Gizmodo
The Biggest Organism on Earth Is Dying, and It's Our Fault
The heaviest organism on Earth isn’t a whale or an elephant. It’s a tree—or rather, a system of over 40,000 clonal trees, all connected by their roots. Pando, a 13 million pound organism in central Utah, is believed to have sprouted toward the end of the last Ice Age.
But after thousands of years of thriving, Pando has run into trouble. A study published in PLOS One Wednesday features the first comprehensive examination of the entire 106 acres of clonal aspen forest, and it concludes that Pando isn’t growing. In fact, the forest has been failing to self-reproduce since at least 30 to 40 years ago.
“People are at the center of that failure,” said co-author Paul Rogers, the director of the Western Aspen Alliance at Utah State University who authored a similar study last year on a smaller portion of the Pando.
Reuters
Trump administration asks high court to halt climate change case
[The] Trump’s administration on Thursday for a second time asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put the brakes on a lawsuit filed by young activists who have accused the U.S. government of ignoring the perils of climate change.
In the lawsuit, 21 activists, ages 11 to 22, said federal officials violated their rights to due process under the U.S. Constitution by failing to adequately address carbon pollution such as emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
The lawsuit was filed in 2015 against former President Barack Obama and government agencies in a federal court in Eugene, Oregon. Both the Obama and Trump administration have failed in efforts to have the lawsuit thrown out.
Lithium miners’ dispute reveals water worries in Chile’s Atacama desert
Earlier this year, the world’s two biggest lithium producers publicly celebrated new deals with Chile’s government that will allow them to vastly increase output of the ultralight battery metal from the Atacama, the world’s driest desert.
U.S.-based Albemarle Corp and Chile’s SQM operate just 3 miles (5 km) apart in the remote Salar, a basin in the Atacama that is home to one of the world’s richest deposits of high-grade lithium. Lithium-ion batteries are key components for most consumer electronics, from cellphones and laptops to electric cars.
In celebrating the new contracts, the two companies said they were confident they could significantly boost output without drawing more than their current quotas of lithium-rich brine, or saltwater, that has for millennia accumulated in pools beneath the Atacama. The rivals said each had all the brine they needed for current and future production.
Florida's Republicans feel brunt of hurricane in upcoming election
Two days after Katherine Shimonis returned to her home in the Florida Panhandle to find it destroyed by Hurricane Michael, she went to her local post office, which was empty and without power, and shouldered her way through the front door.
To her shock, the 69-year-old retired teacher found her mail-in absentee ballot sitting in her post office box in the town of Port St. Joe.
“It was like gold to me; it really was,” said Shimonis, who like many in storm-ravaged northwest Florida worried she might miss out on a chance to vote in November’s congressional and gubernatorial elections.
With much of the region still working to secure basic services like electricity, passable roads and phone service after one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the United States, election officials in the Panhandle are scrambling to ensure tens of thousands of people are able to vote. […]
While it has a relatively sparse population, the Panhandle is one of Florida’s most reliably Republican areas, and lower voter turnout in the area could hurt both Scott and DeSantis.
CNN
Bolton and Kelly get into heated shouting match sparking resignation fears
A heated argument in the West Wing between chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser John Bolton over a recent surge in border crossings turned into a shouting match Thursday, two sources familiar with the argument told CNN.
The exchange lay bare a bitter disagreement that has existed between two of… Donald Trump's top aides for weeks now.
Trump, who was incensed about the rising levels of migrants and threatened to shut down the southern border on Twitter earlier that morning, took Bolton's side during the argument. Bolton favors a harder line approach to the issue and criticized Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen during the argument, a source said. Nielsen used to serve as Kelly's deputy when he ran DHS. Bolton reportedly said Nielsen needed to start doing her job, which incensed Kelly.
Harris proposes tax breaks bill for middle-class Americans
Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, a potential 2020 presidential candidate, proposed new legislation on Thursday aiming to provide tax breaks for low- and middle-class Americans.
The new bill would give tax credits of up to $6,000 per year for households earning less than $100,000 annually, which comes out to $500 per month. Individuals earning under $50,000 per year would be eligible for tax credits up to $3,000 under the plan.
