Richmond installs concrete barriers around Lee statue slated for removal | TheHill – The Hill
Richmond installs concrete barriers around Lee statue slated for removal | TheHill – The Hill

Virginia officials have installed concrete barriers around the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Richmond’s Monument Ave. after protesters toppled several other statues in the state’s capital.

Crews installed the approximately 3-foot-tall barriers along the sidewalk around the statue Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.

The move comes weeks after Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced the statue, which has been a central rallying point for protests against racism and police brutality in the city, will be removed from its current location and placed in storage.

In a statement, the Virginia Department of General Services said it installed the barriers “to protect the safety of everyone speaking out to make their voices heard as well as the structure itself,” according to the AP.

The Lee statue and its pedestal have been extensively graffitied since the protests began after the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, a Kentuckian, was toppled by protesters earlier this month, as was the statue of Gen. Williams Carter Wickham and the Howitzers Monument near Virginia Commonwealth University’s Monroe Park campus. Protesters also toppled a statue of Christopher Columbus in the city’s Byrd Park and pushed it into a nearby lake.

Protesters in Richmond have called for the removal of all Confederate statues.

In addition to Lee and Davis, the statues that give the street Monument Ave. its name include Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and Confederate naval chief Matthew Maury.

Protesters used rope Tuesday evening to pull down the Howitzers monument, which was erected in the 1890s after the end of the Reconstruction era hours after Mayor Levar Stoney (D) announced that he had requested, and received, chief of police William Smith’s resignation.

Footage circulated over the weekend of a police SUV driving through a crowd of protesters near the Lee statue.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/503188-richmond-installs-concrete-barriers-around-lee-statue-slated-for-removal

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How to turn off Facebook New Feed political ads – Vox.com
How to turn off Facebook New Feed political ads – Vox.com

Facebook recently announced that it is now letting users turn off political ads on both their Facebook and Instagram feeds.

Starting Wednesday, people will be able to turn off all social issue, electoral, or political ads from candidates, super PACs, or other organizations that have the “Paid for by” political disclaimer on them. The new move seems to be a compromise to critics who think Facebook shouldn’t let politicians lie in ads (Facebook largely allows this, arguing that moderating politicians’ speech would amount to censorship). Now, politicians can still spread half-truths and blatant lies in political ads — but you don’t have to see these ads on your feed if you don’t want to.

Facebook has faced sustained criticism since the 2016 US presidential election that the company isn’t doing enough to limit political misinformation on its platform and, as a result, is hurting democracy. Most recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has come under fire from civil rights advocates and his own employees for not moderating a series of posts by President Trump that made false claims about voting by mail in California. Facebook said it will be giving users more control over seeing political ads as part of a larger announcement defending how it handles politicians’ controversial posts and its initiative to launch a Voting Information Center that aims to register 4 million users to vote ahead of the 2020 US presidential election.

Facebook’s new policy to let you ignore political ads is opt-in. That means if you don’t want to see ads, you’ll have to follow a series of steps.

Here’s how you can do that. Note that this feature isn’t yet available for many users — it’s only starting to roll out today to some US users. Facebook says all US users should have this option in the next few weeks.

If you prefer to watch a video that explains how to do this, you can see one here for Facebook and here for Instagram.

Facebook

Through your Facebook app settings

  1. In the Facebook app, tap the menu button (three horizontal lines in the bottom right corner of your News Feed).
  2. Tap the Settings button.
  3. Tap Ad Preferences > Ad Topics.
  4. In the pop-up menu, tap See fewer ads about this topic.

Facebook

Or through a political ad in your Facebook feed

  1. Pick any political ad you come across in your Facebook feed (marked as “Paid by” a political campaign, candidate, or group).
  2. Tap the Confirmed Organization button.
  3. In the pop-up menu, tap See fewer ads about this topic.

Facebook

Instagram

Through your Instagram app settings

  1. In the Instagram app, go to your profile.
  2. Press the menu button (the three horizontal lines in the upper right corner).
  3. Tap the Settings button > Ads > Topics Preferences.
  4. Tap Social Issues, Elections or Politics.
  5. Tap Save.

Or through a political ad in your Instagram feed

  1. Pick any political ad you come across in your Instagram feed (marked as “Paid by” a political campaign, candidate, or group).
  2. Tap the Paid for by button.
  3. In the pop-up menu, tap See fewer ads like this.

Support Vox’s explanatory journalism

Every day at Vox, we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you, and our audience around the world, with information that has the power to save lives. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower you through understanding. Vox’s work is reaching more people than ever, but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn. Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation, but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles, videos, and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires. Please consider making a contribution to Vox today.

Source Article from https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/6/17/21294568/facebook-news-feed-political-ads-2020-election

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10 states are seeing their highest average of daily new Covid-19 cases since the pandemic started – CNN
10 states are seeing their highest average of daily new Covid-19 cases since the pandemic started – CNN

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/health/us-coronavirus-wednesday/index.html

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Lightfoot moves to put security detail chief in charge of cops at City Hall, outside her home – Chicago Tribune
Lightfoot moves to put security detail chief in charge of cops at City Hall, outside her home – Chicago Tribune

According to the mayor’s office, however, this is not a move to expand the size of her security detail, the group of officers assigned to guard her. Rather, it’s a change in the command structure that puts James Smith in charge of all three units.

Source Article from https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-lori-lightfoot-security-detail-command-20200617-m3tal7wrtbhjfctxek3khl56cm-story.html

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Actor Danny Masterson Charged With Raping Three Women By Los Angeles D.A., Faces 45 Years To Life In Prison – Deadline
Actor Danny Masterson Charged With Raping Three Women By Los Angeles D.A., Faces 45 Years To Life In Prison – Deadline

Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced today that actor Danny Masterson has been charged with raping three women in separate incidents at his home between 2001 and 2003.

The D.A.’s Office declined to file sexual assault charges against Masterson in two other cases, one for insufficient evidence and the other based upon the statute of limitations for the crime alleged.

The That ’70s Show star was charged with three counts of rape by force or fear. The case was filed for warrant yesterday.

According to law enforcement sources, Masterson was arrested late this morning with bond set at $3.3 million. He posted and was out by around 3 PM.

Masterson is accused of raping a 23-year-old woman between January and December 2001, according to the complaint.

In April 2003, the complaint states, “Masterson allegedly raped a 28-year-old woman and sometime between October and December of that year he is accused of raping a 23-year-old woman who he had invited to his Hollywood Hills home.”

Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller of the Sex Crimes Division, who is prosecuting the case, said all of the alleged crimes occurred at the defendant’s home.

If convicted as charged, Masterson faces a possible maximum sentence of 45 years to life in state prison.

Arraignment is scheduled for September 18.

Masterson was co-starring with former ’70s Show castmate Ashton Kutcher on Netflix’s The Ranch in December 2017 when news of the rape allegations surfaced, prompting his departure from the series.

