Trump endorses primary opponent of Republican senator who voted to convict him

Former President Donald Trump endorsed the primary opponent of Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Friday, months after the Alaska moderate voted to convict him on a charge of incitement of insurrection. Lisa Murkowski is bad for Alaska,” Trump said in a statement. He cited Murkowski's vote to approve President Biden's choice for interior secretary, Deb Haaland, who was later confirmed, as the reason for his decision, stating that Murkowski's approval was tantamount to voting to kill the “ANWR [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]” and “Alaska jobs.

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  Trump endorses Murkowski challenger in 2022 Senate race

  Reuters
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  Trump endorses Murkowski challenger

  Politico

From burgers to chocolate to beer: How climate change will affect what we eat

Unless climate change can be greatly minimized, rising temperatures will disrupt food production around the world and potentially alter the way we eat, a new study finds. The continued buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could imperil "nearly one-third of global food crop production and over one-third of livestock production" by 2081-2100, the peer-reviewed study, published in May by researchers at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland, concludes. The findings put a fine point on what climate scientists have warned for decades: that climate change will render certain parts of the globe incapable of producing food for the people who live there.

His bagel didn’t have cream cheese, so he pulled gun on a police chief’s daughter, cops say

While working her job at Starbucks, the daughter of Miami Gardens' police chief was allegedly threatened with a gun over an order mix-up — the gunman was given his bagel without cream cheese, police say. Chief Delma Noel-Pratt told Miami Herald news partner CBS4 in an interview that the experience traumatized her 23-year-old daughter. “As a mother I am very concerned,” Noel-Pratt told the station.

After Putin meeting, White House now looking to 'engage' with China's Xi Jinping

A meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin now under his belt, President Biden is considering holding talks with China's Xi Jinping. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday told reporters that what Biden has said "about there being no substitute for leader-level dialogue as a central part of why he held the summit with Putin yesterday also applies to China and to President Xi Jinping. He will look for opportunities to engage with President Xi going forward."

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  White House considering talks between Biden and China's Xi

  Reuters
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  After Putin summit, White House considers meeting with China's Xi Jinping

  Axios

Violence shatters Pakistani elite as thousands protest 'illegal' land grab

For those fortunate enough to own a home in a Bahria Town development, the elite suburb promises to offer a respite from the clamour of life in much of Pakistan. Prospective residents from Karachi are lured with assurances that they can swap the blackouts, floods and rubbish heaps of the port metropolis for a luxury lifestyle in a manicured architectural fantasia. While Pakistan is often gripped by political and religious protests, the rich are rarely targeted - and the violent intrusion in Bahria Town has shaken elite Pakistani society beyond its gates.

If Putin isn’t rethinking his legacy after meeting with Biden, perhaps he should be | Opinion

Much to the surprise of a puzzled pundit corps, history may well conclude that, while President Joe Biden and Russia's President Vladimir Putin produced no big-deal breaking news headline, their summit may prove to be one of the 21st century's pivotal events. Also, U.S. intelligence agencies announced long ago that Putin personally approved massive cyber-sabotage of the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential campaigns.

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  U.S.-Russia Relations After the Biden-Putin Summit

  Bloomberg
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  President Biden returns to D.C. after historic summit with Vladimir Putin

  CBS News Videos

Rumours swirl that China’s top spycatcher has defected to the US

Rumours abounded on Friday night that China's top spycatcher had defected to the US, amid a growing focus in Washington on the theory that Covid-19 escaped from a Wuhan laboratory. Dong Jingwei, vice minister of state security, was reported to have flown from Hong Kong to the US in February with his daughter. There was no confirmation of the rumoured development from either the US or China.

Should the U.S. start taxing wealth?

"Paying taxes is an expression of citizenship," said Maureen Dowd at The New York Times. Last week, ProPublica "cracked open the vault on America's biggest tax grifters, revealing how the Midas men dip, dodge, and duck, paying pennies on the dollar, if that, while we suckers have to pony up." It's why we need an aggressive tax overhaul, said Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post.

