| As abortion battles intensify in states, misperceptions abound Posted: 13 May 2019 02:02 PM PDT ![As abortion battles intensify in states, misperceptions abound]( "As abortion battles intensify in states, misperceptions abound") Now take this question: Do you think a woman should be able to walk into an abortion clinic and have an abortion in the first trimester for any reason? This highlights one challenge in talking about abortion in the United States. "A minority of Americans on either side [of the abortion issue] are strongly energized, while a large number are uncomfortable but flexible, depending on how the question is phrased," says Daniel Williams, a professor at the University of West Georgia.
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| When Trump ‘unsigned’ arms treaty, it was about more than guns Posted: 13 May 2019 01:29 PM PDT ![When Trump 'unsigned' arms treaty, it was about more than guns]( "When Trump 'unsigned' arms treaty, it was about more than guns") When President Donald Trump recently withdrew the U.S. imprimatur from the international Arms Trade Treaty – flinging into a crowd of National Rifle Association members the big Sharpie he'd just used to sign his order – the showmanship had no legal implications. Mr. Trump said he was "unsigning" a document the United States had negotiated with other members of the United Nations and which former President Barack Obama signed in 2013. Experts in international law noted, however, that the U.S. had never ratified the treaty – intended to set global standards for conventional arms transfers and deny weapons to human-rights violators – which had lain forgotten in the Senate for years.
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| Populism tests resolve of Europe’s ‘establishment conservatives’ Posted: 13 May 2019 01:14 PM PDT ![Populism tests resolve of Europe's 'establishment conservatives']( "Populism tests resolve of Europe's 'establishment conservatives'") It's shaping up as somewhere between surreal and farcical: Britain's planned participation next week in elections for the legislature of the European Union – an alliance that the United Kingdom actually voted to leave in a 2016 referendum. The group being projected as the main winner – the newly created Brexit Party of Nigel Farage, the anti-EU firebrand who galvanized the "leave campaign" in the 2016 referendum – is the latest embodiment of a challenge facing long-established center-right parties in Europe and in the United States as well.
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| Legal fights and threats to his life: an environmental activist in self-exile Posted: 13 May 2019 12:56 PM PDT ![Legal fights and threats to his life: an environmental activist in self-exile]( "Legal fights and threats to his life: an environmental activist in self-exile") Alfred Brownell's work has made him many powerful enemies. In more than two decades of work as an environmental law activist, Mr. Brownell has tangled with a succession of governments and multinational corporations in his country. As Liberia has sought development of its natural resources, Mr. Brownell has educated communities about their land rights and obliged companies to reform malpractice.
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