Yeah, been itching to do some serious Biden Bashing.

Plagiarism charge hits Biden climate change plan
By ZACK COLMAN and NATASHA KORECKI, Politico
06/04/2019

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign came under fire on Tuesday for putting out a $1.7 trillion climate change plan that appeared to copy a handful of passages from previously published documents.

The incident recalled the plagiarism incident that helped drive Biden from the 1988 presidential race, though Biden’s campaign team called the latest episode an error that was corrected.

“Several citations, some from sources cited in other parts of the plan, were inadvertently left out of the final version of the 22 page document,” a Biden spokesperson said in an email. “As soon as we were made aware of it, we updated to include the proper citations.”

Josh Nelson, vice president at the progressive group CREDO, first flagged the similarities on Twitter. The text contained the same language about technology designed to capture and store power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions as documents previously released by the nongovernmental organization Center for Climate and Energy Solutions as well as the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of environmental and labor groups.
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Charges of plagiarism plagued Biden’s presidential campaign in 1987, eventually leading to his dropping out of the race. At least part of that scandal erupted when Biden appeared to lift lines of a speech from British Labor leader Neil Kinnock. Des Moines-Register political reporter David Yepsen, who was among the reporters to receive an opposition research video tape at the time showing Biden’s remarks laid out beside Kinnock, recalled the scandal then, which he described as explosive.

“Someone on the campaign really screwed this up and it’s the kind of sideshow story he doesn’t need. It raises all these bad things out of the past,” Yepsen said Tuesday. “Everybody who is working for Joe Biden should understand this bit of our history and be particularly mindful of not making that same mistake again.”

Biden rolled out his climate policy on Tuesday after facing weeks of criticism from the Democratic Party’s left flank for reportedly considering a plan to strike a “middle ground” on the issue. It won praise from environmental groups who welcomed its call to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and ban oil and gas drilling on public lands. Biden also said he would reject campaign contributions from fossil fuel executives and corporations.

While scientists, including the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, envision a massive build out of carbon capture technology to meet ambitious climate targets, many in the progressive wing are skeptical of the technology. They see carbon capture as a way to extend the lifeline of coal, oil and natural gas and delay a transition to less-polluting forms of energy that don’t rely on extracting fuel.

Nelson told POLITICO the carbon capture section of Biden’s plan looked familiar. He said he’s spent the past several years advocating against coal-fired power.

“As soon as I read it, it did not sound like language that would come from a presidential campaign and it sounded more like something that could come from a coal industry trade group or a coal company directly,” Nelson said in a phone interview.

More on why I hate Joe “Barely a Democrat” Biden and the Democrats who love him.

Cody’s Showdy

Oh… you want “electable” because actual Democratic ideas are too scary.

Australia reels from worst rampage killing in decades for a country thought to have solved this issue

By James Griffiths, CNN

Updated 0627 GMT (1427 HKT) June 5, 2019

Nearly half of all child deaths in Africa stem from hunger, study shows

Almost 60 million children deprived of food despite continent’s economic growth, in what is ‘fundamentally a political problem’

Saeed Kamali Dehghan

Wed 5 Jun 2019 07.00 BST

One in three African children are stunted and hunger accounts for almost half of all child deaths across the continent, an Addis Ababa-based thinktank has warned.

In an urgent call for action, a study by the African Child Policy Forum said that nearly 60 million children in Africa do not have enough food despite the continent’s economic growth in recent years.

A child dies every three seconds globally due to food deprivation – 10,000 children every day – but although figures show an improvement in child hunger at a global level, it is getting worse in some parts of Africa, where the problem is largely a question of political will.

D-Day: Is joint commemoration possible?

June 6, 1944 marked the beginning of the end of the Nazi regime. 170,000 soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy in the biggest landing maneuver in history. Looking back, every nation involved sees it differently.

Just 15 years ago, Gerhard Schröder became the first German chancellor to participate in a D-Day memorial service. It marked 60 years since Allied troops captured the beachhead to Europe, suffering heavy losses, to liberate the continent from Nazism. Ten years later, Angela Merkel was the second chancellor to attend the ceremony. Merkel will again be present for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary; it won’t be in Normandy this time, but in the British city of Portsmouth, where a large number of the landing troops embarked on June 5, 1944.

These days, it is almost taken for granted that, whenever the victorious powers celebrate the last major turning point in the course of World War Two in Europe, high-ranking German officials will be in attendance. D-Day, the beginning of the end of the Nazis’ hold on western Europe, is viewed in the same way as the German surrender on May 8, 1945: As Germany’s then-President Richard von Weizsäcker said in 1985 on the 40th anniversary of the end of the war, it was “a day of liberation” — for Germany, too.

