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The invention of the conspiracy theory on Biden and Ukraine

The invention of the conspiracy theory on Biden and Ukraine

Jane Meyer writes: For nearly two years, conservative operatives have been trying to weaponize the Ukraine-based story that has led Trump to the brink of impeachment. A look back over the coverage of the story—a repeatedly discredited conspiracy theory involving Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s work in Ukraine—suggests that America’s news organizations continue to be just as susceptible to manipulation by political partisans pushing complicated and hard-to-check foreign narratives as they were in 2016. In fact, several of the…

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Cell-bacteria mergers offer clues about how organelles evolved

Cell-bacteria mergers offer clues about how organelles evolved

Viviane Callier writes: There are few relationships in nature more intimate than those between cells and the symbiotic bacteria, or endosymbionts, that live inside them. In these partnerships, a host cell typically provides protection to its endosymbiont and gives it a way to propagate, while the endosymbiont provides key nutrients to the host. It’s a deeply cooperative arrangement, in which the genomes of the host and the endosymbiont even seem to contribute complementary pieces to each other’s metabolic and biosynthetic…

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For Rachel Carson, wonder was a radical state of mind

For Rachel Carson, wonder was a radical state of mind

By Jennifer Stitt In 1957, the world watched in wonder as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into outer space. Despite Cold War anxieties, The New York Times admitted that space exploration ‘represented a step toward escape from man’s imprisonment to Earth and its thin envelope of atmosphere’. Technology, it seemed, possessed the astonishing potential to liberate humanity from terrestrial life. But not all assessments of Sputnik were so celebratory. In The Human Condition (1958), the…

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The fast track to a life well lived is gratefulness

The fast track to a life well lived is gratefulness

By David DeSteno For the Ancient Greeks, virtue wasn’t a goal in and of itself, but rather a route to a life well lived. By being honest and generous, embodying diligence and fortitude, showing restraint and kindness, a person would flourish – coming to live a life filled with meaning and finding an enduring, as opposed to ephemeral, happiness. Today, that view hasn’t much changed. While we hear plenty of stories of celebrities, politicians and even our neighbours finding fleeting…

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Radical warming in Siberia leaves millions of Russians living on unstable ground

Radical warming in Siberia leaves millions of Russians living on unstable ground

From Zyryanka River in Russia’s Siberia, the Washington Post reports: Andrey Danilov eased his motorboat onto the gravel riverbank, where the bones of a woolly mammoth lay scattered on the beach. A putrid odor filled the air — the stench of ancient plants and animals decomposing after millennia entombed in a frozen purgatory. “It smells like dead bodies,” Danilov said. The skeletal remains were left behind by mammoth hunters hoping to strike it rich by pulling prehistoric ivory tusks from…

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South America’s second-largest forest is also burning – and ‘environmentally friendly’ charcoal is subsidizing its destruction

South America’s second-largest forest is also burning – and ‘environmentally friendly’ charcoal is subsidizing its destruction

The Paraguayan Chaco, South America’s second largest forest, is rapidly disappearing as agriculture extends deeper into what was once forest. Here, isolated stands of trees remain amid the farms. Joel E. Correia, CC BY-NC-ND By Joel E. Correia, University of Florida The fires raging across the Brazilian Amazon have captured the world’s attention. Meanwhile, South America’s second-largest forest, the Gran Chaco, is disappearing in plain sight. The Gran Chaco, which spans from Bolivia and Brazil to Paraguay and Argentina, is…

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CIA’s top lawyer made ‘criminal referral’ on whistleblower’s complaint about Trump conduct

CIA’s top lawyer made ‘criminal referral’ on whistleblower’s complaint about Trump conduct

NBC News reports: Weeks before the whistleblower’s complaint became public, the CIA’s top lawyer made what she considered to be a criminal referral to the Justice Department about the whistleblower’s allegations that President Donald Trump abused his office in pressuring the Ukrainian president, U.S. officials familiar with the matter tell NBC News. The move by the CIA’s general counsel, Trump appointee Courtney Simmons Elwood, meant she and other senior officials had concluded a potential crime had been committed, raising more…

