| Former FDA commissioner sees 'a lot of risk' of 2nd coronavirus wave Posted: 07 Jun 2020 04:58 PM PDT  Dr. Scott Gottlieb told Yahoo News' "Skullduggery" podcast that he is worried Americans are on track to confront a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
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| Minneapolis mayor jeered after refusing to support abolishing police department Posted: 07 Jun 2020 03:19 AM PDT  Mayor Jacob Frey, a former civil rights attorney who took office two years ago vowing to repair the police department's strained relations with minorities, was showered with angry chants of "Go home, Jacob, go home," and "Shame, shame," as he stalked away through the crowd, head bowed. Onlookers' video of the spectacle went viral on social media on a day when tens of thousands of demonstrators in cities across the country staged a 12th straight day of protests demanding an end to racial bias and brutality in America's criminal justice system. Within days, as street protests raged amid a storm of arson and looting that went largely unchecked by police, Frey drew criticism from some, including U.S. President Donald Trump, for doing too little to restore order.
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| Palestinian Islamic Jihad group buries ex-leader in Damascus Posted: 07 Jun 2020 10:22 AM PDT  Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad buried its former leader Ramadan Shalah in Syria Sunday, an AFP correspondent said, a day after he died in neighbouring Lebanon. The 62-year-old died in a Beirut hospital before his body was transported across the border to Syria, a Palestinian source said. Shalah led Iran-backed Islamic Jihad from 1995 until 2018 when he was replaced by his deputy Ziad al-Nakhala.
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| Aerial footage shows colossal crowds gathered in Philadelphia to protest against police brutality Posted: 06 Jun 2020 07:13 PM PDT  A video of a massive protest in Philadelphia began trending on Saturday as demonstrators took over the city.
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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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| How the Coronavirus Crisis Exposed the False Promise of Iran-China Partnership Posted: 06 Jun 2020 03:00 PM PDT  An alliance that will never occur?
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| New Orleans Braces for Deadly Storm Surges and Heavy Rainfall as Tropical Storm Cristobal Approaches Posted: 07 Jun 2020 07:59 AM PDT  Life-threatening storm surges could affect regions from "the mouth of the Mississippi River to Ocean Springs, Miss."
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| A majority of voters are uncomfortable attending large gatherings, dining out Posted: 07 Jun 2020 06:01 AM PDT  As states continue to ease restrictions, Americans remain wary about the pandemic's spread according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
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| Anger as Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro removes surging coronavirus death toll from official websites Posted: 07 Jun 2020 02:57 AM PDT  Brazil's government was accused of trying to cover up the scale of its catastrophic coronavirus epidemic after it stopped publishing its total rates of deaths and infections. The Federal Health Ministry closed the webpage showing daily, weekly and monthly figures on infections and deaths in Brazilian states on its Website on Friday. The move came as president Jair Bolsonaro, who has previously dismissed the deadly virus as "a little flu," claimed that the official count was "not representative" of the country's situation and threatened to pull Brazil out of the World Health Organisation. The last figures released before counting stopped showed Brazil had recorded over 34,000 deaths from Covid-19, the third highest in the world after the United States and the United Kingdom. It had 615,000 infections, the second-highest behind the United States. The webpage reappeared on Saturday, but only showing the numbers of infections for states and the nation recorded over the previous 24 hours - not cumulative totals.
