The Devastating Cost of Fossil Fuel Investment
Staff | truthdig.com | 2018-06-13
European and Chinese scientists have identified a simple new way to become poor: fossil fuel investment. Not only could it leave you without a penny to your name. It could perhaps precipitate a global financial crash within one generation. | Coal, oil and natural gas are already huge investments. The International Energy Agency foresees price rises until 2040, and investor confidence is high. But researchers from the Netherlands, the UK and Macao don't see it that way. | They warn in the journal Nature Climate Change that, whatever the markets think, and whatever governments do, change is on the way. | Other forces are now driving global power and transportation in directions that suggest a dramatic decline in demand for fossil reserves. These will become what the money markets call "stranded assets", and their value will slump some time…
truthdig.com/articles/cost-of-fossil-fuel-investment-is-too-high/

Israel: Apparent War Crimes in Gaza
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2018-06-13
Tear gas fired by Israeli forces fall near Palestinian protesters on May 14 east of Jabalya in the Gaza Strip. | © 2018 Mahmoud Abu Salama | (New York) — Israeli forces' repeated use of lethal force in the Gaza Strip since March 30, 2018, against Palestinian demonstrators who posed no imminent threat to life may amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli forces have killed more than 100 protesters in Gaza and wounded thousands with live ammunition. | The United Nations General Assembly should support a resolution that calls for exploring measures to guarantee the protection of Palestinians in Gaza, and a UN inquiry mandated to investigate all violations and abuses should identify Israeli officials responsible for issuing unlawful open-fire orders. The killings also highlight the need for the…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/13/israel-apparent-war-crimes-gaza

Sessions Says Survivors of Domestic and Gang Violence Will No Longer Qualify for Asylum
Samantha Borek | truthout.org | 2018-06-12
In just the latest addition to the Trump administration's mounting collection of "cruel" policies aimed at closing off the nation to refugees and asylum-seekers, Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a new Justice Department guidance on Monday declaring that migrants will no longer automatically qualify for asylum if they present concerns of domestic abuse or gang violence. | t.co/clmZR8uiyd | Today, Jeff Sessions overturned a key case that granted asylum to a woman who was raped, beaten by her former husband: t.co/gIqzFFx1RY | — ProPublica (@ProPublica) June 11, 2018 | "In what world does the United States turn its back on people who have suffered persecution, trauma, and extreme distress from domestic or gang violence?" said Denise Bell, a researcher for refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA. "Today's decision is a direct assault on people seeking protection, especially families…
truthout.org/articles/sessions-says-survivors-of-domestic-and-gang-violence-will-no-longer-qualify-for-asylum/

Anti-LGBT, anti-Islam, anti-immigrant rhetoric featured alongside racist dog-whistles and Trump cabinet officials at WCS 2018
Hatewatch Staff | splcenter.org | 2018-06-12
The ostensible headliners of the Western Conservative Summit in Denver on June 8 and 9 were embattled Trump cabinet members Attorney General Jeff Sessions (still under fire from the president for not recusing himself from the Russia investigation) and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt (under fire from everyone but the president for having government aides and his Secret Service detail run embarrassing personal errands for him).
www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/06/12/anti-lgbt-anti-islam-anti-immigrant-rhetoric-featured-alongside-racist-dog-whistles-and

How is This Legal?
Don Qaswa | counterpunch.org | 2018-06-12
In the U.S. it is possible to secure a list of Superfund sites from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by simply writing to them. I've had my list for awhile, but just the other day I noticed something shocking. West Salem High School is an active Super Fund site located at 1776 Titan Drive in Salem, Oregon. The EPA…
counterpunch.org/2018/06/12/how-is-this-legal/

The Great Return March and the Women of Gaza: Why Palestine's Feminists Are Fighting on Two Fronts
Samantha Borek | truthout.org | 2018-06-12
"I am here because I heard my town call me, and ask me to maintain my honor." Fifty-seven-year-old Um Khalid Abu Mosa spoke in a strong, gravelly voice as she sat on the desert sand, a white tent protecting her from the blazing sun. "The land," she says with determination, "is honor and dignity." | She was near the southern Gaza Strip town of Khuza'a, the heavily fortified barrier with Israel in plain sight and well-armed Israeli soldiers just a few hundred meters away. Abu Mosa's left arm was wrapped in a sling fashioned from a black-and-white-checkered kuffiyeh, or scarf, and a Palestinian flag. Israeli soldiers had shot her in the shoulder with live ammunition on March 30th as she approached the barrier to plant a Palestinian flag in a mound of earth. The bullet is still lodged in her collarbone. Three weeks…
truthout.org/articles/the-great-return-march-and-the-women-of-gaza-why-palestines-feminists-are-fighting-on-two-fronts/

