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from BBC News (UK)
Dame Vera Lynn: Spitfire flypast marks funeral
Two Spitfires flew over the funeral procession of Dame Vera Lynn as family, friends and fans said goodbye to the Forces' Sweetheart. Her cortege was accompanied by the Battle of Britain flypast as it travelled through Ditchling in East Sussex at midday. Dame Vera died last month at the age of 103 and her funeral was held at Woodvale Crematorium in Brighton. The World War Two fighter planes made three passes over the village. ... The singer was best known for performing hits such as We'll Meet Again to troops on the front line. Dame Vera, who had sold more than a million records by the age of 22, was also remembered for singing The White Cliffs Of Dover, There'll Always Be An England, I'll Be Seeing You, Wishing and If Only I Had Wings.
European hamster added to 'critically endangered' list
You might want to hold Mr Snuffles extra tight tonight, because European hamsters have been added to a list of critically endangered animals. They are among the new additions to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) "red list". European hamsters are a much larger relative of Syrian or dwarf hamsters that are kept widely as pets.
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from Bloomberg
Media/News Company
China Signals Shrimp Virus Risk After Salmon Debacle
China said a handful of packaging samples of imported shrimp tested positive for the coronavirus, raising questions again over whether the pathogen can spread through food or frozen products. The virus tested positive on the outside of about five shrimp packages and the inside of one shipping container, said China’s General Administration of Customs. The samples were from three Ecuadorian plants, and imports from those processors will be halted, it said. A leading Ecuadorian shrimp exporter disputed the findings.
China Signals Shrimp Virus Risk After Salmon Debacle
China said a handful of packaging samples of imported shrimp tested positive for the coronavirus, raising questions again over whether the pathogen can spread through food or frozen products. The virus tested positive on the outside of about five shrimp packages and the inside of one shipping container, said China’s General Administration of Customs. The samples were from three Ecuadorian plants, and imports from those processors will be halted, it said. A leading Ecuadorian shrimp exporter disputed the findings.
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from Catholic News Agency
Hagia Sophia declared a mosque hours after court ruling
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has signed a decree converting Hagia Sophia, the former cathedral of Holy Wisdom in Istanbul, into a mosque. The presidential decree was signed within hours of a court ruling Friday, which declared unlawful an 80-year old government decree which converted the building from a mosque into a museum. Ayasofya Mosque, as it is known in Turkish, will now fall under the supervision of the government’s religious directorate.
________Hagia Sophia declared a mosque hours after court ruling
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has signed a decree converting Hagia Sophia, the former cathedral of Holy Wisdom in Istanbul, into a mosque. The presidential decree was signed within hours of a court ruling Friday, which declared unlawful an 80-year old government decree which converted the building from a mosque into a museum. Ayasofya Mosque, as it is known in Turkish, will now fall under the supervision of the government’s religious directorate.
from CNN
Goya Foods boycott takes off after its CEO praises Trump
The hashtag #Goyaway was trending on social media Friday after Robert Unanue, CEO of Goya Foods, appeared in the White House Rose Garden Thursday afternoon and praised President Donald Trump. "We are all truly blessed ... to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder," Unanue said during the Rose Garden speech. "We have an incredible builder, and we pray. We pray for our leadership, our president." The fact that Unanue would associate with Trump was sufficient to anger some of America's most prominent Hispanic leaders. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested in a tweet that she'd boycott Goya.
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from Daily Mail
Ghislaine Maxwell hadn't spoken to Jeffrey Epstein for a decade before he killed himself and is the victim of a smear campaign, her lawyers claim as they beg for her to be released on $5million bail so she does not catch COVID-19
Ghislaine Maxwell, 58, filed a request for her release on bail Friday. Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend 'vigorously denies' charges against her. Maxwell's lawyers argued she is not a flight risk and is 'not Jeffrey Epstein'. They also said she had not been in contact with pedophile Epstein for more than a decade before he died in a New York prison last year. Filings in a separate lawsuit show Maxwell and Epstein emailed in 2015. Her lawyers deny she was in hiding - something prosecutors allege - and say she 'maintained regular contact' with the federal government since Epstein's arrest. They say she is the victim of a smear campaign of 'open season' from the media. They argue she is at risk of contracting COVID-19 if she stays in the Brooklyn jail. Her request was filed in the US District Court in Manhattan eight days after her arrest at her luxury home in New Hampshire last week.
