| UN official: Catastrophe looming from oil tanker off Yemen Posted: 15 Jul 2020 04:51 PM PDT  The U.N. environment chief said Wednesday that "time is running out" to avert an environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe from a deteriorating oil tanker loaded with 1.1 million barrels of crude oil that is moored off the coast of Yemen. Inger Andersen told the U.N. Security Council that an oil spill from the FSO Safer, which hasn't been maintained for over five years, would wreck ecosystems and livelihoods for decades. Houthi rebels, who control the area where the ship is moored, have denied U.N. inspectors access to the vessel so they could assess the damage and look for ways to secure the tanker by unloading the oil and pulling the ship to safety.
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| Yemen’s rebels: Saudi-coalition airstrike kills 10 civilians Posted: 15 Jul 2020 02:54 PM PDT |
| Over 140 detained after anti-Putin protest in Moscow Posted: 15 Jul 2020 02:54 PM PDT  Russian police detained over 140 people including a high-profile Moscow deputy after Kremlin critics protested Wednesday against changes to the constitution, the OVD-Info monitor said. Yulia Galyamina, a prominent Moscow city councillor who has spearheaded a campaign against President Vladimir Putin's controversial changes to the constitution, was among those detained together with her daughter, she said on Facebook. The constitutional changes could see President Vladimir Putin stay in power for another 16 years.
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| Iran admits its troops shot down a passenger jet and killed 176 people due to a string of colossal failures Posted: 15 Jul 2020 02:24 PM PDT  A big mistake by elite Iranian troops set in motion a series of errors. "Such a failure initiated a hazard chain," Iran admitted in a new report.
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| Ivanka Trump defends Goya post that watchdogs call unethical Posted: 15 Jul 2020 02:20 PM PDT  Ivanka Trump on Wednesday defended tweeting a photo of herself holding up a can of Goya beans to buck up a Hispanic-owned business that she says has been unfairly treated, arguing that she has "every right" to publicly express her support. Government watchdogs countered that President Donald Trump's daughter and senior adviser doesn't have the right to violate ethics rules that bar government officials from using their public office to endorse specific products or groups. The White House would be responsible for disciplining Ivanka Trump for any ethics violation but chose not to in a similar case involving White House counselor Kellyanne Conway in 2017.
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| Climate change makes freak Siberian heat 600 times likelier Posted: 15 Jul 2020 02:14 PM PDT  Nearly impossible without man-made global warming, this year's freak Siberian heat wave is producing climate change's most flagrant footprint of extreme weather, a new flash study says. International scientists released a study Wednesday that found the greenhouse effect multiplied the chance of the region's prolonged heat by at least 600 times, and maybe tens of thousands of times. In the study, which has not yet gone through peer review, the team looked at Siberia from January to June, including a day that hit 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) for a new Arctic record.
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| Coronavirus data is funneled away from CDC, sparking worries Posted: 15 Jul 2020 02:04 PM PDT  Hospital data related to the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. will now be collected by a private technology firm, rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a move the Trump administration says will speed up reporting but one that concerns some public health leaders. The CDC director said Wednesday that he's fine with the change — even though some experts fear it will further sideline the agency. The CDC has agreed to step out of the government's traditional data collection process "in order to streamline reporting," Dr. Robert Redfield said during a call with reporters set up by the agency's parent, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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| US sanctions companies linked to businessman close to Putin Posted: 15 Jul 2020 01:21 PM PDT |
| Mail could be delayed as new postal boss pushes cost-cutting Posted: 15 Jul 2020 01:11 PM PDT  Mail deliveries could be delayed by a day or more under cost-cutting efforts being imposed by the new postmaster general. The plan eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and says employees must adopt a "different mindset" to ensure the Postal Service's survival during the coronavirus pandemic. The changes come a month after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump, took over the sprawling mail service.
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| Editorial Roundup: US Posted: 15 Jul 2020 12:55 PM PDT |
| As Israel's economy sags, Netanyahu offers aid to families Posted: 15 Jul 2020 12:35 PM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday announced a plan to distribute hundreds of dollars in grants to every Israeli in order to stimulate the country's sagging economy, days after thousands of people took to the streets to protest his handling of the coronavirus crisis. In a nationally televised news conference, Netanyahu lashed out at violent tactics used by some protesters and said his decision was not connected with the unrest. Instead, he said he was aiming to jump-start the economy when the country is in the midst of a global crisis.
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| 7 traditional wooden ships burn in factory in southern Iran Posted: 15 Jul 2020 12:25 PM PDT |
| Signs that Guatemala's justice system is under attack Posted: 15 Jul 2020 12:21 PM PDT  In Guatemala, death threats have driven two anti-corruption prosecutors from the country in the past year, and their unit's leader has a protective order from a regional human rights commission because he is constantly harassed and threatened. With the departure of the United Nations-backed anti-corruption commission last year that supported a war against some of the country's most powerful political, business and criminal leaders, Guatemala's pursuers have become the pursued. The assault has only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, as corrupt interests take advantage of a population distracted by the health crisis to extend their tentacles back into the justice system.
