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California just dealt Monsanto a blow as the state’s Environmental Protection Agency will now list glyphosate - the toxic main ingredient in the U.S.’ best-selling weedkiller, Roundup - as known to cause cancer.... California’s decision to place glyphosate on the toxic chemicals list is the first of its kind.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday became the latest elected leader to use the plight of refugees in building a rhetorical case for military escalation towards Syria, despite numerous calls for wealthy nations to extend refuge - not bombs - as the humanitarian crisis worsens.

As we have noted numerous times in the past, there is a Bull market in serfdom. America's Renter Nation has never spent more of its paycheck on rent and as Zumper notes, with rent prices in San Francisco and New York at the highest in the nation, affordability does not seem to exist in these two metropolitan areas. For some idea of the scale, there are actually castles in France and Italy that can be rented for about the same price as average apartments in these cities...

Don’t let anyone fool you: As we have detailed since 2013, sectarian strife in Syria has been engineered to provide cover for a war for access to oil and gas, and the power and money that come along with it.

"The fence, in part being built by prisoners along the 175-km (109-mile) border, would be completed sooner than planned, by the beginning rather than the end of October. 'This 3.5-4-metre tall fence can be adequate to protect the country, especially if policemen are patrolling on the other side,"' Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff Janos Lazar told a weekly news conference."

The lack of leadership to tackle this clear and present danger to Europe's future is truly concerning. Both the migrants and the Europeans might be worse off as a result.

Europe's handling of its refugee crisis has led to much criticism and left even more to be desired, but until now Europe's general population was largely on the side of the misplaced migrants who are trying to reestablish their lives away from the daily horrors of the middle east, all in the name of a Qatari gas pipeline. That may soon change as Europe realizes the influx of tens of thousands of refugees will result in a dramatic surge in public costs, costs which have to be footed by someone. That someone will be the general population (with the wealthy targeted at first) courtesy of even higher taxes.

With the war drums beating louder by the day, US officials are now warning that Russia's military buildup in Syria is "unprecedented" and is "beginning to look like Crimea." Meanwhile, the Kremlin has accused the US of "international boorishness" for Washington's "rubbish" attempts to characterize Moscow's relationship with Damascus unfairly.

It has become virtually impossible to differentiate between actual central bank intervention, hopes of central bank intervention, and how the two interplay on what was once the "market" but is now merely the place where money printers duke it out every day in some pretense of price discovery set by those who literally print money.

Now that Europe's migrant crisis is making international headlines on a nightly basis, France and Britain are set to use the influx of aslylum seekers as a pretext for airstrikes in Syria. The timing could not be more convenient as new "intelligence" suggests that Russia is expanding its presence in the Assad stronghold around Latakia. For its part, Germany is out warning the Kremlin against "military engagement."

The prosecution of a Swedish national accused of terrorist activities in Syria has collapsed at the Old Bailey after it became clear Britain’s security and intelligence agencies would have been deeply embarrassed had a trial gone ahead, the Guardian reported.  "The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead with the trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition. That didn’t only include the “non-lethal assistance” boasted of by the government (including body armour and military vehicles), but training, logistical support and the secret supply of “arms on a massive scale”."

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"We shouldn't pass on the bill for the tasks that are facing us now to future generations. Being in favour of more debt and a further flooding of the markets with central bank money is neither original nor serious."

The hypocrisy is self-evident. That the U.S. has covertly supported the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria is an open secret. That there are no American boots on the ground (at least officially) does not absolve the U.S. of partial responsibility for the refugee catastrophe unleashed by the Syrian war. Empire comes with responsibilities, and it should come with conscience. The U.S. is not a passive observer in Syria. Those of us outside the Deep State have no idea what's been done or supplied or promised in the name of the American people. Shall we accept 5% responsibility for events in Syria? That equates to 5% of 4 million refugees or 200,000 refugees. Of the estimated 4 million Syrian refugees, the U.S. has accepted a mere 1,500.

Today the US made a dramatic diplomatic escalation ahead of what is now assured to be the second major showdown between the US and Russia in Syria, over a Qatari gas pipeline no less, when according to Reuters, it asked Greece to deny Russia the use of its airspace for supply flights to Syria, a Greek official said on Monday, after Washington told Moscow it was deeply concerned by reports of a Russian military build up in Syria.