Browsed by
Author: From elsewhere

Brexit: Remainers actually have nothing to fear from a general election — here’s why

Brexit: Remainers actually have nothing to fear from a general election — here’s why

Mark Malloch-Brown writes: Remainers have nothing to fear from an election so long as we work together; and because we will work together, the country has nothing to fear from Corbyn. The present polling gives Johnson an ebbing lead, but a lead nonetheless. It is likely he will strike a deal with Nigel Farage in any snap election. Perhaps Farage’s non-aggression pact in which the Brexit Party does little campaigning in swathes of the south, and the Tories do even…

Read More Read More

If Boris Johnson quits, MPs should back Jeremy Corbyn to avoid no deal

If Boris Johnson quits, MPs should back Jeremy Corbyn to avoid no deal

Polly Toynbee writes: When parliament reconvenes in October it will have 12 days to close all loopholes and prevent a no-deal exit. Johnson may resign, or as a last resort Labour may need to depose him with a no-confidence vote. If so, the leader of the opposition would be called first to form an interim government; but will the alliance [with the SNP, the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Plaid Cymru, and exiled Tories] stomach him? When first mooted, the answer…

Read More Read More

NOAA’s chief scientist to investigate why agency backed Trump over its experts on Dorian, while NWS director backs forecasters

NOAA’s chief scientist to investigate why agency backed Trump over its experts on Dorian, while NWS director backs forecasters

The Washington Post reports: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s acting chief scientist said in an email to colleagues Sunday that he is investigating whether the agency’s response to President Trump’s Hurricane Dorian tweets constituted a violation of NOAA policies and ethics. Also on Monday, the director of the National Weather Service broke with NOAA leadership over its handling of Trump’s Dorian tweets and statements. In an email to NOAA staff that was obtained by The Washington Post, NOAA’s Craig…

Read More Read More

Commerce chief threatened to fire top officials at NOAA if they didn’t support Trump’s false hurricane predictions, sources say

Commerce chief threatened to fire top officials at NOAA if they didn’t support Trump’s false hurricane predictions, sources say

The New York Times reports: The Secretary of Commerce threatened to fire top employees at NOAA on Friday after the agency’s Birmingham office contradicted President Trump’s claim that Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama, according to three people familiar with the discussion. That threat led to an unusual, unsigned statement later that Friday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disavowing the office’s own position that Alabama was not at risk. The reversal caused widespread anger within the agency and drew…

Read More Read More

Trump’s hatred of refugees applies to victims of Hurricane Dorian

Trump’s hatred of refugees applies to victims of Hurricane Dorian

Aaron Blake writes: Early Monday afternoon, acting Customs and Border Protection head Mark Morgan offered some peace of mind to Bahamians seeking humanitarian relief in the United States in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, following the news that some were turned away for not having visas. “This is a humanitarian mission,” Morgan assured. “If your life is in jeopardy and you’re in the Bahamas … you’re going to be allowed to come to the United States, whether you have travel…

Read More Read More

The Irish border and the reality of Boris Johnson’s no-deal plan

The Irish border and the reality of Boris Johnson’s no-deal plan

‘I was the sole survivor of the Kingsmill massacre. Ten of my friends were shot dead beside me.’ In 2016, UK political commentator Peter Oborne voted for Brexit. A vote he now regrets.@obornetweets went to the border to discover the reality of Boris Johnson's no deal plan pic.twitter.com/2yFMW2UwHy — JOE.ie (@JOEdotie) September 4, 2019 The Guardian reports: The Irish prime minister has warned Boris Johnson there will be no “clean break” from the EU, with further fraught negotiations to come…

Read More Read More

Boris Johnson ‘sabotage’ letter to EU ‘would break law’

Boris Johnson ‘sabotage’ letter to EU ‘would break law’

The Guardian reports: A former supreme court justice has said Boris Johnson would be in contempt of court if he applied for article 50 extension while simultaneously trying to get the EU to reject it. Reports in the Daily Telegraph suggested that the prime minister has drawn up plans to “sabotage” parliament’s efforts to force through a Brexit extension to prevent the UK leaving the bloc without a deal. He is said to be considering sending an accompanying letter to…

