| Trump shares video of man chanting, 'White power' in protest clash Posted: 28 Jun 2020 07:19 AM PDT  President Trump promoted a video Sunday that featured clashing protesters, one of whom chants, "White power." The video was apparently shot in the Villages, Fla.
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| Russia denies being behind a mysterious radiation leak making its way across Scandinavia Posted: 29 Jun 2020 02:37 AM PDT  Finland, Sweden, and Norway reported increased levels of three radioactive isotropes in June. Russia said its nuclear plants are working as normal.
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| One Killed in Shooting Near Seattle ‘Autonomous Zone’ Posted: 29 Jun 2020 06:54 AM PDT  One victim was killed and another injured in a Monday morning shooting near the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest in Seattle.The shooting occurred at the corner of 12 Ave. and Pike Street, which sits at the southeast corner of the CHOP. A spokeswoman for Harborview Medical Center' told Fox News that the injured victim was in critical condition in the hospital's intensive care unit.Protestors set up camp in Cal Anderson Park, two blocks from the place of the shooting, for three weeks after police abandoned Seattle's sixth precinct building. Several shootings have occurred in or near the six-block area of the CHOP, leading many protesters to leave.However, some have refused to evacuate, with organizers attempting to move the locus of the camp from the park to the police precinct. The violence, along with a large increase in homeless people and complaints from local businesses, "makes us have to worry about extra stuff going on down there that doesn't necessarily pertain to why CHOP's here," a CHOP security volunteer told the Seattle Times.Seattle police chief Carmen Best told CNN that officers were working to reopen the area for city officers."This is not a line in the sand, but it's absolutely necessary for public safety that we are able to respond from that area," Best said. "So we want to do as much as we can to work with the folks who are left, but we recognize that at some point there is going to be a reckoning for how we can get this resolved."
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| 76 coronavirus cases have been linked to one Michigan bar Posted: 27 Jun 2020 11:15 AM PDT  Health officials urged anyone who visited the establishment between June 12 and June 20 to self-quarantine for 14 days.
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| Attorney for family of missing soldier calls on Congress to launch investigation against Fort Hood, launches "I am Vanessa" campaign Posted: 27 Jun 2020 03:25 PM PDT  As the search for 20-year-old Private First Class Vanessa Guillen continues, the Guillen family attorney, Natalie Khawam has requested a congressional investigation into Fort Hood and Vanessa's disappearance. Vanessa was last seen on April 22, 2020, in a parking lot at Fort Hood, in Texas, where she's stationed. Her car keys, barracks room key, identification card and wallet were later found in the armory room where she was working earlier in the day. Her phone is still missing. The U.S. Army
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| Supreme Court clears way for federal executions to resume Posted: 29 Jun 2020 10:07 AM PDT  Attorney General William Barr announced last year the federal government would conduct its first executions since 2003 using the drug pentobarbital
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| Syed Ali Geelani: Kashmir leader quits Hurriyat Conference Posted: 29 Jun 2020 04:47 AM PDT  Syed Ali Geelani has been heading political opposition to Indian rule in Kashmir for decades.
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| HOUSTON WEATHER: Mostly dry week with Saharan dust moving back in Posted: 29 Jun 2020 01:57 AM PDT  A few showers will be possible Monday but most of us will stay dry. Saharan dust returns Tuesday.
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| A Closer Look at William Wegman’s Picture-Perfect Postcard Art Posted: 29 Jun 2020 08:35 AM PDT |
| Shootings across Chicago kill 3 kids; activists seek change Posted: 28 Jun 2020 08:05 AM PDT |
| China forcibly sterilises Uighurs to control population: report Posted: 29 Jun 2020 08:58 AM PDT  Chinese authorities are carrying out forced sterilisations of women in an apparent campaign to curb the growth of ethnic minority populations in the western Xinjiang region, according to research published Monday. The report, based on a combination of official regional data, policy documents and interviews with ethnic minority women, has prompted an international group of lawmakers to call for a United Nations investigation into China's policies in the region. The move is likely to enrage Beijing, which has denied trampling on the rights of ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and which on Monday called the allegations "baseless".
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| Chinese coronavirus vaccine approved for use in country's military after clinical trials Posted: 29 Jun 2020 07:03 AM PDT  China's military has approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by its own research staff and a Chinese biotech firm, it was announced on Monday. The vaccine was given the green light for use by troops after trials proved it was both safe and effective, said CanSino Biologics, the biotech firm involved. However, its use for the time being will be restricted to military personnel, who offer a tighter medical control group than the general public. The vaccine candidate, named Ad5-nCoV, was developed jointly by CanSino and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology in the Academy of Military Medical Sciences. It has been in development since March. CanSino said the results showed the vaccine candidate has potential to prevent diseases caused by the coronavirus, which has killed half a million people globally. The company added that it was not yet possible to say if it could be a commercial success, which would depend on being able to produce the vaccine cheaply as well as safely.
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| Supreme Court strikes down consumer agency's autonomy in win for Trump administration Posted: 29 Jun 2020 10:14 AM PDT  The case was a major test of the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.
