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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Robert Ward

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b singer and guitarist Robert Ward. Enjoy!

^{Robert Ward - I Will Fear No Evil}

“On January 17, 1991 and for the 43 days that followed, I watched CNN’s live coverage of SCUD missiles and bombs fall over Baghdad like rain; then the 12 ½ years of unjust sanctions that killed approximately a million Iraqis, half of which were children under the age of five; then an unjust attack in 2003 that opened the borders to terrorists from all over the world and reduced the cradle of civilization to piles of rubble. The gov. asked us to support their plan or else be considered anti-American and undemocratic and they ask of us the same today, 25 years later, even though history proved they were pro-profit not pro-life.”

-- Weam Namou

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News and Opinion

Top Democrats demand State Department's legal analysis on potential Iran military action

Two top House Democrats are demanding the State Department’s legal analysis of a potential military strike against Iran. In a letter Wednesday to the State Department’s acting legal adviser, Marik String, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) asked for any and all documents on whether the 2001 or 2002 war authorizations are applicable to military action against Iran.

“Given the life-and-death stakes of the current situation between the United States and Iran, we can think of no issue where it is more imperative for the department to explain its rationale for, interpretation of, and limits upon the legal authorities that have been provided by the Congress, a co-equal branch of government that the Constitution vests with the sole power to declare war,” wrote Engel and Deutch, who is the chairman of the committee’s Middle East subcommittee.

The pair requested documents by 9 a.m. Friday, adding that if the department doesn’t meet that deadline, “we will be forced to consider other measures to obtain them.” ...

Publicly and, lawmakers say, privately, administration officials have asserted a link between Iran and al Qaeda. Democrats fear the Trump administration is building a case to use the 2001 authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) for military action against Iran.

UAE: "We Don’t Have Evidence" That Iran Carried Out Tanker Attacks

The United Arab Emirates appeared to part ways with the Trump administration Wednesday on the question of whether Iran is responsible for the recent attacks on merchant tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

The White House maintains that Iran or Iran-backed forces carried out the attacks, which damaged six vessels in two separate incidents in May and June. ... However, the UAE said Wednesday that it would like more concrete proof before reaching a definitive conclusion that Iran was behind the attacks. Iran has so far denied involvement, though it claimed responsibility for shooting down an American surveillance drone on June 20.

“Honestly we can’t point the blame [for the tanker attacks] at any country because we don’t have evidence,” said UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, speaking alongside his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, at a joint press conference in Moscow. “If there is a country that has the evidence, then I’m convinced that the international community will listen to it. But we need to make sure the evidence is precise and convincing.”

Pompeo says U.S. has done all it can to de-escalate Iran situation

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with local media in India on Wednesday that the United States had done everything it could to de-escalate tensions with Iran.

“If there is conflict, if there is war, if there is a kinetic activity, it will be because the Iranians made that choice. I hope that they do not,” Pompeo told broadcaster India Today from New Delhi, where he is on an official visit.

Who's a good boy? Australian PM competes in best lapdog competition. Look out Tony Bliar, your record is at risk.

Australian PM Scott Morrison on Iran: we'll 'seriously' consider any US request to join military action

Scott Morrison says Australia has not yet been asked to take part in any military action in Iran but says any request from the Trump administration will be considered “seriously and on its merits”. The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has asked Australia to toughen its stance on Tehran and play a key role in a new “global coalition” against the regime. ...

Before the G20 summit in Osaka, Pompeo called on Australia to join what he described as a “global coalition” against Iran, which last week shot down a US surveillance drone. Iran has said the drone was in its airspace.

But as the Trump administration escalates its sanctions and rhetoric, Pompeo said the US would welcome a move from Australia to impose additional economic sanctions on Iran.

'We only want to sell our oil,' Iran official says before nuclear talks

Iran’s main demand in talks aimed at saving its nuclear deal is to be able to sell its oil at the same levels that it did before Washington withdrew from the accord a year ago, an Iranian official said on Thursday. ...

Senior officials from Iran and the deal’s remaining parties will meet in Vienna on Friday with the aim of saving the agreement. But with European powers limited in their ability to shield Iran’s economy from U.S. sanctions it is unclear what they can do to provide the large economic windfall Tehran wants.

“What is our demand? Our demand is to be able to sell our oil and get the money back. And this is in fact the minimum of our benefit from the deal,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity. “We are not asking Europeans to invest in Iran... We only want to sell our oil.”