Read More Read More

U.S. extracted top spy from Russia after Trump disclosed highly classified intelligence to Russian officials

U.S. extracted top spy from Russia after Trump disclosed highly classified intelligence to Russian officials

CNN reports: In a previously undisclosed secret mission in 2017, the United States successfully extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government, multiple Trump administration officials with direct knowledge told CNN. A person directly involved in the discussions said that the removal of the Russian was driven, in part, by concerns that President Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the covert source as a spy. The decision…

Read More Read More

Jerry Falwell’s aides describe a culture of fear and self-dealing at Liberty University

Jerry Falwell’s aides describe a culture of fear and self-dealing at Liberty University

Brandon Ambrosino writes: At Liberty University, all anyone can talk about is Jerry Falwell Jr. Just not in public. “When he does stupid stuff, people will mention it to others they consider confidants and not keep it totally secret,” a trusted adviser to Falwell, the school’s president and chancellor, told me. “But they won’t rat him out.” That’s beginning to change. Over the past year, Falwell, a prominent evangelical leader and supporter of President Donald Trump, has come under increasing…

Read More Read More

Britain’s Tory rebels demonstrate courage and principles sorely lacking among their Republican counterparts

Britain’s Tory rebels demonstrate courage and principles sorely lacking among their Republican counterparts

The New York Times reports: Britain and the United States have often seemed lashed together amid the populist storms of the last few years — Brexit and the Trump White House echoing and amplifying each other across the Atlantic. But in one respect they have radically diverged. In London, rebels in the Conservative Party staged a dramatic insurrection in the past week against Prime Minister Boris Johnson, blocking his plan to withdraw Britain from the European Union even without a…

Read More Read More

We’re still trapped in the dystopian aftermath of 9/11

We’re still trapped in the dystopian aftermath of 9/11

Matt Ford writes: The FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center was created in 2003 because, as a FAQ on its web site explains, “The 9/11 Commission report found that agencies did not share counterterrorism information in an effective and timely manner.” This is true—to a point. The executive summary of the report recommends the following: “Determine, with leadership from the President, guidelines for gathering and sharing information in the new security systems that are needed, guidelines that integrate safeguards for privacy and…

Read More Read More

How Trump upended U.S.-Taliban peace talks

How Trump upended U.S.-Taliban peace talks

The Associated Press reports: With a series of tweets, President Donald Trump has upended nearly a year of U.S.-Taliban negotiations on ending America’s longest war. He has “called off” the talks and asserted that a planned secret meeting between him and Taliban leaders at Camp David, set for Sunday just days before the 9/11 anniversary, is now canceled. Some question whether it was a face-saving attempt after the deal his envoy said had been reached “in principle” faced serious challenges….

Read More Read More

We scientists must rise up to prevent the climate crisis. Words aren’t enough

We scientists must rise up to prevent the climate crisis. Words aren’t enough

Charlie Gardner and Claire Wordley write: As scientists, we tend to operate under an unspoken assumption – that our job is to provide the world with factual information, and if we do so our leaders will use it to make wise decisions. But what if that assumption is wrong? For decades, conservation scientists like us have been telling the world that species and ecosystems are disappearing, and that their loss will have devastating impacts on humanity. Meanwhile, climate scientists have…

Read More Read More

Dorian one of strongest, longest-lasting Atlantic hurricanes on record

Dorian one of strongest, longest-lasting Atlantic hurricanes on record

InsideClimate News reports: Hurricane Dorian spun away from North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Friday as one of the longest-lasting named storms and the most powerful on record to hit the Bahamas, and it wasn’t finished yet—a hurricane warning had been posted for Nova Scotia, Canada. Compared to the path of devastation Dorian left across the northern Bahamas, the U.S. coast had largely been spared. Dorian had struck the northern Bahamas‘ Great Abaco and Grand Bahama islands as one of the…

Read More Read More