The Associated Press reports: Trump’s first trip to Europe as president in May saw a series of awkward encounters, including a tough speech to the leaders of NATO countries urging them to spend more on their armed forces, an uncomfortable handshake with France’s new president, and a caught-on-camera moment when Trump pushed past the prime minister of Montenegro, Europe’s newest …

The BBC reports: Carmaker Volvo has said all new models will have an electric motor from 2019. The Chinese-owned firm, best known for its emphasis on driver safety, has become the first traditional carmaker to signal the end of the internal combustion engine. It plans to launch five fully electric models between 2019 and 2021 and a range of hybrid …

The Guardian reports: The spread of Russian-made fake news stories aimed at discrediting Hillary Clinton on social media is emerging as an important line of inquiry in multiple investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Investigators are looking into whether Trump supporters and far-right websites coordinated with Moscow over the release of fake news, including stories implicating …

From an “exclusive” on Breitbart: Shiva Ayyadurai, the man who is credited with inventing email among several other life-improving creations such as EchoMail, Systems Health, and CytoSolve, has announced that he is challenging Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for her seat in the 2018 elections. “I consider myself an embodiment of the American dream: an all-American Indian,” Ayyadurai told Breitbart News …

CNN reports: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker seems to tread carefully around speculation of a potential 2020 White House bid. “I don’t know what the future’s going to bring,” Booker told David Axelrod on “The Axe Files,” a podcast from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN. “I’m not making predictions, but I want to unleash the fullness …

Gizmodo reports: NPR tweeted the entire Declaration of Independence in 140-character chunks yesterday to celebrate Independence Day. But more than a few people thought that the tweets were a political stance against Donald Trump. Seriously. NPR has been reading the Declaration of Independence on air in a tradition that dates back 29 years. And in fairness, the Declaration of Independence …

The Australian reports: Vatican police broke up a homosexual orgy last month in an apartment belonging to the Con­gregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — the department charged with, among other things, tackling clerical sexual abuse. The occupant of the apartment is alleged to be the secretary of cardinal Francesco Coccopa­l­merio, head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative texts …

The Associated Press reports: Officials at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum have criticized a Louisiana congressman for narrating part of a five-minute video from inside a former gas chamber at the Nazi concentration camp in Poland. Louisiana news outlets report that U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins posted the video Saturday. In it, the Republican says the gas chamber killings took only …

CNN reports: The Reddit user who initially claimed credit for President Donald Trump’s tweet that showed Trump tackling CNN issued an apology Tuesday for the video and other offensive content he posted — one day after CNN identified the man behind the account and attempted to make contact with him. Reddit user “HanAssholeSolo” first shared the GIF last Wednesday of …

“I am proud on so many levels, and really traveling this country has made me even more of a proud American today than at any other point in my life. You see the spirit, the tenacity. You see the sacrifice. You meet with soldiers and sailors and their families, and you think about all the things that they’re doing to …

Reagan’s Secretary of Education turned wingnut bloviator Bill Bennett appeared on Fox & Friends this morning to deliver what will surely be the stupidest fucking quote you’ll read today. (Unless Trump tweets again, of course.) Via Mediaiate: Bennett referenced a Tweet from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in which she called the press “guardians to our democracy.” The conservative pundit …

CNBC reports: Federal prosecutors late Monday asked a judge to slap a gag order on “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, three days after he blasted them as the “junior varsity” during a surprise courthouse rant to reporters covering his trial. Those prosecutors said Shkreli’s off-the-cuff remarks, made against the desperate wishes of his lawyers, “risks tainting the jury,” according to a …

The New York Daily News reports: A Brooklyn man claimed he was provoked when he spewed homophobic slurs and knocked a lesbian unconscious over a seat on the train, according to newly released court documents. Antoine Thomas entered a plea of not guilty in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Monday after he was arraigned on charges including assault as a hate …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump opened his day by observing American independence with a tweeted video clip of a choral symphonic rendition of his campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.” The video was captured at a recent performance for President Trump at the Kennedy Center and was set in front of an enormous American flag in case anyone didn’t get …

The Guardian reports: A gay man in central China has successfully sued a psychiatric hospital over forced conversion therapy, in what activists are hailing as the first such victory in a country where the LGBT rights movement is gradually emerging from the fringes. A court in Zhumadian, in Henan province, has ordered a city psychiatric hospital to publish an apology …

Germany’s The Local reports: Bundestag Vice President Johannes Singhammer of Angela Merkel’s Bavarian sister party the CSU told Die Welt on Monday that his state’s government should bring the matter of same-sex marriage to the Constitutional Court. “In order to achieve legal clarity, I suggest that the Constitutional Court should be called upon,” Singhammer said. He added that individual citizens …

The Associated Press reports: North Korea on Tuesday claimed it successfully test-launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile, a potential game-changing development in what may be the world’s most dangerous nuclear standoff and, if true, a direct rebuke to U.S. President Donald Trump’s earlier declaration that such a test “won’t happen!” The launch appeared to be North Korea’s most successful missile …

The Portland Press-Herald reports: Amid intense budget negotiations and a state shutdown, Governor Paul LePage has told lawmakers he’s taking a 10-day vacation. “He called the Senate president (Michael Thibodeau) and Sen. (Roger) Katz this morning to say he was leaving the state to go on vacation,” Thibodeau spokeswoman Krysta West said Monday afternoon. West said Thibodeau, R-Winterport, told her …

Oh how boring: Trump: Will ‘Fake News Media’ report stock market high? President Trump took to Twitter on Monday to ask whether “Fake News Media” will report on recent stock market highs. The Dow Jones industrial average hit a record high during trading Monday, closing nearly 130 points higher than it had started at in the morning. Really great numbers …

The Los Angeles Times reports: Amid a probe of sexual harassment at Fox Sports, the company announced Monday that it had fired its controversial head of sports programming, Jamie Horowitz. Horowitz’s dismissal came less than a week after 21st Century Fox began investigating allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace at Fox Sports. The company hired a law firm, which …