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| Mike Huckabee ‘Livid’ at Republicans Who Won’t Bow Down to Trump Posted: 07 Jun 2020 09:16 AM PDT  Former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR) expressed his shock and dismay Sunday morning that several prominent Republicans will reportedly not support President Donald Trump in the 2020 election."Well I don't know if it's true because it's in The New York Times," Huckabee snarked on Fox & Friends Weekend, claiming that the paper is "wrong more than they're right." "But if that's true and if you have people who were nominated, and in the case of President Bush actually elected to be president by Republicans, and they will no longer support the Republican nominee who went through the process and got elected," Huckabee said, "then I'm going to be not just unhappy, I'm going to be livid." He went on to say that he and his fellow conservatives "didn't all agree on some of the policies of Bush or McCain or Romney" but "when it came down to it" they knew they could either "choose a far-left liberal or we could choose somebody that was closer to our views."Huckabee admitted that Trump might not have the best "bedside manner," but still, he added, "Here's what I just don't understand with these never-Trumpers." "This president is more pro-life than we've ever had, period," he said. "He's more pro-Israel. He has deregulated so much government so that the businesses of America can thrive and they have until this COVID stuff happened." He notably neglected to mention that the president's inaction on COVID-19 made that situation much worse.LeBron James Calls Out Fox News Host Laura Ingraham Over Drew Brees HypocrisyAfter baselessly claiming that Trump has "done more for minorities than any president in my lifetime in actually helping people to have good, decent jobs and a future," Huckabee told Republicans who don't like Trump's "personality" to "get over it!" "This is not about electing a personality," Huckabee said. "This isn't Hollywood. This is the rough, tumble world of politics. And maybe he's not as genteel as some of us would like. But, by gosh, he's getting the job done, and it's time Republicans rally because if they don't, they're going to get Joe Biden, who isn't pro-life, who is for higher taxes, open borders, he's going to succumb to China. Everything that we find disgusting he's going to embrace it, including the socialists out here. That's why we have to realize this is a simple choice and we better make the right move." After Huckabee delivered his fear-based rant Sunday morning on Fox, yet another prominent Republican, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, officially endorsed Joe Biden on CNN. Calling Trump's rhetoric "dangerous for our democracy" and "dangerous for our country," Powell said he believes "the country is getting wise to this and we're not going to put up with it anymore." Joe Biden Gets Super Unhelpful Defense from Mike HuckabeeRead 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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| 10-foot great white shark kills surfer in Australia Posted: 07 Jun 2020 08:09 AM PDT  A 60-year-old surfer was attacked and killed by a 10-foot great white shark off the coast of New South Wales state on Sunday, according to officials.
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| Venezuela's Guaido reappears after claim he hid in French embassy Posted: 06 Jun 2020 08:59 PM PDT  Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido reappeared in the street in videos distributed Saturday by his team and parliamentary allies, after foreign minister Jorge Arreaza claimed he had taken refuge in the French embassy in Caracas. Guaido, the parliamentary speaker who is recognized as interim president of Venezuela by 50 countries, was referring to the accusation by the United States of "narcoterrorism" against the socialist government of Nicolas Maduro. The videos -- which did not specify the date or location they were filmed -- were released after Arreaza on Thursday said Guaido was hiding in the French embassy, and demanded he be handed over to "Venezuelan justice."
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| U.S. coronavirus deaths top 110,000 as cases approach 2 million: Reuters tally Posted: 07 Jun 2020 09:00 AM PDT  About 1,000 Americans have died on average each day so far in June, down from a peak of 2,000 a day in April, according to the tally of state and county data on COVID-19 deaths. Total U.S. coronavirus cases are approaching 2 million, the highest in the world followed by Brazil with about 672,000 cases and Russia with about 467,000. Globally, coronavirus cases are approaching 7 million with about 400,000 deaths since the outbreak began in China late last year and then arrived in Europe and the United States.
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| Black Lives Matter protesters in the UK toppled a 125-year-old slave trader statue and sank it in a river Posted: 07 Jun 2020 10:19 AM PDT  Cheers and applause from protestors accompanied the toppling of the controversial statue of Edward Colston, a former slave trader.
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| Coronavirus: The misinformation circulating in Africa about Covid-19 Posted: 07 Jun 2020 01:24 AM PDT  We examine claims of bribes and poison, a positive virus test that was not and anti-virus "badges".
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| Coronavirus live updates: Protesters defy lockdown rules as U.S. death toll tops 110,000 Posted: 07 Jun 2020 08:23 AM PDT  Here are the latest coronavirus updates from around the world.
