Health benefits of wind and solar offset all subsidies
Wind and solar energy are obviously essential in reducing carbon emissions, but they also have a remarkable side effect: saving lives. As they edge out fossil fuels, renewables are reducing not just carbon emissions, but also other air pollutants. And the result is an improvement in air quality, with a corresponding drop in premature deaths.
A paper in Nature Energy this week dives into the weeds by trying to estimate the economic benefits of wind and solar power across the whole of the US. Berkeley environmental engineer Dev Millstein and his colleagues estimate that between 3,000 and 12,700 premature deaths have been averted because of air quality benefits over the last decade or so, creating a total economic benefit between $30 billion and $113 billion. The benefits from wind work out to be more than 7¢ per kilowatt-hour, which is more than unsubsidized wind energy generally costs. […]
The climate benefits of solar and wind power were hefty, but the majority of the benefit came from air quality improvements. The climate benefit estimates ranged from $5 billion to $106 billion, with an additional $30 billion to $113 billion in air quality and public health benefits. And that’s just the estimated economic benefits of the averted 3,000 to 12,000 premature deaths—it doesn't count things like sub-lethal medical issues and lost productivity, much less the personal benefits to individual lives.
How the tech sector can legally justify breaking ties to extremists
[…] Some Ars commenters have wondered whether it is legal for Internet companies to discriminate based on the viewpoint of a website. The answer: yes.
"The current shape of the law doesn't prohibit the general discrimination based on general ideology," Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor and blogger at the Volokh Conspiracy, told Ars in a telephone interview. The Communications Decency Act, he added, grants the tech sector broad powers "to publish or not publish things."
At its most elementary level, anti-discrimination laws outside the employee-employer context don't prohibit private enterprise from refusing to do business with people based on a customer's political ideology. Nazis, white supremacists, and other political groups are not a protected class of people covered under state and federal accommodation laws. Combined, those laws generally outlaw discrimination based on one's race, color, religion, and sexual orientation.
The Washington Post
The top U.S. diplomat and defense official moved again Thursday to clarify the Trump administration’s North Korea policy, making clear that it is focused on diplomatic and economic pressure, and that American military action is currently contemplated only in response to an attack by Pyongyang.
“In close collaboration with our allies, there are strong military consequences if DPRK initiates hostilities,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said, using the initials of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “Very simply, in the event of a missile launch towards the territory of Japan, Guam, the United States, [South] Korea, we would take immediate specific actions to take it down.”
His remarks fell between President’s Trump’s warning last week that the United States was prepared to respond militarily to Pyongyang’s “threats” of an attack, and this week’s statement by chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon that North Korea was a “sideshow” to which there was “no military solution.”
Republican Corker: Trump has not demonstrated ‘stability’ or ‘competence’ to lead effectively
President Trump drew a new and forceful round of criticism Thursday from a leading Republican senator who asserted that Trump has not demonstrated the “stability” or “competence” necessary to effectively lead the country.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who has been one of the most outspoken GOP Trump critics in Congress, expressed displeasure with Trump’s response to the deadly weekend violence in Charlottesville and warned that if the president does not change his behavior, “our nation is going to go through great peril.”
“The president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful,” the senator told reporters in Tennessee. “And we need for him to be successful.”
Trump embraces culture war with call to preserve Confederate statues
President Trump on Thursday assumed the role of leading spokesman for the racially charged cause of preserving Confederate statues on public grounds, couching his defense in historical terms that thrilled his core supporters and signaled his intent to use cultural strife as a political weapon just days after deadly violence in Virginia.
“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” Trump wrote on Twitter. […]
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others harshly condemned Trump’s statements and called for the removal of Confederate statues from the halls of the U.S. Capitol. Some veteran Democrats, meanwhile, said Trump’s remarks seemed aimed at rousing his base.
Los Angeles Times
Islamic State claims responsibility for van attack in Barcelona that killed 13 and injured 100
A van plowed into crowds of pedestrians on Barcelona’s historic Las Ramblas street on Thursday, killing at least 13 people and leaving scores of bloodied survivors sprawled on the sidewalk in what police said was a terrorist attack.
The extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bloodshed, the deadliest attack in Spain since 2004, when Islamist-inspired bombers killed 191 people in a coordinated assault on four packed commuter trains in Madrid.
More than two hours after the attack, a car ran over two police officers on the outskirts of the city, injuring them, authorities said. Two suspects were apprehended in connection with the Ramblas attack, but they did not include the driver, police said.
Tensions grow inside ACLU over defending speech rights for the far right
[…] Once again, the ACLU is wrestling with how to respond to a far-right movement in the U.S. whose rising visibility is prompting concerns from elected officials and activists and stirring debate within the ACLU.
In response to the deadly violence at a rally in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend, the ACLU’s three California affiliates released a statement Wednesday declaring that “white supremacist violence is not free speech.” […]
Now, with more far-right events scheduled in California, the state’s ACLU affiliates are warning that there are limits to what they will defend.
“We review each request for help on a case-by-case basis, but take the clear position that the First Amendment does not protect people who incite or engage in violence,” said the statement, which was signed by the executive directors of the ACLU affiliates of Southern California, Northern California, and of San Diego and Imperial Counties
With Trump and Congress increasingly at odds, hopes for Republican legislative agenda fade
[…] Congressional Republicans are now coming to grips with the reality that they are increasingly on their own, unable to rely on the president to helm their party, but without having powerful enough congressional leaders to bring bickering factions together.
