- U.S.INSIDER
An Austin police officer appeared to grope a woman's breast after pulling her over for a traffic violation
In a video that trended on social media Tuesday, an Austin police officer appears to grope the woman's breasts while performing a search, even as she demanded a female officer. In a statement, the Austin Police Department said the officer acted appropriately since the encounter was recorded and another officer was present. The department also said the officer was conducting a search before transporting the woman to jail for "multiple hazardous traffic violations."
- PoliticsAssociated Press
Trump's reelection campaign gets a reboot as virus persists
He'll hold his first in-person fundraiser in a month on Friday in Florida and then a rally on Saturday night in New Hampshire. Trump's rally in Portsmouth was scheduled after aides spent weeks studying what went wrong in Tulsa three weeks ago. It was billed as a massive, defiant return to the political stage but instead produced a humiliating sea of empty seats and questions about the campaign's ability to attract people to large events in a pandemic.
- U.S.NBC News
'I feel threatened': Unmasked Florida man's viral Costco outburst cost him his job
A man's outburst at a Costco in Florida that was caught on video has cost him his job. A video of the incident was posted to Twitter on Monday night by filmmaker Billy Corben. "Florida man at Fort Myers Costco in 'Running the World Since 1776' shirt flips out on elderly woman who asked him to wear a mask and man who defended her #BecauseFlorida," Corben tweeted.
- U.S.National Review
Poll: 70 Percent of Americans Think ‘Black Lives Matter’ Has Not Improved Race Relations
A majority of Americans believe the Black Lives Matter movement has not improved race relations, according to a new poll from Monmouth University, with 38 percent of respondents saying BLM has hurt racial issues in America, compared to 26 percent who say the movement has helped. The poll's findings, released Wednesday, compared results from June 2020 to a similar poll conducted by Monmouth in 2016. While 71 percent of respondents agreed that Black Lives Matter has “brought attention to real racial disparities in American society” — a double-digit increase from 2016 — 70 percent of respondents think that the movement has not improved race relations, with 38 percent saying Black Lives Matter has made race relations worse.
- U.S.Business Insider
The Mayor of Phoenix said she only found out the city was getting a 'significant' federal coronavirus testing site from a tweet
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego told Business Insider she only found out west Phoenix was getting a 'significant' federal testing site through a tweet. The mayor had been calling for federal help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to increase testing in the city. Arizona has turned into the epicenter for the coronavirus outbreak, surpassing 100,000 cases this week.
- StyleArchitectural Digest
15 Platform Beds to Elevate Your Bedroom Style
You'll love these contemporary styles and budget-friendly price points Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- U.S.The Independent
Texas carries out its first execution during pandemic after Supreme Court gives go-ahead
Mr Wardlow had appealed against his death sentence on the basis that he was only 18 when he committed the crime. His lawyers argued that since some neuroscientists now agree that the human brain is still developing up until the age of 21, it is not possible to accurately predict how dangerous an 18-year-old might be in future – and that people under 21 who commit capital offences should therefore not be sentenced to death. The current lower limit is 18.
- BusinessDefense News
US gives the green light to Japan’s massive $23B F-35 buy
The United States on Thursday approved a planned purchase by Japan of 105 F-35 joint strike fighters, moving the country one step closer to becoming the biggest foreign customer of the Lockheed Martin-produced jet. The approved package includes 63 F-35A conventional takeoff and landing aircraft and 42 F-35 short takeoff and landing variants, essentially green-lighting the procurement plans spelled out by Japan in 2018. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the possible sale, which is worth about $23 billion, although that number could change during negotiations between the country and Lockheed Martin.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Militants kill BJP politician Wasim Bari and his family in Kashmir
A Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party politician was killed along with his brother and father in Indian administered Kashmir, officials said on Thursday. Wasim Bari, 38, and his family were attacked by militants at his residence in north Kashmir's Bandipora district on Wednesday night. All three were shot at point-blank range and died on the way to hospital.
- WorldReuters
El Salvador murder rate plummets; study says gangs may have informal pact with government
Homicides in El Salvador fell over 50% in President Nayib Bukele's first year in office, with officials citing tougher enforcement, while a study on Wednesday suggests gangs may have eased up on violence and made informal deals with authorities. Homicides were already in decline in El Salvador, which has recently had one of the world's highest murder rates, when Bukele took office in June 2019. Bukele has attributed the improvement to an increased police and military presence on the streets, and tighter security in jails controlled by the powerful Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs.
- WorldChristian Science Monitor
For Russian experts, Taliban bounty report just doesn’t make sense
From the very start of the American-led invasion of Afghanistan almost 19 years ago, Russian experts were shaking their heads and warning that it would not turn out well. It provided intelligence and logistical support, and repeatedly urged NATO to stay and “finish the job” of defeating the Taliban. Moscow's main concern, then and now, was that the victory of extreme Islamist forces in Afghanistan would promote instability and insurrection in the vulnerable former Soviet states of central Asia, as it had prior to the U.S. intervention in 2001.
PoliticsFOX News VideosJoe Shapiro's widow says her late husband met Donald Trump in college
Raw video: Pam Shriver says her late husband met Trump after he was already enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania.
- U.S.Miami Herald
Trump flag angered man so he dumped trash on resident’s lawn for months, NJ cops say
A 58-year-old New Jersey man was allegedly dumping trash on a resident's front yard for about four months because he couldn't stand looking at a President Donald Trump flag displayed on the property, local outlets reported. Richard Keller, 58, of Franklin, was first caught in the act at about 5 a.m. on July 1 when undercover police officers witnessed Keller throw trash out of his window onto the driveway of the Sparta home, the Sparta Police Department said, TAPintoSparta reported. When one of the officers stopped Keller and asked him why he continued to dump trash on the person's property, he responded, “I think you know...because of the flag,” police said, according to the outlet.
