| Pentagon intelligence employees raise concerns about supporting domestic surveillance amid protests Posted: 04 Jun 2020 12:49 PM PDT  The government's increasingly militarized response to nationwide protests has sparked concern among employees of a Pentagon intelligence agency, who fear they might be compelled to help conduct surveillance on American demonstrators, sources tell Yahoo News.
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| 2 of the police officers charged over George Floyd's deadly arrest had been less than 4 days into the job, their lawyers say Posted: 05 Jun 2020 02:52 AM PDT  J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane had been new to the job, their defense lawyers said, adding that they had voiced concerns during Floyd's arrest.
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| Coronavirus cases are climbing again in the South and the West. Will crowded protests spark bigger outbreaks? Posted: 04 Jun 2020 05:54 AM PDT  As people across all 50 states continue to gather to protest police brutality and systemic racism, the question is whether this will spark a COVID-19 resurgence right when the U.S. seemed to be getting its epidemic under control.
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| Activist DeRay Mckesson to critics of the Black Lives Matter movement: ‘We never want one leader … because if you kill the leader, you kill the movement’ Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:45 AM PDT  The entire country is on edge right now with people protesting police brutality in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and other unarmed black people by law enforcement. All the while, the world continues to cope with a deadly pandemic, one that disproportionately affects African-Americans. And in November there is a presidential election. It's a lot for many people to grapple with and make sense of, but in a one-on-one interview with Yahoo News, civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson says it's important to focus on the crisis at hand and work from there.
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| Buffalo police riot squad quit to back officers who shoved man Posted: 05 Jun 2020 03:30 PM PDT  The police union says the two officers who pushed over an elderly man "were simply doing their job".
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| Lawsuit aims to hold nebulous 'antifa' to blame for injuries Posted: 04 Jun 2020 04:12 PM PDT  A conservative writer from Portland, Oregon, filed a lawsuit Thursday against purported elements of the nebulous, far-left militant groups collectively known as antifa, days after President Donald Trump blamed those groups for inciting violence at protests over police killings of black people. The suit was filed on behalf of Andy Ngo, who is known for aggressively covering and video-recording demonstrators. "I am hoping that this marks a turning point, that militants belonging to a criminal movement can no longer depend on the anonymity ... to get away with their crimes," said Ngo, who previously was a writer with the online publication Quillette and now is with The Post Millennial.
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| George Floyd protests: Georgia official say police should ‘shoot to kill’ demonstrators Posted: 04 Jun 2020 07:14 AM PDT  An official in Georgia has apologised after he suggested police should "shoot to kill" George Floyd protesters in Milwaukee if "they continue to destroy."Bibb county commissioner Joe Allen wrote the comment on a television news outlet's Facebook live stream showing damage caused during demonstrations against police brutality and institutionalised racism across the US.
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| Putin declares a state of emergency after 20,000 tons of diesel oil leak into Arctic river due to climate change Posted: 04 Jun 2020 11:50 AM PDT  Vladimir Putin declared a state of emergency after more than 20,000 tons of diesel fuel spilled into a river in the Russian Arctic. Several miles of the Ambarnaya river were turned red after a fuel tank at a power plant in Norilsk, an industrial city in northern Siberia, collapsed on Friday. Mr Putin berated regional officials for their slow response in a Zoom call broadcast on state television on Wednesday. "Why did government agencies only find out about this two days after the fact?" he asked Sergei Lipin, the head of the subsidiary that runs the plant. "Are we going to learn about emergency situations from social media?" Yevgenny Zinichev, the head of the Emergencies Ministry and and Alexander Uss, the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai said that they only learnt about the spill on May 31, two days after it occurred and established a true picture of the situation "only after information on social media." Mr Uss said officials were considering burning the oil off, but that there was no precedent for attempting to do so on such a large scale and it was not clear if it would succeed. The power plant is a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium. The company said in a statement that no one had been hurt by the accident and that it had deployed emergency teams to clean up the spill. It said the spill appeared to have been caused by "a sudden sinking of supporting posts in the basement of the storage tank" and that it was reviewing the threat of melting permafrost at other storage facilities. Russia's investigative committee, its rough equivalent of the FBI, has opened a criminal investigation. The head of the power plant has been taken into custody but has not been charged.
