Leftist Kurds with US Air Support breach Walls of ISIL Capital, enter Old City

Al Jazeera reports that the Syrian Democratic Forces supported by the US Air Force and other international allies, has breached the walls around the old city of al-Raqqa in eastern Syria and managed to get into the old city itself. Al-Raqqa is the capital of Daesh and the seat of its phony "caliphate," a reference to a long-lapsed medieval Muslim institution analogous to the papacy in Christianity.

As Climate Threats Mount, Experts Say No Time Left for Deceitful “Debate”

Scott Pruitt sued the EPA more than a dozen times before he was named as the agency's head this year. As new and worrying evidence of global warming's destructive impacts mount around the globe, climate experts are saying efforts by the Trump administration's EPA chief to discredit decades of climate science research should be seen as a deceitful-and dangerous-tactic.

Republicans just quietly got some very good Supreme Court news

Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy speaks during a swearing-in ceremony for Judge Neil M. Gorsuch on April 10. In a story that was ostensibly about new Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch's voting record, NPR legal affairs reporter Nina Totenberg dropped this tantalizing piece of news about Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's potential retirement : Kennedy may also have thought it best to ensure that there is a full complement of nine justices for at least a year. He could even have been put off by President Trump's tweets about the judiciary.

Ari Berman Discusses The REAL Reason Kobach’s Panel Exists..And It’s NOT About Integrity

While the rest of the Sunday shows spent the bulk of their time focusing on Trump's tweets , Joy Ann Reid had on writer Ari Berman to discuss Trump's voter fraud commission, headed by Kris Kobach. Kobach's own history with voter fraud should tip off all Americans that placating Trump's delusional lies about non-citizens voting making up the three million more votes that Hillary got over him is not really the purpose of the panel.

Rich Jerks Block Public Access to California Beaches

Chad Nelsen, Surfrider Foundation: The small cove in San Mateo County known as Martins Beach, just south of Half Moon Bay, was used regularly by the public for at least a century -- until 2010, when the Silicon Valley billionaire and co-founder of Sun Microsystems Vinod Khosla locked a gate on the only road that provides public access to it. ... Public access to Martins Beach, and to all land seaward of the mean high tide line in California, is guaranteed in the state's constitution and mandated within the Coastal Act of 1976.

Trump Tweet Shows Him Body-Slamming CNN

A day after defending his use of social media as befitting a "modern day" president, President Trump appeared to promote violence against CNN in a tweet. Trump, who is on vacation at his Bedminster golf resort, posted on Twitter an old video clip of him performing in a WWE professional wrestling match, but with a CNN logo superimposed on the head of his opponent.

Ohio governor calls out his party’s attempt to buy off moderates with ‘anemic’ opioid funds

On Sunday, Gov. John Kasich dismissed the $45 billion fund for opioid treatment that some Republicans have floated as a potential " sweetener " for moderates as completely insufficient to address the problem. In an interview with Martha Raddatz for ABC's This Week , the Ohio Republican and unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidate slammed an attempt by his party's leaders to "buy people off" to ensure 51 votes for its Obamacare repeal proposal.

Hacker: I Was Recruited to Collude with Russians

Matt Tait, Lawfare: [R]ight around the time the DNC emails were dumped by Wikileaks -- and curiously, around the same time [Donald] Trump called for the Russians to get Hillary Clinton's missing emails -- I was contacted out the blue by a man named Peter Smith, who had seen my work going through these emails. Smith implied that he was a well-connected Republican political operative.