Google exec pushed company to commit to human rights. Then Google pushed him out

Google exec pushed company to commit to human rights. Then Google pushed him out

The Washington Post reports: For years, Google tasked Ross LaJeunesse with executing its plan to protect human rights in China, after Google announced a decade ago it would stop censoring search results there to safeguard security and free speech. LaJeunesse took the mission to heart: He later devised a human rights program to formalize Google’s principles supporting free expression and privacy. He began lobbying for it internally in 2017 — around the time when the tech giant was exploring a…

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Global apathy toward the fires in Australia is a scary portent for the future

Global apathy toward the fires in Australia is a scary portent for the future

David Wallace-Wells writes: Right now, on the outskirts of a hyper modern first world megapolis, at the end of a year in which the public seemed finally to wake up to the dramatic threat from global warming, a climate disaster of unimaginable horror has been unfolding for almost two full months, and the rest of the world is hardly paying attention. The New South Wales fires have been burning since September, destroying fifteen million acres (or more than two thousand…

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U.S. taking democracy for granted, Chief Justice Roberts says

U.S. taking democracy for granted, Chief Justice Roberts says

Bloomberg reports: The U.S. has “come to take democracy for granted,” Chief Justice John Roberts said, urging his fellow judges to keep educating the public about the workings of the federal government and the Constitution. Roberts, who is slated to oversee the Senate‘s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in the coming weeks, used his year-end report Tuesday to laud the federal judiciary’s work on civic education, while issuing a thinly veiled warning about the fragility of American democracy in…

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U.S. embassy attack revealed Trump’s weakness

U.S. embassy attack revealed Trump’s weakness

Peter Beinart writes: Over the past 18 months, Donald Trump has picked a fight with Iran that he won’t end and can’t win. That fight has had horrifying consequences for the Iranian people, led Tehran to restart its nuclear program, and now left parts of the American embassy compound in Baghdad in flames. In the days and weeks to come, Trump’s policy will likely lead either to war or to additional American humiliation, or both. The fight began in May…

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Is Trump above the law?

Is Trump above the law?

Noah Feldman writes: Donald Trump’s impeachment by the House of Representatives marks just the third time in history that a president of the United States has had to face trial in the Senate. The charges in the articles of impeachment drawn up by the House Judiciary Committee against Trump differ in important ways from those brought against Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, and they deserve close scrutiny. Trump’s possible defenses also merit careful analysis. Even if Trump does not…

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With Trump’s help, former Navy SEAL capitalizes on his notoriety

With Trump’s help, former Navy SEAL capitalizes on his notoriety

The New York Times reports: A year ago, Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher was wearing drab prison scrubs at a brig near San Diego, facing murder charges that could have sent him to prison for the rest of his life. Now he is modeling his own lifestyle clothing brand, endorsing nutrition supplements and positioning himself as a conservative influencer with close ties to the man who helped clear him — President Trump. Chief Gallagher was acquitted this summer…

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Pharmaceutical companies cashing in on a captive market

Pharmaceutical companies cashing in on a captive market

Max Blau writes: Alkermes, which manufactures drugs for conditions that are disproportionately found behind bars—such as schizophrenia and alcohol and opioid addiction—is among several companies that have embraced the criminal-justice system as a source of customers. Starting in the early 2010s, Alkermes promoted Vivitrol, a treatment for opioid-use disorder, to correctional facilities. The treatment, generically known as naltrexone, had previously been used for alcohol-use disorder, but the drug floundered. When Alkermes recast it as a solution to the opioid epidemic,…

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Everything is connected, and everything is changing

Everything is connected, and everything is changing

Kate Marvel writes: It rains in the Amazon because the trees want it to. There is plenty of moisture in the oceans that surround the continent, but there is also a hidden reservoir on the land feeding an invisible river that flows upward to the sky. The water held in the soil is lifted up by the bodies of the trees and lost through the surfaces of their leaves to the atmosphere. The local sky plumps with moisture, primed for…

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Apocalyptic scenes at end of warmest decade on record in Australia

Apocalyptic scenes at end of warmest decade on record in Australia

The New York Times reports: As the fire stalked the east coast of Australia on Tuesday, the daytime sky turned inky black, then blood red. Emergency sirens wailed, followed by the thunder of gas explosions. Thousands of residents fled their homes and huddled near the shore. There was nowhere else to go. Apocalyptic scenes like these in Mallacoota, a vacation destination between Sydney and Melbourne, came on the last day of the warmest decade on record in Australia. The country…

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EPA’s scientific advisers warn its regulatory rollbacks clash with established science

EPA’s scientific advisers warn its regulatory rollbacks clash with established science

The Washington Post reports: The Environmental Protection Agency is pushing ahead with sweeping changes to roll back environmental regulations despite sharp criticism from a panel of scientific advisers, most of whom were appointed by President Trump. The changes would weaken standards that govern waterways and wetlands across the country, as well as those that dictate gas mileage for U.S. automobiles. Another change would restrict the kinds of scientific studies that can be used when writing new environmental regulations, while a…

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Protesters attack U.S. embassy in Iraq, chanting ‘death to America’

Protesters attack U.S. embassy in Iraq, chanting ‘death to America’

The New York Times reports: Protesters broke into the heavily guarded compound of the United States Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday and set fires inside in anger over American airstrikes that killed 24 members of an Iranian-backed militia over the weekend. The men did not enter the main embassy buildings and later withdrew from the compound, joining thousands of protesters and militia fighters outside chanting “Death to America,” throwing rocks, covering the walls with graffiti and demanding that the United…

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North Korea no longer bound by nuclear test moratorium, Kim says

North Korea no longer bound by nuclear test moratorium, Kim says

The New York Times reports: North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, ​said his country no longer felt bound by its self-imposed moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, its official media reported on Wednesday, the strongest indication yet that the country could soon resume such tests. Mr. Kim also said the world would witness a new strategic weapon “in the near future,” according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, though no details were provided. North Korea has…

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Warren confronts ghost of Howard Dean

Warren confronts ghost of Howard Dean

Politico reports: Liberals swooned. The Democratic establishment was on its heels. Powered by small donors and grassroots energy, in late 2003 Iowa seemed Howard Dean’s for the taking. But then came the attacks — from both the center and the left. The surge became a stall. On caucus day, the Vermont governor came in third and never recovered. Elizabeth Warren is trying to avoid the same fate. While the Warren campaign has stuck to its corruption-centric message, it has noticeably…

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