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| Trump and the threat of the military in US cities has made the Third Amendment suddenly relevant. Here's what it means. Posted: 04 Jun 2020 06:00 PM PDT  As of Thursday, 4,500 National Guard troops from various states across the US have been deployed to DC, and some are being housed in local hotels.
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| Two Buffalo Police Officers Suspended After 75-Year-Old Man Shoved to the Ground Posted: 05 Jun 2020 02:14 AM PDT  A video circulating on social media appears to show an elderly man being shoved backwards by police officers
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| Corrupt Cop Linked to Trump Tower Lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya Exposes Russian Ops Posted: 05 Jun 2020 08:28 AM PDT  LONDON—A corrupt former police officer who was caught working with Trump Tower lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya has revealed in a Swiss court how Russia's complex foreign influence campaign targets justice systems in Western countries. The former consultant to the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office was sacked and convicted after his entanglement with Veselnitskaya and the Russian prosecutor general's office was exposed. He reportedly told a court in Switzerland this week that he discussed a high-profile corruption case against Russia with Russian officials during an all-expenses-paid hunting trip to Siberia. On the visit to the spectacular Kamchatka Peninsula and Lake Baikal, the official, who is identified only as Victor K., reportedly admitted that he spent a week fishing, enjoying the rugged countryside, and hunting for bear, including from a helicopter, with officials from the Russian prosecutor general's office. Victor K. told the appeals court Tuesday that he had conferred with the Russian officials on the trip about the high-profile Magnitsky case, which he was supposed to be investigating. The $230 million fraud against the Russian people was uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky, who was subsequently detained and beaten by Russian officials, who left him to die in a prison cell. The case led to American sanctions against Russia, which were signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2012, after a campaign by U.S.-born financier Bill Browder. While the Swiss authorities originally froze millions connected to the Magnitsky case that flowed through Switzerland nine years ago, the case has stalled.The appeals court ruled Friday that Victor K. was guilty of improperly accepting the hunting trip, but it dismissed the fine that had been imposed by a lower court. "The decision holds; he received undue benefit from the Russians, but it's just a slap on the wrist for a serious crime," Browder told The Daily Beast. "The fact that the Swiss discovered a Russian mole and he bears effectively no consequence is pretty alarming, and makes Switzerland look like a banana republic."According to a lawyer who attended the hearing, Victor K. told the court that he had spent three or four hours discussing the Magnitsky case with the Russian officials. The lawyer's transcript also said he told his bosses in the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office that they should drop the case, because they would never be able to follow the money trail, which he likened to finding the source of several bottles of wine once they had all been poured into the same barrel.On a previous trip to Moscow, Swiss court papers revealed that Victor K. met Veselnitskaya, the lawyer responsible for the notorious Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner.Victor K., who was responsible for working on investigations into the Swiss financial dealing of the Russian mafia and oligarchs for decades, had met Veselnitskaya's collaborator, Russian Deputy Attorney General Saak Albertovich Karapetyan, in Geneva, Zurich, and Moscow "without the knowledge of his superiors," according to Swiss court papers. Karapetyan was one of the members of the delegation on the Siberian hunting retreat.Novaya Gazeta reported last month that Victor K. mysteriously continued to take trips to Russia after he stopped working for the Swiss authorities.