| Former Justice Department official says Trump is 'basically calling for the shooting of protesters' Posted: 29 May 2020 01:43 PM PDT  Vanita Gupta, head of the department's Civil Rights Division in the Obama administration, said the Minneapolis Police Department was on her "radar" during her tenure.
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| Lessons from Japan on containing coronavirus could help U.S. reopen safely Posted: 29 May 2020 09:01 AM PDT  In many ways, Japan's experience of the coronavirus pandemic has paralleled America's, and yet Japan's outbreak has stalled — at much lower levels of infection and death.
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| How should the U.S. respond to China's Hong Kong power grab? Posted: 29 May 2020 12:46 PM PDT  The Chinese government passed a law giving it sweeping new powers to stamp out dissent on the semiautonomous island of Hong Kong. Should the U.S. and others nations push back?
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| NASA is broadcasting live radio chatter from the astronauts on Saturday's historic SpaceX launch. Here's how to listen. Posted: 30 May 2020 10:25 AM PDT  Listen to the NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon as they launch into orbit.
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| Cuomo says N.Y. attorney general will review night of violent protests Posted: 30 May 2020 09:23 AM PDT  Violent clashes between police and civilians took place during protests in Brooklyn on Friday.
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| India extends lockdown in high-risk zones, to allow partial reopening elsewhere Posted: 30 May 2020 02:35 AM PDT  India extended its coronavirus lockdown until June 30 in high-risk zones but permitted restaurants, malls and religious buildings to reopen elsewhere from June 8 despite a record high number of cases detected nationwide on Saturday. The home ministry ordered state governments and local authorities to identify "containment zones", or areas that should remain under lockdown, as they continue to report high number of infections. India reported a record daily jump of 7,964 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday and has so far recorded 173,763 positive cases and 4,971 deaths, making the world's second-most populous country ninth on the list of most infections, Reuters data showed.
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| Denmark and Norway cut coronavirus-hit Sweden out of free travel deal Posted: 29 May 2020 08:21 AM PDT  The governments of Denmark and Norway have cut Sweden out of a deal allowing each other's tourists to travel freely between the two countries — citing their Nordic neighbour's higher levels of coronavirus infection. The deal, announced at parallel press conferences in Oslo and Copenhagen on Friday afternoon, showed Sweden has failed in its diplomatic efforts to be included in the first stage of a Nordic travel bubble. Under the deal, people from Denmark will from June 15 be allowed to enter Norway without needing to quarantine, while tourists from Norway will be able to enter Denmark, so long as they have booked accommodation for at least six days. As she announced the agreement, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen acknowledged that it would be difficult for many Swedes. "Danes and Swedes have family, lovers, and holiday homes across the border," she said. "Denmark and Sweden are at different places in relation to the coronavirus [epidemic], and this has a bearing on what we can decide in relation to the border."
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| Minneapolis police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck had 18 previous internal complaints against him Posted: 29 May 2020 12:09 AM PDT  The Minneapolis police officer who was filmed kneeling on George Floyd's neck for several minutes even as he said "I can't breathe" has previously been the subject of multiple complaints filed to the Minneapolis Police Department's Internal Affairs Division, it has emerged.Mr Chauvin, who has been fired along with the other three police officers who apprehended Mr Floyd, was reported to the division 18 times. According to a police summary, only two of the complaints were "closed with discipline".
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| Trump’s campaign tries to recapture its magic on the virtual campaign trail. Will it succeed? Posted: 30 May 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Trump's virtual campaign rallies feature a 3D animated venue designed to make a big splash, in contrast to Biden's rec room. But Biden is still ahead in the polls.
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| Sen. Ron Johnson releases transcripts of Michael Flynn's calls with Russian ambassador Posted: 29 May 2020 03:21 PM PDT  Phone conversations between then-incoming White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russian Amb, Sergey Kislyak were used as part of the Russia collusion investigation; David Spunt reports.
