- U.S.Yahoo News
Arizona tells Pence it needs additional 500 health care workers as COVID-19 cases soar
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday that the state needed an additional 500 health care workers as the number of cases of COVID-19 continues to set records there. We did hear in the briefing today of the need for personnel,” Pence said at a news conference following his meeting with Ducey. We've already responded with 62 medical personnel arrived this week in Tucson, but the governor conveyed to us an additional request of another 500 personnel and I've instructed the acting secretary of homeland security to move out immediately on providing the additional nurses and doctors and technical personnel.
- U.S.Yahoo News
After a Black protester is killed in Omaha, witnesses claim a rushed investigation ignored signs of the shooter's allegedly racist past
More than 300 people have been arrested in Omaha since Friday, May 29, when the city of less than 500,000 was swept up in the tidal wave of protests against police brutality and systemic racism that had erupted in Minneapolis after the brutal killing by police of an unarmed Black man named George Floyd. Jake Gardner, the white bar owner who shot and killed James Scurlock, a 22-year-old Black protester, on the second night of unrest in Omaha — Saturday, May 30 — wasn't one of them. Within just 36 hours of the shooting, Douglas County prosecutor Don Kleine announced that criminal charges would not be filed, finding that Gardner — a 38-year-old ex-Marine with an expired concealed carry permit — had shot Scurlock in self-defense.
- U.S.The Independent
Black Lives Matter: Florida police officers laugh and brag on video about shooting rubber bullets at protesters
Florida police officers responding to a George Floyd protest have been caught on camera laughing and bragging about shooting protesters with rubber bullets. The video shows police forming a line against a group of protesters in Fort Lauderdale on 31 May and eventually tossing tear gas to drive them away. When protesters began throwing the cannisters back at the police, they responded by shooting at demonstrators with rubber bullets.
- U.S.USA TODAY
Black family sues Hilton after white clerk calls police over hotel's own billing mistake
A Black family is alleging discrimination in a lawsuit filed Thursday against Hilton and a Hampton Inn franchisee in Wilson, North Carolina, after a white female hotel clerk called police over a dispute regarding a billing mistake. Dolores Corbett, who stayed at the hotel on the night of Nov. 23, 2018 with her husband and two teenagers, says that in addition to humiliating and degrading her, the clerk's decision to call police "put our family in imminent danger." The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, arises from a dispute over a billing error.
- U.S.Associated Press
Court record shows St. Louis couple pulled gun before
O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — The white St. Louis couple who became internationally famous for standing guard with guns outside their mansion during a protest have pulled a gun before in defense of their property, according to an affidavit in an ongoing case. As demonstrators marched near the Renaissance palazzo-style home of Mark and Patricia McCloskey on Sunday, video posted online showed him wielding a long-barreled gun and her with a small handgun. The protesters, estimated at around 500 racially mixed people, were passing the house on the way to the nearby home of Mayor Lyda Krewson.
- U.S.National Review
Harvard Grad Says She Was Fired from Deloitte Job for Threatening ‘All Lives Matter’ Supporters
A recent Harvard graduate who threatened to “stab” anyone who told her “all lives matter” has been fired from her job, she announced in a tearful video. Claira Janover, who said in a viral but since-deleted TikTok post that she would “stab” those with “the nerve” to say “all lives matter,” posted several tearful videos explaining that her new employer, Deloitte, had fired her. “I know this is what Trump supporters wanted because standing up for Black Lives Matter put me in a place online to be seen by millions of people,” Janover explained.
- LifestylePopular Mechanics
The Best Bike Lights to Illuminate Your Ride
See what's coming and stay visible with these 11 bicycle lights. From Popular Mechanics
PoliticsYahoo News VideoCourt lifts restriction on Mary Trump's tell-all book
A restriction placed on a tell-all book by President Trump's niece was lifted by a New York appeals court on Wednesday, clearing the way for its distribution.
WorldAFPResidents in West Bank settlement voice hope for calm
The tranquil settlement of Ariel could have found itself a focus of global attention on Wednesday had Israel defied international criticism and advanced plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. But residents going about errands or sipping drinks at cafes were hardly focused on whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would seek to expand Israeli sovereignty to the community. "Everything is normal (today)" 25-year-old Or Goldenberg, a student at Ariel University, told AFP.