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Another Man Who Said 'I Can't Breathe' Died in Custody. An Autopsy Calls It Homicide. Posted: 04 Jun 2020 05:20 AM PDT  SEATTLE -- A black man who called out "I can't breathe" before dying in police custody in Tacoma, Washington, was killed as a result of oxygen deprivation and the physical restraint that was used on him, according to details of a medical examiner's report released Wednesday.The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office concluded that the death of the man, Manuel Ellis, 33, was a homicide. Investigators with the Pierce County Sheriff's Department were in the process of preparing a report about the March death, which occurred shortly after an arrest by officers from the Tacoma Police Department, said the sheriff's spokesman, Ed Troyer."The information is all being put together," Troyer said. "We expect to present it to the prosecutor at the end of this week or early next week."Ellis's sister, Monet Carter-Mixon, called for action to bring accountability in the death and further scrutiny of both the Police Department's practices and how the investigation into his death has been handled."There's a lot of questions that still need to be answered," Carter-Mixon said.Ellis died from respiratory arrest, hypoxia and physical restraint, according to the medical examiner's office. The report listed methamphetamine intoxication and heart disease as contributing factors.Police officers encountered Ellis, a musician and father of two from Tacoma, on the night of March 3 as they were stopped at an intersection. They saw him banging on the window of another vehicle, Troyer said.Ellis approached the officers, Troyer said, and then threw an officer to the ground when the officer got out of the vehicle. The two officers and two backup officers who joined -- two of them white, one black and one Asian -- handcuffed him."Mr. Ellis was physically restrained as he continued to be combative," the Tacoma Police Department said in a statement Wednesday.Troyer said he did not know all the details of the restraint the officers used -- they were not wearing body cameras -- but said he did not believe they used a chokehold or a knee on Ellis' neck. They rolled him on his side after he called out, "I can't breathe.""The main reason why he was restrained was so he wouldn't hurt himself or them," Troyer said. "As soon as he said he couldn't breathe, they requested medical aid."Troyer said the call for aid came four minutes after the officers encountered Ellis.Ellis was still breathing when medical personnel arrived, Troyer said. He was removed from handcuffs while personnel worked on him for about 40 minutes, Troyer said. He was then pronounced dead.Family members said Ellis was the father of an 11-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter. He was a talented musician at his church. Carter-Mixon said Ellis was like a father figure to her boys, coaching them on things like how handle themselves to keep safe in a world of racial injustices."My heart literally hurts," she said. "It's painful. My brother was my best friend."On Wednesday night, she and others held a vigil in Tacoma.Brian Giordano, a close friend of Ellis, said that the two usually spoke several times a day and that Ellis had videochatted with him two hours before his death. He had been excited about a church service he had attended and proud of how he had played drums during the service, Giordano recalled.He said it would be uncharacteristic of Ellis to act in the violent way described by the police.He was living in a clean-and-sober house and was getting his life back together, he said. "He was always uplifting," Giordano said. "He was always on the up-and-up about taking care of people."The death comes as protests have spread around the nation over the case of George Floyd, a black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police last week. Minnesota officials have charged all four officers in that case, including Derek Chauvin, who kept his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes during the arrest.Forensics experts who conducted a private autopsy for Floyd's family concluded that another officer's knees on Floyd's back contributed to making it impossible for his lungs to take in sufficient air.Mayor Victoria Woodards of Tacoma said Wednesday that she would take appropriate steps based on the findings of the sheriff's investigation."We will learn the results of that investigation even as our country reels from the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and too many others," Woodards said.Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said the issue was a top priority for him."We will be pushing to make sure there is a full and complete investigation of that incident," Inslee said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| George Floyd death: US protests timeline Posted: 04 Jun 2020 08:13 AM PDT  Key events following the death of George Floyd in the US city of Minneapolis.
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| Sweden puts ex-envoy on trial over China dissident negotiations Posted: 05 Jun 2020 04:37 AM PDT  Sweden's former ambassador to China went on trial in Stockholm on Friday accused of overstepping her mandate and risking national security by trying to negotiate the release of a dissident. Anna Lindstedt faces up to two years in prison if she is convicted of brokering an unauthorised meeting in January last year when she was ambassador. Lindstedt, a former envoy in both Vietnam and Mexico who acted as Sweden's chief negotiator at the 2015 climate summit in Paris, denies the charge.
