| Trump skewered by conservative critics over report of Russia paying bounty for killing U.S. troops Posted: 28 Jun 2020 04:43 PM PDT  A #NeverTrump Republican group skewered the president for his inaction in the face of intelligence reports that Russia paid cash bounties to Islamic militants for killing American troops. The new ad from the conservative Lincoln Project accuses Trump of looking the other way from the damaging report to protect his cozy relationship with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. "Putin paid a bounty to kill American soldiers," the group said in a tweet.
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| Hitler's Secret Plan to Win World War II: Kill These Three Men Posted: 28 Jun 2020 02:30 PM PDT  The assassination was scheduled to take place in Tehran, the capital of Iran, after the three Allied leaders announced plans to meet there to hammer out the final strategy for the war against Nazi Germany and its Axis allies.
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| Don't blame Sharia for Islamic extremism -- blame colonialism Posted: 28 Jun 2020 02:21 PM PDT  Warning that Islamic extremists want to impose fundamentalist religious rule in American communities, right-wing lawmakers in dozens of U.S. states have tried banning Sharia, an Arabic term often understood to mean Islamic law. These political debates – which cite terrorism and political violence in the Middle East to argue that Islam is incompatible with modern society – reinforce stereotypes that the Muslim world is uncivilized. They also reflect ignorance of Sharia, which is not a strict legal code. Sharia means "path" or "way": It is a broad set of values and ethical principles drawn from the Quran – Islam's holy book – and the life of the Prophet Muhammad. As such, different people and governments may interpret Sharia differently. Still, this is not the first time that the world has tried to figure out where Sharia fits into the global order. In the 1950s and 1960s, when Great Britain, France and other European powers relinquished their colonies in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, leaders of newly sovereign Muslim-majority countries faced a decision of enormous consequence: Should they build their governments on Islamic religious values or embrace the European laws inherited from colonial rule? The big debateInvariably, my historical research shows, political leaders of these young countries chose to keep their colonial justice systems rather than impose religious law. Newly independent Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia, among other places, all confined the application of Sharia to marital and inheritance disputes within Muslim families, just as their colonial administrators had done. The remainder of their legal systems would continue to be based on European law. To understand why they chose this course, I researched the decision-making process in Sudan, the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence from the British, in 1956.In the national archives and libraries of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, and in interviews with Sudanese lawyers and officials, I discovered that leading judges, politicians and intellectuals actually pushed for Sudan to become a democratic Islamic state. They envisioned a progressive legal system consistent with Islamic faith principles, one where all citizens – irrespective of religion, race or ethnicity – could practice their religious beliefs freely and openly."The People are equal like the teeth of a comb," wrote Sudan's soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Hassan Muddathir in 1956, quoting the Prophet Muhammad, in an official memorandum I found archived in Khartoum's Sudan Library. "An Arab is no better than a Persian, and the White is no better than the Black." Sudan's post-colonial leadership, however, rejected those calls. They chose to keep the English common law tradition as the law of the land. Why keep the laws of the oppressor?My research identifies three reasons why early Sudan sidelined Sharia: politics, pragmatism and demography.Rivalries between political parties in post-colonial Sudan led to parliamentary stalemate, which made it difficult to pass meaningful legislation. So Sudan simply maintained the colonial laws already on the books. There were practical reasons for maintaining English common law, too. Sudanese judges had been trained by British colonial officials. So they continued to apply English common law principles to the disputes they heard in their courtrooms. Sudan's founding fathers faced urgent challenges, such as creating the economy, establishing foreign trade and ending civil war. They felt it was simply not sensible to overhaul the rather smooth-running governance system in Khartoum.The continued use of colonial law after independence also reflected Sudan's ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity.Then, as now, Sudanese citizens spoke many languages and belonged to dozens of ethnic groups. At the time of Sudan's independence, people practicing Sunni and Sufi traditions of Islam lived largely in northern Sudan. Christianity was an important faith in southern Sudan. Sudan's diversity of faith communities meant that maintaining a foreign legal system – English common law – was less controversial than choosing whose version of Sharia to adopt. Why extremists triumphedMy research uncovers how today's instability across the Middle East and North Africa is, in part, a consequence of these post-colonial decisions to reject Sharia. In maintaining colonial legal systems, Sudan and other Muslim-majority countries that followed a similar path appeased Western world powers, which were pushing their former colonies toward secularism. But they avoided resolving tough questions about religious identity and the law. That created a disconnect between the people and their governments.In the long run, that disconnect helped fuel unrest among some citizens of deep faith, leading to sectarian calls to unite religion and the state once and for all. In Iran, Saudi Arabia and parts of Somalia and Nigeria, these interpretations triumphed, imposing extremist versions of Sharia over millions of people.In other words, Muslim-majority countries stunted the democratic potential of Sharia by rejecting it as a mainstream legal concept in the 1950s and 1960s, leaving Sharia in the hands of extremists.But there is no inherent tension between Sharia, human rights and the rule of law. Like any use of religion in politics, Sharia's application depends on who is using it – and why.Leaders of places like Saudi Arabia and Brunei have chosen to restrict women's freedom and minority rights. But many scholars of Islam and grassroots organizations interpret Sharia as a flexible, rights-oriented and equality-minded ethical order. Religion and the law worldwideReligion is woven into the legal fabric of many post-colonial nations, with varying consequences for democracy and stability.After its 1948 founding, Israel debated the role of Jewish law in Israeli society. Ultimately, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and his allies opted for a mixed legal system that combined Jewish law with English common law. In Latin America, the Catholicism imposed by Spanish conquistadors underpins laws restricting abortion, divorce and gay rights.And throughout the 19th century, judges in the U.S. regularly invoked the legal maxim that "Christianity is part of the common law." Legislators still routinely invoke their Christian faith when supporting or opposing a given law. Political extremism and human rights abuses that occur in those places are rarely understood as inherent flaws of these religions. When it comes to Muslim-majority countries, however, Sharia takes the blame for regressive laws – not the people who pass those policies in the name of religion.Fundamentalism and violence, in other words, are a post-colonial problem – not a religious inevitability. For the Muslim world, finding a system of government that reflects Islamic values while promoting democracy will not be easy after more than 50 years of failed secular rule. But building peace may demand it.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * What Sharia means: 5 questions answered * How Islamic law can take on ISIS * Trump's travel ban is just one of many US policies that legalize discrimination against MuslimsMark Fathi Massoud has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Fulbright-Hays, and the University of California. Any views expressed here are the author's responsibility.
