| At D.C. protests, opposition to Trump doesn't always translate to support for Biden Posted: 11 Jun 2020 12:08 PM PDT  The protests that have followed the death of George Floyd have combined anger toward President Trump with calls for police reform and a push to address systemic racism. Yet many protesters are reluctant to embrace Joe Biden.
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| Leading 'defund the police' advocate says law enforcement needs to 'get out of our lives' Posted: 11 Jun 2020 10:14 AM PDT  "When push comes to shove, the police are showing us their true colors," said Alex Vitale on the Yahoo News podcast "Skullduggery." "They are violence workers who are often not really interested in the well-being of huge parts of the population."
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| New virus cases raise fears in Chinese capital, markets closed Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:10 AM PDT  Beijing closed two markets on Friday and delayed the return of primary school students after three fresh coronavirus cases emerged in the capital -- the first after two months of no infections in the city. The majority of cases in recent months have been overseas nationals tested as they return home. The two latest patients are employees of the China Meat Research Centre, city officials said at a daily press conference.
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| French nuclear submarine on fire at Toulon harbour: prefecture Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:50 AM PDT |
| New video of a fatal 2019 arrest in Oklahoma shows a white officer respond 'I don't care' when Black man he is arresting says 'I can't breathe' Posted: 11 Jun 2020 06:30 AM PDT  Derrick Scott died an hour after he arrest in 2019. Footage was obtained much later after a push from Black Lives Mater protesters.
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| US Air Force pilot becomes the first woman to fly the F-35A stealth fighter into combat Posted: 11 Jun 2020 03:02 PM PDT  "Being the first female, it's a pretty big honor," Capt. Emily Thompson, call sign "Banzai," said of the historic flight.
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| NYC First Lady: Police-Free City Would Be ‘Nirvana,’ But Goal is Unreachable Posted: 11 Jun 2020 10:26 AM PDT  New York City first lady Chirlane McCray speculated that an NYPD-free city would be "Nirvana," in a Tuesday interview with Time magazine."That would be like a nirvana, a utopia that we are nowhere close to getting to," McCray said. When asked whether New York would follow Minneapolis in attempting to disband its police department, McCray responded, "They can do things that would not be possible in a large city like New York."Mayor Bill de Blasio said in the same interview, "Could the human race evolve to a point where no guardians, no structures are needed? I guess in theory, but I don't see that in the future we're going to live the next few generations."De Blasio on Sunday told reporters that an unspecified amount of funds will be redirected from the NYPD to youth and social services, and credited McCray with the idea behind the initiative.The NYPD had a budget of $6 billion in 2019, while City Comptroller Scott Stringer has recommended diverting $1 billion from the police to other programs.Calls to "defund the police" have grown in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers. At the same time, massive demonstrations sparked by Floyd's death have led to instances of rioting and looting.The NYPD has been called out in force to quell rioting throughout New York City, with looters targeting wealthy neighborhoods in lower and midtown Manhattan as well as sections of Brooklyn and the Bronx. De Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo have criticized the department's performance in handling the demonstrations."The legislators, the press, everybody's trying to shame us into being embarrassed about our profession," shot back Mike O'Meara, head of the New York Association of Police Benevolent Associations. "Stop treating us like animals and thugs, and start treating us with some respect….We've been left out of the conversation, we've been vilified — it's disgusting."De Blasio has also appointed McCray to co-chair the city's coronavirus racial inequality task force.
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| White House eyes travel from Mexico as source of virus spike Posted: 11 Jun 2020 03:57 PM PDT  The White House is floating a theory that travel from Mexico may be contributing to a new wave of coronavirus infections, rather than states' efforts to reopen their economies. The notion was discussed at some length during a meeting of the administration's coronavirus task force in the White House Situation Room Thursday that focused, in part, on identifying commonalities between new outbreaks, according to two administration officials familiar with the discussions. COVID-19 cases are currently rising in nearly half of states across the country, according to an Associated Press analysis.
