Rand Paul again rips Dr. Anthony Fauci over coronavirus: 'We just need more optimism'

Paul criticized Fauci for a lack of "certitude" when it comes to advice on if kids should be allowed to go back to school in the fall amid COVID-19.

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Behind in polls, Trump banks on replay of 2016

His poll numbers sinking four months from the US presidential election, Donald Trump invoked his 2016 victory Monday, saying he is confident history will repeat itself on November 3. Over the past several weeks, however, all national polls have pointed in the same direction: Trump well behind his Democratic rival Joe Biden. The latest poll by The New York Times and Siena College has Biden with a 14-point lead over the current occupant of the White House.

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Chinese scientists discover a new swine flu capable of triggering a pandemic

Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study published on Monday in the US science journal PNAS. Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009. It possesses "all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans", say the authors, scientists at Chinese universities and China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2011 to 2018, researchers took 30,000 nasal swabs from pigs in slaughterhouses in 10 Chinese provinces and in a veterinary hospital, allowing them to isolate 179 swine flu viruses. The majority were of a new kind which has been dominant among pigs since 2016. The researchers then carried out various experiments including on ferrets, which are widely used in flu studies because they experience similar symptoms to humans - principally fever, coughing and sneezing. G4 was observed to be highly infectious, replicating in human cells and causing more serious symptoms in ferrets than other viruses. Tests also showed that any immunity humans gain from exposure to seasonal flu does not provide protection from G4. According to blood tests which showed up antibodies created by exposure to the virus, 10.4 per cent of swine workers had already been infected. The tests showed that as many as 4.4 per cent of the general population also appeared to have been exposed. The virus has therefore already passed from animals to humans but there is no evidence yet that it can be passed from human to human - the scientists' main worry. "It is of concern that human infection of G4 virus will further human adaptation and increase the risk of a human pandemic," the researchers wrote. The authors called for urgent measures to monitor people working with pigs. "The work comes as a salutary reminder that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of zoonotic pathogens and that farmed animals, with which humans have greater contact than with wildlife, may act as the source for important pandemic viruses," said James Wood, head of the department of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University. A zoonotic infection is caused by a pathogen that has jumped from a non-human animal into a human.

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CanSino's COVID-19 vaccine candidate approved for military use in China

China's military has received the greenlight to use a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by its research unit and CanSino Biologics after clinical trials proved it was safe and showed some efficacy, the company said on Monday. The Ad5-nCoV is one of China's eight vaccine candidates approved for human trials at home and abroad for the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

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Homeowner shoots woman trying to steal his Nazi flag, Oklahoma cops say

Authorities said the victim is expected to recover.

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Missing hiker's body found at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington; 2 others still missing

The body of one of three hikers missing at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state has been found, according to the National Park Service.

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New swine flu found in China is capable of triggering a pandemic

Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study published Monday in the U.S. science journal PNAS.

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White couple who pointed gun at protesters say they support Black Lives Matter but felt threatened by ‘angry mob’

A white couple who pointed guns at protesters in St Louis have said they were threatened as crowds marched down their street.Video shared online showed 63-year-old Mark McCloskey and 61-year-old Patricia McCloskey stationed on the lawn outside their St Louis home on Sunday night as protesters walked past.

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How Turkey Could Get Back into the F-35 Program: America Buys Their Russian S-400 Air Defense System.

Oh, and Putin won't like that one bit.

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Astronaut says losing mirror on spacewalk was 'real bummer'

The commander of the International Space Station said Monday that losing a mirror during last week’s otherwise successful spacewalk was “a real bummer.” NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy said he has no idea how the small mirror on his left sleeve came off. “I just happened to glance down and I saw this reflecting thing disappearing into the darkness, and that was the last I saw of it,” Cassidy said in an interview with The Associated Press.

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As coronavirus spreads to people under 40, it's making them sicker — and for longer — than once thought

Once assumed to be safe from the dangers of COVID-19, younger adults share their prolonged struggles with the disease.