- BusinessBusiness Insider
Twitter billionaire Jack Dorsey just announced he will be funding a universal basic income experiment that could affect up to 7 million people
Associated Press On Thursday, Jack Dorsey, the billionaire CEO of Twitter, announced he is working with 14 American mayors to fund universal basic income (UBI) trials in their cities. The pilot programs will be run city by city and have not yet launched. Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang helped bring the idea of universal basic income into the mainstream and is funding his own UBI pilot program.
- BusinessNBC News
Israel looked like a model for halting coronavirus. Here's how it 'lost its bearings.'
When signs of the coronavirus pandemic appeared in Israel in March, the country shut down hard and fast. Between 8 a.m. Tuesday and 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, Israel recorded a new daily high of 1,528 coronavirus cases, the Health Ministry said. In the West Bank and Gaza, cases have also steadily risen, with more than 300 reported on Tuesday.
- U.S.The Independent
Ohio sheriff refuses to enforce governor's mask order: 'I'm not going to be the mask police'
An Ohio sheriff said he won't enforce Governor Mike DeWine's order making face masks mandatory in states with high rates of Covid-19 infections. The sheriff is a supporter of President Donald Trump and comes from a county of like minded individuals; Butler County voted for Mr Trump by a 2-to-1 margin in 2016 and nearly all of its officeholders are Republicans. Mr DeWine issued the mandatory mask order on Tuesday.
WorldAFPFormer India navy officer refuses to appeal spying death sentence
A former Indian naval officer on death row in Pakistan for alleged spying has refused to lodge an appeal against his conviction and will try instead for a military pardon, an official said Wednesday. Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav was arrested in 2016 in Pakistan's restive southwestern province of Balochistan -- a region where Islamabad has long accused New Delhi of backing separatist rebels. He was sentenced to death by a closed Pakistani military tribunal in 2017, but the International Court of Justice ordered Islamabad last year to review the sentence, and he was later offered the right to appeal.
- U.S.Associated Press
New oversight committee would restore faith in NYPD, AG says
New York Attorney General Letitia James proposed sweeping changes Wednesday to boost oversight of the New York City Police Department, including forming an independent commission that would approve the department's budget and have the final say on officer discipline. “The police should not police themselves — period," James, a Democrat, told reporters. Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked James to investigate whether NYPD officers used excessive force to quell unrest and enforce a citywide curfew in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis.
- WorldReuters
Philippine lawmakers near vote on fate of network that clashed with Duterte
Philippine lawmakers concluded a hearing on Thursday on the license renewal of top broadcaster ABS-CBN, paving the way for a critical vote on whether a major media group that angered President Rodrigo Duterte should be allowed back on air. The telecom regulator ordered ABS-CBN and its 21 radio and 38 television stations to cease operations on May 5, after the lower house failed to conclude hearings on renewing its 25-year license before it expired. ABS-CBN's fate rests with one committee that must decide on a franchise renewal that Duterte has threatened to block during repeated public outbursts at ABS, which stemmed from its failure to air one of his paid 2016 election commercials.
- U.S.BBC
US Supreme Court rules half of Oklahoma is Native American land
The US Supreme Court has ruled about half of Oklahoma belongs to Native Americans, in a landmark case that also quashed a child rape conviction. The justices decided 5-4 that an eastern chunk of the state, including its second-biggest city, Tulsa, should be recognised as part of a reservation. Jimcy McGirt, who was convicted in 1997 of raping a girl, brought the case.
- U.S.INSIDER
George Floyd begged the police not to shoot him from the moment they arrived, bodycam transcripts show
Courtesy of Philonise Floyd Transcripts from police body-camera footage show that George Floyd was worried police officers would shoot him when they approached him on Memorial Day. He and a woman on the scene told the police that he had been shot before and was worried about it happening again. In the transcripts, Floyd told the officers 21 times that he couldn't breathe.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
Feds: Top Ohio State Immunologist Lied About Chinese Funding and Ties to Research Groups
Federal prosecutors allege that a top immunologist at Ohio State University illegally concealed Chinese funding for his research and attempted to flee the country before his arrest in Alaska in May. In a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday, the Justice Department accuses Song Guo Zheng, the Ronald L. Whisler MD Chair in Rheumatology and Immunology at Ohio State's medical school, of fraudulently obtaining federal grant funds from the National Institutes of Health and making false statements to investigators. Zheng, prosecutors say, obtained nearly $5 million in federal research grants without disclosing ties to Chinese entities and additional grant funds provided by them.
- U.S.Reuters
Ex-Trump lawyer behind bars again after dispute over gag order
Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, was taken to a federal jail on Thursday after refusing to agree to a gag order as a condition of serving his criminal sentence under home confinement, Cohen's lawyer said. Cohen, 53, was taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, according to his lawyer, Jeffrey Levine. Cohen had been released from a federal prison in upstate New York in May due to concerns over possible exposure to the novel coronavirus.
WorldMeredith VideosAustralia Ends Hong Kong Extradition Treaty, Extends Visas
Australia's prime minister says his country has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and extended visas for Hong Kong residents in response to China's imposition of a tough national security law on the semi-autonomous territory.
- U.S.NBC News
If Trump strips international student visas, these states will lose hundreds of millions of dollars
The Trump administration's decision to strip visas from international college students whose schools will be online-only in the fall could put the status of more than 1 million students at risk and disproportionately affect several large states. California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Florida would be most affected by the policy, which would force students on F-1 or M-1 visas to either depart the country or transfer to a school with in-person instruction. The seven states, which are among those with the most four-year colleges, had approximately half the international college student enrollment in the 2018-19 school year, according to data from the nonprofit NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