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| NYPD chief, protesters roughed up in Brooklyn Bridge clash Posted: 15 Jul 2020 11:59 AM PDT  Several New York City police officers were attacked and injured Wednesday as pro-police and anti-police protesters clashed on the Brooklyn Bridge, police said. The confrontation happened hours before Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law a series of police accountability measures inspired by the killings of George Floyd, Eric Garner and other Black people. At least four officers were hurt, including Chief of Department Terence Monahan, and 37 people were arrested, police said.
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| Three Marines, Now a Focus of Russian Bounties Investigation, Show the Costs of an Endless War Posted: 15 Jul 2020 11:54 AM PDT  The U.S. military convoy was almost back to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan when a vehicle, laden with explosives, careened into it and detonated.The powerful blast blew up a heavily armored troop carrier, engulfing it in flames. Marines poured out of the other vehicles in the convoy as they battled desperately to save the occupants of the burning carrier, including a Marine reservist -- a New York City firefighter -- who had once rescued a woman from a burning high-rise apartment.But all of the American ingenuity that had gone into armoring military vehicles was not enough to stave off the horrendous damage caused by the blast. The firefighter, Staff Sgt. Christopher K.A. Slutman, 43, did not beat the fire this time. Two other Marines, also reservists, were killed as well, casualties of a two-decade war that has relentlessly continued to exact its toll on U.S. troops.Now those three Marines are at the center of the latest iteration of the continuing saga of President Donald Trump and Russia.U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating whether that car bomb was detonated at the behest of a Russian military agency paying bounties to Afghan militia groups for killing U.S. troops. Such a possibility, if true, would be a staggering repudiation of Trump's yearslong embrace of President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Thus far, there is no conclusive evidence linking the deaths to any kind of Russian bounty.Perhaps even more significant is that it has taken the debate over possible Russian bounties to bring what happened to Slutman and the two other Marines -- Sgt. Robert A. Hendriks, 25, and Staff Sgt. Benjamin S. Hines, 31 -- to the forefront of American consciousness.Eighteen years of war have left most Americans largely oblivious to the troops still deploying to Afghanistan. They are still suiting up in camouflage, still saying goodbye to loved ones and still boarding flights from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Newark, New Jersey, to Frankfurt, Germany, to Kuwait to Kabul before the final few miles to Bagram.The mission of the U.S. endeavor in Afghanistan has changed from a war on terrorism to one meant to "train, advise and assist" Afghan troops. But U.S. forces are still going on patrols in remote areas of the country. The mountain ridges, village roads and poppy fields are as deadly as they were in 2001.Americans are still fighting, and they are still dying. In 2019, the three Marines were among 22 Americans lost in a long-forgotten war.Interviews with family, friends, service members and military officials paint an all-too-familiar story of the three: young men who, after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, sought to serve their country.They were everyone's neighbors, and they came from hometowns in the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. Hines was a "Star Wars" buff. Slutman doted on his three daughters. Hendriks played lacrosse, was a unionized construction worker and led the way for his brother to join the Marines as well.They died two weeks before their unit was scheduled to go home -- and while American and Taliban negotiators wrestled over details of a proposed peace deal.For those who loved them, the deaths of the three were excruciating. Recalling the details again, a little more than a year later, is like experiencing it twice, friends and family members said.The cascade of news articles that followed the disclosure of intelligence reports regarding the Russian bounties has been like "pouring salt on the wound," said Jason Rina, a friend of Slutman's, who spent five years working with him at the Cross Bronx Expressway, the name of their New York firehouse.Erik Hendriks, Hendriks' father, had largely avoided the news in the past year, but he said the Russian bounty story scraped his pain raw. "If it does come out as true," he said, "obviously the heartache would be terrible."Their Deployment BeginsThe three Marines arrived in Afghanistan in October 2018 to find a home base that existed under frequent rocket attack. Bagram Airfield, about 25 miles north of Kabul, the capital, is a huge complex that has served as a command center for the U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan for almost as long as there has been a U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan.Before that, the base was fought over by the Northern Alliance and the Taliban during Afghanistan's brutal civil war. Before that, it was home to the Soviet Union's 40th Army, the same base where the Kremlin first positioned elite troops in the summer of 1979 as they prepared for their own long war that ended in humiliation and defeat.One of the first things that NATO troops did after the 2001 invasion was to secure Bagram. By the time the Marines arrived, the base was home to thousands of rotating NATO troops, civilian contractors and airmen.There were office buildings, barracks and enormous dining facilities. There was a Pizza Hut, a coffee cafe and a military shopping facility with hair products and a chance to win a Harley-Davidson motorcycle propped up in the entryway.But the commercial normalcy belies the fact that Bagram remains in a war zone. Flak jackets are mandatory in some areas, and the sounds of rockets and shelling from Taliban and other insurgents are the background music of the airfield, almost as common as the planes taking off and landing. Multiple suicide bombers have killed dozens of people both