Environmental morality

September 24, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

The VW emissions scandal underscores the need for higher moral standards in safeguarding Earth's environment.

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The United States has warned that the toughest crackdown in years on Chinese activists threatens to cloud the high-profile state visit by President Xi Jinping. Yet the issue of human rights is unlikely to dominate the agenda when Xi is welcomed at the White House on Friday. As China emerges as an economic and military rival that Washington both competes and cooperates with, other issues tend to get top billing at the summit table. Prime U.S. concerns are cybercrime, China's island-building in the disputed South China Sea, and building momentum for a global deal to combat climate change. Still, human rights will get attention.

The number of people applying for or receiving security clearances whose fingerprint images were stolen in one of the worst government data breaches is now believed to be 5.6 million, not 1.1 million as first thought, the Office of Personnel Management announced Wednesday. The agency was the victim of what the U.S. believes was a Chinese espionage operation that affected an estimated 21.5 million current and former federal employees or job applicants. The theft could give Chinese intelligence a huge leg up in recruiting informants inside the U.S. government, experts believe. It also could help the Chinese identify U.S. spies abroad, according to American officials.

Hillary Clinton proposed a series of steps on Wednesday to lessen the burden of out-of-pocket medical bills for Americans covered by President Obama's health care law. The Democratic presidential candidate said she would require plans to provide three sick visits a year without counting toward a patient's annual deductible, a provision that would apply to both private health plans and those covered through the so-called Obamacare law. She said many Americans are forced to pay a significant cost out-of-pocket if they get sick because average deductibles have more than doubled during the past decade. Mrs. Clinton would offer a refundable tax credit of up to $5,000 for families not eligible for Medicare for excessive out-of-pocket health care costs.

Egypt released two journalists for Al-Jazeera English TV from prison after a presidential pardon on Wednesday, a dramatic development in a case that has been widely condemned by human rights groups and international organizations. The two – Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian national Baher Mohammed – were originally arrested in December 2013 and sentenced to three years in prison last month for airing what a court here described as "false news" and biased coverage. Fahmy and Mohammed were released just hours after the pardon was announced, and dropped off by police in a Cairo suburb. It was not immediately clear if all other of a total of 100 prisoners, including dozens of human rights activists, pardoned by President Sissi were also freed Wednesday.

Yogi Berra, the Baseball Hall of Fame catcher renowned as much for his lovable, linguistically dizzying "Yogi-isms" as his unmatched 10 World Series championships with the New York Yankees, died Tuesday. Berra, who filled baseball's record book as well as "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," died at his home in New Jersey, according to Dave Kaplan, the director of the Yogi Berra Museum. Berra played in more World Series games than any other major leaguer, and was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player. For many, though, he was even better known for all those amusing "Yogi-isms." "It ain't over 'til it's over" is among eight of them included in Bartlett's.

T-Mobile US Inc offered the cheapest option to own the latest iPhone at $5 under the company's trade-in plan, amid fierce competition among the top U.S. carriers ahead of Apple Inc's highly anticipated phone launch. Customers can get a 16 GB iPhone 6s for $5 per month without upfront payment, under an 18-month lease, in exchange of an iPhone 6, 6 Plus or Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 versions under T-Mobile's latest plan. U.S. carriers are also pressured by Apple's own financing scheme for an unlocked iPhone that gives customers the freedom to switch between carriers. Demand for new iPhones were on pace to beat the 10 million units the previous versions logged in their first weekend last year, Apple said earlier this month.

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