| Trump tells NYC to activate National Guard: 'The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart!' Posted: 02 Jun 2020 09:44 AM PDT  After vowing Monday to deploy military force to restore order in states that fail to "dominate" unlawful demonstrations, President Trump on Tuesday all but ordered New York City to request help from the National Guard.
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| In new filing, Justice Department pushes for end to Flynn case Posted: 01 Jun 2020 04:36 PM PDT  AG Barr has decided that Trump's former national security adviser's false statements to the FBI were not material.
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| 'My face exploded': Police firing rubber bullets have wounded and permanently disabled protesters and journalists Posted: 02 Jun 2020 09:11 AM PDT  Experts tell Insider that rubber bullets are considered "less lethal" weapons — a "legitimate tool" employed by policemen for decades.
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| An 'ANTIFA' Twitter account that called for looting 'white hoods' was actually run by white nationalist group Identity Evropa Posted: 02 Jun 2020 07:18 AM PDT  Twitter said this isn't the first time that users linked to Identity Evropa have created fake accounts to spread "hateful content."
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| Backlash in China after front-line doctor dies Posted: 02 Jun 2020 11:20 PM PDT  A doctor's death has sparked angry conversations about the Chinese authorities' handling of the pandemic.
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| CDC creates new color-coded system to designate ships with potential coronavirus exposure Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:29 AM PDT  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its COVID-19 guidance regarding cruise ships this week amid the U.S. ongoing no-sail order.
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| Army, DC Guard Investigating After Military Helicopters Buzz Protesters in DC Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:57 AM PDT  Army UH-60 Black Hawks and UH-72 Lakota helicopters flew low enough over demonstrators to kick up debris on the crowds.
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| Cop in Las Vegas critically wounded, others elsewhere injured in protests Posted: 02 Jun 2020 06:10 PM PDT  "This has been a long night for your police department ... and a tragic night for our community," the Las Vegas sheriff said Tuesday.
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| Seattle protesters are using umbrellas to block pepper spray and tear gas, mirroring tactics used by the Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrations Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:37 AM PDT  Seattle anti police-brutality protesters showed up with umbrellas as a shield, and also as a potential new symbol in defiance of police action.
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| Swedish COVID Response Architect Says Policies Were Too Lax, Resulted in Too Many Deaths Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:55 AM PDT  Sweden's response to the coronavirus resulted in too many deaths and could have been improved, the country's chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told Swedish radio on Wednesday.Tegnell designed a unique strategy by which the country allowed non-essential businesses to remain open, urging citizens to comply with social distancing regulations and to avoid unnecessary travel. Sweden's death rate from coronavirus as of Wednesday sits at 443 per million of the country's population, far higher than its Nordic neighbors Finland (58 per million) and Norway (44 per million), both of which imposed more far-reaching lockdowns of nonessential businesses.When asked whether Sweden had seen too many deaths, Tegnell answered, "Yes, absolutely.""If we were to encounter the same disease again knowing exactly what we know about it today, I think we would settle on doing something in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done," Tegnell said, in comments translated by the Guardian. Tegnell added that medical officials would need to learn "what else, besides what we did, you could do without imposing a total shutdown."Coronavirus has been particularly lethal for the elderly in Sweden, with roughly half of the country's 4,500 deaths occurring among residents of nursing homes."There was no strategy at all for the elderly, I now understand," Annike Linde, former chief epidemiologist from 2005 to 2015, told the Swedish state broadcaster last week. "I do not understand how they can stand and say the level of preparedness was good, when in fact it was lousy."Sweden's relatively lax strategy was designed in part to avoid a complete shutdown of the economy. While the country's GDP grew slightly in the first three months of the year, Swedish economists still predict an eventual economic contraction of 7 percent by the end of 2020, with 10 percent unemployment.
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| Police chief says he doesn't "believe racism plays a role" in NYPD Posted: 02 Jun 2020 08:49 AM PDT  A deputy chief described the protests as a "mob mentality" and said, "We don't like people walking in the middle of the street."
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| Trump staged photo op at church ‘out of anger at claims he was sheltering in White House bunker’ Posted: 01 Jun 2020 11:52 PM PDT  Donald Trump's brief appearance at a shuttered church outside the White House on Monday was motivated by his fury at news coverage saying he was rushed to the White House bunker for his safety on Friday, reports say.According to CNN's Kaitlan Collins, Mr Trump made the highly unusual trip outside the White House gates – for which crowds were cleared by police – partly because he was "upset" by the coverage. Reacting to her report, a visibly dismayed Anderson Cooper replied, "Oh my god. We're in trouble."
