Vox Sentences: The Iran deal's Congressional opponents have lost

The Iran deal official has enough votes to survive Congress; the British press suddenly decides it cares what happens to refugees; and there are more trees in the world than we thought.

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

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TOP NEWS

Signed, sealed, delivered

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

• The Iran nuclear deal officially has the support of 34 Senate Democrats, meaning that, barring some huge change, Congressoinal Republicans' efforts to block it will fail.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• The 34th Democrat to announce her support was retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD): "I’ve considered the alternatives very closely. But in the end, they don’t present a more viable option to this deal. The two alternatives are more sanctions, or military action."

  [Barbara Mikulski]

• Under a bill passed earlier this year, the deal can be blocked if Congress passes and the president signs a disapproval resolution. Without the president's signature, opponents need two thirds of both houses of Congress. With 34 Senators against them, that's now impossible.

  [Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• Only two Senate Democrats have come out against the deal so far, but they're big ones: future Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, and former Foreign Relations committee chairman Bob Menendez.

  [NPR / Brakkton Booker]

• No Senate Republicans have come out in favor of the deal.

• The deal's passage is basically assured, but the White House still wants 41 votes so that the disapproval resolution can die via Senate filibuster, before Obama has to veto it.

  [Politico / Edward-Isaac Dovere and Burgess Everett]

• The debate over the Iran deal is particularly heated in the American Jewish community. Zack Beauchamp explains why.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

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Today in staggering refugee-related hypocrisy

STR/AFP/Getty Images

• An image of a 3-year-old boy, Aylan Kurdi, who died along with at least 11 other Syrian refugees while attempting to reach the Greek island of Kos, has gone viral on social media as a symbol of the human toll of the refugee crisis.

  [Reuters / Daren Butler and Ece Toksabay]

• It's struck a chord in the UK, which has resisted letting refugees from Syria in, with even right-wing papers like the Sun splashing the image on their front pages.

  [Ravi Somaiya]

• It's rather rich considering that the UK tabloid press has repeatedly demonized asylum-seekers, creating a political environment in which anti-refugee policies like the UK's can persist.

  [Washington Post / Rick Noack]

• "Britain takes in so few refugees from Syria they would fit on a subway train."

  [Washington Post / Griff Witte and Karla Adam]

• Theresa May, the British cabinet official responsible for immigration, has callously warned refugees that streets in the UK are "not paved with gold."

  [The Independent / Matt Dathan]

• Her counterpart in the Labour opposition, Yvette Cooper, who is also running to lead the Labour party, has called for the UK to take in 10,000 refugees a year, a massive increase.

  [The Guardian / Patrick Butler]

• The US is lagging far behind. It's only taken in 1,434 refugees since the conflict began. The International Rescue Committee wants the US to take in 65,000 before the end of next year.

  [International Rescue Committee]

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Let's count some trees

Shutterstock

• How many trees are there? About 3 trillion, a new study says.

  [BBC / Jonathan Amos]

• The previous estimate was 400 billion, so this is a more than seven-fold increase.

  [Washington Post / Chris Mooney]

• The study isn't really good news, though. The authors estimate that 15 billion trees are cut down each year and that human civilization has reduced the global tree count by 46 percent.

  [Nature / T.W. Crowther et al]

• Put another way: we've cut down almost half the trees.

• Given that about 107 billion humans have ever lived, we've cut down about 24 trees for every human who's ever existed.

  [BBC / Wesley Stephenson]

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MISCELLANEOUS

Does Donald Trump cheat at golf? A Washington Post investigation suggests: almost definitely. [Washington Post / Ben Terris]

• Cancel your plans for the night, Moonrise Kingdom is now on Netflix.

  [Slate / Forrest Wickman and Laura Bradley]

• A new restaurant in San Francisco has totally automated the ordering process — you place your order, pay, and pick up your meal without interacting with a human at all.

  [San Francisco Chronicle / Sarah Fritsche]

• Every movie, book, and song that ever influenced a Quentin Tarantino movie, in one syllabus.

  [NY Mag / Larry Fitzmaurice]

• Taft. Taft taft taft, taft taft, "Taft taft, taft taft taft taft." Taft. Taft Taft Taft. TAFT.

  [Washington Post / Nick Anderson]

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VERBATIM

"Australia's national shearing champion has been urgently called in to help after a heavily overgrown sheep was found near the capital Canberra." [BBC]

• "Assuming only Harvard Law School students who would consider running for Congress are ever elected, these figures suggest that between 1 in 8 and 1 in 12 might ultimately succeed."

  [80,000 Hours / Robert Wiblin]

• "For better or worse, dancing logos could become as much a fabric of the mobile Internet as responsive design and autoplay videos."

  [Slate / Will Oremus]

• "A North Carolina 17-year-old caught in a sexting scandal faces charges of sexually exploiting a minor that could land him in jail for up to 10 years, since the law considers him an adult. But one of the minors he supposedly exploited is himself­."

  [Reason / Robby Soave]

• "Everything seemed normal at first. Then they pulled out the duct tape. After that came the Uzis."

  [Grantland / Amos Barshad]

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WATCH THIS

Vox / Joss Fong

• Expensive wine is for suckers

  [YouTube / Joss Fong]