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This evening's music features gospel singer, songwriter, bandleader and guitarist, Roebuck "Pops" Staples. Enjoy!

“Do you think it's possible for an entire nation to be insane?”

-- Terry Pratchett

News and Opinion

Colombia finalizes peace deal with FARC rebels, ending half-century war

The Colombian government and the country's largest rebel group have announced that they have reached a final peace deal to end their half-century-long war.

The conflict began in 1964 when the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, became one of the first in a wave of Marxist-inspired Latin American guerrilla armies. Today it is one of the very few still active, though the group is now also associated with criminal activities such as drug trafficking and systematic extortion.

"We have reached a final, complete, and definitive agreement," read a joint statement signed by both sides and released on Wednesday evening in Havana, Cuba, where the negotiations have been based. "We do not want one more victim in Colombia." ...

The final deal comes two months after negotiators announced they had sealed a definitive ceasefire. This came after a number of other agreements on such contentious issues as land access for poor farmers, how to treat war criminals, and the mechanisms for the FARC's transformation into a political party.

Before reading and then signing the statement announcing the last agreement of all, against a backdrop of a blue banner featuring a white dove and the words Peace Talks, the top negotiators sang the Colombian national anthem alongside representatives of Cuba and Norway, who have acted as guarantors of the process.

Though a formal signing ceremony is not expected to take place for at least a few weeks more — and where this will take place has reportedly yet to be defined — Wednesday's announcement in Havana opens the way for preparations to begin for a plebiscite on the deal.

Columbia: Government, FARC reach agreement

CIA Psychologists Sue CIA For Documents To Prove Torture Program Wasn't Their Idea

The two CIA-contracted psychologists accused of crafting the spy agency’s so-called “enhanced interrogation program” want the U.S. government to turn over documents they hope will show the torture program wasn’t their fault.

The motion to compel the documents, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, alleged that the CIA and Justice Department had been uncooperative in supplying James Elmer Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen with “documents critical to their defense.”

Their request is related to a separate ongoing lawsuit in Spokane, Washington, where the American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of three former CIA detainees, is suing Jessen and Mitchell for their alleged role in creating and implementing an interrogation program that used techniques now considered to be torture. ...

According to the motion filed Monday, the subpoenas they submitted to the CIA and DOJ in June requested approximately 30 categories of documents. Back-and-forth correspondence between the government and lawyers for Mitchell and Jessen follows the same pattern, the motion alleged: “The Government claiming that it wants to provide Defendants with information, but is unsure how it can provide such information or when.”

The government has said that the psychologists’ request is overly vague and burdensome, ostensibly because of classification issues in documents related to the CIA’s now-defunct torture program.

This is an interesting article well worth a full read. Here's a teaser:

The Broken Chessboard: Brzezinski Gives Up on Empire

The main architect of Washington’s plan to rule the world has abandoned the scheme and called for the forging of ties with Russia and China. While Zbigniew Brzezinski’s article in The American Interest titled “Towards a Global Realignment” has largely been ignored by the media, it shows that powerful members of the policymaking establishment no longer believe that Washington will prevail in its quest to extent US hegemony across the Middle East and Asia. Brzezinski, who was the main proponent of this idea and who drew up the blueprint for imperial expansion in his 1997 book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, has done an about-face and called for a dramatic revising of the strategy. Here’s an excerpt from the article in the AI:

“As its era of global dominance ends, the United States needs to take the lead in realigning the global power architecture.

Five basic verities regarding the emerging redistribution of global political power and the violent political awakening in the Middle East are signaling the coming of a new global realignment.

The first of these verities is that the United States is still the world’s politically, economically, and militarily most powerful entity but, given complex geopolitical shifts in regional balances, it is no longer the globally imperial power.” (Toward a Global Realignment, Zbigniew Brzezinski, The American Interest)

Repeat: The US is “no longer the globally imperial power.” Compare this assessment to a statement Brzezinski made years earlier in Chessboard when he claimed the US was ” the world’s paramount power.” ...

Saudi Arabia Kills Civilians, the U.S. Looks the Other Way

In the span of four days earlier this month, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen bombed a Doctors Without Borders-supported hospital, killing 19 people; a school, where 10 children, some as young as 8, died; and a vital bridge over which United Nations food supplies traveled, punishing millions.

In a war that has seen reports of human rights violations committed by every side, these three attacks stand out. But the Obama administration says these strikes, like previous ones that killed thousands of civilians since last March, will have no effect on the American support that is crucial for Saudi Arabia’s air war.

