The John James Newsletter 205

11 November 2017

God forgives always, men forgive sometimes, but nature never

Pope Francis

We have consciously chosen that guns are more sacred than life, that coal is more venerated than our children, that greed more divine than love 

John James

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers

Thomas Jefferson

As I wandered along the road, I felt a deep sense of calm grow within me. Now I knew, not just in my head, but viscerally, in every cell of my body, that life as one knew it could be snatched away in a moment. I welcomed myself to life in the Anthropocene 

Dianne Monroe, a survivor of the Santa Rosa fire

The first ultra-intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control

Irving John Good

Remember Severn Suzuki at the Rio Summit in 1992

She was 12, calling for the adults to grow up. “You grown-ups say you love us. But I challenge you,

please, make your actions reflect your words”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ipOdsd1SmA 

Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, the debate was over. We – everyone everywhere – have been desensitised. Over a million children have starved to death in Somalia and Gaza, and that news too is bearable. 

What Explains US Mass Shootings? International Comparisons Suggest its the guns

Americans make up about 4.4% of the global population but own 42% of the world’s guns. Worldwide a country’s rate of gun ownership correlates with the odds it would experience a mass shooting. Gun control legislation tends to reduce gun murders, according to a recent analysis of 130 studies from 10 countries. This suggests that the guns themselves cause the violence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/world/americas/mass-shootings-us-international.html 

American Hyper-Capitalism Breeds the Lonely, Alienated Men Who Become Mass Killers

Despair, rage and lack of human connection among white men are key culprits in America’s mass shooting epidemic.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/american-hyper-capitalism-breeds-lonely-alienated-men-who-become-mass-killers 

There Have Been More Mass Shootings in the US in 2017 Than Days

The latest incident marked the 244th mass shooting in 2017, and more than 10,000 gun-deaths. We are 240 days into the year. A mass shooting is any incident in which “four or more shot and/or killed in a single event, at the same general time and location not including the shooter.”

http://www.newsweek.com/there-have-been-more-mass-shootings-days-2017-656681 

Genocide by Starvation in Somalia – and Nigeria and Yemen

Some 29,000 Somali children are believed to have died in the last 90 days alone. The UN has made an emergency appeal for $2.4 billion but only received $1.1 billion in pledges. This is the largest hunger emergency in the world. If these crises are left unresolved, malnutrition and deaths will increase exponentially in a catastrophic deterioration. As many as 1.4 million children could die of starvation in the coming months.

https://www.oxfam.org/en/emergencies/famine-and-hunger-crisis 

In Somalia, little sign of promised food aid for 6 million people facing starvation

As UN calls for coordinated global efforts to help Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen, humanitarian aid is slow to reach some of those on brink of famine. While cash assistance would have been preferable to enable people to buy food directly themselves, immediate relief in the form of food, water and medication is now needed in the next two to three weeks.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/mar/14/in-somalia-little-sign-of-promised-food-aid-for-6-million-people-facing-starvation-brink-famine

India to overtake China’s population by 2022 – six years earlier than expected

Nigeria will replace the US as the world’s third most populous country by around 2050. Africa is expected to account for more than half of the world’s population growth over the next 35 years. The current world population of 7.3 billion will reach 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100, it predicts.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33720723 

UN World Population Prospects 2017

The population projections are based on the probabilistic projections of total fertility and life expectancy at birth, based on estimates

https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Graphs/Probabilistic/POP/70plus/ 

5 Major Effects of Over-Population in India

These are: 1. Population and Food Supply 2. Population and Unemployment 3. Population and the Burden of Education 4. Population and Housing and Health 5. Economic Consequences of Rapid Population Growth.

http://www.environmentalpollution.in/pollution/over-population/5-major-effects-of-over-population-in-india/1251 

The three-degree world: the cities that will be drowned by global warming

The UN is warning that we are now on course for 3C of global warming. This will ultimately redraw the map of the world. Until now, global efforts such as the Paris climate agreement have tried to limit global warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels. However, with latest projections pointing to an increase of 3.2C by 2100, these goals are slipping out of reach.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-interactive/2017/nov/03/three-degree-world-cities-drowned-global-warming 

From Miami to Shanghai: 3C of warming will leave world cities below sea level

An elevated level of climate change would lock in irreversible sea-level rises affecting hundreds of millions of people.  Famous beaches, commercial districts and swaths of farmland will be threatened at this elevated level of climate change, which the UN warned this week is a very real prospect unless nations seriously reduce their carbon emissions.

http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2017/11/05/world/miami-shanghai-3c-warming-will-leave-world-cities-below-sea-level 

Climate Change Migration 

Caritas State of the Environment ambassador speaks about the battle Kiribati is facing to combat climate change.

https://www.facebook.com/CaritasAU/videos/vb.268562906499579/1583387115017145/ 

While Donald Trump is obsessed with building walls, Xi Jinping is busy building bridges

Antony Blinken

Neoliberalism is a self-serving racket: an elaborate theory that serves as an excuse for the very rich to release themselves from the constraints of democracy, tax, regulation, decent pay and conditions for their workers, care for the living world and all the other decencies we owe to each other. 

George Monbiot

Under my administration, America produced more oil by opening up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration; opening more than 75% of our potential oil resources offshore; quadrupling the number of operating rigs; adding enough new oil and gas pipelines to circle the earth

Barak Obama

In 2000 a total of 405 people were killed by terror attacks worldwide, while after 14 years of supposed war on terror that number escalated to over 32,000, an 81-fold increase 

Jacob Reimann

The Paradise Papers exposes the rapid movement toward an international oligarchy

Bernie Sanders

What Will It Take to Kill Fossil Fuels Once and for All?

Only when all the economic factors are addressed will fossil fuels be killed off for good. Lower prices have allowed renewables to make up ground over the last few years, but tax breaks and tariffs continue to play the key role in keeping the coal and oil industries alive.

https://futurism.com/kill-fossil-fuels/ 

The inside story of the Saudi night of long knives

There will be regime change in the near future, and the only reason that it has not happened already is because the old King is liked among his family. It is possible that there may be a struggle emanating from the military as during the days of King Farouk, and we may have a ruler arise that is not friendly to the United States.

http://www.atimes.com/article/inside-story-saudi-night-long-knives 

The Institutionalisation of the Qatar Crisis

The unwillingness of the parties to make adequate concessions is an outcome of the dispute’s root causes.

http://lobelog.com/the-institutionalization-of-the-gcc-conflict/#more-41853 

Regime Change in Iran By Other Means

Trump’s decision not to certify Iranian compliance with the terms of the nuclear deal has not been the death knell for the JCPOA that the president and the leaders in Riyadh and Jerusalem may have hoped. The European Union stands firm behind the deal.

http://lobelog.com/regime-change-in-iran-by-other-means/#more-41880 

Consolidation of power in the hands of the most hardline faction of the Saudi royal family

Everything suggests that Saudi Arabia and its US backer are taking coordinated steps to challenge Iran more forcefully. The entire US ruling elite is deeply troubled by Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East and the fact that, notwithstanding the expenditure of vast amounts of blood and treasure, Washington has proven incapable of bringing the world’s most important oil-exporting region under its control. Instead, the US is losing ground to Russia, and increasingly China, which is emerging as an economic player.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/11/08/saudi-crown-prince-charges-iran-with-act-of-war/ 

Electric cars’ green image blackens beneath the bonnet

All electric vehicles produce fewer emissions over the lifecycle than conventional cars of the same weight class, and this holds true even when the electricity grid that powers them is mostly generated by fossil fuels. But, the lack of regulation differentiating between electric vehicles effectively encourages carmakers to sell cars with bigger batteries and longer ranges — features that sound great but are at odds with electric vehicles’ green image, given the amount of lithium and cobalt used in the batteries.

https://www.ft.com/content/a22ff86e-ba37-11e7-9bfb-4a9c83ffa852 

As the link requires a subscription a pdf is attached.