outside and inside the base over the years. The near constancy of the attacks at Bagram make them seem almost routine, according to soldiers and Marines who deploy there.The three Marine reservists were to go on patrols alongside troops from the former Soviet republic of Georgia. By all accounts, it was a quiet six-month deployment.Hendriks, a tall, mustachioed turret gunner, was frequently spotted on base lifting weights in his fatigues and olive T-shirt with the words "All It Takes Is All You Got" on the back. He needed to keep in shape. Getting in and out of the armored vehicles involved a lot of contortions because of his height.He grew up in Locust Valley, New York, and was beguiled from an early age by the idea of military service. A beloved uncle and grandfather were veterans, and when one of his best friends joined the Marines, he decided to follow, his father said."He came to me in high school in his senior year and asked me to go sign for him," Erik Hendriks said. "I said 'Robbie think about it. You don't know if you want to have a girlfriend, you don't know about your future.'"But his son, stern and straightforward, liked the steady and reliable nature of the military and thought it was a good fit for his orderly personality. "He was a perfectionist," his father recalled. "He knew details. If you gave him a pencil and said 'Here, put this somewhere,' he could find it two years later. If you told Robbie, 'Do this for the next 10 hours, he would do it."After graduating in 2012 from Locust Valley High School, Hendriks joined the Marine Corps Reserves, assigned to the Site Support 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, in Garden City, New York. He was only 17. The next year, his younger brother, Joseph Hendriks, followed suit.Hines, a former football player who was engaged to be married, had always been enthusiastic about physical training, said Lt. Col. Joe Innerst, a retired Marine who started an ROTC program in the Dallastown Area School District in Pennsylvania when Hines was a high school senior.He loved to rewatch "Star Wars" movies, his friends said, and considered the series the ideal representation of good versus evil. He also was notoriously late, operating on what his family and friends jokingly referred to as "Ben Time." He was close friends with the third Marine, Slutman, despite their 12-year age difference. He joined other Marines who jokingly called Slutman "Old Man," friends said.Slutman, who had been a Marine for 14 years by the time he was deployed at Bagram, arrived at the airfield already well-tested and respected after years of fighting fires across New York City. He had received medals for bravery in 2014 after rescuing an unconscious woman from a burning building in the South Bronx. He was constantly challenging other Marines who called him old to try to keep up with him, his friends said. But above all, they said, he adored his three daughters.Attack on Their ConvoyThat October, a car bomb exploded near a Czech convoy outside Bagram, wounding five Czech troops. But Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went uneventfully for the Marines. In February, the new acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, showed up in an all-black outfit, prompting the U.S. media to call him "Dr. Evil."A month later, Hendriks celebrated his 25th birthday.The three Marines and the rest of their unit were going out almost daily. Sleep, eat, patrol. The routine has been repeated many thousands of times by 775,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan for more than 18 years. Sometimes the Marines were on foot, and sometimes they were in convoys as they patrolled the Bagram perimeter.The Marines knew that every time they left the airfield, their chances of getting hit by an improvised roadside explosive or a car bomb went up exponentially. The road between Kabul and Bagram was especially dangerous, which is why visiting American dignitaries took helicopters between the locations.On April 8 -- less than two weeks before the Marines were due to return to the U.S. -- the three set out on another patrol. Slutman, Hendriks and Hines were in the same vehicle.Just before 4 p.m., as the convoy was approaching an intersection near Bagram, a vehicle slammed into the three Marines' personnel carrier and detonated. The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility.That night, 7,000 miles away in York, Pennsylvania, two Marines in dress uniform arrived on the doorstep of Fletcher Slutman, Slutman's father. "Would you like to invite your wife in?" one asked him, after they had settled around the kitchen table. Fletcher Slutman shook his head no.But the Marine nodded his head yes.Three nights later, on Thursday, April 11, a military plane landed at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware with the remains of the three Marines.Hendriks' brother, Joseph, who had followed his sibling into the Marines and later followed him on a deployment to Afghanistan, accompanied the remains of his brother, who was promoted posthumously to sergeant, back to Dover.Thirteen days after that, on April 24, friends and family of Hines gathered for a memorial service. They talked "Star Wars." Then they played an excerpt from "The Imperial March," the horn-heavy theme made famous as an anthem to Darth Vader.It was beloved by Hines, his friends said.The investigation into the deaths of the three Marines continues. Although Trump has dismissed the suspected Russian payments as "fake news," Congress has begun hearings into the matter. Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that while the government so far lacks proof that any Russian bounties caused specific military casualties, "we are still looking.""We're not done," Milley told a House committee last week. "We're going to run this thing to ground."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Trump tweets in Farsi to condemn 'deplorable' executions of three Iranian protestors Posted: 15 Jul 2020 11:16 AM PDT  Donald Trump has tweeted in Farsi to condemn Iran's planned execution of three men arrested during protests against the Islamic regime.In the tweet appealing to stop the executions, Mr Trump said the death sentences sent a deplorable message to the world, ending the tweet with the trending hashtag DontExecute.
