June 3, 2019

AP Was There: Allied troops land in Normandy on D-Day

By DON WHITEHEAD today

WITH AMERICAN FORCES IN FRANCE (AP) — This story was first published on June 8, 1944, after AP journalist Don Whitehead, who became known by his colleagues as “Beachhead Don,” landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day with the 1st Infantry Division. His story was delayed by more than a day as the Army’s communication system for the war correspondents broke down, and journalists weren’t able to get the news out for more than 28 hours. The AP is republishing Whitehead’s original report to mark the 75th anniversary of the assault that began the liberation of France and Europe from German occupation, leading to the end World War II.

Fighting as American troops did in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy, doughboys have smashed through the outer crust of Hitler’s fortress in a gallant display of courage and skill.

Never before has an army attempted to land such vast numbers of men and materials in such a short time, but the job is being done after a shaky start.

When we landed behind the assault troops the enemy still was pouring a heavy machine-gun mortar and artillery fire into the boats as they drove ashore and had our troops pinned behind a gravel bank just above the water’s edge.

Supplies Pile Up

https://apnews.com/10949d14fdc14f5dbb4229c2168b2cd6

June 3, 2019

The Russian government demanded access to everybody's Tinder user data in case its spies want to tak

Source: Business Insider

Bill Bostock
0m

Russia's internet censorship body has put Tinder on a list of companies who have to share their user data with the Kremlin.

This means the FSB, Russia's main security agency, could be privy to the personal information of the app's more than 50 million users worldwide — not just in Russia.

Tinder could refuse, which other internet companies have done. It did not respond to a request for comment.

Russia has recently intensified efforts to monitor the internet; it banned encrypted messaging app Telegram in May 2018, and in May 2019 it began creating a closed-off internet just for Russia.

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-demands-access-tinder-fsb-2019-6

---

-snip-

Over 50% of Russians said they are against the new internet proposals when asked, the state-funded VTsIOM pollster found.


I know the elections are rigged in that country, but did they not see this coming with this asshole, back in the day, he's a fucking intelligence asshole, that wants to make Russia the Soviet motherland, and turn it into what China is now doing.......................

June 2, 2019

German government wobbles after Social Democrat leader quits

Source: Associated Press

By FRANK JORDANS 46 minutes ago

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Sunday to continue with her government after the leader of the center-left Social Democrats, a junior partner in the coalition, resigned following a series of disappointing election results.

In a surprise announcement hours earlier, Andrea Nahles had announced she planned to quit, saying she wanted “clarity” after questions were raised about her ability to lead the Social Democrats. The party finished third in last month’s European Parliament election, receiving 15.8% of the vote behind Merkel’s center-right Union bloc with 28.9% and the Greens with 20.5%.

“The necessary support for me to carry out my duties isn’t there anymore,” Nahles said in a statement. The 48-year-old said she would be stepping down from her post as chairwoman of the Social Democrats and leader of its parliamentary faction in the coming days to ensure that her successors are found “in an orderly fashion.”

Merkel voiced respect for Nahles’ decision, calling her a “fine character” who she had worked with closely over the years.

Read more: https://apnews.com/c487655ac9c54d448b8d1f7c683562bf

June 2, 2019

D-Day's 24 hours changed 20th century, and Europe, forever

By RAF CASERT today

ON OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) — All at once, Charles Shay tried to stanch the bleeding from a ripped-open stomach, dull the pain with morphine and soothe the mind of a dying fellow American army medic. It was a tall order for a 19-year-old who had just set foot on the European mainland for the first time.

But nothing could have prepared him for what happened on June 6, 1944, on five cold, forbidding beaches in northern France. It was D-Day, one of the most significant 24-hour periods of the 20th century, the horrifying tipping point in World War II that defined the future of Europe.

That morning, Shay could not yet fathom what the event would ultimately mean. He was more concerned with the bleeding soldiers, body parts and corpses strewn around him, and the machine-gun fire and shells that filled the air.

“You have to realize my vision of the beach was very small. I could only experience what I could see,” he told The Associated Press, speaking from the now-glimmering Omaha Beach, where he landed 75 years ago.

https://apnews.com/62b669483d924bb9ba03beffa27680ed

-snip-

All these decades later, he is back at the same shores, walking across the immaculate lawns covered with white gravestones and pondering the sacrifice.