Source Article from https://deadline.com/2020/06/actor-danny-masterson-rape-3-women-charged-1202962018/

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Former Atlanta Police Officer Who Shot Rayshard Brooks Charged With Felony Murder – NPR
Former Atlanta Police Officer Who Shot Rayshard Brooks Charged With Felony Murder – NPR

This screen grab taken from body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe in the parking lot of a Wendy’s restaurant on June 12 in Atlanta. Rolfe has been fired following the fatal shooting of Brooks, and a second officer has been placed on administrative duty.

AP


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AP

This screen grab taken from body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe in the parking lot of a Wendy’s restaurant on June 12 in Atlanta. Rolfe has been fired following the fatal shooting of Brooks, and a second officer has been placed on administrative duty.

AP

The white Atlanta police officer who shot a 27-year-old black man in the back last week in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant will face a charge of felony murder and 10 other charges, a Georgia county prosecutor announced Wednesday.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said Garrett Rolfe, who fired the fatal shots at Rayshard Brooks, could face a possible sentence of life without parole or the death penalty.

Rolfe, who has since been fired from the police department, was also charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and violations of office.

The other officer, Devin Brosnan, who remains with the Atlanta Police Department and has been placed on administrative desk duty, is also facing charges. Among them is aggravated assault, which carries a possible sentence of one to 20 years in prison.

Arrests warrants have been issued for both men.

The decision to bring charges comes five days after the officers were called to a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant. They found Brooks asleep in his car, and he admitted to officers that he had been drinking earlier.

Video released by police over the weekend shows that Brooks was speaking with officers for nearly a half-hour. It includes him doing a field sobriety test, which he failed.

Things took a turn when the officers attempted to put handcuffs on Brooks. He was able to grab the stun gun of one of the officers and started to run off.

Then, Rolfe pulled up his service weapon and fired.

Howard, the Fulton County district attorney, said during a news briefing that Brooks “never presented himself as a threat.”

“At the very beginning, he was peacefully sleeping in his car; after he was awakened by the officer, he was cooperative; and he was directed to move his car to another location. He calmly moved his car,” Howard said.

“Mr. Brooks never displayed any aggressive behavior,” he added.

He also noted that for a period of more than two minutes after he was shot, “there was no medical attention applied to Mr. Brooks.”

Brooks’ killing comes as protests continue across many U.S. cities to call attention to systemic racism and social injustices, including police brutality on communities of color.

Those protests coincide with the recent high-profile killings of black Americans by law enforcement, including George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor and David McAtee in Louisville, Ky. A former police officer is among those accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in February in Glynn County, Ga.

In the case of McAtee, Kentucky officials said last week that the investigation is ongoing. Officials also determined that the fatal shot, on June 1, came from the Kentucky National Guard, which was working with police.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said during a Monday news conference that Brooks’ death “angered me and it saddened me beyond words.”

“Friday evening we saw the murder of Rayshard Brooks,” Bottoms said. “It is clear that we do not have another day, another minute, another hour to waste.”

She also announced administrative orders aimed at reforming the Atlanta Police Department’s use-of-force rules and de-escalation protocols.

Over the weekend, the mayor accepted the resignation of Police Chief Erika Shields. As Georgia Public Broadcasting reported, a nationwide search for her replacement is underway, and the mayor has said that Shields will serve in a role that is “to be determined.”

There is also reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Guardian indicating that Rolfe, the officer who killed Brooks, was previously reprimanded for his use of force.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Rolfe received a written reprimand in 2017 for using his firearm. His file, according to the paper, included a dozen other incidents ranging from vehicular accidents to complaints from citizens.

“He was exonerated in nine of those internal investigations,” the newspaper reported.

The Guardian reported about a 2015 incident in which Rolfe and two other officers shot at Jackie Jermaine Harris, who was caught driving a stolen vehicle. Harris rammed a law enforcement vehicle, the paper reported, and the officers shot at him multiple times.

“However, the shooting was not reported by the police involved,” The Guardian added. “Harris, like Brooks, is African American.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/17/879509659/former-atlanta-police-officer-who-shot-rayshard-brooks-charged-with-felony-murde

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Bolton’s Book Says Trump Impeachment Inquiry Missed Other Troubling Actions – The New York Times
Bolton’s Book Says Trump Impeachment Inquiry Missed Other Troubling Actions – The New York Times

The book confirms House testimony that Mr. Bolton was wary all along of the president’s actions with regard to Ukraine and provides firsthand evidence of his own that Mr. Trump explicitly linked the security aid to investigations involving Mr. Biden and Hillary Clinton. On Aug. 20, Mr. Bolton writes, Mr. Trump “said he wasn’t in favor of sending them anything until all the Russia-investigation materials related to Clinton and Biden had been turned over.” Mr. Bolton writes that he, Mr. Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper tried eight to 10 times to get Mr. Trump to release the aid.

Mr. Bolton, however, had nothing but scorn for the House Democrats who impeached Mr. Trump, saying they committed “impeachment malpractice” by limiting their inquiry to the Ukraine matter and moving too quickly for their own political reasons. Instead, he said they should have also looked at how Mr. Trump was willing to intervene in investigations into companies like Turkey’s Halkbank to curry favor with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey or China’s ZTE to favor Mr. Xi.

Mr. Trump married politics with policy during a meeting with Mr. Xi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit meeting in Osaka, Japan, last summer, according to the book. Mr. Xi told Mr. Trump that unnamed political figures in the United States were trying to spark a new cold war with China.

“Trump immediately assumed Xi meant the Democrats,” Mr. Bolton writes. “Trump said approvingly that there was great hostility among the Democrats. He then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win.” Mr. Bolton says he would have printed Mr. Trump’s exact words, “but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.”

Mr. Bolton does not say these are necessarily impeachable offenses and adds that he does not know everything that happened with regard to all of these episodes, but he reported them to Mr. Barr and Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel. They should have been investigated by the House, he said, and at the very least suggested abuses of a president’s duty to put the nation’s interests ahead of his own.

“A president may not misuse the national government’s legitimate powers by defining his own personal interest as synonymous with the national interest, or by inventing pretexts to mask the pursuit of personal interest under the guise of national interest,” Mr. Bolton writes. “Had the House not focused solely on the Ukraine aspects of Trump’s confusion of his personal interests,” he adds, then “there might have been a greater chance to persuade others that ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ had been perpetrated.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/us/politics/bolton-book-trump-impeached.html

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Europe said U.S. influence had waned under Trump. Then Black Lives Matter protests rocked the continent. – The Washington Post
Europe said U.S. influence had waned under Trump. Then Black Lives Matter protests rocked the continent. – The Washington Post

“When things come out of black America, we see them. Then there’s an attempt at a boomerang throw,” said Gary Younge, a sociology professor at the University of Manchester, who has written about his experience as a black Briton traveling the American South. “Everybody sees George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner,” he said, referring to other victims of police violence. “And there’s a hope that if we throw that out there, and we highlight it, that it will come back and hit people on the head about the things that are going on here.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/europe-said-us-influence-had-waned-under-trump-then-black-lives-matter-protests-rocked-the-continent/2020/06/17/23f88ff2-ab4c-11ea-a43b-be9f6494a87d_story.html

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‘They’re in denial’: How Trump’s White House is ignoring the pandemic – CNN
‘They’re in denial’: How Trump’s White House is ignoring the pandemic – CNN

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-reelection-vaccine/index.html

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UN human rights chief calls for reparations to make amends for slavery – The Guardian
UN human rights chief calls for reparations to make amends for slavery – The Guardian

The UN’s human rights chief has urged countries to confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism and to make amends for “centuries of violence and discrimination” through reparations.

