| Schiff demands answers from Pentagon on monitoring domestic unrest Posted: 08 Jun 2020 02:02 PM PDT  Rep. Adam Schiff wrote the Pentagon Monday expressing concerns that the Defense Department might be involved in "unlawful or unethical activities" in response to recent nationwide protests.
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| Remains found in Idaho missing children case Posted: 09 Jun 2020 03:38 PM PDT  The mother of two children, who disappeared last year, and her husband have links to a cult-like group.
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| Amid US tension, Iran builds fake aircraft carrier to attack Posted: 09 Jun 2020 01:08 AM PDT  As tensions remain high between Iran and the U.S., the Islamic Republic appears to have constructed a new mock-up of an aircraft carrier off its southern coast for potential live-fire drills. The faux foe, seen in satellite photographs obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the U.S. Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, its narrow mouth where 20% of all the world's oil passes through. While not yet acknowledged by Iranian officials, the replica's appearance in the port city of Bandar Abbas suggests Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is preparing an encore of a similar mock-sinking it conducted in 2015.
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| Portland, Ore., police chief resigns after 6 months amid George Floyd protests Posted: 09 Jun 2020 12:14 PM PDT  Jami Resch stepped down as chief of the Police Bureau in Portland, Oregon, on Monday and announced Chuck Lovell would take her place amid protests in the city.
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| Second Etihad plane from UAE lands in Israel Posted: 09 Jun 2020 05:13 PM PDT  UAE carrier Etihad Airways sent its second flight to Israel in less than a month Tuesday, carrying medical aid to help the Palestinians tackle the coronavirus pandemic, witnesses and officials said. Jordan and Egypt aside, Arab countries have no official diplomatic ties with Israel, but Gulf Arab nations have had ever more publicly warm ties with Israel of late, partly over shared rivalry with Iran. In mid-May, the United Arab Emirates flew its first publicly announced flight to Israel, also an Etihad flight carrying coronavirus aid for the Palestinians.
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| America Is Using Its Navy to Deter China Around Taiwan and the Spratly Islands Posted: 08 Jun 2020 01:23 PM PDT  How do these patrols work?
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| Biden seeks running mate who's "ready to be president on day one" Posted: 09 Jun 2020 04:05 PM PDT  The presumptive Democratic nominee said he wants someone who's comfortable raising any disagreements with him.
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| White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany boasted that 8% of Black voters supported Trump in 2016 and falsely claimed Mitt Romney won just 2% of Black voters in 2012 Posted: 09 Jun 2020 09:07 AM PDT  McEnany refused to say whether Trump endorses the statement that "black lives matter" and attacked Romney's support for the anti-racism protests.
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| Protesters across US attacked by cars driven into crowds and men with guns Posted: 09 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Protesters confronted by armed men – including members of the so-called 'boogaloo movement' – in different parts of AmericaAnti police-brutality protesters have been confronted by armed men in cities around America in recent days, with some brandishing firearms or other weapons, some driving vehicles at crowds, and others – including members of the so-called "boogaloo movement" – claiming they have come to help anti-racism demonstrations.On Sunday, in Seattle, a man drove at speed towards protesters, while several protesters tried to slow or stop the vehicle.One who reached through the car window was shot in the arm by the driver. The driver then exited the vehicle carrying a handgun, which appeared in photographs to have a modified, extra-long magazine. He moved into the crowd, and later surrendered to police.But this was not even the first such incident that day. In Lakeside, Virginia, an armed man named Harry "Skip" Rogers, was arrested on charges of assault and battery after he allegedly drove his truck at protesters, hitting a cyclist.Rogers, reportedly an organizer for the National Association for Awakening Confederate Patriots, carried out a one-man protest in 2016 wearing Ku Klux Klan robes, and was also part of the Unite the Right demonstration in Charlottesville in 2017, where protester Heather Heyer was murdered in a vehicular homicide. Two days days after Unite the Right, according to photographs and accounts of activists, Rogers was bloodied in an altercation that took place when he attempted to disrupt a memorial rally for Heyer, while wearing a shirt with KKK and Confederate flag patches.Other vehicular attacks have also occurred, among other places, on 29 May in Bakersfield, California, and day before in Denver. On 30 May an armed man pulled a gun before driving through a crowd in Gainesville, Florida. In Minneapolis, a man in a semi-trailer truck parted the crowd on an overpass when he drove towards them. Further incidents involving firearms and other weapons have also occurred. In McAllen, Texas, last