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| Sudan says over 120 arrested before going to fight in Libya Posted: 28 Jun 2020 01:30 PM PDT |
| Boris Johnson wants Brexiteer to replace ousted Sir Mark Sedwill Posted: 28 Jun 2020 12:50 PM PDT  Boris Johnson will on Monday begin the search for a Brexiteer to run the Civil Service after its current head was ousted ahead of a wholesale reform of Whitehall. Sir Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary, will stand down in September after losing a power struggle with Mr Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings. The civil service union responded by accusing Downing Street of spending months undermining Sir Mark with "corrosive and cowardly" anonymous briefings. Mr Johnson intends to reform Whitehall by recruiting more Brexiteers and relocating Government departments to the regions, and made it clear to Sir Mark that he was not the man to drive the revolution. As first reported by The Telegraph, Sir Mark will also lose his joint role as national security adviser, which will be handed to Mr Johnson's chief Brexit trade deal negotiator David Frost. Mr Frost is considered one of the Prime Minister's most loyal officials, and Downing Street said his appointment means that for the first time the role of national security adviser is classed as a political role, tying it even closer to the aims of Number 10. Mr Frost has been appointed to the national security role despite having little experience in the field. He will also have little time to prepare for the role, as he will remain in charge of Brexit trade negotiations throughout July and could be called upon if negotiations run beyond then, currently the Government's deadline for reaching an agreement. In his letter to Mr Johnson, Sir Mark diplomatically said "we have agreed that I will stand down and leave Government service", while Mr Johnson said he had "earned the gratitude of the nation". But Sir Mark, who was appointed by Theresa May and does not share the Prime Minister's zeal for Brexit or for reform, had been the subject of constant negative briefings which were blamed on Number 10. He was also sidelined when Mr Johnson appointed the Duke of Cambridge's private secretary Simon Case as his permanent secretary and gave him the task of leading the Government review into the two metre social distancing restrictions. Mr Case is now a front-runner to replace Sir Mark.
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| Missile hit near convoy of ex-Lebanon PM Hariri, report says Posted: 28 Jun 2020 12:15 PM PDT  A missile exploded earlier this month near the convoy of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri while he visited a mountainous area in the eastern Bekaa Valley, a Saudi-owned TV station reported Sunday. The blast reportedly occurred some 500 meters (yards) away from Hariri's motorcade on June 17. Hariri was returning from a visit to the top Sunni cleric in the Bekaa valley, days after sectarian tensions and rare clashes in Beirut sparked by Lebanon's ongoing economic and financial crisis, the worst in decades.
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| The men who bake up a 'blessing' in Tehran Posted: 28 Jun 2020 11:33 AM PDT  Bakeries are easy to locate in urban centres of Iran where all one has to do is spot a queue spilling onto sidewalks or simply detect the irresistible scent of freshly baked flatbreads. The baker moves and gesticulates constantly as he works in what resembles a dance in front of gas-fired ovens. Once they are done, the baker again uses the tongs to retrieve the bread, and hangs it on the wall or piles it up.
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| U.S. envoy urges United Nations to renew Iran arms embargo Posted: 28 Jun 2020 10:58 AM PDT |
| Lazarus Chakwera sworn in as Malawi president after historic win Posted: 28 Jun 2020 10:32 AM PDT  Lazarus Chakwera says he feels like the biblical character of the same name who rose from the dead.
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| Senior Conservative MPs urge UK negotiators to reject Brexit 'compromise', as talks resume Posted: 28 Jun 2020 10:31 AM PDT  Senior Conservative MPs have urged UK negotiations to reject a Brexit "compromise" expected to be tabled by Brussels this week, as the latest round of trade talks got underway on Sunday. Under the proposals freedom from EU rules comes with the price of higher tariffs, but the Government has been warned that such a suggestion would "not for one moment be acceptable" to a 40-strong group of Europe-skeptic backbenchers. British officials had previously suggested Boris Johnson would consider the compromise, under which the UK would secure the right to deviate from Brussels' standards in areas such as state aid in return for higher trade tariffs. However, David Jones, the deputy chair of the European Research Group (ERG) of MPs, warned: "We would certainly oppose such a suggestion. "The whole point is if we're tethered to their rules then we're inevitably tethered to the European Court of Justice and if that is the case then we can't be said to be an independent country. "You can't be just a little bit independent. You're either independent or you're not. It's impossible; it's like being a little bit pregnant." The EU negotiating team is expected to table the proposal during the fifth round of Brexit trade negotiations, currently underway in Brussels. In the latest round of talks, the first face-to-face meetings since the coronavirus lockdown in March, the UK's chief negotiator David Frost has reportedly been tasked with "strangling" the plans.
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| Suspect in killing at Louisville protest in custody Posted: 28 Jun 2020 10:01 AM PDT  The suspect arrested in the shooting death of a man during a Louisville protest over the police killing of Breonna Taylor had taken part in demonstrations but was disruptive and had been asked by other protesters to leave, authorities and protesters said Sunday. The man, identified by an arrest citation as Steven Nelson Lopez, was hospitalized and being interviewed by homicide investigators about the shooting that happened late Saturday, interim Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder said at a news conference. Tyler Charles Gerth, 27, of Louisville, died after being shot at Jefferson Square Park in downtown Louisville, authorities said.
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| Trump deletes tweet of supporter shouting ‘white power’ after outrage Posted: 28 Jun 2020 09:43 AM PDT  Deputy press secretary claims Trump had not heard the racist language of video he tweeted that was posted for nearly four hoursDonald Trump has deleted a tweet he sent featuring video of a Trump supporter shouting, "White power! White power!" after an outpouring of grief and outrage at racist language flowing directly from the White House once again.The tweet was deleted after it drew fierce criticism from across the political spectrum, including from Tim Scott of South Carolina, the sole African American Republican in the Senate."There's no question that he should not have retweeted it and he should just take it down," Scott told CNN's "State of the Union" program."It was so profanity laced, the entire thing was offensive. Certainly, the comment about the white power was offensive. It's indefensible. We should take it down."Trump had left the tweet, featuring video of arguments among residents of The Villages, a predominantly white and conservative retirement community in Florida, posted on his Twitter feed for nearly four hours."Thank you to the great people of The Villages," Trump tweeted about the footage, which begins with a white man driving a golf cart with a "Trump 2020" sign spouting racist rhetoric at white anti-Trump protesters.White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere claimed that Trump had not heard the man screaming "white power" at the start of the video he tweeted."President Trump is a big fan of The Villages," Deere said in the statement. "He did not hear the one statement made on the video."Cody Keenan, a former speechwriter for Barack Obama, said the tweet was part of Trump's re-election strategy."How 'bout we just skip past the kabuki where White House staff emails reporters anonymously to say they had nothing to do with it, every [Republican] senator pretends they haven't seen it, and just accept that they're all part of the Trump 2020 white power Covid rally 'til the end," Keenan tweeted.Trump sent the tweet as he faces a difficult re-election bid, which in part involves a struggle to shore up support among his base of white and evangelical Christian voters. Polls indicate that a majority of that demographic has supported protests over the killing last month of George Floyd, an African American man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.The Floyd protests have launched what could be a moment of reckoning for racial justice, on issues ranging from unaccountable police killings to Confederate monuments to criminal justice reforms to the legacy of slavery to reparations.Yet Trump has leaned into his opposition to the protests, threatening to deploy the US military in American cities, promising stiff penalties for defacing statues, tweeting "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" – a phrase famously used in the 1960s by a Miami police chief long accused of bigotry – and declaring himself the president of "law and order".On Sunday, Trump, who is also facing a growing scandal over his handling of the coronavirus crisis, and intelligence indicating a Russian plot against American soldiers in Afghanistan, once again sought to stoke racial tensions.Following his retweet of footage from The Villages, Trump sent a tweet in all caps that said, "the vast silent majority is alive and well!!" The phrase "silent majority" is associated with Richard Nixon's political strategy to inflame racial anxiety to win votes.In a separate appearance on CBS New's Face the Nation, vice-president Mike Pence refused to use the phrase "Black Lives Matter"."So you won't say 'black lives matter?'" host John Dickerson asked Pence."John, I really believe that all lives matter," Pence replied, using a phrase that has long been criticized for failing to recognize the racism Black Americans face.Challenged on Trump's rhetoric Sunday morning in a separate CNN appearance, health secretary Alex Azar said he had not seen the most recent tweet – but asserted that Trump is not supportive of white supremacy."I've not seen that video or that tweet, but obviously neither the president, his administration nor I would do anything to be supportive of white supremacy or anything that would support discrimination of any kind," Azar said. "[O]bviously, the president and I and his whole administration would stand against any acts of white supremacy."But many critics of the president see him as one of the most powerful proponents of white supremacy in the country's history.Andrew Stroehlein, European media director of Human Rights Watch, said Trump's tweet was "not surprising for a man who's called neo-Nazis "very fine people" and hired white nationalists to work in the White House, but still, immensely dangerous."With his poll numbers falling, he wants a race war," Stroehlein tweeted."Our racist president, who retweeted a 'white power' video today, got caught covering up that Putin, who got him elected, was paying bounties for murdering American soldiers," wrote Walter Shaub, former director of the office of government ethics, on Twitter. "His response is to lie, attack the press, and take no action against Putin. Trump is at war with America."
