| N. Korea says millions of leaflets readied against South Posted: 21 Jun 2020 05:06 PM PDT  North Korea said on Monday it has readied thousands of balloons and millions of leaflets in preparation for "retaliatory punishment" against South Korea. The detail, in a state media report, came a day after the North said it was preparing to begin an anti-South leaflet campaign following a series of vitriolic condemnations of Seoul because of anti-North leaflets floated over the border. Defectors in the South send such leaflets which criticise the North's leader Kim Jong Un over human rights abuses and his nuclear ambitions.
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| Trump and Navarro condemn John Bolton's China claim Posted: 21 Jun 2020 05:00 PM PDT  * Judge allows publication of tell-all but slams author's behaviour * Trump: 'I wouldn't say a thing like that' * The Room Where It Happened: a broadside to sink Trump?The White House fired back at John Bolton on Sunday, seeking to rubbish a key claim in the former national security adviser's bombshell new book, that Donald Trump asked Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, for help in winning re-election."I never heard that," trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Sunday morning, echoing remarks by US trade representative Robert Lighthizer. "I was in the room."Bolton's book, The Room Where It Happened, is based on notes taken in a series of rooms during Bolton's spell as Trump's third national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019."I hate the title of that book," Navarro said. "But I was in those rooms too."Trump also rubbished Bolton's claim in an interview with Axios recorded on Friday and released on Sunday evening."Remember," the president said, "when I'm dealing with [Xi], the whole room is loaded up with people. We're in a large room with many people in that room. I wouldn't want to say a thing like that."Trump also said he did not "even know if that would be wrong", but added: "Why would I say a thing like that? And I certainly wouldn't say it anyway, but I certainly wouldn't say it in a room full of people."Bolton claims Trump's request was evidence of impeachable conduct similar to but well beyond the president's approaches to Ukraine, for political dirt on Joe Biden, which eventually landed him in the dock in the Senate.On Saturday, a judge in Washington declined the administration's attempt to block publication on Tuesday, but had harsh words for Bolton's conduct and treatment of sensitive material.Trump indicated that a civil suit to seize all profits from the book will continue, and hinted at criminal prosecution.One policy hawk attacking another, Navarro said in a combative appearance on CNN's State of the Union: "That guy should be turning in his seersucker suit for a jumpsuit."He added a prediction that Bolton "will not only not get the profits from that book, but he risks a jail sentence. He has done something that is very, very serious in terms of American national security, and he's got to pay a price for that."Bolton writes that direct quotes from the conversation with Xi were redacted from his book to satisfy its national security review. But Vanity Fair has since reported that during a dinner at a G20 summit in Japan in 2019, Trump told Xi: "Make sure I win. I will probably win anyway, so don't hurt my farms … Buy a lot of soybeans and wheat and make sure we win."Navarro insisted the explosive allegation was "just silly", because "this president has been the toughest president on China of any American president ever".Trump told Axios "What I told everybody we deal with – not just President Xi – I want them to do business with this country. I want them to do a lot more business with this country."By the way, what's good for the country is good for me. What's good for the country is also good for an election."As fallout from the book deepens, a spokesman for Bolton said he would not vote for Trump at the November election.Bolton also writes that Trump expressed approval of Xi's policy of building concentration camps to detain Uighur and other Muslim minorities, a claim which has proved another lightning rod for controversy.Trump told Axios he had not sanctioned China over the camps, agreed by world bodies to be a gross human rights abuse, because "we were in the middle of a major trade deal"."And I made a great deal," he said, "$250bn potentially worth of purchases. And by the way, they're buying a lot, you probably have seen."And when you're in the middle of a negotiation and then all of a sudden you start throwing additional sanctions on – we've done a lot. I put tariffs on China, which are far worse than any sanction you can think of."
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| Bolton dismisses Trump's tough talk on China: 'No telling' what deal he'd take if reelected Posted: 21 Jun 2020 04:50 PM PDT  In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and ahead of the November presidential election, President Donald Trump has escalated his intense rhetoric against the Chinese government. "Xi Jinping would be right up there with (Russia's Vladimir) Putin in his ability to look at Donald Trump and say, 'This is somebody that we can move ultimately on our side,'" Bolton told ABC News in an exclusive interview. After spending 17 months at Trump's side, Bolton characterized the president as full of empty words and at times lies, willing to put his personal relationship with Xi ahead of the country's interests and easily marked and manipulated by foreign adversaries.