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| U.S. forces conduct airstrikes on Taliban in Afghanistan Posted: 05 Jun 2020 08:25 AM PDT |
| For the first time, Mexico records more COVID-19 deaths in a day than the U.S. Posted: 04 Jun 2020 06:06 PM PDT  Mexico tops 1,000 coronavirus deaths in one day. "This is not New York," the president says.
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| Delta says it will stop flying to 11 US cities indefinitely — here's the full list Posted: 05 Jun 2020 01:27 PM PDT  Delta is continuing to shrink its route network amid a slow-going recovery and subpar summer season with daily passenger numbers still below 500,000.
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| Some Louisville police stage protest, walking out on mayor Posted: 04 Jun 2020 11:13 AM PDT  Staging their own protest, some Louisville police officers walked out on the mayor to express their frustration amid demonstrations in the Kentucky city over police interactions with blacks. Video showed dozens of officers quietly filing out as Mayor Greg Fischer arrived at a roll call Wednesday. The walkout was an unplanned response to Fischer's appearance, said Ryan Nichols, the local Fraternal Order of Police president.
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| I'm a Minneapolis City Council Member. We Must Disband the Police—Here's What Could Come Next Posted: 05 Jun 2020 06:57 AM PDT  On Tuesday, May 26, we woke up to find a video circulating of a Minneapolis Police officer named Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of…
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| New York police take seconds to restore reputation for brutality Posted: 04 Jun 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Driving vehicles into protesters demanding justice for George Floyd earned the backing of the mayor, but of few others * George Floyd killing – latest US updates * See all our George Floyd coverageIt doesn't take long to blow up a reputation. In the case of the New York police department, an institution with an already troubled history, the clip lasted all of 27 seconds.It showed an NYPD vehicle in Brooklyn lined up against a metal barricade behind which protesters were chanting during Saturday's demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd. Projectiles were thrown on to the roof of the car, then suddenly a second police SUV drew up alongside and instead of stopping continued to plough straight into the crowd.Seconds later the first vehicle lurched forward, knocking the barrier over and with it propelling several protesters to the ground amid a harrowing chorus of shrieking.A 27-second video, now viewed more than 30m times, had quickly shredded years of effort to repair the deeply tarnished image of the NYPD. New York's "finest" were firmly cast in a role normally reserved for the security corps of petty dictators.The shocking video was compounded hours later when the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, spoke about the incident. A politician who won election in 2013 largely on a promise to reform the NYPD and scrap its racially discriminatory stop-and-frisk policy, astounded even his closest supporters when he defended the police.De Blasio said: "I do believe the NYPD has acted appropriately."Social media lit up. Was it appropriate to drive those two SUVs into the crowd? Was it appropriate for an NYPD officer forcibly to remove the coronavirus mask of a black protester whose arms were raised in the air, then pepper-spray his face?Was it appropriate for another officer to tell a protester to get off the street, then physically shove her several feet towards the curb where she landed on her head? Or that the police officers involved in the pepper spray incident had covered their badge numbers, presumably to avoid having to answer for their actions. Or to beat a nurse walking home from a shift at a hospital?The clashes between New York's police and its protesters have reverberated around the city. The largest police force in the US, with its $5.6bn annual budget and 36,000 uniformed officers under the leadership of one of the most progressive mayors in the country, has responded to demonstrations about police brutality with more police brutality.The Black, Latino and Asian Caucus of the city council, which makes up more than half of the legislative body, was swift and devastating in its criticism. In a statement, it said that the NYPD had acted "with aggression towards New Yorkers who vigorously and vociferously but nonetheless peacefully advocated for justice".Adrienne Adams, co-chair of the caucus, told the Guardian the NYPD had tried to suppress legitimate anger felt by African American and other minority communities following years of police abuse. "We cannot allow people who have kept people of color down for decades to say now that we don't have the right to display our outrage," she said.Though that sentiment applies nationwide, Adams believes New York stands out as having a "horrible history of police brutality". It was the NYPD that set the tone, she said, when Daniel