| Tired of troops on the streets, Washington, D.C., names 'Black Lives Matter Plaza' outside the White House Posted: 05 Jun 2020 10:27 AM PDT  Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the change Friday morning, but a local Black Lives Matter group called it "a performative distraction."
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| 'Boogaloo' arrests in Nevada portray extremists using protests to incite civil war Posted: 05 Jun 2020 06:11 AM PDT  Two men charged with conspiring to incite violence and civil unrest at protests over the killing of George Floyd previously sought to do the same thing at protests against coronavirus lockdowns, federal prosecutors say.
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| Bolsonaro defends later, partial release of Brazil COVID-19 data Posted: 06 Jun 2020 09:03 AM PDT  Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday defended his government's move to partially withhold official data on the scale of the world's second-largest coronavirus outbreak. Late on Friday, Brazil's Health Ministry took down a website showing the evolution of the epidemic over time and by state and municipality. The ministry also stopped reporting a total tally of confirmed cases, which have shot past 645,000 – more than anywhere outside the United States – and its overall death toll, which just passed Italy with more than 35,000.
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| Deception at D-Day: How Fake Armies, False Radio Traffic and Even Rubber Tanks Helped Fool Hitler Posted: 05 Jun 2020 07:45 AM PDT  On June 6, 1944, the Allies mounted the largest amphibious invasion in military history– it was D-Day and some 156,000 Allied soldiers landed in Normandy, France beginning the liberation of Western Europe. However, in the days and weeks that followed the German military – including their leader Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler – believed the landings at Normandy were merely a feint, a deception with the real invasion still to come at Pas de Calais.
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| Buffalo police riot squad quit to back officers who shoved man Posted: 05 Jun 2020 03:30 PM PDT  The police union says the two officers who pushed over an elderly man "were simply doing their job".
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| Denver police fire pepper balls at man yelling that his pregnant fiancée is in car Posted: 05 Jun 2020 03:18 PM PDT  "Honestly I thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to be the next black man shot by police," the man said.
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| Trump says the economy will cure the 'very sad problem' of police killing blacks Posted: 05 Jun 2020 11:07 AM PDT  Over the past two days, President Trump has twice been asked how he plans to try to fix the daunting problem of systemic racism in police departments across America and both times he has made clear that he believes a healthy economy will do the trick.
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| The 20 Best Podcasts About All Things Tech Posted: 06 Jun 2020 06:00 AM PDT |
| Cops Are Finally Being Disciplined—but Is Anybody Buying It? Posted: 05 Jun 2020 07:24 PM PDT  Nearly two weeks into protests against the killing of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis police custody, a slew of different cities across the country have been forced to confront the brutal methods used by their own police officers as videos emerged of harrowing incident after harrowing incident. And on Friday, it seemed a reckoning of sorts was in the air: Police officers in multiple cities were suspended, hit with charges, or stripped of their powers after they were caught on camera treating peaceful protesters like combatants. In New York City, where earlier this week authorities had praised the police department's "restraint" amid protests despite video evidence to the contrary, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea announced that two officers involved in violent encounters with protesters—including one woman who was violently pushed to the ground and a man who was pepper sprayed after his mask was pulled down—have been suspended without pay.New York Cops Beat Protesters for Crime of Being ThereIn Philadelphia, the District Attorney's office filed aggravated assault charges against police inspector Joseph Bologna after a video showed him hitting a demonstrator with a metal baton. The demonstrator, a Temple University student who was also arrested and detained for 24 hours, needed ten staples and sutures in his head following Monday's incident in Center City. Several states away, two Chicago police officers caught on video pulling a woman from a car by her hair before placing a knee on her neck have been stripped of their police powers pending an investigation, authorities said in a Friday statement. But before the night was even halfway over, the illusion of change began to unravel. NYPD officers rushed dozens of