| A 70-year-old man was hospitalized with COVID-19 for 62 days. Then he received a $1.1 million hospital bill, including over $80,000 for using a ventilator. Posted: 13 Jun 2020 10:01 AM PDT  Michael Flor was billed $9,736 each day he stayed in the ICU, and $2,835 per day for use of a ventilator, the Seattle Times reported.
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| U.S. appeals court skeptical of bid by ex-Trump adviser Flynn to end criminal case Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:13 AM PDT  A U.S. appeals court on Friday appeared skeptical of the Justice Department's unprecedented effort to drop a criminal case against President Donald Trump's former adviser Michael Flynn, signaling no quick end to the politically charged prosecution. U.S. Circuit Judge Karen Henderson, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, said the lower-court judge overseeing the case was not a "rubber stamp" and there was nothing wrong with U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan hearing arguments about whether to let the Justice Department drop the case.
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| NYPD lieutenant apologizes to colleagues for kneeling during protest Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:11 AM PDT  The lieutenant told his colleagues he had trouble sleeping after he "made a horrible decision to give into a crowd of protesters demands and kneeled alongside several other officers."
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| Canada indigenous chief Allan Adam battered during arrest Posted: 13 Jun 2020 03:20 AM PDT  A violent arrest and police custody deaths have ignited anti-police brutality protests across Canada.
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| Seattle Police Chief: ‘We’re Not Able to Get to’ 911 Calls for ‘Rape, Robbery’ in Autonomous Zone Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:47 AM PDT  The head of the Seattle's Police Department told officers in a video address on Thursday that the decision to abandon the city's Third Precinct to activists was "not my decision," and has prevented the department from responding to emergency calls in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.Police Chief Carmen Best, who joined Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan at a news conference Thursday afternoon, revealed that "ultimately the city had other plans for the building and relented to public pressure.""You should know, leaving the precinct was not my decision," Best told her fellow officers. "You fought for days to protect it. I asked you to stand on that line. Day in and day out, to be pelted with projectiles, to be screamed at, threatened and in some cases hurt. Then to have a change of course nearly two weeks in, it seems like an insult to you and our community."On Wednesday, the Seattle Police Department said it would try to reopen the East Precinct, and Best was able to visit the location on Thursday. "Our calls for service have more than tripled," she told reporters. "These are responses to emergency calls — rapes, robberies, and all sorts of violent acts that have been occurring in the area that we're not able to get to."At the press conference with Durkan, who claimed the occupants of the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" (CHAZ) were engaging in an act of "patriotism," Best remained noncommittal on a when police might return to the area, but explained that the evacuation had come after reports that the precinct could be burned down."We were asked to do an operational plan, in case we needed to leave," Best said, not saying who exactly gave the order to withdraw. "We got an update that there was the potential for fire — of course if the precinct goes down in fire, the whole block could potentially burn up."Best also clarified that her department had not received "any formal reports" of CHAZ occupants extorting businesses, after saying in the video address that police had heard of "armed people" in the area "demanding payment from business owners in exchange for protection."Michael Solan, the head of Seattle's police union, also slammed the decision to leave the precinct, calling it "the closest I've seen to our country becoming a lawless state.""Where is the safety of the reasonable community of the city of Seattle? To me, that is absolutely appalling, and I am embarrassed being a Seattle resident to even talk about this," Solan told Tucker Carlson.
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| Australian prime minister apologizes for 'no slavery' claim Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:27 AM PDT  Australia's prime minister apologized on Friday to critics who accuse him of denying the country's history of slavery, as a state government announced it will remove a former Belgian king's name from a mountain range as part of a global re-examination of racial injustice. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended the legacy of British explorer James Cook, who in 1770 charted the site of the first British penal colony in Australia, which became present-day Sydney. Morrison, who represents the Sydney electoral district of Cook in Parliament, described the British naval hero on Thursday as "very much ahead of his time," and urged people calling for the district to be renamed to "get a bit of a grip on this."
