The Atlantic
California Is Becoming Unlivable
Right now, wildfires are scorching tens of thousands of acres in California, choking the air with smoke, spurring widespread prophylactic blackouts, and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people. Right now, roughly 130,000 Californians are homeless, and millions more are shelling out far more in rent than they can afford, commuting into expensive cities from faraway suburbs and towns, or doubling up in houses and apartments.
Wildfires and lack of affordable housing—these are two of the most visible and urgent crises facing California, raising the question of whether the country’s dreamiest, most optimistic state is fast becoming unlivable. Climate change is turning it into a tinderbox; the soaring cost of living is forcing even wealthy families into financial precarity. And, in some ways, the two crises are one: The housing crunch in urban centers has pushed construction to cheaper, more peripheral areas, where wildfire risk is greater.
California’s housing crisis and its fire crisis often collide in what’s known as the wildland-urban interface, or WUI, where trailer parks and exurban culs-de-sac and cabins have sprung up amid the state’s scrublands and pine forests and grassy ridges. Roughly half of the housing units built in California between 1990 and 2010 are in the WUI, which has expanded by roughly 1,000 square miles. As a result, 2 million homes, or one in seven in the state, are at high or extreme risk for wildfire, according to one estimate from the Center for Insurance Policy and Research. That’s three times as many as in any other state.
The Republican Tax Cuts Didn’t Work
Donald Trump’s signature legislative achievement was the corporate-tax cut he signed in 2017. Republicans said it would grow the economy by up to 6 percent, stimulate business investment, and pay for itself.
None of those promises have come to pass. GDP growth has declined to less than 2 percent according to the latest report, released yesterday. Business investment has now declined for two straight quarters, dragging down economic growth. And the federal deficit exceeds $1 trillion.
These shortcomings alone might be enough to embolden Democrats to fight Trump on economic grounds just one year from a crucial 2020 election. But they’re just the tip of the iceberg.
Los Angeles Times
Second National Security Council official says he voiced concerns about Trump’s call with Ukrainian leader
A second senior White House aide told House investigators Thursday that he immediately expressed concerns to National Security Council lawyers after a phone call in which … Trump pressed Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, a conversation at the heart of the impeachment investigation.
But the aide also told lawmakers that he did not believe anything illegal was discussed on the call.
Tim Morrison, who testified behind closed doors a day after he announced plans to resign as Trump’s top advisor for Russian and European affairs, was the second official to say he went to authorities after he heard Trump ask Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for a “favor” during the controversial July 25 phone call.
A former Republican staffer on Capitol Hill and the first White House political appointee to appear, Morrison largely echoed the testimony of Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, another White House expert on Ukraine, who told the panel on Tuesday that he was so alarmed after the call that he went to the National Security Council’s lead counsel to complain.
No rain in sight for L.A. area for next few weeks; critical fire weather warnings extended
The unusually long Santa Ana wind event is expected to ease Thursday evening. And with it, the fire risk will be reduced as well.
But there is not much good news on the horizon, with forecasters seeing little chance of rain in the next few weeks.
Critical fire weather warnings have been extended through Friday night for the windiest spots of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, continuing red-flag conditions for an additional 24 hours. The red-flag warnings, which sound the alarm for high winds, dry air and parched vegetation, will persist for inland mountains and valleys in Los Angeles and Ventura counties and the Santa Clarita Valley because of ongoing winds from the northeast and very dry air. Other areas were expected to see red-flag warnings expire as gusts ease Thursday evening to 25 mph to 35 mph.
Katie Hill: ‘I am leaving because of a misogynistic culture that gleefully consumed my naked pictures’
In a blistering, emotional final House speech, Rep. Katie Hill, the freshman Democrat from Santa Clarita, told colleagues Thursday that she is leaving Congress because of a double standard for female politicians, a ruthless political climate and a misogynistic culture that helped her estranged husband bring down her budding career.
“The forces of revenge by a bitter jealous man, cyber exploitation and sexual shaming that target our gender, and a large segment of society that fears and hates powerful women, have combined to push a young woman out of power and say she doesn’t belong here,” Hill, 32, said during her final floor speech. She plans to resign Friday.
