| Cities remove racist monuments before protesters can topple them Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:11 PM PDT  As the protests following the death of George Floyd in some cities have turned to targeting racist iconography, officials are trying to preempt them.
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| As protests rock cities, Rand Paul holds up passage of anti-lynching bill Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:31 PM PDT  Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is holding up passage of an anti-lynching bill with broad bipartisan support — the latest delay in an effort to pass a federal law against lynching that goes back over a century.
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| Protests in Minneapolis turned violent: Officials first blamed outsiders, but that’s not what arrests show Posted: 04 Jun 2020 12:39 PM PDT  Minnesota officials originally said outside agitators, not local residents, were responsible for the violence and riots. Arrest data shows otherwise.
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| U.K. PM tells China that Britain will admit 3 Million from Hong Kong Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:58 AM PDT  "Many people in Hong Kong fear that their way of life — which China pledged to uphold — is under threat," Johnson said.
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| At least 39 injured in knife attack at China kindergarten Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:31 PM PDT |
| 10 Years Ago Today, SpaceX's Falcon 9 Blasted Off for the First Time Posted: 04 Jun 2020 07:36 AM PDT |
| US suspends flights by Chinese airlines in new spat with Beijing Posted: 03 Jun 2020 05:04 PM PDT  Washington on Wednesday ordered the suspension of all flights by Chinese airlines into and out of the United States after Beijing failed to allow American carriers to resume services to China. The US action, which takes effect June 16 but could be implemented sooner if President Donald Trump orders it, applied to seven Chinese civilian carriers, although only four currently are running service to US cities including Air China and China Eastern Airlines, the Department of Transportation (DOT) said. US air carriers sharply reduced or suspended service to China amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| YouTuber Jake Paul charged with trespassing following Arizona looting Posted: 04 Jun 2020 11:50 AM PDT  Paul has been charged with criminal trespass and unlawful assembly, which are both misdemeanor charges.
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| Counties in Florida, Iowa worry CDC as emerging coronavirus 'areas of concern' Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:54 AM PDT  A document created by the CDC and reviewed by Yahoo News lists nine counties and one city with rising infection levels, many in states that have eased lockdown restrictions.
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| New York police take seconds to restore reputation for brutality Posted: 04 Jun 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Driving vehicles into protesters demanding justice for George Floyd earned the backing of the mayor, but of few others * George Floyd killing – latest US updates * See all our George Floyd coverageIt doesn't take long to blow up a reputation. In the case of the New York police department, an institution with an already troubled history, the clip lasted all of 27 seconds.It showed an NYPD vehicle in Brooklyn lined up against a metal barricade behind which protesters were chanting during Saturday's demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd. Projectiles were thrown on to the roof of the car, then suddenly a second police SUV drew up alongside and instead of stopping continued to plough straight into the crowd.Seconds later the first vehicle lurched forward, knocking the barrier over and with it propelling several protesters to the ground amid a harrowing chorus of shrieking.A 27-second video, now viewed more than 30m times, had quickly shredded years of effort to repair the deeply tarnished image of the NYPD. New York's "finest" were firmly cast in a role normally reserved for the security corps of petty dictators.The shocking video was compounded hours later when the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, spoke about the incident. A politician who won election in 2013 largely on a promise to reform the NYPD and scrap its racially discriminatory stop-and-frisk policy, astounded even his closest supporters when he defended the police.De Blasio said: "I do believe the NYPD has acted appropriately."Social media lit up. Was it appropriate to drive those two SUVs into the crowd? Was it appropriate for an NYPD officer forcibly to remove the coronavirus mask of a black protester whose arms were raised in the air, then pepper-spray his face?Was it appropriate for another officer to tell a protester to get off the street, then physically shove her several feet towards the curb where she landed on her head? Or that the police officers involved in the pepper spray incident had covered their badge numbers, presumably to avoid having to answer for their actions. Or to beat a nurse walking home from a shift at a hospital?The clashes between New York's police and its protesters have reverberated around the city. The largest police force in the US, with its $5.6bn annual budget and 36,000 uniformed officers under the leadership of one of the most progressive mayors in the country, has responded to demonstrations about police brutality with more police brutality.The Black, Latino and Asian Caucus of the city council, which makes up more than half of the legislative body, was swift and devastating in its criticism. In a