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| Trump denies being briefed on Russian 'bounty payments' offered to the Taliban for killing UK and US troops Posted: 28 Jun 2020 08:29 AM PDT  Donald Trump has denied being briefed by intelligence officials that the Russians offered bounties to the Taliban to kill British and American soldiers in Afghanistan. Reports of the Russian bounties, first carried in the New York Times, were confirmed by other major US news outlets over the weekend. According to the reports Mr Trump, who has sought to forge a close relationship with Vladimir Putin, was briefed about the bounties allegedly paid to Islamic militants in March but failed to act. The reports were dismissed as "fake news" by the president on Twitter. "Nobody's been tougher on Russia than the Trump Administration," he tweeted. "With Corrupt Joe Biden & Obama, Russia had a field day, taking over important parts of Ukraine - Where's Hunter? Probably just another phony Times hit job, just like their failed Russia Hoax. Who is their "source"?" Lagging in the polls and under fire for his response to the coronavirus crisis and recent unrest in the US, Mr Trump has found himself vulnerable to accusations of failing to protect US national security. The Foreign Office, meanwhile, declined to comment on security matters. John Bolton, whose newly-published memoirs paint an unflattering picture of the Trump administration, stepped up his attack on his former boss as the row over what the president knew intensified. Appearing on CNN's State of the Union Mr Bolton, who was sacked by the US president last September, was unable to confirm the briefings took place and suggested the reports should be treated with caution.
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| Trump denies knowledge of 'Russian bounties on US troops' as criticism mounts Posted: 28 Jun 2020 08:10 AM PDT  Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered cash to Taliban militants for successful attacks on coalition troops in AfghanistanDonald Trump claimed on Sunday that no one had told him about a Russian plot to offer bounties to Taliban militants in exchange for fatal attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan, though US security officials have been weighing a response to the plot since at least March.Top administration officials, including members of Trump's national security council, have been discussing the Russian bounty offer for months, the New York Times first reported.But in a tweet Sunday morning, Trump claimed never to have heard about the Russian offer – and he questioned whether such an offer had been made."Nobody briefed or told me, [vice president Mike] Pence, or chief of staff Mark Meadows about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians," Trump tweeted in part. "Everybody is denying it & there have not been many attacks on us …"Meadows took over as chief of staff at the end of March, after the national security council, which includes top advisers to the president with offices inside the White House, convened an interagency meeting to discuss taking action on the intelligence reports, according to the Times.Joe Biden, Trump's presidential rival, accused Trump in a virtual town hall on Saturday of betraying US troops by failing to act on the intelligence reports."Not only has he failed to sanction or impose any kind of consequences on Russia for this egregious violation of international law, Donald Trump has continued his embarrassing campaign of deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin," Biden said."His entire presidency has been a gift to Putin, but this is beyond the pale. It's a betrayal of the most sacred duty we bear as a nation, to protect and equip our troops when we send them into harm's way."> Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden slammed President Trump after the New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence concluded that the Russian military offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan to kill American troops https://t.co/izhdSre2Le pic.twitter.com/C4w9YgQGJ1> > — Reuters (@Reuters) June 28, 2020A Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered cash to Taliban-linked militants for successful attacks on coalition forces in the fall of 2019, as the US and Taliban engaged in talks to end a decades-long war, according to widely reported US intelligence assessments.While Trump and aides cast doubt on those assessments, further reporting published on Sunday by the Times revealed that US intelligence agencies were tipped off to the Russian program by the discovery by US special forces of a large amount of American cash at a Taliban outpost.Warnings about the suspected Russian plot were sent up the intelligence chain in January, the Times reported.Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019.But the White House press secretary, the director of national intelligence (DNI), and now the president himself all denied at the weekend that news of a secret Russian paid assassinations plot against US troops ever made it to Trump's inner circle."I have confirmed that neither the president nor the vice president were ever briefed on any intelligence alleged by the New York Times in its reporting yesterday," intelligence director John Ratcliffe said in a statement Saturday. "The White House statement addressing this issue earlier today, which denied such a briefing occurred, was accurate."House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said on ABC's This Week program on Sunday that it was "totally outrageous" that Trump did not act on the intelligence reports to defend American lives."This is as bad as it gets, and yet the president will not confront the Russians on this score," Pelosi said.White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany issued a statement Saturday denying that Trump had been briefed but saying "this does not speak to the merit of the alleged intelligence".The White House has not explained why the president would not be briefed on a plot to kill US soldiers deployed overseas."Either the DNI is lying (which is a massive problem) or the DNI withheld earthshaking information from President Trump because he is so infantile and irrelevant that they'd rather he not know (which is … well … also a massive problem)," tweeted Connecticut senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat.The former acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, who served the Trump administration, suggested on Sunday that the reports about the intelligence assessment were wrong."No one would be fine with this if it were true," Grenell tweeted.Both the Russian foreign ministry and the Taliban issued statements denying the plot."This unsophisticated plant clearly illustrates the low intellectual abilities of the propagandists of American intelligence, who instead of inventing something more plausible have to make up this nonsense," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.A Taliban spokesman said the militants "strongly reject this allegation and are not indebted to the beneficence of any intelligence organ or foreign country".Trump has publicly undermined US intelligence assessments about Russia in the past. In a July 2018 appearance in Helsinki, Finland, alongside Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump endorsed Putin's denial of US findings that Russia had tampered in the 2016 presidential election."They said they think it's Russia; I have President Putin, he just said it's not Russia," Trump told reporters. "I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be. I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today."A report by special counsel Robert Mueller delivered in March 2019 documented extensive contacts between Russian intelligence and Trump campaign officials but "did not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities".The report documented 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice by Trump personally in investigations directly or indirectly involving his campaign's Russia ties.
