Moscow Mitch

The Federal Election Commission will effectively shut down after a Republican appointee resigned, leaving the panel without a legally-required four-member quorum.

Republican appointee Matthew Petersen, who was nominated to be a federal judge by President Trump before withdrawing after being unable to answer basic legal questions, announced his resignation Monday.

The move comes days after Petersen and the lone other Republican on the panel blocked the FEC from investigating a complaint alleging that Russian operatives may have illegally funneled money to the Trump campaign through the NRA.

“Without a quorum, certain Commission activities will not take place. For example, the Commission will not be able to hold meetings, initiate audits, vote on enforcement matters, issue advisory opinions, or engage in rulemakings,” Republican commissioner Caroline Hunter said in a statement Monday.

The lack of a quorum leaves the FEC with […]

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Credit: Michael Tercha/Getty

President Donald Trump sought to defend his environmental record on Monday after skipping a meeting on climate change with world leaders at the G-7.

Asked in a news conference at the close of the annual gathering whether he still harbors skepticism toward science that shows global temperatures rising at a dangerous pace, Trump insisted that he was an “environmentalist,” even as he talked up his administration’s support for fossil fuels.

“I feel that the United States has tremendous wealth. The wealth is under its feet. I’ve made that wealth come alive,” he said, pointing to the United States’ rise to a global leader in oil exports and his efforts to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for oil drilling, an initiative that has hit a number of roadblocks.

But he again dismissed sources of renewable energy like wind power, referring to power generating wind turbines as “windmills” and telling reporters he didn’t want to waste America’s “tremendous” energy wealth on “dreams.”

Trump caused a commotion Monday when he skipped […]

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Amazon forest after the fires

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump did not commit to a $20 million package proposed at the G7 to help Brazil fight fires in the Amazon, a Trump administration spokesman said Wednesday.

From 2000 to 2018, 109 counties in 22 states, from California to Kansas to North Carolina, went from majority white to majority nonwhite – that is, counties where non-Hispanic whites are no longer the majority, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data. (Our analysis includes only counties with a minimum population of 10,000 in 2018. These counties represent 77% of the nation’s 3,142 counties and include 99% of the U.S. population.)

Overall, 293 U.S. counties were majority nonwhite in 2018. Most of these counties are concentrated in California, the South and on the East Coast, with few in the country’s middle section. In addition, several majority white counties with large populations may flip in coming years. Fairfax County, Virginia (total of 1.2 million), Pima County, […]

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Jakarta, capital of Indonesia at night
Credit: Getty

Indonesia announced Monday that it will be relocating its capital from Jakarta, which is slowly sinking into the sea.

The new capital city will be in the East Kalimantan province on Borneo island, President Joko Widodo said at a news conference in Jakarta’s presidential palace, according to The Associated Press.

“We couldn’t continue to allow the burden on Jakarta and Java island to increase in terms of population density,” he said. “Economic disparities between Java and elsewhere would also increase.”

The transition is expected to take a decade, and CNN Indonesia said the total cost could be $34 billion.

Jakarta is a huge metropolis built on swampy land, and it has been sinking for decades. Rising sea levels caused by climate change are adding to the problem. So is the continued extraction of groundwater, the rising population and congestion.

About 10 million people live in Jakarta, with 30 million in the area.

Widodo said it was necessary to move the capital because Jakarta could no longer be the center of all life for […]

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