demonstrators in Manhattan that were out past the 8 p.m. curfew, arresting people in droves and hitting several with batons. At least 10 protesters were arrested after the peaceful protest—several of whom chanted "black lives matter" while they were awaiting transport, according to City & State NY."This is outrageous. We were engaged in a non-violent protest. Stop arresting New Yorkers for no reason," NYC Council Member Ben Kallos tweeted.Across the river in Brooklyn, one protester told The Daily Beast he was pushed over by authorities—prompting other residents to shout and swear at officers pushing them to go home past curfew. After a tense stand-off in which cops yelled at reporters and pushed people who had been peacefully protesting onto the sidewalks, at least a dozen were arrested and directed into NYPD vans. And in Buffalo, while there was a sense of accountability after the officers who shoved down 75-year-old Martin Gugino on Thursday night were suspended without pay, there was another sign of the rift between peaceful protesters and police officers as 57 fellow members of the Buffalo Police Department Emergency Response Team resigned in solidarity with the suspended officers.In Minneapolis, where protesters continued to express outrage over the death of Floyd on Friday, demonstrators were skeptical of police being held accountable. Zeque Davies, a 29-year-old whose parents emigrated to Minneapolis from Liberia, said the cities that have disciplined officers in recent days are "trying to prove a point through the media." "I don't think they're actually holding cops accountable," Davies told The Daily Beast. "A slap on the wrist and a paid vacation is not holding a cop accountable. Trying him, arresting him and giving him a charge, that's holding a cop accountable."Demonstrators in other cities weren't convinced that a simple suspension would solve any problems. "I'm sure there are professional police officers. But what we're seeing is that unlike other departments or other services, when a police officer goes rogue, they kill people," Tara Smith, 30, told The Daily Beast at a vigil held at Union Square in Manhattan. "A city clerk is not going to do the same kind of damage, so you can't tell me that they should not be held to a higher standard than other industries and other departments and services." Others pointed out that all the recent acts of brutality by police were happening even while people were filming them—raising the question of what happens when the cameras stop rolling. Carolina Martinez, a bartender in Buffalo taking part in a peaceful protest on Friday, said it only took four hours for video of police officers shoving down a peaceful protester to garner worldwide attention a day earlier. "The only thing we can do now is just continue to just broadcast it," she said. Residents still came out in droves on Friday to protest. In Washington, D.C., the mayor's office commissioned "Black Lives Matter" to be painted across a street leading to the White House.Cops Reclaim New York in Massive Show of Force In New York, thousands of residents across the five boroughs took to the streets despite the rain. Upstate, in Buffalo, protesters gathered in Niagara Square demanding police reform one day after an elderly activist was shoved to the ground by officers.The nation-wide demonstrations on Friday also focused on Breonna Taylor, the Kentucky EMT worker fatally shot in her home during a botched March police raid. On Friday, Taylor would have been 27-years-old. From New York to Portland to Miami, thousands of protesters sang Happy Birthday in Taylor's honor. In Kentucky, dozens of demonstrators gathered in Jefferson Square Park in Kentucky to honor her memory, many writing birthday cards that will be sent to Taylor's family.In Miami, hundreds of residents took to the streets in a Black Lives Matter protest, forcing officials to shut down several highways and the mayor to change the city-wide curfew. The Miami Police Department closed Interstate 95 in both directions to allow space for the continued protesters chanting "say their names" near Wynwood. "I think the protests are finally getting politicians and police departments to finally listen. Everyday it's a step forward," Ashlynn Lee, 20, told The Daily Beast. Her friend, Tanisha Brown, 20, added: "They are definitely listening to what these protests are about. We are taking not only over the streets in the 50 states and different countries, but also social media. All you see when you scroll down is black lives matter. People are starting to shout it is definitely happening. Everybody is fighting for black lives."About an hour later, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giminez moved the curfew to 10 p.m., after it was pushed back to midnight earlier this week. Alan, one protester who attended the Miami protests, called the mayor's decision to bump up the curfew due to "unrest" a "bullshit move.""If it wasn't about Black Lives Matter and police reform, the protestors would be treated