- 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.Reuters
Texas Republicans to host in-person convention despite coronavirus surge
The Executive Committee of the Texas Republican Party voted on Thursday to push ahead and have their state convention in person this month despite a surge in coronavirus cases in Houston, where it will take place. The committee voted 40 to 20 to host the meeting that about 6,000 people are expected to attend in Houston's George R. Brown convention center in just over two weeks. During a lengthy virtual meeting, those opposed to hosting the convention in person said it would endanger older delegates and would disenfranchise many people who would not go out of fear of the virus.
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.
- 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.
- WorldBBC
Coronavirus: New Zealand minister resigns after lockdown blunders
New Zealand's health minister has resigned after criticism of the government's response to coronavirus and his own breaches of lockdown rules. David Clark had already been demoted after breaking rules to take his family to the beach. He said continuing in his role was distracting from the government's overall response to the pandemic.
- 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
- 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.
- U.S.Los Angeles Times Opinion
Op-Ed: Could the racist past of Mt. Rushmore's creator bring down the monument?
Confederate President Jefferson Davis has been toppled from the most iconic street in Richmond, Va., and his neighbor, rebel Gen. Robert E. Lee, may soon follow. A U.S. vice president and ardent slavery defender, John C. Calhoun, was plucked from his 115-foot perch in the center of Charleston, S.C. And President Theodore Roosevelt may soon disappear from the steps of New York City's American Museum of Natural History. Is there any monument in the United States that's too big to fail a racial history test?
- WorldBusiness Insider
An Iranian nuclear facility was apparently sabotaged, and a mysterious dissident group called the Homeland Cheetahs claimed responsibility
Reuters An important Iranian nuclear facility was damaged in a fire on Thursday that appears to have been the result of sabotage. A previously unknown group calling itself the Homeland Cheetahs, apparently a dissident group, claimed responsibility for the incident. The incident, which happened at Iran's largest uranium-enrichment facility, occurred amid historic tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iran's nuclear program.
- U.S.USA TODAY Opinion
There is no epidemic of fatal police shootings against unarmed Black Americans
The video of George Floyd's tragic death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer has led many to ask whether it represents the tip of an iceberg of police brutality. For centuries, United States law enforcement was interwoven with slavery and segregation, and that memory cannot be easily erased. Much of modern policing is driven by crime data and community demands for help.
- U.S.Miami Herald
‘We’ll be waiting on you.’ Florida sheriff wants to deputize gun owners against protesters
A Florida sheriff warned people protesting police brutality that he would call on individual gun owners to defend themselves if peaceful demonstrations got out of hand. In a three-minute Facebook video, Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels said Tuesday that “we'll be waiting on” protesters who are “disrupting the quality of life” in their northern Florida county. “If you threaten to come to Clay County and think that for one second that we'll bend our backs for you, you're sadly mistaken,” said Daniels, with about 17 deputies standing behind him.
- 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.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.
- PoliticsAssociated Press
Democrats say US needs to address protective gear shortage
A congressional committee criticized President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday for a series of problems in distributing personal protective and testing equipment during the coronavirus pandemic and called on the administration to come up with a better plan. “We need urgent action from the federal government now, before this virus spins further out of control,” said Rep. James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and chair of a House committee overseeing the nation's pandemic response. Democratic committee members also said the federal government has been at times too hands-off in leaving procurement up to state and local governments and individual health care providers, and at other times they have steered purchases to a specific contractor.
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.
- LifestyleThe Conversation
A leading infectious disease expert explains how to be as safe as possible on this very different Fourth
Editor's Note: Dr. William Schaffner, one of the nation's leading infectious disease experts and a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been helping to keep people healthy for decades. In an interview which has been edited for clarity, he answered several questions about how you can stay safe as the nation heads into the holiday weekend with daily coronavirus cases exceeding 40,000, their highest. How can Americans celebrate in the midst of a pandemic, especially when cases are going up?
- U.S.USA TODAY
Coronavirus updates: Cases rise in 40 states; Jersey Shore open, but LA beaches closed; Texas mask mandate begins
Florida added 10,109 new cases of the coronavirus Thursday, a new record. It marks the ninth consecutive day that at least 5,000 new cases have been counted, according to data from the Florida Department of Health. The total number of COVID-19 cases statewide is now 169,106.
- WorldLos Angeles Times Opinion
Letters to the Editor: The Russian bounty scandal raises a terrible question: Is Trump a traitor?
He has facilitated an ongoing attack on our republic, most recently by doing nothing in response to the horrifying scheme by Russia to have American soldiers killed in Afghanistan. There is a principle in science that when confronted with compelling facts, the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. In the law there is a similar doctrine: "The thing speaks for itself."
- 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.Miami Herald
A Black woman questioned her hotel bill — and an employee called police, NC suit says
A Black woman was asking about a billing error at the North Carolina hotel where she and her family were staying in 2018 when a worker called police on her, a lawsuit filed Thursday alleges. On Nov. 23, 2018, Delores and Alvin Corbett checked in to The Hampton Inn & Suites off I-95 in Wilson with their two teenagers and other family members, the lawsuit says. They were staying in Wilson to “celebrate the life” of Alvin Corbett's mother, Fannie Corbett, who died in 2019 and was declared a “civil rights pioneer” in North Carolina, according to a news release from their attorney Jason Kafoury.
- 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.
- BusinessBusiness Insider
Airbnb is banning some users under 25 from renting certain listings to help crack down on party houses
Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Airbnb is cracking down on unauthorized house parties by banning some users under 25 from renting entire homes in their area. The new rule, which applies only to those users who have fewer than three positive reviews, has been in place in Canada since earlier this year. The changes come after a shooting at a California Airbnb party left five people dead last year.
- 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 Telegraph
Hong Kong police arrest 24-year-old man on London-bound flight as China vows 'retaliation' for UK offer of citizenship
China promised Thursday to take countermeasures against Britain if it presses ahead with plans to extend citizenship rights to Hong Kongers after Beijing imposed a sweeping security law on the restless financial hub. Beijing has faced a groundswell of criticism from primarily Western nations over its decision to impose a new law outlawing acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces. Hong Kong police fired water cannon and tear gas and arrested more than 300 people as protesters took to the streets in defiance of the sweeping security legislation introduced by China to snuff out dissent.
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