Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features New Orleans musician Clarence "Frogman" Henry. Enjoy!

"Why are we proud? We are proud, first of all, because from the beginning of this Nation, a man can walk upright, no matter who he is, or who she is. He can walk upright and meet his friend--or his enemy; and he does not fear that because that enemy may be in a position of great power that he can be suddenly thrown in jail to rot there without charges and with no recourse to justice. We have the habeas corpus act, and we respect it."

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

News and Opinion

That's It. Eight Years Later, Obama White House Admits Gitmo Won't Close - Blames Congress

'In Gitmo, America has institutionalized the idea of indefinite detention without charge or trial'

The Obama administration made clear Tuesday that it would not be fulfilling its promise to close the notorious Guantánamo Bay prison.

Speaking to reporters, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, "I don't anticipate that we will succeed in that goal of closing the prison, but it's not for a lack of trying. "

He put the blame on "the politics that members of Congress in both parties, frankly, played with this issue," and said that its remaining open is "not a good use of taxpayer dollars, and it certainly isn't the most effective way to protect our country."

"The continued existence of the detention facility at Guantanamo is a devastating policy failure for President Obama and stain on his legacy," stated Jeremy Varon with Witness Against Torture. "The prison never should have existed in the first place, and it should not exist now. It is a place of torture, a giant crime scene with which the United States has never fully reckoned. In Gitmo, America has institutionalized the idea of indefinite detention without charge or trial. Holding exclusively Muslim men, the prison is also the fiercest edge of an Islamophobia that has only gathered steam."

Obama’s Bombing Legacy

As President Obama leaves office, much of his foreign policy record remains shrouded in the symbolism that has been the hallmark of his presidency. The persistence of Obama’s image as a reluctant war-maker and a Nobel Peace Prize winner has allowed Donald Trump and his cabinet nominees to claim that Obama has underfunded the military and been less than aggressive in his use of U.S. military power.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and their claims are clearly designed only to justify even more extravagant military spending and more aggressive threats and uses of force than those perpetrated under Mr. Obama’s “disguised, quiet, media-free” war policy. ...

Donald Trump and his choices for secretaries of State and Defense, Rex Tillerson and Jim Mattis, respectively, are right to say that Obama’s war policy has failed. But they are wrong to insist that the answer is to spend even more on weapons and use them even more aggressively.

Obama’s failure was the result of his deference to generals, admirals, the CIA and hawkish advisers like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, and of his blind faith in U.S. military power. But war was never a legitimate or effective response to terrorism. ...

The only consistent beneficiary in all this death, destruction and chaos is the “military industrial complex” that President Eisenhower warned us against in his farewell address in 1961.

In 2012, I researched and wrote about how General Dynamics CEO Lester Crown and his Chicago family backed and bankrolled the political career of Barack Obama. As manufacturers of Virginia class submarines, Arleigh Burke and Zumwalt destroyers and littoral combat ships (all programs saved, revived or expanded by Obama) as well as other types of munitions, the Crown family’s patronage of Barack Obama has proven to be a profitable investment, from the violence and chaos in the Muslim world to the New Cold War with Russia to the “pivot” to the South China Sea.

Now Mr. Trump has nominated General Dynamics board member, General James “Mad Dog” Mattis as Secretary of Defense, despite his responsibility for illegal rules of engagement and systematic war crimes in Iraq, an obvious conflict of interest with the millions he has earned at General Dynamics and clear laws that require civilian control of the military.

When will we ever learn to tell the difference between corrupt warmongers like Obama and Mattis and progressive leaders who will let us live in peace with our neighbors around the world, even at the expense of General Dynamics’ profits?

Julian Assange ready for US extradition, one of his lawyers suggests

A lawyer for Julian Assange has indicated that the WikiLeaks founder is ready to face extradition to the US after Barack Obama commuted the sentence of US army whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

Assange has been holed up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since claiming asylum there in 2012. He has refused to meet prosecutors in Sweden, where he remains wanted on an allegation of rape, which he denies. He has repeatedly said he fears extradition to the US on espionage charges if he leaves the embassy, though at the moment the only public extradition ruling against him comes from Sweden. ...