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| Why Rising Tensions on the Korean Peninsula Are Unlikely to Recede Posted: 21 Jun 2020 04:00 PM PDT  North Korea wants to be accepted and recognised as a nuclear power.
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| AP Interview: Egypt says UN must stop Ethiopia on dam fill Posted: 21 Jun 2020 02:36 PM PDT  Egypt wants the United Nations Security Council to "undertake its responsibilities" and prevent Ethiopia from starting to fill its massive, newly built hydroelectric dam on the Nile River next month amid a breakdown in negotiations, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry told The Associated Press on Sunday, accusing Ethiopian officials of stoking antagonism between the countries. Ethiopia announced Friday that it would begin filling the dam's reservoir in July even after the latest round of talks with Egypt and Sudan failed last week to reach a deal governing how the dam will be filled and operated. Egypt formally asked the Security Council to intervene in a letter the same day.
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| Trump rally highlights vulnerabilities heading into election Posted: 21 Jun 2020 01:28 PM PDT  President Donald Trump's return to the campaign trail was designed to show strength and enthusiasm heading into the critical final months before an election that will decide whether he remains in the White House. Instead, his weekend rally in Oklahoma highlighted growing vulnerabilities and crystallized a divisive reelection message that largely ignores broad swaths of voters — independents, suburban women and people of color — who could play a crucial role in choosing Trump or Democratic challenger Joe Biden. The lower-than-expected turnout at the comeback rally, in particular, left Trump fuming.
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| Iran sends shipment of food to Venezuela in latest delivery Posted: 21 Jun 2020 12:16 PM PDT  Iranian officials said one of their cargo ships was expected to dock in Venezuela on Sunday with food to launch the first Iranian supermarket in the South American nation. The Golsan's delivery marks "another success in friendly and fraternal relations between two countries," officials at the Iranian Embassy in Caracas announced in a tweet a day earlier. Both Iran and Venezuela are foes of President Donald Trump and heavily sanctioned by the the United States and their ties have increased recently.
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| Solar eclipse wows stargazers in Africa, Asia, Middle East Posted: 21 Jun 2020 12:08 PM PDT  Stargazers in Africa, Asia and parts of the Middle East looked to the skies this weekend to witness a partial solar eclipse. It was known as a "ring of fire" because the moon covered most, but not all, of the sun. Millions from Dubai to Taiwan to Japan to India watched the solar spectacle.
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| White House's Navarro 'never heard' Trump ask China's Xi for help winning election Posted: 21 Jun 2020 11:15 AM PDT |
| Somali soldiers end protest over unpaid salaries Posted: 21 Jun 2020 10:49 AM PDT  Troops had blocked roads in the capital Mogadishu, with some saying they had not been paid in a year.
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| Chairman of Israel's Yad Vashem to step down after 27 years Posted: 21 Jun 2020 10:05 AM PDT  The chairman of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and Memorial said Sunday he will be stepping down after 27 years. Avner Shalev, 81, said in a letter to Yad Vashem employees that he made the decision to leave the position after nearly three decades following "thorough self-examination." Shalev guided a period of dramatic transformation at one of the world's foremost Holocaust remembrance institutions.
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| Minority officers allege discrimination over Chauvin booking Posted: 21 Jun 2020 09:13 AM PDT  Eight minority corrections officers who work at the jail holding a former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in the death of George Floyd allege that they were barred from guarding or having contact with the officer because of their race. Floyd died on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, who is white, used his knee to pin down the the handcuffed Black man's neck even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter.