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| SpaceX successfully launches Nasa astronauts into orbit Posted: 30 May 2020 01:18 PM PDT  * Donald Trump and Mike Pence witness launch in Florida * First attempt was cancelled minutes from blast-offA rocketship named Dragon breathed new fire into America's human spaceflight programme on Saturday, carrying two astronauts on a much-anticipated adventure.The launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon crew capsule from Florida's Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station (ISS) marked the first time since 2011 that humans had blasted off into orbit from US soil.Equally significant, it heralded a new direction for crewed spaceflight, entrepreneur Elon Musk's company SpaceX becoming the first commercial operator to carry astronauts into space under a public-private partnership set up by Nasa, the American space agency, in 2010.Dragon, atop the powerful nine-engine Falcon rocket, lifted from the launchpad on schedule at 3.22pm ET, creating thick plumes of smoke and fire as it climbed over the Atlantic. "Thank you for the first human ride for Falcon 9," co-commander Doug Hurley said from the flight deck after Dragon reached orbit. "It was incredible … appreciate all the hard work and thanks for the great ride to space."As on Wednesday, when the first attempt at launch was postponed with 17 minutes on the countdown clock, mission managers played cat and mouse with the weather, facing only a 50% chance of a "go" at daybreak, when thunderstorms, lightning and low clouds stalked Cape Canaveral. This time they caught a break.The Falcon rocket booster, as has become almost routine for SpaceX, returned to Earth after first-stage separation and landed successfully on a recovery ship in the Atlantic for use on a future mission.The capsule reached orbit 12 minutes later, and will spend 19 hours chasing the space station 250 miles above the planet before docking on Sunday. Hurley and Bob Behnken, veterans of space shuttle missions, will join their Nasa colleague Chris Cassidy, already resident with two Russian cosmonauts aboard the ISS.As a test mission paving the way for regular flights of Dragon later this year, every aspect of the spacecraft's performance will be analyzed by SpaceX engineers. Behnken and Hurley will remain in orbit for up to 120 days."It's been way too long," Jim Bridenstine, the Nasa administrator, said of the launch. "It was just an amazing day. I'm breathing a sigh of relief but I won't be celebrating until Bob and Doug are home safely."Although the public was urged to watch the launch remotely because of coronavirus restrictions, Donald Trump and his wife Melania, and Vice-President Mike Pence, attended in person. Trump has made space a priority through the foundation of space force as a branch of the US military, independent of Nasa, and the unveiling of his America First National Space Strategy.He has also directed Nasa to land humans on the moon by 2024, for the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972, although the agency's deep-space Artemis program is many months behind schedule and over budget.Some analysts, see Trump as seeking to exploit space programs set in motion before his presidency for political gain, channeling a message of US global supremacy even amid a pandemic to which his response has been roundly criticized.Saturday's flight was groundbreaking. The four-seat, touch-screen technology Dragon capsule is a 21st-century spacecraft bearing little resemblance to the largely mechanical Apollo capsules of the 1960s and Nasa's fleet of space shuttle orbiters.The crew eschewed the "tin-can" Astrovan that has been the crew transport since the US began sending humans into space in 1961, traveling to the launchpad in electric cars manufactured by Tesla, another Musk company, listening to music by AC/DC.Their pressurized flight suits, partly designed by Musk himself, look like "something out the Jetsons" according to Leland Melvin, a former shuttle astronaut.Some traditions remain. Dragon fired off from launchpad 39A, site of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's blast-off to the moon in 1969, the first flight of the space shuttle Columbia in 1981 and also the most recent crewed Nasa flight, the 2011 launch of the orbiter Atlantis, piloted by Hurley.The launch is another milestone for SpaceX, Musk's company, which has been ferrying cargo to the ISS aboard uncrewed spacecraft. One of two contractors under Nasa's $6.2bn commercial crew program, SpaceX stole a march on Boeing by completing an uncrewed abort test in January. Boeing's Starliner capsule suffered an in-flight anomaly during its test flight in December. Future launch dates are under review."It's really hard to believe this is real," Musk, the billionaire PayPal founder who doubles as the California-based company's chief engineer, said before Wednesday's launch attempt."This is a dream come true for me and everyone at SpaceX, the result of a tremendous number of smart people working tremendously hard to make this day happen."SpaceX has overcome challenges of its own. A Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed in a ground test explosion at Cape Canaveral in April 2019 and in 2015, a Falcon rocket blew up 139 seconds into flight. On Friday, a prototype of its next-generation Starship spacecraft exploded during a ground test in Texas."The joke we make is that at Nasa, failure is not an option," said Jeff Hoffman, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a former Nasa astronaut."But at SpaceX failure is how they learn, how they get things right. And that's been one of the ways that Musk has been able to make the progress and carry out the innovation that SpaceX has brought about."The age of the public-private partnership in spaceflight is here. Whether Nasa is going to save a lot of money by paying SpaceX rather than paying the Russians, that's not clear. But the money is staying in the US. And for strategic and geopolitical reasons it's good to have our own human launch capability."Since 2011, Nasa has been forced to rely on the Russian space agency, purchasing seats aboard ageing Soyuz spacecraft for up to $85m apiece. If this mission, known formally as SpaceX Demo-2, is successful, all that has changed.
