| Embattled at home, Pompeo and Barr lash out at foreign foe Posted: 11 Jun 2020 10:26 AM PDT  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the International Criminal Court as a "highly politicized" institution on Thursday as he announced new sanctions against it for its investigation into potential war crimes by U.S. forces during the conflict in Afghanistan.
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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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| Putin appeals to Russians' core values as vote on extending term looms Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:32 AM PDT  President Vladimir Putin appealed to what he termed Russians' core values on Friday, the country's national day, as he sought to rally support for a vote on constitutional reforms that could potentially keep him in office until 2036. The plebiscite will run from June 25-July 1 and, if approved, includes a change that would allow 67-year-old Putin, in power since 1999, to serve two more six-year terms in the Kremlin after 2024, when he would under current laws be obliged to step down. "We have a common historical code, moral foundations... Respect for parents and family (and) love for our soil," Putin said at a flag-raising ceremony in Moscow to mark Russia Day.
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| Black Lives Matter protestor in Florida still missing after tweeting about sexual assault Posted: 12 Jun 2020 09:59 AM PDT  Oluwatoyin Salaua, a 19-year-old Black Lives Matter protester, was last seen June 6 in Tallahassee. Hours before, she tweeted of sexual assault.
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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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| 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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| Biden gets more aggressive as 2020 campaign heats back up Posted: 11 Jun 2020 08:04 AM PDT  Joe Biden is adopting an increasingly aggressive stance as he looks to break out of a monthslong campaign freeze imposed by the coronavirus outbreak. Over the course of 24 hours, the presumptive Democratic nominee sharpened his rhetoric against President Donald Trump, warning he could try to steal the election. The quick succession of developments signals Biden's growing desire to become more assertive.
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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, Ant̫nio 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 Рand 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 Рthe 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 Рas if only those on the left were capable of noticing this government's insane and anti-democratic acts."
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| US Air Force pilot becomes the first woman to fly the F-35A stealth fighter into combat Posted: 11 Jun 2020 03:02 PM PDT  "Being the first female, it's a pretty big honor," Capt. Emily Thompson, call sign "Banzai," said of the historic flight.
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| US Surgeon General Jerome Adams says George Floyd 'could have been me' as he opens up about facing racism every day Posted: 11 Jun 2020 12:30 PM PDT  "That could be me with a busted tail light. That could be me who is just seen as a Black man, and not as the Surgeon General of the United States."
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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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| Minneapolis Activists Want to Abolish Police Despite Over 500 Rapes in the City Annually Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:00 AM PDT  A veto-proof majority of city council members has pledged to "dismantle" the Minneapolis Police Department.
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| Even One-Person Protests are Too Much for Vladimir Putin Posted: 11 Jun 2020 01:35 AM PDT  MOSCOW—The crackdown on political opposition took a sinister twist during two months of coronavirus quarantines in the Russian capital. Marches and rallies were banned, so protests were reduced to what were called "solo pickets," as in a picket line with only one person. The protester would stand all alone, a surgical mask on his or her face and gloves on the hands that bore aloft a banner or placard in the last form of street expression allowed without a permit. And then police started arresting the single pickets, too, claiming they were breaking the lockdown rules. Last Thursday, Alisa Ganiyeva unrolled a banner demanding freedom for her friend, Novaya Gazeta journalist Ilya Azar, who had been arrested for a solo picket demo late last month. Ganiyeva stood outside the Moscow city police headquarters for just a few seconds, she said, before the cops grabbed her. "It was so absurd to hear them talk about COVID-19 distancing after two policemen came very close to me—and then shoved me into a crowded vehicle with other people in it," Ganiyeva told The Daily Beast. "As they walked me away, I saw a crowd of soldiers celebrating Border Service Day in that very street." She also saw policemen detain two girls who had the word "freedom" written on their masks.The contrast with the mass protests taking place around the world right now, with many people consciously braving the coronavirus threat in order to march against racism and injustice, could not be more