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Category: Politics

15 things a president can actually do to tackle the climate crisis

15 things a president can actually do to tackle the climate crisis

Zachary B. Wolf writes: Here are some things any president could do on Day One in office: 1. Rejoin the Paris climate agreement Promising to withdraw the US from the landmark 2015 climate agreement was Trump’s benchmark action rebutting the responsibility to act on climate change. He said, without much evidence, that it was a demeaning failure for American workers, who would be expected to do more than those in other countries. The result is the US is one of…

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EU pours cold water on Boris Johnson’s Brexit strategy

EU pours cold water on Boris Johnson’s Brexit strategy

AFP reports: Brussels on Wednesday warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson against the idea he could strike a new Brexit deal with EU leaders before Britain crashes out of the bloc next month. EU officials met a British delegation for “technical talks”, but stressed once again that London has come up with nothing that might convince them to reopen the withdrawal agreement. And a senior EU source poured cold water on the idea leaders might agree and approve a new accord…

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Johnson adviser, Dominic Cummings, is now ‘in complete control’ of Conservative Party

Johnson adviser, Dominic Cummings, is now ‘in complete control’ of Conservative Party

Jack Blanchard writes: Despite all the threats and aggressive briefings from No. 10 in lead-up, plenty of Tory MPs and aides were still gobsmacked by the unprecedented purge of the moderates we saw last night. When was the last time any major political party threw out more than 20 of its MPs for disobeying orders? Worryingly for Downing Street, even slavishly loyal Brexiteers were unnerved. “It’s like something out of North Korea,” one normally supportive No. 10 aide phoned Playbook…

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Europe’s fear of refugees might be the only thing that can save Syrians

Europe’s fear of refugees might be the only thing that can save Syrians

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad writes: Much of Europe is eager to see the conflict end so that Syria could be designated “post-conflict” and its people repatriated. Myopic proposals have circulated since 2014 for using reconstruction funds as an incentive to secure Assad’s cooperation. But any time refugees are forced to return to an undeterrable state like Syria, they are being sent to an uncertain future with their properties confiscated, facing possible torture or death. Assad has suffered no consequences for his…

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Boris Johnson suffers parliamentary defeat as Tories turn against him

Boris Johnson suffers parliamentary defeat as Tories turn against him

The Guardian reports: Boris Johnson has suffered a humiliating defeat in the House of Commons as former Tory cabinet ministers banded together with Labour MPs to seize control of the parliamentary timetable. The prime minister is poised to ask MPs on Wednesday to support an October general election after losing a vote paving the way for a rebel bill aimed at blocking a no-deal Brexit. The government lost the high-stakes vote by 328 to 301 – a majority of 27….

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The Russians at the heart of Italy’s oil scandal

The Russians at the heart of Italy’s oil scandal

BuzzFeed reports: Two men with deep ties to top figures in Russian politics are the voices caught on tape negotiating a proposed oil deal to fund Matteo Salvini’s far-right Lega party, according to new analysis revealed today. In July, BuzzFeed News uncovered an explosive audio recording of longtime Salvini aide Gianluca Savoini discussing a plan to covertly channel tens of millions of dollars of Russian oil money toward Lega’s upcoming European election campaign. The revelations have rocked Italian politics, and…

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The gospel according to Marianne Williamson

The gospel according to Marianne Williamson

Taffy Brodesser-Akner writes: She finished her speech in New Hampshire to great applause and asked for questions, but nobody wanted to know how “a politics of love,” as she called it, would handle, say, President Vladimir Putin’s annexing Crimea, or how it would prevent a mass shooting, which were things she had thought about deeply and had specific and elaborate plans for. They didn’t want to know about her Department of Children and Youth or her Department of Peace. No,…

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The misogyny of climate deniers

The misogyny of climate deniers

Martin Gelin writes: Researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology, which recently launched the world’s first academic research center to study climate denialism, have for years been examining a link between climate deniers and the anti-feminist far-right. In 2014, Jonas Anshelm and Martin Hultman of Chalmers published a paper analyzing the language of a focus group of climate skeptics. The common themes in the group, they said, were striking: “for climate skeptics … it was not the environment that was…

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Texas is a leader in mass shootings. Why is Governor Greg Abbott silent?