Trump Admin. Ratchets Up Tensions With Threat to Sanction Any Nation That Imports Iranian Oil

President Donald Trump's special envoy for Iran further stoked tensions between Iran and the U.S. on Friday when he said the United States will sanction any country that imports Iranian crude oil.

Envoy Brian Hook, in his comments to reporters in London, said that there were no exemptions, reiterating a threat the Trump administration made two months earlier.

"We will sanction any imports of Iranian crude oil," Hook said, according to Reuters.

"There are right now no oil waivers in place," said Hook, who added the administration intends to "sanction any illicit purchases of Iranian crude oil."

Hook's comments came four days after the Trump administration announced new economic sanctions against Iran and one day after Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told Trump on Twitter that "Sanctions aren't [an] alternative to war; they ARE war."

MSM outlets stand united in rejecting op-ed on Assange by UN expert on torture

Boris Johnson's foreigner-bashing tying UK to no-deal Brexit, says Brussels

Brussels has sounded a warning that Boris Johnson’s familiar use of “false promises, pseudo-patriotism and foreigner-bashing” to win the keys to Downing Street is locking Britain into a no-deal Brexit.

In a withering attack on the Conservative leadership frontrunner, Guy Verhofstadt dismissed the idea that he could dump Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, withhold payment of the UK’s £39bn divorce bill and still negotiate a free-trade deal in Brussels as a “myth”. And he said that, years after the referendum, Johnson was “a man who continues to dissemble, exaggerate and disinform”.

Verhofstadt’s assessment, which is shared by most European officials, is the most forceful European intervention so far into the Tories’ leadership election. In an article published by the Project Syndicate website and the Guardian, the former prime minister of Belgium concludes that Johnson and his rival, Jeremy Hunt, who also claims to be able to to renegotiate the Brexit deal, have “learned nothing whatsoever” from the last two years.

The EU has repeatedly said it will not renegotiate the agreement and that the UK will crash out unless the House of Commons ratifies the full package, including the protocol containing the Irish backstop for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland. ...

EU officials and diplomats close to the last two years of talks have looked on aghast at the hardening of Johnson’s positions around what they regard as unfeasible proposals. ... EU diplomats said they recognised that much of Johnson’s positioning was designed to put the blame on the bloc for a no-deal exit.

Nancy Pelosi Just Got Rolled By Mitch McConnell on Immigration

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may be the most powerful Democrat in America, but she just got rolled on an emergency border-funding measure by President Trump and Senate Republicans led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. But Pelosi doesn’t seem to be leaving the battle with too many scars. Rather, many rank-and-file House Democrats are now turning their ire toward Senate Democrats who they feel betrayed their party’s principles and prematurely caved to GOP demands. ...

Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the Hispanic and Progressive Caucuses twisted Pelosi’s arm earlier in the week and threatened to withhold their support of the more than $4.5 billion emergency measure to infuse money into the numerous agencies who report running dangerously low on funds as they combat an unprecedented emergency at the southern border.

The speaker heard their threats and ultimately caved to their demands. The House measure, which passed largely along party lines, would have required the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to set out minimum health and safety standards for anyone in their custody, establish new protocols to deal with the influx of thousands of migrants at once and would force the Department of Health and Human Services to no longer hold migrant children for more than 90 days. It would also require that agency to report to lawmakers on how it’s using “influx” centers to hold these kids and babies.

On Tuesday, she got a bill out of her chamber in order to beat McConnell to the punch, which was supposed to increase her chamber’s leverage. But it didn’t. The Senate passed its own funding measure Wednesday by a lopsided vote of 84-8, with all but six Democrats and two Republicans supporting it.

In spite of seeing images of dead bodies of refugees washed up on American soil along with heartbreaking reports of children being forced to care for other children in cold, torture chamber-like conditions, most Democrats ended up supporting the Senate measure because of the dire humanitarian need. It sailed through the House after more moderate Democrats started to break ranks.

This Senate Bill will have us write a $4.6 Billion blank check (incl military $) for the border w NO accountability - just a verbal pinky promise.

Trump is not to be trusted with protecting our immigrants. Why must that even be stated? We need hard lines of protection, in ink. https://t.co/xFci23pFo6

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 27, 2019

'Spinelessness': Schumer and Pelosi Under Fire After Democrats Join GOP to Give Trump $4.6 Billion in Border Funding Without Protections for Children

"I am looking for a new pharmaceutical drug that builds spines."