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| The reality of the 'new cold war' with China Posted: 29 May 2020 02:45 AM PDT  It's a good time to be a China hawk. Beijing's new national security law for Hong Kong, the latest effort to neuter the region's promised autonomy, has rung alarm bells across the political spectrum about China's intentions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has already declared that the move would justify revoking the various special trade and financial agreements the United States has with the territory, and Biden advisers have announced that the presumptive Democratic nominee would impose even greater sanctions on China. While America's options for helping the people of Hong Kong are distinctly limited, that's unlikely to stop us from trying, even if an ineffectual move could backfire. The logic of confrontation appears to be taking over.It's important, though, to understand why.The "great unwinding" of America's economic entanglement with China has deep causes, and, more proximately, the novel coronavirus has revealed in stark terms how important it is from a national security perspective for the United States to reduce its outright dependence on the People's Republic. But that process need not lead to confrontation — indeed, it would be perfectly compatible with a policy of global retreat that would probably make China feel more secure.On the other side, the nature of China's regime has indeed been changing dramatically under Xi Jinping, becoming more nationalistic and repressive as well as less institutional, with power increasingly concentrated in a single leader's hands. But that process also need not lead to conflict — indeed, at the time of Nixon's opening to China, when Mao was in his final years, the communist country was far more insular and repressive, and its political system far more personalized, than it is today.What's truly different, and the necessary additional element that explains the "new cold war" that may be aborning, is the sheer scope of Chinese power. China has now grown sufficiently potent for it to reasonably expect to be able to shape the international order to its liking, and not merely thrive within it as it exists. That expectation would be alarming to the United States even if China were not increasingly repressive, and even if America had not allowed itself to be vulnerable to supply chain disruption.Consider the situation in Hong Kong. Imagine that China, instead of using a hammer on all visible nails, used softer tactics to woo Hong Kong's citizens over to a more complaisant stance, as it had been doing for years prior. Suppose, similarly, that rather than bullying Taiwan, Beijing put the bulk of its efforts into corrupting the island's political system — as, again, it has to some extent done. Suppose these efforts began to bear fruit, to the point that Taipei began to distance itself from Washington in an effort to avoid angering Beijing, and the prospect of reunification was in the air. Suppose that South Korea followed suit. Would the United States view these events with equanimity?Of course not. They would be obvious signs of dramatically weakened American clout in Asia. Moreover, they would materially weaken our military position in the case of a future confrontation with China. And that possibility could never be ruled out, even if China's regime at that moment were less-confrontational.Or consider the ongoing conflict with Europe over Huawei, China's 5G powerhouse. The United States is legitimately concerned for national security reasons about the prospect of a Chinese company becoming dominant in this area, because of the opportunities for espionage. But those concerns — along with the concerns about future Western dependence on Chinese technology in this area, as well as other areas like artificial intelligence — would obtain even if China were less-overtly truculent and bullying. After all, alarm bells were rung in the 1980s over increasing Japanese dominance in high technology, and Japan was an American ally with a pacifistic constitution. How could we not be more alarmed by the rise of a much larger China to something approaching peer-competitor status?In international affairs, intentions are important, but capabilities matter more. That's a tragic reality that Thucydides identified as a key cause of the ruinous Peloponnesian War, and that in modern times paved the way for World War I. The rise of China makes the United States more vulnerable — economically and militarily. We'd need to worry about those vulnerabilities even if China were more benevolent than it now appears, because there could be no guarantee that they would remain benevolent. Indeed, we're observing that transformation in