world news: 2020-06-21

Saturday 27 June 2020

Toronto officer guilty of assault after blinding black man

A black man loses an eye in a beating by an off-duty Toronto officer, who accused him of car-hopping.

Polls deliver more bad news for Trump

If the latest national and state polls are correct, President Trump’s bid for a second term faces serious headwinds in the four months until the election.

Editorial: Goodbye, diesel exhaust. California adopts nation's first zero-emission truck rule

The rule is among the most ambitious efforts in the world to replace dirty diesel trucks with electric and other zero-emission vehicles.

Several active, retired San Jose police officers accused of participating in closed Facebook page with racist posts

'The union will provide you no shelter': Several active and retired San Jose police officers are accused of participating in a closed Facebook page, full of racist posts.

A Major GOP Nightmare Moves a Step Closer to Reality

Legislation to make the District of Columbia a state is poised to pass the House on Friday, a major advance from the last time the measure came before Congress 27 years ago and 40 percent of Democrats joined with all but one Republican to defeat D.C. statehood. After decades of benign neglect, the movement to make D.C. the 51st state has gained new life with Black Lives Matter and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s heightened profile. President Trump’s efforts to use federal force to dominate streets around the White House exposed the subservient status of a city that must answer to Congress for how it spends money while its 706,000 residents are without full voting representation in the House or Senate. Republicans appear unmoved by pleas for equality. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton took to the Senate floor to denounce the Democrats’ move in a racially tinged speech depicting D.C. as an elitist conclave of the “deep state” and Mayor Bowser as someone who could not be trusted to keep the city and its statues safe. “Yes, Wyoming is smaller than Washington by population,” he tweeted, “but it has three times as many workers in mining, logging, and construction, and 10 times as many workers in manufacturing. In other words, Wyoming is a well-rounded working-class state."Opinion: I Fixed Tom Cotton’s Op-EdThe bill to rename D.C. “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth” is going nowhere in Mitch McConnell’s Senate. But if the Democrats win the White House and flip the Senate, statehood becomes imaginable, since statehood requires only a vote of Congress. “Trump says Republicans would have to be stupid to support D.C. statehood and that’s what the battle is about these days, maybe that’s what it’s always been about,” says Michael Brown, D.C.’s non-voting “shadow senator.” Actually, Trump said Republicans would have to be “very, very stupid” to support statehood for D.C. because it would add two Democratic senators, which McConnell would never let happen. “But it’s about more than McConnell,” Brown told the Daily Beast. “We can’t get one Republican (in the Senate), and there are still six (Senate) Democrats who are not on the bill.” In the modern Senate, 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster and proceed to a vote on legislation of any significance. The exception is judges, where Republicans exercised what is known as the “nuclear option” to confirm two Supreme Court judges and 200 lower court lifetime judges with a simple majority. Democratic leader Harry Reid opened this dangerous door by striking the filibuster for Executive Branch confirmations that McConnell was blocking. Several Democrats who ran for president, including Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg, favor doing away with the filibuster if Democrats win the Senate. Otherwise, they argue, McConnell (or his successor, should he happen to lose his own race) will obstruct everything Democrats try to do. The District of Columbia has a population of 706,000, more than Wyoming and Vermont, and D.C. residents pay more in total federal income tax than 22 states. It has long been a sore point that fighting in every war and contributing blood and treasure is not enough to gain more than a symbolic vote in Congress. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has served almost 30 years, has a vote in committee but not on the House floor, and if her committee vote breaks a tie, it doesn’t count. Even that small measure of democratic largesse was taken away by Republicans when they gained control of the House in 1994 and again in 2010. Democrats restored Norton’s limited right to vote when they won the House in 2006 and 2018, and since then Norton has been on a roll when it comes to statehood. She has 226 co-sponsors for the bill, including the No. 2 Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer from Maryland, who opposed statehood until now. Speaking before the Rules committee Wednesday, Norton explained how the legislation before her colleagues was personal to her own history. “My great-grandfather, Richard Holmes, who escaped as a slave from a Virginia plantation, made it as far as D.C., a walk to freedom but not to equal citizenship,” she said. “For three generations my family has been denied the rights other Americans take for granted.” Opponents of statehood argue that the Founding Fathers didn’t want the District to be a state, but our vaunted forebears also didn’t want women to vote, or Black people to vote, so that argument seems lame. “Whether you’re a textualist or an originalist, I don’t believe the Founding Fathers had any more reason to deny representation to people who pay federal taxes, serve in war and do everything a citizen should—than they would have wanted my neighbor down the hall to have a closet full of AK-47s,” says Ellen Goldstein, who served until recently as a neighborhood advisory commissioner for the Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood, home to the Obamas, the Kushners, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. “You can unearth the minds of the Founding Fathers to justify anything,” Goldstein told the Daily Beast. “As somebody who has lived here for 50 years, I believe the only reason we’re not a state is because of race.” Race has a lot to do with it, says Brown, a former political consultant whose unpaid position’s main perk is identifying as a senator. The Constitution grants Congress jurisdiction over the District in “all cases whatsoever,” which allowed some committee chairmen of the House and Senate Committees on the District of Columbia to run the city like a plantation. In his recent book Class of 1974, John Lawrence recounts how John McMillan, a South Carolina Democrat and a segregationist, sent a truckload of watermelons to the office of appointed Mayor Walter Washington to let him know how little he thought of the budget Washington submitted in 1967 for the committee’s review. The District couldn’t even elect its own mayor until after Home Rule passed Congress in 1973. For a long time, D.C. pridefully called itself “Chocolate City,” acknowledging its majority Black population. No state has ever come into the union with a majority minority population, says Brown. In 1993, the last time Congress voted on statehood, the city was 56 percent Black, a factor in the outcome despite President Bill Clinton’s advocacy for statehood. During his final weeks in office, Bill Clinton had the newly authorized D.C. license plate with the slogan “taxation without representation” affixed to the presidential limousine. His successor, President George W. Bush, had the plate removed. It wasn’t until after President Obama won re-election in 2012 that he ordered the controversial plate installed on all presidential vehicles. In 2011, the District’s Black population fell below 50 percent for the first time in over 50 years. According to 2017 Census Bureau data, the African-American population is 47.1 percent. Unlike the Clinton-era vote, when Democrats were divided on the political merits of D.C. statehood, a newly awakened Democratic leadership is rallying around the cry for equal rights. “It’s beyond statehood,” says Goldstein, citing congressional meddling in District policies on marijuana legalization, gun regulation, and funding for abortion. “If we decide to do it, they take it away. They take our money and tell us how to spend it.” Goldstein doubts the House vote will change anything, but in her thinking, modern America cannot continue to deny D.C. is a state any more than Macy’s Department store in the movie classic Miracle on 34th Street could deny Kris Kringle was Santa when bags of letters addressed to him were delivered by the Post Office. Using the same reasoning, Goldstein notes that when she shops online on Amazon and scrolls down, D.C. is a state: “If the Post Office thinks you’re Santa, you’re Santa. And if Amazon thinks we’re a state, then by golly, we’re a state.”Until a miracle happens on Capitol Hill, that will have to do. 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.

Galwan Valley: China to use martial art trainers after India border clash

The move follows deadly fighting between Indian and Chinese troops in an area where guns are banned.

Amid coronavirus surge, Abbott expresses regret on reopening bars

The number of people hospitalized in Texas from the coronavirus increased for the 15th consecutive day, surpassing 5,000 for the first time.

Sahara Desert 'Godzilla' Dust Cloud Approaching the United States

"This is the most significant event in the past 50 years."