The White House insisted on Tuesday that Assange’s offer to submit to extradition if Obama “grants Manning clemency” did not influence the US president’s action.

“The president’s decision to offer commutation was not influenced by public comments by Mr Assange or the WikiLeaks organisation,” the White House official said. “I have no insight into Mr Assange’s travel plans. I can’t speak to any charges or potential charges he may be facing from the justice department.”

Jeremy Scahill on Obama's Commutation of Chelsea Manning & Continued Demonization of Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden's leave to remain in Russia extended for three years

Edward Snowden’s leave to remain in Russia has been extended for three years, his lawyer has said, as a Russian official said the whistleblower would not be extradited to the US even if relations improved under the incoming president, Donald Trump.

Snowden’s Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told RIA Novosti news agency that the permit had been extended until 2020. He also said that as of next year, Snowden would have the right to apply for Russian citizenship.

Earlier on Wednesday, Maria Zakharova, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, wrote on Facebook that Snowden’s right to stay had recently been extended “by a couple of years”. Her post came in response to a suggestion from the former acting CIA director Michael Morell that Vladimir Putin might hand over Snowden to the US, despite there being no extradition treaty between the countries.

Russia says ready to talk to Trump about nuclear arms, Syria

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow was ready to talk to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's new administration about nuclear weapons and Syria, saying the two countries could together solve many of the world's problems.

Lavrov, speaking days before Trump's inauguration, used an annual news conference to flag potential areas of cooperation and to belittle what he described as malicious attempts to link Trump to Russia in a negative light. ...

While cautioning that the new U.S. administration would need to settle in before wider conclusions could be drawn, Lavrov signaled he was encouraged by the tenor of the Trump team's statements so far which he said suggested it would be possible to have a pragmatic relationship.

"Trump has a particular set of views which differ a lot from his predecessor," said Lavrov, who accused the Obama administration of wrecking cooperation across a swath of areas and of trying to recruit Russian diplomats as agents. ...

He said Syria was one of the most promising areas for cooperation, saying the Kremlin had welcomed Trump's statement that he wanted to make fighting global terrorism a priority.

I would have preferred this title: "Humanitarian Bomber and War Party Supporter Samantha Power Takes Parting Shot At Russia"

U.S. ambassador to U.N. says Russia tearing down global order

Russia is engaging in aggressive and destabilizing actions that are threatening the rules-based international order, Samantha Power said on Tuesday in her last major speech as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

In a blistering and detailed critique of Russia's foreign and military policies, Power also called for maintaining U.S. sanctions on Moscow and supporting the NATO alliance, which U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has criticized.

Power, speaking to the Atlantic Council, a Washington, D.C. think tank, cited Russia's intervention in Ukraine, support of the Syrian government in the country's civil war and efforts to influence elections in the United States and other Western democracies. She concluded that "Russia's actions are not standing up a new world order. They are tearing down the one that exists."

Russia has repeatedly used a "deny and lie" strategy to evade responsibility for misdeeds on the international stage, Power said.

Top NATO General Echoes Trump's 'Obsolete' Criticism

NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation General Denis Mercier is conceding that parts of the military alliance need to be brought up to date following U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's claim that NATO is "obsolete." ...

He says the military alliance probably has focused too much on deploying troops abroad, so-called expeditionary warfare, particularly its operation in Afghanistan.

German opposition leader calls for security union with Russia, dissolution of NATO

German opposition leader Sahra Wagenknecht on Tuesday added her voice to calls to dissolve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the wake of US President-elect Donald Trump's controversial remarks concerning the military alliance

"NATO must be dissolved and replaced by a collective security system including Russia," Wagenknecht told Germany's "Funke" media group. ...