Despite Trump's record, there are positives from the Korea summit
C.J. Atkins | peoplesworld.org | 2018-06-12
It was no Reagan-Gorbachev moment, nor was it some earth-shaking leap toward permanent peace. But contrary to what you might be hearing or reading, the Trump-Kim summit did achieve some net positives…or, at least, potential ones. Many liberal commentators and media personalities are so eager to oppose whatever Donald Trump says or does, however, that …

Despite Trump’s record, there are positives from the Korea summit

Watch the Truly Bizarre Fake Movie Trailer Trump's White House Played for Kim Jong-un: 'Destiny Pictures Presents'
Elizabeth Preza, AlterNet | alternet.org | 2018-06-12
Donald Trump's administration framed the North Korea summit as a chance to write the "sequel" to human civilization as we've known it. | Donald Trump played a video for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un during their historic meeting in Singapore Tuesday that features a fake movie trailer and the phrase "Destiny Pictures presents," Gizmodo reports. The fake trailer was played for reporters before a press conference Trump held Tuesday, according to Gizmodo. Affixed with the whitehouse. gov logo, the video is a cinematic masterpiece. Generic images of iconic landmarks including Times Square, the Colosseum and the Taj Mahal are spliced with photos of generic scientists a generic girl dancing in a field. A voiceover welcomes the world to imagine a "sequel" to the "cycles that never seem to end. ""Seven billion people inhabit planet Earth," the voiceover says. "Of those alive today, only. . .
www.alternet.org/watch-truly-bizarre-fake-movie-trailer-trumps-white-house-played-kim-jong-un-destiny-pictures

CNN's Jim Acosta Fires Back at Fox News for Complaining About 'Grandstanding' Questions to Trump and Kim: 'Democracy… Drink It In'
Chris Sosa, AlterNet | alternet.org | 2018-06-12
The anchor was unphased by the unprofessional attack. | Fox News decided to follow President Donald Trump's lead by attacking prominent CNN journalist Jim Acosta for his questions to the president and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The outlet claimed the "Trump-bashing newsman" both "hollered" at Trump and "shouted" at Kim during his "grandstanding questions. "These offending questions included such offenses as, "Mr. President, how is the meeting going so far, sir? "There was also this vicious broadside: "Will you give up your nuclear weapons, sir? "Acosta had a short and snark response to Fox News' ridiculous attack. "Democracy. . . drink it in people," he commented in a retweet of a snarky assessment of the right-wing outlet's coverage. Democracy. . . drink it in people. t. co/lKew4PnbWK– Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 12, 2018 | Related Stories: CNN's Jim Acosta Fires Back at Fox News for Complaining About 'Grandstanding' Questions to Kim Jong-un: 'Democracy. . . Drink It In'Army Veteran Calls Trump Campaign Operative 'Monumental Idiot' or 'Extraordinary Liar' for Praising Trump Summit with Kim Jong-unTexas GOP Senator Rebukes Trump's Praise of Kim Jong-un: 'I Have No Earthly Idea' if He Is 'Talented'…
www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/cnns-jim-acosta-fires-back-fox-news-complaining-about-grandstanding-questions

Knesset Foils Efforts to End Israeli Apartheid
Jonathan Cook | globalresearch.ca | 2018-06-12
For most of the seven decades after its establishment, Israel went to extraordinary lengths to craft an image of itself as a "light unto the nations". | It claimed to have "made the desert bloom" by planting forests over the razed …
globalresearch.ca/knesset-foils-efforts-to-end-israeli-apartheid/5643857

Trade and Protectionism: Is Trump Trying to Destroy the Western Alliance?
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2018-06-11
What a glorious idea. The Trumpophobic NYT ignored reality claiming it, referring to the Quebec, Canada G7 summit ending acrimoniously, the US president refusing to sign a concluding statement over trade issues. | Post-WW II, Washington constructed a Western alliance, NATO …
globalresearch.ca/trade-and-protectionism-is-trump-trying-to-destroy-the-western-alliance/5643771

