Britney Spears news

• Buzzfeed’s Trump ad ban: Dumping RNC deal just adds fuel to right-wing fire

  06-06-2016 23:11 via salon.com
  
  Donald Trump (Credit: AP/Chris Carlson)
  What’s the most offensive thing Donald Trump has said? Was it insulting Muslims? Mexicans? Women? Mocking John McCain about his capture in Vietnam? Boasting about his anatomy in a presidential debate? His professed interest in weakening libel laws so he could go after critics? Every day seems to bring a new outrage from this guy. A Trump presidency would be a disaster for all kinds of reasons.
  So I can see why BuzzFeed has decided to turn down what i
  
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• WASP caricature Tucker Carlson calls Matt Damon a “pampered actor” on Fox and Friends

  06-06-2016 23:06 via salon.com
  
  “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host and boarding school narc Tucker Carlson on Saturday went off about Matt Damon’s Donald Trump diss during the actor’s commencement address at MIT.
  Carlson called Damon “some pampered actor” before arguing MIT and Harvard (the latter which Damon dropped out of) are “way less impressive than we pretend they are.”
  It being “Fox and Friends,” no one called out Carlson on his hypocrisy.
  It’s worth notin
  
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• “We will overcome”: Trump overrules campaign staff, orders surrogates to ramp up attacks against Trump University judge

  06-06-2016 23:02 via salon.com
  
  Donald Trump (Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder)
  Donald Trump never apologizes. It’s one of his made-up rules written in the “Art of the Deal” and apparently the only guiding principle the blustery political neophyte possess.
  According to a new report from Bloomberg News, Trump is not backing down from his latest controversial comments attacking an Indiana-born federal judge as a “Mexican” who is “inherently biased” against Trump because the presumptive Repub
  
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• Ted Cruz, Chris Christie resist rush of Republican backlash to Trump’s racially charged attacks on judge

  06-06-2016 22:32 via salon.com
  
  (Credit: AP/Reuters/Brendan McDermid/Chris Keane/Kevin Lamarque)
  Donald Trump is beginning to unite the Republican Party. With his nakedly bigoted comments arguing that the the judge presiding over the Trump University scam cases is “inherently bias,” citing his Mexican heritage, the presumptive GOP nominee has managed to unite longtime and newfound conservative supporters from the likes of Newt Gingrich to Paul Ryan in condemnation of his latest controversial remarks.
  “I could
  
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• “He wants to make [Pyke] great again”: Euron Greyjoy is the “Game of Thrones” Donald Trump

  06-06-2016 22:29 via salon.com
  
  Pilou Asbaeck in "Game of Thrones;" Donald Trump (Credit: HBO/Reuters/Kamil Krzaczynski)
  Actor Pilou Asbaek, who plays Euron Greyjoy in “Game of Thrones,” explained to The Hollywood Reporter his character’s likeness to GOP nominee Donald Trump.
  Greyjoy showed up in Pyke a few weeks ago to off his brother, Ironborn king Balon Greyjoy, and stand against Balon’s daughter Yara in the Kingsmoot, the ritual election of the ruler of the Iron Islands. Despite a rousing endor
  
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• WATCH: CNN anchor reads gut-wrenching letter from Stanford rape survivor on air

  06-06-2016 20:47 via salon.com
  
  (Credit: CNN)
  CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield dedicated a significant portion of her show on Monday to voicing the gut-wrenching account from convicted rapist and former Stanford swimmer Brock Allen Turner’s victim.
  On her show “Legal View,” Banfield read aloud the 13-page victim impact statement from the now 23-year-old raped by Brock behind a dumpster on Stanford’s campus.
  “For a while, I believed that that was all I was. I had to force myself to rele
  
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• A Clinton-Warren ticket gets closer to reality: Progressives just might get their original dream candidate

  06-06-2016 20:43 via salon.com
  
  Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren (Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder/AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Photo montage by Salon)
  Before Bernie Sanders’s launched his political revolution, Elizabeth Warren was the progressive dream candidate. A longtime hero on the left, Warren would likely have won the Democratic nomination had she pursued it. But she declined to run, clearing a path for Sanders instead. Now that Clinton is the presumptive nominee, the Democrats have a problem: The liberal wi
  
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• The new McCarthyism is pro-Israel: Legal groups slam NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo for creating “unconstitutional” blacklist of BDS supporters

