| Trump: People in Pennsylvania 'want their freedom now,' but Democrats delay reopening to hurt him Posted: 11 May 2020 09:10 AM PDT  President Trump on Monday accused Democratic governors without evidence of moving to reopen their states too slowly amid the coronavirus pandemic to hurt his chances of reelection.
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| Iran warship accidentally 'hit by missile' during exercises Posted: 10 May 2020 11:31 PM PDT  An Iranian warship was accidentally hit by a missile during exercises in the Gulf of Oman, killing at least one, state television said Monday, amid tensions with the US in the waterway. One report said the vessel had sunk after being hit by a missile fired by another Iranian warship. "The vessel was hit after moving a practice target to its destination and not creating enough distance between itself and the target," state television said on its website.
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| Rand Paul spars with Dr. Fauci during Senate hearing: 'I don't think you're the end-all' Posted: 12 May 2020 09:35 AM PDT  "As much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don't think you're the end-all," Paul said. "There are people on the other side who say there's not going to be another surge."
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| Nearly 2,000 former Justice Department employees call for Barr to resign over Flynn case Posted: 11 May 2020 11:01 AM PDT  Nearly 2,000 former Justice Department employees have united in a call for Attorney General William Barr's resignation.In a letter posted Monday on Medium, former DOJ employees of both Democratic and Republican administrations say Barr "once again assaulted the rule of law, this time in the case of President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn." And just like they demanded after the DOJ softened Roger Stone's sentencing, signers of the letter say that warrants Barr's resignation.The DOJ dismissed Flynn's case last week after a review of the case showed it was "conducted without any legitimate investigative basis." But this explanation "does not hold up to scrutiny," the Monday letter reads, because "Flynn admitted under oath and in open court that he told material lies to the FBI in violation of longstanding federal law." The signers want a district court to "deny the motion" to dismiss Flynn's charges. And because they know Barr will likely not resign, they'd like Congress to reschedule its hearing with Barr and "formally censure" him for "his repeated assaults on the rule of law," the letter continues.The letter had more than 1,900 signers as of Monday afternoon, with more former DOJ employees continuing to add their names. The nonprofit group Protect Democracy, which was behind this letter, also organized a February letter calling for Barr's resignation when the Justice Department overruled prosecutors and reduced a sentencing recommendation for Stone. It ended up with more than 2,600 signers.More stories from theweek.com Rand Paul and Anthony Fauci got into the most pointed exchange of the Senate coronavirus hearing so far 1 of these 7 women will likely be Joe Biden's running mate How Trump lost his Electoral College edge to Biden
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| Venezuela detains 40 suspects after failed Maduro 'kidnap attempt' Posted: 12 May 2020 07:49 AM PDT  * Three captured west of Caracas are latest 'terrorists' arrested * Advisers to opposition leader Juan Guaidó linked to raid resign Nicolás Maduro's security forces have continued their roundup of alleged participants in last week's botched attempt to capture him, with the arrest of three Venezuelan men just west of the capital.The trio was reportedly seized in Carayaca, 35 miles from Caracas in the early hours of Monday, taking the number of detentions to more than 40. The official Twitter account of Venezuela's Bolivarian national guard claimed the men were "terrorists who entered the country intending to provoke violence".On Sunday the army chief, Remigio Ceballos, announced the capture of another eight "enemies of the fatherland" who were pictured kneeling down before a cluster of rifle-toting troops.Eight people were reportedly killed when a group of about 60 mercenaries, including two United States citizens, launched their botched sea raid on 2 May.One of the captured American attackers, Airan Berry, last week claimed, possibly under duress, that the group had been tasked with raiding Maduro's presidential palace and seizing a local airport in order to spirit him out of the country. Many of the group are reportedly being held in El Helicoide, Venezuela's most notorious political prison.The failed raid has proved a propaganda boon for Maduro, who has long claimed he was the subject of an imperialist, US-sponsored assassination plot.Maduro has spent the last 16 months fighting off a challenge from the young opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who more than 50 foreign governments recognize as Venezuela's legitimate interim leader.For Guaidó, who for a time last year looked poised to topple Maduro, recent events threaten to permanently derail his push for political change.Guaidó has denied any involvement in the failed mission to capture Maduro. But two of his advisers, the Miami-based strategist Juan José Rendón and the opposition lawmaker Sergio Vergara, are alleged to have signed a $212m contract with Jordan Goudreau, the former Green Beret behind the raid.Vergara and Rendón – who has admitted meeting Goudreau last year and paying him $50,000 in expenses – resigned from Guaidó's team on Monday.In his first interview since the incident, Guaidó tried to put on a brave face, insisting his campaign continued. "What happened last weekend," Guaidó said, "was regrettable."But some suspect the opposition leader, from whom support has been gradually draining away, is running out of steam."I'm sure Maduro and his people are quite thrilled about the way this turned out. This really works for them," said David Smilde, a Venezuela specialist at the Washington Office on Latin America."It just adds into this continual erosion of people's perception of Guaidó as an effective leader, and they are thinking: 'Well, maybe Maduro is not actually as much of a rube as we thought.'"