On the night of Aug. 11, coalition warplanes bombed the main bridge on the road from Hodeidah, along the Red Sea coast, to Sana, the capital. When it didn’t fully collapse, they returned the next day to destroy the bridge. ...

Bridges on the vital Sanaa Hodeidah road pic.twitter.com/HUKRqvj0qc

— Julien Harneis (@julienmh) August 12, 2016

An Obama administration official told me on the condition of anonymity that the United States included the bridge on a no-strike list of vital infrastructure, explicitly informing the Saudis that it was “critical to responding to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.” And yet the Saudi-led coalition obliterated the structure, either intentionally disregarding humanitarian considerations and the wishes of the United States, or out of sheer incompetence. ...

The American assistance for Saudi Arabia that Mr. Obama authorized last March includes aerial refueling for coalition jets, intelligence and targeting assistance. American tankers offload fuel to any coalition jet, no matter its target. This support comes on top of more than $100 billion in arms deals with Saudi Arabia between 2010 and 2015, and recent deals made explicitly to “replenish” stockpiles spent in Yemen. ...

Many in Washington see support for the Saudi-led coalition as necessary for maintaining American-Saudi relations after the nuclear deal with Iran last year. Saudi Arabia has used this leeway to carry out its Yemen campaign with abandon. Each fatal strike and subsequent implausible Saudi denial should test the limits of the Obama administration’s support.

Instead, a spokesman for United States Central Command, which oversees American operations in the Middle East including support for the coalition, told me last week that the United States is not conducting a single investigation into civilian casualties in Yemen.

US Drone Strikes Kill Seven ‘Suspects’ in Yemen

Officials are saying that they believe US drone strikes killed seven members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) today, though who they were is totally unclear, and security officials are just labeling them all “suspects.” ...

The attacks have the appearance of “signature strikes,” in which US forces attack unidentified targets simply because they give the appearance of being something worth targeting. The US has limited intelligence on the ground in Yemen during the ongoing Saudi War, but has not halted their strikes. ...

Attacks on whatever cars are still functional this deep into the war represent a change hack to the old policy of very limited justification for the strikes, and Yemeni officials endorsing them no matter who they hit.

Pentagon: US Airstrike on Raqqa May Have Killed Civilians

The Pentagon says it may have killed some additional civilians in its most recent airstrikes against the ISIS capital city of Raqqa, in northern Syria. They offered few details on how many civilians may have been among the slain.

Officials said that a “non-military vehicle” drove into the area that US warplanes were bombing, and got blown up by the bombs. They were unsure how many people were inside the vehicle or what happened to them, though presumably they were killed.

Syria: "Kurds are getting ready for the battle of Raqqa, the islamic state group de facto capital"

Turkish Forces Invade Northern Syria Along With Rebels

A coalition of Turkey-backed rebels were given access to Turkish soil through which to launch an invasion of the ISIS border city of Jarabulus, but what happened was a lot bigger than anyone expected, as the rebels didn’t go alone, but were joined by a significant Turkish military contingent, which invaded along with them.

Turkish special forces and tanks rolled across the border today, and fairly quickly secured Jarabulus for the rebels. It’s not clear how much fighting even took place, as the bulk of ISIS’ forces there are said to have retreated outright in the face of the offensive. ...

How well this rebel coalition, dominated by the al-Qaeda-linked Ahrar al-Sham, is able to hold Jarabulus on their own remains to be seen, but Turkish forces haven’t left yet at any rate, and with officials continuing to demand that the Kurds abandon Manbij, it is entirely possible the Turkish offensive isn’t over.

New leaks prove it: the NSA is putting us all at risk to be hacked

The National Security Agency is lying to us. We know that because of data stolen from an NSA server was dumped on the internet. The agency is hoarding information about security vulnerabilities in the products you use, because it wants to use it to hack others' computers. Those vulnerabilities aren't being reported, and aren't getting fixed, making your computers and networks unsafe. ...

The sophisticated cyberweapons in the data dump include vulnerabilities and "exploit code" that can be deployed against common internet security systems. Products targeted include those made by Cisco, Fortinet, TOPSEC, Watchguard, and Juniper — systems that are used by both private and government organizations around the world. Some of these vulnerabilities have been independently discovered and fixed since 2013, and some had remained unknown until now.

