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Trump’s demand for Washington NFL team name change ignores years of psychological data

(AP) — President Donald Trump is threatening to hold up a new stadium deal if Washington’s NFL team did not restore its name to a racial slur, despite decades of psychological research showing the negative mental health impacts of Native American mascots. The president is demanding a private company change its name to something that researchers have linked to a variety of negative mental health outcomes, particularly for children, said Mark Macarro, president of the National Congress of American Indians. The organization has been pushing back on stereotypes of Native Americans ...

Syria to hold first parliamentary elections since Assad’s fall in September

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria will hold parliamentary elections in September, the head of a body tasked with organizing the election process told state media Sunday. Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad, chairman of the Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections, told state news agency SANA that elections will take place between Sept. 15 and 20. They will be the first to take place under the country’s new authorities after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive in December. One third of the 210 seats will the appointed by interim President Ahmad ...

Boat capsizes in Nigeria’s Niger state, at least 25 people feared dead

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A boat transporting passengers to a market in north-central Nigeria capsized, killing at least 25 people, authorities said Sunday. The accident happened Saturday near Gumu village in the Shiroro area of Niger state, Ibrahim Hussaini, an official with the National Emergency Management Agency, told The Associated Press. Hussaini said search and rescue efforts were underway, but are limited because armed gangs mostly control the area. He added that the number of casualties may rise. “Very few people can go to the scene because of banditry in that area,” he ...

To host UN climate talks, Brazil chose one of its poorer cities, but that’s no accident

NEW YORK (AP) — When world leaders, diplomats, business leaders, scientists and activists go to Brazil in November for the United Nations’ annual climate negotiations, poverty, deforestation and much of the world’s troubles will be right in their faces — by design. In past conference cities — including resort areas and playgrounds for the rich such as Bali, Cancun, Paris, Sharm El-Sheikh and Dubai — host nations show off both their amenities and what their communities have done about climate change. But this fall’s conference is in a high-poverty city on the edge of the ...

Tom Lehrer, song satirist and mathematician, dies at 97

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tom Lehrer, the popular and erudite song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and other universities, has died. He was 97. Longtime friend David Herder said ...