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| Northrop Grumman's New B-21 Stealth Bomber: A Technological Powerhouse? Posted: 02 Jun 2020 05:12 AM PDT  The new stealth U.S. Air Force B-21 bomber has taken yet another key technological step toward being ready for war, through integrated computer automation designed to streamline information, improve targeting and offer pilots organized warzone information in real-time.
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| Italy welcomes tourists (but the feeling’s not mutual) Posted: 02 Jun 2020 07:52 PM PDT  Rome wants to open its borders for the summer season, but other countries are still wary.
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| Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore apologizes after saying George Floyd's death is on the 'hands' of looters Posted: 02 Jun 2020 07:41 PM PDT  LAPD Chief Michel Moore is facing calls to resign after saying George Floyd's death is on the 'hands' of looters. He apologized the same day.
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| A former police chief was shot and killed during St. Louis protests, and the incident was livestreamed on Facebook Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:45 AM PDT  David Dorn, 77, served 38 years with the St. Louis Police Department before retiring in 2007. He later served as police chief of Moline Acres.
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| Hong Kong democracy group files complaint to U.N. over alleged abuse Posted: 02 Jun 2020 02:46 AM PDT  A Hong Kong pro-democracy group said on Tuesday it had filed a complaint with the United Nations over what it described as abuse of anti-government protesters held in custody in the Chinese-ruled city. The prominent democracy group Demosisto cited three protesters as saying they had been physically and verbally abused by Correctional Services Department (CSD) guards while in detention, including being beaten and slapped in places without CCTV surveillance cameras. The city government has not commented on the accusations.
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| George Floyd Protest: Fire at looted Walmart, curfews again tonight, peaceful caravan protest in Oakland Posted: 01 Jun 2020 02:44 PM PDT  Protests over the death of George Floyd have been planned throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Watch live demonstrations, briefings from officials here.
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| McConnell blocks resolution condemning Trump's response to protests Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:58 AM PDT  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer attempted to pass the resolution by unanimous consent.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accuses New York police union of threatening Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter after her arrest at Saturday's protests Posted: 01 Jun 2020 10:34 AM PDT  Ocasio-Cortez urged the NYPD to de-escalate with protesters and told the union to "apologize and own this egregious behavior."
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| China's First Domestically Built Aircraft Carrier Is One Step Closer to Being Ready for Action Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:00 AM PDT  It is undergoing sea trials.
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| 'Every day looks absolutely wild': the chaos of teaching during a pandemic Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  With nearly 51 million students facing school closures, teachers are living a new reality of missing pupils, glitchy software and childcare mayhem * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverageIn less than three months, the coronavirus has upended America's public education system.The virus triggered closures of unprecedented scale and forced educators across the country to quickly transition to online teaching, many for the first time in their careers.Roughly 11 weeks since the start of the pandemic, 124,000 US schools remain closed for in-person instruction as they limp toward summer break, impacting almost 51 million students. The coronavirus is quickly becoming the defining moment in education for a generation of school children and their parents. But what of the teachers? How are they managing this new reality? The Guardian checked in with four California educators … 'It feels like The Twilight Zone'Just as closures have affected the nature of work, they've changed the complexion of teachers' home lives."Every day looks absolutely wild. I was not prepared to spend 24 hours a day with my children," said Shelly Steely, who teaches at an alternative high school in San Diego geared toward students who are at risk of dropping out. Since the lockdowns started, she's struggled to keep pace. "My husband is working at a call center, so it's really tough to have time for all the work plus caring for my own kids, cooking and cleaning and helping them with their homework. And we lost our babysitter because my dad is high-risk and hasn't been able to do it," Steely said.Tina Alcatraz Andres, a middle school teacher in Santa Ana Unified, just south of Los Angeles, said she's been working disjointed, 15-hour days as a parent to two children, 14 and 15. Layered upon those stressors, Andres' father was diagnosed with Covid-19 days after schools closed."We have times where all four of us are on Zoom calls," Andres said of her working husband, also a teacher, and her kids. "And sometimes the internet goes down and it's panic mode."Andres has also noticed the lockdown has shifted her family and students' schedules. Everybody seems to be waking up later now."I can't really plan anything early in the morning, because kids don't show up," she said. "I've been doing most of my grading at night, around 10 o'clock. Sometimes I send a paper back and I'm talking to students after 1 am about the work. It's very weird and adds to the Twilight Zone feeling of this whole thing."Andres notes one unexpected perk of the new normal, however. "I feel like I've gotten to know some of my students better. Some who have been quiet seem to have come alive." Digital disconnectIn the weeks that followed the first school closures, teachers describe frantic scenes of hustling to get laptops and hotspots into students' hands or cobbling together distance learning plans, often from scratch. Stories of teachers scrambling to connect with AWOL students abounded. At Los Angeles Unified, the nation's second-largest school district, roughly 15,000 high school students were absent online and completed no school work in the transition to distance learning. In San Diego, trying to engage students online has been Steely's biggest stress point. "I can't get my kids to connect," she