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Mattis says he served ‘as long as I could,’ warns of a leader not committed to working with allies

Mattis says he served ‘as long as I could,’ warns of a leader not committed to working with allies

The Washington Post reports: Former defense secretary Jim Mattis, who resigned last year after clashing with President Trump, says in a new book excerpt that “I did as well as I could for as long as I could” and warns of the dangers of a leader who is not committed to working with allies. Mattis, who announced his resignation in December after Trump shocked American allies and overruled his advisers by announcing a withdrawal from Syria, writes in his book…

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Harvard student barred from U.S. because officials objected to the political views of his social media friends

Harvard student barred from U.S. because officials objected to the political views of his social media friends

The New York Times reports: A Palestinian student from Lebanon who was set to begin his freshman year at Harvard was denied entry to the United States after immigration officials objected to his friends’ social media posts, he said this week, prompting furor among free-speech advocates. The student, Ismail B. Ajjawi, 17, landed at Logan International Airport in Boston on Friday, and was turned back by a Customs and Border Protection agent, according to an account he gave The Harvard…

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Trump’s trade war tied to Amazon rainforest destruction

Trump’s trade war tied to Amazon rainforest destruction

HuffPost reports: As unsold U.S. soybeans are stored in silos across the farm belt, Brazilian farmers and corporations scramble to satisfy the voracious Chinese market. The push to break new ground amid President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is putting increasing pressure on the Amazon rainforest and is likely linked to the region’s devastating fires, according to experts. “There is concern that market pressures related to the disruptions in global trade contributed to the fires in the Amazon,” a…

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A top financier of Trump and McConnell is a driving force behind Amazon deforestation

A top financier of Trump and McConnell is a driving force behind Amazon deforestation

The Intercept reports: Two Brazilian firms owned by a top donor to President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are significantly responsible for the ongoing destruction of the Amazon rainforest, carnage that has developed into raging fires that have captivated global attention. The companies have wrested control of land, deforested it, and helped build a controversial highway to their new terminal in the one-time jungle, all to facilitate the cultivation and export of grain and soybeans. The shipping…

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grasps the meaning of democracy better than Republicans do

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grasps the meaning of democracy better than Republicans do

Jamelle Bouie writes: Spend enough time talking politics on the internet — or in any other public forum — and you’ll run into this standard reply to anyone who wants more democracy in American government: “We’re a republic, not a democracy.” You saw it over the weekend, in an exchange between Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Dan Crenshaw of Texas. In a brief series of tweets, Ocasio-Cortez made the case against the Electoral College and argued for a…

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The impending prosecution of Andrew McCabe and the corruption of the Justice Department

The impending prosecution of Andrew McCabe and the corruption of the Justice Department

Benjamin Wittes writes: I find it hard to imagine a probability of conviction [of Andrew McCabe, the former deputy FBI director]. To prosecute a case under these circumstances, in fact, seems so bizarre that you have to at least entertain the possibility that the explanation for the decision lies in something other than the merits of the case against the man. You don’t have to look far for that explanation. Trump has been on a long-term and very public campaign…

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A window into the seamy world of Washington’s elite power brokers

A window into the seamy world of Washington’s elite power brokers

The New York Times reports: It is a trial tailor-made to grab the attention of this city’s power brokers: In a federal courtroom this month, one of Washington’s most prominent lawyers — a former White House counsel and attorney to global statesmen and other icons — is battling criminal charges of lying to investigators about his work for a shady foreign client. But the most riveting aspect of the case against the lawyer, Gregory B. Craig, is not his innocence…

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Another suspected Israeli strike in Lebanon as war fears intensify

Another suspected Israeli strike in Lebanon as war fears intensify

The Washington Post reports: Lebanese and Iraqi politicians denounced Israeli strikes on their territory as a “declaration of war” on Monday as a suspected Israeli aircraft struck another Iran-linked target in Lebanon, marking a new escalation in tensions. The attack on a Palestinian facility in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley was the fourth in the space of just a little over a day to hit locations tied to Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. The strike came just hours after…

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Did parasite manipulation influence human neurological evolution?

Did parasite manipulation influence human neurological evolution?

Christopher Packham writes: It seems so obvious that someone should have thought of it decades ago: Since parasites have plagued eukaryotic life for millions of years, their prevalence likely affected evolution. Psychologist Marco Del Giudice of the University of New Mexico is not the first researcher to suggest that the evolution of the human brain could have been influenced by parasites that manipulate host behavior. But tired of waiting for neurologists to pick up the ball and run with it,…

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The American diet is the leading cause of mortality in the U.S.

The American diet is the leading cause of mortality in the U.S.

Dariush Mozaffarian and Dan Glickman write: Americans are sick — much sicker than many realize. More than 100 million adults — almost half the entire adult population — have pre-diabetes or diabetes. Cardiovascular disease afflicts about 122 million people and causes roughly 840,000 deaths each year, or about 2,300 deaths each day. Three in four adults are overweight or obese. More Americans are sick, in other words, than are healthy. Instead of debating who should pay for all this, no…

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The anatomy of the coming recession

The anatomy of the coming recession

Nouriel Roubini writes: There are three negative supply shocks that could trigger a global recession by 2020. All of them reflect political factors affecting international relations, two involve China, and the United States is at the center of each. Moreover, none of them is amenable to the traditional tools of countercyclical macroeconomic policy. The first potential shock stems from the Sino-American trade and currency war, which escalated earlier this month when US President Donald Trump’s administration threatened additional tariffs on…

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The next recession will destroy Millennials

The next recession will destroy Millennials

Annie Lowrey writes: The Millennials graduated into the worst jobs market in 80 years. That did not just mean a few years of high unemployment, or a couple years living in their parents’ basements. It meant a full decade of lost wages. The generation unlucky enough to enter the labor market in a recession suffers “significant” earnings losses that take years and years to rebound, studies show, something that hard data now back up. As of 2014, Millennial men were…

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Elizabeth Warren’s message to the Democratic establishment

Elizabeth Warren’s message to the Democratic establishment

The New York Times reports: When Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts addressed a few hundred donors last week at a fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee, she called for “big, structural change” and hurled her familiar populist lightning bolts at the forces of concentrated wealth. But Ms. Warren did not attend the event just to recite her stump speech. She had another, more tailored message for the Democratic check writers, state party leaders and committee members who were gathered at…

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Bernie Sanders on his plan for journalism

Bernie Sanders on his plan for journalism

Bernie Sanders writes: Walter Cronkite once said that “journalism is what we need to make democracy work.” He was absolutely right, which is why today’s assault on journalism by Wall Street, billionaire businessmen, Silicon Valley, and Donald Trump presents a crisis—and why we must take concrete action. Real journalism is different from the gossip, punditry, and clickbait that dominates today’s news. Real journalism, in the words of Joseph Pulitzer, is the painstaking reporting that will “fight for progress and reform,…

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