All of them are examples of the NSA — despite what it and other representatives of the US government say — prioritizing its ability to conduct surveillance over our security. ...

Over the past few years, different parts of the US government have repeatedly assured us that the NSA does not hoard "zero days" — the term used by security experts for vulnerabilities unknown to software venders. After we learned from the Snowden documents that the NSA purchases zero-day vulnerabilities from cyberweapons arms manufacturers, the Obama administration announced, in early 2014, that the NSA must disclose flaws in common software so they can be patched (unless there is "a clear national security or law enforcement" use).

Later that year, National Security Council cybersecurity coordinator and special adviser to the president on cybersecurity issues Michael Daniel insisted that US doesn't stockpile zero days (except for the same narrow exemption). An official statement from the White House in 2014 said the same thing.

The Shadow Brokers data shows this is not true.

Heh, in the US, bikinis used to be considered provocative - and in some quarters still are; in France, modesty is provocative and requires armed men to protect the populace from modest women at the beach.

Sarkozy calls burkinis a 'provocation' that supports radical Islam

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has branded the full-body burkini swimsuits worn by some Muslim women a “provocation” that supports radicalised Islam.

After efforts by a series of French coastal towns to ban women from wearing burkinis set off a heated debate in the country, Sarkozy said in a TV interview on Wednesday night that “we don’t imprison women behind fabric”. ...

Sarkozy, who is running for the presidency again next year, is stepping up his hardline rhetoric ahead of must-win primaries organised by the French right in November where he is expected to face tough competition. He is expected to campaign on a hard-line platform on immigration and security issues in a country marked by recent attacks carried out by Islamist extremists.

In the TF1 channel interview, Sarkozy insisted that Muslims in France are French people “exactly like any other ones” but, when living in the country, they must “assimilate” the French language and way of life, the French regions and the history of France.

France burkini debate: top court to rule on legality of muslim swimwear ban

French Police Create Propaganda for ISIS by Ticketing Muslim Women on Beaches

Photographs and video of French police officers issuing tickets to Muslim women — for violating new local ordinances that ban modest beachwear as an offense against “good morals and secularism” in more than a dozen towns along the Riviera — spread widely on social networks on Wednesday, prompting waves of outrage and mockery by opponents of the laws. ...

"The body of the Muslim woman has always been a way for the French state to assert power over an entire population" pic.twitter.com/bgTqmkXiaP

— بثينة العزابي (@Boutaina) August 22, 2016

David Thomson, a French journalist who tracks jihadist activity online, told Radio France that Islamic State sympathizers on social networks seemed surprised to find police officers in Nice “creating propaganda on their behalf,” by providing the perfect illustration of their case that France humiliates Muslims.

“For them, this is a godsend,” Thomson said. “The jihadist narrative has insisted for years that it is impossible for a Muslim to practice their religion with dignity in France.” Within minutes of publication, he said, these photographs became one of the most discussed topics in the online “jihadosphere.”

“These shots of Nice,” he added, “will fuel years of jihadist propaganda.”

This Muslim woman was forced to undress by armed French police. Social media reacted with #WTFFrance.https://t.co/RcC5mMIfX9

— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 24, 2016

Cops in Canada and Scotland will soon be able to wear the hijab

As France obsesses over what women ought to be wearing — or not wearing — on its beaches, Canada and Scotland have adopted new rules allowing female police officers to sport the hijab in an attempt to attract more Muslim women to their respective forces.

In Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) recently unveiled the new internal policies, which would add the traditional head-covering to the iconic red Mountie uniform.

"This is intended to better reflect the diversity in our communities and encourage more Muslim women to consider the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a career option," a spokesperson for Canada's minister of public safety said in a statement.

The move makes the RCMP the third police force in Canada to make the change.

Phil Gormley, Chief Constable of Police Scotland, heralded his force's change as an ideal way to show that Muslim women are welcome on the force.

"I am delighted to make this announcement and welcome the support from both the Muslim community, and the wider community, as well as police officers and staff," Gormley said in a statement.

“Deadly Heat” in U.S. Prisons Is Killing Inmates and Spawning Lawsuits

In hte summer months, 84 inmates at the Price Daniel Unit, a medium-security prison four hours west of Dallas, share a 10-gallon cooler of water that’s kept locked in a common area. An inmate there can expect to receive one 8 oz. cup every four hours, according to Benny Hernandez, a man serving a 10-year sentence at the prison. The National Academy of Medicine recommends that adults drink about twice that amount under normal conditions and even more in hot climates. According to Hernandez, in the summer the temperature in his prison’s housing areas can reach an astonishing 140 degrees. ...

