| Bill Barr Takes Charge of Trump’s Crackdown as the Military Tries to Back Away Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:39 PM PDT  As President Trump continues to try and drum up support for his call for states to "dominate" protesters and beef up police presence against them, Attorney General Bill Barr and a team of senior Justice Department officials have quietly taken the lead on disrupting the protests and going after the petty criminals who may be using the demonstrations as cover. It's been a controversial move, even within Barr's own department. One federal prosecutor called Barr's most high-profile effort to quell the unrest "politically-charged [and] bogus." A senior law enforcement official called it "a political ploy to make being anti-Trump look like terrorism." Until Thursday, the department had operated largely behind closed doors in carrying out its plan to take charge of the administration's response to the nationwide protests. But on Thursday afternoon, Barr, alongside FBI Director Chris Wray, and representatives from other leading law enforcement agencies, took the stage to discuss in detail the Department of Justice's strategy in cracking down on "extremists and agitators that hijack the protest." Barr said his department, along with other federal law enforcement agencies, are working with state and local officials to identify individuals who have looted storefronts and incited violence from the larger groups of peaceful protests. "We understand the distinction between the three different sets of actors," Barr said.But, the attorney general said, President Trump pushed him to use all resources necessary to pursue individuals who engage in "crimes to terrify citizens." Barr claimed that "antifa" and "other such extremist groups" were hijacking protests, looting, and setting police cars on fire. He acknowledged that groups with "other political persuasions" were also involved. But he failed to call out those individuals who, for example, were charged with similar crimes in Las Vegas and identified with the right-wing "Boogooloo" movement. When questioned by a reporter about his choice of words, Barr dodged and pointed to the fact that he had said that there were other groups involved in these crimes.Throughout the press conference both Barr and Wray continually used the word "rioting" to describe acts by "extremists and agitators" hijacking protests. The choice of words was unusual, given the fact that only two of the federal cases charged so far had anything to do with "rioting," according to a data obtained by The Daily Beast. One senior justice official told The Daily Beast Wednesday that the "rioting" charge was overly broad and that it was important to note in reporting that the department was staying away from it.The attorney general's efforts to crack down on individuals involved in the protests shows the extent to which the Department of Justice is playing a leading role in the administration's response to the chaos that has ensnared cities across the U.S. Meanwhile, Trump this week sheltered in a bunker as protests grew in Washington and posed for a photo op, with a bible, in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, and said he would take any means necessary to stop "acts of domestic terror." As the Pentagon has moved to distance itself from Trump's rhetoric about militarizing American cities, the Department of Justice appears to be using a different tactic: aggression. In the early hours following clashes between protesters and police in Minneapolis on May 26, Barr and senior officials at DOJ began holding meetings and calls, strategizing ways to clamp down, two senior officials in the department told The Daily Beast. Scenes of looters ransacking local shops and vandalizing police buildings unnerved Barr, those officials said, and the attorney general directed his team to find a framework to identify and arrest those individuals and charge them with federal crimes. The idea was to try and take control of the administration's response to the protests by relying on the FBI's regional counterterrorism hubs to share information with local law enforcement about, in Barr's own words, "extremists." It wasn't immediately clear to senior justice officials working with Barr how the department would go about implementing an initiative focused on arresting and charging individuals with federal crimes on a nationwide scale. The fear was states would push back on Barr's intervention, just as they had with Trump demanding they accept assistance from the National Guard. A third justice official said there was additional concern that the plan would require rigorous investigative and surveillance efforts that could take away from other ongoing law enforcement matters.That's when Barr turned to an existing counterterrorism network—Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs)— led by the FBI that unite federal, state and local law enforcement to monitor and pursue suspected terrorists. A few days later, Barr communicated his plans to the nation's governors. "The construction we are going to use is the JTTF. It's a tried and true system. It worked for domestic homegrown terrorists. We're going to apply that model," Barr said on the call. "It already integrates your state and local people. It's intelligence driven. We want to lean forward and charge … anyone who violates a federal law in connection with this rioting."President Trump technically ran the call with the governors, directing them to punch "hashtag two" to get on the line to ask questions. But the president repeatedly handed the reins over to Barr. "We will activate Bill Barr and we will activate him strongly," Trump said. Barr, under questioning from Gov. Janet Mills of Maine, laid out his thinking on why states needed to "dominate" the streets. "We need to have people in control of the streets so we can go out and work with law enforcement ... identify these people in the crowd, pull them out and prosecute them," Barr said.In the past week, federal officers have charged three individuals in New York and two in Minnesota for alleged involvement in Molotov cocktail attacks on municipal properties. And on Monday, following the president's remarks in Lafayette Park in which he threatened states with sending in active military personnel to their cities, arrest numbers more than doubled in DC and New York City. 