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Read and produced by Lachlan Fletcher.

Stories written by Emily Brass, Matthew Phelps and Gareth Sloan.

Beginning with unsexy war blogging: Analysis suggests it will be near impossible for Obama to achieve a drawdown in Iraq by the August deadline. A brazen attack in Afghanistan on Bagram Air Base suggests that things not on track there either.

A fascinating BBC interview about the ways in which NATO is "divided" over Russia.

The five UN Security Council members have recently agreed to sign on for crippling sanctions to Iran but it may cause the collapse of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in the middle-east. And here's analysis from the Asia Times on the deal for sanctions struck by the US, and their reaction to Tehran's nuclear swap with Brazil and Turkey.

From the crazy in US politics, C&L has a wrap on Tuesday night's primaries and vote in Pennnsylvania which suggests that the teabaggers really don't have as  much influence as the media might have led you to believe. I'll hold to my predictions for the coming Novemeber US mid-terms and that is the GOP will not gain many seats in the House. They have a problem: the nuts are running the assylum and they are the hard-core participants in the primaries. So, even in a year where people are inclined to vote against incumbents if your choice is between an incumbent and a crazy person well...

Sticking with crazy people, can you imagine anything easier than a gig where you get to fact check Michelle Bachmann? For insane rantings, how about Newt Gingrich yelling "Obama is worse than Hitler?" Glenn Beck says to store food, pray for him, the apocalypse is coming. He is pocketing a fortune while talking like he is stark raving mad! Of course Rush Limbaugh makes bizarre pronouncements about liberals annd Obama every day of the week.

Wall Street reform bill set to go through in a victory for dems and the administration. It remains to be seen if that means a victory for the rest of us.

Increasingly the US government is being blamed for failing to conduct proper scientific studies of the disaster and of allowing BP to obscure the spill’s true scope. BP is urging those who are working in response to the spill to forego health concerns even while some are complaining of ...bad headaches, hacking coughs, stuffy sinuses, sore throats, and other symptoms. The outcry promises to get louder as the oil begins to roll into shore and the Louisiana wetlands.

To see a video of the oil hitting the Louisiana marshlands go to this link.

Sticking with BP malfeasance and coverups, McClatchy is reporting today, Steve Wereley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, who earlier this month made simple calculations from a video BP released on May 12 and came up with a flow of 70,000 barrels a day. Let's hope the investigation into the accident is as thorough as needs be.

The EPA informed BP officials late Wednesday that the company has 24 hours to choose a less-toxic form of chemical dispersants to break up its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This suggests the EPA are concerned that the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants pose a threat to the Gulf's marine life.

As far as changing the subject and getting people to reconsider the burning of fossil fuels as an energy source or at least begin moving in another direction, the ongoing disaster in the Gulf appears to be having little effect. Canada's tar sands are on track to be the largest supplier of US oil and could be supplying more than a third of all US oil imports by 2030. People do not seem to realize that climate change being influenced by human activities is settled science.

And none of this is having any real effect on slowing down off-shore drilling projects either, in spite of claims to the contrary.

Leading off stories with politics and Canucks in mind is the suicide bombing in Kabul which has claimed the lives of Six NATO soldiers, including Canadian Colonel Geoff Parker, 42, a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment who died when a massive car bomb struck a NATO convoy on the edge of the Afghan capital of Kabul. Included in the casualties are 12 civilians with 47 more wounded.

When Harper declares that everything besides the economy is a sideshow, does he include Canadians involvement in a shooting war on the other side of the world? All that blood and treasure a mere sideshow when little if anything is being acomplished?

That wasn't even the most objectionable thing he said at yesterday's little meetup with 120 members of the G8/G20 National Youth Caucus and host/Senate-appointee Mike Duffy. He stated that Canadians wanted non-controversial solutions to the maternal health care issue. Maybe he should look at the numbers and he'd realize that having abortion included as part of maternal health care program is controversial only to him and a minority of Canadians. To top it all off, the event was stage managed so as to avoid difficult questions about the Gulf oil spill. Brave, brave sir Harper bravely ran away!

This poll on the popularity of Canada's party leaders made me laugh, as it perfectly illustrates the current state of Canadian politics. It shows Harper's support to be at 29.5%, Ignatieff at 17.5, Layton at 15.6, and Elizabeth May at 5.5, you might ask yourself, "where do the rest of Canadians stand?" The answer to that is 14.5 don't know, and 11.3% don't care (technically unsure and none of them)! That means that don't know and don't care together only trail Harper by 4%, they lead Iggy by 7, Layton by 9 and May by 20.

I didn't mention Gilles Duceppe's results in the poll as his aspirations, of course, are strictly nationalist and deluded. This poll shows that the majority of Quebeckers  believe the sovereignty issue to be settled. As I've tried to explain many times to non-Quebec residents, the Bloc is merely a place for Quebeckers to park their votes when they don't like or trust the leaders of the national parties. These poll results bear that out.

Some good news on the environment front in Canada: Timber companies and environment groups have unveiled an agreement aimed at protecting two-thirds of Canada's vast forests from unsustainable logging. This is massively importannt as Canada has actually been losing forests at a faster rate than Brazil!

The bad news for the environment is that the successful development of Canada's tar sands has triggered a rush by Shell and other oil companies to set up similar operations in Russia, Congo and even Madagascar.