statement, it said that the NYPD had acted "with aggression towards New Yorkers who vigorously and vociferously but nonetheless peacefully advocated for justice".Adrienne Adams, co-chair of the caucus, told the Guardian the NYPD had tried to suppress legitimate anger felt by African American and other minority communities following years of police abuse. "We cannot allow people who have kept people of color down for decades to say now that we don't have the right to display our outrage," she said.Though that sentiment applies nationwide, Adams believes New York stands out as having a "horrible history of police brutality". It was the NYPD that set the tone, she said, when Daniel Pantaleo, the officer implicated in the 2014 death by chokehold of Eric Garner in Staten Island, avoided prosecution."When nothing happened to the police officers who were responsible for the death of Eric Garner, New York set the blueprint for what happened to George Floyd," she said. "There's no penalty, no consequence, so it's OK."Adams's framing of the Garner killing could equally be applied to a long string of notorious episodes of police misconduct that preceded it. In 1997, Haitian immigrant Abner Louima was handcuffed by an NYPD officer and sexually assaulted with a broken broomstick.Two years later, Amadou Diallo was shot near his home in a hail of 41 bullets after officers mistook his wallet for a gun. In an echo of that event, an unarmed Sean Bell was shot 50 times in Queens on the morning of his wedding in 2006 – it took six years for the NYPD detective who opened the fusillade to be chucked off the force while nobody has ever been convicted of any crime.In the policing of protest, the NYPD also has a contentious track record. In 2004 it rounded up more than 1,800 peaceful protesters rallying outside the Republican National Convention during the re-election bid of George W Bush and herded them into overcrowded pens on Pier 57 in Manhattan. In 2011 it was similarly criticized for heavy-handed tactics during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.Cutting across all this, the force has consistently targeted its efforts on neighborhoods of the city with majority black or Latino populations, straying at times into overt racial profiling. Though stop and frisk has been reined back in recent years, the NYPD continues to heavily and disproportionately police those communities despite a historically low homicide rate.Despite this long legacy of overreach, the force continues to be systemically resistant to public oversight. Under Section 50-A of New York state law, the disciplinary files of police officers are largely held in secret, making the task of holding them accountable almost impossible.Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney at the Cop Accountability Project (CAP) within the Legal Aid Society, told the Guardian that there were currently more than 200 police officers still being employed by the NYPD on full pay who should have been considered for termination following reports of misconduct.Data collected by CAP shows that where cases of misconduct arise they often involve escalation of low-level encounters into aggressive confrontations – something officers are supposed to be trained not to do. The project is currently litigating the case of Tomas Medina who was put in a chokehold and Tasered in 2018 after police were called to a complaint about loud music being played.Eric Garner's fatal arrest was triggered by him allegedly selling single cigarettes.Although the use of chokeholds has been banned in New York, the project has found that between 2015 and 2018 the city settled 30 lawsuits involving NYPD use of the potentially lethal maneuver.Wong believes such endemic deployment of excessive force has spilled over into the NYPD's handling of the George Floyd protests. She was present at a peaceful protest in Brooklyn that suddenly turned volatile not because of the behavior of protesters but by a sudden change of tack on the part of the police."In a split second, the NYPD snapped and engaged in over-aggressive enforcement. They escalated it from 0 to 10 out of nowhere, arresting people and wielding their batons."If there has been unrestrained use of batons in the city, it would be with the full approval of Ed Mullins, the provocative president of one of the main police unions, the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA). He wrote to members urging "each and every one of you to report for duty with your helmet and baton and do not hesitate to utilize that equipment in securing your personal safety".The sister Police Benevolent Association of New York City has also spoken to its members in inflammatory terms about them being "under attack by violent, organized terrorists while New York City council and other politicians sit at home demanding we 'de-escalate'".There is no denying that the NYPD faces difficult challenges in the policing of mass protests, especially late at night when violent outbreaks have erupted as they did on Monday in Manhattan and the Bronx. Fires were started in the street and stores looted.For Eugene O'Donnell, a former NYPD officer and prosecutor in Brooklyn and Queens who is now a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Monday night's spectacle of looting along Fifth Avenue amounted to a collapse of policing in the city."This weekend, the job of police officer in New York became officially impossible when the police abolitionists won. They have created a model of zero tolerance towards force being used and any injuries being inflicted, and that's absurd."O'Donnell said the same pattern is repeating itself across America. "In city after city, the police were abolished this weekend. They stood back and watched as damage was inflicted that was irreversible."
