| In wake of pandemic, the new normal in schools could widen the economic gap among students, educators fear Posted: 21 May 2020 01:50 PM PDT  With the coronavirus expected to remain a threat through at least next spring and a reliance on "distance learning" likely to continue, the burden will fall most heavily on the neediest students, living in homes lacking computers, internet connectivity or adults at home during the school day.
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| Man who filmed Ahmaud Arbery shooting used vehicle to 'detain' him, warrant says Posted: 22 May 2020 10:12 AM PDT  William "Roddie" Bryan, 50, is the third person to be arrested in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, on Feb. 23.
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| Two regional IS leaders killed in Syria: CentCom Posted: 22 May 2020 02:46 PM PDT  US-led coalition forces and their Kurdish allies the Syrian Democratic Forces killed two regional Islamic State group leaders in a raid in eastern Syria this week, US Central Command announced on Friday. Ahmad 'Isa Ismail al-Zawi and Ahmad 'Abd Muhammad Hasan al-Jughayfi were killed in the May 17 joint raid on an IS position in Deir Ezzor province, CentCom said in a statement. Al-Zawi, also known as Abu Ali al-Baghdadi, was the IS regional leader of North Baghdad, it said, and was "responsible for disseminating terrorist guidance from senior IS leadership to operatives in North Baghdad."
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| Iran lauds arms supply to Palestinians against 'tumor' Israel Posted: 22 May 2020 01:25 AM PDT  Iran's Supreme Leader on Friday denounced Israel as a "tumor" to be removed and hailed Tehran's supply of arms to Palestinians, drawing swift condemnation from the United States, European Union and Israel. Opposition to Israel is a core belief for Shi'ite Muslim-led Iran. The Islamic Republic supports Palestinian and Lebanese armed groups opposed to peace with Israel, which Tehran refuses to recognize.
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| FBI director orders internal review of Flynn investigation Posted: 22 May 2020 12:01 PM PDT  FBI Director Christopher Wray has ordered an internal review into possible misconduct in the investigation of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, the bureau said Friday. The after-action review will examine whether any current employees engaged in misconduct during the course of the investigation and evaluate whether any improvements in FBI policies and procedures need to be made. In announcing the review, the FBI, a frequent target of President Donald Trump's wrath, is stepping into a case that has become a rallying cry for Trump supporters — and doing so right as the Justice Department pushes back against criticism that its recent decision to dismiss the prosection was a politically motivated effort to do Trump's bidding.
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| Joe Biden accuser Tara Reade let go by lawyer Posted: 22 May 2020 01:38 PM PDT  * Douglas Wigdor says he continues to believe allegation * Reade says then senator Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993The lawyer representing Tara Reade, who has accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, said on Friday he was dropping her as a client although he continued to believe in the truth of her allegations."Our decision … is by no means a reflection on whether then Senator Biden sexually assaulted Ms Reade," Douglas Wigdor said in a statement. "On that point, our view – which is the same view held by the majority of Americans, according to a Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll – has not changed."Reade is a former staffer from Biden's office when he was a senator from Delaware. She alleges that he pushed her against a wall in the Senate buildings and assaulted her. Biden has denied the accusation.Wigdor said his decision was made on Wednesday, a day after CNN published a story raising questions about Reade's background and her past statements. Though in the statement announcing the split, the lawyer vociferously attacked Reade's treatment by the press."To a large extent Ms Reade has been subjected to a double standard in terms of the media coverage she has received. Much of what has been written about Ms Reade is not probative of whether then-Senator Biden sexually assaulted her, but rather is intended to victim-shame and attack her credibility on unrelated and irrelevant matters," Wigdor said.Meanwhile, defense lawyers in California have said that they are reviewing criminal cases in which Reade has served as an expert witness on domestic violence, out of concern that she had misrepresented her educational credentials in court.Days after CNN raised questions about Reade's educational background, a spokesperson for Antioch University confirmed to the New York Times that she had not received a degree from the school.
