Some weeks I start this roundup and I think, “Oh, there’s not going to be any good news.” Every week I’ve been proven wrong, and this week was certainly no exception! While there’s a lot of bad news out there, there are plenty of reasons to rejoice that every day, at least something is moving forward!
Politics
Conway says, “Not so fast”:
George Conway, a prominent attorney and husband of President Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway, is pushing back against the president’s claim’s about the constitutionality of special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment.
In an article published Monday on Lawfare, a well-regarded legal site, Conway appeared to be responding to a tweet from President Trump that claimed Mueller’s appointment was unconstitutional.
[…]
In his at-times scathing essay, titled “The Terrible Arguments Against the Constitutionality of the Mueller Investigation,” Conway laid out a detailed critique of the president, his claims and the article they were based on.
Cohen may be weakest link:
"Trump should be super worried about Michael Cohen," a former White House official told Vanity Fair. "If anyone can blow up Trump, it's him."
Another unnamed source claimed Cohen "expects to be arrested any day now," which Cohen denied saying when asked for comment.
Trump tattles on himself:
U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions during a press conference following his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12, 2018 in Singapore. Trump described his meeting with Kim as 'better than anyone could have expected.'
“I may be wrong. I may stand before you in six months and say, ‘Hey, I was wrong,’” Trump told reporters. “I don’t know if I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of an excuse.”
Congress can get something done:
The Senate adopted a measure Tuesday to block President Donald Trump's deal to lift sanctions from Chinese telecom company ZTE.
A bipartisan amendment was added to the National Defense Authorization Act that reinstitutes penalties against ZTE for violating U.S. sanctions against exporting to Iran and North Korea, and bans U.S. government agencies from purchasing any of the company's devices or services.
Who’s the snowflake?:
Rosenstein has butted heads with House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes for months over a subpoena for documents related to the Russia investigation, but the battle spilled out into public view Tuesday after Fox News reported staff on the committee felt "personally attacked" at a meeting with Rosenstein in January.
[…]
"The Deputy Attorney General was making the point -- after being threatened with contempt -- that as an American citizen charged with the offense of contempt of Congress, he would have the right to defend himself, including requesting production of relevant emails and text messages and calling them as witnesses to demonstrate that their allegations are false," the [Justice Department] official said. "That is why he put them on notice to retain relevant emails and text messages, and he hopes they did so."
Nixon to Muslims—we have your back:
New York Democratic candidate for governor Cynthia Nixon did something her opponent hasn’t bothered to do in more than seven years as governor of New York — visit a mosque.
On Monday evening, Nixon attended Iftar, the breaking of the fast after Ramadan, at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York along with the Muslim Democratic Club of New York.
“We all know it’s an election year, and we know that there are those in Washington who will demonize the Muslim community in order to turn neighbor against neighbor, divide us up — just so they can win a few votes through making Americans fear each other,” Nixon said in her remarks at the event.
“You shouldn’t have to face this kind of bigotry. You shouldn’t have to face this intolerance. You shouldn’t have to face it. Not in New York. Not in America. Not in 2018. Not now, not ever. And I want you to know that we in New York have your back and we will stand with you.”
Governor can’t stop primary:
Maine's top election official says Republican Gov. Paul LePage can't stop primary election results from moving forward.
Democratic Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said the governor could refuse to sign a proclamation of the results. But he said the governor doing so won't prevent nominations from taking effect.
LePage on Tuesday says he "probably" won't certify results from the nation's first ranked-choice primary.
But Dunlap says Maine law only talks about certifying who is actually elected to Maine office.
Voters stay in:
Monday's Supreme Court decision upholding Ohio's process of canceling certain voter registrations won't affect elections held in August and November this year.
No voters will be removed as a result of failing to vote for several years, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted's office confirmed Tuesday.
Ohio's 88 county board of elections were directed on Monday to not take any action to use the state's "supplemental process" for removing voters from the rolls ahead of the November election. The supplemental process allows elections officials to cancel registrations if a voter has not cast a ballot in two years and then fails to vote or respond to a notice within the following four years.
Republicans want in:
As Trump signed a joint statement with Kim Jong Un that offered few details on how the North Korean leader would make good on his vow to denuclearize, Republicans on Capitol Hill said Tuesday that they want and expect the White House to submit any final agreement for their approval.
And that means the president and his team will have to work overtime to sell it.
What's at stake is more than just the terms of a deal with a dictator who Trump praised as "talented" and "a very good negotiator." It’s whether any agreement will outlast the current administration.
Personal responsibility, or IOKIYAR:
A bank has seized a Tulare County dairy farm owned by Rep. David Valadao and his family to resolve more than $8 million in loans that have not been repaid, according to court documents.
In November, agriculture lender Rabobank sued Triple V Dairy in Fresno County Superior Court alleging failure to repay loans for cattle and feed totaling about $8.3 million. The Republican congressman is named in the suit along with his wife, four other family members, two other farms and 50 unnamed defendants. Also listed in the suit is a separate farm owned by the family, Lone Star Dairy, in which the congressman has no stake.