The TDCJ, which runs Texas prisons and houses more than 146,000 inmates, is currently in the middle of litigation over what inmates and advocates have said is deadly heat in its facilities. But Texas is not the only state facing such lawsuits. Louisiana is defending its refusal to install air conditioning on death row, while prisons and jails across the country have been ordered by courts to address their sweltering temperatures and extend protections to inmates, particularly the ill and elderly. ...

In a 2014 report documenting the “deadly heat” inside Texas prisons, researchers with the University of Texas School of Law’s Human Rights Clinic found that since 2007, at least 14 inmates had died from extreme heat exposure in prisons across the state. The report documented at length the failures of prison officials to prevent heat-related injury to inmates and concluded with a series of recommendations, including frequent monitoring of inmates at higher risk and the installation of air conditioning to ensure temperatures do not exceed 85 degrees. A year later, nothing had changed, and the same researchers issued a second report condemning the “reckless indifference” of prison authorities. ...

Texas, which has not set a maximum temperature standard for its prisons, is hardly unique. There’s no national standard for temperatures in prisons and jails, and as jurisdiction over prisons is decentralized among states and the federal system, and jurisdiction over jails is even more fragmented among thousands of local authorities across the country, fights over excessive heat in detention can only be waged facility by facility.

“The only national standard we have is the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment,” David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project, told The Intercept.

Baltimore police confirms aerial surveillance of city residents

Baltimore police on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time that city residents had been subject to aerial surveillance, after a Bloomberg Businessweek story revealed that airborne cameras had snapped continuous photos in cooperation with the police since January.

Police spokesman TJ Smith insisted that the privately funded agreement between Persistent Surveillance Systems and city police “was not a secret surveillance program”. Before Wednesday, not even the mayor, city council, and board of estimates had been told about the program.

“There was no conspiracy not to disclose it,” Smith said.

Many officials and activists thought otherwise. The office of the public defender issued a statement saying that the “secrecy of the program has precluded any oversight of the technology’s use” and warned of “abuses that are ripe from its use”.

American Civil Liberties Union senior policy analyst Jay Stanley said it was “stunning that American police forces feel that they can use deeply radical and controversial surveillance systems” in a blogpost.

Hedge funds see investment exodus amid faltering performance

Hedge funds faced a net outflow of $55.9bn this year, as losses and exorbitant fees are compelling investors to take out more money than they put in

If money talks, then one of the things it has been saying this summer is that investors are no longer interested in hedge funds. Investors withdrew $25.2bn from hedge funds in July, according to eVestments. This is the largest monthly redemption since February 2009, when investors redeemed $28.2bn.

This news comes after investors withdrew $23.5bn in June. Overall, in 2016, hedge funds faced a net outflow of $55.9bn. According to Peter Laurelli, vice-president and global head of research at eVestments, 2016 could become the third year on record when investors took out more money than they put in.

The main reasons why investors are taking their money elsewhere? Poor performance. ...

The trouble for hedge funds started in 2015, when over the last three months, investors globally withdrew more money than they put in, according to Hedge Fund Research. The research firm also reported that 979 hedge funds closed last year – most since 2009.

The industry is expected to shrink further this year. According to Blackstone Group president Tony James, the industry might lose as much as 25% of assets this year.

Diane Ravitch to Readers: Don't Let Charter Industry Silence John Oliver

What do an education historian and a late-night comedian have in common?

Shared opposition to the fraud and abuse associated with charter schools and other privatization efforts, of course.

On Thursday, longtime educator and activist Diane Ravitch encouraged her readers to start a campaign of thanks to comedian John Oliver, who devoted a segment of his HBO show Last Week Tonight on Sunday to charter schools and fraud—and is now being targeted by privatizers and other corporate propagandists on Twitter.

Charter supporters are "saying that he 'hurt' children, he savaged children," she wrote, noting that this is "a familiar tactic" of intimidation that she faced after writing about dubious test-scoring methods in New York City school a decade ago.

Ravitch called on her readers to combat the hate by tweeting and emailing Oliver messages of support. "Don't let the charter industry intimidate him," she wrote.

Graduate students at private schools can now unionize

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) did a 360 on Wednesday, giving private university graduate students the right to unionize after previously ruling against collective bargaining in 2004.