Addressing an urgent debate on racism and police brutality at the UN human rights council in Geneva, Michelle Bachelet called on countries to examine their pasts and to strive to better understand the scope of continuing “systemic discrimination”.

She pointed to the “gratuitous brutality” on display in the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in Minneapolis in the US on 25 May after a white police officer – since charged with murder – kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

This symbol of “systemic racism … has become emblematic of the excessive use of disproportionate force by law enforcement, against people of African descent, against people of colour, and against indigenous peoples and racial and ethnic minorities in many countries across the globe,” Bachelet said.

“Behind today’s racial violence, systemic racism and discriminatory policing lies the failure to acknowledge and confront the legacy of the slave trade and colonialism,” she said.

She stressed the need to “make amends for centuries of violence and discrimination, including through formal apologies, truth-telling processes, and reparations in various forms”.

Wednesday’s urgent council debate was called in response to Floyd’s killing, which was caught on amateur video, sparking worldwide demands to address systemic racism in the US and around the world.

African countries are calling for the council to ask Bachelet and other UN rights experts to investigate racism and police brutality in the US, but potential support for their draft resolution is unclear.

The US itself withdrew from the council two years ago, but a number of its allies are uncomfortable with the country being singled out in the text, according to observers of the process.

Bachelet herself did not speak out specifically in favour of the draft resolution, but she did stress the need for “decisive reforms”.

She insisted on the importance of making clear that “black lives matter. Indigenous lives matter. The lives of people of colour matter.

“All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights: that is what this council, like my office, stands for.”

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/17/un-human-rights-chief-calls-for-reparations-to-make-amends-for-slavery

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Cuomo to propose making Juneteenth a New York state holiday – CNBC
Cuomo to propose making Juneteenth a New York state holiday – CNBC

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday said he will sign an executive order that would make Juneteenth a holiday for state employees, also saying that he will “propose legislation” to make it a state holiday for next year. 

“Friday is Juneteenth. It commemorates the emancipation of slavery in the United States. It is a day that we should all reflect upon. It’s a day that’s especially relevant in this moment and history,” Cuomo said during a press briefing with reporters.

“I’m going to sign an executive order today,” he added, “recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday for state employees and I’m going to propose legislation for next year making it an official state holiday.”

Juneteenth, a combination of the words June and nineteenth, celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, which occurred on June 19, 1865 when slaves learned of their emancipation.  

New York is just the latest state to move to make the day a formal holiday. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday that he’s proposing to make Juneteenth an official holiday in the state.

“It’s time we elevate this,” Northam said on Tuesday. “Not just a celebration by and for some Virginians but one acknowledged and celebrated by all of us.”

Several companies like the NFL and Nike have also indicated they would make Juneteenth this year a paid holiday for employees. 

Cuomo’s announcement comes after weeks of widespread protests over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by Minneapolis police on Memorial Day. 

Floyd, 46, who was unarmed, was asphyxiated after being subdued during an investigation into whether he had used a counterfeit $20 bill. 

Now-fired officer Derek Chauvin, 44, has been charged with second-degree murder among other charges, while three other officers involved have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/17/cuomo-to-propose-making-juneteenth-a-new-york-state-holiday.html

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Biden lead over Trump grows to 13 points: poll | TheHill – The Hill
Biden lead over Trump grows to 13 points: poll | TheHill – The Hill

Former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenJudge denies request to stop Trump rally due to coronavirus concerns Pentagon official who questioned Trump’s Ukraine aid freeze resigns The Hill’s Campaign Report: Liberal groups pressure Biden on police reform as Trump signs executive order MORE‘s national lead over President TrumpDonald John TrumpHouse Democrat warns of potential staff purge at US media agency Judge denies request to stop Trump rally due to coronavirus concerns Fauci on coronavirus infections: ‘We’re still in a first wave’ MORE has increased to 13 points, a new Reuters-Ipsos poll finds.

In the survey, 48 percent of respondents said that they would vote for Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, with 35 percent saying that they would support for Trump.

The president has seen his poll numbers flail in recent months as criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his response to nationwide protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd mount.

Fifty-five percent of respondents said they disapprove of Trump’s handling of the pandemic, which has killed over 115,000 Americans, with just 40 approving of his response to the crisis.

Conversely, about two-thirds of those surveyed were sympathetic to the protests that have been going on for more than three weeks. Trump has taken an openly aggressive stance against the protests, some of which devolved into looting and property damage, and has repeatedly threatened use of military force to quell the unrest, raising eyebrows on both sides of the aisle.

According to the new poll, Trump’s support among Republicans has fallen 13 points since March.

At 38 percent among all respondents, the president’s approval rating is the lowest it has been since November, during Congress’s impeachment proceedings.

The silver lining in the poll for the president was the economy, with 43 percent of respondents saying that Trump would be better for the economy, while 38 percent favored Biden.

Conducted June 10-16, the poll surveyed 4,426 registered voters and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/503103-biden-lead-over-trump-grows-to-13-points-poll

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Decision on charges for Atlanta Police officer who shot Rayshard Brooks will come today – CNN
Decision on charges for Atlanta Police officer who shot Rayshard Brooks will come today – CNN

(CNN)Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard will announce his decision on whether to charge the Atlanta Police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks on Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET, he said in a statement.

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    MUST WATCH

    CNN’s Erica Henry contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/us/rayshard-brooks-atlanta-shooting-wednesday/index.html

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    DOJ takes aim at law that shields tech companies from lawsuits over material their users post – CNBC
    DOJ takes aim at law that shields tech companies from lawsuits over material their users post – CNBC

    The Department of Justice is taking aim at tech’s liability shield with a new set of legislative proposals released Wednesday.

    The proposed reforms are the latest action aiming to weaken legal protection established through Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1990s-era law. The statute protects online platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google‘s YouTube, from being held liable for content their users post on their sites, and also allows them to moderate content in good faith.

    The DOJ’s proposed reforms, which would have to be passed by Congress to go into effect, would limit the broad protections Section 230 typically provides to the tech industry.

    Platforms could lose immunity if they facilitate or solicit federal criminal activity, like trafficking illicit drugs. It would also create carve-outs for child exploitation, terrorism and cyberstalking, holding tech companies accountable for taking action on such content.

    The proposal also would make clear that Section 230 protections cannot be used to dispute antitrust claims, a significant statement as the Justice Department is reportedly preparing an antitrust suit against Google for as soon as this summer. Facebook has also disclosed an antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.

