| A 70-year-old man was hospitalized with COVID-19 for 62 days. Then he received a $1.1 million hospital bill, including over $80,000 for using a ventilator. Posted: 13 Jun 2020 10:01 AM PDT  Michael Flor was billed $9,736 each day he stayed in the ICU, and $2,835 per day for use of a ventilator, the Seattle Times reported.
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| U.S. appeals court skeptical of bid by ex-Trump adviser Flynn to end criminal case Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:13 AM PDT  A U.S. appeals court on Friday appeared skeptical of the Justice Department's unprecedented effort to drop a criminal case against President Donald Trump's former adviser Michael Flynn, signaling no quick end to the politically charged prosecution. U.S. Circuit Judge Karen Henderson, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, said the lower-court judge overseeing the case was not a "rubber stamp" and there was nothing wrong with U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan hearing arguments about whether to let the Justice Department drop the case.
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| Canada indigenous chief Allan Adam battered during arrest Posted: 13 Jun 2020 03:20 AM PDT  A violent arrest and police custody deaths have ignited anti-police brutality protests across Canada.
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| Fresh China cluster raises fears for pandemic control Posted: 13 Jun 2020 01:59 PM PDT  Lockdowns were imposed in parts of Beijing on Saturday to try to prevent the spread of a new coronavirus cluster, highlighting the challenges that lie ahead even for places where outbreaks are under control. There are fears of a resurgence in local transmissions in China, where the outbreak curve has been months ahead of the rest of the world, and comes as many European nations are further lifting lockdowns. The pandemic is still surging elsewhere, particularly in Latin America, with Brazil claiming the unenviable position of having the world's second-highest death toll, behind the United States.
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| Australian prime minister apologizes for 'no slavery' claim Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:27 AM PDT  Australia's prime minister apologized on Friday to critics who accuse him of denying the country's history of slavery, as a state government announced it will remove a former Belgian king's name from a mountain range as part of a global re-examination of racial injustice. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended the legacy of British explorer James Cook, who in 1770 charted the site of the first British penal colony in Australia, which became present-day Sydney. Morrison, who represents the Sydney electoral district of Cook in Parliament, described the British naval hero on Thursday as "very much ahead of his time," and urged people calling for the district to be renamed to "get a bit of a grip on this."
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| Head of Naval Aviation Schools Command, Another Navy Pilot Killed in Plane Crash Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:47 PM PDT  Two naval aviators were killed when their civilian single-engine aircraft crashed in Alabama.
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| NYPD lieutenant apologizes to colleagues for kneeling during protest Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:11 AM PDT  The lieutenant told his colleagues he had trouble sleeping after he "made a horrible decision to give into a crowd of protesters demands and kneeled alongside several other officers."
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| The Biggest Threat To Russia's Borei-Class Submarine Comes From Within The Russian Navy Posted: 12 Jun 2020 06:00 PM PDT  On the surface, Borei vessels appear remarkably cost-effective.
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| Brazil overtakes UK to have second highest Covid-19 death toll in the world Posted: 13 Jun 2020 02:50 AM PDT  Brazil on Friday overtook the UK to claim the second-highest coronavirus death toll in the world, behind the United States. The country's health ministry recorded 909 deaths in the past 24 hours, putting the total at 41,828, ahead of the UK's 41,481. Unlike the UK, Latin America's biggest economy remains far off flattening its coronavirus infection curve, with experts warning a peak of daily deaths may not arrive until August. Observers believe the actual number of cases in Brazil could be far higher than the confirmed figure of 828,810. Gravediggers are working 12-hour shifts in a race to keep up with the toll, while images showing lines upon lines of empty graves waiting to be filled have shocked the world.
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| The woman who said she was fired from the Florida Health Department for refusing to alter coronavirus statistics is now publishing data on her own Posted: 13 Jun 2020 01:09 PM PDT  Rebekah Jones was fired for "repeated course of insubordination" according to the state, though she said it was for refusing to alter COVID-19 data.
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| Arms seized by U.S., missiles used to attack Saudi Arabia 'of Iranian origin': U.N. Posted: 11 Jun 2020 07:17 PM PDT  Cruise missiles used in several attacks on oil facilities and an international airport in Saudi Arabia last year were of "Iranian origin," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council in a report seen by Reuters on Thursday. Guterres also said several items in U.S. seizures of weapons and related materiel in November 2019 and February 2020 were "of Iranian origin."
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| Cuomo: ‘You don’t need to protest — you won’ Posted: 13 Jun 2020 09:37 AM PDT  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed protesters during a briefing on Saturday and asked, "What do you want the police department to be in New York City?"
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| Beijing goes into 'wartime mode' and locks down after a spike in coronavirus cases emerge at a wholesale market Posted: 13 Jun 2020 02:30 AM PDT  The discovery has prompted the capital to immediately ban inter-province tourism, shut schools, and suspend sports events.