differently. There was no unrest," Alan said. In Minneapolis, the intersection where Floyd was killed has turned into a constant block party—complete with a stage that hosts speakers, spoken word artists, and rappers. Robin Jackson, 27-year-who lives down the street, told The Daily Beast things are peaceful in the downtown Minneapolis neighborhood, for now. He added that while some Americans are reeling from Floyd's tragic death, the black community is simply witnessing what they have known for years."I feel like this is just the acknowledgment among people other than Black people, where they can say, "Ok, maybe they have a point," Jackson said. "They're at least acknowledging that something is happening."The ongoing protests have already sparked police reform in two states. City officials in Minneapolis have agreed to ban police chokeholds while detaining suspects and require officers to intervene when they see unauthorized force used by a colleague. Every Buffalo Cop in Elite Unit Quits to Back Officers Who Shoved Elderly Man to GroundIn California, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered the "carotid hold," a neck restraint move that blocks blood flow to the brain, be removed from police training. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan on Friday announced a ban on the police use of tear gas for 30 days as protests are expected to continue in the city. The ban came just hours after three civilian police watchdog groups urged Seattle leaders to ban the violent tactic that public health officials believe may potentially increase the COVID-19 spread. A federal judge in Denver Friday also ruled that police must limit their use of "chemical weapons or projectiles" and a number of other measures of force against protesters, calling the past actions of law enforcement nation-wide "disgusting."As demonstrators have continued to take to the streets, one medical worker in New York acknowledged that the health care community is concerned about how the protests will ultimately impact the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. "Obviously it worries us because we're afraid of a spike in coronavirus cases. We all work at a hospital and we know what that means when that happens," Sushmitha Echt, an attending physician at Northwell Health, told The Daily Beast. "At the same time, we're wearing our masks... there are certain things we just have to take a stand for. This is one of those things."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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| Buffalo mayor says elderly protester pushed to ground by police was an 'agitator' Posted: 06 Jun 2020 05:17 AM PDT  The mayor of Buffalo has said that the elderly protester filmed being knocked to the ground by police in a now viral video was an "agitator" who has been asked to leave the area "numerous" times.Byron Brown said that the 75-year-old man, Martin Gugino, was trying to "spark up the crowd of people".
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| Protests support Floyd, Black Lives Matter on 4 continents Posted: 05 Jun 2020 07:51 PM PDT  Tens of thousands of people gathered Saturday in cities far from the United States to express anger over the death of George Floyd, a sign that the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality is resonating with wider calls to address racism from Australia to Europe. In Berlin, where police said 15,000 people rallied on the German capital's Alexander Square, protesters chanted Floyd's name and held up placards with slogans such as "Stop police brutality" and "I can't breath." "The killing and these violent physical things that have happened is only just the top of it," said Lloyd Lawson, 54, who took part in the Berlin protest.
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| Governor Gavin Newsom and California state representatives call for a ban of controversial neck hold used by police Posted: 06 Jun 2020 08:44 AM PDT  Governor Newsom and members of California Legislature's Black and Latinx causes are calling to ban carotid neck hold — also known as "blood choke."
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| Bolsonaro threatens WHO exit as COVID-19 kills 'a Brazilian per minute' Posted: 05 Jun 2020 06:05 AM PDT  President Jair Bolsonaro threatened on Friday to pull Brazil out of the World Health Organization after the U.N. agency warned Latin American governments about the risk of lifting lockdowns before slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus throughout the region. A new Brazilian record for daily COVID-19 fatalities pushed the county's death toll past that of Italy late on Thursday, but Bolsonaro continues to argue for quickly lifting state isolation orders, arguing that the economic costs outweigh public health risks. Latin America's most populous nations, Brazil and Mexico, are seeing the highest rates of new infections, though the pandemic is also gathering pace in countries such as Peru, Colombia, Chile and Bolivia.