Harris' bill aims to offset the rising cost of living throughout the country, but with Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress, the proposal has very slim chances of advancing on Capitol Hill. The proposal, however, allows Harris to position herself politically as to how she thinks the nation's tax system should be structured. The announcement comes as she travels the country in an effort to campaign for fellow Democrats ahead of the midterm elections and setup a possible 2020 presidential bid.
Interior Dept contradicts Ben Carson's announcement of new inspector general
A political appointee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development will not become the top watchdog at the Interior Department, an Interior spokeswoman said Thursday.
Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said the announcement less than a week ago by HUD Secretary Ben Carson, in which he said that HUD Assistant Secretary Suzanne Israel Tufts was going to become the new acting IG at Interior "had false information in it."
Swift did not say whether the announcement was false at the time it was made, or whether the administration's plans had changed after the move was criticized. The news of a possible new IG at Interior came as the office has four open investigations into Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. […]
Democrats pointed out that the Interior inspector general's office is currently investigating Zinke, including a second review of his travel and a possible land deal with energy giant Halliburton involving a brewery in Zinke's Montana hometown.
Deutsche Welle
EU summit: Theresa May says 'maybe' to transition period extension
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday hinted at her openness to extending a so-called transition period "for a matter of months" after Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019.
"A further idea that has emerged, and it is an idea at this stage, is to create an option to extend the implementation period for a matter of months, and it would only be a matter months," May told reporters in Brussels, where EU leaders were gathered for a bloc summit meeting.
An extension could buy negotiators time to resolve the impasse over the Ireland-UK border, but the suggestion courted criticism from within May's own party immediately after it was first floated in Westminster on Wednesday.
To enable an extension, Britain would have to request it, and then the other 27 member states would have to agree to it, a senior EU official told AFP news agency. European Council President Donald Tusk said after the summit that he was sure EU leaders would respond positively to any request from Britain for a longer transition period.
Court in Finland finds pro-Kremlin trolls guilty of harassing journalist
A Finnish man was sentenced to over a year in prison on Thursday for defaming and harassing investigative journalist Jessikka Aro, who works for Finnish public broadcaster YLE.
Ilja Janitskin, the founder of the right-wing, pro-Kremlin website MV-Lehti, was handed a 22-month prison sentence after being found guilty of 16 charges, including defamation.
Johan Backman, a longtime mouthpiece for Moscow in Finland, was also found guilty of defamation and harassing and received a one-year suspended sentence.
In their decision, the court said that Backman encouraged others online to target Aro and that the subsequent harassment deeply impacted her quality of life, reported YLE.
Taliban kill powerful police chief in Kandahar
One of Afghanistan's most powerful security officials, anti-Taliban strongman and police chief General Abdul Raziq, was killed on Thursday when the governor's bodyguard opened fire.
The attack came at the end of a high-level security meeting of US Forces and NATO Resolute Support Mission commander General Scott Miller, provincial governor Zalmay Wesa and provincial spy chief Abdul Mohmin. Mohmin and an Afghan journalist are also believed to have died.
Miller survived the attack. Two Americans and the governor were among 13 people injured.
BBC News
Barcelona's Sagrada Familia agrees deal over lack of licence
The Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, one of Spain's most famous tourist sites, has agreed to pay $41m (£31m) to the city authorities after going without a building permit for more than 130 years.
The spectacular church designed by architect Antoni Gaudí, is a Unesco world heritage site and still under construction. Work began on the building in 1882. Barcelona's mayor said the deal was an historic agreement.
The basilica will pay the money over 10 years to improve public transport and access to the monument and assist the local neighbourhood.
US to merge Jerusalem consulate general with new embassy
The US is to merge its consulate general in Jerusalem, which deals with Palestinian affairs, with its new embassy, the secretary of state says.
Mike Pompeo said the decision was made for efficiency reasons and did not signal a change of policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians condemned the move. Senior official Saeb Erekat said the Trump administration was working with Israelis to "impose 'Greater Israel' rather than a two-state solution".
Cherry blossoms bloom unexpectedly in Japan
Some of Japan's famed cherry blossoms, also known as sakura, have bloomed unexpectedly this autumn.