Friday, a lone man threatened Black Lives Matter protesters with a running chainsaw, first screaming "go home" before shouting racial slurs. In Upland, California, on 1 June, a man pulled an AR-15 from his truck and brandished it at protesters, and was subsequently arrested.In Chicago on 31 May, a lone man armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a sidearm pistol was led away from the scene of a protest by police. Earlier, protesters say, he had brandished the weapon at them.In Boise, Idaho, on 1 June, two armed men disguised with skull masks similar to those favored by some neo-Nazi groups counter-protested a local Black Lives Matter march. One, Michael Wallace, 19, was later arrested after what police were investigating as an accidental discharge of his weapon. In Salt Lake City on 31 May, a man was arrested after threatening a crowd of protesters with a hunting bow. But some armed individuals attending protests, identified as members of the "boogaloo movement", have presented protesters with a troubling ambiguity. So-called "boogaloo bois" are members of a loose-knit, pro-gun, anti-government movement, which is preoccupied with what they believe to be a looming second American civil war. Last week, three former armed servicemen associated with the movement were arrested and charged over an alleged plot aimed at vital national infrastructure.In general, the subculture resents the police and government agencies who would restrict their access to firearms. But they are divided within themselves on several questions, including racial politics. While some ardent white supremacists use the vocabulary and imagery of the movement – including donning Hawaiian shirts – others express strong sympathy for black victims of police violence. At protests around the country, some members of the boogaloo movement have shown up armed to protect stores from protesters, and others are implicitly hostile. But others claim to support the protests. Social media material obtained by the Guardian shows some in smaller communities in the Pacific north-west marching alongside Black Lives Matter protesters. On social media, some of the most popular Facebook pages and groups associated with the movement have celebrated the protests against the killing of George Floyd. One viral social video shows a "boogaloo boi" vocally criticizing police brutality and sympathizing with the protesters.But worries about infiltration and uncertainty about the true motivations of boogaloo sympathizers have led many protesters to keep their distance. The Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club is a leftist "community defense organization", which itself frequently openly carries firearms in defense of leftwing protests, and is known for attempting dialogue with members of rightwing militia groups. Via a messaging app, its spokesman reflected the ambivalence with which many protesters regard boogaloo bois. "The 'boog movement' has many bad actors within its ranks proliferating antisemitic, racist and QAnon dog whistles, either deliberately or inadvertently, but the movement has also scooped up legitimately disillusioned people," the spokesperson said.Asked how the group and other leftists should respond to "boogaloo bois" seeking to join or assist protests, the spokesperson said: "We've had boogaloo types show up at events. Usually we watch from a distance because of the risk and unpredictability."
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| Iran says it will execute man convicted of spying on Soleimani for CIA Posted: 09 Jun 2020 12:40 AM PDT  An Iranian who spied for U.S. and Israeli intelligence on slain Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani has been sentenced to death, Iran said on Tuesday, adding the case was not linked to Soleimani's killing earlier this year. On Jan. 3, a U.S. drone strike in Iraq killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force. Washington blamed Soleimani for masterminding attacks by Iran-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region.
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| Fired Atlanta officers file suit against mayor, police chief Posted: 09 Jun 2020 02:12 AM PDT  Two Atlanta police officers who were fired after video showed them using stun guns on two college students pulled from a car in traffic during a large protest against police brutality are looking to get their jobs back. Bottoms and Shields have said they reviewed body camera footage from the May 30 incident and decided to immediately fire the officers and place three others on desk duty. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard brought criminal charges on June 2 against Gardner, Streeter and four other officers involved in the incident.
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| Why Kenyans are begging their president for freedom Posted: 09 Jun 2020 04:13 PM PDT  About 1.2 million people have lost their jobs since coronavirus hit the East African state in March.
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| Prince Philip to mark 99th birthday amid coronavirus crisis Posted: 09 Jun 2020 06:05 AM PDT  Britain's Prince Philip will celebrate his 99th birthday on Wednesday, spending it quietly with his wife, Queen Elizabeth II.
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| Kill the Carrier: The DF-100 Anti-Ship Missile Is Crucial To China's Pacific Plans Posted: 09 Jun 2020 04:00 PM PDT  America's carriers are at risk.