- PoliticsNBC News
McConnell warns Democrats about changing Senate rules to kill the filibuster
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has a message for Democrats: Don't end the legislative filibuster if you win control, or you'll regret it. McConnell called on "responsible Democratic senators" not to be "stampeded by the hard left" and preserve "the one institution that guaranteed that America stayed in the middle of the road." McConnell's remarks come as Democrats debate among themselves whether to preserve the super-majority requirement to pass legislation if they win control of the White House and Congress this fall and their agenda is obstructed.
- U.S.BBC
Vanessa Guillen: Woman charged over missing soldier 'killed with hammer'
Fort Hood officials named 20-year-old Aaron David Robinson as the main suspect in Ms Guillen's disappearance on Thursday. Investigators said the suspect, a junior soldier at Fort Hood, killed himself as police closed in on him after fleeing his post on Tuesday. Suspect in US missing soldier case took own life "While law enforcement agencies attempted to make contact with the suspect in Killeen, Texas, Specialist Robinson displayed a weapon and took his own life," Damon Phelps, of the US Army's Criminal Investigation Division, said at a news conference on Thursday.
- U.S.The Independent
Police officer filmed punching black woman at Miami International Airport
The police department in Miami-Dade has dismissed two officers after one punched a black woman at Miami International Airport. The department ordered an investigation into the incident on Wednesday night when a video – dated 1 July – was shared online. Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramirez III wrote on Twitter that he was “shocked and angered” at the video, which showed an argument between two masked cops and one black woman.
- WorldThe Telegraph
'Resist until the end!' Crowds spill into streets of Hong Kong facing water cannon and arrest to protest new security law
Early on Wednesday, Zhang Xiaoming, executive deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, China's top executive body, said suspects arrested under the law would be tried in the mainland. The threat of being extradited and disappeared into China's opaque justice system is chilling to Hong Kong's protesters, but many remained undeterred, and vowed to carry on their fight for basic freedoms. I guess at this point, when Hong Kong people are crushed by hopelessness and helplessness, coming out to the streets is the simplest thing to do to stand and walk by each other in support, keeping our stance against oppressive rulers and their minions,” said Ms Tsang, 23,...
- WorldAssociated Press
US tries to seize Iranian gas heading toward Venezuela
U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking to seize four tankers sailing toward Venezuela with gasoline supplied by Iran, the latest attempt to disrupt ever-closer trade ties between the two heavily sanctioned anti-American allies. The civil-forfeiture complaint filed late Wednesday in the District of Columbia federal court alleges that the sale was arranged by a businessman, Mahmoud Madanipour, with ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. “The profits from these activities support the IRGC's full range of nefarious activities, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, support for terrorism, and a variety of human rights abuses, at home and abroad,” prosecutor Zia Faruqui alleges in the complaint.
- WorldThe National Interest
Terrifying: Why France Once Pointed Its Nuclear Weapons at Germany
Key Point: During the Cold War, France had Germany zeroed in with tactical nuclear missiles—in case of a Soviet invasion. Today, France has the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world, behind the United States and Russia. Unlike the American or Russian nuclear triad, which is made up of air- land- and sea-based nuclear weapons, France maintains a nuclear dyad of air- and sea-based nuclear missiles.
- U.S.National Review
Gun Sales Spike, FBI Background Checks Set New Record
Background checks for gun sales spiked again in June, setting a new record for the highest number of checks in one month as nationwide protests, riots and the coronavirus pandemic continued to increase safety concerns for many. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System conducted 3.9 million checks in June, an increase of 70 percent over June 2019. Already this year, the FBI has recorded 19 million background checks in the system, more than were recorded during first 14 years of the system, which has been operating since 1998.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Lindsey Graham Uses Benghazi to Defend Trump on Russian Bounties
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was among the loudest Republican voices in Congress screaming about the attack on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, Libya back in 2012. In fact, during a Thursday morning appearance on Fox & Friends, Graham actually used the Benghazi attack to defend Trump and accuse his Democratic colleagues of hypocrisy. After co-host Brian Kilmeade quoted Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), who accused Trump of committing “treason,” Graham fired back by asking: “Where were all these Democrats when Benghazi was on fire, when they were calling for help from the consulate?
