| Live: Obama hosts 'reimagining policing' town hall in wake of George Floyd's death Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:51 PM PDT  Former President Barack Obama will host a virtual town hall on Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET to address police violence amid nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd.
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| Trump tells NYC to activate National Guard: 'The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart!' Posted: 02 Jun 2020 09:44 AM PDT  After vowing Monday to deploy military force to restore order in states that fail to "dominate" unlawful demonstrations, President Trump on Tuesday all but ordered New York City to request help from the National Guard.
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| Police Identify German Man as Main Suspect in Madeleine McCann Disappearance Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:14 PM PDT  Police in the U.K. have asked the public for help in tracking the movements of a 43-year-old German man identified as the main suspect in the mysterious disappearance of Madeleine McCann.Madeleine vanished from a hotel apartment in Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve coast in May 2007, while on holiday with her parents and twin siblings.It is the first time British police have identified a key suspect, and senior police officers described the breakthrough to the U.K.'s Telegraph as "significant." Friends of Kate and Gerry McCann told the newspaper it was the biggest development to date in a case often described as the most scrutinized missing persons case in modern history.Scotland Yard said in a statement that detectives had identified the 43-year-old German man, currently in prison in Germany on unrelated charges, as a suspect following a 2017 appeal on the 10th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance. New Break in Maddie McCann Case Centers on Killer PedophileOn Wednesday, they appealed for help from the public in tracking the German man's movements around the Algarve during the time Madeleine went missing.The man, whose name was not released due to German privacy laws, lived on and off in the Algarve between 1995 and 2008. At the time of Madeleine's disappearance, he was 30 years old and was living in a camper van in the area."He received a 30-minute phone call in Praia da Luz, the resort where the McCanns were on holiday, just an hour before the 3-year-old girl vanished," the statement said.Police are trying to track down the man on the other end of the phone call and took the unusual step on Wednesday of releasing the Portuguese mobile phone number the suspect was using as well as the number of the person who called him.Police also released images of the distinctive VW camper the suspect was living in, and a 1993 Jaguar saloon car that the suspect owned and re-registered in Germany under another person's name the day after Madeleine went missing. The Jaguar stayed in Portugal despite the man re-registering it in Germany. Scotland Yard said he was driving the camper around Praia da Luz in the days before Madeleine's disappearance and had been living it in for days or weeks.Madeleine's disappearance almost 13 years ago garnered an extraordinary amount of interest globally and led to a high-profile—but largely fruitless—search for answers.There has never been any trace of Madeleine since she vanished and no arrests have been made. British tabloids subjected the McCanns to vicious and baseless allegations of being involved in their daughter's disappearance—however investigators have maintained that it was a criminal act by a stranger.In a statement, Kate and Gerry McCann said they welcomed the appeal and thanked police. "All we have ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice. We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know, as we need to find peace."Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, who leads the task force set up by U.K. police to investigate the disappearance, said: "While this male is a suspect we retain an open mind as to his involvement and this remains a missing person inquiry."A similar public appeal for information was due to be made on German television on Wednesday. The suspect was described by police as white and in 2007 was believed to have been six feet tall, aged between 25 to early 30s, with short blond fair, a slim build, and fair skin. 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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| Voices captured on an NYC police scanner can be heard saying protesters should be shot and run over Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:35 AM PDT  The scanner broadcast people saying, "Shoot those motherf---ers," and "Run them over," referring to protesters.
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| An 'ANTIFA' Twitter account that called for looting 'white hoods' was actually run by white nationalist group Identity Evropa Posted: 02 Jun 2020 07:18 AM PDT  Twitter said this isn't the first time that users linked to Identity Evropa have created fake accounts to spread "hateful content."
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| Greek demonstrators hurl firebombs towards U.S. embassy in Athens Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:18 AM PDT  Demonstrators hurled firebombs in a march towards the U.S. Embassy compound in Athens on Wednesday in a protest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Reuters journalists saw demonstrators throwing several flaming objects which erupted into flames on the street towards the heavily-guarded embassy in central Athens and police responding with rounds of teargas. Demonstrators were holding banners and placards reading "Black lives matter" and "I can't breathe".