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| Brazil overtakes UK to have second highest Covid-19 death toll in the world Posted: 13 Jun 2020 02:50 AM PDT  Brazil on Friday overtook the UK to claim the second-highest coronavirus death toll in the world, behind the United States. The country's health ministry recorded 909 deaths in the past 24 hours, putting the total at 41,828, ahead of the UK's 41,481. Unlike the UK, Latin America's biggest economy remains far off flattening its coronavirus infection curve, with experts warning a peak of daily deaths may not arrive until August. Observers believe the actual number of cases in Brazil could be far higher than the confirmed figure of 828,810. Gravediggers are working 12-hour shifts in a race to keep up with the toll, while images showing lines upon lines of empty graves waiting to be filled have shocked the world.
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| Head of Naval Aviation Schools Command, Another Navy Pilot Killed in Plane Crash Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:47 PM PDT  Two naval aviators were killed when their civilian single-engine aircraft crashed in Alabama.
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| The Biggest Threat To Russia's Borei-Class Submarine Comes From Within The Russian Navy Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:00 PM PDT  On the surface, Borei vessels appear remarkably cost-effective.
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| Egypt accuses Ethiopia of holding it "hostage" in Nile dam talks Posted: 13 Jun 2020 09:46 AM PDT  Egypt said Saturday that tripartite talks with Ethiopia and Sudan over a controversial mega-dam on the River Nile were deadlocked because of Addis Ababa's "intransigence". The Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been a source of tension in the Nile River basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on it nearly a decade ago.
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| U.S.'s Pompeo to meet China's top diplomat in Hawaii seeking to ease tensions: media Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:01 PM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Hawaii, trying to ease tensions between the world's two largest economies over various issues, according to media reports. Pompeo was planning the trip "quietly" and the arrangements were not yet finalized, Politico said. The U.S. State Department and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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| Appeals court appears unlikely to stop Flynn case Posted: 12 Jun 2020 01:00 PM PDT  Flynn's lawyers are seeking order directing a federal district judge to let the Department of Justice drop the case.
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| Minneapolis police officers condemn former colleague Derek Chauvin charged with killing George Floyd in open letter Posted: 13 Jun 2020 05:22 AM PDT  More than a dozen members of the Minneapolis police department have condemned their former colleague Derek Chauvin in an open letter on the death of George Floyd.Fourteen officers signed the letter on Thursday which is addressed to "everyone -- but especially Minneapolis citizens", following the killing of Floyd on 25 May.
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| CHAZ, a 'no Cop Co-op': Here's what Seattle's Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone looks like Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:43 PM PDT  A group of peaceful demonstrators have occupied several blocks in Seattle and called it the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. Here's how it happened.
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| Cuomo: ‘You don’t need to protest — you won’ Posted: 13 Jun 2020 09:37 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed protesters during a briefing on Saturday and asked, "What do you want the police department to be in New York City?"
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| The woman who said she was fired from the Florida Health Department for refusing to alter coronavirus statistics is now publishing data on her own Posted: 13 Jun 2020 01:09 PM PDT  Rebekah Jones was fired for "repeated course of insubordination" according to the state, though she said it was for refusing to alter COVID-19 data.
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| Trump is reportedly looking to blame Mexico for new coronavirus spikes in the US Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:00 AM PDT  Despite non-essential travel between still being banned, the Trump is looking to deflect blame and pin coronavirus spikes on travel from Mexico.
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| Historical Fact: North Korea Once Captured an Entire U.S. Navy Ship Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:30 PM PDT  The USS Pueblo remains the only commissioned U.S. ship currently being held captive.
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| Far-right demonstrators gather in London to 'protect' statues Posted: 13 Jun 2020 11:58 AM PDT  'Winston Churchill, he's one of our own,' chanted right-wing demonstrators near the former prime minister's statue, which was sprayed with graffiti by anti-racism protesters last weekend.
