Nightly Brief

Top CNS stories for today including President Donald Trump unveiled broad changes to the immigration system, with a focus on enticing skilled workers into the United States; New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he will seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020; The European Union is left in the middle as tensions escalate between the United States and Iran, and more.

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National

President Donald Trump speaks about modernizing the immigration system in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 16, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

1.) With a focus on enticing skilled workers into the United States, President Donald Trump unveiled broad changes to the immigration system Thursday.

Nominated to serve as a federal judge in Louisiana, Vitter testified on April 11, 2018, before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Vitter works as general counsel for the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

2.) The Senate confirmed a New Orleans attorney to a seat on a Louisiana federal court Thursday, overcoming objections from Democrats concerned about her views on abortion rights.

3.) With an announcement Thursday that he will seek the Democratic nomination in 2020, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio set himself apart from others in the already crowded field by sparring publicly with President Donald Trump.

FILE - In this March 15, 2019 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, second from right, speak during a Columbia Climate Strike rally at Columbia University in New York. Inslee, as part of his pledge to make combating climate change the top national priority, is calling for the nation’s entire electrical grid and all new vehicles and buildings to be carbon pollution free by 2030. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

4.) Presidential candidate and Washington Governor Jay Inslee added an economic plan Thursday to the clean energy policy he announced earlier this month, saying his agenda to get to net-zero climate pollution by 2045 will create 8 million jobs.

Science

Some 414 million pieces of plastic trash cover the white sands of Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean. (Silke Stuckenbrock)

5.) A new study released Thursday reports that the beaches of Australian islands are littered with an alarming volume of plastic debris.

6.) As the planet warms, plants are keeping the pace to process carbon dioxide and slow the effects of human-caused climate change, according to research published Thursday in Trends in Plant Science.

International

The USS Abraham Lincoln sails south in the Suez canal near Ismailia, Thursday, May 9, 2019. The White House said Wednesday it dispatched the aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf over what it described as a new threat from Iran. (Suez Canal Authority via AP)

7.) Europe is often described as an economic giant, but a dwarf in the push and shove of world politics. This status is being put to the test once again as tensions escalate between the United States and Iran, leaving the European Union in the middle and potentially unable to salvage the Iran nuclear deal.

The main Courtroom at the EU General Court. (Photo courtesy EU Curia)

8.) Backing a new tax on Poland’s retail sector, the European General Court ruled Thursday that EU regulators were wrong to classify the measure as state aid.

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