A climate change bill sets off tumult: Republicans flee, police follow

A climate change bill sets off tumult: Republicans flee, police follow

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The New York Times reports: Tensions boiled over in the Oregon Capitol this week as Republican state senators vanished in an effort to delay a vote on a climate change bill they oppose. On Thursday, Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, ordered the state police to find them and bring them back. It was only the latest chapter in a season of partisan division and frustration in the nation’s statehouses, where, for the first time in more than a century, all…

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Renewed doubts about Trump’s credibility at a time of military crisis

Renewed doubts about Trump’s credibility at a time of military crisis

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The Washington Post reports: President Trump stepped away from the precipice of an immediate military conflict with Iran on Friday, calling off a strike in response to Iran’s downing of a U.S. surveillance drone. But with the United States and Iran still locked in an adversarial pose, with none of their underlying grievances resolved, the prospect for fresh brinkmanship loomed as U.S. officials contemplated an alternative response. Key Trump allies on Capitol Hill said Friday that they expected the president…

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Trump stopped strike on Iran because it was ‘not proportionate’

Trump stopped strike on Iran because it was ‘not proportionate’

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The New York Times reports: President Trump said Friday morning that the United States military had been “cocked and loaded” for a strike against Iran on Thursday night, but that he called it off with 10 minutes to spare when a general told him that 150 people would probably die in the attack. ….On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters. We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I…

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The U.S. should strive for a stable Iran. Instead, it is suffocating it

The U.S. should strive for a stable Iran. Instead, it is suffocating it

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Ardeshir Zahedi and Ali Vaez write: We belong to two very different generations of Iranians. One of us served in senior official positions in the pro-Western monarchy that ruled Iran prior to the 1979 Islamic revolution; the other is a child of that revolution. One presided over the golden age of Iran-U.S. relations; the other was subject to years of state-sponsored anti-American indoctrination. Yet, despite these differences, we share a sense of belonging to both countries and grave concerns about…

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Trump used to believe in the necessity of Congressional approval for military action

Trump used to believe in the necessity of Congressional approval for military action

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In an editorial, the New York Times says: With opposing military forces in such proximity [the Gulf of Oman], with accusations and munitions flying and with the White House facing a trust deficit, the danger of open conflict increases by the day. Which is why, if Mr. Trump and the Warhawk Caucus — led by the national security adviser, John Bolton; the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo; and Senator Tom Cotton — want a wider military conflict with Iran, they…

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The most unpopular presidential election winner ever could win again in 2020

The most unpopular presidential election winner ever could win again in 2020

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By Liberty Vittert, Washington University in St Louis and Brendan Lind, Harvard Business School Donald Trump is the first president to ever be elected while being actively disliked by the majority of Americans. Trump was also the first person elected president who was significantly less popular than his counterpart. Most Americans have heard of presidents losing the popular vote but winning the election. But to win while the majority of Americans oppose you? How is that possible? At the time…

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Trump approved attacks on Iran, then pulled back

Trump approved attacks on Iran, then pulled back

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The New York Times reports: President Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing an American surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching them on Thursday night after a day of escalating tensions. As late as 7 p.m., military and diplomatic officials were expecting a strike, after intense discussions and debate at the White House among the president’s top national security officials and congressional leaders, according to multiple senior administration officials involved in or briefed on the deliberations….

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Human cost of Yemen war laid bare as civilian deaths near 100,000

Human cost of Yemen war laid bare as civilian deaths near 100,000

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The Guardian reports: As the court of appeal prepares to rule on the legitimacy of the British government’s continued supply of weapons to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, new figures show the conflict’s death toll is fast approaching the 100,000 mark. With no clear resolution in sight, the extent of civilian casualties caused by direct targeting as the war with Houthi rebels enters its fifth year has been outlined in a report by the the Armed Conflict Location and…

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UK heading for no-deal Brexit on October 31, EU leaders conclude

UK heading for no-deal Brexit on October 31, EU leaders conclude

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The Guardian reports: Britain will crash out of the EU on 31 October unless Theresa May’s Brexit deal is ratified or a new prime minister calls a second referendum or general election this summer, the bloc’s leaders have concluded. The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, speaking at a summit in Brussels, said that there was now “enormous hostility” among the EU27’s heads of state and government to any further delay to Brexit. He said that while Ireland had “endless patience”…

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Trump administration argues in court that children held in detention don’t need to be able to sleep or brush their teeth

Trump administration argues in court that children held in detention don’t need to be able to sleep or brush their teeth

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Newsweek reports: The Trump administration went to court this week to argue that migrant children detained at the United States-Mexico border do not require basic hygiene products like soap and toothbrushes in order to be in held in “safe and sanitary” conditions. Trump’s team also argued that requiring minors to sleep on cold concrete floors in crowded cells with low temperatures similarly fulfilled that requirement. Arguing in a 9th district San Francisco court about the conditions that they must hold…

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Federal judge says census citizenship question merits more consideration in light of new evidence

Federal judge says census citizenship question merits more consideration in light of new evidence

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The Washington Post reports: A federal district judge in Maryland on Wednesday ruled that new evidence in the case of a census citizenship question merits more consideration, opening the possibility that the question could come before the Supreme Court again even after it rules as expected this month. Civil rights groups who had sued the government over its addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census had asked U.S. District Court Judge George J. Hazel to reconsider his ruling…

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Facebook doesn’t want to continue serving as an instrument of genocide

Facebook doesn’t want to continue serving as an instrument of genocide

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NBC News reports: Steps away from the glass-enclosed office suite of Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s No. 2 executive, a team of employees has been taking shape with a mission that’s become critical to the tech giant’s future: avoid contributing to another genocide. The driving force behind the team is the company’s blotted legacy in Myanmar, the southeast Asian nation where, according to United Nations researchers, Facebook became the go-to tool for spreading propaganda that helped drive a genocide of a religious…

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Most people seem to value integrity more than money

Most people seem to value integrity more than money

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The Guardian reports: Here’s a moral dilemma: if you find a wallet stuffed with bank notes, do you pocket the cash or track down the owner to return it? We can each speak for ourselves, but now a team of economists have put the unsuspecting public to the test in a mass social experiment involving 17,000 “lost” wallets in 40 countries. They found that a majority of people returned the wallets and – contrary to classic economic logic – they…

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Himalayan glacier melting doubled since 2000, research finds

Himalayan glacier melting doubled since 2000, research finds

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The Guardian reports: The melting of Himalayan glaciers has doubled since the turn of the century, with more than a quarter of all ice lost over the last four decades, scientists have revealed. The accelerating losses indicate a “devastating” future for the region, upon which a billion people depend for regular water. The scientists combined declassified US spy satellite images from the mid-1970s with modern satellite data to create the first detailed, four-decade record of ice along the 2,000km (1,200-mile)…

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Iran says it has shot down U.S. drone as missile strike in Saudi Arabia raises tensions

Iran says it has shot down U.S. drone as missile strike in Saudi Arabia raises tensions

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The Guardian reports: US President Donald Trump has been briefed on the details of a missile strike in Saudi Arabia that appeared to come from Yemen, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders has said, as Iran claimed in a separate incident to have shot down a US drone over its territory. “We are closely monitoring the situation and continuing to consult with our partners and allies,” Sanders said on Wednesday, in relation to the Saudi missile strike. Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen,…

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