The famous pink and white flowers are typically visible for about two weeks in the spring - a phenomenon tourists from around the world come to witness.
But more than 300 people have reported cherry blossoms in their neighbourhood in October, according to meteorological company Weathernews. Experts say a series of typhoons could have contributed to the phenomenon.
"This has happened in the past, but I don't remember seeing something of this scale," Hiroyuki Wada, a tree doctor at the Flower Association of Japan told local outlet NHK.
The Sydney Morning Herald
'No more hiding': Morrison government set emissions data deadlines
The federal government will be less able to delay the release of embarrassing national carbon pollution figures after the Senate approved rolling deadlines for the quarterly data.
The Greens secured Labor and crossbench support of a so-called order of continuing effect that requires the government to table the Greenhouse Gas Inventory figures within five months of the end of each quarter, or provide an explanation for any delay.
The motion, passed by 33-27 votes, follows an erratic series of releases of the key climate data since the Abbott government took office in September 2013.
'Consciously mystifying': Xi Jinping Thought mapped for the masses
It turns out that harnessing a communist state's propaganda for the social media age can be complicated.
Very complicated. An infographic designed to distil Chinese president Xi Jinping's Thought into a mind map was released by the People's Daily smartphone app on Thursday. It also caused a sensation on Western social media.
MercoPress
US receives US$ 100m payment from Saudi Arabia, when Pompeo was in Riyadh
The United States received a payment of US$ 100 million from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the same day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Riyadh to discuss the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a State Department official confirmed Wednesday amid global calls for answers in the case.
Saudi Arabia publicly pledged the payment to support U.S. stabilization efforts in northeastern Syria in August, but questions persisted about when and if Saudi officials would come through with the money.
The timing of the transfer… raised questions about a potential payoff as Riyadh seeks to manage the blowback over allegations that Saudi agents were responsible for Khashoggi's disappearance. The State Department denied any connection between the payment and Pompeo's discussions with Saudi officials about Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist.
Bolsonaro's foreign policy: following on Trump, “Make Brazil Great”
The far-right front-runner in Brazil’s presidential race plans to put foreign policy in the hands of a diplomat who has praised the nationalist agenda of… Donald Trump that has shaken the global order, an adviser to the candidate said.
Policy experts said the pick fits conservative firebrand Jair Bolsonaro’s plan to make Brazil’s most dramatic foreign policy shift in decades. Bolsonaro has already vowed to rethink membership in developing nation blocks such as Mercosur and BRICS and move the country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, embracing Trump as few in Latin America have done.
That represents a direct reversal of nearly a decade and a half of diplomacy under leftist Workers Party (PT) governments, which focused on alliances with South American neighbors and other emerging powers.
Uruguay's wind energy revolution highlighted in leading yearly report
Uruguay ranks second in the world among eolic-energy producing countries with a 40.1% share and is the only non-European nation in a top position, according to a report by the SEG Ingeniería consultancy firm.
SEG's data stems from the “2017 Wind Technologies Market Report” carried out annually by the US Department of Energy…
In 2017, wind penetration amounted to 5.2% of the world electric power matrix, and only four countries showed their wind generation energy below the world average: China, India, Japan and Mexico, while 20 countries were above that line.
Bloomberg
Stocks Tumble, Treasuries Surge as Concerns Mount
A risk-off tone gripped global financial markets, with U.S. stocks plunging while Treasuries surged with gold on demand for havens.
American equities tumbled the most since last week’s rout, all but wiping out Tuesday’s rally, as investors fretted over the U.S.-China trade war’s impact on economic growth, the Italian debt crisis and rising interest rates. High-flying technology shares again led the sell-off, while defensive sectors like utilities and real estate fared relatively better. Mixed earnings, with disappointments from key industrial and tech names, added to investor anxiety. The S&P 500 slid back below its 200-day moving average, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed more than 400 points and the Nasdaq 100’s rout topped 2 percent.
The weakness comes after China sank overnight, bringing losses in its major benchmark to 30 percent since January highs. The dollar touched the highest in more than a week, while the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 3.16 percent. Italy’s yield spread over Germany’s hit the highest level since 2013 as European Union officials questioned the country’s budget plan.
