| Trump slams protests, defends pandemic response as Tulsa crowd underwhelms Posted: 20 Jun 2020 04:15 AM PDT  President Donald Trump, addressing a less-than-full arena for his first political rally in months, blasted anti-racism protests and defended his handling of the coronavirus on Saturday in a bid to reinvigorate his re-election campaign. The president, who revels in large crowds and had predicted that his first rally in months would be epic, blamed the media for discouraging attendees and cited bad behavior by demonstrators outside, but did not specifically acknowledge that many seats in the 19,000-seat BOK Center arena were empty. Trump sought to use the event to bring momentum back to his campaign after coming under fire for his responses to the coronavirus and to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police.
|
| Tallahassee police say suspect confessed to kidnapping and killing student, 19, and volunteer, 75 Posted: 21 Jun 2020 11:04 AM PDT  Aaron Glee Jr. said he imprisoned one of the victims, Oluwatoyin Salau, for days in his home and sexually assaulted her, according to court documents.
|
| China claims disputed valley where Chinese, Indian troops engaged in a deadly brawl Posted: 20 Jun 2020 01:51 AM PDT  The confrontation in the Galwan Valley, part of the disputed region along the Himalayan frontier, was the deadliest in 45 years.
|
| Seattle shooting: One person shot dead inside autonomous protest zone Posted: 20 Jun 2020 10:19 AM PDT  Seattle police have launched a murder investigation after one person was shot dead and another critically injured inside the city's self-declared autonomous protest zone.The shooting occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning, Seattle police said in a statement. They added that a 19-year-old man died from his injuries and another male remains in hospital with life-threatening injuries.
|
| George Soros conspiracy theories surge as protests sweep US Posted: 21 Jun 2020 05:34 AM PDT  George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist who has long been a target of conspiracy theories, is now being falsely accused of orchestrating and funding the protests over police killings of Black people that have roiled the United States. Amplified by a growing number of people on the far right, including some Republican leaders, online posts about Soros have skyrocketed in recent weeks. The Hungarian-American, who is Jewish, has also been the subject of anti-Semitic attacks and conspiracy theories for decades.
|
| Letters to the Editor: Immigrant children living in fear is a disgrace. So is Congress' failure to help Posted: 21 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  That Congress has been unable to help the children of immigrants brought here illegally shows its glaring inability to solve major problems.
|
| Brazil becomes second country to surpass 1 million COVID-19 cases Posted: 19 Jun 2020 07:29 PM PDT  Brazil is on track to have the most coronavirus-related deaths in the world by the end of the summer, according to one model.
|
| What's next for Louisville police officer Brett Hankison after Breonna Taylor's death? Posted: 21 Jun 2020 10:49 AM PDT  Louisville's interim police chief took a first step toward firing officer Brett Hankison on Friday, but that doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen.
|
| 'I have not resigned': Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman fires back at Barr, who says he's leaving Posted: 19 Jun 2020 09:35 PM PDT  "I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption," Berman said.
|
| Rich Americans like me should use our money and influence to end systemic racism Posted: 20 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  If wealthy Americans cared as much about equity for people of color as they did about tax cuts, this would be fixed. And it's in our interest to care.
|
| Minority officers allege discrimination over Chauvin booking Posted: 21 Jun 2020 09:13 AM PDT  Eight minority corrections officers who work at the jail holding a former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in the death of George Floyd allege that they were barred from guarding or having contact with the officer because of their race. Floyd died on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, who is white, used his knee to pin down the the handcuffed Black man's neck even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter.
|
| Navy Won't Reinstate Crozier, Holds 1-Star's Promotion Over Poor Decision-Making Posted: 21 Jun 2020 03:24 PM PDT  The Navy won't reinstate the captain who was fired after warning of a serious health crisis on his ship.
|
| Brazil has become the second country to surpass 1 million COVID-19 cases. It could soon exceed the US for infections and deaths. Posted: 20 Jun 2020 02:28 AM PDT  Brazil saw 54,771 new infections and 1,206 new deaths on Friday. Meanwhile, the US surpassed 2 million infections earlier in June.
