“The world has failed in its [sic] goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times, the United Nations said on Wednesday, in a sober assessment that laid out a new goal for fighting climate change that would set the world on an uncertain path. A decade ago, most of the world’s countries agreed in Paris to try to limit global temperature rise to ‘well below’ two degrees Celsius while aiming for the more ambitious target of 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. But Wednesday’s 141-page U.N. report warned that the world is certain to breach that mark and should focus on finding ways to limit ‘overshoot’ and eventually bring global temperatures back down.” (09/03/26)
“During the 2024 campaign Donald Trump promised to cut energy prices in half. He has, instead, presided over soaring prices at the pump, which have played an important role in his collapse in the polls. Some might attribute this disaster to Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, ignoring what appear to have been near-unanimous warnings by experienced military and intelligence officials that such a war would, in addition to disrupting oil supplies, overstretch the U.S. military and dangerously deplete stocks of munitions — which is exactly what happened. But Scott Bessent, Trump’s Treasury secretary, has found someone else to blame: Ukraine.” (09/03/26)
“Mismatching students and institutions can hurt the very students such policies intend to help — while squandering scarce faculty talent on remedial math.” (09/02/26)
“President Trump and his national security team are heading back to the future in Vietnam. No, we do not mean April 29, 1975, when the U.S. chaotically evacuated Saigon. Nor are we referring to the quagmire the Vietnam war had become by then. Rather, we refer to Operation Rolling Thunder, which began in March 1965 and ended just after Halloween in 1968. The U.S. military’s limited aerial campaign was intended to coerce the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table. Instead, over time, it began planting the seeds that resulted in Hanoi’s victory over South Vietnam ten years later. Today, Team Trump is attempting to wield a similar failed strategy in Iran.” (09/03/26)
“Brazil’s government and exporters of meat, poultry, eggs, honey and other animal products were scrambling Thursday after a European Union deadline passed, triggering a suspension of imports over concerns about the use of antibiotics and antimicrobial drugs in livestock. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s agriculture ministry said Thursday that it would consider reciprocal measures if a satisfactory solution is not reached. … The EU announced the suspension Tuesday, to become effective two days later. Brazil, the world’s largest beef exporter, shipped about 108,000 tons of beef worth about $1 billion to the EU in 2025, according to government figures. The bloc announced in May that Brazil would be removed from its list of countries authorized to export certain animal products to the bloc, arguing that Brazil had failed to provide sufficient guarantees that its livestock production meet EU standards against antibiotic growth promoters and other restricted drugs.” (09/03/26)
“Donald Trump’s unprovoked trade war with Canada and his chaotic attacks on Iran have him hemorrhaging support in states he won in 2024. Why doesn’t he seem to care? What is he thinking? We can’t read minds, but we can talk to Greg Sargent from the New Republic about Trump’s statements, posts, and actions over the last month or so.” (09/03/26)
“Sydney psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed on why men who quit work aren’t depressed but demoralised, and how mental health labels became a rival source of status and dignity.” (09/02/26)
“Dr. [Dianne] Woodward noted that, earlier this month, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and representatives of the Board of Peace established under Donald Trump to, ostensibly, oversee a new Palestinian-led administration in Gaza, ‘agreed to set up a working group on sanitation and public health affecting both Israel and Gaza’, although its ‘membership and detailed operating structure’ have not been made public. … Dr. Woodward also noted how, ironically, while trying to erase evidence of its genocide, Israel was importing from Gaza, ‘into undisclosed locations inside Israel and the West Bank’, some of ‘the estimated 60 million tonnes of rubble from Gaza’, without seeming to be aware that, in doing so, it is ‘potentially transferring the pollutants in that rubble directly to disposal or storage sites’ that will also affect the public health of Israelis.” (09/03/26)
“‘Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.’ That was James Madison, explaining that the modern federal welfare state is not authorized by the Constitution. Despite that, politicians today still insist that these programs aren’t just authorized, they’re also absolutely necessary to help people. But they ignore the fatal trap that Benjamin Franklin uncovered over 250 years ago: his long-forgotten warning that government welfare makes things worse.” (09/02/26)
