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Barr feathers Trump’s nest with $30,000 hotel booking for holiday party

Barr feathers Trump’s nest with $30,000 hotel booking for holiday party

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General William P. Barr is planning a holiday treat for his boss. Last month, Barr booked President Trump’s D.C. hotel for a 200-person holiday party in December that is likely to deliver Trump’s business more than $30,000 in revenue. Barr signed a contract, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, for a “Family Holiday Party” in the hotel’s Presidential Ballroom Dec. 8. The party will feature a buffet and a four-hour open…

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The loss that precedes extinction matters as much as extinction itself

The loss that precedes extinction matters as much as extinction itself

Ed Yong writes: Imagine if every animal and plant on the planet collapsed into a single population each, says ecologist Gerardo Ceballos. If lions disappeared except from one small corner of Kenya, the prey they keep in check would run amok everywhere else. If sparrows were no more except in one Dutch forest, the seeds that sparrows disperse would stay in place everywhere else. If honeybees became isolated to one American meadow, the flowers that they pollinate would fail to…

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Boris Johnson’s parliament shutdown is unconstitutional

Boris Johnson’s parliament shutdown is unconstitutional

Shami Chakrabarti writes: One of the gravest dangers to any society is “outrage fatigue”. The symptom of this condition is when so many people have been so angry for so long that terrible abuses of power now seem almost normal. Over a decade since the financial crash, after nine years of crippling public spending and tax cuts, and three years on from the bitterly fought EU referendum, poor leadership leaves our country in a state of polarised peril. This is…

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Boris Johnson’s move to prorogue parliament ‘a constitutional outrage’, says Speaker

Boris Johnson’s move to prorogue parliament ‘a constitutional outrage’, says Speaker

The Guardian reports: The Commons Speaker, John Bercow, issued a stinging criticism of Boris Johnson’s intention to prorogue parliament, describing it as a constitutional outrage aimed at preventing MPs from debating Brexit. In a furious statement he said he had not been consulted by the prime minister, who he said risked undermining his democratic credentials. Bercow is expected to ensure the Commons has a chance to discuss the move, and table legislation to combat no deal, as soon as it…

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Trump wants a wall so badly, he’s encouraging subordinates to break the law if that will speed construction

Trump wants a wall so badly, he’s encouraging subordinates to break the law if that will speed construction

The Washington Post reports: President Trump is so eager to complete hundreds of miles of border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential election that he has directed aides to fast-track billions of dollars’ worth of construction contracts, aggressively seize private land and disregard environmental rules, according to current and former officials involved with the project. He also has told worried subordinates that he will pardon them of any potential wrongdoing should they have to break laws to get the barriers…

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Trump rants against Fox News: ‘Fox isn’t working for us anymore!’

Trump rants against Fox News: ‘Fox isn’t working for us anymore!’

Politico reports: President Donald Trump let loose on Fox News on Wednesday, saying the network “isn’t working for us anymore” while encouraging his followers to look for an alternative to his long-cherished cable news channel. In a three-part Twitter attack, Trump escalated his feud that started earlier this year when the network started featuring more Democratic commentators and hosted a series of town halls with Democratic presidential candidates. On Wednesday Trump tee’d off on Fox News over an appearance by…

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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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