Prominent US climate scientists have told the Guardian that the Trump administration is holding up research funding as their projects undergo an unprecedented political review by the high-school football teammate of the US interior secretary.

The US interior department administers over $5.5bn in funding to external organizations, mostly for research, conservation and land acquisition. At the beginning of 2018, interior secretary Ryan Zinke instated a new requirement that scientific funding above $50,000 must undergo an additional review to ensure expenditures “better align with the administration’s priorities”. Zinke has signaled that climate change is not one of those priorities: this week, he told Breitbart News that “environmental terrorist groups” were responsible for the ongoing wildfires in northern California and, ignoring scientific research on the issue, dismissed the role of climate change.(theguardian)…[+]

The UN human rights committee ruled on Friday that Brazil’s imprisoned leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva cannot be disqualified from upcoming presidential elections because his legal appeals are ongoing. The committee issued the finding following an urgent request filed by Lula’s lawyers on 27 July. In a statement, the panel “requested Brazil to take all necessary measures to ensure that Lula can enjoy and exercise his political rights while in prison, as (a) candidate in the 2018 presidential elections”.

Lula, a two-term former president who is serving time behind bars for corruption, is currently leading the polls for the October vote. The committee said Lula cannot be barred as a candidate “until his appeals before the courts have been completed in fair judicial proceedings”.

The Geneva-based committee monitors a member state’s compliance with the international covenant on civil and political rights, as well as a supplementary text called the optional protocol. Because Brazil has ratified both texts, it is technically obligated to abide by the committee’s findings. Committee member Olivier de Frouville told AFP Lula’s laywers had asked for urgent action on three issues: that he be immediately freed from jail, that he be granted access to the media and his political party, and that he be allowed to run in the election.(NU)…[+]

Vladimir Putin is to attend the wedding of Austria’s foreign minister, Karin Kneissl, triggering outrage among critics who say the invitation undermines the EU’s stance against Russia over Ukraine.

The Russian president will drop by on Saturday afternoon to raise a glass to Kneissl and her groom, the businessman Wolfgang Meilinger, in a vineyard in Austria’s picturesque Styria region, before flying to Berlin for talks that evening with Angela Merkel. Described by the Austrian foreign ministry as a “personal visit”, Putin’s brief appearance will be accompanied by the usual security measures for the visit of a foreign state visitor, a spokesman told Der Standard. “It will be a private celebration and a personal visit. No change will result in terms of Austria’s foreign policy position.”(NU)…[+]