'Uncomfortable Mission': Pentagon Tries to Retreat From Trump's Call to 'Dominate' ProtestsBarr's enthusiasm for the crackdown is conspicuous. It stands in marked contrast to the Pentagon, which is reeling from its leadership's decision to appear beside Trump after park police, supported by National Guardsmen, violently cleared Lafayette Park from peaceful protesters so the president could stage a photo op – reportedly Barr's idea. Two days later, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, under withering criticism for his tacit endorsement of the action, publicly rejected Trump's threat to use the active-duty military against the protesters, something that has jeopardized Esper's standing in the administration. To those close to Trump, it is no surprise that the president has given Barr such a broad professional mandate in imposing their particular mold of law and order as the civil unrest has spread. "[For days], the president has [bragged to officials] how 'tough' the attorney general is, and that if anyone can restore order, it's this guy," according to a senior administration official. "The president sees Barr as [the] 'bad cop' he can unleash if states and cities don't get their act together."A senior official at the Department of Justice said there is a small team working to track the results of the attorney general's directive that more resources be put toward investigating and prosecuting "agitators." In Washington, there have been a little over 100 arrests that went to the local U.S. attorneys office. Of those arrested, 75 were charged but only one person was charged with a federal crime for breaking into a bank, according to a senior justice official. There are eight federal charges pending in the city, that person said. None of the defendants were charged with rioting.According to multiple current and former Justice Department and law enforcement officials, Barr is misusing the Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) in support of President Trump's insistence that antifascists are "terrorists" exploiting the nationwide protests. Antifa is not an organization, nor is there a domestic terrorism statute for designating them terrorists. The early federal charges emerging from Barr's crackdown concern crimes like arson, not terrorism-related offenses. And in Nevada, three men with ties to a right-wing extremists advocating for the overthrow of the U.S. government were arrested on terrorism-related charges for a conspiracy to carry out acts of violence during protests in Las Vegas. Veteran law enforcement officials point to the gulf between Barr's treatment of the left-wing protesters and far more violent right-wing elements whom the Justice Department has not prioritized. Barr Promises to Sic Terror-Hunters on ProtestersA federal prosecutor who requested anonymity said the use of the JTTF against the protests revealed Barr's double standards, as right-wing violence – aimed unlike the protesters against people, rather than property – has yet to register as a priority. "We didn't hear anything about the Justice Department calling on JTTFs after, say, a manifesto-writing lunatic murdered people in Wal-Mart, or another political-slogan-spouting crazy sent bombs to Soros' house in New York," the prosecutor said. The prosecutor considered Barr's behavior over the protests to be "a new low" for the attorney general. "He attributes all the violent, destructive activity in the protests to 'left-wing antifa' elements. He has no evidence to back that up whatsoever," the prosecutor said. Another senior law enforcement official said that using the JTTF against the protesters is "a political ploy to make being anti-Trump look like terrorism." Two officials familiar with JTTF operations described cases against protesters being turned over from counterterrorism-focused participants to federal prosecutors and FBI special agents to determine what activity violates existing federal statutes.The FBI portrayed its use of the JTTFs in relation to the protests as a repurposing of a network it already had in place to connect its agents to local police in the cities where the protests are occurring, rather than an indication that "antifa" or other protesters represented a terrorist threat. "JTTFs are being utilized as an existing partnership of federal, state, and local law enforcement that is already in place. Their focus is on identifying and disrupting criminal activity and as such, the statutory limitations around domestic use of national security intelligence authorities apply," the FBI told the Daily Beast in a statement. Still, federal prosecutors and JTTF veterans expressed concern about the propriety of aiming a tool for counterterrorism at protesters, particularly when the FBI concedes that the JTTF focus is on criminal activity rather than terrorism. In other words, the JTTFs are a mechanism of convenience rather than an indication of any terrorist element within the protests: "If we were invaded by Mars, we'd use JTTFs, an existing partnership, for an anti-Martian task force," said the federal prosecutor. The greater issue, the prosecutor continued, is a "politically-charged, bogus attempt to attribute all this to left-wing activity and the use of inappropriate means to respond. Civil society leaders everywhere are able to draw the distinction between peaceful protesters, property crimes and people throwing bricks at cops, and Barr is unable to make this distinction."Mystery Officers Patrolling D.C. Streets Are From Federal PrisonsBarr's focus is also conspicuous for overlooking the most violent element in the protests: the police, whose slaying of George Floyd – and thousands of African-American men, women and children before him – sparked the nationwide protests. In New York City, videos surfaced on social media showing police officers plowing through protesters with their cars. In Atlanta, officers dragged college students from a car and shot them with stun guns. In Manhattan on Sunday night, a Daily Beast reporter saw at least three police officers take nightsticks to a protester who was already on the ground after he ran from an officer who had unholstered his gun. By contrast, dozens of individuals involved in protests throughout the country—many of them white—have smashed storefronts, stealing clothes and other merchandise, and some set fire to police cars. The Trump administration actively encourages police violence on people, while describing as "terrorism" crimes that are largely against property. Still, Barr is not without his high-profile supporters. Ever since his handling of the unveiling of the Mueller report, Barr has become not just a favorite of the president's, but a folk hero throughout Trumpworld."Bill has tremendous insight and knowledge both of the applicable laws and the conditional implications of the current situation. The president made a wise choice in nominating Bill Barr to be attorney general, and he has served the country well and will continue to do so [in this crisis]," said Jay Sekulow, a Trump attorney who has known Barr for years. "He's doing a phenomenal job."—with additional reporting by Asawin SuebsaengRead 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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| This chart shows fewer than half of Black Americans were employed in April, highlighting how coronavirus layoffs have disproportionately affected Black communities Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:12 PM PDT  Record unemployment has helped fuel unrest in all 50 states for more than a week since George Floyd was killed.
