| Hillary Clinton knocks Trump's liability waiver for Oklahoma rally Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:47 AM PDT  Clinton chided Trump's campaign for resuming large rallies amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and obliging those seeking tickets to his first event to sign a liability waiver.
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| Minneapolis police officers condemn former colleague Derek Chauvin charged with killing George Floyd in open letter Posted: 13 Jun 2020 05:22 AM PDT  More than a dozen members of the Minneapolis police department have condemned their former colleague Derek Chauvin in an open letter on the death of George Floyd.Fourteen officers signed the letter on Thursday which is addressed to "everyone -- but especially Minneapolis citizens", following the killing of Floyd on 25 May.
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| Beijing goes into 'wartime mode' and locks down after a spike in coronavirus cases emerge at a wholesale market Posted: 13 Jun 2020 02:30 AM PDT  The discovery has prompted the capital to immediately ban inter-province tourism, shut schools, and suspend sports events.
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| Cuomo: ‘You don’t need to protest — you won’ Posted: 13 Jun 2020 09:37 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed protesters during a briefing on Saturday and asked, "What do you want the police department to be in New York City?"
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| A 70-year-old man was hospitalized with COVID-19 for 62 days. Then he received a $1.1 million hospital bill, including over $80,000 for using a ventilator. Posted: 13 Jun 2020 10:01 AM PDT  Michael Flor was billed $9,736 each day he stayed in the ICU, and $2,835 per day for use of a ventilator, the Seattle Times reported.
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| Brazil overtakes UK to have second highest Covid-19 death toll in the world Posted: 13 Jun 2020 02:50 AM PDT  Brazil on Friday overtook the UK to claim the second-highest coronavirus death toll in the world, behind the United States. The country's health ministry recorded 909 deaths in the past 24 hours, putting the total at 41,828, ahead of the UK's 41,481. Unlike the UK, Latin America's biggest economy remains far off flattening its coronavirus infection curve, with experts warning a peak of daily deaths may not arrive until August. Observers believe the actual number of cases in Brazil could be far higher than the confirmed figure of 828,810. Gravediggers are working 12-hour shifts in a race to keep up with the toll, while images showing lines upon lines of empty graves waiting to be filled have shocked the world.
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| Mississippi faces reckoning on Confederate emblem in flag Posted: 13 Jun 2020 07:00 AM PDT  The young activists who launched a protest movement after George Floyd's death are bringing fresh energy to a long-simmering debate about the Confederate battle emblem that white supremacists embedded within the Mississippi state flag more than 125 years ago. Anti-racism protests have toppled Confederate statues and monuments across the United States in recent days, and even NASCAR banned the display of the rebel flag. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves rejects the idea of a legislative vote on erasing the symbol.
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| French nuclear submarine on fire at Toulon harbour: prefecture Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:50 AM PDT |
| Head of Naval Aviation Schools Command, Another Navy Pilot Killed in Plane Crash Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:47 PM PDT  Two naval aviators were killed when their civilian single-engine aircraft crashed in Alabama.
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| US backs UN against Egypt initiative on Libya Posted: 11 Jun 2020 01:20 PM PDT  The United States called Thursday for a UN-led ceasefire on Libya, distancing itself from a proposal by ally Egypt, and voiced alarm about the toll on civilians as the tide of war turns. Egypt -- a main backer of strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is losing ground to the UN-recognized, Turkish-backed government -- has proposed a truce in which "foreign mercenaries" would leave and militias would disband and disarm. David Schenker, the top US diplomat for the Middle East, voiced appreciation to Egypt, saying it was "productive to have more unity in Libya."
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| 12 Police Officers Have Been Shot During the George Floyd Protests—Here Are Their Names Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  News of Floyd's death prompted many to peacefully protest police brutality and violence, but spurred others to commit acts of looting, rioting and violence against police officers.
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| Human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine to start ahead of schedule Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:14 AM PDT |
| Coronavirus: Woman receives first known lung transplant in US after Covid-19 severely damaged the organ Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:41 AM PDT  A young woman has received a double lung transplant after the coronavirus caused severe damage to the organ.Northwestern Medicine announced the procedure on Thursday, which took place last Friday.
