5: The Slimy Excuses Republicans Are Making for Their Crap Healthcare Bill
The masters of spin reframe their death bill.
On Monday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the Republicans’ no good very bad Affordable Care Act repeal bill would result in 22 million more uninsured Americans by 2026, $772 billion cut from Medicaid, and a relatively modest deficit reduction of $321 billion over a decade. It’s barely a healthcare bill, but rather, according to Vox’s analysis, “400 families gaining a tax cut that is offset by ending a program that covers three-quarters of a million of low-income Americans.”
Voting for a bill that benefits a small group of elites while making healthcare unaffordable for a large number of your constituents might seem bad, but if the GOP is good at anything, it’s repackaging policies that hurt the poor into something more palatable, like freedom from taxes and government.
Vice News
4: Saudi Arabia: Qatar demand list is non-negotiable
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir says there will be no negotiations over a list of demands the kingdom and its allies have submitted to Qatar to end a major regional crisis.
Asked by reporters on a visit to the United States on Tuesday if the demands were non-negotiable, Jubeir said: “Yes”.
“We made our point, we took our steps and it’s up to the Qataris to amend their behaviour and once they do, things will be worked out, but if they don’t they will remain isolated,” Jubeir, who was in Washington, DC, said.
Aljazeera
3: CNN Journalists Resign: Latest Example of Media Recklessness on the Russia Threat
THREE PROMINENT CNN journalists resigned Monday night after the network was forced to retract and apologize for a story linking Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci to a Russian investment fund under congressional investigation. That article — like so much Russia reporting from the U.S. media — was based on a single anonymous source, and now, the network cannot vouch for the accuracy of its central claims.
In announcing the resignation of the three journalists — Thomas Frank, who wrote the story (not the same Thomas Frank who wrote “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”); Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Eric Lichtblau, recently hired away from the New York Times; and Lex Haris, head of a new investigative unit — CNN said that “standard editorial processes were not followed when the article was published.” The resignations follow CNN’s Friday night retraction of the story, in which it apologized to Scaramucci:
The Intercept
Twenty-two million Americans would lose their health insurance under the Senate Republicans’ healthcare bill over the next decade. That’s according to the Congressional Budget Office, which released its assessment on Monday. Following the report, Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky joined Senator Dean Heller of Nevada in pledging to vote against even debating their party’s healthcare bill this week. Republican leaders had been pushing for a vote as early as today, ahead of the July 4 recess. On Monday, the American Medical Association came out against the Senate bill, writing in a letter to Senate leaders, “Medicine has long operated under the precept of Primum non nocere, or ‘first, do no harm.’ The draft legislation violates that standard on many levels.” For more, we speak with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a professor at CUNY-Hunter College and a primary care physician. She is a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and the co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program.Democracy Now
1: ‘Petya’ ransomware attack strikes companies across Europe and US
Victims of a major ransomware cyberattack that has spread through the US and Europe can no longer unlock their computers even if they pay the ransom.
The “Petya” ransomware has caused serious disruption at large firms including the advertising giant WPP, French construction materials company Saint-Gobain and Russian steel and oil firms Evraz and Rosneft.
Infected computers display a message demanding a Bitcoin ransom worth $300. Those who pay are asked to send confirmation of payment to an email address. However, that email address has been shut down by the email provider.
“We do not tolerate any misuse of our platform,” said the German email provider Posteo in a blog post.
This means that there is no longer any way for people who decide to pay the ransom to contact the attacker for a decryption key to unlock their computer.
The Guardian
