Where were all these unflattering Biden scoops during the Obama years? – Washington Examiner
Where were all these unflattering Biden scoops during the Obama years? – Washington Examiner

Joe Biden is getting hammered by bad press. The 2020 Democratic front-runner’s previous anecdotes about working alongside racist Dixiecrats in the U.S. Senate have gone from longstanding parts of Biden speeches to breaking news. Newsrooms are also resurfacing specifics of Biden’s past opposition to busing of students for the purpose of racial desegregation. And all of this comes after the former vice president was mauled badly during the first Democratic primary debate by Kamala Harris specifically on the issue of busing.

But Biden is not the one who looks bad here. The press is.

For the newsrooms that are just now going through their archives and coming back with materials suggesting Biden has a problematic history of racially insensitive statements and positions: Where were these reports when it was first rumored that the Obama 2008 campaign was vetting Biden to join the ticket as vice president? Where were these reports when Biden served for eight years as vice president to America’s first black president?

Are newsrooms really going to suggest there was no little value to Biden’s past positions on racially sensitive topics when he served in the Obama administration? The answer, it seems, is yes.

National Public Radio, for example, published a report this weekend titled, “LISTEN: Biden Supported A Constitutional Amendment To End Mandated Busing In 1975.”

“In 1975, one of the most divisive cultural and political issues of the time was busing, the practice of putting black and white children on buses and sending them to different schools within a school district to achieve integration,” the report reads.

It adds, “Factoring prominently into the debate against busing, however, was a young, liberal, 32-year-old Delaware senator by the name of Joe Biden.”

The article was hyped on social media by NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith, who claimed her newsroom just now “found audio in [its] archives quite relevant” to the Democratic debate.

Great find, but why is NPR just now getting around to combing through its Biden archives? NPR’s answer: because a Democrat called attention to the matter. Is that all it takes?

“The issue of busing has threatened to derail Biden’s campaign after he came under attack from Sen. Kamala Harris of California at Thursday night’s debate,” NPR reports.

Elsewhere, on Monday, CNN published a report titled, “Joe Biden explained opposition to desegregation busing in 1981 CNN interview.”

The author of the article, Andrew Kaczynski, explained the long-forgotten footage is relevant today, as opposed to all the years Biden was in office, because “busing wasn’t an issue [in 2008 or 2012] and the Democratic Party has changed a lot. Biden opposition to undocumented immigration or abortion wasn’t as big as issue then either. Times and issues change.”

But busing isn’t really an issue in 2019, either. So, we are to believe that a racially sensitive issue that was contentious in the days it was debated is worthy of investigative coverage now only because Harris brought it up during a debate, but that it was not worthy of media attention when Biden served as vice president? Come on.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/where-were-all-these-unflattering-biden-scoops-during-the-obama-years

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DC Prosecutors, Once Dubious, Grow To Support Restorative Justice – NPR
DC Prosecutors, Once Dubious, Grow To Support Restorative Justice – NPR

If the restorative justice program works, the victim and the offender discuss what happened and agree on a way to move ahead so that criminal charges are dismissed.

Anke Gladnick for NPR


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Anke Gladnick for NPR

If the restorative justice program works, the victim and the offender discuss what happened and agree on a way to move ahead so that criminal charges are dismissed.

Anke Gladnick for NPR

A teenager’s life is on the line — but he is nowhere to be found.

People have gathered inside a D.C. government building on a rainy holiday morning to help decide what happens to the young man, but he hasn’t shown up.

After several phone calls and nearly an hour of waiting, the 16-year-old boy finally arrives. NPR, which was permitted to attend the meeting for this story, is not identifying him because he is a minor.

Facilitator Roman Haferd is eager to get started.

“It’s been a bit of a morning — a bit of a scramble this morning — but the good news is that everybody’s here,” he says.

The boy was involved with an assault. But what plays out over the next three hours is a restorative justice conference — a guided conversation between a juvenile who broke the law and the person whom the juvenile hurt.

If the program works, the victim and the offender discuss what happened and agree on a way to move ahead so that criminal charges are dismissed.

To supporters, the message is clear: Achieving justice doesn’t always involve punishment or retribution — and young people have the capacity for change.

Culture shift

No one said it would be easy, least of all Karl Racine, the elected official who launched the effort.

“Our objective in our prosecutions, particularly since we’re dealing with young people, is to put them in a position to learn from their mistakes,” says Racine, the attorney general of the District of Columbia.

Racine’s special counsel, Seema Gajwani, first presented the concept to him nearly three years ago. While the roots of restorative justice can be traced to indigenous peoples in the U.S. and Canada, no elected prosecutor had created such a unit inside their own office — until now.

At first, Racine says, he was skeptical. But the process has eroded his misgivings, in part because the sessions help juveniles understand the harm they’ve caused their victims, their communities and even their own family members.

What’s more, Racine says, the concept also promotes public safety. Early data are showing signs that the program is a success, he says. The restorative justice program is not available for offenses involving guns or serious sexual assault.

Karl Racine, attorney general of the District of Columbia, launched the juvenile restorative justice program. He believes the concept promotes public safety.

Claire Harbage/NPR


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Karl Racine, attorney general of the District of Columbia, launched the juvenile restorative justice program. He believes the concept promotes public safety.

Claire Harbage/NPR

Prosecutor Erika Clark says she worried that restorative justice would let people off the hook.

Her first reaction? “Oh, OK, so we’re not going to prosecute you? We’re going to sit around in a circle with, like, the hippies down the hallway, and we’re going to have a talk and then you don’t have any punishment?”

Things have changed.

Clark is now referring some of the most serious cases on her docket into the program, including one involving a transit police officer who tore his rotator cuff and strained his knee trying to apprehend a teenager fighting on a subway platform.

Metro Transit Police officer Jason Dixon says some kids are “a little past saving, but [for] the ones that you can save, this program should definitely be on the table.”

Dixon shrugged off objections from his wife, a detective and some of his transit police force colleagues to participate in restorative justice. After the restorative justice conference, the 16-year-old who hurt him called on the phone once a week for six months — even getting parenting advice from Dixon, since the teen had recently become a new dad himself.

“I really feel like this program opens up doors for kids where they have a lot of doors shut in their face,” Dixon says.

Members of the D.C. attorney general’s restorative justice team (from left, back row to front): Alex Lambert, Roman Haferd, Lashonia Thompson-El, Ameen Beale, Seema Gajwani and Ashley Hyman-Ford.

Courtesy of the D.C. Office of the Attorney General


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Courtesy of the D.C. Office of the Attorney General

The restorative justice program is underway in a city where police interactions with juveniles have become very public and very controversial.

Local law enforcement officers handcuffed a 10-year-old boy this year, stirring vocal protests in the neighborhood. Other incidents with young children followed, often captured by neighbors on cell phone videos.

Racine’s office is reviewing police policies on encounters with children.

“I got me”

Back in the drab D.C. conference room on Good Friday, the process is taking a while.

People have stopped picking at breakfast — chocolate chip muffins and orange juice — and have started dishing out slices of cheese pizza from a cardboard takeout box.

The 16-year-old boy’s foster mom and two older male mentors insist they want to support him, but he has had a tough life and he doesn’t want to grab the hands that are reaching out to help him.