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| Trump reportedly wanted to fire his defense secretary after he broke with the president over sending combat troops to subdue protests Posted: 09 Jun 2020 12:38 PM PDT  Trump was reportedly furious when Esper publicly split with him, and Esper also started preparing his resignation letter after the disagreement.
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| Dramatic details emerge in capture of man accused of killing deputy Posted: 09 Jun 2020 04:49 AM PDT  Northern California officials called U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Steven Carrillo "a dangerous man intent on bringing harm to police officers" during a weekend ambush.
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| Malaysian prosecutors drop corruption charges against Najib ally Posted: 09 Jun 2020 03:47 AM PDT  Malaysian government prosecutors withdrew corruption charges on Tuesday against an ally of former premier Najib Razak, whose party returned to power in a new coalition three months ago after having lost the last election amid massive graft scandals. The Kuala Lumpur High Court acquitted Musa Aman, a senior figure in Najib's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and former chief minister of Sabah state in Malaysian Borneo, after the prosecution dropped all 46 charges of alleged bribery in timber concession deals and money laundering. The opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition described the decision as "confusing and disappointing".
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| US police have fatally shot nearly 1,000 people a year since police-brutality protests erupted, Washington Post finds Posted: 08 Jun 2020 11:21 PM PDT  "When we talk about defunding the police, what we're saying is 'invest in the resources that our communities need,'" a protest organizer has said.
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| Minneapolis Manufacturing Company Will Leave City after Plant Burned in Riots Posted: 09 Jun 2020 06:41 AM PDT  A Minneapolis manufacturing company whose plant was set on fire by rioters plans to leave the city, saying that city officials afforded them no assistance in handling the destruction."They don't care about my business," 7-Sigma Inc.'s president and owner, Kris Wyrobek, told The Star Tribune about Minneapolis public officials. "They didn't protect our people. We were all on our own."The 7-Sigma plant in south Minneapolis, which the company has maintained since 1987, shut down several hours early around 7 p.m. instead of 11 p.m. as a precautionary measure on the first night of rioting. The company manufactures several products, including rollers for high-speed printing presses and medical training mannequins.When a fire broke out in an apartment complex under construction that was next door to the manufacturing facility, "the fire engine was just sitting there, but they wouldn't do anything," Wyrobek said. The apartment complex was leveled by the fire, and several stores across the street including a Target store were looted during the first night of riots.Mayor Jacob Frey said the city's fire department was operating at full capacity in response to the riots, which he said required the state's National Guard to quell the violence. Governor Tim Walz, who excoriated the city's weak response, called in the state's National Guard to Minneapolis after the mayor requested it. The Minnesota National Guard said in a statement that "a key objective is to ensure fire departments are able to respond to calls.""This was a Guard-sized crisis and demanded a Guard-sized response," Frey said. "And once we had the full presence of the National Guard — which by the way hasn't been deployed since World War II — there was a significantly different result."The city will lose about 50 jobs when the company skips town, a move that Wyrobek said he had "not in my wildest nightmare" considered before the riots. Now, he is "cautiously optimistic" that he can rebuild his company elsewhere, "but we are certainly not able to do that in Minneapolis."Riots broke out in Minneapolis during the last week of May after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, including after Floyd passed out. Rioters set a police precinct ablaze as well as businesses across the city.Both peaceful protests and riots have occurred in metropolitan areas around the country in response to Floyd's death and have continued through both of the following weekends.
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| Mexico says 1,200 citizens died in US from coronavirus Posted: 09 Jun 2020 11:21 AM PDT  More 1,200 Mexicans have died of the novel coronavirus in the United States, Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday, adding that another 12 citizens around the world have also fallen victim to the deadly virus. Ebrard said more than half of the US deaths were in New York, while five of the worldwide deaths happened in Canada. As borders all over the world were closed due to the pandemic, Mexico repatriated more than 14,600 people, including almost 4,000 from Europe, Ebrard said.
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| LAPD officer charged with assault after Boyle Heights confrontation Posted: 09 Jun 2020 04:31 PM PDT  A Los Angeles Police Department officer who was seen on camera repeatedly punching a trespassing suspect in Boyle Heights has been charged with assault, according to the district attorney's office.
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| Democrats propose sweeping police overhaul; Trump criticizes Posted: 07 Jun 2020 09:06 PM PDT  Democrats in Congress proposed a far-reaching overhaul of police procedures and accountability Monday, a sweeping legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement. President Donald Trump is staking out a tough "law and order" approach in the face of the outpouring of demonstrations and demands to re-imagine policing in America. "We cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drawing on the nation's history of slavery.