said. "I'm over here like: 'Can someone text me back, please? Anyone? I know you hear me because I see the message on 'read'. You have to graduate next month but you have to do some work for me to pass you in good faith.'" Her students are dealing with a lot: one has been couch surfing, three have become full-time caregivers because their parents are working. A couple have full-time jobs they're still going to because their work is considered "essential" work. "One of my students up and left town," Steely said. "I've been altering his assignments so he could do them on his phone. Half my students didn't have computers. It was a whole ordeal trying to get them the devices and now we're dealing with bad connections."Angela Der Ramos, who teaches sixth graders in Salinas, a central-coast city made famous by John Steinbeck, has been working to keep kids tuned in, turning quizzes into games and focusing on reading, percentages and ratios – lessons that will build skills they'll depend on for life. Many families speak a language other than English at home, she said, and face some of the "hidden challenges" known to teachers: lack of access to the internet, overcrowded housing and concerns over immigration status."In one of my student's families, three children and their mom rent a room inside a house," said Der Ramos. "Where is he going to go to log on to a computer?" Of the 27 students in Der Ramos' class, only about six routinely log in, she said. About 10 other students aren't regulars, but do some of the work, enough for Der Ramos to say, "OK, good. You're alive and at least engaging in some way".The shift to distance learning impacted school districts unevenly. In Menlo Park, an affluent Bay-area community in the heart of Silicon Valley, officials chalk up a relatively smooth transition to the fact that most students in the district had access to devices going into the lockdown – in addition to teachers who were trained in distance learning techniques. But the same wasn't true in many rural or disadvantaged areas. Ken Johnson, a high school government teacher and president of the teachers union in Manteca, a Central Valley town an hour east of San Francisco, said he's been working 12-hour days, taking meals at his desk, in part because he and other educators had to create distance learning plans from scratch."This is the hardest I've ever worked in my life. We're doing things on the fly. Everyday is different. If the software is glitchy, you have to become Mr Google and figure it out," Johnson said. Johnson said he's encountered an irony facing a generation of digital natives in his classes. "The funny thing is that kids can spend the entire day on Instagram or TikTok, but when it comes to taking a picture of their work and uploading it … or even just sending an email, that's something they apparently don't know how to do," he said. 'It's like learning to teach all over again'Distance learning has upended the entire way educators teach, throwing a wrench into years of professional training and finely-tuned lesson plans. Teaching sixth graders in Salinas, Der Ramos said she had come to rely on students' body language, the way they roll their eyes or drift off when they're not interested. But online teaching has blunted her ability to read her students – especially when so many seem to be hesitant to show their face, or the inside of their homes, to the camera. (All teachers interviewed for this story noted the same). "Teachers normally have to play a little psychology with our students – but this is harder, because we're not in front of them. When I teach online I've learned I can't call on students to answer," she said. "In real life you can sort of stare them down until they respond, but start calling on them online and one by one you'll see them start to log off, like 'byeee'."Teaching math is a particular challenge, teachers say. Teaching math concepts involves looking at students' work and seeing where they went wrong."What are you thinking about? Making mistakes is what a lot of teaching is based on. But in this case we don't have the same opportunity to go through the actual work in the same way," said Der Ramos."It's like having to learn to teach all over again, but underwater. And we don't have the oxygen to share with the students." 'I miss my students'Teachers say much of their time since lockdown started has been consumed by in-the-moment logistics and planning for the future. But it's also proving to be an emotional time for teachers – both for their students and their own families. Steely in San Diego, for example, said she's been gobsmacked by the amount of homework given by her twins' teacher. "My boys have six hours of homework each day, plus Zoom calls. I've seen some complaints about teachers not assigning students enough work. I think those are in bad taste, let's be real," she said. Among Steely's biggest concerns for her students is what will happen after summer. School officials in California are looking at dividing the student body in half and staggering school schedules to allow for more space to physically distance. But that creates a major problem for Steely."As a family, we were all waiting for our kids to be in school so the money we paid in childcare could finally go to other things. And it's not just us. A lot of parents rely on public schools for childcare," she said.One and a half hours north, in Santa Ana, Andres said she's also been surprised by the timing of some parents' feedback. "As we're nearing the end of the school year I've had a flood of parents whose students haven't been doing anything for the past eight weeks and are suddenly very interested in how their kids are going to get caught up," Andres said. Meanwhile, Johnson in Manteca is coming to terms with the fact he wasn't able to close out the year with a group of students, many of whom postponed plans to leave for college in order to help their parents pull through the pandemic and its financial toll."I miss my students. I won't be able to be at their graduation. I want to be able to see them after their graduation and hear their laughter and stupid jokes. That's why teachers teach – we have that rapport with our students where we're just feeding off of it," said Johnson. "I feel like I haven't been able to see my kids finish growing up. I've been doing this 31 years and I still get teared up talking about this". Still, he's been touched and encouraged by his students' thoughtful responses to lockdown measures"They say they're bored, but they don't want to go outside because they don't want to bring the virus home to mom and dad or grandpa," he said. "These kids, they get it. Even as young as they are, they understand how serious this is and they're concerned for others. It gives you hope for the future, doesn't it?"
