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Trump’s G7 performance suggests he’s either a ‘Russian asset’ or a ‘useful idiot’ for Putin, say U.S. spies

Trump’s G7 performance suggests he’s either a ‘Russian asset’ or a ‘useful idiot’ for Putin, say U.S. spies

Business Insider reports: “It’s hard to see the bar anymore since it’s been pushed so far down the last few years, but President Trump’s behavior over the weekend was a new low.” That was the assessment an FBI agent who works in counterintelligence gave Insider of President Donald Trump’s performance at this year’s G7 summit in Biarritz, France. The agent requested anonymity because they feared that speaking publicly on the matter would jeopardize their job. Trump’s attendance at the G7…

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Bolton sidelined from Afghanistan policy as his standing with Trump falters

Bolton sidelined from Afghanistan policy as his standing with Trump falters

The Washington Post reports: As the president’s top aides prepared for a high-stakes meeting on the future of Afghanistan earlier this month, one senior official was not on the original invite list: national security adviser John Bolton. The attendance of the top security aide would normally be critical, but the omission was no mistake, senior U.S. officials said. Bolton, who has long advocated an expansive military presence around the world, has become a staunch internal foe of an emerging peace…

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Former Tory prime minister to join legal fight to stop Boris Johnson suspending parliament

Former Tory prime minister to join legal fight to stop Boris Johnson suspending parliament

The Guardian reports: John Major has said he will seek the high court’s permission to join a legal fight to prevent the government from suspending parliament before the Brexit deadline, in an unprecedented legal battle that could pit a former prime minister against the incumbent. The Labour deputy leader, Tom Watson, and the Liberal Democrat leader, Jo Swinson, also said they were seeking to join the case brought by the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller aiming to prevent Boris Johnson from…

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EPA to remove regulations on methane, a potent greenhouse gas

EPA to remove regulations on methane, a potent greenhouse gas

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration laid out on Thursday a far-reaching plan to cut back on the regulation of methane emissions, a major contributor to climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency, in its proposed rule, aims to eliminate federal requirements that oil and gas companies install technology to detect and fix methane leaks from wells, pipelines and storage facilities. It will also reopen the question of whether the E.P.A. even has the legal authority to regulate methane…

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Trump pushes for new logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest

Trump pushes for new logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest

The Washington Post reports: President Trump has instructed Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to exempt Alaska’s 16.7-million-acre Tongass National Forest from logging restrictions imposed nearly 20 years ago, according to three people briefed on the issue, after privately discussing the matter with the state’s governor aboard Air Force One. The move would affect more than half of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest, opening it to potential logging, energy and mining projects. It would undercut a sweeping Clinton administration policy known…

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How did the U.S. go from being the most egalitarian country in the West to being one of the most unequal?

How did the U.S. go from being the most egalitarian country in the West to being one of the most unequal?

Liaquat Ahamed writes: In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, at the age of twenty-five, was sent by France’s Ministry of Justice to study the American penal system. He spent ten months in the United States, dutifully visiting prisons and meeting hundreds of people, including President Andrew Jackson and his predecessor, John Quincy Adams. On his return to France, he wrote a book about his observations, “Democracy in America,” the first volume of which was published in 1835. Many of the observations…

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The search for China’s missing million Uyghurs

The search for China’s missing million Uyghurs

Morgan Meaker writes: When Aiziheer Ainiwaer talks about his father, Ainiwa Niyazi, he paints him as a comedian and the joker of his friendship group. He describes how the 57-year-old teacher always had the room in stitches with his impersonations of famous pop stars. But at home, the father-of-two would be more serious. “My father constantly used to tell us we should study and be well educated,” says Aiziheer. Throughout Aiziheer’s childhood, that mantra resulted in regular trips to the…

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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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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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