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| Shootings across Chicago kill 3 kids; activists seek change Posted: 28 Jun 2020 08:05 AM PDT |
| California's alleged Golden State Killer set to plead guilty Posted: 28 Jun 2020 08:03 AM PDT  Forty years after a sadistic suburban rapist terrorized California in what investigators later realized were a series of linked assaults and slayings, a 74-year-old former police officer is expected to plead guilty Monday to being the elusive Golden State Killer. The deal will spare Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. any chance of the death penalty for 13 murders and 13 kidnapping-related charges spanning six counties. "I've been on pins and needles because I just don't like that our lives are tied to him, again," said Jennifer Carole, the daughter of Lyman Smith, a lawyer who was slain in 1980 at age 43 in Ventura County.
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| Trump tweets video with 'white power' chant, then deletes it Posted: 28 Jun 2020 07:40 AM PDT  President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted approvingly of a video showing one of his supporters chanting "white power," a racist slogan associated with white supremacists. The video appeared to have been taken at The Villages, a Florida retirement community, and showed dueling demonstrations between Trump supporters and opponents. "Thank you to the great people of The Villages," Trump tweeted.
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| Lebanese judge bans media from interviewing US ambassador after she criticised Hizbollah Posted: 28 Jun 2020 07:39 AM PDT  A Lebanese judge on Saturday banned US ambassador Dorothy Shea from being interviewed by local and foreign press for a year, after she criticised Hizbollah in a TV interview, reflecting rising tensions between the US and the powerful paramilitary group. Speaking to Saudi-owned TV station Al-Hadath, Ms Shea said that Washington has "great concerns" over Hizbollah's role in the Lebanese government. The Iran-backed Shiite group and its allies are dominant in parliament and it backs the current government. The ambassador accused Hizbollah of siphoning off government funds for its own benefit and destabilising the country's economic recovery. With the Lebanese lira losing almost 80 per cent of its value since October, the country is grappling with its biggest threat to stability since the 1975-1990 civil war, as its economic crisis continues to spiral out of control. Judge Mohamad Mazeh in the southern city of Tyre said he acted after receiving a complaint from a citizen that Ms Shea's comments were "insulting to the Lebanese people." Mr Mazeh said the comments incited sectarian strife and threatened social peace. While the judge cannot ban Ambassador Shea from speaking, he said he can ban press from interviewing her. "I think it is a distraction. I wish people would spend their time and attention trying to solve the problems facing the country," Ms Shea told Lebanese news station MTV on Sunday morning. "The US Embassy will not be silenced," she said, adding that the Lebanese government had already apologised to her for the ruling. Hizbollah is designated a terrorist organisation by the US and UK, but the US continues to be one of the largest donors to the Lebanese army, making for a complicated diplomatic balancing act. Lebanon is currently in talks with the International Monetary Fund, hoping to secure a bailout, though infighting in the Lebanese government has given little hope for an immediate breakthrough. "It breaks my heart," IMF's managing director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday. "Lebanon is a country that has some entrepreneurial people. It's a country that has been doing service to the world by hosting refugees. It is clear what needs to be done but... the unity... [is] what we need to still work on," she said.
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| Experts see no proof of child-abuse surge amid pandemic Posted: 28 Jun 2020 07:30 AM PDT  When the coronavirus pandemic took hold across the United States in mid-March, forcing schools to close and many children to be locked down in households buffeted by job losses and other forms of stress, many child-welfare experts warned of a likely surge of child abuse. Among them is Dr. Lori Frasier, who heads the child-protection program at Penn State's Hershey Medical Center and is president of a national society of pediatricians specializing in child abuse prevention and treatment. A similar assessment came from Jerry Milner, who communicates with child-protection agencies nationwide as head of the Children's Bureau at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
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| The Latest: Mississippi legislators vote to retire flag Posted: 28 Jun 2020 06:51 AM PDT |
| Trump's attacks seen undercutting confidence in 2020 vote Posted: 28 Jun 2020 06:39 AM PDT  It was a startling declaration about one of the pillars of American democracy, all the more so given its source. The president of the United States last week publicly predicted without evidence that the 2020 presidential election would be "the most corrupt election in the history of our country." "We cannot let this happen," Donald Trump told an audience of young supporters at a Phoenix megachurch.
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| After Floyd, raw talk, racial reckoning among US Muslims Posted: 28 Jun 2020 06:00 AM PDT  As a young student, Hind Makki recalls, she would call out others at the Islamic school she attended when some casually used an Arabic word meaning "slaves" to refer to Black people. "Maybe 85% of the time, the response that I would get from people ... is, 'Oh, we don't mean you, we mean the Americans,'" Makki said during a virtual panel discussion on race, one of many organized in the wake of George Floyd's death. "That's a whole other situation about anti-Blackness, particularly against African Americans," said Makki, who identifies as a Black Arab Muslim.
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| Israel orders US-based Christian TV channel off air Posted: 28 Jun 2020 05:45 AM PDT |
| Trump denies briefing on reported bounties against US troops Posted: 28 Jun 2020 05:44 AM PDT  President Donald Trump on Sunday denied that he had been briefed on reported U.S. intelligence that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American troops in Afghanistan, and he appeared to minimize the allegations against Moscow. American intelligence officials concluded months ago that Russian officials offered rewards for successful attacks on American service-members last year, at a time when the U.S. and Taliban were holding talks to end the long-running war, according to The New York Times. A senior administration official said the White House planned to brief select members of Congress on Monday on the subject.
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| Lebanon's FM to summon US envoy over comments on Hezbollah Posted: 28 Jun 2020 05:23 AM PDT  Lebanon's foreign minister summoned the U.S. ambassador to Beirut over comments she made recently in which she criticized the militant Hezbollah group, state-run National News Agency reported Sunday. In Hezbollah's stronghold south of Beirut, some 500 protesters marched on foot and motorcycles through the streets chanting: "Oh America, you are the Great Satan." The agency gave no further details other than saying that the meeting between Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti and Ambassador Dorothy Shea is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
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| Biden criticizes Trump for inaction over reported Russian bounties Posted: 28 Jun 2020 05:22 AM PDT  "If I'm elected president, make no mistake about it, Vladimir Putin will be confronted and we'll impose serious costs on Russia," the former VP said.
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| In NYC, marking 50th anniversary of Pride, no matter what Posted: 28 Jun 2020 05:18 AM PDT  There were protests, rainbow flags and performances — it was LGBTQ Pride, after all. With the city's massive Pride parade canceled, Sunday's performances were virtual, the flags flew in emptier than normal spaces and the protesters were masked. The disruption caused by the virus would be an aggravation in any year, but particularly in this one, the 50th anniversary of the first Pride march in New York City.
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| Black candidates push race debate into GOP-held districts Posted: 28 Jun 2020 04:59 AM PDT  It was a scene Jeannine Lee Lake never would have imagined when she first ran against Greg Pence, Vice President Mike Pence's brother, for a rural Indiana congressional seat two years ago: an almost entirely white crowd of more than 100 people marching silently in the Pences' hometown this month, offering prayers for Black people killed by police and an end to systemic racism. Leading them was Lake, who is in a rematch against Pence.
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| Trump, statehood, police funding fight up DC mayor's profile Posted: 28 Jun 2020 04:56 AM PDT  Muriel Bowser's national profile had never been higher, thanks to a Twitter beef with President Donald Trump and a renewed push to turn the nation's capital into the 51st state. Now Washington's mayor must pull off a public juggling act as the city budget becomes a battleground for the country's debate on overhauling law enforcement. An activist collective led by Black Lives Matter is trying to capitalize on shifting public opinion, and the demands include major cuts in funding for the Metropolitan Police Department.