Germany's Left Party has previously called for warmer ties with Russia and scrapping the security alliance, measures which appear to be policy concerns for the incoming US administration.

The Left Party is Germany's largest opposition group in parliament, and holds seats in several state legislatures.

Will Trump move embassy to Jerusalem?

Hamas, Fatah Announce Deal to Form Palestinian Unity Government

Hamas and Fatah have agreed to establish a Palestinian unity government, the two factions said in a statement from Moscow, where they were holding unity talks since Sunday.

According to the deal reached in Moscow, the Palestinian factions – including the Islamic Jihad – will join the PLO institutions and form a new Palestinian National Council. The new council will select the PLO Executive Committee, the top political and diplomatic Palestinian body. ...

A Fatah senior official taking part in the talks in Moscow told Haaretz that "The conditions are ripe for a new unity government, both in the internal arena and the international one."

The official mentioned the recent peace conference in Paris, the UN Security Council resolution criticizing the settlements and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's election as some of the reasons behind the deal.

Notorious Mercenary Erik Prince Is Advising Trump From the Shadows

Erik Prince, America’s most notorious mercenary, is lurking in the shadows of the incoming Trump administration. A former senior U.S. official who has advised the Trump transition told The Intercept that Prince has been advising the team on matters related to intelligence and defense, including weighing in on candidates for the defense and state departments. The official asked not to be identified because of a transition policy prohibiting discussion of confidential deliberations.

On election night, Prince’s latest wife, Stacy DeLuke, posted pictures from inside Trump’s campaign headquarters as Donald Trump and Mike Pence watched the returns come in, including a close shot of Pence and Trump with their families. “We know some people who worked closely with [Trump] on his campaign,” DeLuke wrote. “Waiting for the numbers to come in last night. It was well worth the wait!!!! #PresidentTrump2016.” Prince’s sister, billionaire Betsy DeVos, is Trump’s nominee for education secretary and Prince (and his mother) gave large sums of money to a Trump Super PAC.

In July, Prince told Trump’s senior advisor and white supremacist Steve Bannon, at the time head of Breitbart News, that the Trump administration should recreate a version of the Phoenix Program, the CIA assassination ring that operated during the Vietnam War, to fight ISIS. Such a program, Prince said, could kill or capture “the funders of Islamic terror and that would even be the wealthy radical Islamist billionaires funding it from the Middle East, and any of the other illicit activities they’re in.” ...

Blaming leftists and some congressional Democrats for destroying his Blackwater empire, Prince clearly views Trump’s vow to bring back torture, CIA-sponsored kidnapping, and enhanced interrogations, as well as his commitment to fill Guantanamo with prisoners, as a golden opportunity to ascend to his rightful place as a covert private warrior for the U.S. national security state. As we reported last year, “Prince — who portrays himself as a mix between Indiana Jones, Rambo, Captain America, and Pope Benedict — is now working with the Chinese government through his latest ‘private security’ firm.” The Trump presidency could result in Prince working for both Beijing and the White House. ...

Prince’s sister, Betsy DeVos, is Trump’s nominee for education secretary and she has all but vowed to embark on a crusade to push a privatization and religious agenda in education that mirrors her brother’s in military and CIA affairs. Prince has long been a contributor to the campaign of fellow Christian warrior Mike Pence, and he contributed $100,000 to the pro-Trump Super PAC Make America Number 1.

Jeremy Scahill: Did Education Nominee Betsy DeVos Lie to Senate About Ties to Anti-LGBT Foundation?

Education nominee Betsy DeVos calls tax returns contradicting her testimony a “clerical error”

Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, billionaire Republican activist and megadonor Betsy DeVos, told Senators at a Tuesday evening confirmation hearing that years of tax forms listing her as “Vice President” of her mother’s non-profit foundation were a “clerical error.”

