memeorandum: Mandela and Obama — GATHERING valedictory material … (Bill Keller/New York Times)

2:50 AM ET, July 1, 2013

Top Items:

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

New same-sex marriage challenge fails — Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy turned down at midday Sunday a request to stop same-sex marriages from occurring in California. Without comment, and without seeking views from the other side, Kennedy rejected a challenge to action …

Discussion: CNN, Crooks and Liars, The Moderate Voice, ThinkProgress, PrawfsBlawg, Towleroad News #gay, Outside the Beltway, The Volokh Conspiracy, Hot Air and Los Angeles Times

Ben Geman / The Hill:

Ted Olson: GOP moving toward backing same-sex marriage — The attorney and former George W. Bush administration official who helped defeat California's ban on gay marriage said the Republican Party is moving toward embracing the right of same-sex couples to wed. — “Republicans are changing.

Discussion: Politico and CNN

Maura Dolan / Los Angeles Times:

Supreme Court rejects bid to halt same-sex marriages in California — The Supreme Court rejected an emergency request to stop same-sex marriages in California, a lawyer for the gay couples who sued said Sunday. — Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., one of the lawyers who challenged Proposition 8 …

Discussion: americanthinker.com and Joe. My. God.

Emily Schultheis / Politico:
Prop 8 attorney: 'We're not giving up on any state'

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:
Report: High court rejects petition to halt gay marriages in Calif.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Guardian:

New NSA leaks show how US is bugging its European allies — Exclusive: Edward Snowden papers reveal 38 targets including EU, France and Italy — Berlin accuses Washington of cold war tactics — US intelligence services are spying on the European Union mission in New York and its embassy in Washington …

Discussion: New York Times, The Hinterland Gazette, Mediaite, Outside the Beltway, msnbc.com and Firedoglake

Alexandra Jaffe / The Hill:
Schumer: Russia ‘should pay a price’ for harboring NSA leaker Snowden

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette, Reuters and NPR

Andrew Kirell / Mediaite:
Julian Assange Praises ‘Hero’ Snowden, Rebukes U.S. ‘Disgraceful’ Treatment On ABC This Week

Discussion: ABC News, Taylor Marsh and The Raw Story

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:
Assange: US decision to cancel Snowden's passport is a ‘disgrace’

Discussion: Politico and Connecting.the.Dots

Associated Press:
Ecuador: VP called about Snowden

Discussion: Associated Press, Scared Monkeys and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Business Insider: Russian Lawmaker: ‘Morally Impermissible’ To Hand Over Snowden

Guardian:
Key US-EU trade pact under threat after more NSA spying allegations

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Raw Story, Vox Popoli, The Privacy Surgeon, Gawker, NPR, The Hinterland Gazette, Spiegel Online, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Balloon Juice

Josh Levs / CNN:
Europe furious, ‘shocked’ by report of U.S. spying

Discussion: americanthinker.com, New York Times, The Moderate Voice, TechCrunch, The Reaction, The Hill, Informed Comment, European Parliament … and Power Line

Reuters:

Millions flood Egypt's streets to demand Mursi quit — (Reuters) - Millions of Egyptians flooded into the streets on the first anniversary of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi's inauguration on Sunday to demand that he resign in the biggest challenge so far to rule by his Muslim Brotherhood.

Discussion: americanthinker.com

Power Line:

“WAKE UP, AMERICA!” — Massive protests and counter-protests are under way in Egypt. It is hard to be optimistic about events in that part of the world, but who knows? The course Egypt is on is unsustainable, as its economy is close to utter collapse. I don't see how the current Muslim …

Discussion: Instapundit

BBC:
Egypt Morsi: Mass political protests grip cities

Discussion: Guardian, NewsBusters, Taylor Marsh, NPR, The Week, Pat Dollard and VodkaPundit

Catholic Online:

WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO - Syrian Jihadists behead Catholic priest — Jihadists are terrorizing Syrians and persecuting Christians. — Syrian terrorists have beheaded a Catholic priest who they accused of collaborating with the Assad regime. Those accusations have not yet been verified.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Scared Monkeys, Weasel Zippers, Atlas Shrugs, The Long War Journal and Sense of Events

TheBlaze.com:

CATHOLIC PRIEST BEHEADED IN SYRIA BY AL-QAEDA-LINKED REBELS AS MEN AND CHILDREN TAKE PICTURES AND CHEER — Syrian Catholic priest Francois Murad killed last weekend by jihadi fighters was beheaded, according to a report by Catholic Online which is linking to video purportedly showing the brutal murder.

Discussion: The Jawa Report

Bill Keller / New York Times:

Mandela and Obama — GATHERING valedictory material on Nelson Mandela as he faded in a Pretoria hospital the other day, I came across a little book called “Mandela's Way.” In this 2010 volume, Rick Stengel, the ghostwriter of Mandela's autobiography, set out to extract “lessons on life …

Discussion: americanthinker.com

CNN:
Obama unveils $7 billion power initiative for Africa

Discussion: NPR, Business Insider, The Hinterland Gazette and LewRockwell.com Blog

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

War On the Unemployed — Is life too easy for the unemployed? You may not think so, and I certainly don't think so. But that, remarkably, is what many and perhaps most Republicans believe. And they're acting on that belief: there's a nationwide movement under way to punish the unemployed …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:

Republicans Paint Clinton as Old News for 2016 Presidential Election — WASHINGTON — Stuart Stevens, the top strategist for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, declared to an audience of reporters at a breakfast last month that electing Hillary Rodham Clinton would be like going back in time.

Discussion: New Republic, Balloon Juice, The Hinterland Gazette, Fast Company, Yahoo! News, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Monthly and New York Times

Gretchen Morgenson / New York Times:

An Unstoppable Climb in C.E.O. Pay — WHEN we made our annual foray into the executive pay gold mine in April, chief executives' earnings for 2012 showed what appeared to be muted growth on the year. The $14 million in median overall compensation received by the top 100 C.E.O.'s …

Discussion: VentureBeat

ThinkProgress:

Rachel Maddow And David Gregory Destroy The GOP's Last Argument Against Marriage Equality

Discussion: PoliticusUSA and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Ben Geman / The Hill:

Gutierrez: Boehner's majority plan could doom immigration reform — A House Democrat seeking to forge an immigration deal warned Sunday that Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) pledge to only move a bill that a majority of his conference supports could create a “stalemate.”

Discussion: Politico and CNN