Can a former Janjaweed commander determine Sudan’s future?

The battle for Sudan’s future reached a critical point with the brutal crackdown on a protest camp in Khartoum. Much of it depends on how the ambitions of interim vice president and ex-Janjaweed chief, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, are handled.

ABC raid: Australia police search headquarters of public broadcaster

Police have raided the Sydney headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC), in a second day of searches targeting journalists.

Officers arrived at the public broadcaster with search warrants naming two reporters and the news director. The ABC has protested over the raid.

The police action is related to articles about alleged misconduct by Australian forces in Afghanistan.

On Tuesday police searched the home of a News Corp journalist, sparking alarm.

The leading journalists’ union said the two raids represented a “disturbing pattern of assaults on Australian press freedom”.

Donald Trump to hold talks with Theresa May amid protests

Donald Trump is to meet Prime Minister Theresa May for “substantial” talks on the second day of the US president’s three-day state visit to the UK.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will be among the senior ministers present at the talks, where issues such as climate change will be discussed.

It comes as large-scale protests are planned in several UK cities, including a demonstration in Trafalgar Square.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is due to address protesters at the London rally.

Mr Trump praised the “eternal friendship” between the UK and US during a state banquet at Buckingham Palace at the end of the first day of his trip.

Sudan’s military council calls snap elections after deadly crackdown

TMC urges fresh elections within nine months and cancels agreements with opposition

Jason Burke Africa correspondent and agencies

Tue 4 Jun 2019 03.01 BST

Sudan’s military leaders have called for elections and cancelled all previous agreements with the main opposition coalition a day after heavily armed paramilitaries attacked a protest camp in the capital, Khartoum.

More than 35 people are believed to have died in the violence and hundreds more were injured at the sit-in, which has been at the centre of a campaign to bring democratic reform to Sudan. The death toll is expected to rise.

There has been no official reaction from the opposition to the announcement of elections but individual leaders told the Guardian they will escalate a campaign of civil disobedience in response.

US gears up for war with Iran

by Serge Halimi

Can a state that condemns, without real justification, an international disarmament treaty it spent years negotiating then threaten a co-signatory with military aggression? Can it order other countries to fall into line with its capricious, bellicose stance or face punitive sanctions? The US can.

It’s pointless trying to argue with the Trump administration’s claimed reasons for its escalation against Iran. One can even imagine National Security Advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo telling their diplomats and intelligence staff, ‘You come up with the pretexts; we’ll take care of the war.’

‘Executed’ North Korean diplomat is alive, sources say

By Will Ripley, CNN

Updated 0808 GMT (1608 HKT) June 4, 2019

Unwelcome guests: moped riders protest as Amsterdam drives them from bike lanes

Senay Boztas in Amsterdam

Tue 4 Jun 2019 07.30 BST

Convoys of mopeds speed down Amsterdam’s bike lanes, beeping their horns and flouting their bare heads. This isn’t some strange Dutch festival, though. These were protests from some of the thousands of furious moped riders ahead of a new city regulation which came into force this week to force them out of bike lanes, on to main roads and into helmets.

The cycling city of Amsterdam is stepping up a gear – with plans to ban petrol and diesel vehicles from the centre by 2030, the removal of 10,000 car-parking spaces, a hike in parking charges and a wide range of measures to take from the car and give to pedestrians, cyclists, green space and children.

Japan to ban free plastic bags at stores, but small and midsize firms may be exempt

KYODO

Japan plans to make it mandatory to charge for plastic shopping bags at supermarkets, convenience stores, drugstores and department stores as the country combats marine pollution from plastic waste.

Environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada said at a news conference Monday his ministry plans to introduce a new law banning the practice of providing single-use plastic bags for free, while leaving the price of a plastic bag up to retailers.

“The proportion of plastic bags among plastic waste is not big, but charging would be symbolic” of Japan’s efforts to reduce such waste, said Harada.

Donald Trump arrives for three-day UK state visit

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have arrived in the UK for a three-day state visit.

Air Force One landed at Stansted Airport at around 09:00 BST (04:00 ET).

Mr Trump will meet members of the Royal Family, and is expected to discuss climate change and Chinese technology firm Huawei during talks with outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May.

Minutes before touching down, Mr Trump criticised Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, with whom he has clashed in the past.

ICC submission calls for prosecution of EU over migrant deaths