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| AG Bill Barr says he didn't know about Trump's bible photo-op and 'riots' led to controversial Lafayette Park clearance Posted: 07 Jun 2020 03:17 PM PDT  US Attorney General William Barr defended the clearing of protesters from Lafayette Park in Washington DC through the use of "pepper balls" and denied that the use of force had anything to do with President Donald Trump's photo-op with a Bible outside St John's Church that day.Speaking with CBS News on Sunday, Mr Barr also said that he did not believe that systemic racism is an issue in police forces.
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| 65% of Americans Believe Racial Profiling is Commonly Used: Study Posted: 06 Jun 2020 07:00 PM PDT  Want to know what Americans really think about the police? One study has some important clues.
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| The president of the Chicago Police Board said he was struck five times by officers with batons after trying to defuse tensions at a protest Posted: 05 Jun 2020 11:42 PM PDT  "This is the duality I live with as a black man in America, even one who is privileged to be part of systems of power," Ghian Foreman said.
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| Treasure chest hidden in Rocky Mountains finally found Posted: 07 Jun 2020 11:58 AM PDT  A bronze chest filled with gold, jewels, and other valuables worth more than $1 million and hidden a decade ago somewhere in the Rocky Mountain wilderness has been found, according to a famed art and antiquities collector who created the treasure hunt. Forrest Fenn, 89, told the Santa Fe New Mexican on Sunday that a man who did not want his name released — but was from "back East" — located the chest a few days ago and the discovery was confirmed by a photograph the man sent him. "It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago," Fenn said in a statement on his website Sunday that still did not reveal the exact location.
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| Iran says it is ready for more prisoner exchanges with U.S. Posted: 07 Jun 2020 10:44 AM PDT  Michael White, a U.S. Navy veteran detained in Iran since 2018, was freed last Thursday as part of a deal in which the United States allowed Iranian-American physician Majid Taheri to visit Iran - a rare instance of U.S.-Iranian cooperation. White's release came two days after the United States deported Sirous Asgari, an Iranian professor imprisoned in the United States despite having being acquitted of stealing trade secrets.
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| 'A Long Time Coming': Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee Statue to Be Removed in Virginia Posted: 07 Jun 2020 09:38 AM PDT  Richmond leaders have also committed to taking down four other Confederate memorials in the city
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| Great white shark kills surfer off Australia's New South Wales Posted: 07 Jun 2020 12:29 AM PDT  The surfer was brought back to the New South Wales beach by "heroic" boarders but died of his wounds.
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| ISIS Is the Cockroach Caliphate That Just Keeps Coming Back Posted: 06 Jun 2020 01:56 AM PDT  Early this past March, a team of U.S. Marine Raiders—the Corps' Special Operations forces—found itself locked in a firefight with well-entrenched jihadist insurgents in the mountains near the town of Makhmur in northern Iraq. The Marines were attached to an Iraqi counterterrorism task force at the time. Their mission was to clear the insurgents out of a tunnel complex at the base of the mountains. Before the last shots were fired that day, more than two dozen jihadists had been killed, and their redoubt was captured. Two Marines, Captain Moises A. Navas and Gunnery Sergeant Diego D. Pago, lost their lives in savage, close-in fighting. They are among the last few American service members to be killed in Iraq, a country the United States hoped to transform into a pro-Western bulwark against terrorism and instability in the Middle East, but failed to do so.The Marines were killed in action against soldiers of the most feared and successful jihadist organization in history—the Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and Daesh. ISIS has distinguished itself in a crowded field through acts of ghastly, unspeakable violence against all "infidels and apostates," and its establishment in northern Iraq and Syria of a short-lived, rigidly intolerant proto-state, "purified" of all concessions to modernity and religious toleration. The caliphate was methodically destroyed by a U.S.