China right now, and ruing the degree to which we have already allowed ourselves to give ground.China's turn to authoritarianism may well make it easier for us to pursue a policy of confrontation — easier to accumulate allies abroad as well as easier to justify ideologically at home — just as the Trump administration's full-spectrum obnoxious incompetence makes it harder. It may also make it seem necessary, since Beijing has closed off many other possible avenues to coexistence. But perceived lack of choice is precisely what leads to tragedy.Because however much we say that we have no quarrel with the Chinese people, all our efforts to respond to our vulnerability will be aimed at constraining their power. We're not trying to preserve a balance of power, after all, however much we may tell ourselves that we are. We're trying to preserve an American preponderance of power. If we choose that path, we should expect China to respond the way we would to efforts to impose such constraints on us, and prepare accordingly.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com Amy Klobuchar didn't prosecute officer at center of George Floyd's death Minnesota governor says Trump's Minneapolis tweets are 'just not helpful' 'A riot is the language of the unheard,' Martin Luther King Jr. explained 53 years ago
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| Minnesota Riots Hurt Klobuchar’s VP Nomination Prospects, According to Biden Ally Posted: 29 May 2020 03:06 PM PDT  The ongoing riots in Minnesota hurt Senator Amy Klobuchar's prospects for Democratic nomination as vice president, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D., S.C.) said on Friday.Klobuchar declined to bring charges against multiple Minneapolis police officers involved in shootings over the course of her seven-year tenure as attorney for Hennepin County. Minneapolis has seen four days of riots after resident George Floyd, an African-American man, died following his arrest at the hands of white officers."We are all victims sometimes of timing….This is very tough timing for Amy Klobuchar, who I respect so much," Clyburn told reporters. When asked directly if Klobuchar's chances at the nomination were diminished, Clyburn said, "that is the implication, yes," although he added that Klobuchar "absolutely is qualified" to be vice president.Clyburn is the highest-ranking African American member of Congress, and was instrumental in Biden's victory over Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in the Democratic primaries. Following Clyburn's endorsement of Biden, the former vice president received overwhelming support from African American primary voters.Biden on Friday denied that his campaign's vice presidential nomination process was affected by the Minnesota riots."What we are talking about today has nothing to do with my running for president or who I pick as a vice president," Biden told MSNBC. "It has to do with an injustice that we all saw take place."Klobuchar has expressed regret for not prosecuting police officers accused of offenses, instead opting to send the cases to grand juries."I think that was wrong now," Klobuchar said in a Friday interview on MSNBC. "I think it would have been much better if I took the responsibility and looked at the cases and made the decision myself."
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| Israel police kill Palestinian they mistakenly thought was armed Posted: 30 May 2020 12:53 PM PDT  Israeli police in annexed east Jerusalem on Saturday shot dead a disabled Palestinian they mistakenly thought was armed with a pistol, prompting furious condemnation from the Palestinians. The incident happened in the alleys of the walled Old City near Lions' Gate, an access point mainly used by Palestinians. "Police units on patrol there spotted a suspect with a suspicious object that looked like a pistol," an Israeli police statement said.
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| Italy records 111 new coronavirus deaths, 416 new cases Posted: 30 May 2020 09:31 AM PDT  Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 111 on Saturday, against 87 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases fell to 416 from 516 on Friday.
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| ‘If you can say you can’t breathe, you’re breathing’: Mississippi mayor faces backlash over George Floyd comments Posted: 29 May 2020 04:14 PM PDT  A mayor in Mississippi is facing fierce backlash and calls to resign after saying that he "didn't see anything unreasonable" about the death of George Floyd.Mr Floyd, who was black, died while in police custody in Minneapolis after a white officer was filmed pinned him to the ground by his neck for a prolonged period of time.