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Woman shot in back while trying to steal man's Nazi flag, authorities say

The victim had been with friends at a nearby party when she apparently snatched one of the swastika flags displayed outside the man's home.

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National parks – even Mount Rushmore – show that there's more than one kind of patriotism

July 4th will be quieter than usual this year, thanks to COVID-19. Many U.S. cities are canceling fireworks displays to avoid drawing large crowds that could promote the spread of coronavirus. But President Trump is planning to stage a celebration at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota on July 3. It’s easy to see why an Independence Day event at a national memorial featuring the carved faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt would seem like a straightforward patriotic statement. But there’s controversy. Trump’s visit will be capped by fireworks for the first time in a decade, notwithstanding worries that pyrotechnics could ignite wildfires. And Native Americans are planning protests, adding Mount Rushmore to the list of monuments around the world that critics see as commemorating histories of racism, slavery and genocide and reinforcing white supremacy. As I show in my book, “Memorials Matter: Emotion, Environment, and Public Memory at American Historical Sites,” many venerated historical sites tell complicated stories. Even Mount Rushmore, which was designed explicitly to evoke national pride, can be a source of anger or shame rather than patriotic feeling. Twenty-first-century patriotism is a touchy subject, increasingly claimed by America’s conservative right. National Park Service sites like Mount Rushmore are public lands, meant to be appreciated by everyone, but they raise crucial questions about history, unity and love of country, especially during this election year. For me, and I suspect for many tourists, national memorials and monuments elicit conflicting feelings. There’s pride in our nation’s achievements, but also guilt, regret or anger over the costs of progress and the injustices that still exist. Patriotism, especially at sites of shame, can be unsettling – and I see this as a good thing. In my view, honestly confronting the darker parts of U.S. history as well as its best moments is vital for tourism, for patriotism and for the nation. Whose history?Patriotism has roots in the Latin “patriotia,” meaning “fellow countryman.” It’s common to feel patriotic pride in U.S. technological achievements or military strength. But Americans also glory in the diversity and beauty of our natural landscapes. That kind of patriotism, I think, has the potential to be more inclusive, less divisive and more socially and environmentally just. [Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.]The physical environment at national memorials can inspire more than one kind of patriotism. At Mount Rushmore, tourists are invited to walk the Avenue of Flags, marvel at the labor required to carve four U.S. presidents’ faces out of granite, and applaud when rangers invite military veterans onstage during visitor programs. Patriotism centers on labor, progress and the “great men” the memorial credits with founding, expanding, preserving and unifying the U.S. But there are other perspectives. Viewed from the Peter Norbeck Overlook, a short drive from the main site, the presidents’ faces are tiny elements embedded in the expansive Black Hills region. Re-seeing the memorial in space and contextualizing it within a longer time scale can spark new emotions. The Black Hills are a sacred place for Lakota peoples that they never willingly relinquished. Viewing Mount Rushmore this way puts those rock faces in a broader ecological, historical and colonial context, and raises questions about history and justice. Sites of shameSites where visitors are meant to feel remorse challenge patriotism more directly. At Manzanar National Historic Site in California – one of 10 camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II – natural and textual cues prevent any easy patriotic reflexes. Reconstructed guard towers and barracks help visitors perceive the experience of being detained. I could imagine Japanese Americans’ shame as I entered claustrophobic buildings and touched the rough straw that filled makeshift mattresses. Many visitors doubtlessly associate mountains with adventure and freedom, but some incarcerees saw the nearby Sierra Nevada as barricades reinforcing the camp’s barbed wire fence. Rangers play up these emotional tensions on their tours. I saw one ranger position a group of schoolchildren atop what were once latrines, and ask them: “Will it happen again? We don’t know. We hope not. We have to stand up for what is right.” Instead of offering visitors a self-congratulatory sense of being a good citizen, Manzanar leaves them with unsettling questions and mixed feelings. Visitors to incarceration camps today might make connections to the U.S.-Mexico border, where detention centers corral people in unhealthy conditions, sometimes separating children from parents. Sites like Manzanar ask us to rethink who “counts” as an American and what unites us as human beings. Visiting and writing about these and other sites made me consider what it would take to disassociate patriotism from “America first”-style nationalism and recast it as collective pride in the United States’ diverse landscapes and peoples. Building a more inclusive patriotism means celebrating freedom in all forms – such as making Juneteenth a federal holiday – and commemorating the tragedies of our past in ways that promote justice in the present. Humble patriotismThis July 4th invites contemplation of what holds us together as a nation during a time of reckoning. I believe Americans should be willing to imagine how a public memorial could be offensive or traumatic. The National Park Service website claims that Mount Rushmore preserves a “rich heritage we all share,” but what happens when that heritage feels like hatred to some people? Growing momentum for removing statues of Confederate generals and other historical figures now understood to be racist, including the statue of Theodore Roosevelt in the front of New York City’s Museum of Natural History, tests the limits of national coherence. Understanding this momentum is not an issue of political correctness – it’s a matter of compassion.Greater clarity about value systems could help unite Americans across party lines. Psychologists have found striking differences between the moral frameworks that shape liberals’ and conservatives’ views. Conservatives generally prioritize purity, sanctity and loyalty, while liberals tend to value justice in the form of concerns about fairness and harm. In my view, patriotism could function as an emotional bridge between these moral foundations. My research suggests that visits to memorial sites are helpful for recognizing our interdependence with each other, as inhabitants of a common country. Places like Mount Rushmore are part of our collective past that raise important questions about what unites us today. I believe it’s our responsibility to approach these places, and each other, with both pride and humility. This is an updated version of an article originally published on June 26, 2019.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * More than scenery: National parks preserve our history and culture * The twisted roots of U.S. land policy in the WestJennifer Ladino received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support her book on national memorials.