Pantaleo, the officer implicated in the 2014 death by chokehold of Eric Garner in Staten Island, avoided prosecution."When nothing happened to the police officers who were responsible for the death of Eric Garner, New York set the blueprint for what happened to George Floyd," she said. "There's no penalty, no consequence, so it's OK."Adams's framing of the Garner killing could equally be applied to a long string of notorious episodes of police misconduct that preceded it. In 1997, Haitian immigrant Abner Louima was handcuffed by an NYPD officer and sexually assaulted with a broken broomstick.Two years later, Amadou Diallo was shot near his home in a hail of 41 bullets after officers mistook his wallet for a gun. In an echo of that event, an unarmed Sean Bell was shot 50 times in Queens on the morning of his wedding in 2006 – it took six years for the NYPD detective who opened the fusillade to be chucked off the force while nobody has ever been convicted of any crime.In the policing of protest, the NYPD also has a contentious track record. In 2004 it rounded up more than 1,800 peaceful protesters rallying outside the Republican National Convention during the re-election bid of George W Bush and herded them into overcrowded pens on Pier 57 in Manhattan. In 2011 it was similarly criticized for heavy-handed tactics during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.Cutting across all this, the force has consistently targeted its efforts on neighborhoods of the city with majority black or Latino populations, straying at times into overt racial profiling. Though stop and frisk has been reined back in recent years, the NYPD continues to heavily and disproportionately police those communities despite a historically low homicide rate.Despite this long legacy of overreach, the force continues to be systemically resistant to public oversight. Under Section 50-A of New York state law, the disciplinary files of police officers are largely held in secret, making the task of holding them accountable almost impossible.Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney at the Cop Accountability Project (CAP) within the Legal Aid Society, told the Guardian that there were currently more than 200 police officers still being employed by the NYPD on full pay who should have been considered for termination following reports of misconduct.Data collected by CAP shows that where cases of misconduct arise they often involve escalation of low-level encounters into aggressive confrontations – something officers are supposed to be trained not to do. The project is currently litigating the case of Tomas Medina who was put in a chokehold and Tasered in 2018 after police were called to a complaint about loud music being played.Eric Garner's fatal arrest was triggered by him allegedly selling single cigarettes.Although the use of chokeholds has been banned in New York, the project has found that between 2015 and 2018 the city settled 30 lawsuits involving NYPD use of the potentially lethal maneuver.Wong believes such endemic deployment of excessive force has spilled over into the NYPD's handling of the George Floyd protests. She was present at a peaceful protest in Brooklyn that suddenly turned volatile not because of the behavior of protesters but by a sudden change of tack on the part of the police."In a split second, the NYPD snapped and engaged in over-aggressive enforcement. They escalated it from 0 to 10 out of nowhere, arresting people and wielding their batons."If there has been unrestrained use of batons in the city, it would be with the full approval of Ed Mullins, the provocative president of one of the main police unions, the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA). He wrote to members urging "each and every one of you to report for duty with your helmet and baton and do not hesitate to utilize that equipment in securing your personal safety".The sister Police Benevolent Association of New York City has also spoken to its members in inflammatory terms about them being "under attack by violent, organized terrorists while New York City council and other politicians sit at home demanding we 'de-escalate'".There is no denying that the NYPD faces difficult challenges in the policing of mass protests, especially late at night when violent outbreaks have erupted as they did on Monday in Manhattan and the Bronx. Fires were started in the street and stores looted.For Eugene O'Donnell, a former NYPD officer and prosecutor in Brooklyn and Queens who is now a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Monday night's spectacle of looting along Fifth Avenue amounted to a collapse of policing in the city."This weekend, the job of police officer in New York became officially impossible when the police abolitionists won. They have created a model of zero tolerance towards force being used and any injuries being inflicted, and that's absurd."O'Donnell said the same pattern is repeating itself across America. "In city after city, the police were abolished this weekend. They stood back and watched as damage was inflicted that was irreversible."
