Your Tuesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top CNS stories for today including Democrats blocked a Republican attempt to change Senate rules to speed up consideration of some of President Donald Trump’s nominees, but Republican leadership is expected to use procedural tools to push the measure through later this week; House Democrats and Republicans joined forces to tackle ways to rein in surprise medical bills that are fueling anxiety about health care costs; National-security experts warned lawmakers about how governments become vulnerable to terrorism as drought begets disease and otherwise cripples global economies, and more.
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National
1.) Democrats on Tuesday blocked a Republican attempt to change Senate rules to speed up consideration of some of President Donald Trump’s nominees, but Republican leadership is expected to use procedural tools to push the measure through later this week.
2.) House Democrats and Republicans joined forces Tuesday to tackle ways to rein in surprise medical bills that are fueling anxiety about health care costs.
3.) Giving the crisis of climate change political import, national-security experts warned lawmakers Tuesday about how governments become vulnerable to terrorism as drought begets disease and otherwise cripples global economies.
4.) The race to develop reliable self-driving technology is thick with plots, betrayal and general intrigue as a recent injunction in a Silicon Valley trade secrets case shows.
International
5.) The third time was not the charm for British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, with the House of Commons voting down four paths she offered to avoid a messy “crash out” of the European Union in less than two weeks.
6.) Meet Michael Grubb, a mild-mannered 59-year-old retired computer consultant, the embodiment of the Brexit voter and Democratic Unionist Party supporter. Meet the reason Brexit is such a political mess.
Science
7.) Marine scientists offered more sobering news Tuesday that climate change is pummeling the Arctic the hardest: 80% of young ice melts before it has a chance to leave its “nursery” in the shallow Russian marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean.
8.) A new species of pea-shaped wood-munching clams shaped like little penises has been discovered at the bottom of the ocean.
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