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The 10 Best Dino-Killing, Ice Spewing, Earth-Destroying Asteroids

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McEnany on the PDB: ‘The president does read’

At a press briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said President Trump reads the President’s Daily Brief, and added that he is “the most informed person on planet earth when it comes to the threats that we face.”

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Syed Ali Geelani: Kashmir leader quits Hurriyat Conference

Syed Ali Geelani has been heading political opposition to Indian rule in Kashmir for decades.

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Gunmen raided Pakistan's largest stock exchange, killing at least 3 people before police shot them dead, officials say

The raid took place on Monday at the Pakistan Stock Exchange in the city of Karachi. It is not yet clear who is responsible.

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Coming Soon: Russian Bombers (Now Armed with Hypersonic Missiles?)

Hypersonic missiles have been seen as a potential game changer, with some in the U.S. military warning that there is really no defense against the missiles due to their speed.

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More Chinese regions brace for floods as storms shift east

Torrential rain is set to hit China's eastern coastal regions this week after overwhelming large parts of the southwest, inundating villages and tourist spots and displacing more than 700,000 people, state weather forecasters said on Monday. Nearly 14 million people in 26 different provinces had been affected by storms and floods by Friday, with 744,000 evacuated, the China Daily reported, citing the Ministry for Emergency Management. Much of the damage has hit southwestern regions like Guangxi and Sichuan, and the municipality of Chongqing on the upper reaches of the Yangtze river last week experienced its worst floods since 1940.

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122 children killed in Philippines drugs war: NGOs

At least 122 children have been killed in the Philippines' war on drugs -- often deliberately, two non-governmental organisations said Monday, urging the UN to take action. The NGOs fear that the true figure is way higher, they said in a report, as the United Nations Human Rights Council prepares to assess the situation in the Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte's hardline anti-drugs campaign has come under fire from rights activists who say police are encouraged to use lethal force on drug suspects and thousands have been killed since 2016.

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Betelgeuse: Nearby 'supernova' star's dimming explained

Astronomers say big cool patches on the Betelgeuse star likely drove its surprise dimming last year.