That was Rep. Pramila Jayapal's (D-Wash.) reaction on Thursday after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi capitulated to Republicans and so-called moderate Democrats by agreeing to pass a $4.6 billion Senate border aid package that contains virtually no protections for immigrant children detained by the Trump administration.

While Jayapal and other progressives were quick to note that Pelosi deserves criticism for approving the Senate legislation—which was strongly opposed by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and immigrant rights groups—they argued Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) should share the blame for failing to whip his caucus against the measure.

On Wednesday, the Senate passed the $4.6 billion Republican border bill by an 84-8 margin. Thirty-three Democrats—including Schumer—voted yes, handing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) an easy victory. Progressive Democrats said Schumer's failure to fight the Republican legislation left the House with no leverage to negotiate stronger protections for migrant children, who are currently enduring horrific conditions in Border Patrol detention facilities in Texas and elsewhere.

After Pelosi announced Thursday that she would "reluctantly" support passage of the GOP Senate bill despite progressive outrage, the legislation sailed through the House Thursday evening with the backing of 129 Democrats.

I had to reread this a few times: Pelosi caved after Pence promised to keep her up to date on the kids who are killed.https://t.co/jItE6W3YFw pic.twitter.com/RYs6PTilZ6

— Eli Valley (@elivalley) June 27, 2019

New Details of Horrific Child Abuse Cited in Emergency Restraining Order Request for 'Torture Facilities' Run by US Border Agency

A group of lawyers and advocates filed a request for an emergency restraining order aimed at ending the abuse of children in facilities operated by the federal government on the southern border, demanding a federal judge step in and take action. The lawsuit (pdf), filed in California late Wednesday, asks U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee to order immediate inspections of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) facilities in Texas, allow medical care to reach the children imprisoned in those facilities, and to create an "intensive case management team" to handle transfers from CBP to Health and Human Services.

The request cites testimony from children in detention as well as outside observers and offers new details of the conditions and treatment those detained have endured. ...

In comments on the case to The Los Angeles Times, Peter Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law and lead attorney on the lawsuit, said that the effects of the mistreatment in the detention centers could last forever. "The preventable physical and mental health harms class members are suffering may be long-lasting, or in some cases, permanent," said Schey. ...

Lawsuit lead attorney Schey, talking to the The Washington Post, denounced the Trump administration for unprecedented cruelty. "In 33 years of representing unaccompanied detained children, through several administrations, both Republican and Democrat, we have never seen an administration act quite as callously and cruelly toward children as this one," Schey told the Post. "We have never seen the kind of widespread illness, malnutrition and deaths as under this administration. We've never seen anything like this before."

Supreme Court Hands GOP Big Victory on Gerrymandering, Ensuring “Massive Election Rigging”

Here's an excerpt from Justice Elena Kagan's dissent in Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek that I grabbed from The Guardian, the full case is here. The dissent starts on page 40.

Is this how American democracy is supposed to work? No it's not

For the first time ever, this court refuses to remedy a constitutional violation because it thinks the task beyond judicial capabilities.

And not just any constitutional violation. The partisan gerrymanders in these cases deprived citizens of the most fundamental of their constitutional rights: the rights to participate equally in the political process, to join with others to advance political beliefs, and to choose their political representatives. In so doing, the partisan gerrymanders here debased and dishonored our democracy, turning upside-down the core American idea that all governmental power derives from the people. These gerrymanders enabled politicians to entrench themselves in office as against voters’ preferences. They promoted partisanship above respect for the popular will. They encouraged a politics of polarization and dysfunction. If left unchecked, gerrymanders like the ones here may irreparably damage our system of government. ...

After dutifully reciting each case’s facts, the majority leaves them forever behind, instead immersing itself in everything that could conceivably go amiss if courts became involved. So it is necessary to fill in the gaps. To recount exactly what politicians in North Carolina and Maryland did to entrench their parties in political office whatever the electorate might think. And to elaborate on the constitutional injury those politicians wreaked, to our democratic system and to individuals’ rights. ...

If there is a single idea that made our nation (and that our nation commended to the world), it is this one: the people are sovereign. The “power,” James Madison wrote, “is in the people over the Government, and not in the Government over the people.” Free and fair and periodic elections are the key to that vision. The people get to choose their representatives. And then they get to decide, at regular intervals, whether to keep them. Election day – next year, and two years later, and two years after that – is what links the people to their representatives, and gives the people their sovereign power. That day is the foundation of democratic governance.