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| Hong Kong to lead Tiananmen mourning despite virus vigil ban Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:38 PM PDT  Hong Kong will Thursday lead global remembrance of China's deadly Tiananmen crackdown, with people lighting candles in neighbourhoods across the restless city after authorities banned a mass vigil because of the coronavirus. Open discussion of the brutal suppression is forbidden inside China, where hundreds -- by some estimates more than a thousand -- died when the Communist Party sent tanks on June 4, 1989 to crush a student-led demonstration in Beijing calling for democratic reforms. This year's vigil was forbidden on public health grounds with restrictions placed on more than eight people gathering in public, to combat the coronavirus.
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| PPP loan program accidentally paid some small-business owners twice Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:40 PM PDT  "Everyone is just flying by the seat of their pants," said one small-business owner.
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| Minneapolis After the George Floyd Riots: A Tragedy Told in Pictures Posted: 03 Jun 2020 05:24 AM PDT  Many local business owners in Minneapolis are still struggling after their restaurants and stores were vandalized during the protests. Some still have their windows and entrances boarded up to keep out the violent protesters.
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| West Virginia governor says he welcomes all, except Obama Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:33 PM PDT  West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on Wednesday said he would welcome any president to the state besides former President Barack Obama. The unprompted comment came during a coronavirus news conference in which the Republican governor took a phone call from President Donald Trump and sought to highlight his relationship with the commander-in-chief ahead of the coming primary election. "We should absolutely welcome all but, you know, maybe not Barack Obama," he said, smiling.
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| Missing Mexican congresswoman's body found a month after abduction Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:33 AM PDT  * Anel Bueno, 38, was snatched in Pacific coast town * Area important for drug cartels is country's murder capitalThe body of a missing Mexican congresswoman has been found in a shallow grave more than a month after she was abducted by armed men while raising awareness about the coronavirus pandemic.Anel Bueno, a 38-year-old lawmaker from the western state of Colima, was snatched on 29 April in Ixtlahuacán, a town on a stretch of Mexico's Pacific coast that the drug trade has made one of the country's most murderous regions.Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters on Wednesday a suspect had been detained over the killing of Bueno, who was a member of his party, Morena."We still don't know the causes," López Obrador added.Indira Vizcaíno, a local politician from the same party, tweeted: "Your departure hurts me deeply – I'm saddened not just by the fact but by the cruelty."Vizcaíno, another López Obrador ally, said authorities were fighting to catch the killers "and bring justice – for this case and all of our country's victims".Ixtlahuacán is a 30-minute drive from Tecomán, a picturesque seaside town that has earned the unenviable reputation as Mexico's most murderous municipality because of its strategic position for drug smuggling cartels.In 2017 Tecomán's murder rate of a reported 172.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants resembled that of a war zone. Last year more than 100 clandestine cemeteries were found there containing the bodies of those who had dared cross the cartels.Colima is one of five Mexican states the United States state department urges travellers against visiting.Calderón sends in the armyMexico's "war on drugs" began in late 2006 when the president at the time, Felipe Calderón, ordered thousands of troops onto the streets in response to an explosion of horrific violence in his native state of Michoacán.Calderón hoped to smash the drug cartels with his heavily militarized onslaught but the approach was counter-productive and exacted a catastrophic human toll. As Mexico's military went on the offensive, the body count sky-rocketed to new heights and tens of thousands were forced from their homes, disappeared or killed.Kingpin strategySimultaneously Calderón also began pursuing the so-called "kingpin strategy" by which authorities sought to decapitate the cartels by targeting their leaders.That policy resulted in some high-profile scalps – notably Arturo Beltrán Leyva who was gunned down by Mexican marines in 2009 – but also did little to bring peace. In fact, many believe such tactics served only to pulverize the world of organized crime, creating even more violence as new, less predictable factions squabbled for their piece of the pie.Under Calderón's successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, the government's rhetoric on crime softened as Mexico sought to shed its reputation as the headquarters of some the world's most murderous mafia groups.But Calderón's policies largely survived, with authorities targeting prominent cartel leaders such as Sinaloa's Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.When "El Chapo" was arrested in early 2016, Mexico's president bragged: "Mission accomplished". But the violence went on. By the time Peña Nieto left office in 2018, Mexico had suffered another record year of murders, with nearly 36,000 people slain."Hugs not bullets"The leftwing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power in December, promising a dramatic change in tactics. López Obrador, or Amlo as most