4-in-1 system makes power, water, A/C, and heat with 30% energy saving

Currently, significant amount of energy is required for the generation of electricity, water, air-conditioning, and heat. Running four independent processes also result in extensive energy wastage, and such systems take up a huge floor area, The plant uses natural gas to power micro turbines to produce electricity. Waste heat generated from exhaust gas is efficiently recovered and channeled back to produce chilled water, which is required to cool air-conditioning. The plant recycles non-potable water, such as rain water and water discharged from showers and washbasins, to produce drinking water and waste heat generated also produces hot water or steam.

http://www.futurity.org/utilities-plant-1595902-2/ 

Sleeping Ice Giants Stir — East Antarctica’s Totten Glacier Accelerates Toward Southern Ocean

Home to most of the world’s remaining land ice. Scientists previously thought that this last bastion of somewhat stable ice in the world would only slowly succumb to the slings and arrows of human-caused climate change. That its ice giants would still sleep for some time — giving the world more time to stave off or avoid worsening rates of sea level rise. Unfortunately, new evidence reveals that this is not the case. Massive ice bergs are breaking off from West Antarctica, rainfall is now observed, at times, all around the frozen continent’s perimeter from west to east, and the vast Pine Island glacier is being undermined by warm water currents — causing it to crack up from the inside out.

https://robertscribbler.com/2017/11/06/sleeping-ice-giants-stir-east-antarcticas-totten-glacier-accelerates-toward-southern-ocean/ 

Hidden Channels Beneath East Antarctica Could Cause Massive Melt

https://www.livescience.com/50174-east-antarctica-glacier-melt.html 

Russian Collusion: Kushner, Gazprom, Facebook and Twitter

Evidence of harmful collusion and conflict of interest damaging to the US related to the Trump Campaign and its associates has now grown beyond the scope of any of our deepest fears.

https://robertscribbler.com/2017/11/07/russian-collusion-kushner-associated-corp-linked-to-oil-giant-gazprom-in-gaining-monetary-leverage-over-facebook-and-twitter/ 

100 years after Balfour: The reality which shames Israel

The Balfour Declaration not only promised to deliver a homeland for the Jews. It also promised that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”. Has this promise been kept?

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/peter-oborne-reality-balfour-declaration-100-years-886053745 

India’s 1-percent grabs nearly a quarter of all income

After 1991—when the Congress government of Narasimha Rao broke with the state-led economic development strategy India has pursued since independence it embraced a “new economic policy” aimed at transforming India into a cheap-labor haven for global capital—that income inequality truly surged.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/06/indi-n06.html 

Were we to absolutely stop burning fossil fuels today, the earth will continue to heat 2C by 2100. 

There is a 95% chance that Earth will warm more than 2C at century’s end, and a 1% chance that it’s below 1.5 C, with a median forecast of 3.2C. This is the grim reality. “There are only two realistic paths toward avoiding long-run disaster: increased financial incentives to avoid greenhouse gas emissions and greatly increased funding for research that will lead to at least partial technological fixes,” said Dick Startz. “Neither is free. Both are better than the catastrophe at the end of the current path.”

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/31/health/climate-change-two-degrees-studies/index.html 

Here’s How Far the World Is From Meeting the Paris Climate Goals

Not one major industrialised country is currently on track to fulfil its pledge, One year after the Paris Agreement entered into force, we still find ourselves in a situation where we are not doing nearly enough to save hundreds of millions of people from a miserable future.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/06/climate/world-emissions-goals-far-off-course.html 

The  Threat to the Future of the Nation-State

Controversies over hate speech and gender politics continue to roil American campuses. These, however, are probably the least important conflicts in the country right now, considering the almost daily evidence of disintegrative pressures of every sort: demonstrations by white supremacists, mass shootings and police killings, the current dismantling of the federal government. Not to speak of the way cities and states are defying Washington’s dictates on immigration, the environment, and health care. The nation’s motto of e pluribus unum — out of many, one —is in serious danger of being turned inside out.When it comes to demagogues and divisiveness, Trump has plenty of competition — in Europe, the Middle East, and all over our splintering planet.

http://fpif.org/dangerous-trend-threatening-future-nation-state/ 

Unresolved complaints soar against Australian government’s welfare agency

More than 55 million phone calls to Centrelink, the Australian government welfare office, were met with a busy signal during the 2015–16 financial year—nearly double the 29 million a year before. A Senate estimates committee was belatedly told last month of this extraordinary rise, which had been hidden from public view. Being unable to contact Centrelink can have serious consequences for some of society’s most impoverished and vulnerable members. This includes being cut off benefits for failing to report information, or being unable to complete applications for benefits. In the same year, the government accused tens of thousands of welfare recipients of falsely claiming payments worth $2.8 billion.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/07/cent-n07.html 

Another Record Breaking Year for Opium Production in US Occupied Afghanistan

The US military has been operating in Afghanistan as part of the war on terror for over 16 years now, and opium production in the war-torn nation continues to increase, year-over-year, coinciding with the rise of the opioid crisis.the U.S. military is being used to create an environment where the drug trade is allowed to flourish.

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2017/11/02/another-record-breaking-year-opium-production-u-s-occupied-afghanistan/ 

The US Has Soldiers Deployed In Almost Every Country On Earth

The US stations 240,000 troops in 172 countries. Only 21 have missed out. Which is next in line?

https://newmatilda.com/2017/11/05/the-us-has-soldiers-deployed-in-almost-every-country-on-earth/ 

Where will all the nuclear waste go? Who can pay? 

There are approximately 72,000 metric tons of nuclear waste at 75 sites in the US with nowhere to go and no viable plan. In 50 years when the US reactors are all shut down there will be 139,000 metric tons of orphaned spent nuclear fuel from reactors alone — stacked in overfilled fuel pools or in “temporary” storage. Much of this waste will remain forever deadly.

http://helencaldicottfoundation.org/ 

World’s 250 Largest Firms Account For 1/3 Of All Emissions, Few Have Reduction Goals

The top of the list was unsurprisingly dominated by fossil fuel firms, such as ExxonMobil, Coal India, and Gazprom — unsurprising because essentially every part of the industrial and agricultural systems that the modern world is dependent upon are based around the aggressive use of fossil fuel reserves. Without continual reduction in emissions from this group of companies, effectively mitigating the long-term risks of climate change is impossible.

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/11/04/worlds-250-largest-firms-account-13-anthropogenic-greenhouse-gas-emissions-real-emissions-reduction-goals/ 

Understanding how to make money out of thin air – The bankers and the euro

Banks lend out money that doesn’t exist. Borrowers receive a balance, a voucher of their bank. With it, they can order their bank to make payments for them. Banks mutually cross all payment orders against each other and at the end of the day they only pay the remaining differences. This way they can operate with very little money. However, with very little money the risk increases they cannot pay ocurring losses. They reduce this risk by lending more and more, thus putting more and more balances into circulation (inflation). This decreases the value of each money unit and allows borrowers to pay back their outstanding debt more easily. This prevents most of the losses borrowers would otherwise cause.

http://www.courtfool.info/en_The_bankers_and_the_euro.htm#right-column 

What are the Paradise Papers and what do they tell us?