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| Jesse Jackson says white Americans are finally 'awakening' to the nation's racial crisis Posted: 08 Jun 2020 02:57 PM PDT  For decades "white America tolerated lynching," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said. After George Floyd's death "white people feel embarrassed," he said.
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| Cuomo: Trump should apologize for "reprehensible" tweet Posted: 09 Jun 2020 10:16 AM PDT  New York's governor spoke about protests and New York City beginning Phase 1 of reopening after an 80-day lockdown.
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| Who killed Swedish PM Olof Palme in 1986? Swedes hope to find out Posted: 09 Jun 2020 12:04 AM PDT  Thirty-four years after Prime Minister Olof Palme was killed, Swedes hope finally to find out who shot him dead as he walked home from a cinema with his wife and son. Prosecutor Krister Petersson will on Wednesday present the conclusions of the investigation he took over in 2017 into Palme's murder on a busy Stockholm street shortly before midnight on Feb. 28, 1986. The failure to solve the case, despite Sweden's biggest ever manhunt, has long caused unease in a nation that prides itself on its openness and tolerance.
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| Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza dies of 'cardiac arrest' at 55 Posted: 09 Jun 2020 12:03 PM PDT  Pierre Nkurunziza was admitted to hospital on Saturday after feeling unwell, the government says.
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| The U.S. Air Force’s Shiny, New Sea Power Presence Posted: 09 Jun 2020 09:28 AM PDT  It will take more than a lone bomber mission from afar—no matter how impressive—to rattle Moscow's complacency.
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| Graham Says FBI ‘Denying’ Requests to Interview Agents Who Talked to Steele’s Subsource Posted: 08 Jun 2020 09:55 AM PDT  Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) revealed Sunday that the FBI has denied his requests to interview the two officials who interviewed Christopher Steele's primary subsource."I made a request to interview the case agent and the intel analyst . . . and they're denying me the ability to do that," Graham said in an interview on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures.The two FBI agents, a case agent and an intelligence agent, interviewed Steele's primary subsource three times in 2017. In the course of those interviews, the unidentified person "revealed potentially serious problems with Steele's descriptions of information in his reports," according to Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.Graham explained that he wanted to know "did the case agent and the intel agent refuse to tell the system about exculpatory information? Does the fault lie with two or three people? Or was it a system out of control?"Horowitz's December report on the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation found that the Bureau knew in January 2017 that Steele's allegations relating to the Trump campaign relied in part on disinformation produced by Russian intelligence, according to recently declassified footnotes.One of the agents who took part in the initial interviews with Steele's source is Stephen Somma, a counterintelligence investigator in the FBI's New York field office. Horowitz said in his report that Somma — identified as "Case Agent 1" — was "primarily responsible for some of the most significant errors and omissions" in FISA applications to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.In April, Graham asked the DOJ for records that "question the accuracy and reliability" of former British spy Christopher Steele's sourcing, before announcing a number of hearings "regarding all things Crossfire Hurricane and the Mueller investigation" that began with the testimony of former acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last week.Rosenstein told Graham that he would not have signed off on the warrant to spy on Page, had he known the issues with the underlying evidence at the time, and blamed the FBI for failing to follow protocols "to ensure that every fact was verified."
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| Poland seizes three tonnes of cocaine hidden in barrels of frozen pineapple Posted: 09 Jun 2020 07:18 AM PDT 
Polish authorities have seized more than three tonnes of cocaine hidden in barrels of frozen pineapple pulp and with a street value of around 3 billion zlotys ($760.9 million) in a record haul for the country. The cocaine was discovered in barrels of frozen pineapple pulp in a warehouse in the northern port city of Gdynia, police said in a statement on Tuesday (June 9). The cocaine had been transported by ship to Hamburg from Ecuador before travelling to Gdynia by road, police said, adding they had arrested three men from the northern Polish region of Pomerania, aged from 64 to 71, as a result of their investigation. Latin American drug lords have been sending bumper shipments of cocaine to Europe even as the new coronavirus pandemic disrupts drug supply chains and confines users to their homes, anti-narcotics officials say.