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| Transcripts released of Flynn's calls with Russian diplomat Posted: 29 May 2020 02:38 PM PDT  Transcripts of phone calls that played a pivotal role in the Russia investigation were declassified and released Friday, showing that Michael Flynn, as an adviser to then-President-elect Donald Trump, urged Russia's ambassador to be "even-keeled" in response to punitive Obama administration measures, and assured him "we can have a better conversation" about relations between the two countries after Trump became president. Democrats said the transcripts showed that Flynn had lied to the FBI when he denied details of the conversation, and that he was undercutting a sitting president while ingratiating himself with a country that had just interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
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| Laura Ingraham to Black Americans: Trump Understands Police Violence Because of Russia Probe Posted: 28 May 2020 08:41 PM PDT  Fox News host Laura Ingraham attempted to explain to African-Americans on Thursday night that President Donald Trump can empathize with inequality and police brutality due to his "own experience" with federal investigators during the Russia probe.With protests raging across the nation over the death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis police custody, Ingraham lectured protesters over the demonstrations devolving into violence and looting. After chastising the non-Fox media for supposedly fanning racial flames over the police killing and subsequent protests, Ingraham then decided to address the black community as a whole to tell them how they should properly protest the killing of George Floyd."Now, I'm not going to pretend for a millisecond to know what it's like to be a black person in America," she said. "I don't. But the only thing I do know is that we all need to do better."Reiterating that we need to "do better," the conservative Fox News host—who once told LeBron James to "shut up and dribble"—said the "real change agents in America are those who stay in their communities and build them up, not burn them down" before invoking a civil rights icon."Rosa Parks is a beloved, global symbol of freedom and justice because of the determination and dignity to which she carried out her civil disobedience," she said. "Would burning a store have been more powerful and transformative? I don't think so."Without skipping a beat, the pro-Trump Fox star then referenced the president's anger at the FBI and Justice Department during the Russia investigation to let black people know Trump understands their experience."And to our African-American fellow citizens, I say this: Given his own experience with an out-of-control FBI and unfair investigation, given all the work on criminal justice reform, President Trump knows how poisonous and out-of-control law enforcement process can be," Ingraham proudly declared, concluding her mini-monologue.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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| GOP eyes flipping Michigan senate seat Posted: 29 May 2020 10:27 PM PDT  As Republicans work to maintain their control of the Senate in November, they're looking to flip seats in some key battleground states. That includes Michigan, where two challengers are looking to unseat incumbent Democratic Senator Gary Peters. Riley Beggin, a political reporter for Bridge Magazine, spoke with CBS News about the contest.
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| How to watch the SpaceX Crew Dragon launch Posted: 30 May 2020 01:24 PM PDT  Watch live as two NASA astronauts lift off aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon, ushering in a new era for the U.S. space program.
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| The U.S. Might Revoke Hong Kong's 'Special Status.' Here's What That Means for Business in the Global Financial Hub Posted: 28 May 2020 11:44 PM PDT  Hong Kong risks becoming a casualty in the emerging cold war between Washington and Beijing
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| India announces major easing of coronavirus lockdown Posted: 30 May 2020 09:37 AM PDT |
| Thirteen years later, mother of Fort Drum soldier found dead after disappearing from bar seeks answers Posted: 30 May 2020 08:09 AM PDT  Patrick Rust, 24, was last seen on March 16, 2007, at a bar in Watertown, New York, called "Clueless." The soldier had just finished two tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was stationed in New York at Fort Drum and had just received news he was being assigned to Fort Lewis, Washington, where he'd be trained to become a staff sergeant. Six months later, a farmer found Patrick's skeletal remains in a field about five miles from the bar. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is inves
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| A Tennessee police chief had a message for fellow law enforcement: turn in your badge if 'you don't have an issue' with George Floyd's death Posted: 30 May 2020 10:18 AM PDT  David Roddy's tweet about police brutality has garnered over 159,000 retweets. He has been part of the Chattanooga Police Department for 24 years.
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| New report alleges killings, mass detentions in Ethiopia Posted: 29 May 2020 01:32 AM PDT  A new report by the rights group Amnesty International accuses Ethiopia's security forces of extrajudicial killings and mass detentions even as the country's reformist prime minister was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The report issued Friday says security forces killed at least 25 people in 2019 in the East Guji and West Guji zones of the restive Oromia region amid suspicions of supporting a rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Army, and a once-exiled opposition group. The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was awarded the peace prize in December for sweeping political reforms and restoring ties with neighboring Eritrea after two decades of hostilities, acknowledged that "the reform process has at times experienced bumps" but called the report "a one-sided snapshot security analysis that fails to appropriately capture the broader political trajectory and security developments."