The leak of 13.4m documents shows the scale of the offshore empire and involves everyone from the Queen to Facebook. There are also details from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in secrecy jurisdictions – Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Labuan, Lebanon, Malta, the Marshall Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu. The papers cover the period from 1950 to 2016.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/what-are-the-paradise-papers-and-what-do-they-tell-us 

Reaction around the world to release of Paradise Papers – live

It’s easy to lose sight of the human consequences of tax avoidance. The point has been made this morning by Oxfam and Transparency International that denying tax revenue to government takes away crucial funding for essential services, like hospitals or schools.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/live/2017/nov/06/reaction-around-world-release-paradise-papers-live 

Australian tax office poised to investigate schemes revealed by Paradise Papers

The ATO is in a position to respond decisively to this data release,’ deputy commissioner says. It has been working for several months with partner agencies across the world in anticipation of the new data release.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/australian-tax-office-poised-to-investigate-schemes-revealed-by-paradise-papers

South Australias stunning transition to consumer powered-grid

9.2% of the electricity generated in the state over the last financial year came from small-scale (sub 100kW) solar PV on the rooftops of households and businesses. That level of rooftop solar penetration is a record for any major grid in the world,

http://reneweconomy.com.aucsouth-australias-stunning-transition-to-consumer-powered-grid-20463/ 

A North Korean Defector in Washington

The celebration of defectors from communist countries is an old tradition in Washington. Over the years, dozens of diplomats and spies from the Soviet Union—along with numerous world-famous athletes and dancers—have stepped across the US national security stage and done their part for freedom, America-style.

http://lobelog.com/a-north-korean-defector-in-washington/#more-41848 

November 3:Bubonic plague in Madagascar and the US

As Madagascar deals with a deadly outbreak of plague which has already claimed the lives of 127 people, it has been revealed that the US is among the countries regularly hit by the deadly disease. Something today that very few people are aware of is that in the south-west, there’s an average of 11 cases of bubonic plague per year.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/875095/us-madagascar-plague-black-death-bubonic-united-states-new-mexico   

October 12: Plague outbreak leaves 57 dead, more than 680 infected in Madagascar 

Pneumonic plague is more virulent or damaging and is an advanced form characterized by a severe lung infection. The infection can be transmitted from person to person via airborne droplets — coughing or sneezing. The incubation period is short, and an infected person may die within 12 to 24 hours.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/16/health/madagascar-pneumonic-bubonic-plague-outbreak-continues/index.html 

August 27: Bubonic plague outbreak feared in central Asia

Health officials on alert after teenager who ate infected barbecued marmot dies and three others are admitted to hospital.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/27/bubonic-plague-outbreak-feared-central-asia 

Black Death MAPPED: ‘global outbreak’ warning as NINE new countries place on high alert

The latest outbreak, which took root in Madagascar, has now killed 124 people and infected around 1,300, but scientists say this figure will definitely rise. South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Comoros, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Reunion have all been placed on high alert by World Health Organisation (WHO) monitors.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/873544/madagascar-black-death-global-outbreak-map-warning-issued-world-health-organisation-who 

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The John James Newsletter 204

4 November 2017

Hurricane Harvey may ultimately cost $180 billion, Irma may cost $65 billion, and Maria may ultimately cost $100 billion; add in the $85 billion for the California wildfires and the total cost may top $430 billion – all linked to climate change

Robert Scribbler

Now that efforts by the US military against al-Qaida are in their 12th year, we must ask ourselves how will this conflict end? War should not be forever, but a finite, extraordinary and unnatural state of affairs

Jen Johnson

We know that government is no longer the servant of the people but has become the people’s master. We have stood by like timid sheep while the wolf killed — first the weak, then the strays, then those on the outer edges, until at last the entire flock belonged to the wolf

Gerry Spence

Preventing a nuclear war between the US and North Korea may be the most pressing challenge facing the world right now. Our childish, ignorant, and incompetent president is shoving all of us ever nearer to catastrophe

Rebecca Gordon

Every minute our overstressed planet adds 145+ people every minute, which amounts to around 8,700 per hour, 208,000 per day, and 76 million per year—more than three times the population of Australia! At the current rate world population could double in 60 years

Population Clock

There is no such thing as a limited nuclear war. A full scale nuclear war between the US and Russia would lead to nuclear winter — a new ice age, killing most humans and and other complex life forms on earth. A nuclear war fought with just 1% of deployed, operational, nuclear weapons could lead to the deaths of close to 1 billion people from nuclear famine

Helen Caldicott

An open letter to the Right Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP, Prime Minister of Australia from 200 Australian scientists in the medical, environmental and physical disciplines, as well as scholars in the humanities.  

Last call on the climate and nuclear twin perils

Over the course of 2016, the global security landscape darkened as the international community failed to come to grips with humanity’s most pressing existential threats, nuclear weapons and climate change. These twin perils are not unrelated. As the full horror of climate change unfolds, conflict among nations and peoples over diminishing liveable environments and disrupted food and water supplies will increase. Nuclear holocaust is a plausible component of a climate change endgame. We respectfully request you meet a delegation of scientists to discuss the issue.

https://johnmenadue.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/OPEN-LETTER-TO-THE-AUSTRALIAN-PM_17-10-2017_including-figures.pdf 

There Is a New Urgency to the Threat of Nuclear Annihilation

The real terrorists  are the US and Russia. They possess 94% of the nuclear weapons on the planet, and they hold the rest of the world hostage to their provocative and self-serving foreign policies and misadventures. As a result, we are closer to nuclear war now than we’ve ever been before, even during the height of the Cold War. Helen Caldicott writes “While we must be concerned about global warming it is imperative that we do not take our eyes off the nuclear threat. To do so is to risk sleepwalking to Armageddon.”

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/42458-there-is-a-new-urgency-to-the-threat-of-nuclear-annihilation

Global CO2 Levels at Highest in 3 Million Years

We know that, as climate change intensifies, the ability of the land and oceans to mop up our carbon emissions will weaken. There’s still time to steer these emissions down and so keep some control, but if we wait too long humankind will become a passenger on a one-way street to dangerous climate change. CO2 concentrations increased from 400 ppm in 2015 to 403.3 ppm last year. Data on C02 spanning approximately 800,000 years, shows the last time the planet had a comparable concentration was 3 to 5 million years ago, during the Pliocene, when the global temperature was 3°C warmer and sea level was about 66 feet higher than today.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/10/30/alarm-bells-ringing-global-co2-levels-highest-3-million-years 

Here’s why the 2017 flu season was so bad

This was a busy flu year with H1N1 strains and different strains of flu B all circulating, sometimes in the same person at the same time. It’s normal for less than 60% of those vaccinated against the flu to develop a protective immune response. Over the past year, H3N2 mutated after it was chosen as a vaccine strain. Additionally, the egg-grown H3N2 vaccine virus strain changed during vaccine production. For both these reasons, the vaccine no longer matched what we faced.

https://theconversation.com/heres-why-the-2017-flu-season-was-so-bad-86605 

The Arctic is Changing the Jet Stream – This Is Important 

Global warming is increasing the strength of hurricanes. A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapour and sea surface temperatures are rising. Both of these changes strengthen hurricanes. The narrowing temperature difference between the Arctic and lower latitudes is weakening the speed at which the jet stream circumnavigates Earth and may be making the jet stream more wavy. As the Arctic keeps warming, the jet stream is expected to become more distorted, bringing ever more heat and moisture into the Arctic. This constitutes a self-reinforcing feedback loop that keeps making the situation worse.

