Two Mueller prosecutors have said, in private, that there was sufficient evidence to file federal criminal charges of obstruction of justice against President Trump for his attempts to halt or subvert Mueller’s investigation. It was only Trump’s status as president that stopped the Mueller team from filing such charges. Though they could not charge Trump, …

As more Republicans board the impeachment train, Donald Trump is readying himself for the inevitable. Michael Gerson, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that House leader should begin laying groundwork for impeachment. He argues that it is their duty as government leaders, and their failure to do so …

Earlier this week, Bernie Sanders appeared at a town hall meeting televised by Fox News. It was a bold move for the extremely liberal Sanders, who has long complained of unfair treatment by Fox News. While most of the town hall will fade from memory, one moment has made waves. The moderator asked how many …

Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana has officially announced that he is running for the office president, after a month-long rise to national political stardom. Bttigieg, if elected, would not only be the youngest candidate ever to win the election but also the first openly gay one. Although young, Buttigieg boasts a …

A journalist at The Guardian recently described the impact of cable news on his family. He no longer talks to his mother, a devout Fox News viewer, about politics. He took to Twitter to ask how many families have dealt with similar divisions. The response was overwhelming, with many describing downright falling-outs with family members. …

Although the earliest speculations about the existence of black holes date back to the late eighteenth century, those speculations have been limited to mathematical equations and discussions of theoretical physics. Yesterday, the world finally saw proof of their existence in the form of a photograph. To the untrained eye, the image doesn’t look like much …

Tibetan nomads have lived on the grasslands of central Tibet for 8,000 years. Soon, that long legacy will be over. In the past few months, China has ramped up a forced relocation policy, which requires that the nomads move to villages. According to the Chinese government, the policy is meant to protect the environment. Alternative sources, however, report that the land is being sold to developers.

This news is bringing (yet more) controversy to Reddit. In the discussion thread about the news, comments are disappearing and being deleted with unusual frequency. Some users speculate that it’s because Chinese social media company Tencent is a major investor in Reddit.

The displacement of Tibetan nomads is part of a drawn out cultural genocide against the Tibetan people, and that is but one of the peoples that China is attempting to “assimilate.”  As many as one million Uighurs are currently being held in secret concentration camps: “The allegations came from multiple sources, including activist group Chinese Human Rights Defenders, which said in a report last month that 21 percent of all arrests recorded in China in 2017 were in Xinjiang.” 

China’s economic ties to major world powers will likely ensure that its human rights violations continue unabated. 

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A man who was allegedly attempting to hunt rhinos illegally was trampled to death by elephants in Kruger National Park, South Africa last week. “According to the family of the deceased, they were called by his accomplices who notified them that their relative had been killed by an elephant while they were in the KNP to poach a rhino on Tuesday evening,” according to a spokesperson. 

After watching their friend be trampled by elephants, the other hunters fled. The man’s remains were then eaten by lions––everything except his skull and a pair of pants. Rangers found the evidence after the victim’s family pleaded for the return of his remains. 

Unsurprisingly, the internet is celebrating this as sweet poetic justice for a criminal, but a few––especially on Reddit––express sympathy for the victim, who was likely poor and used hunting as a means of feeding his family. Hopefully, this man’s death will serve as a reminder to poachers that what they do is not only illegal, but also incredibly dangerous. Similarly, perhaps the internet outrage machine can turn its focus on the systematic poverty that drives people to violate anti-poaching laws, which will likely do more to reduce poaching than all the grave-dancing they can muster. 

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Yoga is a strange phenomenon. It’s not exactly an exercise, and it’s not exactly a spiritual practice. Rather, it’s a bit of both. It’s also a business––though its practitioners may not like to think of it that way. Because yoga is not entirely one thing, it is the perfect place for unscrupulous people to make money. 

A recent New York Times article describes how many yogi practitioners get duped into signing up for teacher trainings. These trainings are touted as a way to deepen one’s yoga practice and make extra money. The problem is, they’re not cheap. One woman describes paying $1,500 for the actual course, and then another $500 for a more training––training that she did not know about at first. She believed that she would be able to earn that back by teaching courses, but the studio that convinced her to do the training, a national chain called Core Power, has not given her an opportunity to teach. As a result, she’s saddled with debt. 

This is, of course, nothing new in American religious history. In the mid 1800s, two practices spread like wildfire around the country: mesmerism and phrenology. Both were touted as both spiritual and medical phenomenon, and “experts” in the tradition sold their knowledge in the form of trainings. Eventually, the practices were exposed as pseudoscience and died out. Yoga may not be going anywhere, but teacher trainings may eventually be outed. 

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New York lawmakers have suggested a bill that ends religious vaccine exemptions amidst a measles outbreak. State Sen. David Carlucci has said, “The goal here is to push legislation to remove all non-medical exemptions for vaccination for children to go to school in New York state. We’ve seen the spread of measles really spread like wildfire in communities where the vaccination rates are not high.” A group of Democratic lawmakers support the bill, which aims to close what’s called the “personal belief loophole.” Lawmakers assert that no major religions prohibit vaccinations, but instead that the decision to opt out of a vaccine is based on individuals’ personal beliefs. 

Measles outbreaks are on the rise around the country. There have been a total of 87 individual, confirmed cases of measles in 15 states from January 1 to March 28, making this current outbreak  streak the second highest. The dubious honor of first goes to an outbreak that infected 667 in 2014. The recent swath of outbreaks comes individuals returning from places like Israel, Ukraine and the Philippines, which are all experiencing major outbreaks. Measles outbreaks are only going to get worse as more parents refuse to vaccinate their children. We can therefore expect more laws like this to crop up in effected states.

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A House of Representatives committee has voted to issue a subpoena demanding that the justice department release the full Mueller report and all the evidence about the Trump campaign’s connections with Russia. The vote comes after Attorney General William Barr ignored the Democrat’s deadline demanding he submit the report to Congress. 

Texas Representative John Ratcliffe said, “The attorney general didn’t comply with the democrat’s arbitrary 2 April demand deadline because he can’t comply. Because the law precludes him from complying. Because the attorney general wasn’t going to commit crimes to comply with that deadline.” Ratcliffe is a strong Trump supporter, but his stance is a good indication of the overall Republican stance.

Far from relaxing, tensions have only increased since William Barr’s controversial letter summarizing the Mueller report. Many on the liberal side of the aisle believe that the few people who have seen the report are those who are least trustworthy. 

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has said, “I think it’s inevitable that Bob Mueller is going to have to testify before Congress…[the committee has] a statutory requirement that the Intelligence Community, FBI, brief us on any significant counterintelligence or intelligence activity. And it’s hard to imagine something that rises more to that level than this investigation.” 

We all learned this lesson as kids: When at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. We’re taught to value getting back on the ol’ horse no matter how hard the fall. With that in mind, you have to admire Trump’s dedication to blocking immigration from Mexico. He recently threatened to close the border with Mexico entirely in order to stop the influx of migrants. Economists of all sorts have warned that there could be serious economic fallout if he does close the border.  According to Jared Kushner, Trump is merely attempting to pressure lawmakers to take action on illegal immigration, but Trump has followed through on similar threats. 

If Trump does follow through, he’s going to push millions of millennials past the breaking point. Without an open border with Mexico, the supply of avocados in the United States will dry up in a scant three weeks. Prices are already on the rise, and if the border does close you can bet your fancy toast that you’re going be paying top dollar for your healthy fats. 

Trump has turned to these threats because earlier attempts to halt immigration failed. Trump lost a showdown with the Democrats earlier this year, but he tried to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by declaring a national emergency. The House of Representatives, however, blocked it, followed by the Senate. 

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