La-Vaughnda A. Taylor Edited by Elissa D. Hecker
Below, for your browsing convenience, the categories are divided into: Entertainment, Arts, Sports, Media/Technology, and General News:
Entertainment
Batiste v. Lewis (5th Cir.)
New Orleans jazz musician Paul Batiste sued hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for copyright infringement, saying that the pair digitally sampled 11 of his songs. The Court held that Batiste presented insufficient evidence to create a genuine dispute as to whether the defendants actually copied his music. Batiste failed to show access or that the songs were strikingly similar.
Actor Faces Threat From Doobie Brothers
A lawyer for the Doobie Brothers band is demanded that actor Bill Murray pays for using the group's hit song "Listen to the Music" in an ad for his William Murray golf wear. The "upbeat call for world peace" song was used in an ad for a $50 polo called Zero Hucks Given. In the demand letter, the lawyer also said that Murray had used songs owned by other clients without permission.
Arts
Iantosca v. Elie Tahari, Ltd. (SDNY)
Mark Iantosca is a professional photographer who photographed a digital content creator wearing the defendant's clothing. The defendant then posted the photograph to its social media pages. The plaintiff claims that the defendant did so without permission or obtaining a license to do so. The defendant challenges the copyright claim, because the plaintiff did not have a certificate of copyright registration for the photo when the complaint was filed. The defendant also argues permissible fair use, de minimus use, and credit to the photographer. The court held that reposting the photo to the brand's social media pages is not "trivial" because it is a business utilizing a professional photographer's work to promote its products. Attribution is not a defense against copyright and usage did not meet fair use test.
Coronavirus Relief Fund Raises Nearly $20 Million for Artists
A coalition of organizations administering the Artist Relief Fund - the Academy of American Poets, Artadia, Creative Capital, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MAP Fund, National YoungArts Foundation, and United States Aritsts - has raised nearly $20 million since launching in April and has extended grant-making through December. The initiative provides unrestricted $5,000 relief grants to artists facing financial emergencies due to the impact of the COVID-19.
Hiller v. Success Group International
A jury has concluded that Hiller, the largest home-services company in Tennessee, had a valid copyright in the Guide and that the Success workbook copied protected elements of the Guide to train its technicians. Request for declaratory relief invaliding Hiller's copyright was rejected and affirmed by the Sixth Circuit. The jury concluded that Hiller created enough original material to gain copyright protection and was correctly instructed that the Guide's incorporation of some Clockwork-copyrighted content did not invalidate Hiller's copyright in the Guide's original parts.
The Metropolitan Opera Cancels Its Entire 2020-21 Slate
The Metropolitan Opera (Met) announced that because of the pandemic, it has cancelled its entire 2020-21 season; however it also announced ambitious artistic plans for its 2021-22 season, which will open with the Met premiere of Terence Blanchard's "Fire Shut Up in My Bones". Blanchard's opera is the first by an African American composer to be performed at the Met.
The Delay of a Retrospective Has Divided the Art World
The decision by four major museums to delay until 2024 a much-awaited retrospective of the modernist painter Philip Guston is roiling the art world, with some calling the decision a necessary step back during a period of surging racial justice protests and others deeming it a cowardly avoidance of challenging works of art. The retrospective, the first in more than 15 years, was supposed to open in June at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The decision came after museums organizing the exhibition decided that Guston's familiar motif of cartoonish, haggard white-hooded Ku Klux Klansmen needed to be better contextualized for the current political movement.
Can Luxury Fashion Ever Regain its Luster?
The ground beneath the industry is heaving under the weight of a pandemic that has caused a plunge in sales, shocked global supply chains, and pushed American household names such as Brooks Brothers and Lord & Taylor to bankruptcy. Those shifts have prompted big questions about the business model of luxury fashion. The second quarter of 2020 was the luxury fashion industry's worst and industry growth is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2023 or 2024.
Madrid Opera Shut Down by Audience Angry About Crowding
A performance of Giuseppe Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" at the Teatro Real was canceled after spectators spent more than an hour shouting and clapping to protest against what they said were insufficient social distancing measures in the opera house's mezzanine levels.