A Blue Pill Is Stopping HIV, World-First Study Shows
An antiviral pill taken daily by thousands of men across Sydney and other parts of Australia led to a globally unprecedented reduction in new HIV cases, showing that a targeted, preventative approach may accelerate progress on ending the AIDS epidemic.
New cases of HIV among gay and bisexual men fell by almost a third to the lowest on record, according to the world’s first study to measure the impact of Gilead Sciences Inc.’s Truvada pill on reducing the AIDS-causing virus in a large population. The results, published Thursday in the Lancet HIV medical journal, may pave the way for other states and countries to stop transmission of the virus with the use of a treatment called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.
Trump’s Threats Fail to Deter Migrants Fleeing Gangs and Drought
A caravan of thousands of Hondurans migrants continued its journey northward toward the U.S. this week despite a threat from President Donald Trump to shut his country’s border with Mexico.
Central American migration is being driven by some of the world’s worst gang violence as well as poverty that has been aggravated by extreme weather, defying Trump’s efforts to stem it. Earlier Thursday, Trump said he’d mobilize the U.S. military to close the border with Mexico to stop an “assault” on the nation by a caravan of migrants.
“These countries have the worst rates of violent crime among just about any countries that aren’t in armed conflict,” Adam Isacson, an analyst for the Washington Office on Latin America said in a phone interview. As well as fear of “rampant” gangs, a drought in Guatemala and flooding in Honduras is also causing people to flee, he said.
The Globe and Mail
Cannabis Day 1: How Canada greeted legalization from coast to coast
From St. John’s to Vancouver, from Southern Ontario to the Far North, Canada’s nearly century-old prohibition on recreational cannabis lifted on Wednesday – and in Ottawa, the Trudeau government also promised new legislation to let people convicted of simple possession apply for pardons more easily.
Not everyone who wanted to smoke up on the first day was able to: Relatively few bricks-and-mortar stores were open, and in Ontario, the most populous province, online retail is the only option until physical stores get the go-ahead next year. While demand was strong, supply was short on Day 1, and could be for the weeks to come.
McConnell tells Trump administration that tariffs hurt, urges trade progress
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday prodded [the] Trump administration to quickly resolve festering trade disputes, particularly with China, saying tariffs imposed by other countries in response to Mr. Trump’s trade policies are starting to pinch the “red hot” U.S. economy.
While concurring with Mr. Trump’s view that U.S. policy on global trade must be stronger, Mr. McConnell also voiced concern in an interview with Reuters about the impact of growing trade tensions, including on his home state of Kentucky.
Mr. Trump has taken a hard line on trade since becoming President last year, complaining that the United States is treated unfairly, abandoning some international trade deals while threatening to withdraw from others and from the World Trade Organization. He has repeatedly slapped tariffs on close allies and major trade partners, which have retaliated with duties of their own.
NPR News
Trump Intervened In FBI HQ Project To Protect His Hotel
[Donald] Trump intervened in a big federal building project to help protect business for his hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, a group of House Democrats alleged on Thursday.
Trump wants to demolish and rebuild the FBI's headquarters, the Democrats say, to preserve the site's government ownership and deny any potential competitors to the Trump International Hotel at the Old Post Office Pavilion up the street.
The Democrats called that an abuse of power and a violation of the regulations that are supposed to protect such arrangements from political influence.
Voter Turnout Could Hit 50-Year Record For Midterm Elections
The 2018 elections could see the highest turnout for a midterm since the mid-1960s, another time of cultural and social upheaval.
"It's probably going to be a turnout rate that most people have never experienced in their lives for a midterm election," Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida who studies turnout and maintains a turnout database, told NPR.
McDonald is predicting that 45 to 50 percent of eligible voters will cast a ballot. That would be a level not seen since 1970 when 47 percent of voters turned out or 1966 when a record 49 percent turned out in a midterm.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Abrams rallies with seniors ousted from Black Voters Matter bus
Stacey Abrams took a campaign detour to the scene of one of the more controversial moments of this year’s election: A senior center where county officials prevented a third-party group from taking elderly black residents to a voting site.