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| Trump pushes conspiracy theory about Buffalo protester Posted: 09 Jun 2020 09:37 AM PDT  President Donald Trump ignited fresh controversy over his hard-line "law and order" push Tuesday by peddling yet another unfounded conspiracy theory, this time trying to raise suspicions about a 75-year-old protester who was hospitalized after being shoved by police and falling. Trump tweeted without evidence that the confrontation in Buffalo, New York, may have been a "set up" as he once again sided with police officers over protesters and demonstrated anew his willingness to spread and amplify bogus charges cooked up by far-right outlets. The move comes as Trump, who has labeled himself "your president of law and order," has taken a tough line against the protesters who have been demonstrating across the nation following the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck.
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| ‘They set us up’: US police arrested over 10,000 protesters, many non-violent Posted: 08 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Over 10,000 people have been arrested around the US, as police regularly use pepper spray, rubber bullets, teargas and batons * George Floyd killing – latest US updates * See all our George Floyd coverageSince George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 25 May, about 140 cities in all 50 states throughout the US have seen protests and demonstrations in response to the killing. More than 10,000 people have been arrested around the US during the protests, as police forces regularly use pepper spray, rubber bullets, teargas and batons on protesters, media and bystanders. Several major US cities have enacted curfews in an attempt to stop demonstrations and curb unrest. Jarah Gibson was arrested while non-violently protesting in Atlanta, Georgia, on 1 June. "The police were there from the jump and literally escorted us the whole march," said Gibson. She said around 7.30pm, ahead of Atlanta's 9pm city-wide curfew, police began boxing in protesters. While protesters were attempting to leave, Gibson tried to video-record a person on a bicycle who appeared to be hit by a police car and was arrested by police. She was given a citation for "pedestrian in a roadway," and "refusing to comply when asked to leave"."The police are instigating everything and they are criminalizing us. Now I have my mugshot taken, my fingerprints taken and my eyes scanned. Now I'm a criminal over an illegal arrest," added Gibson. "I want to be heard and I want the police to just abide by basic human decency."Ruby Anderson was arrested while non-violently protesting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 31 May. The police refused to provide a reason for her detention until they were placed in a police van, where they were told the charge was loitering. They were given a wristband that stated "unlawful assembly" and ultimately charged with disorderly conduct. "While I was arrested, I was standing next to two white people who were doing the same thing as me, standing between a group of officers and a group of black teenagers. I was the only one arrested in my group of three, I was the only black person," Anderson said.Reports of excessive police force throughout the protests have emerged around the US. More than 130 reports of journalists being attacked by police have been recorded since 28 May.On 2 June, six police officers in Atlanta, Georgia, were charged with excessive force during an arrest of two college students on 30 May. A staggering 12,000 complaints against police in Seattle, Washington, were made over the weekend of 30 May in response to excessive force at protests.A Denver, Colorado, police officer was fired for posting on Instagram "let's start a riot". In New York City, videos surfaced of NYPD officers pointing a gun at protesters, driving an SUV into a crowd of protesters, swiping a protester with a car door, an officer flashing a white supremacy symbol, and another officer shoving a woman to the ground, which left her hospitalized.Several protesters and bystanders around the US have been left hospitalized from rubber bullet wounds, bean bags, teargas canisters and batons, while police have reportedly torn down medical tents and destroyed water bottles meant for protesters. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dan Rojas was arrested on the morning of 27 May. Though there were no protests occurring at the time, Rojas had decided to clean up fragments of rubber bullets, teargas and frag canisters on the public sidewalk in his neighborhood when six police officers confronted him and arrested him. "They put me in handcuffs, took my property off of me, and they shoved a local reporter out of the way. They put me in a squad car and arrested me for rioting at 10.30 in the morning, the day after a peaceful protest," said Rojas, who was not released until over 48 hours later. "At the end of it no charges were filed, everything was dropped and I was never told the probable cause they had to arrest me." Several non-violent protesters arrested during demonstrations requested to remain anonymous for fear of police retaliation as they still face citations and pending charges. The protesters described police tactics of "kettling", where protesters were surrounded and blocked by police forces from leaving, often until curfews took effect or arrests were made for obstructing a roadway. "The curfews are a way to give police more power, exactly the opposite of what protesters want. These curfews, like most other 'law and order' tactics, will