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| Johnson accuses SNP of attempt to erect UK trade barriers as he rejects 'power grab' claims Posted: 15 Jul 2020 11:16 AM PDT  Boris Johnson has accused the SNP of attempting to erect trade barriers between England and Scotland as he firmly rejected claims that his government had launched the "biggest power grab" of the devolution era. The UK Government will on Thursday unveil plans it says will ensure seamless trade within the UK after the Brexit transition period ends next year. Under the proposals, which will be put out to consultation, products meeting standards set by legislators in one part of the UK would have to be accepted in the other UK nations. The measure is designed to provide simplicity for businesses and to make it easier for Britain to strike trade deals with other nations. UK ministers fear trade agreements will be harder to negotiate if foreign companies have to meet different regulations or standards in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. The Prime Minister said that under the changes, which relate to policy areas that are nominally devolved but had previously been decided by the EU, devolved administrations would receive a swathe of new powers. Stormont will receive 157 new powers, Holyrood 111 and the Welsh Parliament 70, the UK Government claimed. However, proposals to write the principle of "mutual recognition" - meaning regulations from one part of the UK will be recognised across the country - into law will be strongly resisted by the SNP.
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| Trump warns Iran against execution of three over protests Posted: 15 Jul 2020 11:12 AM PDT  US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Wednesday against executing three people allegedly involved in protests in November 2019. "Three individuals were sentenced to death in Iran for participating in protests," he tweeted. Iran's judiciary said Tuesday that a court had upheld the death sentences for criminal actions during protests last November sparked by a hike in petrol prices.
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| Lawyers: Trump might claim harassment in tax return quest Posted: 15 Jul 2020 10:19 AM PDT  A week after losing a Supreme Court ruling, President Donald Trump's lawyers said Wednesday they're considering challenging a subpoena for his tax records by criminal prosecutors on grounds that it's a fishing expedition or a form of harassment or retaliation against him. The plans were outlined in a letter to a Manhattan federal judge overseeing legal squabbles related to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s request to Trump's longtime accountant for eight years of the president's personal and corporate tax records in a criminal probe. The judge, Victor Marrero, scheduled a hearing for Thursday.
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| UN asks Venezuela to dismantle crime gangs running gold mines in the Amazon Posted: 15 Jul 2020 10:08 AM PDT  The United Nations has asked the Nicolas Maduro regime to dismantle criminal gangs running gold mines in Venezuela's Amazon region.A report, published by the Human Rights Council, found that gold, diamond and bauxite mines in the area known as the Orinoco Mining Arc are mostly under the control of organised criminal or armed groups that impose their own rules through violence, exploitation and extortion, beating and even killing workers.
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| Coronavirus to ravage economy of Latin America, output to contract 9.1% -UN agency Posted: 15 Jul 2020 09:44 AM PDT  The coronavirus pandemic will swell the ranks of the poor and unemployed in Latin America and the Caribbean and drag the region´s economic output down by 9.1%, a United Nations agency said in a report issued on Wednesday. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) estimated an additional 18 million people will find themselves out of work versus 2019 levels as lockdown measures continue to hammer already frail economies. "Latin America and the Caribbean is today at the epicenter of the pandemic," ECLAC said in its report.
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| River Nile dam: Reservoir filling up, Ethiopia confirms Posted: 15 Jul 2020 09:43 AM PDT  Officials confirm satellite images showing water levels rising, amid failed talks with Egypt and Sudan.
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| Lebanon must stay neutral to stave off poverty, patriarch says Posted: 15 Jul 2020 09:32 AM PDT |
| Cost of ensuring school safety complicates reopening plans Posted: 15 Jul 2020 09:18 AM PDT  As school districts across the country decide how and when they can bring students back to campus safely, a major sticking point is emerging: the money to make it happen. Keeping public schools for 50 million students and more than 7 million staff safe from the coronavirus could require more teachers and substitutes, nurses and custodians. School districts will need to find more buses to allow for more space between children and buy more computers for distance learning.