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| Airlines to drop service to 75 domestic airports Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:00 AM PDT  Fifteen U.S. airlines were granted final government approval on Wednesday to temporarily halt service to 75 domestic airports as travel demand has been crushed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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| In aftermath of George Floyd's death, San Diego police will 'immediately' end use of carotid restraint Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:19 AM PDT  The San Diego Police Department, spurred by the outrage after George Floyd's death, has immediately banned a controversial neck restraint.
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| US says Alaska man laundered nearly $1B for Iran through UAE Posted: 04 Jun 2020 03:09 AM PDT |
| Powerful video from 1986 resurfaces showing Biden’s passionate speech against apartheid Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:54 AM PDT  A powerful video of then-Senator Joe Biden speaking about apartheid South Africa has resurfaced.The clip, taken from C-Span coverage of a Senate committee in 1986, shows Mr Biden passionately speaking out in support of the majority black population of South Africa, and against the oppressive apartheid regime.
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| Robert E Lee statue: Virginia governor announces removal of monument Posted: 04 Jun 2020 11:27 AM PDT  Virginia's governor says the monument to the Confederate general will be taken down in Richmond.
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| They wanted to protest peacefully. Police responded with force. On the ground in Minneapolis. Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:58 AM PDT  "We cannot back down now. We have come way too far. We are literally in the midst of history."
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| Trump strategizes with campaign advisers on re-election amid growing challenges Posted: 04 Jun 2020 10:32 AM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump met with his top campaign advisers on Thursday, officials said, amid polls showing his tumbling prospects for re-election as the U.S. economy suffers from a global pandemic and protesters gather in cities across the country. Trump sat down at the White House with campaign chairman Brad Parscale, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, senior adviser Jared Kushner, Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, deputy campaign manager Bill Stepien and pollster Tony Fabrizio, among others.
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| Bill Gates said it's hard to deny vaccine conspiracy theories involving him because they're 'so stupid' Posted: 04 Jun 2020 08:30 AM PDT  Gates said that while it was "concerning" that some Americans believe the misinformation, that hasn't "held up" global funding for a COVID-19 vaccine.
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| In 1985, A Nuclear Submarine Explosion Contaminated Russia's Far East Posted: 04 Jun 2020 02:30 PM PDT  The accident scene was heavily contaminated with radioactivity.