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| New nationwide outbreak not expected in Germany despite R number rising above 1 Posted: 21 Jun 2020 09:07 AM PDT  Germany's disease control agency assured the country that it does not expect a new nationwide coronavirus outbreak despite the rate of reproduction rising sharply over the weekend. Both the measurements Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) uses to assess the progress of the coronavirus rose well over the value of one on Saturday. While the 4-day R number, which measures the mean number of people infected by one person, rose to 1.79, the seven-day average - seen as a more reliable indicator of the virus's progress - also rose to 1.55. The RKI explained that a small number of local outbreaks were skewing the results. "A nationwide increase in case numbers is not anticipated," the agency stated. Angela Merkel has previously said that it is crucial for Germany to keep the R number below 1 in order to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. The most severe outbreak has hit the western town of Gütersloh, where over 1,000 workers at a slaughterhouse have tested positive for the lung infection within a matter of days.
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| Trump's intended show of political force falls short of mark Posted: 21 Jun 2020 08:49 AM PDT  President Donald Trump used his comeback rally to try to define the upcoming election as a choice between national heritage and left-wing radicalism, but his intended show of political force during the pandemic was thousands short of a full house and partly overshadowed by new coronavirus cases among his campaign staff. Trump ignored health warnings and held his first rally in 110 days in what was one of the largest indoor gatherings in the world during an outbreak that has killed about 120,000 Americans and put 40 million out of work. "The choice in 2020 is very simple," Trump said.
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| Long-dreaded virus increase hits Iraq as new cases soar Posted: 21 Jun 2020 08:19 AM PDT  In Baghdad's vast exhibition grounds, masked workers lugged hospital beds into rows for makeshift coronavirus wards, as doctors and officials sounded the alarm Sunday over a surge in virus cases in the capital. As hospitals overflowed with patients, the Iraqi government announced temporary field hospitals will open throughout Baghdad, where infections are highest, to cope with the exponentially rising number of virus patients. Iraq's health system was already battered by years of conflict as well as poor infrastructure and lack of funds.
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| A 'second wave' of coronavirus cases? Not yet, experts say Posted: 21 Jun 2020 07:55 AM PDT  In The Wall Street Journal last week, Vice President Mike Pence wrote in a piece headlined "There Isn't a Coronavirus 'Second Wave'" that the nation is winning the fight against the virus. About 120,000 Americans have died from the new virus and there are worrisome recent increases in reported cases in the South and West. "When you have 20,000-plus infections per day, how can you talk about a second wave?" said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.
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| I took Prince Charles' advice to work on a farm during the COVID-19 pandemic. Picking strawberries was a surprisingly therapeutic break from lockdown. Posted: 21 Jun 2020 07:14 AM PDT  This year's labor shortage could foreshadow the fate of British farms and food if Brexit makes it harder for foreign workers to come into the country.
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| Black Catholics: Words not enough as church decries racism Posted: 21 Jun 2020 07:04 AM PDT  Black Roman Catholics are hearing their church's leaders calling for racial justice once again after the killing of George Floyd, but this time they're demanding not just words but action. As protests against racism and police brutality continue nationwide, there are rising calls for huge new investment in Catholic schools serving Black communities; a commitment to teach the complex history of Black Catholics; and a mobilization to combat racism with the same zeal the church shows in opposing abortion. Noting that hundreds of Catholic inner-city schools have closed in recent decades, he's among those urging church leaders to make the necessary spending to reverse that.
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| Rise in coronavirus cases brings new concerns in Alabama Posted: 21 Jun 2020 07:04 AM PDT  William Boyd was at the funeral Saturday morning for a relative who had died after contracting the new coronavirus when he got the call with the news. Alabama and much of the Deep South are seeing a spike in coronavirus cases as some have stopped heeding warnings of the virus, alarming public health officials and people who have lost loved ones because of COVID-19. Over the past two weeks, Alabama had the second highest number of new cases per capita in the nation.
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| Zimbabwe anti-corruption body starts audit of the rich Posted: 21 Jun 2020 06:53 AM PDT  The anti-corruption commission threatens to take people's assets if they cannot explain their origin.
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| Access to ballot, seal of democracy's covenant, under attack Posted: 21 Jun 2020 06:51 AM PDT  The ballot is deployed to replace the bullet, to decide peacefully who will lead, to resolve divisive issues and to empower individual citizens. Whether by voice or shards of pottery in ancient Greece, by ball, by corn and beans, lever and gear machines or touch screens, ballots were often cast in public until the United States and many other nations adopted the Australian model and allowed people to vote in private. The ballot seals the covenant of democracy.
