What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, and here’s a few from me.

This first one I must caution you on. It is very hard to read, and comes with a strong CONTENT WARNING!! for adult subject matter. It’s a horrible story on just one of the many atrocities being committed by Syrian rebels against the Christian population. It involves 15 repeated forced marriages, rapes, and then repudiations, against an unwilling 15 year old Christian girl. And all of it sanctioned and authorized by the radical Sunni clerics in charge.

From Persecution.org

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Meanwhile in Egypt, Morsi has been replaced.

From TheTelegraph/UK

“Egypt coup: Interim president sworn-in as Morsi supporters protest

Adly Mansour, until now the head of the Egyptian supreme court, pledges to hold democratic elections, but Muslim Brotherhood supporters say “this is not freedom – we’re back to Mubarak.”

Meanwhile the military continues to crack down on the MB. The MB has responded by calling their supporters to the streets.

From FoxNews

“Egyptian military arrest top Muslim Brotherhood figures amid crackdown.”

“An Islamist coalition led by the Muslim Brotherhood is calling on their  supporters to peacefully protest the removal of former Egyptian President  Mohammed Morsi in a “Friday of Rejection,” after the Egyptian military arrested  top Brotherhood figures as part of a major crackdown against the group.”

More on the arrests here from Reuters

While all this goes on, the Sec. of State John Kerry, is all over the situation. Or not. Depends who you ask.

From Politico

“The White House’s photo of the Wednesday afternoon Situation Room meeting on Egypt shows several senior administration officials, but Secretary of State John Kerry is notably absent.”

“A CBS News producer tweeted a photo of Kerry’s yacht, Isabel, on Wednesday afternoon and said a colleague saw Kerry boarding it at the Nantucket Boat Basin. She shouted “Morsi,” but got no response from the secretary of state.

But the State Department said Kerry was not aboard a boat on Wednesday and has spent the day working the phones on Egypt. “Since his plane touched down in Washington at 4 a.m., Secretary Kerry was working all day and on the phone dealing with the crisis in Egypt,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “He participated in the White House meeting with the president by secure phone and was and is in non-stop contact with foreign leaders, and his senior team in Washington and Cairo. Any report or tweet that he was on a boat is completely inaccurate.”

UPDATE!

Despite the insistence by the Obama admin that Kerry wasn’t on a boat yesterday, and was hard at work on the Egypt story, we now have proof that he was vacationing instead. Has lying become so easy for them that they do it even when they know the truth will come out? Despite the admins claims that Kerry was all over the situation, reality has photos of him on a boat and strolling the streets of Nantucket. John Kerry, reporting for duty. Eventually, but not on a holiday.

From TheBostonHerald

“U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry — who spent the Fourth of July on sun-splashed Nantucket even as the chaos from a military takeover rocked Egypt — drew fire from Republican critics who said it’s a bad time for the nation’s top diplomat to be seen cavorting on an island getaway.

“It doesn’t look good, and I think it sends the wrong message” said Republican strategist Brad Marston. “If I were advising him, I’d already have him on a plane.”

As first reported on bostonherald.com, Kerry, who owns a house and a yacht on the ritzy retreat, was seen yesterday strolling down Federal Street away from July Fourth festivities on Main Street in jeans and a light-colored polo shirt.

Later in the afternoon, Kerry was seen offloading bags from a single-person kayak to a boat in Nantucket Sound after launching from the beach behind his home at 5 Hulbert Ave.”

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And I always thought July in New Mexico would have weather that’s drier. Who knew?  🙂

You should see the pics at the link, from TheWeatherChannel

“A lone thunderstorm dumped over a foot of hail in the town of Santa Rosa, N.M. Wednesday evening, leaving a surreal sight the day before the Fourth of July.

Photos from the Santa Rosa Fire Department showed snow plows clearing city streets clogged with accumulated hail drifts.”

That’s crazy. 😯

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