“Y’all keep screaming, ‘Team,’ ” the boy says. “At the end of the day, when I go to sleep by myself, I got me. Any clothes, shoes, anything, support — I get it because I believed in me. … And I got 16 years of life without a team, and I’m going to make it 55 more. I don’t believe in friendship. I don’t believe in trust. I don’t even trust my own mother. I don’t trust my own brothers.”

The conversation turns to the event that brought them all here.

A few months earlier, this boy and his crowd ran into trouble on public transportation. Some people in the group made hostile remarks to a transgender woman. The incident escalated, and she was assaulted.

That woman is sitting across the circle from him, looking through her long eyelashes and waiting for him to talk.

The boy slumps in a chair and mumbles while his foster mom pushes him to continue. He begins to explain: He didn’t want to look like a sucker that day, or for the rest of the school year. So he spat on the victim.

The woman he spat on says everyone has struggles in life — but he has time and support to change.

“I’m always going to have to deal with getting beat up because this is how people feel all the time,” she says. “How many more times am I going to go through this?”

But, she also says, she agreed to come to this session because she saw something more in this teenager during that bad day on the subway: fear or regret, unlike the other young people involved with the assault. The woman has one request: She wants this boy to promise to stand up for other LGBTQ people getting harassed like she did.

“This was a hate crime,” she says.

The boy asks everyone else to leave the room. Later, they say, he apologized — and she accepted.

A clean sheet. A second chance

Back in the conference room, Haferd, the facilitator, asks how everyone is feeling. It has been an exhausting day. One hour in a restorative justice circle, he says, feels like five hours anyplace else.

The woman who was hurt says she’s happy with the process — she feels like it was “completely successful.”

They agree that the teenager will go to school more often and that she’ll even recommend possible clients for haircuts, because he wants to start a barbering business.

“When you make good on these agreements, we’re going to make sure your case gets dismissed,” Haferd says.

A few months later, authorities told NPR, the teenager is sticking to the agreement.

He has found some barbershops willing to take him, he’s going to a better school in the fall and he has reunited with his biological mother. She reports they’re now on “good terms” — one more relationship in the early stages of restoration.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/07/02/735506637/d-c-prosecutors-once-dubious-are-becoming-believers-in-restorative-justice

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Southwest expects Boeing 737 Max cancellations to continue into October – CNBC
Southwest expects Boeing 737 Max cancellations to continue into October – CNBC

Trump says renewed trade talks with China have ‘already begun’

Trump and Xi had agreed during a bilateral meeting at the summit in Osaka, Japan, to hold off on imposing new tariffs on each other’s goods.

Politicsread more

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/01/southwest-expects-cancellations-into-october-amid-boeing-737-max-grounding.html

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Hong Kong Protesters Storm Legislature, Dividing the Movement – The New York Times
Hong Kong Protesters Storm Legislature, Dividing the Movement – The New York Times

“I don’t support violence, no matter what, but I understand why people would do it,” said Emily Lau, a former lawmaker. “They are very frustrated because they say they have protested so much.”

Some argued that nonviolence had failed and that a more confrontational approach was necessary to protect Hong Kong’s freedoms.

“We have been too peaceful for the past few times, so the police think we are easily bullied,” said Natalie Fung, 28, who supported protesters with food and drinks outside the legislature. “The younger people are risking their safety and their futures for us.”

In Beijing, the state-run news media mostly ignored the protests. But they were perceived among some as a stark challenge to Mr. Xi’s rule, taking place on the 98th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

The unrest has put Mr. Xi, who has promoted an image as a tough, uncompromising leader, in a difficult position, as he grapples with the prospect of more clashes between the police and protesters, or removing Mrs. Lam, a chief executive whom he swore in two years ago.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/01/world/asia/china-hong-kong-protest.html

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Hickenlooper finance director flees to Beto – POLITICO
Hickenlooper finance director flees to Beto – POLITICO

The Hickenlooper campaign already faced a steep climb to qualify for the fall debates. | Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo

2020 Elections

The national finance director for John Hickenlooper’s presidential campaign is departing and joining rival Beto O’Rourke’s effort, O’Rourke’s campaign told POLITICO on Monday.

The aide, Dan Sorenson, is leaving the former two-term Colorado governor the day after the deadline for 2nd-quarter fundraising and after last week’s Democratic debate — an ominous sign for a presidential bid that has struggled to gain traction.

Story Continued Below

“We wish him the best with his new opportunity,” Lauren Hitt, Hickenlooper’s communications director, told POLITICO in a text message.

The Hickenlooper campaign already faced a steep climb to qualify for the fall debates, which require 130,000 donors and reaching 2 percent in four qualifying polls. Even if he ultimately withdraws from the race to challenge Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in Colorado — as some party leaders had long hoped he would — there is now a crowded field of Democrats already running that he would have to defeat.

“We’re thrilled to have Dan join our team to bring more supporters into this campaign and ensure Beto’s message of building a new kind of politics where no American is left behind can reach voters across the country,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, O’Rourke‘s campaign manager.

Hickenlooper raised a little more than $2 million in the first quarter of the year after entering the race in March. Initially equivocating on the question of whether he was a capitalist, Hickenlooper has recently fashioned himself as the anti-socialist candidate. Earlier this month, he gave a speech bashing the democratic socialism of his rival Sen. Bernie Sanders and earned himself a New Yorker profile this week headlined “John Hickenlooper’s War on Socialism.”

Sorenson joined Hickenlooper’s Giddy Up PAC in January and then the official presidential campaign in March. In the 2018 cycle, Sorenson was the deputy national finance director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

After Hickenlooper entered the race and raised more than $1 million in the first 48 hours, Sorenson said in a statement that “[t]he surge of support and enthusiasm for the governor is clear. … Gov. Hickenlooper’s record of bringing people together and delivering real results on health care, climate, and gun reform is resonating across the country.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/01/hickenlooper-finance-director-beto-1394032

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is Handing Off The Liberal Torch – NPR
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is Handing Off The Liberal Torch – NPR

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan took on more of the consequential writings for the court’s liberals this past term. Above, Kagan testifies about the court’s budget on Capitol Hill.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images


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Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan took on more of the consequential writings for the court’s liberals this past term. Above, Kagan testifies about the court’s budget on Capitol Hill.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

This past term, the Supreme Court decided cases dealing with thorny issues such as a citizenship question on the U.S. census, political gerrymandering and the separation of church and state.

Here are six takeaways from what happened, including a look ahead to what’s coming next term:

1. Chief Justice John Roberts is now the swing vote.

Roberts finally has a five-justice conservative majority to march the Supreme Court to the right. But that is sometimes at war with his desire to protect the court’s institutional integrity and its nonpartisan image.

Roberts, in fact, rarely deviates from conservative positions. But when he does, it makes a huge difference. All of this played out in the final two decisions of the term. Both were written by Roberts, but in one, he sided with the court’s conservatives and in the other with the court’s liberals.

In the case dealing with extreme partisan gerrymandering, Roberts, joined by fellow conservatives, slammed the door shut to the idea that the courts should intervene in extreme cases to prevent politicians from drawing legislative districts to entrench their own political power. Until this year, Roberts did not have a fifth vote to reach that conclusion because Justice Anthony Kennedy remained open to courts policing a practice he saw as a threat to democratic governance. But with Kennedy’s retirement and the appointment of the far more conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the court moved firmly to the right on this question, with Roberts leading the charge.

