| With the search for 2 kids at an end, a community mourns Posted: 12 Jun 2020 04:31 PM PDT  Within a few hours, a garden of mementos grew outside the rural crime scene. Pinwheels, flowers and stuffed animals dotted a fence near where police found remains believed to belong to two children in a bizarre case that has captured attention around the world. For police, the grisly discovery this week marked a significant break in a monthslong investigation into what happened to Joshua "JJ" Vallow, who was 7 when he vanished in September along with his 17-year-old sister Tylee Ryan.
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| UN links items in arms shipments and missile attacks to Iran Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:52 PM PDT |
| Judge orders Seattle to stop using tear gas during protests Posted: 12 Jun 2020 01:49 PM PDT  A U.S. judge on Friday ordered Seattle police to temporarily stop using tear gas, pepper spray and flash-bang devices to break up largely peaceful protests, a victory for groups who say authorities have overreacted to recent demonstrations over police brutality and racial injustice. The liberal city with a lengthy history of massive, frequent protests has taken hits from all sides — from demonstrators, some city officials, the president and now a judge — over the way it's responded to crowds taking to the streets following George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
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| Some states hit pause, others press on amid spike in virus Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:57 PM PDT  Utah and Oregon put any further reopening of their economies on hold amid a spike in coronavirus cases, but there was no turning back Friday in such states as Texas, Arkansas and Arizona despite flashing warning signs there, too. One by one, states are weighing the health risks from the virus against the economic damage from the stay-at-home orders that have thrown millions out of work over the past three months. Texas hit highs this week for hospitalizations and new COVID-19 cases, prompting Houston's top county official, Lina Hidalgo, to warn that "we may be approaching the precipice of a disaster."
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| Q&A: What's next for Seattle protesters' 'autonomous zone'? Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:43 PM PDT  For nearly a week, people opposing police brutality and racial injustice have turned a Seattle neighborhood into ground zero for their protests, creating a carnival-like atmosphere with speakers and drum circles near a largely abandoned police station. While protesters say it shows how people can manage without police intervention, it's drawn scorn from President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to "go in" to stop the "anarchists" he says have taken over the liberal city after officers withdrew to ease tensions. Washington's governor and Seattle's mayor, both Democrats, have rebuked Trump and say local officials are trying to find a peaceful resolution following demonstrations that turned violent last weekend.
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| One Officer Who Killed Breonna Taylor Had Been Accused Of Sexual Assault — He’s Not Alone Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:36 PM PDT  Breonna Taylor was killed in her home by police officers serving a "no-knock warrant," allowing them to enter her home without announcing themselves. They weren't even in uniform. Thanks to Breonna's Law, passed earlier this week, these warrants have now been banned. However, the three officers who shot her — Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove — have yet to be charged in her death, and remain on administrative leave. Once the names of the officers responsible for Taylor's shooting were released, multiple women came forward to share their negative experiences with Hankison who, according to these women, has a history of sexual assault. These allegations against Hankison highlight an often overlooked element of police brutality — sexual violence.Both allegations were posted on social media and share eerie similarities, indicating that Hankison may have had a routine of preying on women. Both women say they met Hankison when he offered them a ride home from a bar — in his police car, while in uniform. "In early fall, I began walking home from a bar intoxicated," Emily Terry wrote on Instagram. "A police officer pulled up next to me and offered me a ride home… He began making sexual advances towards me; rubbing my thigh, kissing my forehead, and calling me 'baby.'" Terry said her friend reported it the following day but "nothing came of it," but she came forward after recognizing him when his face was on the news following Taylor's shooting.A woman named Margo Borders shared her story on Facebook, which she said occurred in April 2018. Borders wrote that she was calling an Uber to go home when Hankison, who she "had interacted with on many occasions at bars in St. Matthews," offered her a ride. "He drove me home in uniform, in his marked car, invited himself into my apartment and sexually assaulted me while I was unconscious." The Louisville Metro Police Department is now investigating both of these claims.> View this post on Instagram> > A post shared by Emily Terry (@emily_terry1) on Jun 4, 2020 at 9:26am PDTThe allegations of sexual violence against Hankison reveal a larger, systemic problem regarding law enforcement's entitled violence. According to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Dicrmination, sexual misconduct is the highest form of police misconduct after excessive force. "Women's claims of sexual assault against police officers are largely ignored and not adjudicated in any way," Tarana Burke wrote on Glennon Doyle's Instagram during the ShareTheMic campaign. Last August, two NYPD officers accused of raping a teen in their custody received probation, not jail time. At the time, there was no law that prohibited police from having sex with someone in their custody; in fact, nearly three dozen states allow for sex between an arresting officer and the person they have in custody.Though both of Hankison's accusers are white, it's important to note that Black women are at highest risk for sexual violence at the hands of police officers, as Michelle S. Jacobs, a professor of law at the University of Florida lays out in a 2017 paper, The Violent State: Black Women's Invisible Struggle Against Police Violence. "If you factor in the fact that Black women have the highest rate of police interaction and incarceration in the country then you begin to see how this all ties together," wrote Burke. "We are in danger to both losing our lives to police and being sexually assaulted by them." Daniel Holtzclaw, a police officer in Oklahoma City, OK, was convicted in 2015 of raping 13 Black women. Prosecutors in his case outlined how he specifically target low-income Black women because they would be less likely to turn him in, and he targeted his victims using traffic stops in a poor neighborhood and used threats of arrest of existing warrants to coerce them into sex.In a 2015 investigation, the Associated Press determined that nearly 1,000 officers had lost their licenses for sexual offenses over a six year period, which the reporters noted was "a sure undercount of the problem." "It's so underreported, and people are scared that if they call and complain about a police officer, they think every other police officer is going to be then out to get them," Chief Bernadette DiPino of the Sarasota Police Department in Florida, who helped study the problem for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, told the AP.For Borders, one of Hankison's accusers, this was the case. "I never reported him out of fear of retaliation," she wrote. "I had no proof of what happened and he had the upper hand because he was a police officer. Who do you call when the person who assaulted you is a police officer? Who were they going to believe? I knew it wouldn't be me."For those fighting against police violence and working to make defunding and abolishing the police a reality, excessive violent force and sexual violence are necessarily linked. "Law enforcement does not effectively respond to sexual violence cases, which has resulted in a lack of services for survivors," Burke wrote. "Defunding the police means reducing police budgets and investing that money directly into services that support survivors."Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?Celebrate Breonna Taylor's Birthday The Right WayBreonna Taylor's Death Led To A New Warrant LawWhy Breonna Taylor's Story Is Just Coming To Light
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| Biden's VP list narrows: Warren, Harris, Susan Rice, others Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:35 PM PDT  Joe Biden's search for a running mate is entering a second round of vetting for a dwindling list of potential vice presidential nominees, with several black women in strong contention. Democrats with knowledge of the process said Biden's search committee has narrowed the choices to as few as six serious contenders after initial interviews. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California, as well as Susan Rice, who served as President Barack Obama's national security adviser.