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| Berlin court rejects AfD application to eject far-right leader Posted: 21 Jun 2020 06:42 AM PDT  The crisis inside Germany's AfD party is deepening after a Berlin court rejected the party leadership's attempt to eject a far-right figurehead, while new polling confirmed their slumping popularity among voters. The extremist wing of Germany's far-Right opposition party were able to hail a success on Friday when a Berlin court rejected a decision by the party's central committee made in May to annul the membership of Andreas Kalbitz, who was until then party leader in Brandenburg. The court said that the decision on Mr Kalbitz's membership could only be made by the AfD's internal arbitration committee. A moderate faction under party leader Jorg Meuthen claim Mr Kalbitz was once a member of the Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend (Patriotic German Youth), a neo-Nazi organisation on the party's "no go" list. Mr Kalbitz disputes having been a member of the group. Mr Meuthen and deputy leader Beatrix von Storch moved against him in an attempt to rescue the party's claim to be a conservative alternative to Angela Merkel's CDU. That claim was seriously damaged in March when Germany's domestic spy agency described Mr Kalbitz as an "enemy of democracy" and declared they would put him and key ally Björn Höcke under surveillance. The Berlin district court's decision comes as a significant setback to Mr Meuthen, who had insisted in May that there was nothing improper about the central committee's vote to eject Mr Kalbitz.
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| White House's Navarro 'never heard' Trump ask China's Xi for help winning election Posted: 21 Jun 2020 06:37 AM PDT |
| While America Promotes Freedom and Human Rights Abroad, We Must Uphold Those Values at Home Posted: 21 Jun 2020 05:43 AM PDT  China, Iran and others are using Washington's domestic upheaval as a line of attack.
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| Trump's Berman disaster suggests William Barr is not so smart after all Posted: 21 Jun 2020 05:21 AM PDT  The attorney general lied about the US attorney from New York, had to fire him, and landed the president with a big problemMaybe Bill Barr isn't that smart. With less than 150 days to the election, Roy Cohn 2.0 emerged from his scrum with Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the southern district of New York (SDNY), looking the worse for wear. In less than 24 hours, Barr placed Donald Trump in more jeopardy than he was when their brawl with Berman began late on Friday night.Instead of replacing Berman in the near term with a Trump loyalist, the US attorney for New Jersey, and in the long haul with Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Audrey Strauss, a career prosecutor, will lead the "sovereign" district until a Trump nominee clears the Senate.The SDNY, remember, has investigated and prosecuted close allies of the president.For Trump and his attorney general, replacing Berman with Strauss is like jumping from frying pan to fire. If the dynamic duo had a difficult time taming Berman, a Trump contributor and a former partner of Rudy Giuliani, reining in Strauss will prove even tougher.Already, Lindsey Graham is heaping praise on Strauss, calling her "highly competent, highly capable" and lauding her for possessing "the knowledge and experience to hit the ground running". That is not good news for the White House. Graham chairs the Senate judiciary committee.As a younger lawyer, Strauss bested the real Roy Cohn in a mob prosecution. Back in the day, Cohn was Trump's personal lawyer. Like Cohn, Barr attended Horace Mann for high school and Columbia for college.Clayton's shot at the SDNY appears to be evaporating. From the looks of things, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, New York's Democratic senators, will be given the right to spike his nomination. They have already vowed to nix his bid, if Graham is to be believed. Clayton is a savvy corporate lawyer, not a litigator. Being a federal prosecutor calls for hands-on courtroom experience.To be sure, the relationship between the SDNY and the Trump has been fractious. Its prosecutors indicted Michael Cohen, another Trump lawyer, and treated the president as an unindicted co-conspirator. Also, the SDNY went at Giuliani's clients, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas. Proximity to power did not immunize the pair.At the same time, word is that Giuliani's business ventures may be receiving a proctological exam from the SDNY, which he led himself before he was New York mayor. For the president and Barr, targeting Giuliani may have been a bridge too far. But now they have to worry about Strauss. Sometimes the devil you know is safer.Even if Rudy is left untouched, the latest episode will add another coat of mire to Barr's reputation. Being this president's stooge comes with a price. Like Rick Wilson says, everything Trump touches dies.This weekend, Barr was caught in a massive lie. On Friday, he told the world in writing that Berman would be resigning. Berman