Wednesday, December 4, 2019

America's humiliation continues as Trump rants, rambles, and lies in London


ICYMI: Here are the top stories of the week so far:

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Three women and six children died in an attack on an extended Mormon family as they traveled in Mexico

by Jill Hudson and Korva Coleman

First Up

Members of the extended LeBaron family were caught in a brutal attack, Mexican officials say. Here, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador looks on as Security Minister Alfonso Durazo discusses the attack during a news conference Tuesday morning.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador via Facebook

Here's what we're following today.

Three women and six children died in an attack on an extended Mormon family as they traveled in Mexico. The victims, all reportedly U.S. citizens, may have been mistakenly attacked by cartel members, local reports say. 

E. Jean Carroll, the advice columnist who says President Trump sexually assaulted her more than two decades ago in a New York City department store, is suing the president for defamation. The White House contradicted the claim, calling it and the author a “fraud.” 

President Trump has lost another legal fight in his efforts to keep his tax returns private. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Trump's accounting firm must turn over the returns to the Manhattan district attorney. The president will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Two major California wildfires are nearly contained. The huge Kincade Fire in Northern California and the surprise Maria Fire near Los Angeles are likely in their final days, according to state fire officials. 

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Impeachment Update

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified Oct. 11 as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The first transcripts from the impeachment inquiry were released to the public on Monday. 

Marie Yovanovitch was recalled from her position as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine earlier this year amid what she called a “concerted campaign” against her. Yovanovich testified Oct. 11 that she was warned to “watch her back” by a senior Ukrainian official, according to the newly released transcript of her closed-door deposition before Congress. 

The former top aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talked behind closed doors with House investigators about the Ukraine affair. Michael McKinley testified that he stepped down from his post because he objected to the practices within the administration in connection with the Ukraine matter.

Climate News

A vineyard worker drives a grape harvester tractor in the Bordeaux region of southwestern France, where climate change is raising new challenges for winemakers.
Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images

On Monday, the Trump administration formally notified the United Nations that it is leaving the Paris climate agreement. The withdrawal will be complete this time next year, after a one-year waiting period has elapsed.

In France, climate change is already affecting one of the country’s most emblematic industries — winemaking. French vintners say heat, drought and erratic weather are altering the landscape and their centuries-old way of working.

The Trump administration is seeking to relax Obama-era rules that govern waste products from coal-fired power plants. Environmental groups object this would increase the danger of tainted drinking water or toxic spills. 

High up in the Arctic Ocean close to the North Pole, a solitary ship floats in darkness, moored to an expansive piece of ice. If all goes according to plan, the ship will remain with that ice for an entire year, so that scientists on board can study the Arctic system and how it's responding to climate change.

Today's Listen

Morning Edition: The radio news show that almost wasn’t. 
A staff photo taken during the early days of Morning Edition. Co-host Bob Edwards is in the back row, standing seventh from the left among the three men in glasses. His co-host, Barbara Hoctor, sits on the table at right, holding a mug. Hoctor left the show after a few weeks. Edwards was host until 2004, when he went to SiriusXM.
Stan Barouh/NPR

Morning Edition debuted on Nov. 5, 1979, to a rocky beginning, including a total revamp of hosts and leadership, an internal boycott by reporters and resource challenges. (Listening time, 7:13)
► LISTEN

The Picture Show 

Challenging LGBTQ identity in the African diaspora.
Nesma (left) and Anys are Algerian siblings who came out to each other at a party. They live in Paris, and both identify as queer. "It now makes us stronger and committed together for the queer and Algerian causes," Anys says.
Mikael Chukwuma Owunna

In 2005, when Mikael Chukwuma Owunna was 15, he came out as gay on MySpace. At the time, many of his Nigerian family members deemed his sexual orientation “un-African.” Owunna is a Nigerian Swedish engineer, photographer and Fulbright scholar born and raised in Pittsburgh, where he’s still based today. But when he went home to Nigeria for the holidays as a teenager, a priestess performed several forced exorcisms to “wash the ‘gay devil’ out.” Owunna's new book, Limitless Africanscaptures the stories of LGBTQ African immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers reconciling their identity and their heritage.

Before You Go

Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado died Saturday at age 87.
Tallulah Fontaine for NPR

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