This evening's music features r&b saxophone player and singer Big Jay McNeely. Enjoy!

^{Big Jay McNeely - Jay Walkin}

“The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned.

The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.

With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.”

-- Henry A. Wallace

News and Opinion

NYT Claims U.S. Abides by Cluster Bomb Treaty: The Exact Opposite of Reality

The New York Times today has a truly bizarre article regarding the U.S. and cluster bombs. The advocacy group Cluster Munition Coalition just issued its annual report finding that cluster bombs had been used in five countries this year: Syria, Libya, Yemen, Ukraine and Sudan. This is what The Paper of Record, in its report by Rick Gladstone, said this morning about the international reaction to that report (emphasis added):

The use of these weapons was criticized by all 117 countries that have joined the treaty, which took effect five years ago. Their use was also criticized by a number of others, including the United States, that have not yet joined the treaty but have abided by its provisions.

As Americans, we should feel proud that our government, though refusing to sign the cluster ban treaty, has nonetheless “abided by its provisions” – if not for the fact that this claim is totally false. The U.S. has long been and remains one of the world’s most aggressive suppliers of cluster munitions, and has used those banned weapons themselves in devastating ways. ...

[Greenwald provides extensive discussion of US use of cluster munitions and the sales of them to other countries, including Saudi Arabia which is currently using them (with extensive US support) to murder civilians in Yemen. -js]

The very first article of the Treaty states (emphasis added):

Each State Party undertakes never under any circumstances to: (1) Use cluster munitions; (2) Develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, cluster munitions; (3) Assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.

The U.S. does not occasionally violate one of those provisions. It continually violates all of them, systematically and as a matter of policy doing exactly that which the treaty expressly bans. For the NYT to tell its readers that the U.S. – one of the leading cluster bomb states on the planet – is actually one of the countries that “have not yet joined the treaty but have abided by its provisions” is nationalistic propaganda of the most extreme kind.

DOD’s Inspector General Investigating Administration Propaganda Again

In the last few weeks, there have been several reports that senior intelligence officials were skewing the intelligence on how (un)successful the military campaign against ISIS has been. “Officials at United States Central Command — the military headquarters overseeing the American bombing campaign and other efforts against the Islamic State — were improperly reworking the conclusions of intelligence assessments prepared for policy makers, including President Obama, the government officials said,” the New York Times was the first to report.

Former CIA whistleblower Patrick Eddington notes that Department of Defense’s Inspector General, which is investigating the claims, can’t be trusted to carry out such an investigation. “The allegations reported by the Times and the Daily Beast are too serious a matter to be left to the DOD IG, particularly given the DOD IG’s recent track record in dealing with high-profile whistleblower complaints.” Eddington focuses on the treatment that Thomas Drake and other NSA whistleblowers experienced when they alerted DOD’s IG to an ineffective boondoggle designed to make SAIC rich, and argues the Intelligence Community and Source Protection Office should conduct the investigation, particularly since other intelligence agencies may also be politicizing intelligence about Syria.

But there’s an even more important example why DOD’s IG should not be investigating this allegation: ... DOD’s IG may not issue reports on senior DOD officials and will not on people who work in other agencies. ... That’s a problem given that reports blame “senior officials” for the politicization of this intelligence.

Vice News journalists released in Turkey

Two Vice News journalists arrested by Turkish authorities and charged with terror offences have been released, but their local fixer remains in custody.

The lawyer representing the trio, Ahmet Ay, told the Guardian that the two UK-based journalists, correspondent Jake Hanrahan and cameraman Philip Pendlebury were free to leave the country, though the charges against them have not been dropped.

Their Turkey-based Mohammed Ismael Rasool, was still being questioned, but is expected “to be freed as well soon”, said Ahment.

The three journalists were arrested along with their driver in the south-eastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir last Thursday.

They were reporting on the conflict between the country’s government and the youth wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The driver was subsequently released without charge.

Canada’s Top Security Advisor Met With Kurdish Leader Amid Clashes With Turkey

Canada's National Security Advisor held a low-key meeting with a key member of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil last week, as Ottawa navigates its complex relationship with the semi-autonomous regions of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

The meeting comes amid continued fighting with the so-called Islamic State, and renewed hostilities between the Kurds and Turkey. ...