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| UK Formally Confirms To EU That It Won't Extend Brexit Transition Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:19 PM PDT  The U.K. formally confirmed Friday to the European Union it will not extend the Brexit transition period.The U.K. officially left the EU Jan. 31, but the transition period lasts until Dec. 31, which means U.K. is still bound to some EU rules.Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove tweeted:> I just chaired a constructive EU Joint Committee meeting with @MarosSefcovic> > I formally confirmed the UK will not extend the transition period & the moment for extension has now passed. On 1 January 2021 we will take back control and regain our political & economic independence pic.twitter.com/nZjNpez8LI> > -- Michael Gove (@michaelgove) June 12, 2020The full press conference by European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič following the second meeting of the EU-UK Joint Committee can be found here.The BBC reports that checks on EU goods coming into the U.K. will be phased in 2021 to give firms "time to adjust."Related Links:Brexit Finally Arrives, Johnson Says It's 'A New Dawn'A Brexit Recap: What's Next?See more from Benzinga * Brexit Trade Talks In Deadlock, 'Progress Remains Limited' * ECB Doubles Pandemic Bond-Buying Program, Investors Watch Europe With Interest * Brexit Update: Coronavirus Creates Further Uncertainty Over UK Trade Agreement(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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| Trump policy change frightens Cubans, shows Washington chaos Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:02 PM PDT  A week and a half ago, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a strongly worded announcement that the Trump administration was prohibiting business with Fincimex, a Cuban state corporation that works with foreign credit card and money transfer businesses, among others. Would a ban on business with the military-run company mean an end to the remittances that so many Cuban families need to put food on the table?
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| Trump's Actions Rattle the Military World: 'I Can't Support the Man' Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:55 AM PDT  Erin Fangmann grew up in a military family, has been married to a captain in the Air Force for 18 years and has voted Republican all her life, including for Donald Trump. But as with a number of other veterans, troops and military family members who have watched the president with alarm, her support has evaporated."He has hurt the military," said Fangmann, who lives in Arizona, one of several states in play this November with a high percentage of veterans and active-duty service members. "Bringing in active-duty members to the streets was a test to desensitize people to his future use of the military for his personal benefit. I think the silent majority among us is going to swing away."Since 2016, Trump has viewed veterans as a core slice of his base; in that year's presidential election, about 60% voted for him, according to exit polls, and swing-state counties with especially high numbers of veterans helped him win. Many veterans and members of the military stuck with him even as he attacked the Vietnam War record of Sen. John McCain, disparaged families of those killed in combat and denigrated generals whom he fired or drove from government service. Some conservative rank-and-file enlisted members silently agreed with Trump.But the president's threat last week to use active-duty troops on U.S. streets against largely peaceful protesters and his flirtation with invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act have rattled the military world, from its top leaders to its youngest veterans. If they break in significant numbers, they could carry political weight in key battleground states like Arizona, North Carolina and Ohio."I have always been a swing voter," said Amy Rutkowske, an Army veteran and spouse who lives in North Carolina and is volunteering on a House race, the first time she has ever volunteered in politics. "My fundamental understanding is that the president is the commander in chief and that the office demands respect. But I have never wanted a different commander in chief more."Some members of the military -- who are not permitted to speak about politics publicly -- and their families have been posting critically on social media about the president and policies of his that they once supported. Others, who have never been excited about Trump as their commander in chief, have begun to speak out, join protests and volunteer for progressive causes.They say that Trump has politicized the armed forces -- which pride themselves as being above politics and discourage partisan discourse in their ranks -- and has threatened the Constitution, both of which they deem last straws.Of course, many veterans and military personnel still support Trump. Quality recent polling on their views is scant, but some have embraced his America-first campaign message, his focus on military spending and his creation of a new Space Force that has been unexpectedly well-received after initial scoffing.In the 2018 congressional elections, when support for Democrats surged, 58% of military voters continued to vote for members of Trump's party, according to exit polls. And those who do turn away from the president now will not automatically support his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.Martin Sepulveda, a former commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve who lives in Arizona, said of Trump, "I can't support the man." But he added, "Am I a Biden guy? No. I don't know what I will do. I have been a registered Republican for years."But the recent condemnations of Trump from high-level military veterans like Jim Mattis, the former defense secretary and a retired four-star Marine Corps general, have in some cases fortified the shifting views among military members. "The Mattis statement has changed people in some amazing ways," said Chelsea Mark, a Marine veteran in Florida who works for a veteran service organization. "I went on a veteran hike recently, and I saw someone wearing a Donald Trump T-shirt, and that same person this week was posting anti-police-brutality things on her Instagram."On June 5, the same day the Marines issued a ban on displays of the Confederate battle flag at its installations, a retired Marine in dress uniform stood solo in front of the Utah state Capitol in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, with black duct tape across his mouth that read, "I can't breathe."Trump's moves to use the military against American protesters and looters came after several months of other highly unorthodox moves by his administration involving the military, including the clearing of three members of the armed services accused of war crimes; the firing of Capt. Brett Crozier after he raised alarms about the coronavirus on the aircraft carrier he commanded; the calling back of West Point students during a pandemic so the president could address them for a graduation, which he is set to do Saturday; and the diversion of funds from military projects to pay for a border wall, a move that followed the deployment of troops to the border just before the 2018 midterm elections."This is the culmination of all those metronomic choices that have intruded into the military chain of command and culture," said Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, who served as a foreign policy adviser on McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. "I do think it is likely to chip away among veterans, just as I believe it will chip away at support with Republicans more broadly."Trump's