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This evening's music features r&b singer LaVern Baker. Enjoy!

“[T]here is both an intrinsic and instrumental value to privacy. Intrinsically, privacy is precious to the extent that it is a component of a liberty. Part of citizenship in a free society is the expectation that one's personal affairs and physical person are inviolable so long as one remains within the law. A robust concept of freedom includes the freedom from constant and intrusive government surveillance of one's life. From this perspective, Fourth Amendment violations are objectionable for the simple fact that the government is doing something it has no licence to do–that is, invading the privacy of a law-abiding citizen by monitoring her daily activities and laying hands on her person without any evidence of wrongdoing.

Privacy is also instrumental in nature. This aspect of the right highlights the pernicious effects, rather than the inherent illegitimacy, of intrusive, suspicionless surveillance. For example, encroachments on individual privacy undermine democratic institutions by chilling free speech. When citizens–especially those espousing unpopular viewpoints–are aware that the intimate details of their personal lives are pervasively monitored by government, or even that they could be singled out for discriminatory treatment by government officials as a result of their First Amendment expressive activities, they are less likely to freely express their dissident views.”

-- John W. Whitehead

News and Opinion

The U.S. Border Patrol and an Israeli Military Contractor Are Putting a Native American Reservation Under “Persistent Surveillance”

On the southwestern end of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s reservation, roughly 1 mile from a barbed-wire barricade marking Arizona’s border with the Mexican state of Sonora, Ofelia Rivas leads me to the base of a hill overlooking her home. A U.S. Border Patrol truck is parked roughly 200 yards upslope. A small black mast mounted with cameras and sensors is positioned on a trailer hitched to the truck. For Rivas, the Border Patrol’s monitoring of the reservation has been a grim aspect of everyday life. And that surveillance is about to become far more intrusive.

The vehicle is parked where U.S. Customs and Border Protection will soon construct a 160-foot surveillance tower capable of continuously monitoring every person and vehicle within a radius of up to 7.5 miles. The tower will be outfitted with high-definition cameras with night vision, thermal sensors, and ground-sweeping radar, all of which will feed real-time data to Border Patrol agents at a central operating station in Ajo, Arizona. The system will store an archive with the ability to rewind and track individuals’ movements across time — an ability known as “wide-area persistent surveillance.”

CBP plans 10 of these towers across the Tohono O’odham reservation, which spans an area roughly the size of Connecticut. Two will be located near residential areas, including Rivas’s neighborhood, which is home to about 50 people. To build them, CBP has entered a $26 million contract with the U.S. division of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest military company.

Tohono O’odham people used to move freely across these lands, Rivas says, but following years of harassment by Border Patrol agents, many are afraid to venture far from their homes. “Now we won’t be able to go anywhere near here without the big U.S.-Israeli eyes monitoring us, watching our every move,” she says.

Fueled by the growing demonization of migrants, as well as ongoing fears of foreign terrorism, the U.S. borderlands have become laboratories for new systems of enforcement and control. Firsthand reporting, interviews, and a review of documents for this story provide a window into the high-tech surveillance apparatus CBP is building in the name of deterring illicit migration — and highlight how these same systems often end up targeting other marginalized populations as well as political dissidents.

Trump Mulling 'Uniquely Dystopian' Proposal to Use AI to Identify Mental Health Issues as Risk Factors for Gun Violence

In keeping with his insistence that people with mental illnesses, and not the wide availability of guns, are to blame for the epidemic of gun violence and mass shootings in the U.S., President Donald Trump is reportedly considering a new project aimed at detecting mental health issues to stop shootings before they happen. As The Washington Post reported Thursday, the Trump administration has worked with Bob Wright, a close friend of Trump's and his collaborator on the reality show "The Apprentice," to develop a proposal for a new federal agency that would be called the Health Advanced Research Projects Agency (HARPA), within the Health and Human Services Department.

HARPA would be modeled after and led by a top official at the Pentagon's research office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which has developed drones, artificial intelligence meant to merge with deadly weapons, and technology to help U.S. soldiers detect safety threats during deployments. Instead of developing military equipment, HARPA would draw information from people—gathered strictly from people who opt in to the program, the administration says—to identify "neurobehavioral signs" of "someone headed toward a violent explosive act." ...