According to the Kurdish government, Fadden's August 30 visit was an opportunity for Foreign Minister Falah Mustafa to ask for more assistance, and to request that Canada formally open a mission in the area. ...

Mustafa had been personally responsible for pitching Ottawa on increased military aid for the Peshmerga, who are currently making gains in the fight against the so-called Islamic State.

"We need tanks, we need armored personnel carriers, we need Humvees, we need anti-tank missiles in order to win the battle," Mustafa told Motherboard during a visit to Canada last November. "Our enemy has it. We don't have it." ...

Canada previously ferried Soviet-era weaponry, contributed by European allies, to the front lines in Kurdistan, primarily arming the People's Protection Units (YPG) forces throughout Northern Iraq.

Worst refugee crisis since WWII: 'Little unity between EU leaders, lots of fingerpointing'

Family of Syrian boy washed up on beach were trying to reach Canada

The family of a three-year-old Syrian boy whose body was washed up on a beach in Turkey were making a final, desperate attempt to flee to relatives in Canada even though their asylum application had been rejected, according to reports.

Syria was already at war when Aylan Kurdi was born. He died with his five-year-old brother, Galip, and mother, Rehan. Their father, Abdullah, survived.

Speaking to Canadian press on Wednesday night, the family said Abdullah had phoned them to tell them his wife and sons were dead, and he now only wanted to return to their Kurdish home town of Kobani to bury his family. The town was bombarded during heavy fighting this year between Islamic State and Kurdish fighters.

One man's kindness and decency is another man's madness. The milk of human kindness is in short supply in Hungary.

Migration crisis: Hungary PM claims Europe is in grip of 'madness'

Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has claimed that Europe is in the grip of madness over immigration and refugees, and argued that he was defending European Christianity against a Muslim influx.

Orbán’s incendiary remarks came as he arrived in Brussels for a confrontation with EU leaders over his hardline policies in Europe’s biggest migration emergency since the second world war.

“Everything which is now taking place before our eyes threatens to have explosive consequences for the whole of Europe,” Orbán wrote in Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Europe’s response is madness. We must acknowledge that the European Union’s misguided immigration policy is responsible for this situation.

“Irresponsibility is the mark of every European politician who holds out the promise of a better life to immigrants and encourages them to leave everything behind and risk their lives in setting out for Europe. If Europe does not return to the path of common sense, it will find itself laid low in a battle for its fate.”

Germany, France, and Italy are demanding an overhaul of European asylum procedures as attempts to get to grips with the crisis leave Europe floundering in incoherence while the Schengen passport-free travel zone across 26 countries threatens to unravel.

Cameron calls for peace in Syria rather than take in refugees

Charity behind migrant-rescue boats sees 15-fold rise in donations in 24 hours

A charity that runs independent rescue boats to save refugees at sea said it had seen a 15-fold increase in donations in the past 24 hours, which it attributed to the international horror at the picture of a Syrian boy lying lifeless on a Turkish beach.

The Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) – set up by two philanthropists in Malta – said it had saved more than 10,000 lives during its first year in operation by giving medical and technical assistance to boats crossing the Mediterranean.

It told the Guardian it had seen individual donations hit €150,000 (£110,000) in the past 24 hours, with numbers climbing fast. Its previous highest day was €10,000.

MOAS said money was coming in from around the world whereas normally donors are restricted to Germany and other central European countries. “We never really saw so many come from the UK or US before, but now there are hundreds,” a spokesman said.

As Syrian Colonel Faces Charges in Maher Arar Torture Case, Will U.S. Ever Apologize?

Defense Secretary: Gitmo May Close, But We’ll Keep Base

Speaking today at his “Worldwide Troop Talk,” Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said it “would be nice” to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and move all the detainees someplace more convenient within the United States.

At the same time, Carter insisted that closing the prison wouldn’t mean the US would give up the military base there, and that the US intends to keep Guantanamo Bay, irrespective of Cuban objections, going forward with or without a prison at the site.