“Oh, yes. Definitely it was worth it,” he said. “It was a rogue regime that was trying to take over the world, and the people had to be stopped.”

June 2, 2019

This Tuesday, a US Federal Court May Decide the Fate of the Climate

By
Katie Eder,
Truthout

Published
June 1, 2019

We need to talk about Juliana v. United States. Twenty-one young people are suing the federal government from causing climate change and every person in this country should know about it. It is the landmark case of the climate movement so far, and it has the potential to dramatically accelerate the U.S.’s role in containing the climate crisis. The case has a critical hearing coming up on June 4, and we need your support.

Over the last few months, the world has watched as young people in the United States and across the world have found their voice in a way no generation ever has before. We are in the midst of a climate emergency, and now young people, who will be more affected than any other generation, are refusing to sit by as our futures are destroyed around us. We are striking, we are rallying and we are voting in record numbers. And it’s because we understand the destruction is already underway: the planet is warming, sea levels are rising, and natural disasters are happening more intensely and more frequently than ever before.

Despite knowing all of this, we have hope. But we also understand clearly that the only way we’re going to see change is if we demand it. That is what is unfolding before everyone’s eyes in the streets and in the media right now.

We are building a national and global movement of young people who are standing up for our right to a future safe from climate catastrophe. And while the world is only just starting to hear about us, our growing movement has been building now for many years. True social movements, ones that make real and lasting change, happen when there is infrastructure in place to sustain them. This isn’t just about one day of striking, or one sit-in a politician’s office. This is a multilayered, decentralized and rapidly growing climate revolution.

https://truthout.org/articles/this-tuesday-a-us-federal-court-may-decide-the-fate-of-the-climate/

-snip-

Then on June 4, the day of the hearing, people across the country can visit

IAmJuliana.org for a livestream to follow the case’s developments as they unfold.

This day, this hearing, is one to pay attention to. We are watching history in the making, and you will want to be part of it.

June 2, 2019

Mulvaney: Trump is 'deadly serious' about Mexico tariffs

Published 1 min ago on June 2, 2019

By Agence France-Presse

Donald Trump stepped up his attacks on Mexico over immigration Sunday as a top aide warned that the US president is “deadly serious” about slapping tariffs on imports from the southern neighbor.

The attacks came despite efforts at conciliation by Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who said Saturday US officials were willing to “reach agreements and compromises.”

“People have been saying for years that we should talk to Mexico. The problem is that Mexico is an ‘abuser’ of the United States, taking but never giving,” Trump said in a series of tweets Sunday.

Unless Mexico stops the “invasion,” he warned, he would use tariffs to bring back “companies and jobs that have been foolishly allowed to move South of the Border.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/06/mulvaney-trump-is-deadly-serious-about-mexico-tariffs/

June 2, 2019

Hungarians protest over government overhaul of academic bodies

Source: Reuters

World News
June 2, 2019 / 11:47 AM / Updated 18 minutes ago

Marton Dunai 4 Min Read

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarians took to the streets of central Budapest on Sunday to protest plans to overhaul the country’s leading scientific research body, which they see as part of a wider government attempt to curb academic freedom.

Right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who took power in 2010, has tightened controls over public life, including the courts, the media, universities and scientific research, putting him on a collision course with the European Union.

In its latest move, the government has said it plans to strip the 200 year-old Hungarian Academy of Sciences of its network of research institutions and hand over their buildings and assets to a new governing council. News website Index.hu reported on Tuesday that the government was now drawing up draft legislation for the plan.

The academy said on Wednesday that the government wanted “total political control” of vital research.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-scientists-protests/hungarians-protest-over-government-overhaul-of-academic-bodies-idUSKCN1T30KE?il=0

---

-snip-

While popular protests and diplomatic problems accompanied most of those moves, including a massive march of several tens of thousands of people in support of CEU two years ago, the government ultimately has gone ahead with its plans.

CEU was one of the main issues that led to the ruling Fidesz party’s suspension in the European People’s Party, a pan-Europe party, which has moved to isolate Orban and Fidesz as they drift further to the nationalist populist fringes of European politics.