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| Voter registration is soaring, but impact on November is unclear Posted: 13 Jun 2020 06:38 AM PDT  One group, Voter Participation Center, is seeing a 250% increase in online voter registration applications.
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| Uncertainty as Spain puts virus death toll 'on hold' Posted: 13 Jun 2020 09:31 AM PDT  For days now, Spain's daily coronavirus death toll has been on hold, generating widespread uncertainty about the real state of the epidemic that has claimed more than 27,000 lives. The health ministry's emergencies coordinator Fernando Simon, who for months has given a daily briefing on the pandemic's evolution, acknowledged the "astonishment" and "confusion" generated by the figures. On May 25, the ministry changed its method of collecting data on confirmed cases and fatalities, initially giving a daily death toll of between 50 and 100.
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| Mississippi faces reckoning on Confederate emblem in flag Posted: 13 Jun 2020 07:00 AM PDT  The young activists who launched a protest movement after George Floyd's death are bringing fresh energy to a long-simmering debate about the Confederate battle emblem that white supremacists embedded within the Mississippi state flag more than 125 years ago. Anti-racism protests have toppled Confederate statues and monuments across the United States in recent days, and even NASCAR banned the display of the rebel flag. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves rejects the idea of a legislative vote on erasing the symbol.
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| Petition to label KKK terrorist organisation passes one million signatures Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:53 AM PDT  Over one million people have signed a petition for the Ku Klux Klan to be listed as a terrorist organisation as of Friday.The petition, which was started on Change.org is lobbying for the group to be formally recognised as a terrorist group in the US.
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| Fauci on George Floyd protests: 'I'm concerned' about the possible spread of the coronavirus Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:52 AM PDT  Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells Yahoo News National Correspondent Alexander Nazaryan that he is concerned that the widespread George Floyd protests could lead to a rise in coronavirus cases. Fauci also explains the possible risks of reopening without the proper infrastructure in place.
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| Human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine to start ahead of schedule Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:14 AM PDT |
| Airman may face death penalty in California cop killing Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:46 PM PDT  The sheriff's deputy reached a house at the end of the narrow Northern California dirt road and decided getting help from more deputies would be a good idea. The van's driver, officials say, was U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, who lay in wait for more law enforcement to arrive before ambushing them from the steep hillside above in a barrage of gunfire and explosives. Carrillo, 32, was charged with 19 offenses, including murder and attempted murder of peace officers, and was calm and unflinching Friday during his first appearance in Santa Cruz Superior Court.
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| Hong Kong policeman reprimanded for 'I can't breathe' remark Posted: 13 Jun 2020 07:44 AM PDT  Hong Kong police on Saturday said they had reprimanded an officer who shouted "I can't breathe" and "Black Lives Matter" as his unit dispersed reporters covering a pro-democracy rally the night before. The officer was part of a team of riot police responding to protests on Friday evening in Yau Ma Tei district. The phrase "I can't breathe" has been embraced by racial justice protesters in the United States following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25.
