‘If you can say you can’t breathe, you’re breathing’: Mississippi mayor faces backlash over George Floyd comments

A mayor in Mississippi is facing fierce backlash and calls to resign after saying that he “didn’t see anything unreasonable” about the death of George Floyd.Mr Floyd, who was black, died while in police custody in Minneapolis after a white officer was filmed pinned him to the ground by his neck for a prolonged period of time.

Transcripts released of Flynn's calls with Russian diplomat

Transcripts of phone calls that played a pivotal role in the Russia investigation were declassified and released Friday, showing that Michael Flynn, as an adviser to then-President-elect Donald Trump, urged Russia's ambassador to be “even-keeled” in response to punitive Obama administration measures, and assured him “we can have a better conversation” about relations between the two countries after Trump became president. Democrats said the transcripts showed that Flynn had lied to the FBI when he denied details of the conversation, and that he was undercutting a sitting president while ingratiating himself with a country that had just interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Laura Ingraham to Black Americans: Trump Understands Police Violence Because of Russia Probe

Fox News host Laura Ingraham attempted to explain to African-Americans on Thursday night that President Donald Trump can empathize with inequality and police brutality due to his “own experience” with federal investigators during the Russia probe.With protests raging across the nation over the death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis police custody, Ingraham lectured protesters over the demonstrations devolving into violence and looting. After chastising the non-Fox media for supposedly fanning racial flames over the police killing and subsequent protests, Ingraham then decided to address the black community as a whole to tell them how they should properly protest the killing of George Floyd.“Now, I’m not going to pretend for a millisecond to know what it’s like to be a black person in America,” she said. “I don’t. But the only thing I do know is that we all need to do better.”Reiterating that we need to “do better,” the conservative Fox News host—who once told LeBron James to “shut up and dribble”—said the “real change agents in America are those who stay in their communities and build them up, not burn them down” before invoking a civil rights icon.“Rosa Parks is a beloved, global symbol of freedom and justice because of the determination and dignity to which she carried out her civil disobedience,” she said. “Would burning a store have been more powerful and transformative? I don’t think so.”Without skipping a beat, the pro-Trump Fox star then referenced the president’s anger at the FBI and Justice Department during the Russia investigation to let black people know Trump understands their experience.“And to our African-American fellow citizens, I say this: Given his own experience with an out-of-control FBI and unfair investigation, given all the work on criminal justice reform, President Trump knows how poisonous and out-of-control law enforcement process can be,” Ingraham proudly declared, concluding her mini-monologue.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.

How to watch the SpaceX Crew Dragon launch

Watch live as two NASA astronauts​ lift off aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon, ushering in a new era for the U.S. space program.

New report alleges killings, mass detentions in Ethiopia

A new report by the rights group Amnesty International accuses Ethiopia’s security forces of extrajudicial killings and mass detentions even as the country’s reformist prime minister was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The report issued Friday says security forces killed at least 25 people in 2019 in the East Guji and West Guji zones of the restive Oromia region amid suspicions of supporting a rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Army, and a once-exiled opposition group. The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was awarded the peace prize in December for sweeping political reforms and restoring ties with neighboring Eritrea after two decades of hostilities, acknowledged that “the reform process has at times experienced bumps” but called the report “a one-sided snapshot security analysis that fails to appropriately capture the broader political trajectory and security developments."