That has dimmed prospects of passing big-ticket items such as tax reform, an infrastructure package or a new healthcare law.
At best, when lawmakers return to work next month, they hope to agree to keep the government funded past the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 and not provoke a financial crisis with a prolonged standoff over raising the limit on federal debt, which the government will hit sometime in early October.
Cyberattack cost Maersk as much as $300 million and disrupted operations for 2 weeks
A June cyberattack that snarled shipping terminal operations worldwide — and briefly shut down the Port of Los Angeles’ largest cargo terminal — has cost the Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk $200 million to $300 million, the company said this week. […]
Maersk’s revelations were part of an interim second-quarter earnings report in which the Copenhagen-based global transport and energy company gave investors a preview of expected costs from the malware attack. The worm, dubbed NotPetya, locked access to systems that Maersk uses to operate shipping terminals all over the world and took two weeks to fix.
The company said the attack is expected to dampen its third-quarter results, but not enough to overshadow a generally good performance due to improving global economic conditions.
The Guardian
CIA torture: lawsuit settled against psychologists who designed techniques
A settlement in a lawsuit against two psychologists who were paid tens of millions of dollars to design torture techniques used by the CIA in black-site prisons was announced on Thursday. The terms of the settlement were undisclosed.
Two of the plaintiffs in the case, Suleiman Abdullah Salim and Mohamed Ben Soud, were held and brutalized in 2003 in a secret CIA facility in Afghanistan that prisoners called “The Darkness”. Salim, who is Tanzanian, and Ben Soud, who is Libyan, were eventually released and are now living in their home countries with their families.
A third plaintiff is a young Afghan computer engineer whose uncle, Gul Rahman, was tortured to death in November 2002 in the same facility.
The three filed the lawsuit in October 2015 against James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen, contract psychologists who devised a menu of abusive interrogation methods and billed the CIA between $75m and $81m. The plaintiffs sought damages from the men for allegedly aiding and abetting torture, non-consensual human experimentation and war crimes.
Indians decry 'racist' Chinese video on Bhutan border standoff
Indians have reacted with bemusement and outrage at a “racist” video posted online by Chinese state media, as a highly charged border dispute between the two countries enters its third month.
The Chinese state broadcaster Xinhua published a video on Wednesday highlighting India’s “seven sins” in relation to a standoff between the countries’ armies at the Bhutan-China border. […]
As a presenter lists India’s perceived misdeeds, the video repeatedly cuts to a Chinese man wobbling his head, wearing a fake beard and turban, and appearing to feign an Indian English accent.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
KKK’s request to burn cross on Stone Mountain denied
The Stone Mountain Memorial Association this week denied a Ku Klux Klan request to burn a cross at the park, citing the trouble at a “pro-white” rally last year.
Joey Hobbs, a Dublin man with the Sacred Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, wanted to hold a “lighting” ceremony on Oct. 21 with 20 participants, according to the application. This would’ve been to commemorate the KKK’s 1915 revival, which began with a flaming cross atop Stone Mountain on the evening of Thanksgiving. […]
“We don’t want any of these groups at the park, quite frankly,” John Bankhead, spokesman for the association said Wednesday, referring to white nationalists groups and the KKK. “This is a family-oriented park.”
Dozens line up to turn themselves in for ‘crime’ of toppling Confederate monument
Eight people have been charged with tearing down a Confederate monument Monday in Durham, North Carolina.
On Thursday -- in solidarity with those charged with toppling the statue -- about 100 Durham residents crowded into line at the Durham County Sheriff’s Office to turn themselves in in an effort to get the charges dropped.
Reuters
Canada sees 'unsustainable' spike in asylum seekers at U.S. border
The number of asylum seekers who illegally crossed the U.S. border into Canada more than tripled last month, according to Canadian government data released on Thursday, as migrants worried about the U.S. administration's immigration crackdown head north.
More than 3,100 people walked across the border illegally in July to file refugee claims and were arrested, up from 884 in June, the federal government said.
Ninety-six percent of them went to Quebec, where an influx of asylum seekers, primarily Haitians, is sparking a backlash from opposition politicians and anti-immigrant groups in the primarily French-speaking province.
U.S. soldier killed in Afghan blast, 20 U.S., Afghan troops wounded
One U.S. soldier was killed and around 20 U.S. and Afghan troops were wounded during a push against Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday, as Washington wrestled with a months-long debate about the 16-year-old war.
The incident late on Wednesday in Nangarhar province came as several Pentagon officials visited Afghanistan, including Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and the top generals of the Army and Air Force.
U.S. pension funds sue Goldman, JPMorgan, others over stock lending market
Three U.S. pension funds sued six of the world's largest banks on Thursday, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JP Morgan Chase & Co, accusing them of conspiring to stifle competition in the more than $1 trillion stock lending market.
In the lawsuit filed in a Manhattan federal court, the funds accused the banks of boycotting start-up lending platforms by threatening and intimidating their potential clients. The defendants include Bank of America Corp , Credit Suisse AG, Morgan Stanley, UBS AG, Goldman, and JP Morgan.