Research shows that, in recent years, much of the work done at four-year institutions has fallen to a steadily expanding part-time staff. These instructors, including graduate teaching assistants, rose between 15 percent and 25 percent at most four-year schools between 2000 and 2012, according to a study at the American Institutes for Research. At master's colleges, that growth was even higher, at 35 percent.

"Part-time faculty/graduate assistants typically account for at least half of the instructional staff in most higher education sectors," the 2014 report said. "Institutions have continued to hire full-time faculty, but at a pace that either equaled or lagged behind student enrollments; these new hires also were likely to fill non-tenure-track positions."

Weapons, Pipelines & Wall St: Did Clinton Foundation Donations Impact Clinton State Dept. Decisions?

Hillary Clinton met 85 Clinton Foundation donors while secretary of state

The foundation established by Bill and Hillary Clinton is at the centre of fresh controversy after it was revealed that half of the people who met her when she was secretary of state gave money to the organisation.

In the latest twist to a saga that has seen Republican candidate Donald Trump call for an independent investigation of the foundation, an analysis by the Associated Press has revealed that 50 per cent of private individuals who got to see her - at least 85 of 154 - donated money either personally or through a company. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156m.

Hillary Clinton strongly stated that there was "absolutely no connection" between her private work and that of The State Department. LIE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2016

Mr Trump has been at front of those alleging impropriety.

“Hillary Clinton is totally unfit to hold public office,” he said at a rally Tuesday night in Austin, Texas. “It is impossible to figure out where the Clinton Foundation ends and the State Department begins. It is now abundantly clear that the Clintons set up a business to profit from public office.”

The Clintons have both denied that there has ever being anything like the process of “pay-for-play” that Mr Trump has alleged. Yet as with many things relating to the couple’s political endeavours, the optics of the arrangement are not good.

"Our Revolution"? Bernie Sanders Launches New Organization, But Key Staffers Quit in Protest

Bernie Sanders’s New Political Group Is Met by Staff Revolt

Senator Bernie Sanders announcement of the new group, Our Revolution, which was live streamed on Wednesday night, came as a majority of its staff resigned after the appointment last Monday of Jeff Weaver, Mr. Sanders’s former campaign manager, to lead the organization. ...

Several people familiar with the organization said eight core staff members had stepped down. The group’s entire organizing department quit this week, along with people working in digital and data positions.

After the resignations, Mr. Sanders spoke to some who had quit and asked them to reconsider, but the staff members refused.

At the heart of the issue, according to several people who left, was deep distrust of and frustration with Mr. Weaver, whom they accused of wasting money on television advertising during Mr. Sanders’s campaign; mismanaging campaign funds by failing to hire staff members or effectively target voters; and creating a hostile work environment by threatening to criticize staff members if they quit. ...

Claire Sandberg, who was the organizing director at Our Revolution and had worked on Mr. Sanders’s campaign, said she and others were also concerned about the group’s tax status — as a 501(c)(4) organization it can collect large donations from anonymous sources — and that a focus by Mr. Weaver on television advertising meant that it would fail to reach many of the young voters who powered Mr. Sanders’s campaign and are best reached online.

“I left and others left because we were alarmed that Jeff would mismanage this organization as he mismanaged the campaign,” she said, expressing concern that Mr. Weaver would “betray its core purpose by accepting money from billionaires and not remaining grass-roots-funded and plowing that billionaire cash into TV instead of investing it in building a genuine movement.”

Fleeing the Bern: half of staff quit Sanders legacy project before it begins

Bernie Sanders announced plans for his new grassroots organising project, Our Revolution, on Wednesday night, declaring that “the struggle for justice still continues”.

In a livestream watched by tens of thousands of people, Sanders told his supporters “we have driven the debate and changed the mindset of people” as he laid out plans to elect progressive politicians and work to improve criminal justice reform, single-payer healthcare and immigration policy.

But the launch was overshadowed by reports that a majority of Our Revolution staff members had resigned in the past few days amid an internal row. ...

Wednesday’s announcement was broadcast from Burlington, Vermont, where Sanders appeared in front of a small crowd of supporters. The Vermont senator spoke for almost 50 minutes, much of which was spent hailing the success of his primary campaign. ...

Sanders listed five of the progressives Our Revolution would be supporting, with the variation between level of office illustrating the breadth of the organization’s vision. The candidates ran from Vernon Miller, who is running for school board in Nebraska, to Zephyr Teachout, who is running for US congress in upstate New York.