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| China cuts Australian beef imports after warning against virus probe Posted: 12 May 2020 02:50 AM PDT  China suspended imports from four major Australian beef suppliers Tuesday, just weeks after Beijing's ambassador warned of a consumer boycott in retaliation for Canberra's push to probe the origins of the coronavirus. Analysts said the move raised concerns of a possible standoff between Australia and its most important trading partner that could spill over into other crucial sectors as it struggles to navigate the disease-induced economic crisis. Federal Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said shipments of meat from four abattoirs had been suspended over "minor technical" breaches related to Chinese health and labelling certificate requirements.
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| Trump calls Ahmaud Arbery killing 'heartbreaking' but cautions about 'empty spot on the tape' Posted: 11 May 2020 03:28 PM PDT  President Trump said Monday that a video showing two white men in Georgia gunning down and killing an African-American jogger is "heartbreaking," though he left open the possibility that "an empty spot on the tape" might reveal more information in the case.
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| U.S. House Democrats float $3 trillion coronavirus bill, Republicans reject it Posted: 12 May 2020 08:39 AM PDT  Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday unveiled a $3 trillion-plus coronavirus relief package with funding for states, businesses, food support and families, only to see the measure flatly rejected by Senate Republicans. The new legislation, which would more than double Congress's financial response to the crisis, includes nearly $1 trillion in long-sought assistance for state and local governments that are bearing the brunt of a pandemic that has infected 1,359,000 in the United States and killed at least 80,600. It also includes $75 billion for testing people for the novel coronavirus, direct payments of up to $6,000 per U.S. household, $10 billion in emergency grants for small business and $25 billion for the U.S. Postal Service.
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| Coronavirus: California rodeo attracts thousands despite social distancing orders Posted: 11 May 2020 03:58 AM PDT  Thousands attended a rodeo in California despite state orders against public gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic, it has been reported.Crowds could be seen packed tightly in the stands at Sunday's annual Cottonwood Rodeo in rural Shasta County, after local police said they would not enforce the state's lockdown orders.
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| Chevy's new Tahoe police cars include beefed-up off-road capabilities and wider doors to fit handcuffed passengers Posted: 12 May 2020 12:45 PM PDT  The 2021 Tahoe-based police cars can tow, are better-suited for off-roading, and have more cargo room.
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| Governor Cuomo: This Is Why You’re Wrong to ‘Reimagine Education’ After COVID-19 Posted: 11 May 2020 05:15 AM PDT  A counselor responds to Governor Cuomo's plans on "reimagining education" after the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and why student mental health is at risk.
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| Isabel dos Santos says Angola faked evidence to freeze assets Posted: 12 May 2020 09:25 AM PDT  Isabel dos Santos, the billionaire daughter of Angola's ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, on Tuesday accused the government of resorting to forgery to freeze her assets last year. The 47-year-old tycoon and her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo are accused of syphoning off more than one billion dollars from Angolan state companies. Dos Santos claimed in a statement that a copy of a fake passport -- bearing the signature of late martial arts film star Bruce Lee -- was part of the evidence submitted to the court.
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| 'We did our time': Colorado restaurant defies state order, reopens to packed crowds Posted: 11 May 2020 01:49 PM PDT  As states prepare to lift restrictions on businesses such as bars and restaurants, scenes that played out in several states on Mother's Day weekend shows how doing so safely amid the coronavirus pandemic may prove to be challenging.
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| Militants storm maternity clinic in Afghan capital, kill 16 Posted: 12 May 2020 12:16 AM PDT  Militants stormed a maternity hospital in the western part of Kabul on Tuesday, setting off an hours-long shootout with the police and killing 16 people, including two newborn babies, their mothers and an unspecified number of nurses, Afghan officials said. While the battle was underway, Afghan security forces struggled to evacuate the facility carrying out babies and frantic young mothers, according to images shared by the Interior Ministry. The clinic is supported by the aid group Doctors Without Borders, according to UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency.