    “Changing significantly … the balance of responsibilities and provisions about liability in Section 230 would, in our view, mean less speech of all kinds appearing online,” said Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communications, in a call with reporters on Wednesday afternoon.

    It’s unclear how much support the proposals will gain in Congress. Both Republicans and Democrats have argued that Section 230, which was initially envisioned as a way to protect upstart tech companies from a deluge of lawsuits, now appears outdated as it protects powerful companies worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

    But while Democratic concerns have focused more on holding companies accountable for keeping users safe, Republicans have also placed emphasis on alleged censorship of conservative voices. Tech companies have repeatedly denied that they censor political speech, but instances where they have removed posts in error have fueled such criticism.

    Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a former venture capitalist and a frequent critic of Section 230, said in a statement to CNBC that he is wary of reforms brought by the Trump administration.

    “While I believe reform of this outdated law is needed, I have serious concerns that under the supervision of Attorney General Barr this effort has been politicized and will be used by the Trump Administration to cow platforms into allowing Trump, dark money groups, and right-wing militias to continue to exploit their tools to sow disinformation, engage in targeted harassment, and suppress voter participation,” Warner said.

    Earlier on Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., another leading critic of Big Tech and Section 230, introduced a new bill that would require platforms to promise to act in good faith in their terms of service. That would open tech companies up to potential lawsuits from users claiming breaches of contract. 

    Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/17/doj-takes-aim-at-section-230-tech-liability-shield.html

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    Coronavirus Live News and Updates – The New York Times
    Coronavirus Live News and Updates – The New York Times

    The move would put the city one step further on its path to economic recovery from a devastating virus that killed more than 21,000 residents and triggered one of the strictest shutdowns in the United States.

    Under the state’s plan, outdoor dining, some in-store shopping, hair salons, barbershops, and some offices in the city would be allowed to reopen in the second phase, with social distancing and restrictions on capacity. Playgrounds will also reopen during Phase 2, city officials have said.

    Mr. Cuomo’s announcement comes as other states are seeing spikes in new infections. On Tuesday, Florida, Texas and Arizona, which all moved swiftly to begin reopening, each reported their largest one-day increases in new cases.

    While New York has shown a steep decline in new cases since the virus peaked in April, when there were more than 10,000 new cases reported on several days, on Tuesday the state still logged 630 more new cases, the ninth-highest total in the nation, according to a New York Times database. On Wednesday, the state reported another 567 cases, or about 0.96 percent of all tests processed the day before, the lowest rate since the beginning of the outbreak, according to the governor.

    Mr. Cuomo has repeatedly emphasized the need for caution as the state eased restrictions, pointing to issues in other states and urging New Yorkers to continue wearing masks and social distancing in order to prevent a second wave of infections.

    “You don’t stay smart, it will come back,” he said on Wednesday.

    Earlier this week, Mr. Cuomo threatened to reinstate closures in the city after a number of photos and videos of people flouting social-distancing rules and congregating outside Manhattan bars spread online.

    Both he and Mayor Bill de Blasio also left open the possibility that the city would delay reopening if test results in the coming days showed a new spike in cases.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/world/coronavirus-live-updates.html

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    Soldiers fell to their deaths as India and China’s troops fought with rocks – The Guardian
    Soldiers fell to their deaths as India and China’s troops fought with rocks – The Guardian

    The hand-to-hand combat lasted hours, on steep, jagged terrain, with iron bars, rocks and fists. Neither side carried guns. Most of the soldiers killed in the worst fighting between India and China in 60 years lost their footing or were knocked from the narrow Himalayan ridge, plunging to their deaths.

    India has reacted with shock and caution to the loss of at least 20 soldiers on its disputed border with China, with images of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, burned in Indian cities.

    In his first public comments on the dispute, prime minister Narendra Modi led a two-minute silence for the killed soldiers and said India would “defend every stone, every inch of its territory.”

    “I would like to assure the nation that the sacrifice of our jawans [troops] will not be in vain,” said Modi, speaking at a televised meeting of India’s chief ministers. “For us, the unity and sovereignty of the country is the most important.”

    A day after reports of the “violent face-off” in the western Himalayas emerged, Indian news outlets began naming some of the dead and a clearer picture started to build of what transpired on Monday night on the high, steep ridge lines above the fast-flowing Galwan River.


    A satellite image taken on 16 June showing Chinese military personnel in the Galwan Valley. Photograph: 2020 Planet Labs/AFP/Getty Images

    The killings were sparked when a patrol of Indian soldiers encountered Chinese troops in a steep section of the mountainous region they believed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had retreated from, in line with a 6 June disengagement agreement, sources in Delhi said. The Indian government have alleged that what followed was a “premeditated” ambush on their troops by PLA forces.

    The two armies jostled and hand-to-hand fighting broke out – neither side armed in line with decades of tradition supposed to ward off the possibility of escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

    Then an Indian commanding officer was pushed from the narrow ridge and fell to his death in the gorge below.

    Reinforcements from the Indian side were summoned from a post about 2 miles away and eventually about 600 men were fighting with stones, iron rods and other makeshift weapons in near-total darkness for up to six hours, Indian government sources said, with most deaths on both sides occurring from soldiers falling or being knocked from mountain terrain.

    At least four more Indian soldiers were said to be in critical condition. Indian media outlets cited intelligence sources claiming up to 50 Chinese soldiers may have been killed in the melee but did not present the evidence. Chinese CCTV’s widely watched evening news broadcast made no mention of the border confrontation on Tuesday.

    Following a phonecall on Wednesday night between India’s minister for external affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, the two sides issued statements agreeing to de-escalation and resolving the conflict “in a responsible manner”.

    However, there were also significant discrepancies between the Indian and Chinese version of events. India accused the Chinese troops of violating the disengagement agreement and carrying out a “pre-meditated and planned action” against Indian troops that was “directly responsible for the resulting violence and casualties.”

    Wang Yi claimed India was solely responsible for the conflict, saying its forces had on three occasions illegally crossed over into the Chinese side of the LAC and demanded Indian punish their forces responsible.

    As photos and details of some of the Indian soldiers who died were circulated on Tuesday there were small demonstrations including in Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh state and in the Gujarati city Ahmedabad, where protesters burned pictures of Xi Jinping.

    China India map

    Former Indian army officers argued in fiery television debates that China had unilaterally changed both the status quo on the border and the rules of engagement. “Somebody has to answer for 20 lives,” said retired air vice-marshal Manmohan Bahadur.

    But whereas violence in recent years linked to Pakistan has led to aggressive rhetoric and promises of swift retaliation from Indian leaders, Monday’s violence has so far drawn a much more muted response including from Modi.

    Analysts said the caution reflected both shock at the scale of the killing and the complexity of the relationship between the two Asian giants. “There is the larger picture of the asymmetries of power,” said Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor of Chinese studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. “China’s GDP is $14tn, India’s is less than $3tn. China spends nearly $220bn on the military but India spends $52bn.”

    He said Delhi would be considering whether to ask commanders on the ground to sort out the conflict with their Chinese counterparts, but would also be under pressure to escalate.

