‘The smell will knock you off your feet’: mass mussel die-offs baffle scientists

Pandemic, ecological collapse?

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Mussels, the backbone of the river ecosystem because they control silt levels and filter water, are facing a mysterious affliction

Each fall since 2016, wildlife biologist Jordan Richard has returned to the same portion of the Clinch River in Tennessee, braced for the worst – tens of thousands of newly dead mussel shells gleaming from the surface of the water.

The mass die-off isn’t recognizable at first. But once Richard sees the first freshwater mussel, which look quite different to their marine cousins of moules frite fame, he scans the river and finds another every five to 10 seconds.

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This sham of a Queen’s speech could prove the end for Boris Johnson | Polly Toynbee

The prime minister wanted to shoot Labour’s fox but he has no plans, no vision – just focus-grouped pleasers

Folderol, hokum and flapdoodle – the usual absurdities of the Queen’s speech rigmarole were reduced to their ultimate fatuity on Monday. As she named those 26 never-to-be-enacted bills engraved laboriously on goatskin vellum, they might as well have been scribbled in ballpoint pen, these electioneering geegaws and giveaways, embellished with thumbscrews on crime and migration. But nothing matters here except the evanescent promise of an EU withdrawal deal, always just beyond reach. “My government will …” she intoned as if sucking lemons, but she has no government capable of doing anything at all.

What heavy lifting it would take to turn this country into Boris Johnson’s “greatest place on Earth”, in its present miserable state caused mainly by him. Leave aside Brexit devilment that hangs by a thread, look at the rest of his empty prospectus. If this was a hunting expedition designed to shoot Labour’s fox, it may have the opposite effect.

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Fake video depicting US President Donald Trump on killing spree in ‘Church of Fake News’ shown at gathering of supporters – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Fake video depicting US President Donald Trump on killing spree in ‘Church of Fake News’ shown at gathering of supporters – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
— Read on mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-15/fake-video-depicting-trump-killing-journalists-is-condemned/11602048

More scrutiny, but more H-1B visas approved

The US has approved a higher number of H-1B applications (both for initial visas and visa extensions for continued employment) this year, showing that the demand for these work visas continues unabated. This is a relief to Indians, who are the dominant holders of H-1B visas, especially after processing regulations got more stringent post-2015 .

America’s Former Allies in Syria Team Up With Damascus Government – The New York Times When Traitors rule – they Make America a Chump

The Turkish incursion has killed scores of people, and left Kurdish fighters accusing the United States of betrayal for leaving them at the Turks’ mercy. That is what led them to strike the deal with Damascus, which said on Sunday that its forces were heading north to take control of two towns and to fight the “Turkish aggression.”

‘Up to his neck in dirty money’: Dems demand to know who’s paying Rudy Giuliani

‘Up to his neck in dirty money’: Dems demand to know who’s paying Rudy Giuliani:

saywhat-politics:

The Daily Beast reports that Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) is demanding that the former New York mayor explain who has been funding his overseas adventures to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, since Giuliani isn’t a government employee and he says he isn’t being paid directly by Trump.

U.S. Forces Leave ‘High-Value’ ISIS Detainees Behind in Retreat From Syria – The New York Times

ISIS has already claimed responsibility for at least two attacks since the start of the invasion, including one car bomb in a border city, Qamishli, and another on an international military base outside Hasaka, a regional capital further to the south.