White House does not commit to temperature checks in meeting with U.S. airlines

Top U.S. airline executives met on Friday with Vice President Mike Pence and other senior administration officials but did not come away with any commitments from the White House on mandating temperature checks for airline passengers. Airlines want the U.S. government to administer temperature checks to all passengers in a bid to reassure the public.

The H-20 Stealth Bomber: China's Biggest Threat to the U.S.?

The bomber, which has yet to be revealed, is expected to enter service in the mid-2020s.

A Black man who was punched in the head several times by a Buffalo police officer plans to sue the city

In a video of the interaction, a woman can be heard telling Quentin Suttles to stop resisting. He replies, "I'm not."

Southern states report record coronavirus surges

The U.S. has also seen a record number of cases nationwide, according to the latest figures released.

Mississippi Votes to Remove Confederate Emblem from State Flag

By Unknown Author from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2B6xt8J

Gunfire at Walmart Distribution Center in California, Worker Says

By BY JENNY GROSS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3i8UHvC

Biden Campaign Says Just Over a Third of 2020 Staff Members Are People of Color

By BY SHANE GOLDMACHER AND THOMAS KAPLAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2B9KRce

St. Louis mayor faces calls to resign after she was accused of doxxing the names and addresses of constituents who wrote letters calling for police defunding

Mayor Lyda Krewson, a Democrat, faced calls to resign after she shared on Facebook names and addresses of protestors who called for police defunding.

4 Rohingya men killed in gunfight with Bangladesh police

Four suspected members of a Rohingya group allegedly involved in kidnapping for ransom were killed in a gunfight with Bangladeshi police near the sprawling refugee camps where refugees from Myanmar live, officials said. The gunfight took place Friday when a team of security officials was searching for the gang leader in a forest near the Rohingya camps at Cox's Bazar, said police Inspector Pradeep Kumar Das. Another inspector, Morzina Akhter, said the suspects opened fire at police, sparking the gunfight that led to their deaths.

Donald Trump Should Be Worried: The U.S. Military Could Fall Behind Russia and China

It is already happening in certain areas.

After yearlong fight, Missouri's lone abortion clinic gets its license renewed

That means the state's lone clinic is set to continue operating through at least 2021.

Trump Seems Resigned Biden Will Win: ‘He’s Going to Be Your President’

For the second time this week, President Donald Trump appeared almost resigned to the idea that former Vice President Joe Biden will beat him in November, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Biden “is going to be president because some people don’t love me.”During a town hall in key swing state Wisconsin, Trump fell back on his well-worn attack lines against his Democratic opponent, painting Biden as too old and suffering from cognitive decline.“Whenever he does talk, he can’t put two sentences together,” Trump exclaimed. “I don’t want to be nice or un-nice. The man can’t speak.”At the same time, the president seemed to acknowledge current polling, which shows the ex-veep up by double digits nationally and leading in most battleground states—including Wisconsin, a must-win for Trump.“And he is going to be president because some people don’t love me, maybe,” Trump said. “And all I’m doing is doing my job.”The president insisted that before the “China plague” hit, the country was enjoying the “best job numbers we ever had” and the “best economy we ever had.” He then pivoted to complaining about China, which he said “ate our lunch” before he entered office.The president used similarly interesting language while speaking about the possibility of a Biden presidency earlier this week.Asked during a trip to Arizona to react to Biden saying he may not complete construction on the border wall if elected, Trump said: “No, he will complete it. You’d have a revolution if they didn’t do it.”A number of conservatives have recently begun to sound the alarm on Trump’s plummeting poll numbers and declining re-election chances. In a fiery Thursday night monologue, Fox News host Tucker Carlson warned Trump that he “could well lose this election” if he doesn’t turn things around soon.Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Reveal Why Biden Is the Right Man to Lead America Past TrumpRead 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.

COVID-19 may be linked to brain complications, study finds. But does it cause them?

Severe cases of COVID-19 may be linked to brain complications, according to the first nationwide survey of the neurological complications.