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| Iran's Supreme Leader on Friday denounced Israel as a 'tumor' Posted: 22 May 2020 10:17 AM PDT  Iran's Supreme Leader on Friday denounced Israel as a "tumor" to be removed and hailed Tehran's supply of arms to Palestinians, drawing swift condemnation from the United States, the European Union and Israel.
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| North Korean regime finally admits Kim Jong-un cannot magically bend time and space Posted: 21 May 2020 07:17 PM PDT  The official newspaper of North Korea has denied that the regime's leaders can magically bend time and space, putting to bed a long tradition used to idolise the mystical powers of Kim Jong-un and former leader Kim Jong-il. In the latest sign that the secretive regime is turning away from myth-making about its leaders, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper this week denied that the Kim family are masters of "chukjibeop", a method of folding space and travelling great distances in a short period of time. Chukjibeop is one of the myths that has been used by the North to deify its leaders. The newspaper, the organ of the North's ruling party, said: "In realistic terms, a person cannot suddenly disappear and reappear by folding space." On Thursday, an official at South Korea's unification ministry said that the current regime's trend of demystification is "noteworthy".
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| Nursing home in Michigan lockdown unaware of elderly patient beating until viral video surfaced on Twitter Posted: 22 May 2020 08:16 AM PDT  Police said a nursing home under strict Michigan coronavirus lockdown measures was unaware of an attack on an elderly patient until a viral video surfaced on Twitter, which prompted a response from Donald Trump."Is this even possible to believe? Can this be real?" the president wrote. "Where is this nursing home, how is the victim doing?"
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| An 18-year-old Arizona woman visiting Hawaii was arrested after allegedly violating quarantine Posted: 22 May 2020 12:45 PM PDT  Hawaii's attorney general Clare Connors said people violating the order "likely will be reported, arrested and end up in jail facing hefty fines."
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| Serbian soldiers guard migrant camp near Croatia border Posted: 22 May 2020 04:56 AM PDT  Armed Serbian soldiers are now guarding a migrant camp on the border with Croatia in an attempt to prevent the migrants from trying to cross into the European Union. The decision to station soldiers at the camp came after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic last Friday held talks with Prime Minister Victor Orban of neighbouring Hungary, one of the most vociferous opponents of illegal migration into Europe. The presence of the soldiers, however, seems unlikely to deter migrants from continuing their attempts to cross the border into Croatia, which unlike Serbia is an EU member state, on their way westwards to wealthier nations such as Germany.
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| What the CDC guidelines for reopening schools recommend, including mask wearing and closing playgrounds Posted: 21 May 2020 01:57 PM PDT  The CDC encourages school leaders, teachers, and parents to consider taking precautions like staggering drop-offs and disinfecting any shared toys.
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| Italy’s coronavirus death toll could be 19,000 higher than official total, according to experts Posted: 22 May 2020 08:04 AM PDT  Italy's death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in March and April could be nearly 19,000 higher than the official figure of 32,000, the national social security agency said. According to a new study by Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale (INPS), Italy's largest social security and welfare institute, the official death figures are not completely "reliable". The study showed that 156,429 total deaths were registered in Italy in March and April, which is almost 47,000 higher than the average number of fatalities recorded in those months between 2015 and 2019. However, in the past two months, only 27,938 deaths linked to the coronavirus were reported by the Civil Protection Agency, which releases the official data daily, INPS noted. The agency said that means there were almost 19,00 more deaths than normal during that period, with the majority recorded in the hard-hit north of the country.