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| Not Feeling the iPhone? Consider One of These Android Phones Instead Posted: 11 May 2020 09:00 AM PDT |
| Thousands get sick as president encourages reopening Posted: 12 May 2020 09:48 AM PDT  Even as President Trump urges getting people back to work and reopening the economy, an Associated Press analysis shows thousands of people are getting sick from COVID-19 on the job.
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| China tells New Zealand to stop 'creating trouble' after Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters backed Taiwan rejoining WHO Posted: 12 May 2020 08:59 AM PDT  Winston Peters, who is also New Zealand's foreign affair minister, called inviting Taiwan to return to the World Health Organization "just logic."
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| China plans to test the entire city of Wuhan in just 10 days after new COVID-19 cases Posted: 12 May 2020 04:08 AM PDT  Wuhan, the Chinese city of 11 million where the COVID-19 pandemic originated, reported six new cases over the weekend, its first new infections in 35 days. None of the new cases were imported, and China plans to get to the bottom of this cluster, announcing a plan to test the entire city in 10 days, CNN reports. Wuhan authorities plan to use nucleic acid tests, which are more effective and complicated to perform than tests that look for a body's immune response.If all 11 million people in Wuhan are tested, that would require producing and processing tests for a population greater than the entire country of Greece — in 10 days. The U.S. has conducted 9.4 million tests during the entire pandemic, the COVID Tracking Project reported Monday.China's official coronavirus figures have always had an asterisk by them, and a large number of positive results from a city-wide testing program would reflect poorly on Wuhan's previously reported data, CNN notes. The head official of Wuhan's Changqing area, where the new cases were found, was already removed from his post for failing to prevent the outbreak, China Daily reported Monday.South Korea and Germany have also reported setbacks in their largely successful efforts to beat back the coronavirus, highlighting the tenacity of the new virus and the risks of relaxing mitigation efforts.More stories from theweek.com 1 of these 7 women will likely be Joe Biden's running mate How Trump lost his Electoral College edge to Biden Progressives may block Democrats' coronavirus bill after it leaves out payroll funding for small businesses
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| Coronavirus: India announces $264bn economic rescue package Posted: 12 May 2020 05:41 PM PDT  Narendra Modi announces financial support for farmers and small businesses hit by the virus shutdown.
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| Fauci contradicts Trump's death toll prediction as Rand Paul slams top White House doctor Posted: 12 May 2020 09:32 AM PDT  The US government's leading infectious disease expert told a Senate committee on Tuesday that if states open too quickly, they could be dealing with new Covid-19 outbreaks "that you cannot control.""There is no doubt when you pull back on mitigation, you will see cases appear," Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pension Committee.
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| Newborns among 16 dead in Kabul hospital attack; 24 killed in funeral bombing Posted: 11 May 2020 11:43 PM PDT  Gunmen disguised as police attacked a hospital in the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, killing 16 people including two newborn babies from a maternity clinic run by the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders. In a separate attack the same day, a suicide bomber struck the funeral of a police commander, attended by government officials and a member of parliament, in the eastern province of Nangahar, killing at least 24 people and injuring 68. Islamic State Khorasan, the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State militant group, claimed responsibility for the Nangahar bombing, the SITE Intelligence Group reported.
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| Asia Today: Singapore partly reopens despite rise in cases Posted: 11 May 2020 08:40 PM PDT  Singaporeans were able to get a haircut at the barber or pop in to their favorite bakery Tuesday as the government loosened restrictions three weeks before a partial lockdown ends. Despite an upsurge in cases due to an outbreak among foreign workers staying in crowded dormitories, the government says transmission in the local community has dropped and plans a phased reopening of the economy. Barbers and hairdressers, food manufacturers and outlets as well as laundry shops are among selected businesses that can open with strict health measures Tuesday after five weeks of shutdown.
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| At least 4,500 Tyson workers have caught COVID-19, with 18 dying. The meat giant still doesn't offer paid sick leave, as the industry blames workers for outbreaks. Posted: 11 May 2020 08:09 AM PDT  An analysis by Business Insider found at least 4,585 cases of COVID-19 and 18 deaths linked to Tyson. The company still doesn't offer paid sick leave.