-led multinational coalition between 2014 and 2019.Now, just a bit more than a year after the fall of ISIS's last redoubt in Syria, there is a strong consensus among Middle East experts and military analysts that ISIS is on the rebound, taking full advantage of the weakness of the Iraqi government and the swirling chaos that prevails throughout the region. Meanwhile, ISIS's affiliates in North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula are gaining in numbers and capability.What Baghdadi's Death Means for al Qaeda—and Why It MattersAccording to a recent report submitted to the U.N. Security Council by a panel of international experts, ISIS has been "mounting increasingly bold insurgent attacks in [Iraq and Syria], calling and planning for the breakout of ISIS fighters in detention facilities, and exploiting weaknesses in the security environment of both countries."Despite the October 2019 death of ISIS's supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi at the hands of a Delta Force squadron, the group remains well-funded and organized. At least 20,000 of the estimated 30,000 foreign fighters who participated in its earlier conquest remain alive and committed to the cause.A week after the Marine Raiders' battle in the cave complex in March, ISIS released another in a long line of propaganda videos, depicting graphic scenes of recent beheadings of Iraqi soldiers and a savage ISIS attack on ordinary Iraqis in Kirkuk Province, whose only offense seems to have been they were enjoying playing a pickup soccer game. The narrator in the film intones, "America thinks that victory is killing one or more leaders… or losing control of a city or land. No, defeat is the loss of the will to fight. Your armies do not scare us." According to Hassan Hassan, an ISIS expert at the Center for Global Policy in Washington, D.C., Islamic State fighters in early April "conducted several attacks in Kirkuk, Diyala, and Saladin [provinces in Iraq]. Such attacks included the attempted storming of the counterterrorism and intelligence directorate in Kirkuk, and several coordinated attacks in Saladin. The attacks were among the most sophisticated in years."Experts agree that President Donald Trump's decision to pull most of America's military forces out of Syria last October has been an important factor in opening the door for ISIS's resurgence. The decision effectively greenlighted a Turkish attack on the Kurds of the Syrian Democratic Forces, key U.S. allies in the fight against ISIS. These troops had been guarding about 10,000 captured ISIS fighters in various detention centers and prisons. The Turkish incursion forced a significant percentage of the Kurdish guards to withdraw from the detention centers and redeploy elsewhere. Hundreds of ISIS fighters, including a number of senior members of the organization, have escaped, and others may well do so in the coming months, with the help of their brothers on the outside. One of Baghdadi's last public acts was to call on his brothers and sisters to rise up and free those who remained detained. At the Hasaka prison in northeastern Syria, which holds between 4,000 and 5,000 captives, ISIS militants began breaking down doors and digging holes in walls between cells in late March. A riot broke out, and a number of ISIS fighters escaped before order was restored. Five weeks later, in early May, ISIS fighters briefly took control of the same prison.Jailbreaks, of course, played a crucial role in Baghdadi's successful strategy for establishing the caliphate in the first place. After American combat forces left Iraq in late 2011, ISIS fighters freed many hundreds of detained al Qaeda in Iraq (ISIS's precursor) combatants from prisons in Tikrit, Kirkuk, and even the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.According to the U.N. report, Syrian Democratic Forces in the region have been unable "to maintain adequate control over a restive population of detained ISIL fighters, as well as family members, numbering more than 100,000."Most of the captured family members remain at the al-Hol refugee camp in Syria near the Iraq border, where they live in appalling squalor with inadequate food and sanitation—a recipe for despair and radicalization of the young adult males. Idlib Province in Syria, the site of the last caliphate stronghold, remains dominated by ISIS fighters and those friendly to them. Anbar Province of Iraq, near the Syrian border, also remains a hotbed of ISIS activity, according to the report.The U.N. report is bad news, of course, but to serious students of the War on Terror, it is hardly surprising. Way back in December 2017, as ISIS's last toehold in Iraq fell, President Trump declared that ISIS had been "100 percent defeated." The statement was one in a long line of naïve and wildly over-optimistic pronouncements by American war leaders engaged in counterinsurgencies, including, most famously, George W. Bush's May 1, 2003 triumphal declaration aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended," and General William Westmoreland's claim that he "had the enemy on the ropes" in Vietnam, two months before the Tet Offensive of January 1968 forced Washington to admit it couldn't win in Southeast Asia by force of arms.In Vietnam, American soldiers and Marines often had the demoralizing experience of engaging Viet Cong and North Vietnamese regiments and divisions their superiors had declared vanquished or destroyed. Like corks floating in the ocean surf, these phoenix-like