Talks about HARPA were reopened as Trump was assuring the NRA that he would not pursue universal background check legislation to prevent mass shootings, and doubling down on previous claims that people with mental health challenges are the primary cause of shootings—suggesting to reporters last week that the U.S. should institutionalize mentally ill people en masse to prevent violence.

Contrary to the president's claims, studies have shown that mental health issues are not a major risk factor for perpetrating violence. ...

Just as DARPA has partnered with private companies, HARPA would potentially use personal technology devices like Apple Watches, Google Home, and FitBit to identify behavioral or mental health changes.

Also chilling, the new federal agency, HARPA, will use AI/ML, smart home appliances, Apple watches, etc. to gather data. Nobody objects to this kind of intimate surveillance or false positives, right? https://t.co/IntT7uRhow https://t.co/2QOpH6f6KZ

— RE Sieber (@re_sieber) August 23, 2019

The Latest Victim in the Crucifixion of Julian Assange

The case of Ola Bini, a Swedish data privacy activist and associate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has been shrouded in mystery since his arrest in Quito, Ecuador, on April 11. He was detained on the same day Assange was forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in the United Kingdom, inevitably raising questions about whether Bini was being held because of his connection with Assange and whether the United States was involved in the case in some form.

Bini, who initially wasn’t charged with a crime, was accused of being involved in a leak of documents that revealed that Ecuador’s right-wing president, Lenin Moreno, had several offshore bank accounts. Bini was released after two months in an Ecuadorian prison under terrible conditions but is still fighting to maintain his freedom. He was eventually charged by Ecuadorian authorities with “alleged participation in the crime of assault on the integrity of computer systems and attempts to destabilize the country,” though the evidence to support the accusations is dubious at best.

Speaking with Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer, Danny O’Brien discusses why Bini’s case is so important to follow, despite a general lack of media interest in his arrest. O’Brien, director of strategy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, went to Ecuador to visit Bini on behalf of the EFF in order to learn more about the case and advocate for the Swedish activist’s rights.

“Journalists, lawyers, human rights lawyers, human rights defenders, sort of viewed broadly, are often the canaries in the coal mines in authoritarian or veering-authoritarian regimes,” O’Brien tells Scheer in the latest installment of “Scheer Intelligence.” “I think many governments recognize that if you can either … silence, or just intimidate and chill, the key journalists or the prominent public defenders, then you have a huge sort of multiplier leverage effect on opposition groups, or groups fighting for justice in those countries.

“In the last few years,” O’Brien continues, “I think that governments around the world have recognized that technologists also fall into this category, or particular kinds of technologists.”

Macron delivers breakthrough on Iran at tense G7 summit, but little else

French President Emmanuel Macron paved the way at a G7 summit for a diplomatic solution to the standoff between Washington and Tehran over a 2015 nuclear deal, but there was little else to show from a meeting at which allies were sharply divided. Macron, host of the summit of seven industrialized nations that ended on Monday in the French seaside resort of Biarritz, said that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had told him he was open to a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump told a news conference before heading home that it was realistic to envisage a meeting with the Iranian head of government in the coming weeks. Both leaders are scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly next month.

European leaders have struggled to calm a confrontation between Iran and the United States since Trump pulled his country out of Iran’s internationally brokered 2015 nuclear deal last year and reimposed sanctions on the Iranian economy.

“What unites us, and that is a big step forward, is that we not only don’t want Iran to have nuclear weapons, but we also (want to) find the solution to that via political means,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the end of the gathering. Macron has led efforts to defuse tensions, fearing a collapse of the nuclear deal could set the Middle East ablaze.

Iran FM Zarif: "If the US stops bothering the rest of the world, everything will be fine"

Erdogan and Putin in emergency call as Assad surrounds Turkish troops

Forces belonging to the Syrian government and Turkey came within a stone's throw of one another on Friday, as President Bashar al-Assad's troops surrounded a Turkish observation point in Syria's Idlib province. ... In an effort to find a solution to the Turkish position's apparent siege, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Damascus' chief ally, expressing his concern. ... Erdogan is set to travel to Moscow to meet Putin on Tuesday, a government source told Middle East Eye, and is also expected to talk to US President Donald Trump about the situation. ...

Officials in Ankara are unusually silent about the fact that a Turkish military base is now isolated and its convoy is still standing where it was stopped by bombardment on Tuesday, exposed and without any proper cover. ... Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that Turkey would not relocate the base and Damascus would not dare attack it.

Adding salt to the Turkish wound, Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that the world should welcome Syrian government "counterterror operations" in the area.