ordering of the killing of a top Iranian general, which briefly appeared to bring the United States to the edge of war with Iran early this year, was a disappointment to the many veterans and service members who had supported him in part for his promise to end U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts."The news of wanting to deploy the military domestically has caused a huge sense of outrage among most families I know," said Sarah Streyder, director of the Secure Families Initiative, which advocates diplomacy-first foreign policy and works on behalf of military families. "A lot of military families live on Facebook. Social media is very important for this transient community."Numerous military spouses concurred. "From what I see from my friends communicating online, spouses have grown much more vocal in opposition to policies," said Kate Marsh Lord, a Democrat who is married to a member of the Air Force and lives in Virginia but votes in Ohio. "I have seen more spouses speak out on issues of race and lack of leadership than in my entire 15 years as a military spouse."Roughly 40% of active-duty service people and reserves are people of color, underlining how the current moment has affected military families."People took offense that they were using the military to calm peaceful protests by people of color who were out on the streets," said Jerry Green, who served in the Army until 1998 and now lives in Tampa, Florida. "When I saw that whole thing unfold, for me, personally, it was awful. I was really distraught." Green, who is black, will not be supporting Trump, whom he once found interesting, he said.In North Carolina, Cal Cunningham, a Democrat and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve who is challenging Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, is working to capitalize on the military and veteran vote in his state, where Trump recently diverted millions of dollars for military installments to pay for a wall at the Mexican border after Congress blocked its funding."Cal's profile as a military veteran is quite powerful in a state with so many veterans and military members," said Rachel Petri, a spokeswoman for Cunningham, "not only in communicating with them but also with independent and swing voters who see the military and veterans as part of the state's DNA."Other Democratic groups around the nation are also seeking leverage with the military vote. "We believe that Trump's support within the military, with military families and with veterans, is soft and receding," said Jon Soltz, a founder of VoteVets, which has been increasingly successful in electing Democratic veterans. "Our plan for the fall is simple: We're putting together the most comprehensive, data-driven veteran and military family get-out-the-vote operation the Democratic Party has ever seen, and we will deploy it to ensure Donald Trump is a one-term president."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Arms used against Saudi Arabia were of 'Iranian origin': UN Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:55 AM PDT  Cruise missiles and drones used in attacks last year on Saudi Arabia were "of Iranian origin," including components that had been made in Iran or exported there, according to a report by the UN Secretary-General. The document, which covers the implementation of the 2015 UN nuclear accord with Iran and was seen by AFP on Friday, offers a detailed examination of debris from the weapons used in the attacks. "The Secretariat assesses that the cruise missiles and/or parts thereof used in the four attacks are of Iranian origin," the report by UN chief Antonio Guterres said.
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| Nkurunziza death: Burundi court rules to end power vacuum Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:53 AM PDT  Burundi's Constitutional Court says the president-elect should be sworn in as soon as possible.
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| Temperature spike: Earth ties record high heat May reading Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:36 AM PDT  Last month the global average temperature was 60.3 degrees (15.7 degrees Celsius), tying 2016 for the hottest May in 141 years of record keeping, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Temperature on land set a heat record, while ocean temperatures ranked second. "We continue to warm on the long term and in any given month we're likely to be knocking on the door, close to a record in the era that we're in," NOAA climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt said.
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| Britain not ready for full border controls on EU imports until six months after Brexit transition period, Government admits Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:22 AM PDT  Britain will not be ready to impose full border controls on imported EU goods for at least six months after the Brexit transition period, the Government admitted on Friday. The humiliating climbdown was made as Michael Gove gave the EU formal notice that there would be no British request to extend the transition period beyond the end of the year to buy more time for deadlocked trade negotiations. Businesses importing EU goods must keep records of what tariffs they should pay from January 1 next year but will not have to pay them until July. EU member states such as France and the Netherlands are expected to fully enforce their own customs code and border controls. The Government blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the need for the light-touch regime which will see controls gradually increase over time. Logistics businesses welcomed the move as pragmatic. The backtracking on promises to enforce full border controls on the EU emerged on the same day that Mr Gove held video talks with the European Commission in the joint committee on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster "couldn't be clearer" in his formal notice to the commission, Maros Sefcovic, a commission vice-president, told reporters in Brussels. "[He] was very clear, unequivocal on the fact that the UK is not going to seek the extension and because this was the last joint committee before the deadline expires we take this decision as a definitive one," said Mr Sefcovic.
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| US court hears torture case against top Libyan commander Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:12 AM PDT  Two Libyan families presented their case against Libya's east-based military commander Khalifa Hifter to an American court on Friday, in an unusual effort to hold him accountable for atrocities committed during the civil war. The plaintiffs' suit, brought earlier this year under a seldom-used law, accuses Hifter, a dual Libyan and U.S. citizen and former Virginia resident, of extrajudicial killings and torture. The 1991 Torture Victims Protection Act allows survivors of those crimes to sue foreign authorities for damages in U.S. courts.
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| 'Overwhelming': Georgia poll worker describes voting chaos Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:11 AM PDT  First-time poll worker Kirubel Behailu thought he'd become more familiar with Georgia's new voting machines at a quiet election site during Tuesday's primary. Instead, he found himself scrambling to sanitize equipment, clear jams in a ballot scanner and run back voter cards during a 15-hour marathon at an Atlanta church inundated with frustrated citizens. Election officials in Fulton County — the state's most populous — faced a backlog of thousands of absentee ballot applications after staff became sick with the coronavirus and a deluge of requests froze email accounts and jammed printers.
