| At D.C. protests, opposition to Trump doesn't always translate to support for Biden Posted: 11 Jun 2020 12:08 PM PDT  The protests that have followed the death of George Floyd have combined anger toward President Trump with calls for police reform and a push to address systemic racism. Yet many protesters are reluctant to embrace Joe Biden.
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| Leading 'defund the police' advocate says law enforcement needs to 'get out of our lives' Posted: 11 Jun 2020 10:14 AM PDT  "When push comes to shove, the police are showing us their true colors," said Alex Vitale on the Yahoo News podcast "Skullduggery." "They are violence workers who are often not really interested in the well-being of huge parts of the population."
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| New virus cases raise fears in Chinese capital, markets closed Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:10 AM PDT  Beijing closed two markets on Friday and delayed the return of primary school students after three fresh coronavirus cases emerged in the capital -- the first after two months of no infections in the city. The majority of cases in recent months have been overseas nationals tested as they return home. The two latest patients are employees of the China Meat Research Centre, city officials said at a daily press conference.
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| Mayor Garcetti disagrees with protesters' calls for defunding LAPD Posted: 11 Jun 2020 09:14 AM PDT  Mayor Eric Garcetti said he does not support Black Lives Matter-LA's proposal to cut the Los Angeles Police Department's $1.8 billion operating budget by 90%.
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| Stacey Abrams Repeatedly Shuts Down Meghan McCain on ‘The View’ Posted: 11 Jun 2020 09:35 AM PDT  On Monday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) went on The View and promptly schooled Meghan McCain on the real meaning of "defund the police." This morning, it was Stacey Abrams' turn. Abrams, who was promoting her latest book Our Time Is Now, spoke out against the voting disaster this week in her home state of Georgia. After Abrams blamed the Republican secretary of state for showing a "deliberate indifference to the needs of Georgia voters," McCain tried to spin the situation on the ground in a different way."There's a lot of finger pointing going on, and you seem to be implying it was Georgia's secretary of state who was targeting communities of color," McCain said. "But most of the counties that had issues this week were run by Democrats. Do you think we should be quick to blame Republicans when most of the problems like consolidated polling locations and older poll workers canceling over health concerns were a result of the coronavirus?" "So I want to decouple a couple of things," Abrams began. She calmly explained to McCain that in the state of Georgia, the secretary of state is in charge of elections, something she knows well from running for governor against former secretary of state Brian Kemp, who refused to recuse himself during his own election. "We allow counties to do the direct implementation, but it's the responsibility of the secretary of state to make sure they know how to do it and that they have the resources to get it done." Abrams went on to call out the "false narrative that the secretary of state has pushed out this is only happening because of Democratic leadership," telling McCain, "This affected every single part of our state, and the reality is your access to democracy shouldn't depend on your county of residence." She added: "Fundamentally we deserve to have elections that work for everyone." Michael Moore Warns Trump Will Use Coronavirus to Try to Postpone 2020 ElectionLater in the show, when it was McCain's turn to ask Abrams another question, she brought up recent comments she made suggesting that the United States is in the "early stages" of an authoritarian regime and comparing the Trump administration to Erdoğan's Turkish regime—comments made on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, of all places.Given that Erdoğan is a "horrific, murderous dictator," McCain wanted to know, "Do you really think it's fair to call the United States no better than Turkey?""I didn't call it no better than Turkey," Abrams shot back. "I said that we're on the path to populist authoritarianism." After explaining that Erdoğan was a democratically elected president who "over time diminished the utility of the courts by packing it with people who supported him, he eliminated the voices of those who were supposed to be the independent guardrails on democracy and he used that power to call for militarization of their public institutions," Abrams said, "We are seeing evidence of that in the United States.""Now I'm not comparing apples to oranges, but I'm saying they are all fruit of the same poisonous tree," Abrams continued. "And we need to take steps now to ensure that our presidency is not a gateway to the types of authoritarian regimes we've seen in Turkey, that we've seen pop up in Hungary, what we're seeing in India, and what Jair Bolsonaro is trying to do in Brazil.""We have to acknowledge the authoritarian nature of Donald Trump," Abrams concluded. "And we've got to nip it in the bud if we want democracy to continue here and if we want to continue to be the moral leader abroad." There wasn't much McCain could say to that. Kamala Harris Schools Meghan McCain on 'Defund the Police'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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| For Ellison, Floyd case brings pressure -- and opportunity Posted: 11 Jun 2020 08:38 PM PDT  Keith Ellison has been a civil rights activist, a defense attorney, a cable-TV favorite, a rabble-rouser in Congress, a party operator and an occasional provocateur on Twitter. The Minnesota attorney general is at the helm of the George Floyd murder case, certain to be among the most scrutinized in the country and already the flashpoint behind an emerging national movement to root out racism in the criminal justice system.