The Rise of the Inhumanes: Barron, Bybee, Yoo and Bradford

America’s descent into totalitarian violence is accelerating. Like the Bush regime, the Obama regime has a penchant for rewarding Justice (sic) Department officials who trample all over the US Constitution. Last year America’s First Black President nominated David Barron to be a judge on the First US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

Barron is responsible for the Justice (sic) Department memo that gave the legal OK for Obama to murder a US citizen with a missile fired from a drone. The execution took place without charges presented to a court, trial, and conviction. The target was a religious man whose sermons were believed by the paranoid Obama regime to encourage jihadism. Apparently, it never occurred to Obama or the Justice (sic) Department that Washington’s mass murder and displacement of millions of Muslims in seven countries was all that was needed to encourage jihadism. Sermons would be redundant and would comprise little else but moral outrage after years of mass murder by Washington in pursuit of hegemony in the Middle East.

Barron’s confirmation ran into opposition from some Republicans, some Democrats, and the American Civil Liberties Union, but the US Senate confirmed Barron by a vote of 53-45 in May 2014. Just think, you could be judged in “freedom and democracy America” by a fiend who legalized extra-judicial murder.

Does Obama's Iran deal victory mark a turning point in US-Israeli relations?

The moment America finally made its peace with Iran and rewrote the rules of its political relationship with Israel came suddenly, even to those who have been urging both upheavals for the longest. ...

Whether there is also enough Democratic support to prevent Republicans passing even a symbolic vote against the deal remains to be seen in the coming days, but White House loyalists believe the one third of US senators now committed to helping Barack Obama veto this threat already represents a huge victory over those who sought to split his party over Iran. ...

“There was a substantial effort from the moment this deal was announced to kill it in Congress,” says J-Street political director Dylan Williams. “Tens of millions of dollars – some people have estimated upwards of a hundred million dollars – were used to fund ads and lobbying.”

At the heart of this unprecedented effort against the deal is J-Street’s rival Washington lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), which promised to oppose the deal “with the entirety of [its] institutional resources” and has hitherto counted on strong support from both Democrats and Republicans.

Both lobby groups describe themselves equally as pro-Israel, but the flurry of previously hawkish Democratic senators who switched sides away from Aipac in recent days has led to growing speculation that the days of reliable bipartisan support for the Israeli government - as distinct from Israel as a whole - on Capitol Hill may be over.

TV Station Owners Report Unexpected Flood of Money From Iran Deal Opponents

Television station owners have been salivating over the expected tidal wave of campaign advertisement spending for the election next year.

But media companies don’t have to wait until 2016 for the political cash to materialize. Television station owners just told their investors that they are seeing an unexpected flood of cash from opponents of the nuclear accord with Iran, who are spending tens of millions of dollars on commercials designed to shift the congressional debate against the deal. ...

Opponents of the deal are easily outspending supporters, using nonprofits that do not disclose donor identities, to pump well over $40 million into television commercials urging citizens to call their senators to oppose the agreement. Many of the advertising efforts are led by affiliates of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group aligned with the interests of the Israeli government. As we’ve reported, a new group called the American Security Initiative, which is led by a Saudi Arabian lobbyist, is also spending money on television ads.

Ukraine’s New Military Doctrine: Fight Russia, Join NATO

The Ukrainian National Security Council today approved a new national military doctrine, formally declaring neighboring Russia to be a “military opponent” and making it a specific priority for the country to try to secure NATO membership.

Ukraine had last issued a new military doctrine in 2012, and at the time made it clear that their policy was overwhelmingly defensive and aimed at maintaining the nation’s territorial integrity. The main focus at the time was in reforms toward increasing the efficiency of a military built around Soviet-leftovers.

The National Security Council issued a statement confirming that the country is now abandoning its traditional position of non-alignment and instead wants “Euro-Atlantic integration,” while believing there is a “high likelihood” of a large-scale military conflict with Russia.

Guatemalan President Resigns in "Huge Victory" for Popular Uprising

Guatemalans Celebrate as President Faces Possible Corruption and War Crimes Charges

Protesters in Guatemala City endured torrential rains yesterday as they waited outside the country's congressional building for the result of a vote to strip President Otto Pérez Molina of his immunity from prosecution. When lawmakers voted 132-0 in favor of removing the embattled leader's legal protections, clearing the way for him to be prosecuted in connection with a corruption scandal, some of those present wept at the news. ...

Others celebrated the decision, but were cautious given the Central American country's history of impunity.

"Finally, they have all the pieces to prosecute this war criminal," Sal Figueroa, a Guatemalan citizen who has participated in the protests since April, told VICE News. "However, the justice system in this country is weak. If they do manage to judge him, it will be a whole new chapter in our history." ...