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| Virus-hit Iran says masks compulsory from next week Posted: 28 Jun 2020 04:08 AM PDT  Iran said Sunday it will make mask-wearing mandatory in certain areas and has allowed virus-hit provinces to reimpose restrictions, as novel coronavirus deaths mounted in the Middle East's worst-hit country. The new steps were announced as Iran counted 144 new fatalities from the COVID-19 disease, its highest death toll for a single day in almost three months. The Islamic republic has refrained from enforcing full lockdowns to stop the pandemic's spread, and the use of masks and protective equipment has been optional in most areas.
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| Taiwan parade celebrates LGBT Pride, island's virus success Posted: 28 Jun 2020 03:51 AM PDT  The Taiwanese capital held its annual LGBT Pride parade on Sunday, making it one of the few places in the world to proceed with such an event in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The parade in Taipei has drawn tens of thousands of people in the past, but participant numbers Sunday were reduced by both virus concerns and heavy rain. Taiwan's Central News Agency said that over 1,000 attended.
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| AP Interview: US envoy calls for Iran arms embargo renewal Posted: 28 Jun 2020 03:20 AM PDT  An expiring United Nations weapons embargo on Iran must remain in place to prevent it from "becoming the arms dealer of choice for rogue regimes and terrorist organizations around the world," the U.S. special representative to Iran said Sunday. Brian Hook told The Associated Press that the world should ignore Iran's threats to retaliate if the arms embargo set to expire in October is extended, calling it a "mafia tactic." Among its options, the Islamic Republic could expel international inspectors monitoring Iran's nuclear program, deepening a crisis created by President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrawing from Tehran's 2015 atomic accord with global powers.
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| The men who bake up a 'blessing' in Tehran Posted: 28 Jun 2020 02:50 AM PDT  They bake what Iranians call "the barakat (blessing) of the table", and it is eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner -- traditional breads are a staple of the Iranian diet. Bakeries are easy to locate in urban centres of Iran where all one has to do is spot a queue spilling onto sidewalks or simply detect the irresistible scent of freshly baked flatbreads. The baker moves and gesticulates constantly as he works in what resembles a dance in front of gas-fired ovens.
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| How a New York High School Teacher With Mob Ties Allegedly Bribed a DEA Agent Posted: 28 Jun 2020 02:01 AM PDT  By all accounts, Michael Masecchia seemed like an average English teacher at Grover Cleveland High School—a central Buffalo school whose most notable alumni include an NFL defensive end and a former U.N. official. The father of two had worked in the Buffalo public school system for more than 30 years, in which he taught at least 25,000 students and coached hundreds more in football, softball, and soccer. In 2018, his salary was around $76,949, according to court records, almost 30 percent more than his peers. But one former student recalled that the 54-year-old "kind of blended into the background at school—like he was involved in the school but not too much as to call too much attention to himself." Terrence M. Connors, a lawyer for the teacher, said Masecchia had "a great rapport with his students" and was once an "exceptional college football player."So when Masecchia was arrested in August 2019 on federal drug charges—after authorities raided his two-story Williamsville home to find a large cache of guns, several homemade explosives, and drugs—the school community was stunned. Masecchia was accused of growing and selling marijuana for more than 20 years. "When one is involved in drug trafficking and has a cache of weapons at their ready access including explosive devices—certainly if I'm a parent, I don't want my kid to be taught by that person," U.S. Attorney James Kennedy, Jr. said in an Aug. 29 press conference, before alluding the charges were "a part of a much larger and ongoing organized crime and public corruption investigation, so stay tuned."The upstate New York community now has an answer to the prosecutor's ominous warning: Masecchia was allegedly a member or associate of the Mafia who bribed a DEA agent to protect his decades-long drug scheme. "I'm still in shock over the whole thing. Mr. Masecchia is the last person I would expect," the student told The Daily Beast. "This is straight out of a movie."In a twist worthy of The Sopranos, prosecutors allege former DEA Agent Joseph Bongiovanni blocked several investigations into Masecchia, provided him with information on drug investigations and cooperating sources—and even at times using and selling cocaine—after receiving at least $250,000 in bribes."Masecchia had been a target or subject of several DEA cases during... Bongiovanni's venture as a DEA special agent," the 37-page indictment, filed earlier this month by the U.S. Attorney's Office Western District of New York, said. "[But] Masecchia was never arrested or charged in any DEA cases or investigations."While Bongiovanni, who retired from the DEA in February, was charged last November with accepting bribes to shield his friends with ties to organized crime, this month's indictment is the first time prosecutors have publicly linked the two men. It's also the first time investigators have accused Masecchia of being a friend and associate of "Italian Organized Crime" in upstate New York. "Masecchia is an associate and possibly made member of the Buffalo LCN family," a July 2013 email sent to Bongiovanni from a fellow member of law enforcement said. The officer was referring to La Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia organization that has been active across the U.S. Northeast since the 1920s. Bongiovanni, 56, is now facing a slew of charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, accepting a bribe, and obstruction of justice. Masecchia was also charged with several crimes, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, and maintaining a drug-involved premises. Both men, who have pleaded not guilty and are expected to face trial in November, could get decades in prison. "Mike Masecchia is a long tenured, high school teacher and a well respected member of the Western New York community," Connors, Masecchia's lawyer, told The Daily Beast. "He is not now nor has he ever been, as the government alleges, a member of 'Italian Organized Crime' if, in fact, that designation even exists."The new indictment "doesn't change much as far as we're concerned," James P. Harrington, who is representing Bongiovanni, told WHBW. "My client still professes his innocence and we look forward to defending him at trial."Families for both men did not respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment. A rat in the ranksIn 2008, Bongiovanni and Masecchia started working together to defraud the DEA in a conspiracy that, according to the indictment, hinged on Bongiovanni's access to information about criminal investigations.It's not clear how the pair met or first came into contact with one another. But, over a nearly decade-long collaboration, Masecchia paid Bongiovanni at least $250,000 in exchange for regular debriefs, prosecutors allege. During frequent meetings, the DEA agent would allegedly provide information he obtained through fellow law-enforcement colleges, or state and DEA deconfliction databases—which would alert him if other agents were looking into any of the people he had under his protection. The duo also allegedly conspired to distribute marijuana and cocaine between 2008 and 2019, the indictment states.Pandemic Puts the Screws to New York's Mafia. In Italy, the Mobs Are Thriving.But Masecchia was only one of several Mafia-related figures to benefit from Bongiovanni's position of power. Prosecutors allege Bongiovanni went to great lengths to protect himself and several people who were paying him for protection. He allegedly created his own DEA case file on his co-conspirators so he could funnel all DEA information towards himself and keep tabs on colleagues seeking to investigate his associates.For example, after a fellow DEA agent conducted surveillance on a Buffalo warehouse in June 2013 that was controlled by someone Bongiovanni had been in cahoots with, Bongiovanni advised his colleague to discontinue the surveillance due to his own open investigation. A month later, Bongiovanni emailed the U.S. Attorney's Office and a special agent with the IRS with an update on his fake investigation. "We are working on a GPS warrant for trackers to locate these grow operation [sic] a CI [confidential informant] reported they are turning the grow over in 8 to 9 weeks. Joe." Bongiovanni then wrote in a September 2013 DEA report that agents were waiting for the U.S. Attorney's Office to utilize GPS trackers for the investigation. He continued to lie in reports and made misleading statements to others in law enforcement to delay any legal action, prosecutors allege. "After feigning legitimate investigation for a period of time so that information about his co-conspirators, and anyone seeking to cooperate against them, would be funneled towards him, the defendant Bongiovanni closed the DEA file," the indictment states, noting that "even with the file closed, he would continue to receive deconfliction notices related to individuals under his protection."The 56-year-old also allegedly lied to his fellow DEA agents, made cover stories for his co-conspirators and even owned, sold, and used the drugs he helped protect. In one instance, Bongiovanni allegedly told an associate to pass himself off as a potential informant if he was ever questioned about their relationship. 