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It may take 2 years to identify thousands of separated families, government says

It may take 2 years to identify thousands of separated families, government says

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CNN reports: It could take up to two years for the government to identify potentially thousands of additional immigrant families US authorities separated at the southern border, officials said in a court filing. The government’s proposed plan, detailed for the first time in documents filed late Friday night, outlines a strategy for piecing together exactly who might have been separated by combing through thousands of records using a mix of data analysis and manual review. The court filing comes a…

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Yemen cannot afford to wait

Yemen cannot afford to wait

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Robert Malley and Stephen Pomper write: For an American who had a hand in shaping U.S. Mideast policy during the Barack Obama years, coming to Yemen has the unpleasant feel of visiting the scene of a tragedy one helped co-write. It is a scene whose most heartrending aspects are not easily accessible to a visitor. It is still possible to travel north, to the war-battered capital, Sanaa, now controlled by the Houthi insurgent group, or up the Red Sea coast,…

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Most U.S. coal power plants would save money by switching to wind or solar

Most U.S. coal power plants would save money by switching to wind or solar

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Fast Company reports: As wind and solar power keep getting cheaper, coal power–which was the cheapest source of electricity for decades–is no longer economical in much of the U.S. A new analysis looked at every coal plant in the country and compared the cost of running those plants to the cost of operating a new wind or solar plant. As of 2018, 74% of existing coal plants cost more to operate than new local wind or solar. “Our hypothesis was…

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Coral reproduction on the Great Barrier Reef falls 89% after repeated bleaching

Coral reproduction on the Great Barrier Reef falls 89% after repeated bleaching

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By Morgan Pratchett, James Cook University The severe and repeated bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef has not only damaged corals, it has reduced the reef’s ability to recover. Our research, published today in Nature, found far fewer baby corals are being produced than are needed to replace the large number of adult corals that have died. The rate at which baby corals are settling on the Great Barrier Reef has fallen by nearly 90% since 2016. While coral does…

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In Venezuela, the search for water is a daily struggle

In Venezuela, the search for water is a daily struggle

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The Washington Post reports: Jakeline Moncada had faith that her household reserves would hold out until Venezuela’s water service was restored. But two nationwide blackouts and now the rationing of electricity have kept the water from flowing to a large swath of this South American country, including at Moncada’s home. After 15 days without a drip from the faucet, the 43-year-old mother of three found herself alongside a creek in eastern Caracas this week, watching her teenage son maneuver clumsily…

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In new documents, Cohen says Trump ‘instructed’ him to lie

In new documents, Cohen says Trump ‘instructed’ him to lie

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BuzzFeed reports: Attorneys for Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former fixer, submitted documents to lawmakers Thursday night accusing Trump and his team of lawyers of instructing Cohen to lie to Congress about when negotiations ended to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. In a 12-page memo sent to top House Democrats, Cohen’s attorneys said Trump “encouraged Cohen to lie and say all Moscow Tower project contacts ended as of January 31, 2016 using ‘code’ language — telling Cohen during various…

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The Secret Service’s conflicting missions, to keep Trump safe and to keep his customers happy

The Secret Service’s conflicting missions, to keep Trump safe and to keep his customers happy

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The Washington Post reports: Presidents used to vacation in seclusion — at a ranch in Texas or a beach house in Hawaii. Screening their visitors was relatively simple: The only people who came were friends and staff. President Trump has added vast new complications by choosing to spend his weekends with his customers. Trump stays at the Mar-a-Lago Club, a busy beachfront resort where his quarters are a short distance from the pool, the ballroom, and the “six star” seafood…

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Vladimir Nabokov, literary refugee

Vladimir Nabokov, literary refugee

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Stacy Schiff writes: In February 1917 riots had delivered a revolution. The czar abdicated, replaced by a liberal government, swept into power on a tide of popular support. Nabokov’s father, Vladimir Dmitrievich, played a prominent role in that administration. Months afterward Lenin returned from exile, disembarking at St. Petersburg’s Finland Station. Within the year, what had begun as an idealistic, progressive uprising would end — like Iran’s, like Egypt’s — in totalitarianism. With Lenin arrived another 20th-century staple: a one-party…