striking.Under Russian law, a single-person protester must stand at least 15 meters, or almost 50 feet, from any other person with a sign. And that's what they do.But the Kremlin has an obvious conflict of priorities: 67-year old Vladimir Putin is eager to see Russians vote in a postponed referendum on constitutional amendments, now rescheduled for July 1, that would allow him to stay in power until 2036. For such an event, social distancing be damned. And Putin's opponents, meanwhile, are left with the single picket protests as their last chance to say no to police violations and political repression. "By law I have a right to stand in a single picket and I will continue to exercise my right," Azar told The Daily Beast following his release on Sunday after 10 days in jail. "Because tomorrow they might ban us from walking in the streets. If we do not defend our right to this very last form of protesting, we'll all end up behind bars tomorrow." A Moscow court had sentenced Azar for violating "requirements of the Moscow mayor's decree that bans any public events." But when Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ended the lockdown regime on Tuesday, people immediately flooded the streets and parks of the capital and traffic jams returned and, then, the detentions and arrests of single-man picket protesters continued. On Wednesday police detained five solo pickets outside the Presidential Administration and 18 opposition activists were picked up for earlier political actions. Many people had to pay fines."The bigger the scale of repression, the braver we are—I am sure that people will find new forms to protest," Mikhail Lobanov, a math professor at Moscow State University told The Daily Beast. On March 21, a few days before the COVID-19 official lockdown, Lobanov demonstrated against the arrest of a graduate student; the court fined him $145 on Wednesday.Single-person pickets have become a popular movement in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and other Russian cities in the past few months as authorities grew more reluctant to approve street protests. In the past two weeks police have detained dozens of journalists, university professors, and students for single-person pickets. Many were sentenced to 15 days in jail. Why is the Kremlin so afraid of a few individual people who were by definition socially distancing? "The last ounce of their patience must have been exhausted by the line of more than 200 people waiting to stand in a single picket outside the Federal Security Service [FSB] in February," Azar said.The few remaining elected deputies from the opposition, both in Moscow and St. Petersburg, say the current development shows rules are tightening. A deputy in the St. Petersburg's Legislative Assembly, Boris Vishnevsky, has been trying to offer legal help to detained protesters since late March. He makes the point that according to the Russian constitution the only time authorities can ban public protests, now limited to one-person protests in any case, is during curfew. But in Moscow and St. Petersburg authorities have been using the pandemic to terminate even the single pickets. "This is the Kremlin's tightest grip, the final bolt has been screwed," Vishnevsky told The Daily Beast. "After the first citation a detainee pays a $58 fine, after the second detention the punishment can be up to 15 days of jail and after the third single picket, you can go to prison for up to four years. The only place for protest left in Russia is the internet."A journalist at the independent radio station Echo of Moscow, Tania Felgenghauer, went to a solo protest in spite of police arrests. "A single picket is is not a crime," her banner said. Two policemen grabbed her less than five seconds later, she said. "It amazes me to see people in the United States consolidating in defense of dignity, defending law and human lives, while here only a few harmless protesters tried to exercise their legal rights and even they were shut up," Felgenghauer said, then added, "My lawyer tells me I have used my limit for protesting this year." 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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| Biden unveils proposal to reopen the economy, slams Trump's 'one-point plan' Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:17 AM PDT  Biden promised the federal government would provide and pay for COVID-19 tests "for every worker called back to work."
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| Trump administration proposes sweeping asylum restrictions Posted: 10 Jun 2020 04:20 PM PDT  The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed sweeping restrictions on asylum, seeking to align a legal framework with the president's efforts to limit immigration to the United States. The moves are only the latest in a series of measures that Trump has taken to limit asylum — this time aimed at changing complicated guidelines and procedures governing immigration courts. Rules will define when a claim may be declared "frivolous" and raise the threshold for initial screenings under the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
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| A Harvard health expert predicts an additional 100,000 US coronavirus deaths by September Posted: 10 Jun 2020 07:56 PM PDT  "The pandemic won't be over in September," Dr. Ashish Jha said. "So, "I'm really worried about where we're going to be in the weeks and months ahead."