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| Trump justice department forces out top FBI lawyer in Flynn case – report Posted: 30 May 2020 02:52 PM PDT  * NBC News: general counsel Dana Boente forced out on Friday * Fox News host Lou Dobbs slammed lawyer in April * Flynn transcripts show he discussed sanctions with RussianA top FBI lawyer who was criticised on Fox News for his role in the investigation of Michael Flynn has resigned after being asked to do so by senior figures at the Department of Justice, NBC News reported on Saturday.The FBI confirmed to NBC that Dana Boente, its general counsel and a former acting attorney general, announced his resignation on Friday after a near-40-year career. NBC cited two sources anonymous sources as saying the decision came from "Attorney General William Barr's justice department".Boente joined the DoJ in 1984 and in 2015 became the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, after being nominated by Barack Obama.In January 2017, he briefly served as acting attorney general, after Trump fired Sally Yates, an Obama-era deputy, for refusing to defend an executive order on immigration.Temporarily overseeing the investigation of Russian election interference, Boente signed a warrant authorising FBI surveillance of Flynn.The retired general, Donald Trump's first national security adviser, was fired for lying to the vice-president about contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the conversations and cooperated with the special counsel Robert Mueller as he took over the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow.Flynn sought to withdraw his guilty plea before sentencing. Earlier this month, Barr said the justice department would drop the case, although a federal judge put that decision on hold.On Friday, the same day Boente was forced out of the FBI, Trump's new director of intelligence and Senate Republicans released transcripts of the calls in question, between Flynn and the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.Opponents of the president said the transcripts proved that Flynn had been treated fairly. Supporters of Trump said they showed Flynn had been treated unfairly.As Trump attempts to construct a scandal called "Obamagate", with the surveillance of Flynn at its centre, his administration is releasing material it hopes will put Obama officials in a bad light.Boente also wrote a leaked memo concerning material put into the public domain about Flynn, which he said was not exculpatory.Trump is notoriously open to the views of key Fox News contributors.On 27 April, the Fox News host Lou Dobbs told viewers: "Shocking new reports suggest FBI general counsel Dana Boente was acting in coordination with FBI director Christopher Wray to block the release of that evidence that would have cleared General Flynn."Trump has reportedly been urged to fire Wray, whom he appointed to replace James Comey, the man he fired in May 2017 in an attempt to close the Russia investigation.Comey's firing led to the appointment of Mueller, who concluded a near-two year investigation without proving criminal conspiracy between Trump and Russia.Mueller did, however, obtain convictions of Trump aides and say in his report the campaign was receptive to Russian help. He also laid out extensive evidence of attempts by the president to obstruct his investigation.Trump has fired or forced out FBI and DoJ figures including Andrew McCabe, Comey's deputy, lawyer Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, an FBI agent who worked on the case.On Friday, Wray issued a statement about Boente."Few people have served so well in so many critical, high-level roles at the department," he said. "Throughout his long and distinguished career as a public servant, Dana has demonstrated a selfless determination to ensure that justice is always served on behalf of our citizens."
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| Pompeo demands Russia free ill American accused of spying Posted: 30 May 2020 11:16 AM PDT  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday demanded that Russia free a former US marine accused of spying in Russia after the man underwent urgent surgery in a Moscow hospital. Fifty-year-old Paul Whelan had emergency hernia surgery late Thursday after suffering "severe abdominal pain," his brother David Whelan said in a statement Friday. Paul Whelan, who also holds Canadian, Irish and British citizenship, was detained in Moscow in December 2018 for allegedly receiving state secrets.
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| Letters to the Editor: People who insist on going to church should quarantine themselves Posted: 29 May 2020 03:00 AM PDT  One's right to attend church ends at the tip of another person's nose. People who flout social distancing rules by going to church should quarantine.