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| Report: Zuckerberg, Chan are ‘disgusted’ by Trump’s posts but will leave them on Facebook Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:01 AM PDT  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wive Priscilla Chan said they are shaken and disgusted by President Trump's rhetoric.
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| Biden's VP list narrows: Warren, Harris, Susan Rice, others Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:35 PM PDT  Joe Biden's search for a running mate is entering a second round of vetting for a dwindling list of potential vice presidential nominees, with several black women in strong contention. Democrats with knowledge of the process said Biden's search committee has narrowed the choices to as few as six serious contenders after initial interviews. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California, as well as Susan Rice, who served as President Barack Obama's national security adviser.
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| Canada spy agency warned of 'shock waves' from arrest of Huawei founder's daughter Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:17 PM PDT  Canada's intelligence agency warned that arresting the daughter of billionaire Huawei founder Ren Zheng would set off global "shock waves" and seriously affect ties with China, just before her detention in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition request, new court documents show. Released on Friday, the documents show the involvement of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in the December 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, which soured diplomatic ties between Ottawa and Beijing. Meng is chief financial officer of China tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the company at the center of next generation 5G wireless technology and a long-running dispute the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
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| Here’s How John Bolton’s Lawyer Just Threw Him Under the Bus Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:02 AM PDT  John Bolton, Donald Trump's former national security adviser, wanted to write a book. He knew that the White House would do everything it could to stop him. He hired a flashy white-shoe law firm to handle the prepublication review process required by the nondisclosure agreement he signed when he got his security clearance. As expected, the White House weaponized the prepublication review process against him to keep him from publishing. If he published without approval, it said, he could face severe legal consequences.Then his lawyer, Chuck Cooper, wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week intended to put public pressure on the White House. In it, Cooper volunteered that Bolton had violated both his NDA and perhaps a few criminal laws, including the Espionage Act. Now, even if Bolton's book is never released, he is facing stiff penalties. As unforced legal errors go, that's a doozy.Here are the two sentences that could cost Bolton a big stack of money, or worse: "He instructed me, as his lawyer, to submit the manuscript to Ellen Knight, the NSC's senior director for prepublication review of materials written by NSC personnel. I sent Ms. Knight the manuscript on Dec. 30, days after the House had impeached the president and amid speculation that the Senate would subpoena Mr. Bolton to testify."Did Trump and Bolton Break Over Iran—or the Leaks?See, here's the thing about prepublication review: "Publication" means giving potentially classified information to anyone the government has not approved to receive it. Bolton and his lawyer committed one of the classic blunders that a national-security lawyer would have seen coming a mile away. Simply put, someone who has signed an NDA and received a clearance has to put anything they want to write through prepublication review before they can give it to anyone. Even their lawyer. Lawyers who represent intelligence personnel drill this into clients at the very beginning. I regularly have my clients—especially the whistleblowers—write everything they want to tell me and send it to the prepublication review office before they tell me a single word of it. It's a major hassle, and sometimes it alerts the agency that a lawyer is involved, but it keeps them from losing their clearances or their freedom. Some agencies—like the Central Intelligence Agency—will outright refuse to even discuss a prepublication review matter with anyone but the author, let alone allow the lawyer to submit the document.The reason for this is simple. To an intelligence professional, there is little distinction between giving classified information to the general public and giving it to your priest. Once classified information is known by someone the government cannot control, it is in the wild and the assumption must be that it will be further disseminated. A security breach is a security breach. A television audience and a private lawyer are equally unauthorized to receive the information. It is why former CIA Director David Petraeus pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information simply because he gave it to his biographer. "But what if Bolton's lawyer has a clearance?" This was one of the key questions raised when it was revealed that former FBI Director James Comey had given a copy of a memo to a lawyer who apparently held a clearance at the time. The simple answer is, it doesn't matter. In order to be approved to see any specific piece of classified information, a person must both have the appropriate level of security clearance and the "need to know" that particular piece of information. "Need to know" is roughly described as the need to know that information to perform the duties for which you were given the clearance. It is why people on the CIA Indonesia Desk cannot go read classified briefings on Poland; they do not have the requisite "need to know." So even if Bolton's lawyer had a clearance to handle classified information in some other context (as