|
| 6 staffers setting up for Trump rally test positive for the coronavirus Posted: 20 Jun 2020 02:58 PM PDT  President Trump's campaign says six staff members helping set up for his Saturday night rally in Tulsa, Okla., have tested positive for coronavirus.
|
| Yemen separatists seize remote Socotra island from Saudi-backed government Posted: 21 Jun 2020 04:08 AM PDT  Southern separatists have seized control of Yemen's island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea, deposing its governor and driving out forces of the Saudi-backed government which condemned the action as coup. The Southern Transitional Council (STC) declared self rule in the south in April, complicating U.N. efforts to forge a permanent ceasefire in a war that has separatists and the government fighting as nominal allies in a Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi group, who control the north. On Saturday, the STC announced it had seized government facilities and military bases on the main island of Socotra, a sparsely populated archipelago which sits at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden on one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
|
| Fact Check: Joe Biden wants to eliminate new fracking permits, not all fracking Posted: 20 Jun 2020 01:17 PM PDT  A claim that former Vice President Joe Biden wants to ban fracking is not entirely true. He has publicly stated that he's opposed to a fracking ban.
|
| North Korea threatens to pour 'leaflets of punishment' over South Korea Posted: 20 Jun 2020 04:35 AM PDT  "The South Korean authorities will face a really horrible time," North Korean state media said.
|
| Beijing to set up new security office in Hong Kong Posted: 20 Jun 2020 09:33 AM PDT  China's new law for the territory will also override any conflicting local law, state media says.
|
| Drug check in Germany sparks attacks on police, vandalism Posted: 21 Jun 2020 03:31 AM PDT  Police in the German city of Stuttgart said Sunday that 20 people were arrested and four police officers injured after a check for drugs sparked attacks on officers and police vehicles and widespread vandalism of stores in the city center.
|
| Pence wouldn't say "black lives matter" in interview on Juneteenth Posted: 20 Jun 2020 07:13 AM PDT  The vice president said "all lives matter in a very real sense" when asked to say "black lives matter."
|
| Britons in Dubai sell possessions and return home as coronavirus ends expat dream Posted: 20 Jun 2020 05:24 AM PDT  Dubai's expat community groups are full of bargains; everything from cars to gym subscriptions. The fire sales are a result of expats left jobless by the UAE's coronavirus lock-down. Among them, thousands of British expats are trying to scrape back the pennies before they are forced to leave a place many call home. The coronavirus lockdown has upended the lives of thousands of expats, turning their dream of a life abroad into a nightmare of uncertainty. Thousands have been made redundant, with strict visa regulations forcing them to return to the UK, with little time to catch their breath. It's almost 11 years since Selina Dixon traded her claustrophobic commute from Surrey into Central London for her expat dreams of Dubai. "I was spending four hours a day on the train," she tells The Telegraph. The fashion marketer left behind the early morning drizzle and commuter grind, for a new life in the UAE. One which promised year-round sun, tax-free salaries, and the opportunity of adventure. "It's not about the glitz and glamour, whoever has been fortunate enough to live here know there is much more behind the façade," she says. An estimated 240,000 Britons call the UAE home, working as everything from air hostesses to teachers. Dixon was made redundant a few weeks ago, now she is living off her meagre savings. In weeks her visa will expire, and she wont be able to renew it unless she finds a new job. "Every day you wake up, you're looking on LinkedIn. Speaking to contacts and your network, but then you have to be mindful there are so many people going through this." With thousands of people flying in and out of the UAE every day in normal times, the country was always vulnerable to Covid-19. A stringent lockdown saw swathes of the economy shut. Though some 40,000 cases of the virus have been registered, Dubai is slowly beginning to open up, yet the economic recovery will likely take many years. Ninety per cent of the UAE's population are expats, and a study out this month by Oxford Economics, a quantitative analysis firm, estimates that the country of nine million could lose up to 900,000 jobs, and some 10 per cent of its population – British expats are likely to be among the worst affected. At least part of the difficulty lies in the UAE's Kafala – or sponsorship - system. A visa scheme wherein residency is tied to your job. Companies may sponsor a foreigner for residency as long as they employ them, but the moment someone becomes unemployed, a count-down begins on the expiry of their visa. As Dixon says, "Dubai is a place that without a visa - it's difficult." Though the government has announced some visa waivers, those who have lost their jobs since March 1st have thirty days to find a new job, or their visas become invalid, and they will be hit with daily fines. It means that those like Dixon may be forced to return to the UK for the first time in years. "It was not a choice that I was ready to make, but one that I may have to make." "I've been away [from the UK] for ten years, I'm going to have to start from scratch. Whilst I have the experience, it's the network in the UK I'll struggle with."