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| Poll: Americans maintain virus precautions as states reopen Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:04 AM PDT  "For us, it's about doing whatever we have to do to keep ourselves and our community safe," said Jody Hayden, who runs a chocolate shop with her husband in the tiny Lake Michigan town of Empire, about 265 miles northwest of Detroit. Its severity could be lessened by actions people take now.
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| CDC posts long-awaited tips for minimizing everyday risk Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:01 AM PDT  Encourage people to bring their own food and drinks to your cookout. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted the guidelines Friday, along with a second set for organizing and attending big gatherings such as concerts, sporting events, protests and political rallies. The staging and attendance of such events should be in accordance with what local health officials are advising, based on much the coronavirus is spreading in a particular community, he added.
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| Police disciplinary records are largely kept secret in US Posted: 12 Jun 2020 09:56 AM PDT  Officer Derek Chauvin had more than a dozen misconduct complaints against him before he put his knee on George Floyd's neck. Daniel Pantaleo, the New York City officer who seized Eric Garner in a deadly chokehold, had eight. Ryan Pownall, a Philadelphia officer facing murder charges in the shooting of David Jones, had 15 over five years.
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| UN warns of looming crisis as virus strands ship crews at sea Posted: 12 Jun 2020 09:44 AM PDT  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Friday for countries to relieve ship crews stranded at sea for long periods due to lockdowns imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic. "The Secretary-General calls on all countries to formally designate seafarers and other marine personnel as 'key workers' and ensure crew changeovers can safely take place," a statement issued by the United Nations said. Guterres is "concerned about the growing humanitarian and safety crisis facing seafarers around the world."
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| VIRUS DIARY: Romance conquers ocean, outbreak and red tape Posted: 12 Jun 2020 09:22 AM PDT  My 1-year-old stumbled to the doorway of our Sao Paulo apartment and watched as I picked up the document. Luisa and I "coexist in a status that configures a stable union since Jun. 2 of 2018." A few months before that, I'd met Luisa at a friend's house in Madrid.
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| Sir Lindsay Hoyle calls for review of Parliament's statues and paintings after Black Lives Matter protests Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:55 AM PDT  Dotted around the corridors of the Palace of Westminster, there are six paintings, statues and sculptures of Winston Churchill and William Gladstone, and another four each of Robert Peel and Oliver Cromwell. If the anti-racism protesters at the gates of Parliament this weekend were allowed a poke around the inside of the 19th century building, they would barely be able to contain themselves at the depictions of these so-called 'imperialists' and 'racists'. Yet Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, is having none of it. While other civic statues of politicians are under threat, Parliament's monuments to these great political leaders are staying put. Speaking to The Telegraph's Chopper's Politics podcast, which you can listen to on the audio player above, he says: "They are the great politicians of history and they may be judged differently in the future but at the moment, they are part of the history of this House." In fact, rather than tear down statues, Sir Lindsay would prefer that efforts were taken to explain and contextualise Britain's bloody past. He says: "I'm a person who enjoys history, and history is very important to us - very very important it's about making judgement on history. It's about telling the right stories in history. "If people don't want the monument where it is, I understand that and agree with that. But it should go into a museum, where the story can be told about where the wealth came from, how that wealth was accrued. Tell the story - don't destroy the statue." But, in a concession to the concerns of anti-racism campaigners, Sir Lindsay would like a committee of MPs which oversees the House's works of art to check that memories of Britain's slaving past are not on the walls of the Palace of Westminster. Sir Lindsay says: "I've been having a look round myself to see what we have got... is there anything that depicts slavery? Not that I know of. Maybe, maybe some individuals, I'm not sure yet where we are. "We've always got to consistently review what's on show in the House. I was asking the other day about paintings. Did the paintings depict somebody who'd been involved in slavery? People will be asking, and I think it is right that we review and we interpret what is there." Since Sir Lindsay replaced John Bercow in the Speaker's chair as the 158th Speaker last November some traditions have already returned, such as the clerks wearing wigs on ceremonial days in the Commons. Sir Lindsay even hints that he still might deliver on an early pledge to be the first Speaker since Bernard Weatherill in 1992 to wear a full-bottomed wig for the next state opening of Parliament. He told The Telegraph's Chopper's Politics podcast: "I certainly keep the option open... It is about the office and I do support the office. I will remember the appropriate dress. But don't forget, nobody has worn this wig for 30 or 40 years." Sir Lindsay, 63, will not be drawn on whether Mr Bercow should get a seat in the House of Lords and is determined to be less talked about than his predecessor who courted controversy by taking positions on Brexit. He says: "It is about the game that's being played. We don't want to talk about the referee - I know when I have been to watch rugby league, and I have been talking about the referee. That tells me he didn't have a good game."
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| US to withdraw troops from Iraq over coming months despite Islamic State surge Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:52 AM PDT  The US said it will withdraw troops from Iraq in the coming months, six months after the assassination of an Iranian general in Baghdad threatened to see them expelled from the country. The announcement comes amid a spike of Islamic State activity in the country, and as Baghdad and Washington began long-anticipated talks over the future of the presence of the US in the country. A joint statement read: "In light of significant progress towards eliminating the Isis threat, over the coming months the U.S. would continue reducing forces from Iraq." Relations between the two plummeted to an all-time low this year after the US killed Iranian spy chief Qassim Soleimani in an airstrike near Baghdad airport in January. Iranian-backed militias have since launched repeated rocket attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad, and on military bases housing US troops. At the time, Iraqi officials were publicly furious, with President Barham Salih, describing the airstrike as a breach of sovereignty. The Iraqi parliament passed a non-binding resolution to expel American troops immediately. Yet, US officials insisted both publicly and privately that they would leave on their timetable, and only when Iraq was capable of handling its own security affairs. US-led efforts against Isil n Syria are heavily reliant on Washington's presence in Iraq. The October 2019 raid that killed Isil-chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi was conducted by forces flown in from bases in Iraq. The withdrawal announcement comes as attacks by Isil surge in the country. A recent study by the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point notes that Isil claimed 566 attacks in Iraq in the first quarter of 2020 - a notable increase on previous months. The study described Isil as showing "very significant resilience", adding that "the movement has undertaken an agile, fluid, and pragmatic shift back to insurgency in every area of Iraq where the group has lost physical control of populations and resources." At 5,200, the current contingent of US troops in Iraq is already considerably reduced compared to the peak in 2007, when numbers topped 160,000 under President George W. Bush. The Trump administration has attempted to balance its desire to bring as many troops as possible home before the presidential election later this year, and a "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran – Iraq is seen as a key battleground in the rivalry. Though no exact figures were given, western officials believe the reduction will halve the number of US troops remaining in Iraq, with further reductions possible before the end of the year.