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| Number of COVID-19 cases rising in California's Orange County, but health official says no apparent link to beach crowds Posted: 11 May 2020 06:40 PM PDT  Orange County, California, is seeing its weekly coronavirus case count rise, but health officials say this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with crowds of people who gathered at the county's beaches on April 25 and 26."As of now, that is not something we are pointing to as a cause of cases," Orange County Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick told the Los Angeles Times. After seeing images and video showing throngs of people at Huntington Beach not social distancing, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) moved to temporarily close Orange County's beaches. There have also been two protests in Huntington Beach against the state's stay-at-home measures, with most participants standing next to each other without masks.Orange County confirmed 441 new COVID-19 cases between April 20 and 26, with the number jumping to 664 the next week and 787 the week after that. Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco, told the Times further study is needed to determine whether the beaches contributed to the increase in cases, but "just us looking at it, there was a big jump in Orange County that was temporally consistent with possible transmission from that crowd event."Quick said more tests have been conducted daily since April 28, and "as we loosen up any amount of the stay-at-home order or put more people to work, we do expect to see an increase in cases. So that would be something that would be expected." The Orange County Health Care Agency reported that as of Monday, there are 3,557 coronavirus cases in the county, with the death toll at 76.More stories from theweek.com 1 of these 7 women will likely be Joe Biden's running mate How Trump lost his Electoral College edge to Biden Progressives may block Democrats' coronavirus bill after it leaves out payroll funding for small businesses
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| Two feuding Texas families shoot at each other, leaving six wounded, police say Posted: 11 May 2020 05:13 AM PDT |
| Coronavirus: Wuhan in first virus cluster since end of lockdown Posted: 11 May 2020 03:29 AM PDT  As China continues easing restrictions, new virus clusters in Wuhan and elsewhere have emerged.
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| Trump’s spy chief declassifies list of Obama administration officials ‘involved in unmasking Michael Flynn’ Posted: 12 May 2020 07:23 AM PDT  The acting director of US national intelligence, Richard Grenell, has reportedly handed the Department of Justice a declassified list of former Obama administration officials involved in the "unmasking" of General Michael Flynn in 2017.The news comes just as Donald Trump has ramped up accusations of criminality against his predecessor – albeit without spelling out exactly what he means.
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| Rand Paul: Pandemic Response Marred by ‘Wrong Prediction after Wrong Prediction’ Posted: 12 May 2020 02:19 PM PDT  Senator Rand Paul said Tuesday that the response to the coronavirus pandemic has been hampered by "wrong prediction after wrong prediction" as he advocated for schools to reopen in the fall."The history of this when we look back will be of wrong prediction after wrong prediction after wrong prediction," Paul said during a Senate hearing Tuesday at which Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to the Trump administration's coronavirus task force, testified."I think we ought to have a little bit of humility in our belief that we know what's best for the economy," the Kentucky Republican said. "As much as I respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don't think you're the end all. I don't think you're the one person who gets to make a decision,"Paul said he believes it would be a "huge mistake" not to open schools in the fall and noted that the mortality rate from the coronavirus for children "approaches zero."Keeping children out of school would have a disproportionate effect on "poor and underprivileged kids" who do not have a parent who is able to homeschool them and will end up not learning for a full year, the senator said."In rural states we never really reached any sort of pandemic level," Paul continued. "It's not to say this isn't deadly, but really, outside of New England we've had a relatively benign course for this virus nationwide."Fauci said he agreed with Paul that the coronavirus has not proven as deadly to children as to others, but argued that the virus is still relatively mysterious and noted that some children with the virus developed a "very strange inflammatory syndrome."Paul himself tested positive for the coronavirus in March. As of Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. has seen more than 1.3 million cases of the virus and 80,000 people have died from it.
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| Putin's spokesman becomes fifth senior Russian official to get coronavirus Posted: 12 May 2020 01:58 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, as a new surge in infections gave Russia the third highest number of reported cases in the world after the United States. Peskov, the fifth senior official to contract the virus, said he had last met Putin in person more than a month ago, the TASS news agency reported. Putin, who has been working remotely from his residence outside Moscow and holding many meetings via video conference, held a face-to-face meeting earlier on Tuesday with Igor Sechin, the head of oil giant Rosneft .