A source close to the Turkish government said the future of Idlib was bleak. ... "No matter what Turkey says, it will be forced to abandon the post," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject. "Russia has a new map in mind, in which the opposition forces would be squeezed to the border, where camps for refugees can be set up." The source said the only solution might be a new understanding between Putin and Erdogan that could give room to Turkey.

Max Blumenthal: US sanctions on Venezuela are 'sociopathic'

G7: Trump's demands for Russia's readmission cause row in Biarritz

Donald Trump has rowed with his fellow G7 leaders over his demand that Russia be readmitted to the group, rejecting arguments that it should remain an association of liberal democracies, according to diplomats at the summit in Biarritz.

The disagreement led to heated exchanges at a dinner on Saturday night inside the seaside resort’s 19th-century lighthouse. According to diplomatic sources, Trump argued strenuously that Vladimir Putin should be invited back, five years after Russia was ejected from the then G8) for its annexation of Crimea.

Of the other leaders around the table, only Giuseppe Conte, the outgoing Italian prime minister, offered Trump any support, according to this account. Shinzo Abe of Japan was neutral. The rest – the UK’s Boris Johnson, Germany’s Angela Merkel, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, the EU council president, Donald Tusk, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron – pushed back firmly against the suggestion.

“On that point … it became a bit tense to say the least,” a European diplomat said. “Most of the other leaders insisted on this being a family, a club, a community of liberal democracies and for that reason they said you cannot allow President Putin – who does not represent that – back in.”

“That is not such a very important thing for [Trump]. He doesn’t share that view,” the diplomat added. According to this account Trump argued that on issues such as Iran, Syria and North Korea, it made sense to have Russia in the room. “So he had a really kind of fundamental difference about this.”

Trump says China trade deal coming, Beijing calls for resolution of dispute

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday predicted a trade deal with China after positive gestures by Beijing, calming global markets that have been roiled by new tariffs from the world’s two largest economies.

Trump said after a G7 summit of world leaders in Biarritz, France, that he believed China was sincere about wanting to reach a deal, citing what he described as increasing economic pressure on Beijing and job losses there. ...

“I think they want to make a deal very badly. I think that was elevated last night. The vice chairman of China came out, he said he wants to see a deal made,” Trump said. ...

Days after referring to President Xi Jinping as an enemy, Trump heaped praise on his Chinese counterpart in separate remarks twice on Monday, alternately calling him a “great leader” and a “brilliant man.”

ICE Keeps Arresting Prominent Immigration Activists. They Think They’re Being Targeted.

Since President Trump took office, ICE has arrested at least 20 undocumented activists. As that figure continues to rise, advocates across the country increasingly worry they’re being targeted because of their activism — not their immigration status.

Marcos Baltazar, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who sits on the board of the Alabama-based immigrants’ rights group Adelante, was arrested during a routine check-in on Thursday. He and his 18-year-old d son are being held at the Etowah County Detention Center, a facility plagued by allegations of human rights abuses.

Though Adelante has been hesitant to accuse ICE of detaining Baltazar because of his advocacy work, he’s not the first high-profile activist the agency has arrested. The next day, Francisco Silva, a volunteer with the Chicago-based Organized Communities Against Deportations, was also arrested during a bond review Friday even though an immigration judge released him on bond in 2015. And in May, immigration officers arrested an undocumented college student just three days after he read a poem criticizing the agency.

The Department of Homeland Security has also kept tabs on journalists and lawyers in both the U.S. and Mexico, according to documents leaked earlier this year.

“This is definitely a marked shift from past policies where people's involvement in immigrants' rights, civil rights, and labor rights was recognized as a reason for a person to not be targeted,” said Alina Das, the co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at NYU Law School. “That activism was, at minimum, respected, and certainly was not a basis for targeting people.”

Mexico Is Tired of Trump’s Remain in Mexico Policy — And Finally Doing Something About It

The Mexican government is finally pushing back against the controversial Trump policy of forcing some asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their immigration cases play out in court, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security Briefing obtained by BuzzFeed News.

More than 35,000 migrants have been returned to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols, colloquially referred to as the Remain in Mexico policy, since its start in January, according to the DHS document. That’s put migrants in danger and strained resources in Mexican Border Communities. Now, Mexican officials have reportedly begun limiting the days and times U.S. immigration agencies can send asylum-seekers back to Mexico and have cracked down on which migrants can be returned.

