| Don't count on ever seeing Trump's 'Garden of American Heroes' Posted: 06 Jul 2020 11:49 AM PDT  Call me cynical, but I have a feeling the National Garden of American Heroes announced by President Trump on Friday will never get off — or into — the ground, even if he doesn't put his son-in-law in charge of it. Establishing an official United States Hall of Fame will secure the reputations of Betsy Ross and Benjamin Franklin from the changing political winds, no less than the one in Cooperstown, N.Y., preserves for the ages the memories of Ted Williams and Roberto Clemente.
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| China detains professor who criticised Xi over coronavirus Posted: 06 Jul 2020 03:45 AM PDT  Chinese authorities on Monday detained a law professor who published essays criticising President Xi Jinping over the coronavirus pandemic and accusing him of ruling "tyrannically", according to friends of the man. Xu Zhangrun, a rare outspoken critic of the government in China's heavily censored academia, was taken from his home in suburban Beijing by more than 20 people, one of his friends said on condition of anonymity. Xu published an essay in February blaming the culture of deception and censorship fostered by Xi for the spread of the coronavirus in China.
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| We Fought a U.S.-China War in the South China Sea. The U.S. Navy Lost. Posted: 06 Jul 2020 01:00 PM PDT  For more than a hundred years, the U.S. Navy has been using naval wargames to test ships, tactics and strategy.
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| The WHO changed its coronavirus timeline to say it got its first report about the virus on the internet, not from Chinese authorities Posted: 05 Jul 2020 04:03 AM PDT  The agency says its China office found out about the "viral pneumonia" cases from reading an online press release from the Wuhan health commission.
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| Outrage as Mississippi election commissioner complains 'the Blacks' are registering to vote in high numbers Posted: 06 Jul 2020 12:31 PM PDT  A Mississippi elections official became the subject of social media fury over the weekend when she tweeted that she was "concerned" about an increase in black voters."I'm concerned about voter registration in Mississippi," Gail Welch, an elections commissioner in Jones County, Mississippi wrote. "The blacks are having lots [of] events for voter registration. People in Mississippi have to get involved, too."
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| Residents of Mexican town block Americans from entering Posted: 05 Jul 2020 04:20 PM PDT  Their informal border wall follows an upswing in Covid-19 cases in Arizona.
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| Iran mandates masks as public shrugs off resurgent virus Posted: 05 Jul 2020 06:18 AM PDT  Iran on Sunday instituted mandatory mask-wearing as fears mount over newly spiking reported deaths from the coronavirus, even as its public increasingly shrugs off the danger of the COVID-19 illness it causes. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicized an image of himself in a mask in recent days, urging both public officials and the Islamic Republic's 80 million people to wear them to stop the virus's spread.
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| Surge in NYC shootings fuels police reform debate Posted: 06 Jul 2020 05:02 PM PDT  New York reeled from a spate of holiday weekend shootings Monday, with police fueling controversy by partially attributing them to reforms undertaken following the death in custody of George Floyd. The Big Apple was rocked by 45 shootings -- which resulted in 11 deaths -- over the long July 4th weekend, up from just 16 shootings for the same period in 2019. Terence Monahan, the NYPD's highest-ranking uniformed officer, said "tremendous animosity" shown towards officers following the recent Black Lives Matter protests had contributed by lowering police morale.
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| 7 men were arrested after police said they taunted a Black family with racial slurs and Nazi salutes at an Oregon beach Posted: 06 Jul 2020 08:28 AM PDT  The incident happened Saturday during a July 4 celebration in Lincoln City, Oregon. Police said the men who were arrested were "highly intoxicated."
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| Olson Kundig’s Latest Design Embraces Its Hawaiian Habitat Posted: 06 Jul 2020 11:46 AM PDT |
| ‘We Should Listen to the Argument’ for Removing George Washington Statues, Says Senator Duckworth Posted: 06 Jul 2020 06:41 AM PDT  Senator Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.) said that "we should listen to the argument for removing George Washington statues" in an appearance on CNN's State of the Union Sunday. Statues of slave-owning historical figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have become the latest target of the nationwide racial reckoning sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody this summer.When asked by CNN's Dana Bash if she supported taking down monuments of leaders who were slave owners, as she has expressed support of changing military bases named after Confederate leaders, Duckworth instead initially took aim at President Trump's Mount Rushmore speech on Friday.The senator, who the Washington Post reported Sunday is a serious contender in Joe Biden's search for a running mate in the 2020 presidential election, called Trump's priorities "all wrong.""He should be talking about what we're going to do to overcome this pandemic," she said. "What are we going to do to push Russia back? Instead, he had no time for that. He spent all his time talking about dead traitors."After further pressing by CNN's Bash, Duckworth said she thinks we should have a national dialogue over the historical monuments at some point and "listen to everybody.""I think we should listen to the argument there, but remember that the president at Mount Rushmore was standing on ground that was stolen from Native Americans who had actually been given that land during a treaty," she said.Trump has defended such monuments, and did so again in his speech Friday, saying, "By tearing down Washington and Jefferson, these radicals would tear down the very heritage for which men gave their lives to win the Civil War, they would erase the memory that inspired those soldiers to go to their deaths," he said. "They would tear down the principles that propelled the abolition of slavery and ultimately around the world ending an evil institution that had plagued humanity for thousands and thousands of years."