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| Trump did wear a mask at the Ford plant, and somebody took a picture Posted: 22 May 2020 04:01 AM PDT  President Trump visited a Ford factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, on Thursday and, despite a request from Ford's chairman and Michigan's attorney general, he declined to wear a face mask for most of his tour. But he did wear one for at least a few minutes. "I wore one in this back area, but I didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it," Trump told reporters, showing off the mask he said he'd worn. "I think I look better in the mask," he added later. Well, now you can judge for yourself.> President Trump wears a mask during his tour of the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where ventilators, masks and other medical supplies are being manufactured. https://t.co/UCqBVUEuBZ> > Anonymous pic.twitter.com/eiIFVNPVIh> > — NBC News (@NBCNews) May 22, 2020With smartphone cameras everywhere, it was bound to happen eventually.It isn't entirely clear why Trump refuses to wear a mask in front of the cameras, but his aides and advisers have told reporters the president thinks he looks ridiculous in a mask and believes it contradicts his messaging about the safety of reopening stores and other public places. A study from Hong Kong released Sunday found that wearing masks can lower the rate of transmitting the coronavirus through its primary mechanism, airborne saliva, by as much as 75 percent.More stories from theweek.com The FBI will investigate its investigation of Michael Flynn D.C. now has the highest coronavirus positivity rate in the country Coronavirus is spiking disproportionately in counties that voted for Trump in 2016
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| William Bryan Jr., the man who took video of the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, arrested on felony murder charge Posted: 21 May 2020 06:20 PM PDT  William Bryan Jr., 50, was arrested Thursday in connection to the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. He's the third man to be arrested in the case.
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| Putin says coronavirus situation in Russia has stabilized Posted: 22 May 2020 07:11 AM PDT  President Vladimir Putin said Friday the coronavirus outbreak in Russia has begun to abate, creating a positive environment for easing restrictions, as officials defended the country's data on deaths against claims they were being under-reported. Speaking during a video conference with top officials, Putin pointed at the decreasing number of new infections in Moscow and other regions. Russia currently ranks second after the United States in the number of infections with 326,448 cases, including 3,249 deaths.
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| Satellite images show the deluge of floodwater that hit Michigan towns after 2 dams failed Posted: 21 May 2020 12:27 PM PDT  Satellite images show massive amounts of flooding in central Michigan after two dams collapsed on Tuesday.
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| Venezuela says Iranian tankers will get military escort Posted: 20 May 2020 09:04 PM PDT  Venezuela on Wednesday said its navy and air force would escort Iranian tankers arriving with much needed fuel, after Tehran warned of "consequences" if the US stopped the ships from reaching their destination. "We're ready for whatever, whenever," President Nicolas Maduro told state-run media, thanking "all the support" from its Middle East ally in its confrontation with the United States. Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves, but its capacity to refine crude into gasoline is limited.
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| Exclusive: Pentagon halts rare earths funding program pending 'further research' Posted: 22 May 2020 06:19 AM PDT  The U.S. Department of Defense last month reversed its decision to fund two projects to process rare earth minerals for military weapons, one of which has controversial ties to China, according to a government document seen by Reuters and three sources familiar with the matter. The Pentagon decision is a step backward for President Donald Trump's plan to redevelop the U.S. rare earths supply chain and reduce reliance on China, the world's largest producer of the strategic minerals used to build a range of weapons. Australia's Lynas Corp and privately held U.S. firm MP Materials both said on April 22 they had been awarded funding by the Pentagon for rare earths separation facilities in Texas and California, respectively.
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| Trump says he wore a mask at a Ford plant out of sight of reporters. He later showed it to them. Posted: 21 May 2020 03:06 PM PDT  During a visit to a Ford manufacturing plant in Michigan on Thursday, President Trump said he wore a mask when reporters were unable to see him. He later showed the mask to members of the media.
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| Watch the flyover of a US Navy aircraft carrier from inside the cockpit of a Blue Angel F/A-18 Hornet Posted: 21 May 2020 11:04 AM PDT  Check out these two videos of the flyover of the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group at sea in the Atlantic Ocean.
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| Trump just declared houses of worship essential. Mounting evidence shows they're super-spreader hotspots. Posted: 22 May 2020 02:47 PM PDT  Trump says in-person religious services are essential. But evidence shows they can be hotbeds for coronavirus spread.
