Extreme weather events could worsen climate change

Extreme weather events could worsen climate change

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E&E News reports: Droughts, heat waves and other extreme climate-related events are growing concerns in a warming world. Studies have found climate change is already fueling an increase in some extreme events and that they’re likely to worsen as temperatures continue to climb. Now, new research suggests the reverse may also be true—these events, themselves, could also worsen climate change. Weather and climate events tend to affect the amount of moisture contained in the soil, according to the study published…

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Growing chorus of Republican critics for Trump’s foreign policy

Growing chorus of Republican critics for Trump’s foreign policy

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The New York Times reports: They think pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan would be a debacle. They think North Korea cannot be trusted. They think the Islamic State is still a threat to America. They think Russia is bad and NATO is good. The trouble is their president does not agree. More than two years into his administration, the disconnect between President Trump and the Republican establishment on foreign policy has rarely been as stark. In recent days, the…

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McConnell fears Election Day power grab by American voters

McConnell fears Election Day power grab by American voters

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The Washington Post reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that a Democratic bill that would make Election Day a federal holiday is a “power grab,” sparking a fierce backlash online. McConnell was speaking about H.R. 1, legislation that Democrats have made a centerpiece of their agenda since retaking the House earlier this month. In remarks on the Senate floor, McConnell (R-Ky.) said Democrats “want taxpayers on the hook for generous new benefits for federal bureaucrats and government employees,”…

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Inside the UAE’s secret hacking team of U.S. mercenary spies

Inside the UAE’s secret hacking team of U.S. mercenary spies

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Reuters reports: Two weeks after leaving her position as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. National Security Agency in 2014, Lori Stroud was in the Middle East working as a hacker for an Arab monarchy. She had joined Project Raven, a clandestine team that included more than a dozen former U.S. intelligence operatives recruited to help the United Arab Emirates engage in surveillance of other governments, militants and human rights activists critical of the monarchy. Stroud and her team, working…

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OxyContin maker explored expansion into ‘attractive’ anti-addiction market

OxyContin maker explored expansion into ‘attractive’ anti-addiction market

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By David Armstrong, ProPublica, January 30, 2019 Not content with billions of dollars in profits from the potent painkiller OxyContin, its maker explored expanding into an “attractive market” fueled by the drug’s popularity — treatment of opioid addiction, according to previously secret passages in a court document filed by the state of Massachusetts. In internal correspondence beginning in 2014, Purdue Pharma executives discussed how the sale of opioids and the treatment of opioid addiction are “naturally linked” and that the…

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Why the UK cannot see that Brexit is utterly, utterly stupid

Why the UK cannot see that Brexit is utterly, utterly stupid

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Simon Wren-Lewis writes: If you talk to almost anyone overseas, except those at the right-wing extreme (like Trump) or part of a tiny minority of the left, their reaction to Brexit is similar that of the former prime minister of Finland. What the UK is doing is utterly, utterly stupid. An act of self harm with no point, no upside. Sometimes outside opinion is based on incomplete or biased information and should be discounted, but on Brexit it is spot…

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The dialogue on Brexit now needs to include the British people

The dialogue on Brexit now needs to include the British people

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Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer of the UK, writes: At this point, it is virtually impossible to legislate the seven complex Acts and hundreds of Statutory Instruments required by the withdrawal agreement in the 32 parliamentary workdays scheduled before March 29. But, most worryingly of all, the UK not only has a government that is unable to lead, but also a public that now seems unwilling to be led. At no point in this grim…

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The left keeps getting Venezuela wrong

The left keeps getting Venezuela wrong

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James Bloodworth writes: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, few on the left have had much real idea as to what a contemporary socialist economic program would—or should—look like in practice. Twenty-first century socialism in Venezuela was supposed to offer hope, but it turned out to represent yet another mirage, this time built on the back of exorbitantly high oil prices. As prices dropped, mismanagement of the state-run oil company, PDVSA, by the Chávez and Nicolás Maduro governments saw…

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Joshua trees destroyed in national park during shutdown may take centuries to regrow

Joshua trees destroyed in national park during shutdown may take centuries to regrow

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The New York Times reports: The partial government shutdown ended last week after 35 days, but conservationists have warned that its impact may be felt for hundreds of years in at least one part of the country: Joshua Tree National Park. The Southern California park, which is larger than Rhode Island and famed for its dramatic rock formations and the spiky-leafed Joshua trees from which it takes it name, had only a skeleton crew of workers during the shutdown. With…

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Can sustainable agriculture survive under capitalism?

Can sustainable agriculture survive under capitalism?

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Sophie Yeo writes: It was one of the most beautiful—and one of the most sustainable—farms that Ryanne Pilgeram had ever seen. When she arrived, Penny, the farmer, was sorting through vegetables in the shed. Her husband Jeff, who had a full-time job as a doctor, was hauling flakes of alfalfa to feed the draft horses that they used in place of tractors. Pilgeram, a sociologist at the University of Idaho, was touring the farm as part of her research into…

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Astronomers say it’s time to start taking the search for E.T. seriously

Astronomers say it’s time to start taking the search for E.T. seriously

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Science News reports: Long an underfunded, fringe field of science, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence may be ready to go mainstream. Astronomer Jason Wright is determined to see that happen. At a meeting in Seattle of the American Astronomical Society in January, Wright convened “a little ragtag group in a tiny room” to plot a course for putting the scientific field, known as SETI, on NASA’s agenda. The group is writing a series of papers arguing that scientists should be…

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Can Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar end the Afghan war?

Can Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar end the Afghan war?

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Ahmed Rashid writes: On Thursday, the Taliban appointed Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who founded the movement with Mullah Mohammad Omar in 1993, as the chief negotiator in the peace talks with the United States, being held in Qatar. Mr. Baradar, who was also appointed as deputy to the Taliban chief Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, is expected to travel soon to Doha to join the peace talks with the American peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad. Mr. Baradar is revered among the Taliban as…

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Afghan women fear peace with Taliban may mean war on them

Afghan women fear peace with Taliban may mean war on them

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The New York Times reports: When Rahima Jami heard that the Americans and the Taliban were close to a peace deal, she thought about her feet. Ms. Jami is now a lawmaker in the Afghan Parliament, but back in 1996, when Taliban insurgents took power, she was a headmistress — until she was forced out of her job and told she could leave her home only in an ankle-length burqa. One hot day at the market, her feet were showing,…

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