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| US mayors warn their cities are being overwhelmed Posted: 05 Jul 2020 10:47 AM PDT  US mayors warned on Sunday that their cities were in danger of being overwhelmed by a surge in covid-19 cases as they pushed back against governors' decisions to re-open states and President Donald Trump's claims that the disease is under control. Across the US, the nationwide rolling seven-day average of new cases hit 48,361 - an increase of 11,740 on the past week. In all 18 states have reported new records, prompting local officials to warn that they are in danger of being overwhelmed. "If we don't change this trajectory, then I am within two weeks of having our hospitals overrun," Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, Texas, said on CNN's State of the Union.
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| NASA's powerful Hubble space telescope has beamed back a striking photo of a 'fluffy' galaxy with a ghostly, empty center Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:33 PM PDT  The photo from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows how newborn stars have used up all the gas at this galaxy's center.
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| Trump administration refusing to let Dr Fauci appear on CBS show, host says Posted: 06 Jul 2020 07:02 AM PDT  CBS News host Margaret Brennan has claimed that the Trump administration has prevented Dr Anthony Fauci from appearing on her show for three months.The moderator of CBS' Face the Nation, claimed on the show on Sunday that the administration had not approved an interview with Dr Fauci since 5 April.
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| Why the U.S. Navy Sent Two Aircraft Carrier Battle Groups to Drill Near China Posted: 06 Jul 2020 10:43 AM PDT  The exercises coincided with similar drills conducted by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy in the region.
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| South Korea rejects US extradition request over child abuse website Posted: 06 Jul 2020 12:14 AM PDT  A Seoul court says the man behind a massive child sexual abuse website could help future investigations.
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| Mexican police arrest 3 over rehab center attack that left 27 dead Posted: 05 Jul 2020 10:44 PM PDT  Mexican police have arrested three men over a bloody gun attack on a drug rehabilitation center that left 27 people dead, the local prosecutor's office said Sunday. Gunmen burst into the center in the city of Irapuato in the central Guanajuato state on Wednesday, forcing victims "onto the ground and shot them", authorities said. The suspects were captured in a swoop by special forces, the prosecutor's office said on Twitter, calling the incident a "heinous crime."
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| College students are preparing to return to campus in the fall. Is it worth it? Posted: 06 Jul 2020 11:44 AM PDT  "No matter which way you slice it, it's just a lose-lose situation," one student said.
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| Sen. Chuck Grassley will skip the RNC for the first time in 40 years, citing coronavirus Posted: 06 Jul 2020 12:08 PM PDT  Grassley said it will be the first time he skips the convention since he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
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| Discovery of Frederick Douglass letter sheds light on contested Lincoln statue Posted: 05 Jul 2020 10:18 AM PDT  Amid protests, some want removal of Washington statue which shows president standing over a man who has broken his chainsAn argument between history professors over a statue which many protesters say should be removed from Lincoln Park in Washington led to the discovery of a letter in which Frederick Douglass described his feelings about it."The negro here, though rising, is still on his knees and nude," the civil rights campaigner wrote to the National Republican newspaper in 1876, about the statue of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, standing over a man who has broken his chains."What I want to see before I die is a monument representing the negro, not couchant on his knees like a four-footed animal, but erect on his feet like a man."Amid protests over structural racism and police brutality, debate over such statues has surged. Donald Trump has made defending monuments to Confederate leaders and figures with outdated views on race a central part of his campaign for re-election.Until now, accounts of Douglass's views on the Lincoln statue have relied on a description of its unveiling by an attendee but written 40 years later. The exchange which led to the discovery of Douglass's letter was between Jonathan White of Christopher Newport University in Virginia, advocating the statue be preserved, and Scott Sandage of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, saying it should come down.Sandage found the letter through searches on newspapers.com using "couchant", a distinctive adjective of which Douglass was fond. He told the Wall Street Journal that David Blight of Yale, who won a Pulitzer prize for his 2018 biography of Douglass, was "practically giddy" when told of the discovery.Douglass was born into slavery in 1818 but escaped and became a dominant figure in American public life. He died in 1895.The statue in Lincoln Park was largely paid for by African Americans and dedicated 13 