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Sen. Grassley said Fox News failed Trump with second-term agenda question, isn't working to get him re-elected

Senator Chuck Grassley took particular issue with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

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The Texas Medical Center scrubbed data showing ICU beds at full capacity as the state's coronavirus cases spike

The medical center had no empty ICU beds by Thursday. Its ICU capacity is usually between 70% and 80% of its total stock.

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Judge in George Floyd case says likely to move hearing out of Minneapolis as officers appear in court

A Minnesota judge on Monday warned that he is likely to move the trials of four police officers charged in George Floyd's death out of Minneapolis if public officials and attorneys do not stop talking about the case. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill stopped short of issuing a gag order on attorneys, but he said one is likely if public statements continue. Cahill added that such a situation would also make him likely to grant a change-of-venue motion if one is filed. "The court is not going to be happy about hearing about the case in three areas: media, evidence and guilt or innocence," Cahill said. It was the second pretrial hearing for the officers, who were fired after Floyd's May 25 death. Derek Chauvin, 44, is charged with second-degree murder and other counts, while Thomas Lane, 37, J. Kueng, 26, and Tou Thao, 34, are charged with aiding and abetting Chauvin.

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Trump was 'near-sadistic' in phone calls with female world leaders, according to CNN report on classified calls

Trump's conduct over the phone with world leaders posed a "danger to the national security of the United States," according to intel officials.

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Russia denies nuclear incident after international body detects isotopes

Russia said on Monday it had detected no sign of a radiation emergency, after an international body reported last week that sensors in Stockholm had picked up unusually high levels of radioactive isotopes produced by nuclear fission. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), which monitors the world for evidence of nuclear weapons tests, said last week one of its stations scanning the air for radioactive particles had found unusual, although harmless, levels of caesium-134, caesium-137 and ruthenium-103. The isotopes were "certainly nuclear fission products, most likely from a civil source", it said.

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Mississippi Becomes Last State to Remove Confederate Emblem from Flag

The Mississippi state legislature voted on Sunday to remove the emblem of the Confederacy from the state flag.State residents had previously been resistant to changing the flag, however polling from the state's Chamber of Commerce indicated that 55 percent of residents now supported removing the Confederate symbol."In the nearly 20 years we have held the position of changing the state flag, we have never seen voters so much in favor of change,” Scott Waller, president of the Mississippi Economic Council, said on Thursday. “These recent polling numbers show what people believe, and that the time has come for us to have a new flag that serves as a unifying symbol for our entire state."Governor Tate Reeves, a Republican, said he would sign legislation to change the flag after previously expressing ambivalence."The argument over the 1894 flag has become as divisive as the flag itself and it’s time to end it. If they send me a bill this weekend, I will sign it," Reeves wrote on Facebook on Saturday."I would guess a lot of you don't even see that flag in the corner right there," Mississippi state Representative Ed Blackmon, a Democrat and African American who has served in the legislature continuously since 1983, said on Saturday. "There are some of us who notice it every time we walk in here, and it's not a good feeling."The push to remove the Confederate emblem comes amid massive nationwide demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during arrest by Minneapolis police officers. Activists have called to remove the symbol of the secessionist states, which broke away from the union to preserve the system of slavery, as well as monuments to Confederate leaders from prominent public spaces. NASCAR has announced that it will ban spectators from waving the Confederate flag at races.

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Supreme Court declines to hear border wall challenge

The Supreme Court is leaving in place a decision that rejected environmental groups' challenge to sections of wall the Trump administration is building along the U.S. border with Mexico. The high court on Monday declined to hear an appeal involving construction of 145 miles (233 kilometers) of steel-bollard walls along the border in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The Center for Biological Diversity, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Southwest Environmental Center had challenged a federal law that allows the secretary of Homeland Security to waive any laws necessary to allow the quick construction of border fencing.

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George Floyd: At least one ex-officer intends to plead not guilty as judge sets tentative murder trial date

The four former Minneapolis police officers charged in the killing of George Floyd could face a jury trial in March, as a judge warned the men to avoid speaking publicly about the case during a hearing on Monday.Three ex-officers appeared in-person at a Hennepin County court in Minnesota, while Derek Chauvin – who was captured on witness video kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck – attended the hearing remotely via video conference from Ramsey County Correctional Centre, where he is being held on a $1.25 million bail.

