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‘Enough is enough’: Democrats rage at Saudis over oil cut, vow to block weapons sales

‘Enough is enough’: Democrats rage at Saudis over oil cut, vow to block weapons sales

Politico reports: A top Democratic senator is vowing to block all future weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and urging the Biden administration to “immediately freeze all aspects” of U.S. cooperation with the kingdom in response to its decision to cut oil production amid a global energy crisis set off by Russia’s war in Ukraine. The message from Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who has veto power over foreign arms sales, comes amid the West’s outrage at OPEC+ for…

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Saudi Arabia defied U.S. warnings ahead of OPEC+ production cut

Saudi Arabia defied U.S. warnings ahead of OPEC+ production cut

The Wall Street Journal reports: Days before a major oil-production cut by OPEC and its Russia-led allies, U.S. officials called their counterparts in Saudi Arabia and other big Gulf producers with an urgent appeal—delay the decision for another month, according to people familiar with the talks. The answer: a resounding no. U.S. officials warned Saudi leaders that a cut would be viewed as a clear choice by Riyadh to side with Russia in the Ukraine war and that the move…

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Lawyer went out on a limb for Trump. Now she’s under Justice Dept. scrutiny

Lawyer went out on a limb for Trump. Now she’s under Justice Dept. scrutiny

The New York Times reports: This spring, one of the lawyers representing former President Donald J. Trump made an urgent, high-stakes request to Christina G. Bobb, who had just jumped from a Trump-allied cable network to a job in his political organization. The former president was in the midst of an escalating clash with the Justice Department about documents he had taken with him from the White House at the end of his term. The lawyer, M. Evan Corcoran, met…

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Biden proposal could lead to employee status for gig workers

Biden proposal could lead to employee status for gig workers

The New York Times reports: The Labor Department on Tuesday unveiled a proposal that would make it more likely for millions of janitors, home-care and construction workers and gig drivers to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors. Companies are required to provide certain benefits and protections to employees but not to contractors, such as paying a minimum wage, overtime, a portion of a worker’s Social Security taxes and contributions to unemployment insurance. The proposed rule is essentially a…

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A thousand miles in the Amazon, to change the way the world works

A thousand miles in the Amazon, to change the way the world works

Katie Surma writes: The plan was to meet in Altamira, Brazil, and travel 1,000 miles across the northern Amazon as a kind of people’s court. The judges would take testimony over 10 days, much like a United Nations fact-finding delegation, and deliver their findings at the 10th Pan-Amazon Social Forum in the provincial city of Belém. They had come under the banner of the International Rights of Nature Tribunal, promoting a legal movement based on the premise that nature—forests and…

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Russia launches missile strikes across Ukraine, hitting mostly civilian targets

Russia launches missile strikes across Ukraine, hitting mostly civilian targets

Michael Weiss and James Rushton report: Ukrainians across the country awoke Monday morning to a barrage of Russian missile and kamikaze drone attacks on civilian infrastructure in cities stretching from Kharkiv in the east to Lviv in the west. Kyiv, for the first time since the Russian invasion began in late February, took the brunt of the assault, with almost all confirmed impact targets being civilian, not military, in nature. According to Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed…

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Russia loses 60% of its seaborne crude oil market in Europe

Russia loses 60% of its seaborne crude oil market in Europe

Bloomberg reports: Russia has lost three-fifths of its seaborne crude sales in Europe since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February. That market is going to vanish almost completely eight weeks from now and the latest sanctions will make it very difficult to divert flows elsewhere. Crude shipments to Europe averaged 630,000 barrels a day in the four weeks to Oct. 7, down from 1.62 million before the invasion. Tankers carrying Russia’s oil are now forced to spend four times…

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The #WomanLifeFreedom uprising has brought Iran to a turning point

The #WomanLifeFreedom uprising has brought Iran to a turning point

Robin Wright writes: The girls and women of Iran are just bitchin’ brave, flipping the bird at its Supreme Leader in a challenge to one of the most significant revolutions in modern history. Day after dangerous day, on open streets and in gated schools, in a flood of tweets and brazen videos, they have ridiculed a theocracy that deems itself the government of God. The average age of the protesters who have been arrested is just fifteen, the Revolutionary Guard’s…

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Why little-noticed state legislative races could be hugely consequential for American democracy

Why little-noticed state legislative races could be hugely consequential for American democracy

The New York Times reports: The conversation started with potholes. Veronica Klinefelt, a Democratic candidate for State Senate in suburban Detroit, was out knocking on doors as she tries to win a seat her party sees as critical for taking back the chamber. “I am tired of seeing cuts in aging communities like ours,” she told one voter, gesturing to a cul-de-sac pocked with cracks and crevasses. “We need to reinvest here.” What went largely unspoken, however, was how this…

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In Trump case, Texas court creates a headache for Georgia prosecutors

In Trump case, Texas court creates a headache for Georgia prosecutors

The New York Times reports: Witnesses called to testify in a Georgia criminal investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and his allies have not always come willingly. A number of them have fought their subpoenas in their home-state courts, only to have local judges order them to cooperate. That was the case with Trump-aligned lawyers John Eastman in New Mexico, Jenna Ellis in Colorado and Rudolph W. Giuliani in New York; Mr. Giuliani was also told by an Atlanta…

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Zuckerberg hopes to stoke metaverse enthusiasm by threatening to layoff unenthusiastic Meta employees

Zuckerberg hopes to stoke metaverse enthusiasm by threatening to layoff unenthusiastic Meta employees

The New York Times reports: Last October, when Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, announced that the company would change its name to Meta and become a “metaverse company,” he sketched a vision of a utopian future many years off in which billions of people would inhabit immersive digital environments for hours on end, working, socializing and playing games inside virtual and augmented worlds. In the year since, Meta has spent billions of dollars and assigned thousands of employees…

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Machine learning highlights a hidden order in scents

Machine learning highlights a hidden order in scents

Allison Parshall writes: Alex Wiltschko began collecting perfumes as a teenager. His first bottle was Azzaro Pour Homme, a timeless cologne he spotted on the shelf at a T.J. Maxx department store. He recognized the name from Perfumes: The Guide, a book whose poetic descriptions of aroma had kick-started his obsession. Enchanted, he saved up his allowance to add to his collection. “I ended up going absolutely down the rabbit hole,” he said. More recently, as an olfactory neuroscientist for…

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Team Putin wakes up: We never should have laughed at Ukraine

Team Putin wakes up: We never should have laughed at Ukraine

Julia Davis reports: Russia experienced a number of embarrassing setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine, but none of them were as humiliating as an explosion that rocked the Crimean Bridge, also known as Kerch Strait Bridge or Kerch Bridge, early Saturday morning. During his Saturday broadcast on Solovyov Live, Russian state TV host Sergey Mardan opened his show with heavy sighs. He noted, “All day long we’ll be talking about how this happened and what will come of it. I…

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‘Ukraine is going to win’: Estonia’s departing spy chief opens up on Putin’s war

‘Ukraine is going to win’: Estonia’s departing spy chief opens up on Putin’s war

Michael Weiss reports: “Early retirement” is a strange way to describe a 44-year-old’s acceptance of a new government role, but for Mikk Marran, Estonia’s spymaster, it feels a lot like that. As of next month he will no longer helm Välisluureamet, the Baltic state’s foreign intelligence service, which, long before Vladimir Putin’s faltering invasion of Ukraine, was at the forefront of assessing the threats and capabilities of a resurgent and revanchist Russia. “Seven years, it’s a long time,” Marran tells…

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