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| Bolsonaro supporter desecrates Brazil beach memorial for 40,000 coronavirus victims Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:11 AM PDT  A man vandalized a mock cemetery of 100 graves and crosses representing people who have died from Covid-19A supporter of Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has desecrated a beachside memorial to Covid-19 victims as the country's coronavirus death toll rose above 40,000.Activists from civil society group Rio de Paz dug 100 symbolic shallow graves on Copacabana beach before dawn on Thursday to represent the Brazilian lives lost.At least 40,276 people have now died, according to a coalition of news outlets which has been compiling an independent tally since Brazil's health ministry was accused of seeking to conceal the full figures last week.But the NGO's founder, Antônio Carlos Costa, said Bolsonaristas began haranging activists as they stood beside the mock cemetery.Soon after a man was filmed knocking down the wooden crosses protesters had placed in the sand near a banner reading: "Brazil, land of graves"."They feel such rage – and I think they're reproducing the behaviour of the person occupying the highest position in the land," Costa said of his group's assailants.Among those watching the vandalism was a grieving father who campaigners said had lost his 25-year-old son to Covid-19. The man re-erected the crosses and shouted: "Respect the pain of others."Costa said he felt anger at the profoundly disrespectful act – the first such attack he had experienced in 13 years protesting against politicians from across the political spectrum.But he said that most of all he felt pity for the man, and other hardcore Bolsonaristas, who were "so blinded by ideological passion that they had closed their eyes to reality".Polls show millions have turned on Bolsonaro over his internationally condemned handling of coronavirus, which he has dismissed as "a little flu". But the rightwing populist maintains a solid support base of about 30%."Bolsonaro's mistakes are not so subtle that only the most perceptive people are able to detect them. It's all so clear," said Costa, a Presbyterian church leader. "So how is it that some people cannot see this?"Costa said Brazil was experiencing "the worst crisis in its history"."Thousands have died. Families are in mourning. People are unemployed. At a moment like this you might expect the president of the republic to offer words of hope, to show compassion, to behave soberly and signal a way forwards. Instead, we see him joining anti-democratic protests, telling journalists to shut up, riding horses, driving jet-skis [and] organizing barbecues."As he smashed the symbolic cemetery, the Bolsonarista branded activists leftist terrorists.Costa said the memorial had nothing to do with left or right. "What moves us is a commitment to life. They use this discourse to delegitimize anti-Bolsonaro protesters – as if only those on the left were capable of noticing this government's insane and anti-democratic acts."
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| Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan respond to criticism from more than 140 scientists and say they are 'deeply shaken and disgusted' by Trump's inflammatory statements on Facebook Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:12 PM PDT  Chan and Zuckerberg were responding to a letter by dozens of scientists from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative who called out Facebook's policies.
