Tuesday, Dec 16th
Last update09:33:48 AM GMT
Oakland has become the second city in the US to decriminalize magic mushrooms and other psychedelics, with a policy that activists hope will spark a national legalization movement.
The measure, passed on Tuesday night by councilmembers in the progressive northern California city, comes one month after voters in Denver approved a similar ballot initiative to decriminalize psilocybin, which supporters say can help treat depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other conditions.
The Department of Health and Human Services said it would immediately end a $2 million-a-year contract with the University of California, San Francisco, for research involving fetal tissue from elective abortions; the contract started in 2013. The department also said that based on a review it began last fall, it would discontinue all research within the National Institutes of Health involving fetal tissue from elective abortions.
The Tariff Man is on track to hit hard again this summer, and it's bad news for EU companies ranging from Dutch cheesemakers to industrial heavyweight Airbus.
European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström warned the EU's trade ministers at a meeting on Monday that they need to steel themselves for U.S. President Donald Trump to hit billions of euros worth of European goods with tariffs, ramping up a decadeslong dispute over unwarranted subsidies for Airbus.
Three officials in the room said Malmström warned them that the U.S. has rejected attempts to negotiate a deal on aviation subsidies and added that Washington is now willing to proceed with the tariffs, which would be legal under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
Poland's ruling Law and Justice party won surprisingly strong backing in the European Parliament elections, with a majority announced Monday.
Candidates of the far-right party, known as PiS, received 46.01 percent of the vote, compared with 37.87 percent for the five-party opposition European Coalition of parties and 6.02 for the left-wing Wiosna, or Springtime, party. PiS won 27 seats in the country's European Parliament delegation, compared to 22 for the European Coalition and three for Wiosna. The results were better for PiS than those announced from exit polls.
Automation has made planes safer and more efficient, but the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets is leading some to wonder if there is a dangerous flip side.
While advanced autopilots and computers are now considered an integral part of any modern jetliner, many pilots worry that the systems are detracting from developing and maintaining their own abilities.
"We’ve been talking about this in the industry for years. Pilots are losing their basic flying skills and there’s an overreliance on automation," said Les Westbrooks, an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, after the latest 737 Max crash, an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March.
Theresa May has said she will quit as Conservative leader on 7 June, paving the way for a contest to decide a new prime minister.
In an emotional statement, she said she had done her best to deliver Brexit and it was a matter of "deep regret" that she had been unable to do so.
Mrs May said she would continue to serve as PM while a Conservative leadership contest takes place.
The party said it hoped a new leader could be in place by the end of July.
It means Mrs May will still be prime minister when US President Donald Trump makes his state visit to the UK at the start of June.
The compromise with the House Intelligence Committee represented a rare example of cooperation during a period of tension and multiple investigations of the Trump administration by Congress.
The House Judiciary Committee found Attorney General William Barr in contempt this month for defying a subpoena for all redacted parts of the Mueller report and millions of pages of evidence underlying the report. Former White House counsel Don McGahn defied a subpoena Tuesday to testify to the Judiciary Committee.
McGahn's refusal to comply with a House Judiciary Committee subpoena came at the direction of the White House and after a legal opinion from the Justice Department on Monday said he could not be forced to appear before the panel.
The committee's chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., bristled at McGahn's absence. “This conduct is not remotely acceptable,” he said Tuesday, facing an empty witness chair. “Our subpoenas are not optional.”
In the interview that was aired Friday, Barr told Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer that House Democrats who have accused him of contempt of Congress are discrediting him because they’re likely “concerned about the outcome of a review of what happened during the election.” Furthermore, the attorney general said he wants to see if FBI officials “put their thumb on the scale” during the Russia investigation, especially during the origins of it.
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