| N. Korea threatens to halt military agreement over leaflets Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:39 PM PDT |
| Ex-defense chief Mattis rips Trump for dividing Americans Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:17 PM PDT  In an extraordinary rebuke, former defense secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday denounced President Donald Trump's heavy-handed use of military force to quell protests near the White House and said his former boss was setting up a "false conflict" between the military and civilian society. "I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled," Mattis wrote. The criticism was all the more remarkable because Mattis has generally kept a low profile since retiring as defense secretary in December 2018 to protest Trump's Syria policy.
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| Viewpoint: What it's like to be an African in the US Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:03 PM PDT  Kenyan journalist Larry Madowo writes about the racism he has experienced in the US.
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| Germany unveils 130-bn stimulus to kickstart virus-hit economy Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:22 PM PDT  Germany will plough 130 billion euros ($146 billion) into a stimulus package to kick-start an economy severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday. Under the wide-ranging measures outlined in a 15-page document, value-added tax will be temporarily slashed, families will receive 300 euros for each child, while those who purchase electric cars will see a government rebate doubled to 6,000 euros. Noting that millions of employees in Germany have been put on shorter working hours, Merkel said that "shows how fragile the whole thing is, and why we must succeed in giving the economy a push so that jobs can be secured."
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| UN envoy holds cease-fire talks with Libya's eastern forces Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:30 PM PDT  The United Nations said its top envoy in Libya held talks Wednesday with a delegation from Khalifa Hifter's eastern-based forces to follow up on the agreement by the country's warring parties to resume cease-fire negotiations, calling it "a positive step." U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said acting special representative Stephanie Williams would hold a similar video meeting with a delegation from the U.N.-supported government in the capital of Tripoli "in the coming days." Libya has been in turmoil since 2011 when a civil war toppled long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed.
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| Editorial Roundup: US Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:27 PM PDT |
| 16 dead in new eastern DR Congo massacre Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:27 PM PDT  Sixteen civilians, five of them children, were killed overnight in a fresh massacre in the eastern DR Congo province of Ituri, a local official and a UN source said on Wednesday. The toll was separately confirmed by a source in the United Nations' peacekeeping force, MONUSCO. The attack unfolded at a village in the area of Mambisa, north of the Ituri capital Bunia, the sources said.
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| Virginia governor to announce removal of Lee statue Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:12 PM PDT  Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to announce plans Thursday to remove one of the country's most iconic monuments to the Confederacy, a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee along Richmond's prominent Monument Avenue, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. The move would be an extraordinary victory for civil rights activists, whose calls for the removal of that monument and others in this former capital of the Confederacy have been resisted for years. "That is a symbol for so many people, black and otherwise of a time gone by of hate and oppression and being made to feel less than," said Del. Jay Jones, a black lawmaker from Norfolk.
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| Handling of street protests creates crisis for Pentagon boss Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:02 PM PDT  Defense Secretary Mark Esper is facing the most politically charged crisis of his tenure, criticized for calling protester-filled streets a military "battle space" and accused of failing to keep the military out of politics. At the same time, eleven months into the job, Esper is seeing his relationship with President Donald Trump tested by the storm over the police killing of George Floyd and Esper's urging of caution in the use of military force. Esper, an Army veteran and former Army secretary, has sometimes subtly pushed back on Trump, including when the president intervened in the military justice system last year to pardon two soldiers accused of war crimes.
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| AP report raises concerns about China and WHO; China denies Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:08 PM PDT  At least two U.S. senators said Wednesday that China hid data from the World Health Organization that could have altered the course of the coronavirus outbreak, even as a Chinese official denied delays in sharing information and said the government acted openly and transparently. At a press briefing on Wednesday, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called the AP report "seriously inconsistent with the facts." Ami Bera, chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that focuses on Asia, acknowledged that WHO was imperfect and said the U.N. health agency should stand up more forcefully to powerful countries like China.
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| EU, China postpone September summit due to pandemic Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:54 PM PDT  The European Union and China have agreed to postpone a summit planned for this fall because of the coronavirus pandemic, German officials said Wednesday. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping and later with European Council President Charles Michel to discuss the Sept. 14 meeting, due to be held in the German city of Leipzig and seen as a key moment in EU relations with China. The European Union has tried to position itself as a mediator between China and the United States.
