Gondwana rainforests of Australia”. The forests are considered a…

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Your brain operates on the brink of chaos

Your brain operates on the brink of chaos

Kelly Clancy writes: In one important way, the recipient of a heart transplant ignores its new organ: Its nervous system usually doesn’t rewire to communicate with it. The 40,000 neurons controlling a heart operate so perfectly, and are so self-contained, that a heart can be cut out of one body, placed into another, and continue to function perfectly, even in the absence of external control, for a decade or more. This seems necessary: The parts of our nervous system managing…

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More than 140 Nazca Lines discovered in Peruvian desert

More than 140 Nazca Lines discovered in Peruvian desert

The New York Times reports: A huge carving of a monkey with its tail twirled in a spiral; vast, geometric images of a condor and a hummingbird; an immense spider — the 2,000-year-old Nazca Lines in Peru have awed and mystified modern viewers since they were first seen from the air last century. Now, 143 more images have been discovered, etched into a coastal desert plain about 250 miles southeast of Lima, the Peruvian capital. The Japanese researchers who found…

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Former acting solicitor general says White House ‘obstruction’ ‘even worse’ than Nixon’s during Watergate

Former acting solicitor general says White House ‘obstruction’ ‘even worse’ than Nixon’s during Watergate

Newsweek reports: An Obama-era acting solicitor general of the United States has argued that the White House is “engaged in unprecedented obstruction” of the Ukraine probe. Law professor Neal Katyal told MSNBC that the Trump administration’s approach to the ongoing impeachment inquiry was “in many ways even worse” than former President Richard Nixon’s alleged obstruction of the impeachment investigation amid the Watergate scandal. His comments come as the White House has sought to block administration staffers from delivering depositions before…

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The proof that Trump’s ‘no quid pro quo’ call never happened

The proof that Trump’s ‘no quid pro quo’ call never happened

Susan Simpson writes: At the heart of the impeachment inquiry, members of Congress may have been mistakenly led to believe that there were two phone calls between President Donald Trump and Ambassador Gordon Sondland in early September—with the second call having the possibility of helping the President’s case. That’s not what happened. There was only one call, and it was highly incriminating. The call occurred on September 7th. In this call, Trump did say there was “no quid pro quo”…

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In Afghanistan, Trump sows confusion over U.S. policy on Taliban

In Afghanistan, Trump sows confusion over U.S. policy on Taliban

The New York Times reports: After abruptly axing nearly a year of delicate peace talks with the Taliban in September, President Trump put the negotiations back on the front-burner this week in a similarly jolting fashion by seeming to demand a cease-fire that his negotiators had long concluded was overly ambitious. Despite a sense of relief at the prospect of resuming talks to end the 18-year conflict, Western diplomats and Taliban leaders were scrambling to figure out whether Mr. Trump…

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Boris Johnson to Donald Trump: Don’t interfere in UK election

Boris Johnson to Donald Trump: Don’t interfere in UK election

Reuters reports: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was best if U.S. President Donald Trump did not get involved in Britain’s upcoming election when he visits London for a NATO summit next week. “What we don’t do traditionally as loving allies and friends, what we don’t do traditionally, is get involved in each other’s election campaigns,” said Johnson, whose Conservative Party has a commanding lead in the polls ahead of the Dec. 12. “The best (thing) when you have…

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Indigenous knowledge can help solve the biodiversity crisis

Indigenous knowledge can help solve the biodiversity crisis

Hannah Rundle writes: The United Nations recently released a preliminary report warning that global biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, with approximately one million species currently at risk of extinction. However, the report noted biodiversity is declining at a significantly slower rate on lands governed by indigenous peoples, demonstrating their success as stewards of their natural environment. Biodiversity describes genetic diversity within and between species and is integral to the health and resiliency of ecosystems. A decline in biodiversity…

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There is a new way to see climate change

There is a new way to see climate change

BuzzFeed reports: The effects of climate change are undeniable: The past five years have been the warmest on record, and storms are becoming stronger. As a result, many media outlets have been revising their language regarding climate stories, with some going so far as to cover climate change as an emergency. Reuters Pictures has made climate change a topic of focus, much like the New York Times and the Guardian. However, Reuters is a newswire service, meaning that unlike a…

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Our place in the universe will change dramatically in the next 50 years – here’s how

Our place in the universe will change dramatically in the next 50 years – here’s how

Is there anybody out there? Greg Rakozy/Unsplash, CC BY-SA By Robin Smith, Sheffield Hallam University In 1900, so the story goes, prominent physicist Lord Kelvin addressed the British Association for the Advancement of Science with these words: “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now.” How wrong he was. The following century completely turned physics on its head. A huge number of theoretical and experimental discoveries have transformed our understanding of the universe, and our place within it….

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The dark history of colonialism behind the Thanksgiving myth

The dark history of colonialism behind the Thanksgiving myth

David J. Silverman writes: Generations of Americans have told themselves a patriotic story of the supposed first Thanksgiving that misrepresents colonization as consensual and bloodless. The story goes like this: English Pilgrims cram aboard the Mayflower and brave the stormy Atlantic to seek religious freedom in America. They disembark at Plymouth Rock and enter the howling wilderness equipped with their proto-Constitution, the Mayflower Compact, and the confidence that they are God’s chosen people. Yet sickness and starvation halve their population…

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A detailed account of the record in the Ukraine affair

A detailed account of the record in the Ukraine affair

Lawfare‘s Scott R. Anderson, Margaret Taylor, Benjamin Wittes write: In the Ukraine affair, there is no Robert Mueller. There is no Kenneth Starr. If the House is going to get a detailed report on the conduct of President Trump with respect to Ukraine and the Biden family, it’s going to have to write that report itself. The House has authorized its intelligence committee to do just that. Under House Resolution 660, the Intelligence Committee “is directed to issue a report…

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