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| U.K. PM tells China that Britain will admit 3 Million from Hong Kong Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:58 AM PDT  "Many people in Hong Kong fear that their way of life — which China pledged to uphold — is under threat," Johnson said.
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| Tropical Storm Cristobal takes aim at U.S. Gulf Coast Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:50 AM PDT  The storm could bring heavy rain to Louisiana and its neighbors this weekend.
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| 10 Years Ago Today, SpaceX's Falcon 9 Blasted Off for the First Time Posted: 04 Jun 2020 07:36 AM PDT |
| At least 39 injured in knife attack at China kindergarten Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:31 PM PDT |
| Iran Frees U.S. Navy Vet after Two Years in Prison Posted: 04 Jun 2020 08:54 AM PDT  A U.S. Navy veteran held in Iran for the past two years has been freed.Michael White, 48, was detained in July 2018 after traveling to Iran to see a woman he had met online and fell in love with. White was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March 2019, in part for insulting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.In March 2020 White was hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms and was furloughed along with other prisoners after the pathogen swept through Iranian jails. White's release to the U.S. is part of a prisoner swap the details of which will be released on Thursday, U.S. officials told the Associated Press."I am blessed to announce that the nightmare is over, and my son is safely in American custody and on his way home," White's mother Joanne said in a statement. "I am incredibly grateful to the Administration, especially the team at the State Department for their work on Michael's case."The Navy veteran was on a Swiss government plane to Zurich as of Thursday morning, and from there he will be flown to the U.S. with the Trump administration's special envoy to Iran Brian Hook. Switzerland maintains an embassy in Tehran and often acts as a go-between for negotiations between Iran and the U.S.There are currently at least three other American citizens held in Iran.
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| Putin declines British invitation to take part in coronavirus summit: Kremlin Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:13 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to take part in an online summit on a possible coronavirus vaccine being organised by the British government this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Putin received an invitation to take part in the summit from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week, the Kremlin had said. Scheduled to take place on June 4, the Global Vaccine Summit 2020 is designed to mobilise resources needed to ensure universal availability of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
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| Trump fires back at Biden over speech criticising use of DC church and protest response Posted: 02 Jun 2020 01:21 PM PDT  Donald Trump fired back at Joe Biden after the former vice president sharply criticised his use of a Washington, DC, church as part of his announcement that he was deploying US military assets to combat protesters in the capital city."Sleepy Joe has been in politics for 40 years, and did nothing. Now he pretends to have the answers. He doesn't even know the questions," the president tweeted about six hours after Mr Biden gave one of the first major speeches of the 2020 general election.
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| NYPD Says Looters Are Stashing Bricks. Brooklyn Locals Say Otherwise Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:57 PM PDT  On Wednesday morning, New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot F. Shea tweeted a low-resolution video of an unidentified officer picking up blue plastic crates on a city street corner. The crates, which appeared to be filled with chunks of masonry, had apparently been left next to a garbage can near Avenue X and West 3rd Street in Gravesend, a neighborhood by the water on Brooklyn's south end that's been largely untouched by the protests elsewhere in the borough and the city."This is what our cops are up against: Organized looters, strategically placing caches of bricks & rocks at locations throughout NYC," Shea wrote. On Wednesday afternoon, the White House included that clip in a video compilation of footage it claimed showed "Antifa and professional anarchists... invading our communities."But Shea didn't explain why organized looters would have left bricks in a quiet, mostly residential Brooklyn neighborhood, and conversations with people who work and live in the area suggest the NYPD's Twitter bulletin threatened to stoke tensions for no reason.Cops Reclaim New York in Massive Show of ForceAn officer in Sector B of the 61st Precinct, which covers Gravesend, said he could not explain or discuss the details of the brick discoveries. NYPD coordinators for the neighborhood did not respond to requests for comment. A detective at the Office of the NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Public Information said he did not know anything about the incident. "The city is going through an unprecedented issue with looting and protesting," he told The Daily Beast. "The normal people who would answer your questions are out trying to protect the city. So that's why you're not getting answers to your questions."In the week of protests since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, cops and politicians alike have been quick to point to "organized looters" and "outside agitators" fomenting unrest. But the claims often come with little evidence, and seem to buckle under scrutiny. Last week, after NYPD vehicles were filmed driving into a crowd of protestors, Mayor Bill De Blasio claimed that "a small set of men… came to do violence in a systematic organized fashion." And there have been reports of protesters throwing bricks at police in New York. But New York City Council Member Mark Treyger, who represents the Gravesend area, disagreed with the idea that external troublemakers were making mischief in his turf. In a phone call with The Daily Beast, Treyger said he became aware of the discovery of containers of suspect materials at two locations in his district when a constituent messaged him over social media, and that he confirmed the finding with the 61st Precinct. However, Treyger said that the NYPD acknowledged to him the containers might simply contain construction debris. The councilman said that he had not seen protests in the area or any signs of organized