Daily News 09/16

Daily News 09/16

Video: Interview with former US Vice-President Al Gore on climate disaster | FullCNA spoke to former US Vice-President Al Gore on recent climate concerns, the situation in the Himalayas, powerful petro-states and fossil fuel companies, and the communication of falsehoods that climate change is a hoax. In a wide-ranging interview in Singapore on Monday (Sep 7), Mr Gore exclaimed that people should stop treating the sky as an “open sewer” and that the recent Nepal-Tibet disaster is a “taste” of the catastrophic consequences if we do not solve the climate crisis in time. While there are prominent examples of transitions to cleaner energy that are beginning to take hold, the global transition is moving slowly, and one of the main factors Mr Gore says, is to do with the “incredible political power” of the fossil fuel companies combined with petro-states.

Video: Climate change: is capitalism the problem? (Yes)

World Trade Center The US Let it happen! What did US intelligence know before the 9/11 attacks?The CIA have declassified documents showing US presidents were warned about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda before 9/11. Why?:

Just before the 2000 Presidential Election, in September 2000, George Bush’s think tank, The Project for the New American Century, put into writing a document titled Rebuilding America’s Defenses, Forces and Resources For a New Century. In that document they called for war upon Iraq, a US military presence in the middle east, and the construction of military bases throughout Asia and the world to enforce, what they termed, as a ‘strategic goal’, the preservation Pax Americana — the ‘new world order’ that was proclaimed after the first Gulf War. (There has been no objection or opposition, from the Democratic Party, to this ‘strategic goal’ for this century, even though the document stated, two years prior to 9/11): “A transformation strategy that solely pursued capabilities for projecting force from the United States, for example, and sacrificed forward basing and presence, would be at odds with larger American policy goals and would trouble American allies. Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.” — Pax Americana and The Failure of ‘Lesser Evilism’

The NYTs Helps the CIA Conceal the Full Scope of the 9/11 Intelligence FailuresLast Friday, the Central Intelligence Agency released 69 presidential intelligence reports that contained no major new revelations and underplayed the intelligence failure that permitted the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The New York Times contributed to the underestimation by ignoring analytical failures that can be documented. As I have written in the past, the CIA’s intelligence collection was good enough to prevent the 9/11 attacks, but CIA leadership and its intelligence analysis were severely lacking. Any attack on the United States that takes place without strategic warning is by definition an intelligence failure.

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World’s top 20 private equity firms produce more greenhouse gases a year than most countries, report findsFirms manage $7.3tn in assets and could afford to transition away from fossil fuels yet invest in natural gas and coal-fired plants to power datacenters

As temperatures rise, glacier collapse may become more common Experts and officials have pointed to a collapsing glacier high in the Himalayas as the trigger for deadly flash flooding in Tibet and Nepal last week. Climate scientists warn that global warming may make glacial collapse, and the subsequent landslides and flooding it can cause, more frequent. National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek recently joined an expedition of scientists studying the link between climate change and a landslide-induced tsunami in Alaska, and he tells Host Carolyn Beeler what he learned.

Federal Water Tap, September 14, 2026: Mexico Agrees to Two-Year Colorado River Water Cuts • Mexico will contribute 250,000 acre-feet of water cuts in 2027 and 2028 to help the Colorado River basin.

EPA survey of industrial sources of PFAS into wastewater treatment facilities has been under White House review for nearly two years.
GAO recommends improvements to a disaster-risk assessment tool developed by FEMA.
Defense Department sees no significant environmental impact from a critical minerals smelter on the Cumberland River, in north-central Tennessee.
U.S. oil production is on record pace this year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

And lastly, summer 2026 was the warmest on record for the Lower 48 states, NOAA finds.“Record-breaking warmth was widespread across the West, Southwest, southern Rockies and southwestern Plains, as well as the southern Florida Peninsula. California, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado each set records for their warmest August average temperature.” – NOAA’s monthly climate summary highlighted the record heat this summer that has contributed to water-supply crises in the Colorado River and Rio Grande watersheds.

The next water crisis is beneath our feet As droughts intensify and groundwater warms, contaminants can move into underground aquifers – threatening drinking water and agriculture.

US confirms for first time it has deployed weapons in spaceAnalysts warn of an acceleration in high-risk arms race with Russia and China in Earth’s orbit

Supreme Court denies Trump administration’s request to implement parts of rule on mail-in voting

Judge blocks Trump limits on how long foreign students and journalists can stay in USRuling comes a day before homeland security department’s substantial restrictions were set to take effect

AI and the state: how big tech bought the data centre boomThe British state is readily greasing the wheels of big tech. Lenin once remarked that the state is “bound by a thousand threads to the bourgeoisie”. Nowhere is this clearer than the inseparable ties and revolving door between the British state and US tech giants. As temperatures rise, glacier collapse may become more common

Universal Healthcare for Politicians But Not the People!: McConnell Returns to Congress—After 3 Months of Paid Leave With Taxpayer-Subsidized Healthcare