Trump justice department forces out top FBI lawyer in Flynn case – report

* NBC News: general counsel Dana Boente forced out on Friday * Fox News host Lou Dobbs slammed lawyer in April * Flynn transcripts show he discussed sanctions with RussianA top FBI lawyer who was criticised on Fox News for his role in the investigation of Michael Flynn has resigned after being asked to do so by senior figures at the Department of Justice, NBC News reported on Saturday.The FBI confirmed to NBC that Dana Boente, its general counsel and a former acting attorney general, announced his resignation on Friday after a near-40-year career. NBC cited two sources anonymous sources as saying the decision came from “Attorney General William Barr’s justice department”.Boente joined the DoJ in 1984 and in 2015 became the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, after being nominated by Barack Obama.In January 2017, he briefly served as acting attorney general, after Trump fired Sally Yates, an Obama-era deputy, for refusing to defend an executive order on immigration.Temporarily overseeing the investigation of Russian election interference, Boente signed a warrant authorising FBI surveillance of Flynn.The retired general, Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, was fired for lying to the vice-president about contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the conversations and cooperated with the special counsel Robert Mueller as he took over the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow.Flynn sought to withdraw his guilty plea before sentencing. Earlier this month, Barr said the justice department would drop the case, although a federal judge put that decision on hold.On Friday, the same day Boente was forced out of the FBI, Trump’s new director of intelligence and Senate Republicans released transcripts of the calls in question, between Flynn and the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.Opponents of the president said the transcripts proved that Flynn had been treated fairly. Supporters of Trump said they showed Flynn had been treated unfairly.As Trump attempts to construct a scandal called “Obamagate”, with the surveillance of Flynn at its centre, his administration is releasing material it hopes will put Obama officials in a bad light.Boente also wrote a leaked memo concerning material put into the public domain about Flynn, which he said was not exculpatory.Trump is notoriously open to the views of key Fox News contributors.On 27 April, the Fox News host Lou Dobbs told viewers: “Shocking new reports suggest FBI general counsel Dana Boente was acting in coordination with FBI director Christopher Wray to block the release of that evidence that would have cleared General Flynn.”Trump has reportedly been urged to fire Wray, whom he appointed to replace James Comey, the man he fired in May 2017 in an attempt to close the Russia investigation.Comey’s firing led to the appointment of Mueller, who concluded a near-two year investigation without proving criminal conspiracy between Trump and Russia.Mueller did, however, obtain convictions of Trump aides and say in his report the campaign was receptive to Russian help. He also laid out extensive evidence of attempts by the president to obstruct his investigation.Trump has fired or forced out FBI and DoJ figures including Andrew McCabe, Comey’s deputy, lawyer Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, an FBI agent who worked on the case.On Friday, Wray issued a statement about Boente.“Few people have served so well in so many critical, high-level roles at the department,” he said. “Throughout his long and distinguished career as a public servant, Dana has demonstrated a selfless determination to ensure that justice is always served on behalf of our citizens.”

Trump Hopes for His Own Booster Shot from SpaceX Rocket Launch

By BY PETER BAKER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3gJZF1d

Photos From the Protests in 29 Cities Over Racism and Police Violence

By BY WEIYI CAI, JULIETTE LOVE AND JUGAL K. PATEL from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3dkl3aW

Draw a Self-Portrait

By BY CARSON ELLIS from NYT At Home https://ift.tt/36LkuVb

Here’s What You Need to Know About Breonna Taylor’s Death

By BY RICHARD A. OPPEL JR. from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3eAuQdj

Cuomo says N.Y. attorney general will review night of violent protests

Violent clashes between police and civilians took place during protests in Brooklyn on Friday.

Declassified calls show Flynn discussing sanctions with Russian envoy

Incoming DNI John Ratcliffe released the already declassified call summaries on Friday.

Coronavirus: South Korea closes schools again after biggest spike in weeks

Schools that had just re-opened days ago have now been forced shut again after a spike in cases.

The U.S. Might Revoke Hong Kong's 'Special Status.' Here's What That Means for Business in the Global Financial Hub

Hong Kong risks becoming a casualty in the emerging cold war between Washington and Beijing