And partisan gerrymandering can make it meaningless. ... At its most extreme – as in North Carolina and Maryland – the practice amounts to “rigging elections.” ... The “core principle of republican government,” this Court has recognized, is “that the voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around. ...

For the first time in this Nation’s history, the majority declares that it can do nothing about an acknowledged constitutional violation because it has searched high and low and cannot find a workable legal standard to apply.

With Census Decision, Trump’s GOP Falters in March Toward White Minority Rule

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision on Thursday to block the Commerce Department from including a citizenship question on the 2020 census was legally and morally the right thing to do. As is its wont, the court made its decision on narrow procedural grounds, barely stopping to consider the racist underpinnings of the citizenship question — and that should concern us all. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s justification for adding the citizenship question was “contrived,” and remanded the decision back to the lower courts. Roberts, who sided with the liberals as he did in 2015 when the court upheld Obamacare, rejected Ross’s argument that new citizenship data was needed to better enforce the Voting Rights Act. The “evidence tells a story that does not match the Secretary’s explanation for his decision,” the chief justice wrote. ...

Deciding the case on a narrow reading of the Administrative Procedures Act, none of the justices commented substantively, even in dicta, on the bold-faced subtext of the census dispute: that Trump officials had colluded with right-wing, xenophobic forces to systematically disempower communities of color. ... The majority’s opinion is consistent with what legal observers have long been saying: The Voting Rights Act rationale was pre-textual, a post-hoc scheme by Trump officials to obscure their real motive: to suppress participation in the census and allow them to gerrymander districts to maintain white minority rule.

“As a practical matter, any observer knows there was never a legitimate reason to do this,” said Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department Civil Rights Division lawyer, who noted that citizenship data was not needed to enforce the Voting Rights Act during his tenure as the top enforcer of voting rights law. “That is manifest by the fact that they had to turn to a pretext in the first place, that it took them a year to find a pretext, and that the pretext they landed on was so ludicrous.” ... The high court overturned a ruling from a New York district court that Ross’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedures Act and upheld the constitutionality of a citizenship question under the Enumeration Clause of the Constitution. In other words, the court agreed with the government that a citizenship question could be legal, if justified by a legitimate reason.

“The ruling essentially says, ‘You can’t give a fake reason,’” Levitt told The Intercept. “The secretary would now have to give a real reason, but the time window is closing quickly on that.” And if Ross can come up with a justification, derived from a reasonable decision-making process, it would still have to survive the scrutiny of New York City District Judge Jesse Furman, to whom the case has been remanded. And, as Levitt puts it, “Furman has no shortage of skepticism for the secretary.” Still, if Ross comes up with another rationale, and the lower courts affirm it, a citizenship question could still appear on the census form if the bureau is willing to extend its June 30 deadline.

Justin Raimondo, RIP (1951-2019)

Justin Raimondo, former editorial director and co-founder of Antiwar.com, is dead at 67. He died at his home in Sebastopol, California, with his husband, Yoshinori Abe, by his side. He had been diagnosed with 4th stage lung cancer in October 2017.

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Second Night of Primary Debate Puts Focus on Immigrant Rights & Joe Biden's Opposition to Busing

Pete Buttigieg: police killing exposes mayor's troubled history with minorities

At a South Bend council meeting last week, Tyree Bonds, the brother of Eric Logan, a black man shot and killed last week by a white police officer, stood up with a message for this Indiana city, whose mayor has emerged as an unexpected force in the 2020 Democratic race. “Stop using [the shooting] for your own personal agenda,” he said. ... Tensions peaked on Sunday when a town hall meeting devolved into near chaos as those in the audience shouted down Buttigieg and showered him with obscenities after he broke away from the campaign trail to return to the city he runs to deal with the crisis.

So far the young gay military veteran has been mostly portrayed as a fresh voice in politics, often drawing huge crowds in key early voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. His message has been simple: his successes in revitalizing the rust-belt city of South Bend can be replicated across the US. But Logan’s death has spotlighted another area of Buttigieg’s record: his troubled relationships with the South Bend police and his city’s large minority population.