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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization
Presidential hopeful Joe Biden this week announced he plans to raise $4 trillion by raising taxes “on corporations and the wealthy” to mobilize the US economy.
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from Forbes
A Second Stimulus Check — Congress Has No Choice But To Pass Another Bill
Ever since the passage of the CARES Act back in March, there’s been a growing level of speculation about the possibility of a second stimulus bill. While some Republicans have been downplaying the possibility, the likelihood is growing by the day. It may not be an exaggeration to say that Congress has no choice but to pass a second stimulus bill.
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Goya Foods CEO won't apologize in face of boycott, backlash for pro-Trump remarks: 'Suppression of speech'
Goya Foods President and CEO Bob Unanue said on Friday that he is not backing down in the face of a boycott over his visit to the White House. “We were part of a commission called the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative and they called on us to be there to see how we could help opportunities within the economic and educational realm for prosperity among Hispanics and among the United States,” Unanue told "Fox & Friends". Unanue said that the United States is the second-largest Hispanic country in the world behind Mexico. Politicians and celebrities are boycotting Goya, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the country, after its CEO, Robert Unanue, praised President Donald Trump during an event Thursday at the White House. "We're all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder," said Unanue, who is of Spanish descent, at the event.
CNN called out by former staffers; ex-producer says network has shown ‘lack of self-awareness' in Trump era
Former CNN senior digital producer Steve Krakauer, who now pens the Fourth Watch media newsletter, took Lemon to task in the most recent edition. He became the latest ex-staffer to publicly attack CNN on Friday, when he pointed out a series of recent "embarrassing" moments from Lemon’s show, such as lecturing actor Terry Crews about Black Lives Matter and bursting into laughter when a guest mocked Trump supporters. “It's unfortunate, and it hurts CNN. I enjoyed working with Don, and he has a staff that is full of talented people. But the current dismissiveness of anything resembling dissent on his show – any straying from the company line – makes his program one of the more divisive on CNN, and, frankly, one of the more boring too,” Krakauer wrote.
from Fox News (& affiliates)
Goya Foods CEO won't apologize in face of boycott, backlash for pro-Trump remarks: 'Suppression of speech'
Goya Foods President and CEO Bob Unanue said on Friday that he is not backing down in the face of a boycott over his visit to the White House. “We were part of a commission called the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative and they called on us to be there to see how we could help opportunities within the economic and educational realm for prosperity among Hispanics and among the United States,” Unanue told "Fox & Friends". Unanue said that the United States is the second-largest Hispanic country in the world behind Mexico. Politicians and celebrities are boycotting Goya, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the country, after its CEO, Robert Unanue, praised President Donald Trump during an event Thursday at the White House. "We're all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder," said Unanue, who is of Spanish descent, at the event.
CNN called out by former staffers; ex-producer says network has shown ‘lack of self-awareness' in Trump era
Former CNN senior digital producer Steve Krakauer, who now pens the Fourth Watch media newsletter, took Lemon to task in the most recent edition. He became the latest ex-staffer to publicly attack CNN on Friday, when he pointed out a series of recent "embarrassing" moments from Lemon’s show, such as lecturing actor Terry Crews about Black Lives Matter and bursting into laughter when a guest mocked Trump supporters. “It's unfortunate, and it hurts CNN. I enjoyed working with Don, and he has a staff that is full of talented people. But the current dismissiveness of anything resembling dissent on his show – any straying from the company line – makes his program one of the more divisive on CNN, and, frankly, one of the more boring too,” Krakauer wrote.
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from The Guardian (UK)
LEFT-CENTER, HIGH, British daily newspaper published in London UK
Wild bison to return to UK for first time in 6,000 years
Wild bison are to return to the UK for the first time in 6,000 years, with the release of a small herd in Kent planned for spring 2022. The £1m project to reintroduce the animals will help secure the future of an endangered species. But they will also naturally regenerate a former pine wood plantation by killing off trees. This creates a healthy mix of woodland, scrub and glades, boosting insect, bird and plant life. During the initial release, one male and three females will be set free. Natural breeding will increase the size of the herd, with one calf per year the norm for each female. The bison will come from the Netherlands or Poland, where releases have been successful and safe. Populations of the UK’s most important wildlife have plummeted by an average of 60% since 1970. Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, despite the best efforts of conservationists.