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| US to withdraw troops from Iraq over coming months despite Islamic State surge Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:52 AM PDT  The US said it will withdraw troops from Iraq in the coming months, six months after the assassination of an Iranian general in Baghdad threatened to see them expelled from the country. The announcement comes amid a spike of Islamic State activity in the country, and as Baghdad and Washington began long-anticipated talks over the future of the presence of the US in the country. A joint statement read: "In light of significant progress towards eliminating the Isis threat, over the coming months the U.S. would continue reducing forces from Iraq." Relations between the two plummeted to an all-time low this year after the US killed Iranian spy chief Qassim Soleimani in an airstrike near Baghdad airport in January. Iranian-backed militias have since launched repeated rocket attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad, and on military bases housing US troops. At the time, Iraqi officials were publicly furious, with President Barham Salih, describing the airstrike as a breach of sovereignty. The Iraqi parliament passed a non-binding resolution to expel American troops immediately. Yet, US officials insisted both publicly and privately that they would leave on their timetable, and only when Iraq was capable of handling its own security affairs. US-led efforts against Isil n Syria are heavily reliant on Washington's presence in Iraq. The October 2019 raid that killed Isil-chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi was conducted by forces flown in from bases in Iraq. The withdrawal announcement comes as attacks by Isil surge in the country. A recent study by the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point notes that Isil claimed 566 attacks in Iraq in the first quarter of 2020 - a notable increase on previous months. The study described Isil as showing "very significant resilience", adding that "the movement has undertaken an agile, fluid, and pragmatic shift back to insurgency in every area of Iraq where the group has lost physical control of populations and resources." At 5,200, the current contingent of US troops in Iraq is already considerably reduced compared to the peak in 2007, when numbers topped 160,000 under President George W. Bush. The Trump administration has attempted to balance its desire to bring as many troops as possible home before the presidential election later this year, and a "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran – Iraq is seen as a key battleground in the rivalry. Though no exact figures were given, western officials believe the reduction will halve the number of US troops remaining in Iraq, with further reductions possible before the end of the year.
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| One killed in blast in Pakistan's Rawalpindi Posted: 12 Jun 2020 01:38 PM PDT  At least one person was killed and a dozen others wounded in a rare bomb blast in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Friday, officials said. Rawalpindi, Pakistan's fourth-largest city, is known for its military garrison and adjoins the capital Islamabad. The explosion took place Friday evening at a popular market, a stone's throw from Pakistan's heavily guarded military headquarters.
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| 2 more Atlanta police officers fired over use of force during protest Posted: 10 Jun 2020 07:52 PM PDT  The firings bring the total number of officers terminated in the wake of the incident to four. Six officers in all have been charged.
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| Hong Kong: City of two masks faces a new crisis Posted: 12 Jun 2020 04:21 AM PDT  A year after the protests began, amid a pandemic, Hong Kong faces another existential crisis. Will it survive?
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| 'Everybody I've talked to feels significantly safer': A protester living near Seattle's 'autonomous zone' explains why the neighborhood is better without cops Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:06 PM PDT  Protesters have established their own cop-free neighborhood in Seattle, Washington amid the Black Lives Matter protests.
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| Senate panel advances Mississippi appeals court nominee Posted: 11 Jun 2020 10:58 AM PDT  The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced a federal appeals court nominee from Mississippi, despite Democratic objections over derisive comments he made about former President Barack Obama and his signature health care legislation. The GOP-led panel endorsed Mississippi Appeals Court Judge Cory Wilson on a 12-10, party-line vote. Wilson, a former Republican state legislator who has been on the state appeals court for 16 months, was nominated by President Donald Trump for a seat on the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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| Florida Gov. DeSantis plans to reopen public schools at 'full capacity' in August, arguing that the state's economy depends on it Posted: 11 Jun 2020 01:33 PM PDT  DeSantis proposed that Florida schools could move students' desks away from one another, stop sharing textbooks, and develop disinfection protocols.