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| US to withdraw troops from Iraq over coming months despite Islamic State surge Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:52 AM PDT  The US said it will withdraw troops from Iraq in the coming months, six months after the assassination of an Iranian general in Baghdad threatened to see them expelled from the country. The announcement comes amid a spike of Islamic State activity in the country, and as Baghdad and Washington began long-anticipated talks over the future of the presence of the US in the country. A joint statement read: "In light of significant progress towards eliminating the Isis threat, over the coming months the U.S. would continue reducing forces from Iraq." Relations between the two plummeted to an all-time low this year after the US killed Iranian spy chief Qassim Soleimani in an airstrike near Baghdad airport in January. Iranian-backed militias have since launched repeated rocket attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad, and on military bases housing US troops. At the time, Iraqi officials were publicly furious, with President Barham Salih, describing the airstrike as a breach of sovereignty. The Iraqi parliament passed a non-binding resolution to expel American troops immediately. Yet, US officials insisted both publicly and privately that they would leave on their timetable, and only when Iraq was capable of handling its own security affairs. US-led efforts against Isil n Syria are heavily reliant on Washington's presence in Iraq. The October 2019 raid that killed Isil-chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi was conducted by forces flown in from bases in Iraq. The withdrawal announcement comes as attacks by Isil surge in the country. A recent study by the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point notes that Isil claimed 566 attacks in Iraq in the first quarter of 2020 - a notable increase on previous months. The study described Isil as showing "very significant resilience", adding that "the movement has undertaken an agile, fluid, and pragmatic shift back to insurgency in every area of Iraq where the group has lost physical control of populations and resources." At 5,200, the current contingent of US troops in Iraq is already considerably reduced compared to the peak in 2007, when numbers topped 160,000 under President George W. Bush. The Trump administration has attempted to balance its desire to bring as many troops as possible home before the presidential election later this year, and a "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran – Iraq is seen as a key battleground in the rivalry. Though no exact figures were given, western officials believe the reduction will halve the number of US troops remaining in Iraq, with further reductions possible before the end of the year.
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| Oklahoma cop faces backlash but won't apologize after saying African Americans 'probably ought to be' shot more by police Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:48 PM PDT  A top police commander in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is "under review" after citing what he called "alternative data" during a local radio interview this week.
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| Coronavirus live updates: Republicans pick Jacksonville, Florida, as convention site Posted: 12 Jun 2020 01:38 AM PDT  Here are the latest coronavirus updates from around the world.
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| EU wants to buy COVID-19 vaccines up front - unless they're made in America Posted: 11 Jun 2020 07:18 AM PDT  The European Commission is seeking a mandate from EU countries to buy promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates in advance from pharmaceutical firms, as long as they are not produced solely in the United States, officials said. The EU executive wants to pay for up to six potential vaccines in deals where the makers would commit to providing doses when and if they become available. It will ask EU health ministers at a video conference meeting on Friday to back the plan, which has been swiftly devised as the bloc fears it may not have access to enough shots should a vaccine be developed.
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| One killed in blast in Pakistan's Rawalpindi Posted: 12 Jun 2020 01:38 PM PDT  At least one person was killed and a dozen others wounded in a rare bomb blast in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Friday, officials said. Rawalpindi, Pakistan's fourth-largest city, is known for its military garrison and adjoins the capital Islamabad. The explosion took place Friday evening at a popular market, a stone's throw from Pakistan's heavily guarded military headquarters.
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| Google fires back at Sonos with its own lawsuit after the smart speaker company sued it over alleged patent infringement Posted: 11 Jun 2020 02:55 PM PDT  Google said it must "assert its intellectual property rights" as the relationship between the two companies begins to sour.
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| Trump administration to impose sanctions against the International Criminal Court Posted: 11 Jun 2020 09:29 AM PDT  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the International Criminal Court as a "highly politicized" institution on Wednesday morning as he announced new sanctions against it for its investigation into potential war crimes by U.S. forces during the years-long war in Afghanistan.
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| Gambian man charged in US with torturing 2006 coup planners Posted: 11 Jun 2020 02:28 PM PDT |
| Widow of Chinese doctor who sounded coronavirus alarm gives birth to son Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:21 AM PDT  The widow of Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who first sounded the alarm about a potential Covid-19 outbreak, has given birth to a son four months after her husband's death. Doctor Li died aged 33 after contracting the novel coronavirus in February but first alerted the Chinese authorities to the dangers of the disease back in December 2019. He was initially ignored by the Chinese government, which played down the threat of the virus after it was first detected in Wuhan. Dr Li was the first person to link the outbreak of the disease to the Huanan Seafood market. Doctor Li's wife, Fu Xuejie, shared an image of her new son on the Chinese social media site WeChat, describing him as a final gift from her late husband. "Husband, can you see this from heaven? You have given me your final gift today. I will of course love and protect them," Mrs Fu told local news outlet Litchi News. Dr Li, an eye doctor, first noticed the virus in seven patients and sent a note to fellow doctors alerting them that the virus he had found closely resembled that of Sars. The Sars outbreak in 2003 claimed 774 lives around the world.
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| Black Lives Matter protests: Chicago police face being kicked out of their union if they kneel Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:34 AM PDT  Chicago's new police union head has warned that officers who kneel in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters could be kicked out of the union.John Catanzara, who was appointed to lead the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police last month, labelled officers who kneeled alongside protesters as "ridiculous".
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| 'They are blatantly snubbing us': Protesters feel at risk as some NYPD officers don't follow guidelines to wear masks Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:37 AM PDT  "We have no masks and you police officers have no masks on, and we do not want to get infected," Ibrahima Mbaye said.
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| Mayor Garcetti disagrees with protesters' calls for defunding LAPD Posted: 11 Jun 2020 09:14 AM PDT  Mayor Eric Garcetti said he does not support Black Lives Matter-LA's proposal to cut the Los Angeles Police Department's $1.8 billion operating budget by 90%.