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| Exclusive: NRA has shed 200 staffers this year as group faces financial crisis Posted: 29 Jun 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Gun rights organization may struggle to support Trump in 2020 election amid layoffs and furloughsAfter spending over $30m to help elect Donald Trump in 2016, the National Rifle Association faces a deepening financial crisis with over 200 staff layoffs and furloughs in 2020, according to three NRA sources, gun analysts and documents.The situation is likely to hinder efforts by the gun rights group to help Trump and other Republicans win in November's election.The 200-plus layoffs and furloughs, which have not previously been reported and were mainly at NRA headquarters in Virginia, were spurred by declines in revenues and fundraising, heavy legal spending, political infighting, and charges of insider self-dealing under scrutiny by attorneys general in New York and Washington DC, the sources say."The widespread Covid layoffs and furloughs have further harmed both the NRA's legal capacity and political influence beyond what was already a troubling deterioration," said one NRA official who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters. The official added the outlook this year for NRA political spending was "deeply concerning."NRA staff learned about the furloughs, plus 20% staff pay cuts, four-day work weeks and other belt tightening, in an April email from Wayne LaPierre, the longtime top executive of the NRA, which claims it has 5 million members.LaPierre's email to the "NRA family" said "we have lost significant revenue" and linked the austerity moves to the pandemic's stay-at-home orders. The email said the NRA hoped to bring back those furloughed when its finances improved.The NRA declined to comment on the extent of the layoffs and furloughs, which sources said were continuing.The NRA's financial problems were palpable long before the pandemic but have increased due to a few factors, including the cancellation of a number of NRA fundraising dinners following the onset of Covid-19.The NRA typically pulls in tens of millions of dollars yearly from Friends of NRA dinners in many states, but most were canceled after January and February, said the sources.The NRA's woes, say gun analysts, are expected to sharply reduce spending this year compared with the $30m the group spent on ads to help Trump win in 2016. They are also likely to mean cuts to its once formidable get out the vote operations in key states that historically provide big boosts to GOP candidates. Overall in 2016, the NRA spent close to $70m on ads and voter mobilization drives, say NRA sources.In 2018, the NRA's financial problems caused it to spend a relatively lackluster $9.4m on the midterm elections, and gun control groups outspent the NRA for the first time, which analysts say helped the Democrats win the House majority."The NRA is entering the summer and fall campaign with a series of crippling financial, legal, and political problems," said Robert Spitzer, a political science professor at Cortland State University in New York.Spitzer added: "As its anemic political spending in the 2018 midterm election showed, they will not be able to match anything like the roughly $70m they spent in 2016, as they continue to be plagued by a major revenue shortfall, a fact exacerbated by the impact of the coronavirus shutdown."The drop in revenues accelerated in 2019 when several large NRA donors began a drive to oust LaPierre over allegations of mismanagement and self-dealing, and to promote reforms. The website helpsavethenra.com, which is headlined "Retire LaPierre", boasted in December that $165m in donations and planned gifts had been withheld.The donor revolt has been spurred in part by several reports of lavish personal spending by LaPierre. The Wall Street Journal revealed last year that according to the NRA's former ad firm Ackerman McQueen, which has been in legal battles with the NRA and LaPierre, he took about $240,000 worth of trips to Italy, Hungary, the Bahamas and other locales that were charged to the ad firm. The Journal reported that the ad firm had paid for about $200,000 in expensive suits for LaPierre, including some from a Beverly Hills boutique.LaPierre's yearly salary in 2018 was close to $2m.Two Democratic attorneys general in New York and DC have reportedly been investigating whether the NRA abused its non-profit tax-exempt status in different ways such as improperly transferring funds from an NRA Foundation to the NRA.Further, the AGs are said to be examining the allegations of self-dealing by NRA leaders, including financial transactions involving LaPierre, the NRA and the former ad firm.If the AGs bring charges, the NRA could lose its coveted non-profit status in New York, where it has long been chartered.The NRA's top outside lawyer has said it is complying with the investigations but has attacked the NY AG's "zeal" and "the investigation's partisan purposes".During the pandemic, the NRA and pro-gun allies have waged successful legal battles in a number of states to make gun shops and shooting ranges "essential" businesses and circumvent stay-at-home measures.But in mid-June, second-amendment advocates and the NRA suffered a stinging legal setback when the supreme court declined 10 petitions to review lower court rulings involving gun laws in several states, including Illinois and Massachusetts, which have banned assault weapons.The NRA attacked the high court's "inaction" in a statement, blasting it for allowing "so-called gun safety politicians to trample on the freedom and security of law-abiding citizens".Due to the pandemic, the NRA earlier this year canceled its annual meeting in Nashville, which Trump has faithfully attended since taking office to solidify his NRA ties. It is now slated to be held on 5 September in Springfield, Missouri.At last year's meeting was concluding, Trump in a tweet urged his NRA allies to "stop the internal infighting" amid the charges of self-dealing by its leaders and to "get back to GREATNESS. FAST." For now, Trump's aspirations for a speedy NRA recovery seem largely unfulfilled.
