Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Mark Rice-Oxley points out the observations of the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Health as to the stress and mental illness caused by austerity. Robert Booth reports on the recognition that yet another round of giveaways to the rich and clawbacks from everybody else would represent a needless tragedy for the UK. And Frances Ryan discusses the inhumanity involved in a cap on benefits intended to control family sizes for people receiving social benefits.

- Tom Metcalf reports on a call for a wealth tax from multiple American billionaires who recognize that everybody ends up worse off when a wealthy elite isolates itself from the population at large. And Damian Carrington reports on the imminent risk of "climate apartheid" as concentrated wealth is used to shield the main contributors to a climate breakdown from its most severe effects.

- Jeff Berardelli points out the connection between climate change and the increased frequency and severity of heat waves. And Sarah Wesseler discusses how the increased use of air conditioning in response to higher temperatures only stands to exacerbate our climate crisis.

- Lisa Friedman reports on the latest revelations from the longstanding Taylor Energy oil leak, which include the underreporting of the scale of the leak by a factor of a thousand. And George Monbiot reminds us that we shouldn't buy the attempts of Shell and other oil giants to present themselves as planetary saviours when they've been knowingly destroying both our planet and our ability to act collectively to preserve it.

- Finally, Andrew Coyne notes that unelected Senators are again preventing our elected representatives from doing their jobs in passing legislation in the public interest - and this time merely through filibustering rather than any consideration of bills on their merits.