At a stop early Tuesday in Louisville, the Democratic candidate for governor met with several of the voters taken off the bus and urged them to “use your vote to lift your voice and make certain that people know that you have aright to vote.”
The bus was run by the nonprofit Black Voters Matter and was preparing to depart from a senior center operated by Jefferson County when the center’s director ordered the passengers off the vehicle. Video footage shot by ThinkProgress showed the seniors being instructed to disembark.
Kemp’s office removes video that triggered outrage on social media
Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office removed a video on his website after it triggered outrage on social media for featuring an African-American actor who failed to bring proper photo ID to vote.
The minute-long video on the Republican’s website was created before the 2016 election and aimed to instruct voters how to cast a ballot during the early voting period.
It cast several children portraying adults as voters as a narrator describes the process of early voting. The lone African-American in the advertisement plays the role of the voter who fails to bring proper photo ID and is required to cast a provisional ballot.
The Dallas Morning News
Trump rally with Ted Cruz moved to far bigger 18,000-seat arena in Houston
The Trump campaign has moved that rally Monday night for Sen. Ted Cruz -- which the president vowed to hold in the "biggest stadium in Texas" -- from an 8,000-seat arena in Houston to the far larger Toyota Center, capacity 18,000. […]
The campaign insisted on Monday that no bigger venue was available but a Toyota Center official said Thursday that that far larger arena was available all along, and Trump aides had only contacted them a few hours before Parscale tweeted that the rally was moved because response "has been HUGE and unprecedented. This will be an epic rally."
That suggested either that the Trump campaign had provided misleading information on Monday, or had moved cautiously in case of modest interest.
Beto O’Rourke takes sharper tone against Ted Cruz in new ads, accusing him of stoking fears
After six weeks of being a TV ad-war pincushion, Democratic Senate hopeful Beto O'Rourke belatedly began poking Sen. Ted Cruz in his commercials Wednesday.
The 30-second O'Rourke ads go after Cruz for opposing a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants who were brought into the country as children and Obamacare's inducement for states to enlarge Medicaid to cover poor, able-bodied adults of working age. […]
Responding after he met with San Antonio law enforcement officials on Wednesday, Cruz doubled down on vouchers. Low-income parents, especially minorities, deserve taxpayers' help if local public schools aren't satisfactory, Cruz said.
The Tennessean
New Vanderbilt poll finds Bredesen with narrow edge over Blackburn in Senate race
Democratic nominee Phil Bredesen has a slight edge over Republican Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee's U.S. Senate race, according to a new poll from Vanderbilt University.
The poll, released Thursday, found 44 percent of respondents said they would vote for Bredesen, compared to 43 percent for Blackburn.
The former governor's narrow advantage over the Brentwood congressman, however, falls within the poll's margin of error, which is plus or minus 4.9 percent.
Eight percent of respondents remained undecided on the race.
Tennessee early voting turnout massive as midterm interest approaches presidential level
Turnout was massive Wednesday across Tennessee for the first day of early voting with open races for U.S. Senate and governor both on the line.
Voting numbers shattered the state's past two midterm numbers and were not far behind Tennessee's pace set during the 2016 presidential election.
In all, 120,893 people voted Wednesday in Tennessee in the midterm general election. The tally also includes absentee-by-mail votes collected that day and votes made at nursing homes.
The total is only around 22,000 less than the 143,141 people who voted early during the 2016 presidential election, which typically far outpaces midterms.
The Denver Post
Candidates’ wealth is front and center in governor’s race — and testing Colorado’s financial disclosure laws
Colorado’s gubernatorial candidates are rich and richer — and their complex financial histories are testing the limits of the state’s financial disclosure laws while raising concerns about conflicts of interest.
Republican state Treasurer Walker Stapleton comes from old money. His mother is a cousin to former President George H.W. Bush, and his father is a prominent Connecticut businessman turned ambassador who once was part owner of the Texas Rangers and now co-owns the St. Louis Cardinals.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Polis is new money. One of the wealthiest members of Congress, Polis and his family struck gold during the early days of the internet. Since then, he has started or invested in dozens of other companies in a variety of sectors.