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| Four men were charged for trying to tear down a statue of President Andrew Jackson near the White House Posted: 28 Jun 2020 02:27 PM PDT  Jackson owned at least 95 slaves at his Tennessee plantation and brought some of them with him to the White House.
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| Systemic changes must go beyond just policing. Human and social services need reform, too. Posted: 29 Jun 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Institutional racism is not found just in the police — it's woven into schools, mental health clinics and housing providers.
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| China to impose visa restrictions on U.S. individuals over Hong Kong Posted: 29 Jun 2020 12:37 AM PDT  Beijing said on Monday it will impose visa restrictions on U.S. individuals with "egregious conduct" on Hong Kong-related issues, mirroring U.S. sanctions against unnamed Chinese officials deemed responsible for curbing freedoms in the city. The announcement comes as the top decision-making body of China's parliament deliberates a draft national security law for Hong Kong that pro-democracy activists in the city fear will be used to eliminate dissent and tighten Beijing's control. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who announced the new sanctions during a press briefing in response to a question about Washington's new visa restrictions, did not specify which U.S. individuals have been targeted.
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| Russia's opposition flounders as Putin changes constitution Posted: 28 Jun 2020 09:04 PM PDT  Russia's opposition is denouncing this week's vote on President Vladimir Putin's constitutional reforms as a joke, pointing out that copies of the amended basic law are already on sale in Moscow bookshops. From liberal reformers to Communists, Kremlin critics say the vote -- which started last week and ends on Wednesday -- is a thinly veiled attempt to keep Putin, 67, in power for life. Russia's top opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who last summer rallied thousands against suspected voter fraud in Moscow, has also shown little interest in combating the reforms.
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| See This Odd Plane? Russia Tried to Build a Stealth 'F-35'. They Failed Posted: 28 Jun 2020 05:30 AM PDT  The story of the ill-fated MiG 1.44.
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| After Asking Americans to Sacrifice in Shutdown, Leaders Failed to Control Virus Posted: 28 Jun 2020 08:15 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- More than four months into fighting the coronavirus in the United States, the shared sacrifice of millions of Americans suspending their lives -- with jobs lost, businesses shuttered, daily routines upended -- has not been enough to beat back a virus whose staying power around the world is only still being grasped.The number of new U.S. cases this last week surged dangerously high, to levels not ever seen in the course of the pandemic, especially in states that had rushed to reopen their economies. The result has been a realization for many Americans that however much they have yearned for a return to normalcy, their leaders have failed to control the coronavirus pandemic. And there is little clarity on what comes next."There has to be a clear coherent sustained communication, and that has absolutely not happened," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. "We've had just the opposite and now it's hard to unring a whole series of bells."There was "real hubris" on the part of public health officials at the very start, Schaffner said, that the United States could lock down and contain the virus as China had. That futile hope helped create an unrealistic expectation that the shutdown, while intense, would not be for long, and that when it was lifted life would return to normal.That expectation was reinforced by President Donald Trump, who has downplayed the severity of the crisis, refused to wear a mask and began calling for states to open even as the virus was surging. A lack of federal leadership also meant that states lacked a unified approach.With no clear message from the top, states went their own ways. A number of them failed to use the shutdown to fully prepare to reopen in a careful manner. As Americans bought precious time trying to keep the virus at bay, experts advised that states urgently needed to establish a robust system for tracking and containing any new cases -- through testing, monitoring and contact tracing. Without this, the pandemic would simply come roaring back.Testing and contact tracing efforts were ramped up, but not enough in some places. Even states that did embark on ambitious plans to do contact tracing struggled. Health officials in Massachusetts, which has one of the country's most established tracing programs, said in May that only about 60% of infected patients were picking up the phone.Just as the country needed to stay shut down longer, many states -- mostly with Republican governors -- took their foot off the brake, and Trump cheered them on.In early May, when more than half of U.S. states had begun reopening parts of their economies, most failed to meet the nonbinding criteria recommended by the Trump administration itself to resume business and social activities.The White House's nonbinding guidelines suggested that states should have a "downward trajectory" of either documented coronavirus cases or of the percentage of positive tests.Yet most states that were reopening failed to adhere to even these ill-defined recommendations. They had case counts that were trending upward, positive test results that were rising, or both, raising concerns among public health experts.The virus has proved formidable around the world, resisting global efforts to find a treatment, refusing to fade in summer weather and unrelenting in exploiting weaknesses in government responses, even in countries whose responses to the virus have been considered a success -- and where the threat seemed tamed.Germany, whose handling of the virus was considered a success, had to reimpose lockdowns on two counties where there was a spike of cases in slaughterhouses and low-income housing blocks. Singapore experienced a second wave of infections in April.And in China, which adopted some of the world's strictest measures to contain the virus, Beijing suffered this month a new surge of cases, causing flights to be canceled and schools to be closed.Much of the challenge stems from major gaps in knowledge about how the virus works. In addition to chasing a vaccine, scientists around the world are still trying to unravel important mysteries, including how long immunity lasts after infection and why some people get so much sicker than others.For Americans, a troubling new reality set in this week: Even as some parts of the country, like