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This evening's music features Memphis blues singer and drummer Willie Nix. Enjoy!

“If there was an observer on Mars, they would probably be amazed that we have survived this long. There are two problems for our species' survival - nuclear war and environmental catastrophe - and we're hurtling towards them. Knowingly. This hypothetical Martian would probably conclude that human beings were an evolutionary error.”

-- Noam Chomsky

News and Opinion

Russian ambassador to the US warns arms control is 'in crisis'

Russia’s ambassador to the US has warned that arms control is “in crisis” and claimed that “some politicians and generals in Washington” were beginning to think in terms of winning a nuclear conflict. Anatoly Antonov was speaking on the day Vladimir Putin followed Donald Trump’s example in suspending participation in the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which is due to expire entirely in August unless there is an 11th-hour effort to save it.

That would leave the 2010 New Start treaty as the last constraint left on the US and Russian nuclear arsenals, and that agreement is due to expire in 2021. Moscow has signaled its willingness to extend New Start, but the Trump administration has said it has not yet made up its mind on the issue.

“The situation in strategic stability as well as in arms control is very bad. We are in crisis,” Antonov said at a rare public appearance in Washington since taking up his role as ambassador in August 2017. “Today, I’m scared that some politicians and generals in Washington, and maybe in other capitals, they start thinking about the possibility to be a winner in a nuclear war. I would like to use this opportunity to send a message that it is impossible to win a nuclear war.” ...

Antonov argued that if the US and Russia, who account for more than 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads, allow arms control treaties to collapse, it would raise the risk of global nuclear proliferation. The ambassador said there is likely to be a revolt by states who do not possess nuclear weapons at next year’s conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which came into force in 1970. Under the NPT, non-nuclear weapons states pledged not to acquire them, if the five official weapons states at the time (the US, Russia, UK, France and China) took significant steps to disarm.

Israel Lobby Rebuts Omar’s Claims About Its Immense Influence By Exerting Its Immense Influence

In response to criticisms made by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar that US political leaders have too much allegiance to Israel and its lobbying groups, House Democrats have put forward an entire House resolution in accordance with demands made by AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League. “The backlash [over Omar’s comments] continued on Monday, as the Anti-Defamation League wrote a letter to Pelosi calling for a House resolution to specifically reject what the organization calls Omar’s ‘latest slur,'” Politico reports. “‘We urge you and your colleagues to send the unambiguous message that the United States Congress is no place for hate,’ the group’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, wrote in a letter.”

“The charge of dual loyalty not only raises the ominous specter of classic anti-Semitism, but it is also deeply insulting to the millions upon millions of patriotic Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish, who stand by our democratic ally, Israel,” tweeted the Israel lobbying group AIPAC on Friday in response to Omar’s comments.

I hope @AIPAC isn't too angry that it took Democratic House leaders almost 48 whole hours to do what they're told to condem their own member and will instead be understanding that it was a weekend and that's what caused the delay. They're very sorry: pic.twitter.com/uPBnef7H1b

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 4, 2019

US politicians of all faiths and in both parties have indeed been falling all over themselves in a mad scramble to tell the freshman congresswoman that she is wrong and evil for suggesting that there is undue loyalty to Israel among US politicians. “It is disturbing that Rep. Omar continues to perpetuate hurtful anti-Semitic stereotypes that misrepresent our Jewish community,” tweeted California Congressman Juan Vargas, who is not Jewish. “Additionally, questioning support for the U.S.-Israel relationship is unacceptable,” Vargas continued, inadvertently re-stating Omar’s original argument.

“But serious question: How is it anti-Semitic to question Christian Republican allegiance to Israel?” asked journalist Rania Khalek in response to the controversy. “Because it’s people like Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Marco Rubio who Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib were initially called anti-Semitic for challenging on loyalty to Israel.” ...