years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and 11 years after Lincoln's assassination and the end of the civil war.This week, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's non-voting member of Congress, said: "Although formerly enslaved Americans paid for this statue to be built, the design and sculpting process was done without their input, and it shows. The statue fails to note in any way how enslaved African Americans pushed for their own emancipation."A copy of Thomas Ball's work will be removed from display in Boston but on Sunday the Lincoln biographer Sidney Blumenthal pointed to why the sculptor used the now controversial pose: it was a development of the symbol of the abolitionist movement, adopted by Americans from the British anti-slavery campaigner Josiah Wedgwood.Though Ball did not produce "much of a statue", Blumenthal said, "it's ironic that people have lost the historical memory of abolitionism. The kneeling slave was on the masthead of the Liberator" – William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist newspaper – "and was a very widespread image."Blumenthal also noted that contrary to Holmes Norton's claim, Douglass sat on the committee which approved Ball's design.In his newly discovered letter, Douglass writes: "Admirable as is the monument by Mr Ball in Lincoln Park, it does not, as it seems to me, tell the whole truth, and perhaps no one monument could be made to tell the whole truth of any subject which it might be designed to illustrate."He goes on to point to what is now complicated political reality."The mere act of breaking the negro's chains was the act of Abraham Lincoln and is beautifully expressed in this monument. But the act by which the negro was made a citizen of the United States and invested with the elective franchise was pre-eminently the act of President [Ulysses] S Grant and is nowhere seen in the Lincoln monument."Grant commanded the Union armies which defeated the Confederacy in the civil war. As president he oversaw the constitutional amendments which gave African Americans citizenship and African American men the vote, fought the Ku Klux Klan and championed Reconstruction.But Grant also married into a slave-owning family and at one time owned – and freed – an enslaved man. In San Francisco last month, a statue of Grant came down.Blumenthal noted one possible motivation for Douglass's thoughts about Grant. By 1876, Douglass had both painfully split from Garrison and become a "Republican party stalwart or even a party hack" who wanted Grant to win a third term and would later be made minister to Haiti and US Marshal for the District of Columbia.Some historians, Blumenthal among them, advocate adding figures in Lincoln Park, perhaps of Douglass, black Union soldiers or Charlotte Scott, a formerly enslaved woman who drove fundraising for the Lincoln statue. In his letter, Douglass offers such a suggestion."There is room in Lincoln Park for another monument," he writes, "and I throw out this suggestion to the end that it may be taken up and acted upon."In fact there is another statue in Lincoln Park, to the African American educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune.On its website, the US National Parks Service acknowledges that "for many people, including Frederick Douglass, the [Lincoln] monument perpetuated many stereotypes about African Americans' ability and participation in antislavery activity."But it also notes a previous change. The Lincoln statue originally faced west, towards the US Capitol. In 1974 it was rotated east, in order to face Bethune.
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| South Dakota governor, exposed to virus, joined Trump on jet Posted: 06 Jul 2020 10:37 AM PDT  Shortly after fireworks above Mount Rushmore disappeared into the night sky on Friday, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem accompanied President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One despite having had close contact with Trump's son's girlfriend, who had tested positive for the coronavirus. Trump has been in a position all along to encounter a virus that spreads from people who don't feel sick, such as Noem, who had interacted closely at a campaign fundraiser with Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who turned out to be infected. Noem didn't wear a mask on the plane and chatted with the president as the flight returned to Washington, D.C., according to her spokesperson, Maggie Seidel.
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| 15 Air-Purifying Plants to Cleanse Your Space of Chemicals and Toxins Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:17 PM PDT |
| As divisions threaten America, the pressure to cancel presidents is dangerous Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:00 AM PDT  After Woodrow Wilson, who's next? Thomas Jefferson? FDR? JFK? Jimmy Carter? Gerald Ford? We remove tributes to our imperfect presidents at our peril.
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| Hong Kong activists are holding up blank signs because China now has the power to define pro-democracy slogans as terrorism Posted: 06 Jul 2020 06:27 AM PDT  At least 200 people with white signs amassed in malls across Hong Kong on Monday. China unilaterally passed a harsh new law on the city last week.
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| This Chinese Submarine Could Drop a Nuclear Weapon on America Posted: 05 Jul 2020 06:30 AM PDT  Yet it is still armed with nuclear weapons.
