News Dump

Born to die: The atrocity against milk calves
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/26/dairy-dirty-secret-its-still-cheaper-to-kill-male-calves-than-to-rear-them

Anchorage Hits 90 Degrees for First Time in Recorded History
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/05/we-are-climate-emergency-america-anchorage-hits-90-degrees-first-time-recorded

Toilet paper is getting less sustainable, researchers warn - Major brands are using less recycled paper, meaning more trees cut down unnecessarily
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/05/toilet-paper-less-sustainable-researchers-warn

Walmart Shuts Down All Gun Sales in New Mexico After State Expands Background Check Requirements
https://www.newsweek.com/walmart-new-mexico-gun-sales-1447768

Even conservatively estimated, Trump could feed every homeless veteran for the cost of his military parade
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-feed-homeless-veterans-cost-military-parade-839813

Police fist bump MAGA fan Proud Boys member and escort far-right group through DC streets after 4th of July clashes
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/4th-of-july-proud-boys-police-fourth-washington-dc-clashes-communist-a8989331.html

Donald Trump, who avoided serving in Vietnam through multiple deferments, urges youths to join military: "You should do it"
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-vietnam-war-draft-urges-youth-join-military-1447665

The RNC Peddled Donald Trump-Themed MAGA Merchandise On The Fourth Of July — The Republican National Committee was accused of trying to cash in on the holiday. | The RNC shared details of a 20% discount on products purchased from Trump’s official website, where proceeds go to the Trump Make America Great Again Committee. “Celebrate America the GREAT with some red, white, & blue #MAGA gear!” it wrote.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rnc-donald-trump-merchandise-fourth-of-july_n_5d1eeb61e4b0f3125681621e

At least one other social media group with an apparent nexus to Customs and Border Protection has been discovered to contain vulgar and sexually explicit posts, according to screenshots shared with two sources familiar with the Facebook pages. The secret Facebook group, "The Real CBP Nation," which has around 1,000 members, is host to an image that mocks separating migrant families, multiple demeaning memes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, and other derisive images of Asians and African Americans.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/politics/cbp-second-facebook-group-images/index.html

How much each flyover cost during Trump’s Fourth of July event - The combined hourly rate was at least $557,000 per hour
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/05/how-much-each-flyover-cost-during-trumps-fourth-july-event/

Military Veterans Call For Trump’s Impeachment In New Video
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/military-veterans-trump-impeachment-video_n_5d1e7a1ee4b01b834733ce39

Dozens arrested for protesting Trump immigration policies during Philadelphia July Fourth parade
https://whyy.org/articles/dozens-arrested-for-protesting-trump-immigration-policies-during-philadelphia-july-fourth-parade/

Steve King Gets Duped, Shares Tweet Calling Himself A White Supremacist
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-king-twitter-white-supremacist_n_5d1ee2dde4b04c4814116ca1

Biden: "I get all this information about other people's past and what they've done and not done. And, you know, I am just not going to go there.” “If we keep doing that, that's, I mean, we should be debating what we do from here."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/politics/joe-biden-cnn-interview/index.html

Biden: "But if they like their employer-based insurance, which a lot of unions broke their neck to get, a lot of people like theirs, they shouldn't have to give it up"
https://www.nbc-2.com/story/40746866/exclusive-biden-expresses-skepticism-of-democrats-leftward-tilt-and-aocs-mass-appeal

Biden: “I think Ocasio-Cortez is a brilliant, bright woman, but she won a primary. In the general election fights, who won? Mainstream Democrats who are very progressive on social issues and very strong on education and healthcare” https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/politics/aoc-liberals-joe-biden-cnn-interview/index.html

Laurence Tribe
‏Verified account @tribelaw
Read the Court’s gerrymandering opinion and weep — for the Court and for the premature death of representative democracy. But read this essay and cheer — for the undying power of human reason to expose error, reveal hypocrisy, and challenge power:
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1147102103258710016
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/rucho-v-common-cause-occasion-sorrow/593227/