call him, vowed to attack the social roots of crime, offering vocational training to more than 2.3 million disadvantaged young people at risk of being ensnared by the cartels. "It will be virtually impossible to achieve peace without justice and [social] welfare," Amlo said, promising to slash the murder rate from an average of 89 killings per day with his "hugs not bullets" doctrine.Amlo also pledged to chair daily 6am security meetings and create a 60,000 strong "National Guard". But those measures have yet to pay off, with the new security force used mostly to hunt Central American migrants.Mexico now suffers an average of about 96 murders per day, with nearly 29,000 people killed since Amlo took office.During a 2018 interview with the Guardian, Vizcaíno backed one of the key pledges López Obrador made to Mexicans ahead of his election that year – that efforts to combat organised crime would start to tackle the social roots of crime and no longer "just be a matter of fighting fire with fire"."Crime rates aren't going up because the people feel like being bad. Crime rates are going up because people need to eat," Vizcaíno said at a restaurant in Colima's capital that was the scene of a 2015 assassination attempt on its ex-governor.Bueno had been attempting to raise awareness of Covid-19 prevention techniques when armed men swept into the area on pickup trucks and ordered her inside.During a 2018 interview Tecomán's mayor, Elías Lozano, blamed the bloodshed blighting the region on "the lack of honest politicians"."That's the root of it all. Politicians had the choice of deciding between staying on the sidelines or getting involved – and many decided to get involved because there were economic benefits," he said.
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| Minneapolis Police union president said he has been involved in three shootings, 'and not one of them has bothered' him Posted: 02 Jun 2020 11:07 PM PDT  Lt. Bob Kroll said in an April interview that he and the majority of Minneapolis Police Officers' Federation's board have been involved in police shootings.
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| The architect of Sweden's no-lockdown plan suggested the strategy was a mistake based on what we now know about the coronavirus Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:21 AM PDT  State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said if Sweden had had the knowledge it had today, its response would have likely been harsher.
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| Cyclone Nisarga: India's Mumbai escapes worst cyclone in decades Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:38 PM PDT  India's financial capital narrowly escapes Cyclone Nisarga, as nearby areas bear the brunt.
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| Cuomo lashes out at New York mayor and police after night of violence sees Macy's looted Posted: 02 Jun 2020 08:09 AM PDT  Manhattan's flagship Macy's store was among dozens of businesses hit by looters on Monday evening, as a nighttime curfew in New York failed to prevent widespread looting in the city.While peaceful protests and marches over the police killing of George Floyd were taking place across the city, roving groups caused chaos in Midtown, smashing their way into shops and stealing merchandise.
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| Hong Kong democracy group files complaint to U.N. over alleged abuse Posted: 02 Jun 2020 02:46 AM PDT  A Hong Kong pro-democracy group said on Tuesday it had filed a complaint with the United Nations over what it described as abuse of anti-government protesters held in custody in the Chinese-ruled city. The prominent democracy group Demosisto cited three protesters as saying they had been physically and verbally abused by Correctional Services Department (CSD) guards while in detention, including being beaten and slapped in places without CCTV surveillance cameras. The city government has not commented on the accusations.
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| 'It's just our time': Ferguson elects first black, female mayor 6 years after Michael Brown's death Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:17 AM PDT  Ella Jones has been elected Ferguson's first black, female mayor. Her victory came amid continued protests over George Floyd's death.
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| 2 dead after shooting at North Dakota air base Posted: 02 Jun 2020 02:12 PM PDT  A shooting on Monday left two airmen dead at the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, the military said. The base's emergency services members responded to the shooting, which occurred at 4:30 a.m. Officials said there is no risk to other personnel, and the shooting remains under investigation.
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| Esper revises account of what he knew about Trump's church photo-op Posted: 02 Jun 2020 12:55 PM PDT  At a Wednesday briefing, Esper did not directly answer a reporter's question about whether he regretted participating in the presidential photo opportunity.
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| Vegas officer on life support after attack during protests Posted: 02 Jun 2020 08:15 AM PDT  A police officer was on life support Tuesday after being shot during a protest on the Las Vegas Strip, the latest in a handful of attacks on police amid demonstrations across the country over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The 29-year-old officer in Las Vegas was shot as police tried to disperse a large crowd of protesters in front of a casino shuttered because of the coronavirus. At about the same time and less than three miles (4.8 kilometers) away, police outside a federal courthouse shot a protester who was wearing a black tactical vest and armed with two handguns and a rifle.