Her decision came following publication of nude photos of her and allegations that she had romantic relationships with congressional and campaign subordinates.
Bloomberg
Trump’s Presidency on Treacherous New Ground After House Vote
Donald Trump’s presidency stands on its most treacherous ground after the House voted Thursday to approve and proceed with its impeachment inquiry.
The resolution, passed on a largely party-line 232-196 vote, does not just lay out a road map for the public phase of the inquiry. It sends a clear signal that a vote to impeach Trump, and a trial in the Senate, is all but inevitable.
Trump becomes just the fourth president to be subject to a formal impeachment effort. Two of them, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson, were impeached in the House but weren’t convicted in the Senate. Richard Nixon, facing certain conviction, resigned before the House could vote to approve articles of impeachment.
U.S. Jobs Report Expected to Show Weaker Hiring, Strike Impact
Economists expect Friday’s U.S. payrolls report will show job growth slumped to a five-month low in October, though it may be trickier than usual to sort out the true underlying trend.
The data will likely reflect the impact of 46,000 striking General Motors Co. workers, as well as related effects from any idling at the company’s suppliers and contractors. The automaker’s longest nationwide walkout since 1970 began Sept. 15 and stretched for six weeks, through the mid-month reference period that the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to calculate the monthly jobs report. […]
Estimates in Bloomberg’s payrolls survey range from increases of 25,000 to 140,000. All forecasters expect a drop in manufacturing payrolls, which are estimated to have tumbled by 55,000, the most in a decade, amid the GM strike.
One Wildfire is Spewing Enough Smoke to Rival 320,000 Cars
Wildfires are burning a gaping hole in California’s effort to fight climate change.
Take the Kincade fire raging north of San Francisco. It’s already spewed enough smoke to rival the annual tail-pipe emissions of 320,000 automobiles, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Forest Service. And it’s just one of nearly a dozen major blazes burning statewide.
That poses a huge problem for California, which has some of the most ambitious goals anywhere to cut greenhouse gases. Even as the state aggressively promotes electric cars and forces new homes to install solar panels starting next year, smoke from wildfires is offsetting many of its emissions cuts.
The Washington Post
A divided House backs impeachment probe of Trump
A divided House took a critical step forward in its impeachment inquiry into … Trump on Thursday, approving guidelines for the public phase of the probe as a top White House official corroborated earlier accounts that the president pressured Ukraine to investigate a political rival.
The House approved a resolution, 232 to 196, that formalized the inquiry, clearing the way for nationally televised hearings in mid-November and ensuring Trump’s right to participate in the latter stage of the proceedings unless he tries to block witnesses from testifying. […]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who resisted impeachment for months, said this week that she has found the evidence against Trump convincing. Still, she said, there has been no final decision on impeachment.
“We’ve had enough for a very long time,” Pelosi said Monday at a roundtable with columnists, adding that the House investigators would pursue additional corroboration of witness accounts.
John Bolton’s former deputy asks judge to resolve conflicting demands for House impeachment testimony
Lawyers for two former high-level Trump administration officials were in court Thursday in legal battles that center on whether they will testify in the House impeachment inquiry and test the limits of the administration’s claims that presidential advisers are “absolutely immune” from congressional subpoena.
Both cases come down to whether the two former aides — White House counsel Donald McGahn and deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman — can be forced to testify on Capitol Hill. […]
At McGahn’s hearing, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed incredulity at the Trump administration’s claim that the former White House counsel and top presidential aides cannot be compelled to testify by Congress, calling it a “peculiar” argument that threatens to upset the Constitution’s system of checks and balances.
Big automakers take risks in siding with Trump administration against California
The decision this week by several major automakers — including General Motors, Toyota and Fiat Chrysler — to back the Trump administration in a high-stakes legal fight with California over fuel-efficiency standards has fractured an industry that has long prided itself for speaking with a single voice in Washington.