  06-06-2016 19:45 via salon.com
  
  Andrew Cuomo, Joseph McCarthy (Credit: AP/Richard Drew/William J. Smith)
  Legislators in states throughout the U.S. are trying to push through pro-Israel bills that would punish Palestinian human rights advocates who endorse boycotts like those organized in order to combat U.S.-backed apartheid in South Africa.
  Legal groups have long warned that this legislation amounts to “21st-century McCarthyism” and would create discriminatory “blacklists” of Palestinian solidarity act
  
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• Rates fall at weekly US Treasury bill auction

  06-06-2016 19:44 via salon.com
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in Monday’s auction to their lowest levels in three weeks.
  The Treasury Department auctioned $31 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.285 percent, down from 0.340 percent last week. Another $26 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.430 percent, down from 0.475 percent last week.
  The three-month rate was the lowest since those bills averaged 0.275 percent on May 16. The six-mo
  
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• Debate surrounds how to save Mexico’s vaquita porpoise

  06-06-2016 19:39 via salon.com
  MEXICO CITY (AP) — A new report on Mexico’s endangered vaquita marina porpoise says authorities may have to consider trapping some of the few remaining specimens to try to breed them in captivity or semi-captivity.
  The vaquita is the world’s smallest porpoise, and only around 60 remain in the Gulf of California, the only place in the world they live.
  The report by the International Commission for the Recovery of the Vaquita says offsite — “ex situ” — con
  
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• Indiana sees 70 percent surge in syphilis cases in 1 year

  06-06-2016 19:27 via salon.com
  INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s syphilis cases surged 70 percent in a single year, a state health official said Monday, urging health care providers to aggressively test patients for the sexually transmitted disease.
  Indiana’s primary, secondary and early latent syphilis cases rose from 297 in 2014 to 505 in 2015, the health department said.
  Indiana isn’t alone in seeing a spike in the bacterial disease that’s spread by direct, skin-to-skin contact during unprotected
  
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• ‘Ninja Turtles’ sequel kicks ‘X-Men’ from top of box office

  06-06-2016 19:24 via salon.com
  LOS ANGELES (AP) — The “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” sequel “Out of the Shadows” dethroned “X-Men: Apocalypse” at the box office in its opening weekend, but its victory, like its characters, was half-shelled.
  The $35.3 million that the “Turtles” brought in amounted to nearly half the earnings of the first film’s opening weekend.
  “X-Men: Apocalypse” fell to second place with $22.8 million, bringing its domestic total to $117
  
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• Obama honors Super Bowl champion Broncos at White House

  06-06-2016 19:12 via salon.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is honoring the Denver Broncos at the White House Monday for winning the Super Bowl, the team had one of the best defenses of all time and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time in Peyton Manning.
  Obama says the Broncos won a record 11 games by a touchdown or less. He says teams can’t do that without a great defense.
  A huge Chicago Bears fan, the president felt obliged to mention that franchise’s defense from the 1985 Super Bowl ch
  
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• Intense or dirty? Draymond Green walking line in NBA Finals

  06-06-2016 19:06 via salon.com
  OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — He flexes his muscles and he barks at the crowd. He blocks shots and he kicks opponents. He hits 3s and he devours rebounds.
  Draymond Green has had his fingerprints — and shoe prints — all over these NBA Finals as his Golden State Warriors have dominated the first two games of their highly anticipated rematch against Cleveland.
  LeBron James and the Cavaliers have used all their defensive energy trying to keep Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson from beating t
  
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• John Oliver buys and forgives $15 million in debt

  06-06-2016 18:59 via salon.com
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Some 9,000 people stuck with delinquent medical bills had their debts forgiven courtesy of HBO host John Oliver.
  Oliver, on his “Last Week Tonight” program Sunday, took the action to illustrate a story about the practices of companies that purchase the records of debtors and attempt to collect on them. The show set up its own company to acquire $15 million worth of debt owed to hospitals in Texas, paying $60,000.
  Oliver added a little show-biz flair, pressing a
  
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• Trump campaign wasting precious time, GOP critics say

  06-06-2016 18:56 via salon.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is wasting precious time.
  By now, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was supposed to have stationed senior staff in battleground states, moderated his fiery message to attract new supporters and begun raking in big money.
  Instead, he’s spending more time right now picking fights and settling scores than delivering a message that might help draw voters.
  Five long weeks since he defeated his last remaining GOP rival, Republicans fear the New
  