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| Activists use informal tools to keep the peace at protests Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:43 PM PDT  When Berto Aguayo heard that Chicago protests started turning violent over the weekend, he called a few dozen people to meet in front of a colorful mural in a South Side neighborhood. "Number one, we are here to peacefully protect small businesses," Aguayo — co-founder of Increase the Peace, a community organizing group in the city — told the small crowd. Aguayo, a former gang member and activist for many Chicago issues, said the group was successful in helping to maintain calm that day.
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| Obama steps out as nation confronts confluence of crises Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:00 PM PDT  Former President Barack Obama is taking on an increasingly public role as the nation confronts a confluence of historic crises that has exposed deep racial and socioeconomic inequalities in America and reshaped the November election. In doing so, Obama is signaling a willingness to sharply critique his successor, President Donald Trump, and fill what many Democrats see as a national leadership void. On Wednesday, he held a virtual town hall event with young people to discuss policing and the civil unrest that has followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
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| Embattled at Home, Trump Finds Himself Isolated Abroad, Too Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:52 AM PDT  BRUSSELS -- With U.S. cities burning and the coronavirus still raging, killing more people than in any other country, President Donald Trump also has growing problems overseas. He has never before been so isolated and ignored, even mocked.In Europe, after years of snubs and U.S. unilateralism, America's traditional allies have stopped looking to him for leadership, no longer trust that this president will offer them much and are turning their backs on him.That was evidenced most obviously this week by the decision of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, not to attend the Group of 7 meeting that Trump wanted so badly in Washington this month to show that the virus was behind him and the world was returning to normal.Merkel cited the lingering threat of the virus, but a senior German official who spoke on the condition of anonymity made clear that she had other reasons to decline: She believed that proper diplomatic preparations had not been made; she did not want to be part of an anti-China display; she opposed Trump's idea of inviting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin; she did not want to be seen as interfering in U.S. domestic politics.And she was shocked by Trump's sudden, unilateral decision to pull out of the World Health Organization.The divide between Trump and European allies was widening even before U.S. cities were convulsed by rioting. But the chaos on American streets, viewed from abroad, has only reinforced a sense that the conflicts that Trump seems to sow have caught up with him.As Trump threatens to call in the military against his own citizens, he has become a president that some of America's closest allies prefer to keep at arms' length, unsure of what he will do next and unwilling to be dragged into his campaign for reelection."Leaders in allied nations now think that criticizing Trump is to their advantage," said Marietje Schaake, a former Dutch European legislator, especially now with the unrest in U.S. cities and demonstrations supporting those protests in many European cities, including Amsterdam.Even the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell Fontelles, felt bold enough Tuesday to say that Europe is ''shocked and appalled" by the police killing of George Floyd. He condemned an ''abuse of power" and "an excessive use of force" and urged the United States to act "in full respect of the law and human rights."On Monday, as if to underline the U.S. president's isolation, it was to the Russian president, Putin, that Trump placed a call, in which the two men discussed the virus, trade and "progress toward convening the G-7," the White House said.Trump invited Putin to the meeting, according to the Kremlin. But if it happens at all, there are doubts that Putin would accept being invited solely as a guest, having been kicked out of the club for his annexation of Crimea and support for insurrection in eastern Ukraine.Trump also called President Jair Bolsonaro, the hard-right leader of Brazil, on Monday."It all shows just how out of touch Trump is with allies," said Julianne Smith, a former Obama official now with the German Marshall Fund in Washington. "This is a man isolated at home and abroad. He is trying to find friends in other places, knowing that relations with traditional allies are bad. But there are serious strains even with the authoritarians he admires, like Xi Jinping and even Putin."Trump "continues to believe allies can be abused and mistreated and that he can order them around and at the same time count on them," Smith said. "He doesn't understand that while the U.S. is powerful, it doesn't always call the shots."Merkel's refusal to come to Washington "says a lot about how fed up multiple leaders are around the world, who have seen how little return they've gotten on the investments they made into a relationship with