Money is a touchy subject for both men. They have bucked long-held political tradition by not releasing their recent tax returns — a move nearly unheard of in recent Colorado political history before… Donald Trump refused to disclose his tax documents during the 2016 election. And each candidate’s allies are flinging accusations, citing varying degrees of evidence, about the other’s finances.
Colorado cracks a billion in annual marijuana sales in record time, generating $200M in tax revenue
Marijuana sales in Colorado have exceeded $1 billion as of August of this year, with tax revenue from those sales coming in at $200 million, according to a report from the Colorado Department of Revenue and its Marijuana Enforcement Division.
It’s the earliest point in any of the four years Colorado has had legal recreational marijuana that combined medical and rec sales have cracked the billion-dollar mark.
Total combined sales through August 2017 were $996,357,153. The total so far for ’18 is $1,022,245,511, setting the state on a trajectory to break last year’s record of more than $1.5 billion in medical and rec sales.
The Guardian
Caroll Spinney, Sesame Street's Big Bird, to retire after 50 years
Caroll Spinney, the veteran actor and puppeteer who provided the voices for Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, is retiring after almost 50 years as a key part of America’s most well-known children’s television show.
Spinney will work on a final show this week, which will be used for Sesame Street’s 50th-anniversary celebrations in 2019. He is retiring having worked on thousands of episodes of the programme, which debuted in 1969.
“I always thought: ‘How fortunate for me that I got to play the two best muppets? … Playing Big Bird is one of the most joyous things of my life.”
Plague marching west: researchers study bats to stop their demise
Nate Fuller was just starting out as a bat scientist nine years ago when he entered a massive cave in rural Pennsylvania to look for live animals. Instead, he found himself wading through a distressing muck, the decomposing bodies of thousands upon thousands of dead bats.
That was in the early years of white nose syndrome, the creeping, lethal fungus that has decimated North America’s bat population, killing millions of bats and sparking frantic research and conservation efforts across the United States and Canada.
In Fuller’s case, that traumatic discovery changed the trajectory of his career and led him here this month, to a remote cave site in central Montana, where he is part of a team of bat researchers led by the Wildlife Conservation Society studying the hibernation of western bat populations.
“It was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen,” Fuller remembered of his Pennsylvania experience.
EPA to unveil plans to weaken rule limiting toxic mercury pollution
The US Environmental Protection Agency next month will unveil plans to start weakening the economic justification for a rule limiting toxic mercury pollution from coal plants.
The EPA isn’t rescinding the standard as of yet but has finished deciding to reconsider the underlying analysis for the 2011 rule, according to the government’s newly published agenda.
Donald Trump’s administration is revoking major environmental protections enacted by the Barack Obama administration, arguing Obama rules overestimated health benefits and undercounted costs.
Conservatives say Obama’s EPA shouldn’t have counted health improvements from the mercury rule that would have come from eliminating other kinds of pollution from coal plants, including soot and nitrogen oxide linked to respiratory illnesses and early deaths.
The Seattle Times
Washington Supreme Court rules sentencing youth to life without parole is unconstitutional
Washington state’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that sentencing youth offenders to life in prison without parole is unconstitutional, joining 20 states and Washington D.C. who’ve already outlawed the practice.
The justices ruled 5-4 that trial courts may not impose a minimum term of life, as that would mean a life without parole sentence, for people convicted of committing a crime when they were younger than 18 years old. The sentencing “constitutes cruel punishment,” and doesn’t achieve the legal goals of retribution or deterrence because children are less culpable than adults, it said. Children convicted of crimes, including the highest degree of murder, are also entitled in Washington to special protections from sentencing courts when possible, the court said.
The ruling comes on the heels of a unanimous decision by the state’s justices earlier this week that struck down the death penalty, declaring its current application to be in violation of Washington’s constitutionSanta Ros
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat
4,000 evacuated in Bay Point as underground gas fire burns
A fire that ignited in an underground natural gas storage area in the San Francisco Bay Area prompted officials to evacuate thousands of residents, and Chevron emergency crews were working Thursday to purge gas from a pipeline to prevent an explosion.
Officials issued evacuation orders late Wednesday night for about 4,000 people from 1,400 homes near the pipeline in the city of Bay Point, California, after the fire started.