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| Biden blasts Trump as U.S. coronavirus cases top 2 million Posted: 11 Jun 2020 05:02 PM PDT  With the number of U.S. coronavirus cases now topping 2 million, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Thursday blasted anew President Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic, saying Trump "still refuses to take the virus seriously." Noting that the number of COVID-19 cases continued to rise in more than 20 states, Biden, who will face Trump in the Nov. 3 election, accused the Republican president of "trying to ignore reality." "Just like Donald Trump could not wish the disease away in April, or tweet it away in May, he can't ignore it away in June," Biden, who was vice president under Barack Obama, said in a statement.
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| 'Everybody I've talked to feels significantly safer': A protester living near Seattle's 'autonomous zone' explains why the neighborhood is better without cops Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:06 PM PDT  Protesters have established their own cop-free neighborhood in Seattle, Washington amid the Black Lives Matter protests.
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| Zoom discloses it took down US-based activists' accounts at China's behest, says it won't enforce similar censorship requests going forward Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:42 AM PDT  Zoom said from now on it would "not allow requests from the Chinese government to impact anyone outside of mainland China."
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| 'They committed treason': Pelosi pushes for removal of Confederate statues, military base names Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:58 AM PDT  "The American people know these names have to go," Pelosi said. "These names are white supremacists that said terrible things about our country."
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| With measures lifted, Balkans hit by coronavirus case spike Posted: 11 Jun 2020 06:21 AM PDT  Serbia's president has canceled his party's campaign rallies and officials in Bosnia, North Macedonia and Albania are appealing on citizens to respect anti-infection measures due to a spike in new coronavirus cases after the Balkan countries relaxed their restrictions. President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party will not hold rallies ahead of Serbia's June 21 parliamentary election to avoid further spread of the virus, state broadcaster RTS reported on Thursday.
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| The U.S. Navy's Electromagnetic Railgun Will Fire Supersonic Ammo Posted: 11 Jun 2020 10:00 PM PDT  The next-generation hypervelocity projectile — a supersonic shell capable of striking targets up to 100 nautical miles away at speeds approaching Mach 6.
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| Protesters face life in prison over police car attacks in NY Posted: 12 Jun 2020 04:36 PM PDT  US prosecutors on Friday filed multiple charges against three protesters accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at police cars during anti-racism demonstrations in New York -- charges that could lead to life sentences. The indictments, filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, accuse Samantha Shader, Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman of throwing explosive devices at police cars in two separate incidents in late May. The three are facing seven charges including arson, possession and use of explosives and destructive devices, and public disorder.
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| Bolsonaro supporter desecrates Brazil beach memorial for 40,000 coronavirus victims Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:11 AM PDT  A man vandalized a mock cemetery of 100 graves and crosses representing people who have died from Covid-19A supporter of Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has desecrated a beachside memorial to Covid-19 victims as the country's coronavirus death toll rose above 40,000.Activists from civil society group Rio de Paz dug 100 symbolic shallow graves on Copacabana beach before dawn on Thursday to represent the Brazilian lives lost.At least 40,276 people have now died, according to a coalition of news outlets which has been compiling an independent tally since Brazil's health ministry was accused of seeking to conceal the full figures last week.But the NGO's founder, Antônio Carlos Costa, said Bolsonaristas began haranging activists as they stood beside the mock cemetery.Soon after a man was filmed knocking down the wooden crosses protesters had placed in the sand near a banner reading: "Brazil, land of graves"."They feel such rage – and I think they're reproducing the behaviour of the person occupying the highest position in the land," Costa said of his group's assailants.Among those watching the vandalism was a grieving father who campaigners said had lost his 25-year-old son to Covid-19. The man re-erected the crosses and shouted: "Respect the pain of others."Costa said he felt anger at the profoundly disrespectful act – the first such attack he had experienced in 13 years protesting against politicians from across the political spectrum.But he said that most of all he felt pity for the man, and other hardcore Bolsonaristas, who were "so blinded by ideological passion that they had closed their eyes to reality".Polls show millions have turned on Bolsonaro over his internationally condemned handling of coronavirus, which he has dismissed as "a little flu". But the rightwing populist maintains a solid support base of about 30%."Bolsonaro's mistakes are not so subtle that only the most perceptive people are able to detect them. It's all so clear," said Costa, a Presbyterian church leader. "So how is it that some people cannot see this?"Costa said Brazil was experiencing "the worst crisis in its history"."Thousands have died. Families are in mourning. People are unemployed. At a moment like this you might expect the president of the republic to offer words of hope, to show compassion, to behave soberly and signal a way forwards. Instead, we see him joining anti-democratic protests, telling journalists to shut up, riding horses, driving jet-skis [and] organizing barbecues."As he smashed the symbolic cemetery, the Bolsonarista branded activists leftist terrorists.Costa said the memorial had nothing to do with left or right. "What moves us is a commitment to life. They use this discourse to delegitimize anti-Bolsonaro protesters – as if only those on the left were capable of noticing this government's insane and anti-democratic acts."