Trump," she said.With the virus and the riots, she added, "now there is a sense of America's weaknesses being exposed, and a feeling that the emperor has no clothes."The threads unraveled quickly. As late as Thursday, European and U.S. officials say, Trump's plans for a Group of 7 summit meeting in Washington were being negotiated with member countries and looked likely to go ahead. Then, Friday, Trump suddenly announced that he was pulling the United States out of the WHO, more than two weeks before his own stated deadline for the decision.As so often in the past, on issues like unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal or the Paris climate accord or the Open Skies treaty or the sudden ban on air travel from Europe, Trump ignored the views of allies or did not consult them at all.The WHO decision was a surprise to allies, and Merkel quickly said that she would not attend the proposed summit meeting.Since then, both Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada have come out publicly against bringing Russia back into the Group of 7."For the British and Canadians to say no publicly is highly unusual," given their closeness to the United States, said Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister. "They might disagree in private, but I would have thought they'd be the last to take issue publicly with him on something he cares about."As for Merkel, he said, given the lack of preparation, "the Germans suspected it was just a photo op with Trump in the White House."Despite allied concerns, the Group of 7 matters, and plans for the meeting were going ahead given a general desire to come up with strong positions on Hong Kong and to try to influence Washington's policies on the virus, said Thomas Wright of the Brookings Institution.But after the WHO announcement, Merkel decided that "if you're going unilateral, I'm not going to be there to support you," Wright said. "The allies all think he's all over the place and they'll try to avoid him."Ulrich Speck, a German analyst, said that "Merkel has given up any pretensions that she as a German chancellor has to work with an American president no matter who it is." Merkel is a multilateralist in her soul, Speck said, "and she's been hurt by him often, they don't get along and they disagree on many policies," including open confrontation with China.Merkel remains committed to European engagement with Beijing. With Germany taking over the European Union presidency next month, she is trying to strike a European investment deal with China and wants to preserve an EU-China summit scheduled for Leipzig in the autumn."The G-7 is a Trump show, with no negotiation," Speck added. "The old G-7 is gone. For Trump it's not multilateral in spirit but unilateral, just a meeting to serve one purpose -- his reelection."President Emmanuel Macron of France has a more traditional French view, especially toward building an improved relationship with Russia, despite Crimea, given its proximity to the European Union, said Thomas Gomart, director of the French Institute of International Relations."In France toward Trump is a mix of sadness and anger," Gomart said. "Our main ally refused to exercise leadership during the corona crisis and is every day more provocative toward its allies and is creating divisions that are very actively exploited by China."After nearly four years, Trump has no diplomatic accomplishments, Gomart said, listing failures on North Korea, the Middle East, a deterioration of relations with China and no improvement of relations with Russia. Instead, Macron believes that Trump has damaged European security through his unilateral abandonment of the Iran nuclear deal as well as nearly every arms control agreement with Russia."Macron, to his credit, has at least tried with Trump," said William Drozdiak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has just published a book on Macron, based on a series of interviews with him, called "The Last President of Europe." But he is not trying so hard now.To have "an American leader rejecting all these international institutions and agreements is outrageous for Europeans like Merkel and Macron who have multilateralism in their DNA," he said.Merkel has traditionally avoided trips to the United States after April in presidential election years, Drozdiak noted."She knows that any event," he said, "Trump will spin as if the others are implicitly endorsing him, and that's the last thing she wants to do."She was so uncomfortable, Drozdiak said, that she told. Macron, "Be my guest, be the interlocutor, I don't want to be in the room with the guy."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| 2016 & 2019 World Martial Arts Masterships Champion Sets Sights On Mixed Martial Arts World Posted: 03 Jun 2020 11:40 AM PDT |
| People are blowing up, or just taking, ATMs in Philadelphia Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:39 AM PDT  Explosions have hit 50 cash machines in and near Philadelphia since the weekend, and one man has died, in a coordinated effort to steal them or take the money inside, authorities said Wednesday. A 25-year-old who's accused of selling homemade dynamite on the streets with instructions on how to use it on ATMs has been arrested, though authorities aren't yet sure whether the man is connected to the coordinated effort, the state attorney general said. "It's not worth it," Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said.