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| Airman may face death penalty in California cop killing Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:46 PM PDT  The sheriff's deputy reached a house at the end of the narrow Northern California dirt road and decided getting help from more deputies would be a good idea. The van's driver, officials say, was U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, who lay in wait for more law enforcement to arrive before ambushing them from the steep hillside above in a barrage of gunfire and explosives. Carrillo, 32, was charged with 19 offenses, including murder and attempted murder of peace officers, and was calm and unflinching Friday during his first appearance in Santa Cruz Superior Court.
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| Appeals court appears unlikely to stop Flynn case Posted: 12 Jun 2020 01:00 PM PDT  Flynn's lawyers are seeking order directing a federal district judge to let the Department of Justice drop the case.
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| Hong Kong: City of two masks faces a new crisis Posted: 12 Jun 2020 09:42 PM PDT  A year after the protests began, amid a pandemic, Hong Kong faces another existential crisis. Will it survive?
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| Egypt accuses Ethiopia of holding it "hostage" in Nile dam talks Posted: 13 Jun 2020 09:46 AM PDT  Egypt said Saturday that tripartite talks with Ethiopia and Sudan over a controversial mega-dam on the River Nile were deadlocked because of Addis Ababa's "intransigence". The Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been a source of tension in the Nile River basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on it nearly a decade ago.
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| EU finally accepts there will be no extension to Brexit transition period Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:00 AM PDT  There will not be an extension to the Brexit transition period, the European Commission said on Friday, before warning Britain it must now get ready to police the border in the Irish Sea. Michael Gove told Maros Sefcovic, a commission vice-president, that Britain would not ask for a delay to the period beyond the end of the year in a meeting of the joint committee on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster "couldn't be clearer" in his formal notice to the commission, Mr Sefcovic told reporters in Brussels, "he explained this was the promise that was given to the British citizens in the electoral campaign". "[He] was very clear, unequivocal on the fact that the UK is not going to seek the extension and because this was the last joint committee before the deadline expires we take this decision as a definitive one," said Mr Sefcovic. "Therefore, we are pleading for acceleration of work on all fronts." "We have informed the EU [on Friday] that we will not extend the Transition Period. The moment for extension has now passed," Mr Gove said. The EU has always said it is open to negotiating an extension, especially because of the impact of coronavirus on the already tight deadline, despite Downing Street's repeated vow it would never ask for a delay. "We must now progress on substance," tweeted Michel Barnier as it was confirmed the end of June deadline for extension would expire without a request. The UK and EU agreed a programme of intensified negotiations in July before Monday's meeting of Boris Johnson and three presidents of the major EU institutions. Failure to strike a trade deal by the end of the year will mean the UK and EU trading on less lucrative WTO terms and with tariffs on goods, which experts warn will compound the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Sefcovic demanded more details from the UK Government over how it planned to enforce the new customs arrangements in Northern Ireland after the end of the transition period at the end of the year. A UK command paper was long on aspiration but short on detail, he said.
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| Seattle mayor calls Trump's threat to send in military 'illegal' Posted: 11 Jun 2020 09:29 PM PDT 
But Mayor Jenny Durkan, speaking at an afternoon press conference, did not say how or when authorities would remove the roughly 500 demonstrators who have established a makeshift encampment behind barricades in the Capitol Hill district. "It is unconstitutional and illegal to send the military into Seattle," said Durkan, a first-term Democrat. "There is no imminent threat of an invasion of Seattle." Activists have occupied the area since police on Monday night moved barricades blocking the streets and abandoned their East Precinct station in a move city officials say was aimed at reducing tensions. Protesters used the police barricades to section off the area, calling it the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone."
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| Trump is reportedly looking to blame Mexico for new coronavirus spikes in the US Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:00 AM PDT  Despite non-essential travel between still being banned, the Trump is looking to deflect blame and pin coronavirus spikes on travel from Mexico.
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| Mississippi faces reckoning on Confederate emblem in flag Posted: 13 Jun 2020 07:00 AM PDT  The young activists who launched a protest movement after George Floyd's death are bringing fresh energy to a long-simmering debate about the Confederate battle emblem that white supremacists embedded within the Mississippi state flag more than 125 years ago. Anti-racism protests have toppled Confederate statues and monuments across the United States in recent days, and even NASCAR banned the display of the rebel flag. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves rejects the idea of a legislative vote on erasing the symbol.
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| Historical Fact: North Korea Once Captured an Entire U.S. Navy Ship Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:30 PM PDT  The USS Pueblo remains the only commissioned U.S. ship currently being held captive.
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| Human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine to start ahead of schedule Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:14 AM PDT |
| New York's Cuomo links municipal funding to police reforms to fight racism Posted: 12 Jun 2020 09:09 AM PDT  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday said he would end funding for local governments that fail to adopt reforms addressing excess use of force and bias in their police departments by April 2021. Cuomo said he would sign an executive order mandating that municipalities "reinvent and modernize" their police departments to battle systemic racism. "That should be done in every police agency in this country," Cuomo told a press conference, after weeks of nationwide protests following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.