The door is also now potentially open for Perez Molina to be prosecuted for his alleged involvement in war crimes during Guatemala's 36-year internal armed conflict. In the 1980s, Pérez Molina went by the name Tito Arias and was a commanding officer of a brutal commando unit known as the Kabilies.

In May 2013, former dictator Efrain Rios Montt was convicted on charges of genocide by a Guatemalan court. But the charges were overturned weeks later, and the Guatemalan Congress declared "there was never a genocide." In the trial against Rios Montt, a witness accused Perez Molina of participating in the genocide of indigenous Mayans during the war.

Guatemalan president resigns after arrest warrant issued

Guatemala’s President Otto Pérez Molina has resigned days before an election, after the attorney general obtained a warrant for his arrest amid a corruption scandal.

Pérez Molina submitted his resignation at midnight local time, his spokesman Jorge Ortega said. The resignation is not effective until Congress accepts it and names a new president. A meeting was scheduled for Thursday morning to do this.

In a fast-moving climax to a crisis that has been building for months, MPs withdrew the president’s immunity from prosecution on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the attorney general, Thelma Aldana, requested an arrest warrant for Pérez Molina.

Aldana later said a judge had issued the warrant on suspicion of illicit association, fraud and receiving bribe money, relating to a widespread customs fraud ring over which the former vice-president has already been detained and faces charges. ...

No formal charges have been filed against Pérez Molina. Aldana said a preliminary investigation was under way into his possible involvement in the fraud ring.

The president’s lawyer, Cesar Calderon, said Pérez Molina would come forward voluntarily as soon as they confirmed that the warrant had been issued. Pérez Molina was already under orders not to leave the country.

Police in Ferguson gave a lesson in how not to respond to protests, says report

The police response to unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer offers lessons in how not to handle mass demonstrations, according to a Justice Department report that warns such problems could happen in other places roiled by mistrust between law enforcement and the community.

The report fleshes out a draft version made public in June, creating a portrait of poor community-police relations, ineffective communication among the more than 50 law enforcement agencies that responded, police orders that infringed first amendment rights, and military-style tactics that antagonized demonstrators.

The final version, which is to be released on Thursday, was obtained in advance by the Associated Press. ... In a detailed chronology, it tracks missteps that began almost immediately after the shooting when police wrongly assumed that crowds would quickly dissipate, withheld information from the public and were slow to grasp community angst over the hours-long presence of Brown’s body beneath white sheets in the street.

It details more flaws over the next two weeks, including the improper use of police dogs, armored vehicles and snipers to monitor the crowds; the decision by some officers to remove their nameplates; arbitrary orders to demonstrators to keep moving after five seconds; and poor communication among agencies about which policy to follow and who was in change.

Freddie Gray trial judge denies motion to remove Marilyn Mosby from case

A Baltimore judge on Wednesday denied a raft of motions aimed at removing state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby from a case involving six police officers criminally charged in the death of Freddie Gray.

The motions filed by the defence team aimed variously to sanction or recuse Mosby, who became a national figure when she announced the charges against the officers. ...

In court, judge Barry Williams described one of the motions – which claimed that by reading the probable cause statement in a press conference on the day her office filed charges, Mosby herself became a witness and should therefore be prevented from the case – as “mind-boggling”. ...

Judge Barry Williams also ruled for a motion to separate the cases out into six separate trials.

Sandra Bland activists maintain jail vigil despite dimming media spotlight

The hourlong drive from Houston to the Waller County jail has become a regular commute for Hannah Bonner.

Since the death of Sandra Bland on 13 July, the United Methodist reverend has kept vigil outside the building almost every day, joined by others who are determined to honour Bland’s life and promote her legacy, long after the national gaze moved elsewhere and despite an ongoing investigation with few if any answers.

No one could deny that Bland’s death has prompted visible change at the jail. New barriers were erected in front of the building, eliminating the ability to sit or stand by the wall where protesters tended to gather because the overhanging roof made it the best place to find shade.

Bonner sometimes sat in a folding chair and strummed a guitar. Others brought posters, food and water. They used the jail’s restrooms. There were candles and statuettes of angels, and photographs of Bland. Bonner said people sought refuge from the summer sun and 100F temperatures under a tree in the parking lot. Last month, it was cut down.