    The United Nations, EU and US government have expressed concern over the violence and urged restraint.

    Beijing has refused to confirm any deaths on its side. However, the editor-in-chief of the state-run the Global Times said he understood there had been Chinese casualties, but the PLA wanted to avoid “stoking public mood” by comparing numbers.

    Both parties have been working towards de-escalation in recent weeks but the loss of life makes the situation even more complicated and precarious.

    Chinese state media have reported the PLA is conducting joint military exercises “aimed at the destruction of key hostile hubs in a high-elevation mountainous region”. The PLA Tibet Military Command conducted live fire drills with heavy artillery on Tuesday, with reports linking the PLA’s preparedness for high-elevation combat to the clashes with India.

    Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/17/shock-and-anger-in-india-after-worst-attack-on-china-border-in-decades

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    ‘They’re in denial’: How Trump’s White House is ignoring the pandemic – CNN
    ‘They’re in denial’: How Trump’s White House is ignoring the pandemic – CNN

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-reelection-vaccine/index.html

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    Senate Republicans’ new police reform bill, explained – Vox.com
    Senate Republicans’ new police reform bill, explained – Vox.com

    Senate Republicans — after wrestling with their next steps on police reform — have now unveiled a measure on the subject, and it’s substantially narrower than what House Democrats proposed last week.

    The bill, which is led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the only black Republican member of the Senate, is focused on a few key tenets: It aims to improve data collection about police use of force and “no knock” warrants, calls on state and local police stations to document police misconduct, and directs the Justice Department to establish deescalation guidance. While some provisions overlap with what Democrats have introduced, like the focus on documenting police misconduct, the scope of the bill — dubbed the JUSTICE Act — is notably more limited than that of Democrats’ Justice in Policing Act.

    Among the differences: Both Democrats and Republicans seek to condition federal funding to state and local agencies on banning chokeholds, for example, but Republicans stopped short of imposing a federal ban on chokeholds. Additionally, the GOP bill does little to curb “qualified immunity,” a change in Democrats’ proposal that would make it much easier to hold police officers legally accountable for misconduct. Scott has said in the past that while some Republicans are open to considering it, such a move is a “poison pill” for many GOP members.

    Democrats, who have gotten their own pushback from activists interested in more ambitious policy changes, are concerned that Republicans’ efforts don’t go far enough. “I worry in this moment that we’re going to repeat history … more studies, more nibbling around the edges,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said during a Judiciary hearing on Tuesday.

    While Democrats’ proposal on police reform offers a broader slate of changes, it’s still a significant departure from activists’ calls to “defund the police,” a push that would drastically reduce funding for police departments and shift that money to other social services like education and food aid.

    Scott said he thinks his proposal could ultimately accrue bipartisan support and pass both chambers. Democrats’ legislation isn’t expected to have any trouble getting through the House, but it’s already hit a roadblock in the Senate, where lawmakers have written it off as a liberal wish list.

    “The House version is going nowhere in the Senate,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. President Donald Trump has yet to endorse the Republican or Democratic proposal.

    “We believe that our policy positions are one that brings the communities of color into a position of stronger understanding and confidence in the institutions of authority,” Scott said Wednesday in a press conference. “And we believe that it brings our law enforcement community to a place where they have the resources necessary to deescalate some of these situations.”

    As both the Democratic and Republican bills acknowledge, there are limitations to federal policy on policing since so many law enforcement agencies operate at the state and local levels: “Almost all policing is done at the local and state, not federal, level; out of the nearly 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the US, a dozen or so are federal,” Vox’s German Lopez has explained.

    Both bills deal with this dynamic by leveraging federal funding as a pressure point, and use it as a means of influencing the actions of regional departments.

    Despite such similarities, though, the Democratic and Republican measures have many key differences that still need to be resolved, prompting questions over how likely either option is to move forward. Both chambers are due to vote on legislation soon: The House will mark up Democrats’ bill on Wednesday and vote on it next week, while the Senate will vote on the Republican bill next week as well.

    Right now, in the wake of weeks of protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, there’s immense public pressure on lawmakers to get something done on police reform. But there’s been pressure on Congress before — think gun control in 2018 — only for differences among lawmakers to thwart progress.

    What the Senate Republican bill includes

    The Senate Republican bill overlaps some with what Democrats are interested in seeing, but does not include the broader changes they’ve envisioned. Areas where the two measures have common ground include support for police body cameras and the classification of lynching as a federal crime.

    Places where it falls short, according to Democrats, include the focus on gathering data about no-knock warrants in drug cases, instead of an outright federal ban, as well as the limited legal recourse it would provide for victims of police misconduct. Here’s a rundown of some the JUSTICE Act’s key provisions:

    • Requires data collection on use of force and no-knock warrants: Rather than setting a new use of force standard or a federal ban for no-knock warrants in drug cases, the JUSTICE Act focuses on gathering data about both actions, requiring state and local agencies to submit reports about them to federal authorities. Currently, there is limited information about the frequency of police use of force, as well as no-knock warrants, a measure that police in Louisville, Kentucky, used when they shot and killed 26-year-old EMT Breonna Taylor in her own home earlier this year.

    If a state doesn’t compile such reports, it would be subject to a reduction in the funding it receives from the federal government.

    • Incentivizes state and local police to ban chokeholds: In 2014, Eric Garner was killed by New York police, who used a chokehold to restrain him during an arrest. And in May, Floyd died after a police officer pinned him by the neck with his knee for more than eight minutes.

    The legislation uses federal funding to incentivize state and local police to ban chokeholds except when deadly force is authorized. Such bans have already been supported by localities across the country including, most recently, Minneapolis. Unlike Democrats’ proposal, the JUSTICE Act does not include a federal ban on chokeholds.

    Activists have raised questions about the impact of such bans overall: Despite the New York Police Department banning chokeholds in 1993, police using the method killed Garner in 2014.

    • Calls on state and local departments to document police misconduct: There’s very little data available about police misconduct, making it difficult to pin down past offenders and ensure they don’t receive jobs in new places. According to a USA Today report, punishment for misconduct also varies at the state level, with some requiring police to be decertified while others are far less punitive.

    This bill does not create a national registry of police misconduct, and instead asks state and local departments to maintain clear records of officers who have faced disciplinary action.

    • Directs DOJ to establish deescalation training guidelines: The attorney general, under the JUSTICE Act, could help set deescalation training guidance and document which state and local police stations have undergone such training programs. Additionally, the bill would allocate more grant money for regional departments to fund deescalation training.
    • Establishes a Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys: The bill sets up a commission of experts and government officials dedicated to examining how disparities in education, health care, housing, and the criminal justice system affect black men and youths. The commission would produce an annual report chronicling this research and provide police recommendations about how to remedy such inequities.
    • Sets up grant programs for body cameras: The use of body cameras is a technical reform that’s increasingly been adopted by law enforcement agencies across the country, as a means of documenting use of force and other police actions. The legislation would set up a grant program that state and local police forces could tap into to bolster their use of such tech.