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| Army: Esper reverses plan to send active-duty troops home Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:35 AM PDT |
| China, Russia and Iran attack U.S. over Floyd killing Posted: 03 Jun 2020 10:18 AM PDT  China, Russia and Iran are using state-sponsored media to attack the U.S. over the George Floyd killing and the resulting civil unrest, but there is no evidence of a covert online influence operation similar to Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, according to a report released Wednesday by a private firm. The U.S. adversaries are using the turmoil on traditional and social media "in a way that furthers their existing narratives, rather than stoking American divisions," says the report by Graphika, which uses artificial intelligence to analyze huge volumes of social media traffic. All three countries used their substantial online editorial presences to criticize the Floyd killing, the police reaction to protests, and President Donald Trump.
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| Parents, educators, experts talk to kids on race amid unrest Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:52 AM PDT  As an African American parent, Cassandre Dunbar in Charlotte, North Carolina, always knew she and her husband would have "the talk" with their son, the one preparing him for interactions with law enforcement. "They think that kids are too naive and fragile and will crumple the moment you even mention the word," he said.
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| Cop in Floyd case got medals for valor and drew complaints Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:45 AM PDT  The Minneapolis police officer who used his knee to pin down George Floyd's neck before his death was the most experienced of the four officers involved in the arrest, with a record that included medals for bravery and 17 complaints against him, including one for pulling a woman out of her car during a speeding stop. New details about Derek Chauvin and the other now-fired officers emerged Wednesday after prosecutors upgraded Chauvin's charge to second-degree murder and charged the others with aiding and abetting in a case that has convulsed the nation with protests over race and police brutality. Heavily redacted personnel files show that Chauvin, a 19-year veteran of the force, was initially trained as a cook and served in the Army as a military police officer.
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| Britain ready to allow import of chlorinated chicken from US Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:31 AM PDT  Britain is prepared to permit imports of chlorinated chicken from the US but will slap high tariffs on cheaply-produced food in order to minimise the impact on British farmers. The latest Government proposal for a trade deal with the US is for a "dual tariff" regime that imposes different levels of duty on imported foods, depending on whether they comply with UK animal welfare standards. Hormone-fed beef, chlorinated chicken and other foods that use techniques banned in Britain will be allowed across the Atlantic, but ministers want to use tariffs to make it uneconomical for US producers to export them to the UK. High-quality foods, such as organically-reared free range meat, would be subject to lower tariffs in order to encourage foreign producers to lift their animal welfare to British levels. The National Farmers' Union described the scheme as "a significant step forwards" because it would prevent the US from flooding the UK market with cheap food produced using techniques banned in Britain. But Brexiteers will be concerned that British consumers will not see the benefits of Brexit in the form of cheaper food on supermarket shelves. It represents a major victory for George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, over Liz Truss, the International Trade Secretary, with free marketeer Ms Truss having championed an alternative proposal that would have seen tariffs reduced to zero over 10 years.
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| 'Comeback kid'? Governor gets unlikely boost from virus Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:18 AM PDT  Before the coronavirus upended the world, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was in trouble. "The irony is, he could be the comeback kid because of the crisis," said Robert Rupp, a history and political science professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College. The governor's apparent rebound offers yet another illustration of how dramatically the COVID-19 pandemic has turned life upside down in the U.S. It also reinforces the notion that the politics of 2020 are sure to be infused with its implications, from the presidential contest on down.
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| What you need to know today about the virus outbreak Posted: 03 Jun 2020 09:16 AM PDT  One of Sweden's top health officials is defending his country's response to the coronavirus outbreak after first showing some contrition about its actions. Here are some of AP's top stories Wednesday on the world's coronavirus pandemic. — Contact tracers in New York City hired to contain the spread of coronavirus reached more than half the 600 or so people who tested positive for the virus there.