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| Martin Gugino, 75-year-old protester pushed in Buffalo, has brain injury, fractured skull Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:53 PM PDT  On Friday, Martin Gugino's lawyer, Kelly Zarcone, said Gugino's skull was fractured and that he hasn't been able to walk yet.
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| Turkish court jails U.S. consulate worker on terrorism charges Posted: 11 Jun 2020 04:34 AM PDT  A Turkish court jailed a local employee of a U.S. consulate for nearly nine years on Thursday for aiding a terrorist organisation, a ruling the United States said would undermine the trust underpinning bilateral relations. Metin Topuz's trial has been a major source of tension between the two NATO allies, which are also at odds over Ankara's purchase of Russian missile defence systems and U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria. Topuz, a translator for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) at the consulate in Istanbul, was sentenced to eight years and nine months for aiding a network Turkey blames for a 2016 coup attempt, state-owned Anadolu agency said.
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| Trump news – live: President uses racial slur to condemn renaming of military bases while threatening to ‘take back’ Seattle Posted: 11 Jun 2020 06:53 AM PDT  Donald Trump called Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas" when condemning her involvement in attempting to pass an amendment to rename the military bases originally named after Confederate generals.The nickname he often uses for the Massachusetts senator has been called a divisive slur among critics. Mr Trump's choice of wording comes as a larger conversation has grown across the country about systematic racism and racist rhetoric.
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| We found the 30 best American cities to live in after the pandemic Posted: 11 Jun 2020 05:37 AM PDT  Business Insider surveyed 380 metro areas and found the best cities based on factors including cost of living, housing affordability, and education.
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| Assad sacks prime minister as economic crisis worsens and protesters demand fall of regime Posted: 11 Jun 2020 07:40 AM PDT  Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, sacked his prime minister on Thursday amid a spiralling economic crisis and a series of rare protests against his regime. In a statement, the office of the Syrian president announced that Imad Khamis, who had served as prime minister since 2016, had been dismissed "President Assad issues decree number 143 for year 2020 which relieves the prime minister Imad Muhammad Dib Khamis of his position," it said. The dismissal came as a highly unusual mass protest against Assad continued for its fifth consecutive day in the Druze-majority town of Suweida in southwestern Syria. Dozens marched through the town calling for the "fall of the regime" as well as revolution and justice. Similar protests were held this week in the southern town of Tafas, in the Daraa region. "Protesters called for freedom and toppling of the regime as a result of popular anger over the deteriorating economic, social, security and political situation," one protester in Suweida, Noura al Basha, told Reuters news agency. Most of Syria's Arab Druze community has stayed loyal to the Assad regime for fear of religious persecution, while Suweida has largely avoided the bloodshed of the civil war. Public protests against Assad's rule since the civil war began are almost unheard of due to the risk of being "disappeared" into the country's prisons and torture chambers by security forces.
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| Protester hit in face by police rubber bullet wants answers Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:21 PM PDT  LaToya Ratlieff remembers the blood spilling from her head, covering her clothes, the car ride from a stranger to the hospital and the 20 stitches sewn into her head after being shot in the face by a police officer with a rubber bullet during a Fort Lauderdale protest. The 34-year-old was getting ready to leave on May 31 after several hours at a peaceful protest sparked by the death of George Floyd. Further away, she could hear a group of angry protesters becoming more agitated.
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| Hong Kong: City of two masks faces a new crisis Posted: 12 Jun 2020 04:21 AM PDT  A year after the protests began, amid a pandemic, Hong Kong faces another existential crisis. Will it survive?
