5: THESE IRAQI MILITIAS ARE PREPARED TO FIGHT THE U.S. IF IT STARTS A WAR WITH IRAN
BAGHDAD — Hashem Al Mayahi didn’t always despise America. When the U.S. first invaded Iraq to rid the country of Saddam Hussein in 2003, he hoped regime change would usher in a brighter future.
“I thought they’d turn Iraq into a paradise after they rid us of Saddam,” he recalled.
But as Baghdad descended into violence and chaos, and American abusesrose to the surface, he began mobilizing his neighborhood against the occupation, first as part of the Mahdi army, an insurgency led by popular Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, and later its splinter group, Asaib Ahl Al-Haq. Asaib grew and gained notoriety for targeting American troops, claiming responsibility for over 6,000 such attacks.
Vice News
4: Slipping away? US-China trade deal appears elusive at G20 summit
If United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are headed for a grand bargain over their bilateral trade dispute, there was little sign of it on the first day of the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan on Friday.
When the working lunch on “Growth, Investment and Trade” was held behind closed doors, the short briefing that an unnamed White House official gave to reporters suggested that the two sides remain far apart.
“The tone was largely positive from the various world leaders, [and] China was less positive,” the official said. “Just a more negative tone [from China].”
Aljazeera
IT DIDN’T TAKE long for the political classes to decide that the biggest loser in part two of the first Democratic primary debate was former Vice President Joe Biden. California Sen. Kamala Harris ripped Biden for bragging about maintaining relationships with segregationists, leading Biden to bizarrely defend the right of local governments to pursue segregation as a policy. And the moderators raised his vote for the Iraq War while in the Senate.
The most unlikely Biden callout, though, came in the form of a recent history lesson by longshot candidate Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet. Bennet turned one of Biden’s own talking points back on him by pointing out the former vice president’s revisionist version of when he was taken to the cleaners by Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.
Biden attempted to defend his acumen for negotiating with Republicans during Thursday night’s debate by citing his ability in late 2012 to convince McConnell to raise taxes. The problem for Biden was that multiple people on stage had witnessed Biden’s effort, and it was an utter catastrophe for Democrats.
The Intercept
The second night of the first Democratic presidential debate was billed as a face-off between front-runners former Vice President Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders, but it was California Senator Kamala Harris who took command of the stage Thursday night. Harris sparred with Biden over his recent comments about working with segregationists in the Senate and for his opposition to Delaware’s attempts to bus students in an effort to integrate its schools in the 1970s. “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me,” Harris said. We speak with Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change.
Democracy Now
1: France records all-time highest temperature of 45.9C