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| Bell, Telus give 5G contracts to Europeans, Huawei shut out Posted: 02 Jun 2020 01:42 PM PDT  Two of Canada's three major telecommunication companies announced Tuesday they've decided not to use Chinese tech giant Huawei for their next-generation 5G wireless network. Bell Canada announced that Sweden-based Ericsson will be its supplier and Telus Corp. later announced that it had also selected Ericsson and Nokia. Rogers already has a longstanding partnership with Ericsson.
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| Minneapolis police chief filed a civil suit against the department in 2007 alleging discrimination against people of color, including black officers Posted: 02 Jun 2020 03:01 AM PDT  Minneapolis and its police force have a troubled history that extends beyond the death of George Floyd, according to new reports this week.
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| Car appears to run over protesters live on-air in Boston amidst George Floyd protests Posted: 01 Jun 2020 05:11 PM PDT  A live broadcast from protests in Boston has appeared to show an SUV drive into a crowd.The incident occurred live on air while WCVB's Peter Eliopoulos described the action unfolding from the protests, which turned violent in the late hours of Sunday.
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| DC mayor says using force on protesters outside White House before curfew is 'shameful' Posted: 02 Jun 2020 03:44 PM PDT  DC Mayor Muriel Bowser called it "shameful" that police used force to clear the way for the president to walk to St. John's Church.
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| Bar owner won't face charges in fatal shooting of Omaha protester Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:25 AM PDT  In response to outrage on social media, the county attorney said there was no "racial tone" to conversations between the shooter and the victim.
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| ‘Not the Same Question’: De Blasio Says Businesses, Churches to Remain Closed Even as Demonstrators Flout Lockdowns Posted: 02 Jun 2020 09:58 AM PDT  New York City mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday said that although mass protests had erupted in the city, religious institutions and small business owners would still be closed until Monday."When you see . . . an entire nation, simultaneously grappling with an extraordinary crisis seated in 400 years of American racism, I'm sorry, that is not the same question as the understandably aggrieved store owner or the devout religious person who wants to go back to services," de Blasio told a reporter for the ultra-Orthodox Jewish publication Hamodia."This is a powerful, painful historical moment. So no, I have eyes to see. We're not going to treat it like it's just any other day, we're not going to treat it like, 'Why are people outside [at] the bars,' and not notice that all of America is grappling simultaneously with a horrible crisis," the mayor continued. "Sorry guys, there's a world outside New York City."De Blasio said that while he did fear that demonstrations could result in another outbreak of coronavirus, New York institutions would continue to reopen according to the timetable set in conjunction with state health officials. New York has seen widespread looting in the upscale neighborhoods of Soho and Midtown Manhattan, as well as in parts of Brooklyn.De Blasio has clashed with ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in the city during the course of the pandemic. In late April, after police dispersed a crowd at a funeral for a Brooklyn rabbi, the mayor wrote on Twitter, "My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups."While the tweet provoked criticism from the Satmar ultra-Orthodox sect, whose leaders had organized the funeral, some in the sect defended the mayor from other critics."We strongly denounce the vicious attacks against the Mayor, particularly those accusing him of anti-Semitism," wrote Mayer Rispler, head of a Satmar faction. "The close relationship between Mr. De Blasio and our community goes back close to two decades…We consider him a dear friend."Since the incident, the NYPD has shut down several yeshivas operating in defiance of lockdown orders.Last week, however, demonstrations protesting the death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during arrest by white officers, spread across the city. Those demonstrations have devolved into looting and rioting. Rioters and even peaceful protesters have not adhered to social-distancing guidelines."You don't get to pick and choose First Amendment freedoms. You don't get to side with protesters and slough off churches and synagogues," Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) said in response to de Blasio's decision to keep businesses and religious institutions closed. "Americans ought to hope that New York City is sued so that Bill de Blasio's nonsense gets laughed out of court."
