The purchases totaling about 14,000 acres enable the Saudis to take advantage of farm-friendly U.S. water laws. The acquisitions have also rekindled debate over whether a patchwork of regulations and court rulings in the West favors farmers too heavily, especially those who grow thirsty, low-profit crops such as alfalfa at a time when cities are urging people to take shorter showers, skip car washes and tear out grass lawns.   read more

Concerns about corruption and child-trafficking have prompted the U.S. to suspend adoptions from several countries in recent years, including Vietnam and Cambodia. "The absolute reality is that unadopted children are the most likely to be trafficked," Johnson wrote. "There are tens of thousands of Americans...who want to open their hearts and homes to children... [Many countries] are begging the U.S. for help establishing intercountry adoption programs — and the U.S. has been slow to respond."   read more

The recent terrorist attacks have pushed many Europeans to favor greater powers for law enforcement over privacy. But opponents say such measures should not undermine the region’s tough data protection rules. Major countries in the region have landed on opposite sides of the debate. A series of European proposals, if approved, would give intelligence agencies renewed powers to compel the likes of Apple, Google and Facebook to hand over encrypted information.   read more

The likely consequences would include killer storms stronger than any in modern times, the disintegration of large parts of the polar ice sheets, and a sea level rise sufficient to begin drowning the world’s coastal cities before the end of this century. Scientist James Hansen argues that society is in such grave peril that he feels morally compelled to sound a clear warning.“We’re in danger of handing young people a situation that’s out of their control,” he said.   read more

The dolphin-safe labels are supposed to ensure that canned, dried and frozen tuna has been caught without endangering dolphins. Schools of tuna tend to gather and swim with some species of dolphins. Fishermen often have located tuna by tracking dolphins with speedboats and helicopters, then circling them with nets to get at tuna underneath. To earn a 'dolphin-safe' label, tuna must have been caught on a fishing trip that did not involve harming, trapping or killing dolphins.   read more

Two federal class actions claim the chocolate companies "turn a blind eye" to human rights abuses by cocoa suppliers in West Africa while falsely portraying themselves as socially and ethically responsible. Attorney Green told the judge that "we're dealing with very severe conditions on the Ivory Coast," where "something like 70% of the children who work on those cocoa farms are between the ages of five and eleven." He said if that information is not on the wrapper, "people won't see it."   read more

Power criticized the U.N. peacekeeping department for not quickly repatriating a Congolese contingent which had seven allegations of sex crimes in 2015. "How can we let this happen? All of us?," she asked council members, her voice rising with emotion. "...What if those soldiers were sent home sooner? How many kids could have been spared suffering unspeakable violations that no child should ever have to endure, and that they will have to carry with them for the rest of their lives?"   read more

A U.N. expert on torture, degrading and inhuman treatment is decrying "unsatisfactory results" following years of efforts to visit prisons in the United States. Special rapporteur Juan Mendez says U.S. officials continue to set what he considers excessively strict conditions for his visits, such as on which inmates he could see. Mendez told reporters Wednesday: "If I accept terms like that, every other government is going to demand the same treatment, and rightly so."   read more

An American company that bills itself as a pioneer in tracking emerging epidemics made a series of costly mistakes during the 2014 Ebola outbreak that swept across West Africa — with employees feuding with fellow responders, contributing to misdiagnosed Ebola cases and repeatedly misreading the trajectory of the virus, an AP investigation has found. Emails obtained by AP and interviews with aid workers on the ground show that some of the company's actions made an already chaotic situation worse.   read more

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canadians would appreciate it if Americans paid more attention to what's going on around the globe.“Having a little more of an awareness of what’s going on in the rest of the world, I think is, is what many Canadians would hope for Americans,” he said.   read more

Indiana cannot withhold federal funds from relief organizations that help refugee families from Syria settle in the state, a federal judge ruled. Gov. Mike Pence (R) was among 31 governors who vowed not to let any of the millions of refugees fleeing slaughter in Syria resettle in their states. Marion County-based Exodus Refugee Immigration sued the governor, claiming that Pence’s decision hampers its efforts to place about 19 Syrians who had already received federal refugee status.   read more

He has been depicted as a snarling demagogue in France, equated with Donald Duck in Spain, and described as worse than Lord Voldemort in Britain. In Europe, Trump has been treated variously as a disturbing curiosity or an entertaining political show barker. Commentators on both left and right have dismissed the notion of U.S. President Donald Trump as the stuff of fantasy, or, at worst, a momentary lapse of reason. The reaction is a mix of befuddlement, outrage and panic.   read more

This year I saw every one of the 31 nominated feature films and 15 nominated shorts. My favorite film of the year was The Big Short. As for the other nominees, I actually liked—or at least was entertained by—all of them. I found Spotlight, The Martian, Bridge of Spies and even Mad Max: Fury Road, to be standard, template Hollywood-type films: well-made and engaging, but nothing special.   read more

Until now, U.S. customs law banning imports of items produced by forced or child labor had gone largely unenforced because of two words: "consumptive demand" — if there was not sufficient supply to meet domestic demand, imports were allowed regardless of how they were produced. "It's embarrassing that for 85 years, the United States let products made with forced labor into this country, and closing this loophole gives the U.S. an important tool to fight global slavery," said Sen. Sherrod Brown.   read more

The Hellfire is a laser-guided, air-to-surface missile that weighs about 100 pounds. U.S. officials had been trying to recoup the missile for several months. The shipping error was attributed to Lockheed's freight forwarders. Cuba said the missile had arrived as a result of "error or mishandling" in its country of origin. "For Cuban authorities, the arrival in the country of U.S.-made military equipment that hadn't been declared as such on the cargo manifesto was worrying," the government said.   read more

American and British regulators are likely to charge several banks with rigging interest rates, including Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank, and London-based HSBC Holdings, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority were preparing a final round of civil charges against the banks for rate manipulation in the Libor scandal, the newspaper reported, citing people close to the investigation.   read more