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Trump’s impeachment polling is historically unprecedented

Trump’s impeachment polling is historically unprecedented

Harry Enten writes: The poll numbers are in on impeachment, and it’s not good news for President Donald Trump. A clear plurality of Americans approve of the House’s impeachment inquiry into Trump, and they are split on whether they want to impeach and remove him from office. Americans are more eager to impeach Trump now than they were at similar points in the impeachment sagas of Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon. Impeachment actions usually start off as being unpopular with…

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Treasury inspector general to review handling of Trump’s tax returns

Treasury inspector general to review handling of Trump’s tax returns

The New York Times reports: The Treasury Department’s inspector general is investigating how the department handled a congressional request for President Trump’s tax returns, which Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to turn over. The inquiry comes amid new concerns about political interference in the handling of Mr. Trump’s tax returns, which — like those of all presidents — are subjected to a mandatory audit. An Internal Revenue Service whistle-blower filed a complaint over the summer claiming that senior Treasury…

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Why Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should resign

Why Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should resign

Daniel W. Drezner writes: Mike Pompeo came into the secretary of state position with a relatively simple assignment: be better than the most incompetent secretary of state in history. Rex Tillerson tried to ingratiate himself with President Trump and failed. In the process, he alienated every other stakeholder relevant to his job: Congress, the Foreign Service, the foreign diplomatic corps, even folks such as me. He had to go. There was an argument that Pompeo was stepping into a situation…

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Rory Stewart leaves Tory party to run for London mayor

Rory Stewart leaves Tory party to run for London mayor

The Guardian reports: The former Conservative leadership candidate Rory Stewart has resigned from the party, and announced plans to run for mayor of London as an independent. Stewart, who was among 21 Tories who lost the whip for rebelling over a no-deal Brexit, announced in a tweet on Friday that he would stand down as an MP. He later told the Evening Standard newspaper he was sick of the “madhouse of mutual insults in the Gothic shouting chamber of Westminster”….

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Judge Andrew Napolitano: Trump’s call with Ukraine president manifests criminal and impeachable behavior

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Trump’s call with Ukraine president manifests criminal and impeachable behavior

Judge Andrew Napolitano, a political commentator on Fox News, writes: The whistleblower’s revelation caused the White House to release a near-verbatim summary of the conversation between the two presidents. By releasing it, Trump has admitted to its accuracy. In it, Trump asked Zelensky for dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, who at this writing is Trump’s likely Democratic opponent in the 2020 presidential election. Trump also admits to holding up $391 million in aid to Ukraine – $250 million…

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As Trump solicits election support from China, FEC chair issues a reminder that this is illegal

As Trump solicits election support from China, FEC chair issues a reminder that this is illegal

CNBC reports: The head of the Federal Election Commission subtweeted President Donald Trump on Thursday after the president called on China to investigate his potential 2020 rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. In a post on Twitter, chair Ellen Weintraub resurfaced a June memorandum stating that it is illegal for anyone running for public office to solicit help from a foreign national. Is this thing on? 🎙 https://t.co/K6phZRex8k — Ellen L Weintraub (@EllenLWeintraub) October 3, 2019 Weintraub had originally…

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IRS whistleblower said to report Treasury political appointee might have tried to interfere in audit of Trump or Pence

IRS whistleblower said to report Treasury political appointee might have tried to interfere in audit of Trump or Pence

The Washington Post reports: An Internal Revenue Service official has filed a whistleblower complaint reporting that he was told at least one Treasury Department political appointee attempted to improperly interfere with the annual audit of the president or vice president’s tax returns, according to multiple people familiar with the document. Trump administration officials dismissed the whistleblower’s complaint as flimsy because it is based on conversations with other government officials. But congressional Democrats were alarmed by the complaint, now circulating on…

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