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| India's most wanted man Nirav Modi stole vast sums of money by claiming he was buying pearls, court hears Posted: 11 May 2020 08:52 AM PDT  India's most wanted man, who was tracked down by the Telegraph to a London flat, stole "eye watering" sums of money by claiming they were needed to buy a consignment of pearls, a court heard. Nirav Modi, 49, fled the country while suspected of perpetrating a £1.5 billion bank fraud, the largest in Indian history, on the state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB). The billionaire diamond dealer was arrested in March last year after the Telegraph traced him to an address occupying half a floor in Centre Point tower, where rent is estimated to cost £17,000-a-month, and to an office around the corner in Soho Square. An extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court heard Modi was able to swindle £1.5 billion from the bank by using insiders and threatening to kill witnesses in an international "Ponzi scheme". Modi also allegedly glued low-grade diamonds onto jewellery so they could be repackaged and sold at a higher price to con lenders, the court heard. Modi has previously protested his innocence through lawyers in court hearings in India. Currently residing at HMP Wandsworth, the 49-year-old appeared via video-link wearing a white shirt and black suit at the first of five scheduled hearings which will decide whether he is to be extradited to India. Helen Malcolm QC, for the Indian government, said the fraud had been orchestrated by fiddling MOUs (memorandums of understanding) - a loan used by businesses to import foreign goods at a cheaper rate. Modi allegedly persuaded corrupt workers within the PNB to sign off MOUs under the pretence that they were being used to pay off exporters on a consignment of pearls from Hong Kong, the court heard. But the "eye-watering" sums of money were instead distributed across other businesses in the Modi empire to pay off a backlog of earlier debt in a "Ponzi scheme of borrowing," it was said. The magnate then used several "dummy" directors as figureheads to distance himself on paperwork from the companies involved while maintaining control. Ms Malcolm said the PNB caught wind of the scheme in 2018. The court heard Modi and his brother "set out on a campaign to frighten witnesses" when the fraud was discovered. One witness was said to be "threatened with death and implication in a theft", while mobile phones belonging to a number of people were allegedly destroyed in order to get rid of evidence. The extradition hearing continues.
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| Russia now has the 2nd most coronavirus cases in the world Posted: 12 May 2020 08:50 AM PDT  Russia now has the second most confirmed coronavirus infections in the world, though its 232,000-plus confirmed cases is still far fewer than the United States.The country's cases continue to rise significantly day-to-day, although the rate is mostly stable. BBC News notes that there have now been 10 consecutive days with new infections above 10,000, most of which are in Moscow, which is home to around 12 million people.Despite the high number of cases, Russia has reported only 2,116 COVID-19 fatalities, giving the country a low death rate. The Kremlin attributes that success to a mass testing program, but many people are skeptical of the figure, believing the true total to be much higher, BBC reports.There are some high profile cases within the government, including President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who is hospitalized with the virus.None of this news has deterred Putin from beginning to ease lockdown measures, however — factory and construction workers were allowed back on the job Tuesday, although the president granted regions the authority to set their own restrictions depending on their status. Read more at BBC News.More stories from theweek.com 1 of these 7 women will likely be Joe Biden's running mate How Trump lost his Electoral College edge to Biden Progressives may block Democrats' coronavirus bill after it leaves out payroll funding for small businesses
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| China is renewing lockdown restrictions after new coronavirus clusters were found in Wuhan and Shulan, 2 cities hundreds of miles apart Posted: 12 May 2020 07:51 AM PDT  China reported 17 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the second day in a row new cases were in the double digits.
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| Suspect arrested in 30 year old apparent homophobic cold case death of American man in Sydney Posted: 12 May 2020 07:31 AM PDT  An arrest has been made in a cold case killing of a gay man in Australia, more than 30 years after it occurred.American Mathematician Scott Johnson, 27, died in Sydney, Australia, in 1988 after falling off a cliff in what was categorised at the time as a suicide.
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| Gorsuch, likely key vote, seems to favor Oklahoma tribe Posted: 11 May 2020 09:23 AM PDT  Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared Monday to be a pivotal vote for the proposition that a large chunk of eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation, a question the Supreme Court failed to resolve a year ago. The justices heard arguments by phone in an appeal by a Native American man who claims state courts have no authority to try him for a crime committed on reservation land that belongs to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The reservation once encompassed 3 million acres (12,100 square kilometers), including most of Tulsa, the state's second-largest city.
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| Germany's coronavirus reproduction rate dips below critical threshold Posted: 12 May 2020 10:32 AM PDT  The reproduction rate for the coronavirus pandemic in Germany fell below the critical threshold of 1 to an estimated 0.94 on Tuesday after a 1.07 reading on Monday, the Robert Koch Institute for public health and disease control said. "So far, we do not expect a renewed rising trend," the RKI said in its daily report, adding the overall number of cases in Germany was diminishing, meaning local outbreaks had a greater impact on 'R' than with higher case numbers. Confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased over the latest 24-hour period by 933 to 170,508, RKI data showed.
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| Hong Kong risks new unrest with China anthem bill: opposition Posted: 12 May 2020 03:31 AM PDT  Hong Kong's government risks reigniting last year's political unrest by pushing ahead with a controversial bill outlawing insults to China's national anthem, opposition lawmakers said Tuesday. Pro-democracy lawmakers warned history was repeating itself, noting that the fast-tracking of a bill last year to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland was the spark that lit seven straight months of pro-democracy protests. On Tuesday Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam -- a pro-Beijing appointee -- said the national anthem bill would now be "given priority".
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