Amy Klobuchar Takes a Big Hit

As Minneapolis burned this week, so too did Amy Klobuchar’s prospects of becoming Joe Biden’s running mate.Just six weeks ago, Klobuchar looked like the frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic veepstakes, but the Minnesota senator happens to be the former top prosecutor in Hennepin County, home to Minneapolis, and she is facing an increasing amount of scrutiny over her record of not prosecuting several police officers facing allegations of excessive force.“Amy Klobuchar didn't prosecute officer at center of George Floyd’s death after previous conduct complaints,” reads the headline at The Week. The police officer seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck was involved in the killing of another suspect who allegedly pulled a gun. The final decision not to prosecute was made after Klobuchar left the job, but as the Washington Post reported in March, Klobuchar “declined to bring charges in more than two dozen cases in which people were killed in encounters with police.”Assume for the sake of argument that the facts in each case vindicate Klobuchar’s decision not to prosecute. Can Biden really pick her if she’s seen as turning a blind eye to police brutality, even if that view is unfair?David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report goes so far as to say that “Amy Klobuchar is off the list now” to be Biden’s running mate. It’s not clear her odds are nil, but they have taken a huge hit.Who benefits? Kamala Harris is the odds-on favorite on the betting and prediction websites, but the firestorm in Minnesota threatens to engulf her VP prospects as well.Recall that in the Democratic campaign one of the most effective attacks against her came when Joe Biden and Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard attacked Harris’s own record as a prosecutor. “Biden alluded to a crime lab scandal that involved her office and resulted in more than 1,000 drug cases being dismissed. Gabbard claimed Harris ‘blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until she was forced to do so,’” the Sacramento Bee reported after the debate. “Both of these statements are accurate.” Harris’s other famous moment in the 2020 debates came when she effectively attacked Biden as racist for opposing forced-busing policies in the 1970s. Harris embraced new mandatory-busing policies before backtracking.To make matters worse, Harris is not only vulnerable to attacks from the left on criminal justice — her right flank would be exposed as well in a general election. As San Francisco district attorney, Harris declined to seek the death penalty for a man who had murdered a police officer with an AK-47 in 2004. At the officer’s funeral, Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein called on Harris to seek the death penalty and received a standing ovation from police officers in attendance. Last year, the officer’s widow told CNN in a tearful on-camera interview that Harris “never called me” before announcing her decision. “I felt like she had just taken something from us. She had just taken justice from us.”While Harris would be caught in the middle of a “Black Lives Matter” and “Blue Lives Matter” culture war, she is still the only African-American woman serving as governor or senator in the entire country. So she shouldn’t be written off.Who else might Biden select besides Harris if he decides he needs to pick an African-American running mate? Cory Booker is a man, so he’s off the list because of Biden’s pledge to pick a woman. Stacey Abrams is making a full-court press for the job in the media, but it is still extremely difficult to see how Biden would select someone in the middle of a historic economic and health crisis who has never served in an office higher than that of state legislator. Florida representative Val Demings is getting a fresh look as a former police officer, but an obscure member of Congress is only a little better than a former state legislator in a time of crisis to reassure suburban voters who flipped to the Democrats in 2018.In the race to be Biden’s VP, Susan Rice, the former national-security adviser to Barack Obama, probably benefits the most from the chaos in Minnesota. She has a stronger résumé to match the moment, and she reinforces Biden’s campaign theme of an Obama-era restoration, even if she has her own vulnerabilities from Russiagate to Benghazi and more.The decision to move the Democratic convention to August gives Biden an extra month to make his decision, but this week has done a lot to make that decision much more difficult.

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo says New York City is on track to begin reopening the week of June 8

"We will stay on track by focusing on the hotspots," Cuomo said. "We know down to the zip code where the infection rate is higher than average."

Merkel won't attend G7 summit in person if US goes ahead

Chancellor Angela Merkel will not personally attend a meeting in the U.S. with the leaders of the world’s major economies if President Donald Trump goes ahead with it, unless the course of the coronavirus spread changes by then, her office said Saturday. After canceling the Group of Seven summit, originally scheduled for June 10-12 at Camp David, Trump said a week ago that he was again considering hosting an in-person meeting of world leaders because it would be a “great sign to all” of things returning to normal during the pandemic.

Caution on China from EU, West's 'soft underbelly'

After a video conference with 27 foreign ministers, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell expressed "grave concern" but he could threaten no sanctions and said planning for an EU-China summit would continue. In fact, Borrell said, only one of the European countries even raised the possibly of sanctions -- a diplomatic source told AFP this was Sweden -- and he said European investment in China was not in question.

