Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Prem Sikka discusses how any prospect of meaningful change for the better depends on prying power out of the hands of the wealthiest few, while David Wallace-Wells writes about the first signs of progress on the part of the working class. And Sam Ellefson talks to Herbert Chang about the systematic abuse of offshore tax havens as one of the mechanisms the ultra-wealthy are using to avoid making any fair contribution to the countries that have made them rich.

- Jennifer Ludden notes that the Trump regime's choice to abandon people to go hungry figures to cause lasting anger and anxiety among the people deemed unworthy of even the most minimal standard of living. Benedict Vigers and Julie Ray report on new polling showing that 40% of younger women in the U.S. would understandably be happy to leave permanently. And Greg Sargent discusses how the U.S. general public has no interest in Republican cruelty when it's inflicted for its own sake rather than being attached to false promises of material gains. 

- Nina Lakhani reports on a new Amnesty International study showing that even setting aside the climate crisis, two billion people have their health threatened by pollution emanating from fossil fuel projects. And Dan Collyns reports on new archeological research documenting a coordinated effort to escape severe drought in Peru thousands of years ago - including warnings left behind for future generations. 

- Bob Berwyn discusses how UN climate talks are now designed to obstruct progress rather than to achieve it. Olivia Rudgard reports that the scientists who have done the most work on carbon capture are now warning against unduly relying on it as a substitute for effective climate action. And Rick Smith writes that the best-case scenario for Mark Carney's narrow climate plan is to see a meaningful industrial carbon price implemented quickly and effectively.

- Finally, Pippa Norman reports that Carney's plans to tie Canada even more tightly to the corporate elite includes pouring resources into a defence bank to finance military spending.