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| Deputies Claim They Killed a Black Man in His Home When He Tried to Grab a Gun. His Family Says Otherwise. Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:34 AM PDT  A Los Angeles man was fatally shot in his home by deputies Thursday morning in a tragic domestic dispute call gone wrong. His family, however, insists the tragic incident could have been avoided if authorities didn't prematurely pull the trigger. Michael "Blue" Thomas, 62, was killed in his living room in the early hours on Thursday after Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies responded to a domestic dispute call, a spokesperson told The Daily Beast. But while authorities claim Thomas was shot after reaching for one of the deputy's guns, his fiancée and attorney insist the opposite—that he was turning away. "They broke the front down and they grabbed Mr. Thomas immediately," Bradley Gage, the family's attorney, told The Daily Beast on Friday. "As they were holding him, they hurt him by twisting his arm. At that point, because he was uncomfortable, Mr. Thomas tried to move and one deputy just stepped back and shot him.""He was murdered without justification," he added. "It was 100 percent avoidable." According to the Sheriff's Department, deputies responded to a "domestic violence in progress call" in Lancaster at around 5:30 a.m. The 911 call was made by Thomas's fiancée, Kimberly. She later told deputies she "was assaulted by the suspect," according to a statement from authorities."During the call to 911, she never speaks to the operator but rather the phone line is left open," the statement said. "For several minutes arguing and fighting between the caller and the suspect can be heard in the background."Once deputies arrived, authorities said they tried to detain Thomas, but he "refused to comply with the deputy's orders and an altercation" ensued. "During the altercation, the suspect reached down and attempted to gain control of one of the deputy's firearms. It was at that time when a deputy-involved shooting occurred," the statement said. However, Gage said that Thomas did not own a weapon and was only having a verbal argument with his fiancée when police arrived—which police could have observed "from a window outside instead of barging in." He said that Kimberly did not go into detail with him about why she initially called the police—but he noted that the pair had lived together for 21 years and often communicated loudly because she is "mostly deaf." "The claim that he reached for a gun is completely false," Gage added, noting that the incident "completely defies the fourth amendment." "He was disabled, he had problems with his hands. It would have been painful for him to try to grab a gun."In an interview with CBS Los Angeles, which first reported the shooting, Kimberly also said that Thomas never tried to grab one of the deputies' guns. "I heard Michael say, 'I have a right to not let you in the house,'" she said. Authorities said Thomas was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. No deputies were injured. Gage, who has represented police officers and victims of officer-involved assaults for more than 35 years, stated that Thursday's incident was a violation of the constitution. He was demanding accountability for all the officers involved. He said the officer who shot Thomas should be charged and the other deputies who were present should come forward and "admit the criminal act.""It's time to take ownership," Gage said.Black Lives Matter Protests Over George Floyd's Death Spread Across the CountryThe Sheriff's Department told The Daily Beast that the Homicide Bureau, internal affairs and the county's Office of the Inspector General are doing separate investigations—which is standard procedure during officer-involved shootings. It was not immediately clear if any of the officers involved had been disciplined for the Thursday incident. The fatal shooting comes as residents in all 50 states have taken to the streets, engaging in both peaceful and destructive protests following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. While demonstrators are speaking out against racial injustice and police brutality, many of them have been met with further violence from law enforcement. It has prompted several cities to confront the brutal methods used by their own police officers, many of them captured in harrowing video footage. But for Gage, Thursday's incident is another painful reminder that law enforcement reform has a long way to go. "There is no doubt in my mind that if Mr. Thomas was white, he would be alive today," he said. 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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| The U.S. Air Force Deployed Spy Drones in the South China Sea Posted: 11 Jun 2020 12:55 PM PDT  The Air Force is flying the B-1B bombers and the Global Hawk drones in the South China Sea and other areas within the Pacific theater as part of a broad strategy to sustain surveillance in the region.
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| X marks the spot: treasure hunters in shock after reported $2m find in Rocky Mountains Posted: 11 Jun 2020 02:30 AM PDT  Reactions to the announcement by eccentric millionaire Forrest Fenn that his hoard had been found range from surprise to delight and disbeliefTreasure hunters have reacted with shock, delight and disbelief to the news that a chest containing gems, gold and antiques worth up to $2m has reportedly been found in the Rocky Mountains."I've had every emotion under the sun," said Sacha Dent of Kansas, who dedicated years to a quest that resulted in the deaths of up to five people."First it was shock and sadness, then on Monday a mix of happiness, relief and excitement," said Dent. "I've invested six years into this. Now it's finally over. I am very happy for the person who found it."An eccentric New Mexico millionaire named Forrest Fenn said he hid the bronze chest in the Rockies in 2010. The only clues to the prize's whereabouts were located in a cryptic 24-line poem written by Fenn and added to the last pages of his autobiography, The Thrill of the Chase."Begin it where warm waters halt / And take it in the canyon down, / Not far, but too far to walk. / Put in below the home of Brown," reads the second stanza of Fenn's poem that would send treasure hunters to scour five western states. On 7 June, Fenn, a former air force fighter pilot turned art and antiquities dealer, told the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper that a man from the eastern US had recently located his treasure, which has variously been valued anywhere from $1m to $2m. According to Fenn's website, it was found "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".Neither the name of the finder nor the location of the treasure has been disclosed. "I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot," Fenn wrote on his website. The discovery marks the end of a modern-day treasure