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| Widow of Chinese doctor who sounded coronavirus alarm gives birth to son Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:21 AM PDT  The widow of Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who first sounded the alarm about a potential Covid-19 outbreak, has given birth to a son four months after her husband's death. Doctor Li died aged 33 after contracting the novel coronavirus in February but first alerted the Chinese authorities to the dangers of the disease back in December 2019. He was initially ignored by the Chinese government, which played down the threat of the virus after it was first detected in Wuhan. Dr Li was the first person to link the outbreak of the disease to the Huanan Seafood market. Doctor Li's wife, Fu Xuejie, shared an image of her new son on the Chinese social media site WeChat, describing him as a final gift from her late husband. "Husband, can you see this from heaven? You have given me your final gift today. I will of course love and protect them," Mrs Fu told local news outlet Litchi News. Dr Li, an eye doctor, first noticed the virus in seven patients and sent a note to fellow doctors alerting them that the virus he had found closely resembled that of Sars. The Sars outbreak in 2003 claimed 774 lives around the world.
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| French nuclear submarine on fire at Toulon harbour: prefecture Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:50 AM PDT |
| Bolton book claims Trump committed other ‘Ukraine-like transgressions’ Posted: 12 Jun 2020 09:34 AM PDT  Ex-national security adviser also describes attempts to 'raise alarms about them', according to press release about memoirDonald Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton is set to claim in a bombshell book that the president has committed "Ukraine-like transgressions" across his entire foreign policy, far beyond the alleged misconduct he was impeached for.He will also describe his attempts and those by "others in the administration to raise alarms about them", according to a press release on Friday about the forthcoming memoir.Bolton, a staunch conservative who previously served as Republican president George W Bush's hawkish ambassador to the United Nations, will criticize the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry for focusing solely on Trump's alleged bid to pressure the leader of Ukraine into damaging the reputation of Trump's election opponent Joe Biden, while leaving out much wider accusations of similar wrongdoing.Trump was acquitted by the Republican-led Senate in his impeachment trial early in 2020.Bolton will argue in his book, The Room Where It Happened, that the Democrat-led House of Representatives committed "impeachment malpractice" by impeaching Trump over his Ukraine dealings when, it is suggested in the book, the president had committed other "Ukraine-like transgressions".The press release for the book teases that Bolton will describe the transgressions.New York publishers Simon & Schuster boasted: "This is the book Donald Trump doesn't want you to read."The White House has fought to block the book, claiming in January that it contained classified information. The book is now due out on 23 June.Bolton was ousted last September after months of disagreement over America's foreign policy approach, especially Trump's freewheeling ways, amid revelations of searing internal divisions within Trump's inner circle. Trump said he had "disagreed strongly" with Bolton, who claimed he was in the process of resigning when Trump moved to fire him.According to the release on Friday, the new book "argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping their prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trump's Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy – and Bolton documents exactly what those were, and attempts by him and others in the administration to raise alarms about them".Critics will probably pounce on Bolton for not publicly raising concerns about these "transgressions" while they were occurring – and for later refusing to testify to the House about them. Bolton refused to provide a deposition during the impeachment inquiry.Bolton also criticizes Trump for focusing solely on his chances of re-election as he made major policy decisions. "I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn't driven by re-election calculations," he writes.
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| African Americans 'probably ought to be' shot more by police, a top Tulsa officer said Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:02 AM PDT  The comments of Maj. Travis Yates were denounced by the mayor, the chief of police and a leading black officer.
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| Russia Has a Stealth Fighter Problem Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:00 PM PDT  Russian airpower is inferior to U.S. airpower, according to one Russian news site.
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| Even if Derek Chauvin is found guilty of murdering George Floyd, he's still eligible to receive a $1.5 million pension Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:21 AM PDT  Laws in 22 states prevent police officers from receiving pensions if they commit any felony related to their work. Minnesota has no such law.
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| Nation’s top military officer says he regrets walking with Trump across Lafayette Square Posted: 11 Jun 2020 07:18 AM PDT  The nation's top military officer said Thursday he was wrong to have walked with President Trump across Lafayette Square amid ongoing protests.
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| Protester hit in face by police rubber bullet wants answers Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:21 PM PDT  LaToya Ratlieff remembers the blood spilling from her head, covering her clothes, the car ride from a stranger to the hospital and the 20 stitches sewn into her head after being shot in the face by a police officer with a rubber bullet during a Fort Lauderdale protest. The 34-year-old was getting ready to leave on May 31 after several hours at a peaceful protest sparked by the death of George Floyd. Further away, she could hear a group of angry protesters becoming more agitated.