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| U.N. chief calls for marine personnel be designated key workers Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:51 AM PDT |
| Trudeau: police video of aboriginal chief arrest shocking Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:36 AM PDT  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that black and indigenous people in Canada do not feel safe around police after a police dashcam video emerged of the violent arrest of a Canadian aboriginal chief. The arrest has received attention in Canada as a backlash against racism grows worldwide in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to his neck. The 12-minute police video shows an officer charging at Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam with his arm and elbow up as he tackles him to the ground.
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| Floyd's death spurs question: What is a black life worth? Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:23 AM PDT  For 12-year-old Tamir Rice, it was simply carrying a toy handgun. For Eric Garner, it was allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes. For Michael Brown, Sandra Bland and Ahmaud Arbery, it was the minor offenses of jaywalking, failing to signal a lane change and trespassing on a residential construction site.
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| Why the World Should Fear Trump’s UN Moves Against Iran Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:48 AM PDT  The forced reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran would be further evidence that the UN security council is breaking, thanks to the Trump administration's bull-headed and self-defeating campaigns.
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| UN ready to help Libya's probe of mass graves in freed town Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:35 AM PDT  The United Nations said on Friday that it's ready to assist Libya's U.N.-supported government with an investigation into at least eight mass graves discovered in territory recaptured from east-based forces commander by Khalifa Hifter. The U.N. noted with horror reports of the uncovered mass graves, mostly in the town of Tarhuna, which have raised fears about the unknown extent of human rights violations in territories controlled by Hifter's forces, given the difficulties of documentation in an active war zone.
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| Australian prime minister apologizes for 'no slavery' claim Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:27 AM PDT  Australia's prime minister apologized on Friday to critics who accuse him of denying the country's history of slavery, as a state government announced it will remove a former Belgian king's name from a mountain range as part of a global re-examination of racial injustice. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended the legacy of British explorer James Cook, who in 1770 charted the site of the first British penal colony in Australia, which became present-day Sydney. Morrison, who represents the Sydney electoral district of Cook in Parliament, described the British naval hero on Thursday as "very much ahead of his time," and urged people calling for the district to be renamed to "get a bit of a grip on this."
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| EU finally accepts there will be no extension to Brexit transition period Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:00 AM PDT  There will not be an extension to the Brexit transition period, the European Commission said on Friday, before warning Britain it must now get ready to police the border in the Irish Sea. Michael Gove told Maros Sefcovic, a commission vice-president, that Britain would not ask for a delay to the period beyond the end of the year in a meeting of the joint committee on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster "couldn't be clearer" in his formal notice to the commission, Mr Sefcovic told reporters in Brussels, "he explained this was the promise that was given to the British citizens in the electoral campaign". "[He] was very clear, unequivocal on the fact that the UK is not going to seek the extension and because this was the last joint committee before the deadline expires we take this decision as a definitive one," said Mr Sefcovic. "Therefore, we are pleading for acceleration of work on all fronts." "We have informed the EU [on Friday] that we will not extend the Transition Period. The moment for extension has now passed," Mr Gove said. The EU has always said it is open to negotiating an extension, especially because of the impact of coronavirus on the already tight deadline, despite Downing Street's repeated vow it would never ask for a delay. "We must now progress on substance," tweeted Michel Barnier as it was confirmed the end of June deadline for extension would expire without a request. The UK and EU agreed a programme of intensified negotiations in July before Monday's meeting of Boris Johnson and three presidents of the major EU institutions. Failure to strike a trade deal by the end of the year will mean the UK and EU trading on less lucrative WTO terms and with tariffs on goods, which experts warn will compound the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Sefcovic demanded more details from the UK Government over how it planned to enforce the new customs arrangements in Northern Ireland after the end of the transition period at the end of the year. A UK command paper was long on aspiration but short on detail, he said.
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| Rafiki, Uganda's rare silverback mountain gorilla, killed by hunters Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:58 AM PDT  Four men face life imprisonment, if found guilty, after the silverback was found dead in a national park.
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| Gambian man charged in US with torture of coup plotters Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:41 AM PDT  Michael Sang Correa, found working in Denver, is accused of torturing opponents of ex-President Jammeh.
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| Cables: US falsely said British queen backed 1953 Iran coup Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:25 AM PDT  The U.S. ambassador to Iran mistakenly told the shah in 1953 that Britain's newly enthroned Queen Elizabeth II backed a plan to overthrow the country's elected prime minister and America maintained the fiction even after realizing the error, historians now say. The revelation, based on U.S. diplomatic cables cited by the historians, shows how America has struggled even to this day to offer a full, unvarnished account of its actions in the coup that cemented Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's power and lit the fuse for Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. "There's an acceptance that you're never going to have the whole story," said Richard Aldrich, a professor at the University of Warwick whose research on the cables will be featured in a Channel 4 documentary in Britain on Sunday.