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| NYPD Says Looters Are Stashing Bricks. Brooklyn Locals Say Otherwise Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:57 PM PDT  On Wednesday morning, New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot F. Shea tweeted a low-resolution video of an unidentified officer picking up blue plastic crates on a city street corner. The crates, which appeared to be filled with chunks of masonry, had apparently been left next to a garbage can near Avenue X and West 3rd Street in Gravesend, a neighborhood by the water on Brooklyn's south end that's been largely untouched by the protests elsewhere in the borough and the city."This is what our cops are up against: Organized looters, strategically placing caches of bricks & rocks at locations throughout NYC," Shea wrote. On Wednesday afternoon, the White House included that clip in a video compilation of footage it claimed showed "Antifa and professional anarchists... invading our communities."But Shea didn't explain why organized looters would have left bricks in a quiet, mostly residential Brooklyn neighborhood, and conversations with people who work and live in the area suggest the NYPD's Twitter bulletin threatened to stoke tensions for no reason.Cops Reclaim New York in Massive Show of ForceAn officer in Sector B of the 61st Precinct, which covers Gravesend, said he could not explain or discuss the details of the brick discoveries. NYPD coordinators for the neighborhood did not respond to requests for comment. A detective at the Office of the NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Public Information said he did not know anything about the incident. "The city is going through an unprecedented issue with looting and protesting," he told The Daily Beast. "The normal people who would answer your questions are out trying to protect the city. So that's why you're not getting answers to your questions."In the week of protests since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, cops and politicians alike have been quick to point to "organized looters" and "outside agitators" fomenting unrest. But the claims often come with little evidence, and seem to buckle under scrutiny. Last week, after NYPD vehicles were filmed driving into a crowd of protestors, Mayor Bill De Blasio claimed that "a small set of men… came to do violence in a systematic organized fashion." And there have been reports of protesters throwing bricks at police in New York. But New York City Council Member Mark Treyger, who represents the Gravesend area, disagreed with the idea that external troublemakers were making mischief in his turf. In a phone call with The Daily Beast, Treyger said he became aware of the discovery of containers of suspect materials at two locations in his district when a constituent messaged him over social media, and that he confirmed the finding with the 61st Precinct. However, Treyger said that the NYPD acknowledged to him the containers might simply contain construction debris. The councilman said that he had not seen protests in the area or any signs of organized looting—and pointed out that at least one set of the containers were found near a construction site, suggesting that the bricks came from there. He called his conclusion "simple math." "There is literally a construction site and construction fencing and signage. And they found five or six containers of what appears to me to be construction debris," Treyger told The Daily Beast. "I believe that [Shea's] tweet about my district is not responsible. Because he did not give the full set of facts and the full picture, especially when his own department says the discovery was still under investigation," Treyger added, warning that such rumors could cause division in the racially diverse neighborhood. "The police commissioner needs to be very mindful with his words, because they could incite violence."The commissioner's claims about the crates in Gravesend were especially remarkable because they were nowhere near the locus of protests Tuesday, which is when five employees of local businesses told The Daily Beast the bins were removed.Employees at two businesses—Knapp Pizza II and New Fortune Wine & Spirit—on the block in question told The Daily Beast police had removed the crates on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, Tuesday's protests in Brooklyn were centered closer to the Barclays Center, nearly five miles away. A woman who asked to be identified only as Sabrina R. said that the medical offices next to the apparent site of the bins did have security cameras, but that they were blocked from a view of the corner. An employee at nearby New Fortune Wine & Spirit said they had heard about the bricks, but had seen no protest. She said that while the store was outfitted with security cameras, that they belonged to the landlord, who could not be reached by press time.Violent Social-Distancing Arrest Videos Go Viral, Putting NYPD on DefensiveAt Smart Choice Pharmacy, which sits across from the site where the crates appeared to be collected, a staff member told The Daily Beast the street has been very quiet. "We haven't seen anything like that," she said. "It was very quiet yesterday. We didn't see anything like that… There was no protest in Gravesend last night." An employee at the Dunkin Donuts across the intersection from the site in question told The Daily Beast they had not noticed the bricks at all. An NYPD spokeswoman told the Daily Beast no complaint