    There are limitations to the cameras’ efficacy, however: During the police shooting of David McAtee in Louisville last month, officers’ body cameras were off. And in several past cases, body camera footage hasn’t been sufficient evidence for juries to decisively convict officers of misconduct.

    • Makes lynching a federal crime: The killings of both Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, a black jogger who was shot by two white men in Georgia while he was out on a run, have been described as modern-day lynchings. Despite more than 200 attempts to consider bills addressing such acts, there remains no law on the books classifying lynchings as a federal crime.

    While the House and Senate have respectively passed their own legislation that would do so, the two have yet to approve one bill and get it signed into law. This bill would guarantee that lynching — described by Rep. Steny Hoyer as “the premeditated, extrajudicial killing by a mob or group of people to instill fear” — would be treated as a federal crime. It would also classify conspiring to commit civil rights offenses, such as a hate crime, as a lynching.

    There’s still a lot of uncertainty about a compromise bill

    The likelihood of a compromise is uncertain right now, though ongoing public pressure could play a significant role in keeping the heat on lawmakers in both parties.

    According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from last week, a majority of Americans back several of the reforms pushed by Democrats, including the ability to end qualified immunity and make it easier for people to sue police for damages. In that survey, 60 percent of Republicans said they supported a process that would enable “victims of police misconduct to sue police departments for damages.”

    “Public opinion always puts pressure on them to do something,” Republican pollster Ed Goeas told Vox. “Bottom line is I’m very encouraged because everyone is listening to all this different input and that’s what you need to move this problem forward.”

    In the past, however, lawmakers have stalled on bills despite such scrutiny. After the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, for example, Democrats and Republicans proposed multiple gun reform bills regarding both background checks and “red flag” laws, many of which stalled.

    Trump’s position on these reforms is also still somewhat unclear. While the president has introduced an executive order on police violence, he hasn’t outright backed any legislation. His measure, which was also unveiled earlier this week, includes the creation of a national database for police misconduct as well as a policy that would incentivize a ban on chokeholds at the state and local level, unless an officer’s life was threatened.

    “He is engaging now in a way that’s constructive and helpful,” Scott said on Meet the Press last weekend.

    The JUSTICE Act, for now, serves as a marker of Republicans’ initial positioning on this subject. In the face of voter sentiment and Democratic blowback, it’s unclear whether that will change.

    Support Vox’s explanatory journalism

    Every day at Vox, we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you, and our audience around the world, with information that has the power to save lives. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower you through understanding. Vox’s work is reaching more people than ever, but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn. Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation, but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles, videos, and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires. Please consider making a contribution to Vox today.

    Source Article from https://www.vox.com/2020/6/17/21287995/senate-republicans-narrow-new-police-reform-bill-explained

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    Biden Has The Advantage Over Trump In 2020 Battleground Map – NPR
    Biden Has The Advantage Over Trump In 2020 Battleground Map – NPR

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    President Trump is in a political hole and has a lot of ground to make up over the next five months if he hopes to win another term, an NPR analysis of the Electoral College map finds.

    Given his handling of the coronavirus and protests over racism and police brutality in the first six months of this year, Trump has slipped in many of the key swing states he won in 2016, such as Michigan, which now appears to lean towards former Vice President Joe Biden. The percentage of people disapproving of the job Trump is doing is at near-record highs for his presidency, and the intensity of the opposition is higher than for any past president.

    Our analysis puts states in one of these categories:

    • Likely Republican or Likely Democratic: States that appear firmly behind one candidate and are not expected to be heavily contested.
    • Lean Republican or Lean Democratic: States that appear to favor one candidate but remain competitive.
    • Toss up: The most competitive states that either Trump or Biden has a good chance to win.

    To win the presidency, a candidate needs 270 electoral votes, a majority of the 538 electoral votes available across the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Most states are not very competitive. Their demographics and partisan voting histories make them likely to go to the same party they’ve broken for in recent elections, such as heavily Democratic California and heavily Republican Oklahoma.

    In this presidential election, our analysis finds just 16 states are competitive, in addition to two electoral votes in states that award some by individual congressional districts — that they either only lean toward one candidate or are pure toss ups. Just eight states and one of the congressional districts are considered pure toss ups.

    Viewed another way: About 45% of the U.S. population lives in the lean and toss up states that will determine the presidential election, and less than a quarter of Americans live in the most competitive toss up states.

    Biden starts with a 238 to 186 advantage over Trump, when including states that lean in either candidate’s direction or that they’re likely to win. But Biden is no shoo-in. The analysis finds he’s still 32 electoral votes short of the 270 he would need, and the Democrat needs to peel off key states Trump won in 2016 to get over the line.

    Methodology

    Before we get to the specifics of the current ratings and scenarios for how the election could go, let’s explain how we made the assessment. We base our analysis on three important baseline factors:

    1. Our reporting: what our team observes on the ground in key states, as well as in conversations with campaigns, strategists and activists on both sides;
    2. History and demography: past voting patterns in each state as well as demographic patterns and trends;
    3. Polling: Sure, some will say, “…but the polls were wrong in 2016!” It’s true that some state polls got it wrong, which is why they are not the only factor; we take that data with a heavy grain of salt. It’s also important to remember — polls aren’t meant to be predictive. They are snapshots of where things stand now, and a lot of things can happen between now and Election Day. Here, we’re referencing the averages tracked by RealClearPolitics.

    We’ll update our analysis and electoral vote ratings regularly in the months and weeks leading up to Nov. 3.

    Inside the ratings

    Former Vice President Joe Biden, right, speaks in Wilmington, Del., earlier this year. President Trump at the White House in April.

    AP


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    Former Vice President Joe Biden, right, speaks in Wilmington, Del., earlier this year. President Trump at the White House in April.

    AP

    The toss ups

    There are eight states that are toss ups, plus one electoral vote in Maine, for 114 electoral votes — Florida (29 EVs), Pennsylvania (20), Ohio (18), North Carolina (15), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10), Nevada (6), New Hampshire (4) and one electoral vote in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.

    (Maine and Nebraska apportion their electoral votes by the winner of each congressional district and statewide vote rather than awarding all of their electoral votes to the overall winner like the other 48 states and Washington, D.C.)

    It’s notable that Biden is in the lead in all of these places, by less than 5 points in recent polls, except North Carolina, where Trump has a slight polling advantage. (There’s no recent data for Maine.)

    Put another way: Trump needs to win 73% of the toss ups to win reelection. That’s not impossible. Trump ran the board in these states in 2016, winning 91% of their electoral votes and losing two of these states, Nevada and New Hampshire.

    A supporters of President Trump wears a mask and dances, as he participates in a boat rally to celebrate Trump’s birthday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Sunday.

    Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images


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    Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

    A supporters of President Trump wears a mask and dances, as he participates in a boat rally to celebrate Trump’s birthday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Sunday.

    Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

    Why are these states toss ups?

    Florida: This has been perennially one of the closest states in presidential elections. Trump won it by just 1.2 percentage points. In the 2018 Democratic wave year, Republicans won the governorship and the U.S. Senate race. In 11 polls in Florida since the beginning of the year, Biden led in eight, and Biden and Trump tied in two. The president hasn’t led in one since March. Plus, he has seen a softening with support from older voters in national polls.