'Get her out' of the clubThe indictment details the lengths Bongiovanni allegedly went to from late 2009 onwards to protect an individual identified in court documents as "Co-conspirator 1," who was paying Bongiovanni. In one instance, Co-conspirator 1 violated the terms of his federal supervised release from prison. So Bongiovanni called the U.S. Probation officer to "mitigate any sanctions that might have been imposed." Days later, Bongiovanni allegedly lied in a DEA report that Co-conspirator 1 had acted as a "confidential source" and had provided information to the DEA in narcotics investigations.In June 2016, Bongiovanni attempted to dissuade another special agent from subpoenaing phone records of contacts between him and Co-conspirator 1 by asking his colleague if he "hate[d] Italians." Two months later, Co-conspirator 1 called Bongiovanni after "a stripper overdosed on drugs at a gentlemen's club" he operated in Cheektowaga, New York. Bongiovanni, according to the indictment, told him to "get her out" of the club."It should be known that any contact I have had with [Co-conspirator 1] in the past was minimal in-person contact and primarily consisted of random telephonic communication based on the fact we were childhood friends," Bongiovanni would later write in a November 2018 DEA memo. "I would sometimes randomly encounter [Co-conspirator 1] at a restaurant or golf outing and have not made plans to meet him socially in several years."On Bongiovanni's last day on the job with the DEA in February 2019, he wiped all the data off his phone and removed the DEA case file against those who were paying him—before hiding it in the basement of his home. Five months later, federal and county investigators raided Masecchia's home on Main Street in Williamsville—a beige home with a basketball hoop at the end of the driveway, just blocks away from SUNY Erie Community College and the Country Club of Buffalo. Inside, authorities found an eye-popping haul, including marijuana, cocaine, steroids, hypodermic needles, THC edibles, seven homemade explosives, two rifles, five shotguns, various rounds of ammunition, four cellphones and $27,950 in cash that was hidden in "clothing and rubber banded in two bundles." New York's Last Bigtime Mafia Boss, Gets Sendoff From His 'Spark Plug'According to Masecchia's original criminal complaint, the homemade explosives were packed with flash powder and sealed with a hot glue gun. Prosecutors allege that Masecchia has distributed at least 1,000 kilograms of marijuana since 1999 and Erie County Sheriff's records show that one of the shotguns found at his home was reported stolen in September 2015.After his arrest, the Buffalo Public Schools said Masecchia had been "placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the legal process." The school district did not respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment. "All these dangerous items were possessed by an individual who has access to children on a daily basis," Kennedy, the U.S. Attorney, said after Masecchia's arrest, noting that the teacher lived across the street from another high school. 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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| Women 'on precipice' in developing countries amid COVID-19 Posted: 28 Jun 2020 01:51 AM PDT  Rebecca Nakamanya rolls her eyes, dismissing a question about school fees. "We have not even started thinking about school fees," she says. In the usually bustling labyrinth of shops surrounding a bus terminal in Uganda's capital, Kampala, she and other women sit idle in their open-air restaurant, waiting for customers who rarely come.
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| North Korea Is No Pushover, Not Even For America's B-2 Stealth Bomber Posted: 28 Jun 2020 01:30 AM PDT  If the Trump Administration chooses to intervene in North Korea, the White House may discover that Pyongyang is a more formidable adversary than many might expect.
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| Israeli court releases anti-Netanyahu activist after arrest Posted: 28 Jun 2020 12:04 AM PDT  A court ordered the release of a former Air Force general and leading critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from jail on Sunday, a day after hundreds of people protested outside the Israeli leader's residence calling for him to be freed. Retired Brig. Gen. Amir Haskel has been a leader of the protest movement against Netanyahu, demanding that the long-time leader step down while facing charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. Haskel and several others were detained on Friday in what police said was an "illegal" demonstration because the protesters blocked roads.
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| 'Like leaning into a left hook': coronavirus calamity unfolds across divided US Posted: 27 Jun 2020 11:00 PM PDT  In a week that saw the worst day on record for new cases, Trump shrugs as experts warn Americans not to follow his leadA disaster is unfolding in Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin Luther King preached and where Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus. Hospitals are running short of drugs to treat Covid-19, intensive care units are close to capacity, and ventilators are running short.Between 85% and 90% of the very sick and dying are African American.Amid this gathering storm, the city council met to decide whether to require people to wear masks, a basic protection the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strongly recommends. Doctors lined up to plead their case."This is beyond an epidemic in this area," said the pulmonologist Bill Saliski. "Our units are full of critically ill covid patients. We have to slow this down."His colleague, Nina Nelson-Garrett, described watching undertakers carrying out corpses, 30 minutes apart."Something as simple as a mask can save someone's life," she said.Dr Kim McGlothan recounted how she was frequently stopped by white people asking, "Is the media sensationalizing this, is it really as bad as they are making out?"McGlothan told the council: "People don't believe the hype. Until you mandate masks, we won't be able to stop this – we just won't."Then a black resident stood up. Six of his relatives had died from Covid-19. His brother was on a ventilator. "This is not about masks," he said. "The question on the table is, 'Do black lives matter?' I lost six of my family to Covid. How would it feel if it was your family?"> If a pandemic comes through, we do not throw our constitutional rights out the window> > Brantley Lyons, councilmanThe council debated for two hours. White council members asked if young children could get carbon monoxide poisoning from masks – no, the doctors firmly told them – and spoke portentously about individual rights."At the end of the day," said councilman Brantley Lyons, "if a pandemic comes through, we do not throw our constitutional rights out the window."When the vote was called, it divided on largely racial lines. Black members voted for masks, in order to prevent more families losing six loved ones. White members voted against masks, to preserve the fundamental right not to attach a cloth to your face.In a 4-4 tie, the ordinance failed. As he left the chamber, Dr Saliski uttered just one word: "Unbelievable."Unbelievable accurately describes America today. The country is on the brink of a huge surge of Covid-19, as the virus tears through the heartlands while the president praises himself for having done "a great job" and blithely predicts the scourge will "fade away".Ask Alabama whether the virus is fading away. Or Arizona, Florida, South Carolina or Texas. The disease is venting its fury on these states, which all reopened their economies – with Donald Trump's avid blessing – before the contagion was contained."Opening while cases are increasing is like leaning into a left hook," said Tom Frieden, a former CDC director. "You are basically asking to get hit – and that's what these states did."Alabama is enduring a pummeling. It has recorded 32,000 cases and its curve is on a steep upward path.The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, who ushered in one of the earliest and most aggressive reopenings, insisted a few days ago that his state "remains wide-open for business". Yet he has been unable to ignore reality: that the virus has spread its lethal tentacles to every corner of the state overwhelming hospitals to the point that Houston medical centers are running out of ICU beds. Now, once again, Texas' bars are closing. One town, near Houston, has even brought in a curfew.The Lone Star state recorded 6,584 cases on Wednesday alone – a heart-sinking figure that makes its curve look almost vertical.Florida's malaise would be wryly amusing were so many lives not at stake. On 20 May the conservative magazine the National Review ran the gloating headline: "Where Does Ron DeSantis Go to Get His Apology?" The article scolded liberal critics of the Republican governor's lax approach to coronavirus – he famously allowed beaches to remain open in spring break and has permitted shops and restaurants to get back to business – for having got it wrong: there was no spike in Florida.On 20 May, Florida's daily infection load stood at 527 new cases. Five weeks later, it reported a record 8,942 on Friday and broke the record again on Saturday with 9,585. 