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How Democrats can mitigate the damage done to the judiciary by Trump and McConnell

How Democrats can mitigate the damage done to the judiciary by Trump and McConnell

Jamelle Bouie writes: Should [Democrats] win a federal “trifecta” — the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives — they’ll still have to deal with a Trump-branded judiciary. It’s entirely possible that a future Democratic agenda would be circumscribed and unraveled by a Supreme Court whose slim conservative majority owes itself to minority government and constitutional hardball. So what should Democrats do? They should play hardball back. Congress, according to the Judiciary Act of 1789, decides the number…

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Pentagon has spent nearly $200,000 at Trump’s Scottish resort since 2017

Pentagon has spent nearly $200,000 at Trump’s Scottish resort since 2017

Politico reports: Since Donald Trump took office, the U.S. military has spent nearly $200,000 at the president’s luxury Scotland resort, according to figures and documents the Pentagon provided to the House Oversight Committee. The spending, which has all occurred since August 2017, paid for the equivalent of hundreds of nights of rooms at the Turnberry resort over approximately three dozen separate stays, the committee said. The Air Force confirmed last week that its crews had stayed up to 40 times…

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Farming subsidies — $1 million a minute — are destroying the world, says report

Farming subsidies — $1 million a minute — are destroying the world, says report

The Guardian reports: The public is providing more than $1m per minute in global farm subsidies, much of which is driving the climate crisis and destruction of wildlife, according to a new report. Just 1% of the $700bn (£560bn) a year given to farmers is used to benefit the environment, the analysis found. Much of the total instead promotes high-emission cattle production, forest destruction and pollution from the overuse of fertiliser. The security of humanity is at risk without reform…

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Are the Amazon fires a crime against humanity?

Are the Amazon fires a crime against humanity?

By Tara Smith, Bangor University Fires in the Brazilian Amazon have jumped 84% during President Jair Bolsonaro’s first year in office and in July 2019 alone, an area of rainforest the size of Manhattan was lost every day. The Amazon fires may seem beyond human control, but they’re not beyond human culpability. Bolsonaro ran for president promising to “integrate the Amazon into the Brazilian economy”. Once elected, he slashed the Brazilian environmental protection agency budget by 95% and relaxed safeguards…

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Why carbon dioxide has such outsized influence on Earth’s climate

Why carbon dioxide has such outsized influence on Earth’s climate

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite makes precise measurements of Earth’s carbon dioxide levels from space. NASA/JPL By Jason West, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill CC BY-ND Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz I heard that carbon dioxide makes up 0.04% of the world’s atmosphere. Not…

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The EU has run out of patience with Britain

The EU has run out of patience with Britain

Jon Henley writes: [T]he press conference that Xavier Bettel ended up giving alone – gesturing to the lectern where his counterpart should have stood – served as a striking symbol of EU leaders’ mounting frustration with the Brexit process. The Luxembourg prime minister did not hold back. The leave campaign had been built on lies, he said. Johnson’s oft-repeated claims of progress in the talks were baseless. London had come up with nothing to replace the backstop. Above all, the…

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DEA seeks major increase in federally-approved cannabis production to meet growth in research needs

DEA seeks major increase in federally-approved cannabis production to meet growth in research needs

The Motley Fool reports: The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) had an opportunity to reschedule or de-schedule marijuana back in the summer of 2016 in response to two petitions but chose not to take any action. However, news out of the DEA this past week might signal that the regulatory agency is changing its tune, or at least softening its stance, on marijuana. As reported by Forbes, the DEA has requested an annual grow quota of 3,200,000 grams (about 7,055…

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2020 could be your last chance to stop a climate catastrophe

2020 could be your last chance to stop a climate catastrophe

In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times says: The world is drifting steadily toward a climate catastrophe. For many of us, that’s been clear for a few years or maybe a decade or even a few decades. But others have known that a reckoning was coming for much longer. A Swedish scientist first calculated in 1896 that adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere could lead to warmer global temperatures. By the 1930s, scientists were measuring the increase, and in the…

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Most American teens are frightened by climate change, poll finds. One in four are taking action

Most American teens are frightened by climate change, poll finds. One in four are taking action

The Washington Post reports: A solid majority of American teenagers are convinced that humans are changing the Earth’s climate and believe that it will cause harm to them personally and to other members of their generation, according to a new Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll. Roughly 1 in 4 have participated in a walkout, attended a rally or written to a public official to express their views on global warming — remarkable levels of activism for a group that has…

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Renewable energy has become the most profitable form of power production

Renewable energy has become the most profitable form of power production

Bloomberg reports: The chief executive of the world’s largest private coal company sat before a group of U.S. lawmakers who wanted to know whether the fuel had a future. He didn’t hesitate. “Coal,” he said, “is the future.” It was 2010. Coal supplied nearly half of America’s power, the executive testified, and was growing more than 1.5 times faster than oil, natural gas, nuclear and renewables combined. Global demand was on pace to rise 53% within two decades. And renewable…

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Russia carried out ‘stunning’ breach of FBI communications as U.S. neglected to appreciate espionage challenge

Russia carried out ‘stunning’ breach of FBI communications as U.S. neglected to appreciate espionage challenge

Yahoo News reports: American officials discovered that the Russians had dramatically improved their ability to decrypt certain types of secure communications and had successfully tracked devices used by elite FBI surveillance teams. Officials also feared that the Russians may have devised other ways to monitor U.S. intelligence communications, including hacking into computers not connected to the internet. Senior FBI and CIA officials briefed congressional leaders on these issues as part of a wide-ranging examination on Capitol Hill of U.S. counterintelligence…

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Journalists and activists ‘laundering’ genocidal regimes

Journalists and activists ‘laundering’ genocidal regimes

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad writes: A week after Damascus feted a delegation of the European far right, Bashar al-Assad’s regime ushered in a new set of suitors. On Sunday, the American blogger and Sputnik contributor Max Blumenthal announced his arrival in Syria with a selfie. The caption read: “Here I am near the border of Jobar, a neighborhood east of Damascus occupied by the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam until early last year. Militia control extended close to the tall building behind me….

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