Chevron spokesman Cary Wages told reporters Thursday that workers spent the night purging natural gas from the pipeline and planned to inject nitrogen "which will extinguish the fire" burning in the underground vault.
The Los Angeles Times
A simple earthquake flaw can invite financial catastrophe. Most California homeowners ignore it
When the region's most powerful earthquake in years struck Northern California on an early Sunday morning in 2014, it jolted two homes standing side by side on a residential block in Napa.
The homes were in dramatically different condition when the shaking stopped. The blue house had been seismically retrofitted years before the magnitude 6 temblor and emerged largely intact. The yellow house didn't have that protection and was battered, the foundation torn up and the porch columns grotesquely distorted. The owner faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in repair bills and could not rent it out for 2 ½ years.
Retrofitting single-family homes is considered one of the cheapest seismic improvements available, a foundation bolting process that usually costs an average of $7,000 and can be done within several days without the residents moving out. But state officials, concerned that more homeowners are not taking action, are working on new initiatives aimed at sparking more retrofitting.
AP: Putin hails Russia's military might and says would use nuclear weapons only in response to incoming missiles
Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed new missiles in the country’s military arsenals but emphasized Thursday that it would only use its nuclear weapons in response to an incoming missile attack…
Speaking at an international policy forum in Sochi, Putin noted that Russia's military doctrine doesn't envisage a preventative nuclear strike. He said Moscow only would tap its nuclear arsenal if early-warning systems spotted missiles heading toward Russia.
"Only when we become convinced that there is an incoming attack on the territory of Russia, and that happens within seconds, only after that we would launch a retaliatory strike," he said during a panel discussion at the forum.
Star Tribune
AP: Tornadoes are spinning up farther east in U.S., study finds
Over the past few decades tornadoes have been shifting — decreasing in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas but spinning up more in states along the Mississippi River and farther east, a new study shows. Scientists aren’t quite certain why.
Tornado activity is increasing most in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa and parts of Ohio and Michigan, according to a study in the journal Climate and Atmospheric Science. There has been a slight decrease in the Great Plains, with the biggest drop in central and eastern Texas. Even with the decline, Texas still gets the most tornadoes of any state.
The shift could be deadly because the area with increasing tornado activity is bigger and home to more people, said study lead author Victor Gensini, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Northern Illinois University. Also, more people live in vulnerable mobile homes, and tornadoes are more likely to happen at night in those places, he said.
Keith Ellison divorce file shows no abuse allegation against him by ex-wife
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison said in a 2015 divorce proceeding that he had to leave his 25-year marriage with Kim Ellison, a member of the Minneapolis Board of Education, because of her repeated physical abuse, according to an affidavit in the couple's newly unsealed divorce file. The records contain no allegations from Kim Ellison that her ex-husband abused her.
A Hennepin County Family Court referee ordered the file unsealed after legal efforts by the Star Tribune and Alpha News, a right-leaning news site, that followed allegations in August by Ellison's ex-girlfriend Karen Monahan that he physically and emotionally abused her. Ellison, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, denies the claim.
The Ellisons, who divorced in 2012, opposed the unsealing of their divorce file, citing privacy concerns. Divorce records are typically public, but judges will often agree to seal them if both parties to the case agree and no one else objects.
The Washington Post
Investigations Analysis What we know about the 15 Saudis said to have played a role in Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance
The Saudi government has denied involvement in the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, and President Trump has suggested that “rogue killers” might have been responsible for his alleged slaying Oct. 2 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
But 12 of 15 Saudi men Turkish officials say played a role in Khashoggi’s disappearance appear to have links to Saudi security services, according to their posts on social media, emails, previous reports in local media and other material reviewed by The Post.
A passport registered to one of the men, provided to The Post by Turkish officials, has been used to enter the United States at least five times since 2014, overlapping in three of those instances with visits by the royal family. Another of the men appears to be pictured traveling with the crown prince during visits this year to France, Spain and the United States. And on a caller-ID app that is popular in the Arab word, two other men are repeatedly identified as working in the office of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump says ‘certainly looks’ as if Khashoggi is dead as pressure mounts on Saudi Arabia
Trump said Thursday it appears that Jamal Khashoggi is dead and warned that his administration could consider “very severe” measures against Saudi Arabia, sharply raising pressures on the kingdom as it prepares its own accounting of the journalist’s disappearance.