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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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| Will the Black Lives Matter movement finally put an end to Confederate flags and statues? Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:25 AM PDT  In the past week, public officials, military leaders and sports executives have made moves to take down Confederate symbols.
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| Fossil tracks left by an ancient crocodile that 'ran like an ostrich' Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:39 AM PDT  Scientists are stunned to find that some ancient crocodiles may have moved around on two feet.
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| New Jersey cop charged after bodycam footage shows him using pepper spray on young black men Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:35 AM PDT  A New Jersey police officer has been charged with assault after bodycam footage showed the man allegedly using pepper spray on a group of young black men unjustly.Ryan Dubiel, 31, directed pepper spray at people "without provocation" when responding to a trespassing call, according to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.
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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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| 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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| Protests this past week have been largely peaceful, but Fox News continues to show old footage to rile up viewers Posted: 11 Jun 2020 12:30 PM PDT  Fox News has continuously run older footage showing looting, though a network spokesman pointed to examples of peaceful protests being covered.
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| AP PHOTOS: Venezuelan migrants make long trek back home Posted: 11 Jun 2020 09:06 PM PDT  A severe economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic has dashed the dreams of countless Venezuelans who fled their crisis-torn country in what had been one of the largest mass migrations anywhere in recent years. Now Colombia migration authorities estimate nearly 75,000 have made the journey back, traveling tiring miles by foot and bus. Many are arriving at the border crossing in the city of Cucuta only to find they will have to wait longer: Authorities in Venezuela allow only a few hundred to enter and just on three days a week.
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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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| Vast amounts of Venezuelan oil are hidden en route to China, bypassing U.S. sanctions - data, documents Posted: 12 Jun 2020 04:20 AM PDT  Last year, China replaced the United States as the No. 1 importer of oil from Venezuela, yet another front in the heated rivalry between Washington and Beijing. The United States had imposed sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned oil company as part of a bid to topple that country's socialist president, Nicolas Maduro. U.S. refineries stopped buying Venezuelan crude.
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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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| 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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| Letters to the Editor: Mitt Romney is a good man. That doesn't mean he deserves an apology for 2012 Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Mitt Romney's vote to remove Trump from office and his participation in a Black Lives Matter protest do not mean he deserves an apology for how he was treated in 2012.
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| A bill letting kids in Tennessee miss an hour of school a day to go to church heads to governor's desk Posted: 11 Jun 2020 02:52 PM PDT  HB 2542 also authorizes school buses to transport students to religious instruction.
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| Melania Trump used White House move to renegotiate prenup, book claims Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:34 AM PDT  * First lady delayed moving from New York for five months * Melania reportedly said aim was 'taking care of Barron'Melania Trump delayed coming to the White House after her husband Donald Trump won the 2016 election because she was renegotiating her prenuptial agreement, a new book has claimed.The delay after Trump was inaugurated in early 2017 was officially explained as the first lady not wanting to interrupt the schooling of the couple's son, Barron, in New York. It triggered a wave of media speculation that the couple's marriage was strained and criticism of the high cost of providing security for Melania and Barron as they lived away from the White House.But a new book by the Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan, of which her newspaper obtained a pre-publication copy, claims another reason for the delay in Melania moving into the White House was a renegotiation of their pre-marital financial agreement."Jordan reveals … that the first lady was also using her delayed arrival to the White House as leverage for renegotiating her prenuptial agreement with President Trump," a news report in the Post said."The incoming first lady needed time to cool off, and to amend her financial arrangement with Trump – what Melania referred to as 'taking care of Barron'," the report added.The book, called The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump, is based on more than a hundred interviews with people who know Melania from every stage of her life, from her childhood in Slovenia to her time in the White House.The portrait that reportedly emerges from its 286 pages is very different from the idea of Melania as a reluctant first lady. Far from being shy and retiring, she emerges as a force in her own right, backing her husband politically and determined to secure a place for Barron in the family business."What emerges is a picture of personal ambition similar to Trump's," the Post wrote.