Roberts abandoned his conservative colleagues, however, when it came to the Trump administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The chief justice wrote the court’s 5-4 decision, this time joined by the court’s four liberals, blocking the addition of the citizenship question. In his opinion, Roberts said the sole justification offered by the administration — that the question was needed to aid in enforcement of the Voting Rights Act — was essentially a lie.

He used more polite terms, calling the explanation “contrived” and saying that the evidence “does not match” the explanation given by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau. But, he concluded, if the court were to accept that explanation, judicial review of agency decision-making would be “an empty ritual.”

2. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh take different paths.

Supreme Court justices Brett Kavanaugh (left) and Neil Gorsuch attend the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony at the White House last year.

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images


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Supreme Court justices Brett Kavanaugh (left) and Neil Gorsuch attend the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony at the White House last year.

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Trump appointees Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have both proved reliable conservatives in the biggest and most controversial cases. But they have often differed in other cases. Indeed, in 19 cases, nearly a third of those decided this term, they split their votes. In two 5-4 criminal law decisions, for instance, Gorsuch joined the court’s four liberals to make a majority.

In United States v. Davis, Gorsuch wrote the decision for himself and the liberal justices, striking down as too vague a statute that imposes a mandatory and lengthy prison term for anyone who carries a firearm in connection with certain federal crimes, as the law did not specify which crimes carry this extra and severe penalty.

Gorsuch opened the opinion declaring, “In our constitutional order, a vague law is no law at all,” because ordinary people have no way to tell “what consequences will attach to their conduct.” Kavanaugh, in contrast, wrote the dissenting opinion with a litany of statistics about gun violence.

Gorsuch also joined the court’s liberals in two cases involving the rights of Native Americans. He is the only Westerner on the court and has begun to amass a record more sympathetic to Indian rights than any other justice in decades.

3. Thomas remained the court’s most conservative justice.

Justice Clarence Thomas poses for the official group photo at the Supreme Court last year.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images


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Justice Clarence Thomas poses for the official group photo at the Supreme Court last year.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

In the final weeks of the court term alone, Justice Clarence Thomas penned concurring or dissenting opinions that called for the reconsideration of the court’s abortion decisions and linked Planned Parenthood to eugenics; he reiterated his position that the First Amendment’s separation of church and state does not apply to the states; and in a case involving a black man tried six times by the same prosecutor, Thomas, the court’s only African American member, contended that racial discrimination in jury selection should be immune from judicial scrutiny.

In all, he wrote a total of 20 concurring or dissenting opinions, more than any other justice. Gorsuch was second with 14.

4. Ginsburg continued to be a workhorse.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg looked better and better as the term progressed. She underwent surgery to remove a cancerous lesion on her lung in December. Upon her return, she seemed to make a point of carrying her weight. At one point in January, she had written more opinions than any other member of the court.

5. Handing off the liberal torch to Kagan?

The 86-year-old Ginsburg seemed to be handing the liberal torch off to Justice Elena Kagan, assigning her important majority and dissenting opinions. As the senior justice, Ginsburg assigns opinions when the chief justice, who normally assigns opinions, is not in the majority and she is. Her decision assignments seemed both strategic and generous — she gave important writing assignments not just to Kagan but to both Trump appointees, when they provided deciding votes in closely divided cases.

Kagan wrote perhaps the most impassioned dissent for the liberals in the partisan gerrymandering case. In the two cases of extreme partisan gerrymandering before the court, she said the politicians “beat democracy.” Her voice trembling in an oral dissent from the bench, she added, “Of all times to abandon the court’s duty” to correct constitutional wrongs that imperil our system of government, “this was not the one.”

6. Watch out next term.

This term was tame compared with what’s on the horizon next term. Already on the docket are cases testing gun rights, aid to parochial schools, employment discrimination against gay and transgender workers and the Trump administration’s attempt to end deportation protection for DREAMers, as well as a case involving the Affordable Care Act and likely an abortion case.

Buckle up. It’s going to be a wild ride.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/07/02/737725994/6-takeaways-from-a-consequential-supreme-court-term

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US Border Patrol investigate ‘disturbing’ secret Facebook group – BBC News
US Border Patrol investigate ‘disturbing’ secret Facebook group – BBC News
Media caption‘No woman should be locked up in a pen’

US officials are investigating a secret Facebook group where border patrol members allegedly posted racist and sexist jokes about migrants.

The private group was called “I’m 10-15” and had about 9,500 members, including former and current border patrol agents, ProPublica reported.

Some posts mocked migrant deaths, while others targeted Latino members of Congress, ProPublica said.

The Border Patrol chief has called the posts “completely inappropriate”.

“Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable,” Carla Provost said.

According to ProPublica, members of the group mocked Latino members of Congress who visited migrant detention centres in Texas on Monday.

Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Veronica Escobar were among those said to be targeted, with members calling them “hoes” and scum buckets”.

In one post, a member reportedly suggested throwing burritos at them, while another depicted a doctored image that showed Ms Ocasio-Cortez performing a sex act.

The BBC was not able to independently verify the existence of the private group, which is not publicly accessible on Facebook.

Matthew Klein, an assistant commissioner at the CBP, said the Department of Homeland Security has launched an investigation into the group, which violated the agency’s code of conduct.

He said a number of CBP agents may be members of the group, without elaborating on their roles.

Image copyright
AFP

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Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus were heckled as they visited detention facilities

Ms Ocasio-Cortez said the posts did not surprise her, saying it was “indicative” of what she saw while visiting migrant detention centres on Monday.

On Twitter, she claimed that border patrol officers had told women in cells to “drink out of the toilets”.

“I see why CBP officers were being so physically and sexually threatening towards me,” she tweeted after the trip.

The CBP has not officially responded to her comments.

However, a DHS official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Post that drinking water was available, and no border agent would force migrants to drink from a toilet.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers toured detention centres days after a harrowing picture of a drowned man and his daughter in the Rio Grande brought the migration crisis into sharp focus.

Media captionRio Grande drowning: ‘I knew it was the last time I would see my son’

Since taking office in 2017, US President Donald Trump had adopted tougher policies in an attempt to reduce the number of undocumented migrants.

Earlier this month, Mexico reached a deal with the Trump administration to try to stem the flow of undocumented migrants travelling to the US.

Since then, deportations and detentions of undocumented migrants have reportedly increased.

In February, Mr Trump declared an emergency on the country’s southern border, saying it was necessary to tackle what he said was a crisis there.

Last week, the US Congress approved a $4.5bn (£3.5bn) humanitarian aid package for the US-Mexico border.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48834824

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AOC paints grim picture of U.S. migrant detention centers – AOL
AOC paints grim picture of U.S. migrant detention centers – AOL

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sharply criticized the conditions at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detention camps, stating that migrants were subject to “systemic cruelty” that treated them “like animals.”

“Just left the 1st CBP facility,” wrote Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter. “I see why CBP officers were being so physically &sexually threatening towards me. Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets. This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress.”

On Monday, ProPublica published messages from a Facebook group of roughly members, including current and former Border Patrol agents, named “I’m 10-15,” a reference to the agency’s code for “aliens in custody.” Among the messages were jokes about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in Border Patrol custody in May and sexist references to Ocasio-Cortez, including illustrations of her performing oral sex on migrants and President Trump.