“It is so disingenuous of some of these members of Congress who are lining up to condemn these questioning voices as if they have no campaign finance interest in the outcome,” former congressman Brian Baird told the New York Times today. “If one dares to criticize Israel or dares to criticize AIPAC, one gets branded anti-Semitic, and that’s a danger to a democratic republic.” Ilhan Omar has sparked one of the most interesting conversations happening in America today, and the smear campaign against her has nothing to do with fighting antisemitism, but with silencing that conversation. The social engineers are not interested in fighting religious bigotry, they are interested in shutting her up.

Glenn Greenwald's take on the Omar "scandal" is worth a full read. Here are a couple of excerpts:

The House Democrats’ “Rebuke” of Rep. Ilhan Omar is a Fraud For Many Reasons, Including its Wild Distortion of Her Comments

Speaking last Wednesday in Washington at a town hall meeting with several other progressive House members, Congresswoman Omar was asked about the use of the “anti-semitism” label to shut down debate over Israel. In reply, she said: “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”

That remark created a new outburst of anti-Semitism accusations against Omar, initially provoked by New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait, whose column carried the most sensationalistic and misleading headline possible: “Ilhan Omar Accuses Israel Hawks of ‘Allegiance to a Foreign Country.'” ... From there, members of Congress in both parties who have devoted their career to dutifully supporting the AIPAC agenda began once again ganging up to denounce Omar, accuse her of anti-Semitism, and demand apologies and denunciations. ... The culmination of all of this was the meek, subservient and highly predictable announcement by Democratic House leaders that they once again intend to formally “rebuke” Omar, this time in the form of a House resolution.

There are so many points to be made about this episode, each of which could justify its own entire article. It is, for instance, beyond dispute that what Omar is saying is true given that the very first bill passed by the U.S. Senate this year was one that allowed punishment for American citizens who boycott Israel, while U.S. citizens in 26 states are formally punished for boycotting this foreign nation, as we reported last month in the case of a Texas elementary speech pathologist who lost her job for refusing to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel (to keep her job with Texas, she’s allowed to boycott any other nation or even an American state: just not this one favored foreign nation).

Thus far, the two federal courts to rule on such laws have struck them down as unconstitutional violations of the free speech rights of American citizens on behalf of Israel. How can anyone possibly pretend that it’s invalid or offensive to observe, as Congresswoman Omar did, that some in America demand allegiance to a foreign nation when American citizens are allowed to boycott American states but are punished for boycotting this one specific foreign nation?

Then there’s the fact that so many prominent American Jews have themselves explicitly and proudly acknowledged both their political activism in the U.S. is shaped by a devotion to Israel. Indeed, the leading billionaire funder of both the Democratic Party and the Clintons, Haim Saban, has previously described himself this way to the New York Times: “I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel.” Hillary Clinton’s key political consultant for her 2008 presidential run, Hank Sheinkopf, who is Jewish, said this to the New York Sun in 2007 when asked why Democratic presidential candidates who were otherwise anti-war were so hawkish when it came to Iran: “New York is the ATM for American politicians. Large amounts of money come from the Jewish community. If you’re running for president and you want dollars from that group, you need to show that you’re interested in the issue that matters most to them.”

That AIPAC – along with the NRA, Wall Street and Silicon Valley – is one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, and works to ensure that members of Congress act favorably toward Israel, is so obviously true that no person in good faith could dispute it. A film about the Israel lobby produced by Al Jazeera but subsequently self-censored was leaked to Electronic Intifada and it contains multiple scenes of AIPAC and other pro-Israel activists boasting of how they use money and lobbying power to force Congress to serve Israeli interests. None of this is remotely controversial to anyone who knows how Washington works – which includes, first and foremost, all the cowards in the House about to formally denounce Omar, yet again, for the crime of telling this truth.

