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
Ranger 7 beams lunar pictures; France’s Marquis de Lafayette makes his name in the American Revolution; Thomas Eagleton withdraws as George McGovern’s running mate; Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the clergy.
Breakfast News
IMF will refuse to join Greek bailout until debt relief demands are met
The International Monetary Fund will refuse to participate in a new bailout for Greece until there is an “explicit and concrete agreement” on debt relief from the country’s eurozone creditors, an IMF official has confirmed.
Without the IMF’s involvement, Greece’s eurozone partners will have to find more funds to meet Athens’ short-term financing needs, raising questions about whether the outline €86bn (£60bn) bailout thrashed out earlier this month will prove workable.
As the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, battled to win the backing of his radical Syriza party for the austerity programme demanded by the rest of the eurozone, an IMF official, speaking from Washington, said the fund would not get involved until there is “an explicit and concrete agreement between Greece and its eurozone partners on how to provide debt relief”.
The IMF insisted that it also expects tough economic reforms from Athens in return for a reduction in its debt burden. “There is a need for difficult decisions on both sides. One should not be under the illusion that just one side can fix the problem,” the official said.
German government accuses news website of treason over leaks
Germany has opened a treason investigation into a news website a broadcaster said had reported on plans to increase state surveillance of online communications.
German media said it was the first time in more than 50 years journalists had faced treason charges, and some denounced the move as an attack on the freedom of the press.
“The federal prosecutor has started an investigation on suspicion of treason into the articles … published on the internet blog Netzpolitik.org,” a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office said.
She added the move followed a criminal complaint by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), over articles about the BfV that appeared on the website on 25 February and 15 April. It said the articles had been based on leaked documents.
Google says non to French demand to expand right to be forgotten worldwide
Google has rejected the French data protection authority’s demand that it censor search results worldwide in order to comply with the European Court of Justice’s so-called right to be forgotten ruling.
The company’s rejection of the ruling could see its French subsidiary facing daily fines, although no explicit sanction has yet been declared.
The ruling, made in May 2014, requires the search engine to remove links to pages that “appear to be inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant or excessive … in the light of the time that had elapsed”. Even accurate data that has been lawfully published initially can, the court said, “in the course of time become incompatible with the directive”.
Telecoms lobbyists rail against ‘arbitrary and capricious’ net neutrality rules
Telecoms lobbyists have filed a brief in a lawsuit that includes nearly every major industry player demanding that the Washington DC court of appeals vacate net neutrality rules ordered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in February.
Chief among the objections of the United Telecom Association (UTA) is that their members won’t invest as heavily in broadband infrastructure if they’re forced to abide by the new regulations, contravening the FCC’s mandate to encourage investment.
One of the plaintiffs in the joint brief, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, said in a blogpost on Thursday that it had always supported “reasonable” net neutrality. The FCC re-classified internet providers under Title II of the Communications Act, making them common carriers subject to the same regulations as public utilities.
US judge rejects Guantánamo detainee’s unlawful imprisonment challenge
A US judge on Thursday rejected a legal challenge from a Guantánamo Bay detainee who said his imprisonment was unlawful now that President Barack Obama has declared an end to hostilities in Afghanistan.
Muktar Yahya Najee al-Warafi, a Yemeni who was captured in Afghanistan, has been held since 2002 at the prison in Cuba for terror detainees. Judges have upheld his detention on grounds that he likely aided Taliban forces, though his lawyers have said he was simply a medic.
His latest challenge centered on Obama administration statements in the last year indicating that the war in Afghanistan had come to an end. His lawyers said that those assertions made his detention unlawful under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which provided the legal justification for the imprisonment of foreign fighters captured on overseas battlefields. The supreme court stressed in a 2004 opinion, Hamdi v Rumsfeld, that such detention is legal only as long as “active hostilities” continue.
Revised AP history standards will push ‘American exceptionalism’
The board that oversees advanced placement courses for US high school students has revised its US history standards to include a section on “American exceptionalism” after significant backlash from culture conservatives who said the exam wasn’t patriotic enough.
The advanced placement (AP) history framework, revised in 2014, triggered a nationwide debate over how American high schoolers should learn about their nation’s history, pitting conservatives who found the curriculum “anti-American” against teachers and students who rejected the changes as “revisionism”.
In response, the new framework explicitly introduces the concept of “American exceptionalism”, and highlights achievements of US history through this lens. It also includes direct references to the names and roles of the nation’s founding fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin – a flashpoint in the debate. It does, however, maintain roughly the same number of references to slavery as the 2o14 exam.
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Must Read Blog Posts
After Firedoglake Jane Hamsher, FDL
FDL: Looking At Things As They Were; Dreaming Of Things That Never Would Be bmaz, emptywheel
Saudi Arabia Weaponizes Humanitarian Aid In Yemen Catherine Shakdam, FDL
Black Lives Matter Ed Walker, emptywheel
The Rorschach Candidacy of Hillary Clinton Gaius Publius, naked capitalism
New Zealand Prime Minister Admits Drug Prices Will Rise Under TPP — Leaves Out The Part About More People Dying Mike Masnick, Techdirt
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Your Moment of Zen
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