Federal judge throws out CDC’s cruise safety regulations, handing win to DeSantis

A federal judge threw out U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention safety rules for cruise companies operating in Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic Friday, handing a victory to Gov. Ron DeSantis. In a 124-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday of the Middle District of Florida said the agency's “conditional sail order” — a framework of regulations dictating how cruises can restart in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic — can remain in place for Florida cruises only until July 18, granting DeSantis' request for a preliminary injunction while the full case moves forward. After July 18, the rules will become non-binding recommendations for cruise companies as they are for other industries.

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  Judge rules for Florida on CDC order blocking cruise ships

  Associated Press
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  EU recommends lifting travel restrictions for US tourists. Latest COVID-19 updates

  USA TODAY

Italy at crisis point as Mediterranean migrant numbers surge nine-fold

Italy's government is under huge pressure to staunch the arrivals of migrants from the coast of North Africa as the country recorded a nine-fold increase in the number of asylum seekers reaching its shores since 2019. Latest figures show the migration landscape shifting, with many more attempts to reach Spain and Italy than Greece, which has adopted hardline policies. On Friday, Greece's migration minister said the government had adopted the measures so “we don't send the wrong message of incentivising people to come”.

Rep. Ted Lieu calls Catholic bishops 'hypocrites' for trying to deny Biden Communion over abortion stance while ignoring Bill Barr's death penalty push

Catholic Bishops advanced a document that could bar Biden from Communion over his support for abortion rights. Rep. Ted Lieu, a Catholic, called the Bishops "hypocrites" and "nakedly partisan" for the move. Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California lashed out at US Catholic Bishops on Friday after they voted in favor of advancing a document that could block President Joe Biden from receiving Communion due to his stance on abortion.

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  Biden's abortion views may be scolded by U.S. bishops

  Reuters Videos
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  Heated debate before US Catholic bishops vote on Communion

  Associated Press

Female soldiers at Kansas Army post face greater risk of sexual assault, study finds

Female soldiers at Army bases in Texas, Colorado, Kansas and Kentucky face a greater risk of sexual assault and harassment than those at other posts, accounting for more than a third of all active-duty Army women sexually assaulted in 2018, according to a new Rand Corp. study. The study, released Friday, looked at Army incidents, and found that female soldiers at Fort Hood and Fort Bliss, both in Texas, faced the highest risk, particularly those in combat commands or jobs such as field artillery and engineering. Rand's study provides greater detail on the rates of sexual assault and misconduct across the Army, a chronic problem that military leaders have been struggling to combat.

'We can't go on our much-needed cruise'

Mollie Haugh and her family are among MSC Cruises passengers who have been told that their trips are not going ahead. This is because the delay to easing Covid restrictions means the ships have been overbooked. The company had sold tickets for the trips presuming that Covid restrictions would be lifted on the 21 June.

Teen sleeping in hammock at 12:30 a.m attacked by large bear in Great Smoky Mountains

A 16-year-old girl was attacked by a bear in the Great Smoky Mountains early Friday, prompting the National Park Service to close a back country section to visitors. The attack happened at 12:30 a.m., as the teen was sleeping in a hammock in the the Crosby section of the park, officials said. “The family was able to drive the bear off from the area immediately after the attack and quickly notified the park's emergency communications center,” the National Park Service said.

Sausage war on back burner as EU welcomes delay to ban

Brussels has signalled it could back down and avert a trade war with the UK as on Friday it welcomed the Government's request for a three-month extension for British sausages to be sold in Northern Ireland. Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice president, told an audience in Bruges that he was "convinced there is still a window for productive political dialogue" before the ban on chilled meats comes into effect in July. His comments came 24 hours after it was confirmed that Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, had formally requested that the EU agree to extend the grace period to allow the trade to continue until Sept 30.

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  UK seeks further three-month 'grace period' in EU sausage spat

  Reuters
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  Tesco 'very keen' for resolution to UK-EU sausage spat

  Reuters

Nicaragua’s wave of arrests could be the start of a hereditary dictatorship — like Cuba’s | Opinion

Political repression in Nicaragua has reached a level of escalation that has not been seen in any Latin American country — except Cuba — in many decades. It's so massive that many are wondering whether Nicaragua's autocrat, Daniel Ortega, is trying to set the stage for a long-term dynastic dictatorship. The prevailing view among many U.S. officials is that Ortega's recent wave of arrests of the country's leading opposition presidential hopefuls and civic leaders is aimed at securing the long-term rule of Ortega's successor once he no longer is president — Rosario Murillo, his wife and powerful vice president.