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| Adoptee's historic court case could change how adoptees use the legal system Posted: 04 Jun 2020 01:52 PM PDT  Kara Bos's lawsuit could help her find out why she was abandoned and who her mother was. It could also change how adoptees use the legal system.
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| Trump administration orders Marriott to close Cuba hotel Posted: 05 Jun 2020 12:00 PM PDT  The Trump administration has ordered Marriott International to wind down hotel operations in Communist-run Cuba, a company spokeswoman told Reuters, extinguishing what had been a symbol of the U.S.-Cuban detente.
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| Iranian foreign minister challenges Trump to return to nuclear deal Posted: 05 Jun 2020 06:19 AM PDT  Seizing on Donald Trump's conciliatory tone after Tehran released an American Navy veteran, Iran's foreign minister challenged the U.S. president on Friday to return to the nuclear deal that Washington abandoned two years ago. Iran freed Michael White on Thursday as part of a deal in which the United States allowed Iranian-American physician Majid Taheri to visit Iran.
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| China could lose 95% of ballistic, cruise missiles under strategic arms control pact, says new analysis Posted: 05 Jun 2020 09:32 AM PDT |
| Under-fire African Development Bank boss facing new graft probe Posted: 04 Jun 2020 07:16 PM PDT  The African Development Bank on Thursday launched an independent inquiry into allegations of embezzlement and preferential treatment against its embattled president Akinwumi Adesina, who is seeking re-election in August, its board of governors said. The investigation into Adesina, a former Nigerian minister for agriculture, follows calls for a probe by Washington, and must wrap up within a "maximum" of four weeks as the institution prepares to elect a new head, the board said in a statement. In April, whistleblowers submitted a 15-page report to the bank's governors detailing alleged embezzlement, preferential treatment for fellow Nigerians in senior appointments, and the promotion of people suspected or convicted of fraud and corruption.
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| Do You Use Google Chrome’s Incognito Mode? You May Be Eligible for $5K Posted: 04 Jun 2020 03:00 PM PDT  That's a fair amount of money.
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| Mexico alleges some doctors sold false death certificates Posted: 05 Jun 2020 04:19 PM PDT  Mexico City officials said Friday that prosecutors are investigating several doctors who allegedly issued false death certificates for people who may have died of the coronavirus. As deaths mount in Mexico, the need to quickly dispose of corpses has apparently led to a black market in death certificates. Mexico reported 625 newly confirmed COVID-19 deaths Friday, down from a peak of 1,092 on Wednesday and 816 on Thursday.
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| The White House praised the ‘courage’ of Chinese protesters who died in the Tiananmen Square massacre days after tear gas and rubber bullets were used against protesters in DC Posted: 05 Jun 2020 01:18 AM PDT  The statement praises Chinese protesters for their "courage and optimism." It doesn't address the violent police response against protesters in the US.
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| Alabama shooting: Seven people found dead in ‘horrific’ scene at home Posted: 05 Jun 2020 05:25 AM PDT  Seven people have been found shot dead in an Alabama home in what police described as a "horrific" scene.Police were responding to an emergency call reporting gunshots on Sunday evening when they arrived to find the house on fire.
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| Coronavirus: Madagascar minister fired over $2m lollipop order Posted: 05 Jun 2020 09:16 AM PDT  Rijasoa Andriamanana said pupils would be given lollipops to mask the taste of a coronavirus "cure".
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| Fact check: CDC's estimates COVID-19 death rate around 0.26%, doesn't confirm it Posted: 05 Jun 2020 01:54 PM PDT  Current CDC estimates put the "best estimate" for COVID-19 at 0.26%. The claim that CDC confirmed the coronavirus death rate is partly false.