It also represents a calculated political risk, sowing doubt about the industry’s climate commitments and potentially backfiring if Democrats take back the White House in 2020.
The move has sparked a backlash among congressional Democrats historically allied with the auto industry and has angered some consumers, one of whom tweeted, “Boycott time!” while another said, “GM to the planet: Drop dead.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Minnesota Republican Party leaves Trump challengers off presidential primary ballot
Donald Trump will be the only choice on the ballot in Minnesota's Republican presidential primary, even though he's not the only candidate. The state Republican Party has decided voters won't have any alternatives.
Its chairwoman, Jennifer Carnahan, sent a letter to the Minnesota Secretary of State on Oct. 24 outlining the party's "determination of candidates" for the March 3 Republican primary ballot. Trump is the only name listed.
Absent are three other Republicans who, while long shots, are prominent political names running active campaigns: former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois.
383,000-gallon oil spill in North Dakota is Keystone pipeline's 2nd in 2 years
An oil spill on the Keystone pipeline in northeastern North Dakota this week is the second significant leak in two years on a crude oil pipeline that opened less than a decade ago.
The Keystone pipeline, which transports oil from Alberta to the Midwest, appears to have ruptured on Tuesday and has since spilled an estimated 383,000 gallons of crude near the town of Edinburg, according to the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality.
The Calgary-based company that operates the pipeline, TC Energy, said in a statement that the leak has affected about 22,500 square feet of land, or about a half-acre. The company said it’s working to discover the leak’s cause, as well as cleaning up the spill and repairing the pipeline.
Politico
Eyes turn to Google as political ads divide Silicon Valley
Facebook's tolerance of misleading campaign ads has the company under nearly daily attack in Washington. Google has largely gotten a pass despite seemingly upholding similar policies. Now, that’s showing signs of changing.
"Google has been very adroit at ducking a lot of attention, whether it's the result of purposeful action or not," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told POLITICO on Thursday. "But it bears equal scrutiny."
Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) told POLITICO they also want to see Google explain itself or rethink its policies.
Democrats launch redistricting blitz with offensive to dominate Virginia
National Democratic groups are spending unprecedented sums in the race for control of Virginia’s state legislature — the first test in a yearlong campaign to maximize the party’s influence in the states before the next round of redistricting begins in 2021.
After winning the governor's mansion in 2017, Democrats are shooting for total control in Richmond. And they see next week's elections as an early chance at redemption after a 2010 drubbing that left them boxed out of the map-making process in nearly every key state.
The Independent
Trump declares himself resident of Florida in move that could help him pay less tax, says report
The Queens-born Donald Trump - who has always prided himself as the ultimate New Yorker - is said to be declaring himself a Floridian and possibly doing so for tax reasons.
A report said papers filed with the Palm Beach county circuit court, revealed Mr Trump was switching his primary residence from Manhattan to Palm Beach.
While Mr Trump long operated out of his Trump Tower penthouse as both a reality television star and a political candidate, since becoming president he has spent much more time at as Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Hoard of golden treasure stumbled upon by metal detectorist revealed to be most important Anglo-Saxon find in history
Britain’s most spectacular Anglo-Saxon treasures may well have been captured on a series of Dark Age battlefields – during bitter conflicts between rival English kingdoms.
Archaeologists, who have just completed a major study of the finds, now believe that they were captured in several big mid-seventh century battles.
It is likely that the treasures, now known as the Staffordshire Hoard, were seized (in perhaps between three and six substantial military encounters) by the English midlands kingdom of Mercia from the kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia and possibly Wessex.
Vox
The resolution vote showed Democrats are unified on their impeachment inquiry
An hour before the House’s Thursday vote formally laying out the process of the impeachment inquiry into … Donald Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi took the House floor to set the tone: resolute, yet somber.
“This is something that is very solemn,” Pelosi said, standing next to a posterboard of the American flag. “Nobody ... comes to Congress to impeach a president of the United States.” […]
Thursday’s vote showed how far a once-splintered Democratic caucus has come on impeachment. A few months ago, many Democrats including Pelosi didn’t want to broach the subject — saying the public clearly didn’t support it. But the explosive revelations that Trump had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up political dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, and allegations the president tied that demand to US military aid changed everything.
