[01/02] The Guardian convened 45 climate scientists to consider whether global heating is already unstoppable:
the Guardian
‘Off-the-charts records’: has humanity finally broken the climate?
Extreme weather is ‘smacking us in the face’ with worse to come, but a ‘tiny window’ of hope remains, say leading climate scientists
 Their conclusion is, not yet, but without strong steps starting soon, it will be. They reported that overall global heating so far fits closely with predictions, but the models don't predict local extreme weather very well, and some of that has been surprising. Since local heat waves and disasters cause a substantial part of the damage, I surmise...
Everyone: call on stores to stop selling seeds coated in bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides: https://environmental-action.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=55437 If you have disabled the page's JavaScript, you may get a blank response after signing. That does not mean anything is wrong; your signature has probably been sent in properly. The blank screen has text that is rendered invisible by CSS; if your browser gives you a way to disable the CSS in the page (as Icecat does), that should make the text appear.
(satire) Republican Presidential Candidates Undergo Mandatory Genital Checks Ahead Of First Debate:
The Onion
Republican Presidential Candidates Undergo Mandatory Genital Checks Ahead Of First Debate
MILWAUKEE—Lining up in the hallway dressed in hospital gowns, Republican presidential candidates underwent mandatory genital checks ahead of thei...
US citizens: call on Congress to reinforce minor labor laws:
Sign the petition: Protect our children–Reinforce child labor laws
Sign the petition: Protect our children–Reinforce child labor laws. Take action here: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-the-petition-protect-o...
 Those laws are usually called "child labor laws", and some of the people who may be put to dangerous work when these laws are weakened are children. But most are adolescents, and they too should be protected from arduous work. So let's use a fully accurate name. The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.If you phone, please spread the word!
[01/02] Australian climate defense activists who protested a company drilling for fossil gas have been hit by court orders forbidding them from speaking about the protest, and demanding they hand over all communications pertinent to the protest:
the Guardian
Activists threatened with Woodside lawsuit over protest cleaning costs and lost productivity
Letter sent to Emil Davey also requests he hand over communications relating to protest at Perth headquarters
 The company also threatens to sue them for the cost of expensive precautionary reactions. I don't know what actually happened in the protest. In particular, I don't know whether the protesters released a (possibly malodorous)...
On the morning of September 11, 1973, President Nixon was briefed about the planning for a coup in Chile:
the Guardian
US state department declassifies more documents about Pinochet’s 1973 coup
Papers reveal how Richard Nixon was briefed on impending military takeover in Chile that ushered in 17-year dictatorship
 His briefing told him that the plans were not then ready to be carried out. But they were carried out that very day. It seems that the right-wing enemies of President Allende accepted the cooperation and help of the US, but made their own decisions about how to overthrow Chile's government.
[01/02] The Maui wildfires have been tied directly to negligence by Hawaiian Electric Co, which failed to put insulation on the wires, or even to cut the tall vegetation growing near them:
the Guardian
Bare power lines and ‘obsolete’ poles were possible cause of Hawaii fires
Hawaiian Electric Co wires were seen uncovered as company’s own documents call its wooden poles a ‘serious public hazard’
 The pylons holding the wires were wooden and decrepit, and did not comply with the updated standard adopted back in 2002. I wonder if the company's judgment for damages will exceed its market value. If so, Maui will get an easy opportunity to take over the company and make it...
Ex-Alabama deputy sheriff sentenced to prison for rape of woman in his custody:
the Guardian
Ex-Alabama deputy sheriff sentenced to prison for sexual assault on woman in his custody
Joshua Davidson given sentence of 12 and a half years for attack while on duty as a Dallas county deputy sheriff
 I approve of the long sentence of 12 years for rape, but given that the convict committed the crime on duty as an official thug, that perhaps calls for a longer sentence.
An impending disastrous oil spill in the Red Sea has been averted by crowdfunding:
the Guardian
The remarkable story of how Yemen’s oil tanker disaster was averted by crowdfunding
When civil war broke out in 2015, a leaky oil tanker in the Red Sea became a crisis point – triggering a nail-biting series of events that saw sp...
 It is admirable that people stepped up to do this. But avoiding a disaster should not depend on that. It is governments' responsibility and they should carry it out.