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| Germany to advise against all travel to UK over quarantine scheme Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:58 AM PDT  Germany is to advise its citizens against all travel to the UK because of the government's coronavirus quarantine regulations, it emerged on Wednesday. Angela Merkel's government announced that it will lift its general warning against all international travel for much of Europe from June 15, when Germany's borders are set to reopen. But it will issue special advice that travel to the UK is "strongly discouraged" because of the requirement that all international arrivals self-isolate for 14 days. "Travel advice is not an invitation to travel. We want to make this clear in the advice which may be that travel is strongly discouraged," Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, told a press conference. "This applies to the UK, as long as there is a 14-day quarantine requirement for all entering the country." The move will come as a blow to the British government as it seeks to negotiate "air bridge" agreements to enable quarantine-free travel with countries deemed at low risk from the virus. Germany is widely seen as among the most successful countries at containing the virus and is a key destination for British business travellers. Talks have so far opened with Portugal, France, Greece and Spain, but a spokesman for the German foreign ministry said on Wednesday he was "not aware of any discussions with the UK about an air bridge or similar arrangements". Mrs Merkel's government has previously rebuffed overtures from Austria and others to agree bilateral travel deals and instead pursued a policy of reopening all of Europe to travel.
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| SA court rules lockdown restrictions 'irrational' Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:49 AM PDT  Rules around funerals, informal workers and exercise were found to be unconnected to halting the virus.
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| French court backs UN trial for Rwanda genocide suspect Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:47 AM PDT  A Paris appeals court ruled Wednesday that Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga, arrested in France after evading police in several countries for 25 years, should be handed over to a UN tribunal in Tanzania to stand trial. Accused of financing the 1994 genocide of some 800,000 people, Kabuga had asked for a trial in France, citing frail health and claiming the United Nations court in Africa would be biased against him, and possibly hand him over to Rwandan authorities. A lawyer for the 84-year-old Kabuga said he would appeal the decision to hand him over to the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), which is based in The Hague but has a branch in Arusha, Tanzania.
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| Trump says 'common sense' for Russia to rejoin G7 Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:34 AM PDT  President Donald Trump on Wednesday said it is "common sense" to bring Russia back into the G7, despite Moscow's expulsion from the club after invading part of Ukraine. Speaking to Fox News radio, Trump said that the G7 countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- need Russian President Vladimir Putin back in a G8 format, regardless of his behavior.
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| Scientists learn how tiny critters make ocean 'snot palaces' Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:14 AM PDT  Master builders of the sea construct the equivalent of a complex five-story house that protects them from predators and funnels and filters food for them — all from snot coming out of their heads. The snot houses often are nearly transparent and flow all around the critter that looks like a tadpole, but isn't.
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| Iranian scientist freed from US custody returns to Iran Posted: 03 Jun 2020 08:13 AM PDT  Iranian scientist Cyrus Asgari returned to Iran Wednesday after being released by the United States, the Islamic Republic's arch enemy, where he had spent nearly three years in detention after being charged with espionage. Asgari, 59, who has been cleared by US judicial authorities, fell into the arms of his relatives on his arrival at Tehran's international airport, images broadcast by several Iranian media showed. "As soon as I arrived in the United States on June 21, 2017, I was arrested by the FBI," he told state television as he left the airport.
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| Gambia demands probe after US police shoot dead diplomat's son Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:31 AM PDT  Momodou Lamin Sisay, 39, from The Gambia, was shot dead after a car chase in Georgia.
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| 'The Germans are openly done with this president': European security officials are aghast at the way Trump is handling the George Floyd protesters Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:06 AM PDT  "Tell me again how the president of the United States is better than Putin?" the official asked.