DeVos said she wasn't on board of her mother's foundation, which gave $5 mil to Focus on the Family. Tax filings show she was a VP in 2015 pic.twitter.com/N5erWoc8MA

— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@mollyhc) January 18, 2017

Having served as VP of a non-profit isn’t inherently problematic, but this non-profit was the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, which has given money to anti-LGBTQ causes, legislation, and groups. That includes Focus on the Family, which has been a vocal advocate for conversion therapy — a “treatment” for gay people that has been universally panned by relevant expert communities. The organization has also argued that anti-bullying education is part of a radical gay conspiracy.

Under questioning from Senator Maggie Hassan, DeVos said she had never served on the board of the foundation and had never been a vice president. Hassan’s questioning at the time centered on whether DeVos agreed with the policies of Focus on the Family.

A human who thinks that guns in schools will thwart grizzly bear attacks is under consideration for the nation's highest educational post.

— David Simon (@AoDespair) January 18, 2017

Betsy DeVos Cites Grizzly Bears During Guns-in-Schools Debate

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary told lawmakers at her confirmation hearing that guns might have a place in schools due to the threat from grizzly bears. ...

Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who has been vocal on gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, asked DeVos if she thought firearms had any place in or around schools.

"I think that's best left to locales and states to decide," she replied.

Pressed on whether she could say "definitively" if guns shouldn't be in schools, she referred to an earlier remark by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) who mentioned an elementary school in Wapiti, Wyoming, that had erected a fence to protect children from wildlife.

"I think probably there, I would imagine that there's probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies," DeVos said.

School shootings since 2013 = 210. Grizzly school attacks = 0. #BetsyDeVos says teachers should carry in class to shoot #PotentialGrizzlies. https://t.co/y3yMS1Rff0

— Lyn Harris (@lyn_va) January 18, 2017

Betsy DeVos hearing prompts fears for campus sexual assault protections

Betsy DeVos, nominated by Donald Trump to serve as the next education secretary, refused on Tuesday to state whether she would uphold the Obama administration’s guidance on how to handle campus sexual assault.

DeVos – a Republican megadonor, philanthropist and eager patron of charter schools – cast taking a position on the issue as “premature” during her confirmation hearing before the Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions.

Under the Obama administration, the education department has interpreted Title IX – a federal law barring sex discrimination – to mean that the country’s schools must play a role in protecting trans students and combating sexual assault on campus. ...

DeVos, who is a Republican megadonor, philanthropist, and eager patron of charter schools, has not articulated her personal stance on the outgoing administration’s policies toward sexual assault on campus or transgender students.

But supporters of these policies are fretting over large donations DeVos or her family have made to groups that are fighting for these rules’ reversal. The DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative, a family foundation, has donated generously to the far-right legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which is challenging the Obama administration’s protections for trans students in court.

Another organization, Focus on the Family, has received several hundred thousand dollars from DeVos and her husband. The group supports the discredited programs to change sexual orientation known as “conversion therapy”.

And DeVos has personally donated $10,000 to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (Fire), a group which has made the reversal of the Obama administration’s policies on campus sexual assault a central part of its mission.

Betsy DeVos, an Heiress, Bashes Tuition-Free College: ‘There’s Nothing in Life That’s Truly Free’

Betsy Devos, the right-wing activist who the Trump administration has nominated to lead the Department of Education, criticized Bernie Sanders’s plan to offer tuition-free education at public colleges and universities during her Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

“Senator I think that’s a really interesting idea,” she said when asked by Sanders about his plan. “And it’s really great to consider and think about, but I think we also have to consider the fact that there’s nothing in life that’s truly free, somebody’s going to pay for it.”

Here's @SenSanders full Q&A #BetsyDeVos #DeVosHearing #DumpDeVos pic.twitter.com/PFOyOdw8Xt

— People For Bernie (@People4Bernie) January 17, 2017

The proverb about nothing in life being free is ironic coming from DeVos, whose wealth is built off of inheritance and marriage. She is the daughter of Edgar Prince, who founded the Michigan-based Prince Corporation, an auto parts business that sold for $1.35 billion in 1996; she also married into the massive Amway fortune by marrying Dick DeVos, whose father co-founded that company.

