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When President-elect Barack Obama introduced his national security team this week, he left two key positions unfilled: CIA director and director of National Intelligence. That may be because it's hard to find people to fill the jobs who are not associated with the controversial intelligence policies of the Bush administration.

The battle lines have been drawn over Scotland. Nationalists want to push forward with a referendum on independence from Britain. British Prime Minister David Cameron is maneuvering to make sure Scots vote "no" on independence.

The price of cocoa is on a wild historic ride: It topped the all-time record before Valentine's Day and almost doubled since then, in time for Easter. The culprit is the weather.

If you're tracking Donald Trump's cabinet picks, you may have noticed common threads among them: top jobs are going to people fiercely loyal to Trump, people with experience appearing on TV, but no experience directly relevant to the jobs they would be doing. There's another thing several share: being accused of sexual misconduct. Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth, HHS Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, Elon Musk, who Trump has picked to co-run the Department of Government Efficiency — all these men have faced some variation of accusations of sexual misconduct. All have denied it, or claimed no memory. Donald Trump's first presidential win helped lay the groundwork for the #MeToo movement. What do his cabinet picks say about the movement today? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Newark Liberty International Airport has been a mess the past week, with hundreds of flights cancelled and hundreds more delayed. It was triggered in part by an incident on April 28, when air traffic controllers for the airport experienced a radar and communications blackout. They were unable to reach approaching planes. There were no accidents, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later told reporters that the outage lasted for 30 seconds. After that incident, several air traffic controllers took time off to deal with the stress and trauma. That, on top of bad weather, a runway that's closed for repair and an already short-staffed air traffic controller corps, led to a lot of disruption. David Grizzle, the former chief operating officer and head of air traffic control for the Federal Aviation Administration, says what happened at Newark isn't surprising, given decades-old staffing and technology issues. He explains what it would take to fix air traffic control in the U.S. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the top challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is accused of corruption and terror links. The opposition says Imamoglu's arrest is politically motivated.

So far there are no signs of a breakthrough in talks between Democrats and Republicans in Washington to stave off the tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect on New Year's Day. President Obama has summoned top congressional leaders for talks at the White House on Friday.

Israel says it was targeting Hezbollah's headquarters and the militant group's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who has led the Iran-backed movement for 30 years.

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8% in the third quarter, led by strong consumer spending. The news comes days before a presidential election in which the economy has been top of mind for many voters.

A team of President Trump's top aides, including the secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce departments, meet their Chinese counterparts for a fresh round of trade talks in London.