|
| How Israel Became a World Leader in ‘Special Mission’ Intelligence Aircraft Posted: 20 Jun 2020 08:30 AM PDT  And why it matters.
|
| Chile reports more than 7,000 virus deaths under new counting method Posted: 20 Jun 2020 10:54 AM PDT  Santiago (AFP) - Chile nearly doubled its coronavirus death toll Saturday to more than 7,000 under a new tallying method that includes probable fatalities from COVID-19.
|
| In US Military First, the Air Force Has Picked a Woman as Top Enlisted Leader Posted: 21 Jun 2020 03:27 PM PDT  JoAnne Bass emerged as "the consensus choice from more than a dozen finalists from across the Air Force's global operation."
|
| Map: Track coronavirus deaths around the world Posted: 21 Jun 2020 08:39 AM PDT  Get the latest data on the human cost of this virus. Updated daily.
|
| Supreme Court says Trump administration didn't provide sufficient evidence for canceling DACA Posted: 20 Jun 2020 05:33 AM PDT  What happens next? Acting CBP commissioner Mark Morgan weighs in.
|
| Coronavirus: Zimbabwe health minister in court on corruption charges Posted: 20 Jun 2020 07:57 AM PDT  The charges against health minister Obadiah Moyo relate to alleged procurement irregularities.
|
| Fact check: Cruise ships are registered abroad but they didn't seek a US bailout Posted: 20 Jun 2020 12:35 PM PDT  The claim that cruise ship companies register in foreign countries to avoid US taxes is true. But it's not true that they asked for COVID-19 bailout.
|
| Mike Pence said 'all lives matter' when asked by a news reporter if he'd be willing to say 'Black Lives Matter' Posted: 20 Jun 2020 07:13 AM PDT  Mike Pence also said that the Trump administration will provide new resources to police departments rather than defund them.
|
| Florida reports record of more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases Posted: 20 Jun 2020 07:56 PM PDT  Governor Ron DeSantis isn't rolling back reopening plans as the state sees a record-breaking week.
|
| Harboring Hong Kong 'rioters' will harm Taiwan, China says Posted: 19 Jun 2020 08:08 PM PDT  Offering protection to "rioters" from Hong Kong will only harm Taiwan's people and is an interference in the Chinese-ruled city's affairs, China's government said, denouncing plans by Taiwan to help Hong Kongers who decide to flee to the island. Taiwan said on Thursday it will set up a dedicated office to help those thinking of leaving Hong Kong as Beijing tightens its grip on the former British colony, including planned new national security legislation. The new office begins operations on the sensitive date of July 1, the day Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule from Britain in 1997 with the promise of continued, wide-ranging freedoms under China's "one country, two systems" formula.
|
| AG Barr says Trump has fired Manhattan US attorney Geoffrey Berman after he refused to step down Posted: 20 Jun 2020 12:49 PM PDT  Berman said late Friday that he will not step down until the Senate confirms a presidentially appointed successor.
|
| Meet the X-32: The Plane That Could Have Replaced the F-35 Posted: 20 Jun 2020 03:00 PM PDT  One for the history books.
|
| American Airlines sued after Black man is removed from flight Posted: 20 Jun 2020 02:02 PM PDT  The passengers said they were defending Elgin Banks, a Black man, after he was told to get off a Phoenix-bound flight for trying to change his seat.
