In the News

Here is some other stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Terrorism; death] Boko Haram has orchestrated another attack in Niger: "The governor of the Diffa region in Niger says that an attack by the extremist group Boko Haram based in neighboring Nigeria has killed 40 people in two villages. ...Boko Haram last attacked Niger in April and killed at least 58 people. Boko Haram took control of a large swath of northeast Nigeria until a multinational force this year forced them out of towns and villages but it still engages in cross-border hit and run attacks."

[CN: War; violence; displacement] The annual United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Global Trends report has found that "worldwide displacement from wars, conflict and persecution is at the highest level ever recorded. And it's getting worse. The [report] says nearly 60 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2014. 'This is a staggering escalation in terms of people being uprooted every year. What we are talking about right now is 42,000 people are being forced out of homes every day,' [spokesperson Babar Baloch] said." The Washington Post has a UNHCR graphic that shows which countries have the highest documented rates of global displacement.

[CN: Worker exploitation] After the Senate refused to pass President Obama's trade legislation, the House of Representatives has passed it: "The 'fast-track' trade bill must now go the Senate for approval, which is by no means assured."

[CN: Racism] The Supreme Court has ruled against "a Confederate veterans group seeking the right to put the controversial flag on Texas speciality license plates. The case, Walker v Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), centered on first amendment issues of free speech and to what extent a speciality license plate represents the views of the state that issued it or the drivers who put it on their car. The court ruled 5-4 that rejecting the Texas confederate flag plate did not contravene free speech." Good.

The Obama administration has announced it will replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill. There is no word yet on who it will be, although Harriet Tubman won the poll (which was met with mixed feelings) run by a group petitioning to have Andrew Jackson replaced on the $20.

[CN: Homophobia] Here we go again: "Candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination will be urged Thursday to sign a pledge promising to support a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman. The National Organization for Marriage's request comes as the nation waits to see if the U.S. Supreme Court will rule this month to legalize same sex marriage across the country." These assholes never give up.

Something something Brian Williams, who of course deserves a second chance blah blah.

Neat: "In our solar system, the objects with rainfall, rivers and oceans can be counted on two fingers: Earth, and Saturn's moon Titan. Both also share a thick atmosphere, rocky ground and plate tectonics, and now, they have one more thing in common: polar wind that pulls gases from their atmospheres right out into space. Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is the first known planetary body besides Earth to have such a peculiar polar wind."

And finally: Beautiful black and white portraits of animals at a zoo.