Texas is a leader in mass shootings. Why is Governor Greg Abbott silent?

Richard Parker writes: If leadership could be rated from one to 10, Mr. Abbott’s would be a zero. The names of dead, wounded and shattered Texans on his watch, are etched across the state: Dallas, Sutherland Springs, Santa Fe, El Paso and now Odessa. He has never had the guts to do more than mouth a few platitudes while paying obeisance to the gun lobby and the state’s admittedly historic gun culture. In 2015, he even tweeted: “I’m EMBARRASSED: Texas…

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Biden knows Trump needs replacing, but he’s unclear why he should be the replacement

Biden knows Trump needs replacing, but he’s unclear why he should be the replacement

The New York Times reports: “How badly do you want to be president?” Joseph R. Biden Jr. was asked after a recent speech in Prole, Iowa. The answer to such an inquiry would appear self-evident in the case of Mr. Biden, who began his running-for-president routine more than three decades ago; in other words, very badly, one would assume. But the question, posed by a reporter, seemed to come at Mr. Biden as a bit of a curveball — a…

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Tony Blair warns UK Labour: Don’t fall into election ‘elephant trap’

Tony Blair warns UK Labour: Don’t fall into election ‘elephant trap’

Reuters reports: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is laying an election “elephant trap” for the opposition Labour Party that it should avoid, former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair warned on Monday. “Boris Johnson knows that if no-deal Brexit stands on its own as a proposition it might well fail but if he mixes it up with the Corbyn question in a general election he could succeed despite a majority being against a no-deal Brexit because some may fear a Corbyn…

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Bravery and nihilism amid the protests in Hong Kong

Bravery and nihilism amid the protests in Hong Kong

Megan K. Stack writes: Peter and his friends were on the move in the streets of Hong Kong. They cut through the sooty midday heat, jostling and joking in skateboarding sneakers, making their way past tattered industrial buildings, printing presses, and garages. They were three young men in a crowd of thousands of people, snaking through the streets and along the waterfront. They marched with the crowd and shouted slogans, but to Peter and his friends the demonstration was just…

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What does ’12 years to act on climate change’ (now 11 years) really mean?

What does ’12 years to act on climate change’ (now 11 years) really mean?

InsideClimate News reports: We’ve been hearing variations of the phrase “the world only has 12 years to deal with climate change” a lot lately. Sen. Bernie Sanders put a version of it front and center of his presidential campaign last week, saying we now have “less than 11 years left to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, if we are going to leave this planet healthy and habitable.” But where does the…

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‘I’m not sure that I’ve ever even heard of the Category 5,’ says Trump as Dorian becomes the 35th such hurricane

‘I’m not sure that I’ve ever even heard of the Category 5,’ says Trump as Dorian becomes the 35th such hurricane

President Trump: "I'm not sure that I've ever even heard of the Category 5. I knew it existed, and I've seen some category 4s — you don't even see them that much but the category 5 is something that I don't know that I've ever even heard the term other than I know it's there." pic.twitter.com/44rpbxv90D — The Hill (@thehill) September 1, 2019 The Category 5 hurricanes Trump never heard of: Michael (2018), Maria (2017), Irma (2017), Matthew (2016), Felix…

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53 people killed in mass shootings in August alone in the U.S.

53 people killed in mass shootings in August alone in the U.S.

The New York Times reports: The month of August ended as it began: with a shooting rampage and a significant death toll. Seven people were killed near Odessa, Tex., on Saturday as a gunman started shooting indiscriminately at cars, bringing the number of victims of mass killings by firearms to 53 for the month. The authorities on Sunday revised the death toll from the shooting in Odessa to seven from five, excluding the gunman. The term mass killings is defined…

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Time for the civil service to say: No, prime minister!

Time for the civil service to say: No, prime minister!

Polly Toynbee writes: An “outrage”, a “coup”, an “abomination”, a country tumbling into “failed state status”, Britain a “banana republic”, Boris Johnson a “dictator”. Parliamentarians stretch the limits of their vocabulary to express disbelief that this could happen in Britain, the “cradle of democracy”. Rewrite the history books, tear up Bagehot’s The English Constitution, as the Queen and privy council sign the prorogation, neither the “dignified parts” not the “efficient parts” function any longer. This country that self-identified so smugly…

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