fighting organizations would reappear again and again after being "defeated."So it is in the Global War on Terror, where America's adversaries, ISIS included, have an inconvenient habit of resurrecting themselves from defeat. Not long after the Taliban and al Qaeda had been routed in Afghanistan, both organizations resurfaced with a vengeance. Today, the Taliban is a much more powerful organization than it was before the United States launched its October 2001 unconventional assault with the help of the Northern Alliance. Indeed, most experts on the War in Afghanistan believe the Taliban has a very good chance of reestablishing control over vast swaths of that nation's countryside as soon as American forces depart.Under the leadership of an uneducated Jordanian thug named Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) became the dominant force in the hydra-headed insurgency against the Americans in Iraq by 2005. By late 2007, Zarqawi's organization had been severely degraded by a bold new American counterinsurgency strategy, a surge in U.S. combat power, and an alliance with the militias of a group of Sunni tribal sheikhs who had become disillusioned with AQI's shockingly violent tactics.Taken together, these developments resulted in a considerable diminution of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites in Anbar Province and in Baghdad, and they broke al Qaeda's hold over a number of other insurgent groups. Civilian casualties dropped off markedly.Military analysts praised the surge and the Americans' new counterinsurgency strategy effusively, seeing it as a major turning point in the conflict that might well bring order and security to the entire country.Sadly, the success of that strategy proved to be fleeting. Once U.S. combat troops left, writes defense analyst Carter Malkasian, the sheikhs "were too divided and isolated to mount an effective resistance" against a resurgent ISIS, and "almost everything the United States fought for between 2003 and 2007 was lost."The new American strategy tamped down the violence, but did little to enhance the effectiveness of the Iraqi security forces, or the legitimacy of the government in Baghdad in the eyes of its own people, especially the disenfranchised Sunni minority. That government remains deeply corrupt, faction-ridden, and criminally unresponsive to its citizens, even today. Back in 2008 historian Thomas Powers called Iraq "a seething cockpit of warring religions, political movements, social classes and ethnic groups, many influenced by Iran." And so it remains today.The loss of the new caliphate in 2019 has done little to damage the highly sophisticated social media-driven propaganda campaign of the Islamic State, with its celebration of extreme violence against unbelievers, and its alluring promise of eternal salvation for martyrs. The dream of re-establishing that caliphate remains strong in the hearts of the believers, while the fecklessness of the government in Iraq, and its failure to address the grievances of Sunni Muslims, who constitute about 20 percent of its population, only lend credence to predictions that ISIS will rise again in the very heart of the Middle East.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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| Minneapolis businesswoman stands with protesters, even after her store burned down Posted: 06 Jun 2020 01:54 PM PDT  "This hurts, but watching him lose his life like that, it hurts more, it hurts more than losing my business," she said.
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| Coronavirus: Factory discards Covid-19 swab tests after Trump visit Posted: 06 Jun 2020 11:44 AM PDT  A medical swab manufacturer was forced to discard coronavirus tests following Donald Trump's visit to its Maine facility, according to USA Today.While workers in lab coats and personal protective equipment worked on the factory floor during the president's visit to Puritan Medical Products on Friday, Mr Trump — who did not wear a mask — walked through the facility and visited with workers.
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| Dispatch: 'A bad officer can just laugh' - George Floyd's killing and Minneapolis police failures Posted: 07 Jun 2020 09:20 AM PDT  On Sept 9, 2010 David Cornelius Smith, 28, an unarmed black man, died face down on a YMCA basketball court in Minneapolis as a white officer knelt on him for four minutes. Police had been called because Mr Smith was "throwing a basketball aggressively". No criminal charges were brought, and the officer was not disciplined. No one on the court had a smartphone and there was little coverage of the incident, even locally. America has not heard the name of David Cornelius Smith. A decade later, two miles away, and in remarkably similar circumstances - they both suffocated - George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died on a street corner beneath the knee of Derek Chauvin, a white officer. Bystanders filmed it, and America erupted in protest. But, shocking as it was, Mr Floyd's death was no isolated case.