some private national security lawyers do), he would only be able to handle Bolton's manuscript if he had been specifically approved for that specific information. I chose the word "handle" here instead of "read" because it is currently unclear if Bolton's lawyer actually read the manuscript or simply forwarded it along to the NSC unopened, but this is a distinction without a difference. The mere act of giving the manuscript to his lawyer was sufficient to violate Bolton's NDA, regardless of whether or not his lawyer read it. Moreover, as far as criminal prohibitions go, the law does not always even require that the information be given to anyone, let alone given to anyone who read it. As one CIA contractor learned, merely taking classified information home and not sharing it is still a violation of the law. If you can be prosecuted for keeping a classified document in your garage, you can be prosecuted for giving it to your lawyer.Which brings us to the key argument: Bolton says the manuscript contained no classified information, while the White House says it did. This might be enough to allow Bolton to defeat an Espionage Act charge, but that's not a sure thing. Some aspects of the Espionage Act do not require active knowledge that information is classified, but instead include a lesser standard which is best summed up as "they should have known better." And it is extremely difficult to defeat an Espionage Act charge based on the argument that "the information should not have been classified." It has been done, but it is exceedingly rare and requires almost a perfect storm of mistakes on the government's part. The reason is that courts almost religiously defer to the executive branch on classification matters, so a judge will almost always overrule a defendant who challenges the classification of information, primarily because the actual scope of what can be classified is much broader than most people realize. Additionally, it should not be overlooked that the Espionage Act does not actually mention "classified information," but only "national defense information," which does not always have to be classified. Even if the government elects not to pursue criminal charges against Bolton, though, he is not out of the woods yet. In fact, the violation of his NDA is not even a question of criminal law; it is a question of contract law. The most that the government can do in civil court to someone who violates an NDA is sue him for breach of contract, a power that it employs freely. After winning such a lawsuit, the government is entitled to all of the author's proceeds from the publication, past and future. The author is no worse off than he was before the publication, but he is no better off either, and all his work will net him zero return.Most importantly, even if Bolton was correct and his manuscript contained no classified information, that was simply not his call to make. Put simply, someone who writes a piece of information that he does not believe to be classified may not always be in a position to know for a fact whether or not it is classified. He may have a good faith belief that he is simply relating an unclassified fact, but he may not realize that by writing it he is inadvertently revealing classified information about another government project he knows nothing about. This is obviously not always—or even often—the case, but there is no practical way for any particular author to know whether it is or is not the case in his particular situation. Complicating the matter further is the fact that the agency may decide to retroactively classify information the author believed to be unclassified, as occurred with Comey and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Evidence that the government retroactively classified previously unclassified information might be enough to defeat a criminal charge, but it would not help an author in civil litigation.Because of this, the Supreme Court has held that the government can impose an NDA which requires everyone with a security clearance to first obtain the agency's permission through prepublication review before publishing anything related to his work. As a result, someone can be successfully sued by the government for publishing completely unclassified information, simply because they did not use the process first to ensure that it was unclassified. There have been attempts to overturn this jurisprudence in light of the arbitrary and inconsistent manner in which the government actually conducts prepublication review, but so far it remains the law of the land. The system may be broken, but it remains the system. The only current way around this is to sue the government first under the First Amendment, which Bolton has so far chosen not to do.It remains an open question whether Bolton could be forced to turn over proceeds of the book if he doesn't actually publish it until the prepublication review is complete, amd if his only violation of his NDA was giving the manuscript to his lawyer (and probably his publisher), but given that his lawyer has stated that he will go through with the publication regardless, this question will probably not be answered, at least not in this case.However, Bolton should not be complacent in this matter. He may have an "in for a penny, in for a pound" mindset, especially if he reads this op-ed, but he should be fully aware of the legal jeopardy that his lawyer's op-ed has placed him in. His lawyer should also be concerned, since the last time a lawyer advised his client not to worry about prepublication review, his client sued him for malpractice after losing all the proceeds of his hard work.For Bolton's sake, I hope the op-ed was worth it.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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| Even if Derek Chauvin is found guilty of murdering George Floyd, he's still eligible to receive a $1.5 million pension Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:21 AM PDT  Laws in 22 states prevent police officers from receiving pensions if they commit any felony related to their work. Minnesota has no such law.