had promised no such thing. Think of a seven-year old getting busted for raiding the cake batter.Then on Saturday, Barr claimed Trump had fired Berman. Perhaps yes, maybe not. Whatever.On his way to Tulsa, the president punted on whether he ordered Berman's dismissal. The delegator-in-chief told the cameras that was a matter left for Barr. In the end, Berman resigned after Strauss's selection was assured.This was far from Barr's first battle with the truth or the law. Already, he has mischaracterized the Mueller report, interfered with the sentencing of Roger Stone and dropped the prosecution of Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser, despite the general's guilty plea.Practically speaking, Barr preaches law and order for the many but appears to show little concern for the rule of law when it applies to the privileged few. Back at Horace Mann, he reportedly boycotted a school carnival because its proceeds went to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. When peaceful protest stood to impinge on Trump's staged walk to St John's in Washington earlier this month, the attorney general nodded at the use of flash-bangs and pepper spray.The judiciary too appears worried and distrustful of Trump's AG. Earlier this spring, Barr earned the ire of Reggie Walton, a George W Bush appointee to the federal bench. Walton "seriously" questioned the attorney general's integrity and credibility. His opinion deployed words like "distorted" and "misleading" to drive the point across, not language generally associated with the nation's chief law enforcement officer.Barely two months later, John Gleeson, a former federal judge appointed by the court to review the justice department's decision to drop the Flynn case, leveled a similar charge. His brief used the word "corrupt" nine times, and accused Main Justice of "gross abuse of prosecutorial power". By this measure, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, attorneys general during the Obama-years, look awesome.Once before, in 1992, Barr served as attorney general, and emerged as a reliable spear-catcher for a beleaguered George HW Bush. But as Bush's re-election bid was tanking, Barr witnessed the Los Angeles riots, resisted congressional oversight and defined what the law was. It didn't end well.Faced with congressional demands for the appointment of an independent prosecutor to investigate possible administration improprieties in the run-up to the Gulf war, Barr declined. Instead, he offered absolution by bandying about such phrases as "not a crime", "simply not criminal in any way", "nothing illegal" and "far from being a crime". After Bush lost the election, Barr successfully pressed for a series of pardons for Reagan administration officials stemming from the Iran-Contra scandal.Right now, the president is trailing Joe Biden. His Tulsa rally looks like a bust. There were empty seats galore, and members of Trump's advance team tested positive for Covid-19. Barr may again be pushed out the door by his countrymen – but not before he and his boss wreak further havoc.
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| Russia's Putin says he may seek another term if constitutional changes passed Posted: 21 Jun 2020 05:01 AM PDT |
| Injuries at protests draw scrutiny to use of police weaponry Posted: 21 Jun 2020 04:50 AM PDT  In law enforcement, they're referred to as "nonlethal" tools for dealing with demonstrations that turn unruly: rubber bullets, pepper spray, batons, flash-bangs. "When you see riot gear, it absolutely changes the mood," said Ron Moten, a longtime community organizer in the nation's capital who was out demonstrating this weekend.
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| UN says Afghan health workers facing deliberate attacks Posted: 21 Jun 2020 04:17 AM PDT  The United Nations on Sunday released a special report expressing concerns over what it called recent "deliberate attacks" against health care workers and facilities in Afghanistan during the coronavirus pandemic. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, said it had documented 12 deliberate acts of violence between March 11 to May 23, and that these attacks constitute war crimes. The report said eight of the attacks were carried out by Taliban insurgents, while three were attributed to Afghan security forces.
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| Yemen southern separatists take control of Socotra island Posted: 21 Jun 2020 04:13 AM PDT  Yemen's southern separatists have seized control of the strategic island of Socotra, further undermining the government, which is battling to defeat the Huthi rebels firmly entrenched in the north. The island, located off the Horn of Africa about 350 kilometres (220 miles) from Yemen, lies close to important shipping routes, and with its unique flora and fauna, is sometimes referred to as "the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean". It has largely been spared the violence that has ravaged mainland Yemen, where the government and a Saudi-led military coalition have been battling the Iran-backed Huthi rebels for more than five years.
