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
Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz and Birkenau; Peace accords signed ending US military role in Vietnam; 3 US astronauts die in Apollo One fire; Mozart born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
Breakfast News
Oregon militia standoff: One dead after Ammon Bundy and others arrested
An associate of the armed Oregon militia occupying a wildlife refuge was shot dead on Tuesday after a shootout with federal agents that resulted in the arrest of the group’s leader Ammon Bundy and a group of protesters.
The shootout appears to have taken place on a highway in rural Oregon – away from the federal refuge the armed militia have been occupying.
FBI officials said they arrested Bundy, his brother Ryan Bundy, Bryan Cavalier, Shawna Cox and Ryan Payne on Tuesday afternoon after they stopped them along the highway.
The agency described the shootout and arrests as resulting from “an enforcement action to bring into custody a number of individuals associated with the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge” that occurred at 4.25pm PST.
It is was not clear how many rounds were exchanged during the incident.
Doomsday Clock stuck near midnight due to climate change and nuclear war
The Doomsday Clock, the symbolic countdown to humanity’s end, remained stuck on the brink of the apocalypse for a second year on Tuesday, because of the continued existential threats posed by nuclear war and climate change.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the group which created the clock in 1947, said it was keeping the clock hands set at three minutes to midnight – the closest the clock has come to destruction since the throes of the cold war in 1984.
“The clock ticks now at just three minutes to midnight because international leaders are failing to perform their most important duty,” the scientists said.
The ominous forecast was imposed despite two major diplomatic accomplishments last year: the Iranian nuclear deal and the historic Paris agreement to fight climate change.
Danish parliament approves plan to seize assets from refugees
European states have reacted in some of the most drastic ways yet to the continent’s biggest migration crisis since the second world war, with Denmark enacting a law that allows police to seize refugees’ assets.
The vote in the Danish parliament on Tuesday, which followed similar moves in Switzerland and southern Germany, came as central European leaders amplified calls to seal the borders of the Balkans, a move that would risk trapping thousands of asylum seekers in Greece.
Under the new Danish law, police will be allowed to search asylum seekers on arrival in the country and confiscate any non-essential items worth more than 10,000 kroner (£1,000) that have no sentimental value to their owner.
The centre-right government said the procedure is intended to cover the cost of each asylum seeker’s treatment by the state, and mimics the handling of Danish citizens on welfare.
Canada to lift sanctions against Iran, foreign affairs minister says
Canada will follow the US and EU lead and lift sanctions against Iran, foreign affairs minister Stephane Dion said Tuesday.
Responding to questions in the House of Commons, Dion said: “Canada will remove those sanctions.”
“We will change this policy,” he said, noting the sanctions were “not good” for anyone.
No timeline was given.
The announcement comes weeks after a deal reached between Tehran and world powers came into force, allowing the United States and the European Union to begin lifting economic barriers brought in over Iran’s nuclear program.
Apple’s iPhone sales are flatlining, the tech company said on Tuesday, as it announced a sharp slowdown in sales growth for its top-selling mobile device.
The company sold 74.8m of its flagship devices in the final three months of 2015, below analysts’ expectations. In the same period in 2014 the company sold 74.46m iPhones, meaning sales were essentially flat.
Sales of the iPhone account for about two-thirds of Apple’s revenues, which worries some investors. “Apple is a one-product company,” declared Berenberg’s Adnaand Ahmad last year, when the German bank downgraded the company’s stock to “sell”.
Apple posted record quarterly revenues of $75.9bn and record quarterly profits of $18.4bn, but warned the revenues would fall this quarter.
Breakfast Blogs
Donald Trump Is Not the Biggest Extremist of the 2016 Campaign Charles Pierce, Esquire Poltics
Harvey Hollins Is Supposed to Be Leading Flint Response but Snyder Sent Richard Baird Instead emptywheel aka Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel
U.S. Air Force Veteran, Smeared as “an ISIS Fighter,” Just Returned to the U.S. Glen Greenwald and Murtaza Husain, The Intercept
D.C. Bar Goes After Whistleblower Who Exposed Warrantless Wiretapping Kevin Gosztola, ShadowProof
If You Use An Adblocker You Hate Free Speech, Says Internet Ads Guy Timothy Geigner, Techdirt