Submitted by Zainab Calcuttawala via OilPrice.com,
The Scottish Parliament voted to ban fracking countrywide on Wednesday, making a moratorium on the controversial technique a permanent affair.
The narrow vote can after the legislative body temporary outlawed fracking in January 2015 while it conducted a public health impact assessment and consulted environmental experts.
Starting about two weeks ago, a new campaign was launched to put the substantially weakened Islamic State on the defensive: in the south, Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), Popular Mobilization, and Sunni tribal fighters have closed in on a multiple-axis assault to encircle the city of Fallujah. As we reported previously, Iraqi forces, together with Kurdish Peshmerga forces, Shi'ite Muslim militias, and Sunni tribal fighters, backed by U.S.-led coalition forces, have pushed on toward Fallujah after recapturing several key cities in the past year, including Ramadi, Tikrit, and Baiji.
Over 270 civilians have been killed and hundreds injured as terrorist groups shelled Syrian cities over the past 24 hours, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. “Militants from terrorist groups have shelled Syrian cities killing more than 270 peaceful civilians and leaving hundreds of people injured,” an information bulletin from the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria reported.
That the unelected president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude "If it gets serious you have to lie" Juncker, has a problem with alcohol is well-known. At the time of his nomination in 2014, the Financial Times joked that the "booze has always been a subject of Brussels gossip. He has proved his ability to sit through all-night Brussels haggling sessions, fortified by brandy and cigarettes. Perhaps the next EU President could have one of those slogans on the office wall – ‘You don’t have to be drunk to work here, but it helps.”
Washington Has Reestablished Financial and Political Control Over Brazil
Washington’s opportunity came when the corrupt Brazilian elite illegally removed the elected president from office in order to stop government investigations of their illegal activities. Washington approved the coup with the provision that Washington’s Wall Street allies would control Brazil’s financial offices.