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Russia's opposition flounders as Putin changes constitution

Russia's opposition is denouncing this week's vote on President Vladimir Putin's constitutional reforms as a joke, pointing out that copies of the amended basic law are already on sale in Moscow bookshops. From liberal reformers to Communists, Kremlin critics say the vote -- which started last week and ends on Wednesday -- is a thinly veiled attempt to keep Putin, 67, in power for life. Russia's top opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who last summer rallied thousands against suspected voter fraud in Moscow, has also shown little interest in combating the reforms.

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Minneapolis police chief, mayor launching policy changes

The Minneapolis police chief and mayor on Sunday began their push for sweeping policy changes with a new rule that prevents officers involved in using deadly force from reviewing body camera footage before completing an initial police report. The new standards come after a proposal by the Minneapolis City Council to dismantle the police force following the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed Black man who died after a white police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes.

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India bans TikTok, WeChat and dozens more Chinese apps

The Indian government says it has banned 59 apps with links to China on national security grounds.

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'Enough': 1 killed in shooting in Seattle's protest zone

A 16-year-old boy was killed and and a younger teenager was wounded early Monday in Seattle's “occupied” protest zone — the second deadly shooting in the area that local officials have vowed to change after business complaints and criticism from President Donald Trump. The violence that came just over a week after another shooting in the zone left one person dead and another wounded was “dangerous and unacceptable" police Chief Carmen Best said. Demonstrators have occupied several blocks around the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct and a park for about two weeks after police abandoned the precinct following standoffs and clashes with protesters calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality.

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Mississippi Lawmakers Vote to Remove Confederate Symbol From State Flag

Mississippi lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to remove a Confederate emblem from their state flag on Sunday, marking one of the most dramatic repudiations yet of white-supremacist imagery during a wave of protests against racism and police brutality in America.The bill passed 128 to 37 and is now awaiting signature by Gov. Tate Reeves. It requires the current state flag to be removed within 15 days of passage. A commission selected by the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the House will design a flag including the phrase “In God We Trust” to be completed by September 14. Mississippi voters will decide on the new flag during the November general election. If the new flag is not ratified by voters in November, a new design will be created and voted on the following year. "Today’s vote is not a vote to erase Mississippi’s history or its heritage," Sen. John Horhn said. "But it’s an affirmation of Mississippi’s future, and that we intend to move forward together."On Saturday, lawmakers in both houses cleared an initial measure paving the way for a bill to change the flag, and Republican Gov. Tate Reeves tweeted that he would sign a bill to that effect.The initial measure lifted restrictions in place that prohibited the state government from changing or removing the state flag, which is the last in the United States to include an explicit homage to pro-slavery rebels.“The argument over the 1894 flag has become as divisive as the flag itself and it’s time to end it,” Reeves tweeted.The governor went on to say that changing the flag was not enough to fight the systemic racism the Confederate symbol represents. “We should not be under any illusion that a vote in the Capitol is the end of what must be done,” he wrote. “It will be harder than recovering from tornadoes, harder than historic floods, harder than agency corruption, or prison riots or the coming hurricane season—even harder than battling the Coronavirus.”State Representative Jeramey Anderson (D-Miss), the youngest-ever Black legislator elected in Mississippi at 28, applauded the decision to pave the way for change on Saturday. “This is a unique opportunity, one we should not squander,” he said. Confederate leader Jefferson Davis’s great-great grandson Bertram Hayes-Davis backed the change, telling CNN that “the battle flag has been hijacked” and that it “does not represent the entire population of Mississippi.”Rising college basketball player Blake Hinson said the Confederate symbol played a role in his decision to transfer from the University of Mississippi to Iowa State earlier this month. “It was time to go and leave Ole Miss,” he told the Daytona Beach News Journal. “I’m proud not to represent that flag anymore and to not be associated with anything representing the Confederacy.”Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Miss) opposed the change and called for a state referendum on the issue, warning that changing the American flag was next. “I don’t see how that makes me a racist.” he said. “I don’t see how that makes me a terrible human being.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Three men arrested for murder in case of missing California couple who vanished in 2017