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| 'A Slap in the Face': Black Veterans on Bases Named for Confederates Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:20 AM PDT  WASHINGTON -- When Timothy Berry was recruiting black students for West Point, where he served as class president in 2013, he often reflected on his senior year, when he lived in the Robert E. Lee barracks. It bothered him then; it bothers him now."I was trying to tell black and brown students that they would have a home there," said Berry, who served as an Army captain with the 101st Airborne Division from 2013 to 2018. "It sent a very strong mixed message."For many black service members, who make up about 17% of all active-duty military personnel, the Pentagon's decision to consider renaming Army bases bearing the names of Confederate officers seems excruciatingly overdue. Generations of black service members signed up for the military to defend the values of their country, only to be assigned to bases named after people who represent its grimmest hour."It is really kind of a slap in the face to those African American soldiers who are on bases named after generals who fought for their cause," said Jerry Green, a retired noncommissioned officer who trained at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which is named for a Confederate general, Braxton Bragg. "That cause was slavery."There are 10 major Army installations named for generals who led Confederate troops -- all in the former states of the Confederacy -- as well as many streets and buildings on military academy campuses that are among at least 1,500 symbols of the Confederacy in public spaces in the United States.The push to rename military installations and place names is not new, and it is one that black service members and veterans, as well as groups including the NAACP, have largely pursued.The movement this week seemed to attract a growing consensus, including among former senior military officials of all races, before President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that he would block any of those 10 bases from being renamed.A petition by liberal group VoteVets received more than 20,000 signatures in 24 hours urging the military to ban Confederate symbols and rename Army bases, a spokesman for the organization said. In a poll conducted this week and released Thursday by the group, 47% of 935 registered voters surveyed said they would support the removal of Confederate imagery across the entire military.The U.S. Marine Corps issued a ban last on displays of the Confederate battle flag at its installations, and the chief of naval operations, Adm. Michael M. Gilday, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he had directed his staff to "begin crafting an order" banning such displays from public spaces and work areas on bases, ships, aircraft and submarines. Leaders in the Army have called for bipartisan commissions to explore changing the names of some of its installations."The unique thing about this moment is that white friends and colleagues now see this," said Berry, who lives in New York.After a white supremacist rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned deadly when a man drove into a crowd of counterprotesters, and after a white police officer fatally shot a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, "these were conversations that black officers were having among themselves," he said. "It was not an open conversation among their white peers."The fights over statues and Confederate flags in public places have bubbled up often over the years, with their defenders repeatedly suggesting that banning or removing those items would be akin to erasing history.In 2015, shortly after a white supremacist killed black parishioners in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, a budget bill in Congress almost failed amid an ugly floor fight in which Democrats, led by black lawmakers from the South, beat back a push by Republicans to allow Confederate symbols at national cemeteries.This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once again called for the removal from the Capitol of 11 statues of Confederate figures, including Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, the latest salvo in a yearslong battle. On Thursday, two veterans in the House also introduced bipartisan legislation to create a process to rename military installations named for Confederates within a year. The Senate Armed Services Committee separately advanced a similar measure with a three-year timeline.For black members of the military, seeing confederate names on military barracks delivers a special sting, given that they lionize men who led a treasonous war."I have been in every one of those barracks," said Stephane Manuel, another West Point graduate who served in the Army from 2011 to 2017. "I studied in them and had friends there. I didn't like it. The military hasn't wanted to reconcile that the Confederate forces were traitors. I always felt from the mere moral standpoint of what they were fighting for went against what West Point stands for today."On his deployments, the topic would come up now and then, Manuel said, often leaving him uncomfortable as his white colleagues defended the practice."I felt it was best not to be political," he said. "I was often one of the few black officers. I felt it was better to leave my perspective at home."For some middle-age and older veterans, particularly noncommissioned officers like Green, who retired from the Army in 1998, the realization of their indignities came later."It wasn't anything that stayed on my mind, and I think that was because I was young," he said. "I don't ever remember ever having a conversation about it when I was on active duty. With my veteran friends, it later came more to light that African American veterans were upset about it, and it kind of enlightened me, too."Daniele Anderson, a former Navy officer who graduated in 2013 from the service's academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and went on to serve until 2018, recalled how a professor at the school -- later removed for other behaviors -- wrote an op-ed that denigrated students from the military prep schools, who were disproportionately people of color. Leadership conferences rarely featured minority speakers. In her junior year, Anderson said, she was in charge of events for Black History Month and found that the posters she put up around campus were frequently ripped down. "I was told by fellow classmates that was a regular occurrence during Black History Month," she said."There was always an underlying anxiety and the feeling that you have to always be alert and choosing your words carefully and not wanting to seem like you were playing the race card," she said. "That really messed with a lot of black and minority students' confidence. I think this social anxiety we have to navigate all the time really did contribute to lower performance."Like others interviewed for this article, Anderson said the events of the past week made her cautiously optimistic that the military would view the fight over removing Confederate names and symbols as an opportunity to look deeper at its broader culture."In the military, we have treated ourselves as if we are separate from society," she said. "We have to know and understand that the military is part of society, because we draw our people from society, and we look at and listen to the same things as our civilian counterparts do."As a black veteran, she said, "I am in a unique position of being able to say, 'Hey I went to this institution, I made great sacrifices to do so, and we are calling on these institutions so they can be the best versions of themselves.' "This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| The US is not done with the coronavirus pandemic, and a Harvard expert says we need to shift the blame game from reopening to fixing our testing and contact tracing system Posted: 13 Jun 2020 12:25 AM PDT  One expert said blame for spikes in US coronavirus cases should be placed on the delay in testing and tracing, rather than a "rushed reopening."