disproportionately impact the very same communities that are protesting against state-sponsored violence and brutality," said Dr LaToya Baldwin Clark, assistant professor of law at UCLA.One protester in Los Angeles, California, told how she was returning to her apartment before the city's 6pm curfew, while police were blocking protesters and obstructing exits. "I was arrested two streets away from my apartment, it had just turned 6pm," said the protester. She noted during the arrests, bystanders were protesting against the arrests from their apartment balconies, while police were aiming rubber bullets, teargas and pepper spray at them."They handcuffed us all with zip tie handcuffs and left us in a police bus for about five hours … I asked for medical assistance and they denied it to me, I was handcuffed for over five hours with a bleeding hand that eventually turned purple until I was finally released." She was eventually released at 1am on 2 June, with a citation for being out past curfew. "The police set us up to get arrested. They shut off the streets forcing us on to Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Once we were on the bridge, the police blocked both exits in front and behind us," said a protester in Dallas, Texas, who was arrested on 1 June and later released without charges.She added: "They shot teargas at us and shot a protester with a rubber bullet and it injured her hand. The police made us all get on the ground, proceeded to zip tie our hands together, lined us up on the side of the highway and left us there for hours."In Cincinnati, Ohio, a resident in a neighborhood where protests were occurring on 31 May saw several protesters were at risk of being caught outside past the city's curfew at 8pm. "It felt like a trap to me. I felt if I could pick some people up and take them to their cars, I could stop people from getting arrested, so I jumped in my car, drove down the street, saw a group of people hiding, they had their hands up, and they climbed into the car, and shut the doors. We tried to drive, but were stopped," said the resident. "We were asked to leave the car, zip-tied on the side of the road, loaded on to a bus, and they detained us for a few hours doing paperwork." A protester in Houston, Texas, described police kettling her and other protesters before getting arrested on 31 May for obstructing a roadway. "We weren't allowed to go home," she said. "We tried our best to go home and were told 'no, you're not leaving.' From then on, the cops said anyone outside their circle is going to jail and they would push us further from the sidewalk. They had us closed in."
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| Minnesota state troopers admit deflating tires during protests Posted: 09 Jun 2020 01:23 PM PDT  Social media videos emerged that appear to show law enforcement officers slashing tires as protesters gathered in Minneapolis.
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| U.N. expert says some are 'starving' in North Korea Posted: 09 Jun 2020 02:49 AM PDT  A United Nations human rights expert voiced alarm on Tuesday at "widespread food shortages and malnutrition" in North Korea, made worse by a nearly five-month border closure with China and strict quarantine measures against COVID-19. Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, urged the U.N. Security Council to reconsider sanctions imposed on the isolated country over its nuclear and missile programmes, so as to ensure food supplies. The pandemic has brought "drastic economic hardship" to North Korea, Ojea Quintana said, with a 90% fall in trade with China in March and April leading to lost incomes.
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| NYC Without Police? Chirlane McCray Says It Would Be 'Nirvana.' Bill de Blasio Doesn’t See It Happening for Generations Posted: 09 Jun 2020 10:35 AM PDT  New York City would be police-free in a perfect world, Bill de Blasio and Chirlane McCray said during Tuesday's TIME100 Talks
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| Mood darkens in Sweden as high death rate raises tough questions over lack of lockdown Posted: 08 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Sweden's opposition has attacked the government for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with the stubbornly high death rate fuelling questions over the decision not to impose a lockdown. Jimmie Akesson, the leader of the populist Sweden Democrats, first called for Anders Tegnell, the architect of Sweden's less restrictive coronavirus strategy, to resign. The attacks continued in heated televised leaders' debate on Sunday night. "The strategy in Sweden was not to try to hold back the infection, but instead to try to limit it at the same time as protecting risk groups," Mr Akesson wrote in a debate article in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper. "By that measure, it has failed miserably. Anders Tegnell should therefore resign. Only them will he show the Swedish people that he takes responsibility for the mistakes FHM [Public Health Agency of Sweden] has made."
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| Ready to visit a reopened Las Vegas? MGM Resorts plans to open four more hotels by July 1 Posted: 09 Jun 2020 04:30 PM PDT  Travelers returning to Las Vegas as coronavirus restrictions ease will have more hotel choices by July 1.
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| Coronavirus: How Covid-19 has changed the 'big fat Indian wedding' Posted: 08 Jun 2020 04:12 PM PDT  Can simple intimate ceremonies be the new normal in a country obsessed with lavish weddings?