    Pennsylvania: Trump won it by 0.7 percentage points, or about 44,000 votes. Registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in the state by about 814,000, but that advantage is down from November of 2016 when it was 916,000. Biden has had a narrow polling advantage in the state: Out of eight polls this year, he’s led in six and was tied in one.

    Ohio: An oldie but a goody back on the battleground map. This very well may move into the Lean Trump category before all is said and done, given its demographic shift to be older and whiter over the years. Trump won Ohio by 8 points in 2016, but in the past year, Biden has led in four of five polls, including a two point lead in a Fox News poll released earlier this month. The bottom line is that this is a state Trump should win, so if this trend continues, frankly, it’s bad news for the president elsewhere.

    North Carolina: This is another state where the scales should at least tip toward Trump given its history of voting Republican in every presidential election since 1980, except 2008. But the demographic shift in the highly educated Research Triangle, in particular, has brought in a diverse group of new voters, shifting the electorate to the left. Trump, though, won the state by almost 4 points, and about 120,000 more voters supported Democrat Roy Cooper for governor in 2016 than voted for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who lost by about 170,000 votes to Trump. Biden may need to win over the voters who went for Cooper and more to have a chance against Trump in North Carolina.

    Arizona: Arizona might be the most fascinating toss up. Trump won it by about 3.5 percentage points in 2016, closer than many thought it would be, since the state had not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1996. Ever since 2016, Democrats have done well here. Kyrsten Sinema became Arizona’s first woman elected to the Senate — and first Democrat in 30 years — with her 2018 victory. Democrats could see an up-ballot effect in 2020 with a strong candidate in astronaut Mark Kelly on the ballot for the Senate, holding significant leads in polls far beyond Biden’s showing. Getting out the Latino vote is key here — a demographic group that makes up 32% of the state, but were only 15% of voters in 2016. Organizing in Arizona isn’t as hard as other states, because three-quarters of the vote comes from two counties — Maricopa (including Phoenix) and Pima (including Tucson).

    Wisconsin: Part of the old “Blue Wall” that came crumbling down on Democrats in 2016, Wisconsin is a state that Trump won by fewer than 23,000 votes after Barack Obama won it twice. But Trump’s approval rating is 11 points under water in the state now and hasn’t risen above 44% in more than three years. Biden has led in nine of 11 polls in Wisconsin since the beginning of the year, trailed in just one and was tied once. But Wisconsin polling was notoriously wrong in 2016. Trump didn’t lead in a single poll there in 2016 and Clinton was up an average of 6 points before losing.

    Nevada: Clinton won Nevada by just 2 points, which starts it in the toss-up category. But it may slightly lean toward Biden, because Democrats have proved they can organize well in the state, and Nevadans are used to voting for Democrats up and down the ballot. Every statewide elected official, except the secretary of state, is a Democrat; both U.S. senators are, as are three of the state’s four members of Congress; and Democrats control the state legislature. Biden maintains a poll lead larger than Clinton held, and active Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in the state by more than 83,000. That is slightly narrower than January 2017, however, and Republicans hope that’s a positive trend in their direction.

    New Hampshire: This was the closest state by raw votes in the 2016 election — only about 2,700 votes separated Clinton and Trump. New Hampshire is another state that, at this point, might be a slight lean toward Biden. The entire state’s congressional delegation is Democratic, though it has a Republican governor. Biden leads in the polls by an average of almost 5 points.

    Maine’s 2nd District: Trump won the one electoral vote in the mostly rural, white 2nd Congressional District of Maine by 10 percentage points. But in 2018, Democrat Jared Golden won this House seat by a point, and Obama won here twice.

    Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden holds a roundtable on reopening the economy with community leaders at the Enterprise Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday.

    Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images


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    Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

    Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden holds a roundtable on reopening the economy with community leaders at the Enterprise Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday.

    Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

    The “lean” states

    Five states currently lean toward Biden for 53 electoral votes, including Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Virginia. Three states — Texas, Georgia and Iowa, plus one electoral vote in the Omaha area of Nebraska — lean toward Trump, for 61 electoral votes.

    Of the states leaning toward Biden, Clinton won all of them except Michigan. Trump won Michigan by just over 10,000 votes, or 0.2 percentage points. Since that victory, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer won the governorship, and Trump’s approval rating in the state has been upside down. His net approval rating in the state has declined by 18 points since he was inaugurated.

    Minnesota was also surprisingly close in 2016, voting for Clinton by less than 2 percentage points. The Trump campaign, which has few expansion options, is targeting it, but Biden has led there. Now, one wonders how George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police will affect the vote there, especially given that majorities of Americans say Trump has made tensions worse since Floyd’s death.

    Texas and Georgia are two historically red states that Democrats see as targets because of demographic changes. They may not be ripe for this election, but Trump will have to spend resources in both places. After all, Trump only won Georgia by five points and Texas by nine points, which was less than the margin in Iowa, a state Barack Obama won twice.

    Speaking of Iowa, Trump’s trade war seems to have put Iowa back on the map. His approval rating is upside down there, too — 46% approve, 51% disapprove as of February, down a net of 14 points since he was inaugurated. Trump got about 801,000 votes in Iowa in 2016. But Obama won 21,000 more than that in 2012, so the votes are potentially there for a Democrat. Still, Trump winning here by 10 points gives him a lot of cushion.

    6 Scenarios For How The 2020 Election Might Go

    1. Hold the 2016 line

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    We should start where 2016 left off. Trump’s path begins with a 36-electoral vote cushion to start with, after winning 306 electoral votes four years ago, giving him flexibility in a few states. He could lose Wisconsin and Michigan, for example, and still win. He could lose Pennsylvania and Michigan and still win. He could lose Florida and still win as long as he holds everything else.

    The “faithless” electors: Trump technically wound up winning 304-227 over Hillary Clinton, not 306-232 as indicated by the results on election night, because there were seven “faithless electors” who defied how their states voted. Interestingly, just two (in Texas) went against Trump; five from states Clinton won voted for someone else, including four in Washington state and one in Hawaii. Before the 2016 election, there hadn’t been more than one faithless elector in any election dating back to 1948.

    2. Trump expands and blows out

    Take all the states that Trump won, plus states that are within 5 points in polls and give them to Trump, and you get Trump to a ceiling of 348 electoral votes to 190 for Biden. That includes giving him the Rust Belt, Sun Belt, Florida, New Hampshire, and the western states of Colorado and Nevada.

    3. Biden blowout

    Biden’s ceiling is higher than Trump’s. With the president’s approval rating down in lots of states he won in 2016, it’s possible that the election isn’t close in the end. Biden’s blowout scenario gets him 374 electoral votes to Trump’s 164. That would be higher than Obama’s 365 electoral votes in 2008.