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| AIPAC Is Smart to Sidestep Netanyahu’s Annexation Push Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:00 AM PDT |
| UK to introduce EU border controls in stages from 2021 Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:00 AM PDT |
| Putin attends first public event after months of lockdown Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:38 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday showed up at a ceremony marking the national holiday — the first big public event he has attended since announcing a nationwide lockdown more than two months ago. Putin observed the hoisting of the national flag at a memorial park in western Moscow and then took part in an award ceremony. Putin pointed to the nation's "thousand-year history full of pages of great glory and pride, the unrivaled bravery of our ancestors and their love for their country."
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| China's 'mask diplomacy' and Silk Road investments may make all the difference if there's a cold war with the US Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:13 AM PDT  U.S.-China relations are the worst they've been in decades – at least since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in June 1989, which led to almost complete international isolation of China.Some officials and observers have even publicly fretted that the U.S. and China are on the brink of a 21st-century cold war. Significant disagreements over trade, human rights and China's growing might have long been flashpoints in the relationship between the world's two biggest economies. But tensions over China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak and Hong Kong's autonomy are pushing it to the breaking point. Yet, what's most interesting to us – as close observers of China's economic and foreign policy – is the differences in how the U.S. and China are handling the fallout. While the Trump administration has primarily focused on confrontation – by accusing China of mishandling the initial outbreak and threatening to downgrade its relationship with Hong Kong over China's passage of a new security law for the island – China has been taking a more nuanced and moderate approach. The Chinese government hasn't shied away from being provocative or defending itself, to be sure, but most of its foreign policy efforts have been directed toward strengthening its hand on the international stage through humanitarian aid and more investment.We hope they're wrong about a new cold war. But if they're right, China's focus on winning international hearts and minds – like the U.S. did in its Cold War with the Soviet Union – will likely prove to be the superior strategy. Tensions boil overUntil Donald Trump became president in 2017, U.S.-China economic and diplomatic relations generally had been on an upward swing for more than three decades, despite occasional tensions. The situation deteriorated sharply in mid-2018, when Trump launched a trade war with China. For the next one-and-a-half years, the two sides placed an escalating series of trade barriers on each other's products, until virtually every product was subject to additional tariffs. A breakthrough emerged earlier this year, as China agreed to buy more U.S. products in exchange for cutting some U.S. tariffs. But the thaw didn't last long before the pandemic's devastating impact in the U.S. prompted Trump to blame China for covering up the seriousness of the coronavirus in January – concerns that got a boost when countries such as Australia called for an independent investigation. Then, after China passed a new security law in Hong Kong, raising fears of a loss of liberties, the U.S. threatened to downgrade its economic relations with the island, which could hurt its status as a regional financial capital. The U.K., Australia and Canada have also criticized China over the issue. Disarm and charmChina, of course, hasn't let these attacks go unanswered. The Chinese government has engaged in a diplomatic and media campaign to defend its coronavirus policies and refute charges of negligence and cover-up. China's ambassadors, for example, have used mainstream and social media to defend China's policies to local audiences in countries around the world. But its more substantive response came when China initiated a large-scale international humanitarian aid campaign in early March. After containing the spread of coronavirus at home, China has been supplying billions of dollars worth of medical supplies and dispatching medical teams to at least 82 countries all over the world, including Spain, Italy, Iran and dozens of African countries such as Nigeria. Dubbed "mask diplomacy," this assistance came at a crucial time when the pandemic had forced many countries, particularly the U.S., to turn inward and focus on domestic needs. Belt and Road 2.0Perhaps the most important part of China's strategy relates to its Belt and Road Initiative. Belt and Road, also known as the "new Silk Road," is a US$1.2 trillion global infrastructure and energy investment plan launched in 2013. It's China's main strategy to promote its long-term economic interest. Due to the global spread of COVID-19, however, many of its dozens of ongoing projects came to a halt and will be hard to resume as governments redirect their financial and fiscal resources to health care expenses and economic recovery. So China is shifting gears, converting the initiative's focus from energy and infrastructure – two industries that are less important in the current environment – to health care and digital telecommunications, which are sectors seen as critical to recovery. Originally introduced in 2017, the "Health Silk Road" is being promoted as a way to invest in other countries' health care infrastructure to help fight future pandemics and build cooperation. Similarly, China's "Digital Silk Road," valued at $200 billion, is helping countries such as Italy, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zambia improve their digital infrastructure, such as with advanced telecommunications technology. Make friends, not enemiesThese efforts are helping the Chinese government not only deflect the Trump administration's anti-China campaign but also seize the opportunity to continue deepening its international relationships. There is evidence it's working, as surveys in countries such as Germany and Serbia show citizens are viewing China more positively – while becoming more critical of the U.S. If Trump continues an anti-China policy with the aim of isolating the country internationally, he may want to rethink his strategy. Instead, he should follow China's lead and return to the playbook that helped the U.S. in the 20th century: winning hearts and minds. [You're smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation's authors and editors. You can get our highlights each weekend.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * US-China trade: China is building bridges with the world while the US puts up walls * Trump's go-it-alone approach to China trade ignores WTO's better way to winThe authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Calls grow for Iranians to wear masks to stop virus Posted: 12 Jun 2020 04:49 AM PDT  Iran reported 75 deaths and more than 2,000 new cases of novel coronavirus on Friday as calls mounted for all people to wear masks in public. "The spread of coronavirus in society has reached such a level that the use of masks is necessary for everyone," said Ghassem Janbabaee, a deputy health minister. Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said 2,369 new infections in the past 24 hours took the total to 182,545.
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| Putin says 'majority' back plan to change Russian constitution Posted: 12 Jun 2020 04:34 AM PDT  President Vladimir Putin said Friday an "absolute majority" of Russians backed his controversial plan to change the constitution, as he made his first public appearance after weeks of lockdown. Russia, which has the world's third-largest coronavirus caseload, this week lifted tight restrictions as Putin set the stage for a vote on July 1 that could extend his hold on power until 2036. Putin greeted his compatriots at an open-air flag-raising ceremony in western Moscow to mark Russia Day, a public holiday.