Mexican officials in El Paso, for example, have stopped accepting migrants after 1 p.m., even though some migrants have to return to Mexico after crossing into the U.S. for court hearings, according to the memo. As a result, Customs and Border Protection has had to detain more than half of the migrants who came to the city for hearings in August. The Mexican government has also occasionally refused to accept migrants who have been issued deportation orders but are fighting their cases, the memo says.

New Trump family detention rule faces legal challenges, tight space

A coalition of 19 states and the District of Columbia, led by California and Massachusetts, said on Monday they will sue the Trump administration to stop a sweeping new rule to indefinitely detain migrant families seeking to settle in the United States. The lawsuit, which is to be filed in federal court in California, will be only the first of what is expected to be a flurry of lawsuits aimed at blocking the rule, officially published on Friday, from taking effect in October.

However, the Trump administration’s effort to overturn a two-decade-old legal settlement limiting how long migrant children can be detained is likely to face more than just legal hurdles. Even if the courts allow the rule to take effect, there are also practical problems: paying for thousands of additional family detention beds.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has only three family detention facilities - two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania - that have between 2,500 and 3,000 beds, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan said in announcing the new rule last week. More than 42,000 families, mostly from Central America, were arrested along the U.S. southern border just last month. The July arrest numbers are at record highs, even though they have dropped more than half compared with levels seen in May.

“Even if the number of border crossings doesn’t go back up in the fall, all this (new rule) would enable them to do is to detain a relatively small percentage of the arriving families for longer,” said Kevin Landy, a former ICE assistant director responsible for the Office of Detention Policy and Planning under the Obama administration.

Arkansas tree honoring 1919 Elaine Massacre victims cut down

Officials are investigating after someone cut down a willow tree that was planted earlier this year to honor the victims of the 1919 Elaine Massacre in eastern Arkansas. The willow was planted in April in remembrance of the victims of the massacre, one of the largest racial mass killings in US history. ...

Estimates of how many African Americans were killed in Elaine range from the low hundreds to more than 800, which would make it the deadliest such massacre in US history. Mass graves are thought to be situated around the town.

The Elaine Legacy Center said the willow tree was chopped down at its base last week and a memorial tag was stolen.

National Democrats Endorse John Hickenlooper, a Proponent of Fracking, in Competitive Colorado Primary

In Colorado, nearly a dozen Democrats are vying for the opportunity to take on Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in 2020 — a race widely seen as the party’s most promising pick-up in the Senate. One of the leading contenders, former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, is running on a platform that includes Medicare for All and an aggressive plan to combat the climate crisis — and his campaign has already topped $1 million in fundraising.

But the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has thrown its weight behind former Gov. John Hickenlooper, a pro-fracking moderate. After months of rejecting calls from fellow Democrats to ditch his presidential ambitions, Hickenlooper announced on August 22 his plans to run for Senate in his home state instead. ...

Though Hickenlooper was relatively popular as governor, his politics are increasingly at odds with the emerging progressive wing of the party, especially on climate change. In last year’s wave midterm elections, Colorado Democrats seized unified control of the state government for the first time since 2014. The newly empowered Democrats have used their governing trifecta to make headway on an ambitious agenda, including the most significant oil and gas regulation reform since the 1950s. As governor, Hickenlooper’s cozying up to the industries gave him the nickname “Frackenlooper.”

On August 23, the DSCC officially endorsed his campaign with a lukewarm tweet and joint fundraising email. In past years, the DSCC has usually abstained from intervening in the Democratic primaries, with some exceptions. But this year, the committee is backing several moderate Democrats in key states early on, including Sara Gideon in Maine, Theresa Greenfield in Iowa, and Ben Ray Luján in New Mexico. It’s a tactic that frustrates other candidates and many progressives, as the party establishment seems to be shutting out legitimate challengers and eliminating competition.

Bernie Sanders Touts 'Campaign of Energy and Excitement' as Evidence He's the Candidate to Take Down Trump

"If people want a candidate who can beat Donald Trump, I think you're looking at him."

So said Bernie Sanders on Sunday in an interview with CNN's "State of the Union."

The democratic presidential hopeful's comment came after host Brianna Keilar played a video clip of Dr. Jill Biden recently saying people should vote for her husband, former Vice President Joe Biden, even if they prefer proposals put forth by other candidates more, suggesting he's more electable.

