| Bolton's book gets OK from judge, but he may have to turn over his profits, national security lawyer predicts Posted: 20 Jun 2020 07:57 AM PDT  Former national security adviser John Bolton will likely be forced to give all earnings from his controversial new book to the U.S. Treasury, if government lawyers succeed in convincing a federal judge that Bolton violated government rules by moving forward with publication without final sign-off by officials vetting the memoir for classified information, according to a top national security lawyer.
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| Temperature hits 100 F degrees in Arctic Russian town Posted: 21 Jun 2020 06:01 AM PDT  A Siberian town with the world's widest temperature range has recorded a new high amid a heat wave that is contributing to severe forest fires. The temperature in Verkhoyansk hit 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 F) on Saturday, according to Pogoda i Klimat, a website that compiles Russian meteorological data. The town is located above the Arctic Circle in the Sakha Republic, about 4,660 kilometers (2,900 miles) northeast of Moscow.
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| Tallahassee police say suspect confessed to kidnapping and killing student, 19, and volunteer, 75 Posted: 21 Jun 2020 11:04 AM PDT  Aaron Glee Jr. said he imprisoned one of the victims, Oluwatoyin Salau, for days in his home and sexually assaulted her, according to court documents.
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| China claims disputed valley where Chinese, Indian troops engaged in a deadly brawl Posted: 20 Jun 2020 01:51 AM PDT  The confrontation in the Galwan Valley, part of the disputed region along the Himalayan frontier, was the deadliest in 45 years.
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| Seattle shooting: One person shot dead inside autonomous protest zone Posted: 20 Jun 2020 10:19 AM PDT  Seattle police have launched a murder investigation after one person was shot dead and another critically injured inside the city's self-declared autonomous protest zone.The shooting occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning, Seattle police said in a statement. They added that a 19-year-old man died from his injuries and another male remains in hospital with life-threatening injuries.
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| North Korea prepares anti-South leaflets Posted: 20 Jun 2020 06:08 AM PDT 
North Korea is gearing up to send propaganda leaflets over its southern border. Its state media said on Saturday (June 20) that enraged North Koreans are preparing to launch a quote "large-scale distribution of leaflets." This came as a retaliation after defectors in the South sent anti-Pyongyang propaganda, food and medicine across the border. On Tuesday (June 16), Pyongyang blew up an inter-Korean liaison office to show its displeasure against the defectors and South Korea for not stopping them launching leaflets. It has also threatened military action. South Korea's unification ministry, which is responsible for inter-Korean dialogue, said on Saturday that North Korea's plan to send leaflets was "extremely regrettable," and urged it to scrap the plan immediately. A North Korean defector-led group said it had scrapped a plan to send hundreds of plastic bottles stuffed with rice, medicine and face masks to North Korea by throwing them into the sea near the border on Sunday (June 21). The two Koreas, which are still technically at war as their 1950-53 conflict ended without a peace treaty, have waged leaflet campaigns for decades.
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| Because of the virus, dads mark Father's Day from a distance Posted: 21 Jun 2020 02:49 PM PDT |
| Letters to the Editor: Immigrant children living in fear is a disgrace. So is Congress' failure to help Posted: 21 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  That Congress has been unable to help the children of immigrants brought here illegally shows its glaring inability to solve major problems.
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| Coronavirus: Is the pandemic getting worse in the US? Posted: 20 Jun 2020 03:16 AM PDT  Some states are seeing a spike in cases, but the White House says not to worry. So what's going on?
