Links

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/400876-federal-deficit-jumps-20-percent-after-tax-cuts-spending-bill
Aug. 8, 2018
The federal deficit jumped 20 percent in the first 10 months of the 2018 fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported Wednesday.
Spending outpaced revenue between the beginning of the fiscal year, on Oct. 1, and July by $682 billion, $116 billion more than over the same period in the last fiscal year.
The rising deficit is largely the result of the tax cuts President Trump signed into law at the end of last year, as well as a bipartisan agreement to boost spending, according to CBO.
Tax revenues from individuals rose, even as revenues from corporate taxes dropped.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/08/us-russia-sanctions-nerve-agent-attack-salisbury
Aug. 8, 2018
The United States will impose sanctions on Russia for its use of a nerve agent in an attempt to kill a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain.
The state department says Wednesday the sanctions will be imposed on Russia because it used a chemical weapon in violation of international law.
Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent, in the British town of Salisbury in March.


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/08/reflecting-suns-rays-would-cause-crops-to-fail-scientists-warn
Aug. 8, 2018
Proposals to combat climate change by reflecting the sun’s rays back into space would cause widespread crop failure, cancelling out any benefits to farming from the reduction in warming, according to new research.
By examining the effects of volcanic eruptions on agriculture – which has a similar effect to proposed artificial methods of scattering solar radiation through aerosols – scientists have concluded that such methods could have unintended consequences.


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/08/orcas-killer-whales-endangered-dying-washington
Aug. 8, 2018
Seattle’s orcas are dying. That they are dying publicly and painfully may save them.
First was Tahlequah’s calf. Born on 24 July, she died minutes later. Tahlequah buoyed her for a week before mother and calf disappeared.
In Washington state, the events have focused attention on an effort to repair the broken habitat and stave off extinction of the fish-eating orca. At what governor Jay Inslee dubbed a meeting of the state’s “best and brightest” on Tuesday, the longtime activist Stephanie Solien described the weeks of heartbreak as a message from the orcas.
“This is what they have told the world – it is human actions that are responsible for the dead and stillborn calves, the sick and starving adults and the declining condition of the environment in which they live,” Solien said before calling for a moment of silence for Tahlequah and her calf.
At last count, 75 orca live in the Salish Sea, the saltwater trough stretching from south of Seattle up the eastern coast of Vancouver Island. They’re a tight knit, talkative bunch; unlike their seal and shark-eating cousins, they chirp incessantly. They are stressed, and they are starving.
Deafened by sonar and boat noise, they hunt for fish that are too few in number. With each Chinook salmon they catch, they poison themselves a bit more; pollution in the Pacific accumulates at the top of the food pyramid. And their calves are dying.
Three years have passed since an orca calf born in the region survived. In the past 20 years, 40 orcas have been born into the group while 72 have died.