Three men have been arrested for murder in the case of Audrey Moran and Jonathan Reynoso, who have been missing since 2017. Manuel Rios, of Coachella, Abraham Fregoso, of Indio, and Jesus Ruiz Jr., of Stockton, were taken into custody on Saturday, June 27, 2020, and booked in Riverside County Jail. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.

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Gilead prices COVID-19 drug remdesivir at $2,340 per patient in developed nations

The price tag is slightly below the range of $2,520 to $2,800 suggested last week by U.S. drug pricing research group the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) after British researchers said they found that the cheap, widely available steroid dexamethasone significantly reduced mortality among severely ill COVID-19 patients. Remdesivir is expected to be in high demand as one of the only treatments so far shown to alter the course of COVID-19. After the intravenously administered medicine helped shorten hospital recovery times in a clinical trial, it won emergency use authorization in the United States and full approval in Japan.

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China forces birth control on Uighurs to suppress population: AP

Beijing accused of forced sterilisation, abortions, and pregnancy checks on hundreds of thousands of minority women.

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Court says president can fire Consumer board head 'at will'

In a ruling underscoring the power of the president, the Supreme Court on Monday made it easier for the president to fire the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The justices struck down restrictions Congress had written on when the president can remove the bureau’s director. “The agency may ... continue to operate, but its Director, in light of our decision, must be removable by the President at will,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

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Chinese coronavirus vaccine approved for use in country's military after clinical trials

China's military has approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by its own research staff and a Chinese biotech firm, it was announced on Monday. The vaccine was given the green light for use by troops after trials proved it was both safe and effective, said CanSino Biologics, the biotech firm involved. However, its use for the time being will be restricted to military personnel, who offer a tighter medical control group than the general public. The vaccine candidate, named Ad5-nCoV, was developed jointly by CanSino and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology in the Academy of Military Medical Sciences. It has been in development since March. CanSino said the results showed the vaccine candidate has potential to prevent diseases caused by the coronavirus, which has killed half a million people globally. The company added that it was not yet possible to say if it could be a commercial success, which would depend on being able to produce the vaccine cheaply as well as safely.

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New York City mayor plans to cut $1bn from police budget

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed cutting $1bn (£814m) from the police force’s $6bn (£4.48bn) yearly budget, amid calls for reform.Mr de Blasio announced the plan during his daily City Hall press briefing on Monday, and said the proposed budget would help reform the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

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Israel orders evangelical Christian media network God TV to take channel off air

“The channel does not appeal to the Christian population in Israel, but rather to the Jews,” Israel's broadcasting regulator said in a statement.

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China to impose visa restrictions on U.S. individuals over Hong Kong

Beijing said on Monday it will impose visa restrictions on U.S. individuals with "egregious conduct" on Hong Kong-related issues, mirroring U.S. sanctions against unnamed Chinese officials deemed responsible for curbing freedoms in the city. The announcement comes as the top decision-making body of China's parliament deliberates a draft national security law for Hong Kong that pro-democracy activists in the city fear will be used to eliminate dissent and tighten Beijing's control. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who announced the new sanctions during a press briefing in response to a question about Washington's new visa restrictions, did not specify which U.S. individuals have been targeted.

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The coronavirus is devastating communities of color. The Trump administration's top doctor blames 'structural racism' and shares his plans to take action.

Dr. Jerome Adams is preparing two calls to action — one on high blood pressure, the other on maternal mortality — to address racial health inequality.

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Systemic changes must go beyond just policing. Human and social services need reform, too.

Institutional racism is not found just in the police — it’s woven into schools, mental health clinics and housing providers.