The group, Ocasio-Cortez said, also suggested raising money for an agent to throw a burrito at her and Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents the El Paso, Texas, area. The two freshmen congresswomen were among a delegation visiting the border on Monday.

“Now I’ve seen the inside of these facilities,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “It’s not just the kids. It’s everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members Congress. I brought it up to their superiors. They said ‘officers are under stress & act out sometimes.’ No accountability.”

“After I forced myself into a cell w/ women&began speaking to them, one of them described their treatment at the hands of officers as ‘psychological warfare’ – waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them wh*res, etc,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Tell me what about that is due to a ‘lack of funding?’ Now I’m on my way to Clint, where the Trump admin was denying children toothpaste and soap. This has been horrifying so far. It is hard to understate the enormity of the problem. We’re talking systemic cruelty w/ a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals.”

“There’s abuse in these facilities,” said Ocasio-Cortez to reporters outside the facility. “There’s abuse. This is them on their best behavior, and they put them in a room with no running water and these women were being told by CBP officers to drink out of the toilet. They were drinking water out of the toilet, and that was them knowing a Congressional visit was coming. This is CBP on their best behavior, telling people to drink out of the toilet.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who was also on the tour, expressed similar sentiments.

“We can’t just focus on the children anymore,” tweeted Tlaib. “I met grandmothers, mothers and fathers who are suffering. This is devastating. The look in one father’s eyes broke me. I can’t look away.”

Conditions at the border detention camps have continued to draw scrutiny. On Monday, NBC News reported that a Department of Homeland Security document revealed that agents were arming themselves out of fear of riots because the conditions were so bad. Over the weekend, a federal judge ordered that doctors be allowed into child migrant camps in order to ensure they were “safe and sanitary” after multiple reports of young migrants being unable to shower, brush their teeth or wash their hands. Acting CBP chief John Sanders announced last week he was resigning, making no mention of the conditions at the facilities.

“It just felt, you know, lawless,” Dolly Lucio Sevier, a doctor who visited the centers, said inan interview with ABC News last week. “I mean, imagine your own children there. I can’t imagine my child being there and not being broken.”

RELATED: US-Mexico border and Border Patrol agents

A U.S. Border Patrol agent stands for a photograph while keeping watch along the U.S. and Mexico border in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 17, 2017. The Trump administration outlined a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants Tuesday, pledging to hire 15,000 more border patrol and immigration agents and to begin building a wall on the Mexican border to enact executive orders signed by the president on Jan. 25.

(Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

US Border Patrol agents speak with a woman on the US/Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on February 20, 2017, prior to her crossing into the US. ATTENTION EDITORS: This image is part of an ongoing AFP photo project documenting the life on the two sides of the US/Mexico border simultaneously by two photographers traveling for ten days from California to Texas on the US side and from Baja California to Tamaulipas on the Mexican side between February 13 and 22, 2017.

(JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

US Border Patrol agents patrol the Rio Grande river on a fan boat on the US/Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas, on February 21, 2017. Attention Editors: this image is part of an ongoing AFP photo project documenting the life on the two sides of the US/Mexico border simultaneously by two photographers traveling for ten days from California to Texas on the US side and from Baja California to Tamaulipas on the Mexican side between February 13 and 22, 2017.

(JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

A U.S. Border Patrol agent stands for a photograph while keeping watch along the U.S. and Mexico border in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 17, 2017. The Trump administration outlined a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants Tuesday, pledging to hire 15,000 more border patrol and immigration agents and to begin building a wall on the Mexican border to enact executive orders signed by the president on Jan. 25.

(Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A border fence that separates the U.S. and Mexico stands in Sunland Park, New Mexico, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 17, 2017. The Trump administration outlined a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants Tuesday, pledging to hire 15,000 more border patrol and immigration agents and to begin building a wall on the Mexican border to enact executive orders signed by the president on Jan. 25.

(Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A boundary marker stands next to a border fence that separates the U.S. and Mexico in Sunland Park, New Mexico, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 17, 2017. The Trump administration outlined a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants Tuesday, pledging to hire 15,000 more border patrol and immigration agents and to begin building a wall on the Mexican border to enact executive orders signed by the president on Jan. 25.

(Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A U.S. Border Patrol agent stands for a photograph while keeping watch along the U.S. and Mexico border in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 17, 2017. The Trump administration outlined a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants Tuesday, pledging to hire 15,000 more border patrol and immigration agents and to begin building a wall on the Mexican border to enact executive orders signed by the president on Jan. 25.

(Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A suspected immigrant is escorted by the U.S. Border Patrol to a vehicle near the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas, U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. A security surge along the U.S.-Mexico border will use ‘a military-style approach’ with more Border Patrol agents, barriers and sensors and new authorities for law enforcement agencies, House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul said.

(Eddie Seal/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Border Patrol agents patrol the United States-Mexico Border wall during Opening the Door Of Hope/Abriendo La Puerta De La Esparana at Friendship Park in San Ysidro, California on Saturday, November 19, 2016.

(SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images)




Earlier in the day, the congresswoman criticized CBP for having a “violent culture.”

“This just broke: a secret Facebook group of 9,500 CBP [Customs and Border Protection] officers discussed making a GoFundMe for officers to harm myself & Rep. Escobar during our visit to CBP facilities & mocked migrant deaths,” wrote Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter, linking to the story. “This isn’t about ‘a few bad eggs.’ This is a violent culture.”

“9,500 CBP officers sharing memes about dead migrants and discussing violence and sexual misconduct towards members of Congress,” added Ocasio-Cortez. “How on earth can CBP’s culture be trusted to care for refugees humanely? PS I have no plans to change my itinerary & will visit the CBP station today.”

Ocasio-Cortez repeatedly made the point Monday that the views expressed by members of the secret Facebook group were indicative of a larger problem at CBP, which oversees the Border Patrol.

“There are 20,000 TOTAL Customs & Border Patrol agents in the US. 9,500 – almost HALF that number – are in a racist & sexually violent secret CBP Facebook group,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “They’re threatening violence on members of Congress. How do you think they’re treating caged children+families?”

In May, the Arizona Daily Star reported that a Border Patrol agent who is accused of knocking down a Guatemalan man with his vehicle allegedly sent text messages that included referring to migrants as “disgusting subhuman s— unworthy of being kindling for a fire” and asking the White House “PLEASE let us take the gloves off trump!”

ProPublica later reported that the CBP was going to investigate members of the group, stating, “Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable.”

Ocasio-Cortez was criticized last month by Republican members of Congress for calling the facilities “concentration camps,” although a number of experts and historians agreed with her classification. On June 22, the Salt Lake Tribune editorial board published an op-ed entitled “Yes, we do have concentration camps.”

In a call last week, a CBP official disputed the critical accounts and said the children housed there were given periodic access to showers and unlimited snacks.

“I personally don’t believe these allegations,” said the CBP official, who spoke on the condition he not be identified, according to the New York Times.

