JEREMY CORBYN: British Labour’s New Leader. By William James and Michael Holden
Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran left-winger who professes an admiration for Karl Marx, was elected leader of Britain’s opposition Labour party. “Things can and they will change,” Corbyn, who when he entered the contest was a rank outsider, said in his acceptance speech after taking 59.5 percent of votes cast, winning by a far bigger margin than anyone had envisaged.
QUEEN ELIZABETH: “A job for life.” A photo-essay by Reuters
Queen Elizabeth, who rallied support for the monarchy despite presiding over what was once known as the world’s most famous dysfunctional family, in September 2015 becomes Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.
South African prison inmate ‘tortured to death’. By Ruth Hopkins
Several inmates incarcerated in South Africa’s Mangaung prison have died under suspicious circumstances. Documents that were recently provided to the WJP and eyewitness accounts contain shocking allegations that inmates were tortured before they died, while the prison registered their deaths as either “natural” or “suicide”. More worryingly, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) is aware that G4S’ recordkeeping of deaths in custody is not up to standard and that deaths through torture may go undetected. Despite that knowledge, it has not held G4S accountable.
The sinkholes of the Dead Sea. Text and photo-essay by Amir Cohen
The Dead Sea is shrinking, and as its waters vanish at a rate of more than one metre a year, hundreds of sinkholes – some the size of a basketball court, others two storeys deep – are devouring land where the shoreline once stood.
In Northern Canada’s Peaks, Scientists Track Impact of Vanishing Ice. By Ed Struzik
That a cluster of glaciers in the Northwest Territories is melting is hardly earth-shattering news. What makes the Brintnell/Bologna and nearby glaciers unique is that they comprise the last extensive icefield remaining in the interior of Canada’s Northwest Territories. And because temperatures are rising so rapidly here, the icefield appears to be melting at a rate three times the global average.
In Commentary:
We’re on our own, by Tom Regan (*unlocked)
To paraphrase Carl Sagan, no one is coming to rescue us. We have to solve our problems on our own. The Syrian refugee crisis. The Iran nuclear issue. Palestinians and Israelis. Sunni and Shia. ISIL. The overwhelming preponderance of guns in America that are undermining our culture. Police violence. Poverty. Climate change. Hunger. Pick your problem.
Don’t Cry For Me, Ar-gen-tar-i-o. By Jim McNiven (*unlocked)
There is another crisis brewing on the debt front. This one has to do with the public debt of entities that are part of wider currency zones: Greece, Puerto Rico amid the United States, and Ontario, in Canada.
In Arts:
Overcoming Deafness to Cry His Way to Pop Stardom: Johnnie Ray. By Brian Brennan, Brief Encounters column (*subscription)
By the time he was 49, Johnnie Ray had dried the tears that carried him to stardom with such hits as “Cry” and “The Little White Cloud That Cried.” What seemed most remarkable to me when I saw him do a nightclub show in 1976 was not that he continued to inject a level of intensity into his performance, but that he sang at all. He had been deaf since childhood.
Oliver Sacks brought us into his patients’ inner worlds. By Declan Fahy
Oliver Sacks achieved global public renown because his writings melded two particular traits that cut across his dual role as doctor and writer: his focus on single patients rather than large populations and his profound empathy.
~~~
In case you missed it, here is F&O’s Focus on Europe’s Refugee Crisis, an ongoing story:
Refugee, asylum seeker, migrant: what’s the difference?
REUTERS (*unlocked)
“Politicizing” Alan Kurdi’s death
ALEXANDER KENNEDY (Disturbing content warning)
Photo-essay: Migrants: A Train Towards a New Life.
OGDEN REOFILOVSKI, Reuters (*unlocked)
Refugees now the biggest crisis facing the European Union
JONATHAN MANTHORPE (*subscription)
Europe faces a 1945 moment
JONATHAN MANTHORPE (*subscription)
Eritreans take perils of the Mediterranean over torment at home
JONATHAN MANTHORPE (*subscription)
Ethnic groups flee as Syrian Kurds advance against Islamic State
HUMEYRA PAMUK (*unlocked)
POST UPDATED SEPTEMBER 12 TO INCLUDE NEW STORIES
~~~
*Facts and Opinions is a boutique journal, of reporting and analysis in words and images, without borders. Independent, non-partisan and employee-owned, F&O is funded by you, our readers. We do not carry advertising or “branded content,” or solicit donations from foundations or causes; this is possible because some of our work is behind a paywall. Please support us by purchasing a $1 day pass or subscription (click here), making a donation, and/or spreading the word.