The most important part of the Democrats’ impeachment resolution
[…] The most significant provision in the resolution exempts the Intelligence Committee’s impeachment hearings from a rule that ordinarily limits questioning of witnesses to five minutes per committee member. Though the resolution leaves the five-minute rule in place for most members, it allows Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff to extend his own question time to as much as 45 minutes, so long as he gives equal time to Republican ranking committee member Devin Nunes.
These are important changes because they will allow Schiff and the team of lawyers working for him to focus their time on the impeachment hearings and to spend significant amounts of time asking probing questions during those hearings. The new rules help ensure that the hearing will not be a disjointed process, constantly jumping from one questioner to the next, without giving anyone time to build a coherent narrative.
The Guardian
Measles wipes out immune system's memory, study finds
Measles causes long-term damage to the immune system, leaving children who have had it vulnerable to other infections long after the initial illness has passed, research has revealed.
Two studies of unvaccinated children in an Orthodox Protestant community in the Netherlands found that measles wipes out the immune system’s memory of previous illnesses, returning it to a more baby-like state, and also leaves the body less equipped to fight off new infections.
Measles eliminated between 11% and 73% of children’s protective antibodies, the research found.
The fight to stop Nestlé from taking America's water to sell in plastic bottles
he network of clear streams comprising California’s Strawberry Creek run down the side of a steep, rocky mountain in a national forest two hours east of Los Angeles. Last year Nestlé siphoned 45m gallons of pristine spring water from the creek and bottled it under the Arrowhead Water label.
Though it’s on federal land, the Swiss bottled water giant paid the US Forest Service and state practically nothing, and it profited handsomely: Nestlé Waters’ 2018 worldwide sales exceeded $7.8bn.
Conservationists say some creek beds in the area are now bone dry and once-gushing springs have been reduced to mere trickles. The Forest Service recently determined Nestlé’s activities left Strawberry Creek “impaired” while “the current water extraction is drying up surface water resources”.
Meanwhile, the state is investigating whether Nestlé is illegally drawing from Strawberry Creek and in 2017 advised it to “immediately cease any unauthorized diversions”. Still, a year later, the Forest Service approved a new five-year permit that allows Nestlé to continue using federal land to extract water, a decision critics say defies common sense.
'Sand wars': the battle to replenish Florida’s beaches amid climate crisis
[…] Gorgeous sandy beaches are fundamental to Florida’s economy. A record 116.5 million tourists visited Florida in 2017, up 3.6% from 2016, generating commerce valued at $67bn.
But holding back the effects of hurricanes and high water is a project on an industrial scale – and one that’s only becoming bigger and more fraught. Some are even talking about “sand wars” in the Sunshine state.
Since the 1950s Florida authorities have spent $1.3bn “nourishing” the beaches – periodically buying in supplementary sand. Despite a huge effort, nearly half the state’s 825 miles of beaches are now considered “critically eroded”.
Deutsche Welle
Syria's Assad: Kurdish areas must return to state authority
Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Thursday that his government's ultimate goal was to restore state authority over Kurdish controlled areas in northeast Syria. But the process would be "gradual" and would "respect new realities on the ground," Assad said in a state television interview.
Earlier this month, … Donald Trump ordered US troops withdraw from the region, making way for a Turkish military offensive there. Ankara views the Syrian Kurdish fighters as an extension of the decades-long Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey.
Turkey last week struck a deal with Russia to halt its weeks-long operation. The agreement calls for the withdrawal of Syrian Kurdish fighters from areas along Turkey's border with Syria, with a view to setting up a "safe zone" where Ankara plans to repatriate some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees it currently hosts.
Activists mock Boris Johnson as old Brexit deadline expires
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson rose to power by repeatedly pledging to "get Brexit done" by October 31 "do or die, come what may" and last month famously said he would rather be "dead in a ditch" than ask for a Brexit extension.