    To get to this outcome, take all the states that Clinton won, plus those that were either within 5 points in 2016 or are within 5 points now, and give them to Biden. That includes the old Rust Belt “Blue Wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, as well as Iowa and Ohio, which Obama won twice and where Trump’s approval rating is under water, and the Sun Belt states of North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Arizona, where Biden is either leading or within a few points of Trump in recent polling.

    4. Rebuild the “Blue Wall”

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    One of the most logical paths for Biden based on past presidential elections is rebuilding the so-called “Blue Wall” of upper Midwest states with a history of voting Democratic but went for Trump in 2016, tipping the balance.

    Trump won Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania by fewer than 78,000 votes, collectively. If Biden were to win all three back, he would win the election, 278 to 260.

    Polls have been showing Ohio and possibly Iowa back in play for Democrats. If Biden wins in those Midwestern states, though, it would likely be a sizable victory given their recent right-leaning voting patterns.

    A tie?

    By the way, there is a realistic tie out of the “Blue Wall” scenario. Wisconsin is the most conservative politically of those three key states that Trump won in 2016. It’s conceivable that Biden wins Pennsylvania and Michigan, while Trump wins Wisconsin.

    If that were to happen, Trump would eke out the narrowest of reelection victories, 270-268. That is unless Biden wins that one electoral vote in Maine that went to Trump last time, and then it’s 269-269. (What happens if there actually is a tie? Read on.)

    5. Chasing the Sun Belt

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    Democrats are threatening the GOP in traditionally Republican states, like Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia and Texas. Texas is likely another election cycle or two off from really being competitive at the presidential level, but it will very likely cost the Trump campaign some money to lock it down in this one. Consider that Trump won Texas by less than Iowa in 2016 (and Obama won Iowa twice).

    Here are a couple of reasons why the Sun Belt states are important to Trump holding or key to Biden winning. Take our last scenario, but take away Wisconsin from Biden. Trump would win 270-268. But Biden could trade Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes for Arizona’s 11 and win 279-259.

    What’s more, underscoring the importance of North Carolina and Georgia, if Biden were to win Arizona, plus North Carolina or Georgia, he could lose Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and still win. Georgia is a farther shot for Democrats, but North Carolina is a very real possibility.

    6. Florida plus one

    Scenario 5 says nothing about that crucial Sun Belt state of Florida. Florida is key for Trump’s reelection, and a Biden win there opens up lots of paths for him to win.

    Trump could lose Florida and still win. But that’s only if he holds onto everything he won in 2016, including Michigan (which is currently leaning toward Biden), Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, and the rest.

    In other words, a Biden win in Florida makes Trump’s path exceedingly narrow. If Biden wins Florida, he would need to win just one other state Trump won in 2016, like, say, Michigan, to cross 270.

    With a Florida-plus-Michigan map for Biden (see below), Biden could still lose Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, etc., and win. Even Florida plus Wisconsin or Arizona, which have fewer electoral votes than Michigan, gets Biden over the 270 electoral vote threshold.

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    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/06/17/877951588/2020-electoral-map-ratings-biden-has-an-edge-over-trump-with-5-months-to-go

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    India-China border tensions: Key dates in decades-long conflict – Al Jazeera English
    India-China border tensions: Key dates in decades-long conflict – Al Jazeera English

    Asian regional superpowers India and China share a long history of mistrust and conflict along their lengthy border, and tensions flared this week in their first deadly clash in more than four decades.

    The world’s two most populous nations and nuclear-armed neighbours have never even agreed on the length of their “Line of Actual Control” frontier, which straddles the strategically important Himalayan region.

    More:

    Recent decades have seen numerous skirmishes along the border, including a brief but bloody war in 1962.

    Here are some key dates:

    Nehru’s 1959 Beijing visit

    India inherited its border dispute with China from its British colonial rulers, who hosted a 1914 conference with the Tibetan and Chinese governments to set the border.

    Beijing has never recognised the 1914 boundary, known as the McMahon Line, and currently claims 90,000 square kilometres (34,750 square miles) of territory – nearly all of what constitutes India’s Arunachal Pradesh state.

    The border dispute first flared up during a visit by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to Beijing in 1959.

    Nehru questioned the boundaries shown on official Chinese maps, prompting Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai to reply that his government did not accept the colonial frontier.


    1962 Sino-Indian War

    Chinese troops poured over the disputed frontier with India in 1962 during a dispute over the border’s demarcation.

    It sparked a four-week war that left thousands dead on the Indian side before China’s forces withdrew.

    Beijing retained Aksai Chin, a strategic corridor linking Tibet to western China.

    India still claims the entire Aksai Chin region as its own, as well as the nearby China-controlled Shaksgam valley in northern Kashmir.


    1967 Nathu La conflict

    Another flashpoint was Nathu La, India’s highest mountain pass in northeastern Sikkim state, which is sandwiched between Bhutan, Chinese-ruled Tibet and Nepal.

    During a series of clashes, including the exchange of artillery fire, New Delhi said some 80 Indian soldiers died and counted up to 400 Chinese casualties.


    1975 Tulung La ambush

    This skirmish was the last time shots were officially reported to have been fired across the disputed border.

    Four Indian soldiers were ambushed and killed along the dividing line in Arunachal Pradesh.

    New Delhi blamed Beijing for crossing into the Indian territory, a claim dismissed by China.

    2017 Doklam plateau standoff

    India and China had a months-long high-altitude standoff in Bhutan’s Doklam region after the Indian army sent troops to stop China constructing a road in the area.

    The Doklam plateau is strategically significant as it gives China access to the so-called “chicken’s neck” – a thin strip of land connecting India’s northeastern states with the rest of the country.

    It is claimed by both China and Bhutan, an ally of India. The issue was resolved after talks.

    2020 Ladakh confrontation

    India on Tuesday said 20 of its soldiers were killed after a violent clash with Chinese forces a day earlier in the strategically important Galwan Valley on the Himalayan frontier, a dramatic escalation that represents the first combat fatalities between the Asian powers since 1975.

    The clash follows weeks of low-level tensions after several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a high-altitude fistfight on the border at Sikkim state in early May.

    Within days, said Indian officials, Chinese troops encroached across the demarcation line further west in Ladakh region and India then moved in extra troops to positions opposite.

    Last week, both countries said they would peacefully resolve the face-off after a high-level meeting between army commanders.

    But on Tuesday, India revealed that those efforts had gone badly wrong, with both sides blaming each other.

    Beijing confirmed there had been casualties in Monday’s clash but gave no further details.

    Source Article from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/india-china-border-tensions-key-dates-decades-long-conflict-200617025851066.html

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    North Korea releases images of it blowing up its liaison office with South – CNBC
    North Korea releases images of it blowing up its liaison office with South – CNBC

    Rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula saw North Korea cutting off communications with the South and threatening to move armed forces back into demilitarized zones on the border.

    The warnings came amid stalled nuclear talks with the U.S., and could be signal that Pyongyang is frustrated with what it views as “failed democracy,” John Park, director of the Korea Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, told CNBC on Monday.

    Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/17/north-korea-releases-images-of-it-blowing-up-liaison-office-with-south.html

    27 views no comments