White House counsel’s office unprepared as Democrats soon take control of the House

White House counsel’s office unprepared as Democrats soon take control of the House

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Politico reports: The White House counsel’s office is down to a skeletal staff, potentially leaving it unprepared to deal with a flood of subpoenas for documents and witnesses when Democrats take control of the House. The office has been without a permanent leader since White House senior attorney Don McGahn left the administration in mid-October. His replacement, Pat Cipollone, is caught up in an extended background check that’s prevented him from starting. And in the coming weeks, deputy counsel Annie…

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The West begins to stir over China’s massive abuse of Muslims

The West begins to stir over China’s massive abuse of Muslims

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The Economist reports: Few governments send ambassadors to China to be brave about human rights. Envoys to Beijing are scholars of realism, their fine minds applied to a delicate task: managing profitable relations with a deep-pocketed, unapologetic dictatorship. It is, therefore, a big deal that at least 14 ambassadors from Western countries, led by Canada, have come together to confront China over its mass detentions of Muslims in the far-western region of Xinjiang, most of them ethnic Uighurs. Officials say…

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Mueller report will be ‘devastating’ for Trump, says Alan Dershowitz

Mueller report will be ‘devastating’ for Trump, says Alan Dershowitz

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ABC News reports: Alan Dershowitz, a frequent defender of President Donald Trump, said special counsel Robert Mueller’s report will be “devastating” for the president. The Harvard Law professor emeritus told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos that he believes the president will have to navigate the political impact of a potentially damning final report from the special counsel. “I think the report is going to be devastating to the president and I know that the president’s team is already working…

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More Republicans challenge Trump on defense of Saudi crown prince

More Republicans challenge Trump on defense of Saudi crown prince

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The Washington Post reports: Congressional Republicans continued to line up this weekend to criticize President Trump over his defense of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the CIA believes ordered the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “I disagree with the president’s assessment,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It’s inconsistent with the intelligence I’ve seen . . . . The intelligence I’ve seen suggests that this was ordered by the crown prince.” Lee has split…

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Social media promotes violent right-wing extremism in the U.S.

Social media promotes violent right-wing extremism in the U.S.

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An editorial in the New York Times says: Social media has played a key role in the recent rise of violent right-wing extremism in the United States, including three recent incidents — one in which a man was accused of sending mail bombs to critics of the president, another in which a man shot dead two African-Americans in a Kroger’s grocery store in Kentucky, and a third in which a man is accused of conducting a murderous rampage at a…

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How loneliness is tearing America apart

How loneliness is tearing America apart

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Arthur C. Brooks writes: America is suffering an epidemic of loneliness. According to a recent large-scale survey from the health care provider Cigna, most Americans suffer from strong feelings of loneliness and a lack of significance in their relationships. Nearly half say they sometimes or always feel alone or “left out.” Thirteen percent of Americans say that zero people know them well. The survey, which charts social isolation using a common measure known as the U.C.L.A. Loneliness Scale, shows that…

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The world needs to quit coal. Why is it so hard?

The world needs to quit coal. Why is it so hard?

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The New York Times reports: Coal, the fuel that powered the industrial age, has led the planet to the brink of catastrophic climate change. Scientists have repeatedly warned of its looming dangers, most recently on Friday, when a major scientific report issued by 13 United States government agencies warned that the damage from climate change could knock as much as 10 percent off the size of the American economy by century’s end if significant steps aren’t taken to rein in…

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British parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers

British parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers

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The Guardian reports: Parliament has used its legal powers to seize internal Facebook documents in an extraordinary attempt to hold the US social media giant to account after chief executive Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly refused to answer MPs’ questions. The cache of documents is alleged to contain significant revelations about Facebook decisions on data and privacy controls that led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It is claimed they include confidential emails between senior executives, and correspondence with Zuckerberg. Damian Collins, the…

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‘They silenced Khashoggi but gave thousands a voice’

‘They silenced Khashoggi but gave thousands a voice’

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The Observer reports: For Omar Abdulaziz, a 27-year-old Saudi dissident living in exile in Canada, the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi was more than a prominent columnist and veteran who knew the ins and outs of the Saudi royal court. He was a mentor and father figure. Abdulaziz, who often lambasts the Saudi leadership and the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in online videos that garner a huge following, cannot see his parents, who still live in the kingdom. Khashoggi was…

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We are Jamal Khashoggi’s daughters. We promise his light will never fade

We are Jamal Khashoggi’s daughters. We promise his light will never fade

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Noha Khashoggi and Razan Jamal Khashoggi write: Jamal Khashoggi was a complex man, but to us, his daughters, he was simply “Dad.” Our family has always been proud of his work, and we understood the awe and grandeur with which some people viewed him. But in our lives, he was “Baba” — a loving man with a big heart. We loved it when he took us every weekend to the bookstore. We loved looking through his passport, deciphering new locations…

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The Hungarian website that shows how a free press can die

The Hungarian website that shows how a free press can die

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The New York Times reports: Hungary’s leading news website, Origo, had a juicy scoop: A top aide to the far-right prime minister, Viktor Orban, had used state money to pay for sizable but unexplained expenses during secret foreign trips. The story embarrassed Mr. Orban and was a reminder that his country still had an independent press. But that was in 2014. Today, Origo is one of the prime minister’s most dutiful media boosters, parroting his attacks on migrants and on…

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Could consciousness all come down to the way things vibrate?

Could consciousness all come down to the way things vibrate?

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What do synchronized vibrations add to the mind/body question? agsandrew/Shutterstock.com By Tam Hunt, University of California, Santa Barbara Why is my awareness here, while yours is over there? Why is the universe split in two for each of us, into a subject and an infinity of objects? How is each of us our own center of experience, receiving information about the rest of the world out there? Why are some things conscious and others apparently not? Is a rat conscious?…

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U.S. government report says climate change will batter economy, in direct clash with Trump

U.S. government report says climate change will batter economy, in direct clash with Trump

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Reuters reports: Climate change will cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century, damaging everything from human health to infrastructure and agricultural production, according to a government report issued on Friday. The Congressionally-mandated report, written with the help of more than a dozen U.S. government agencies and departments, outlined the projected impacts of global warming in every corner of American society, in a dire warning at odds with the Trump administration’s pro-fossil fuels…

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Wildfire smoke is becoming a nationwide health threat

Wildfire smoke is becoming a nationwide health threat

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An image from the International Space Station captures plumes of smoke from California wildfires on August 4, 2018. NASA Richard E. Peltier, University of Massachusetts Amherst The impacts of recent forest fires in California reach well beyond the burned areas. Smoke from the Camp Fire created hazardous air quality conditions in San Francisco, more than 170 miles to the southwest – but it didn’t stop there. Cross-country winds carried it across the United States, creating hazy conditions in locations as…

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