Prologue
The headlines of July 20, 2011, were typical fare for a summer news cycle. Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama were negotiating an agreement to forestall the forecast calamity of breaching the U.S. government debt ceiling. Embattled News Corporation Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch was fighting to keep his company's phone-hacking scandal under control, and British Prime Minister David Cameron was trying to limit his own entanglement. Financial markets ended the day with slight declines. Corn prices fell because of hopes that rain would limit a heat wave.
Less prominent, though still in the headlines, was the United Nations declaration of a famine in southern Somalia as the Horn of Africa experienced its worst drought in six ...
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