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| New arms race taking shape amid a pandemic and economic crisis Posted: 06 Jun 2020 08:01 AM PDT  Three decades after the Cold War ended without a feared nuclear cataclysm, arms control experts are starting to think the sigh of relief heard around the world then might have been premature.
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| Trump praises success against coronavirus in states that are seeing cases spike Posted: 05 Jun 2020 11:02 AM PDT  "Look at what's going in Florida, it's incredible," Trump said at one point. "The job the governor of Florida's done, it's incredible. The numbers they're doing ... you gotta open it up." Much like Florida, Georgia has had the integrity of its coronavirus numbers questioned.
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| Cristobal enters the Gulf of Mexico Posted: 05 Jun 2020 04:53 PM PDT  New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued an emergency disaster proclamation.
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| Two Buffalo policemen charged for shoving 75-year-old protester Posted: 06 Jun 2020 03:27 PM PDT  The officers filmed pushing a man, 75, to the ground have been charged with second degree-assault.
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| Fact check: Huntington Beach photos comparing coronavirus protest, BLM protest are real Posted: 05 Jun 2020 06:57 PM PDT  A recent Facebook post compares two photos from protests at Huntington Beach, California.
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| 'Are you serious? I'm working!': Cops arrest essential workers alongside protestors as calls grow to end NYC curfew Posted: 05 Jun 2020 09:02 AM PDT  Calls have grown in recent days for New York City officials to end a curfew amid protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, as reports show police arresting essential workers alongside demonstrators.The 8pm curfew has caused confusion and further disruption in the city, despite Mayor Bill de Blasio designating on-demand food delivery workers essential — as some workers and industries have been labelled throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
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| California again extends major contract for protective masks Posted: 05 Jun 2020 12:24 PM PDT |
| Trump's chief of staff of 2 years says he agrees that Trump is bad for the country Posted: 05 Jun 2020 09:19 AM PDT  "I'm not qualified to comment on stable or unstable or whatever," John Kelly said of whether Trump is a "very stable genius."
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| White bystanders armed with rifles watch Floyd protesters march in Indiana Posted: 05 Jun 2020 08:03 AM PDT  "They have a right to do that," police chief says.
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| 'Sick with remorse': Cyclist charged with assaulting teen protesters who put up justice for George Floyd posters says he's 'committed to making amends' Posted: 06 Jun 2020 12:56 PM PDT  Anthony Brennan III was charged with three counts of second-degree assault after being seen attacking young people while on a trail in Maryland.
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| 'Enough is Enough': Jamaicans protest in support of George Floyd Posted: 06 Jun 2020 04:01 PM PDT |
| US Marines order Confederate flag to be removed from public display Posted: 06 Jun 2020 07:44 AM PDT  The US Marine Corps has officially ordered the removal of the Confederate battle flag from public display on its bases and offices, citing the flag's use by racist groups as a "threat to our core values".In a statement on 5 June, the service branch said: "The Confederate battle flag has all too often been co-opted by violent extremist and racist groups whose divisive beliefs have no place in our Corps."
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| Elephant dies in India after eating explosive-stuffed fruit Posted: 05 Jun 2020 03:33 AM PDT  Indian police on Friday arrested a man accused of causing the death of a pregnant elephant that died after biting a pineapple stuffed with firecrackers that exploded in its mouth. The 15-year-old elephant was unable to eat after the injury and died in a river in Pallakad in southern Kerala state on May 27, state forest officer Surendra Kumar said. The state forest department announced the arrest and said it is investigating whether he was a poacher or a farmer who wanted to kill the elephant to prevent it from damaging crops.
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| COVID-19 Is a Symptom of a Bigger Problem: Our Planet’s Ailing Health Posted: 05 Jun 2020 05:00 AM PDT  On World Environment Day, Inger Andersen and Johan Rockström explain how the COVID-19 pandemic is a sign of bigger problems with the Earth.