New York, were finally getting the virus under control, it was surging anew in others, like a terrifying sequel, threatening lives and livelihoods.New virus cases were on the rise in 29 states Friday as the outlook worsened across much of the nation's South and West.On Saturday, Florida reported more than 9,500 new coronavirus cases, beating its record for the second consecutive day. At least 980 new cases were added in Nevada, more than double the state's previous daily high. And in South Carolina, officials announced more than 1,600 new cases, nearly 300 more than the previous record, set a day before.In Florida and Texas, governors closed bars Friday, as they scrambled to control what appeared to be a brewing public health catastrophe. All this is leaving people with a strange sense of deja vu and a bitterness at public officials for what felt like a fumbling of people's sacrifices."Are we doing a full circle? Yes," said Judy Ray, 57, a cosmetologist and hairdresser in Florida who was laid off from her job at a barbershop at Walt Disney World Resort in March."Everyone is passing the buck," she said of political leaders in Florida. "You don't see the chain of command actually working."Ray, a Disney employee for 13 years, said she had not received any unemployment benefits -- federal or state, in the 10 weeks she has been off. She has called the unemployment office hundreds of times since March, including this week, when she said she broke down into tears of frustration after being told her case was still pending. She has sliced $200 out of her monthly budget and has been paying her mortgage from her savings."I don't think they care about what we've had to go through," Ray said of state authorities. "It means that we are the ones that hurt. You know?"Many Americans started in the pandemic with a strong feeling of solidarity, not unlike the days after 9/11. They closed their businesses, stayed inside, made masks and wiped down their groceries. In a country often riven by politics, polls showed broad agreement that shutting down was the right thing to do.But months of mixed messages have left many exhausted and wondering how much of what they did was worth it.Tony Jacobs, owner and proprietor of Sideshow Books, a used book store in Los Angeles, said in the early weeks of the lockdown he had taken to delivering books by bike around the neighborhood in a mask and gloves."I thought it would be an effective way to stop the virus -- if we just locked down for two or three weeks, we could knock it out of LA," he said. "I felt that was the civic duty, and that everybody was going to be compensated for doing the civic duty."The plight of California has served as a warning that even states that were more aggressive in their strategies have not been entirely successful.California, which had the first stay-at-home order in the United States this spring, allowed businesses to reopen weeks ago as the state felt it had the virus under control. That seems to be changing: California reported its highest single-day total this week and announced more than 5,600 new cases Friday.The rise comes despite the fact that the state has hired and trained thousands of contact tracers. It has also dramatically ramped up testing. And the millions of face masks that were promised early on have begun to finally materialize.Jacobs felt the lockdown had been squandered and his business hung out to dry. As for whether Jacobs' sacrifices were worth it, he said, "Oh God, no."In recent weeks, some conservatives said they had an additional concern: After weeks of being told that going to church, attending funerals, and participating in protests was a willful, careless spurning of science, political leaders and some public health officials condoned -- and even joined -- the crowds protesting the killing of George Floyd."It's just a real social whiplash," said Philip Campbell, vice president of a pest control company in Central Michigan, who took part in the first protests against the lockdown in Lansing in April from the cab of his truck. "Two weeks ago you can't go out because you are going to kill grandma. Now it's 'you have an obligation to go out.' It leaves me feeling that the science and the public health authorities have been politicized."Americans' trust in the federal government has been falling for decades, but the recent months of muddied messaging have left many even more skeptical of public officials."I'm not angry, I'm disappointed, disappointed in the government, very much so," said Gail Creary, who owns Humble Care, an assisted living facility in south Miami-Dade County, Florida. She and her sister take care of six older adults in a three-bedroom house in the suburbs. "I think they should really have taken better control of this."She laments that there isn't more widespread testing and contact tracing. She wonders why other countries have done a better job than the United States has. Her home country of Jamaica did better, she said."We have a governor who can't even say, 'Hey we're making wearing a mask mandatory,' " she said."What did America do with that time?"Schaffner offered a bleak prognosis for the country's next chapter with the virus. He said he did not expect the country to return to a full lockdown, so in order to contain the infection people would have to begin to change behaviors in ways that were uncomfortable, unfamiliar -- wearing masks, not gathering in large groups indoors, staying 6 feet apart."The only alternative until we have a vaccine is all of these behavioral interventions that we know work," he said. But, he added, "The governors are all on different pages. It is no wonder that the average person is confused."Silvana Salcido Esparza, 59, chef and owner of Barrio Cafe in Phoenix, said a group of restaurant owners asked the governor to keep the state closed for longer, but it opened anyway -- as did most restaurants. Now when she drives by, she sees "they are packed, there's no social distancing inside."She said she spent her retirement money trying to keep her business afloat, but in April, had to close her newest restaurant, Barrio Cafe Gran Reserva."I had to sacrifice it," she said, noting ruefully that it had been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. "I'm almost 60. I was going to retire in two years. That's not going to happen now."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Biden campaign says 36% of senior staff are people of color Posted: 27 Jun 2020 05:06 PM PDT  Joe Biden's campaign says a little more than a third of its senior staff are people of color, sharing staff diversity data after facing pressure to answer questions on the issue. The campaign said that 36% of its senior staff are people of color, but did not disclose how much of its overall campaign staff are people of color. The Biden campaign released the data after the presumptive Democratic nominee was pressed at a forum on Asian American and Pacific Islander issues.