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Huntsman at risk of shocking defeat in Utah

After a decade away from Utah politics and a weeks-long fight with the coronavirus, the former governor is locked in a tight race for his old job.

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Greta Thunberg accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of lining up to take a selfie with her just to 'look good'

Thunberg castigated Angela Merkel and other world leaders at the UN summit as stealing her dreams, but they still craved an Instagram moment with her.

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Texas Republican lawmaker says he won't wear a mask on the House floor unless he tests positive for coronavirus

Rep. Louie Gohmert is among a group of Republican lawmakers including the president and vice president who have been photographed without a face mask.

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Coronavirus: How Delhi 'wasted' lockdown to become India's biggest hotspot

India's capital now has the country's highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases.

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China denounces Canada's 'megaphone diplomacy' over spy charges

China sharply criticized Canada on Saturday, blaming its leaders for "irresponsible" statements about two Canadians accused of spying in China and calling on Ottawa to end its "Megaphone Diplomacy." The evidence against the two Canadians, former Beijing diplomat Michael Kovrig and North Korean consultant Michael Spavor, is "solid and sufficient," a statement posted on the website of the Chinese embassy in Ottawa said.

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Police ‘Reform’ and the Making of a Racism Narrative

Have you seen that mountain of evidence that Derek Chauvin is a racist? Me neither.In that regard, I’m like the Wall Street Journal’s fearlessly fact-driven Jason Riley. Did some shred of racial animus motivate the since-fired Minneapolis police officer’s killing of George Floyd? For the moment, we have no proof of that -- just a racialist narrative built on the happenstance (no reason to believe it’s more than that right now) that Chauvin is white and Floyd was black.These days, alas, mere happenstance is enough to tear this nation asunder.As an old investigator, I am intrigued by the fact that Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison has refused to disclose police body-cam video of the moments leading up to Chauvin’s disturbing neck hold. Ditto the fact -- highlighted in my analyses of the charges filed against the arresting officers (here and here) -- that the state’s minute-by-minute recitation of probable cause omits whatever went on between Floyd and police inside the squad-car. Surely, if they helped the prosecution’s police-brutality allegations, those gaps in the complaint would have been filled.Similarly, the fact that Minnesota police procedures permitted the use of neck holds for suspects resisting arrest has disappeared from the reporting. No chatter permitted, either, about the facts that Floyd (a) had a significant criminal record (though no new charges in recent years), (b) was suspected of passing a small amount of counterfeit money at the time of his arrest, and (c) was high on fentanyl and methamphetamine -- a toxic combination whose ingestion was particularly dangerous for a person with his heart conditions.Silence on these matters is partially explained by the admirably widespread desire not to besmirch a tragic victim, as well as the Left’s more-narrow determination to martyr Floyd for purposes of their police-racism narrative. The subject is also verboten, though, because the police were inconveniently recorded discussing their fear that Floyd might be experiencing excited-delirium syndrome. When police suspect that dangerous condition, their training calls for restraining the arrestee until emergency medical personnel arrive.I’ve expressed my concern that the case against the former Minneapolis police is both overcharged and undercharged. Others have taken the overcharging argument further than I have -- and persuasively so (see this thoughtful, comprehensive analysis by Gavrilo David). None of this means the prosecution of the now-fired cops is illegitimate. To the contrary, it underscores the wisdom of the original charges, filed before the notoriously demagogic Ellison entered the fray. In them, prosecutors took pains to include a manslaughter charge along with depraved indifference murder. That is, the police were not trying to kill this man. His death, to which his own poor judgment contributed, resulted from police negligence, possibly severe enough to rise to recklessness. But to this moment, there is no reason to believe his death was intentional, much less a modern-day “lynching” motivated by racial animus.Yet the racism narrative is driving the nation to ruin.The defamation that police are institutionally racist because America is indelibly racist has opened a potentially unbridgeable chasm. It is abetted by two national character flaws. The first is our gravitation to political leaders capable only of making matters worse by their spitefulness and Manichean posturing.The second is our increasingly manifest conviction that we