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| Two years after key Trump-Kim handshake, North Korea says backs away from U.S. Posted: 12 Jun 2020 04:05 AM PDT  "Nothing is more hypocritical than an empty promise," said North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon.
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| Two years after key Trump-Kim handshake, North Korea says backs away from U.S. Posted: 12 Jun 2020 04:05 AM PDT  "Never again will we provide the U.S. chief executive with another package to be used for achievements without receiving any returns," North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said on state-run KCNA. Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a leader of North Korea in June 2018, and later took an unprecedented step onto North Korean soil in 2019 — with the aim of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
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| Statues boarded up in London as more protests expected Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:48 AM PDT  Authorities in London boarded up monuments including a war memorial and a statue of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill in anticipation of rival demonstrations by anti-racism and far-right protesters, as the city's mayor urged protesters Friday to stay home because of the coronavirus pandemic. Monuments have become major focuses of contention in demonstrations against racism and police violence after the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to his neck.
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| National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) Celebrates World Elder Abuse Awareness Day Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT |
| This Tiananmen Protester Is Now Beijing’s Troll-in-Chief Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:03 AM PDT  HONG KONG—U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is comparable to Joseph Goebbels. Harvard University is a "third-rate intelligence agency dedicated to politics," because academics at the institution tried to pin down when the coronavirus may have first appeared in China. And the Black Lives Matter Movement? It has been infiltrated and appropriated by protesters from Hong Kong.These are cracks by Hu Xijin, the chief editor of Global Times, the Chinese Communist Party's most devoted cheerleader within China's state media network. He calls it his "sarcasm," as he said during an interview with Hong Kong's public broadcaster last week, smirking as he tried to explain the joke.But nobody else is laughing.Have no doubt: there is a propaganda war being waged in cyberspace as self-important public figures blast away at each other, their salvos delivered 280 characters at a time. 'WOLF WARRIORS'On this side of the Pacific, Hu's missives are part of a campaign that, depending on how you squint, either provides insight about how the CCP processes world events, or gives momentum to conspiratorial ideas that travel fast in the digital ether. There are the "wolf warrior" diplomats, so named after a movie franchise in which soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army Special Operations Forces save the day. These include the spokespersons for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who take a page from Donald J. Trump and spam our screens with lies, like how the coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic was introduced to China by the U.S. Army.China's 'Great Firewall' Is Closing Around Hong KongAnd there are Chinese ambassadors stationed around the world who echo some of the more extreme views shared by their colleagues in Beijing, functioning as loudspeakers for the CCP's tweet-form agitprop.(Occasionally, the CCP even dreams up fantastical scenarios that are impossible to look away from, like sending 100,000 "duck troops" to Pakistan to consume locust swarms that are the size of cities. Never mind that this wouldn't work, as a scientist at China Agricultural University explained to reporters in February, shortly after state media reported the plan. Now, four months later, new swarms are still forming, devastating fields in the Horn of Africa and South Asia, and the ducks recently resurfaced—on Twitter.)Together, these diplomats and accounts run by personnel from Chinese state-run media outlets sent out 90,000 tweets in English, Chinese, and other languages between the beginning of April and mid-May—specifically to wage a propaganda campaign regarding COVID-19.This escalation could be a response to the frequent, unhinged tweet storms that Trump whips up as slimy, rhetorical sleight of hand to distract, misdirect, or simply evade responsibility. But when Hu spouts off, he's doing so as a member of state media, not as a representative of China's diplomacy, which gives the country's officials cover to put a little distance between Hu and themselves. 'DEFINITELY TRUE'On Twitter, which has been blocked in China since 2009, Hu has a mere 315,000 followers—a mixture of people accessing the site from China through VPNs, members of the Chinese diaspora, China-focused think tankers and researchers, and tankies who are his genuine die-hard fans.It is within the Great Firewall where he wields incredible influence—he speaks to nearly 23 million followers through his Weibo account, the dominant platform for microblogging in his home country, and reaches multiples more through reposts by people who read his words or watch his videos.Not merely the CCP's most high-profile propagandist, Hu oversees the operations of a newsroom of 700 people in the Chinese capital. He is a walking nexus of information that bubbles up from all corners of the country or funnels down through the Chinese Communist Party's hierarchy. Whether you recognize him as an oracle or a mouthpiece, tweets by Hu can move markets—much like the current occupant of the Oval Office.Indeed, the Global Times chief is a lens through which outsiders may view the CCP's stance on the trade war, its tech race with the United States, the world's view of China as nations recover from the pandemic's first wave, and just about every other matter of global importance. Last year, Hu told Bloomberg in an interview that if he adds the phrase "based on what I know" to what he posts, then it's "definitely true."Yet between what Hu frames as levity in his eyebrow-raising comments and certainty about the party's collective head space, serious moral breaches have surfaced. He is a vocal defender of the detention and "transformation" of Uyghur Muslims in indoctrination camps, and has called for Hong Kong's police force to deploy snipers to kill the city's protesters.Hu's fanaticism toeing the party line is in stark contrast with his own life experiences. HU'S LONG MARCH FROM TIANANMENHis path to editorship at Global Times began when he joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1986, the year he turned 26 and started studying Russian at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. The Tiananmen Square demonstrations broke out in April 1989, and he joined the many people who gathered daily in central Beijing. A fast, harsh military crackdown came in June. Many died. He made it out.Five months later, Hu joined People's Daily, the most widely circulated newspaper in China. Eventually, he was dispatched to Yugoslavia in the 1990s as a war correspondent. Hu spent three years covering the civil war, and cites this experience watching the blood-drenched breakup of Yugoslavia as the impetus behind his devotion to the stabilizing power and uniformity of the Chinese Communist Party.In 1996, Hu was back in Beijing, and in the next year rotated to become the assistant chief editor of Global Times, an ultra-nationalistic rag that employs extreme language typically not found in People's Daily. In 2003, he embedded himself in a conflict zone again, this time covering the war in Iraq. Two years later, he was promoted to editor in chief, and has