Sanders pointed to polling showing himself beating Trump and said, "If we are to defeat Donald Trump, what you need is a campaign of energy and excitement—a campaign that brings millions of young people and working class people into the political processes in a way that we have not seen before. I think, frankly, that I am the candidate" to do so.

That would also "lay the groundwork for transforming our economy and our government to meet the needs of working people, who've been ignored for so very long," Sanders added.

Tulsi Gabbard on Running for President and The Next MAGA (A 2020 Slogan Quiz) | Useful Idiots

Gabbard hits DNC over poll criteria for debates

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) hit the Democratic National Committee (DNC) over its polling criteria for upcoming primary debates, asking it to "ensure transparency and fairness" in selecting the qualifying surveys.

The campaign noted that Gabbard has exceeded 2 percent support in 26 national and early state polls but said only two of those are on DNC's “certified” list, even as "many of the uncertified polls, including those conducted by highly reputable organizations such as The Economist and the Boston Globe, are ranked by Real Clear Politics and FiveThirtyEight as more accurate than some DNC 'certified' polls." ...

The DNC raised the threshold to qualify for the upcoming September and October debates, requiring candidates to poll above 2 percent in four DNC-approved polls and raise money from at least 130,000 unique donors. Gabbard has reached the donor threshold but is two approved polls shy of getting on stage.

Panel: is Tulsi right about DNC bias?

While "The World Is on Fire,' DNC Kills Resolution for Climate Forum

The Democratic National Committee voted Saturday to strike down a resolution that would have allowed for a multi-candidate climate forum.

"Tom Perez just killed the #ClimateDebate," the youth-led Sunrise Movement said on its Facebook page, referring to the DNC chair.

Resolution 4 was seen as a compromise from a resolution calling for a presidential primary climate debate, as groups including Sunrise had demanded. That resolution was voted down Thursday at the San Francisco meeting by the DNC's Resolutions Committee, prompting outrage. Sunrise claimed a "partial victory" when Resolution 4, which would have allowed for a "multi-candidate issue-specific forum with the candidates appearing on the same state, engaging one another in discussion," passed Thursday.

"We passed a resolution supporting this multi-candidate discussion and party leaders overturned it," said DNC voting member James J. Zogby in a statement Saturday. "The Democratic Party is supposed to be bottom up, not top down."

As New Fires Rage in Amazon, Global Calls for Urgent Action to Avert 'Astronomical' Impacts to 'Life on Earth'

Brazil's army on Sunday deployed aircraft to battle the raging fires in the Amazon as global concern and outrage over the potential consequences—and the destructive causes—of the disaster grow. The military operations involving C-130 aircraft to put out fires came after Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro triggered global protests over his government's policies and failure to take swift action to combat the flames.

Official data released Saturday backs up the call for swift action. Agence France-Presse reported, "Some 1,130 new fires were ignited between Friday and Saturday, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE)." So far this year, the country has witnessed 79,513 fires, more than half of which occurred in the Amazon, according to the agency. That marks an 82 percent increase from 2018.

The fires were discussed by global leaders meeting in Biarritz, France for the G7 summit. French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday, "We are all agreed on helping those countries which have been hit by the fires as fast as possible."

"Our teams are making contact with all the Amazon countries so we can finalize some very concrete commitments involving technical resources and funding," said Macron.

The French leader and Bolsonaro last week sparred on Twitter over the fires. "Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest—the lungs which produces 20 percent of our planet's oxygen—is on fire," tweeted Macron. Bolsonaro then accused Macron of using the fires "for personal political gains" and said the French president had a "sensationalist tone."

“No to the mining in our lands. No to deforestation. No more invasions and disrespect.”

Brazil’s indigenous people demand urgent action for the #AmazonFires and an end to mining in the Amazon as world leaders are set to discuss the blaze at the #G7Summit pic.twitter.com/VPrhe3uojh

— Bloomberg TicToc (@tictoc) August 25, 2019

Much more detail at the link:

GOP Lobbyists Help Brazil Recruit U.S. Companies to Exploit the Amazon

This summer, fires are being used to clear wide swaths of the Amazon at an unprecedented rate. One-fifth of the Amazon has already been destroyed in the past 50 years; further industrialization of the rainforest risks destroying another fifth, a loss that would be catastrophic for the global ecosystem. The disaster is widely blamed on interests seeking to clear the world’s largest rainforest for cattle ranching, mining, and export-focused agribusiness. Documents reveal that those interests are being pushed in the U.S. by Republican lobbyists, friendly with President Donald Trump’s administration, who entered into talks with the Brazilian government to promote corporate investment in the Amazon. ...