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| Zoom discloses it took down US-based activists' accounts at China's behest, says it won't enforce similar censorship requests going forward Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:42 AM PDT  Zoom said from now on it would "not allow requests from the Chinese government to impact anyone outside of mainland China."
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| Turkish court jails U.S. consulate worker on terrorism charges Posted: 11 Jun 2020 04:34 AM PDT  A Turkish court jailed a local employee of a U.S. consulate for nearly nine years on Thursday for aiding a terrorist organisation, a ruling the United States said would undermine the trust underpinning bilateral relations. Metin Topuz's trial has been a major source of tension between the two NATO allies, which are also at odds over Ankara's purchase of Russian missile defence systems and U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria. Topuz, a translator for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) at the consulate in Istanbul, was sentenced to eight years and nine months for aiding a network Turkey blames for a 2016 coup attempt, state-owned Anadolu agency said.
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| UAE warns annexation would upend any normalisation with Israel Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:54 AM PDT  The Emirati ambassador to Washington warned Friday that annexation by the Jewish state of parts of the West Bank would jeopardise any warming of Arab-Israeli ties. "Annexation will certainly and immediately upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and cultural ties with the Arab world and with the UAE," Yousef al-Otaiba wrote in a rare op-ed by an Emirati official in Israel's top-selling daily Yediot Aharonot.
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| Kelly Loeffler’s Fundraising Committee Takes the Prize for Tone Deafness Posted: 11 Jun 2020 05:00 PM PDT  As Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) proclaims her exoneration from allegations of insider trading, she's simultaneously building a campaign fundraising system that imagines her campaign as a Wall Street-style investment opportunity.The Georgia Republican is offering donors and fundraisers benefit packages to support her re-election bid. Those packages come in three tiers: investor, shareholder, and board member.That's according to a fundraising brochure obtained by The Daily Beast, which also details each of the benefits that donors can expect from membership in what Loeffler's campaign refers to as a "co-investor program" and has dubbed its "executive council."Loeffler Turns Over Coronavirus Stock Sale Docs to FedsIt's common for campaigns to award such honorifics to their top donors and fundraisers. But the terms that the Loeffler campaign has chosen for its tiered donor honorees now carry some additional political baggage. Though the Justice Department chose to drop its investigation into Loeffler over her and her husband's stock trades before the coronavirus pandemic caused the market to crash this year, the timing and size of her trades has been an albatross around the neck of her re-election effort According to the brochure laying out the various levels of "executive council" membership, an individual must donate $1,500 and a political action committee $5,000 if they are to qualify for the "investors" title. Alternatively they can raise $15,000 for the campaign. To achieve "shareholders" status, an individual must give $2,800 and a PAC $7,500, or raise $30,000 for the campaign. The top tier, "board member" is reserved for max-out donors—$5,600 for individuals and $10,000 for PACs—or those who raise $50,000 for the campaign.The donations come with access. All executive council members get access to quarterly breakfasts and monthly conference calls with the campaign, according to the brochure, as well as a thank-you event for donors. Shareholders and board members also get invites to a PAC retreat and a more exclusive quarterly reception. And board members alone get to go to the campaign's holiday party in December and "other special events throughout the year."One of those other events is scheduled for this September and will feature Loeffler and a to-be-announced "special guest." The event will take place after 18 holes of golf at a donor retreat at the tiny Sea Island Beach Club on the Georgia coast, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by The Daily Beast.That retreat will cost individual donors $2,800 and PACs $5,000 to attend, with contributions