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Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/07/01/aoc-paints-grim-picture-of-us-migrant-detention-centers/23760794/

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No foul play suspected in Tyler Skaggs’ death – Larry Brown Sports
No foul play suspected in Tyler Skaggs’ death – Larry Brown Sports

Source Article from https://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/no-foul-play-suspected-tyler-skaggs-death/502739

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AOC screamed at Border Patrol agents in ‘threatening manner’ during tour: Witnesses – Washington Examiner
AOC screamed at Border Patrol agents in ‘threatening manner’ during tour: Witnesses – Washington Examiner

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., screamed at federal law enforcement agents “in a threatening manner” during a visit to a Border Patrol facility in El Paso, Texas, and refused to tour the facility, according to two people who witnessed the incident.

A group of 14 House Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, and their aides kicked off their visit to the region at about 11 a.m. MST Monday at the El Paso Station on Hondo Pass Drive.

The group was standing inside the station near an area where migrants are held when Ocasio-Cortez left them to sit inside a nearby holding area with a family as the other lawmakers and aides were briefed on station operations.

“She comes out screaming at our agents, right at the beginning [of the tour] … Crying and screaming and yelling,” said one witness who said he was stunned by the outburst in front of approximately 40 people.

“The agents, they wanted to respond, but they held back because she’s a congressional delegate. But when you have someone yelling at you in a threatening manner … ” the same person said. “They were like, ‘Hey, you need to kinda step back.’”

A second official said she went in and out of the cell during the group’s briefing nearby and returned to the group several times to share information she had learned from detainees, including that one person had drunk from a toilet.

The congresswoman told the group she would not go with the 13 other House Democrats on the tour of the facility and stayed with the family.

A second official said that while she was around agents, Ocasio-Cortez commented at another point about an unofficial Border Patrol Facebook page that was exposed earlier Monday for offensive content about those in custody and lawmakers, including the congresswoman.

“Something under her breath, ‘Oh, all these guys in here are gonna f–k me.’ The agents are standing there behind the computers. One of the agents laughed at something he was saying to another agent, and she got irate and flipped out,” the second Border Patrol official said. “Now they’re under investigation for it. She took it as they were laughing at her and screams at them and says, ‘What’s so funny?’”

CBP did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the internal affairs matter. The Border Patrol official said managers were in the process of taking statements from agents.

The Washington Examiner submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to CBP for video of the events.

The congresswoman, who led a charge in 2018 to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, recounted the scene differently in a social media post afterward and did not mention yelling at agents.

“After I forced myself into a cell w/ women&began speaking to them, one of them described their treatment at the hands of officers as “psychological warfare” – waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them wh*res, etc. Tell me what about that is due to a ‘lack of funding?’” she wrote on Twitter.

“Now I’ve seen the inside of these facilities. It’s not just the kids. It’s everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members Congress. I brought it up to their superiors. They said ‘officers are under stress & act out sometimes.’ No accountability,” she tweeted. “Just left the 1st CBP facility. I see why CBP officers were being so physically &sexually threatening towards me. Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets. This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress.”

The agent on scene said the congresswoman misrepresented why a person in custody had drunk from a toilet.

“So this is what happened with the migrant and drinking water from toilet: she wanted water, didn’t know how to use the faucet in the cell, and drank from the toilet. She never told AOC that we made her drink from the toilet. AOC, of course, changed it … This was when she [the migrant] was apprehended and brought into the facility,” according to the agent.

A Border Patrol official familiar with the sector’s media and congressional visits said the city’s congresswoman, Veronica Escobar, has been through stations “15 times” but did not respond in the same way as her colleague on Monday. Later in the visit, the first official said Escobar “yelled” at El Paso Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Hull about its care of detainees.

“We’ve never hidden anything from her,” the official said.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/aoc-screamed-at-border-patrol-agents-in-threatening-manner-during-tour-witnesses

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Andy Puzder: Hong Kong protesters are fighting for their freedom — They deserve US support – Fox News
Andy Puzder: Hong Kong protesters are fighting for their freedom — They deserve US support – Fox News
Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for June 30

Fox News Flash top headlines for June 30 are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com

While talks Saturday between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Japan focused on resolving trade disputes, there is another major issue dividing our two countries: the fight for freedom by the people of Hong Kong.

We don’t know what, if anything, Trump and Xi said about Hong Kong. But the fate of the former British colony and the rights of its citizens are important and should be of concern to Americans and free people everywhere.

NEWT GINGRICH: SOME CHINESE STUDENTS AT US COLLEGES ARE CHINESE SPIES

Protesters claim nearly 2 million people have joined their ranks to stage demonstrations and marches against a controversial extradition bill, while Hong Kong police estimated peak turnout of protesters was 338,000.

The protests have being going on for weeks, as the people of Hong Kong have tried desperately to stop their semi-autonomous democratic government from succumbing to Beijing’s pressure and passing deeply unpopular extradition legislation.

The extradition bill would nullify the civil liberties and criminal justice protections that Hong Kongers enjoy. It could lead to the end of Hong Kong’s autonomy from mainland China, which is ruled by the heavy hand of the Communist Party.

In addition to demonstrating outside the Hong Kong consulates of all the G20 powers, the anti-extradition protesters were on the ground in Osaka Japan during the summit, making the issue of Hong Kong’s fate impossible to ignore.

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters were right to raise their grievances at the summit that was focused on trade and economics. Trade, geopolitics and human rights are deeply interrelated. Hong Kong punches well above its weight both economically and with respect to freedom.

The Heritage Foundation’s 2019 Index of Economic Freedom ranks Hong Kong’s capitalist economy as the freest in the world. China’s essentially state-run economy, operating under a Communist dictatorship, ranks a dismal No. 100 on the freedom index.

Demonstrating the benefits of economic freedom, the gross domestic product per person in Hong Kong last year was $49,000 – while mainland China lagged far behind at only $10,000.

Hong Kong is a bastion of freedom and prosperity on the doorstep of a totalitarian giant, standing as a prominent example of what economic freedom can do.

If Chinese leaders were truly interested in acting in the best interests of their people and stimulating economic growth and prosperity they would make China more like Hong Kong. Instead, they want to bring their iron-fisted rule to Hong Kong and make it more like the rest of China.

Not surprisingly, Beijing used its veto power to keep any discussion of the Hong Kong protests off the G20 summit agenda.

“We will not allow the G20 to discuss the Hong Kong issue,” China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs told reporters Monday. That’s unfortunate. It’s a discussion China will find difficult to avoid.

As things stand, the special autonomy Hong Kong enjoys makes it exempt from the counter-tariffs that President Trump has imposed on the Chinese mainland, as well as export restrictions limiting advanced technology that China can buy from the U.S.

This arrangement benefits everyone. Hong Kong serves as a gateway between the West and China, where companies from both systems can trade and collaborate. It’s a relationship and a status well worth protecting from totalitarian excesses.

The U.S. Congress is considering bipartisan legislation titled the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 that would use trade as leverage to exert pressure on the Chinese government to respect Hong Kong’s autonomy, democracy, and traditions of law and justice.

One of the stated purposes of the legislation is “to ensure that all residents of Hong Kong are afforded freedom from arbitrary or unlawful arrest, detention, or imprisonment.”

Seems pretty reasonable.

The U.S. legislation would require China to respect Hong Kong’s autonomy to preserve the favorable trading status Hong Kong has with America. Congress should pass it expeditiously.

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Economic freedom permeates every facet of world power and that is why the eyes of the world were on Presidents Trump and Xi in Osaka.