Wild bison to return to UK for first time in 6,000 years
Wild bison are to return to the UK for the first time in 6,000 years, with the release of a small herd in Kent planned for spring 2022. The £1m project to reintroduce the animals will help secure the future of an endangered species. But they will also naturally regenerate a former pine wood plantation by killing off trees. This creates a healthy mix of woodland, scrub and glades, boosting insect, bird and plant life. During the initial release, one male and three females will be set free. Natural breeding will increase the size of the herd, with one calf per year the norm for each female. The bison will come from the Netherlands or Poland, where releases have been successful and safe. Populations of the UK’s most important wildlife have plummeted by an average of 60% since 1970. Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, despite the best efforts of conservationists.
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from The Living Church
Magazine of The Living Church Foundation (Anglican)
A TALE OF TWO POPES
Anyone who remembers Shadowlands, the classic 1993 film about C. S. Lewis, knows that Anthony Hopkins has an uncanny knack for portraying Christian intellectuals who are struggling through an existential crisis. Yet another actor gifted in playing religious figures on screen is Jonathan Pryce, whom Game of Thrones fans will recognize as the enigmatic High Sparrow, a pontiff-like character who leads the dominant religious institution in Westeros, the “Faith of the Seven.” How utterly appropriate then, that these two accomplished thespians should appear side-by-side in the 2019 Netflix drama The Two Popes, with Pryce (age 72), playing Pope Francis, and Hopkins (age 83) as Pope Benedict XVI. In terms of age, each actor is currently within two or three years of their respective characters’ ages, at the time at which the story takes place, roughly in 2013.
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Chinese virologist in hiding after accusing Beijing of coronavirus cover-up
A respected Chinese virologist who says she did some of the earliest research into COVID-19 last year has accused Beijing of lying about when it learned of the deadly virus and engaging in an extensive cover-up of her work, according to a new report. In a new interview with Fox News, Dr. Li-Meng Yan says her supervisors at the Hong Kong School of Public Health, a reference laboratory for the World Health Organization, silenced her when she sounded the alarm about human-to-human transmission in December last year.
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from HumanProgress.org Education Website
When a country’s population gets wealthy enough, its preferences change. One well-established tendency is for richer countries to be more concerned about the environment, take pains to protect it, and even regenerate or recreate what has been lost.
On August 27, 1859, a small group of men working in a remote part of the Pennsylvanian forest did something that would profoundly transform the history of industrialization. On that hot summer afternoon, Edwin Drake and William A. Smith set out to lead the first team in history to sink a purpose-drilled exploration well in search of crude oil for use in the manufacture of kerosene, a petroleum distillate used as a lighting fuel. Working out of a small drilling frame erected on Oil Creek, and plagued by mechanical failures and other technical problems with the well, the team made slow progress, drilling just 1 meter (3 feet) each day. Despite running out of funds, Drake and Smith laboriously drilled to a depth of 21.2 meters (69.5 feet), whereupon the drill encountered the underlying oil formation. Crude oil entered the well, first gradually and then in such volumes that Drake and his team simply ran out of places to store the crude and began filling empty whisky barrels. The discovery of liquid petroleum in economically viable quantities at Oil Creek kicked off the age of liquid and gas hydrocarbon energy capture. By doing so, the team sped up the process of industrialization.
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Magazine of The Living Church Foundation (Anglican)
A TALE OF TWO POPES
Anyone who remembers Shadowlands, the classic 1993 film about C. S. Lewis, knows that Anthony Hopkins has an uncanny knack for portraying Christian intellectuals who are struggling through an existential crisis. Yet another actor gifted in playing religious figures on screen is Jonathan Pryce, whom Game of Thrones fans will recognize as the enigmatic High Sparrow, a pontiff-like character who leads the dominant religious institution in Westeros, the “Faith of the Seven.” How utterly appropriate then, that these two accomplished thespians should appear side-by-side in the 2019 Netflix drama The Two Popes, with Pryce (age 72), playing Pope Francis, and Hopkins (age 83) as Pope Benedict XVI. In terms of age, each actor is currently within two or three years of their respective characters’ ages, at the time at which the story takes place, roughly in 2013.