looting—and pointed out that at least one set of the containers were found near a construction site, suggesting that the bricks came from there. He called his conclusion "simple math." "There is literally a construction site and construction fencing and signage. And they found five or six containers of what appears to me to be construction debris," Treyger told The Daily Beast. "I believe that [Shea's] tweet about my district is not responsible. Because he did not give the full set of facts and the full picture, especially when his own department says the discovery was still under investigation," Treyger added, warning that such rumors could cause division in the racially diverse neighborhood. "The police commissioner needs to be very mindful with his words, because they could incite violence."The commissioner's claims about the crates in Gravesend were especially remarkable because they were nowhere near the locus of protests Tuesday, which is when five employees of local businesses told The Daily Beast the bins were removed.Employees at two businesses—Knapp Pizza II and New Fortune Wine & Spirit—on the block in question told The Daily Beast police had removed the crates on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, Tuesday's protests in Brooklyn were centered closer to the Barclays Center, nearly five miles away. A woman who asked to be identified only as Sabrina R. said that the medical offices next to the apparent site of the bins did have security cameras, but that they were blocked from a view of the corner. An employee at nearby New Fortune Wine & Spirit said they had heard about the bricks, but had seen no protest. She said that while the store was outfitted with security cameras, that they belonged to the landlord, who could not be reached by press time.Violent Social-Distancing Arrest Videos Go Viral, Putting NYPD on DefensiveAt Smart Choice Pharmacy, which sits across from the site where the crates appeared to be collected, a staff member told The Daily Beast the street has been very quiet. "We haven't seen anything like that," she said. "It was very quiet yesterday. We didn't see anything like that… There was no protest in Gravesend last night." An employee at the Dunkin Donuts across the intersection from the site in question told The Daily Beast they had not noticed the bricks at all. An NYPD spokeswoman told the Daily Beast no complaint report had been filed about the containers. "No one called it in to complain," she said. "It wasn't taken as a complaint report… Because it's not a crime. [The crates were] just left there."In a media availability Wednesday morning, Commissioner Shea discussed the issue with Mayor De Blasio. "So in terms of the tweet today, unfortunately it's not an isolated incident," Shea said. "That was two locations, one was in Brooklyn, one was in Queens, where pre-staged bricks are being placed and then transported to quote unquote peaceful protests—which are peaceful protests—but then used by that criminal group within to sow fear." Shea did not provide any details on the incident in Queens or specify how NYPD had come to the conclusion that the debris containers were associated with protests, given that no major protests had been reported in that area. He did concede that they might have come from construction sites. "We've had construction sites burglarized in recent days in Manhattan," Shea said. "It's interesting. Construction site burglary is not that uncommon, but during a riot it's interesting what was taken—bricks." Shea also mentioned a pattern of protestors throwing water bottles filled with cement at police officers, but did not provide specific instances of when such incidents had occurred, or evidence that any of those had been "an orchestrated attack." "I do believe that the police commissioner needs to be clear in his messaging that this debris was found near a construction site," Council Member Treyger said. "And as of this afternoon, I have not heard of organized looting in my district."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Fox News host alludes to baseless conspiracy theory and calls George Floyd death 'a premeditated hit' that 'was executed extremely poorly' Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:48 PM PDT  Fox News host Jesse Watters outlined a baseless QAnon-backed theory that George Floyd was part of "a hit that was executed extremely poorly."
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| Ahmaud Arbery: White man 'used racial slur' after shooting black jogger Posted: 04 Jun 2020 10:36 AM PDT  Travis McMichael used the phrase while Ahmaud Arbery was on the ground, a Georgia court hears.
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| US suspends flights by Chinese airlines in new spat with Beijing Posted: 03 Jun 2020 05:04 PM PDT  Washington on Wednesday ordered the suspension of all flights by Chinese airlines into and out of the United States after Beijing failed to allow American carriers to resume services to China. The US action, which takes effect June 16 but could be implemented sooner if President Donald Trump orders it, applied to seven Chinese civilian carriers, although only four currently are running service to US cities including Air China and China Eastern Airlines, the Department of Transportation (DOT) said. US air carriers sharply reduced or suspended service to China amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| 2 dead after shooting at North Dakota air base Posted: 02 Jun 2020 02:12 PM PDT  A shooting on Monday left two airmen dead at the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, the military said. The base's emergency services members responded to the shooting, which occurred at 4:30 a.m. Officials said there is no risk to other personnel, and the shooting remains under investigation.
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| Ocasio-Cortez endorses challenger of House Dem chairman Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:29 PM PDT  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed the Democratic primary challenger of a veteran House committee chairman whose New York district is adjacent to her own, the progressive freshman's latest challenge to party leaders. Ocasio-Cortez, who in less than two years has shot from obscurity to one of Congress' most recognized names and faces, used a series of tweets late Wednesday to announce she was endorsing Jamaal Bowman, an educator.
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| New U.S. ban on Chinese airlines hurts Chinese students who were already struggling to get home Posted: 04 Jun 2020 10:08 AM PDT  The DOT has now banned Chinese airlines from the U.S., an added burden for Chinese students already stuck here because of their own government's policies.