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| De Blasio pledges police reform as public blames mayor for abuse Posted: 05 Jun 2020 05:01 PM PDT  "You will see change in the NYPD," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday.
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| Trump nixes golf club visit over potential for 'bad optics' amid nationwide protests Posted: 06 Jun 2020 02:19 PM PDT  The president ultimately agreed with advisers that the trip could be problematic as thousands of protesters descended on the White House on Saturday to protest the killing of George Floyd
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| California: Vallejo police kill unarmed 22-year-old, who was on his knees with his hands up Posted: 04 Jun 2020 09:48 PM PDT  An officer mistakenly believed Sean Monterrosa had a gun, but it was a hammer in his pocketPolice in northern California fatally shot an unarmed 22-year-old who was on his knees with his hands up outside a Walgreens store while responding to a call of alleged looting, officials said.An officer in the city of Vallejo was inside his car when he shot Sean Monterrosa on Monday night amid local and national protests against police brutality. Police said an officer mistakenly believed Monterrosa had a gun, but later determined he had a hammer in his pocket.The killing of Monterrosa, who was a San Francisco resident, has sparked intense outrage in the Bay Area, particularly in the city of Vallejo, a city with a long history of police violence and high-profile killings and excessive force complaints. "When confronted by the police, he dropped to his knees and surrendered, and they fired at him," said Melissa Nold, a Vallejo civil rights attorney representing Monterrosa's family. "He wasn't doing anything to warrant it. They shot him from inside their car. What opportunity did they give him to survive that situation? … It's egregiously bad." The exact circumstances that led to the killing are unclear, and police have not yet released footage. In a news conference on Wednesday, two days after the killing, police chief Shawny Williams said officers were responding to a call of possible looting at the pharmacy shortly after midnight when an officer in a cruiser drove up and saw a dozen people in the parking lot getting into a car. A second officer in an unmarked car drove up and found Monterrosa, who was still on the scene, who then kneeled down and started to raise his hands. At this point, the police chief said, this officer "perceived a threat" and fired five shots through his window at Monterosso. The chief declined to identify the officer who killed Monterrosa, saying only that the officer was an 18-year veteran of the force. The chief also dodged questions about whether he considered the shooting to be excessive force and ignored questions from angry community members who showed up to a press conference. When asked about the merits of shooting through a window, the chief said some officers are trained to shoot through their windshields and said this was allowed under policy. Monterrosa died at the hospital, the chief said. The last person killed by Vallejo police was Willie McCoy, a 20-year-old who had been sleeping in his car in February 2019 when six officers fired 55 bullets in 3.5 seconds. One of the six officers who killed McCoy, a rising rapper in the Bay Area, had previously killed an unarmed man who was fleeing on his bike. Another Vallejo officer killed three men in a five-month period and was subsequently promoted. Vallejo, a city 30 miles north-east of San Francisco with 121,000 residents, has over the years had a significantly higher rate of killings by police than the national average and other Bay Area cities. Despite promises of reform in the wake of widespread scrutiny, the killing of Monterrosa and police leaders' actions in the aftermath suggest that nothing has changed, said Nold, who has long advocated for policy shifts. A day after the shooting, police and other Vallejo leaders held a news conference about the ongoing protests and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but refused to provide any details about Monterrosa's killing, saying only that there had been an "officer-involved shooting" and declining to specify whether it was fatal."It's just unfathomable," said Nold, adding that the news was devastating to many families of people killed by Vallejo police, who were trying to be optimistic about change in the city, since police had not killed anyone for more than a year. Even though the chief likely knew the circumstances of the killing by the time he held his first news conference, he refused to discuss it, while citizens were continuing to march for Floyd, Nold noted. "We're protesting for a guy who lived thousands of miles away. And the day we're marching, our own police are gunning down an unarmed man on his knees." While Nold has not yet seen body-camera footage, which police are eventually required to release, and has not yet viewed Monterrosa's body, she noted that "even their own version of the story is horrific". The department, she said, has a track