Report Links U.K. Treasures to Colonialism and Slavery
93 properties managed by Britain's National Trust, the revered conservation society, cited in a recent report that they have direct connections to slavery and colonialism. The disclosure was said to have been done in an effort to shed a light on the "complex" and sometimes "hugely uncomfortable" stories behind the properties and their owners. Twenty-nine of the properties were among thousands across the country that received government payments as compensation for loss of "slave property" after Britain abolished slavery in parts of its empire in 1833. This just underscores the fact that the practice of enslaving African people was a fundamental part of the British economy in the late 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries.
Sports
Finish Line in Sight, The Bubble is Holding
With the presentation of the Stanley Cup just days away, the National Hockey League will soon be able to take a victory lap for being the first of the four major North American pro sports leagues to complete a season during the coronavirus pandemic. The quality of the hockey has been solid, and the safety protocols have held, but an adaptable mind-set for all parties, from top executives to stadium workers, has been crucial for the expanded 24-team postseason to work.
Italy in an Uproar Over the Curious Case of Suárez's Language Test
Italian authorities are investigating whether Barcelona striker Luis Suarez, an Uruguay national, was illegally helped to pass an Italian language exam last week, in order to receive a European passport that could help him transfer to a new club. The test cleared the way for a fast-track citizenship approval, which would mean that Juventus could sign him without exceeding its permitted quota of non-EU players, but suspicions were quickly raised in the media that he was given preferential treatment. He passed the exam despite his tutor allegedly saying "he can't speak a word."
Media/Technology
Russian Trolls' Star Content Provider is Trump
Foreign Policy Research Institute fellow and former FBI special agent Clint Watts has said that "the Russians in 2016 had to make false news stories or manipulated truths to power their narratives. This time they're not writing anything that's not already said in U.S. space, often by Mr. Trump himself." Russia is once again interfering in the U.S. election, but this time, instead of having to make up its propaganda, it is relying on misleading statements made by Trump in speeches and tweets.
https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-trolls-relying-on-trump-quotes-for-disinformation-campaigns-2020-9
U.S. Suit Against Google is Said to Focus on Its Dominance in Search
The Department of Justice's (DOJ) impending lawsuit decision to narrow the case against Google to its search dominance could set off separate lawsuits from states over Google's power in other business segments. The DOJ's action against Google is set to be narrower than what some states and several career lawyers in the department had envisioned. The department DOJ also investigated Google's reach in ad technology and how the company prices and places ads across the internet. However, in an effort to file a case by the end of September, the DOJ decided to pick the piece that was furthest along in legal theory and that could best withstand a potential challenge.
Social Media Protections Targeted by DOJ
The DOJ sent Congress draft legislation that would reduce a legal shield for platforms like Facebook and YouTube, in the latest effort by the Trump administration to revisit the law as the president claims those companies are slanted against conservative voices. The original law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, makes it difficult to sue online platforms over the content they host or the way they moderate it. Under the proposed changes, platforms that purposely facilitate "harmful criminal activity" would not receive the protections. Platforms that allow "known criminal content" to stay up once they know it exists would lose the protections for that content.
TikTok Files for Injunction to Stop Trump's Ban of App
TikTok's parent company ByteDance and Oracle has filed a motion to stop the Commerce Department from enforcing a ban against the popular social app, continuing its fight with the Trump administration. The ban was supposed to come into place Sunday, but after the signing of the ByteDance/Oracle deal, it was delayed by a week, with additional delays expected as the deal closes in the coming weeks. Now the company seems to be taking more aggressive action to stop the government. In its filing, the company says that it has "made extraordinary efforts to try to satisfy the government's demands" and noted that the damage of the ban could be significant before a national election.
Facebook Removes Networks Linked to Russian Disinformation
Facebook and Twitter have said that they have removed several hundred fake accounts linked to Russian military intelligence and other Kremlin-backed actors involved in previous efforts to interfere in U.S. politics, including the 2016 presidential election. Facebook's head of security policy said that "hack-and-leak" operations are "one of the threats [they're] particularly focused on and concerned about ahead of the November election in the U.S. U.S. intelligence officials have warned that Russia is seeking to spread disinformation that would undermine former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign.