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| Polish president fooled by Russian phone pranksters claiming to be UN secretary general Posted: 15 Jul 2020 08:46 AM PDT  A Russian prankster posing as the U.N. secretary-general managed to reach Poland's president on the telephone and rendered him speechless with questions about Ukraine, Russia and his reelection on Sunday. The prankster, Vladimir Kuznetsov, known as Vovan, posted a recording of the 11-minute call on YouTube. President Andrzej Duda's office confirmed Wednesday that it was authentic. At various points in the conversation, conducted in English, Duda sounds surprised at the line of questioning but still refers to the impostor as "Your Excellency." Mr Kusnetzov and his partner have previously embarrassed a host of world leaders and celebrities, including Prince Harry, Boris Johnson, Elton John and French President Emmanuel Macron. Mr Duda tweeted on Wednesday that he realized "something was not right" during the conversation, which took place Monday afternoon while the president awaited official word of his election victory. Mr Duda said he was suspicious because the real United Nations chief, Antonio Guterres does not pronounce the name of Polish vodka brand Zubrowka as well as the caller did. But he conceded that the "voice was very similar." The president ended his tweet with an emoticon of tears of laughter.
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| Oklahoma's governor says he has tested positive for COVID-19 Posted: 15 Jul 2020 08:45 AM PDT  Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Wednesday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus and that he is isolating at home, making him the first U.S. governor to report testing positive. Stitt, 48, said he mostly feels fine, although he started feeling "a little achy" Tuesday and sought a test. Stitt has backed one of the country's most aggressive reopening plans, resisted any statewide mandate on masks and rarely wears one himself.
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| Kenyan 12-year old girl married to two men within a month Posted: 15 Jul 2020 08:39 AM PDT  Authorities in Kenya's Narok county rescued the child and are searching for her father and the two men.
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| Court: Absentee ballots that come after election won't count Posted: 15 Jul 2020 08:37 AM PDT  The Michigan appeals court denied a request to require the counting of absentee ballots received after the time polls close on Election Day, ruling that the battleground state's deadline remains intact despite voters' approval of a constitutional amendment that expanded mail-in voting. The League of Women Voters of Michigan and three voters sued in May, seeking a declaration that absentee ballots be counted as long as they are mailed on or before Election Day and are received within six days of the election. The plaintiffs, who will appeal to the state Supreme Court, pointed to voters' new constitutional rights to cast an absentee ballot without giving a reason 40 days before an election and to do it in person or by mail.
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| Gulf remains locked in Qatar feud, despite Saudi setbacks Posted: 15 Jul 2020 08:29 AM PDT  A UN court's ruling in favour of Qatar over an airspace dispute marks another setback for Saudi-led blockading nations, but despite rising international pressure to end the three-year feud, the group appears unlikely to relent. US-led mediation efforts have come to nothing amid reported opposition from the United Arab Emirates, frustrating Washington, which has tried to unite its allies and focus on its main strategic goal -- reining in arch-foe Iran. On Tuesday, the International Court of Justice, the UN's highest judicial body, backed Qatar in a bitter row over an air blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt at the start of a regional crisis in 2017.
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| Trump only wants North Korea summit if real progress possible -Pompeo Posted: 15 Jul 2020 08:22 AM PDT |
| Cecil Rhodes statue in Cape Town has head removed Posted: 15 Jul 2020 07:19 AM PDT  The statue had been targeted before amid anger in South Africa at monuments to colonialism.
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| UN frees up 'expense' money for several declared terrorists Posted: 15 Jul 2020 07:14 AM PDT |
| US military: Russian mercenaries planted land mines in Libya Posted: 15 Jul 2020 05:57 AM PDT |
| ‘Don’t execute’: Iranians demand end to death penalty in unprecedented online protest Posted: 15 Jul 2020 05:42 AM PDT  Iranians have flooded social media to demand authorities halt executions in an unprecedented online outcry against capital punishment following recent death sentences. After a judicial spokesman on Tuesday confirmed three young men were on death row after being convicted of violent offences related to protesting, Iranians rallied around the Farsi-language hashtag "don't execute" to demand clemency. Among the thousands to support the hashtag were scores of anonymous users but also celebrities and prominent figures, including outspoken former member of parliament Parvaneh Salahshouri. "Let's not forget that those three men have mothers as well," she tweeted on Wednesday, in response to a new MP who had posted about having a baby. The three condemned men Amirhossein Moradi, 25, Saeed Tamjidi, 27, and Mohammad Rajabi, 27, were part of nationwide protests last November against a rise in petrol prices. Amnesty International criticised their sentencing as unfair, saying they had been tortured. Mehdi Hajati, a city councillor in Shiraz, used Twitter to ask authorities who they claimed to represent, "when all Iranians say with one voice: do not execute." On Instagram, director Asghar Farhadi shared a photo of the condemned men, with the English tag StopExecutionsInIran. The Farsi hashtag was used over two million times on Twitter and more than nine million times on Instagram, according to Shayan Sardarizadeh, a Farsi-speaking journalist for BBC Monitoring, who said many of the engagements were made inside Iran. "These are huge numbers for a one-day online campaign," he wrote on Twitter. NetBlocks, which tracks internet connectivity, reported significant disruption to service in Iran on Tuesday night, which some interpreted as a sign authorities were seeking to block access. Authorities carried out three executions on Tuesday, including a former defence ministry worker accused of being a CIA spy and two Kurdish prisoners convicted of bombing a military parade. Iran puts