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| Nashville's protest of thousands was organized by 6 teenagers who met on Twitter united by their outrage over George Floyd's death Posted: 06 Jun 2020 10:27 AM PDT  Six teenage girls aged between 14 and 16 organized Nashville's peaceful protest attended by up to 20,000 people.
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| Brazil expunges virus death toll as data befuddles experts Posted: 06 Jun 2020 09:02 PM PDT  Brazil's government has stopped publishing a running total of coronavirus deaths and infections in an extraordinary move that critics call an attempt to hide the true toll of the disease in Latin America's largest nation. Saturday's move came after months of criticism from experts that Brazil's statistics are woefully deficient, and in some cases manipulated, so it may never be possible to understand the depth of the pandemic in the country. Brazil's last official numbers showed it had recorded over 34,000 deaths related to the coronavirus, the third-highest number in the world, just ahead of Italy.
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| Taiwan opposition seeks distance from China after poll defeat Posted: 06 Jun 2020 06:16 PM PDT |
| Coronavirus news and updates: Global deaths top 400K; US officials urge demonstrators to get tested; New York to allow in-person graduations Posted: 07 Jun 2020 03:33 PM PDT  Global deaths top 400,000. U.S. officials urge demonstrators to get tested. NY to allow in-person graduations. The latest coronavirus news.
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| Tropical Storm Cristobal advances toward Gulf Coast Posted: 06 Jun 2020 07:16 AM PDT  The re-energized tropical storm is bringing with it heavy rains that already caused flooding and mudslides in Mexico and Central America.
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| Bill Barr Defends Attack on Peaceful Protesters: ‘Pepper Spray Is Not a Chemical Irritant’ Posted: 07 Jun 2020 09:32 AM PDT  Attorney General William Barr on Sunday repeatedly defended on the violent show of force used by D.C. police last week to clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Park moments before President Donald Trump's photo-op at St. John's Episcopal Church, ultimately playing semantics on the use of chemical munitions by law enforcement.During a wide-ranging interview on Face the Nation, anchor Margaret Brennan pressed the attorney general on whether he felt in hindsight it was "appropriate for them to use smoke bombs, tear gas, pepper balls, projectiles at what appeared to be peaceful protesters?"An unapologetic Barr, who was behind the order to aggressively clear the demonstrators, insisted that "they were not peaceful protesters" and that this is "one of the big lies that the media" is perpetuating.Brennan, for her part, pointed out that three of her CBS colleagues were present and didn't hear the so-called warnings from police or see any projectiles thrown, claims made by both Barr and the police."There were three warnings given," Barr reacted before suggesting these were the very same "violent rioters" who were responsible for fire damage to St. John's Church.The attorney general would go on to say that he approved a plan for law enforcement to "increase the perimeter" at 2 p.m. that day, adding that the "park police was facing what they considered to be a very rowdy and non-compliant crowd" that were throwing projectiles.Brennan again pointed out that none of her colleagues saw anything thrown at police prior to the show of aggression, prompting Barr to assert that he personally "saw them thrown." While claiming that police had to deal with violent protesters, Barr also insisted that "this was not an operation to respond to that particular crowd—it was an operation to move the perimeter one block."Brennan again pressed the attorney general on whether he thought it was appropriate for police to use tear gas and other munitions to disperse the crowd, causing Barr to try to play a semantics game."No, there were not chemical irritants," he falsely proclaimed. "Pepper spray is not a chemical irritant. It's not chemical."Park Police have repeatedly insisted they did not use tear gas canisters and "only" used smoke canisters and pepper balls. Local reporters, however, collected spent canisters of CM Spede Heat CS and CM Skat Shell OC, both of which are types of tear gas. ("OC" stands for oleoresin capsicum, a chile-pepper-derived chemical, while "CS" is an abbreviation for 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile—the key ingredient in tear gas.)The Centers for Disease Control, meanwhile, also classifies pepper spray as a form of tear gas, prompting the spokesperson for the Park Police to admit it was a "mistake" for them to have claimed officers didn't use tear gas on the scene. The CDC specifically says pepper spray is a chemical compound that can "temporarily make people unable to function by causing irritation to the eyes, mouth, throat, lungs, and skin"—in other words, a chemical irritant.After repeatedly asserting that the police's actions were appropriate, Barr also claimed that he was wholly unaware that Trump was going to make a Rose Garden speech right as officers cleared the area where the president would then pose with a Bible for a photo-op."But you understand how these events appear connected?" Brennan shot back."Well, it's the job of the media to tell the truth. They were not connected," Barr answered, leading the CBS host to ask if he knew about the president's speech when he gave the "green light.""I gave the green light at two o'clock. Obviously, I didn't know that the president was going to be speaking later that day," he declared, adding that he had "no idea" about Trump's actions.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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| George Floyd death: Australians defy virus in mass anti-racism rallies Posted: 06 Jun 2020 04:10 AM PDT  Protesters march in support of George Floyd and indigenous Australians despite coronavirus warnings.