http://arctic-news.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/the-arctic-is-changing-the-jet-stream-why-this-is-important.html 

Arctic and Antarctic Temperatures to Rise to 20-30 C Above Average in Some Locations

Under polar amplification, the warming effects of elevated greenhouse gasses are concentrated at the poles. This is due to reduced reflectivity (albedo) from smaller snow and sea ice concentrations, due to the increased intensity of the greenhouse effect in colder and darker regions and increased energy transfer from lower latitudes into upper latitudes due to weakening of the polar Jet Stream.

https://robertscribbler.com/2017/11/01/extreme-warming-at-the-poles-this-week-arctic-and-antarctic-temperatures-to-rise-to-20-30-c-above-average-in-some-locations/ 

“Ecological Armageddon” Amid Waves of Heat and Climate Refugees 

We are already in the midst of the Earth’s sixth mass extinction event. Plant and animal species are the very foundation of our own food supply, are as endangered as our rapidly disappearing wildlife. “If there is one thing we cannot allow to become extinct, it is the species that provide the food that sustains each and every one of the seven billion people on our planet,”

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42413-scientists-warn-of-ecological-armageddon-amid-waves-of-heat-and-climate-refugees 

Death of the Birds and the Bees Across America

One-third of our total diet is dependent, directly or indirectly, upon insect-pollinated plants. The immediate threat comes from the widespread proliferation of commercial insecticides containing the highly-toxic neonicotinoids. They act on the central nervous system of insects. But also on bees and  small song birds.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/death-of-the-birds-and-the-bees-across-america/31699 

Seafood May Be Gone in 30 years

The loss of ocean biodiversity is accelerating, and 29% of the seafood species humans consume have already crashed. If the long-term trend continues, in 30 years there will be little or no seafood available for sustainable harvest.The increasing pace of diversity loss thus imperils the “ecosystems services” that many human populations depend on for survival

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/061102-seafood-threat.html 

Ocean Acidification Is Fatal To Fish 

Fish egg survival in one fish species drops with increased levels of CO2. Survival rates plummeting some 75% under 1000ppm. Considerable tissue damage and dead tissue in fish larvae. In experiments, this damage to internal organs was so extensive it lead to the death of afflicted larvae.

http://www.skepticalscience.com/Ocean-Acidification-is-Fatal-To-Fish-.html 

Endless war will destroy us all

History shows that the US government earnestly believes military intervention and war can solve any problem. The US insisted it must invade Iraq because of lies about weapons of mass destruction that it knew did not exist. Then it had to de-Baathify and completely dissolve the Iraqi government. Then it needed a troop surge to fight militant resistance against its illegal military occupation. Then it had to carry out airstrikes against the extremist groups that emerged out of this militant resistance against its illegal military occupation. Then it needed to send more ground troops to combat the extremist groups it could not defeat with airstrikes. Then it had to carry out airstrikes in and send ground troops to another country thousands of miles away to combat the extremist groups that spread to a whole new continent. This process can and will only continue ad infinitum.

https://www.salon.com/2016/01/29/endless_war_will_destroy_us_all_the_u_s_military_is_the_imperial_hammer_that_sees_every_problem_as_a_nail/

Tillerson and Mattis Justify Endless Wars of Aggression

The Trump administration “should not be time constrained” and “must not be geographically restricted.” Any congressional limitations on warmaking “embolden(s) our enemies”. Unjustifiably claiming “the President has the power under Article II of the Constitution to use military force in certain circumstances to advance important US national interests.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48139.htm 

It is important we understand why Trump has removed most of the directors in the State Department and left it in the hands of an Exxon director. The State Department is the diplomatic wing of the federal government, with the primary job of promoting American foreign policy throughout the world. Doing so without the professional advice of its career diplomats can mean that the unfettered will of the chairperson rules, and that is dictatorship.

Leaked Document Shows Tillerson Power Play

“This says to me that they are developing a new foreign policy structure that is designed to largely ignore those who know these regions and who know these issues; a power grab by a small cabal of Tillerson aides. Making policy with a token effort to engage policy experts is a recipe for disaster and further evidence that the political forces in this administration will do anything they can to dismantle the State Department.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48104.htm 

US masses ships and aircraft outside North Korea

US Defence Secretary James Mattis has again warned North Korea that the US is ready to obliterate the country of 25 million people unless it abandons its nuclear arsenal. The threat, backed by an unprecedented US military build-up in North East Asia, places the region and the world on the brink of a catastrophic war. US war plans are offensive, not defensive, in character.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/10/30/pers-o30.html 

Tensions Mount In The Golan Heights Over Oil And Territory

The oil reserves under the Golan Heights may prove viable, adding one more complication to this region that is of vital importance to Israel as it is a critical buffer zone between Syria and Israel.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Tensions-Mount-In-The-Golan-Heights-Over-Oil-And-Territory.html 

Capitalism Exacerbates the Vulnerability of “Extreme Cities” to Climate Change 

Today’s big cities are ground zero for the impacts of climate disruption, at risk of floods, cyclones and heat waves. There is a precariousness to urban life in the face of climate change-induced disasters like Hurricane Sandy. After Sandy, endemic subway delays from heavy rain would no longer seem like mere temporary inconveniences, but rather prologues to a permanently drowned New York City. We wait anxiously for the next superstorm, fearing that the efforts of officials to prepare the city will turn out to be inadequate.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42384-capitalism-exacerbates-the-vulnerability-of-extreme-cities-to-climate-change 

The Fall of the House of ISIS

Having seized much of Europe and parts of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany reached the peak of its expansion by the fall of 1942. Then, stopped at Stalingrad and unable to overwhelm Britain, the Nazis began to fall back, and the war turned into a race between the Soviet troops marching from the east and the Allied soldiers surging from the west. The Islamic State likewise reached its peak expansion in mid-2014 when it controlled large chunks of Iraq and Syria. It has experienced a rise and fall even more precipitous than the Nazis’. By mid-2016, a mere two years later, it had already lost 45% of its territory in Syria and 20% in Iraq.

http://lobelog.com/the-fall-of-the-house-of-isis/#more-41715 

Buying fresh potatoes and carrots all year round is destroying Australia’s soil

Consumers’ expectations that certain types of produce will always be available mean that farmers must engage in unsustainable and destructive practices. In winter, during seasonal rainfall peaks, the combination of wet earth and heavy machinery results in severe soil compaction and soil structure degradation that can last for decades. This reduces the soil’s fertility and ultimately reduces crop yields.

https://theconversation.com/buying-fresh-potatoes-and-carrots-all-year-round-is-destroying-australias-soil-85075 

The One Paragraph You Need to Read From The JFK Assassination Files Changes Everything

President Kennedy was killed in Dealey Plaza by crossfire, meted out by shooters firing from multiple directions, from both the front and behind — therefore, he was felled by a conspiracy, by definition. The windshield bullet hole evidence, all by itself, proves a conspiracy; and its clumsy and unsuccessful suppression, all by itself, is proof of a government cover-up since the government controlled all of the windshield evidence. The facts contained in this tale prove that we had a coup in America in 1963, and that powerful and influential people were still covering it up

http://truepundit.com/the-one-paragraph-you-need-to-read-from-the-jfk-assassination-files-changes-everything/ 

Reflections on how little is revealed by just-released JFK assassination documents

It matters because the murder of President Kennedy was not only a conspiracy but a true coup d’etat. The powers behind it, did not only come away with it, but took control over the new government and orchestrated the cover-up. These powers included some of the highest elected officials like president Lyndon Johnson and later presidents, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, former CIA director Allen Dulles, John McCloy and Arlen Specter. It matters because a coup d’etat that was successfully kept secret in a democratic country means, by default, that succeeding governments were illegitimate.

https://alethonews.wordpress.com/2017/10/30/reflections-on-how-little-is-revealed-by-just-released-jfk-assassination-documents-and-why-there-had-to-have-been-a-conspiracy/ 

What Happened to the JFK Records?