Trump Cited a Letter Against Ilhan Omar Signed by Far-Right, Anti-Muslim Groups

Late Monday night, President Donald Trump cited a letter from a coalition of pro-Israel pressure groups to Democratic Party leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Jewish groups have just sent a petition to Speaker Pelosi asking her to remove Omar from Foreign Relations Committee,” Trump tweeted. “A dark day for Israel!” The letter was harshly critical of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for comments she recently made about pro-Israel activism, admonishing Omar no less than seven times for “anti-Semitism” or bias against Jewish people. The signatories demanded that the newly elected member of Congress be removed from her position on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Yet some of the groups that signed the letter have themselves been repeatedly and credibly accused of harboring biases of their own — against American Muslims, in particular. ... The letter strongly suggests that Omar is enmeshed in a network of Islamist extremist groups around the world. It concludes apocalyptically with a quote stating that “the veneer of civilization is paper thin,” then asks the Democratic leaders to remove Omar from her position on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The letter to Pelosi and House Foreign Affairs Chair Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., was posted Monday night on the website of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, a D.C.-based think tank with a hawkish perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Known as EMET, the group has had its own run-ins with allegations of anti-Muslim bias. The group’s founder and head, Sarah Stern, has sat on the board of the anti-Muslim group Clarion Fund, whose Islamophobic films EMET has helped distribute. EMET has also promoted the work of the repeatedly disgraced terrorism “expert” Steve Emerson.

In addition to EMET, the letter was signed by an array of right-wing groups including ACT for America, a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group, and the Center for Security Policy, a D.C. think tank whose founder has a well-documented history of spreading eyebrow-raising conspiracies about Muslims in the United States. Other signatories included the Emergency Committee for Israel, which, according to the New Yorker, published a video in 2012 insinuating that then-President Barack Obama “may, secretly, be Muslim himself.”

Inside the Secretive U.S. Air War in Somalia: How Many Civilians Have Died as Strikes Escalate?

Trump says he agrees '100%' with keeping U.S. troops in Syria

Two months after declaring all U.S. troops are leaving Syria, President Donald Trump wrote to members of Congress that he now agrees "100%" with keeping a military presence in Syria.

A bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives wrote to Trump on Feb. 22, applauding his decision to keep a small residual force in Syria. "We support a small American stabilizing force in Syria," the group wrote, adding that a force "which includes a small contingent of American troops and ground forces from our European allies, is essential to ensure stability and prevent the return of ISIS."

In a copy of the letter obtained by NBC News, Trump highlighted a paragraph in the letter about the U.S. goals in Syria, which said, "Like you, we seek to ensure that all of the gains made in Syria are not lost, that ISIS never returns, that Iran is not emboldened, and that we consolidate our gains and ensure the best outcome in Geneva for American interests."

"I agree 100%. ALL is being done," President Trump responded, writing directly on the letter and signing it.

Lavrov meets Syria's opposition negotiator to tackle reconciliation

U.S.-led anti-IS coalition launches deadly white phosphorus shelling in eastern Syria

The U.S.-led coalition on Sunday fired white phosphorus shells on an Islamic State (IS)-held area in eastern Syria, causing deaths including women and children, state news agency SANA reported.

The shelling targeted the farmlands of the town of Baghouz, the last IS-held area in the eastern Euphrates River region in eastern Deir al-Zour Province, SANA said.

This comes as the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is making its last push against IS remnants in Baghouz after the evacuation of thousands of civilians.

As Guaidó Returns to Venezuela, Pence Threatens 'Swift Response' If Opposition Leader Arrested

If Venezuelan authorities detain opposition leader Juan Guaidó there will be a "swift response" from the Trump administration, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence threatened Monday.

Guaidó—who re-entered the country on Monday after leaving in violation of a travel ban imposed by the Supreme Court—arrived at Venezuela's Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas and successfully cleared immigration checks, the Associated Press reported. The opposition leader was greeted at the airport by senior diplomats from Latin America, Europe, and the United States. ...

In a tweet on Monday, Pence said Guaidó's "safe return to Venezuela is of the highest importance to the U.S."

"Any threats, violence, or intimidation against him will not be tolerated and will be met with swift response," Pence said. "The world is watching—Interim President Guaidó must be allowed to re-enter Venezuela safely." ...