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| Wildfire Spreading Rapidly on Traverse Mountain 'Started by Fireworks' Posted: 28 Jun 2020 02:48 AM PDT 
A large brush fire, estimated to have reached 150 to 200 acres, was “rapidly spreading” on Traverse Mountains near Lehi, Utah, on June 27, according to ABC4. Utah Fire Info reported that the fire was “started by fireworks” and said “strong, gusty winds” were responsible for the rapid spread of the fire across the mountain side. Lehi Community Emergency Response Team issued an evacuation order in a quarter mile radius in the city. Video shows the fire burning on the mountain side from a residential area in the hills of the city of Lehi. Credit: Jeremy Roberts via Storyful
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| Egyptian belly dancer sentenced to prison for 'sexually suggestive' posts amid social media crackdown Posted: 28 Jun 2020 04:17 AM PDT  A high-profile Egyptian belly dancer has been sentenced to three years in prison and received a £15,000 fine for sharing photos and videos of herself on social media that were deemed to incite "debauchery" and "immorality" in a country with conservative social norms. Cairo's Misdemeanours Economic Court said on Saturday that Sama El-Masry had violated family principles and values with posts that the public prosecution described as sexually suggestive, and that she had managed the social media accounts with the aim of committing "immorality". Ms El-Masry, who has over three million Instagram followers, denied the accusations, saying the content was stolen and shared from her phone without consent. She was arrested in April as part of an investigation into "suggestive" social media posts during a wave of arrests of female Instagram and TikTok stars on charges of promoting debauchery and prostitution on social media. "There is a huge difference between freedom and debauchery," said John Talaat, a member of parliament who asked for legal action against Ms El-Masry and others. He told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that Ms El-Masry and the other social media influencers were destroying family values and traditions, activities that were banned by the law and the constitution. Mr Talaat said the other influencers were expected to face the same prison terms as Ms El-Masry as they had committed the same crime. The court also ordered the 42-year-old dancer to be put under police surveillance for three years, according to news site Egypt Today. Ms El-Masry said she would appeal the sentence. Since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came into power in 2014, hundreds of journalists, activists, lawyers and intellectuals have been arrested in the name of state security. Young TikTok stars have become the latest target of Egyptian state authorities. In May, a 17-year-old girl posted a TikTok video of herself crying, saying she had been gang-raped by a group of young men. The authorities swiftly arrested her and charged her with "promoting debauchery". Two years ago, Egypt brought in a cybercrime law giving the government power to censor the internet and conduct surveillance of communications.
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| Air Force Takes Control of Joint DC Base Posted: 28 Jun 2020 06:58 AM PDT  After a decade of overseeing Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in the National Capital Region, the U.S. Navy is handing over primary authority for the base to the Air Force.
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| More Chinese regions brace for floods as storms shift east Posted: 29 Jun 2020 01:31 AM PDT  Torrential rain is set to hit China's eastern coastal regions this week after overwhelming large parts of the southwest, inundating villages and tourist spots and displacing more than 700,000 people, state weather forecasters said on Monday. Nearly 14 million people in 26 different provinces had been affected by storms and floods by Friday, with 744,000 evacuated, the China Daily reported, citing the Ministry for Emergency Management. Much of the damage has hit southwestern regions like Guangxi and Sichuan, and the municipality of Chongqing on the upper reaches of the Yangtze river last week experienced its worst floods since 1940.
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| Canadian detainee's wife 'disappointed' Trudeau rules out swap with China Posted: 28 Jun 2020 05:04 PM PDT  The wife of one of two Canadians imprisoned in China said Sunday she is "disappointed" by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's refusal to consider a swap for a detained Huawei executive facing extradition to the United States. Trudeau firmly rejected appeals that he intervene in the extradition proceedings against Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer, in order to win the release of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
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| Minneapolis Spends Thousands on Private Security for City Councilmen amid Calls to ‘Defund’ the Police Posted: 29 Jun 2020 05:04 AM PDT  Minneapolis has spent over $63,000 to provide private security for members of its city council, which has been outspoken in calls to defund the police department following the death of George Floyd.Andrea Jenkins (Ward 8), Phillipe Cunningham (Ward 4), and Alondra Cano (Ward 9) are being provided details that cost $4,500 a day, a city spokesperson confirmed to local outlet FOX9.While Cano did not return a request for comment, Cunningham said he was not "comfortable publicly discussing the death threats against me," but said the security was temporary. Jenkins — an African American man who identifies as a woman — told FOX9 that the security was over concern for "the large number of white nationalist(s) in our city and other threatening communications I've been receiving."A Minneapolis Police Department spokesperson told FOX9 that the police had not been made aware of any threats against city council members.The city spokesperson explained that the current measures are "a temporary bridge" to more formal procedures for council members, and are not expected to pass $175,000, which would require official approval by the City Council.Last week, the Minneapolis City Council voted 12-0 to further advance a proposal for dismantling the city's police department. City Council president Lisa Bender has argued in response to questions over safety that fear comes from "a place of privilege.""I think we need to step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm instead," she told CNN earlier this month.