Social Change
Southern Baptist Convention faces #MeToo:
Russell Moore, 46, represents one part of a younger generation that has begun to take control in the denomination. He’s president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission at the SBC, which hosted the panel "Gospel Sexuality in a #MeToo Culture" Monday night. His group is the public policy arm of the denomination.
[...]
Moore talks about “redefining what masculinity means” in the #MeToo era. He has called on the denomination to end its alliances with the Republican Party and the religious right. He spoke out against Paige Patterson, former president of Fort Worth's Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, long before Patterson was fired from the seminary in a controversy stemming from his treatment of women.
Medical Marijuana protected:
For the first time ever, a provision protecting state medical marijuana laws is being included in base funding legislation for the U.S. Department of Justice.
While the provision in question has been federal law since 2014, in years past its enactment has required votes on the House floor or in a Senate committee. But now, in a dramatic sign of the rapidly changing politics of cannabis , the budget rider is part of the initial spending bill for the Justice Department as introduced by Republican Senate leaders.
AMA on NRA:
AMA delegates voted to adopt several of nearly a dozen gun-related proposals presented by doctor groups that are part of the AMA's membership. They agreed to:
— Support any bans on the purchase or possession of guns and ammunition by people under 21.
— Back laws that would require licensing and safety courses for gun owners and registration of all firearms.
— Press for legislation that would allow relatives of suicidal people or those who have threatened imminent violence to seek court-ordered removal of guns from the home.
— Encourage better training for physicians in how to recognize patients at risk for suicide.
— Push to eliminate loopholes in laws preventing the purchase or possession of guns by people found guilty of domestic violence, including expanding such measures to cover convicted stalkers.
Charges filed:
A Swedish prosecutor brought rape charges on Tuesday against Jean-Claude Arnault, the man at the center of a scandal that shook international cultural circles and led to the cancellation of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.
The charges are the first to emerge from a furor that has badly damaged the reputation of the Swedish Academy, the august, 232-year-old body that awards the literature prize, and has prompted power struggles, recriminations and resignations there.
[…]
A number of women have accused him of using his sway in the arts world, including his connections to the academy, to pressure young women in the arts into sex, and have said that some offenses took place at academy-owned apartments in Stockholm and Paris. Many of the accusations concerned incidents too long ago for prosecution under Swedish law.
Violence decreases in Iraq:
In an exciting new series of reports from the United Nations, violence in Iraq is declining at a rapid rate – even during the holy month of Ramadan.
The data, which was released by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Iraq Body Count database earlier this week, says that civilian deaths have fallen by a staggering 80% since the same 5-month period from last year.
Not only that, the amount of wounded civilians has fallen by 68.4% and the amount of civilian deaths related to political or religious violence has decreased by 76.4%.
Francis cleans house:
A Vatican statement said Francis had accepted the resignations of Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Bishop Gonzalo Duarte of Valparaiso and Bishop Cristian Caro of Puerto Montt. Francis named a temporary leader for each diocese.
Barros, 61, has been at the center of Chile’s growing scandal ever since Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno in 2015 over the objections of the local faithful, his own sex abuse prevention advisers and some of Chile’s other bishops. They questioned Barros’ suitability to lead given he had been a top lieutenant of Chile’s most notorious predator priest and had been accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.
[…]
Francis realized he had misjudged the Chilean situation after meeting with Cruz and reading a 2,300-page report compiled by two leading Vatican investigators about the depth of Chile’s scandal.
Spain accepts migrants:
Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo says her country agreed to take in hundreds of migrants from a rescue ship stuck in the Mediterranean because it was impossible to just stand by and do nothing.
Calvo said Tuesday that Spain is meeting its international obligations by helping to rescue people at sea and sending a message that it is not possible to "remain impassive" during a humanitarian crisis.
The Aquarius rescue ship, operated by an aid group and carrying 629 migrants, has been looking for somewhere to dock since Saturday amid a row in Europe over who should take them in.
Israel evicts illegal settlers:
Israeli police on Tuesday began evacuating Jewish settlers from 15 homes built illegally on private Palestinian land in the West Bank.
Technology
Net Neutrality in Washington State:
The State of Washington today became the first US state to impose a net neutrality law that replaces the nationwide regulations repealed by the Federal Communications Commission.
Washington's legislature and governor approved the new law three months ago and arranged for it to take effect as soon as the FCC finalized its repeal. The FCC repeal was finalized today, so Washington's state law has gone into effect.
The Washington state law prohibits home and mobile Internet providers from blocking or throttling lawful Internet traffic and from charging online services for prioritization. The rules will be enforced by the state attorney general under Washington's Consumer Protection Act.
Environment
Solar is taking over:
Overall, solar represented 55% of all new US power generation assets in Q1.
Even in Texas:
German utility E.ON said Tuesday it was making its solar energy debut in Texas with plans for a 670-acre site in the west region of the state.
E.ON announced plans for a 100-megawatt facility in Reeves County, Texas.
And Ohio:
Leading CdTe thin-film PV module manufacturer First Solar held a ground breaking ceremony on 8 June 2018 for the construction of its new 1.2GW manufacturing plant near its existing flagship facility in Perrysburg, Ohio.
