Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Everyone’s welcome here, no special handshake required. Just check your meta at the door.
Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Breakfast News
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Palestinians declare ‘Day of Rage’ as Kerry pushes cease-fire
Amid a new U.S.-backed push for a cease-fire, Israeli forces pounded targets across the Gaza Strip early Friday, including the home of at least one senior militant leader, while security in the West Bank and Jerusalem was heavy after a night of Palestinian protests.
As the Israeli offensive against the militant group Hamas entered its 18th day, the Palestinian death toll reached 815 people, most of them civilians, Palestinian officials said. Thirty-two Israeli soldiers have been killed, along with three civilians on the Israeli side, one of them a foreign worker from Thailand.
Israel and Hamas were both reported to be weighing a call for a humanitarian truce of at least five days put forth by U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who has shuttled around the region this week in a bid to stem the fighting. A previous Egyptian-authored cease-fire plan last week was accepted by Israel but rejected by Hamas.
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Poland ‘helped in CIA rendition’, European Court rules
Poland broke the European human rights convention in helping the CIA to render two terror suspects, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.
The judges said Poland had co-operated with the secret illegal transfers in 2002-2003, allowing two suspects to be interrogated on its territory.
It is the first such case concerning a CIA “black site” prison in Poland.
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ISIS destroys ‘Jonah’s tomb’ in Mosul
The radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group has destroyed shrines belonging to two prophets, highly revered by both Christians and Muslims, in the northern city of Mosul, al-Sumaria News reported Thursday.
“ISIS militants have destroyed the Prophet Younis (Jonah) shrine east of Mosul city after they seized control of the mosque completely,” a security source, who kept his identity anonymous, told the Iraq-based al-Sumaria News.
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Sudan woman sentenced to death for being Christian meets Pope Francis
Pope Francis met privately Thursday with a Sudanese woman who refused to recant her Christian faith in the face of a death sentence, blessing the woman as she cradled her infant born just weeks ago in prison.
The Vatican characterized the visit with Meriam Ibrahim, 27, her husband and their two small children as “very affectionate.”
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Amazon Loss Widens, CEO Alarms Investors With Spending Pace
Jeff Bezos is testing the patience of investors after Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) missed analysts’ estimates for a second straight quarter, sending shares tumbling 11 percent.
The world’s largest online retailer yesterday reported a second-quarter loss of $126 million, more than double what was predicted, even as sales climbed 23 percent to $19.3 billion. Expenses jumped 24 percent to $19.4 billion.
Amazon remains one of the most highly valued companies in the U.S., yet the business is losing some of its sheen as profits are dragged down by investments that Bezos, the co-founder and chief executive officer, is making in cloud computing, warehouses and gadgets such as the new Fire smartphone. While shareholders have been patient, they’re increasingly seeking signs that the long-term strategy will work.
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Army War College Starts Plagiarism Inquiry of Senator John Walsh’s Thesis
The United States Army War College determined in a preliminary review on Thursday that Senator John Walsh of Montana appeared to have plagiarized his final paper to earn a master’s degree from the institution, and it sent a letter to the senator instructing him that an investigative panel will meet next month to conclusively assess any culpability.
“It’s clear there is indeed strong reason to believe this is plagiarism,” said the War College’s provost, Lance Betros, a retired brigadier general. “We are initiating academic review procedures.”
Dr. Betros said he made the decision after he and another member of the War College’s staff read Mr. Walsh’s 14-page paper and used an online plagiarism detection program to review the document.
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Tears, songs and sermons filled a Brooklyn church Wednesday as grief-stricken family and friends, along with politicians and civil rights leaders, said final goodbyes to Eric Garner, who died on a city street after an NYPD cop put him in a banned chokehold.
Garner’s teenage daughter brought sobs from the crowd as she sang Mariah Carey’s ballad “Hero” to her father, followed by an emotional gospel tune from his 90-year-old aunt.
His wife, Esaw (Pinky) Garner, and their children arrived in a stretch limo about 5:30 p.m. with a police escort. Garner’s mother traveled behind them in her own stretch limo.
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Family feud sparks revolt at grocery store chain
It’s been called a David vs. Goliath story, a “Tale of Two Arthurs” and even the “ultimate Greek tragedy,” but the characters in this drama are not Biblical or literary figures. They’re grocery store owners.
A workers’ revolt at the Market Basket supermarket chain has led to empty store shelves, angry customers and support for a boycott from more than 100 state legislators and mayors.
Industry analysts say worker revolts at non-union companies are rare, but what’s happening at Market Basket is particularly unusual because the workers are not asking for higher pay or better benefits. They are demanding the reinstatement of beloved former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, who workers credit with keeping prices low, treating employees well and guiding the company’s success.
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Earth’s 6th mass extinction begins
A study has revealed the early stages of Earth’s 6th mass extinction event, for which human activities are being held responsible.
The biologists from Stanford University have cautioned that, since 1500, more than 320 terrestrial vertebrates had become extinct and the populations of the remaining species showed a 25 percent average decline in abundance.
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U.S. court upholds FDA animal feed policy despite health concern
A divided federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy allowing the use of various antibiotics in animal feed, even if such use might endanger the public health.
Reversing a lower court ruling, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said the FDA was empowered to reject two citizen challenges to its policy, which discourages but does not ban the use of penicillin and some tetracyclines in feed for chickens, cows and pigs, even if they are not sick.
Critics and some scientists say the prolonged, widespread use of the feed to promote weight gain in animals can foster “superbugs,” exposing humans who contact or eat the animals to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They said the FDA should have followed through on its 1977 proposal to ban the feed entirely.
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Breakfast Tunes
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Stupid Shit by LaEscapee
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