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| These 5 Weapons Made Nazi Germany a Military Superpower Posted: 29 Jun 2020 06:15 AM PDT  Hitler's most fearsome weapons.
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| Greta Thunberg accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of lining up to take a selfie with her just to 'look good' Posted: 28 Jun 2020 06:19 AM PDT  Thunberg castigated Angela Merkel and other world leaders at the UN summit as stealing her dreams, but they still craved an Instagram moment with her.
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| GOP Senator Urges Trump to Publicly Wear Mask: ‘Would Be a Sign of Strength’ Posted: 28 Jun 2020 09:29 AM PDT  Retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) implored President Donald Trump to publicly wear a mask on Sunday in order to cool the politicization of mask-wearing, appealing to the president's vanity in the process.With coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surging across the nation and states pulling back on reopening their economies, Alexander was asked by CNN's Manu Raju on Sunday morning about the president's resistance to symbolically embrace a basic safety protocol."You, I see you wearing your red-and-black plaid mask throughout the capitol, your staff does as well," Raju noted on CNN's Inside Politics. "The president, however, he refuses to wear one. The vice president continues to say this is an issue states should decide. Should the White House do more and the president do more to urge Americans to wear masks?"Alexander, who is leaving office at the end of the year, said he wished Trump "would wear a mask when it is appropriate," adding that "millions of Americans admire him" and would therefore follow his lead. Recent polls show that while the vast majority of Americans say they've been wearing masks in public spaces, more Democrats than Republicans have worn face coverings amid the pandemic.The Tennessee lawmaker went on to point out that the administration's public health experts have all said social distancing, mask-wearing, and hand washing can help contain the disease before reiterating that Trump publicly wearing a mask would "get rid of this political debate.""The stakes are much too high for that," he added. "So I understand why he does it. Most of the time he's with people who have been tested, he's been tested, so they're not infecting others. But there are times when he could wear a mask, the vice president could wear a mask, it would signal to the country to do so."The conservative senator ended his plea to Trump by playing to the president's well-known obsession with appearing strong and tough."People admire him and will follow his lead," Alexander concluded. "So I think it would be a sign of strength if he would from time to time wear a mask and remind everyone that it is a good way to help with this disease."Vice President Mike Pence said on Sunday that while the administration believes "people should wear masks wherever social distancing is not possible," the decision should be left up to the states and localities. At the same time, he defended his and Trump's lack of public mask-wearing, noting that he's worn a mask "several times" and Trump has done so at least once.With COVID-19 cases exploding in Arizona and Texas, masks have continued to be a hot-button political topic in the Republican-led states. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has pleaded with Texans to wear masks in public but has declined to issue a statewide mandate; in fact, he banned localities from imposing penalties for not wearing one, though he has recently allowed them to require mask use at businesses. In Arizona, meanwhile, a councilman came under fire when he protested against a local requirement to wear masks by quoting George Floyd's "I can't breathe" plea.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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| Supreme Court refuses to block upcoming federal executions Posted: 29 Jun 2020 06:39 AM PDT  The Supreme Court on Monday refused to block the execution of four federal prison inmates who are scheduled to be put to death in July and August. The executions would mark the first use of the death penalty on the federal level since 2003. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor noted that they would have blocked the executions from going forward.
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| Robert Jenrick under fresh pressure after whistleblower claims he ignored pleas to block Westferry project Posted: 28 Jun 2020 10:43 AM PDT  Robert Jenrick has found himself under fresh pressure, after a whistleblower claimed he ignored pleas from senior officials to block the controversial Westferry printworks project. The Housing Secretary reportedly overruled objections from civil servants and lawyers to greenlight Tory donor Richard Desmond's £1 billion development in January, with one source saying he showed "total disregard" for the law. Mr Jenrick had weeks earlier watched a promotional video for the luxury East London project on the businessman's mobile phone during a dinner at the Savoy hotel in London. Home Secretary Priti Patel insisted she would not "be watching videos" at Conservative fundraisers when quizzed on the matter on Sunday. Ms Patel also argued that going to Tory events would "absolutely not" help a person's chances in securing planning permission as she described the matter as "closed". She told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "I haven't followed the details of every single decision on this but what I do know and what I can tell you is that the correspondence, the documentation is out in the public domain on this particular application - and rightly so. "The papers have been published, the Secretary of State has followed all issues around transparency. "It has been discussed in Parliament a number of times, questions have been answered on this and the matter is deemed to be closed."
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| Poland's Duda leads in presidential election first round Posted: 28 Jun 2020 10:37 PM PDT  Latest poll shows Andrzej Duda ahead with almost 42 percent of votes against Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski with 30.4 percent.
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| Saharan dust cloud hits Southern states in U.S. already struggling with coronavirus surge Posted: 28 Jun 2020 10:14 AM PDT  Florida in particular faces a greater risk from the dust as the state experiences record-breaking coronavirus numbers, its ICU capacity under 25 percent.