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| Leaked documents reveal China withheld crucial information about the coronavirus at the start of the outbreak Posted: 02 Jun 2020 05:45 AM PDT  China didn't publish the coronavirus genome until over a week after its scientists decoded it, according to a new investigation.
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| One of America's most popular police trainers is teaching officers how to kill with fear-based warrior tactics Posted: 02 Jun 2020 02:53 PM PDT  Dave Grossman's overly aggressive style prepares law enforcement officers for a job under siege, where they're "at war" on the streets.
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| Why The Middle East Fears Russia's Alpha Group Commandos Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:41 AM PDT  A 2018 report recommended just that.
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| Mystery Officers Patrolling D.C. Streets Are From Federal Prisons Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:38 PM PDT  The Justice Department has sent special operations teams from the Bureau of Prisons to support the Trump administration's response to protests in Washington, D.C., and Florida. In a statement to The Daily Beast, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson confirmed that they had deployed Crisis Management Teams in response to the protests. The teams include Special Operations response teams, "which are highly trained tactical units capable of responding to prison disturbances, and providing assistance to other law enforcement agencies during emergencies." Officers from the Bureau's Disturbance Control Teams, which "specialize in crowd control scenarios," have also been deployed.Speculation about the presence of special response teams from the agency grew online as residents and reporters noted the presence of law enforcement officials wearing tactical equipment placed around the city, many of whom refused to identify which agency they worked for.In one photo shared by MSNBC correspondent Garrett Haake, officers with shields labeled "corrections" and a shirt with an apparent Federal Bureau of Prisons Disturbance Control Team patch formed a perimeter preventing protesters from approaching the White House. Twitter users also noted officers wearing uniforms with logos for the Bureau of Prisons Special Operations Response Team stationed by the Washington Convention Center on K Street."Per the request of the Attorney General, the BOP has dispatched teams to Miami, Florida, and Washington, D.C.," the bureau said.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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| Iranian professor acquitted of sanctions busting leaves U.S., Zarif says Posted: 01 Jun 2020 10:02 PM PDT  An Iranian professor imprisoned in the United States after being acquitted of stealing trade secrets has left the country and is on his way back to Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an Instagram post on Tuesday. Dr. Sirous Asgari is in the air on a flight back to Iran.
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| Protester arrested after telling police he loves and respects them Posted: 02 Jun 2020 01:07 PM PDT  Givionne "Gee" Jordan Jr. was heard on video telling officers: "We gotta stop living in fear. I am not your enemy. You are not my enemy."
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| Seattle protesters are using umbrellas to block pepper spray and tear gas, mirroring tactics used by the Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrations Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:37 AM PDT  Seattle anti police-brutality protesters showed up with umbrellas as a shield, and also as a potential new symbol in defiance of police action.
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| George Floyd protests: All four former police officers face new charges as demonstrations continue nationwide Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:50 PM PDT  Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has announced new charges against all four former officers involved in the death of George Floyd.The attorney general announced charges against Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J Alexander Kueng, the three officers seen alongside Derek Chauvin, an officer who kneeled on Mr Floyd's neck for over eight minutes before his death, according to charging documents.
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| Retired officer, ex-college athlete among victims of unrest Posted: 02 Jun 2020 01:21 AM PDT  One man was a retired St. Louis police captain checking on his friend's shop. Another was the beloved owner of a Louisville barbecue restaurant who provided free meals to officers. The deaths, as well as widespread peaceful protests, have at times been overshadowed by the shocking images of heavy-handed police tactics, vandalism and arson.
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| Online clothing retailer Stitch Fix is laying off 1,400 California employees and instead hiring in lower-cost cities like Austin and Minneapolis Posted: 02 Jun 2020 03:08 PM PDT  The San Francisco-based company said the layoffs are not related to the pandemic, but the health crisis has dealt a blow to the retail industry.
