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
UN war crimes panel to try Slobodan Milosevic for genocide in Bosnia; Ukraine’s Viktor Yushchenko declares win in disputed vote; ‘Life’ first hits newsstands; Singer Enrico Caruso makes American debut.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Time spent with cats is never wasted.
Breakfast News
Argentina shifts to the right after Mauricio Macri wins presidential runoff
After 12 years of leftist government, Argentina shifted towards the centre-right on Sunday by giving a presidential victory to Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri of the Cambiemos (Let’s Change) party.
With 93% of the vote counted, the former chief executive of the Boca Juniors football club was on 51.99%, almost four points ahead of his rival Daniel Scioli of the Peronist Victory Front who was on 48.01%.
The result is likely to reverberate across Latin America.
In his victory speech, the winner promised to boost the economy, tackle narco-trafficking and defend democracy.
Pfizer and Allergan poised to announce history’s biggest healthcare merger
Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Allergan are reportedly on the verge of announcing the largest healthcare merger in history, in defiance of the US government’s efforts to crack down on deals that it believes are thinly disguised forms of tax avoidance.
The pending merger, reported on Friday by Reuters and confirmed on Sunday by the Wall Street Journal, could be announced as early as Monday. Forming a company worth more than $150bn, the deal would allow Pfizer to re-domicile from its headquarters in New York to Ireland, where Allergan is based in Dublin. With the move, the new company would cut its corporate tax range from 15% to 39% in the US to 12.5% in Ireland.
Anger rises as Brazilian mine disaster threatens river and sea with toxic mud
This weekend, 16 days after the collapse of the Fundão dam supporting the reservoir of the Samarco mine, the waters in the delicate ecosystem of the Rio Doce estuary began to turn brown.
A crowd gathered at the village’s wooden dock to watch. Behind a tape cordon, a group of technicians from Samarco, – a joint venture of the Brazilian mining company Vale and the Ango-Australian firm BHP Billiton – sat under a marquee staring at monitors.
To a small village with fewer than 2,000 residents, dependent on fishing, tourism and marine conservation, the arrival of the contaminated mud represents an existential threat.
Rome enlists American falcons to hunt starlings befouling Eternal City
Exasperated by the proliferation of bird faeces, the Roman authorities have sought to take matters into their own hands – not literally, of course.
“The biggest problem is the guano, there’s the risk the streets become very slippery,” said Sabrina Alfonsi, president of the central Rome municipality where the birds roost. They are attracted to the Eternal City due to its light, sleeping there after a day feeding on olive tree parasites in the countryside.
Alfonsi has sought new allies in the seasonal battle, bringing in five Texan falcons last week to terrorise the starlings. She described the three-day trial as a great success and will look into extending the use of falcons.
Masala the red panda found safe and sound after California zoo escape
A red panda that went missing three days ago from a zoo on California’s far north coast has been safely located and returned to her home in Eureka.
The Eureka Times Standard reported on Sunday that the tiny creature named Masala was found safe and sound on Saturday night and was taken back to the Sequoia Park Zoo.
Three northern white rhinos left worldwide after zoo euthanization
A popular white rhinoceros has been euthanized at San Diego zoo safari park, after a series of illnesses.
The Los Angeles Times reported that at 41, Nola the rhino was considered geriatric and had a series of old-age ailments, including arthritis. The rhino had also been treated for a recurring abscess on her hip.
Zoo officials said Nola was euthanized early on Sunday after her condition deteriorated. The rhino had been a draw at the safari park since 1989, the paper reported, having come from a zoo in what is now the Czech Republic, and quickly became a favorite of the public and zookeepers.
State-sanctioned deer hunt under attack as protesters flock to Boston area
A plan to allow hunting in a nearly 11-square-mile swath of pristine forest within sight of downtown Boston, in order to thin an exploding deer population, is coming under fire from activists who say contraception and other more humane methods be used.
According to state wildlife biologists, the hunt in the Blue Hills reservation is needed to trim a deer population estimated at 85 animals per square mile, far above the ideal of six to 18 deer per square mile. Hunting has not been allowed in the park since the state set it aside for public recreational use in 1893.
Must Read Blog Posts
Thomas Friedman Takes on ISIS Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
A Particularly Ugly Dinner with Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and the Gang Charles Pierce, Esquire Politics
CNN Punished Its Own Journalist for Fulfilling a Core Duty of Journalism Glenn Grenwald, The Intercept
When Airlines and Security Validate American Passengers’ Fear of Brown People Kevin Gosztola, ShadowProof
Mexican Immigration Reverses: Do We Still Need A Wall? Dan Wright, ShadowProof
David Brooks Shows America’s Kids How To Bury The Lede Like a Pro driftglass
Punch the lying bullies in the nose: Trump, Cruz and GOP know-nothings only win when Democrats cower — or provide an echo Bill Curry, Salon