Ninth Circuit orders EPA to implement a long overdue ban of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to developmental delays in children and nervous system damage to people and animals exposed. Court previously had to order Obama EPA in 2015 to act on the issue; it’s unclear whether this decision will survive appeal.

Amidst Rising Heat Waves, UN Says Cooling is a Human Right, Not a Luxury

The rising heat waves in the world’s middle income and poorer nations are threatening the health and prosperity of about 1.1 billion people, including 470 million in rural areas without access to safe food and medicines, and 630 million in hotter, poor urban slums, with little or no cooling to protect them.

ECB Fears Contagion from Turkish Lira Collapse, Bank Stocks Plunge

The Turkish lira’s swan dive is causing all sorts of collateral damage.

Puerto Rico: 1427 Hurricane Maria Deaths

Government of Puerto Rico presents report to Congress acknowledging 1427 Hurricane Maria details– more than twenty times the previous estimate it had given. Meanwhile, prospects for meaningful debt relief remain slight.

73 Years After Atomic Bombing of Japan: Nuclear Threat More Immediate Than Ever

In this Real News Network interview, conducted to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the second atomic bomb drop on Nagasaki, historian Peter Kuznick reflects on how the nuclear threat is more immediate now than at any other time since the 1950s.

Fracking Fracas: BLM to Open California Public Lands

The US Bureau of Land Management yesterday took first steps to opening 1.6 million acres public lands in California to fracking, ending a five-year moratorium on such practices.