Wells Fargo to Pay Transportation Nominee Elaine Chao up to $5 Million Over Next Four Years

Elaine Chao, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Transportation, is in line to receive a “golden parachute” from Wells Fargo & Company worth between $1 million and $5 million dollars.

Chao, who joined Wells Fargo as a board member in 2011, has collected deferred stock options —  a compensation perk generally designed as a long-term retention strategy — that she would not be able to cash out if she left the firm to work for a competitor.

Her financial disclosure notes that she will receive a “cash payout for my deferred stock compensation” upon confirmation as Secretary of Transportation. The document discloses that the payments will continue throughout her time in government, if she is confirmed. The payouts will begin in July 2017 and continue yearly through 2021.

But Wells Fargo, like several banks and defense contractors, provides a special clause in its standard executive employment contract that offers flexibility for awarding compensation if executives leave the bank to enter “government service.” Such clauses, critics say, are structured to incentivize the so-called “reverse revolving door” of private sector officials burrowing into government.

Israeli settlers accept an invite to Trump's inauguration

Two delegations of Israeli settlers are headed to Washington, D.C. this week for the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump.

The invitation extended to Israeli hardliners is a further sign that the Trump administration may be planning to embrace the West Bank settlement movement, breaking with decades of U.S. policy and effectively ending U.S. attempts to lay the groundwork for a Palestinian state. ...

One inaugural delegation is led by Oded Revivi, the foreign envoy for the Yesha Council, an umbrella group for West Bank settlement municipal councils. Revivi told VICE News that his invitation came from “close circles around the president-elect,” though he would not name who reached out to him.

The other delegation is being lead by HaYovel, a Missouri-based evangelical Christian group that, according to its website, arranges for Americans to volunteer in West Bank settlements, “the heartland of Israel, where 80 percent of the Bible was either written or occurred.” The organization is bringing Yehuda Glick, a Knesset member who lives in a West Bank settlement; Sharren Haskel, a Likud lawmaker; and Jeremy Gimpel, an Israeli-American Rabbi who supports settlements and has a close relationship with American evangelicals.

HaYovel was invited to participate in inaugural galas and meetings by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a conservative Christian group that has hosted Trump and Vice President–elect Mike Pence at conferences. Christian evangelicals are the most pro-Israel voting bloc in America.

Repealing Obamacare would leave 32m without health coverage, analysis finds

A Republican plan to repeal key provisions of the Affordable Care Act would leave 32 million people without health coverage and double the cost of insurance premiums over the next decade, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The budget office report, released on Tuesday, analyzed the likely impact of a Republican proposal approved by Congress in 2015 and vetoed by Barack Obama that would repeal major provisions of the healthcare law while leaving other parts in place. The estimate does not account for a replacement plan, which Republicans have vowed to propose soon. ...

Over the weekend, Donald Trump promised that a Republican plan would provide “insurance for everybody”. He has also demanded that his party immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, and pass a healthcare law “simultaneously”.

The CBO report, which was requested by top Senate Democrats, estimated that 18 million people would lose their insurance and premiums would rise by 20% to 25% in the first year following the dismantling of the law. The number of uninsured could rise to 32 million by 2026, while causing premiums to double in that timeframe.

Middle classes in crisis, IMF's Christine Lagarde tells Davos 2017

The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has called for urgent action to tackle a middle-class crisis as she warned that inequality, distrust and a lack of hope were fuelling growing populism. ...

“Policymakers need to get the signal now, and really think about how to address the public discontent. It [the policy response] needs to be granular, it needs to be regional, it needs to be focused on what will people get out of it. It probably includes more redistribution than we have in place at the moment.”

Lagarde’s view that the middle class (the term used to describe working people in the US) was in crisis was shared by the outgoing US vice-president.