While South Bend residents and community leaders have sought to show respect for Logan’s family in the wake of the shooting, they also point out that their burning outrage runs deeper than one tragic incident. They say it’s rooted in eight years of Buttigieg’s economic policies that have often left people of color behind. Meanwhile, alleged instances of police brutality and subsequent coverups or inaction has sowed deep distrust.

“If you go over the last eight years, it’s about all of this – the lack of resources in the African American community, the alleged police brutality. All of these are symptoms of a larger issue of injustice,” South Bend resident Tiana Batiste-Wadell said. “So now you are hearing cries from people wanting something to change.” ... But even before the incident, Buttigieg’s perceived difficulties winning over black voters presented a challenge. And his clumsy handling of the shooting won’t improve his standing with the demographic.

But the events also suggest that South Bend may not be quite the picture of success and prosperity that Buttigieg paints when it comes to its minority residents. Instead, there’s a sense that his policies are failing lower-income and minority residents, and South Bend is a reflection of the nation’s larger problems. “The injustices here are the injustices of the country,” said Batiste-Wadell.

This might end up being the defining moment of #DemDebate2 — Kamala Harris attacks Joe Biden’s record on race pic.twitter.com/Jh6E784upn

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 28, 2019

2020 Democratic Party Debates Encircle Sanders with Wall Street’s Political Dogs

The schedule for the Democratic Party primary debates has been announced. This time around, the debates are split into two separate evenings to account for the large number of candidates in the Democratic primary. The participants in each round were supposedly chosen by way of a Democratic National Committee-led “lottery” system. Bernie Sanders was placed on the debate with Wall Street’s three favorite candidates: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg. Far from a randomized selection process, the debates show that the ruling class is encircling Sanders with its political dogs with the hopes that the trio can collectively weaken his chances for the nomination.

The New York Times is such an effective mouthpiece of Wall Street that it often gives a play-by-play of its political servants’ electoral behavior. It wasThe New York Times that announced Wall Street’s “Stop Sanders” movement developing among the Democratic Party’s donor class. Just as the first debate lineup was announced for the last week of June, the Times revealed that Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Joe Biden were auditioning as Wall Street’s top choices for the nomination. That all three of these candidates are debating on the same night as a result of a “lottery” system is thus no coincidence. Wall Street wants Harris, Buttigieg, and Biden to dominate the floor and shut down Sanders. Whoever does it best will win the hearts and dollars of finance capital.

Finance capital also hopes that Elizabeth Warren will prove useful in dividing up the Sanders camp during the debate. Warren will be speaking on the debate’s first evening and will not have to contend with Wall Street’s favorite candidates or Sanders. The “policy wonk” will instead be sharing the stage with Wall Street’s least favorite candidate, Tulsi Gabbard, and a long list of candidates whose chances at the nomination are slim to none. This will give the “surging” Warren plenty of room to promote her policy-focused but rather milquetoast political program. While Wall Street has no interest in Warren in the final analysis, its donors in the Democratic Party are more than willing to use her to weaken the Sandernista surge. ...

One of the central political contradictions of the “Stop Sanders” movement is its reliance on dozens of corporate candidates to take down one social democratic candidate. The hope is that the wide array of corporate candidates will force a contested electionor that one of their top three (Biden, Harris, Buttigieg) will gain enough momentum to defeat Sanders “fair and square.” Wall Street understands that the latter scenario is unlikely. Sanders remains popular among his base, which now represents a large section of all Democratic Party voters. The Democratic Party is betting that Joe Biden or Kamala Harris can lock down the Black vote with as much success as they have achieved in locking up poor Black Americans in the mass incarceration gulag. Even if they don’t, the ruling class is banking on the supreme authority of the super delegates to seal the deal.

Map: Before and after #DemDebate2

More data: https://t.co/I0WiP7r7bt pic.twitter.com/Wmf76znQSl

— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 28, 2019

Tulsi Gabbard sounds off on 'clear bias' during her debate

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Biden Wags Finger At Teen Over Environmental Concerns

After 30 years, Japan prepares to resume commercial whaling

On Monday morning, after a short ceremony to pray for a bountiful catch and safety at sea, five ships will slip out of a port in northern Japan to hunt whales for profit for the first time in more than 30 years. They will not head to the southern ocean, the controversial hunting ground for Japan’s “scientific” whaling programme since the late 1980s, but to coastal waters, six months after the country announced it would leave the International Whaling Commission [IWC] on 30 June.