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| South Korea says mulling leaflet ban after Kim's sister threat Posted: 04 Jun 2020 01:08 AM PDT  Kim Yo Jong, the influential younger sister and key adviser to the leader, issued the warning with inter-Korean ties in a deep freeze despite three summits in 2018 between her brother and the South's President Moon Jae-in, who has consistently promoted engagement with Pyongyang. "The South Korean authorities will be forced to pay a dear price if they let this situation go on while making all sort of excuses," Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
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| Group carrying guns watch Floyd protesters march in Indiana Posted: 05 Jun 2020 04:43 AM PDT  Anti-racism protesters who marched through the streets to condemn the killing of George Floyd were met with a line of bystanders, some armed, in rural Indiana.
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| News agency: Iranian ship sinks in Iraqi waters, 1 dead Posted: 05 Jun 2020 03:05 AM PDT |
| Why are white supremacists protesting the deaths of black people? Posted: 05 Jun 2020 05:08 AM PDT  As protests about police violence among black people continue and become more widespread across the U.S., certain individuals and groups have begun to stand out – including anarchists, agitators and members of a variety of far-right groups. With the country's long history of racist killings, it may be confusing to think that racists and white supremacists are among those objecting to the killing of people of color.But people affiliated with far-right groups aren't trying to be part of the overall protest movement. Having researched these groups, we think it's likely that they are attempting to hijack the event for their own purposes.As researchers of street gangs and far-right groups, we see that in this case, they want to stoke a civil war between the races – one they think they can win. By antagonizing police, destroying property, or intimidating the public by adopting military gear – including weapons – these groups are attempting to instigate violence between the police, protesters and the public. Rousting law enforcement to violently retaliate against black people en masse is the first step. Instigating civil warThe far-right is not unified by a strict ideology. It is a broad movement with various factions vying for greater amounts of attention and influence. In spite of this tension, our research shows that many share the conspiracy belief that Western governments are corrupt and controlled by the New World Order, a cabal of wealthy Jewish elites. To them, wealthy Jewish investor and democracy advocate George Soros is the puppet master of the world economy. William Luther Pierce's 1978 novel "The Turner Diaries," which has come to be known as "the bible of the racist right," lays out a plan to instigate a race war and bring about the federal government's collapse. The book has inspired violence from the far-right, most notably the 1995 bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City."Accelerationism" – the idea that inducing chaos, provoking law enforcement, and promoting political tension will hasten the collapse of Western government – has taken root among far-right groups. One such group, the "Boogaloo Bois," identified by their penchant for wearing Hawaiian shirts, has been observed at protests in Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Oregon. As with any far-right movement, "Boogaloo Bois" groups are rather unstructured and have varied beliefs, lacking any hierarchical organization.In Las Vegas, three "Boogaloo Bois" were arrested with firearms and a plan to incite violence during George Floyd protests. Social media posts and online chat groups have also shown them attempting to infiltrate other protests across the country.Joining the crowds provides these groups an opportunity to discredit protesters by inciting looting, rioting, violence and vandalism – which they hope will spark like-minded white Americans to resist the civil disobedience of protesters. Already, there are roving bands of armed white counterprotesters at protests across America. Other far-right extremists are talking on social media about the protests requiring a lot of police attention and see an opportunity to engage in targeted terror attacks. Their overall intention is the same: fanning flames to burn down the federal government, making room for them to establish a whites-only country.[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * There's a history of white supremacists interpreting government leaders' words as encouragement * Why are white supremacists protesting to 'reopen' the US economy?The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Mark Cuban commissioned a 3-way poll last month as he considered running as an independent against Biden and Trump in the 2020 presidential election Posted: 04 Jun 2020 02:10 PM PDT  "I dominated the independent vote," Cuban said of his performance against Biden and Trump in the poll. "I got like 77% of it."