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| America could move weapons stored on British soil if UK persists with Huawei, US senator warns Posted: 02 Jun 2020 11:56 PM PDT  America could move weapons stored on British soil if the UK allows Huawei to build its 5G network, a US senator has warned. Tom Cotton, the Republican senator for Arkansas who was called as a witness before the Defence Select Committee, warned that the case for America keeping some US Air Force assets, such as F-35 fighters, in the UK could be weakened if it goes ahead with Huawei, as it would pose a security risk. "We have to make a decision about deploying those [F-35 fighters] to many countries," Senator Cotton said. "Obviously if you no longer have Huawei in your network then F-35 fighters can be based in your country under my legislation. "That does not mean I would drop my legislation… my legislation is about Huawei and the threat Huawei poses to our airmen and our aircraft." He added that allowing Huawei in UK infrastructure could "give PLA [China's People's Liberation Army] hackers a window into our military logistics operations", which he said could put US forces and American weapons systems based in England "at dangerous risk".
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| Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel caught on hot mic amid unrest: 'If I didn't have a primary, I wouldn't care' Posted: 02 Jun 2020 04:18 PM PDT  It comes as the New York congressman has faced his toughest primary since being elected Congress in 1988.
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| At It Again: Russia's Black Sea Fleet Conducts Fresh Exercises Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:42 AM PDT  Deterrence never stops.
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| Finland's PM says she hopes to give birth while in office Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:10 PM PDT  Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin, the world's youngest leader at 34, told a magazine she would like to have a child while in office, which would make her only the third elected head of government to give birth while in power in modern times. "I am very much hoping for an addition to the family, a little sibling for Emma," her 2-year-old daughter, Marin told Me Naiset magazine in an interview. Marin took the reigns of Finland's centre-left five-party coalition in a sudden move at the end of last year, after her predecessor from her Social Democratic Party, Antti Rinne, stepped down.
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| China sea security issues pushed Philippine U-turn on US troop pact Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Security issues in the disputed South China Sea helped convince the Philippines to delay quitting a key US military pact, the nation's envoy to Washington said Wednesday. The government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced Tuesday it had suspended plans to cancel the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a deal that is important to Washington's moves to counter Beijing's rising regional power. Duterte has cosied up to China in search of trade and investment, sparking US concern that its long-time ally and former colony would change sides in a strategic boost to Beijing.
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| Gov. Cuomo apologizes to NYPD brass after critical 'do your job' comments, chief says Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:50 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo apologized privately to top New York City Police administrators after ripping their response to rioters as a "disgrace."
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| Joe Biden pulls Julián Castro into campaign, asks for help to 'tackle police reform' Posted: 02 Jun 2020 01:21 PM PDT  As a Democratic presidential candidate, Castro put out a stand-alone police reform plan and cited names of police violence victims in his campaign speeches.
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| Northrop Grumman's New B-21 Stealth Bomber: A Technological Powerhouse? Posted: 02 Jun 2020 05:12 AM PDT  The new stealth U.S. Air Force B-21 bomber has taken yet another key technological step toward being ready for war, through integrated computer automation designed to streamline information, improve targeting and offer pilots organized warzone information in real-time.
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| Putin declines British invitation to take part in coronavirus summit: Kremlin Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:13 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to take part in an online summit on a possible coronavirus vaccine being organised by the British government this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Putin received an invitation to take part in the summit from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week, the Kremlin had said. Scheduled to take place on June 4, the Global Vaccine Summit 2020 is designed to mobilise resources needed to ensure universal availability of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
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| From curfews to arrests, latest of George Floyd protests in SoCal Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:42 AM PDT  Los Angeles County and other Southern California municipalities have once again enacted curfews as the region continues to see protests, and in some cases, looting.
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| Trump staged photo op at church ‘out of anger at claims he was sheltering in White House bunker’ Posted: 01 Jun 2020 11:52 PM PDT  Donald Trump's brief appearance at a shuttered church outside the White House on Monday was motivated by his fury at news coverage saying he was rushed to the White House bunker for his safety on Friday, reports say.According to CNN's Kaitlan Collins, Mr Trump made the highly unusual trip outside the White House gates – for which crowds were cleared by police – partly because he was "upset" by the coverage. Reacting to her report, a visibly dismayed Anderson Cooper replied, "Oh my god. We're in trouble."
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| Mexico finds links to over $1 billlion in cartel money Posted: 02 Jun 2020 03:22 PM PDT |
| A former police chief was shot and killed during St. Louis protests, and the incident was livestreamed on Facebook Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:45 AM PDT  David Dorn, 77, served 38 years with the St. Louis Police Department before retiring in 2007. He later served as police chief of Moline Acres.
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