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| Trumpworld Fears Its ‘Nightmare Scenario’ Is Coming True Posted: 20 Jun 2020 01:55 AM PDT  As Donald Trump returns to the campaign trail this Saturday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma, some of his top political advisers are growing increasingly concerned that the president won't be able to dig himself out of the hole he's made for himself.Over the past two weeks, several of the president's campaign lieutenants as well as individuals in his administration have reacted with mounting alarm as multiple polls have shown Trump dipping into the 30s against former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. In weeks past, various aides in the White House and on the Trump re-election effort had privately expressed cold comfort in the fact that with everything going on—a bungled response to a deadly pandemic, a massively crippled U.S. economy, protests across the nation, and a number of Trump's own former top officials coming out against him—it was practically a miracle that the president's poll numbers hadn't sunk even lower.Early this month, one senior White House official told The Daily Beast that their "nightmare scenario" would be for the president to slip beneath 40 percent support in a sustained string of public and private surveys—thus signaling that a previously unshakable base was starting to grow a bit disillusioned. Trump's consistent—though perhaps unenviable—standing in the low 40s had for years remained an illustration of his enduring base and iron Republican support. "Until then, I'm not a doomsayer," this official said, referring to the nerve-racking 30s in national, and some state, polling.In the time since that comment, multiple polls have shown Trump sliding into the 30s. Asked this week about the change, the same White House official simply responded, "This is not where any of us wanted to be at this point [in the election], but there is still time… to make up the difference."Trump Aides Know His Polls Are Terrible—And Tell Him OtherwiseSome advisers lay the blame for recent poll numbers squarely at the weeks-long news coverage of the mass protests against institutional racism and police brutality following the killing of George Floyd, and how Trump has responded to it. "When race is in the news cycle and dominating the conversation, President Trump's numbers always go down," said a source close to the White House. "That's just a fact."The source added that they hoped coverage of former National Security Adviser John Bolton's tell-all book about Trump would actually lead to a poll bump for the president, if for no other reason than it would mean less talk of racism, COVID, and social unrest.But Trump has had a knack for getting in the way of even the most well-crafted media plans, to say nothing of the ones his advisers hope play out. Even the announcement of the Tulsa rally was fraught with hiccups and missteps. His team had previously scheduled it for Friday, which meant it would have fallen on Juneteenth in a city that was the site of one of the country's most savage massacres of Black people. Following a backlash, the president announced the date switch to Saturday. He subsequently claimed that he had made Juneteenth—which has long commemorated the end of slavery in the United States—"very famous" because "nobody had ever heard of it." His White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, defended those remarks on Friday by noting a spike in Google searches.Stephen Colbert Slams Trump's 'Stupid' Juneteenth ClaimTrump has also attempted to portray the economic damage caused by the pandemic as fleeting. But Republican operatives have expressed concern that his talk of a rocket ship recovery may effectively portray him as out of touch to voters who still feel left behind. And even his own team is uncertain about whether it's an effective campaign play. Two of the four aforementioned officials told The Daily Beast that they were unnerved by the fact that they'd seen no polling evidence, in internal data or in multiple different public polls, that the news of higher retail sales and the addition of 2.5 million jobs in May had given the president the bump they had wanted and expected."If the next [unemployment] reports get better and better, hopefully you'll see a change then and noticeable impact," one of these officials said, adding that right now far too many people are out of work and "hurting."Hoping to give himself an additional boost on the economic front, Trump has continuously expressed a desire for additional, big-ticket federal stimulus—which some Republican officials believe would improve his chances. Top Democrats on the Hill, however, say they have not yet had any formal discussions with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about such a package (House Democrats have passed one of their own) and there is wide antipathy among aides about working with the White House unless it provides more insight into how it is spending the hundreds of billions of dollars that was already appropriated."It is a top priority," a senior House Democratic aide said of getting answers on where the Treasury Department's funds have gone. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have put off talk of another bill entirely. And even among Trump's cadre of advisers, there is not much appetite for another stimulus bill."The economic damage done by the coronavirus is a lot less than what was predicted months ago… It's awful, but it's much better in states like California, Texas, and Florida than what experts thought it would be," said Art Laffer, the notoriously conservative economist who informally advises Trump. "People are even hedging their bets on if there's going to be a second wave of the virus… The stock market is telling us this ain't going to be a big deal. It's nothing compared to Y2K or 2008… Those were really big downs in the market, and this is nothing compared to that. It started off really big, with a big drop… but then it came right back. That's not the way it went in 2008 and 2009."Absent a major economic measure or turnaround, Trump's options for reversing his polling slide are slimmer. In an interview with Politico that was published on Friday, the president did express a degree of worry about his chances against Biden. But he couched his concern in baseless theories about the potential for rampant voter fraud in mail-in ballots. "My biggest risk is that we don't win lawsuits [regarding mail-in voting]," the president said. "We have many lawsuits going all over. And if we don't win those lawsuits, I think—I think it puts the election at risk."Increasingly, Trump seems content to try and re-run the playbook he used in 2016 in hopes that it works again. Elsewhere in that Politico interview, he warned other Republican candidates—including those running to help preserve the party's Senate majority—not to tiptoe away from him, no matter what his poll numbers look like. And in recent days his team has made another aggressive effort to troll Biden (much as they did Hillary Clinton) as physically and mentally unwell. The president has brought back top aides from his last presidential run and is turning to one of his most prominent surrogates from that race to help, as well. On Thursday, Politico reported that the Trump campaign had enlisted former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani—who as Trump's personal lawyer launched a dirt-digging expedition into the Bidens that led directly to the president's impeachment—to "spearhead a campaign to press for more debates this fall, starting earlier than usual and to have a say in choosing the moderators," so that Trump can have more opportunities to publicly humiliate Biden, someone who the president seems convinced will crack under a one-on-one grilling.Asked on Thursday if he now has an official title on Trump 2020, Giuliani told The Daily Beast, "No sir I am just helping out."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| What's next for Louisville police officer Brett Hankison after Breonna Taylor's death? Posted: 21 Jun 2020 10:49 AM PDT  Louisville's interim police chief took a first step toward firing officer Brett Hankison on Friday, but that doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen.