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| The Biggest Threat To Russia's Borei-Class Submarine Comes From Within The Russian Navy Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:00 PM PDT  On the surface, Borei vessels appear remarkably cost-effective.
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| US to withdraw troops from Iraq over coming months despite Islamic State surge Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:52 AM PDT  The US said it will withdraw troops from Iraq in the coming months, six months after the assassination of an Iranian general in Baghdad threatened to see them expelled from the country. The announcement comes amid a spike of Islamic State activity in the country, and as Baghdad and Washington began long-anticipated talks over the future of the presence of the US in the country. A joint statement read: "In light of significant progress towards eliminating the Isis threat, over the coming months the U.S. would continue reducing forces from Iraq." Relations between the two plummeted to an all-time low this year after the US killed Iranian spy chief Qassim Soleimani in an airstrike near Baghdad airport in January. Iranian-backed militias have since launched repeated rocket attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad, and on military bases housing US troops. At the time, Iraqi officials were publicly furious, with President Barham Salih, describing the airstrike as a breach of sovereignty. The Iraqi parliament passed a non-binding resolution to expel American troops immediately. Yet, US officials insisted both publicly and privately that they would leave on their timetable, and only when Iraq was capable of handling its own security affairs. US-led efforts against Isil n Syria are heavily reliant on Washington's presence in Iraq. The October 2019 raid that killed Isil-chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi was conducted by forces flown in from bases in Iraq. The withdrawal announcement comes as attacks by Isil surge in the country. A recent study by the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point notes that Isil claimed 566 attacks in Iraq in the first quarter of 2020 - a notable increase on previous months. The study described Isil as showing "very significant resilience", adding that "the movement has undertaken an agile, fluid, and pragmatic shift back to insurgency in every area of Iraq where the group has lost physical control of populations and resources." At 5,200, the current contingent of US troops in Iraq is already considerably reduced compared to the peak in 2007, when numbers topped 160,000 under President George W. Bush. The Trump administration has attempted to balance its desire to bring as many troops as possible home before the presidential election later this year, and a "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran – Iraq is seen as a key battleground in the rivalry. Though no exact figures were given, western officials believe the reduction will halve the number of US troops remaining in Iraq, with further reductions possible before the end of the year.
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| Does Fauci wear a mask when he goes running? Posted: 12 Jun 2020 01:41 PM PDT  Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a dedicated runner, answers a question at the center of his two passions: Does he wear a mask when going for a run?
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| Kim Jong Un's sister threatens S. Korea with military action Posted: 13 Jun 2020 12:05 AM PDT  The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened military action against South Korea as she bashed Seoul on Saturday over declining bilateral relations and its inability to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border. Describing South Korea as an "enemy," Kim Yo Jong repeated an earlier threat she had made by saying Seoul will soon witness the collapse of a "useless" inter-Korean liaison office in the border town of Kaesong. Kim, who is first vice department director of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, said she would leave it to North Korea's military leaders to carry out the next step of retaliation against the South.