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• Long ordeal for Seattle worker who exposed veteran’s fraud

  06-06-2016 18:55 via salon.com
  
  SEATTLE (AP) — A federal employee in Seattle helped expose a fraud in which an Army veteran lied his way to a Purple Heart and hundreds of thousands of dollars in government benefits.
  Her reward?
  The agency Cristina Jackson works for repeatedly tried to punish her for what it said were violations of the man’s privacy, according to an AP review of hundreds of pages of personnel and investigative records.
  U.S. Commerce Department officials proposed suspending her for at least a month &
  
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• Dad of ex-Stanford swimmer says son has paid price for rape

  06-06-2016 18:47 via salon.com
  PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — The father of a former Stanford University swimmer who received six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman ignited more outrage over the case by saying his son already has paid a steep price for “20 minutes of action.”
  Dan Turner said in a letter to the judge that the conviction of his son, Brock Turner, on three felony sexual assault charges has shattered the 20-year-old, who has lost his appetite and will never be his happy-go-luc
  
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• Advocates urge feds to investigate Virginia inmate death

  06-06-2016 18:45 via salon.com
  RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Advocates are urging federal officials to investigate the death of a 24-year-old mentally ill inmate at a Virginia jail.
  Representatives from the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Virginia, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and other groups sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department on Monday calling for an investigation into Jamycheal Mitchell’s death.
  Mitchell died in a jail cell last August after losing so much weight his heart stopped. His
  
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• An extra rest day in NBA Finals seems timely for Cavaliers

  06-06-2016 18:38 via salon.com
  
  CLEVELAND (AP) — Under the long-used former NBA Finals format, Game 3 of this Golden State-Cleveland matchup would have been played Tuesday night.
  Not this year, thanks to an extra rest day.
  And the Cavaliers are probably celebrating that.
  The Eastern Conference champions need as much time as they can get to try to figure out a way back into these finals. They’ve used LeBron James as a ballhandler and as a center, they’ve played at different speeds, they’ve tried differen
  
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• Theft of his bike spurred Muhammad Ali to learn how to box

  06-06-2016 18:27 via salon.com
  
  In “Muhammad Ali: Athlete of the Century,” a collection of Associated Press stories and visuals, AP reporters and photographers captured the life of the boxing champion as he made news in the sports world and far beyond. The following is an excerpt from the book, http://www.ap.org/books/muhammad-ali/index.html , in which reporter Bruce Schreiner revisits the fighter’s boyhood neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky, and describes how Ali’s introduction to boxing was spurred
  
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• Audit: Board of Elections lost voting machines, equipment

  06-06-2016 18:12 via salon.com
  NEW YORK (AP) — An audit of the New York City Board of Elections has found officials lost track of more than 1,450 pieces of equipment, including voting machines.
  Democratic Comptroller Scott Stringer on Monday questioned how elections officials can accurately count votes if they can’t keep tabs on their inventory.
  Stringer’s audit examined inventory and other board records over a nearly three-year period, ending last February. It found four voting machines, 45 computers, 127 m
  
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• Former governor says he discussed finding work for speaker

  06-06-2016 16:48 via salon.com
  
  OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) — Former Alabama Gov. Bob Riley testified on Monday that requests the House speaker sent him asking for help finding a job were sometimes serious and sometimes part of a running joke between the two old friends.
  As the state ethics trial for House Speaker Mike Hubbard resumed Monday, a state prosecutor continued to quiz the former governor about the emails in which Hubbard appears to repeatedly ask Riley for a job and lament that a 2010 ethics law would prevent him from
  
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• Ali scripted funeral plans in exacting detail in “The Book”

  06-06-2016 16:39 via salon.com
  LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Muhammad Ali and his innermost circle started a document years ago that grew so thick they began calling it “The Book.”
  Its contents will soon be revealed.
  In the pages, the boxing great planned in exacting detail how he wished to say goodbye.
  “The message that we’ll be sending out is not our message — this was really designed by the champ himself,” said Timothy Gianotti, as Islamic studies scholar who helped for years to plan the
  
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• Stephen Curry won’t be on US Olympic basketball team in Rio

  06-06-2016 16:36 via salon.com
  Stephen Curry has withdrawn from consideration from the Olympics, leaving the U.S. basketball team without the NBA’s MVP.
  Curry said Monday in a statement that he has decided to pull out for “several factors — including recent ankle and knee injuries.”
  He is the highest-profile absence for the two-time defending gold medalists, who will already be without NBA All-Stars Chris Paul and Anthony Davis.
  Curry has won a pair of world titles with the Americans and was a starter
  