Trump is making far more progress on the trade front that his critics imagined he could. Hopefully, protecting those in Hong Kong fighting for their liberty will be a part of whatever trade deal Trump ultimately achieves.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM ANDY PUZDER

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andy-puzder-hong-kong-protesters-are-fighting-for-their-freedom-they-deserve-us-support

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White House warns Iran over breach of enriched uranium limit | TheHill – The Hill
White House warns Iran over breach of enriched uranium limit | TheHill – The Hill

The White House on Monday issued a warning to Iran after the country announced it surpassed limits on enriched uranium under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

“Maximum pressure on the Iranian regime will continue until its leaders alter their course of action,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. “The regime must end its nuclear ambitions and its malign behavior.”

Tehran said hours earlier it had exceeded the amount of low-enriched uranium it is allowed to stockpile under the Obama-era deal, from which President TrumpDonald John TrumpThe billionaire exemption Former Bolton aide pushes back on report of nuclear freeze with North Korea US breaks record for longest economic expansion MORE withdrew the U.S. last year.

The move was a bid to convince Europe, Russia and China to provide relief from U.S. sanctions, but the statement is a signal that the president is not prepared to back down and de-escalate tensions with Iran.

It marked the first time that Iran breached the terms of the deal, but the White House argued in a strangely worded phrase that “there is little doubt that even before the deal’s existence, Iran was violating its terms.” 

Administration officials and Republican lawmakers have argued Tehran’s support for militant groups and involvement in Middle East conflicts constitute violations of the spirit of the pact.

Iran agreed to cap its stockpile low-enriched uranium at 300 kilograms, one of several restrictions on its nuclear activities, in exchange for lifting almost all international sanctions. Iranian officials said they are violating the terms of the deal because the U.S. withdrew and reimposed sanctions on Tehran. 

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/451220-white-house-warns-iran-over-breach-of-enriched-uranium-limit

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Deadly poison suspected at Facebook facility – USA TODAY
Deadly poison suspected at Facebook facility – USA TODAY

The deadly poison Sarin was possibly discovered Monday at a Facebook mailing facility in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to local authorities. 

A Facebook facility in Menlo Park was cordoned off by the local fire department and two people, who local media say were exposed to it, were checked out.

Facebook says it evacuated four buildings after the suspected Sarin was discovered, and “are conducting a thorough investigation in coordination with local authorities. As of now, three of the evacuated buildings have been cleared for repopulation. The safety of our employees is our top priority and we will share additional information when it is available.

According to the CDC, sarin is chemical nerve agent, originally developed in 1938 in Germany as a pesticide, one that can evaporate into a vapor (gas) and spread into the environment.

According to Menlo Park Fire District chief Harold Schapelhouman, Facebook runs all of its mail and packages through a machine that can detect dangerous substances. Facebook learned of the potential for sarin when the machine notified workers of such.

Was it Sarin? “The machine thinks it’s Sarin,” he says. “We don’t know that it’s Sarin.”

The two workers so far “show zero symptoms,” Schapelhouman says, adding that protocol calls for them to be checked out. 

Follow USA TODAY’s Jefferson Graham (@jeffersongraham) on Twitter. 

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2019/07/01/facebook-facility-closed-fear-poison-sarin/1621743001/

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CNN Poll: Harris and Warren rise and Biden slides after first Democratic debates – CNN
CNN Poll: Harris and Warren rise and Biden slides after first Democratic debates – CNN

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/politics/2020-democratic-candidates-poll/index.html

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Ayoola Ajayi, accused of killing MacKenzie Lueck, was once investigated for rape. And his ex-wife feared him. – Salt Lake Tribune
Ayoola Ajayi, accused of killing MacKenzie Lueck, was once investigated for rape. And his ex-wife feared him. – Salt Lake Tribune

Source Article from https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/07/01/accused-killing-mackenzie/

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Ocasio-Cortez accuses border officers of ‘violent culture’ after report on graphic Facebook posts – Fox News
Ocasio-Cortez accuses border officers of ‘violent culture’ after report on graphic Facebook posts – Fox News
Video

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez refusing to apologize for comparing migrant detention centers to concentration camps

AOC comments spark outrage for both Republicans and Democrats; Aishah Hasnie reports.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused U.S. Customs and Border Protection of having a “violent culture” and questioned how officers treat migrants after a report surfaced Monday about a secret Facebook group where Border Patrol agents purportedly posted graphic and vulgar jokes about the Democratic lawmaker as well as illegal immigrants.

CONSTRUCTION OF BORDER WALL PANELS UNDERWAY IN CALIFORNIA

“This isn’t about ‘a few bad eggs,’ Ocasio-Cortez said in a series of tweets. “This is a violent culture.”

The website ProPublica posted a story Monday headlined “Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths and Post Sexist Memes.” In addition to showing indifference toward the deaths of migrants, members made vulgar jokes about Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus ahead of their visit a Border Patrol facility in Texas on Monday, the story said.

In one post reported by ProPublica, a group member referenced the visits by Democrats and encouraged an officer to throw a “burrito at these b—–s.” Other posts included a vile, fake photo illustration of Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with President Trump.

“They’re threatening violence on members of Congress,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “How do you think they’re treating caged children+families?”

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection condemned the posts.

“These posts are completely inappropriate and contrary to the honor and integrity I see—and expect—from our agents day in and day out,” U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost said in a statement to Fox News. “Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable.”

Matthew Klein, the assistant commissioner of the CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, said the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general opened an investigation on Monday.

“Today, U.S. Customs and Border Protection was made aware of disturbing social media activity hosted on a private Facebook group that may include a number of CBP employees,” Klein said. “CBP immediately informed DHS Office of the Inspector General and initiated an investigation”

ProPublica did not post the names of those who made the vulgar posts. But the news outlet said the Facebook group is called “I’m 10-15” and has about 9,500 members, which include current and former border officers. “10-15” is code for “aliens in custody.”

Despite the posts, Ocasio-Cortez still visited the Border Patrol facility Monday.

“Just left the 1st CBP facility,” she tweeted. “I see why CBP officers were being so physically &sexually threatening towards me. Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets. This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ocasio-cortez-accuses-border-officers-of-violent-culture-after-report-on-graphic-facebook-posts

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Birds at border prompt South Korea to launch jets, issue alert – AOL
Birds at border prompt South Korea to launch jets, issue alert – AOL

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Ending a brief media frenzy, South Korea’s military said it turned out to be a flock of birds that prompted it to launch fighter jets and alert journalists that it had detected an unidentified object flying near the border with North Korea on Monday.

The South’s earlier announcement on the flying object left many media outlets scrambling, with the incident coming a day after U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met at a different portion of the heavily fortified Korean border.

South Korea’s military has been under fire for a possible security gap after a boat carrying four North Koreans arrived undetected recently at a South Korean port. Observers say the South’s military had likely released the inconclusive information about the flying object to media to avoid similar criticism of its surveillance posture.

The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff had said earlier Monday that its radar found “the traces of flight by an unidentified object” over the central portion of the Demilitarized Zone, a de facto border between the two Koreas.

RELATED: North and South Korea border




South Korean media, citing unidentified military officials, quickly speculated that it was likely be a North Korean helicopter flying across the border into South Korea. But pilots of the several fighter jets deployed to the area later found that the object was a group of about 20 birds, a South Korean military official said, requesting anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to reporters on the issue.