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| Marauding monkeys attack lab technician and steal Covid-19 tests Posted: 29 May 2020 05:00 AM PDT  A band of marauding monkeys has attacked a laboratory technician and stolen three Covid-19 test samples, raising fears they will infect themselves and then spread the deadly disease to humans. The worker was attacked outside a medical college in Meerut, northern India, while transporting samples from patients suspected of having coronavirus. The monkeys ran off into a residential area. The employee is said to have been unharmed, but has angered officials after filming the aftermath of the attack, rather than attempting to retrieve the samples from the fleeing monkeys. Monkeys can contract Covid-19 and then infect humans, according to scientists. Some Indians have been worried about catching the deadly virus from animals and it led to pet dogs being released onto the streets during the start of the pandemic. Others saw the funny side of the monkey attack, with the incident coming days after the Indian authorities detained a pigeon in Jammu & Kashmir on suspicion of spying for Pakistan. "The nation wants to know if Pakistan has sent those monkeys to steal coronavirus samples," joked one user on Twitter. "These are highly trained monkeys and very intelligent monkeys." In India, groups of monkeys are attacking people with increasing regularity as they are displaced from their natural habitats by urban sprawl. Their attacks can prove deadly - particularly for young children who are vulnerable to their powerful bites. In 2018, a 12-day-old baby boy died after he was bitten by a monkey in the city of Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.
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| India coronavirus: Why is India reopening amid a spike in cases? Posted: 30 May 2020 04:49 PM PDT  India's caseload continues to rise even as restrictions ease across the country.
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| EU won’t follow Trump into a trade war over Hong Kong Posted: 29 May 2020 03:25 AM PDT |
| France, Britain, Germany 'regret' U.S. end to Iran nuclear waivers Posted: 30 May 2020 01:46 AM PDT  France, Germany and Britain on Saturday criticised a U.S. decision to end sanctions waivers allowing work on Iranian nuclear sites designed to prevent weapons development. "We deeply regret the U.S. decision to end the three waivers," the three European countries said in a joint statement. "These projects, endorsed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, serve the non-proliferation interests of all and provide the international community with assurances of the exclusively peaceful and safe nature of Iranian nuclear activities."
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| Wife of officer charged with murder in George Floyd's death files for divorce Posted: 30 May 2020 07:15 AM PDT  Kellie Chauvin's lawyer said she is "devastated" over Floyd's death.
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| Powell: Fed to soon begin 'challenging' Main Street lending Posted: 29 May 2020 09:32 AM PDT  Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged Friday that the Fed faces a major challenge with the launch in the coming days of a program that will lend to companies other than banks for the first time since the Great Depression. The Fed's Main Street Lending is geared toward medium-sized companies that are too large for the government's small business lending program and too small to sell bonds or stock to the public. Powell said that Main Street will make its first loans in a "few days."
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| There's a demonstrated way to avoid lockdowns and still stop the coronavirus' spread. South Korea has been doing it for months. Posted: 30 May 2020 04:59 AM PDT  South Korea has shown that the keys to minimizing coronavirus outbreaks are contact tracing, public information, and testing.
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| Afghan reporter killed as govt says ready for Taliban dialogue Posted: 30 May 2020 01:47 PM PDT  A roadside bomb killed a television journalist in Kabul on Saturday, soon after a top Afghan official appointed to lead peace talks with the Taliban said his team was ready for the long-delayed dialogue. The blast, which targeted a minibus carrying 15 employees of private television channel Khurshid TV, was claimed by the Islamic State group, according to SITE Intelligence which monitors jihadist activity. The attack, which the government called "heinous", claimed the lives of a reporter and a driver, and punctuated an overall reduction in violence that has followed on from a three-day ceasefire the Taliban instigated May 24.
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| Revealed: the worrying links between Huawei, our universities and China Posted: 29 May 2020 11:20 AM PDT  With its cast iron replica of Budapest's Liberty Bridge and its pale-stoned version of Versailles, visitors to Huawei's research centre in Dongguan could be forgiven for thinking they were in Europe. It is a benign – if eccentric – tribute. But other attempts to forge close ties to the Western culture have much more serious implications. The Telegraph can disclose today that the controversial Chinese telecoms giant backed 17 scientific papers with UK universities, about cutting-edge "dual use" technologies – which can have civilian applications but can also be used in military technology. At least 15 of the papers focused on technology that experts claim could be used to communicate with swarms of drones or on highly advanced image recognition software that experts claim could be used for extreme levels of surveillance. All of them involve collaborations between British universities, including at Edinburgh and Exeter, and Chinese universities heavily involved in military research and named as "high risk" by an Australian think tank.