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| Map: Track coronavirus deaths around the world Posted: 21 Jun 2020 08:39 AM PDT  Get the latest data on the human cost of this virus. Updated daily.
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| Paris crowds gather to protest against racism, police violence Posted: 20 Jun 2020 04:53 AM PDT |
| Pence wouldn't say "black lives matter" in interview on Juneteenth Posted: 20 Jun 2020 07:13 AM PDT  The vice president said "all lives matter in a very real sense" when asked to say "black lives matter."
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| The WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic 100 days ago. In a little over 3 months, the virus has left devastation in its wake and doesn't show signs of stopping yet. Posted: 19 Jun 2020 11:02 PM PDT  As of June 19, the coronavirus has infected nearly 8.5 million people, and the death toll surpassed 450,000.
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| Britons in Dubai sell possessions and return home as coronavirus ends expat dream Posted: 20 Jun 2020 05:24 AM PDT  Dubai's expat community groups are full of bargains; everything from cars to gym subscriptions. The fire sales are a result of expats left jobless by the UAE's coronavirus lock-down. Among them, thousands of British expats are trying to scrape back the pennies before they are forced to leave a place many call home. The coronavirus lockdown has upended the lives of thousands of expats, turning their dream of a life abroad into a nightmare of uncertainty. Thousands have been made redundant, with strict visa regulations forcing them to return to the UK, with little time to catch their breath. It's almost 11 years since Selina Dixon traded her claustrophobic commute from Surrey into Central London for her expat dreams of Dubai. "I was spending four hours a day on the train," she tells The Telegraph. The fashion marketer left behind the early morning drizzle and commuter grind, for a new life in the UAE. One which promised year-round sun, tax-free salaries, and the opportunity of adventure. "It's not about the glitz and glamour, whoever has been fortunate enough to live here know there is much more behind the façade," she says. An estimated 240,000 Britons call the UAE home, working as everything from air hostesses to teachers. Dixon was made redundant a few weeks ago, now she is living off her meagre savings. In weeks her visa will expire, and she wont be able to renew it unless she finds a new job. "Every day you wake up, you're looking on LinkedIn. Speaking to contacts and your network, but then you have to be mindful there are so many people going through this." With thousands of people flying in and out of the UAE every day in normal times, the country was always vulnerable to Covid-19. A stringent lockdown saw swathes of the economy shut. Though some 40,000 cases of the virus have been registered, Dubai is slowly beginning to open up, yet the economic recovery will likely take many years. Ninety per cent of the UAE's population are expats, and a study out this month by Oxford Economics, a quantitative analysis firm, estimates that the country of nine million could lose up to 900,000 jobs, and some 10 per cent of its population – British expats are likely to be among the worst affected. At least part of the difficulty lies in the UAE's Kafala – or sponsorship - system. A visa scheme wherein residency is tied to your job. Companies may sponsor a foreigner for residency as long as they employ them, but the moment someone becomes unemployed, a count-down begins on the expiry of their visa. As Dixon says, "Dubai is a place that without a visa - it's difficult." Though the government has announced some visa waivers, those who have lost their jobs since March 1st have thirty days to find a new job, or their visas become invalid, and they will be hit with daily fines. It means that those like Dixon may be forced to return to the UK for the first time in years. "It was not a choice that I was ready to make, but one that I may have to make." "I've been away [from the UK] for ten years, I'm going to have to start from scratch. Whilst I have the experience, it's the network in the UK I'll struggle with."
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| Beijing to set up new security office in Hong Kong Posted: 20 Jun 2020 09:33 AM PDT  China's new law for the territory will also override any conflicting local law, state media says.