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| Chris Hayes Slams Cuomo and de Blasio for Trying to ‘Gaslight the Public’ on Cops Beating Protesters Posted: 04 Jun 2020 08:22 PM PDT  MSNBC host Chris Hayes took New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to task on Thursday night for falsely claiming that New York police hadn't beaten protesters despite video evidence to the contrary.In recent days, several videos have surfaced on social media showing NYPD officers whacking peaceful protesters with batons, including a "horrifying" viral clip of three officers bludgeoning a cyclist on Wednesday night. The latter video prompted widespread outrage—except from the governor and mayor.Noting that Wednesday night's New York protest over George Floyd's death devolved into violence because "the NYPD started beating people," Hayes went on to highlight several incidents captured on video by protesters and journalists."In fact, the public advocate of the City of New York, Jumaane Williams, was present at the protest and live-streaming," he said. "A New York Times reporter was following the crowd and documenting the peaceful protest in the march of Brooklyn."After reading from a reporter's description of the police escalating the violence and beating multiple protesters, the MSNBC host lambasted Cuomo and de Blasio not only for the heavy-handed tactics but lying to the public about them."The mayor of New York City and the governor of New York state went before reporters to gaslight the public, all of us, into believing that we did not see what we all saw," he exclaimed. "That the witnesses are not telling the truth about police beating protesters with their batons."The MSNBC star went on to play clips of the NYC mayor claiming he hasn't seen any footage of police violence towards demonstrators and Cuomo taking umbrage at the very suggestion that officers would do that."A police officer doing their job, do you think there is any sensible police officer who believes their job is bludgeoning a peaceful person with a baton?" Cuomo huffed. "You see, it's that kind of incendiary rhetoric that is not a fact. It's not even an opinion. That is a hyper-partisan rhetorical attack. That is a hyperpartisan rhetorical attack. Police hit peaceful protesters with batons for no reason. That's not a fact. They don't do that."An incensed Hayes retorted to Cuomo: "Well, it is a fact. It is very much a fact."He would then go on to show more footage of police roughing up protesters before sounding one final note. "If this is what it looks like, and based on eye witness accounts it sure appears it's what it looks like, there must be consequences for the police officers and the people that command and supervisor them," Hayes concluded.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| China says ex-soccer star's call for ouster of Communist Party is 'absurd' Posted: 05 Jun 2020 02:16 AM PDT  China on Friday called retired soccer star Hao Haidong's remarks "absurd" after the celebrated player called for the ouster of the ruling Communist Party in a video released on Thursday, the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Hao, who was a major star in the 1990s and 2000s and led China to its only World Cup finals appearance in 2002, spoke in a 53-minute interview on the YouTube channel of fugitive billionaire Guo Wengui, who is close to former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon.
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| Israel's New F-35s Are Holding Iran At Risk Like Never Before Posted: 04 Jun 2020 05:00 PM PDT  They're a game changer for Israel.
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| Indonesia couple lashed in Aceh despite virus fears Posted: 04 Jun 2020 05:49 PM PDT  Two Indonesians caught having pre-marital sex were flogged a hundred times each on Friday in conservative Aceh province with a fraction of the usual crowd watching, due in part to coronavirus fears. Aceh is the only region in Muslim-majority Indonesia to impose Islamic law, which allows whipping for charges including gambling, adultery, drinking alcohol, and gay sex. Local officials have continued the practice despite bans on mass gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, insisting they have taken adequate safety measures to prevent infections.
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| Cristobal regains tropical storm force on track to US coast Posted: 05 Jun 2020 07:26 AM PDT  A storm that appears to be headed for the U.S. Gulf Coast regained tropical storm force on Friday while drenching southern Mexico and Central America. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tropical Storm Cristobal had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) and was moving north at 13 mph (20 kph). It crossed the Yucatan Peninsula Friday and re-entered the Gulf of Mexico.
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| Enraged New York driver who chased protesters with blades attached to arm is arrested Posted: 04 Jun 2020 04:51 PM PDT  Video shows a man speeding after a group of young protesters in his SUV, then rushing them with blades strapped to his arm.
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| After GOP Sen. Murkowski says she's 'struggling' over whether she can support Trump, president vows to campaign against her Posted: 04 Jun 2020 05:17 PM PDT  Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called former Secretary of Defense James Mattis' criticism of Trump "true, and honest, and necessary and overdue." Now the president is vowing to campaign against her, no matter the candidate or their record.
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