For the Middle East, the growth of the self-proclaimed Islamic State has been a catastrophe. For one American firm, it’s been a gold mine.
The war against ISIS isn’t going so great, with the self-appointed terror group standing up to a year of U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.
But that hasn’t kept defense contractors from doing rather well amidst the fighting. Lockheed Martin has received orders for thousands of more Hellfire missiles. AM General is busy supplying Iraq with 160 American-built Humvee vehicles, while General Dynamics is selling the country millions of dollars worth of tank ammunition.
The Company Getting Rich Off the ISIS War
‘I drank the water and ate the fish. We all did. The acid has damaged me permanently’
You can’t see the old Chingola copper mine, with its smelter and refinery, from the village of Shimulala. It’s miles away, beyond 300ft-high hills of waste tailings, the leach plant, the main pollution control dam and the 1,600ft-deep open pit that is one of Africa’s largest holes.
But you can smell and taste the pollution from the biggest copper mine in Africa. If you pump a glass of water from the borehole outside the little church in Shimulala, you will see it is bright yellow, smells of sulphur and tastes vile.
Anti-torture reforms opposed within psychology group after damning report
Opposition is building to intended anti-torture reforms within the largest professional organization of psychologists in the US, which faces a crossroads over what a recent report described as its past support for brutal military and CIA interrogations.
Before the American Psychological Association (APA) meets in Toronto next Thursday for what all expect will be a fraught convention that reckons with an independent review that last month found the APA complicit in torture, former military voices within the profession are urging the organization not to participate in what they describe as a witch hunt.
Wildfires prompt Brown to declare state of emergency in California
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for all of California in the wake of at least 18 wildfires that killed one firefighter and drove hundreds of people from their homes.
California's record drought, now in its fourth year, has "turned much of the state into a tinderbox," he said.
The emergency declaration, which included the activation of the California National Guard, will speed up help for thousands of firefighters, Brown said Friday.
Pair of earthquakes rattle parts of northern Oklahoma
A pair of earthquakes has rattled parts of northern Oklahoma previously shaken by a swarm of earthquakes.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the temblors were recorded Friday in Logan County, the first at 5:38 a.m. about 14 miles northeast of Crescent, located about 35 miles north of Oklahoma City. The magnitude 2.6 quake occurred at a depth of less than two miles
TVNL Comment: This is after two stronger earthquakes earlier last week, and dozens all year. Keep on fracking, Oklahoma. This is the payoff.
After Facing Conservative Backlash, AP U.S. History Course Revised
After facing months of intense scrutiny over a new Advanced Placement U.S. History (APUSH) course outline that some conservatives perceived as containing anti-American biases, the College Board released a new framework for the class Thursday morning.
This structure places more of an emphasis on concepts surrounding American national identity, the country's founding leaders and documents and the effective role of free enterprise in U.S. history.
13 Climbers Suspended From Bridge Blocking Shell Oil Vessel From Heading to Arctic
Thirteen Greenpeace climbers remain suspended below the St. John’s Bridge, blocking the Shell Oil vessel‘s route out of Portland, Oregon, for more than 24 hours. The climbers spent much of yesterday, Tweeting, livestreaming and speaking with journalists, while hanging from the bridge, to urge President Obama to use his last chance to stop Shell’s Arctic oil drilling plans.
“The sun is now setting on an incredible day of speaking truth to power and effective direct action,” Greenpeace activist Georgia Hirsty said yesterday, one of the climbers rappelled from the bridge.
Israel authorizes force-feeding of prisoners
Israel's parliament has passed into law the ability to force-feed prisoners on hunger strike, a move that had met vehement opposition from the country's medical association.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightist coalition weathered a lengthy parliamentary debate on Thursday, with 46 politicians in favour and 40 opposed in the 120-seat Knesset.
Israel says it is concerned that hunger strikes by Palestinians in its jails could end in death and trigger waves of protests in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Alex Baer: Not T-Rex.
OK, I know I'm all done here, but I was just passing through, and I have a visual I simply have to share with you.
It's a tale of all the ugly Presidential ducklings fielded by the GOP -- one of them, anyway. (There's not enough space for all their many misadventures, as the GOP has so darned many handbaskets, and duckings, all headed straight to Hell, and none of those ducks are all in a row.)
Anyway: It was a recent photograph in the hopefully-terminal coverage of that quack, The Donald. His picture was taken with him behind a podium of some sort, up on a dais. The photographer was apparently below, aiming the lens upward, in order to have gotten that shot.
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