App Makers Form Alliance to Fight Apple and Google
A number of top app makers have banded together to fight against Apple's control of its App Store and, to a lesser extent, Google's control of the Play Store. Thirteen app publishers, including Epic Games, Deezer, Basecamp, Tile, and Spotify, have launched the Coalition for App Fairness. The new organization formalizes efforts the companies already have underway that focus on either forcing app store providers to change their policies, or ultimately forcing the app stores into regulation. Epic Games is currently involved in a lawsuit against Apple over the App Store's commission guidelines. Other app makers in the group have, through public statements, previously spoken out against Apple's practices, and some have also communicated their complaints to Congress. The group details its key issues, which include anti-competitive practices and the inability to distribute software to billions of Apple devices through any other means but the App Store, as an affront to personal freedom.
Aide Recounts Being Pressed To Stop Bolton
The account by a former National Security Council official also implied that the DOJ may have told a court that this book contains classified information and opened a criminal investigation based on false pretenses. White House aides improperly intervened to prevent a manuscript by Trump's former national security adviser John R. Bolton from becoming public, said a career official. In a letter, she also suggested that they retaliated when she refused to go along. This is the latest in a series of accounts by current and former executive branch officials as the election nears, accusing the president and his aides of putting his personal and political goals ahead of the public interest.
U.S. Revoked Award to Journalist for Criticizing Trump
An inspector general's report concludes that State Department officials nixed a high-profile award out of fear of offending higher-ups--then lied about it. The Trump administration revoked a prestigious award to a Finnish journalist because she had written social media posts critical of the U.S. president, then lied to Congress and the press about the reasons for revoking her award. Jessikka Aro, the Finnish journalist, faced online harassment campaigns and death threats for exposing Russia's disinformation and propaganda machine. Aro was told by U.S. diplomats in January 2019 that she would be honored at the State Department's International Women of Courage Award. Weeks later, the department rescinded the award, telling Aro it was due to a "regrettable error."
Alphabet Settles Lawsuits Over Harassment Claims
Google's parent company, Alphabet, has settled a series of shareholder lawsuits over its handling of sexual harassment claims, agreeing to greater oversight by its board of directors in future cases of sexual misconduct and committing to spend $310 million over the next decade on corporate diversity programs.
Paris Suspect Says Attack Targeted Paper
The suspect in the stabbing of two people outside the former Paris office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has confessed and said his attack was directed at the publication because it printed cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad. The suspect is an 18-year-old immigrant from Pakistan who arrived in France three years ago as an unaccompanied minor. Charlie Hebdo's former office was the target of a January 2015 terrorist attack that killed 12 people after the weekly first published the cartoons. The stabbing took place during the long-awaited trial of alleged accomplices in the 2015 attack. French authorities have not yet publicly confirmed the suspect's statement.
General News
President Plans to Name Amy Coney Barrett As His Court Pick
The selection of Judge Barrett, a deeply conservative jurist, kicked off an election-season confirmation fight. The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on October 12th. Barrett is a former Notre Dame law professor who now sits on a federal appeals court in Chicago and is a favorite of anti-abortion activists. She served as a clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia and says that "his judicial philosophy is mine too...a judge must apply the law as written. Judges are not policymakers, and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy views they may hold." Her confirmation would cement a 6-to-3 conservative majority on the court, leaving an imprint that could long outlast Trump's presidency. The nomination is expected to consume the Senate in the weeks ahead and quickly reverberate on the campaign trail, injecting polarizing issues like abortion rights into an election season already weighed down by the coronavirus pandemic and a national reckoning over racism.
Trump's Pick for Court Opens Dash to Vote
Trump's pick for the Supreme Court has compiled an almost uniformly conservative voting record in cases touching on abortion, gun rights, discrimination and immigration. If confirmed she would move the court slightly but firmly to the right, making compromises less likely and putting at risk the right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade. "She is sympathetic to Justice Scalia's methods, but I don't get the sense that she is going to be a philosophical leader on how those methods should be executed" says a law professor at Vanderbilt University.
G.O.P. Unity Shows Unyielding Drive to Remake Courts
Senator Mitt Romney said that he will back President Trump's push to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Only six weeks out from election, confirming a new justice would likely tilt the court decisively to the right. Although Romney has made no secret of his distaste for Trump previously, he was not about to pass up an opportunity to cement a court that could limit abortion rights, further empower business interests, and potentially strike down far-reaching federal programs.
Democrats and White House Strike Short-Term Deal to Avert Shutdown
The House approved a stopgap spending bill after Democratic congressional leaders and the Trump administration reached a deal on Tuesday to avert a government shutdown and extend funding through December 11th, agreeing to include tens of billions of dollars in additional relief for struggling farmers and for nutritional assistance.