Asked in an interview on Sunday if he fears being detained, Guaidó told the Washington Post that arresting him would be "the usurper's last mistake."

"This would be a coup d'état," Guaidó declared. "And it would be harshly and strongly rejected by both the Venezuelan people and the international community." A coup is precisely what international observers and progressive critics have accused Guaidó of attempting with the support of many European countries and the Trump administration, which immediately recognized the opposition leader after he proclaimed himself the interim president in January.

BBC Reporter Corrects US Media on Venezuela W/Greg Palast

Venezuela - Random Guyaidó Returns Only To Again Be Ignored

Juan Guaidó, the random guy who claims to be 'interim president' of Venezuela, just arrived (vid) back in Caracas. He was not arrested. It seems that President Maduro's strategy is to simply ignore Guaidó and to wait until the guy campaign runs out of steam. ... Juan Guaidó left Venezuela on February 22 in defiance of a court order to stay in the country. That is why he still might get arrested. But if he had not returned then his career as 'interim president' would have ended. The NYT report above and similar pieces in other media agree on that:

If Guaidó returns home only to be arrested, the opposition’s campaign — which has brought thousands of Venezuelans into the streets in recent weeks — could be stopped in its tracks. But if he remains abroad, the effort could also falter.

There is a third way in which the opposition's campaign might fail. It can simply be ignored. Just don't look (vid) and the monsters will fail. ...

John Bolton may have hoped that Guaidó would be arrested. If that was his plan it failed. But such tweets have an effect. They demonstrate that Guaidó is a U.S. puppet and that does not increase that persons support. At least not in Latin America.

Ken Silverstein, who is just back from Venezuela, finds that while even Chavismo supporters may not love Maduro, everyone really dislikes his fake competitor:

Maduro does not appear to be widely liked, but he is certainly more popular than the widely reviled and mocked Juan Guaido, President Donald Trump’s toy poodle.

Maduro can sit this out. Guaidó's claims to the presidency are clearly illegal. He has failed to gain support at every step of his way. The army stands strongly behind the government. No human waves appeared to carry the 'humanitarian aid' across the border. The opposition does not know what to do next. All neighboring countries spoke out against a military intervention. Russia and China will prevent negative steps at the UN. While the U.S. wages an economic siege against the country, others are willing to help. Sanctions alone hardly ever bring a government down. Maduro can simply let Guaidó clown around in Caracas or wherever he wants to go. The guy seems unable to deliver results. The longer his campaign takes the less support will he have. In a few month the whole thing may well fizzle out.

What will Bolton do when he finally recognizes that fact?

“How to Hide an Empire”: Daniel Immerwahr on the History of the Greater United States

Sixteenth week of “yellow vests” protests

The 16th weekly protest of the “yellow vests” in France took place amid an international strike wave across the Maghreb. Protests are shaking Algeria, where hundreds of thousands are demonstrating against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s attempt to run for a fifth term. And on the other side of the Mediterranean, 39,300 “yellow vests,” according to a police count, protested against President Emmanuel Macron, two weeks ahead of the major “yellow vest” protest called for March 16, to coincide of Macron’s fraudulent “great national debate.” An association of Policemen Who’ve Had Enough challenged the Interior Ministry’s figures, saying that 200,000 “yellow vests” had protested; the “yellow vests” themselves claimed 92,000.

Clashes broke out from the beginning of the “yellow vest” protest in Nantes, where protesters from across the region had been asked to converge. Around 2 p.m., around 1,000 protesters marched together, but the police forces blocked them and fired heavy volleys of tear gas. In Bordeaux, several thousand marchers demonstrated peacefully. The city’s train station was briefly occupied by the protesters, who set up a banner proclaiming, “On March 16, Aquitaine will invade Paris, ultimatum season 2.”

