GOP Pushes for Kavanaugh Confirmation | US Seeks New North Korea Talks

Despite mounting pressure over sexual assault allegations against the Supreme Court nominee, GOP senators appear poised to push ahead with Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation next week. President Donald Trump has increasingly voiced support for Kavanaugh, who psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford has accused of drunkenly assaulting her decades ago. “We’re very confident,” said one lawmaker with ties to the White House. Although Senate Republicans have dismissed Ford’s request for an FBI investigation before she testifies on Capitol Hill, her lawyers have not yet declined the invitation to appear at a public hearing Monday.

“We have a lot of very good things going.” So said President Trump after yesterday’s meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea, which renewed hopes of denuclearization. Following a pledge by Kim Jong Un to dismantle his Yongbyon nuclear complex in exchange for reciprocal measures from the U.S., Secretary of State Mike Pompeo invited his North Korean counterpart to meet on the sidelines of next week’s U.N. General Assembly. Meanwhile, South Korean President Moon Jae-in told reporters after his return from Pyongyang that Kim wants a second summit with Trump.

The Japanese leader is expected to become his country’s longest-serving prime minister after winning the Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election in a landslide Thursday. “Let’s work together to make a new Japan,” said Abe, whose term will be extended by three years. In office since December 2012, Abe is now faced with tackling Japan’s depopulation problem, dealing with a resurgent China and the North Korea crisis, and navigating uncertain relations with President Trump. He’s also hoping to revise a constitutional clause banning the use of force in foreign disputes.

She’s looking into it. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, will probe whether the online retailer violated antitrust policy by unfairly using data on third-party sellers to gain a competitive edge. Vestager, a famously aggressive regulator of American tech firms, called the investigation “preliminary,” but expressed concerns about how Amazon — both a host of third-party retailers and a seller in its own right — uses sales data on competitors to guide its own pricing strategy. Amazon has not yet commented on the matter.

Know This: British Prime Minister Theresa May has urged EU leaders to approve a Brexit plan by mid-November. U.S. and Canadian officials have extended negotiations for a new version of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Malaysian ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak faces further corruption charges after his arrest this week. And today OZY’s Around the World campaign takes you to the Czech Republic: Learn why Prague is a freelancer’s paradise.

Read This: Fed up with the scourge of elephant poaching, scientists have turned to genetic testing to retrace the routes of Africa’s three largest ivory-smuggling cartels in the hopes of stopping them.

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A high-profile murder trial in Hong Kong ended yesterday as 53-year-old Khaw Kim Sun, a Malaysian anesthesiology professor, was convicted of killing his wife and daughter using a yoga ball filled with carbon monoxide. The victims were found unresponsive in their car by the side of the road, perplexing investigators until they discovered the deflated ball in the trunk. Khaw, who has been sentenced to life in prison, was reportedly having an affair with a former student and stood to inherit property from his wife’s death.

Citing worsening trade ties between Beijing and Washington, Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma announced yesterday that his leading Chinese e-commerce company won’t be able to fulfill his pledge of creating 1 million jobs in the United States. “The current situation has already destroyed the original premise,” he reportedly told the Xinhua news agency. Ma — who made his promise to President Trump in January 2017 amid skepticism from economists — added that “we won’t stop working hard” to improve trade ties between the two countries.

From combating deforestation by “seed bombing” to catching illegal loggers through high-tech surveillance, activists and researchers are increasingly relying on the remote-controlled unmanned vehicles as a low-cost way to cover wide swaths of territory. Some innovators are even modifying basic consumer drones with seed containers that could potentially plant tens of thousands of trees per day. Best of all, they’re making those plans publicly available — meaning anyone with access to a drone and raw materials could join the fight to save forests.

Last week Ian Buruma published a personal essay by former Canadian radio host Jian Ghomeshi about his experience being accused by over 20 women of sexual assault and harassment. Critics say “Reflections From a Hashtag” downplayed the seriousness of the allegations and afforded Ghomeshi, who was acquitted of criminal charges, a platform many victims don’t have. But in the fallout from the essay, Buruma further stoked the controversy during a Slate interview, saying Ghomeshi’s charges were “not really my concern.” It’s unclear whether Buruma resigned or was fired.

After a recent investigation found the organization harbored “a corporate culture rife with misogyny and predatory sexual behavior,” owner Mark Cuban has agreed — in lieu of an NBA fine — to donate $10 million to groups supporting women in leadership roles and combating domestic violence. Cuban was not personally accused of misconduct but was blamed for not paying attention to the problem. The independent investigation, launched after a February report in Sports Illustrated, revealed decades of workplace harassment, including numerous complaints against former president Terdema Ussery.