Most news reports correctly noted the release of about 2,800 documents, but added that only a few were held back, in some cases saying “300 documents” remain withheld (see CNN, and Washington Post for example). They are off by a factor of 100. In fact, tens of thousands of documents, possibly as many as 30,000, remain sealed at the National Archives.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/what-happened-to-the-jfk-records/5615717 

China Could Soon Overtake the US in AI Development

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the US would soon lose the AI race to China. A combination of restrictive immigration and lack of investment in AI is making it difficult for the US to maintain its lead. China plans to become the world leader in AI by 2030. They are going to use this technology for both commercial and military objectives, with all sorts of implications.

https://futurism.com/china-could-soon-overtake-the-us-in-ai-development-former-google-ceo-says/ 

Julian Assange speaks about AI controlled Facebook propaganda

Julian Assange is providing a great heroic service to the entire world. The fact that he is under siege by those who bring harm to humanity, reveal the wounds he has given. Bribery, blackmail and intimidation, have turned bad and immoral politicians into dangerous tools, that may bring terrible times to good people’s children and grandchildren

http://www.greanvillepost.com/2017/10/27/julian-assange-speaks-about-ai-controlled-facebook-propaganda/ 

Yale ‘Decolonizes’ English Dept. After Complaints Studying White Authors ‘Actively Harms’ Students

“A year spent around a seminar table where the literary contributions of women, people of colour, and queer folk are absent actively harms all students, regardless of their identity.”

http://nation.foxnews.com/2017/10/27/yale-decolonizes-english-dept-after-complaints-studying-white-authors-actively-harms 

Give them memories

Most, if not all, our schools are run like prisons. The school is owned by an entity, maybe the state or private; most American prisons today are privately owned and run for profit. Prisons have a set of professionals who run them, called Jailor. In the case of schools, they are called Teachers. Children are admitted into the school just as prisoners are admitted into prison. And their entire existence in the system is characterised by one overwhelming reality; lack of autonomy. Just like the existence of prisoners in a jail. They enter at a designated time and must serve their term and can’t leave until that time is over. The gate shuts behind them and they can’t open it. What they do is totally regulated and this is informed to them by bells or buzzers. We believe that young adults including their teachers can’t be trusted to keep to time limits but must be rudely awakened by ringing bells. Students can’t eat, sleep, play, talk or even go to the toilet without asking permission.

http://yawarbaig.com/2017/11/02/give-them-memories/ 

Do we really want a war with Russia?

Russia’s hypersonic Zircon anti-ship missile reaches eight times speed of sound 

Hypersonic weapons are missiles and aircraft capable of reaching speeds of Mach 5 and more – or five times the speed of sound. They are extremely difficult to intercept due to their overwhelming speed and manoeuvring capabilities. Hypersonic technologies in general, used in weapons systems and prospective aircraft, are a game changer in future warfare.

http://tass.com/defense/941559 

Netanyahu Is Leading Trump to War with Iran

Israelis are busy manufacturing Holocaust-level predictions that a non-nuclear Iran is preparing to ‘vaporize’ Israel.  The buffoonish US President has swallowed this fantasy wholesale and is pushing our nation toward war for the sake of Israel and its US-based supporters and agents. We will cite ten recent examples of Israeli-authored policies, implemented by Trump in his march to war (there are scores of others).

https://www.globalresearch.ca/israels-prime-minister-netanyahu-is-leading-us-president-trump-to-war-with-iran/5615249 

Whyalla steel city goes green with 1GW of solar and storage

UK billionaire Sanjeev Gupta has made good on his commitment to transform his newly acquired Australian steel business into a renewable energy powerhouse, announcing massive investments in solar and storage that will knock 40% off his electricity costs with a 1 gigawatt (1,000MW) of dispatchable renewables in and around Whyalla.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/whyalla-steel-city-goes-green-with-1gw-of-solar-and-storage-92904/ 

World’s First Hydrogen-Powered Tram Up and Running in China

The tram refills within 15 minutes and can run for 40 kilometers at a maximum speed of 70 km per hour consuming 2 kilograms of hydrogen.

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Eco-Friendly-Hydrogen-Powered-Tram-Up-and-Running-in-China-20171030-0006.html 

Italy To Phase Out Coal By 2025

Coal accounted for roughly 30% of the electricity generated in the UK in 2014, the year before its government made its own announcement to phase out the fossil fuel by 2025. In 2016 that figure had fallen to 9%, and on April 21st  the UK had its first 24-hour period without coal-fired power generation since shortly after the Industrial Revolution.

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/10/30/italy-phase-coal-2025/ 

Devolution Everywhere: Spain, Italy, Britain And The Problems Of Complexity

At first complexity works well to solve problems. Later in the life of a society, complexity—a new bureaucracy here, another layer of complexity in the infrastructure there—continues to work but with diminishing returns. Finally, a society now used to solving its problems successfully with greater and greater complexity is blinded by this success and cannot see the point when the returns turn negative. The key is that the returns from complexity are not evenly distributed. And, when such returns go negative, those implementing the changes that increase complexity—usually the people in power—may, in fact, benefit while the majority suffer. And, the negative returns may not just be economic. They may also have to do with status, the workings of justice, public safety, and any number of other civic functions.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/30/devolution-everywhere-spain-italy-britain-and-the-problems-of-complexity/ 

Where’s the Urgency? UN Slam US Emergency Response to Puerto Rico

“With winter approaching, we call for a speedy and well-resourced emergency response that prioritises the most vulnerable and at risk—children, older people, people with disabilities, women, and homeless people.” While nearly 70% of Puerto Rico remains without power six weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated the island, eleven United Nations human rights experts have issued a joint statement decrying the “absence of adequate emergency response” by the US. “We can’t fail to note the dissimilar urgency and priority given to the emergency response in Puerto Rico, compared to the states affected by hurricanes in recent months. Thousands of people are displaced, with homes destroyed, and without any relief in sight,” Close to 2.8 million people, continue to live without electricity. Few hospitals are functioning. There are allegations that the water available—for those who have access to it—may be contaminated.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/10/31/wheres-urgency-un-experts-slam-us-emergency-response-puerto-rico 

Amid devastation, Tesla begins restoring power in Puerto Rico

Current estimates suggest 80% of Puerto Rico is still without power, but thanks to Elon Musk’s efforts at least one children’s hospital has been able to turn the lights on. Energy storage company Sonnen has shipped its storage systems to the island and is distributing them to emergency medical facilities first.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2017/10/25/amid-devastation-tesla-begins-restoring-power-in-puerto-rico/ 

The Agrifood Atlas: How Corporations Are Tightening Their Stranglehold On People’s Food

The dramatic impacts of the global food system being rapidly monopolised by ever-fewer, ever-larger corporations at every stage of the food chain. This alarming trend poses risks to consumer choice, jobs and working conditions and food production in the future, with less consumer choice and risk to future food production.