In Toulouse, one of the cities which has seen the most “yellow vest” protests, after protesters marched peacefully for several hours, clashes later broke out with police. On large avenues around the historic centre of town, the police forces mobilized a water cannon after initially firing volleys of tear gas to disperse the protesters. In Lyon, around 2,000 people took to the streets for a demonstration that organisers said would be region-wide, and which led to several clashes with the security forces. In Marseille, 2,000 people protested alongside members and officials of the Stalinist General Confederation of Labor (CGT) union. ...

In Paris, 4,000 protesters left the Arc of Triumph, the organisers of the “Yellow Vest Week 16: Insurrection” and “Week 16, We Take over Paris” called for “blockading the Arc of Triumph square as long as possible” in the west of the city. Shortly after 10 a.m., “yellow vest” protesters with signs began to gather on the Champs-Elysées. At the end of the afternoon, the police used water cannon to disperse the protesters.

Theresa May 'did not understand EU when she triggered Brexit'

Theresa May and her circle of advisers did not understand how the European Union works, and consequently followed a negotiating strategy in 2016 that was doomed to fail, the former UK ambassador to the EU Sir Ivan Rogers has said. ... Rogers, who resigned a year ago and has developed a reputation for producing some of the most caustic assessments of the misunderstandings between the UK and the EU, said the UK lived under the illusion that it could circumvent Brussels by making direct deals with the major capitals.

He said: “Capitals obviously matter, but I think having lived through this with a number of prime ministers, a number of different negotiations ... that reflex in the British system always to think that we can deal direct with the organ grinders and not the monkeys: it never works like that. “It didn’t work like that in the Cameron renegotiation either. That stuff is not done in the way British politics works, leader to leader. It’s done via the bureaucrats, and the sherpas, and the people at the top of the institutions.” ...

He also said there was no chance that the UK would be able to disentangle itself from the EU even if Brexit goes ahead. He said: “These fantasies of release and liberation – they are fantasies. We are going to be negotiating on everything from aviation to farming for evermore with our biggest neighbour. We cannot live in glorious isolation. Talk to the Swiss and to the Norwegians – they live in a permanent state of negotiation with the EU.” ...

Rogers predicted a huge blame game between the EU and May if she is unable to get an adjusted deal through the Commons, followed by a brutal row over the UK’s requirement to pay its outstanding negotiated payments to the EU.

Justin Trudeau: second minister resigns from cabinet as scandal deepens

A second minister has resigned from Justin Trudeau’s cabinet amid a deepening political scandal which is already threatening the prime minister’s prospects in this year’s federal election. Jane Philpott, the treasury secretary, announced her resignation on Monday, days after the former justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould testified that officials inappropriately pressured her to help a Canadian engineering company avoid a corruption trial.

Philpott, considered a star of the Liberal party, said in a statement: “It grieves me to leave a portfolio where I was at work to deliver on an important mandate. But I must abide by my core values, my ethical responsibilities and constitutional obligations. There can be a cost to acting on one’s principles, but there is a bigger cost to abandoning them.” ...

In her statement, Philpott said the SNC Lavalin scandal had “raised serious concerns” following Wilson-Raybould’s testimony over the extent to which those close to Trudeau – and the prime minister himself – sought to pressure her to abandon the prosecution. “The solemn principles at stake are the independence and integrity of our justice system. It is a fundamental doctrine of the rule of law that our attorney general should not be subjected to political pressure or interference regarding the exercise of her prosecutorial discretion in criminal cases. Sadly, I have lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this matter and in how it has responded to the issues raised,” she said.

Controversial NSA phone data collection program shut down, aide says

The National Security Agency has quietly discontinued a controversial program put in place after the September 11 terrorist attacks that collected and analyzed millions of Americans' domestic calls and texts, according to a senior Republican congressional aide.

The NSA hasn't used the system in months, and the Trump administration might not seek to renew its legal authority, Luke Murray, the national security advisor for House minority leader Kevin McCarty (R-Calif.), said in a podcast Saturday.
Under a controversial national security policy put in place by the Patriot Act in 2001, the NSA had been collecting large amounts of metadata, the digital information that accompanies electronic communications. That information included what phone numbers were on the call, when the call was placed and how long it lasted, which was then saved in a database.

