Afghanistan opium poppy supply plummets 95% after Taliban ban, U.N. says

Source: Reuters

Opium poppy production in Afghanistan, previously the world's top supplier, has plummeted since the Taliban administration banned the cultivation of narcotics last year, a United Nations report said on Sunday.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said opium cultivation fell throughout the country to just 10,800 hectares (26,700 acres) in 2023 from 233,000 hectares the previous year, slashing supply by 95% to 333 tons.

This was putting pressure on farmers in the war-torn country, where most people depend on agriculture and the value of poppy exports had at times outstripped the value of all formal exported goods, UNODC said.

The sharp decline could have major consequences for the economy in a country where around two-thirds of the population are already in need of humanitarian aid, the report said.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghanistan-opium-poppy-supply-plummets-95-after-taliban-ban-un-2023-11-05/

Far-right minister says nuking Gaza an option, PM suspends him from cabinet meetings

Source: Times of Isreal

2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said Sunday that one of Israel’s options in the war against Hamas was to drop a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip, in comments that were quickly disavowed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also suspended the minister from cabinet meetings.

Asked in an interview with Radio Kol Berama whether an atomic bomb should be dropped on the enclave, Eliyahu said, “This is one of the possibilities.”

Eliyahu, a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, does not have any connection to the three-member war cabinet directing the war against the Hamas terror group, nor is he part of the broader security cabinet.

When it was pointed out to the minister that there are some 240 hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip, Eliyahu doubled down.

Read more: https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-minister-says-nuking-gaza-an-option-pm-suspends-him-from-cabinet-meetings/

Judge sets trial date in Texas AG Paxton's long-delayed fraud case

Source: The Hill

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is slated to go to trial April 15 on securities fraud charges after being delayed for years.

State District Judge Andrea Beall scheduled the trial date during a hearing for Paxton on Monday, according to The Texas Tribune. While Paxton attended the hearing, the news outlet said he did not speak.

Paxton was indicted on two felony counts of securities fraud eight years ago, but the case has been continually delayed over various disputes, including where the trial should be held. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in June that the trial will remain in Houston, clearing an obstacle for many of the pretrial disputes.

Paxton’s legal team suggested it was optimistic ahead of the trial date.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4283414-texas-ken-paxton-trial-date/

Tarantula causes vehicle crash in California's Death Valley

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67262792

A foreign tourist traveling in California's Death Valley National Park has been injured in an accident caused by an unlikely culprit: a tarantula.

According to the National Park Service, a traveling Swiss couple in a rented camper van hit their brakes to avoid hitting the spider.

The van was in turn rear-ended by a 24-year-old Canadian motorcyclist, who was injured in the incident.

The spider survived the pile-up, escaping into the desert unharmed.

Read more: BBC News

Trump's lawyers file challenges to Washington election subversion case, calling it unconstitutional

Source: Associated Press

Lawyers for Donald Trump are raising new challenges to the federal election subversion case against him, telling a judge that the indictment should be dismissed because it violates the former president’s free speech rights and represents a vindictive prosecution.

The motions filed late Monday in the case charging the Republican with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost are on top of a pending argument by defense attorneys that he is immune from federal prosecution for actions taken within his official role as president.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team urged a judge last week to reject that argument and is expected to do the same for the latest motions. It is routine for defendants to ask a judge to dismiss the charges against them, but such requests are rarely granted. In Trump’s case, though, the challenges to the indictment could at a minimum force a delay in a prosecution that is set for trial in Washington next March.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-riot-jan-6-bb5ccb68a6c054ef362eff6bf57203df

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Kaine Introduces Bill to Boost Economic Certainty, Reduce Shutdown Risk

Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, introduced the Modernizing the Federal Calendar Act, legislation to reduce the use of harmful stopgap spending bills and shutdowns by changing the annual government funding deadline from October 1 to January 1, to better align with when Congress actually passes year-long funding bills.

"During my time in the Senate, Congress has never passed year-long government funding by the October 1 deadline and instead relies on short-term stopgap funding bills to kick the can down the road," said Kaine.

Every October, Americans are forced to worry about a potential government shutdown if Congress can't reach an agreement on a year-long government funding bill or CR, creating unnecessary stress and uncertainty for millions of Americans who work for or with the federal government, as well as the countless people and small businesses that are rely on government operations.

While this bill would not eliminate the possibility of CRs or shutdowns, it would reduce the risk of government shutdowns in October, and reduce the time spent on CRs, and it would lead to a higher probability of completing government funding work on time.

https://www.kaine.senate.gov/press-releases/kaine-introduces-bill-to-boost-economic-certainty-reduce-shutdown-risk

'Supercontinent' could make Earth uninhabitable in 250m years, study predicts

Source: The Guardian

The formation of a supercontinent on Earth could wipe out humans and any other mammals that are still around in 250m years, according to a study.

The mass extinction would be caused primarily by heat stress as a result of greater volcanic activity that would put twice as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as current levels, an older sun that would emit more radiation and the extent of inland deserts in the tropics.

The supercontinent Pangea Ultima is expected to take shape when all the current continents merge together in the distant future. The paper, which was published on Monday in Nature Geoscience, is the first attempt to model how extreme the climate might become from that geological rearrangement.

Using a UK Met Office climate model and the University of Bristol supercomputer, the simulation also provided tectonic clues to past extinction events and data that could be of use to astronomers looking for other habitable planets.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/25/supercontinent-could-make-earth-uninhabitable-in-250m-years-study-predicts?utm_source=ground.news&utm_medium=referral