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. 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
First victim dies in post-Sept. 11th anthrax scare; VP candidates spar over JFK; The Beatles release ‘Love Me Do’; ‘Monty Python’ premieres; Baseball’s Barry Bonds tops single-season runs record.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
A wonderful thing about true laughter is that it just destroys any kind of system of dividing people.
Breakfast News
Afghan hospital bombing: MSF labels US airstrike a war crime as it withdraws staff
Médecins Sans Frontières has pulled its staff out of the crisis-hit Afghan city of Kunduz after a US airstrike on its hospital, labelled a war crime by the group.
MSF says 22 people were killed by the bombing, which Afghan officials now claim was in retaliation for fire from Taliban fighters hiding in the hospital. The president, Barack Obama, announced on Sunday he was launching a full investigation into the circumstances.
In a robust rejection of the allegation that Taliban fighters were sheltering in the hospital grounds, the MSF general director, Christopher Stokes, said: “Not a single member of our staff reported any fighting inside the MSF hospital compound prior to the US airstrike on Saturday morning.
Isis blows up Arch of Triumph in 2,000-year-old city of Palmyra
Islamic State militants have blown up the Arch of Triumph, a major monument in the 2,000-year-old Roman city of Palmyra, said Syria’s antiquities chief, after the group destroyed two ancient temples at the central Syrian site in recent months.
Maamoun Abdulkarim told Reuters on Sunday that sources in Palmyra had confirmed that the arch, a jewel in the exquisite collection of ruins in the oasis city, had been blown up.
Isis militants blew up temples at the Roman-era Unesco world heritage site, which it has controlled since capturing Palmyra from Syrian government forces in May, and mined other monuments and historic buildings. The group considers the buildings sacrilegious.
Bashar al-Assad: failure to beat Isis will ‘destroy Middle East’
Failure in Syria’s campaign against Islamic State – backed by its loyal friends Russia and Iran – would mean the “destruction” of the Middle East, Bashar al-Assad warned on Sunday as Moscow launched airstrikes against rebel targets for the fifth consecutive day. [..]
Assad, sounding confident, said he was optimistic because pressure was growing on the “governments which support terrorism” and because of Vladimir Putin’s decision to form “a coalition which includes Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria”. Calls for him to leave office or bow out after serving in a transitional government “mean nothing to us,” he insisted. Only the Syrian people could decide who would govern them.
Baghdad’s Green Zone open to public for first time in 12 years
Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, on Sunday announced that Baghdad’s Green Zone was open to the public for the first time in 12 years, albeit with many remaining restrictions.
The roughly 10-square-kilometre (four-square-mile) heavily fortified area in the heart of Baghdad is home to the country’s top political institutions and embassies. [..]
The measure offers limited access to the vast area, with most streets still requiring a special badge, but it is likely to be popular nonetheless and ease traffic congestion.
The International Zone of Baghdad was already the seat of government power under former president Saddam Hussein and became known as the Green Zone after the 2003 US-led invasion.
Obama declares state of emergency in South Carolina over floods
While spared the full fury of Hurricane Joaquin, parts of the US east coast still saw record-setting rain on Saturday that shut down roads, waterlogged crops and showed little sign of letting up.
Much of the drenching was centered on the Carolinas, but coastal communities as far away as New Jersey were feeling the effects of unrelenting rainfall. Rain and flood warnings remained in effect for many parts of the east coast through Sunday.
President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in South Carolina and ordered federal aid to help state and local efforts.
Downtown Charleston was closed to incoming traffic as rain flooded roads and left some motorists stranded as flood waters engulfed their cars. At least two bridges were washed out in other parts of the state.
French Riviera floods leave 16 dead and trail of destruction
A family of three were reportedly among 16 people killed when torrential rain across the French Riviera sparked flash floods that upturned cars, submerged whole streets and inundated homes.
Witnesses on Sunday described how driving “horizontal rain” struck the Côte d’Azur – a record 107mm fell in Cannes in just one hour – along with hailstones the size of ice cubes.
Burst riverbanks sent torrents of water pouring through French towns in the area as a combination of lightning and water damage knocked out elecriticity to tens of thousands of homes.
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Must Read Blog Posts
One Day After Warning Russia of Civilian Casualties, the U.S. Bombs a Hospital in Afghanistan Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept
More Evidence We’ve Reached a “Peak Water” Tipping Point in California Gaius Publius, naked capitalism
ObamaCare’s Open Enrollment Period to Begin, Faces Challenge of Selling to Those Who’ve Done the Math Lambert Strether, naked capitalism
Blue state Republicans can’t even take credit for their states’ low murder rates now digby, Hullabaloo
France’s Government Aims to Give Itself-and the NSA-Carte Blanche to Spy on the World Danny O’Brien, Electronic Frontier Foundation
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Your Moment of Zen
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