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• Tiger Woods to write book on ’97 Masters

  06-06-2016 16:32 via salon.com
  NEW YORK (AP) — Tiger Woods is getting back to work — as an author.
  Woods is writing his second book, which will look back on his historic victory in the 1997 Masters, when he broke 20 records and became the first player of black heritage to win a major championship.
  The book, which does not yet have a title, will be co-written with Canadian golf writer Lorne Rubenstein and be released in hardcover, as an e-book and in audio editions in March, a month before the 20th anniversary of h
  
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• Who, Stones, Bowie made 1971 rock’s best year, says author

  06-06-2016 16:14 via salon.com
  “Never a Dull Moment: 1971-The Year That Rock Exploded” (Henry Holt), by David Hepworth
  If there is a Rock and Roll Hell, an inner circle is devoted for old fans who insist on telling you how the music was so much better back in the day. You know the argument: musicians were more creative, the songs were better, etc.
  David Hepworth, a veteran British music journalist in his mid-60s, has essentially written an entire book making this argument. Specifically, he says 1971 was pretty muc
  
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• UN and 3 global groups highlight election tensions in Congo

  06-06-2016 16:08 via salon.com
  UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations and key organizations in Europe, Africa and the French-speaking world issued a rare joint statement Monday highlighting growing concern at rising political tensions in Congo ahead of elections where some fear President Joseph Kabila may try to stay in power despite being constitutionally barred from a new term.
  The U.N., European Union, African Union and International Organization of La Francophonie underlined “the crucial importance of holdin
  
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• The Latest: Colin’s rains could lead to more Zika problems

  06-06-2016 16:07 via salon.com
  
  A beachgoer gets hit with a large wave associated with winds from tropical storm Colin at Clearwater Beach Monday, June 6, 2016, in Clearwater, Fla. Colin was expected to make landfall somewhere along Florida's gulf coast. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) (Credit: AP)
  TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on Tropical Storm Colin (all times local):
  2 p.m.
  Besides preparing for Tropical Storm Colin and hurricane season, Florida Gov. Rick Scott is also trying to combat a further outbreak of the Zika vi
  
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• Weightlifting fed says 20 presumed positives in retests

  06-06-2016 16:01 via salon.com
  BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The International Weightlifting Federation says it has been notified of 20 positive tests, including medal winners, among the retested doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics
  In a statement sent to The Associated Press, the IWF said Monday it was informed by the International Olympic Committee of 10 cases from the 2008 Beijing Games and 10 from the 2012 London Games.
  It said the Beijing tests were “presumed” positives that still require “B&
  
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• Court: Man’s right to fair trial not violated by shackling

  06-06-2016 15:57 via salon.com
  
  HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Connecticut Supreme Court has upheld the burglary and assault convictions of a man who claimed he was denied a fair trial because the judge ordered him to remain shackled.
  Justices released a 7-0 ruling Monday rejecting Michael Brawley’s appeal.
  The court said the judge should not have ordered the former Waterbury man to remain shackled during trial, but there was no evidence jurors ever saw the shackles. The judge told the Supreme Court that he could not r
  
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• White Atlanta-area ex-cop who shot unarmed, naked, mentally ill black veteran pleads not guilty

  06-06-2016 15:56 via salon.com
  
  ATLANTA (AP) — White Atlanta-area ex-cop who shot unarmed, naked, mentally ill black veteran pleads not guilty.
  
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• American will reward fliers based on dollars, not miles

  06-06-2016 15:54 via salon.com
  
  FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2016, file photo, a passenger talks on the phone as American Airlines jets sit parked at their gates at Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport. American Airlines is giving more details on changes that will reward the highest-paying passengers, not just those who fly the most miles, announcing Monday, June 6, 2016, that beginning on Aug. 1, passengers will earn points based on the price of their ticket. Elite-status members of the AAdvantage loyalty program will earn
  
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• Pharma exec Shkreli pleads not guilty to securities fraud

  06-06-2016 15:53 via salon.com
  NEW YORK (AP) — A pharmaceutical executive who came under fire for jacking up the price of a lifesaving malaria medication has pleaded not guilty to new charges in his securities fraud case.
  Martin Shkreli (SHKREHL’-ee) appeared Monday in federal court in New York City. He declined to speak to reporters as he left the courthouse.
  A revised indictment filed last week alleged Shkreli and his former attorney Evan Greebel schemed to defrauded potential investors of his former drug compan
  