Climate Change Risks of Fracking Outweigh Benefits
Ruth Hayhurst | globalresearch.ca | 2018-06-11
Featured image: Cuadrilla's Preston New Road fracking site near Blackpool, 1 May 2018. Photo: Ros Wills | The scale of harm from shale gas to health is uncertain, but the danger of exacerbating climate change is not, two professors of public …
globalresearch.ca/climate-change-risks-of-fracking-outweigh-benefits/5643767

The Great Waking Up
Robert Koehler | counterpunch.org | 2018-06-11
I don't blame all of the planet's ills on the Republican Party, but I find hope in the possibility that it's on the verge of collapse. I'm not talking politics here. I'm talking deep vision of humanity: a sense of who we are and how we impact Planet Earth and all its occupants. A smallness…
counterpunch.org/2018/06/11/the-great-waking-up/

Cooking Show Suicides and Other Inanities
Christopher Ketcham | counterpunch.org | 2018-06-11
Recent information unearthed by CounterPunch's crack investigative team has revealed that Anthony Bourdain killed himself in the wake of discovering he suffered from a terminal illness brought on by the breakneck pace of his work as an entertainer. The condition, called disassociative camera-subjectivity disorder, or DCSD, widely afflicts people in the rarefied realms of the…
counterpunch.org/2018/06/11/cooking-show-suicides-and-other-inanities/

Crimes Against the Earth
Dr. Andrew Glikson | globalresearch.ca | 2018-06-11
"To ignore evil is to become an accomplice" (Martin Luther King) | Humans are of the Earth, physically adapted to its range of climates, gravity, radiation, electro-magnetic field and composition of the atmosphere. Had there ever been a single …
globalresearch.ca/crimes-against-the-earth/5643741

A year of earthquakes in 1 month: Hawaii stricken by 12,000 tremblers since eruption
RT | rt.com | 2018-06-09
An astonishing 12,000 earthquakes have been recorded in Hawaii since the island nation's Kilauea volcano erupted in early May. …
www.rt.com/usa/429258-volcano-earthquakes-kilauea-hawaii/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Trump will stay at G7 for women's rights, but not ecology
RT | rt.com | 2018-06-08
The White House says US President Donald Trump will cut his trip to the G7 summit short, skipping a climate change session while staying for one on women empowerment. Trump is increasingly at odds with the other group members. …
www.rt.com/usa/429098-trump-g7-visit-short-climate/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

As EPA Scandals Mount, Scott Pruitt Is Radically Reshaping Agency to Aid Polluters and Big Business
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-06-08
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is again facing a slew of ethics and spending scandals amid mounting calls for his resignation. On Thursday, The Washington Post reported Pruitt enlisted members of his $3.5 million security detail to pick up his dry cleaning and search for his favorite skin moisturizing lotion, even though federal rules prohibit public officials from receiving gifts from subordinates, including unpaid services. Meanwhile, Pruitt is continuing to radically reshape the EPA. The New York Times reports today the EPA has given the chemical industry a big victory by scaling back the way the federal government determines health and safety risks associated with the most dangerous chemicals on the market. Pruitt has also been accused of radically reshaping the EPA rulemaking process and weakening Obama administration efforts to tighten fuel economy standards. We speak to Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.
www.democracynow.org/2018/6/8/as_epa_scandals_mount_scott_pruitt

Maduro & Workers Push to Stimulate Venezuela's Oil Industry amid Collapsing Production
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-06-07
It is alleged that PDVSA does not possess sufficient stocks to fulfill its June export orders.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13864

'Catastrophic disaster': Aircraft hack only matter of time, US agencies warn
RT | rt.com | 2018-06-07
It is "only a matter of time" until a commercial aircraft is hacked, the Department of Homeland Security and other US government agencies have warned. Most planes lack cybersecurity protections to prevent such a hack. …
www.rt.com/usa/429016-passenger-plane-hack-warning/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Vietnam: Withdraw Problematic Cyber Security Law
Human Rights Watch | hrw.org | 2018-06-07
Deputies attend the opening ceremony of the National Assembly's autumn session in Hanoi, Vietnam October 23, 2017. | © 2017 Reuters | (New York) — Vietnam should revise its overly broad and vague draft cyber security law to bring it into compliance with international legal standards before it goes before the legislature, Human Rights Watch said today. Vietnam's National Assembly is scheduled to vote on the draft of this highly criticized law on June 12, 2018. | The government and the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam have a long record of punishing political and social dissent under the rationale of protecting national security. The draft law, in turn, gives the authorities wide discretion to determine when expression must be censored as "illegal." Vietnam's national laws lack meaningful protections for privacy and the provisions in…
www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/07/vietnam-withdraw-problematic-cyber-security-law