benefiting the Loeffler Victory Committee, a joint fundraising account benefiting Loeffler's campaign and her leadership PAC. But only executive council board members get access to that exclusive "19th hole" event.Kelly Loeffler Tries to Turn Coronavirus Into a Political AssetLoeffler is doling out these donor perks despite having already loaned $10 million to her own campaign. The Senate's wealthiest member, she has said she'll personally spend twice that to win re-election in November.The task became significantly more difficult in March, when The Daily Beast reported that Loeffler and her husband, New York Stock Exchange chairman Jeff Sprecher, had sold millions of dollars in stock in the weeks after Loeffler attended a closed-door Senate briefing on the novel coronavirus.Loeffler has vehemently and consistently denied that she used any information gleaned through her official duties to inform her stock trades, which she says are handled entirely by a third-party investment adviser. Loeffler and Sprecher nevertheless agreed in April to liquidate their individual stock holdings in order to head off the controversy. They also turned over documents related to those stock sales to the Federal Bureau of Investigation as it probed insider trading allegations against multiple Senators. The Justice Department announced last month that it was dropping its investigation into Loeffler while continuing to look into similar allegations leveled at Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.)Since then, Loeffler has triumphantly declared total vindication, attacking critics and media outlets—including The Daily Beast—in statements to the press and in a barrage of television ads attempting to shore up her political standing.Loeffler is facing off in a special election in November against 20 opponents of both parties, with her most formidable challenge coming from Republican Rep. Doug Collins. The most recent poll, conducted last month, showed Loeffler trailing not just Collins but also two Democrats in that "jungle-style" race.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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| NYC First Lady: Police-Free City Would Be ‘Nirvana,’ But Goal is Unreachable Posted: 11 Jun 2020 10:26 AM PDT  New York City first lady Chirlane McCray speculated that an NYPD-free city would be "Nirvana," in a Tuesday interview with Time magazine."That would be like a nirvana, a utopia that we are nowhere close to getting to," McCray said. When asked whether New York would follow Minneapolis in attempting to disband its police department, McCray responded, "They can do things that would not be possible in a large city like New York."Mayor Bill de Blasio said in the same interview, "Could the human race evolve to a point where no guardians, no structures are needed? I guess in theory, but I don't see that in the future we're going to live the next few generations."De Blasio on Sunday told reporters that an unspecified amount of funds will be redirected from the NYPD to youth and social services, and credited McCray with the idea behind the initiative.The NYPD had a budget of $6 billion in 2019, while City Comptroller Scott Stringer has recommended diverting $1 billion from the police to other programs.Calls to "defund the police" have grown in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers. At the same time, massive demonstrations sparked by Floyd's death have led to instances of rioting and looting.The NYPD has been called out in force to quell rioting throughout New York City, with looters targeting wealthy neighborhoods in lower and midtown Manhattan as well as sections of Brooklyn and the Bronx. De Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo have criticized the department's performance in handling the demonstrations."The legislators, the press, everybody's trying to shame us into being embarrassed about our profession," shot back Mike O'Meara, head of the New York Association of Police Benevolent Associations. "Stop treating us like animals and thugs, and start treating us with some respect….We've been left out of the conversation, we've been vilified — it's disgusting."De Blasio has also appointed McCray to co-chair the city's coronavirus racial inequality task force.
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| Before his arrest, Derek Chauvin was in talks with prosecutors about a plea deal for his role in George Floyd's death Posted: 11 Jun 2020 07:55 AM PDT Days after Floyd died as Chauvin knelt for his neck for nearly nine minutes, Chauvin's legal team was in talks with prosecutors.