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| A Black Man Was Found Hanging From a Tree—Residents Don’t Buy That It Was a Suicide Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:34 PM PDT  A 24-year-old black man was found hanging from a tree in Palmdale, California, this week, sparking a massive public outcry and demands for a more thorough investigation after officials almost immediately described it as a suicide. Robert Fuller was found by a passerby at about 3:39 a.m. Wednesday near Palmdale City Hall in Poncitlán Square, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Homicide investigators said they had found "no signs of a struggle" and suggested Fuller had died by suicide—an assessment echoed by city officials who attributed the death to emotional despair caused by the coronavirus pandemic. "Sadly, it is not the first such incident since the COVID-19 pandemic began," city officials said in a statement offering their "sincere condolences and sympathies" to Fuller's loved ones. "Many people are suffering extreme mental anguish and the City wants everyone to know that help is available," City Manager J.J. Murphy said in a statement on Fuller's death. But critics have questioned why authorities were so quick to deem Fuller's death a suicide, especially when an autopsy has not yet been completed. And at a Friday afternoon press conference, attendees literally shouted down city officials who reiterated their claim that Fuller was depressed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with many in the crowd noting that Fuller had marched in a Black Lives Matter protest shortly before he was found dead. That claim could not immediately be verified by The Daily Beast. "Remember what the first coroner said about George Floyd?" one woman shouted after officials noted the coroner's preliminary conclusion was suicide. In the case of Floyd—an unarmed black man who died at the hands of Minneapolis police officers last month—the initial report did not deem the case a homicide. Residents have asked Palmdale city officials to check surveillance footage from the area where Fuller was found dead, expressing incredulity at the idea he would have hanged himself right in front of City Hall and there would be no video evidence of what happened. Lt. Brandon Dean of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau, who is supervising the investigation into Fuller's death, told The Daily Beast investigators are "not officially saying that this is a suicide." But "early indications" point to that, he said, noting that there were no defensive wounds or signs of a physical assault. There was "nothing that would indicate he was put up there against his will," Dean said. "The rope wasn't thrown over but tied to the branch, which means somebody had to get up there and tie it."After the initial autopsy report listed suicide as the cause of death, he said, the coroner has since conducted a full autopsy and the cause of death determination won't be made until toxicology results are in. "If the toxicology results were to show a high level of a chemical that might have poisoned him or knocked him unconscious and allowed someone to drag him up there, it would give a new direction to the case," he said. While there are no cameras around City Hall, Dean said investigators have been reviewing footage from businesses near the area to see if they can find video of Fuller and determine whether he was with anyone else. A woman who identified herself as a friend of Fuller's phoned into a local radio show on Friday to dispute authorities' suggestion that he died by suicide. "If you knew this young man, you would never get the thought of him having some type of mental illness. … He was always smiling," the woman, identified only as Abby, said on Big Boy's Neighborhood. "They're trying to cover it up as a suicide and it's not a suicide," she said. A news report in the Antelope Valley Times also issued an editor's note on their original story about Fuller's death, noting that the paper had been "contacted by several readers not connected to this incident who strongly believe that the death was not a suicide and other suspicious factors are at play." Police have stressed that the investigation is still continuing and that any information released so far is preliminary. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has asked anyone with information to call (323) 890-5500.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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| Fresh China cluster raises fears for pandemic control Posted: 13 Jun 2020 10:27 AM PDT  Lockdowns were imposed in parts of Beijing on Saturday to try and prevent the spread of a new coronavirus cluster, highlighting the challenges that lie ahead even for places where outbreaks are under control. It has fuelled fears of a resurgence in local transmissions in China, where the outbreak curve has been months ahead of the rest of the world, and comes as many European nations move to further lift their own lockdowns. The pandemic is still surging elsewhere, particularly in Latin America, with Brazil claiming the unenviable position of having the second-highest virus death toll behind the United States.
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| Northrop F-89 Scorpion–The First Combat Aircraft Armed with Air-to-Air Nuclear Weapons Posted: 13 Jun 2020 09:30 AM PDT  What could go wrong? Well, everything.
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| Voter turnout soared in Georgia despite massive primary day problems Posted: 13 Jun 2020 09:58 AM PDT  Democrats cast close to a million votes in the Senate primary, more than triple the number in the 2016 primary.
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| Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan respond to criticism from more than 140 scientists and say they are 'deeply shaken and disgusted' by Trump's inflammatory statements on Facebook Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:12 PM PDT  Chan and Zuckerberg were responding to a letter by dozens of scientists from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative who called out Facebook's policies.