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| Everything you need to know about John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser Posted: 21 Jun 2020 04:08 AM PDT  John Bolton, President Donald Trump's third and longest-serving national security adviser, is speaking out against his former boss in a bombshell new book about his 17 months at the White House and an exclusive interview with ABC News. A veteran of the past three Republican administrations, Bolton is a well-known and active voice in Republican foreign policy circles who has advocated for hard-line, militaristic positions on North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and other countries. At times during his tenure in the Trump White House, that appeared to put him at odds with Trump the deal-maker.
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| Zeev Sternhell, dovish Israeli expert on fascism, dies at 85 Posted: 21 Jun 2020 03:52 AM PDT |
| Yemen separatists seize remote island from Saudi-backed government Posted: 21 Jun 2020 03:45 AM PDT |
| Coronavirus dampens Stonehenge solstice celebrations Posted: 21 Jun 2020 02:08 AM PDT  The coronavirus pandemic has prevented druids, pagans and party-goers from watching the sun rise at Stonehenge to mark the summer solstice this year. The ancient stone circle in southwestern England usually draws thousands of people to mark the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. English Heritage, the body that oversees Stonehenge, livestreamed the sunrise instead.
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| Obama Administration Braced for Riots on Election Day Posted: 21 Jun 2020 01:56 AM PDT  On election day 2016, senior Obama administration officials were prepared for chaos. Federal law enforcement agencies planned for the possibility of riots in the wake of a contested election outcome and a special White House crisis team braced for the possibility that Russian hackers were on the verge of altering voter data in a handful of key precincts."The working hypothesis was that Clinton was going to win, and that [Trump] was then going to go and incite people to violence by claiming that the system was rigged," according to Amy Pope, the former deputy homeland security adviser. Celeste Wallander, the top Russia expert on the National Security Council at the time, wondered what would happen to a tranche of as-yet unreleased compromising material that Russian hackers had stolen—from both Republicans and "people who might serve in a Clinton administration." Would Moscow use it in a post-election influence operation against Team Hillary?Those revelations and others are included in a new book obtained by The Daily Beast and set to be published this week. The book, Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference, is authored by David Shimer, a doctoral candidate at Oxford and a fellow at Yale, and details the century-long history of covert operations to interfere in elections. It's based on interviews with more than 130 key players, including eight former CIA directors, 26 former advisers to Barack Obama, 11 former advisers to Donald Trump, and a former KGB general.Russian DNC Hackers Launch Fresh Wave of Cyberattacks on U.S.The book breaks news about the history of covert election interference—including the CIA's efforts to oust the government of Slobodan Milošević in 2000— and delves deep into the Obama administration's handling of the 2016 presidential election interference and the Trump White House's lack of focus on preventing Russian interference in the current election. The picture that emerges from it is of an Obama administration divided on both the nature of the threat from Russian interference and how to respond to it. The most senior Obama advisers fixated on the possibility that Russian hackers would alter the vote tallies or registration databases on election day and feared any retaliation before then would trigger an escalation. But another group of officials—those with more experience dealing with Moscow—saw a catastrophe already taking place across leaked dumps of Democratic emails, and viewed a firmer response as crucial to preventing further escalation. Now nearly four years after the still-debated 2016 election, a number of former Clinton campaign and Obama officials say in the book that the administration's narrow focus on the cyber-threat to election systems at the expense of a broader effort to counter Russia's influence campaign was misguided."That's where all their energy went and that's where their warnings went to the Russians," former Clinton campaign chairman and Obama adviser John Podesta told Shimer. "They went to the direct interference rather than this indirect interference. I think that was a mistake."In their defense, Obama administration officials interviewed for the book like Susan Rice, Anthony Blinken, and John Brennan, pointed to a steady stream of daily reporting indicating that Russian hackers were probing and penetrating election systems across the country. In August, according to Shimer's reporting, the intelligence community issued warnings that Russian hackers were capable of breaking into some election systems and altering the votes. The possibility of Russian escalation against election systems dominated the administration's thinking and ultimate decision to postpone retaliation. "If we did that, it could have had very unknown consequences, in terms of whether or not Russia would have doubled or tripled down during the campaign," Brennan told Shimer. The U.S. was vulnerable, according to Brennan, because Russian hackers "could have done things as far as voter registration rolls; they could have done things as far as tallies."But those more skeptical of Russian intentions, like Victoria Nuland and Celeste Wallander, felt those arguments let Moscow off the hook for the damage it was already doing by the summer of 2016 and only invited further mischief. Nuland told Shimer she had sounded the alarm bells about Russian intentions for the upcoming election as early as spring of 2016 and called for the administration to use "light deniable