hunt unlike any in history."This has been a horrible ending to something that has been so extremely important in my life for eight years," said Cynthia Meachum, who is part of a vibrant "chase" community of Fenn treasure seekers. "It has affected me a lot more than I thought it ever would."According to Fenn, the idea that came to inspire so many was conceived in 1988 after he was diagnosed with cancer. The prospect of death made him think to leave part of his fortune, and even his own bones, in a treasure chest somewhere in the mountains. When Fenn recovered, the idea persisted, and he meticulously curated the contents of the chest for years. Fenn described a "necklace that's about 2,000 years old, and it has fetishes made out of quartz crystal and cast gold jaguar claws, and it's absolutely wonderful", in a 2018 interview with the Guardian. "There are two ancient Chinese jade carvings of human faces. You just want to cry when you see them."Fenn hoped the treasure would be an adventure that could get people "off the couch" and into the outdoors. "He provided us all with great adventure," said Dent, who searched twice a week for years in northern New Mexico.Yet in the course of looking for Fenn's chest, as many as five people have died, and Fenn has been criticized for endangering lives, enabling an unhealthy obsession, and even lying about the treasure's existence."I would implore him that he stop this nonsense," the New Mexico state police chief, Pete Kassetas, said after a treasure hunter's body was retrieved from the Rio Grande River in 2017, days after he had gone missing. He told ABC: "I want people to have fun, and I want people to be adventurous, but the reality is when you have $2m or so, as it's rumored to be, at stake, people make poor decisions."There are the stories of people quitting their jobs and emptying their bank accounts to join the chase. Fenn himself has received death threats and been the victim of break-in attempts at his house. Others have claimed the whole thing is an outright hoax. "I believe there never was any hidden treasure," said Linda Bilyeu, the ex-wife of Randy Bilyeu, who died searching for the treasure. "Fenn is a corrupt man who seeks attention any which way he could achieve."The controversy has continued even after its purported discovery. The absence of photos or information on the location of the chest has led some to question whether it was found at all – though Fenn has promised to elaborate in the coming days."Give us something, so we know if we were close," said Meachum, who made 200 trips and invested thousands of hours. " I have no closure at this point.""A third think it's a hoax," said Dent. "A third think it was never found. And then there are the rest of us that think this is great. Someone found it. Now let's move on with our lives."Dent, who estimates she has taken 300 trips in search of the treasure, added that no good can come of knowing its location. "What if you were 100% right and just missed it? Or what if you find out you didn't have anything part of it right, and had wasted all that time? As long as we don't know the location, we can each be right in our own minds," she said.Even so, she felt enriched by the quest, if not the actual treasure.The victor "did something tens of thousands of people have failed to do. If I could say anything to the finder, I would tell him congratulations. We wish you all the happiness in the world."
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| Iran asks French experts to read black boxes of downed jet: official Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:27 AM PDT  The Ukraine International Airlines flight was shot down on Jan. 8 by an Iranian ground-to-air missile, killing 176 people in what Tehran termed a "disastrous mistake" at a time of heightened tensions with the United States. The fate of the cockpit voice and data 'black-box' recorders has been the subject of an international standoff eclipsed by the coronavirus crisis, which Iran says has also contributed to delays in a probe by Iran's Air Accident Investigation Board. Progress was discussed at a council meeting of the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization on Wednesday.
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| Vote to disband Minneapolis police lets city council members 'pose as great reformers while doing absolutely nothing,' police brutality research group says Posted: 11 Jun 2020 10:48 AM PDT  The Communities United Against Police Brutality have been pushing for reform at the Minneapolis Police Department for decades.
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| Protests this past week have been largely peaceful, but Fox News continues to show old footage to rile up viewers Posted: 11 Jun 2020 12:30 PM PDT  Fox News has continuously run older footage showing looting, though a network spokesman pointed to examples of peaceful protests being covered.
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| Biden says Trump trying to steal the election is his 'single greatest concern' Posted: 11 Jun 2020 06:26 AM PDT  Presumptive 2020 Democrat nominee Joe Biden speaks out on the race ahead of hosting a roundtable in Philadelphia; Peter Doocy reports from Wilmington, Delaware.
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| Economics, Dominated by White Men, Is Roiled by Black Lives Matter Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:48 AM PDT  The national protests seeking an end to systemic discrimination against black Americans have given new fuel to a racial reckoning in economics, a discipline dominated by white men despite decades of efforts to open greater opportunity for women and nonwhite men.A growing chorus of economists is seeking to dislodge the editor of a top academic publication, the University of Chicago economist Harald Uhlig, after he criticized the Black Lives Matter organization on Twitter and equated its members with "flat earthers" over their embrace of calls to defund police departments.Days earlier, the profession's de facto governing body, the American Economic Association, sent a letter to its members supporting protesters and saying that "we have only begun to understand racism and its impact on our profession and our discipline." A group of economists, mostly from outside academia, last week hosted an online fundraising effort for the Sadie Collective, an organization that aims to bring more black women into the field.Black economists say the events have brought some progress to a field that has long struggled with discrimination in its ranks -- and with a refusal by many of its leaders to acknowledge discrimination in the country at large. But the profession remains nowhere close to a full-scale shift on racial issues: On Wednesday, the director of the White House National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, told reporters, "I don't believe there is systemic racism in the U.S."Black Americans are vastly underrepresented among economics students