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| 'We just want to be safe': Hate crimes, harassment of Asian Americans rise amid coronavirus pandemic Posted: 21 May 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Law enforcement officials and human rights advocates have seen an increase in hate crimes, harassment and discrimination against Asian Americans.
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| 'The end of Hong Kong': Experts say China's push to pass strict national security laws further erodes the city's autonomy Posted: 22 May 2020 09:10 AM PDT  China is planning to unilaterally modify Hong Kong's laws, and will likely outlaw the promotion of secession, subversion, and foreign interference.
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| Fox News' Chris Wallace debunks voter fraud conspiracy theories shared on network an hour earlier Posted: 22 May 2020 10:53 AM PDT  Fox News is committed to sharing both sides of a conspiracy theory.On Friday morning, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace tore apart the right-wing conspiracy theory that mail-in voting is full of fraud, noting that mail-in voting happens in both Republican and Democratic states and there is "really is no record" of fraud in any of them. But just an hour before Wallace came on the air, the network was sharing a very different message.Dan Patrick, Texas' Republican lieutenant governor, immediately came out swinging against mail-in voting when he appeared on Fox News' America's Newsroom just ahead of Wallace. "This is a scam by the Democrats to steal the election," Patrick claimed, asking host Ed Henry if he'd ever "gotten somebody's mail by mistake" or had his mail stolen.Henry reminded Patrick that the Democratic primary in Wisconsin exposed people to coronavirus, prompting Patrick to go back and make a case against himself. "Anyone over 65 in America can vote safely from home, that's already the law virtually everywhere. Some states have all mail-in ballots," Patrick said, definitely not helping his case. > This wild conspiracy theory alleging that Democrats are stealing elections across the country was on the same show as Wallace, just an hour before. pic.twitter.com/m7oCNUFFFN> > -- John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) May 22, 2020More stories from theweek.com The FBI will investigate its investigation of Michael Flynn Trump did wear a mask at the Ford plant, and somebody took a picture D.C. now has the highest coronavirus positivity rate in the country
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| Op-Ed: Cities can't defy state health orders by claiming to be 'sanctuaries' for businesses Posted: 22 May 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Some cities are borrowing the 'sanctuary city' label from immigration to defy state stay-at-home orders. But there's a big difference.
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| Tankers carrying Iranian fuel approach the Caribbean: data Posted: 22 May 2020 08:53 AM PDT  Iran is supplying about 1.53 million barrels of gasoline and alkylate to Venezuela, according to both governments, sources and calculations made by TankerTrackers.com based on the vessels' draft levels. The shipments have caused a diplomatic standoff between Iran and Venezuela and the United States as both nations are under U.S. sanctions. Washington is considering measures in response, according to a senior U.S. official, who did not elaborate on any options being weighed.
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| Biden accuser Tara Reade 'not sure' what complaint she claims was filed with Senate says Posted: 22 May 2020 06:09 AM PDT  Reade has said the complaint, if it's found, wouldn't include the sexual assault allegation she came forward with in March.
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| Lieutenant with South Carolina Army National Guard Dies in Afghanistan Posted: 21 May 2020 09:56 AM PDT  First Lt. Trevarius Ravon Bowman died Tuesday at Bagram Air Base in a non-combat related incident.
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| Mid-Michigan flooding crests at 35 feet, Whitmer requests FEMA help: What we know Posted: 21 May 2020 09:39 AM PDT  Rushing waters took out trees, roadways, homes, businesses, the library, the sewer system, electricity — and part of the City of Midland.
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| Missing mom defendant: I don't know what happened to her Posted: 21 May 2020 01:13 PM PDT |
| Russia welcomes delivery of ventilators from U.S. agency it banned Posted: 22 May 2020 07:26 AM PDT  Delivery of 50 ventilators comes in exchange of "sincere humanitarian gestures," but it also highlights ongoing tension between Washington and Moscow.