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| Powerful video from 1986 resurfaces showing Biden’s passionate speech against apartheid Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:54 AM PDT  A powerful video of then-Senator Joe Biden speaking about apartheid South Africa has resurfaced.The clip, taken from C-Span coverage of a Senate committee in 1986, shows Mr Biden passionately speaking out in support of the majority black population of South Africa, and against the oppressive apartheid regime.
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| Amid Spreading George Floyd Protests in Europe, a Question: Do Black Lives Matter Less in France? Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:38 AM PDT  PARIS—The crowd that gathered in front of the city's main courthouse demanded justice for a black man who'd died at the hands of the police. They chanted, "We Can't Breathe" and brandished signs and scrawled graffiti slogans from the Black Lives Matter movement. The police used tear gas to disperse the largely peaceful protesters, and then small groups of troublemakers broke off to smash windows, bust up ATMs, and burn trash bins. Politicians and commentators took to the airwaves the next morning to trade accusations about who was at fault for the violence.It was a scene straight out of the United States right now, except that it happened in Paris, and the 20,000 people who gathered here Tuesday were commemorating not only George Floyd, but France's own victim of police violence: Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old construction worker, died in a police station after being arrested in 2016."My little brother's last words were 'I can't breathe,'" his sister Assa Traoré told the crowd through a megaphone. "They could have taken him to a hospital. They could have tried to save him. They didn't. They killed my little brother.''Crowds have gathered in London, Berlin and Amsterdam these past days to protest Floyd's death at the hands, or to be more precise, the knee, of a Minneapolis policeman on May 25. But while Tuesday night's turnout in Paris certainly was amplified by events across the Atlantic, it was also a stark reminder that France has its own issues of racism and police violence.What America Can Learn From Europe's Black BlocsWatching events unfold in the U.S. brings a certain sense of déja vu to anyone in France. The same dormant grievances. The same spark setting off nationwide protests. The same largely peaceful gatherings of people that turn violent. The same disagreement over whether agitators or police are to blame for the degeneration. The same vandals who take advantage to destroy property and go home with the latest flat screen TV.It happened in 2018, when protests by the so-called Gilets Jaunes, or Yellow Vests, brought much of France to a standstill and led to historic monuments being trashed in central Paris amid accusations of police violence. It happened in 2005 when French ghettos burned for three weeks after two boys died trying to escape a police ID check. To a lesser degree, it's happened with labor protests in the years in between, including last year's against raising the retirement age.Police violence and racism have been the subject of many French films, including Les Miserables, last year's candidate for best foreign film at the Oscars.The French government has been quick to try to dispel any thought that France's situation is anything like that of the United States. Sibeth Ndiaye, the government's spokesperson, said Tuesday that events in France and America "aren't comparable" and insisted "there's no institutionalized state violence in France.'' Many French would disagree. Indeed, resentment of the police may well be much more widespread, and among more varied parts of the population, than in the United States.France doesn't break out statistics by race, and the police don't publish detailed statistics about their activities, making comparisons with the U.S. difficult. The lack of transparency is one reason journalist David Dufresne became known nationwide during the Gilets Jaunes protests for using his @davduf Twitter account to publish accusations of police violence. The numerous testimonies he received led to a book.The percentage of French who expressed confidence in the police dropped 8 points to 66 percent in this year's annual poll by an institute linked to the Sciences Po university in Paris. That's way below the level in Britain and Germany. Chloe Morin, a researcher with the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, said one result of the Gilets Jaunes protests is that dislike of the police, which used to be largely limited to visible minorities, is now shared by wide swaths of white France. "In the U.S., the bad relations are specific to certain places and certain populations,'' she told The Daily Beast. "In France, between the Gilets Jaunes, the ghettos, and now last year's pension protests, you have three groups who feel humiliated by the police.'' The Gilets Jaunes were largely white and rural. They initially blocked roundabouts across France to protest new taxes on gasoline, in their view imposed by an ecologically obsessed government that didn't understand that outside of Paris people actually have to drive. The protests spread across the country and turned violent when they were joined by groups unhappy with everything from purchasing power to President Emmanuel Macron's haughty style. Self-declared antifa and anarchist elements also joined in. The momentum of the movement only trailed off when Macron rolled back the gas tax and threw lots of money at various other grievances, and the pandemic lockdown seemed to put an definitive end to it. (The public health emergency was the reason police gave on Tuesday for breaking up the demonstration.)There was also an anti-immigrant element to some Gilets Jaunes, which explains why much of black and Arab France sat out the protests. France's so-called banlieues, immigrant-heavy suburbs and exurbs, have been largely calm since the 2005 riots, which led to then President Jacques Chirac declaring a state of emergency for the first time since the Algerian War.The cynical explanations about why the banlieues haven't exploded again, even though the job situation and relations with the police have not improved, is that the drug dealers and Islamist ideologues who often hold sway don't want any trouble. France's extensive social net has certainly helped as well. It hasn't been for lack of incidents. Traoré died in a police station after being tackled when he fled a police identity check. The police had come to arrest his brother, but Adama ran because he apparently didn't have his papers on him. Four years later, conflicting medical reports still haven't settled whether he died from the way he was treated by police or because of an underlying heart condition. "These images of Floyd horrified us, but what we denounce with such vehemence in the U.S. happens here in France, even worse,'' Adama's sister Assa said on BFMTV Tuesday. "In the U.S., the police were fired, here they received medals.'' 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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| Gov. Cuomo apologizes to NYPD brass after critical 'do your job' comments, chief says Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:50 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo apologized privately to top New York City Police administrators after ripping their response to rioters as a "disgrace."