and professors, a wide range of data have shown. There are no black editors of the most prestigious economics journals. There are no black professors in the main economics department at Chicago, Uhlig's employer, which is one of the most storied departments in the country.In a survey of economists released by the American Economic Association last year, only 14% of black economists agreed with the statement that "people of my race/ethnicity are respected within the field."As protests against discrimination have grown in recent days, a conversation has erupted -- often led by black economists -- over how the lack of diversity has left the profession ill equipped for a moment where policymakers are seeking ideas on how to combat racial inequality in policing, employment and other areas."Hopefully, this moment will cause economists to reflect and rethink how we study racial disparities," the Howard University economist William Spriggs wrote to colleagues in an open letter that was posted this week on the website of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis."Trapped in the dominant conversation, far too often African American economists find themselves having to prove that African Americans are equal," he continued. "We find ourselves, as so often happens in these ugly police cases, having to prove that acts of discrimination are exactly that -- discrimination."Uhlig's Twitter posts criticized demonstrators for not coordinating recent protests with law enforcement, before singling out Black Lives Matter over calls to defund the police."Look: I understand, that some out there still wish to go and protest and say defundpolice and all kinds of stuff, while you are still young and responsibility does not matter," Uhlig wrote. "Enjoy! Express yourself! Just don't break anything, ok? And be back by 8 pm."The posts drew a swift backlash, including criticism from several white colleagues at Chicago and a petition calling for him to resign his editorship of the Journal of Political Economy, considered one of five journals with an outsize role in the field.Uhlig, a 59-year-old German citizen, also faced scrutiny over past writings on his blog -- circulated on Twitter by the Slate journalist Jordan Weissmann -- that criticize black protesters in the United States.Those included a 2017 post in which he asked supporters of National Football League players kneeling to protest police brutality, "Would you defend football players waving the confederate flag and dressing in Ku Klux Klan garb during the playing of the national anthem?" Uhlig also wrote a letter to the editor of The New York Times in 2016, complaining about calls for greater diversity in the motion picture industry at the Academy Awards."This whole 'diversity = more American blacks in Hollywood movies' thing?" he wrote. "So so strange. Really."Janet Yellen, the former Federal Reserve chair, said in an email on Wednesday that "the tweets and blog posts by Harald Uhlig are extremely troubling" and that "it would be appropriate for the University of Chicago, which is the publisher of the Journal of Political Economy, to review Uhlig's performance and suitability to continue as editor."Uhlig apologized on Tuesday evening for his Twitter posts. He said in an email interview on Tuesday night that his "flat earther" comparison "appears to have caused irritation" but disagreed with critics who say his comments "hurt and marginalize people of color and their allies in the economics profession; call into question his impartiality in assessing academic work on this and related topics; and damage the standing of the economics discipline in society." The reference to the Klan, he said, was a case where "I chose an extreme example" to make a point about free speech."Discrimination and racism is wrong," Uhlig wrote in an email. Later, he added: "I would love to have more black economists (or is it 'Afro-American economists'?) among our undergraduate students, Ph.D. students and faculty. It is my impression that the good ones are highly sought after. We also have very few American Indians among our colleagues. We need to find good way to change these numbers."Some conservatives hailed Uhlig as a champion of free speech and a victim of "cancel culture" -- although critics said they were not seeking his dismissal from his tenured professorship.Critics, however, held up Uhlig as an example of the deeply embedded advantages of white economists, including nearly full control over the journals that determine, in their selections for publication, which economists receive acclaim, tenure and top jobs."This is a way in which potentially good ideas, potentially good contributors of ideas to the economics profession, have been thwarted because of a gatekeeper," Lisa Cook, a Michigan State University economist and one of the profession's few prominent black women, said in an interview.Cook leads the American Economic Association's Summer Training Program, a decades-old effort to recruit black and Latino students to the profession. She said students often asked her how she overcame discrimination in the field, and whether they would be welcome."They're asking where does this racially hostile environment come from?" she said. "Why does this racial discrimination exist in the pinnacle of the social sciences?"Economics has a history of discrimination and, in some cases, outright racism. George Stigler, a Nobel laureate and an early leader of the American Economic Association, criticized the civil rights movement in 1962 and wrote that African-Americans' disadvantages in the labor market stemmed in part from their "inferiority as a worker.""Lacking education, lacking a tenacity of purpose, lacking a willingness to work hard, he will not be an object of employers' competition," he wrote.Few scholars today would use such language. But the ideas persist: Economics journals are still filled with papers that emphasize differences in education, upbringing or even IQ rather than discrimination or structural barriers.Damon Jones, an economist at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, says the lack of diversity in economics affects what is studied and how. "We study things that are related to race and racism all the time, but we are inclined to figure out what other explanations may be at play," he said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Adviser: China will honor trade deal, wants better US ties Posted: 11 Jun 2020 06:25 AM PDT  Beijing will honor its trade deal with the U.S. and wants to see better ties with Washington, senior Chinese officials said Thursday. Zhu Guangyao, a former finance minister and Cabinet adviser, said the two countries should "waste no time" in improving relations to help better coordinate a response to the coronavirus pandemic. "The close connection between the Chinese and U.S. economies is the result of four decades of hard work on both sides, and that is also the reflection of the wishes of consumers in China and the United States," Zhu said.