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| Assad sacks prime minister as economic crisis worsens and protesters demand fall of regime Posted: 11 Jun 2020 07:40 AM PDT  Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, sacked his prime minister on Thursday amid a spiralling economic crisis and a series of rare protests against his regime. In a statement, the office of the Syrian president announced that Imad Khamis, who had served as prime minister since 2016, had been dismissed "President Assad issues decree number 143 for year 2020 which relieves the prime minister Imad Muhammad Dib Khamis of his position," it said. The dismissal came as a highly unusual mass protest against Assad continued for its fifth consecutive day in the Druze-majority town of Suweida in southwestern Syria. Dozens marched through the town calling for the "fall of the regime" as well as revolution and justice. Similar protests were held this week in the southern town of Tafas, in the Daraa region. "Protesters called for freedom and toppling of the regime as a result of popular anger over the deteriorating economic, social, security and political situation," one protester in Suweida, Noura al Basha, told Reuters news agency. Most of Syria's Arab Druze community has stayed loyal to the Assad regime for fear of religious persecution, while Suweida has largely avoided the bloodshed of the civil war. Public protests against Assad's rule since the civil war began are almost unheard of due to the risk of being "disappeared" into the country's prisons and torture chambers by security forces.
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| Fleischer: I would like to see Trump address police reform and lead the nation to a better place Posted: 11 Jun 2020 10:44 AM PDT  Trump weighing executive action on police reform; Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer reacts.
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| Iran asks French experts to read black boxes of downed jet: official Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:27 AM PDT  The Ukraine International Airlines flight was shot down on Jan. 8 by an Iranian ground-to-air missile, killing 176 people in what Tehran termed a "disastrous mistake" at a time of heightened tensions with the United States. The fate of the cockpit voice and data 'black-box' recorders has been the subject of an international standoff eclipsed by the coronavirus crisis, which Iran says has also contributed to delays in a probe by Iran's Air Accident Investigation Board. Progress was discussed at a council meeting of the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization on Wednesday.
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| Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Milley apologizes for role in Trump church photo op Posted: 11 Jun 2020 12:43 PM PDT  "My presence in that moment, and in that environment, created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics," Milley said.
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| We found the 30 best American cities to live in after the pandemic Posted: 11 Jun 2020 05:37 AM PDT  Business Insider surveyed 380 metro areas and found the best cities based on factors including cost of living, housing affordability, and education.
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| The U.S. Air Force Deployed Spy Drones in the South China Sea Posted: 11 Jun 2020 12:55 PM PDT  The Air Force is flying the B-1B bombers and the Global Hawk drones in the South China Sea and other areas within the Pacific theater as part of a broad strategy to sustain surveillance in the region.
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| Black Lives Matter protests: Chicago police face being kicked out of their union if they kneel Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:34 AM PDT  Chicago's new police union head has warned that officers who kneel in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters could be kicked out of the union.John Catanzara, who was appointed to lead the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police last month, labelled officers who kneeled alongside protesters as "ridiculous".
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| 'They are blatantly snubbing us': Protesters feel at risk as some NYPD officers don't follow guidelines to wear masks Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:37 AM PDT  "We have no masks and you police officers have no masks on, and we do not want to get infected," Ibrahima Mbaye said.
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| US backs UN against Egypt initiative on Libya Posted: 11 Jun 2020 01:20 PM PDT  The United States called Thursday for a UN-led ceasefire on Libya, distancing itself from a proposal by ally Egypt, and voiced alarm about the toll on civilians as the tide of war turns. Egypt -- a main backer of strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is losing ground to the UN-recognized, Turkish-backed government -- has proposed a truce in which "foreign mercenaries" would leave and militias would disband and disarm. David Schenker, the top US diplomat for the Middle East, voiced appreciation to Egypt, saying it was "productive to have more unity in Libya."
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| Martin Gugino, 75-year-old protester pushed in Buffalo, has brain injury, fractured skull Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:53 PM PDT  On Friday, Martin Gugino's lawyer, Kelly Zarcone, said Gugino's skull was fractured and that he hasn't been able to walk yet.
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| With measures lifted, Balkans hit by coronavirus case spike Posted: 11 Jun 2020 06:21 AM PDT  Serbia's president has canceled his party's campaign rallies and officials in Bosnia, North Macedonia and Albania are appealing on citizens to respect anti-infection measures due to a spike in new coronavirus cases after the Balkan countries relaxed their restrictions. President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party will not hold rallies ahead of Serbia's June 21 parliamentary election to avoid further spread of the virus, state broadcaster RTS reported on Thursday.
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