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| ‘We didn’t knock politely’: Details emerge of FBI raid at Ghislaine Maxwell hideout Posted: 05 Jul 2020 12:45 PM PDT  Fresh details have emerged of the FBI raid leading to the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is accused of grooming young girls on behalf of her former partner, the convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.The 58-year-old British heiress is due to appear in a New York court this week to face four charges of aiding Epstein in the trafficking and sexual exploitation and abuse of minors, and two counts of perjury, which could see her imprisoned for 35 years.
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| A former National Guard colonel apologized but will keep her professor job after saying sexual harassment is the 'price of admission for women' in the military Posted: 06 Jul 2020 01:16 PM PDT  Betsy Schoeller said her Facebook comment about Vanessa Guillén was intended to provide a "voice" to the "culture of sexual harassment" women face.
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| Seattle protests: Woman killed after car strikes protesters Posted: 04 Jul 2020 11:23 PM PDT  The 24-year-old was one of two women injured when the vehicle careered into the group at speed.
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| McConnell opens door to more coronavirus stimulus checks for low-income Americans Posted: 06 Jul 2020 03:00 PM PDT  "I think the country needs one last boost," the Senate majority leader said of another round of direct payments.
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| Mexico uncovers 12,000-year-old underwater mine Posted: 06 Jul 2020 04:23 AM PDT 
A 12,000-year-old ochre mine has been discovered underwater Location: Quintana Roo, Mexico Courtesy: CINDAQ Scientists diving into submerged caves found an ambitious mining operation for the earth mineral pigment red ochre which was prized by prehistoric peoples Courtesy: National Institute of Anthropology and History (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY AT THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY, ROBERTO JUNCO, SAYING: "It already allows us to begin to understand some of the dynamics of these early societies. What were they doing with this ochre? They used it to paint themselves as some African tribes do today. They used it for medical purposes, because ochre has certain elements that fight bacteria. They used it to symbolize. I love to think that this ochre was the beginning of the first artistic manifestations." The caves were abandoned for millennia before becoming submerged roughly 8,000 years ago More than 100 dives and 600 hours across 4.3 miles of subterranean passages went into discovering the artifacts
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| FDA Head Declines to Defend or Deny Trump Claim That 99% of COVID-19 Cases Are 'Totally Harmless' Posted: 05 Jul 2020 10:55 AM PDT  The President's claim contradicts the existing data
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| Iran confirms damaged nuclear site was centrifuge facility Posted: 05 Jul 2020 01:41 PM PDT  Iran on Sunday confirmed that a damaged building at the underground Natanz nuclear site was a new centrifuge assembly center, the official IRNA news agency reported. Iranian officials had previously sought to downplay the fire, which erupted early on Thursday, calling it only an "incident" that affected an "industrial shed." A spokesman for Iran's nuclear agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said Sunday that work had begun on the center in 2013 and it was inaugurated in 2018.
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| China's state television channel severely violated British broadcasting rules Posted: 05 Jul 2020 05:53 AM PDT  Britain's television watchdog is expected to announce on Monday that China's state television channel severely violated British broadcasting rules by airing a forced confession of a UK citizen, the Telegraph understands. China's state broadcaster, which airs in English in the UK as CGTN, is likely to face sanctions, decided in a separate process by Ofcom, which could include hefty fines or being stripped of its broadcast license as a result of the investigation launched May 2019. The ruling could escalate diplomatic tensions between the UK and China at a time when MPs have become more vocal in pressing for a re-think of bilateral relations. The original complaint to Ofcom, filed by Briton Peter Humphrey, focused on a confession forced under duress from him by Chinese authorities in 2013. Mr Humphrey told the Telegraph in an interview last year that he was drugged and handcuffed to an iron chair inside a steel cage. Six uniformed police officers sat at a podium while the lead interrogator read questions from a clipboard and instructed Mr Humphrey how to answer, he said. A heavily edited version made to look like a news 'interview' with a bombshell 'confession' was broadcast around the world on CGTN, and other channels under parent Chinese state media organisation, CCTV – including in the UK. "They twisted things," Mr Humphrey previously told the Telegraph. "It was terrifying; all along, I knew I was innocent and that I was being falsely accused. I also knew that I had no way to escape."
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| Fire! America Loves to Go to War with the M4 Carbine Posted: 06 Jul 2020 12:00 AM PDT  Rugged, simple and accurate, the M4 carbine is the standard infantry weapon of not just the Army but all of America's ground forces.