Shortly after taking office in January, Bolsonaro slashed funding for Brazil’s main environmental agency by 24 percent. And this week, after a report by Brazil’s space research center revealed that fires in the Amazon are up 83% this year, Bolsonaro blamed the fires on international NGOs rather than his own anti-environmental policies.

Meanwhile, a member of the Brazilian government has contracted with Washington lobbyists to continue selling land and destroying the forest. In June, Wilson Lima, the governor of the state of Amazonas, a northwestern province in Brazil that governs approximately a third of the Amazon, including the epicenter of the current forest fire crisis, began work with the Interamerica Group, a Washington, D.C.–based lobbying firm founded by Jerry Pierce Jr. Kellen Felix, a Brazilian national and vice president at Interamerica Group, is also listed in a disclosure filing for work with the state of Amazonas. Lima, elected last year, is a member of PSC, a conservative party affiliated with the Assembly of God, a rapidly growing Pentecostal church in Brazil.

The initial filings, disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act through the Department of Justice, which regulates foreign lobbying, show that Pierce was tapped to represent Lima’s government in meetings with federal agencies and Congress. The Interamerica Group has also already filed an informational packet assembled for U.S. companies on behalf of the Brazilian governor, promoting the Amazon region for its development potential. The packet lists mining, agribusiness, and the “Gas Chemical Industry” as “Opportunities” for American businesses — among the “Challenges” for these potential businesses is to “Ensure Forest Conservation.”

How Jair Bolsonaro Emboldened Brazilian Agribusiness to Torch the Amazon & Attack Indigenous People

Massive pumice 'raft' spotted in the Pacific could help replenish Great Barrier Reef

A giant raft of pumice, which was spotted in the Pacific and is expected to make its way towards Australia, could help the recovery of the Great Barrier Reef from its bleaching episode by restocking millions of tiny marine organisms, including coral.

The pumice raft, which is about 150 sq km, was produced by an underwater volcano near Tonga. ...

Queensland University of Technology geologist Scott Bryan said the raft will be the temporary home for billions of marine organisms. Marine life including barnacles, corals, crabs, snails and worms will tag along as it travels toward Australia and become a “potential mechanism for restocking the Great Barrier Reef”.

“Based on past pumice raft events we have studied over the last 20 years, it’s going to bring new healthy corals and other reef dwellers to the Great Barrier Reef,” Bryan said.

When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail:

Trump suggests 'nuking hurricanes' to stop them hitting America

Donald Trump has reportedly suggested on more than one occasion that the US military should bomb hurricanes in order to disrupt them before they make landfall.

According to US news website Axios, the US president said in a meeting with top national security and homeland security officials about the threat of hurricanes: “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?”

“They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?”

Quoting unnamed sources who were present at the meeting, Axios report that the response from one official was “We’ll look into this.”

Also of Interest

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

U.S. Decoupling From China Forces Others To Decouple From U.S.

Is a global recession coming? Here are seven warning signs

Ex-minister: Bolsonaro ‘most detested’ leader as he neglects the Amazon

Warnings of Grave Climate and Human Rights Impact as US Export-Import Bank Approves $5 Billion for Natural Gas Project in Mozambique

'Damage has been done': Newark water crisis echoes Flint

Colorado Well water users warned after Air Force Academy finds toxic level of firefighting chemical

Americans' love of hiking has driven elk to the brink, scientists say

Plan clears way for mining and drilling on land stripped from Utah monument

Aaron Burr, vice-president who killed Hamilton, had children of color

Stevie Ray Vaughan: Playing as If His Life Depended on It

A Little Night Music

Jackie Wilson And LaVern Baker - Think Twice

LaVern Baker - So High So Low

Maurice King & His Wolverines - I Want A Lavendar Cadillac

Little Miss Sharecropper - Take Out Some Time

LaVern Baker - Hey, Memphis

LaVern Baker - Saved

LaVern Baker - Slow Rollin' Mama

LaVern Baker - Oh, Johnny Oh, Johnny

LaVern Baker - Whipper Snapper

LaVern Baker - Bumble Bee

LaVern Baker - Jim Dandy

LaVern Baker - Jim Dandy Got Married