Will Trump dispute the 2020 election results? His tweets this week suggest so

Trump’s attack on mail-in ballots raise the possibility that, if he loses in November, he would reject the validity of the voteUnhinged as it may be for the president to accuse, without a scintilla of evidence, a morning television host of murder, that particular conspiracy theory was not the most disturbing accusation to issue from Trump’s Twitter feed this week. No, that prize goes to his tweet from 26 May, claiming:> There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed … This will be a Rigged Election. No way!The president’s defamation of Joe Scarborough is no more than an extreme version of something we have seen throughout Trump’s tenure in office: his ability to deflect attention from one colossal misstep by simply committing a fresh outrage. The fact that even a handful of Republicans have expressed mild regret at Trump’s bizarre accusation only underscores that it has served its instrumental purpose. For the moment, the news cycle is consumed not with the fact that 100,000 Americans have died in a pandemic that the White House recklessly insisted posed no threat; instead, all attention is riveted on the spectacle of a sitting president accusing an opponent in the “lame stream media” of homicide. Trump’s attack on mail-in ballots, by contrast, is far more ominous. Here, the president is defaming not an individual but the integrity of our electoral process, confidence in which is a key to a stable democratic order. And the purpose of this attack is not distraction but pointedly political. The politics of disenfranchisement has emerged as a staple of Republican electoral strategy, and the reasons for targeting mail-in ballots are not hard to divine. The bulk of such ballots are cast in urban areas, where Democratic voters predominate, and as the nation continues to grapple with the Covid-19 outbreak, we can expect millions of urban voters to cast mail-in ballots in November as a hedge against the obvious health risks that come with in-person voting. Trump’s tweets serve, then, the politics of voter suppression. But that is only one aspect of the dark logic behind the tweets. Far more alarmingly, Trump’s attack on the reliability of mail-in votes establishes the groundwork for a radical refusal to acknowledge electoral defeat. In contrast to ballots cast in-person on 3 November, mail-in ballots often cannot be fully counted until several days after the election. This means that in a very tight race, the results announced on election day may be no more than provisional; and second, because of the demographic patterns I mentioned above, the full counting of ballots may well swing the outcome in the favor of Democratic candidates. The 2018 Arizona senatorial race witnessed a particularly dramatic case of this effect, dubbed the “blue shift” by election law expert Ned Foley. On election day, Martha McSally, the Republican candidate, enjoyed a 15,000-vote lead over her Democratic rival, Kyrsten Sinema. By the time the state’s canvassing had ended, however, McSally found herself defeated by Sinema by some 56,000 votes – a swing of 71,000 thousand votes. Trump is more than familiar with the phenomenon of blue shift. Also in 2018, when the senatorial race in Florida saw Republican Rick Scott’s lead over Bill Nelson shrink from over 56,000 on election day to an uncomfortable 10,000 by the time the state completed its canvass, Trump had urgently tweeted:> The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott…in that large numbers of ballots showed up from nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible—ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night! Recall that in 2016, Trump’s margin of victory over Hillary Clinton was a combined 70,000 votes in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. It is more than possible that Trump could narrowly capture these states on 3 November, only to see his victory vanish as mail-in ballots are tallied in the days following the election. His tweet from Tuesday tells us how he would respond to such a loss. He will reject it as a product of fraud. That is an eventuality – or even a certainty – that the nation must prepare itself for.  * Lawrence Douglas is the author, most recently, of Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Electoral Meltdown in 2020, published by Twelve/Hachette on 19 May. Douglas holds the James J Grosfeld chair in law, jurisprudence and social thought, at Amherst College, Massachusetts, and is also a contributing opinion writer for the Guardian US.

Ken Starr on 3rd degree murder charges against ex-police officer in death of George Floyd

Judge Ken Starr reacts to the George Floyd case and protests on ‘CAVUTO Live.’

George Floyd death: Ex-officer charged with murder in Minneapolis

An ex-police officer in Minneapolis is detained over the death of unarmed black man George Floyd.

One of the coldest places on Earth is experiencing a record-breaking heat wave

Heat wave sparks concerns about devastating wildfire season and melting permafrost.

Divert weapons funding to research to prevent next pandemic, pope says

Pope Francis on Saturday urged politicians to divert funds spent on weapons to research to prevent another pandemic, as he led the largest gathering in the Vatican in nearly three months. Francis presided at an outdoor prayer service with about 130 people, including many directly affected by the pandemic. Francis, 83, sat several meters away from most people during most of the service and did not wear a mask.

New report alleges killings, mass detentions in Ethiopia

A new report by the rights group Amnesty International accuses Ethiopia’s security forces of extrajudicial killings and mass detentions even as the country’s reformist prime minister was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The report issued Friday says security forces killed at least 25 people in 2019 in the East Guji and West Guji zones of the restive Oromia region amid suspicions of supporting a rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Army, and a once-exiled opposition group. The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was awarded the peace prize in December for sweeping political reforms and restoring ties with neighboring Eritrea after two decades of hostilities, acknowledged that “the reform process has at times experienced bumps” but called the report “a one-sided snapshot security analysis that fails to appropriately capture the broader political trajectory and security developments."