'It's getting worse, not better'Though states such as Florida and Texas are bearing the brunt of the beating, this is not a catastrophe that can be dismissed as the problem of just a few places. Across the nation, at terrifying speed, a similar picture is revealing itself.Every important data point, including positivity rates and hospitalizations, is surging across most states. A map produced by a team of epidemiologists and health experts, Covid Act Now, shows only four states, all in the north-east, including New York, which used to be at the center of the pandemic but has wrestled it under control, as being on track to contain the disease. Twenty-one states are at risk or facing active or imminent outbreaks.It is troubling enough that the US now has 2.4m confirmed cases – double the number of the next highest country in the world, Brazil, and almost certainly a huge underestimate. The death toll has passed 125,000, with another 20,000 at least expected this month.The death rate is still trending downwards – one bit of positive news in this sorry picture. But deaths lag behind confirmed cases by a month, and that spells trouble ahead.One crumb of comfort had been that for almost three months the daily rate of new infections held steady at around 20,000 cases a day. Then, two weeks ago, the monster began to stir.The tally of new cases ticked upwards, and on Thursday it reached a stomach-churning 40,000 – the worst day on record since the pandemic began."It's getting worse, not better," said Frieden, who now heads the global health initiative Resolve to Save Lives. "The contrast with other countries is striking. South Korea had 30 cases a day and they flipped out. The US now has 30,000 cases a day and there are people shrugging and saying 'It's no big deal'."Trump is shrugger-in-chief. When the president lured thousands of non-mask wearing supporters to a viral incubation party – he called it a rally – in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last Saturday, he told them that in his view testing for coronavirus was a "double-edged sword… When you do testing you are going to find more cases. So I told my people, slow the testing down."Despite White House efforts to pass the comment off as a joke, it encapsulates the Trump administration's approach towards this devastating crisis. Early on, Trump failed to marshal the full weight of the most powerful government on Earth against the virus. He lost six critical weeks.> When the conversation turns to, 'Why can't we ramp up testing?' there's a sense the White House is not going to be happy> > Ashish Jha, Harvard Global Health InstituteEven today, the 500,000 tests being carried out each day falls woefully short of the scale needed. Contact tracing – another crucial tool – is patchy at best, with signs that a growing number of Americans are unwilling to cooperate.Leading public health experts have watched aghast as Trump has done exactly what he said he would: put a dampener on data-driven efforts that could, over the course of the pandemic, potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives."Everybody agrees we need a lot more testing," said Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. "But when the conversation turns to, 'Why can't we ramp up the testing?' there's always the sense that the White House is not going to be happy to do what's necessary. There's real pushback against scientific leaders calling for action."Evidence for such a pushback isn't hard to find. There's this week's announcement that the Trump administration will soon end federal funding for 13 testing sites – seven in ravaged Texas.Then there's the ghostlike absence of the CDC, one of the world's leading public health agencies, which has fallen mute at the moment it is most needed. Frieden has become so frustrated by the booming silence of the institution he led for almost eight years, until Trump entered the White House, he has taken to publicising CDC research himself, in a desperate attempt to fill the void.When the Guardian put it to him that this was an extraordinary state of affairs, Frieden replied: "It feels a bit like North Korea, doesn't it?"The most worrying aspect of the tone being set by Trump is that it is starting to shift the mindset of ordinary Americans. Everywhere you look there are anecdotal signs of people falling in line with the president – shrugging and saying it's no big deal.That trend is very visible in Montgomery. In the end, the town's African American mayor, Steven Reed, overruled the city council's white members and introduced mandatory mask-wearing by executive fiat.But it will be an uphill battle persuading white townsfolk to abide by the ordinance. Brad Harper, a reporter with the Montgomery Advertiser, says he is struck whenever he goes into a Target or Walmart that almost all white shoppers go unmasked while black shoppers have their faces covered.On social media, people rant about masks as "muzzles" and "badges of submission". "People get really angry about it, resisting even their doctors asking them to wear it," Harper said. "They don't see a protective device, as something that can save the people around you, they see it as an instrument of control."All across the country, similar acts of personal rebellion are playing out. Residents of Palm Beach, Florida, erupted in anger against a mandatory mask order, calling it the "devil's law" and an affront to "God's breathing system".Further up the Florida coast, in Jacksonville Beach, 16 friends decided to have a night out at an Irish pub – the entire group came down with the virus, as well as seven bar workers. A surprise birthday party in Texas led to 18 members of one family being infected.Crowds of unmasked people have been gathering in Las Vegas's reopened casinos, and Covid-19 cases have soared. In Arizona, the Republican sheriff of Pinal county vowed not to enforce the lockdown on grounds of individual liberty, and promptly contracted the disease himself. Not to mention Cruisin' Chubbys Gentleman's Club, a strip club in Wisconsin that had its very own outbreak. 'If you divide people, you allow divide and conquer'Everywhere you look there are indications America's social contract – the idea that if we stand united we can defeat this terrible affliction – is breaking down."If you divide people, you allow divide and conquer," Frieden said. "This is us against them, humans against microbes. The more we are divided, the more microbes will conquer."Wändi Bruine de Bruin, provost professor of public policy, psychology and behavioral science at the University of Southern California, has been tracking the changing public response since March. Through a rolling survey of 7,000 adults, she has found that most Americans – about 71% – still say they avoid public spaces and crowds. But the proportion is falling, fast, down from 92% in April.She puts the slide down to unclear messaging. "Messages and policies are no longer consistent. Some businesses are allowed to open, others not, and it's not clear why. That leads to confusion, and anger. Some people start to think it's not fair, others start to assume it's not that important."Jha said it was vital to acknowledge that most Americans, including many Republicans, have so far been compliant with stay-at-home orders. But he frets that a mindset is taking hold that the virus is somebody else's problem."I worry that it will take large numbers of people getting very sick, the hospitals filling up, for people to realise this is a pandemic, not a disease outbreak in New York or New Orleans. I hope it doesn't come to that. I worry that it will."> This is a long war and we are losing a lot of battles right now, because we are not fighting them> > Tom FriedenThe Guardian asked whether he was concerned about possible public resistance to renewed lockdown orders, should some states be forced back into extreme measures in the face of a Covid-19 explosion."I do fear that," he said. "For months there has been a concerted effort by a small minority to argue that this is overblown or a hoax. It will be difficult for Republican leaders to get people to change their views on this."Jha checked himself, then added: "It's a tiny minority. Unfortunately, it includes the president of the United States."The good news is that scientists are very clear about what needs to be done. Frieden calls it the three Ws – wear a mask, wash your hands, watch your distance – combined with aggressive testing, contact tracing and isolation of the sick.If such measures can be introduced concertedly and quickly, both at federal and state level, public health experts are confident that all is not lost. The contagion could be contained and the economy slowly and relatively safely rebooted.But time is running out for America."This is a long war and we are losing a lot of battles right now, because we are not fighting them," Frieden said. "We are going to be paying for the mistakes we make today for months, or even years, to come."