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| Pence says he was "encouraged" to stay at White House, not join Trump at church Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:03 PM PDT  The vice president gave an interview to CBS News Radio in Pittsburgh Friday.
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| Canada spy agency warned of 'shock waves' from arrest of Huawei founder's daughter Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:17 PM PDT  Canada's intelligence agency warned that arresting the daughter of billionaire Huawei founder Ren Zheng would set off global "shock waves" and seriously affect ties with China, just before her detention in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition request, new court documents show. Released on Friday, the documents show the involvement of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in the December 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, which soured diplomatic ties between Ottawa and Beijing. Meng is chief financial officer of China tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the company at the center of next generation 5G wireless technology and a long-running dispute the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
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| West Point graduates its first observant Sikh woman Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:30 PM PDT |
| Australian sentenced to death in China for drug smuggling Posted: 13 Jun 2020 01:37 PM PDT  The man was arrested at a Chinese airport with methamphetamine in his luggage, Australian media say.
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| Fresh Lebanon protests over spiralling economic crisis Posted: 13 Jun 2020 08:37 AM PDT  Dozens of demonstrators angered by a deepening economic crisis rallied for a third consecutive day on Saturday after a night of violent riots sparked condemnation from the political elite. In the northern city of Tripoli, young men scuffled with security forces who fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds. The stand-off began after young men blocked a highway to prevent a number of trucks carrying produce destined for Syria from passing through, according to the official National News Agency.
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| 1 dead, several shot at house party on Long Island Posted: 13 Jun 2020 06:52 AM PDT  One person has died after a shooting at a house party early Saturday morning on Long Island, police say.
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| Meet the Gloster Meteor: The Only Allied Jet Aircraft of World War II Posted: 13 Jun 2020 01:30 PM PDT  Was it a game-changer or too late to make a difference?
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| Arms seized by U.S., missiles used to attack Saudi Arabia 'of Iranian origin': U.N. Posted: 11 Jun 2020 07:17 PM PDT  Cruise missiles used in several attacks on oil facilities and an international airport in Saudi Arabia last year were of "Iranian origin," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council in a report seen by Reuters on Thursday. Guterres also said several items in U.S. seizures of weapons and related materiel in November 2019 and February 2020 were "of Iranian origin."
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| William Sessions, FBI head fired by President Clinton, dies Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:54 PM PDT  William S. Sessions, a former federal judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan to head the FBI and fired years later by President Bill Clinton, died Friday at his San Antonio home. Sessions died of natural causes not related to the novel coronavirus, said his daughter, Sara Sessions Naughton. Sessions was a career Justice Department attorney and federal judge until Reagan appointed him FBI director in 1987.
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| Unarmed professionals will now respond to non-criminal police calls in San Francisco to reduce 'police confrontations' Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:19 PM PDT  "San Francisco has made progress reforming our police department, but we know that we still have significant work to do," Mayor London Breed said.
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