record of initially misrepresenting the circumstances of killings, which the public later learns when video is released. Even if police believed Monterrosa was involved in looting, the officers had no evidence of that when they arrived and immediately shot him, she added. Nold said she was anxious to learn the identity of the officer, given that the force is relatively small and she knows of more than a dozen officers in recent years who have killed more than one citizen. Monterrosa grew up in San Francisco, where he attended an arts high school and had previously worked at the local Boys and Girls Club, a not-for-profit."He was a true native son of San Francisco and Bernal Heights," said Jake Grumbach, a family friend, who posted a video of Monterrosa speaking at a youth program in the city, where loved ones and local residents gathered on Thursday for a vigil. "He was loved and respected by so many … There is just so much community support and solidarity."Vallejo police representatives did not respond to questions. Adante Pointer, another civil rights lawyer who has long represented Vallejo families, said it was especially alarming that officers would kill a resident at this moment: "The eyes of the world are on policing and yet your officers still feel comfortable enough to shoot someone under what are the most questionable circumstances? If they could do this during the light of the George Floyd protests and world scrutiny, you can only imagine what they do in the dark of the night when no one is looking."
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| Egypt proposes new Libya plan after collapse of Haftar offensive Posted: 06 Jun 2020 08:38 AM PDT  Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced a new peace initiative for Libya in Cairo on Saturday, flanked by the eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar, whose 14-month offensive to capture the capital, Tripoli, collapsed this week. The head of the Tripoli parliament, aligned with the Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital, dismissed the offer as that of a defeated force. Haftar's reversal extends the GNA's control across most of northwest Libya while Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), based in Benghazi, and its allies control the east and much of the south, as well as most of Libya's oilfields. For more than five years, rival parliaments and governments in the east and the west have engaged in a stop-start conflict. Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia have provided support Haftar, but that backing has been outweighed in recent months by Turkish military backing for the GNA. Sisi, who was also accompanied in Cairo by eastern Libyan parliament head Aguila Saleh, proposed a ceasefire starting on Monday. He said the plan included a call for negotiations in Geneva, then the election of a leadership council, the disbanding of militias and the exit of all foreign fighters from Libya. In brief comments, Haftar said he hoped Sisi could make "urgent and effective efforts to compel Turkey to completely stop the transfer of weapons and mercenaries to Libya". The UAE was quick to state its support for Saturday's declaration. But Khaled al-Meshri, head of the GNA-aligned legislative assembly, said Libyans had no need for new initiatives and rejected Haftar's attempt to return to negotiations after military defeat, according to Al Jazeera. GNA forces also continued their advance as the LNA retreated from al-Washka, west of the coastal city of Sirte, sources on both sides said. Libya has had no stable central authority since dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown by NATO-backed rebels in 2011. Haftar is a deeply divisive figure whose offensive upended a U.N.-led peace process, and it is unclear how much traction any initiative proposed by him or his allies can gain. A text of the plan included "the disbanding of militias and the handing over of their arms so that the Libyan National Army ... can carry out its military and security responsibilities". That language reflects the LNA's narrative of restoring order over western Libya's many disparate armed groups, and is likely to antagonise its rivals. Numerous previous attempts to establish truces and a return to negotiations have foundered, though the United Nations has started holding separate ceasefire talks with both sides. Egyptian-led efforts to unify Libya's military have also stalled in the past over Haftar's request to be supreme commander, diplomats say. GNA forces are likely to keep going until they meet resistance, said Tarek Megerisi, a Libya analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "Right now, military voices are ascendant and supported by a fear that Haftar and the UAE will exploit any truce to consolidate and launch counter-attacks," he said.
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| Tom Cotton’s Foes Are Embracing Authoritarianism Posted: 05 Jun 2020 08:21 AM PDT  It was probably inevitable that, at some point, the New York Times would become engulfed in the national controversy over racism and everything that's wrong with America.