countermeasures" against Moscow in July. As the debate raged on how and whether to impose costs on Moscow throughout the summer, Obama's National Security Council drew up a menu of options that the U.S. could use to push back against Russia's nascent interference and deter further operations. The options, Wallander told Shimer, included "sanctions, information revelations, quiet private messages, louder public messages, disruption operations," among other measures.The option of retaliating in kind and deploying an American disinformation campaign against Russia, however, was "rejected almost immediately," according to Blinken. Rice claimed that retaliation against Russia was a foregone conclusion from the beginning and the only question was whether any pushback would be more productive before or after the election. And the Obama administration had drawn up a list of harsh countermeasures to use against Moscow in the event Russia tampered with the vote, according to the book.But some officials don't believe that the administration gave enough consideration to countermeasures while the Russian influence operation was playing out. Senior Obama officials—convinced that a Clinton victory was inevitable and focused on election network security—decided to shelve the committee's options and wait until after the election. Wallander and White House cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel ignored the brushoff and instead wrote their own, more highly classified memo in August 2016 outlining ways to punish Russia through revelations about Putin's ill-gotten wealth, vacations, and associates. In the book, Shimer argues that the Obama administration's narrow focus on protecting election systems at the expense of ignoring a raging influence campaign represented a profound misunderstanding of how election interference has historically been practiced. The history of covert electoral meddling, the book argues, includes efforts to both change vote tallies and influence the opinions of voters.That's how the U.S. and Soviet Union had historically carried out electoral interference throughout much of the Cold War. But the book also reveals that the CIA carried out one last operation to meddle in a foreign election before it turned its back on the practice.Former President Bill Clinton told Shimer that he authorized a covert campaign in 2000 to oust Yugoslav President Slobodan Miloševic during the country's elections that year."I didn't have a problem with it," because Miloševic—who later died while on trial in the Hague for genocide—was "a stone-cold killer and had caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people," Clinton said. The former president defended the effort by characterizing it as a more restrained influence operation. The CIA, Clinton argued, "did not rig the vote nor knowingly lie to the voters to get them to support the people we hoped to win." He blessed the effort because, he said: "There's a death threshold, and Milošević crossed it."The operation, briefed to and approved by congressional leaders of both parties, involved "millions of dollars" handed out to Serbian opposition figures at meetings outside the country, according to former CIA officer John Sipher, whom Shimer interviewed for the book. Three former Obama administration CIA directors quoted by Shimer ultimately cited Obama's unwillingness to escalate against foreign adversaries to the administration's pulled punches in the summer and fall of 2016. Former CIA directors Leon Panetta and David Petraeus, as well as deputy director Mike Morrell, pointed to Obama's unwillingness to forcefully respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons as contributors to the Kremlin's belief it could interfere in the election without facing significant costs."That was a message of weakness, and I think Putin read it as weakness, and read it as an opportunity to be able to not only do Crimea, but to go into Syria without having anyone stop him from doing that, and thirdly then going after our election institutions as well," Panetta is quoted as saying in the book. "I think he felt that he would be able to do it and to get away with it."Dennis Blair, Obama's first director of national intelligence, was equally critical of his former boss's handling of the Russian operation. "We needed to impose penalties and I think we needed to give a lot more information to people as to what's going on, and it was derelict not to."The Russians Are Coming Again, and They're WinningAs for the 2020 elections, former Trump administration National Security Council officials told Shimer that the president still remains hostile to acknowledging that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. One anonymous senior adviser is quoted saying Trump interprets the subject of Russian interference in 2016 as an attack on his legitimacy that causes him to go "off the reservation."The book also reveals that planning for the possibility that hackers could attack election systems in November doesn't appear to be a high priority for the Trump administration Elaine Duke, Trump's former acting homeland security secretary, told Shimer that it's a subject that "is definitely not consuming a lot of time operationally" in the White House. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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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| UK police: Park stabbing that killed 3 was a terror attack Posted: 21 Jun 2020 01:51 AM PDT  A stabbing rampage that killed three people as they sat in a British park on a summer evening is being considered a terrorist attack, police said Sunday as a 25-year-old man who was believed to be the lone attacker was in custody. Authorities said they were not looking for any other suspects and they did not raise Britain's official terrorism threat level from "substantial." Three people were killed and three others seriously wounded in the stabbing attack that came out of the blue Saturday in Forbury Gardens park in Reading, a town of 200,000 people 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of London.