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/10/31/agrifood-atlas-how-corporations-are-tightening-their-stranglehold-peoples-food

For graphs:

https://cloud.foeeurope.org/index.php/s/myy4iy8MdUFcmuj#//agrifoodatlas2017_grafik_21a.jpg 

Wind Power Set a New Renewable Energy Record in Europe

Thanks to a powerful storm that passed over Europe last week, wind energy provided nearly 25 percent of all power in the EU on 28 October. With numerous existing and new wind projects in the EU, this record should be only the beginning.

https://futurism.com/wind-power-set-a-new-renewable-energy-record-in-europe-last-week/ 

When Afghan Mothers Speak, The World Must Listen

One-third of the population lives below the poverty line (earning less than $2 a day) and a further 50% are barely above this. Much of the suffering voiced was common: most of the women had to support their families as they moved from house to house, not being able to come up with the rent for a more permanent space, and many women experienced severe body pains from chronic stress.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/31/afghan-mothers-speak/ 

Afghanistan’s Painful, Never-Ending War Takes A New Bad Turn

A long and conflictual history that we should remember. The last person to conquer Afghanistan was Alexander, and he did not stay long.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/29/afghanistans-painful-never-ending-war-takes-a-new-bad-turn/ 

Three US carriers Are Now in Pacific Amid Tensions with North Korea 

The USS Nimitz, USS Roosevelt, and USS Reagan are all Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.

https://scout.com/military/warrior/Article/3-US-carriers-Are-Now-in-Pacific-Amid-Tensions-with-North-Korea—109778021 

The John James Newsletter 203

28 October 2017

To keep up with global food demand 6m hectares of new farmland will be needed every year, whereas 12m hectares are lost through soil degradation

UN estimate

Somalia is ranked the world’s most corrupt country

Transparency International

Washington’s Sunni proxies were not a division of the Pentagon; they were entirely a CIA confection:  CIA recruited, CIA-armed, CIA-funded and CIA-trainedMike Whitney

From the Saudi point of view, everything went downhill: The defeat in Syria that coincided with the agreement between Iran; the Chinese economic pressure on Riyadh to accept yuan payments for oil; the growing ability of Moscow to intervene in the region; the renewed diplomatic and political role of Iran thanks to the JCPOA agreement – these have left Riyadh on a certain path to destruction. The only solution is a strategic change that could affect the region in a significant manner.

Federico Pieraccini

The US has 5% of the world’s population, but over 20% of all the people in prison globally are in a US jail: More than Russia, more than China 

World Prison Brief

The CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media

William Colby, former CIA Director

The much-dreaded IS was never more than a bunch of young hooligans and religious fanatics who were as militarily effective as the medieval Children’s Crusade, but in the west, IS was blown up by media and governments into a giant monster that was coming to cut the throats of honest folk in the suburbs 

Eric Margolis

The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvellous victory

Howard Zinn

Insectageddon: farming is more catastrophic than climate breakdown

The impact on wildlife of changes in farming practice (and the expansion of the farmed area) is so rapid and severe that it is hard to get your head round the scale of what is happening. Flying insects surveyed on nature reserves in Germany have declined by 75% in 27 years. The most likely cause of this Insectageddon is that the land surrounding those reserves has become hostile to them: the volume of pesticides and the destruction of habitat have turned farmland into a wildlife desert.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/20/insectageddon-farming-catastrophe-climate-breakdown-insect-populations

The German study

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809

Giant insect ecosystem is collapsing due to humans. It’s a catastrophe

Insects have triumphed for hundreds of millions of years in every habitat but the ocean. Their success is unparalleled, which makes their disappearance all the more alarming as insects are vital plant-pollinators and although most of our grain crops are pollinated by the wind, most of our fruit crops are insect-pollinated, as are the vast majority of our wild plants, from daisies to our most splendid wild flower, the rare and beautiful lady’s slipper orchid. Even the most successful organisms that have ever existed on earth are now being overwhelmed by the titanic scale of the human enterprise, as indeed, is the whole natural world.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/21/insects-giant-ecosystem-collapsing-human-activity-catastrophe

This is the face of modern war – no habitable building left standing. Afterwards, where do the refugees who no longer have water or sewage or electricity, or more vitally, shelter, where do they go? And who gets the massive payments for rebuilding? 

Raqqa Destroyed To Liberate It

The remnants of IS had melted into the Euphrates Valley and the desert.  They will now return to being an irksome guerilla group with very little combat power.  Anti-western IS supporters still cluster in Europe’s urban ghettos and will cause occasional mayhem.  A few high-profile attacks on civilians may be expected to show that IS is still alive.  But none of this is likely to influence the course of events.  IS’s rival, al-Qaida, is likely to resurface and lead attacks to drive the west out of the Mideast. The Islamic State bogeyman was very useful for the western powers.  It justified deeper military involvement in the Mideast, higher arms budgets, scared people into voting for rightwing parties, and gave police more powers.

https://ericmargolis.com/2017/10/raqqa-destroyed-to-liberate-it/

‘Leveled like Dresden’: Raqqa aid haste hints at cover up of ‘barbaric destruction’

Some 80% of residential buildings in the city are estimated to have been rendered uninhabitable during the fighting, which involved massive bombardment by the US-led coalition’s airstrikes and artillery shelling.

https://www.rt.com/news/407442-raqqa-dresden-barbaric-bombings/

The CIA and the Media: Facts the World Needs to Know

Since the end of World War Two the CIA has been a major force in US and foreign news media, exerting considerable influence over what the public sees, hears and reads on a regular basis. Coverups of election fraud in 2000 and 2004, the events of September 11, 2001, the invasions Afghanistan and Iraq, the destabilization of Syria, and the creation of “ISIS.” These are among the most significant events in recent world history, and yet they are also those much of the public is wholly ignorant of.

http://humansarefree.com/2015/09/the-cia-and-msm-50-facts-world-needs-to.html

CIA Chief: We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher

All those new online devices are a treasure trove of data if you’re a “person of interest” to the spy community. Once upon a time, spies had to place a bug in your chandelier to hear your conversation. With the rise of the “smart home,” you’d be sending tagged, geolocated data that a spy agency can intercept in real time when you use the lighting app on your phone to adjust your living room’s ambiance.

https://www.wired.com/2012/03/petraeus-tv-remote/

‘We will be toasted, roasted and grilled’: IMF chief sounds climate change warning 

The world will be in deep trouble if it fails to tackle climate change and inequality, If we don’t address these issues… we will be moving to a dark future. If the world wants a future that “looks like utopia and not dystopia”, it needs to address such concerns.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/25/we-will-be-toasted-roasted-and-grilled-imf-chief-sounds-climate-change-warning

A Matter of Fifty Degrees: Climate Change In Australia

A country baked to the core, its citizens roasted, an electricity grid battered to its limits.  Capital cities trapping scorching heat, toasting its citizens and assaulting the young, the elderly, the infirm with temperature fluctuations.  This is the vision of Australia by the end of this century according to an ANU study. “The severity of possible future temperature extremes simulated by climate models poses serious challenges for preparedness for future climate change.”