|
| Black California police chiefs call for change in police Posted: 19 Jun 2020 08:18 PM PDT  Black police chiefs representing departments from across California on Friday called for changing state law so they can immediately fire officers for egregious behavior, with due-process appeals only after the fact. California has some of the nation's toughest police disciplinary rules and until last year the nation's most secretive police privacy law. Coupled with collective bargaining agreements, the chiefs said that prevents the rapid dismissal of officers, by contrast to recent cases in Atlanta and Minneapolis where officers were fired in the deaths of Black men even before criminal charges were brought. Get the full story in the video above.
|
| 'Feels very unfair': Families say cruise lines are using a 'technicality' to refuse refunds Posted: 21 Jun 2020 01:39 PM PDT  One cruiser reported canceling less than an hour before refund eligibility, but Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and others aren't budging on refunds.
|
| AP Interview: Egypt says UN must stop Ethiopia on dam fill Posted: 21 Jun 2020 02:36 PM PDT  Egypt wants the United Nations Security Council to "undertake its responsibilities" and prevent Ethiopia from starting to fill its massive, newly built hydroelectric dam on the Nile River next month amid a breakdown in negotiations, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry told The Associated Press on Sunday, accusing Ethiopian officials of stoking antagonism between the countries. Ethiopia announced Friday that it would begin filling the dam's reservoir in July even after the latest round of talks with Egypt and Sudan failed last week to reach a deal governing how the dam will be filled and operated. Egypt formally asked the Security Council to intervene in a letter the same day.
|
| Mariana Trench: Don Walsh's son repeats historic ocean dive Posted: 21 Jun 2020 02:13 AM PDT  Sixty years after his father did it first, Kelly Walsh dives to the deepest point in Earth's oceans.
|
| Protesters douse French health ministry with red paint Posted: 20 Jun 2020 02:08 AM PDT |
| Trumpworld Fears Its ‘Nightmare Scenario’ Is Coming True Posted: 20 Jun 2020 01:55 AM PDT  As Donald Trump returns to the campaign trail this Saturday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma, some of his top political advisers are growing increasingly concerned that the president won't be able to dig himself out of the hole he's made for himself.Over the past two weeks, several of the president's campaign lieutenants as well as individuals in his administration have reacted with mounting alarm as multiple polls have shown Trump dipping into the 30s against former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. In weeks past, various aides in the White House and on the Trump re-election effort had privately expressed cold comfort in the fact that with everything going on—a bungled response to a deadly pandemic, a massively crippled U.S. economy, protests across the nation, and a number of Trump's own former top officials coming out against him—it was practically a miracle that the president's poll numbers hadn't sunk even lower.Early this month, one senior White House official told The Daily Beast that their "nightmare scenario" would be for the president to slip beneath 40 percent support in a sustained string of public and private surveys—thus signaling that a previously unshakable base was starting to grow a bit disillusioned. Trump's consistent—though perhaps unenviable—standing in the low 40s had for years remained an illustration of his enduring base and iron Republican support. "Until then, I'm not a doomsayer," this official said, referring to the nerve-racking 30s in national, and some state, polling.In the time since that comment, multiple polls have shown Trump sliding into the 30s. Asked this week about the change, the same White House official simply responded, "This is not where any of us wanted to be at this point [in the election], but there is still time… to make up the difference."Trump Aides Know His Polls Are Terrible—And Tell Him OtherwiseSome advisers lay the blame for recent poll numbers squarely at the weeks-long news coverage of the mass protests against institutional racism and police brutality following the killing of George Floyd, and how Trump has responded to it. "When race is in the news cycle and dominating the conversation, President Trump's numbers always go down," said a source close to the White House. "That's just a fact."The source added that they hoped coverage of former National Security Adviser John Bolton's tell-all book about Trump would actually lead to a poll bump for the president, if for no other reason than it would mean less talk of racism, COVID, and social unrest.But Trump has had a knack for getting in the way of even the most well-crafted media plans, to say nothing of the ones his advisers hope play out. Even the announcement of the Tulsa rally was fraught with hiccups and missteps. His team had previously scheduled it for Friday, which meant it would have fallen on Juneteenth in a city that was the site of one of the country's most savage massacres of Black people. Following a backlash, the president announced the date switch to Saturday. He