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| Trump campaign told police to remove peaceful protester arrested outside Tulsa rally Posted: 20 Jun 2020 01:41 PM PDT  At the request of Donald Trump's campaign, police arrested an Oklahoma demonstrator on live television moments after she was seen praying outside the president's rally, though she said she had a ticket to attend.Sheila Buck, who was wearing an "I Can't Breathe" T-shirt to memorialise black Americans killed by police, was accused of "trespassing" by Tulsa officers who dragged her away from the city's BOK Centre on Saturday.
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| Rich Americans like me should use our money and influence to end systemic racism Posted: 20 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  If wealthy Americans cared as much about equity for people of color as they did about tax cuts, this would be fixed. And it's in our interest to care.
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| North Korea threatens to pour 'leaflets of punishment' over South Korea Posted: 20 Jun 2020 04:35 AM PDT  "The South Korean authorities will face a really horrible time," North Korean state media said.
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| Angela Underwood Jacobs: We want to be able to live freely and safely Posted: 21 Jun 2020 07:14 AM PDT  Angela Underwood Jacobs, the sister of a federal protective officer who was killed during a protest for George Floyd that turned violent, joins 'Fox and Friends Weekend.'
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| While Confederate statues come down, other symbols targeted Posted: 21 Jun 2020 11:20 AM PDT  Spectators in North Carolina's capital cheered Sunday morning as work crews finished the job started by protesters Friday night and removed a Confederate statue from the top of a 75-foot (232 meter) monument. Across the country, an initially peaceful protest in Portland, Oregon, against racial injustice turned violent early Sunday: Baton-wielding police used flash-bang grenades to disperse demonstrators throwing bottles, cans and rocks at sheriff's deputies near downtown's Justice Center. News outlets reported that work crews acting on the order of Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper removed the statue Sunday morning and began taking down the obelisk on which it stood.
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| Acting DHS head says U.S. doing 'great job' getting economy back up Posted: 21 Jun 2020 06:41 AM PDT  The Trump administration is doing "a great job" reopening the country after lockdowns to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said on Sunday, as infections continued to spike in some key states. Wolf told NBC's "Meet the Press" program that the White House coronavirus task force was continuing to meet daily and the Centers for Disease Control had issued guidance to states on how to flatten the curve, including use of face masks.
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| George Soros conspiracy theories surge as protests sweep US Posted: 21 Jun 2020 05:34 AM PDT  George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist who has long been a target of conspiracy theories, is now being falsely accused of orchestrating and funding the protests over police killings of Black people that have roiled the United States. Amplified by a growing number of people on the far right, including some Republican leaders, online posts about Soros have skyrocketed in recent weeks. The Hungarian-American, who is Jewish, has also been the subject of anti-Semitic attacks and conspiracy theories for decades.
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| Navy Won't Reinstate Crozier, Holds 1-Star's Promotion Over Poor Decision-Making Posted: 21 Jun 2020 03:24 PM PDT  The Navy won't reinstate the captain who was fired after warning of a serious health crisis on his ship.
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| Breonna Taylor: Louisville officer to be fired for deadly force use Posted: 19 Jun 2020 05:47 PM PDT  The police chief accused the officer of "blindly" firing into Breonna Taylor's apartment.
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| Trump fires federal prosecutor investigating his own inner circle, attorney general says Posted: 20 Jun 2020 12:47 PM PDT  Attorney General William Barr has sent a letter to Geoffrey Berman stating that he requested Donald Trump to fire the US attorney, escalating a tense standoff between the Justice Department and one of the most powerful investigative offices in the nation.The attorney general's letter comes after Mr Berman — who is spearheading investigations into the president's inner circle — said he had not resigned from his post and would remain in the position, following a sudden announcement from Mr Barr on Friday that claimed the US attorney was stepping down.
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| Chile reports more than 7,000 virus deaths under new counting method Posted: 20 Jun 2020 10:54 AM PDT  Santiago (AFP) - Chile nearly doubled its coronavirus death toll Saturday to more than 7,000 under a new tallying method that includes probable fatalities from COVID-19.
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| Meet the X-32: The Plane That Could Have Replaced the F-35 Posted: 20 Jun 2020 03:00 PM PDT  One for the history books.
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| Coronavirus: Zimbabwe health minister in court on corruption charges Posted: 20 Jun 2020 07:57 AM PDT  The charges against health minister Obadiah Moyo relate to alleged procurement irregularities.