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| Justin Trudeau took the knee 3 times at an anti-racism protest, but he's being called on to do more to address Canada's racism and indigenous deaths Posted: 06 Jun 2020 04:07 AM PDT  Justin Trudeau kneeled in Ottawa as protests sparked by George Floyd's death continue, but he's being scrutinised over racism in Canada.
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| Migrant worker virus exodus plunges India's factories into crisis Posted: 07 Jun 2020 12:40 AM PDT  An acute shortage of workers has turned the roar of machines to a soft hum at a footwear factory near New Delhi, just one of thousands in India struggling to restart after an exodus of migrant workers during the virus lockdown. India is slowly emerging from strict containment measures imposed in late March as leaders look to revive the battered economy, but manufacturers don't have enough workers to man the machinery. Kharbanda said the company's sports shoe unit had been sitting idle as there were no skilled workers to operate the high-tech machines.
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| 'Numerous' reports of looting in retaken Libyan towns, UN says Posted: 07 Jun 2020 08:49 AM PDT  The United Nations has received "numerous" reports of looting and destruction in two towns outside Tripoli retaken by the forces of Libya's internationally recognised government, it said on Sunday. Forces of the Turkish-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) on Thursday recaptured Tarhouna as part of an advance ending a 14-month offensive on the capital by the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) of Khalifa Haftar. Since the LNA -- backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia -- retreated, videos have been posted online purportedly showing looting of shops and torching of homes of families associated with the LNA and its local backers.
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| 'It’s Obvious There’s a Cultural Rot': Activists Collect Hundreds of Examples of Alleged Police Misconduct in One Public Spreadsheet Posted: 07 Jun 2020 03:26 PM PDT  So far, it includes over 300 videos of alleged police misconduct, as well as a some incidents researchers found troubling
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| Police arrest cyclist who confronted young people posting racial injustice fliers Posted: 06 Jun 2020 02:33 PM PDT  A cyclist whose videotaped confrontation with three young people posting fliers protesting racial injustice on a nature trail outside Washington drew widespread attention has been arrested and charged, police said Friday.
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| China defends its coronavirus response in new report Posted: 06 Jun 2020 11:18 PM PDT  Senior Chinese officials released a lengthy report Sunday on the nation's response to the coronavirus pandemic, defending their government's actions and saying that China had provided information in a timely and transparent manner. China "wasted no time" in sharing information such as the genome sequence for the new virus with the World Health Organization as well as relevant countries and regional organizations, according to the report. An Associated Press investigation found that government labs sat on releasing the genetic map of the virus for more than a week in January, delaying its identification in a third country and the sharing of information needed to develop tests, drugs and a vaccine.
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| Is the Confederate Flag Unconstitutional? Posted: 07 Jun 2020 04:30 AM PDT  For those who want the flag to come down, the message is a reminder of white supremacy and the war fought to maintain slavery.