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| New Jersey cop charged after bodycam footage shows him using pepper spray on young black men Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:35 AM PDT  A New Jersey police officer has been charged with assault after bodycam footage showed the man allegedly using pepper spray on a group of young black men unjustly.Ryan Dubiel, 31, directed pepper spray at people "without provocation" when responding to a trespassing call, according to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.
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| Russia Has a Stealth Fighter Problem Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:00 PM PDT  Russian airpower is inferior to U.S. airpower, according to one Russian news site.
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| Kelly Loeffler’s Fundraising Committee Takes the Prize for Tone Deafness Posted: 11 Jun 2020 05:00 PM PDT  As Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) proclaims her exoneration from allegations of insider trading, she's simultaneously building a campaign fundraising system that imagines her campaign as a Wall Street-style investment opportunity.The Georgia Republican is offering donors and fundraisers benefit packages to support her re-election bid. Those packages come in three tiers: investor, shareholder, and board member.That's according to a fundraising brochure obtained by The Daily Beast, which also details each of the benefits that donors can expect from membership in what Loeffler's campaign refers to as a "co-investor program" and has dubbed its "executive council."Loeffler Turns Over Coronavirus Stock Sale Docs to FedsIt's common for campaigns to award such honorifics to their top donors and fundraisers. But the terms that the Loeffler campaign has chosen for its tiered donor honorees now carry some additional political baggage. Though the Justice Department chose to drop its investigation into Loeffler over her and her husband's stock trades before the coronavirus pandemic caused the market to crash this year, the timing and size of her trades has been an albatross around the neck of her re-election effort According to the brochure laying out the various levels of "executive council" membership, an individual must donate $1,500 and a political action committee $5,000 if they are to qualify for the "investors" title. Alternatively they can raise $15,000 for the campaign. To achieve "shareholders" status, an individual must give $2,800 and a PAC $7,500, or raise $30,000 for the campaign. The top tier, "board member" is reserved for max-out donors—$5,600 for individuals and $10,000 for PACs—or those who raise $50,000 for the campaign.The donations come with access. All executive council members get access to quarterly breakfasts and monthly conference calls with the campaign, according to the brochure, as well as a thank-you event for donors. Shareholders and board members also get invites to a PAC retreat and a more exclusive quarterly reception. And board members alone get to go to the campaign's holiday party in December and "other special events throughout the year."One of those other events is scheduled for this September and will feature Loeffler and a to-be-announced "special guest." The event will take place after 18 holes of golf at a donor retreat at the tiny Sea Island Beach Club on the Georgia coast, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by The Daily Beast.That retreat will cost individual donors $2,800 and PACs $5,000 to attend, with contributions benefiting the Loeffler Victory Committee, a joint fundraising account benefiting Loeffler's campaign and her leadership PAC. But only executive council board members get access to that exclusive "19th hole" event.Kelly Loeffler Tries to Turn Coronavirus Into a Political AssetLoeffler is doling out these donor perks despite having already loaned $10 million to her own campaign. The Senate's wealthiest member, she has said she'll personally spend twice that to win re-election in November.The task became significantly more difficult in March, when The Daily Beast reported that Loeffler and her husband, New York Stock Exchange chairman Jeff Sprecher, had sold millions of dollars in stock in the weeks after Loeffler attended a closed-door Senate briefing on the novel coronavirus.Loeffler has vehemently and consistently denied that she used any information gleaned through her official duties to inform her stock trades, which she says are handled entirely by a third-party investment adviser. Loeffler and Sprecher nevertheless agreed in April to liquidate their individual stock holdings in order to head off the controversy. They also turned over documents related to those stock sales to the Federal Bureau of Investigation as it probed insider trading allegations against multiple Senators. The Justice Department announced last month that it was dropping its investigation into Loeffler while continuing to look into similar allegations leveled at Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.)Since then, Loeffler has triumphantly declared total vindication, attacking critics and media outlets—including The Daily Beast—in statements to the press and in a barrage of television ads attempting to shore up her political standing.Loeffler is facing off in a special election in November against 20 opponents of both parties, with her most formidable challenge coming from Republican Rep. Doug Collins. The most recent poll, conducted last month, showed Loeffler trailing not just Collins but also two Democrats in that "jungle-style" race.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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| Citing virus, some Russian election officials shun vote to extend Putin rule Posted: 11 Jun 2020 05:22 AM PDT  Hundreds of Russian polling station officials, citing the risk of spreading the coronavirus, say they won't help organise a nationwide vote on reforms that could extend President Vladimir Putin's rule until 2036. In the July 1 ballot, Russians will vote to approve or reject constitutional reforms including a change that would allow Putin to serve two more six-year terms, if re-elected, instead of stepping down in 2024.
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| San Francisco's mayor wants to outlaw tear gas and stop police from responding to non-criminal calls Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:47 AM PDT  The announcement points to a changing understanding among public officials of American policing and its function.
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