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from New York Post
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED, Newspaper in New York
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED, Newspaper in New York
Chinese virologist in hiding after accusing Beijing of coronavirus cover-up
A respected Chinese virologist who says she did some of the earliest research into COVID-19 last year has accused Beijing of lying about when it learned of the deadly virus and engaging in an extensive cover-up of her work, according to a new report. In a new interview with Fox News, Dr. Li-Meng Yan says her supervisors at the Hong Kong School of Public Health, a reference laboratory for the World Health Organization, silenced her when she sounded the alarm about human-to-human transmission in December last year.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
With 46 new COVID-19 cases Friday, Spokane is ‘back to where we were in March’
Spokane County health officials announced 46 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the weekly county total to 373 and the county’s overall tally to 1,942. Hospitalizations of county residents, which were predicted in mid-June to double, have done so. About a dozen county residents were hospitalized in mid-June, and 27 residents were as of Friday. But Spokane hospitals are also treating another 15 COVID-19 patients total, including residents from outside the county. With ballooning case counts, community spread and backlogged test results, Spokane County Health Officer Dr. Bob Lutz said the county is, in essence, “truly back to where we were in March.”
‘Best of the bad choices I had’: Health officer defends decisions to jail man who refused to self-isolate
While driving to work on a recent morning, Spokane County Health Officer Bob Lutz saw people holding signs that read “Lutz is nuts” and “Lutz is a tyrant.” Lutz, who has had to make a string of controversial decisions since the COVID-19 pandemic began, is getting used to the criticism. “I think people have to understand that my responsibility is to 512,000 residents of Spokane County,” Lutz said. His recent decision to jail a homeless man who tested positive for COVID-19 and refused to self-isolate has drawn criticism from some Spokane residents, including from advocates at the Bail Project, which posts bail for inmates and advocates against criminalizing poverty. But, Lutz said, critical observers are missing key facts about the situation and jumping to sensational conclusions. “Believe you me, I had no good choices and this was the best of the bad choices I had,” Lutz said. “The other option would’ve been he’s back out on the street. I look at how vulnerable the homeless population is, and I’m not going to allow multiple homeless individuals to be infected because I can’t keep this one individual in an emergency room.”
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With 46 new COVID-19 cases Friday, Spokane is ‘back to where we were in March’
Spokane County health officials announced 46 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the weekly county total to 373 and the county’s overall tally to 1,942. Hospitalizations of county residents, which were predicted in mid-June to double, have done so. About a dozen county residents were hospitalized in mid-June, and 27 residents were as of Friday. But Spokane hospitals are also treating another 15 COVID-19 patients total, including residents from outside the county. With ballooning case counts, community spread and backlogged test results, Spokane County Health Officer Dr. Bob Lutz said the county is, in essence, “truly back to where we were in March.”
‘Best of the bad choices I had’: Health officer defends decisions to jail man who refused to self-isolate
While driving to work on a recent morning, Spokane County Health Officer Bob Lutz saw people holding signs that read “Lutz is nuts” and “Lutz is a tyrant.” Lutz, who has had to make a string of controversial decisions since the COVID-19 pandemic began, is getting used to the criticism. “I think people have to understand that my responsibility is to 512,000 residents of Spokane County,” Lutz said. His recent decision to jail a homeless man who tested positive for COVID-19 and refused to self-isolate has drawn criticism from some Spokane residents, including from advocates at the Bail Project, which posts bail for inmates and advocates against criminalizing poverty. But, Lutz said, critical observers are missing key facts about the situation and jumping to sensational conclusions. “Believe you me, I had no good choices and this was the best of the bad choices I had,” Lutz said. “The other option would’ve been he’s back out on the street. I look at how vulnerable the homeless population is, and I’m not going to allow multiple homeless individuals to be infected because I can’t keep this one individual in an emergency room.”
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