South Korea sent North Korea a message about its fighter jets’ launches to avoid unnecessary tensions, the official said.

The DMZ, which was created after fighting ended in the 1950-53 Korean War, is peppered with an estimated 2 million mines and guarded by combat troops, razor wire fences, anti-tank traps and guard posts on both sides. The two Koreas have occasionally traded exchanges of gunfire there, though animosities have eased since North Korea entered talks on its nuclear program.

Sunday’s meeting between Trump and Kim, their third, took place at the border village of Panmunjom, located inside the DMZ. Trump stepped across Panmunjom’s military demarcation line into North Korea with Kim, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea. He and Kim then turned back to Panmunjom’s southern part before sitting down for a meeting.

Earlier Monday, South Korea’s government said it hoped the diplomatic momentum created by the latest Trump-Kim meeting would help revive inter-Korean dialogue and engagement that stopped amid an impasse in nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.

“Since it’s expected that the nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang would bounce back, the government will … strengthen its efforts to create a virtuous cycle between inter-Korean relations, denuclearization and North Korea-U.S. relations,” Lee Sang-min, spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, told reporters.

North Korea’s state media described Kim’s meeting with Trump as “an amazing event” and that both leaders expressed great satisfaction over the result of their talks

The latest Trump-Kim meeting may have created momentum for further diplomacy, including working-level talks aimed at hammering out the terms of a mutually acceptable deal. But experts say it remains unclear whether the negotiations would successfully address the fundamental differences between Washington and Pyongyang that were exposed in a previous summit in Hanoi in February.

North Korea significantly reduced diplomatic activity and exchanges with the South following that summit. North Korea conducted tests of short-range missiles that could potentially threaten the South and demanded that Seoul break away from Washington and resume inter-Korean economic projects held back by U.S.-led sanctions against the North.

Last month, South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo issued a public apology amid criticism that the country’s military failed to detect a North Korean fishing boat that crossed deep into South Korean waters, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the maritime sea border, before reaching a port in Samcheok uninterrupted. South Korea sent two of the four North Korean fishermen aboard the boat back to the North, while the other two stayed in the South after expressing their desire to defect.

Some experts say the incident occurred because South Korea’s security posture has been weakened under the current liberal government of President Moon Jae-in, which seeks greater rapprochement with North Korea. But others note similar incidents, such as North Korean soldiers fleeing undetected to South Korea via the DMZ, had occasionally happened when South Korea was ruled by conservatives before Moon’s inauguration in 2017.

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Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/07/01/birds-at-border-prompt-s-korea-to-launch-jets-issue-alert/23760763/

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Hong Kong police evict protesters who stormed parliament – BBC News
Hong Kong police evict protesters who stormed parliament – BBC News
Media captionThe BBC’s Nick Beake goes inside the Legislative Council.

Police firing tear gas have evicted protesters who earlier stormed and ransacked Hong Kong’s parliament.

Activists had occupied the Legislative Council (LegCo) building for hours after breaking away from a protest on the anniversary of Hong Kong’s transfer of sovereignty to China from Britain.

After midnight (16:00 GMT), hundreds of police secured the building following a warning to protesters to clear it.

It follows weeks of unrest in the city over a controversial extradition law.

Hundreds of thousands took part in the earlier protest – the latest rally against a proposed law that critics fear could be used to extradite political dissidents to mainland China.

Dozens of demonstrators smashed their way through the glass facade of LegCo. They were joined inside by hundreds more after police vacated the building during the evening.

Media captionThe BBC’s Danny Vincent reports from inside parliament after protesters broke into the Legislative Council

Inside, they defaced the emblem of Hong Kong in the central chamber, raised the old British colonial flag, spray-painted messages across the walls, and shattered furniture.

Protesters clad in plastic helmets and brandishing umbrellas retreated from a baton charge by riot police, who quickly overcame the makeshift barriers in front of the building.

Inside, diehard protesters were pulled forcibly outside by their fellow occupants in an attempt to completely clear the building.

Democratic lawmakers Ted Hui and Roy Kwong stood in front of police asking them to allow demonstrators time to leave the area, the South China Morning Post reported.

Within an hour, the streets around the building were clear of everyone except the media and police. Officers then began searching the rooms of the LegCo building for any possible stragglers.

No arrests have yet been reported.

Why didn’t protesters stay?

One pro-democracy legislator told the BBC that young protesters initially said they would stay all night.

“They’re saying that they would beat the police by sheer numbers, and that sounds very scary to me,” she said.

“I was a journalist and I did cover the Tiananmen bloodbath 30 years ago, and that’s exactly what those students said back then in the Chinese capital.”

Her colleague, legislator Fernando Cheung, had been inside with those occupying the building, and said he was glad they all left safely without encountering police.

Media captionDemonstrators batter their way into parliament

“If they resisted… I’m afraid there would be bloodshed, or I think the police wouldn’t be hesitant to use force to disperse them,” he said.

He praised those who came back and grabbed those who refused to leave. “They came back and they dragged them out. And we’re actually glad that happened,” he said.

Why is there unrest?

Peaceful demonstrations had been planned for Monday, the 22nd anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China.

Hong Kong enjoys a “one country, two systems” deal that guarantees it a level of autonomy. Pro-democracy events are held every year to mark the handover.

This year, however, the annual event follows weeks of protests which have seen millions take to the streets over the planned extradition bill.

The demonstrations forced the government to apologise and suspend the planned law.

However, many protesters said they would not back down until the bill had been completely scrapped.

Media captionChief Executive Carrie Lam said she personally had to shoulder much of the blame for the row

However, there have also been smaller demonstrations by the territory’s pro-Beijing movement.

On Sunday, thousands of pro-Beijing protesters rallied in support of the Hong Kong police.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-48832910

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Iran says it has breached uranium stockpile limit under nuclear deal – AOL
Iran says it has breached uranium stockpile limit under nuclear deal – AOL

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran acknowledged Monday it had broken the limit set on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by the 2015 nuclear deal, marking its first major departure from the unraveling agreement a year after the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the accord.

Iran had been expected for days to acknowledge it broke the limit after earlier warning it would do so. It held off on publicly making an announcement as European leaders met Friday in Vienna to discuss ways to save the accord. Iran has threatened to increase its enrichment of uranium closer to weapons-grade levels by July 7.

The announcement comes as tensions remain high between Iran and the U.S. In recent weeks, the wider Persian Gulf has seen Iran shoot down a U.S. military surveillance drone, mysterious attacks on oil tankers and Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen launching bomb-laden drones into Saudi Arabia.

RELATED: Trump pulls U.S. from Iran nuclear deal




The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as making the uranium announcement. IRNA reported that Zarif, answering a reporter’s question whether Iran had broken the limit, said: “Yes.”

“If Europeans do what they have to do, our measures are reversible,” Zarif said, according to IRNA.

Zarif did not say how much low-enriched uranium had on hand, IRNA said.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed Iran had broken through the limit. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano told the agency’s board of governors that it had verified the development.

Breaking the stockpile limit by itself doesn’t radically change the one year experts say Iran would need to have enough material for an atomic bomb, if to choose to pursue one. Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, despite Western fears about it.