report had been filed about the containers. "No one called it in to complain," she said. "It wasn't taken as a complaint report… Because it's not a crime. [The crates were] just left there."In a media availability Wednesday morning, Commissioner Shea discussed the issue with Mayor De Blasio. "So in terms of the tweet today, unfortunately it's not an isolated incident," Shea said. "That was two locations, one was in Brooklyn, one was in Queens, where pre-staged bricks are being placed and then transported to quote unquote peaceful protests—which are peaceful protests—but then used by that criminal group within to sow fear." Shea did not provide any details on the incident in Queens or specify how NYPD had come to the conclusion that the debris containers were associated with protests, given that no major protests had been reported in that area. He did concede that they might have come from construction sites. "We've had construction sites burglarized in recent days in Manhattan," Shea said. "It's interesting. Construction site burglary is not that uncommon, but during a riot it's interesting what was taken—bricks." Shea also mentioned a pattern of protestors throwing water bottles filled with cement at police officers, but did not provide specific instances of when such incidents had occurred, or evidence that any of those had been "an orchestrated attack." "I do believe that the police commissioner needs to be clear in his messaging that this debris was found near a construction site," Council Member Treyger said. "And as of this afternoon, I have not heard of organized looting in my district."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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| No charges by St. Louis Circuit Attorney have people arrested for looting back on the streets Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:42 PM PDT  Arrests made during the looting and rioting in St. Louis City Monday night and into Tuesday morning have resulted in no charges from St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner.
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| What we know about George Floyd's death and alleged counterfeit money in Minneapolis Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:33 PM PDT  A $20 bill with ink reportedly running launched the arrest and death of George Floyd and subsequent protests and riots across the nation.
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| 'Enough is enough' Atlanta suburb protest brings large crowd Posted: 03 Jun 2020 05:34 PM PDT  The march started Wednesday afternoon in Decatur Square, home to a Confederate monument built in 1908 and a "contextualized" marker explaining the racist history of the monument and the Civil War. "Enough is enough," Georgia State University student Chalèah Head said. Head called for the Decatur rally on social media, stating she knew residents in her hometown would remain peaceful, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
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| Welcome Home, Hong Kong Posted: 04 Jun 2020 10:30 AM PDT  London doesn't have the power to push the corrupt little junta in Beijing into being halfway decent to the people of Hong Kong, but Boris Johnson has a bold solution for almost half of those people: Come to the United Kingdom.Hong Kong is a former British territory, and about 3 million of its 7.5 million residents hold or are eligible for a limited kind of British passport (the "British national overseas" passport issued to those born in Hong Kong before the territory was relinquished to China in 1997) that entitles them to travel to the United Kingdom but not to permanently reside or work there. As Beijing prepares to implement in Hong Kong a robust version of the totalitarianism it practices everywhere else in China — in contravention of its agreement with the British requiring the Chinese government to honor Hong Kong's liberty and democracy — Johnson says that his government, bound by "our profound ties of history and friendship with the people of Hong Kong," will allow all of those 3 million Hong Kongers the option of coming to the United Kingdom with the British version of a green card (renewable legal residency and permission to work) and a path to full citizenship for those who desire it.This is an almost heroic proposal. It is also a smart one.The United Kingdom is an astonishingly inventive and productive nation, and it punches above its weight both economically and, especially, culturally. But Hong Kong has long practiced a kind of supercharged version of British economic liberalism, and its people are even more productive than the British, with a GDP per capita about 15 percent higher than the United Kingdom's. You don't have a rich, smart, productive country without rich, smart, productive people, and Johnson is proposing to roll out the red carpet for 3 million of them.Because of Brexit, Johnson often is numbered among the recently ascendant right-wing populists, but while his European counterparts (and, unhappily, many of his American counterparts) rail against immigration and immigrants, Johnson's government would welcome a new group of immigrants who would by themselves equal about 4.5 percent of the current U.K. population.During the Cold War, defectors from the Eastern bloc were symbols of the fundamental difference between the free world and the unfree world, and people of good will cheered when some daring person successfully made it over the Berlin