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/21/a-matter-of-fifty-degrees-climate-change-in-australia/

This self-generating High-Tech, Solar-Powered Car May be the Future of Travel

The “Stella Vie” was able to carry five people across more than 3,000km at an average speed of 69 km/h. Dutch team from the Eindhoven University of Technology snagged the overall win for their unique concept: a electricity-generating solar car that gives back to the grid.

https://futurism.com/this-futuristic-solar-powered-car-may-be-the-future-of-travel/

UN slams Israel for ‘de-development’ of Palestine

The primary causes for the economic stagnation include “continuing loss of land and natural resources to settlements and the annexation of land in the West Bank”, along with market fragmentation and Israeli-imposed import restrictions. With Israel’s restrictions on movement and access to goods in the occupied territories, economic growth in the private sector is highly limited. As Israel continues to build the separation wall and confiscate West Bank land to build illegal settlements, the area has morphed into enclaves surrounded by checkpoints, making it difficult to transport goods or raw materials.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/09/slams-israel-de-development-palestine-170912065839916.html

How Israel engages in ‘water apartheid’

In the village of Ein al-Beida, barbed wire divides a field in two. On one side are rows of orange trees covered in lush green leaves, grown by Israeli settlers from a nearby illegal settlement; on the other is barren land allocated for Palestinians, where nothing grows except stiff stalks of yellow grass, long dried out due to the lack of water.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/israel-engages-water-apartheid-171013110734930.html

16 Million-Strong Organisation In India Joins The BDS Movement

AIKS has resolved to endorse the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law, in order to stand for the rights of the Palestinian people and to resist the corporate takeover of Indian agriculture sector by Israeli companies. They plan to raise awareness among Indian farmers to prevent Israel and its corporations from reaping profits in India that finance military occupation and apartheid in Palestine.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/27/16-million-strong-organization-in-india-joins-the-bds-movement/

Saudi Arabia Finances Most of Israel’s Weapons Build-Up Against Iran

Saudi Arabia isn’t just coordinating its own intelligence efforts with Israel.  It’s actually financing a good deal of Israel’s very expensive campaign against Iran.  As you know, this has involved massive sabotage against IRG missile bases, the assassination of five nuclear scientists, the creation of a series of computer cyberweapons like Stuxnet and Flame.  It may also conceivably involve an entire class of electronic and conventional weapons that could be used in a full-scale attack on Iran. Israel, even with unlimited funding, still can’t muster the weapons and armaments it would need to do the job properly.  That will take time.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/saudi-arabia-finances-most-of-israels-weapons-build-up-against-iran/5451703

Pollution is a bigger killer than War, Tobacco, and Disease combined

Pollution contributes to the deaths of 9 million people each year.  Dirty air in India and China. Tainted water in sub-Saharan Africa. Toxic mining and smelter operations in South America. Pollution around the globe now contributes to an estimated 9 million deaths annually — or roughly one in six — according to an in-depth new study published Thursday in the Lancet. That means pollution kills three times more people each year than AIDS,TB and malaria combined, with most of those deaths in poor and developing countries.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/10/19/pollution-kills-9-million-people-each-year-new-study-finds/

Pregnant Women Exposed To Air Pollution Give Birth To Babies With “Aged” Cells

Babies that are exposed to higher levels of air pollution when in the womb during gestation possess shorter caps on the ends of their chromosomes — which means that there’s now a new mechanism to explain some of the health problems present in children who live in areas with high levels of air pollution. This adds to evidence suggesting that common forms of air pollution can cross the placenta barrier and directly impact developing fetuses.

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/10/19/study-pregnant-women-exposed-air-pollution-give-birth-babies-aged-cells/

China and Russia Are Transforming “Enemies” into “Friends”

Ankara, after numerous diplomatic and military failures, has rebuilt its role in the region alongside Iran and Qatar, in a context where its partnership with Moscow and Beijing will guarantee Erdogan a margin of manoeuvre to progressively disengage from the NATO system that has brought so many problems to the country.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/making-history-china-and-russia-are-transforming-enemies-into-friends/5613915

UK terror threat evolving at scale never seen before

The UK is facing a “multidimensional threat” that is rapidly evolving “at a scale and pace we’ve not seen before”, the director general of MI5 has warned. “We’re now running well over 500 live operations involving around 3,000 individuals known to be currently involved in extremist activity in some way.”

http://news.sky.com/story/uk-terror-threat-evolving-at-unprecedented-level-mi5s-andrew-parker-says-11085432

Republican Senators Voted To Cut $1.5 Trillion from Health To Give Super-Rich a Tax Cut

Along strict party lines, the Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday night voted to pass a sweeping budget measure—one criticized as both “despicable” and “horrific” for providing massive giveaways to corporations and the super-rich while eviscerating funding for social programs, healthcare, education, and affordable housing.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/10/19/51-gop-senators-just-voted-cut-15-trillion-medicare-and-medicaid-give-super-rich-and

Prescription opioids are killing more Australians than heroin

The death rate has more than doubled among addicts aged between 35 and 44 since 2007. The death toll is expected to rise. We’re seeing a real shift from illicit to pharmaceutical opioids implicated in these deaths, affecting a broader range of people. Opioids – powerful painkillers that act on the nervous system – were traditionally used by cancer patients in hospitals, but over the past couple of decades have become mainstream.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/prescription-opioids-are-killing-more-australians-than-heroin-australian-bureau-of-statistics-20170720-gxf5wa.html

Opioid crisis fuelled by drug industry and Congress

Whistleblower Joe Rannazzisi says drug distributors pumped opioids into US communities — knowing that people were dying — and says industry lobbyists and Congress derailed the DEA’s efforts to stop it.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-dea-agent-opioid-crisis-fueled-by-drug-industry-and-congress/

The drug industry’s triumph over the DEA 

The new law makes it virtually impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious narcotic shipments.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/dea-drug-industry-congress/

Overview of corruption and anti-corruption in Somalia 

Both petty and grand forms of corruption are prevalent in Somalia, permeating key sectors of the economy such as ports and airports, tax and custom collection, immigration, telecommunication and management of aid resources. According to a recent audit report by the Prime Minister’s office, corruption manifests itself through gross public financial mismanagement, large scale misappropriation of public and donor funds, unethical and professional negligence, and concealment.

https://www.transparency.org/files/content/corruptionqas/337_Overview_of_corruption_and_anti-corruption_in_Somalia.pdf

The Al-Qaeda Leader Who Wasn’t

Abu Zubaydah’s interrogators would waterboard him an almost unimaginable 83 times in the course of a single month; that is, they would strap him to a wooden board, place a cloth over his entire face, and gradually pour water through the cloth until he began to drown. At one point during this endlessly repeated ordeal, the Senate committee reported that Zubaydah became “completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-gordon/abu-zubaydah_b_9771034.html

The Water Cycle and Climate Change

Among the most serious Earth science and environmental policy issues confronting society are the potential changes in the Earth’s water cycle due to climate change.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Water/page3.php

The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2 Billion on Soviet-Style Arms for Syrian Rebels

The $2.2 billion pipeline financed by the US, as well as the earlier €1.2 billion pipeline financed by Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, have meant boom times for arms factories across the Balkans and Eastern Europe – already working at capacity to supply the Syrian war. In response, the US Department of Defense has turned to new suppliers like Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Ukraine for additional munitions while relaxing standards on the material it’s willing to accept. The Pentagon is buying the arms through two channels: the Special Operations Command, which oversees special operations across all services of the US military. The munitions are being transported by both sea and air from Europe to Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait. They are then distributed to US allies in northern and southern Syria by plane and truck.

https://www.occrp.org/en/makingakilling/the-pentagon-is-spending-2-billion-on-soviet-style-arms-for-syrian-rebels

Vladimir Putin Positioning Russia as the Main Player in the Middle East

It would be Russia who does the rebuilding of Syria after the war and Saudi Arabia who paid for it. The two vast oil nations now seem to be set on a course of mutual collaboration. So much for Trump’s $300bn weapons deal with the king

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/putin-middle-east-syria-raqqa-isis-qatar-saudi-arabia-control-soviet-a8008461.html

More on the anthrax attacks – thanks Jon Cooksey, who added “What the article in previous Newsletter doesn’t mention is the way the Bush administration stumbled into a way to blame Iraq for the anthrax attacks, which bolstered their otherwise empty case for tying 9/11 to Saddam Hussein. It became US justification for invading Iraq.”