The planned annual nameplate capacity of the Ohio 2 facility makes it the largest single thin-film solar module manufacturing facility in the US and combined with the Ohio 1 flagship facility, creates the largest solar thin-film manufacturing hub in the US at 1.8GW.
Both facilities are dedicated to First Solar’s large-area Series 6 modules (3x size) of its previous Series 4 modules.
And Tokyo:
In preparation for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, Tokyo is installing a series of ‘solar roads’ to boost their reputation as a progressively eco-friendly city.
The roads will generate energy through a series of solar panels that are installed underneath the surface of the streets. A special resin will cover the surface of the roads so that heavier vehicles can drive on the roads without damaging the technology.
Wind can get cheaper, more efficient:
Scientists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in Spain have developed a new system for converting offshore wind turbines' alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC) for high voltage transmission to shore.
The researchers have developed a distributed control system which can synchronize and regulate the electrical voltage and frequency of the electricity generated by the turbines so that transmission to the general network is possible using a high voltage DC link with a diode rectifier station.
This could reduce costs by up to 30 percent and could be particularly economical for large wind farms located far from shore. "What we have managed to do is to provide the technical feasibility necessary to use this kind of rectifier, since at the moment wind turbines still cannot work with them," explains José Luis Rodríguez Amenedo, from UC3M's Department of Electrical Engineering. The result is less complicated, cheaper and more flexible than other current solutions.
FERC to Perry—not so fast:
Federal regulators on Tuesday disputed the Trump administration's claim that struggles facing the coal and nuclear industries threaten the reliability of the nation's power grid.
"There is no immediate calamity or threat," the Republican chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission told Congress. Existing power sources are sufficient to satisfy the nation's energy needs, FERC Chairman Kevin McIntyre added.
Four other commissioners from both parties agreed there is no immediate threat to the grid. The comments before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee contradict a recent White House directive ordering action to keep coal-fired and nuclear power plants open as a matter of national and economic security.
Capturing toxic gases:
Led by the University of Manchester, an international team of scientists has developed a metal-organic framework material (MOF) that exhibits a selective, fully reversible and repeatable capability to remove nitrogen dioxide gas from the atmosphere in ambient conditions. This discovery, confirmed by researchers using neutron scattering at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, could lead to air filtration technologies that cost-effectively capture and convert large quantities of targeted gases, including carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, to facilitate their long-term sequestration to help mitigate air pollution and global warming.
IKEA banning single-use plastics:
The Swedish furniture giant said it plans to phase out single-use plastics by 2020, part of a commitment to shift to renewable and recycled materials. The move comes as countries across the globe are introducing levies and bans to combat single-use plastic waste, which can be harmful to marine life.
Ikea said it will introduce more plant-based food choices in its stores, such as the vegetarian hot dog that will be available in August. The company said the pledge to eliminate single-use plastics is part of a larger environmental pledge to become "people and planet positive by 2030," such as by introducing what it says will be affordable home solar products in 29 Ikea markets by 2025."
To make this a reality, we will design all products from the very beginning to be repurposed, repaired, reused, resold and recycled," said Ikea sustainability manager Lena Pripp-Kovac in a statement.
There’s bound to be lots of good election news, too, but I’ll let other writers who have more knowledge of the races cover that.
And finally, the best news of all—scientific proof that literally one person can make a difference:
Social change is an ongoing process. Widespread societal shifts, from the gains made during the Civil Rights movement to #MeToo, tend to happen incrementally over time — usually, thanks the work of a vocal minority that catalyzes progress for the majority. But researchers have long wondered how many people it actually takes to create change by turning the tide of public opinion, and now, a new study published in the journal Science has an answer: once 25 percent of a population adopts a new social norm, the rest of the population will follow, a press release about the study reports.
The new paper states that it only takes about 25 percent of a population to stand up for an issue — like stopping sexual harassment in the workplace — in order to create lasting change, and that “this idea of a social tipping point applies to standards in the workplace and any type of movement or initiative,” according to the press release. This means that, literally, one person can make a difference in helping build that critical mass needed to create change.
[…]
According to Scientific American, researchers enlisted 194 participants, and assigned them randomly to 10 online groups. The study’s abstract states that participants were repeatedly shown an image of a person, and then given a financial incentive to collectively agree upon a name for the person in the picture. Once that norm had been established, a group of activists was introduced in order to push for a change of that name, or norm. Researchers found that when the minority activist group reached 25 percent, the group dynamic quickly and dramatically shifted, and the majority of participants then adopted the new name. Even when researchers doubled and tripled the cash incentive for participants to stick to the established norm, the minority activists could still overturn it. Centola said in a press release that “When a community is close to a tipping point to cause large-scale social change, there’s no way they would know this, and if they’re just below a tipping point, they’re [sic] efforts will fail. But remarkably, just by adding one more person, and getting above the 25 percent tipping point, their efforts can have rapid success in changing the entire population’s opinion.”
So follow the advice of Mahatma Gandhi:
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”
And have a wonderful Wednesday!