Wall. But the men and women fleeing the brutality of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany could do so only because there was a West Berlin for them to run to. Boris Johnson proposes that the United Kingdom play that role for the people of Hong Kong who are being oppressed by a government that in too many ways practices an updated version of socialism as it actually existed only a few decades ago, as opposed to the socialism of 10,000 dorm-room philosophers.Beijing is infuriated. The Chinese government accuses the United Kingdom of "interfering in China's internal affairs." But Beijing is bound by the Sino–British Joint Declaration regarding the liberty of Hong Kong, so the U.K. is not crashing the party. Johnson's government does not have the force to change Beijing's internal affairs, but it does have the power to make 3 million Hong Kong residents external affairs.Washington does, too. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) the Senate majority leader, already has suggested that the United States implement something like what Johnson's government is doing. "Our nation has a rich heritage of standing as a beacon of light and freedom, from refugees of war to those escaping the Iron Curtain," McConnell said. "We should exercise it again for the people of Hong Kong."Some of our neo-Malthusian friends will insist that there is no room in the United States for these immigrants, that we are all full up, that there aren't enough jobs to go around as it is. But consider this: In the 1940s, Hong Kong was one of the poorest places in the world, hungry, depopulated, and war-ravaged. With very little in the way of natural resources, and starting without a great deal of modern infrastructure, Hong Kong grew to become the wealthiest city in the world. If Hong Kong were an independent country (and why not? It works for Singapore), it would be one of the world's wealthiest, a little ahead of the United States and just a step behind Switzerland. The people of Hong Kong did that with very little other than liberty, the rule of law, and a reasonably good location as a port. Why shouldn't those people thrive in the United States, with its abundant blessings? They can expect to thrive in the United Kingdom.The loss of liberty in Hong Kong is a jolting, unwelcome reminder that history does not move in one direction only, toward progress and human flourishing. Perhaps the city cannot be saved, for now. But the British proposal is both an act of practical aid and a splendid gesture. For the moment, it may be that the best that can be done is for the free world to declare that the people of Hong Kong live where freedom lives.Welcome home.
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| Amy Cooper: Central Park dog walker who called police on black man has pet returned Posted: 04 Jun 2020 01:01 PM PDT  Amy Cooper has got her dog back 10 days after she gave it up following a public outcry over her calling the police on a black man in Central Park.In a video of the 25 May incident, Cooper claimed in a phone call to police that bird watcher Christian Cooper was threatening her life - after he'd asked her to place a leash on her dog.
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| Trump to accept Republican presidential nomination outside of North Carolina Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:08 PM PDT  President Donald Trump will accept the Republican presidential nomination outside North Carolina, the party said on Wednesday, following the Democratic governor's decision not to lift social-distancing restrictions for the planned Aug. 24-27 convention. On Tuesday, Governor Roy Cooper rejected Republican demands to guarantee that attendance at the convention in Charlotte would not be restricted by social-distancing measures aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus. In response, Trump said on Twitter that the party would relocate the event.
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| The 2020 hurricane season already broke a record, and it's only day 3 Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:50 PM PDT  Tropical Storm Cristobal, the earliest-ever third named storm in the Atlantic, has made landfall in Mexico and is turning toward the US Gulf Coast.
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| Cars Most Likely to Need a Transmission Replacement Posted: 04 Jun 2020 07:33 AM PDT  Drivers naturally become concerned about reliability as a car ages, since the risk of inconvenience and unexpected expenses rises while the miles rack up. Most modern cars can make it to 200,000 ...
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| Brazil, Mexico suffer record daily rise in coronavirus deaths Posted: 04 Jun 2020 03:35 AM PDT  Brazil and Mexico suffered a record rise in daily coronavirus deaths amid fears Latin America is reopening too soon. On Wednesday, Mexico reported a daily death toll that exceeded 1,000 for the first time since the outbreak began, while Brazil announced 1,349 deaths for the day, a record for the country. Both nations now rank in the top ten countries that have suffered the highest number of fatalities, but there is grave concern that, unlike their European counterparts, Latin nations have yet to reach the peak of the epidemic. Countries in Europe are beginning to emerge from their lockdowns, with borders reopening and people returning to work. But in South America, new hotspots are emerging and hospitals are threatened to be overwhelmed.