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| US, Iraq launch strategic talks on economy, American troops Posted: 11 Jun 2020 08:55 AM PDT  The United States and Iraq launched much-anticipated strategic talks Thursday that are to span the gamut of their bilateral relations, with Washington prioritizing the issue of the future of its forces in the country while Baghdad is expected to focus on the nation's dire economic crisis. The talks, which began with an initial meeting in the afternoon with participants tuning in online because of the coronavirus measures, are expected to drag out over several months. Iran's expanding influence in Iraq is also expected to be an underlining topic in the talks.
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| Two Missouri hairstylists with coronavirus saw 140 clients in their salon, but no one got infected Posted: 11 Jun 2020 10:59 AM PDT  Last month, Missouri hairstylists saw 140 clients while symptomatic with the coronavirus. None seem to have contracted it, though, officials said.
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| The U.S. Navy's Electromagnetic Railgun Will Fire Supersonic Ammo Posted: 11 Jun 2020 10:00 PM PDT  The next-generation hypervelocity projectile — a supersonic shell capable of striking targets up to 100 nautical miles away at speeds approaching Mach 6.
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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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| Activist charged with torching police cars in Seattle Posted: 11 Jun 2020 05:21 PM PDT  25-year-old Margaret Channon faces five federal charges for arson.
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| Germany’s Misleading Classification of Antisemitic Hate Crimes Posted: 11 Jun 2020 03:30 AM PDT  The German government recently announced that 2019 saw the most antisemitic hate crimes since it began collecting data in 2001. In all, 2,032 antisemitic incidents were reported to German police last year, marking a 13 percent increase over 2018. That certainly fits with the steady drumbeat of stories about rising global antisemitism. However, the German government's announcement quickly turned cockeyed, as "93.4 percent of the crimes were "ascribed to far–right wing perpetrators, " according to a report from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).Now, the far right in Germany — as elsewhere — is undoubtedly antisemitic. Nazism literally originated there. However, crediting the German far right for nearly all attacks on Germany's Jews oversimplifies a situation that calls for much more careful analysis.Some politicians and members of the media may prefer this take, but unquestioningly accepting it won't keep Germany's 200,000 Jews safe. It would be better to embrace reality, including two major flaws in this too-convenient narrative. First, there are known problems with the way Germany collects its antisemitic crime data. Second, numerous surveys show that antisemitism is a broader problem that spans German society.Let's start with the first point. In classifying antisemitic incidents, the German government uses five categories: right-wing, left-wing, foreign ideology, religious ideology, and (the rarely used) unknown. The categories have remained unchanged since 2001. At this point, they are inadequate.Remko Leemhuis, acting director of the American Jewish Committee's Berlin office, agrees that there are classification problems. He explained in a phone interview that, if "the police can't apprehend someone, they automatically mark it down as right-wing extremism." In other words, reporting on German antisemitism is inherently skewed; the category "right-wing" expands simply because the police don't consistently use "unknown" when they should.The Germans also lack a category dedicated to antisemitism driven by Islamism. German authorities have classified antisemitic episodes "at the Quds Day march in Berlin," for example, as right-wing, as if the event were a neo-Nazi rally. If the German government is serious about fighting antisemitism, it needs to acknowledge that the oldest hatred exists beyond the far right. Consider that, according to the JTA report, "in a 2016 survey of hundreds of German Jews who had experienced antisemitic incidents, 41 percent said the perpetrator was 'someone with a Muslim extremist view' and another 16 percent said it was someone from the far left. Only 20 percent identified their aggressors as belonging to the far right." Given that, the German government would be wise to revise their reporting categories to include "far right," "far left," "Islamist," and "unknown perpetrators."More recent polling data only underscores that antisemitism is not an isolated problem. In a survey the World Jewish Congress released last fall, 27 percent of German respondents "agreed with a range of antisemitic statements and stereotypes about Jewish people." Forty-one percent of respondents agreed that "'Jews are more loyal to Israel than to Germany,'" epitomizing the notion that Jews are Others. Lest the German government write this off as a problem of the uneducated, this survey also noted that 18 percent of "'elites' — respondents with at least one university degree who make at least €100,000 [$111,300] per year — agreed with antisemitic sentiments."In a similar vein, the ADL in its Global 100 survey, which was also released last fall, found that 49 percent of Germans considered it "probably true" that Germany's Jews were more loyal to Israel. While 14 percent of self-identified Christians and 12 percent of atheists expressed antisemitic attitudes, a nontrivial 49 percent of Muslim respondents did.The German government should also consider that 46 percent of German Jews told the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) that they "avoid certain places in their local area or neighborhood at least occasionally because they do not feel safe there as Jews," and 75 percent "at least occasionally avoid wearing, carrying or displaying" things that might visibly identify them as Jewish. In its 2018 report, the FRA noted that Germany is one of "three countries [that] stand out with increased shares of respondents who say that they have considered leaving the country due to safety concerns in the past five years." Germany led that list, at 19 percent.This is all to say that antisemitism is an ongoing problem for Germany's tiny Jewish minority. As Leemhuis observes, "There's a huge problem with right-wing antisemitism, but if we're not addressing all forms seriously, we're not fighting any antisemitism. It doesn't help when people instrumentalize the problem, when the right is pointing to the left, and the left points to the right. Everyone has to do housekeeping."It's a positive step that the German government is tracking data about antisemitic crimes. But we'll know that German authorities are serious about fighting resurgent antisemitism when they start accurately tracking and acknowledging its multiple origins.
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| Kudlow: ‘There is no second wave’ of coronavirus Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:55 AM PDT  The White House economic adviser's remarks come as new Covid-19 hot spots continue to emerge across the country.
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| Trump fans cheer and whoop as he describes coronavirus as 'the plague from China' Posted: 11 Jun 2020 02:51 PM PDT  Supporters of Donald Trump cheered as the president told an audience that coronavirus had many names, but he preferred to call it "the plague from China".Talking at a round table on police reform in Dallas, Mr Trump darted across topics from hurricanes to oil to the coronavirus in the span of minutes before lingering on the pandemic when the pro-Trump crowd cheered in support.
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| Troubled Iran struggles to maintain sway over Iraq militias Posted: 10 Jun 2020 11:17 PM PDT  Iraqi militia factions expected the usual cash handout when the new head of Iran's expeditionary Quds Force made his first visit to Baghdad earlier this year, succeeding the slain Gen. Qassim Soleimani. Instead, to their disappointment, Esmail Ghaani brought them silver rings. For his second visit, Ghaani had to apply for a visa, something unheard of in Soleimani's time — a bold step by Baghdad's new government effectively curtailing Iran's freedom of movement inside Iraq.
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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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| Nepal parliament to vote on new map in land dispute with India Posted: 11 Jun 2020 04:28 AM PDT  Nepal's parliament is set to vote at the weekend on a new map of its border with India, an official said on Thursday, underlining the Himalayan nation's determination to press its case in a land dispute that has strained ties with its giant neighbour. Nepal published the revised map in May showing the sliver of land on its northwest tip as its territory, a move rejected by India, which controls the area and says the land belongs to it. Nepal's Prime Minister K.P.Sharma Oli had earlier said he has sought talks with India to seek to resolve the dispute over the small stretch of land, which includes the areas of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani.
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| Oklahoma cop faces backlash but won't apologize after saying African Americans 'probably ought to be' shot more by police Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:48 PM PDT  A top police commander in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is "under review" after citing what he called "alternative data" during a local radio interview this week.
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| Saudi cleric says combatting anti-Semitism a duty Posted: 11 Jun 2020 06:13 AM PDT  Saudi cleric Mohammad al-Issa sees combatting anti-Semitism as a religious duty, an approach which saw the head of the Muslim World League awarded this week by Jewish groups. Issa was given a prize by the Combat Antisemistism Movement and the American Sephardi Federation, in a virtual ceremony on Tuesday celebrating Muslim leaders tackling anti-Semitism and racism.
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