- U.S.USA TODAY
'You’ve been warned': Florida sheriff says he may deputize gun owners against protesters
Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels, no stranger to making viral videos appealing to tough-on-crime politics, released a video Tuesday that said he will make “special deputies of every lawful gun owner in this county” if he feels the county is overwhelmed by protesters. The three-minute video shows Daniels standing in front of 18 deputies as he derides civil rights protesters as godless disruptors and tells them to stay out of Clay County, a suburb of Jacksonville. "If we can't handle you, I'll exercise the power and authority as the sheriff, and I'll make special deputies of every lawful gun owner in this county and I'll deputize them for this one purpose to stand in the gap between lawlessness and civility," he said.
WorldAFPEx-Canada PM Mulroney calls for revised relations with China
Canada must have an "urgent rethink" of its relationship with China, former prime minister Brian Mulroney said Wednesday as tensions build over the possible extradition to the United States of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Conservative Mulroney backed his Liberal successor Justin Trudeau's rejection of any exchange of Meng, who was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018, for two Canadians who were detained in China in apparent retaliation. Mulroney said Canada's hope that China would emerge as a constructive partner in international relations had been proven wrong, referring in particular to Beijing's militarization of the South China Sea.
- WorldLA Times
The killing of 26 people at a drug rehab center in Mexico thought to be part of a gang war
Drug rehabilitation centers have been frequent targets of attack in Mexico's bloody gang wars. Authorities suspect the assault was part of a ferocious turf battle between two criminal organizations — the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel — that has transformed once-peaceful Guanajuato into one of Mexico's deadliest states. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed Thursday to not “abandon” Guanajuato and suggested that state authorities investigate possible links between local officials and organized crime.
- U.S.Miami Herald
‘Because of my stupidity.’ California man dies of COVID-19 after going to barbecue
Thomas Macias felt he needed a break after weeks in a self-imposed coronavirus quarantine, NBC News reported. So the 51-year-old truck driver from Southern California attended a barbecue with friends as the state began to reopen in June, according to KNBC. A few days later, he found out a person at the party had coronavirus but was asymptomatic.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Finland's air force drops swastika emblem after century in use
Finland's air force has quietly removed the last swastikas from unit emblems after over a century in use. Until recently the country's Air Force Command emblem depicted a pair of wings around a swastika, a symbol which pre-dates its associations with Nazism. The change was first observed by Teivo Teivainen, a politics professor at the University of Helsinki, who argued its negative associations made the swastika's ongoing use politically fraught.
- WorldAssociated Press
Russia denies supplying weapons to Afghanistan's Taliban
Russia's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Moscow has never delivered weapons to the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, countering U.S. allegations. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova rejected the claim by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said Wednesday that he had repeatedly raised the issue during his talks with the Russians. “Russia has only supplied weapons to the legitimate government of Afghanistan, which is well known,” Zakharova said at a briefing.
- BusinessThe National Interest
America's New B-21 Stealth Bomber Is Just Two-Years Away
The much anticipated, high-tech B-21 bomber will “come on in two years,” bringing new dimensions of stealth, software, attack possibilities and nuclear deterrence to the U.S. Air Force. It would even possibly usher in new tactical approaches to how modern operations may move forward in the years ahead. In a conversation with The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies regarding the importance of modernizing the nuclear triad, Air Force Chief of Staff General Stephen Wilson confirmed that the stealthy new aircraft will “come on in two years.
- HealthNational Review
WHO Quietly Changes COVID Timeline following Republican Questioning
The World Health Organization quietly changed its timeline of the coronavirus pandemic's first days on Tuesday, clarifying that the Chinese Communist Party never informed the organization of the pandemic on December 31, despite previous claims to the contrary. In the new timeline, which the WHO says has been updated “in light of evolving events and new information,” the organization reveals that its Chinese Office “picked up” an online statement — which has since been deleted — made by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission describing cases of “viral pneumonia.” The additions clarify the WHO's previous timeline, which simply stated that on December 31, “Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China, reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan” — implying the report was made to the WHO.