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| How to Screw Up a Vice-Presidential Pick Posted: 29 May 2020 08:12 AM PDT  Joe Biden's choice for vice president is arguably the biggest decision of his campaign—and it could go very, very wrong. And no one knows more about failed veep picks than Steve Schmidt and Philippe Reines, who worked on the McCain/Palin and Clinton/Kaine campaigns.In Episode 12 of The New Abnormal, The Daily Beast's podcast for a world gone off the rails, Schmidt and Reines tell Molly Jong-Fast and Rick Wilson about what went south with Hillary Clinton's VP approach, and how Biden can avoid the same fate."It's not a matter of who you want to go to the movies with. It's a matter of being able to do it on day one," says Reines. "In a perfect world, he would pick Bernie Sanders," he adds. "I mean that would be a horrible world, but in that world he would pick Bernie to consolidate the party and money."On this planet, Reines says, Elizabeth Warren is the best person to help with that consolidation. (Reines says also he wanted Warren on the Clinton ticket in 2016, and that the Massachusetts senator was a finalist for the role.) Schmidt thinks Kamala Harris better rounds out the Biden ticket.Schmidt and Reines also talk about Stacey Abrams and why choosing her would ultimately do more harm than good: "This is not a time to gamble."Asked about Trump's re-election chances, neither of them think things look too good right now. Julián Castro on Why Everyone Hates Ted Cruz"I think right now, Trump is losing," says Schmidt. Reines chimes in: "For those who wanted to make things better, this is a failed experiment and amateur hour is over. Forty million Americans are out of a job. How the hell does a president get re-elected?" Plus! Our dynamic duo asks the important questions, like: What exactly is wrong with Mark Zuckerberg? And will the caregivers at the White House assisted-living facility try to give Donnie the pudding he likes?Listen to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.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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| Watch SpaceX and NASA's Historic Crewed Launch to ISS Posted: 30 May 2020 01:07 PM PDT  At 3:22 PM EDT Saturday afternoon, an American rocket carrying an American crew lifted off from American soil for the first time since 2011, carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.
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| Three wounded in shootout in Kiev suburb, 20 detained Posted: 29 May 2020 07:12 AM PDT  Dozens of people, some armed with what appeared to be hunting rifles, clashed in broad daylight on Friday in a residential suburb outside the capital Kiev, and at least three people were wounded, according to officials. The violence, captured in amateur footage taken from surrounding apartment blocks and posted online, occurred in the morning in Brovary. According to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, about 100 people took part in the clashes, some of whom came from another region.
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| George Floyd autopsy shows no signs of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation, attributes death to 'being restrained, his underlying health conditions, and any potential intoxicants in his system' Posted: 30 May 2020 07:58 AM PDT  Floyd was "non-responsive" for nearly three minutes before the police officer took his knee off his neck, the report said.
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| Dragon-riding astronauts join exclusive inner circle at NASA Posted: 30 May 2020 01:06 PM PDT  Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken join NASA's exclusive inner circle by catching a ride on a SpaceX rocket and capsule. It's only the fifth time that NASA has put people aboard a brand new spacecraft line for liftoff. And it's the first time the spacecraft belongs to a for-profit company in charge of the launch. The retired Marine colonel and former fighter pilot flew on NASA's last space shuttle flight in 2011, closing out a 30-year era.
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| Trump Announces U.S. ‘Terminating’ Relationship with World Health Organization Posted: 29 May 2020 12:21 PM PDT  President Trump announced Friday that the U.S. is "terminating" its relationship with the World Health Organization over its failure to enact reforms in response to the administration's criticisms of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic."Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today be terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs," Trump said at a press conference.The announcement comes after Trump had threatened to cut U.S. funding to the WHO, alleging that the organization had helped China conceal the severity of the initial coronavirus outbreak in the city of Wuhan. The president noted that the U.S. government provides the WHO with roughly $450 million a year, compared with China's annual contribution of $40 million.Last week, Health Secretary Alex Azar blamed the WHO for mishandling the emerging pandemic."We must be frank about one of the primary reasons this outbreak spun out of control," Azar said. "There was a failure by this organization to obtain the information that the world needed, and that failure cost many lives."
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| Russian warplanes in Libya could open new phase in Middle East's biggest proxy war Posted: 29 May 2020 10:15 AM PDT  The U.S. says Russian warplanes sent to back Moscow's favored militia leader in Libya could open a new phase in the Middle East's biggest proxy war.
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