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| The US plans to ban Chinese passenger airlines, retaliating as China hinders US airlines from resuming flights to its country Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:18 AM PDT  The US ban on Chinese passenger airlines comes as the latest in a tit-for-tat between the two countries as tensions mount.
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| Exclusive: U.S. small business program handed out virus aid to many borrowers twice Posted: 02 Jun 2020 06:05 AM PDT  A technical snafu in a U.S. government system caused many small businesses to receive loans twice or more under a federal aid program to help businesses hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly a dozen people with knowledge of the matter said. The money mistakenly handed out could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars that the government and lenders - which made the loans - have been trying to identify and recover in recent weeks, one of the people briefed on the matter said. The technical issue and scale of the resulting duplicate deposits made under the Small Business Administration's $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) have not been previously reported.
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| New Mexico close to historic all-female US House delegation Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:00 AM PDT  New Mexico has moved closer to possibly sending a historic delegation of all women of color to the U.S. House. According to unofficial results from Tuesday's primary, Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Latina, won a seven-way race to capture her party's nomination for the Democratic-leaning seat in northern New Mexico. "This is a win for our communities & families across our district," Leger Fernandez tweeted late Tuesday.
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| Voices captured on an NYC police scanner can be heard saying protesters should be shot and run over Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:35 AM PDT  The scanner broadcast people saying, "Shoot those motherf---ers," and "Run them over," referring to protesters.
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| China sea security issues pushed Philippine U-turn on US troop pact Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Security issues in the disputed South China Sea helped convince the Philippines to delay quitting a key US military pact, the nation's envoy to Washington said Wednesday. The government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced Tuesday it had suspended plans to cancel the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a deal that is important to Washington's moves to counter Beijing's rising regional power. Duterte has cosied up to China in search of trade and investment, sparking US concern that its long-time ally and former colony would change sides in a strategic boost to Beijing.
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| Chechen leader accused of mass torture and murder offers Donald Trump human rights advice: ‘End the mayhem’ Posted: 02 Jun 2020 02:02 AM PDT  Chechnya's gay-purging strongman Ramzan Kadyrov has made an unexpected foray into US politics by suggesting Donald Trump might have a thing or two to learn from him about human rights.In a social media post published early on Tuesday morning, the controversial leader demanded American authorities "put an end" to "mayhem" and "illegal actions against citizens."
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| America could move weapons stored on British soil if UK persists with Huawei, US senator warns Posted: 02 Jun 2020 11:56 PM PDT  America could move weapons stored on British soil if the UK allows Huawei to build its 5G network, a US senator has warned. Tom Cotton, the Republican senator for Arkansas who was called as a witness before the Defence Select Committee, warned that the case for America keeping some US Air Force assets, such as F-35 fighters, in the UK could be weakened if it goes ahead with Huawei, as it would pose a security risk. "We have to make a decision about deploying those [F-35 fighters] to many countries," Senator Cotton said. "Obviously if you no longer have Huawei in your network then F-35 fighters can be based in your country under my legislation. "That does not mean I would drop my legislation… my legislation is about Huawei and the threat Huawei poses to our airmen and our aircraft." He added that allowing Huawei in UK infrastructure could "give PLA [China's People's Liberation Army] hackers a window into our military logistics operations", which he said could put US forces and American weapons systems based in England "at dangerous risk".
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| The U.S. Army's New Weapon of Mass Destruction: Swarm Drones? Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Here's what we mean.
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| How you can observe LGBTQ+ Pride Month with nationwide events canceled Posted: 01 Jun 2020 02:01 PM PDT  Pride isn't canceled due to coronavirus. The gay agenda is alive and well — it will just happen virtually and in small and distanced groups.
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| 3 dead after helicopter crash in Fairfield, officials say Posted: 02 Jun 2020 11:40 PM PDT  Three people are dead after officials say the helicopter they were riding in hit a power line and crashed near Fairfield.
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| Mexico finds links to over $1 billlion in cartel money Posted: 02 Jun 2020 03:22 PM PDT |
| Truck driver who sped into a crowd of protesters on a highway in Minneapolis released from jail without charges Posted: 02 Jun 2020 12:26 PM PDT  Bogdan Vechirko drove an 18-wheeler into a large group of peaceful protesters on the highway on Sunday. Authorities are still investigating.
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| One of America's most popular police trainers is teaching officers how to kill with fear-based warrior tactics Posted: 02 Jun 2020 02:53 PM PDT  Dave Grossman's overly aggressive style prepares law enforcement officers for a job under siege, where they're "at war" on the streets.
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