subsequently claimed that he had made Juneteenth—which has long commemorated the end of slavery in the United States—"very famous" because "nobody had ever heard of it." His White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, defended those remarks on Friday by noting a spike in Google searches.Stephen Colbert Slams Trump's 'Stupid' Juneteenth ClaimTrump has also attempted to portray the economic damage caused by the pandemic as fleeting. But Republican operatives have expressed concern that his talk of a rocket ship recovery may effectively portray him as out of touch to voters who still feel left behind. And even his own team is uncertain about whether it's an effective campaign play. Two of the four aforementioned officials told The Daily Beast that they were unnerved by the fact that they'd seen no polling evidence, in internal data or in multiple different public polls, that the news of higher retail sales and the addition of 2.5 million jobs in May had given the president the bump they had wanted and expected."If the next [unemployment] reports get better and better, hopefully you'll see a change then and noticeable impact," one of these officials said, adding that right now far too many people are out of work and "hurting."Hoping to give himself an additional boost on the economic front, Trump has continuously expressed a desire for additional, big-ticket federal stimulus—which some Republican officials believe would improve his chances. Top Democrats on the Hill, however, say they have not yet had any formal discussions with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about such a package (House Democrats have passed one of their own) and there is wide antipathy among aides about working with the White House unless it provides more insight into how it is spending the hundreds of billions of dollars that was already appropriated."It is a top priority," a senior House Democratic aide said of getting answers on where the Treasury Department's funds have gone. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have put off talk of another bill entirely. And even among Trump's cadre of advisers, there is not much appetite for another stimulus bill."The economic damage done by the coronavirus is a lot less than what was predicted months ago… It's awful, but it's much better in states like California, Texas, and Florida than what experts thought it would be," said Art Laffer, the notoriously conservative economist who informally advises Trump. "People are even hedging their bets on if there's going to be a second wave of the virus… The stock market is telling us this ain't going to be a big deal. It's nothing compared to Y2K or 2008… Those were really big downs in the market, and this is nothing compared to that. It started off really big, with a big drop… but then it came right back. That's not the way it went in 2008 and 2009."Absent a major economic measure or turnaround, Trump's options for reversing his polling slide are slimmer. In an interview with Politico that was published on Friday, the president did express a degree of worry about his chances against Biden. But he couched his concern in baseless theories about the potential for rampant voter fraud in mail-in ballots. "My biggest risk is that we don't win lawsuits [regarding mail-in voting]," the president said. "We have many lawsuits going all over. And if we don't win those lawsuits, I think—I think it puts the election at risk."Increasingly, Trump seems content to try and re-run the playbook he used in 2016 in hopes that it works again. Elsewhere in that Politico interview, he warned other Republican candidates—including those running to help preserve the party's Senate majority—not to tiptoe away from him, no matter what his poll numbers look like. And in recent days his team has made another aggressive effort to troll Biden (much as they did Hillary Clinton) as physically and mentally unwell. The president has brought back top aides from his last presidential run and is turning to one of his most prominent surrogates from that race to help, as well. On Thursday, Politico reported that the Trump campaign had enlisted former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani—who as Trump's personal lawyer launched a dirt-digging expedition into the Bidens that led directly to the president's impeachment—to "spearhead a campaign to press for more debates this fall, starting earlier than usual and to have a say in choosing the moderators," so that Trump can have more opportunities to publicly humiliate Biden, someone who the president seems convinced will crack under a one-on-one grilling.Asked on Thursday if he now has an official title on Trump 2020, Giuliani told The Daily Beast, "No sir I am just helping out."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.
|
| How Russia's MiG-21 Became The Most-Produced Supersonic Jet In Aviation History Posted: 21 Jun 2020 03:30 AM PDT  It's flown in more than 60 countries.
|
| No-lockdown Sweden is compelling parents to send their children to school. Some fear their kids could ultimately be taken away if they refuse. Posted: 21 Jun 2020 02:29 AM PDT  Parents say schools or local government have said they may contact social services if the children continue to stay home from school.
|