Array of Legal Battles Concerning Voting Rules Still Face Supreme Court
Trump stacked the federal judiciary long before nominating his third Supreme Court Justice. So far, that hasn't helped him gain an advantage in 2020 voting as nearly has he might have liked. Facing a persistent polling deficit against Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Trump and his allies have undertaken an array of efforts to stop election officials from making voting easier during the coronavirus pandemic. The President fogs the air with groundless complaints of fraud while lawyers on his behalf challenge such adjustments as mail-in voting, expanded use of ballot drop-boxes, and relaxed deadlines for counting ballots that show up late. Courts in both red and blue states alike have repeatedly rebuffed them.
Remembering a Justice Who Remembered Them
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the young scholar spurned by every law firm in New York because of her gender before going on to become a champion of women's rights and a liberal icon, was honored on Wednesday by a former president, her colleagues on the Supreme Court, and long lines of everyday Americans who felt the influences of her long and storied career. For a justice who came to enjoy her improbable late-in-life celebrity, it was a modest, unassuming farewell, but one that moved many in a country polarized by politics and suffering from a horrible pandemic. Among those who waited hours to pass below her flag-draped coffin outside the Court were many women, often with daughters or mothers, who saw in Justice Ginsburg a source of personal liberation.
A Historic Tribute for Ginsburg Inside a Capitol Divided Over Replacing Her
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who won trailblazing legal victories for women's rights before ascending to the nation's highest court, broke her final barriers on Friday, becoming the first woman and the first Jewish American to lie in state in the United States Capitol. In a ceremony choreographed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to give the women of Congress a leading role, Justice Ginsburg was eulogized as a persistent warrior for justice whose example had inspired generations of women and girls. The tribute took place inside a Capitol deeply divided over replacing Justice Ginsburg so close to the presidential election.
Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration from Ending the Census Count Early
Twice in the last 15 months, federal courts have scrutinized rationales offered by the Trump administration for trying to upend key parts of the 2020 Census, and twice judges have found them wanting. In this latest attempt, a federal district judge in California ruled that the Commerce Department had "never articulated a satisfactory explanation" for its decision to end the Census months earlier than had been planned, raising questions about the administration's motives.
Trump Won't Commit to Peaceful Transfer of Power
Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses the 2020 election to Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The Biden campaign responded, saying: "The American people will decide this election. And the U.S. government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House." The Trump campaign as pushed back on criticism of the president's answer.
Pentagon Leaders Worry That Trump Will Drag Military into Election
President Trump's refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power no matter who wins the election and his expressed desire in June to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops onto American streets to quell protests over the killing of George Floyd, has caused deep anxiety among senior military and Defense Department leaders, who insist that they will do all they can to keep the armed forces out of the elections. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have said that he "foresees no role for the U.S. armed forces in this process", but this has not stopped an intensifying debate in the military about its role should a disputed election lead to civil unrest.
Appeals Court Allows House to Sue Over Wall Funding
A federal appeals court has reversed course in the border wall lawsuit, delivering a potential win to House Democrats who sued over President Trump's transfer of Defense Department funds to construct the wall. The Court disagreed with the lower court over the constitutional claims in the case and sent it back for further review. The decision is a blow to Trump, who made the border wall a cornerstone of his presidency. The Court ruled that "each member has a distinct individual right, and in this case, one chamber has a distinct injury", therefore the House Democrats can challenge the President's transfer of funds to build the border wall. The Appropriations Clause requires two keys to unlock the Treasury, and the House holds one of those keys. The appeals court stated that the Executive Branch snatched the House's key out of its hands.
The Department of Justice Aids Trump in Stoking Doubt on Vote with Nine Discarded Ballots
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has released details about an investigation into nine discarded mailed-in ballots in Pennsylvania in an unusual step that stoked new fears that President Trump's political appointees were using the levers of law enforcement to sow doubt about the election. FBI investigators are examining mail-in ballots from military members in Luzerne Country in northeastern Pennsylvania that had been "discarded." Seven of the nine ballots were cast for Trump. The ballots had been "improperly opened by election staff." Under Pennsylvania election law, no ballots can be opened until Election Day, even for processing. Election experts said that the announcement was highly irregular. The DOJ policy calls for keeping voter fraud investigations under wraps to avoid affecting the election outcome and the experts said it was almost unheard-of for the department to provide an update on the case and disclose the name of the candidate for whom the ballots had been cast.