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| Minneapolis Police union president said he has been involved in three shootings, 'and not one of them has bothered' him Posted: 02 Jun 2020 11:07 PM PDT  Lt. Bob Kroll said in an April interview that he and the majority of Minneapolis Police Officers' Federation's board have been involved in police shootings.
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| German police say Madeleine McCann is dead Posted: 04 Jun 2020 08:33 AM PDT 
Madeleine McCann, the British girl who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 aged just three, is dead, a German prosecutor said Thursday (June 4). He identified an imprisoned German child abuser as the prime murder suspect. McCann vanished from her bedroom during a family holiday in the Algarve. Her parents were dining with friends nearby in the resort of Praia da Luz. Her disappearance sparked an international search, with many false leads and claimed sightings of the girl over the 13-year hunt. This appears to be the most significant breakthrough yet. The suspect, who wasn't named, is German, 43 years old, and lived near Praia da Luz at the time. He burgled hotels and holiday flats and dealt drugs, police said. They believe he made a spontaneous decision to kill the little girl during a break-in of the holiday apartment. This was prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters: (SOUNDBITE) (German) BRAUNSCHWEIG STATE PROSECUTOR, HANS CHRISTIAN WOLTERS, SAYING: "The accused has multiple previous convictions of sexual crimes. He had already been sentenced for sexual abuse of children. He is currently serving a longer prison sentence for other offences. Between 1995 and 2007 the accused regularly lived on the Algarve, among other places for some years in a house located between Lagos and Praia da Luz." German police said they'd worked out how McCann was murdered, though no body has been found. British police are still calling it a missing person inquiry. Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, said in a statement they'd never give up on finding their daughter alive. But whatever the outcome, quote, "we need to know, as we need to find peace."
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| Walmart removes guns and ammunition from the sales floor of some stores amid protests Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:44 AM PDT  Customers can still purchase guns and ammunition, but they are no longer publicly displayed, Walmart told Business Insider.
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| Court in Crimea jails second Jehovah's Witness for six years Posted: 04 Jun 2020 10:42 AM PDT |
| Army: Esper reverses plan to send active-duty troops home Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:35 AM PDT |
| China says US trade sanctions on Hong Kong violate WTO rules Posted: 04 Jun 2020 04:07 AM PDT  Washington's decision to strip Hong Kong of its special trading status violates rules of the World Trade Organization, China said Thursday. President Donald Trump announced Friday that the US will revoke special trading privileges granted to Hong Kong, after Beijing moved to tighten its grip on the semi-autonomous city with plans to impose a national security law. Removing the special status would affect a bilateral extradition treaty, commercial relations and export controls between the US and the Asian financial hub.
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| Cars Most Likely to Need a Transmission Replacement Posted: 04 Jun 2020 07:33 AM PDT  Drivers naturally become concerned about reliability as a car ages, since the risk of inconvenience and unexpected expenses rises while the miles rack up. Most modern cars can make it to 200,000 ...
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| Brazil, Mexico suffer record daily rise in coronavirus deaths Posted: 04 Jun 2020 03:35 AM PDT  Brazil and Mexico suffered a record rise in daily coronavirus deaths amid fears Latin America is reopening too soon. On Wednesday, Mexico reported a daily death toll that exceeded 1,000 for the first time since the outbreak began, while Brazil announced 1,349 deaths for the day, a record for the country. Both nations now rank in the top ten countries that have suffered the highest number of fatalities, but there is grave concern that, unlike their European counterparts, Latin nations have yet to reach the peak of the epidemic. Countries in Europe are beginning to emerge from their lockdowns, with borders reopening and people returning to work. But in South America, new hotspots are emerging and hospitals are threatened to be overwhelmed.
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| Pompeo aide tried to 'bully' ex-State Department watchdog and stop probe in Saudi arms deal, Dems say Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:26 AM PDT  The State Department's inspector general is probing two highly contentious allegations that touch on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's actions.
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| Minneapolis woman recalls run-in with officer charged in George Floyd killing: 'I lived to complain' Posted: 04 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  The woman detained by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in 2007 remembers being "dragged" away from her crying newborn and yelping dog. Chauvin was disciplined over the incident.
