The currency is down about 20 percent against the dollar since January and is now at its lowest level since Russia’s 1998 debt default. Its performance this year is the worst of any major currency except Argentina’s peso.
It could fall farther, despite interventions by Russia’s central bank, which over the past few days has spent $1.75 billion to prop it up. The ruble remains under “permanent pressure” as investors flee the country and sanctions choke off access to foreign capital markets, Vladimir Evstifeev of Moscow’s Bank Zenit tells Bloomberg News.
U.S.-led air war in Syria is off to a difficult start →
The U.S.-led air war in Syria has gotten off to a rocky start, with even the Syrian rebel groups closest to the United States turning against it, U.S. ally Turkey refusing to contribute and the plight of a beleaguered Kurdish town exposing the limitations of the strategy.
U.S. officials caution that the strikes are just the beginning of a broader strategy that could take years to carry out. But the anger that the attacks have stirred risks undermining the effort, analysts and rebels say.
Saudi Arabia declares all atheists are terrorists in new law to crack down on political dissidents →
With allies like these...
Saudi Arabia has introduced a series of new laws which define atheists as terrorists, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.
Online activism and why the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act must die →
This is one thing that worries me. We haven't made [much] [official] space for critique yet, at the same time more of our life moves online.
Islamic State jihadists are using water as a weapon in Iraq →
An instance of "water wars"? (or at least "water subjugation"?)
The Islamic State militants who have rampaged across northern Iraq are increasingly using water as a weapon, cutting off supplies to villages that resist their rule and pressing to expand their control over the country’s water infrastructure.
California water officials aren’t following own call for conservation →
Mike Soubirous is a prodigious water user, pumping more than 1 million gallons per year at his lushly landscaped home on a hot, windy Southern California hilltop.
Soubirous also is a member of the Riverside City Council, which in July voted unanimously to impose tough new water conservation rules in this desert city of 317,000.
Some Americans Boosted Charitable Giving In Recession; The Rich Did Not →
Not surprising; we see this elsewhere every day: e.g., the poor tip better than the rich. They know better what life is like for each other, and, as a species, we empathize with those we perceive as similar.
Government Set Up A Fake Facebook Page In This Woman’s Name →
Uh...
A DEA agent commandeered a woman’s identity, created a phony Facebook account in her name, and posted racy photos he found on her seized cell phone. The government said he had the right to do that. Update: Facebook has removed the page and the Justice Department said it is reviewing the incident.
Identity theft perpetrated by our government. Can she sue? I hope so.