"I will not negotiate a delay with the EU and neither does the law compel me to do so," Johnson said in Parliament less than two weeks ago.
Last week, however, Johnson was forced to break his central promise and ask Brussels for another delay after lawmakers rejected his bid to fast track the latest divorce deal. Johnson was forced by law to seek an extension after parliament made it legally binding for him to so so if no deal were agreed by October 19.
AP News
Frozen in time, US Embassy a monument to Iran hostage crisis
The U.S. Embassy in Tehran remains frozen in 1979 as the 40th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis approaches, a time capsule of revolutionary graffiti, Underwood typewriters and rotary telephones.
The diplomatic compound was overrun by students angered when Washington allowed ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi into the U.S. for medical treatment. What initially began as a sit-in devolved into 444 days of captivity for 52 Americans seized in the embassy.
Today, the embassy remains held by the Basij, a volunteer wing of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, partly as a museum and a space for student groups. Likewise, the Iranian Embassy in Washington remains empty since then-President Jimmy Carter expelled all of Iran’s diplomats during the crisis, although it is closed to the public and maintained by the U.S. State Department.
North Korea says it test-fired new multiple rocket launcher
North Korea confirmed Friday it conducted its third test-firing of a new “super-large” multiple rocket launcher that it says expands its ability to destroy enemy targets in surprise attacks, as it continues to expand its military capabilities while pressuring Washington over a standstill in nuclear negotiations.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency described the tests a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said they detected two projectiles launched from an area near the North Korean capital traveling more than 200 miles cross-country before landing in waters off the North’s eastern coast.
Experts say the North could continue to ramp up weapons demonstrations ahead of an end-of-year deadline set by leader Kim Jong Un for the U.S. to offer mutually acceptable terms to salvage a fragile diplomacy strained by disagreements over exchanging sanctions relief and disarmament steps.
NPR News
For These Vampires, A Shared Blood Meal Lets 'Friendship' Take Flight
Vampire bats might have a nasty reputation because of the way they ruthlessly drink their victims' blood, but these bloodthirsty beasts can be both generous and loyal when it comes to their fellow bats.
Captive common vampire bats will share their food with hungry bat companions, and forge such a bond that they continue to hang out with these buddies once they're released back to the wild, according to a newly published study in the journal Current Biology.
"Bats are very maligned, and vampire bats are the most maligned of the bats," says Gerald Carter of The Ohio State University, who is also a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. "What I study about them often makes people think about them in a more positive light."
How Deep Sleep May Help The Brain Clear Alzheimer's Toxins
The brain waves generated during deep sleep appear to trigger a cleaning system in the brain that protects it against Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Electrical signals known as slow waves appear just before a pulse of fluid washes through the brain, presumably removing toxins associated with Alzheimer's, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science.
The finding could help explain a puzzling link between sleep and Alzheimer's, says Laura Lewis, an author of the study and an assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering at Boston University.
Ars Technica
ACLU sues feds to get information about facial-recognition programs
The use of facial recognition has spread from photo albums and social media to airports, doorbells, schools, and law enforcement. Now, the American Civil Liberties Union wants top US agencies to share records detailing what face data they're collecting and what they're doing with it.
The ACLU in January submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the FBI seeking records relating to the agencies' "use of face recognition programs and other biometric identification and tracking technology." Almost 10 months later, the ACLU has received no response. And so the organization today filed suit against all three agencies, seeking the records.
Indian nuclear power plant’s network was hacked, officials confirm
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has acknowledged today that malware attributed by others to North Korean state actors had been found on the administrative network of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP). The admission comes a day after the company issued a denial that any attack would affect the plant's control systems.
In a press release today, NPCIL Associate Director A. K. Nema stated, "Identification of malware in NPCIL system is correct. The matter was conveyed by CERT-In [India's national computer emergency response team] when it was noticed by them on September 4, 2019."
That matches the date threat analyst Pukhraj Singh said he reported information on the breach to India's National Cyber Security Coordinator.