Sanders also listed some of the issues the organization would focus on, which include campaigning against Citizens United, lobbying for a single-payer healthcare system and working against fracking and climate change.

Our Revolution’s chances of effecting this change would appear to have been impacted by the mass resignations, however.

UKIP's Nigel Farage at Trump rally: 'I wouldn't vote for Clinton if you paid me'

Donald Trump positioned himself as an underdog Wednesday night, leaning on Nigel Farage, architect of the British exit from the European Union, to boost morale in the face of sliding polls.

Midway through a speech in Mississippi Trump described “Brexit” as a bid for independence and drew parallels to his own campaign, declaring a Trump presidency would bring about “American independence”.

He introduced Farage as the leader of Ukip who stood up to the EU “against all odds”. Farage told the crowd of thousands, “We reached those people who have never voted in their lives but believed by going out and voting for Brexit they could take back control of their country, take back control of their borders and get back their pride and self-respect.”

The crowd seemed slightly puzzled by Farage’s appearance on stage. But Trump welcomed Farage warmly, and stood by him as he spoke.

Farage, on stage alongside one of the wealthiest men in the United States, said that Brexit was “for the little people, for the real people”.

Farage’s involvement is part of Trump’s latest strategy that centers on his new campaign chair, Stephen Bannon. Bannon was the head of the Breitbart website before Trump hired him, and is an enthusiastic supporter of Brexit.

Judge Delays Injunction Ruling as Native American Pipeline Protest Grows

Activists resisting a controversial oil pipeline in a growing protest camp in Cannon Ball, N.D. hoped to hear a federal judge side with them Wednesday by issuing an injunction stopping its construction. Instead, they learned they may have to wait up to two weeks to hear the judge's decision.

In the meantime, the activists, who have formed a camp of largely Native American protesters that has swelled to more than 1,200 people, vowed to keep fighting.

They were joined in protest by a group of about 300 who gathered outside the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday to urge Judge James Boasberg to issue the injunction. That group included environmental activists and celebrities, including Susan Sarandon.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, sought a preliminary injunction to stop construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline. An injunction would give the court time to assess the plaintiffs' claims that the pipeline violates the Clean Water Act and other federal statutes.

Boasberg is now expected to rule on the injunction by Sept. 9.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Fights North Dakota Oil Pipeline

Climate change is thawing deadly diseases. Maybe now we'll address it?

Earlier this month, an outbreak of anthrax in northern Russia caused the death of a 12-year-old boy and his grandmother and put 90 people in the hospital. These deadly spores – which had not been seen in the Arctic since 1941 – also spread to 2,300 caribou. Russian troops trained in biological warfare were dispatched to the Yamalo-Nenets region to evacuate hundreds of the indigenous, nomadic people and quarantine the disease. ...

The spread of illness was not the result of bioterrorism; it was a result of global warming. Record-high temperatures melted Arctic permafrost and released deadly anthrax spores from a thawing carcass of a caribou that had been infected 75 years ago and had stayed frozen in limbo until now. This all suggests that it may not be easy to predict which populations will be most vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change. ...

It is usually so cold in the tundra that the ground is perennially frozen in deep layers that can date back 3m years. But the usual circumstances no longer apply at the top of the world. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe. In fact, the area of the anthrax outbreak was 18F (10C) hotter than average, with temperatures reaching 95F (35C). In addition to releasing ancient microbes, melting layers of permafrost also release methane, a greenhouse gas 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide, that in turn causes further warming. ...

As risk is added to risk, the signals of our changing climate underscore the urgent need to put climate change solutions in place. Even more than we know, our health may depend on it.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

EpiPen Uproar Highlights Company’s Family Ties to Congress

Why more Americans can't afford to buy homes

Shhh! Don’t Tell the New York Times that S&P Earnings Have Declined for 5 QuartersCould urban farming provide a much-needed oasis in the Tulsa food desert?

Nicaragua is drifting towards dictatorship once again

Documents: Soviets worried about detente after Nixon quit

A Little Night Music

Pops Staples - Nobody's Fault But Mine

Pops Staples - Somebody Was Watching

The Staple Singers - Great Day

Pops Staples - Black Boy

Pops Staples - Why Am I Treated So Bad

Pops Staples - Grandma's Hands

Pops Staples - Hope In A Hopeless World

Mavis Staples - Pop's Recipe

The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself/I'll Take You There