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| Take a Lesson From History: Millions Died the First Time We Fought North Korea Posted: 28 Jun 2020 09:30 PM PDT  "I shrink—I shrink with a horror that I cannot express in words—at this continuous slaughter of men in Korea."
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| ‘Recipe for disaster’: Fauci urges Americans to buckle down on coronavirus preventative measures Posted: 29 Jun 2020 05:59 AM PDT  Meanwhile, the White House press secretary insisted the U.S. is "at a place where we can handle the cases that we're seeing."
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| Don't blame Sharia for Islamic extremism -- blame colonialism Posted: 28 Jun 2020 02:21 PM PDT  Warning that Islamic extremists want to impose fundamentalist religious rule in American communities, right-wing lawmakers in dozens of U.S. states have tried banning Sharia, an Arabic term often understood to mean Islamic law. These political debates – which cite terrorism and political violence in the Middle East to argue that Islam is incompatible with modern society – reinforce stereotypes that the Muslim world is uncivilized. They also reflect ignorance of Sharia, which is not a strict legal code. Sharia means "path" or "way": It is a broad set of values and ethical principles drawn from the Quran – Islam's holy book – and the life of the Prophet Muhammad. As such, different people and governments may interpret Sharia differently. Still, this is not the first time that the world has tried to figure out where Sharia fits into the global order. In the 1950s and 1960s, when Great Britain, France and other European powers relinquished their colonies in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, leaders of newly sovereign Muslim-majority countries faced a decision of enormous consequence: Should they build their governments on Islamic religious values or embrace the European laws inherited from colonial rule? The big debateInvariably, my historical research shows, political leaders of these young countries chose to keep their colonial justice systems rather than impose religious law. Newly independent Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia, among other places, all confined the application of Sharia to marital and inheritance disputes within Muslim families, just as their colonial administrators had done. The remainder of their legal systems would continue to be based on European law. To understand why they chose this course, I researched the decision-making process in Sudan, the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence from the British, in 1956.In the national archives and libraries of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, and in interviews with Sudanese lawyers and officials, I discovered that leading judges, politicians and intellectuals actually pushed for Sudan to become a democratic Islamic state. They envisioned a progressive legal system consistent with Islamic faith principles, one where all citizens – irrespective of religion, race or ethnicity – could practice their religious beliefs freely and openly."The People are equal like the teeth of a comb," wrote Sudan's soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Hassan Muddathir in 1956, quoting the Prophet Muhammad, in an official memorandum I found archived in Khartoum's Sudan Library. "An Arab is no better than a Persian, and the White is no better than the Black." Sudan's post-colonial leadership, however, rejected those calls. They chose to keep the English common law tradition as the law of the land. Why keep the laws of the oppressor?My research identifies three reasons why early Sudan sidelined Sharia: politics, pragmatism and demography.Rivalries between political parties in post-colonial Sudan led to parliamentary stalemate, which made it difficult to pass meaningful legislation. So Sudan simply maintained the colonial laws already on the books. There were practical reasons for maintaining English common law, too. Sudanese judges had been trained by British colonial officials. So they continued to apply English common law principles to the disputes they heard in their courtrooms. Sudan's founding fathers faced urgent challenges, such as creating the economy, establishing foreign trade and ending civil war. They felt it was simply not sensible to overhaul the rather smooth-running governance system in Khartoum.The continued use of colonial law after independence also reflected Sudan's ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity.Then, as now, Sudanese citizens spoke many languages and belonged to dozens of ethnic groups. At the time of Sudan's independence, people practicing Sunni and Sufi traditions of Islam lived largely in northern Sudan. Christianity was an important faith in southern Sudan. Sudan's diversity of faith communities meant that maintaining a foreign legal system – English common law – was less controversial than choosing whose version of Sharia to adopt. Why extremists triumphedMy research uncovers how today's instability across the Middle East and North Africa is, in part, a consequence of these post-colonial decisions to reject Sharia. In maintaining colonial legal systems, Sudan and other Muslim-majority countries that followed a similar path appeased Western world powers, which were pushing their former colonies toward secularism. But they avoided resolving tough questions about religious identity and the law. That created a disconnect between the people and their governments.In the long run, that disconnect helped fuel unrest among some citizens of deep faith, leading to sectarian calls to unite religion and the state once and for all. In Iran, Saudi Arabia and parts of Somalia and Nigeria, these interpretations triumphed, imposing extremist versions of Sharia over millions of people.In other words, Muslim-majority countries stunted the democratic potential of Sharia by rejecting it as a mainstream legal concept in the 1950s and 1960s, leaving Sharia in the hands of extremists.But there is no inherent tension between Sharia, human rights and the rule of law. Like any use of religion in politics, Sharia's application depends on who is using it – and why.Leaders of places like Saudi Arabia and Brunei have chosen to restrict women's freedom and minority rights. But many scholars of Islam and grassroots organizations interpret Sharia as a flexible, rights-oriented and equality-minded ethical order. Religion and the law worldwideReligion is woven into the legal fabric of many post-colonial nations, with varying consequences for democracy and stability.After its 1948 founding, Israel debated the role of Jewish law in Israeli society. Ultimately, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and his allies opted for a mixed legal system that combined Jewish law with English common law. In Latin America, the Catholicism imposed by Spanish conquistadors underpins laws restricting abortion, divorce and gay rights.And throughout the 19th century, judges in the U.S. regularly invoked the legal maxim that "Christianity is part of the common law." Legislators still routinely invoke their Christian faith when supporting or opposing a given law. Political extremism and human rights abuses that occur in those places are rarely understood as inherent flaws of these religions. When it comes to Muslim-majority countries, however, Sharia takes the blame for regressive laws – not the people who pass those policies in the name of religion.Fundamentalism and violence, in other words, are a post-colonial problem – not a religious inevitability. For the Muslim world, finding a system of government that reflects Islamic values while promoting democracy will not be easy after more than 50 years of failed secular rule. But building peace may demand it.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * What Sharia means: 5 questions answered * How Islamic law can take on ISIS * Trump's travel ban is just one of many US policies that legalize discrimination against MuslimsMark Fathi Massoud has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Fulbright-Hays, and the University of California. Any views expressed here are the author's responsibility.