Now, signs either side of the reflective-glass entry doors insist on “no loitering in the lobby”. The sheriff’s patience appeared to run out after 9 August – the one-year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri – when protesters entered and chanted for several minutes until officers forced them outside.

Two days later, Bonner filmed the sheriff, Glenn Smith, telling her: “Why don’t you go back to the church of Satan that you run?” ... But most days are quiet now. On Tuesday, Bonner and Karisha Shaw, a Houston-based school worker, were there in the rain. “Our presence here is to keep the attention on Sandra Bland,” Bonner said. “We don’t really have answers to what happened to Sandra Bland and we might never know, but we do know she should never have been in this jail.”

Greece's Syriza party falls behind conservatives in latest poll

The leftist Syriza party of former Greek premier Alexis Tsipras has fallen behind its main conservative opponents for the first time since a snap election was called in August, a new poll by GPO showed on Wednesday.

Trade Union General Strike Across India

Underlining Strikers' Point, Court Fines Washington for Underfunding Schools

Lawmakers in Washington state are scrambling to get ready for a special session after the state’s highest court announced it will start charging a penalty of $100,000 per day while legislators continue illegally underfunding the public schools.

The court’s move comes on the heels of one-day strikes that rolled across the state this spring. Half the members of the Washington Education Association (WEA), in some 65 school districts covering 40,000 teachers, walked out—including on the state’s conservative side, east of the mountains. ...

Washington schools now have “among the largest class sizes in the nation,” says Paul Hope, a math and science teacher at Mt. Vernon High School.

Voters last year approved a statewide initiative to reduce class size. But this year the legislature thumbed its nose, claiming the price tag was too high, and mustered a supermajority to override the popular vote and postpone the class-size reductions.

Meanwhile teachers’ real paychecks have shrunk, as years ticked by with no cost-of-living raise or increase in the employer’s contribution to their health insurance premiums. “Correcting for inflation I’ve lost 21 percent of my spending power since the financial crisis,” Hope says. ...

In January 2012, the Supreme Court of Washington ruled that the state was indeed shirking its constitutional top priority.

Since then the court has repeatedly ordered legislators to provide a plan to comply with the constitution. Last fall, it found the state in contempt of court for failing to do so.

After the legislature closed this summer with still no plan, the court announced August 13 that it would begin levying a penalty: $100,000 a day, effective immediately, until the governor convenes a special legislative session that produces full compliance. The money is to be held in a separate account dedicated to basic education.

Hillary Clinton Just Picked Sides With the Democrats’ Warren Wing Against the Rubin Wing

Hillary Clinton’s decision to endorse legislation to limit the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street, and ban “golden parachute” payments for financial executives who rotate into government service, has shifted the balance of power in the most critical fight inside the Democratic Party. The Clinton op-ed supporting the Financial Services Conflict of Interest Act was co-written with Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the bill’s sponsor. ...

Since coming to the Senate, Warren’s primary preoccupation has not necessarily been legislation but who would carry out policy inside the Obama administration. Warren was instrumental in preventing Larry Summers from chairing the Federal Reserve. She also waged a public battle to block former investment banker Antonio Weiss from the No. 3 position at Treasury; Weiss withdrew his name and went on to serve as a counselor. ...

Clinton had to make a choice because she was cornered by the golden parachute payments her top aides received from their former Wall Street firms when she served as secretary of state. Progressive groups allied with Warren used this as a hook to demand Clinton’s position. Warren herself kicked this off by publicly challenging all presidential candidates to support the Baldwin legislation in July. Clinton’s main challengers for the nomination already endorsed the bill. ...

Going after the golden parachutes Rubinites have enjoyed could have a chilling effect on who decides to enter government, and will change incentives around accepting jobs on both Wall Street and in Washington. That could change the mix around personnel in the next Democratic White House. ... Hillary Clinton has been forced to pick a side in a quiet but important war, and her decision suggests that the potential 2016 Clinton transition would look a lot different than the 2008 Obama one.

Obama pledges millions for 20th century flush toilets for Alaskan villages

Barack Obama closed out his visit to Alaska on Wednesday, promising to provide remote native villages with both 20th-century standards of flush toilets and sanitation and much-needed protection against the 21st-century consequences of climate change.

