Conditions for unaccompanied children at immigrant holding centers are like ‘torture facilities,’ says doctor

Conditions for unaccompanied children at immigrant holding centers are like ‘torture facilities,’ says doctor

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ABC News reports: The disturbing, first-hand account of the conditions were observed by lawyers and a board-certified physician in visits last week to border patrol holding facilities in Clint, Texas, and McAllen, a city in the southern part of the state. The descriptions paint a bleak image of horrific conditions for children, the youngest of whom is 2 1/2 months old. “The conditions within which they are held could be compared to torture facilities,” the physician, Dolly Lucio Sevier, wrote…

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Pete Buttigieg’s McKinsey approach shows his weakness in facing a crisis

Pete Buttigieg’s McKinsey approach shows his weakness in facing a crisis

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The New York Times reports: It has been one of the biggest challenges for Pete Buttigieg since he began his improbable presidential campaign in January: Could the Harvard-educated mayor of South Bend, who often comes across like the brainy technocrat he once was as a McKinsey & Company consultant, build a following among black voters, one of the Democratic Party’s most vital constituencies? Early signs were worrisome. Few African-Americans showed up at his campaign events, even in predominantly black areas…

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Agriculture Department buries studies showing dangers of climate change

Agriculture Department buries studies showing dangers of climate change

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Politico reports: The Trump administration has refused to publicize dozens of government-funded studies that carry warnings about the effects of climate change, defying a longstanding practice of touting such findings by the Agriculture Department’s acclaimed in-house scientists. The studies range from a groundbreaking discovery that rice loses vitamins in a carbon-rich environment — a potentially serious health concern for the 600 million people world-wide whose diet consists mostly of rice — to a finding that climate change could exacerbate allergy…

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Erdogan suffers historic defeat in Istanbul election redo

Erdogan suffers historic defeat in Istanbul election redo

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The New York Times reports: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey suffered the biggest defeat of his political career on Sunday as his candidate for Istanbul mayor conceded defeat in a repeat election. The result wrests control over Turkey’s largest city from Mr. Erdogan and ends his party’s 25-year dominance there. Opponents say such a loss cracks the president’s aura of invincibility, showing that his grip on power after 16 years is weakening. The defeat also puts Mr. Erdogan in…

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What happens after Amazon’s domination is complete? Its bookstore offers clues

What happens after Amazon’s domination is complete? Its bookstore offers clues

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The New York Times reports: “The Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapy” is a medical handbook that recommends the right amount of the right drug for treating ailments from bacterial pneumonia to infected wounds. Lives depend on it. It is not the sort of book a doctor should puzzle over, wondering, “Is that a ‘1’ or a ‘7’ in the recommended dosage?” But that is exactly the possibility that has haunted the guide’s publisher, Antimicrobial Therapy, for the past two years…

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World scientists’ warning to humanity on microorganisms and climate change

World scientists’ warning to humanity on microorganisms and climate change

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An editorial in Nature says: In 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington DC, and more than 1,700 researchers, issued the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity. It cautioned that humans were inflicting “harsh and often irreversible damage” on the environment, and that current practices were endangering humanity’s future. More than 21,000 scientists have so far endorsed a widely publicized and equally stark second warning, issued in 2017. This week, part of the Scientists’ Warning movement calls attention to a…

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Boris Johnson’s ties with far-right extremism and his posh-boy spoiled behavior

Boris Johnson’s ties with far-right extremism and his posh-boy spoiled behavior

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The Observer reports: New evidence suggesting close links between Boris Johnson and Donald Trump’s controversial former campaign manager Steve Bannon can be revealed today, calling into question the former foreign secretary’s previous denials of an association with the influential far-right activist. Video evidence obtained by the Observer shows Bannon, who helped mastermind Trump’s successful bid for the presidency but was later exiled from the White House, talking about his relationship and contacts with Johnson, and how he helped him craft…

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The art of resolving self-created crises

The art of resolving self-created crises

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Jack Shafer writes: Proving his excellence once again at serving as an arsonist and the leader of the fire brigade at the same time, President Donald Trump, who has been publicly spoiling for a military scrap with Iran, took credit this morning for both ordering a military strike on three of the country’s military installations and then canceling the mission 10 minutes before go time. Crisis averted! This is far from the first time Trump has run this play. As…

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How a drone’s flight took the U.S. and Iran to the brink of war

How a drone’s flight took the U.S. and Iran to the brink of war

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Julian Borger reports: The incident that came close to sparking a new war in the Middle East began late on Wednesday night at the Al Dhafr air base in the United Arab Emirates, just over 30km south of Abu Dhabi. The base is home to the UAE’s air force and a fluctuating number of US warplanes, including Global Hawk drones, used to fly high above the Persian Gulf looking down on the constant flow of oil tankers and northwards, sucking…

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What if Trump won’t accept 2020 defeat?

What if Trump won’t accept 2020 defeat?

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Politico reports: In 2016, Donald Trump waffled over whether he would accept the election results if he lost. Since then, Trump has repeatedly joked about staying in office beyond the two terms the Constitution allows. Jerry Falwell Jr., Trump’s most prominent evangelical supporter, has suggested Trump should get two years tacked on to his first term as “pay back” for the Mueller investigation. The president’s own former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has warned that “there will never be a peaceful transition…

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Many states and cities are putting Americans’ fates in the hands of algorithms

Many states and cities are putting Americans’ fates in the hands of algorithms

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Derek Thompson writes: Rachel Cicurel, a staff attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, was used to being outraged by the criminal-justice system. But in 2017, she saw something that shocked her conscience. At the time, she was representing a young defendant we’ll call “D.” (For privacy reasons, we can’t share D’s name or the nature of the offense.) As the case approached sentencing, the prosecutor agreed that probation would be a fair punishment. But at…

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The idea that any group of events can truly happen at once is just an illusion

The idea that any group of events can truly happen at once is just an illusion

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Anthony Aguirre writes: One afternoon some years ago, I was walking through the snow thinking about other universes. More specifically, I was turning over in my mind the fact that the hospitality provided by our universe depends on many extremely special things. For example, if the electric repulsion between protons in the nuclei of atoms were just a bit stronger, then those atoms, and hence chemistry, and hence life itself, could not apparently exist. And there are many other such…

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Donald Trump accused of rape in E. Jean Carroll’s memoir

Donald Trump accused of rape in E. Jean Carroll’s memoir

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The New York Times reports: The advice columnist E. Jean Carroll accused President Trump of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s in her forthcoming book. In “What Do We Need Men For?,” her account of being harassed and mistreated by a series of men, which St. Martin’s Press is expected to publish next month, Ms. Carroll, the author of “Ask E. Jean” in Elle magazine, alleges that Mr. Trump raped her in 1995 or 1996, in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing…

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Is Boris Johnson, Britain’s likely future prime minister, fit for office or even fit to live with?

Is Boris Johnson, Britain’s likely future prime minister, fit for office or even fit to live with?

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The Guardian reports: Police were called to the home of Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, in the early hours of Friday morning after neighbours heard a loud altercation involving screaming, shouting and banging. The argument could be heard outside the property where the potential future prime minister is living with Symonds, a former Conservative party head of press. A neighbour told the Guardian they heard a woman screaming followed by “slamming and banging”. At one point Symonds could…

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