Allies Skeptical of U.S. Push to Redefine Human Rights
European allies are skeptical of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's push to elevate religious liberty and property rights, which they fear could come at the expense of protecting marginalized groups. Pompeo's Commission on Unalienable Rights has come under scrutiny in recent months over fears that it could erode protections for women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. The response among European nations has been very skeptical. In response, diplomats said State Department representatives had rebranded their outreach efforts and would instead ask United Nations (UN) members to affirm their commitments to a human rights document passed by the body in 1948--a core tenet of Pompeo's commission. UN diplomats and human rights experts said the effort was equally worrisome, believing it was a cryptic way to ignore decades' worth of treaties since 1948 that enshrined protections for racial minorities, same-sex couples, and women around the globe--moving backwards.
Before Virtual UN Assembly, Trump Casts China As Villain in Pandemic
In his recorded video address to the annual UN general assembly, Trump unleased a rhetorical assault on China that seemed pitched at a domestic audience. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping offered starkly contrasting responses to the coronavirus pandemic, with the U.S. president blaming Beijing for unleashing a "plague" on the world--and his Chinese counterpart casting the fight against the virus as an opportunity for international cooperation. Trump also took the opportunity to attack the World Health Organization--falsely describing it as "virtually controlled by China"--and again incorrectly claiming that the international body had said there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
CIA Says Putin Directs Russian Steps to Aid Trump
The CIA has reasserted that Putin is likely directing election influence efforts to aid Trump. The assessment buttresses earlier findings that the Russian president supports Trump's re-election. This analysis is a signal that intelligence agencies continue to back their assessment of Russian activities, despite the president's attacks. The CIA has moderate confidence in its analysis, a lower degree of certainty than its 2016 assessment of Putin's preferences, in part because the intelligence community appears to lack intercepted communications or other direct evidence confirming his direction of Mr. Derkach's efforts. Putin, a former intelligence agent, is careful not to use electronic devices.
Trump Suggests Vaccine Standards are 'Political'
In suggesting he might reject tougher guidelines, Trump once again undermined efforts by government scientists to bolster public confidence in their work. The president's comments to reports came after the doctors told a Senate panel that they had complete faith in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and that science and data--not politics--were its guiding decisions. The FDA had planned to issue stricter guidelines for the emergency authorization of any new coronavirus vaccine, which would add a new layer of caution to the vetting process, even as the president has insisted a vaccine will be ready as early as next month. Trump cast doubt on the FDA plan.
Johnson & Johnson's Single-Dose Vaccine Begins Final Phase of Trials
The race for a vaccine got an infusion of energy last week, as Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced that it has begun the final stage of its clinical trials, the fourth company to do so in the U.S. as the country hits a grim milestone of 200,000 deaths from the pandemic. J&J is behind the leaders, but its advanced vaccine trial will be by far the largest, enrolling 60,000 participants. Unlike some of its competitors, J&J's vaccine does not need to be frozen and may require just one shot instead of two. The company said that it could know by the end of this year if its vaccine works.
Consumers Have Lost $145 Million to Coronavirus Scammers, Federal Trade Commission Reports
Consumers have filed more than 205,000 reports of fraud linked to the coronavirus since the beginning of the year, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The average loss was $300 and it was more than double for seniors who are at least 80 years old. The prevalence of fraud is likely much higher than federal figures suggest, since they do not reflect scams unreported by consumers. Scammers have used multiple avenues to steal money from unsuspecting Americans, including crimes around financial relief, like stimulus checks and unemployment benefits, fake treatments for COVID-19, and fraudulent charities.
Officer Charged and Two Cleared in Taylor Killing
A grand jury in Louisville, KY indicted a former police detective on charges of reckless endangerment for his role in the raid on the home of Breonna Taylor, but the two officers who shot Taylor six times faced no charges. Protestors poured onto the streets after the announcement and there were also demonstrations in New York, Chicago, Milwaukee ,and smaller cities around the country. As the protesters took their anger and grief to the streets, two police officers were shot leading to officers in riot gear confronting protesters, releasing chemical agents and arresting several people.
