Morning Reads

Good morning — and a happy Father’s Day to all the dads in Taiwan! Forty years ago today, Richard Nixon announced his resignation during a nationally televised address. He didn’t admit that his presidency had been rife with criminality, instead saying, “it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing” in office.

Iraq –> The US is airlifting relief supplies to tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees trapped in the mountains in Northern Iraq and surrounded by The Islamic State fighters, and, this morning, began airstrikes in the region. ALSO: The New York Times appears to have initially jumped the gun, reporting last night US jets had already bombed the fighters, which the Pentagon swiftly denied. At New York Mag, Katie Zavadski notes that the Iraqi government has some aircraft and may have been responsible for the strikes.

Fighting resumes –> Efforts to negotiate a long-term ceasefire in Gaza ended this morning and both sides have resumed firing. Israel blames Hamas for firing first, and Hamas says it won’t stop fighting until the seven-year-old blockade on Gaza is lifted. A twelve-year-old Palestinian boy killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City appears to have been the first fatality since the fighting resumed. The BBC rounds up the latest.

Guilty –> Mark Berman reports for WaPo that Theodore Wafer, “the man who shot and killed Renisha McBride, a 19-year-old woman standing at his front door, has been convicted of murder… The case was racially charged: McBride was a black teenager killed by a white man less than four months after George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter after shooting and killing Trayvon Martin.” He could get life in prison when he’s sentenced later this month. Wafer first claimed that the shooting was an accident but later said he feared for his life.

Race and justice –> Slate’s Jamelle Bouie looks at two new studies that suggest that fear of minorities plays a major role in whether people favor harsh sentencing laws.

Beyond torture” –> The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf reports that the CIA isn’t only intent on covering up torture, but also wants to keep details of its rendition program from the public. One woman, who was 12 years old when she and her family were kidnapped by the US and turned over to Libya under Muammar Qaddafi, is speaking out. ALSO: NYT Executive Editor Dean Baquet explains why The Paper of Record will now use the word “torture” rather than euphemisms like “enhanced interrogation.”

Scorchers –> MoJo’s Chris Mooney offers a handy but terrifying tool that shows how many ridiculously hot days your city can expect to experience in the future as a result of global warming.

Crystal ball –> At Too Much, Sam Pizzigati looks at new research that attempts to project whether gross inequality will become “the new normal,” and concludes that “our world’s deeply unequal market economies have no automatic ‘self-correcting’ mechanism.”

Taking fire from the right –> Nate Silver writes at FiveThirtyEight that “Republicans have more reason than ever to worry about primary challenges.”

Stay calm –> The CDC has activated its emergency response team, and is sending 50 people to Africa to help contain the Ebola outbreak. Reuters reports that the head of the agency is confident that there won’t be an outbreak in the US. ALSO: Liberia and Sierra Leone have deployed police and troops to seal off parts of their countries where the outbreak is concentrated.

Or… PANIC!! –> Stephen Colbert competes with the cable news networks to see who can come up with the scariest Ebola graphics.

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