777 days later, Congress hasn’t lifted a finger for Flint
It’s been 777 days since Michigan switched Flint’s water supply from Detroit to Flint River and residents began complaining that it looked, tasted, and smelled wrong; 478 days since a Flint resident informed the Environmental Protection Agency that her water contained high levels of lead; and 157 days since Republican Governor Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency.
The U.S. Congress still hasn’t passed any aid to help Flint, or for any of the other communities that could use it.
Senate Republicans on Thursday abandoned an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would allocate $1.9 billion for lead-free clean water infrastructure across the country and in Flint. Before this bill, the Senate didn’t add aid onto a comprehensive energy package because Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) blocked the amendment.
The stench of death
It was the smell that really got to diver Richard Vevers. The smell of death on the reef. “I can’t even tell you how bad I smelt after the dive – the smell of millions of rotting animals.”
Coral graveyard - in pictures
How the Great Barrier Reef got polluted – from farms and fossil fuels to filthy propaganda
For a decade or so, government and scientists have outlined two key tasks to secure the reef’s future – cut fossil fuel emissions and reduce pollution running into catchments.
How Australians Die from diabetes
Diabetes is rapidly emerging as a leading cause of death. It is also a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes, amputations, kidney failure, depression, dementia and severe infections. It never used to be this way. Thirty years ago, around 250,000 Australians had diabetes. Today that figure is around two million.
IMF sounds warning on China’s corporate debt
Figure at 145 per cent of GDP is ‘very high by any measure’, says IMF’s David Lipton
China’s corporate debt risks sparking a bigger crisis if the authorities fail to tackle it, the International Monetary Fund has warned.
It is the latest red flag over China’s ballooning debt, which rose to a record 237 per cent of gross domestic product in the first quarter on the back of massive lending designed to boost economic growth.
That has put the subject to the fore of this year’s annual IMF review of the Chinese economy with a team from the Fund set to conclude its latest monitoring mission on Tuesday.
“Corporate debt remains a serious — and growing — problem [in China] that must be addressed immediately and with a commitment to serious reforms,” said David Lipton, the IMF’s number two and the leader of its latest mission, which ends on Tuesday.
Speaking in Shenzhen, where then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping kicked off China’s experiments with capitalism more than three decades ago, Mr Lipton pointed to the potential risk to the global economy.