The Working Families Party Helped Democrats Regain Power in New York. Now Democrats Are Trying to Kill It.

Democrats and progressive groups across the state of New York are pushing back hard against an effort to ban fusion voting, a system that allows multiple parties to nominate the same candidate. The assault, according to those on the receiving end, is being driven by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s ongoing hostility toward the Working Families Party, which has been a primary beneficiary of fusion voting in the state. A majority of Democrats in the state Senate, the entire New York congressional delegation, and a large swath of grassroots groups have all weighed in against the move, which would gut the Working Families Party and handicap the Democratic Party along the way. ...

The dynamics of the fight have implications for the future direction of the national Democratic Party, as well. At its core, the debate is about whether centrist Democrats are willing to be partners in a coalition with progressives if and when the progressives are the ones driving the agenda — as is increasingly the case in New York. Should an Elizabeth Warren or a Bernie Sanders become the party’s presidential nominee, Democrats like Cuomo would be forced into a difficult decision: Support the Democratic Party and back the left, which means upsetting the status quo; or support the status quo, which means keeping Republicans in power.

Cuomo’s approach to the rising progressive energy in New York suggests that, at least for him, the decision is an easy one: Attack the left. The New York State Democratic Committee, which is effectively controlled by Cuomo, voted to ban fusion voting at its convention on Monday. Backers of the ban have said they will push to include it in the state’s must-pass budget, an attempt to force the hand of Democrats who oppose it. The governor has not personally endorsed this particular effort at a ban, but opponents say his fingerprints are all over it.

Mark Kelly’s Yearslong Corporate Speaking Tour Clashes With “No Corporate PAC Money” Pledge

Astronaut Mark Kelly is running what he says is a grassroots campaign to flip Arizona’s open Senate seat, pledging to refuse corporate political action committee donations and fight the influence of big money in politics. He’s also said he wants to lower drug prices and provide Americans with access to affordable health care.

Kelly, however, has made at least 19 paid appearances at corporate events across the country — and in the Cayman Islands — where he addressed giants in the financial and prescription drug industries, including Goldman Sachs, the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and the controversial opioid giant AmerisourceBergen, among others.

Kelly raised an impressive $1 million in individual contributions within 24 hours of his announcement. And he says he’s gotten more than 30,000 individual contributions so far. His website says he won’t take corporate PAC money; his campaign “is about the people of Arizona, not corporate PACs and the mess they’ve created in Washington,” and he’ll “only answer to Arizonans.” In a February fundraising email sent shortly after Kelly announced his run, he condemned “the outrageous influence corporate money has on our politics,” and “powerful interests who want to stop us.”

Kelly spokesperson Jacob Peters said that Kelly gave the speeches more as a former astronaut than as a politician. “After his wife Gabby survived an assassination attempt in 2011 and was forced to resign from Congress, Mark retired from the Navy and NASA so that he could help Gabby with her recovery,” Peters said. “Soon after, like many other former NASA astronauts, Mark began giving motivational speeches, sometimes with his brother Scott, about his experiences in space, the United States Navy and overcoming tragedy. He’s looking forward to sharing those same stories and experiences with voters across Arizona.”

New Study Ties Spike in Hospitalizations for Genital, Skin, and Urinary Ailments to Fracking in Pennsylvania

New research has tied high rates of hospitalizations for genital, skin, and urinary conditions to fracking in Pennsylvania, underscoring mounting concerns about the public health implications of the controversial process of extracting natural gas.

Alina Denham, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Rochester, led a research team that analyzed county-level hospital data for the state from 2003 to 2014. Their findings indicated that "long-term exposure to unconventional drilling may be harmful to population health."

The conclusion bolstered previous findings about the dangers of fracking—a process also called hydraulic fracturing that involves injecting a mix of water and chemicals into the ground to access gas.