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| Exit poll: Polish presidential vote headed for runoff Posted: 27 Jun 2020 10:53 PM PDT  Poland's conservative president, Andrzej Duda, was the frontrunner in Sunday's election, but fell short of the 50% of votes needed to win in the first round, according to the projection of an exit poll. The results, if confirmed, pave the way for what is building into a very tight race in July 12 runoff that will most likely pit the populist incumbent against the centrist Warsaw mayor, Rafal Trzaskowski, who was in second place. Whether Duda ultimately wins a second five-year term in two weeks' time will determine whether the ruling nationalist party that backs him, Law and Justice, keeps its near-monopoly on political power in Poland.
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| World hits coronavirus milestones amid fears worse to come Posted: 27 Jun 2020 10:35 PM PDT  The world surpassed two sobering coronavirus milestones Sunday -- 500,000 confirmed deaths, 10 million confirmed cases -- and hit another high mark for daily new infections as governments that attempted reopenings continued to backtrack and warn that worse news could be yet to come. "COVID-19 has taken a very swift and very dangerous turn in Texas over just the past few weeks," said Gov. Greg Abbott, who allowed businesses to start reopening in early May but on Friday shut down bars and limited restaurant dining amid a spike in cases. California Gov. Gavin Newsom rolled back reopenings of bars in seven counties, including Los Angeles.
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| Mississippi lawmakers vote to remove rebel emblem from flag Posted: 27 Jun 2020 10:00 PM PDT  Mississippi lawmakers voted Sunday to surrender the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag more than a century after white supremacist legislators adopted the design a generation after the South lost the Civil War. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has said he will sign the bill, and the state flag will lose its official status as soon as he does. Mississippi has faced mounting pressure to change its flag during the past month amid international protests against racial injustice in the United States.
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| Donald Trump’s re-election playbook: 25 ways he'll lie, cheat and abuse his power Posted: 27 Jun 2020 10:00 PM PDT  From now until November, opponents of the most lawless president in history face a fight for democracy itself Donald Trump will do anything to be re-elected. His opponents are limited because they believe in democracy. Trump has no limits because he doesn't.Here's Trump's re-election playbook, in 25 simple steps:1) Declare yourself above the law.2) Use racist fearmongering. Demand "law and order" and describe protesters as "thugs", "lowlife" and "rioters and looters". Describe Covid-19 as "kung-flu". Retweet posts from white supremacists. In your campaign ads, use a symbol associated with Nazis.3) Appoint an attorney general more loyal to you than to America, and politicize the Department of Justice so it's lenient on your loyalists and comes down hard on your enemies. Have it lighten the sentence of a crony convicted of lying under oath. Order investigations of industries you dislike.4) Fire US attorneys who are investigating you.5) Fire independent inspectors general who are looking into what you've done. Crush any whistleblowers you find.6) Demean and ignore the intelligence community. Appoint a director of national intelligence more loyal to you than to America. Demand that the head of the FBI pledge loyalty to you.7) Pack the federal courts with judges and justices more loyal to you than to the constitution.8) Politicize the Department of Defense so generals will back whatever you order. Refer to them as "my generals". Have them help clear out protesters. Order the military to surveil protesters. Tell governors you'll bring in the military to stop protesters.9) Purge your party of anyone disloyal to you and turn it into a mindless, brainless, spineless cult.10) Get rid of accumulated experience and expertise in government. Demean career public servants. Hollow out the state department, the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, and public health.11) Reward donors and cronies with bailouts, tax breaks, subsidies, government contracts, regulatory rollbacks and plum jobs. Put their lobbyists in charge of your agencies. Distribute $500bn in pandemic assistance to corporations in secret, without any oversight.12) Coddle dictators. Don't criticize their human rights abuses. Refuse to work with the leaders of other democracies. Withdraw from international treaties.13) Create scapegoats. Demonize migrants and lock up asylum seekers at the border, even if they're children. Put a white nationalist in charge of immigration policy. Blame Muslims, Mexicans and Chinese.14) Denigrate and ridicule all critics. Describe opponents as "human scum". Attack the mainstream media as purveyors of "fake news" and "enemies of the people".15) Conjure up conspiracies supposedly led by your predecessor and your opponent in the last election. Without any evidence, accuse your predecessor of "treason". Fabricate a "deep state" out to get you.16) Downplay real threats to the nation, such as a rapidly spreading pandemic. Lie about your utter failure to contain it. Muzzle public health experts. Urge people to go back to work even as the pandemic worsens in parts of the country.17) Encourage armed supporters to "liberate" states from elected officials who disagree with you.18) Bribe other nations to investigate your electoral opponent and flood social media with lies about him.19) Use rightwing propaganda machines like Fox News and conspiracy-theory-peddling One America News to inundate the country with your lies. Ensure that the morally bankrupt chief executive of Facebook allows you to spread your lies on the biggest media machine in the world.20) Suppress the votes of people likely to vote against you. Intimidate voters of color. Encourage Republican governors to purge voter rolls, demand voter ID and close polling places.21) Seek to prevent mail-in ballots during the pandemic. Claim they will cause voter fraud, without evidence. Threaten to close the US postal service.22) Get Vladimir Putin to hack into US election machines, as he did in 2016 but can now do with more experience and deftness. Promise him that in return you'll further destabilize America as well as Nato. Let him even place a bounty on killing US troops in Afghanistan.23) If it still looks like you'll be voted out, try to postpone the election.24) If you're voted out of office notwithstanding all this, refuse to leave. Contest the election, claim massive fraud, say it's a conspiracy, get your cult of a political party to support your lies, get your propaganda machine to repeat them, get your justice department to back you, get your judges and justices to affirm you, get your generals to suppress any subsequent rebellion.25) Declare victory.Memo to America: beware Trump's playbook. Spread the truth. Stay vigilant. Fight for our democracy. * Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a columnist for Guardian US
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| 'Tre45on' Trends After Report That Trump Knew Putin Put Bounty On U.S. Troops Posted: 27 Jun 2020 09:02 PM PDT  Joe Biden slammed Trump's record of "deference and debasing himself before Vladimir Putin."
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| 1 fatally shot at Breonna Taylor protest park in Kentucky Posted: 27 Jun 2020 06:52 PM PDT |
| UN warns of 'intensified fighting' in Myanmar's Rakhine state Posted: 27 Jun 2020 05:07 PM PDT  The United Nations called for "urgent measures to spare civilians" in Myanmar's conflict-wracked northwest on Sunday, saying fighting has intensified between the army and insurgents. The military has been battling the Arakan Army (AA) -- a rebel group seeking more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists -- in Myanmar's Rakhine and Chin states since January last year. Under lockdown and with an internet blackout across much of the conflict zone, reporting from the area is difficult to verify.
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