Mark Meadows reportedly predicted 'nobody is going to care' about George Floyd's killing

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reportedly initially dismissed the idea that George Floyd's killing would dominate the news and generate nationwide outrage in May 2020, instead thinking "nobody" would care. That's according to a new excerpt published in Politico Friday from reporter Michael C. Bender's book Frankly, We Did Win this Election, which details a West Wing meeting the morning after Memorial Day in 2020. The scheduled topic was the COVID-19 pandemic, but adviser Jared Kushner, who appeared "distracted" and "aloof," reportedly interrupted the discussion to bring up the video starting to spread of Floyd's killing at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

Swamp 101: Joe Manchin asks billionaire donors to get Roy Blunt to do their bidding

This is Swamp 101, but instructive all the same: An audio recording has surfaced of Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin asking billionaire donors to lean on Republican Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt to change his vote on the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection commission. That's important in itself, he said, but would also accomplish a very different goal, and one the donors on the call care about a lot: Their implied IOU of future opportunities for Blunt, Manchin suggested, could help neutralize the Democrats' best argument for doing away with the filibuster. Since Republicans oppose anything and everything the Democrats want to do, Rs could preserve the filibuster by proving Ds wrong about that.

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  As his voting rights proposal stalls, will Joe Manchin's dreams of bipartisanship ever come true?

  Yahoo News
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  Manchin hopeful on voting bill, McConnell opposed

  Reuters Videos

Miami chief’s ‘You lie, you die’ mandate cited in call for firing high-ranking female cop

Three days before Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo was officially sworn in, he drew a line in the sand to the city's command staff: “You lie, You die,” warned the incoming chief, suggesting changes were coming within the department. Now, Papier and her husband Ronald Papier, the city's deputy chief and acting chief for two months during the transition to Acevedo, are fighting to hang onto their their jobs.

‘We didn’t win.’ Trump appears to admit Biden won election in Fox News interview

More than seven months after the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump appeared to admit his defeat on Wednesday. In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Trump said the results of the 2020 election were “shocking.” President Joe Biden won the election with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232, but the results continue to be disputed.

Wagatha Christie case: Coleen Rooney has ‘no proof’ Rebekah Vardy was behind leaks, court hears

Rebekah Vardy has accused Coleen Rooney of “putting two and two together and making seven” in the latest round of the Wagatha Christie legal battle. Mrs Rooney, wife of England's top scorer Wayne, accused fellow footballer's wife Mrs Vardy of leaking stories to tabloid press about her after she turned detective using her own social media accounts. In a dramatic social media post in October 2019, Mrs Rooney detailed how she posted a series of fake stories about her family on her Instagram, and set it so that only Mrs Vardy, wife of Leicester City player Jamie, could view them.

Watch ‘terrified’ cottonmouth snake’s quirky move to dodge predator in North Carolina

A panic-stricken cottonmouth was caught on video acting peculiarly in a North Carolina wildlife preserve — and the look was not exactly flattering. The recording, shared June 11 on Facebook, shows the viper going so fast it actually tumbled over itself. Closer inspection of the video reveals the venomous snake dispensed with slithering and started sliding like a garden hose.

Cannibal waiter jailed for murdering his mother and eating her remains

Alberto Sánchez Gómez will serve 15 years in jail for murdering his 68-year-old mother. Sánchez ate her remains "bit by bit" with his pet dog, according to police officers. An unemployed Spanish waiter has been sentenced to jail for killing his mother, cutting her into thousands of pieces, and eating her remains, the Independent reported.

Some vaccine experts having second thoughts about rushing to inoculate kids

In the weeks that have followed, the safety monitoring systems managed by the FDA and CDC detected dozens of cases of a possible side effect in newly vaccinated teens: an inflammation of the heart muscle known as myocarditis. The cases typically developed in older adolescents, most of them boys, three to four days after they got a second dose. Virtually all were considered mild, presenting as chest pain and tightness that resolved after treatment with over-the-counter medications.