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| New York police take seconds to restore reputation for brutality Posted: 04 Jun 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Driving vehicles into protesters demanding justice for George Floyd earned the backing of the mayor, but of few others * George Floyd killing – latest US updates * See all our George Floyd coverageIt doesn't take long to blow up a reputation. In the case of the New York police department, an institution with an already troubled history, the clip lasted all of 27 seconds.It showed an NYPD vehicle in Brooklyn lined up against a metal barricade behind which protesters were chanting during Saturday's demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd. Projectiles were thrown on to the roof of the car, then suddenly a second police SUV drew up alongside and instead of stopping continued to plough straight into the crowd.Seconds later the first vehicle lurched forward, knocking the barrier over and with it propelling several protesters to the ground amid a harrowing chorus of shrieking.A 27-second video, now viewed more than 30m times, had quickly shredded years of effort to repair the deeply tarnished image of the NYPD. New York's "finest" were firmly cast in a role normally reserved for the security corps of petty dictators.The shocking video was compounded hours later when the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, spoke about the incident. A politician who won election in 2013 largely on a promise to reform the NYPD and scrap its racially discriminatory stop-and-frisk policy, astounded even his closest supporters when he defended the police.De Blasio said: "I do believe the NYPD has acted appropriately."Social media lit up. Was it appropriate to drive those two SUVs into the crowd? Was it appropriate for an NYPD officer forcibly to remove the coronavirus mask of a black protester whose arms were raised in the air, then pepper-spray his face?Was it appropriate for another officer to tell a protester to get off the street, then physically shove her several feet towards the curb where she landed on her head? Or that the police officers involved in the pepper spray incident had covered their badge numbers, presumably to avoid having to answer for their actions. Or to beat a nurse walking home from a shift at a hospital?The clashes between New York's police and its protesters have reverberated around the city. The largest police force in the US, with its $5.6bn annual budget and 36,000 uniformed officers under the leadership of one of the most progressive mayors in the country, has responded to demonstrations about police brutality with more police brutality.The Black, Latino and Asian Caucus of the city council, which makes up more than half of the legislative body, was swift and devastating in its criticism. In a statement, it said that the NYPD had acted "with aggression towards New Yorkers who vigorously and vociferously but nonetheless peacefully advocated for justice".Adrienne Adams, co-chair of the caucus, told the Guardian the NYPD had tried to suppress legitimate anger felt by African American and other minority communities following years of police abuse. "We cannot allow people who have kept people of color down for decades to say now that we don't have the right to display our outrage," she said.Though that sentiment applies nationwide, Adams believes New York stands out as having a "horrible history of police brutality". It was the NYPD that set the tone, she said, when Daniel Pantaleo, the officer implicated in the 2014 death by chokehold of Eric Garner in Staten Island, avoided prosecution."When nothing happened to the police officers who were responsible for the death of Eric Garner, New York set the blueprint for what happened to George Floyd," she said. "There's no penalty, no consequence, so it's OK."Adams's framing of the Garner killing could equally be applied to a long string of notorious episodes of police misconduct that preceded it. In 1997, Haitian immigrant Abner Louima was handcuffed by an NYPD officer and sexually assaulted with a broken broomstick.Two years later, Amadou Diallo was shot near his home in a hail of 41 bullets after officers mistook his wallet for a gun. In an echo of that event, an unarmed Sean Bell was shot 50 times in Queens on the morning of his wedding in 2006 – it took six years for the NYPD detective who opened the fusillade to be chucked off the force while nobody has ever been convicted of any crime.In the policing of protest, the NYPD also has a contentious track record. In 2004 it rounded up more than 1,800 peaceful protesters rallying outside the Republican National Convention during the re-election bid of George W Bush and herded them into overcrowded pens on Pier 57 in Manhattan. In 2011 it was similarly criticized for heavy-handed tactics during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.Cutting across all this, the force has consistently targeted its efforts on neighborhoods of the city with majority black or Latino populations, straying at times into overt racial profiling. Though stop and frisk has been reined back in recent years, the NYPD continues to heavily and disproportionately police those communities despite a historically low homicide rate.Despite this long legacy of overreach, the force continues to be systemically resistant to public oversight. Under Section 50-A of New York state law, the disciplinary files of police officers are largely held in secret, making the task of holding them accountable almost impossible.Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney at the Cop Accountability Project (CAP) within the Legal Aid Society, told the Guardian that there were currently more than 200 police officers still being employed by the NYPD on full pay who should have been considered for termination following reports of misconduct.Data collected by CAP shows that where cases of misconduct arise they often involve escalation of low-level encounters into aggressive confrontations – something officers are supposed to be trained not to do. The project is currently litigating the case of Tomas Medina who was put in a chokehold and Tasered in 2018 after police were called to a complaint about loud music being played.Eric Garner's fatal arrest was triggered by him allegedly selling single cigarettes.Although the use of chokeholds has been banned in New York, the project has found that between 2015 and 2018 the city settled 30 lawsuits involving NYPD use of the potentially lethal maneuver.Wong believes such endemic deployment of excessive force has spilled over into the NYPD's handling of the George Floyd protests. She was present at a peaceful protest in Brooklyn that suddenly turned volatile not because of the behavior of protesters but by a sudden change of tack on the part of the police."In a split second, the NYPD snapped and engaged in over-aggressive enforcement. They escalated it from 0 to 10 out of nowhere, arresting people and wielding their batons."If there has been unrestrained use of batons in the city, it would be with the full approval of Ed Mullins, the provocative president of one of the main police unions, the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA). He wrote to members urging "each and every one of you to report for duty with your helmet and baton and do not hesitate to utilize that equipment in securing your personal safety".The sister Police Benevolent Association of New York City has also spoken to its members in inflammatory terms about them being "under attack by violent, organized terrorists while New York City council and other politicians sit at home demanding we 'de-escalate'".There is no denying that the NYPD faces difficult challenges in the policing of mass protests, especially late at night when violent outbreaks have erupted as they did on Monday in Manhattan and the Bronx. Fires were started in the street and stores looted.For Eugene O'Donnell, a former NYPD officer and prosecutor in Brooklyn and Queens who is now a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Monday night's spectacle of looting along Fifth Avenue amounted to a collapse of policing in the city."This weekend, the job of police officer in New York became officially impossible when the police abolitionists won. They have created a model of zero tolerance towards force being used and any injuries being inflicted, and that's absurd."O'Donnell said the same pattern is repeating itself across America. "In city after city, the police were abolished this weekend. They stood back and watched as damage was inflicted that was irreversible."