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• Trump schedules fundraisers in New York, Texas

  06-06-2016 15:50 via salon.com
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump plans at least five fundraisers in the coming weeks.
  The cash-raising spree comes as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee builds a financial operation from scratch. The billionaire businessman mostly financed his primary bid through personal loans.
  Trump has booked a June 16 event in Dallas, a June 17 lunch in San Antonio and a June 18 event in Houston, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press.
  Also now scheduled are a June 21 fundraisi
  
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• Victor Korchnoi, Soviet-born chess grandmaster, dead at 85

  06-06-2016 15:41 via salon.com
  GENEVA (AP) — Chess grandmaster Victor Korchnoi, a prominent Soviet defector who saw his citizenship restored by Mikhail Gorbachev in the waning days of the USSR, has died. He was 85.
  The Russian chess federation says Korchnoi died in Switzerland, where he had lived for decades.
  Korchnoi was one of the leading Soviet chess players before defecting in 1976 in the Netherlands. His matches against the official Soviet champion, Anatoly Karpov, became famous as duels on political, psychological
  
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• Kevin Love travels with Cavaliers following concussion

  06-06-2016 15:20 via salon.com
  
  CLEVELAND (AP) — Cavaliers forward Kevin Love has been cleared to travel after suffering a concussion in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
  A team spokesman says in an email that Love, who was injured in the first half of Sunday’s game, was with his teammates Monday on the flight from San Francisco to Cleveland.
  Love was inadvertently struck in the back of his head by Golden State forward Harrison Barnes while fighting for a rebound. Love crumpled to the floor in pain but returned to the game
  
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• ‘Equus’ and ‘Amadeus’ playwright Peter Shaffer dies at 90

  06-06-2016 15:20 via salon.com
  LONDON (AP) — British playwright Peter Shaffer, whose durable, award-winning hits included “Equus” and “Amadeus,” has died. He was 90.
  Shaffer’s agent, Rupert Lord, said the playwright died Monday while on a visit to southwestern Ireland with friends and family.
  Born in Liverpool in 1926, Shaffer made his London and New York stage debut in 1958 with simmering domestic drama “Five Finger Exercise,” directed by John Gielgud. He had a huge hit in 1964
  
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• This is our neoliberal nightmare: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and why the market and the wealthy win every time

  06-06-2016 11:59 via salon.com
  
  Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump (Credit: Reuters/Carlo Allegri/Brendan McDermid/Shutterstock/Salon)
  Over the last fifteen years, editors often asked me not to mention the word “neoliberalism,” because I was told readers wouldn’t comprehend the “jargon.” This has begun to change recently, as the terminology has come into wider usage, though it remains shrouded in great mystery.
  People throw the term around loosely, as they do with “fascism,” with the same c
  
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• GOP’s dangerous Trump gamble: Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan insist that Trump, as president, can be controlled

  06-06-2016 11:59 via salon.com
  
  Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell (Credit: AP/Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/Brynn Anderson/J. Scott Applewhite)
  With House Speaker Paul Ryan’s pathetic and inevitable capitulation to Donald Trump, the presumptive 2016 GOP presidential nominee now has the official backing of the two top Republican elected officials in the country. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, offered his pro forma backing for the Republican nominee over a month ago, immediately after Trump had bounced his la
  
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• The rich should embrace Bernie: America’s plutocrats have much to gain from Sanders’ platform

  06-06-2016 11:58 via salon.com
  
  Bernie Sanders (Credit: Reuters/Michael Fiala)
  Since the Great Recession began almost a decade ago, the growing divide between the richest Americans and everyone else has become increasingly apparent in the United States and around then world. After nearly four decades of neoliberal economic policies — e.g. deregulation, sweeping tax cuts for the wealthy, privatization, free trade deals, etc. — wealth and income inequality have skyrocketed from reco
  
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• Why the donor class still matters: An exclusive look at the insidious effects of money in politics

  06-06-2016 11:57 via salon.com
  
  (Credit: MSNBC)
  Over the last decade, the idea that money in politics is less threatening than reformers suggest has marched from hot take to conventional wisdom. The crash-and-burn of Jeb Bush’s heavily funded campaign has led increasing numbers of commentators to declare that the threat of money in politics is either overrated or simply non-existent. But, as I’ve written before, this argument is flawed because it ignores the way that the donor class shapes political constraints. Al
  