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| A Brazilian health council has started releasing the country's full coronavirus count after Brazil wiped months of data from its official COVID-19 tracker Posted: 08 Jun 2020 01:27 AM PDT  President of CONASS Alberto Beltrame said the health council's decision was guided by "science, truth, and accurate and timely information."
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| Falwell apologizes for tweet that included racist photo Posted: 08 Jun 2020 01:53 PM PDT  Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. apologized Monday for a tweet that included a racist photo that appeared on Gov. Ralph Northam's medical school yearbook page decades ago. "After listening to African American LU leaders and alumni over the past week and hearing their concerns, I understand that by tweeting an image to remind all of the governor's racist past I actually refreshed the trauma that image had caused and offended some by using the image to make a political point," he tweeted Monday. Falwell, a stalwart backer of President Donald Trump and the son of the late evangelist the Rev. Jerry Falwell, said he had deleted the tweet and apologized "for any hurt my effort caused, especially within the African American community."
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| George Floyd protests: Lawyer arrested twice after spitting on black teenager and slapping another the next day Posted: 09 Jun 2020 02:49 AM PDT  A lawyer who spat on a teenage protester during a demonstration over George Floyd's death has been arrested twice in two days.According to eye witness reports from the scene on Saturday, Stephanie Rapkin, a white 64-year-old resident of the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood, parked her car in the middle of an intersection to block an anti-racism protest, angrily ignoring demands that she get back into the car and move it.
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| DOJ Claims Flynn Was Involved in Conspiracy to Target Turkish Exile Posted: 08 Jun 2020 07:12 AM PDT  The Justice Department said in a new court filing that it is "unsustainable" to suggest that Michael Flynn "was not a part of any conspiracy" with members of the Turkish government.The filing was drafted as part of the government's case against Bijan Rafiekian, a former business partner of Flynn who was prosecuted by Robert Mueller on charges of conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent. The development marks a departure from the DOJ's decision last month to drop charges against Flynn.Rafiekian's defense recently wrote to Jeff Jensen — the U.S. Attorney that Attorney General Bill Barr appointed to review the Flynn case — to request that Rafiekian's case get a similar review, but the DOJ is pressing ahead with a request to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to move forward with its case."Defendant argues that the district court should have instructed the jury not on law but on a specific fact: that Michael Flynn was not a part of any conspiracy. That argument is unsustainable," the DOJ says in its brief, which was filed on Sunday."Wrongful and wasteful use of scarce taxpayer resources," Flynn's lead attorney Sidney Powell told Politico on the decision to include Flynn in the case against Rafiekian. Flynn's case has yet to be dropped, with the D.C. Circuit hearing oral arguments this week after the judge overseeing Flynn's case refused to comply with the DOJ's request.Rafiekian was found guilty by a jury — only for a judge to later overturn the conviction — after Flynn said in his initial 2017 guilty plea that he had made "materially false statements and omissions" related to Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings for his Flynn Intel Group.Prosecutors used Flynn's admission to say Rafiekian, a former Trump transition team adviser, had secretly worked as a Turkish agent to hide the fact that Flynn signed a contract in 2016 for $530,000 to investigate Fethullah Gulen, an exiled cleric and critic of the Turkish government who lives in the U.S.Flynn wrote an op-ed for The Hill on Election Day 2016 that said Gulen was the "primary bone of contention" between Turkey and the U.S., calling him a "radical Islamist" and a "shady Islamic mullah." Prosecutors also looked into reports that Flynn had been involved in trying to kidnap Gulen to return him to Turkey, but Flynn denied any such plot.Flynn initially agreed to serve as the government's star witness against Rafiekian, but later backed out after dropping his initial defense team, which also had handled FARA filings on behalf of Flynn Intel Group.
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| 'Enough is enough': South African opposition leads protests outside U.S. missions Posted: 08 Jun 2020 06:43 AM PDT  Demonstrators gathered outside U.S. missions in South African cities on Monday to condemn the killing of George Floyd, the black man whose death in police custody has set off a wave of protests worldwide and ignited a debate about race and justice. Protesters led by opposition party the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) carried placards saying "Black Lives Matter" and "Black people are not slaves" outside the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria and consulates in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
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| Tony Blair Says the U.S. and China Are Entering an Era of 'Much More Tense Relations' Posted: 09 Jun 2020 11:12 AM PDT  The global response to the coronavirus has contributed to the growing hostility, Blair said in a TIME 100 Talks discussion
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