29 October 19
Bill McKibben | Has the Climate Crisis Made California Too Dangerous to Live In?
Bill McKibben, Guardian UK
McKibben writes: "Monday morning dawned smoky across much of California, and it dawned scary - over the weekend winds as high as a hundred miles an hour had whipped wildfires through forests and subdivisions."
Bill McKibben, Guardian UK
McKibben writes: "Monday morning dawned smoky across much of California, and it dawned scary - over the weekend winds as high as a hundred miles an hour had whipped wildfires through forests and subdivisions."
EXCERPT:
Truth be told, that California began to vanish fairly quickly, as orange groves turned into airplane factories and then tech meccas. The great voices of California in recent years – writers such as Mike Davis and Rebecca Solnit – chronicle the demise of much that was once idyllic in a wave of money, consumption, nimbyism, tax dodging, and corporate greed. The state’s been booming in recent years – it’s the world’s fifth biggest economy, bigger than the UK – but it’s also home to tent encampments of homeless people with no chance of paying rent. And it’s not just climate change that’s at fault: California has always had fires, and the state’s biggest utility, PG&E, is at this point as much an arsonist as electricity provider.
Still, it takes a force as great as the climate crisis to really – perhaps finally – tarnish Eden. In the last decade, the state has endured the deepest droughts ever measured, dry spells so intense that more than a hundred million trees died. A hundred million – and the scientists who counted them warned that their carcasses could “produce wildfires on a scale and of an intensity that California has never seen”. The drought has alternated with record downpours that have turned burned-over stretches into massive house-burying mudslides.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, arrives at the Capitol on Tuesday. (photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
National Security Official to Testify He Heard Trump's Ukraine Call, Told Superiors of His Concerns
Leigh Ann Caldwell and Phil Helsel, NBC News
Excerpt: "A U.S. Army official and White House national security official plans to tell members of Congress conducting an impeachment inquiry that he was on the phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine's leader in which Trump asked for an investigation into the Bidens, and that he raised concerns about it."
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Leigh Ann Caldwell and Phil Helsel, NBC News
Excerpt: "A U.S. Army official and White House national security official plans to tell members of Congress conducting an impeachment inquiry that he was on the phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine's leader in which Trump asked for an investigation into the Bidens, and that he raised concerns about it."
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A customer leaves a payday loan store in Maryland. The payday lending industry has been urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to repeal existing rules regulating short-term loans. (photo: Michael S. Williamson/WP)
Payday Lenders Discussed Raising Money for Trump's Campaign to Fend Off Regulation, Audio Reveals
Renae Merle, The Washington Post
Merle writes: "Billing himself as one of President Trump's top fundraisers, Michael Hodges told fellow payday lenders recently that industry contributions to the president's reelection campaign could be leveraged to gain access to the Trump administration."
Renae Merle, The Washington Post
Merle writes: "Billing himself as one of President Trump's top fundraisers, Michael Hodges told fellow payday lenders recently that industry contributions to the president's reelection campaign could be leveraged to gain access to the Trump administration."
EXCERPT:
The YouTube video was discovered by two advocacy groups, Allied Progress and Americans for Financial Reform.
“We have here a striking example of how money in American politics leads to the abuse of consumers in the financial services marketplace,” said Linda Jun, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform.
Derek Martin, director of Allied Progress, said: “This presentation reflects the worst of Washington, D.C. — wealthy executives buying off politicians so they can keep their predatory business model intact.”
Consumer advocates and the Obama administration have argued that new rules on the industry were necessary to end the “debt trap” in which, once taking out one payday loan, consumers are forced to take out another and another to keep up.
But payday lenders have said the rules were too complicated and would drive many of them out of business. The industry launched an aggressive counterattack, suing to block the rules, recruiting black pastors to speak out in their defense and commissioning academic research that bolstered their talking points. The Community Financial Services Association of America has held its annual meeting at the Trump National Doral Miami golf club for the past two years.
The industry’s outlook began to change under the Trump administration. In late 2017, the president appointed Mick Mulvaney, now acting White House chief of staff, to temporarily run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As a South Carolina congressman, Mulvaney had called the bureau a “joke” and co-sponsored legislation to close its doors. While CFPB’s acting director, Mulvaney took several steps that helped dial back pressure on payday lenders, including calling for a review of wide-ranging rules finalized by the previous administration and dropping several lawsuits against payday lenders.
Now the CFPB, run by Kathy Kraninger, is considering whether to rescind the Obama administration’s rule requiring that payday lenders verify consumers can afford their loans, a potential major victory for the industry. Kraninger previously worked for Mulvaney at the Office of Management and Budget.
But the industry has grown concerned that House Democrats, led by Waters, could block efforts to roll back those regulations using the Congressional Review Act, known as the CRA. That law allows legislators to block new regulations before they go into effect and was used repeatedly by Republicans in the past few years to roll back Obama-era rules.
Bystanders look at damage inside Green Village, a day after a car bomb exploded outside its walls, leaving a massive crater. (photo: Jim Huylebroek/NYT)
Allegra Harpootlian | Why I Weep While I Work, or What It Means to Experience America's Wars From a Computer Screen Away
Allegra Harpootlian, TomDispatch
Harpootlian writes: "Think back to the last time you cried at work. Did the tears come after your boss sent you a curt email?"
Allegra Harpootlian, TomDispatch
Harpootlian writes: "Think back to the last time you cried at work. Did the tears come after your boss sent you a curt email?"