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| Biden aide begins forming U.S. presidential transition team Posted: 20 Jun 2020 11:24 AM PDT  A close adviser to former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has begun forming a team to oversee the transition if the Democratic presidential candidate wins November's election and unseats President Donald Trump, according to a statement on Saturday. Longtime Biden aide Ted Kaufman has recruited six people, including several former Obama administration officials, to an initial team that will later be expanded, a person familiar with the transition team said. Major party nominees set up transition teams before a general election to coordinate with the incumbent administration.
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| Zeev Sternhell, dovish Israeli expert on fascism, dies at 85 Posted: 21 Jun 2020 03:52 AM PDT |
| Fact check: Cruise ships are registered abroad but they didn't seek a US bailout Posted: 20 Jun 2020 12:35 PM PDT  The claim that cruise ship companies register in foreign countries to avoid US taxes is true. But it's not true that they asked for COVID-19 bailout.
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| A strain of the coronavirus imported from Europe is most likely to blame for the outbreak in Beijing, WHO believes Posted: 20 Jun 2020 08:43 AM PDT  Experts believe that imported frozen foods used at the wholesale market could have been contaminated with the virus during packaging or transportation.
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| 'I have not resigned': Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman fires back at Barr, who says he's leaving Posted: 19 Jun 2020 09:35 PM PDT  "I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption," Berman said.
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| Top US diplomat calls UN rights body 'a haven for dictators' Posted: 20 Jun 2020 08:54 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the decision by the U.N.'s top human rights body to commission a report on policing and race amid international protests spurred by George Floyd's death "marks a new low" and confirmed the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from the Human Rights Council in 2018. The council agreed Friday in Geneva to commission a U.N. report on systemic racism and discrimination against Black people while stopping short of ordering a more intensive investigation singling out the United States.
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| Mike Pence said 'all lives matter' when asked by a news reporter if he'd be willing to say 'Black Lives Matter' Posted: 20 Jun 2020 07:13 AM PDT  Mike Pence also said that the Trump administration will provide new resources to police departments rather than defund them.
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| Trump set to hold Tulsa rally despite surging coronavirus cases in Oklahoma Posted: 20 Jun 2020 03:46 PM PDT  President Trump will be holding an in-person rally Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma with an estimated 19,000 expected to attend. State health officials are concerned however, as the state is experiencing surges in coronavirus cases. Omar Villafranca reports from Tulsa.
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| Man arrested in shooting of eight people outside San Antonio bar Posted: 19 Jun 2020 10:31 PM PDT  All of the victims are expected to survive. The shooting happened after a group was denied entry to a bar because they were inebriated.
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| Protesters douse French health ministry with red paint Posted: 20 Jun 2020 02:08 AM PDT |
| In pictures: Rare solar eclipse darkens Asia on the summer solstice Posted: 21 Jun 2020 04:12 AM PDT  Skywatchers photographed the "ring of fire", where the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun.
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| How Russia's MiG-21 Became The Most-Produced Supersonic Jet In Aviation History Posted: 21 Jun 2020 03:30 AM PDT  It's flown in more than 60 countries.
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| 'Feels very unfair': Families say cruise lines are using a 'technicality' to refuse refunds Posted: 21 Jun 2020 01:39 PM PDT  One cruiser reported canceling less than an hour before refund eligibility, but Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and others aren't budging on refunds.
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| AG Barr says Trump has fired Manhattan US attorney Geoffrey Berman after he refused to step down Posted: 20 Jun 2020 12:49 PM PDT  Berman said late Friday that he will not step down until the Senate confirms a presidentially appointed successor.
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| Whitmer demands answers from Enbridge on pipeline damage Posted: 19 Jun 2020 07:28 PM PDT  Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer demanded Friday that Enbridge Energy provide proof that the damage to one of its dual oil pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac will not pose a threat to the area. The Alberta, Canada-based company closed its Line 5 pipeline under the straits on Thursday after discovering that the anchor support had shifted from its original position, company spokesman Ryan Duffy said Friday in a statement. Whitmer said the damage and how it occurred calls into question the viability of the pipeline.
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| Egypt's Sisi warns of 'direct intervention' in Libya Posted: 20 Jun 2020 05:24 PM PDT  Egypt's president warned Saturday that advances by Turkey-backed Libyan forces on the Libyan city of Sirte could prompt an Egyptian military intervention in the neighbouring country in support of Cairo's ally Khalifa Haftar. Meanwhile, Ankara has urged forces led by the eastern-based Haftar to withdraw from the strategic city for a ceasefire agreement to be reached. The UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli has made major military gains against Haftar's forces recently thanks to increased support from its backer Turkey.
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