Trump’s remarks reflect the vacillating strategies and views in the White House over its response and possible punishments toward one of its key Middle East allies.
Trump has said any U.S. actions over Khashoggi’s disappearance must take into account the security and defense ties the United States has with the kingdom. But Trump also must contend with the international furor and calls within Republican ranks to take a harder line on Saudi Arabia.
In North Carolina, hurricanes did what scientists could not: Convince Republicans that climate change is real
While… Trump continued this week to deny the effects of climate change in the face of overwhelming scientific agreement that it is occurring — most recently noted in a landmark United Nations report that he has dismissed — a discernible shift appears to be occurring among Republican voters in North Carolina, a state pummeled by two hurricanes in two years.
The impact, say residents of this conservative congressional district, lies right before their eyes, prompting conversations among farmers, fishermen and others on how climate change has hurt the local economy and environment. […]
“I’m not a scientist. I just know what I see,” said Carl Marshburn, a Republican who has operated tour boats along the Cape Fear River for three decades. He said he’s had to start coating the bottom of his river boats with antifouling paint to prevent barnacles and other marine organisms from growing amid saltwater intrusion.
Ars Technica
Ajit Pai killed rules that could have helped Florida recover from hurricane
The Federal Communications Commission chairman slammed wireless carriers on Tuesday for failing to quickly restore phone service in Florida after Hurricane Michael, calling the delay "completely unacceptable."
But FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's statement ignored his agency's deregulatory blitz that left consumers without protections designed to ensure restoration of service after disasters, according to longtime telecom attorney and consumer advocate Harold Feld.
The Obama-era FCC wrote new regulations to protect consumers after Verizon tried to avoid rebuilding wireline phone infrastructure in Fire Island, New York, after Hurricane Sandy hit the area in October 2012. But Pai repealed those rules, claiming that they prevented carriers from upgrading old copper networks to fiber. Pai's repeal order makes zero mentions of Fire Island and makes reference to Verizon's response to Hurricane Sandy only once, in a footnote.
How did Easter Islanders survive without wells or streams?
Archaeologists are piecing together more details about how the Rapanui people once erected the formerly enigmatic stone statues, or moai. But one of the island’s lingering mysteries is how the Rapanui found enough water to sustain thousands of people on a small island. Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, has no permanent streams, and its three lakes are hard to reach and far from archaeological evidence of settlement. But when European colonists arrived in the late 1700s, thousands of people already lived on the island, and they had to be getting their drinking water somewhere.
According to geoscientist Tanya Brosnan of California State University, the Rapanui probably got at least some of their drinking water from places along the coast where fresh groundwater seeped out of the island’s bedrock and into the sea. The resulting mixture would have been brackish but safe to drink, and it could have sustained populations of thousands on an island with few other reliable sources of fresh water. That’s common knowledge among the modern Rapanui people, but it hasn’t been clear that pre-contact people got their water the same way.
“Our work was certainly not ‘discovering’ anything that people didn’t already know about. Rather, we worked to put together an overall picture of groundwater and its accessibility for past populations,” Binghamton University archaeologist Carl Lipo, a coauthor on the study, told Ars.
The Root
Neither Voter Suppression Nor Being Called 'Coon' and the N-Word Will Stop Black Georgia From Voting
Sarah Jenkins has long had to deal with simmering community tensions. She owns a small business in a white part of town that caters to senior citizens and people with mental disabilities, an arrangement many of her neighbors frown upon.
But since “Ms. Jenkins,” as folks like to call her, became a big supporter of Stacey Abrams—who is trying to become the first black woman to become governor anywhere in the nation—those tensions have boiled over. They’ve grown especially ugly since Abrams won the Democratic nomination in her quest to lead Georgia.
The Abrams campaign signs Jenkins placed on her lawn were frequently stolen; she would replace them. But then came the one-word, handwritten messages on white pieces of paper that started showing up in her mailbox.
“Coon,” some of them said.
There were other choice racist terms Jenkins didn’t want to repeat.