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| Esper orders hundreds of troops from 82nd Airborne home from D.C. area Posted: 04 Jun 2020 12:44 PM PDT  This is the second time this week Esper has ordered the troops to head home.
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| Minneapolis City Council members look to disband the police department as schools and other city agencies cut ties with police Posted: 04 Jun 2020 08:11 AM PDT  "We can declare policing as we know it a thing of the past, and create a compassionate, non-violent future," one councilmember said.
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| New U.S. ban on Chinese airlines hurts Chinese students who were already struggling to get home Posted: 04 Jun 2020 10:08 AM PDT  The DOT has now banned Chinese airlines from the U.S., an added burden for Chinese students already stuck here because of their own government's policies.
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| Defiant Hongkongers Commemorate Tiananmen Square Massacre Despite Ban Posted: 04 Jun 2020 08:19 AM PDT  Thousands of Hong Kong protesters defied a police ban Thursday night to stage an annual vigil on the anniversary of June 4, 1989 — the date that Chinese tanks rolled into Beijing's Tiananmen Square to crush a student-led democracy movement.
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| Pompeo aide tried to 'bully' ex-State Department watchdog and stop probe in Saudi arms deal, Dems say Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:26 AM PDT  The State Department's inspector general is probing two highly contentious allegations that touch on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's actions.
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| Boris Johnson told Italy's prime minister the UK had been aiming for coronavirus herd immunity, new documentary reveals Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:10 AM PDT  Italian health minister Pierpaolo Sileri said Johnson's early COVID-19 plan was pursuing herd immunity in an interview with Channel 4's Dispatches.
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| Magnitude 5.5 quake hits shaky California desert region Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:54 PM PDT |
| Britain says nearly 30,000 COVID-19 tests sent to U.S. lab came back void Posted: 04 Jun 2020 06:33 AM PDT  Nearly 30,000 COVID-19 tests which Britain sent to a U.S. lab for processing came back void, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said on Thursday, adding to a mounting pile of questions over the UK's testing regime. Johnson's spokesman said that "operational issues in our lab network" had meant that 67,000 tests were sent to the United States for processing.
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| Hong Kong criminalises insulting Chinese national anthem Posted: 04 Jun 2020 04:21 AM PDT  Hong Kong lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday that would criminalise insults to China's national anthem, as protesters defied a ban on a vigil for the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Offenders will face three years in jail and fines as high as HK$50,000 (£5,160). The proposal passed with 41 in favour and one opposed after pro-democracy lawmakers staged protests, dropping stink bombs in the chamber and shouting as votes were cast. The ruling came as Hong Kong ramped up police presence after a vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre was banned for the first time. Authorities cited social distancing measures, even though schools and bars have reopened. Metal barricades went up in Victoria Park to bar people from gathering to remember lives lost when the military gunned down peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, seen as a threat to the ruling Communist Party. After three decades, the Chinese government still has not acknowledged the event where hundreds, possibly thousands, died. Instead, Beijing has worked hard to erase it from history, a campaign that accelerates each year around the anniversary.
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| The trucker who drove through a crowd of protesters in Minneapolis was once arrested for domestic assault Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:52 AM PDT  Bogdan Vechirko drove an empty tanker through a crowd of George Floyd protesters in Minneapolis on Sunday. No one was hurt.