Bruce Ivins, the Anthrax Attacks, and America’s Rush to War  

For the first time, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David Willman tells the whole gripping story of the hunt for the anthrax killer who terrorised the country in the dark days that followed the 9/11 attacks. Letters sent surreptitiously from a mailbox in New Jersey to media and political figures that killed five and infected seventeen. For years, the case remained officially unsolved—and became a rallying point for launching the Iraq War.

https://www.amazon.com/Mirage-Man-Anthrax-Attacks-Americas/dp/0553807757

A solar farm the size of 160 football fields

China’s giant floating solar energy farm floats atop a flooded coal mine with the capacity to power 15,000 homes.

http://pmd.cdn.turner.com/money/big/technology/2017/07/17/china-floating-solar-farm.cnnmoney_1024x576.mp4

Gulf Dispute Heightens US Frustration with Saudis

As the Gulf dispute continues, the diplomatic establishment in Washington is visibly irritated with the ATQ’s rigid refusal to ease their action and rhetoric against Qatar. The crisis has undermined Washington’s interests in the region by pitting America’s close Sunni Arab allies against each other and enabling other countries, chiefly Iran and Russia, to assert more influence in the Arab world’s volatile state of affairs. The State Department is becoming increasingly frank about its view that Doha is not responsible for the lingering row in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Citing a “real unwillingness” on the ATQ’s part to engage in negotiations, Tillerson stated days before leaving for the Gulf that the burden is on the Saudi/UAE-led bloc to “engage with Qatar because Qatar has been very clear—they’re ready to engage.”

http://lobelog.com/gulf-dispute-heightens-us-frustration-with-saudis/#more-41670

Creating your enemies – how useful!

How can a steel-frame building collapse into its own footprint – without help? 

The 9/11 collapse justified the “War on Terror” and the current US policy of Endless War without end. The war on terror is designed so that it can never end. Can you remember when the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Times that military officials are “looking to take decisive military action” against the growing presence of ISIS in Libya. But should we not be asking ourselves: Why is ISIS even there in the first place? The answer, of course, is the 2011 war on Libya, which was led by Hillary Clinton. In a controlled demolition all columns have to be hit within milliseconds of each other. The tower and the 47 storey WTC building collapsed through the points of greatest resistance, through the middle of the maximum number of supporting columns. The commission of investigation was delayed for 411 days, long enough for evidence to be tampered with.

http://www.ae911truth.org/news/245-news-media-events-about-us.html

The 10-minute video

https://vimeo.com/15413097

CONSPIRITUS 9/11- Irrefutable Evidence for the Demolitons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3v4QUQpYjc

The Australian high court has drawn a line in the sand against restricting the right to peaceful protest

The Protesters Act had been passed to muzzle and control protesters concerned that the Lapoinya state forest was going to be felled for the Malaysian logging company Ta Ann.  The Tasmanian government seemed enthusiastic enough with Forestry Tasmania to wish for the operation to go ahead. That is now struck down.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2017/oct/22/high-court-proves-we-have-free-speech-against-environmental-wreckers

Soil holds potential to slow global warming

If you want to do something about global warming, look under your feet. Managed well, soil’s ability to trap carbon dioxide is potentially much greater than previously estimated. Organic matter in soil, such as decomposing plant and animal residues, stores more carbon than do plants and the atmosphere combined. Unfortunately, the carbon in soil has been widely lost or degraded through land use changes and unsustainable forest and agricultural practices, fires, nitrogen deposition and other human activities. The greatest near-term threat comes from thawing permafrost in Earth’s northern reaches, which could release massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Improving how the land is managed could increase soil’s carbon storage enough to offset future carbon emissions from thawing permafrost, including reduced tillage, year-round livestock forage and compost application. Planting more perennial crops, instead of annuals, could store more carbon and reduce erosion by allowing roots to reach deeper into the ground.

https://news.stanford.edu/2017/10/05/soil-holds-potential-slow-global-warming/

Third of Earth’s soil is acutely degraded due to agriculture

Fertile soil is being lost at rate of 24bn tonnes a year through intensive farming as demand for food increases. The alarming decline, which is forecast to continue as demand for food and productive land increases, will add to the risks of conflicts such as those seen in Sudan and Chad unless remedial actions are implemented

https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/third-earths-soil-acutely-degraded-due-agriculture

Eight-Year Study Confirms “All Sea Life” Will Be Affected by Acidic Oceans 

Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of the surface waters of the oceans has increased a stunning 26%. Given that more than one billion people rely on food from warm-water coral reefs alone, humans will obviously be impacted heavily as acidification progresses. Global fish stocks are in decline, as 85 percent of them are either over-exploited, depleted, fully exploited or in recovery from exploitation. Large areas of the seabed in the North Sea and the Mediterranean have long since resembled deserts, and 90 percent of all large fish are already gone from the oceans.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42361-eight-year-study-confirms-all-sea-life-will-be-affected-by-acidic-oceans

The Threat of Military Dictatorship in America

Kelly’s extraordinary intervention at Thursday’s White House press conference constitutes a sharp warning. Anyone who thinks that “it can’t happen here,” that a US government that has sponsored countless coups and regime-change operations around the globe cannot itself become the target of a military takeover, is making a serious political mistake.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/general-kellys-tirade-and-the-threat-of-military-dictatorship-in-america/5614583

China Faces Growing Debt Problems

The governor of the Chinese Central Bank has warned of a spiralling debt crisis in China. China has a 250 % debt compared to its GDP and faces a possible “Minsky moment”. Any crisis in China will not let the rest of the world unspared. The debt crisis could be the undoing of world’s financial system, world economy and ultimately human civilisation itself.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/24/china-faces-growing-debt-problems-says-central-bank-governor/

Xi’s road map to the Chinese Dream – an important analysis

China’s Belt and Road Initiative – the New Silk Road – will spark the country’s development and turn the dream into reality Economically, the debate remains open on whether this walks and talks more like “neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics”.

http://www.atimes.com/article/xis-road-map-chinese-dream/

Pirating Into The Czech Elections

The Pirate Party are buccaneering their way into European politics, having found a foothold in the testy soil of Central Europe after colonising, in small measure, various hamlets in Sweden, Germany and Iceland. Policies include the abolition of internet censorship, the favouring of institutional transparency, and the revision of punitive copyright laws, and improving the lot of teacher salaries and tax reform.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/10/26/pirating-into-the-czech-elections/

Waiting for the tide to turn: Kiribati’s fight for survival

The 33 islands of Kiribati, a remote and low-lying nation in the Pacific Ocean, are under threat from climate change.  Lack of fresh water is an immediate problem. Fresh water lies under the atolls and islands of Kiribati in what are known as a “water lenses”. Fresh water, which is less dense, floats on top of the denser salt water in a convex shape giving the sources their name. However, king tides and sea incursions are polluting the once-reliable sources and ruining the taro plant pits, known as babai pits, which depend on them.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/23/waiting-for-the-tide-to-turn-kiribatis-fight-for-survival