more people to death than any country bar China and last week killed a man for drinking alcohol. Some Iranians interpreted recent executions as a message against dissent at a time when authorities fear another outbreak of protests. "The judiciary has been handing out outrageous sentences," said an Iranian journalist in Tehran, noting that authorities have "a history of using the death penalty to scare people off". "Anger and frustration has been piling up over the past few months," the journalist told The Telegraph, speaking anonymously from fear of reprisals. "People are facing insurmountable uncertainty and authorities have failed to assuage public worries." Ordinary Iranians are struggling amid the Middle East's worst COVID-19 outbreak and biting US sanctions. The rial lost about 13 percent of its value against the dollar in June, the biggest fall since losing nearly half its value after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018. "The Islamic Republic is currently facing its highest ever level of discontent and there are strong indications that Iran will experience post-pandemic unrest in the near future - something regime insiders even concede," said Iran analyst Kasra Aarabi. Despite being officially banned, there are an estimated two million Twitter users in Iran, who use VPNs to mask their location to access the platform. The only major platform not banned in Iran, Instagram is by far the country's most popular social media application. A top Iranian official told parliament this year that the application often takes up 60 to 70 percent of Iran's bandwidth.
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| Russian prankster acts as UN chief, reaches Polish president Posted: 15 Jul 2020 05:17 AM PDT  A Russian prankster posing as the U.N. secretary-general managed to reach Poland's president on the telephone and rendered him speechless with questions about Ukraine, Russia and his reelection on Sunday. The prankster, Vladimir Kuznetsov, known as Vovan, posted a recording of the 11-minute call on YouTube. President Andrzej Duda's office confirmed Wednesday that it was authentic.
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| Trump's Falsehoods on Police Shootings, Biden, Coronavirus and China Posted: 15 Jul 2020 04:56 AM PDT  In a rambling, campaign-style appearance in the Rose Garden at the White House and in an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, President Donald Trump ranged across many topics, sprinkling questionable assertions throughout his remarks.What Was SaidCatherine Herridge, CBS News reporter: "Why are African Americans still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country?"Trump: "So are white people. So are white people. What a terrible question to ask. So are white people. More white people, by the way. More white people." -- in an interview on CBSThis is misleading. Although more white Americans have been killed by police than Black Americans, Black Americans are killed at a far higher rate than white Americans. Since 2015, The Washington Post has logged 2,499 white Americans killed by police for a rate of 13 per million, compared with 1,301 Black Americans for a rate of 31 per million.A 2018 report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found "consistent patterns of racial disparities in police use of force" and urged the Trump administration's Justice Department to monitor and train local police departments.The commission, an independent federal panel, cited data from The Post and The Guardian showing much higher death rates for Black, Latino and Native American people in officer-involved killings. Researchers have also found that Black Americans are also more likely than white Americans to be unarmed when killed."The best available evidence reflects high rates of use of force nationally, and increased likelihood of police use of force against people of color, people with disabilities, LGBT people, people with mental health concerns, people with low incomes and those at the intersections of these groups," the commission wrote in a letter addressed to Trump.What Was Said"Biden personally led the effort to give China permanent most-favored-nation status, which is a tremendous advantage for a country to have. Few countries have it. But the United States doesn't have it, never did, probably never even asked for it because they didn't know what they were doing." -- in a news conference at the White HouseFalse. "Most favored nation" refers to a principle of fair trade that members of the World Trade Organization confer on each other. The United States has enjoyed "most favored nation" status from all members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade since 1947, and all 164 countries in the WTO, except Cuba.Countries may carve out their own exceptions to this rule, but there are just a few examples. The United States has declined to grant this status, also known as normal trade relations, to just two countries: Cuba and North Korea. Cuba reciprocates American sanctions, while North Korea is not a WTO member.Furthermore, Joe Biden, the former vice president and Trump's presumptive 2020 Democratic opponent, was "never the leader" in making the most-favored-nation status permanent for China, said Gary Hufbauer of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Rather, it was an initiative of President Bill Clinton and established by President George W. Bush."Permanent MFN status was not a 'tremendous advantage' for China," Hufbauer said. "For decades, under both Republican and Democratic presidents, the U.S. regularly granted MFN status to China. Permanent MFN did not lower any U.S. tariffs on imports from China. It just eliminated the need for an extension every two years."What Was Said"If you look at the job he did on swine flu -- I looked at a poll, they have polls on everything nowadays and he -- they got very bad marks on the job they did on the swine flu. H1N1. He calls it N1H1. H1N1. Got very poor marks from Gallup on the job they did on swine flu. And they stopped very early on, testing."False. Trump was referring to the performance of Biden and the Obama administration in dealing with the potential for an earlier pandemic. Diagnostic tests for the swine flu were approved and shipped out less than two weeks after the H1N1 virus was identified in April 2009 and a day before the first death in the United States. From May to September 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shipped more than 1,000 kits, each one able to test 1,000 specimens.Gallup polls showed that 67% of Americans were very or somewhat confident in the government's ability