Nation and World briefs for March 7

School lessons targeted by climate change doubters

HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut lawmaker wants to strike climate change from state science standards. A Virginia legislator worries teachers are indoctrinating students with their personal views on global warming. And an Oklahoma state senator wants educators to be able to introduce alternative viewpoints without fear of losing their jobs.

As climate change becomes a hotter topic in American classrooms, politicians around the country are pushing back against the near-universal scientific consensus that global warming is real, dire and man-made.

Of the more than a dozen such measures proposed so far this year, some already have failed. But they have emerged this year in growing numbers, many of them inspired or directly encouraged by a pair of advocacy groups, the Discovery Institute and the Heartland Institute.

“You have to present two sides of the argument and allow the kids to deliberate,” said Republican state Sen. David Bullard of Oklahoma, a former high school geography teacher whose bill, based on model legislation from the Discovery Institute, ran into opposition from science teachers and went nowhere.

Scientists and science education organizations have blasted such proposals for sowing confusion and doubt on a topic of global urgency. They reject the notion that there are “two sides” to the issue.

Gas scarcity could turn Venezuela’s crisis to catastrophe

MARACAIBO, Venezuela — Marin Mendez leaned a shoulder into his rusty Chevy Malibu, rolling it forward each time the line of cars inched closer to the pump. Waiting hours to fill up, he says, is the high cost he pays for gasoline that’s nearly free in socialist Venezuela.

“You line up to get your pension, line up to buy food, line up to pump your gas,” an exasperated Mendez said after 40 minutes of waiting in the sweltering heat in Maracaibo — ironically the center of the country’s oil industry — and expecting to be there hours or days more. “I’ve had enough!”

Lines stretching a mile (kilometer) or more to fuel up have plagued this western region of Venezuela for years — despite the country’s status as holder of the world’s largest oil reserves. Now, shortages threaten to spread countrywide as supplies of petrol become even scarcer amid a raging struggle over political control of Venezuela.

The Trump administration hit Venezuela’s state-run oil firm PDVSA with sanctions in late January in a sweeping strategy aimed at forcing President Nicolas Maduro from power in favor of opposition leader Juan Guaido.

Doomsday predictions immediately followed — mostly fueled by Maduro’s opponents and U.S. officials — that Venezuela’s domestic gasoline supplies would last no more than a week or so. That hasn’t happened yet, but more misery is feared as expected shortages have economic implications far beyond longer gas lines, turning Venezuela’s crisis to a catastrophe.

Sen. McSally, ex-Air Force pilot, says officer raped her

WASHINGTON — Sen. Martha McSally, the first female Air Force fighter pilot to fly in combat, said Wednesday that she was sexually assaulted by a superior officer, and later, when she tried to talk about it to military officials, she “felt like the system was raping me all over again.”

The Arizona Republican, a 26-year military veteran, made the disclosure at a Senate hearing on the military’s efforts to prevent sexual assaults and improve the response when they occur. Lawmakers also heard from other service members who spoke of being sexually assaulted and humiliated while serving their country.

McSally said she did not report being raped because she did not trust the system, and she said she was ashamed and confused. She said she was impressed and grateful to the survivors who came forward to help change the system. She was in the ninth class at the Air Force Academy to allow women, and said sexual harassment and assault were prevalent. Victims mostly suffered in silence, she said.

Reading from a prepared statement, she spoke of her pride for the military and her service to the country and her deep confliction over suffering abuse while doing it. She referred to “perpetrators” who had sexually assaulted her, an indication that she had been attacked more than once. The Senate Armed Services Committee room was silent as she went on. Fellow senators, surprised by her statement, lauded her for coming forward.

“I’m deeply affected by that testimony,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who has pushed strongly for changes. At a break, McSally hugged others who were appearing before the committee, including a West Point graduate who detailed being raped by her commander. McSally she said she was impressed and grateful to the survivors who came forward over the years to help to change the system.

Ahead of court ruling, Census Bureau seeks citizenship data

As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether the Trump administration can ask people if they are citizens on the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau is quietly seeking comprehensive information about the legal status of millions of immigrants.

Under a proposed plan, the Department of Homeland Security would provide the Census Bureau with a broad swath of personal data about noncitizens, including their immigration status, The Associated Press has learned. A pending agreement between the agencies has been in the works since at least January, the same month a federal judge in New York blocked the administration from adding the citizenship question to the 10-year survey.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in California also declared that adding the citizenship question to the Census was unconstitutional, saying the move “threatens the very foundation of our democratic system.”

The data that Homeland Security would share with Census officials would include noncitizens’ full names and addresses, birth dates and places, as well as Social Security numbers and highly sensitive alien registration numbers, according to a document signed by the Census Bureau and obtained by AP.

Such a data dump would be apparently unprecedented and give the Census Bureau a view of immigrants’ citizenship status that is even more precise than what can be gathered in door-to-door canvassing, according to bureau research.

R. Kelly taken back into custody after child-support hearing

CHICAGO — R. Kelly was taken back into custody Wednesday after appearing at a child-support hearing, authorities said, hours after the broadcast of an interview in which the R&B star cried and ranted about being “assassinated” by allegations of sexual abuse that led to criminal charges last month.

A spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said Kelly would not be released from jail until he pays $161,000 in back child support.

Kelly’s publicist, Darryll Johnson, said Kelly came to the hearing prepared to pay $50,000 to $60,000, but the judge wanted the whole amount. He said Kelly did not have the whole amount because he has not been able to work.

“He came here expecting to leave. He didn’t come here to go to jail,” Johnson said.

Addressing the court’s refusal to accept the smaller amount, he said “in the end nobody wins. The kids still don’t have any money.”

Angry and defiant, IS families surrender in Syria

BAGHOUZ, Syria — Angry crowds evacuating from the last shred of territory controlled by Islamic State militants in Syria praised the extremist group Wednesday and chanted “Islamic State will remain,” in a menacing show of support, even as defeat loomed.

There were no signs of combat as calm prevailed for a third day to allow for evacuations from the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz. Associated Press journalists positioned across from the IS’s riverside pocket of land saw lines of pickup trucks, motorcycles and people walking on foot, apparently a group of evacuees.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is spearheading the fight against IS in Syria, has been surprised by the large number of civilians — family members of IS fighters in the thousands — who have been streaming out of the tiny enclave. In recent weeks, the Kurdish-led SDF has been alternately applying military force to put pressure on militants who refuse to surrender and holding fire long enough to allow for evacuations and surrender.

Thousands of people have trickled out of Baghouz in the last few days. The latest wave of evacuations brings the IS a step closer to defeat by the Kurdish-led SDF. That would be a milestone in the devastating four-year campaign to defeat the group’s so-called “caliphate” that once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq. The fight against IS has taken place amid Syria’s nearly 8-year-old civil war.

On Wednesday, hundreds of evacuees walked through the dusty desert plateau to get on trucks to carry them to displaced persons camps miles away. Meanwhile, lines of men walked guided by their enemy, the SDF, to another corner of the plateau to be screened and searched by members of the U.S-led coalition.