Yet another study on how #fracking makes people VERY SICK. @kristinamarusic @EnvirHealthNews https://t.co/hg7mhKYlJi

— Breathe Project (@BreatheProject) March 5, 2019

Past research has connected fracking with human health threats ranging from headaches to asthma to cancer. What distinguishes this team's findings is the conditions that prompted increased hospital stays, as well as those who were most commonly affected.

The details of the study, which will be published in the March issue of the journal Public Health, were reported Tuesday by Environmental Health News.

22 of world's 30 most polluted cities are in India, Greenpeace says

Twenty-two of the world’s 30 worst cities for air pollution are in India, according to a new report, with Delhi again ranked the world’s most polluted capital.

The Greenpeace and AirVisual analysis of air pollution readings from 3,000 cities around the world found that 64% exceed the World Health Organization’s annual exposure guideline for PM2.5 fine particulate matter – tiny airborne particles, about a 40th of the width of a human hair, that are linked to a wide range of health problems.

Every single measured city in the Middle East and Africa exceeds the WHO guidelines, as well as 99% of cities in south Asia and 89% in east Asia. Since many cities, particularly in Africa, do not have up-to-date public air quality information, the actual number of cities exceeding PM2.5 thresholds is expected to be much higher, the report authors said.

India dominates the top of the list. The tech hub of Gurugram, a city just to the south-west of Delhi which was previously known as Gurgaon, and where international firms including Uber and TripAdvisor have headquarters, ranked the most polluted in the world with an average of more than 135 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic metre (µg/m3) throughout the year. Delhi is ranked 11th. Faisalabad in Pakistan is ranked third with 130 (µg/m3), with Lahore 10th. Dhaka in Bangladesh is ranked 17th. The only other country to feature in the top 30 is China, which appears five times, including Hotan in the western Xinjiang province (eighth) and the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar (19th).

World Wide Fund for Nature accused of funding guards who 'tortured and killed scores of people'

One of the world’s largest charities has launched an investigation into claims that it funds, equips and works with paramilitary forces accused of beating, torturing, sexually assaulting and murdering scores of people in national parks across Africa and Asia. Human rights specialists will lead an independent review of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) conservation charity, following allegations of abuse in six countries, published by BuzzFeed news on Monday.

The charity is accused of supporting anti-poaching units that attacked, sexually assaulted, shot and killed villagers. It is also accused of providing paramilitary forces with salaries, training and supplies – including knives, night vision goggles, riot gear and batons – and funding raids on villages.

WWF operated like a “global spymaster”, organising, financing and running networks of “informants”, to provide park authorities with intelligence, while publicly denying working with informants, Buzzfeed reported. The investigation will also look at claims WWF embroiled itself in a botched arms deal, in the Central African Republic, to buy assault rifles from an army that paraded severed heads of criminals though the streets.

Also of Interest

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

Giving the Bomb to Saudi Arabia’s Dr. Strangelove

WaPo Warns Dems That Progressive Policies Could Bring Them Many Victories

A First Look at Pramila Jayapal’s “Medicare for All Act of 2019”, HR 1384

House Dems will take floor action to confront Omar’s latest Israel comments

Republicans and Democrats Say Their Criticism of Ilhan Omar Is About Anti-Semitism. They’re Gaslighting You.

Media Serve the Governors, Not the Governed

Climate Change Could End Washington’s Global Dominion

The Prisoner Says ‘No’ to Big Brother

Brazil's indigenous groups unite to protect their land

The last great tree: a majestic relic of Canada's vanishing rainforest

A Little Night Music

Willie Nix and His Band - Nervous Wreck

Willie Nix - Seems Like A Million Years

Willie Nix - Try Me One More Time

Willie Nix - No More Love

Willie Nix - Just Can't Stay

Willie Nix - Baker Shop Boogie

Willie Nix - Riding In The Moonlight

Willie Nix - Lonesome Bedroom Blues

Willie Nix - Let's Take A Little Walk