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| China announces $178.2 billion military budget Posted: 22 May 2020 10:12 AM PDT  The growth in China's defense budget would see spending rise from $167 billion last year to $178.2 billion, an increase of about $11 billion.
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| Brazil passes 20,000 virus deaths after record 24-hour toll Posted: 21 May 2020 06:23 PM PDT  The novel coronavirus death toll in Brazil surpassed 20,000 on Thursday, after a record number of fatalities in a 24-hour period, the health ministry said. Brazil has now recorded more than 310,000 cases, with experts saying a lack of testing means the real figures are probably much higher. The death toll -- the sixth highest in the world -- has doubled in just 11 days, according to ministry data.
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| Peru extends protracted national lockdown until end of June Posted: 22 May 2020 02:52 PM PDT  Peru on Friday extended its state of emergency and a nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic until the end of June, marking one of the longest periods of mandatory isolation in the world. The Andean nation, which began the lockdown in mid-March, will have lived under it for more than 3-1/2 months by a June 30 expiration, outlasting restrictions in Italy, Spain and China, some of the hardest hit countries in the pandemic. Friday's extension, announced by President Martin Vizcarra, came as Peru's confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 111,698, the second highest total in Latin America.
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| Court cases where Biden accuser Tara Reade served as an expert witness are under scrutiny amid concerns that she misrepresented her educational credentials Posted: 22 May 2020 01:19 AM PDT  "Had I had the information that I have now, this case, in my mind, would have gone differently," Lawyer Monique Hill told The Times.
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| Boy, 9, with autism who was reported abducted in Florida is found dead Posted: 22 May 2020 07:35 AM PDT  Alejandro Ripley, who was nonverbal, was reported abducted on Thursday night, prompting an intense search.
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| Marine Corps May Replace Infantry M27s with the Army's Next Generation Squad Weapon Posted: 21 May 2020 12:49 PM PDT  The Marine Corps is already eying the Army's Next Generation Squad weapon as its next infantry rifle.
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| Before and after: See destruction of Michigan flooding in satellite images Posted: 22 May 2020 12:19 PM PDT  The Landsat 8, an American observation satellite, depicts the two mid-Michigan dams — Edenville and Sanford — that failed and the Tittabawassee River.
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| 'It's barely a Band-Aid': life inside San Francisco's first sanctioned tent camp Posted: 22 May 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Residents have access to meals, electricity to charge phones, toilets and healthcare. But for many it's too little too lateJasmine Villereal needed a shower, and on the other side of this chain-link fence in the middle of San Francisco there were showers.It should have been perfect: these showers were for homeless individuals living in tents. Villereal was a homeless individual living in a tent. But while her tent sat crammed on a narrow sidewalk alongside more than a dozen others three blocks north, considered a blight by officials and neighborhood residents, the tents surrounded by this chain-link fence were city-approved.The Safe Sleeping Village is one of San Francisco's new officially sanctioned homeless encampments, a rare initiative announced by Mayor London Breed in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Occupants of the 70 tents spaced out in socially distanced, painted squares in the shadow of City Hall have access to steady meals, electricity to charge their phones, toilets, fresh water, hand-washing stations, healthcare – and those much-desired showers.But for many, the project comes as too little, too late.Breed launched the plan earlier this month as a solution to a homelessness crisis compounded by an outbreak. With shelters no longer taking in new guests during the pandemic and forced to reduce capacity by 76% to adhere by social distancing guidelines, the number of tents throughout the city had leapt by at least 71%. In the historically underserved Tenderloin neighborhood, a low-income community in the heart of the city experiencing the brunt of the crisis, tents have increased by 258%.