U.S. Military in Africa: Problem Partners, Ugly Outcomes

Nick Turse (with additional reporting by Gabriel Karon) TomDispatch
Since 9/11, the Pentagon has increasingly viewed the African continent as a place with a multitude of problems that can only be remedied by military means. But, despite billions of dollars in aid and training missions and joint exercises conducted by America’s most elite troops, West African nations find themselves chronically imperiled by a plethora of insurgent groups and members of their own armed forces, many of whom were trained by these same U.S. special forces.

14 Years Later, What We Know About 9/11 and Cancer

Aria Bendix CityLab
Fourteen years after 9/11, the World Trade Center Health Program is scheduled to end next month. And the Victim Compensation Fund is set to expire in October 2016. Unless Congress pledges more money, funding for both programs will end just as scientists and doctors are on the verge of finding a definitive link between the incident and various cancers. Not only would 9/11-related cancer treatment and compensation end, but all research would be discontinued as well.

Friday Nite Videos -- September 11, 2015

Portside
Odetta: Long Ago, Far Away. How Many Trees Are There in the World? Mexican Donald Trump with George Lopez. New Human Species Discovered: Homo naledi. Bernie Sanders: Why 'Socialism' Isn't a Dirty Word.

How Many Trees Are There in the World?

The answer required 421,529 measurements from fifty countries on six continents. Now this data has been combined to produce a stunning new visualisation of our planet.

The answer required 421,529 measurements from fifty countries on six continents. Now this data has been combined to produce a stunning new visualisation of our planet.

New Human Species Discovered: Homo naledi

Homo naledi adds a new human relative that was primitive but shared physical characteristics with modern humans. The location of the fossil bones suggests that they were deliberately disposed of underground.

Fourteen Years Later, Improbable World

Tom Engelhardt TomDispatch
The 9/11 attacks and the thousands of innocents killed were an international crime of the first order. But 14 years later, no one in Washington has yet taken the slightest responsibility for blowing a hole through the Middle East, loosing mayhem across significant swathes of the planet, or helping release the forces that would create the first true terrorist state of modern history.

What the Trump Phenomenon Says About America

Adele M. Stan The American Prospect
To ask if the rogue Republican’s surge is good for Democrats is the wrong question. The most important question that should be asked about the Trump candidacy is: What is wrong with America that this racist, misogynist, money-cheating clown should be the frontrunner for the presidential nomination of one of its two major parties?