The harsh reception that the first lady received in Baltimore, including from children, comes after her husband's repeated racist attacks on the city as a rat-infested hellhole--comments which drew widespread condemnation.

Airlines aren't the worst polluters in the world, but planes do account for an incredible 2.5% of the world's carbon emissions. So by any measure, flying is a privilege--the exact sort of 20th-century excess that we need to reassess. Which is why the strategic design consultancy Manyone is thinking about radical alternatives to flight. The studio's solution? A giant train that loops around half the world like a mega subway system.

Dubbed the AeroSlider, it's an elevated train line that passes through a series of unobtrusive magnetic loops instead of running on a track. Much like the principles behind a rail gun, the loops speed up the train sequentially, propelling it up to speeds of 500 mph--or the average speed of a plane.

Now entering its third season, complete with a new cast, The Crown is making even more explicit the idea that the monarchy is not merely a showpiece but an essential component of modern British democracy. Elizabeth is confronted by a new prime minister, Harold Wilson, the first Labour leader of her reign after more than a decade of Conservatives. She also faces figures within her own family who think the new, left-wing government poses a grave threat to the country's future. And she does what a constitutional monarch ought to do: nothing, more or less.

In the show, created and mostly written by Peter Morgan, the inherent absurdity of monarchy is part of its usefulness, part of its function as a tool that democratic societies may use to stay democratic. The military medals, the dresses, the sashes and scepters and crowns--they are all part of a sleight of hand to make the monarchy seem glorious, and in that glory, to create a sense of national stability. It's a part of what the English essayist Walter Bagehot called the "dignified" part of government, something that exists to humble the "efficient" elected part, to force ministers to remember that they serve the country, not simply their own parties and interests. In The Crown, the inherently undemocratic monarchy is a tool used to protect democracy.

As a result of the U.S.-China trade war, U.S. Customs and Border Protection adds as much as 25% to the import price as Chinese goods enter the country. If Chinese companies were absorbing that cost, they would have to cut their prices as much as 20% - a level that would allow U.S. retailers, manufacturers, or wholesalers to keep their own prices and profits stable.

That is not what is happening.

Import data from June 2018 to September 2019 shows Chinese import prices fell only 2%, the Fed study found, in line with price declines seen in many other nations as global trade slowed.

The plan also addresses a nagging concern for the Texas GOP: Trump's unpopularity with some Republicans in the state.

"Given the polarizing nature of the President, I suspect some Republicans will refuse to turnout during the General Election because they don't want to vote for him - though I don't know that we will know what this universe would look like without us or a stakeholder creating a model," the document reads. "Regardless, I suggest we set up a contingency budget to target these folks with mailers, digital ads, and texts to encourage them to turnout for U.S. Senate, State Senate, State House, and so on."

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei personally approved the devastating September 14 combined drone and cruise missile barrage on two Saudi facilities that knocked out half of the kingdom's oil production, on condition the strike did not target civilians or Americans, the Reuters news agency reported Monday.