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| Iran asks French experts to read black boxes of downed jet: official Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:27 AM PDT  The Ukraine International Airlines flight was shot down on Jan. 8 by an Iranian ground-to-air missile, killing 176 people in what Tehran termed a "disastrous mistake" at a time of heightened tensions with the United States. The fate of the cockpit voice and data 'black-box' recorders has been the subject of an international standoff eclipsed by the coronavirus crisis, which Iran says has also contributed to delays in a probe by Iran's Air Accident Investigation Board. Progress was discussed at a council meeting of the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization on Wednesday.
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| Airman may face death penalty in California cop killing Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:46 PM PDT  The sheriff's deputy reached a house at the end of the narrow Northern California dirt road and decided getting help from more deputies would be a good idea. The van's driver, officials say, was U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, who lay in wait for more law enforcement to arrive before ambushing them from the steep hillside above in a barrage of gunfire and explosives. Carrillo, 32, was charged with 19 offenses, including murder and attempted murder of peace officers, and was calm and unflinching Friday during his first appearance in Santa Cruz Superior Court.
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| Brazilian Amazon deforestation hits new record in May Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:17 AM PDT  Deforestation continued to surge in the Brazilian Amazon last month, according to official figures released Friday, showing it was the worst May and worst first five months of the year on record. "We are facing a scenario of total catastrophe for the Amazon," Mariana Napolitano, scientific director at the World Wildlife Fund's Brazil office, said in a statement. A total of 829 square kilometers (320 square miles) in the Brazilian Amazon, 14 times the area of Manhattan, was lost to deforestation in May, according to satellite data from Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE).
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| Thousands gather for Black Lives Matter rallies in Australia Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:21 PM PDT  Protests went ahead in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in far-flung parts of Australia on Saturday against the advice of government and health authorities but on a significantly smaller scale than the previous weekend, when tens of thousands rallied in cities along the east coast. The biggest demonstration was in Perth, the Western Australia state capital, where the Australian Broadcasting Corp. estimated that 5,000 people gathered to honor George Floyd and remember indigenous Australian people who have died while in custody. Floyd, a black man, died in handcuffs on May 25 while a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck.
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| San Francisco's mayor wants to outlaw tear gas and stop police from responding to non-criminal calls Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:47 AM PDT  The announcement points to a changing understanding among public officials of American policing and its function.
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| Historical Fact: North Korea Once Captured an Entire U.S. Navy Ship Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:30 PM PDT  The USS Pueblo remains the only commissioned U.S. ship currently being held captive.
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| Fauci says US might not see 'second wave' of Covid-19 cases Posted: 13 Jun 2020 07:39 AM PDT  US public health expert said another wave of infections 'not inevitable ... if you approach it the proper way'Leading US public health expert and White House coronavirus taskforce member Dr Anthony Fauci has said the US may not see a "second wave" of cases of Covid-19.According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, the US has recorded more than 2m cases of Covid-19 and nearly 115,000 deaths.Many experts fear attempts to reopen shuttered state economies and mass protests over police brutality and structural racism could contribute to a second surge in cases.But Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has been sidelined by the White House since April, after breaking with Donald Trump's position on reopening the economy, told CNN on Friday increases in cases in several states were not necessarily indicative of a "second spike" of infections."When you start to see increases in hospitalisation, that's a surefire situation that you've got to pay close attention to," Fauci said."It is not inevitable that you will have a so-called 'second wave' in the fall, or even a massive increase if you approach it in the proper way," he added, advising people to maintain social distancing and to continue to wear masks in public.According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), close to 80% of Americans self-isolated in the last month and 74% wore face coverings in public either always or often. Residents of New York and Los Angeles did so about 90% of the time.In the past week, 19 states including Texas, South Carolina, Utah, Arizona, North Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, Oregon, California, Nevada and Florida have reported seven-day rolling average highs for new Covid-19 infections.In Arkansas on Friday, for example, Governor Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, announced a record number of cases in the previous 24 hours. In Oregon, Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, placed a seven-day hold on lifting on loosening social restrictions.In Maryland, Baltimore announced that it would not be moving into phase two of planned reopening.In a statement, the mayor, Bernard Young, said: "Let me be crystal clear with everyone: I, more than almost anyone, would love to see that Baltimore city is open and safe, but that simply is not what the data is telling us at this time."The CDC said it could it not confirm reports of striking increases in coronavirus hospitalisations but would monitor the numbers "very closely".Such developments sent stock markets into a tailspin on Thursday, before a slight recovery on Friday.Some experts, meanwhile, have become more optimistic that a vaccine for Covid-19 can be developed swiftly."I think the science is on our side," the former CDC director Julie Gerberding told CNN.But she cautioned: "That doesn't say anything about the speed, the safety and the durability and all of the other criteria that have to come into play before we have something that we can count on to give us that population immunity."In New York City, mass protests have sparked fears of a resurgence of the virus in the American pandemic center. But new infections are now at the lowest level in the entire US."We were the No 1 state in terms of infection … and now we are the last state in terms of rate of transmission," New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, said on Friday. "That is because New Yorkers stepped up. They were smart. They were disciplined. They did what they had to do, and we need to stay there."