The EU throws Israel under the bus because, you know, Iran needs to be Iran. We have to live with that--amazing statement. We are within living memory of a Holocaust that almost wiped out the Jewish people. And the EU, which ironically is led by Germany, is saying they are fine with doing deals with a country that wants to create a second Holocaust? This is why I'm glad to not live in Europe......The long-standing divide between the US and Europe on Iran is summarized in this sentence from the European Union’s new foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell: "Iran wants to wipe out Israel; nothing new about that. You have to live with it."
https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/brussels-playbook/politico-brussels-playbook-hungarys-change-of-heart-us-eu-relationship-burns-fighting-words/

Robocalls are not only annoying — there’s an entire dirty industry behind them, FTC reveals. | Perpetrators of the schemes delivered hundreds of millions of robocalls and made millions of dollars in illicit gains, according to a series of complaints by the commission. | The Federal Trade Commission announced last week a crackdown on robocallers, giving one of the clearest pictures yet of the people and organizations behind the avalanche of nuisance phone calls to consumers. The actions are important because they draw the connection between robocalls, which may seem like mere annoyances, to the fraudulent organizations or illegal mass-calling schemes behind them. “We have a strong robocalling enforcement program, which is meant to protect wider consumers from abuse and abusive calls,” said Ian Barlow, program coordinator for the FTC’s Do Not Call program. The most recent FTC action drilled down into organizations that tried to push fake products or multilevel marketing schemes, and those that sold real products but marketed them in illegal ways.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/05/why-are-you-getting-all-those-robocalls-ftc-indictments-explain.html

Federal, state officials announce major crackdown on illegal robocalls
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/450264-state-federal-officials-announce-major-crackdown-on-robocall-operations

Thirteen young adults who were paralysed in sporting or traffic accidents have had movement in their hands restored through pioneering nerve transfer surgery, enabling them to feed themselves, hold a drink, write and in some cases return to work.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/04/pioneering-surgery-brings-movement-back-to-paralysed-hands

Top VPNs secretly owned by Chinese firms - Nearly a third of top VPNs are secretly owned by Chinese companies, while other owners are based in countries with weak or no privacy laws, potentially putting users at risk, security researchers warn
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252466203/Top-VPNs-secretly-owned-by-Chinese-firms

German priest causes church walkout as preaches for predator priest forgiveness - The cleric said he wanted to tell parishioners about the biblically important meaning of forgiveness. He regretted that predator priests were labelled "criminals" but many of his congregation walked out of the church.
https://www.dw.com/en/german-priest-causes-church-walkout-as-preaches-for-predator-priest-forgiveness/a-49479695

Spanish "prosecutor" claim rape was not rape because DRUNK AND DRUGGED victim 'did not fight back'. rosecutors have argued they should face the lesser charge of sexual abuse rather than rape because the girl was drunk, under the influence of drugs and did not fight back.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spain-rape-trial-sex-attack-manada-de-manresa-law-barcelona-a8988536.html

Babylon added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/unesco-2019-world-heritage-sites-nominees

Libya Arrests Two Russians Accused of Trying to Influence Vote
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-05/libya-arrests-two-russians-accused-of-trying-to-influence-vote

Border Patrol Agents Tried to Delete Racist and Obscene Facebook Posts. We Archived Them.
https://theintercept.com/2019/07/05/border-patrol-facebook-group/

Justice Department lawyers have told a federal judge that they would press ahead in their efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, but indicated they did not know yet what kind of rationale they would put forward: The Justice Department affirmed Friday that it still is pursuing a path for adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, according to a filing in federal court in Maryland.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/trump-says-he-is-thinking-of-executive-order-to-revive-census-citizenship-question/2019/07/05/d3ec5986-9f20-11e9-9ed4-c9089972ad5a_story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/05/us/census-question.html

Trump says the census needs to count citizens to determine how many seats states get in Congress. But apportionment of seats has always been based on a state's total population, not just on the number of citizens.
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1147210211792490496
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/fact-check-trump-s-claims-about-citizenship-question-census-n1026951

15-year-old Coco Gauff, who upset Venus Williams earlier this week, wins again at Wimbledon, advancing to the 4th round.
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1147222057635209216