EXCERPT:
But on bad days... On bad days, the e-newsletter I write is filled with weddings that were turned into funerals, civilian death counts that only continue to rise, government denials of wrongdoing, and angry questions like “How could they do this to us?” I wish I could tell you those bad days are rare, but given America’s wars that would be a lie. In all honesty, I don’t recall a single week since I started working on the issue of drones in March 2017 that they haven’t poured in.
For example, in just one week this September, news outlets reported that:
* a US drone strike killed at least 30 farmers harvesting pine-nuts in Afghanistan;
* a US-backed strike in a different region of Afghanistan hit a wedding party killing upwards of 40 civilians;
* a BBC report alleged that, on average, more than a dozen civilians died every day in Afghanistan;
* a TRT World investigation presented evidence that in the span of three months this year, U.S. air strikes killed 21 civilians in Somalia;
* an Afghan airstrike killed two civilians, instead of the Taliban militants it was meant for.
And that was only the worst of that week.
Unfortunately, when it comes to America’s forever wars, such stories are just a drop in the bucket. Since Donald Trump entered the Oval Office more than 1,000 days ago, the U.S. has only expanded its war on terror, increasing both the number of countries we’re bombing and the number of people we’re killing. In the Trump administration’s quest for “annihilation,” the president has, in that period, prioritized might over right, letting the military loosen the rules designed to protect civilians in its war zones and then classify the results, which makes it likely that we’ll never know just how many innocent men, women, and children we’ve actually killed.
Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri speaks during an address to the nation in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday. The embattled prime minister said he was presenting his resignation after he hit a 'dead end' amid nationwide anti-government protests. (photo: Hassan Ammar/AP)
Lebanon's Prime Minister Hariri Resigns After Weeks of Protests
Laurel Wamsley, NPR
Wamsley writes: "Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri is submitting his resignation, after nearly two weeks of anti-government protests brought hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to the streets."
Laurel Wamsley, NPR
Wamsley writes: "Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri is submitting his resignation, after nearly two weeks of anti-government protests brought hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to the streets."
EXCERPT:
The government has long divided power along religious and sectarian lines, with a Maronite Christian president, a Sunni Muslim prime minister, and a Shia Muslim speaker of parliament. Hezbollah, a Shia group that is a party in the parliament and an armed militia, is a major player.
Protesters are calling for a new non-sectarian system, with "All Means All" a key slogan of the movement.
Hariri's resignation threatens to destabilize a nation that has been relatively peaceful in recent years. The United States, Iran and Saudi Arabia all have their own interests in the country and tend to meddle in its affairs. Hezbollah and Israel still occasionally exchange fire.
Unrest in Beirut and across the country has paralleled large public demonstrations in Chile, Iraq and elsewhere, but the Lebanon's protests have often been notable for their decidedly festive atmosphere.
The Falkland Islands. (photo: Getty Images)
Brexit: Will the Falkland Islands Wildlife Suffer?
Manish Pandey, BBC
Pandey writes: "No, not a scene from a David Attenborough series, but just some of the wildlife that live in the Falkland Islands."
Manish Pandey, BBC
Pandey writes: "No, not a scene from a David Attenborough series, but just some of the wildlife that live in the Falkland Islands."
EXCERPTS:
Between 2008-2019, the EU has provided the Falkland Islands with more than £10m - including £1.5m to undertake environmental projects. But this will no longer be available once the UK leaves the EU.
One of these projects involves endangered sei whales - one of the world's fastest whales that can reach speeds of up to 30 miles per hour.
Michelle's team studied how the whales used the waters around Berkeley Sound - an area in the Falklands.
The presence of at least 87 whales there suggested it was an "important feeding area" for them.
The UK government does say it will continue to provide funding to protect the environment through a scheme called Darwin Plus, which provides funding for environmental projects in UK overseas territories.
A spokesperson from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told Newsbeat: "The UK is a world leader in environmental protection and we have been very clear that we will continue to uphold these protections in the British Overseas Territories, and, where possible, enhance these standards even further.
The Forest Service recently determined Nestlé's activities left California's Strawberry Creek 'impaired' while 'the current water extraction is drying up surface water resources.' (photo: Nick Todd/Alamy)
The Fight to Stop Nestlé From Faking America's Water to Sell in Plastic Bottles
Tom Perkins, Guardian UK
Perkins writes: "Creek beds are bone dry and once-gushing springs are reduced to trickles as fights play out around the nation over control of nation's freshwater supply."
Tom Perkins, Guardian UK
Perkins writes: "Creek beds are bone dry and once-gushing springs are reduced to trickles as fights play out around the nation over control of nation's freshwater supply."
EXCERPT:
The network of clear streams comprising California’s Strawberry Creek run down the side of a steep, rocky mountain in a national forest two hours east of Los Angeles. Last year Nestlé siphoned 45m gallons of pristine spring water from the creek and bottled it under the Arrowhead Water label.
Though it’s on federal land, the Swiss bottled water giant paid the US Forest Service and state practically nothing, and it profited handsomely: Nestlé Waters’ 2018 worldwide sales exceeded $7.8bn.
Conservationists say some creek beds in the area are now bone dry and once-gushing springs have been reduced to mere trickles. The Forest Service recently determined Nestlé’s activities left Strawberry Creek “impaired” while “the current water extraction is drying up surface water resources”.
Meanwhile, the state is investigating whether Nestlé is illegally drawing from Strawberry Creek and in 2017 advised it to “immediately cease any unauthorized diversions”. Still, a year later, the Forest Service approved a new five-year permit that allows Nestlé to continue using federal land to extract water, a decision critics say defies common sense.
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