Joe Biden said globalisation and new technology were in effect “hollowing out the middle class, the traditional engine of economic growth and social stability in western nations”.

He added: “We cannot undo the changes that technology has wrought in our world, nor should we try. But we can and we must take action to mitigate the economic trends that are stoking unrest in so many advanced economies and undermining people’s basic sense of dignity.”

Addressing his audience directly, Biden said the top 1% was not “pulling its weight” and urged that income tax be made more progressive.

Press Corps to President-Elect Trump: Rules Are Ours to Set—Not Yours

As Donald Trump prepares to take office, the U.S. press corps has offered the president-elect—whose relationship with the media is dicey at best—"a backgrounder on what to expect from us over the next four years." 

The open letter published Tuesday at the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) reminds Trump that cracking down on access won't stop the media from doing its job: "We are very good at finding alternative ways to get information; indeed, some of the best reporting during the campaign came from news organizations that were banned from your rallies," it reads. 

The letter, penned by CJR editor-in-chief and publisher Kyle Pope, also warns Trump that "off the record and other ground rules are ours—not yours—to set" and that "we decide how much airtime to give your spokespeople and surrogates."

And it vows:

We're going to work together. You have tried to divide us and use reporters' deep competitive streaks to cause family fights. Those days are ending. We now recognize that the challenge of covering you requires that we cooperate and help one another whenever possible. So, when you shout down or ignore a reporter at a press conference who has said something you don't like, you're going to face a unified front. We'll work together on stories when it makes sense, and make sure the world hears when our colleagues write stories of importance. We will, of course, still have disagreements, and even important debates, about ethics or taste or fair comment. But those debates will be ours to begin and end.

Trump Inauguration as 'Twilight Zone' Television Listing Goes Viral

@GeorgeTakei pic.twitter.com/5hHlQpbnNL

— KindredSpiritNY (@KindredSpiritNY) January 15, 2017

Offering a glimpse into how the international community perceives the pending inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, a Scottish newspaper's satirical take on the event, which it casts as a return episode of the "The Twilight Zone," has gone viral in recent days.

It reads in full:

After a long absence, The Twilight Zone returns with one of the most ambitious, expensive and controversial productions in broadcast history. Sci-fi writers have dabbled often with alternative history stories—among the most common is the "What If The Nazis Had Won The Second World War" setting—but this huge interactive virtual reality project, which will unfold on TV, in the press, and on Twitter over the next four years, sets out to build an ongoing alternative present. The story begins in a nightmarish version of 2017 in which huge sections of the U.S. electorate have somehow been duped into voting to make Donald Trump president. It sounds far-fetched, and it is, but as it goes on it becomes more and more chillingly plausible. Today's feature-length opener concentrates on the gaudy inauguration of President Trump, and the stirrings of protest and despair surrounding the ceremony, while pundits speculate gravely on what lies ahead. It's a flawed piece, but a disturbing glimpse of the horrors we could stumble into, if we're not careful.

That take on Friday's U.S. presidential inauguration had readers worldwide "in stitches," the newspaper later observed, as the listing won scores of accolades and appeared on the list of items trending on Twitter in the United States that following day.

500+ Groups Urge Senators: 'Use All Your Power' to Block Anti-Environment Pruitt

More than 500 national, state, and local organizations on Tuesday announced their opposition to Donald Trump's fossil-fuel soaked nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt.

In a letter (pdf) to U.S. senators sent one day before Pruitt's confirmation hearing before the Environment and Public Works committee on Wednesday, the groups urge lawmakers "to not only vote against Pruitt's nomination, but actively use all the power of your office and position to block it. We urge you to lobby your colleagues on both sides of the aisle to oppose his nomination, to speak out in the media highlighting his egregious environmental record, and use all procedural means at your disposal to block Scott Pruitt from becoming EPA administrator."