> While in normal times I would say we should focus on bringing people inside … we frankly do not have many other options right now> > Mayor London Breed"While in normal times I would say that we should focus on bringing people inside and not sanctioning tent encampments, we frankly do not have many other options right now," Breed said. "Having places with resources serving people in the neighborhood is better than unsanctioned encampments."But with the city's fraught history of encampment sweeps and move-along orders, few within a homeless community of more than 8,000 individuals could trust the city to do right by them either. Villereal, 40, for one, was not getting a shower any time soon."I don't live here," she shrugged at the Safe Sleeping Village, which is guarded by staff from the not-for-profit Urban Alchemy. "That's what they told me." With the stay-at-home order, and shelters and gyms with those facilities closed, it's been more than a month since Villereal has had a real shower. She's been forced to take "bird baths", washing up in public water fountains and bathroom sinks."Look at my hands," she said mournfully, gazing down at her dirt-blackened fingertips. "I try, I really do, but look at them." How the encampment came to beThe move comes as a major shift not just for Breed's administration, but for the city, which has long had an uncivil relationship with tents. In 2016, San Francisco voters banned tents on public sidewalks, adding to the city's retinue of anti-homeless laws that are among the most stringent in California. Earlier that year, San Francisco played host to the Super Bowl, and in the months leading up to the festivities, more and more homeless people found themselves getting pushed by authorities out of the city's main stretches. Shelters – oftentimes tents – would end up confiscated, along with everything inside them.Even after a court ruling held that it constituted cruel and unusual punishment to enforce criminal laws against homeless people living on the street if a city did not offer enough shelters, the sweeps and tent confiscations persisted. The number of homeless individuals who lost everything they had because of the city's stance on tents was enough that housing advocate Leslie Dreyer started the Stolen Belonging Project. "The city has focused on getting rid of visible homelessness for many years, and I don't think the general public really understood what it meant to throw a tent away," Dreyer said.Homeless individuals without a shelter were exempt when the shelter-in-place order came down on 17 March, but that didn't protect them from infection, or from possibly spreading the virus. Desperate homeless outreach activists began purchasing and handing out tents. Despite guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to not clear encampments if there were no individual housing units available, sweeps still continued."From the moment we gave out the first tent, we were asking where they safely could be and the city would only tell us where they couldn't be, not where they could be," said local activist Christin Evans."They can't be in the park. They can't be in business corridors. They can't be near residences," said Kelley Cutler, the human rights organizer for the Coalition on Homelessness.> One day we woke up and the barriers were up … then one day, they locked the doors, they locked the gates, and no one was allowed in or out> > Mick ConwayEncampments of all sizes bloomed organically throughout the city. In the Bayview, a historically African American neighborhood in south-east San Francisco, tents went up in Martin Luther King Jr Park, 6ft apart from each other. Neighborhood not-for-profits provided residents with what they needed, and they had bathroom access on site.More than 100 tents had assembled in the plaza near City Hall before it became the city's first official encampment. According to some in the homeless community, a whisper campaign brought many to that location. Before the city got involved, those in the plaza created their own makeshift ecosystem, making do with what little they had. One man recalled someone putting a toilet seat on top of a bucket to make up for the lack of access to public restrooms."One day we woke up and the barriers were up," said encampment resident Mick Conway, 49. "One day we woke up and the fences were up. The next day they put the green fabric [over the fence] up, and then one day, they locked the doors, they locked the gates, and no one was allowed in or out."Those that ended up inside the fence had the option to sign an agreement with the city stating that they would follow encampment rules and policies. Those that chose not to sign had to leave. The agreement says that the program is slated to end on 30 June. Too little, too late?For some, the security offered in this sleeping village is a respite. Encampment residents can sleep until noon without worrying about a neighbor calling in their presence as a nuisance. Conway said he likes "being able to set up your tent and stay where you want instead of being harassed by the police and pushed off somewhere else". The green fabric gives the camp a semblance of privacy, and the Urban Alchemy staff stand watch at the doors and let in only residents and service workers.But the camp is also a caged spectacle. Pedestrians gawked at the fence, discussing it loudly as they passed. A man walking a chocolate labrador retriever stopped to peek through a gap in the green fabric, while another man slowed to film with a small camera. "Go back to your home, sir," a member of the city's homeless outreach team said."It's a somber feeling inside," Conway