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| 'You will move, or you will die': A frightened truck driver's widely shared Facebook post says truckers will 'defend themselves' by running over protesters Posted: 02 Jun 2020 11:38 AM PDT  "Air horns will sound, steering wheels will be held tightly, but those brakes will not be touched," the truck driver wrote.
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| Why The Middle East Fears Russia's Alpha Group Commandos Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:41 AM PDT  A 2018 report recommended just that.
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| Virginia governor to announce removal of Lee statue Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:12 PM PDT  Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to announce plans Thursday to remove one of the country's most iconic monuments to the Confederacy, a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee along Richmond's prominent Monument Avenue, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. The move would be an extraordinary victory for civil rights activists, whose calls for the removal of that monument and others in this former capital of the Confederacy have been resisted for years. "That is a symbol for so many people, black and otherwise, of a time gone by of hate and oppression and being made to feel less than," said Del. Jay Jones, a black lawmaker from Norfolk.
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| Coronavirus: Trump says Republicans 'forced' to move convention Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:31 AM PDT  The president said North Carolina refused to guarantee there would be no coronavirus restrictions.
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| UK COVID-19 death toll surpasses 50,000: Reuters tally Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:37 AM PDT  The United Kingdom's COVID-19 death toll surpassed 50,000 on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally of official data sources that highlighted the country's place as one of the worst hit in the world. New data from Scotland brought the toll to 50,059, a dire milestone for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he tries to ease the stringent coronavirus lockdown. The figure is the highest in Europe and puts the UK behind only the much larger United States in a pandemic that has killed more than 379,000 people around the world.
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| Esper, on thin ice with the White House, reverses decision on troop deployments Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:25 AM PDT  The Pentagon chief irritated the president when he complained about deploying active-duty soldiers.
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| Uphill task for Taliban as virus spreads in militant bastions Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:53 PM PDT  The Taliban boasted of their readiness to fight the deadly coronavirus when it first reached Afghanistan, but now the insurgents are struggling to curb its spread in their strongholds. For months, Habib Rahman, a resident of a Taliban-controlled area in the south of the country, has been unable to test whether his persistent cough is due to the virus. "I have a cough, fever and chest pain," said Rahman, 32, who owns a grocery store in Helmand province.
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| What we know about George Floyd's death and alleged counterfeit money in Minneapolis Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:33 PM PDT  A $20 bill with ink reportedly running launched the arrest and death of George Floyd and subsequent protests and riots across the nation.
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| Brazil is easing restrictions even though coronavirus deaths are at their highest, with President Bolsonaro saying death is 'everyone's destiny' Posted: 04 Jun 2020 05:24 AM PDT  COVID-19 deaths in Brazil reached record highs on Tuesday and Wednesday. Its president has so far refused to take the illness seriously.
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| At It Again: Russia's Black Sea Fleet Conducts Fresh Exercises Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:42 AM PDT  Deterrence never stops.
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| Magnitude 5.5 quake hits shaky California desert region Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:54 PM PDT |
| George Floyd protests: All four former police officers face new charges as demonstrations continue nationwide Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:50 PM PDT  Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has announced new charges against all four former officers involved in the death of George Floyd.The attorney general announced charges against Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J Alexander Kueng, the three officers seen alongside Derek Chauvin, an officer who kneeled on Mr Floyd's neck for over eight minutes before his death, according to charging documents.
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| Robert E Lee statue: Virginia governor announces removal of monument Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:18 AM PDT  Virginia's governor says the monument to the Confederate general will be taken down in Richmond.
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| Germany finally splurges, but not without fresh criticism Posted: 04 Jun 2020 03:37 AM PDT  Under pressure from its European peers for years to spend more, Germany has finally served up a bumper stimulus package financed with new debt, but Berlin's rediscovered love to splurge is causing fresh unease among its neighbours. Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition presented stimulus measures worth 130 billion euros ($146 billion) late on Wednesday to speed up the recovery of Europe's largest economy from the coronavirus pandemic. The package of extra spending and tax cuts is equivalent to roughly 4% of Germany's expected economic output in 2020, increasing its overall discretionary national fiscal push to 14%.
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| Protests planned in OC, including 4 in Newport Beach Posted: 03 Jun 2020 05:53 AM PDT  Protests over the death of George Floyd and police violence are expected to be held in Orange County as demonstrations continue in Southern California.
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| Police handcuff people apparently trying to protect LA store Posted: 02 Jun 2020 04:45 PM PDT  A local reporter on the scene argued with police, telling them the people they were cuffing were not looters.
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