Republicans' Inquiry Finds No Wrongdoing by Biden in Ukraine
A report released by Senate Republicans found that the role of Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma was "awkward" and at times "problematic" for U.S. officials dealing with the country, but provides no new evidence and found no instance of policy being altered as a result of his role. Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who led the investigation as chair of the Homeland Security Committee, had openly said that he hoped the election-year probe would hurt the Democratic nominee and help President Trump, while Democrats had decried the effort as purely political. Democrats have said that this effort has been a partisan and unnecessary distraction from important business before both Committees as the country faces the pandemic.
DOJ Releases Information Intended to Hurt Russia Inquiry
The attorney general provided information on two matters to President Trump's allies that was meant to damage the FBI's Russia investigation and the special counsel's office. The documents--related to flawed applications for wiretap on a former Trump adviser and an FBI agent's criticisms of the prosecution of the former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn--were the latest in a series of releases that have helped fuel the president's assertions of a "deep state" plot against him. Trump promoted several tweets from conservative commentators who used the finding to criticize the Russia investigation.
Judge Tells Eric Trump to Testify By October 7
Eric Trump had said he would not give a sworn deposition to the New York attorney general until after the election, but a state judge said he must cooperate sooner. He has to answer questions under oath in the fraud investigation into his family's real estate business. Trump's lawyers said he was willing to be interviewed--but would only do so after the election because he did not want his deposition to be used "for political purposes." Judge Arthur F. Engoron in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, ruled that Trump had to sit for the deposition no later than October 7th, rejecting his arguments that a delay was necessary.
Putin Critic Leaves Hospital After Poisoning
Alexei Navalny, a frequent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been released from a German hospital more than a month after he fell ill in Russia and was transferred to Germany suffering from the effects of "severe poisoning," with what German officials confirmed was a deadly Russian nerve agent. Although he was released last week, doctors added that "it remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning." German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders have asked Russia for answers, while the Kremlin has strongly denied any involvement.
Night Images Show China Has Added Detention Sites in Mostly Muslim Xinjiang
A new report by an Australian research group has identified and mapped more than 380 suspected detention facilities in China's western Xinjiang region. The institute scoured satellite photos for evidence of such facilities, including nighttime imagery that showed evidence of new construction in places where there had not been any illumination in the past. Their work followed eyewitness accounts, news reports, and other research that had documented the construction of such camps. They found 61 suspected detention sites that had seen construction or expansion between July 2019 and July 2020, including 14 facilities apparently still under construction. The findings contradict Chinese officials' claims that all "trainees" from so-called vocational training centers had 'graduated' by late 2019. Instead, the evidence suggests that many extrajudicial detainees in Xinjiang's vast 're-education' network are now being formally charged and locked up in higher security facilities, including newly built or expanded prisons, or sent to walled factory compounds for coerced labor assignments.
Climate
A Climate Crossroads With Two Paths: Merely Bad or Truly Horrific
America is now under siege by climate change in ways that scientists have warned about for years, but there is a second part to their admonition; decades of growing crises are already locked into the global ecosystem and cannot be reversed. Cascading disasters are occurring--from drought in the West fueling historic wildfires that send smoke all the way to the East Coast, or parades of tropical storms lining up across the Atlantic to march destructively toward North America. Conversations about climate change have broken into everyday life. The questions are profound and urgent. According to climate experts, the world hasn't even seen the worst.
A Second Term Could Make Trump's Environmental Rollbacks Stick
President Trump has initiated the most aggressive environmental deregulation agenda in modern history, but as his first term drives to a close, many of his policies are being cut down by the courts. These losses have heightened the stakes in the election--a second term, coupled with a 6-3 conservative majority on the High Court, could save some of his biggest environmental rollbacks.
At Climate Week, America's Cascading Disasters Take Center Stage
This year's events come amid a climate reckoning in the world's richest country. There were fire tornadoes in the American West; a slow-moving hurricane drowned northwest Florida; children in Silicon Valley breathed a bit of the foul air that children in the shanties of Delhi are accustomed to. Two of the world's three biggest economies, China and the European Union, pledged to act more quickly to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The world as a whole is nowhere close to where it needs to be to avert the worst effects of a warming world.
Emails Show How Pesticide Industry Swayed U.S. Stance in UN Talks
Emails from a pesticide industry lobbyist to employees at the Department of Agriculture have expressed alarm over proposed guidelines issued by a UN task force working to combat the rise of drug-resistant infections that kill thousands of people each year. A policy official urged U.S. agriculture officials to fight any effort to include the words "crops" or fungicides" in the guidelines--a position that would run counter to growing international consensus that the overuse of antifungal compounds is a threat to human health by contributing to drug resistance and should be monitored.