Its decision to leave came after the IWC, the body responsible for protecting global whale populations, voted down its proposal to resume the commercial hunting of species whose stocks Japanese officials say have recovered. The vessels’ imminent departure from Kushiro, on the northern island of Hokkaido, to kill minke, sei and Bryde’s whales, drew condemnation as Japan and its pro-whaling prime minister, Shinzo Abe, prepared to host G20 leaders in Osaka.

Japan’s government will not reveal the hunt’s quota until after the G20, reportedly to avoid a backlash during its two days in the diplomatic spotlight.

EPA Urged to Put Public Health Over Monsanto Profits by Banning Cancer-Linked Glyphosate

As the Environmental Protection Agency moves to greenlight the continued use of glyphosate in the United States for another 15 years, a coalition of environmental and consumer advocacy groups on Wednesday delivered nearly 150,000 petitions urging the agency to ban the cancer-linked herbicide.

The coalition's call comes ahead of the July 5 deadline for public comment on the EPA's interim registration review of glyphosate, which says the herbicide poses no health risks to humans. ...
In a press release, Friends of the Earth said the EPA cited "Monsanto-funded studies in its evaluation" of glyphosate. ...

Zen Honeycutt, executive director of Moms Across America, warned in a statement Wednesday that, if reapproved, glyphosate will continue to "contaminate our tap water, breast milk, baby food, formulas, cereals, thousands of food types, and cotton products."

"It will continue to destroy soil quality, which contributes to climate change, the decline of marine and wildlife and the environment," said Honeycutt. "In short, the only way the EPA can do its job is to revoke its license."

'Out of control' wildfire rages in Spain's Catalonia region

Spain battles biggest wildfires in 20 years as heatwave grips Europe

Firefighters battled wildfires at a scale not seen for 20 years in Spain and southern France was placed on unprecedented red alert as much of western Europe sweltered in an extreme early-summer heatwave on Thursday. ...

In Spain, more than 500 firefighters and soldiers struggled to bring a huge forest fire under control in the Catalan province of Tarragona that has so far burned across 5,500 hectares (12,355 acres) of land. Fifty-three people have been evacuated from their homes, five roads remain cut off and the civil protection authorities have advised people not to enter the area unless absolutely necessary. Hundreds of sheep have died in the smoke and flames. ...

The head of the regional fire service said it was hard to be optimistic. “The terrain is complicated, which causes a lot of problems, and the weather conditions aren’t favourable,” David Borrell told Catalunya Ràdio. ...

The average high of 39.4C on Wednesday broke France’s previous June record, Météo-France said, adding that the country’s all-time highest temperature of 44.1C – recorded on 12 August 2003 at two spots in the Gard département – would probably be surpassed. Germany also broke its June temperature record, which dated back to 1947, with a 38.6C reading in Coschen near the Polish border.

Scientists have said Europe’s 2019 heatwave, like last year’s, is closely linked to the climate emergency and that such extreme weather events will be many times more likely over the coming decades.

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Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

A Brief History of US Concentration Camps

What the Concentration Camps of Bosnia Can Teach Us About the Abuse of Immigrants on the U.S. Border

Trump’s Underwhelming Deal for Palestine and the Gulf Monarchies’ Complicated Ties with Israel

Adam Schiff—The Left Wing of the Hawk

Tulsi Gabbard Wrecks Dems With Powerful Anti-War Debate Answers

NSA improperly collected US phone records in October, new documents show

'Rising Enthusiasm for Medicare for All' Has Provoked Dramatic Surge in Industry-Backed Lobbying

The US hospitals suing the poor over bills they can't afford

San Francisco school board votes to paint over murals showing slavery and violence

First Democratic Debate, Summarized

Media And Public Disagree On Tulsi Gabbard's Debate Performance

Kara Eastman Fell Just Short in 2018. The DCCC Is Recruiting a 2020 Opponent Anyway.

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A Little Night Music

Robert Ward & The Ohio Untouchables - Your Love Is Real

Robert Ward - I Found a Love

Robert Ward - Deeper

Robert Ward - Something for Nothing

Robert Ward & Ohio Untochables - I'm Gonna Cry A River

Robert Ward - Black Bottom

Robert Ward - You Ought To Stop It

Robert Ward - A Real Deal

Robert Ward - Soul Stroll

Robert Ward - Hot Stuff

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