Judge orders release of migrant children over coronavirus

Children held more than 20 days at certain facilities should be released by July 17, Judge Dolly Gee said.

Arizona's attorney general sent a megachurch that hosted Trump a cease and desist letter over claims its air system could kill the coronavirus

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued cease and desist letters to Phoenix's Dream City Church and Clean Air EXP on Friday.

Friday 26 June 2020

DNC announces sweeping changes to convention, but Biden will still accept nomination in Milwaukee

Even as Democrats downsize their convention, they say former Vice President Joe Biden will still formally accept the nomination in Milwaukee.

Colorado police officers involved in death of Elijah McClain taken off the streets

The deadly confrontation in the Denver suburb of Aurora is getting renewed scrutiny.

COVID-19 cluster among migrants causes angry confrontations in southern Italian town

Italy has sent soldiers to restore order in a coastal town near Naples after a coronavirus outbreak at an apartment complex illegally occupied by hundreds of migrant workers caused angry confrontations with residents. The authorities announced on Thursday that more than 40 people living at the abandoned buildings in Mondragone, 45 km from Naples, had tested positive for COVID-19, and warned the entire town could be quarantined if the outbreak proves widespread. Italian residents on the street chanted "Mondragone is ours" and gathered outside the sealed off are, resulting in both sides shouting abuse at each other, footage showed.

UNICEF: Millions of Yemeni children may starve amid pandemic

Millions of children could be pushed to the brink of starvation as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across war-torn Yemen amid a "huge" drop in humanitarian aid funding, the U.N. children’s agency warned Friday. The stark prediction comes in a new UNICEF report, “Yemen five years on: Children, conflict and COVID-19.” “As Yemen’s devastated health system and infrastructure struggle to cope with coronavirus, the already dire situation for children is likely to deteriorate considerably,” warned UNICEF.

President Trump: 'They' are trying to remove Jesus statues

President Trump says "unnamed forces" want to tear down statues of Jesus. It's not clear who he's referring to, but protesters have toppled statues of confederate leaders over the last few weeks.

7 Killed in Crash in El Paso After Border Patrol Tried to Stop Car

By BY JENNY GROSS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/31oi6mC

White Actors Leaving Nonwhite Roles at ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Family Guy’

By BY DAVE ITZKOFF from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/2VnhNog

After the Statues Fall

By BY BRET STEPHENS from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/385F17y

Leaders Re-examine U.S. Reopenings as Coronavirus Cases Soar

By BY PATRICIA MAZZEI, SARAH MERVOSH AND SHAWN HUBLER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3eycZUJ

3 Die in New Mexico After Drinking Hand Sanitizer, Officials Say

By BY MARIE FAZIO from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2NAMstX

Justice Dept. to Take Aim at Antigovernment Extremists

By BY KATIE BENNER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2CENRNW

Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

By BY LARA TAKENAGA AND JONATHAN WOLFE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2YDo9SB

As Cases Surge, Pence Misleads on Coronavirus Pandemic

By BY LINDA QIU from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3geCBGP

Trump pulled support for testing sites in 5 states as he's trying to push coronavirus test numbers downward. Health officials say the move could have 'catastrophic cascading consequences.'

The Trump administration's decision to defund comes amid record-high numbers of new coronavirus cases.

Philly police head decries tear gas usage against protesters

Philadelphia's police commissioner, along with the mayor, apologized to the public Thursday for giving statements that were inaccurate in the days after tear gas, bean bags and pepper spray were used against protesters who were trapped on a highway. At least one high ranking commander took a voluntary demotion, and Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said a member of the city's SWAT team who was seen in videos spraying protesters with pepper spray will be notified Friday that he is suspended with the intent to dismiss him.