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| 1 man dead, 11 people wounded in Minneapolis shooting Posted: 21 Jun 2020 12:33 AM PDT  A shooting in a popular Minneapolis nightlife area early Sunday left one man dead and 11 people wounded in a chaotic scene that sent people ducking into restaurants and other businesses for cover. The shooting broke out shortly after midnight in the city's trendy Uptown neighborhood, a nightlife hub with bars, restaurants and retail including Apple and Fjallraven stores. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said during a Sunday press conference that it was "tragic and senseless violence" and called the recent uptick in violent crime a public health crisis.
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| The Latest: NY Museum to remove Theodore Roosevelt statue Posted: 21 Jun 2020 12:10 AM PDT  — No arrests in shooting in Seattle protest zone that killed 1. — A statue of a Spanish missionary in downtown Los Angeles has been toppled by demonstrators. — Three men in California arrested in investigation of Black Lives Matter sign.
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| Ruling populist party claims landslide win in Serbia vote Posted: 20 Jun 2020 10:16 PM PDT  Serbia's president declared a landslide victory Sunday for his right-wing party in a parliamentary vote held amid concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus and a boycott of much of the opposition. Aleksandar Vucic told jubilant supporters that his Serbian Progressive Party won over 60% of the vote, or some 190 seats in the 250-seat Serbian parliament. The initial unofficial results indicate that Serbia will have a unique assembly, with virtually no opposition and only three or four parties out of the 21 which were running.
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| Under Trump, 'You're fired!' even greets federal prosecutors Posted: 20 Jun 2020 09:17 PM PDT  Former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara had a snickering response to news that his successor as top federal prosecutor was "stepping down" from the job. "Doesn't sound like 'stepping down,'" Bharara tweeted soon after the announcement was made Friday night that Geoffrey S. Berman was out. The Southern District of New York, an office older than the Justice Department itself, has long prided itself on the talent of its prosecutors, the import of its cases and an independence from Washington that has earned it the moniker of "Sovereign District."
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| Police say 9 shot, wounded at party in Syracuse, New York Posted: 20 Jun 2020 09:07 PM PDT  Nine people were shot at a large party in Syracuse, authorities said, and one victim, a 17-year-old boy, was in critical condition Sunday. No one was immediately taken into custody, and Syracuse Police Chief Kenton Buckner emphasized that the investigation was in its early stages in an appearance at a press conference alongside Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh. Syracuse officers had arrived at the scene just before 9 p.m. for reports of a stolen car, but responding officers were met with by people who said shots had been fired into the crowd of a "few hundred," Buckner said.
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| Trump suggests US slow virus testing to avoid bad statistics Posted: 20 Jun 2020 07:35 PM PDT  President Donald Trump said Saturday he's asked his administration to slow down coronavirus testing because robust testing turns up too many cases of COVID-19. Trump told supporters at his campaign rally that the U.S. has tested 25 million people, far more than any other country. The "bad part," Trump said, is that widespread testing leads to logging more cases of the virus.
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| N.Korea vows to send anti-South leaflets amid tensions Posted: 20 Jun 2020 05:49 PM PDT |
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