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• Megyn Kelly, you’re not fooling anyone: Somehow she’s shocked over Trump’s non-stop racism

  06-06-2016 11:56 via salon.com
  
  Megyn Kelly, Donald Trump (Credit: AP/Andrew Harnik/Reuters/Jim Young/Photo montage by Salon)
  When this election is over and Donald Trump has been banished back to his late-Bourbon-dynasty penthouse, we can only hope that professional conservatives will take stock of their role in enabling his rise and work to correct their mistakes in the future. Based on their performances on a daily basis right now, I am not hopeful.
  Exhibit No. 1 is Megyn Kelly, the Fox News anchor who mysteriously earns pla
  
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• EgyptAir flight crew: Hijacker opposed Egypt’s policies

  06-06-2016 08:41 via salon.com
  NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The lawyer for an Egyptian hijacker says the flight crew of the EgyptAir plane had testified that the man threatened to blow up the aircraft because he was against the Egyptian government.
  Robertos Brahimis told a Cypriot court Monday that both the pilot and the co-pilot had testified in documents supporting Egypt’s request to extradite Seif Eddin Mustafa from Cyprus that he said aboard the Airbus A320 last March that he hijacked the aircraft because he “
  
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• China repeats refusal to abide by South China Sea ruling

  06-06-2016 08:40 via salon.com
  
  A look at some recent key developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in territorial disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential gas and oil reserves:
  ___
  EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a weekly look at the latest key developments in the South China Sea, home to several territorial conflicts that have raised tensions in the region.
  ___
  CHINA WILL REFUSE TO ABIDE BY U.N. ABITRATION PANEL
  
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• Rare militant attack on Jordan security compound kills 5

  06-06-2016 08:28 via salon.com
  
  BAQAA REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan (AP) — Jordan’s government spokesman said a “terrorist attack” on a local office of the national intelligence agency on Monday killed five employees, suggesting Islamic militants were involved.
  Such attacks are relatively rare in Jordan, even though the pro-Western kingdom is on the front line in the military campaign against Islamic State extremists who control large areas of neighboring Syria and Iraq.
  The attack took place before 7 a.m., said
  
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• Ukraine arrests French man for plotting attacks on Euro 2016

  06-06-2016 08:16 via salon.com
  MOSCOW (AP) — Ukraine’s intelligence agency SBU said on Monday it has thwarted a plot to attack soccer’s European Championships in France by arresting a Frenchman who wanted to cross from Ukraine into the European Union armed to the teeth.
  The SBU said in a statement it had followed the man since December and allowed him to purchase five machine guns, two rocket propelled grenades and other weapons before he was arrested on the border between Ukraine and Poland last month.
  The
  
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• Germany President Joachim Gauck says he won’t seek 2nd term

  06-06-2016 08:11 via salon.com
  BERLIN (AP) — German President Joachim Gauck says he won’t seek a second term in 2017 because he is getting too old for the job.
  The 76-year-old said in a short statement Monday that he would complete his five-year term but didn’t feel he was up to another because “the years between 77 and 82 are different than those that I’m in right now.”
  Germany’s president performs a largely ceremonial role that has little executive power, but is considered an import
  
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• In Istanbul, drummers keep ancient Ramadan tradition alive

  06-06-2016 08:05 via salon.com
  
  ISTANBUL (AP) — In the dark of night, when the streets of Istanbul enjoy a rare moment of quiet, Ali Buldu sets out beating his drum to wake up his neighborhood. For most, Buldu’s passing is a welcomed sign that the Muslim month of fasting and prayer has begun.
  The 55-year-old decked in traditional Ottoman attire has been making these pre-dawn Ramadan rounds for half of his life. It’s a tradition he treasures, just like his forefathers did, and one that he is trying to pass on
  
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• Vietnamese police break up protest over fish deaths

  06-06-2016 07:57 via salon.com
  HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Police in Vietnam’s capital have broken up a protest over what critics charge is the government’s delayed response to massive fish deaths which they believe are linked to industrial pollution.
  A protester, Le Hoang, said more than 30 people marched peacefully in downtown Hanoi for about 15 minutes on Sunday before most were taken to police stations in two buses. He said they were held for several hours and then released without charge.
  Thousands of dead fi
  
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