New York's Cuomo says 'time to wake up, America' as other states see COVID-19 spikes

Cuomo told a briefing that states that followed guidance from the White House are now seeing a spike in cases, arguing that New York was able to get the virus under control by taking a scientific, rather than a political, approach. "What's going on in this country is now frightening and revealing at the same time," Cuomo said. Earlier on Friday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered bars to close down again and restaurants to scale back service, reversing course due to a surge of new infections.

2 brothers change minds, will cooperate in Smollett case

Two brothers who admitted helping actor Jussie Smollett stage a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago last year are again willing to help in the case after initially saying they were done cooperating with prosecutors, their attorney said Thursday. In yet another strange twist in a story that has been full of them, attorney Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez said in a statement that Abimbola (Abel) and Olabinjo (Ola) Osundairo changed their minds after a 9mm handgun that was seized during a search of their home last year was located after it went missing. “Abel and Ola will recommence their cooperation in the Smollett case now that the handgun has been produced by the Special Prosecutor's Office,” Schmidt Rodriguez wrote, referring to Special Prosecutor Dan Webb, who is now handling the case.

Explosion rocks Tehran near military complex

A gas tank explosion rocked Tehran overnight near a military complex that had come under scrutiny five years ago from the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran's defence ministry said Friday. The tanks blew up at around midnight, with Fars news agency saying "a number of social media users reported seeing an orange light" in the east of the Iranian capital. Amateur footage aired on state television showed what appeared to be a massive orange fireball on the horizon in the middle of the night.

This Day in History: Battle of Little Bighorn

This Day in History: Battle of Little Bighorn June 25, 1876 The battle was between the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes of the Great Plains, and the U.S. Army. It is also known as Custer's Last Stand, after Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Led by Chief Crazy Horse, the Native American forces defeated Custer's 7th Cavalry near the Little Bighorn River in southern Montana. The members of the Great Plains tribes had gathered near the river in defiance of a U.S. War Department order. Sent in to scout for enemy troops, Custer fatefully decided not to wait for reinforcements. Custer and 200 of his men were killed in the attack. The Great Plains tribes would be confined to reservations within five years.

Coronavirus: Is the pandemic getting worse in the US?

Some states are seeing a spike in cases, but the White House says not to worry. So what's going on?

Pakistan's prime minister says US 'martyred' bin Laden

Pakistan's prime minister said Thursday the United States “martyred” the al-Qaida leader and mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden, a term that reflected a subtle jab at Washington as it's mainly used for honorable figures slain in battle. Imran Khan delivered the jab in a rambling budget speech in parliament, attacking his predecessors' foreign policies and saying that Pakistan’s partnership with the United States in the war on terror was a mistake. Khan also said Washington used abusive language against Pakistan, blaming Islamabad for its failures in neighboring Afghanistan.

NYPD officer charged with strangulation after putting man in apparent chokehold

Officer David Afanador was suspended without pay after video showed him putting Ricky Bellevue in an apparent chokehold, a maneuver the department banned.

Thursday 25 June 2020

Prosecutor decides not to charge officer who shot Black teen

A South Carolina prosecutor said Wednesday that he will not file charges against the white police officer who fatally shot a Black teenager who pointed a gun at the officer as he ran away. Josh Ruffin, 17, was an immediate threat to the safety of the officers and others when he stopped during the chase and pointed a gun at Columbia police Officer Kevin Davis, Fifth Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson said at a news conference. Davis had reason to chase the teen because he was outside during the COVID-19 shutdown order during and a neighborhood leader had just reported suspicious activity in an area with a higher than average crime rate, Gipson said.

Federal judge pans Trump order used to expel migrants at border

Citing a CDC order, border officials have expelled tens of thousands of migrants, including children and many seeking asylum.

US states reimpose virus measures as cases near record

More than 35,900 cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, with heavily populated states including Florida, Texas and California all reporting daily record cases. Three northeastern states that made progress beating back the pandemic -- New York, New Jersey and Connecticut -- urged visitors arriving from US hotspots to quarantine themselves. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the advisory applied to visitors from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Utah and Texas.