to handle the H1N1 outbreak. This February, 77% of Americans told Gallup the same about the government's ability to handle the coronavirus outbreak -- but that percentage has slid as the pandemic has continued and the death toll has increased. In March, 61% said the same. By April, just 50% approved of Trump's response.Overall, about 56.7% of Americans now disapprove of Trump's response, according to polls aggregated by FiveThirtyEight.What Was Said"We have just about the lowest mortality rate."This lacks evidence. It is difficult to ascertain accurate death rates for the coronavirus and compare them across countries because of differences in population, testing rates and health care systems. But based on existing data, Trump's claim is not accurate. Out of the 20 countries most affected by the pandemic, the United States has the sixth-highest case fatality rate at 4% and the second highest rate of deaths per 100,000 people at 41.45, according to Johns Hopkins University.What Was Said"Think of this: If we didn't do testing -- instead of testing over 40 million people, if we did half the testing, we'd have half the cases. If we did another -- you cut that in half, you'd have yet again half of that."False. The suggestion that the number of positive cases is directly proportional to the number of tests conducted is false. Ramped-up testing does not account for the recent surge in cases. The spread of the disease does.In early June, the United States was conducting about 450,000-500,000 tests daily and the number of daily positive cases hovered around 20,000, for a positive rate of around 4%.This month, daily testing varied from about 600,000-800,000. By Trump's logic, that would roughly correlate to daily positive cases of between 24,000-32,000. But in reality, the number has hovered around 60,000 cases in recent days as the positive testing rate doubled to about 8%.What Was Said"These are the actual key elements of the Biden-Sanders unity platform."This is exaggerated. Trump was referring to recommendations put forth by six policy task forces assembled by allies of Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, his rival in the Democratic primary. Some of his claims -- such as saying Biden wants to reach carbon-neutrality, increase the refugee admissions cap, create a pathway for citizenship for immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally and abolish the death penalty -- were accurate. But many others were dramatized.The recommendations include a 100-day moratorium on deportations of people already in the United States -- not stopping "all deportations" indefinitely, as Trump said.Rather than "abolish immigration detention" altogether, the task force recommended ending the use of for-profit detention facilities and seeking alternatives for immigrants who "do not present a threat to public safety."The task forces did not call to "abolish immigration enforcement," as Trump said, but asked for more oversight of enforcement agencies and reforms in practices.They also did not support granting "work permits for illegal immigrants," but rather asked for changes to the temporary work visa program and stronger labor protections for temporary workers.The task forces did not call to "abolish our police departments," though they did recommend creating guidelines on use of force, ending racial profiling and banning chokeholds.Rather than "abolish prisons" and "all charter schools," the recommendations call for an end to using for-profit private prisons, banning for-profit charter schools, if they receive federal funding, and subjecting all charter schools to more scrutiny.What Was Said"We want strong closed borders with people able to come in through merit through a legal process. They don't want to have any borders at all. They're going to rip down the wall. It was hard to get that built. And now it's almost completed, it will be completed by a little after the end of the year."This is exaggerated. The Biden-Sanders unity task forces recommended halting the use of Pentagon funds to build Trump's border wall, but did not say to tear down existing portions. The president's claim that the wall is "almost completed" is also inaccurate.First, it is unclear exactly what Trump's current vision of a finished wall would look like. Despite promising a wall stretching for 1,000 miles -- along a nearly 2,000 mile border where barriers already had existed for 654 miles -- during the 2016 campaign, Trump has conceded that his wall may not be that long.The Trump administration has received enough funding, including transfers from the Department of Defense, to build 738 miles. It has completed 235 miles and is on track to complete about 450 miles by the end of the year, according to Customs and Border Protection.Other False ClaimsTrump also repeated a number of other claims that The New York Times has previously fact-checked:-- He falsely claimed that before the coronavirus epidemic, China was having its "worst year, as you know, in 67 years." (China's economy grew at its slowest rate in 29 years last year.)-- He claimed "even experts didn't want to" place restrictions on travel from China. (His health secretary said the restrictions were put in place in consultation with health officials).-- He falsely claimed that the European Union "was formed in order to take advantage of the United States." (It was created with the support of the United States to diminish the risk of wars and promote economic cooperation.)-- He claimed that he "rebuilt" a "totally depleted" military. (The military has received some new equipment, but continues to use aging supplies.)-- He claimed that Biden's son Hunter "walked out with $1.5 billion" from China. (This refers to a company associated with the younger Biden, but there's no evidence he was personally paid.)-- He claimed, despite little evidence, that mail-in ballots would lead to "tremendous fraud." (Voter fraud is extremely rare.)This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Tanker off UAE sought by US over Iran sanctions 'hijacked' Posted: 15 Jul 2020 03:19 AM PDT  An oil tanker sought by the U.S. over allegedly circumventing sanctions on Iran was hijacked on July 5 off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a seafarers organization said Wednesday. It wasn't immediately clear what happened aboard the Dominica-flagged MT Gulf Sky, though its reported hijacking comes after months of tensions between Iran and the U.S. David Hammond, the CEO of the United Kingdom-based group Human Rights at Sea, said he took a witness statement from the captain of the MT Gulf Sky, confirming the ship had been hijacked.