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| ‘Tiger King’: Carole Baskin’s Husband Don Lewis’ Will Was Forged, Sheriff Says Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:49 AM PDT  Hillsborough County, Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister is convinced that Carole Baskin's former husband Don Lewis's will—which granted Baskin all of Lewis' assets in the event of his disappearance—is a fake. Moreover, he said, two experts have confirmed it."They had two experts deem it 100 percent a forgery," Chronister told Tampa news outlet WTSP, as reported by TMZ. The problem, he said, is the statute of limitations has already expired. "But you know, it certainly cast another shadow of suspicion."In May, two handwriting experts told a reporter from the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting that the signature and power of attorney on Lewis' will appeared to have been traced from his marriage record—as did the witness and notary signatures.At this point, due to the lapsed statute of limitations, Chronister said, "There's no recourse." But, he added, "The investigators have some great leads; they're working through them. I hope something pans out."Chronister's office also apparently spoke with Don Lewis' children, whom he said "had additional information the investigators weren't aware of." Investigators also spoke with the office manager, who "started to tell them things that they weren't aware of, that they didn't have in their files," Chronister said. "So I think they're going through a lot of information right now, and fingers crossed... I hope we can finally solve this case."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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| Las Vegas reopening starts tonight despite George Floyd protests. Here's what's on tap Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:57 AM PDT  The casinos and attractions of Las Vegas, closed for 2½ months by coronavirus concerns, are scheduled to open Thursday.
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| Photos show how Apple is tracking and locking demo iPhones that have been stolen from its stores Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:23 AM PDT  Apple tracks and disables demo iPhones that are stolen from its stores, as photos appearing on social media recently showed.
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| Tropical Storm Cristobal takes aim at U.S. Gulf Coast Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:50 AM PDT  The storm could bring heavy rain to Louisiana and its neighbors this weekend.
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| Libyan government vows to defeat rebel general after recapturing Tripoli Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:34 AM PDT  Libya's internationally recognised government vowed to defeat Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar after its troops recaptured key districts of Tripoli, effectively ending a 14-month siege of the capital city. Turkish backed-troops with the Government of National Accord said they had secured all of Tripoli's entry and exit points early on Thursday morning, a day after they seized the city's derelict but bitterly contested international airport. "Our heroic forces have full control of Greater Tripoli right up to the city limits," Mohamad Gnounou, spokesman for GNA forces, said in a Facebook post. Separately Reuters cited a source in Gen Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) saying that it would complete its withdrawal from the Tripoli districts of Ain Zara, Abu Salim and Qasr Ben Gashir on Thursday. LNA troops are believed to be consolidating around the town of Tarhuna, southeast of Tripoli. The announcements came as international pressure builds for the two sides to accept a truce. The UN said on Monday that both sides had agreed to resume ceasefire talks. Fayez-al Sarraj, the prime minister of the GNA, said after meeting with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara that his government would continue to fight until it had secured the rest of the country. "Our fight continues and we are determined to defeat the enemy, impose state control on the whole of the homeland and destroy all those who jeopardise the construction of a civil, democratic and modern state," he said. Gen Haftar, who rules eastern and southern Libya in tandem with a parliament that split with the GNA in 2016, launched an assault on Tripoli in April 2019, vowing to root out "terrorist militias" backed by the GNA. The LNA, with military backing from several foreign countries including the UAE, Egypt and Russia, succeeded in seizing the city's southern suburbs but became bogged in a war of attrition before it could reach the city centre. The tide of the war turned after Turkey intervened on the side of the GNA at the beginning of this year, deploying drones, air-defence systems, and thousands of Syrian fighters in support of Tripoli. The success of the Turkish intervention has shown how foreign players have grown increasingly important in Libya's war. Hundreds of Russian fighters, believed to be with the Kremlin-linked Wagner private military company, have been seen accompanying the LNA pull back. Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that large numbers of Russian and Soviet made anti-personnel mines not previously recorded in Libya had been found planted in civilian areas abandoned by the LNA. "Any use of internationally banned landmines is unconscionable," said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch and chair of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. "Those fighting in Tripoli should halt using landmines and start clearing them to avoid further harm to life and limb."
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