To punish China, Trump begins to revoke Hong Kong trade privileges

George Floyd Was Pinned Down for Nearly 3 Minutes After He Became Unresponsive, Prosecutors Say

By BY SARAH MERVOSH from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2zBC0iK

China and the Rhineland Moment

By BY BRET STEPHENS from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3gE2vo7

Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

By BY LARA TAKENAGA AND JONATHAN WOLFE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3dkR0A0

A Continent Reopens

By BY PATRICK KINGSLEY AND LAETITIA VANCON from NYT World https://ift.tt/3diaoNV

Ex-Officer Charged in Death of George Floyd in Minneapolis

By BY NEIL MACFARQUHAR, TIM ARANGO AND MANNY FERNANDEZ from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Am86Pv

George Floyd Worked With Officer Charged in His Death

By BY MATT FURBER, AUDRA D. S. BURCH AND FRANCES ROBLES from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2XeUwGB

‘The Pain Is Too Intense’: Biden Challenges White Americans

By BY JONATHAN MARTIN AND KATIE GLUECK from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2XLfQSS

Mexico reports 84,627 total coronavirus cases and 9,415 deaths

Mexico on Friday registered 3,227 new cases of the coronavirus and 371 more deaths, bringing the total numbers to 84,627 cases and 9,415 fatalities, according to data from health authorities.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/3dfVcRJ

Germany's Merkel rejects Trump invite to attend G7 summit in Washington: Politico

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has refused to accept U.S. President Donald Trump's invitation to attend an envisaged summit of the Group of Seven (G7) in the United States, Politico reported on Friday.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/3ci6rHT

Trump cutting U.S. ties with World Health Organization over virus

The United States will end its relationship with the World Health Organization over the body's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday, accusing the U.N. agency of becoming a puppet of China.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2Xgh49Z

White House encourages hydroxychloroquine use for coronavirus again

Speaking during a press briefing on Thursday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany strongly endorsed the “prophylactic” use of hydroxychloroquine: that is, to prevent contracting the coronavirus.

Ex-officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck charged with murder

The suspect's knee was on his neck for more than 8 1/2 minutes, including 2 1/2 minutes after he had passed out, according to a criminal complaint.

Can you contract coronavirus from a surface or object?

The CDC says that it may be possible to contract COVID-19 by coming in contact with a surface or object that has the virus on it, but you're much more likely to get the coronavirus through person-to-person transmission.

Fox News Star Geraldo Rivera Unloads on Trump: ‘What Is This, 6th Grade?!’

Geraldo Rivera delivered one of the harshest condemnations of Donald Trump ever aired on Fox News Friday afternoon when he appeared on The Five and took the president to task for threatening Minneapolis protesters with violence.After first criticizing Democrats for “studiously avoiding” the looting and vandalism by “anarchists” in that city following the police killing of George Floyd, Rivera pivoted to attack Trump directly. “But the other thing is, the president, in these tweets, ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts,’ c’mon!” Rivera said, referring to the tweet that Twitter hid from Trump’s timeline because it broke its rules on “glorifying violence.” “What is this, 6th grade?” he asked. “You don’t put gasoline on the fire. That’s not calming anybody. Who are you daring?” Rivera mocked the idea that any demonstrators would stop what they’re doing because Donald Trump tweeted that they might get shot. “That’s not going to happen!” he exclaimed. “All he does is diminish himself.” Rivera, who has at times both admitted that Trump is a “racist” and called him a “civil rights leader,” went on to say that he “laments” the “recklessness of his tempestuous nature when it comes to Twitter.” In response to Trump’s accusations that Twitter is trying to censor him, the pundit called on the president to “self-censor himself.” Trump attempted to walk back his incendiary comments in a pair of tweets on Friday, claiming that he was just worried about the safety of the protesters. “It’s very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media,” the president wrote, adding, “Honor the memory of George Floyd!” ‘Fox & Friends’ Confronts Kayleigh McEnany With Chris Wallace CriticismRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet 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.

Joshua Wong: Hong Kong Cannot Prosper Without Autonomy

The prosperity of Hong Kong is based on its autonomy, not Beijing’s dictatorship, writes Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong and Glacier Kwong.

One chart shows a noticeable correlation between how late a country started its coronavirus lockdown and the number of excess deaths

Analysis from the Financial Times has shown that the number of excess deaths correlates to when a country decided to lock down.

Florida governor asks court to stay felon voting ruling

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gave notice on Friday that he will appeal a federal judge's decision on voting rights for felons, while asking for a stay on the ruling that appeared to clear the way for hundreds of thousands of citizens to vote in a crucial 2020 state. The law in question, introduced by the state's Republican-controlled Senate last year, requires convicted felons in Florida to pay any court costs, fines, fees and restitution to victims before their right to vote could be restored. Opponents argue the law goes against the wishes of Florida voters who approved an amendment to the state's constitution in 2018 to grant voting rights to felons who served their time and were not convicted of murder or sex crimes.