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| America's rivals return fire on human rights after U.S. protests Posted: 03 Jun 2020 07:03 AM PDT |
| EU won't agree deal to take back illegal migrants unless UK folds in Brexit trade talks Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:54 AM PDT  European Union governments will refuse to negotiate an agreement to take back illegal migrants crossing the Channel to Britain if the UK does not back down in the Brexit trade talks, diplomats in Brussels warned on Wednesday. Talks are deadlocked over fishing, the level playing field guarantees, the future role of the European Court of Justice and Britain's refusal to promise to stay in the European Convention of Human Rights. Britain will no longer be covered by the Dublin regulation once the Brexit transition period finishes at the end of the year. The EU law means an asylum seeker must claim asylum in the first EU country they arrive in. British negotiators have put two replacement agreements on the table. One would allow the swift return of illegal migrants who have arrived in the UK from the EU. The other allows unaccompanied migrant children to be reunited with families in either the UK or EU. EU diplomats warned that Brussels was under no obligation to negotiate the agreements because they were not part of Michel Barnier's mandate or the Political Declaration setting out the goals of the negotiations. They pointed out the EU had leverage over Britain on migration because more illegal migrants transited through the bloc with the goal of reaching the UK than vice versa. "Turning the Channel into the Mediterranean might not be in most states' interests," one EU diplomat said, "but at this stage of the negotiations most member states do not see an immediate interest for the EU to discuss these issues." "Neither of these issues is covered by the EU mandate," an EU official said, "we have not engaged in discussions on these points as yet." There has been a significant increase in migrants crossing the Channel in small boats due to the good weather and the impact of coronavirus on lorries, the Channel Tunnel and ferries. By last Thursday, about 1,730 migrants had crossed the Channel from France this year compared to 1,890 in the whole of last year. In May, the Government said it was planning new laws to force Channel migrants back to France and Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, claimed the UK would be able to renegotiate Dublin with the EU. "Given the asymmetry of the migration flow it is not at the top of member states' minds," the EU diplomat warned during the fourth round of tough trade negotiations, which are being held online because of the coronavirus pandemic. "This migration stuff seems to be a rather newish addition to the UK demand list," another EU diplomat said, "and it is definitely not the kind of agreement that is part of any previous EU trade deal."
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| One face in the crowd: A protester haunted by the dead Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:49 AM PDT  She couldn't eat and she couldn't sleep, jolting awake an hour after going to bed. Kelly Bundy felt haunted by the people who died by police bullets, or had an officer's knee on their neck. The list has only grown, in Louisville and beyond: Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd.
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| Iran's Khamenei says Floyd's killing exposes real nature of U.S. Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:29 AM PDT |
| Virus on rise again in Iran with over 3,000 cases for third day Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:23 AM PDT  The spread of novel coronavirus has accelerated again this month in Iran which on Wednesday officially confirmed over 3,000 new cases for a third consecutive day. The country has recorded an additional 3,134 cases, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told state television, bringing the total number of infections to 160,696. New cases were at their highest on March 30, hitting 3,186.
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| Thousands in Europe decry racial injustice, police violence Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:17 AM PDT  Thousands of people demonstrated in London on Wednesday against police violence and racial injustice following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which has set off days of unrest in the United States. In Athens, police fired tear gas to disperse youths who threw firebombs and stones at them outside the U.S. Embassy toward the end of an otherwise peaceful protest by about 4,000 people. The London demonstration began in Hyde Park, with protesters chanting "Black lives matter," before many of them later marched through the streets, blocking traffic.
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| AP PHOTOS: Protesters show outrage around the globe Posted: 03 Jun 2020 06:02 AM PDT  Protesters in Paris took a knee and raised their fists while firefighters worked to extinguish blazes in the street. Around the world, protesters have taken to the streets to express outrage over the death of George Floyd in the United States, racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics.
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| Syria says new wave of US sanctions is 'economic terrorism' Posted: 03 Jun 2020 05:50 AM PDT |
| Kosovo elects new government promising deal with Serbia Posted: 03 Jun 2020 05:08 AM PDT  Kosovo's parliament elected a new government on Wednesday with a prime minister promising to reach a deal on normalising ties with Serbia that would enable it to get a United Nations seat. The new government of Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, of the centre-Right Democratic League of Kosovo, was voted for by 61 deputies in the Balkan country's 120-seat parliament after weeks of legal wrangling. "The final deal between Kosovo and Serbia will be based on reciprocity recognition between the two states," Mr Hoti told MPs. "We will not allow any change of the borders or exchange of territories (with Serbia)."
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| US Legislatures slow to pass laws limiting use of force Posted: 03 Jun 2020 04:29 AM PDT  A wave of police killings of young black men in 2014 prompted 24 states to quickly pass some type of law enforcement reform, but many declined to address the most glaring issue: police use of force. The issue is at the heart of nationwide protests set off by the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer in Minneapolis pressed a knee into Floyd's neck for several minutes while he pleaded for air. Now, some lawmakers and governors are hoping to harness the renewed wave of anger to push through changes on the use of force they couldn't manage after 2014, a year that included the deaths at the hands of police of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Eric Garner in New York and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland.