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| China Promises ‘Consequences’ if Britain Grants Haven for Hong Kong Residents Posted: 05 Jun 2020 09:42 AM PDT  China is warning that the United Kingdom is opening itself up to serious "consequences" if it follows through on a plan to offer refuge and a path to citizenship for nearly three million Hong Kong citizens should China implement a restrictive national security law.China believes that "Hong Kong people who were born in Hong Kong are Chinese nationals," said Chen Wen, Minister and First Staff Member of Chinese Embassy in London, in a BBC interview."There will be consequences, that's for sure," Wen said.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined the proposal on Tuesday, saying that if necessary, Britain will allow Hong Kong residents who hold British National Overseas passports to come to the UK for a "renewable period of 12 months and be given further immigration rights, including the right to work, which could place them on a route to citizenship." The move would be "one of the biggest changes in our visa system in British history," Johnson said.The prime minister declared that Beijing's new national security law violates the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the agreement the U.K. reached with China after Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.China warned Britain to abandon its "colonial state of mind" regarding Hong Kong.China last month approved national security laws, which have yet to be implemented, that would allow Beijing to wield expanded power over Hong Kong. Pro-Democracy activists and other critics say the national security laws would effectively scrap the "one country, two systems" policy that has allowed Hong Kong its political freedoms and civil liberties despite still being technically governed by China.Wen denied that China was threatening anything but warned that the UK's move would be "damaging" to Britain's "image of abiding by its own commitments" as well as to the "entire relationship.""I'm just saying this is not the correct decision, and it will be damaging to Hong Kong's stability," she said.
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| Man who sheltered protesters from police says he saw "horrific use of force" Posted: 06 Jun 2020 10:02 AM PDT  Rahul Dubey sheltered more than 70 protesters in his Washington, D.C., home Monday night as police were enforcing curfew. "It was unfathomable," Rahul Dubey said of the police violence he saw used against peaceful protesters outside his home.
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| Soldiers Pull BLM Signs, Confederate Flag from Vehicles After Viral Confrontation Posted: 05 Jun 2020 06:49 AM PDT  In the video, a soldier demands that another, out of frame, remove "Black Lives Matter" decals from his personal vehicle.
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| 'Rahul is a f---ing champ': The DC man who gave refuge to more than 70 protesters fleeing police and pepper spray is being heralded as a legend Posted: 06 Jun 2020 06:02 AM PDT  "If you're not black and you're not uncomfortable right now you're probably not doing enough," a protester said.
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| Iran FM throws ball back in Trump's court on nuclear deal Posted: 05 Jun 2020 01:15 PM PDT  Iran's foreign minister Friday threw the ball back into the US president's court on reaching a new nuclear agreement, after the two countries carried out a prisoner swap. President Donald Trump had voiced hope for progress with Iran a day earlier, after the Islamic republic released a US Navy veteran and the United States freed two Iranians. "Thank you to Iran, it shows a deal is possible!" Trump had tweeted.
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| Police arrest cyclist who confronted youngsters posting U.S. racial injustice flyers Posted: 05 Jun 2020 07:34 PM PDT  A cyclist whose videotaped confrontation with three youngsters posting flyers protesting racial injustice on a nature trail outside Washington drew widespread attention has been arrested and charged, police said late Friday. The cyclist appears to then wrestle papers out of her hand before charging the person shooting the footage with his bike.
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| The White House praised the ‘courage’ of Chinese protesters who died in the Tiananmen Square massacre days after tear gas and rubber bullets were used against protesters in DC Posted: 05 Jun 2020 01:18 AM PDT  The statement praises Chinese protesters for their "courage and optimism." It doesn't address the violent police response against protesters in the US.
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| Bollywood actors called out for protesting racism while promoting skin whitening creams Posted: 06 Jun 2020 03:44 PM PDT  Actors like Priyanka Chopra were slammed for posting in the wake of George Floyd's death despite advertising so-called "fairness" products in India.
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