"Given Scott Pruitt's long record of insulating industrial polluters from even the most basic environmental safeguards, anyone that breathes air and drinks water should be aggressively opposed to this man leading the EPA," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director at Food & Water Watch, which spearheaded the letter. "We are putting every senator on notice: anyone who supports his nomination will have Mr. Pruitt's dreadful history of pollution and poisoning on their own hands, and we the people will hold each of them personally responsible moving forward."

Indigenous Canadians face a crisis as climate change eats away island home

For as long as anyone can remember, life on Lennox Island – a community of some 450 people on the east coast of Canada – has been set to the rhythm of the waters that lap its shores of red sand. But climate change is drastically altering this relationship, sending sea levels rising, pelting the small island with fiercer and more frequent storms and bringing warmer winters that eat away at the ice cover that traditionally protected the shores for months at a time.

The result is impossible to ignore. “We’re losing our island,” said Gilbert Sark. A survey of the island carried out in 1880 counted 1,520 acres of land. In 2015, surveyors mapped out 1,100 acres of land on Lennox Island – suggesting more than 300 football fields worth of land have been swallowed by the sea within the span of a few generations. ...

The scars of the island’s battle against climate change are visible across this low-lying island. Local people recall playing baseball where boats now bob in the water; homes that once sat 20ft from the shore now teeter precariously close to the sea. The shoreline has crept up to the edges of the community’s decade-old sewage lagoon, sparking concerns that a storm surge could send waste into Malpeque Bay, a world-renowned site for harvesting oysters. ...

In his role as community planner, Sark is among those tasked with guiding a community scrambling to respond to the rapidly changing island – a confrontation that pits thousands of years of history and identity against the effects of climate change. “This is our home,” said Sark. “It just isn’t that everybody’s got individual houses here. There’s carbon dating on a lot of our artefacts that are here – we’ve been here for over 10,000 years.” ...

The 37-year-old pointed to his mobile phone. “Humans can do these incredible things, we can make all these advancements, no problem,” he said. “But a lot of the stuff we take for granted – what you see once you look out the window – those are the things that we need to fix. And nobody’s lifting a finger to do it.”

Obama transfers $500m to Green Climate Fund in attempt to protect Paris deal

Barack Obama has heeded calls to help secure the future of the historic Paris agreement by transferring a second $500m instalment to the Green Climate Fund, just three days before he leaves office. ...

Established in 2010, it is financed by wealthy countries and used to assist developing countries with adaptation and mitigation. It was widely seen as a key measure to bring both rich and poor countries to the negotiating table.

The US committed to transferring $3bn to the fund. The new instalment leaves $2bn owing, with the incoming president, Donald Trump, expected to cease any further payments.

The move followed a large campaign, with more than 100 organisations and nearly 100,000 people calling for Obama to transfer the full $2.5bn owed to the fund.

Also of Interest

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

Infinite Jest: Liberals Laughing All the Way to Hell

It’s Not About Trump, But Us

WikiLeaks' impact: an unfiltered look into the world's elite and powerful

Russia Responds To U.S. Threats Of Retaliation Over Cyber Attacks

Ex-Blackwater guards argue appeal

Booker and the Big Pharma Dems Have No Excuse. This Vote Proves It.

Political Revolution Sprouts New Shoots Outside Goldman Sachs

EPA Under Scott Pruitt Could Cost the U.S. Billions in Additional Health Care Costs

A Little Night Music

Clarence Frogman Henry - Troubles Troubles

Clarence Frogman Henry - Tore Up Over You

Clarence Frogman Henry - This Time

Clarence "Frogman" Henry - Think It Over

Clarence Frogman Henry - A little too much

Clarence "Frogman" Henry - Standing in The Need of Love

Clarence 'Frogman' Henry - Little Green Frog

Clarence 'Frogman' Henry - On Bended Knee

Clarence "Frogman" Henry - It Won't Be Long

Clarence "Frogman" Henry - I'm A Country Boy

Clarence Henry - I Found A Home