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| UN: Yemen programs fighting virus might stop by end of June Posted: 03 Jun 2020 03:27 AM PDT  The United Nations warned Wednesday its programs to fight the coronavirus and stave off starvation for hundreds of thousands of children in war-torn Yemen will be severely cut or stopped altogether by the end of the month unless donor countries provide an immediate injection of cash. The U.N. sounded the alarm a day after its appeal for countries to fund emergency aid in the Arab world's poorest nation fell a billion dollars short of what aid agencies needed — $2.41 billion — to cover essential programs from June to December. Already, 75% of U.N. programs in Yemen, covering essentially every sector, from food to health care and nutrition, have had to shut their doors or reduce operations amid a shortage of funds.
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| Syria activists: After 3 months, Russian strikes hit Idlib Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:23 AM PDT |
| Exclusive: Huawei hid business operation in Iran after Reuters reported links to CFO Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:11 AM PDT  China's Huawei Technologies acted to cover up its relationship with a firm that had tried to sell prohibited U.S. computer gear to Iran, after Reuters in 2013 reported deep links between the firm and the telecom-equipment giant's chief financial officer, newly obtained internal Huawei documents show. Huawei has long described the firm - Skycom Tech Co Ltd - as a separate local business partner in Iran. Now, documents obtained by Reuters show how the Chinese tech titan effectively controlled Skycom.
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| Back in the saddle: Turkmen leader heads up giant bike parade Posted: 03 Jun 2020 02:10 AM PDT  Thousands of tracksuit-wearing officials in Turkmenistan were brought along for the ride Wednesday as eccentric leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov spearheaded a cycling parade to mark World Bicycle Day. Turkmenistan -- one of the few countries that has not reported a single case of the coronavirus -- has given little thought to social distancing in recent months, celebrating key occasions in the national calendar with customary pomp. World Bicycle Day, a date that the United Nations recognised in 2018 following a proposal by Turkmenistan, saw a large throng of officials follow Berdymukhamedov on a trip through the capital Ashgabat where roads were closed for the occasion.
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| Germany agrees $146B stimulus package as Europe jobless rise Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:33 AM PDT  Germany's governing parties agreed on a 130 billion euro ($146 billion) stimulus package Wednesday to help kick-start the economy, which like others around the world has taken a heavy hit from the coronavirus pandemic. Following 21 hours of talks over two days, Chancellor Angela Merkel said members of her left-right coalition had come up with a "bold response" that would boost consumer spending, invest in innovation and ease the financial strain on families and others. Germany started loosening coronavirus restrictions April 20, about a month after they were introduced, and the easing has gathered pace since.
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| Acquitted Iranian scientist, deported from US, returns home Posted: 03 Jun 2020 01:18 AM PDT |
| Prosecutors charge 3 more officers in George Floyd's death Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:21 AM PDT  Prosecutors charged three more police officers Wednesday in the death of George Floyd and filed a new, tougher charge against the officer at the center of the case, delivering a victory to protesters who have filled the streets from coast to coast to fight police brutality and racial injustice. The most serious charge was filed against Derek Chauvin, who was caught on video pressing his knee to Floyd's neck and now must defend himself against an accusation of second-degree murder. The three other officers at the scene were charged for the first time with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
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| The Latest: National team investigating fires in Minneapolis Posted: 03 Jun 2020 12:03 AM PDT  — Thousands march again near White House to protest death of George Floyd. MINNEAPOLIS — The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has sent a national response team to Minneapolis and St. Paul to help investigate fires set during unrest following the death of George Floyd.
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| 'Dangerous': Around world, police chokeholds scrutinized Posted: 02 Jun 2020 11:30 PM PDT  Three days after George Floyd died with a Minneapolis police officer choking off his air, another black man writhed on the tarmac of a street in Paris as a police officer pressed a knee to his neck during an arrest. Immobilization techniques where officers apply pressure with their knees on prone suspects are used in policing around the world and have long drawn criticism. One reason why Floyd's death is sparking anger and touching nerves globally is that such techniques have been blamed for asphyxiations and other deaths in police custody beyond American shores, often involving non-white suspects.
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