said. "It's not happy. I don't want to compare it to a concentration camp or something of that nature, but it's definitely not the jolliest of places."Lena Miller, the founder and CEO of Urban Alchemy, is well aware that the village is, despite well-meaning intentions, "showcasing the horrors of poverty and hopelessness during the pandemic". She asked for artists to donate artwork to the camp, musicians to perform for the residents and art therapists and teachers to facilitate "healing activities".But this wouldn't solve the issue that across the street from the sanctioned encampment, at least 10 more tents crowd the sidewalk. The residents in that encampment had a hand-washing station and a port-a-loo, but a few blocks up, where more people than tents packed the corner, they had nothing, some sleeping out in the open."This is barely a Band-Aid," said Adam Reichart, 50, gesturing at the sanctioned encampment. Every morning, Reichart is woken up by a public works employee, who gives him three Kind bars in exchange for the cardboard box hut that he sleeps under for protection. Reichart, who has three tumors on his lungs, is one of the medically vulnerable on the streets for whom the city's hotel room program is designed. But 10 weeks in, he still can't get a hotel room.The city is planning on opening more sanctioned encampments. But homeless outreach advocates and service workers are frustrated. They had offered the solution of sanctioned encampments weeks ago, when the city made clear that it would not house all unhoused individuals in hotel rooms.But it wasn't until 10 weeks into the stay-at-home order that the city listened. It wasn't until thousands of the homeless population suffered in the streets, with nowhere else to go. It wasn't until individuals like Jasmine Villereal had gone more than a month without a proper shower.Villereal smiled a heartbreaking, toothless smile before walking away from the green-cloth fence. "Remind everybody you see to not stop caring," she said.
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| Judge grants sanctions against DOJ over citizenship question Posted: 21 May 2020 10:30 AM PDT  A federal judge on Thursday agreed to impose financial sanctions against the Trump administration for failing to produce hundreds of documents during litigation over whether a citizenship question could be added to the 2020 census. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman said in a ruling that the Trump administration's failure to produce the documents "may well have been inadvertent, but is nevertheless unacceptable for any litigant, and particularly for the Department of Justice." "To be sure, this was not DOJ's finest hour," Furman wrote, referring to the Department of Justice.
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| UK warns China to respect Hong Kong's autonomy as Beijing pushes for laws that would 'crush dissent' Posted: 21 May 2020 06:17 PM PDT  Downing Street warned China to respect the autonomy of Hong Kong after the Chinese Communist Party submitted plans for a controversial new law that could crush dissent in the former British colony. The intervention from No 10 came as Hong Kong braced for its first mass pro-democracy protests for months after Beijing said it would bypass the city's legislature to bring in sweeping new powers limiting freedom. At the opening of its National People's Congress (NPC) this week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China would establish a "sound" legal system and enforcement mechanisms to ensure national security in Hong Kong and Macau. But pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, as well as much of the international community, said the plan was an assault on Hong Kong's freedoms, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling it a "death knell" for the city's high degree of autonomy. Under the agreement signed when Hong Kong became a Chinese region, rather than a British colony, in 1997, China pledged to respect the "one country, two systems" principle, guaranteeing Hong Kong freedoms not seen on the mainland. A Downing Street spokesman said: "We expect China to respect Hong Kong's rights and freedoms and high degree of autonomy. As a party to the joint declaration the UK is committed to upholding Hong Kong's autonomy and respecting the one country, two systems model." Asked if the proposals breach that model, he said: "We are monitoring this closely and our immediate priority is to clarify the details of what is being suggested." Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said he was "deeply concerned". In a joint statement with Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne and Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne, he said China was "undermining the principle of 'One Country, Two Systems'". US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, already at odds with China on a number of fronts including a blame game over the coronavirus pandemic and robust opposition to countries working with the Chinese company Huawei to develop 5G networks, condemned the move.
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