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| Alleged drug plane burns on Mexican highway Posted: 06 Jul 2020 01:01 AM PDT |
| Supreme Court won't throw out ban on robocalls to cellphones Posted: 06 Jul 2020 08:19 AM PDT  A group of fundraisers, political organizations and pollsters filed a lawsuit alleging the prohibition was unconstitutional.
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| Russians living near base where Putin's doomsday missile may have exploded last year warned ahead of new military activity Posted: 06 Jul 2020 10:37 AM PDT  Residents were told they are living in the "danger zone" and were given the opportunity to evacuate the before the military starts its work nearby.
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| Trump attacks core US values at Rushmore. Disagree with him, you're an enemy of the state. Posted: 06 Jul 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Trump's dishonest characterization and vilification of people whose crime is having inconvenient opinions gets close to the worst of the World War I era.
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| I'm an autism expert who adopted 2 children with special needs. Myka Stauffer shouldn't have apologized for 'rehoming' her adopted son. Posted: 06 Jul 2020 10:29 AM PDT  Myka Stauffer, a popular influencer, should've apologized for missing a chance to educate her followers about the realities of autism and adoption.
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| U.S. trade groups urge China to increase purchases of U.S. goods, services Posted: 06 Jul 2020 07:36 AM PDT  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and over 40 trade associations on Monday urged top American and Chinese officials to redouble efforts to implement a Phase 1 trade agreement signed by the world's two largest economies in January despite pandemic-related strains. In a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, the groups said they were encouraged by the progress so far, but urged a significant increase in China's purchases of U.S. goods and services. The agreement called for China to purchase $200 billion in additional U.S. goods and services over the next two years.
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| China Has a Plan to Crush the Tibetan Diaspora Posted: 06 Jul 2020 07:40 AM PDT  Beijing's communists demand obedience. They are able to control Tibetans inside their borders today. Tomorrow, with a selection of the next Dalai Lama, they will go after the Tibetans in Dharamshala and elsewhere.
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| European Commission refuses to apologise after accusations of meddling in Croatia's elections Posted: 06 Jul 2020 05:03 AM PDT  The European Commission refused to apologise on Monday after its president appeared in a party political video for the ruling party before elections in Croatia. Ursula von der Leyen was accused of meddling in the national vote and of breaching expectations of neutrality after the video for the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which won Sunday's election, was posted at the weekend. The commission's chief spokesman said on Monday the video clip, which was filmed in the EU executive's studios by its staff, was meant as a contribution "in her personal capacity". He told reporters at the daily press briefing in Brussels that "mistakes" were made, including the use of a backdrop featuring the Commission headquarters and the EU flag, but refused to say sorry. "Mistakes were made and the important thing is to make sure that such mistakes are not repeated," he said, after numerous questions over whether Mrs von der Leyen would apologise for the gaffe. The spokesman blamed the video's Croatian producers for adding a title reading European Commission President to the clip of Mrs von der Leyen. He said Mrs von der Leyen thought it was ""good thing for European democracy" for commissioners to have "an active political life", provided they respected their code of conduct. The commission president was reported to the European Ombudsman, which investigates maladministration in the EU institutions, after breaking the long-standing taboo. "She wishes to ensure that the appropriate procedures are in place to avoid such an unintentional error creeping in again in the future," the spokesman said. Croatia's HDZ, which must now try and form a coalition government, is a member of the centre-right pan-EU European People's Party, which counts Mrs von der Leyen as a member. Other EPP politicians, such as the leaders of Austria, Latvia and Bulgaria and Ireland former prime minister Leo Varadkar, as well as Croatia's EU Commissioner Dubravka Šuica,, appeared in the video. Angela Merkel, an ally of Mrs von der Leyen, did not.
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| Trump administration bars international college students if their school's classes are all online Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:02 PM PDT  Colleges could be in a tough spot if they want to keep international students enrolled.
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| Father-son arm-wrestling match leads to 8-hour standoff with cops, Kentucky police say Posted: 06 Jul 2020 09:37 AM PDT  The father grabbed a handgun and fired multiple shots after losing to his son.
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| Brain-eating amoeba: Warning issued in Florida after rare infection case Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:22 AM PDT  Since 1962, Florida has reported only 37 cases of the deadly pathogen, which attacks brain tissue.
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| The Best Glassware to Upgrade Your Summer Beverages Posted: 06 Jul 2020 02:03 PM PDT |
| Trump spends most of his time in the Oval Office watching TV instead of listening to his advisers, John Bolton suggests Posted: 06 Jul 2020 03:50 AM PDT  The president trusts "a combination of television and listening to people outside the government" over his advisers, the former adviser said.
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