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| Irene Triplett, last person to collect an American civil war pension, dies at 90 Posted: 07 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Daughter of private who fought for both sides and had children in his 80s lived for years in a North Carolina nursing homeThe last person to receive a US government pension from the American civil war has died.Irene Triplett was 90 when she died last Sunday in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Her father, Mose Triplett, fought for the Confederacy and the Union in the civil war, which began in 1861 and ended with the defeat of the slave power in 1865. He applied for his Union pension 20 years after the war and in 1930, when his daughter was born, he was 83.The Wall Street Journal, which spoke to Irene Triplett for a story in 2014, reported that she died "from complications following surgery for injuries from a fall, according to the nursing home where she lived".Dennis St Andrew, a commander of the North Carolina Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, told the Journal Triplett was "a part of history"."You're talking to somebody whose father was in the civil war," he said. "Which is mind-bending."But to Stephanie McCurry, a historian of the civil war and Reconstruction era at Columbia University in New York, Triplett's death acquired a deeper resonance by occurring in the midst of national civil unrest over the killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd, an African American man."Just like the Confederate monuments issue, which is blowing up right now, I think this is a reminder of the long reach of slavery, secession and the civil war," she told the Washington Post. "It reminds you of the battle over slavery and its legitimacy in the United States."Each month, Triplett collected $73.13 from the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA), a total of $877.56 a year. Her father earned the sum by defecting north in 1863 after missing the battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the war."Pvt Triplett enlisted in the 53rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment in May 1862," the Journal reported, citing Confederate records which showed he was then 16.And Triplett "transferred to the 26th North Carolina Infantry Regiment early the following year", "fell ill as his regiment marched north" then "ran away from the hospital … while his unit suffered devastating losses at Gettysburg".A deserter, Triplett "made his way to Tennessee and, in 1864, enlisted in … the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry", Kirk's Raiders, which "carried out a campaign of sabotage against Confederate targets".Mose Triplett was unsurprisingly not popular in post-war North Carolina but eventually, in 1924, still childless, he married a second time. He was nearly 80. His new wife, Elida Hall, was 34. As the Journal put it, "such an age difference wasn't rare, especially during the Great Depression when civil war veterans found themselves with both a pension and a growing need for care."Triplett and Hall had five children but only two survived: Irene, who like her mother suffered from mental disabilities, and Everette, a son born when Mose Triplett was 87. As the Journal wrote in 2014, "Irene and Everette Triplett were born in tough country during tough times. The forested hills ran with white lightning from illegal stills. Ms Triplett said she didn't drink moonshine, but she got hooked on tobacco in first grade.""I dipped snuff in school, and I chewed tobacco in school," Triplett said then. "I raised homemade tobacco. I chewed that, too. I chewed it all."In 1938, aged 92, Mose Triplett attended a reunion at Gettysburg. In his remarks, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt referred to the Gettysburg Address, delivered in November 1863: "Lincoln spoke in solace for all who fought upon this field; and the years have laid their balm upon their wounds. Men who wore the blue and men who wore the gray are here together, a fragment spared by time."Newsreel footage posted to YouTube by CSPAN tells of "2,500 veterans, north and south", black and white, marking "the 75th anniversary of America's Armageddon".Housed in the Confederate camp, Triplett reportedly kept quiet about the double service that placed him in rarefied company. The Victorian journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley, for example, also fought for both sides.Triplett died shortly afterwards. His gravestone, in Wilkes county, says only: "He was a civil war soldier."In 1943, Irene and her mother moved to the Wilkes county poor house. In 1960, they moved to a care home. Elida Hall died in 1967. Everette Triplett died in 1996. Irene lived on, her care paid for by Medicaid and the civil war pension.The Journal reported that though Irene "saw little of her relatives … a pair of civil war buffs visited and sent her money to spend on Dr Pepper and chewing tobacco".Jamie Phillips, the home's activities director, told the Post Triplett liked gospel music, cream cheese cheeseballs and laughing."A lot of people were interested in her story," Phillips said, "but she'd always deflect the conversation to something different going on in the news."
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| Israelis protest Netanyahu's annexation plan Posted: 06 Jun 2020 10:50 AM PDT  Several thousand Israelis demonstrated on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to extend sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank, de-facto annexation of land that the Palestinians seek for a state. Protesting in face masks and keeping their distance from each other under coronavirus restrictions, they gathered under the banner "No to annexation, no to occupation, yes to peace and democracy". The organisers screened a video address by U.S. Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders.
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