"A Source of Positivity All the Time": Remembering Palestinian Medic Razan al-Najjar, Killed by IDF
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-06-04
Witnesses say Israeli soldiers shot dead 21-year-old Palestinian medic Razan al-Najjar as she ran toward the border fence to provide medical aid to a wounded protester. Since nonviolent protests began at the end of March, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 119 people, including 14 children. More than 13,000 have been wounded. "It was clear to everybody that she was a paramedic, that that was murder. I mean, that was a crime committed before cameras," said Dr. Medhat Abbas, director of Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip. We also speak with Najjar's cousin, Dalia al-Najjar, who says the response of the international community to the Gaza crisis has been "really disappointing," and notes the U.S. vetoed a draft U.N. resolution urging the protection of Palestinians on Friday, the same day Najjar was killed. "It's a shameful side that the United States decided to take."
www.democracynow.org/2018/6/4/a_source_of_positivity_all_the

Headlines for May 31, 2018
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-05-31
Pompeo Meets North Korea's Ex-Spy Chief in NYC, In Victory for Big Banks, Federal Reserve Votes to Loosen Volcker Rule, Report: U.S. Killed 50 Taliban Leaders in Helmand Province, Russian Journalist Admits Faking His Own Death, Trump Makes No Comment on Roseanne's Racist Tweets But Criticizes ABC for Not Apologizing to Him, Cable News Largely Ignores Deaths of 4,645 in Puerto Rico to Focus on Roseanne, Civil Rights Groups Urge DHS to Release Secret "Race Paper" Memo, Theology Student Studying Daniel Berrigan's Life Arrested for Protesting White Supremacist in Charlottesville, EPA Taps Chemical Industry Lawyer to Oversee Superfund Sites, Illinois Ratifies Equal Rights Amendment, Harvey Weinstein Indicted on Rape Charges in New York, 13-Year-Old Student Questions White House Inaction on School Shootings, Republican Congresswoman Says Pornography Is a "Root Cause" of School Shootings, Standing Rock Water Protector Sentenced to Three Years in Prison, U.N.: Mexican Security Forces Likely Involved in Recent Disappearances, Mexican Journalist Héctor González Killed in Tamaulipas, Report: U.S.-Backed Salvadoran Police Forces Involved in Extrajudicial Killings, Brazilian Oil Workers Stage Strike to Protest Plans to Privatize Petrobras, Florida Jury Awards Four Cents to Family of African-American Man Shot by Sheriff's Deputy…
www.democracynow.org/2018/5/31/headlines

Indigenous Activist: Trudeau's Purchase of Kinder Morgan Pipeline Is "Huge Step Backward" for Canada
Democracy Now! | democracynow.org | 2018-05-31
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that the Canadian government will purchase Kinder Morgan's highly contested Trans Mountain pipeline, vowing to commit taxpayer money to expanding the pipeline despite widespread indigenous-led protests and a slew of lawsuits. If built, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will triple the amount of oil flowing from Alberta's tar sands to the coast of British Columbia. The Canadian government purchased the pipeline for 4.5 billion Canadian dollars–around 3.5 billion American dollars. The decision has sparked widespread condemnation from First Nations and environmental activists, who say that expanding the pipeline will increase pollution in Alberta's tar sands region, endanger indigenous communities and increase greenhouse gas emissions. We go to Edmonton, Canada, where we speak with Eriel Deranger, executive director of Indigenous Climate Action. She is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.
www.democracynow.org/2018/5/31/indigenous_rights_activist_purchase_of_kinder

Venezuela Slams New US Sanctions as Washington Hints at Oil Embargo
Cira Pascual Marquina | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-05-22
The latest measures fly in the face of international concern about the living conditions of Venezuelans.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13833

ConocoPhillips Moves to Seize Venezuelan Oil Assets as PDVSA Maneuvers to Safeguard Tankers
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2018-05-09
In response to the threat, PDVSA has allegedly ordered its fleet of tankers stationed in the Caribbean to return to Venezuelan waters.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/13803