Authorities say a man who opened fire at people shooting off fireworks has barricaded himself in a suburban Detroit home and is shooting at police and a robot deployed to stop him. Police and residents in St. Clair Shores say the man fired into a crowd Thursday evening and hit a 12-year-old in the arm and woman in her 60s in her calf. Neither suffered life-threatening injuries. Neighbors say the man threatened children, who had been playing with sparklers on Independence Day. Officers surrounded a home where the man was staying and deployed a robotic battering ram to knock down the door. Police say he has fired upon officers as well as robots approaching and entering the home.
https://news.yahoo.com/standoff-man-fired-group-lighting-191232815.html

Iraq on Friday celebrated the UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s decision to name the historic city of Babylon a World Heritage Site in a vote held in Azerbaijan’s capital, years after Baghdad began campaigning for the site to be added to the list. The city on the Euphrates River is about 85 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad and once was a main tourist attraction before Iraq suffered one war after another in the past four decades. The 4,300-year-old Babylon -- now mainly an archaeological ruin and two important museums -- is where dynasties have risen and fallen since the earliest days of settled human civilization. King Hammurabi wrote his famous code of laws in Babylon, while Nebuchadnezzar sent his vast army from the city to Jerusalem to put down an uprising and bring the Jews back as slaves. Some say Alexander the Great, who led his army out of Macedonia to conquer most of the known world, died here in 332 B.C.
https://apnews.com/af6c962171d6436ca51e784e42e15f94

Keeping children in 'cages' costs American taxpayers more than $4.5 million daily
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/keeping-children-in-cages-costing-american-taxpayers-more-than-45-million-daily-193126827.html

'Wolf of Wall Street' producer Riza Aziz charged with laundering $248 million in 1MDB scandal. "The Wolf of Wall Street" producer and stepson of Malaysia's former prime minister pleaded not guilty on Friday to laundering $248 million from a state investment fund, becoming the third person in his family charged in the 1MDB scandal that helped end Najib Razak's government last year.
https://www.businessinsider.com/riza-aziz-charged-1mdb-scandal-2019-7

Scientists Fear Extinction After Six Rare Right Whales Die In A Month: 'There are only some 400 of the animals left on Earth, and fewer than 100 of them are females of reproductive age.'
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/six-right-whales-killed-canada_n_5d1ee522e4b0f31256815b3a

77% of Drug Traffickers Are U.S. Citizens, Not Illegal Immigrants
https://www.cato.org/blog/77-drug-traffickers-are-us-citizens-not-illegal-immigrants

Philippines senator defends police over toddler's death in drugs raid - A senator who oversaw the most violent period in the Philippines’ war on drugs has dismissed the killing of a three-year-old girl in a police drug operation as collateral damage, stating that “shit happens”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/05/philippines-senator-dela-rosa-defends-police-over-toddlers-death-in-drugs-raid

Thousands of Chicago’s homeless have jobs, some college education, contrary to stereotypes, new study says
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-homeless-study-myths-20190702-wtmsehe6ffayxjdbpi3sjav3oq-story.html

Canada becomes the First ever country to ban Import and export of Shark Fins
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/06/19/news/canadas-new-shark-fin-ban-sets-example-world

Millennials Are Raising An 'Army' of Vegan Kids
https://www.livekindly.com/millennials-raising-an-army-vegan-kids/amp/

A jailed former governor of Rio de Janeiro state told a judge on Thursday that he paid about $2 million for the votes of International Olympic Committee members to award the Brazilian city the 2016 Summer Games
https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2019/07/04/rio-olympics-vote-bribes-sergio-cabral/

Venezuela death squads have killed 7000 in 18 months
http://en.rfi.fr/americas/20190705-venezuela-death-squads-have-killed-forc-7000-18-months-un

The parents of Otto Warmbier filed a claim for a North Korean cargo ship that was seized by the US in May, noting the asset could be used to pay off part of the family's $500 million judgment against the country. In December, a federal judge awarded the Warmbier family more than half a billion dollars in a wrongful death suit against the North Korean government. North Korea never engaged in settlement discussions, according to the new filing, "Hence, the Warmbiers are left to chase down the assets of North Korea to recover what they can for the torture and death of their son at the hands of North Korea's dictator, who with "his cronies, show(s) no regard for human life.""
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/05/politics/warmbier-claim-north-korean-cargo-ship/index.html

Trump Considers Illegal Executive Order To Add Citizenship Question To The Census
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/president-trump-considers-illegal-executive-order-add-citizenship-question-census