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Muslims and Jews face a common threat from white supremacists. We must fight it together

Muslims and Jews face a common threat from white supremacists. We must fight it together

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Jonathan Freedland and Mehdi Hasan write: The two of us have been having the exact same conversation for the past decade. About antisemitism and Islamophobia. One of us a Muslim, the other a Jew, we have conducted it in public and in private, on Twitter and on TV. We’ve agreed; we’ve argued; we’ve even wandered off topic to trade tips on how to get through a fast. Now we’ve come together because of the urgent and common threat that we…

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Al Gore is near the end of his quest to save the Earth. Nina Barrett just got started

Al Gore is near the end of his quest to save the Earth. Nina Barrett just got started

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Dan Zak reports: The man in the pulpit had the posture of a preacher who had not tired of tribulation. “Half of all the living species on this planet will disappear on our watch when we’re assigned responsibility,” the man said, voice starting to thunder. “How do we take on board the meaning of that?” The church was hot. The choir members fanned themselves with their programs, which read “A Moral Call to Action on the Climate Crisis.” The man…

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Climate preparation report released by panel previously disbanded by Trump

Climate preparation report released by panel previously disbanded by Trump

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ClimateWire reports: A climate science advisory panel disbanded by the Trump administration released a report today outlining the steps communities can take to prepare for climate change. In 2017, the Trump administration dissolved the federal Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment. Its purpose was to translate climate science in the National Climate Assessment into usable guidance for local governments and private companies. The panel was reconstituted by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and includes members from academia,…

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Trump is using Stalinist tactics to discredit climate science

Trump is using Stalinist tactics to discredit climate science

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Michael Mann and Bob Ward write: Americans should not be fooled by the Stalinist tactics being used by the White House to try to discredit the findings of mainstream climate science. The Trump administration has already purged information about climate change from government websites, gagged federal experts and attempted to end funding for climate change programmes. Now a group of hardcore climate change deniers and contrarians linked to the administration is organising a petition in support of a new panel…

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White House can’t say whether wind turbines cause cancer but Sen. Grassley calls Trump’s claim ‘idiotic’

White House can’t say whether wind turbines cause cancer but Sen. Grassley calls Trump’s claim ‘idiotic’

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  Question: "Do wind turbines cause cancer?" Mercedes Schlapp, White House Director of Strategic Communications: "I don't have an answer to that." pic.twitter.com/cxcZHQoov2 — The Hill (@thehill) April 3, 2019 Des Moines Register reports: Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley — a champion of the wind energy tax credit — said President Donald Trump’s comments that wind turbines cause cancer were “idiotic” in a call with reporters Wednesday. “I’m told that the White House respects my views on a lot of issues,”…

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We fled the gangs in Honduras. Then the U.S. government took away my baby

We fled the gangs in Honduras. Then the U.S. government took away my baby

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Sindy Flores writes: I am an asylum seeker from Honduras and a mother of three children. For over a month my youngest daughter was separated from her father and me by the United States government. I still don’t know where she was during that time or who took care of her. She’s a toddler, so she can’t tell me if something bad happened to her. I don’t know if she thinks we chose to abandon her. All I know is…

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‘Dozens’ of whistle-blowers are secretly cooperating with House Democrats

‘Dozens’ of whistle-blowers are secretly cooperating with House Democrats

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The Atlantic reports: Tricia Newbold set an important mark when she became the first official currently serving in Donald Trump’s White House to take accusations of wrongdoing to Congress—and to put her name publicly behind them. But Democrats on Capitol Hill say that beyond Newbold, a small army of whistle-blowers from across the government has been working in secret with the House Oversight Committee to report alleged malfeasance inside the Trump administration. Lawmakers and aides are reluctant to discuss information…

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