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| New Yorkers who travel to Florida, Texas, and other states with high COVID-19 infection rates will lose paid sick leave benefits Posted: 28 Jun 2020 01:00 PM PDT  Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Texas all currently have positive test rates higher than 10%.
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| Mexico launches raids after assassination attempt of police chief Posted: 27 Jun 2020 11:43 AM PDT  Three people were killed in Friday's extremely violent ambush but Mexico's police chief survived.
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| Russia's mining giant admits to dumping contaminated water into Arctic tundra Posted: 29 Jun 2020 03:38 AM PDT  Russia's mining giant Norilsk Nickel has admitted to spilling wastewater into the wild less than a month after it caused a disastrous oil spill in the same region. Environmentalists and journalists in the Arctic city of Norilsk on Sunday caught an enrichment plant owned by Norilsk Nickel dumping water full of heavy metals into the Arctic tundra. The Novaya Gazeta newspaper published footage from outside the city of Norilsk, showing metal pipes leading from a reservoir and releasing foaming liquid into the nearby woods. The journalists called the police to the scene, prompting the workers to begin to dismantle the pipes. Environmental activists who took samples at the site of the spill were stopped at the local airport over the weekend and barred from shipping them to Moscow for tests. An official quoted by the Tass news agency on Monday said that up to 6,000 cubic metres of "unknown liquid with a chemical odour" is believed to have been pumped into tundra. London-traded Norilsk Nickel later on Sunday admitted to the incident, saying that it has suspended the workers who decided to pump the water into the tundra. Unnamed workers at the Talnakh plant reportedly suspected that the reservoir for the liquid used to process minerals would soon get overflow and decided to dump the wastewater into the nearby tundra. Investigators are looking into the incident. Norilsk Nickel, with the market capitalisation of £36 billion, is a major taxpayer in the region, employing more than 73,000 people. The metal company's environmental record came into question last month when some 20,000 metric tonnes of diesel fuel spilled into the river system from a tank at a power plant it owns. The fuel spill, which has been blamed on thawing permafrost, has been described as the Arctic's worst since the 1989 accident off the coast of Alaska. Vladimir Chuprov, project director at Greenpeace Russia, says that the Arctic spill has shed the light on the magnitude of day-to-day pollution in Norilsk by one of the country's biggest industrial companies. "Norilsk Nickel has been dumping waste water, which is proved by satellite images," he said, adding that it is high time that the company "stops hiding the violations and gets down to rectifying them." Norilsk Nickel insists that it responds to all reports about potential environmental damage.
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| Report: Many Americans say it would be 'inappropriate' for either party to dispute the election Posted: 29 Jun 2020 05:50 AM PDT  Despite a number of Americans who say they could dispute the 2020 elections, a large majority still say a democratic system is a good way to govern.
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| US carriers drill after Southeast Asian nations rebuke China Posted: 29 Jun 2020 12:47 AM PDT  A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple territorial disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons. Two U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike groups are conducting dual operations in the Philippine Sea in a show of the service's ability to rapidly deploy overwhelming force in support of allies locked in disputes with China. "The U.S. Navy regularly conducts integrated strike group operations to support a free and open Indo-Pacific, and promote an international rules-based order wherein each country can reach its potential without sacrificing national sovereignty," the release said.
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| Syria ends tycoon Makhlouf's duty free contracts Posted: 29 Jun 2020 06:28 AM PDT  Syria's government has announced the termination of duty free contracts with companies affiliated with President Bashar al-Assad's billionaire cousin Rami Makhlouf as part of an ongoing spat between the two men. The economy ministry, in a post Sunday on Facebook, said contracts had been cancelled to manage and operate duty free markets across Syria, including at Damascus airport and border posts with Lebanon and Jordan. The companies are mostly owned by Makhlouf who presides over an empire of businesses, including Syria's largest mobile operator Syriatel.
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