are not worth defending. We seem convinced that there is no positive case to be made for a society that idealizes liberty and the equal dignity of every person. For a society that does not pretend to be perfect, but that strives to be better. A society that confesses its sin and works toward redemption: spilling its blood to end slavery, fighting to end de jure racism, and rejecting racial discrimination as a socially acceptable attitude.If we do not believe we are worth preserving -- humbled by our flaws, yes, but duly proud of our virtues and our historic accomplishments -- we will not be preserved.This week’s farce on Capitol Hill was not a hopeful sign.I admire Senator Tim Scott. His life story, recently told in moving detail by the WSJ’s Tunku Varadarajan, is an inspiration. Yet his police-reform legislation was far from inspirational. Sure, it should have been debated. Democrats are cynical -- surprise! -- to block its consideration, the better to keep riding the racism wave they expect to make an anti-Trump tsunami by November (and, as usual, getting no small amount of help from the president). But the best you can say for Scott’s proposal was that it would do no real harm.Republicans had no intention of pushing back against the slander of institutional racism. They have no stomach for trumpeting the 30-year revolution in policing that, by dramatically driving down homicide and violent crime, has saved thousands of black lives. They would not rouse themselves to a defense of police forces that, reflective of their communities, boast high percentages of African-American officers and, in many major cities, of African-American leadership. No case was made that those black lives matter, too.Instead, Republicans accept the premise that the nation’s police forces are infected with racism and in desperate need of reform. The GOP won’t dictate to the states, as a bill passed by House Democrats’ would. But Republicans would use federal funding as the prod for state data-gathering on police uses of force. Given that policing is a state responsibility, and that the use of force is a necessary component of it, the only rational purpose of this federal scrutiny is the conceit that police violence is triggered by racism, not by the imperative of countering aggressive criminal behavior.You might think Congress would want to test that proposition before hamstringing police in a way that will inevitably endanger American communities. Nope.The Republican cravenness makes it that much easier for Democrats to go all the way with the narrative. The Democratic legislation has no chance of being enacted in law -- at least not until the Democrats retake the Senate and do away with the filibuster so President Biden can sign their grand designs into law. But “reforming” police by legislation is not the objective.The point is for the Biden Justice Department to pick up where the Obama Justice Department left off.As I pointed out at the time, the Obama Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division made a habit of slipstreaming behind race-tinged controversies, commencing investigations of state and local police departments. They would file lawsuits under a Clinton-era law that permits the Justice Department to sue municipalities based on any alleged “pattern or practice” that deprives people of their federal rights. States, cities, and towns cannot afford to go toe-to-toe with the Justice Department and its $30 billion annual budget. So they would settle by agreeing to consent decrees in which they’d be obliged to conform to Obama-prescribed policing -- in with police as social workers whose community “legitimacy” hinges on confessing their “implicit bias”; out with “broken windows.”The headline grabbers in the Democrats’ police-reform package were bans on chokeholds and no-knock warrants (the federal jurisdiction for such mandates remains mysterious), as well as the gutting of “qualified immunity,” which would make it easier to sue police. Less well noticed were the legislation’s data-gathering provisions. They are similar to Scott’s, except Democrats want more information about forcible police encounters, and they want that information broken down by race.The object of the game is patent. Using the hocus-pocus of “disparate impact” theory, Democrats will argue that the disproportionately high percentage of black males in forcible police incidents is conclusive evidence of racism. Such factors as disproportionately high incidence of criminal behavior, and the race (often black) of the responding police officers will be ignored (the individual’s race makes no difference, you see, if the institution is racist -- indeed, incorrigibly so). This distorted number crunching will make it even more prohibitive for states and their municipalities to challenge Justice Department lawsuits. They will concede and sign on the dotted line: “reform” by consent decree.That is how you project racism without proving racism. It is not hard for the side that relishes the battle, especially when the other side’s specialty is preemptive surrender.

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The Ugly Consequences of Iran's Corrupt Governance

And what the United States can do about it.

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