Ahead of a last stop in Kotzebue, a community of 3,000 north of the Arctic circle, the White House pledged $17.6m to help bring flush toilets and safe drinking water to 17 remote communities.

Obama also promised $2m, through the state’s Denali Commission, to help those remote coastal communities which have chosen to relocate because of climate change.

More than two dozen native Alaskan villages which are losing the land out from under them to coastal erosion and sea-level rise, are actively considering moving because of climate change.

Obama Announces New Plan to Save Arctic: More Icebreakers!

During his controversial Alaska visit, the US president continues his trend of lofty, climate change speeches coupled with more support for Arctic drilling

Faced with ever-increasing global temperatures and rapidly melting Arctic ice, what might the next logical step be for U.S. President Barack Obama? To call for an end to Arctic drilling?

No! More icebreakers!

On the second day of his controversial three-day visit to Alaska on Tuesday, Obama declared that in order to stay competitive with Russia amid a frosty new resource grab, the U.S. must speed up its investment in a heavy icebreaker. ...

Such polar icebreakers are specifically designed cutters for open-water icebreaking. As the ice sheet melts and new shipping routes open up, there will be a dramatic increase in the amount of human activity and commerce on the Arctic Ocean. Further, the latest U.S. push to drill for oil in the Arctic is also driving industry to the barren and fragile landscape. ...

The move was applauded by Alaska's Republican Senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.

"The highways of the Arctic are paved by icebreakers," Sullivan said. "Right now, the Russians have superhighways, and we have dirt roads with potholes."

And Murkowski noted that icebreakers are just one type of vessel necessary to support Arctic drilling operations, which officially began last month. ...

Ever since the president's Alaska trip was first announced, environmentalists and other critics of Arctic drilling have been mystified by the disconnect between Obama's lofty, climate-change rhetoric and his approval of Shell's drilling plans.

'Big Moment' for California as Assembly Votes to Divest From Dirty Coal

World's eighth largest economy moves to divest $300 million from thermal coal holdings

In a significant victory for the fossil fuel divestment movement, the California Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill requiring the state's two pension systems, CalPERS and CalSTRS, to release their holdings from coal investments.

Following the 43-27 vote, S.B.185 now heads to the desk of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, "who has not formally stated his position but who is still expected to sign it into law," Reuters reports. California would then become the first state in the nation to have its public pension funds divest from any fossil fuels. ...

"This is a big moment for California, and for everyone around the world standing up to the most powerful and destructive industry in history," May Boeve, executive director of 350.org said in a press statement. "Today’s vote is so meaningful because it sends a strong message: political leadership on climate change means being willing to stand up to powerful moneyed interests, and call out the destructive practices of the companies causing the climate crisis."

Regulator in Canada's Alberta shuts in 95 Nexen pipelines over 'noncompliance'

Alberta's energy regulator has shut in 95 Nexen Energy pipelines, over concerns the company allegedly violated pipeline maintenance and monitoring rules.

The order, issued on Friday evening by the regulator in the oil-rich Canadian province, comes more than a month after Nexen, which is owned by CNOOC Ltd, discovered one of the largest ever oil-related pipeline spills on North American soil at its Long Lake Facility in northern Alberta.

The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) said it received information that indicated noncompliance with pipeline safety rules on multiple lines in the course of its investigation at the site, southeast of Fort McMurray.

The order suspends 15 pipeline licenses for 95 pipelines that carry a range of products including crude oil, natural gas, salt water, fresh water and emulsion, the regulator said. It is also requiring Nexen to demonstrate that its pipelines can be operated safely.

Also of interest:

Quebec Political Party Renounces Separatism, Picks Canada Over 'Imaginary' Country

FAA Approves Corporation's Use of Drones To Collect Data, Prompting Protest from Privacy Advocates

Judges seem hesitant to stop NSA bulk collection before ban takes effect

Germany greets refugees with help and kindness at Munich central station

Ukraine Rightists Kill Police; NYT Blames Putin

Mapping the growth of bases worldwide

Why Did Oil Prices Just Jump By 27 Percent in 3 Days?

Congressional Black Caucus Still Trying to Hurt Their Constituents By Killing the Labor Department Fiduciary Rule

Quantitative Easing for People: Jeremy Corbyn’s Radical Proposal