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| Coronavirus: How pandemic turned political in Brazil Posted: 13 Jun 2020 02:50 AM PDT  Brazil now has the world's second-highest coronavirus death toll but the peak may still be weeks away.
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| Trump news – live: Administration rolls back LGBT+ health protections as president demands end to Seattle 'autonomous zone' Posted: 12 Jun 2020 01:30 PM PDT  Donald Trump has blamed the scenes of police brutality recorded at George Floyd protests across the US on "bad apples", claiming to have "dominated the streets with compassion" to maintain law and order and pledging an executive order to establish a use-of-force standard, stopping short of broader reforms.Speaking at a roundtable event in Dallas, Texas, the president sought to allay ongoing frustrations by commenting: "We have to work together to confront bigotry and prejudice wherever they appear, but we will make no progress and heal no wounds by falsely labelling tens of millions of decent Americans as racist or bigots."
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| Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Calls Ousted State Department Watchdog 'Bad Actor' Posted: 12 Jun 2020 01:13 AM PDT  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounces ousted State Department's inspector general Steve Linick as "a bad actor."
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| Letters to the Editor: Try this: Don't call the police. Use respect to de-escalate dangerous situations Posted: 13 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Defund the police? A reader who runs a nonprofit serving ex-prisoners says she has had to contact police only once in 30 years.
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| China says opposes U.S. restrictions on Chinese students Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:35 AM PDT |
| William Sessions, FBI head fired by President Clinton, dies Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:54 PM PDT  William S. Sessions, a former federal judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan to head the FBI and fired years later by President Bill Clinton, died Friday at his San Antonio home. Sessions died of natural causes not related to the novel coronavirus, said his daughter, Sara Sessions Naughton. Sessions was a career Justice Department attorney and federal judge until Reagan appointed him FBI director in 1987.
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| Chicago's police union president says officers who kneel with Black Lives Matter protesters could be kicked out of the organization Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:12 AM PDT  John Catanzara, the new president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police said it's not the "time or place" to be kneeling with protesters.
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| Taiwan builds 'nerd immunity' to resist Chinese disinformation campaigns Posted: 12 Jun 2020 09:07 PM PDT  In the battle to counter the modern-day scourge of weaponised online disinformation, Taiwan has locked on to a winning strategy – "nerd immunity". Building public awareness and "inoculating" the 23-million-strong population to fake news from China has been one of the chief goals of Audrey Tang, Taiwan's ground-breaking digital minister. Sitting just 80 miles from China, Taiwan has been on the frontlines not only of the coronavirus pandemic but an "infodemic" of online disinformation. But the bombardment of Chinese state-sponsored influence has also made it a world leader in identifying and tackling disinformation. "When the majority of the population have this exposure and this inoculation, this builds nerd immunity," Ms Tang, one of the world's top open source software developers, told the Sunday Telegraph in an interview last week. "It's the Taiwan model. Just like we fight the coronavirus with no lockdown, we fight the infodemic with no takedown," said the former hacker who, in 2016, made history as Taiwan's youngest ever, and first transgender, minister at 35.
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