But by coupling an increasing stockpile with higher enrichment, it begins to close that one-year window and hamper any diplomatic efforts at saving the accord.

Under terms of the nuclear deal, Iran agreed to have less than 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of uranium enriched to a maximum of 3.67%. Previously, Iran enriched as high as 20%, which is a short technical step away from reaching weapons-grade levels. It also held up to 10,000 kilograms (22,046 pounds) of the higher-enriched uranium.

At the time of the 2015 deal, which was agreed to by Iran, the United States, China, Russia, Germany, France and Britain, experts believed Iran needed anywhere from several weeks to three months to have enough material for a bomb.

Zarif was quoted as also saying that the country remained on track to raise its enrichment if Europe did not take any additional steps toward saving the accord.

“The next step is about the 3.67% limitation, which we will implement too,” he warned.

___

Associated Press writer Kiyoko Metzler in Vienna contributed.

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Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/07/01/iran-says-it-has-breached-stockpile-limit-under-nuclear-deal/23760670/

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French say oops on viral Ivanka moment – POLITICO
French say oops on viral Ivanka moment – POLITICO

Ivanka Trump was unusually out front this past week during her father’s trip to this year’s G-20 summit and then the Korean peninsula. | Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

foreign policy

‘We didn’t anticipate the reaction,’ a French official said after a video released by the French government fueled concern about Ivanka Trump’s role in U.S. foreign policy.

By RYM MOMTAZ and

07/01/2019 01:52 PM EDT

BRUSSELS — The French presidency is feeling a tad awkward after a video it posted of Ivanka Trump’s seemingly stilted interactions with foreign leaders went viral and spawned mockery, insisting that it “didn’t anticipate the reaction.”

The video caught Ivanka Trump in a discussion with world leaders during her father President Donald Trump’s recent visit to the G-20 summit. And it has fueled concern that the president’s daughter is having undue influence on U.S. foreign policy. In the clip, Ivanka Trump is shown trying to engage in a talk with a handful of foreign leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Christine Lagarde, chairwoman of the International Monetary Fund.

Story Continued Below

The full context of the conversation isn’t clear, but at one point, British Prime Minister Theresa May says: “As soon as you charge them with that economic aspect of it, a lot of people start listening who otherwise wouldn’t listen.”

“And the same with the defense side of it, in terms of the whole business that’s been, sort of, male-dominated,” Ivanka Trump then says, smiling.

Lagarde, who had been nodding while May spoke, appears mystified by Trump’s comment and purses her lips. The IMF chief’s reaction alone has spawned numerous mocking tweets about the encounter.

In a statement, an official with the Élysée — the French presidential palace — stressed that the French government often releases clips of such moments at summits.

This particular one, the official said, “took place in the leaders’ lounge right before the sessions on gender equality of which Ivanka was one of the keynote speakers, so it wasn’t anything more than a moment of exchange like there were 100 more [of] with other leaders.”

The official noted, however, that the clip was released at a time of “a larger narrative in the U.S. about Ivanka’s diplomatic role and that goes beyond us, of course,” but that it wasn’t the French government’s intention to feed into that narrative.

“We didn’t anticipate the reaction, and once again, we are not responsible for the use made of the clip,” the official said.

Even before Trump took office, his oldest daughter — who is officially one of his advisers in the White House — has at times played the role of diplomat, traveling with her father and meeting with foreign leaders. In 2017, she stunned foreign policy observers when she briefly took the U.S. president’s place at a meeting with other world leaders in Germany at the G-20 summit, a gathering of the world’s largest economies

But even for her, Ivanka Trump was unusually out front this past week during her father’s trip to this year’s G-20 summit and then the Korean peninsula.

She gave a video “readout” of the U.S. president’s discussions with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And she popped up in group photos of meeting participants at the G-20.

Ivanka Trump also joined her father as he walked over into North Korean territory along the Demilitarized Zone to briefly meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. No sitting U.S. president had ever been inside North Korea before. Ivanka Trump described the experience as “surreal.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ivanka Trump’s omnipresence fueled speculation about her future political plans — her father has suggested in the past that he’d be willing to nominate her for top diplomatic posts. It also spawned intense criticism about whether she had the proper background for the role she was playing.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a progressive and one of the most outspoken new members of Congress, tweeted out the video of Ivanka Trump with Lagarde, Macron and others. “It may be shocking to some, but being someone’s daughter actually isn’t a career qualification,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.

Plenty of observers saw humor in Ivanka Trump’s many appearances.

On Twitter, using the hashtag #unwantedivanka, critics have been posting photoshopped pictures of historic — and fictional — events that now include Ivanka Trump. In one, she’s in the water alongside the characters Jack and Rose in the movie “Titanic.”

Nahal Toosi reported from Washington.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/01/france-ivanka-trump-reaction-1392084

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Quillette founder roasts fact-checker Snopes for casting doubt on Andy Ngo’s credentials – Washington Examiner
Quillette founder roasts fact-checker Snopes for casting doubt on Andy Ngo’s credentials – Washington Examiner

Editor-in-chief and co-founder of Quillette magazine, Claire Lehmann, took issue with fact-checking website Snopes after they shared a tweet which cast doubt on the credentials of Quillette editor, Andy Ngo, after he was violently assaulted by Antifa mobs in Portland, Oregon on Saturday.

Claire Lehmann, Quilette founder.

Ngo, a journalist who has been known to clash with Portland based Rose City Antifa in the past, was pummeled by fists, milkshakes, eggs, and possibly cement during the violent clash. Antifa protesters also stole Ngo’s camera equipment. He was hospitalized and later diagnosed with a brain bleed, but was able to leave the hospital late Sunday night, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help cover his medical expenses and recoup his lost equipment. The page had raised over $135,000 by Monday morning.

The Sunday evening Snopes tweet said, “Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo), who describes himself as an editor at the conservative website @Quillette and says he is “hated by antifa,” said he was attacked by anti-fascist protesters and had to be taken to the hospital to treat injuries to his face and head.”

The tweet, which quoted a linked article on Snopes written by the Associated Press, seemed to imply that Ngo’s account of the attack as well as his professional credits were open to interpretation. Lehmann, who has been outspoken in her defense of Ngo and condemnation of the Portland attack, was quick to correct Snopes and verify her employees claims. She tweeted, “Wtf kind of fact checking is this? Andy Ngo is indeed an editor with us, he is a journalist. And no @Quillette is not ‘conservative,’ we are all political moderates of a liberal centrist persuasion.”

Portland police officers were also on the receiving end of some of the thrown milkshakes and eggs. Police have faced criticism in the wake of the incident for not intervening at an earlier point. Three arrests were made, and the protesters were ordered to disperse by early evening.

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz slammed the mayor of Portland in a Sunday tweet saying, “To federal law enforcement: investigate & bring legal action against a Mayor who has, for political reasons, ordered his police officers to let citizens be attacked by domestic terrorists.”

Ngo, who is openly gay, is known for his sometimes conservative and controversial commentary. His widely covered assault on Saturday received uneven responses from members of the media, some of whom felt that Ngo’s attackers were in the right. Many others came to his defense, further criticizing media coverage like that of Snopes which seemed to offer more criticism of Ngo than the violent attackers.

Andy Ngo.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/quillette-founder-roasts-fact-checker-snopes-for-casting-doubt-on-andy-ngos-credentials

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