been in charge of setting the Global Times' tone since then.Even within the CCP, Hu is a polarizing figure. Although his loyalty to the party is unquestionable, there are elements within the Cyberspace Administration of China that believe he takes things too far, eliciting scrutiny by Western media, governments, and other entities.He is one of the few figures within China who has chronicled the country's breakneck changes in the past three decades, all of them set against his abandoned passion for Chinese democracy. MOLOTOV COCKTAILSLast year, in the late summer, Hu visited Hong Kong to see the city's anti-government protests up close for himself.By his recent account, the city "has been in chaos for the past year." Last September, donning a high-vis vest, Hu observed the black bloc in action, watching them build roadblocks and face off with riot police.There was the smell of Molotov cocktails—gasoline vapors that gave away where they were stockpiled, then the hot sting of torched asphalt after the makeshift bombs were smashed to feed flames. Electricity shot through a crowd working toward a common, far-fetched goal. Broken teeth and skin were left on the street after beatings.If Hu had encountered any of these things, they wouldn't have been alien to him after stints in places where conflicts were far more destructive—or where similar struggles once took place, in his hometown of Beijing.There are survivors of the Tiananmen Massacre who draw parallels between their protest movement in 1989 and Hong Kong's current series of demonstrations. They see the same spirit unifying two events that happened three decades apart from each other.During Beijing's summer of optimism in 1989, Patrick Henry's "give me liberty or give me death" was painted on banners, in six Chinese characters, and hoisted by many young people in the crowd. The same line is invoked frequently in Hong Kong now.There was a point in time when Hu saw the hope and ambition that is embodied in that quotation, and he even had the courage to join a million of his compatriots in a public square to demand political reforms, some degree of democracy, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and an end to corruption within the Chinese Communist Party.Yet more than 30 years later, those aspirations have eroded completely. Today, Hu follows CCP leader Xi Jinping's diktat for state media to "tell China stories well" and to "hold the family name of the party." In other words, the CCP's media organs must function like Pravda in the USSR to show the party's will and make true the party's pronouncements, at least in people's minds. 'POLITICAL VACCINE'Last week, on June 4, when Hong Kong marked 31 years since the Chinese army cleared Beijing's streets with tanks, Hu said, "The Tiananmen incident gave Chinese society a political vaccine shot." The disease? Democracy. He followed up by juxtaposing videos of NYPD vehicles driving into a group of people blocking a road against the recognizable scene of a column of tanks stopped by a man in Beijing, in an attempt to suggest that American authorities are committing to a crackdown that is harsher than the CCP's in Tiananmen Square, where many hundreds of people were killed.With the American response to the pandemic lagging far behind much of the world, turmoil intensifying on the streets as a conduit for rage against systemic injustice, and Trump's threats to mobilize the military, there is now plenty of material for Beijing's party loyalists and propagandists to hijack, reinterpret, and recontextualize. Their message, no matter what issue it rides on, is uniform—that the American way, even its most meaningful ideals, are inferior to the superficial stability brought about by the CCP's strictures on free thought and expression.It may be easy to dismiss CCP shills' presence on Twitter, but their message shows up in reputable American publications, too. According to our calculations based on documents filed by China Daily with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (PDF), The Washington Post has been paid more than $4.6 million by China Daily to run sponsored content, while The Wall Street Journal took nearly $6 million from Chinese state media. The Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times, The Boston Globe, and Chicago Tribune have all received payments from the CCP's state media.Has Beijing's paid-for propaganda about Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative or China's take on the trade war in American outlets had much of an impact on public opinion? The answer, it seems, is no. Outside of the Great Firewall, other opinions count too, and some of Hu Xijin's abandoned ideals still matter to the rest of the world.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| German cabinet agrees to reduce VAT as part of economic stimulus package - source Posted: 12 Jun 2020 01:19 AM PDT |
| UAE envoy warns Israeli annexation would 'upend' Arab ties Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:20 AM PDT  The United Arab Emirates' ambassador to the U.S. on Friday warned Israel against annexing the Jordan Valley and other parts of the occupied West Bank, saying the move would "upend" Israel's efforts to improve ties with Arab countries. A former Israeli prime minister meanwhile dismissed arguments that Israel must maintain control of the Jordan Valley for security purposes as "nonsense."
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| Pulling down statues of racists? Africa's done it for years Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:01 AM PDT  Statues honoring these leaders of colonial rule have been pulled down over the years in Africa after countries won independence or newer generations said racist relics had to go. New campaigns in the U.S. and Europe are now following Africa's lead. Monuments to slave traders and colonial rulers have become the focus of protests around the world, driven by a reexamination of historical injustice after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in the U.S.
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| Syria economic meltdown presents new challenge for Assad Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:21 PM PDT  In scenes not witnessed for years in government-controlled parts of Syria, dozens of men and women marched through the streets this week, protesting a sharp increase in prices and collapse of the currency, some even calling for the downfall of President Bashar Assad and his ruling Baath party. In Syria nowadays, there is an impending fear that all doors are closing. After nearly a decade of war, the country is crumbling under the weight of years-long Western sanctions, government corruption and infighting, a pandemic and an economic downslide made worse by the financial crisis in Lebanon, Syria's main link with the outside world.
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| The Latest: Judge orders pause on tear gas in Seattle Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:05 PM PDT  — Minneapolis council takes step toward abolishing police department. — Kentucky commission votes to remove Confederate statue from Capitol. — Christopher Columbus statue in South Carolina put in storage after vandalism.
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| Scrub that: Pandemic forces ship owners to shelve anti-pollution gear Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:04 PM PDT  Ship owners are postponing or cancelling the installation of "scrubbers" that extract harmful sulphur emissions from their vessels as the coronavirus pandemic tightens finances. Regulations from United Nations agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which took effect in January, were viewed by the oil and shipping industries as one of the first worldwide efforts to enforce environmental change. The rules aimed to make ships use fuel with a sulphur content of 0.5%, compared with 3.5% previously.
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