The Environmental Protection Agency Rejects Its Own Findings That Pesticide Harms Children's Brains
The Trump administration has rejected scientific evidence linking the pesticide chlorpyrifos to serious health problems. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new assessment directly contradicts federal scientists' conclusions five years ago that chlorpyrifos can stunt brain development in young children. The pesticide is widely used on soybeans, almonds, grapes, and other crops. It is a fresh victory for chemical makers and the agricultural industry, as well as the latest in a long list of Trump administration regulatory rollbacks. In announcing its decision, the EPA said that "despite several years of study, the science addressing neurodevelopmental effects remains unresolved." However, in making its finding, the EPA excluded several epidemiological studies that found a correlation between prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos and developmental disorders in toddlers.
Tapes of Boastful Remarks Force Leader of Alaska Mine Project to Resign
The chief executive of the partnership developing the Pebble Mine in Alaska resigned last week over comments made in meetings recorded by an environmental advocacy group. The executive, Tom Collier, embellished both his and the Pebble Partnership's relationship with elected officials and federal representatives in Alaska. The comments were "offensive" to "political, business and community leaders in the state." The Pebble project has been the subject of a long fight, with economic development forces on one side, and on the other, environmentalists and Native groups who are concerned about the damage to the region's wild salmon fishery. The Corps of Engineers in Alaska released a statement about the recordings, saying that it had "identified inaccuracies and falsehoods relating to the permit process and the relationship between our regulatory leadership and the applicant's executive." Other comments, including remarks about the state's two Republican senators and its Republican governor, forced Collier's resignation.
Scientists Tie Deadly Heat 'Blob' In the Pacific to Climate Change
The "blob" of hotter ocean water that killed sea lions and other marine life in 2014 and 2015 may become permanent. Six years ago, a huge part of the Pacific Ocean near North America quickly warmed, reaching temperatures more than five, degrees Fahrenheit above normal. It persisted for two years, with devastating impacts on marine life, including sea lions and salmon. The blob was a marine heat wave, the oceanic equivalent of a deadly summer atmospheric one, and far from a solitary event. Tens of thousands have occurred in the past few decades and the largest and longest ones have occurred with increasing frequency over time. Scientists have now linked these severe marine heat waves to climate change and say that they will more likely become much more severe.
Oil Giants Are Ocean Apart on Climate
U.S. and European Oil giants go different ways on climate change--BP and other European companies invest billions in renewable energy, Exxon and Chevron are committed to fossil fuels and betting on moonshots. As oil prices plunge and concerns about climate change grow, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and other European energy companies are selling off oil fields, planning a sharp reduction in emissions, and investing billions in renewable energy. American oil giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil are going in a far different direction, by doubling down on oil and natural gas and investing what amounts to pocket change in innovative climate-oriented efforts like small nuclear power plants and devices that suck carbon out of the air. The disparity reflects the vast differences in how Europe and the U.S. are approaching climate change--European leaders have made tackling climate change a top priority, while Trump has called it a "hoax" and has dismantled environmental regulations to encourage the exploitation of fossil fuels.
Trump Uses Environmental Protection Agency Office to Widen War with 'Anarchist' New York City
The president has painted New York as an "anarchist jurisdiction," but his administration's threats to withhold funds are being dismissed as a politicized campaign tactic. The head of the EPA has threatened to move its regional headquarters out of Lower Manhattan, suggesting that local agency officials had become so fearful of New York streets that they are no2 considering moving offices. EPA administrator Andrew R. Wheeler cited three-month old protests against police brutality, and a small, recent protest against another federal agency, ICE, at a nearby building. Few in NY have taken the president's rhetoric seriously, and the threat from the administrator was also being dismissed as political theater to be deployed in Trump's re-election campaign.
Mankind's Feats Place California At Climate Risk
The engineering and land management that enabled the state's tremendous growth have left it more vulnerable to climate shocks--and those shocks are getting worse. The state has transformed its arid and mountainous landscape into the richest, most populous and bounteous place in the nation. Those same feats have given California a new and unwelcome category of superlatives. This year is the state's worst wildfire season on record.
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