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| Exclusive: Secret Trump order gives CIA more powers to launch cyberattacks Posted: 15 Jul 2020 02:00 AM PDT  The Central Intelligence Agency has conducted a series of covert cyber operations against Iran and other targets since winning a secret victory in 2018 when President Trump signed what amounts to a sweeping authorization for such activities, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the matter.
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| In virus era, back-to-school plans stress working parents Posted: 15 Jul 2020 12:13 AM PDT  For generations, school has been an opportunity for American children to learn and make friends. For many parents today, though, it's something that's elemental in a very different way: a safe place that cares for their children while they are at work — or a necessity for them to be able to work at all. Now, President Donald Trump is demanding that schools reopen in the fall.
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| In defeat, Sessions still says Trump is right for the nation Posted: 14 Jul 2020 11:18 PM PDT  Jeff Sessions took the stage with the same sense of conviction he had displayed in giddier times at a Mobile stadium almost five years ago, declaring once more that Donald Trump's vision was right for America. The boisterous throngs that had greeted Trump and Sessions at an August 2015 rally were a distant memory as Sessions conceded defeat in Alabama's Republican Senate runoff. Trump tweeted his joy about the victory by former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville and Sessions' stinging defeat.
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| Profile of a killer: Unraveling the deadly new coronavirus Posted: 14 Jul 2020 10:00 PM PDT  Countless hours of treatment and research, trial and error now make it possible to take much closer measure of the new coronavirus and the lethal disease it has unleashed. "It's like we're in a battle with something that we can't see, that we don't know, and we don't know where it's coming from," said Vivian Castro, a nurse supervisor at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Yonkers, just north of New York City, which struggled with its caseload this spring. The coronavirus is invisible, but seemingly everywhere.
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| Dior Partners With UNESCO to Mentor Female Students Posted: 14 Jul 2020 10:00 PM PDT |
| Biden's Texas ad signals opportunity in GOP stronghold Posted: 14 Jul 2020 09:13 PM PDT  Joe Biden targeted Texas with a modest advertising investment that raised new questions about President Donald Trump's vulnerability in the longtime Republican stronghold as coronavirus infections explode. Biden, the former vice president and the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee in 2020, ignores Trump completely in the new ad. "This virus is tough, but Texas is tougher," Biden says in the ad.
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| 'I'm not a bad guy': Police video captures distraught Floyd Posted: 14 Jul 2020 08:59 PM PDT  Body-camera footage made public Wednesday from two Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd's arrest captured a panicked and fearful Floyd pleading with the officers in the minutes before his death, saying "I'm not a bad guy!" as they tried to wrestle him into a squad car. "I'm not that kind of guy," Floyd says as he struggles against the officers. A few minutes later, with Floyd now facedown on the street, the cameras record his fading voice, still occasionally saying, "I can't breathe" before he goes still.
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| Mental fitness claim halts 2nd federal execution -- for now Posted: 14 Jul 2020 08:55 PM PDT  Wesley Ira Purkey, convicted of a gruesome 1998 kidnapping and killing, was scheduled for execution Wednesday night at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, where Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death Tuesday after his eleventh-hour legal bids failed. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., imposed two injunctions prohibiting the federal Bureau of Prisons from moving forward with Purkey's execution. The legal wrangling suggested a volley of litigation would continue into the evening, similar to what happened before the government executed Lee following a ruling from the Supreme Court.
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| Floyd family sues Minneapolis officers charged in his death Posted: 14 Jul 2020 08:41 PM PDT  George Floyd's family filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death, alleging the officers violated Floyd's rights when they restrained him and that the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force. The lawsuit came the same day that members of a city charter commission took public comments on a proposal to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. The civil rights lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, was announced by attorney Ben Crump and other lawyers representing Floyd's family members.
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| Gove defends post-Brexit plan for UK internal market Posted: 14 Jul 2020 05:00 PM PDT |
| Whatever happened to the party of Reagan? Posted: 14 Jul 2020 05:00 PM PDT |
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