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| Fresh Lebanon protests over spiralling economic crisis Posted: 13 Jun 2020 08:37 AM PDT  Dozens of demonstrators angered by a deepening economic crisis rallied for a third consecutive day on Saturday after a night of violent riots sparked condemnation from the political elite. In the northern city of Tripoli, young men scuffled with security forces who fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds. The stand-off began after young men blocked a highway to prevent a number of trucks carrying produce destined for Syria from passing through, according to the official National News Agency.
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| Martin Gugino, 75-year-old protester pushed in Buffalo, has brain injury, fractured skull Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:53 PM PDT  On Friday, Martin Gugino's lawyer, Kelly Zarcone, said Gugino's skull was fractured and that he hasn't been able to walk yet.
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| Juneteenth: Trump changes Tulsa Oklahoma rally date 'out of respect' Posted: 13 Jun 2020 02:22 AM PDT  The date of his first rally in months would have fallen on a holiday marking the end of US slavery.
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| West Point graduates its first observant Sikh woman Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:30 PM PDT |
| The US is not done with the coronavirus pandemic, and a Harvard expert says we need to shift the blame game from reopening to fixing our testing and contact tracing system Posted: 13 Jun 2020 12:25 AM PDT  One expert said blame for spikes in US coronavirus cases should be placed on the delay in testing and tracing, rather than a "rushed reopening."
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| Letters to the Editor: Try this: Don't call the police. Use respect to de-escalate dangerous situations Posted: 13 Jun 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Defund the police? A reader who runs a nonprofit serving ex-prisoners says she has had to contact police only once in 30 years.
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| Uncertainty as Spain puts virus death toll 'on hold' Posted: 13 Jun 2020 09:31 AM PDT  For days now, Spain's daily coronavirus death toll has been on hold, generating widespread uncertainty about the real state of the epidemic that has claimed more than 27,000 lives. The health ministry's emergencies coordinator Fernando Simon, who for months has given a daily briefing on the pandemic's evolution, acknowledged the "astonishment" and "confusion" generated by the figures. On May 25, the ministry changed its method of collecting data on confirmed cases and fatalities, initially giving a daily death toll of between 50 and 100.
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| Does Fauci wear a mask when he goes running? Posted: 12 Jun 2020 01:41 PM PDT  Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a dedicated runner, answers a question at the center of his two passions: Does he wear a mask when going for a run?
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| Voter registration is soaring, but impact on November is unclear Posted: 13 Jun 2020 06:38 AM PDT  One group, Voter Participation Center, is seeing a 250% increase in online voter registration applications.
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| Russia Has a Stealth Fighter Problem Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:00 PM PDT  Russian airpower is inferior to U.S. airpower, according to one Russian news site.
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| Canada spy agency warned of 'shock waves' from arrest of Huawei founder's daughter Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:17 PM PDT  Canada's intelligence agency warned that arresting the daughter of billionaire Huawei founder Ren Zheng would set off global "shock waves" and seriously affect ties with China, just before her detention in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition request, new court documents show. Released on Friday, the documents show the involvement of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in the December 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, which soured diplomatic ties between Ottawa and Beijing. Meng is chief financial officer of China tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the company at the center of next generation 5G wireless technology and a long-running dispute the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
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| Australian sentenced to death in China for drug smuggling Posted: 13 Jun 2020 01:37 PM PDT  The man was arrested at a Chinese airport with methamphetamine in his luggage, Australian media say.
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| Fresh China cluster raises fears for pandemic control Posted: 13 Jun 2020 10:27 AM PDT Lockdowns were imposed in parts of Beijing on Saturday to try and prevent the spread of a new coronavirus cluster, highlighting the challenges that lie ahead even for places where outbreaks are under control. It has fuelled fears of a resurgence in local transmissions in China, where the outbreak curve has been months ahead of the rest of the world, and comes as many European nations move to further lift their own lockdowns. The pandemic is still surging elsewhere, particularly in Latin America, with Brazil claiming the unenviable position of having the second-highest virus death toll behind the United States.
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| Taiwan builds 'nerd immunity' to resist Chinese disinformation campaigns Posted: 12 Jun 2020 09:07 PM PDT  In the battle to counter the modern-day scourge of weaponised online disinformation, Taiwan has locked on to a winning strategy – "nerd immunity". Building public awareness and "inoculating" the 23-million-strong population to fake news from China has been one of the chief goals of Audrey Tang, Taiwan's ground-breaking digital minister. Sitting just 80 miles from China, Taiwan has been on the frontlines not only of the coronavirus pandemic but an "infodemic" of online disinformation. But the bombardment of Chinese state-sponsored influence has also made it a world leader in identifying and tackling disinformation. "When the majority of the population have this exposure and this inoculation, this builds nerd immunity," Ms Tang, one of the world's top open source software developers, told the Sunday Telegraph in an interview last week. "It's the Taiwan model. Just like we fight the coronavirus with no lockdown, we fight the infodemic with no takedown," said the former hacker who, in 2016, made history as Taiwan's youngest ever, and first transgender, minister at 35.
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| Far-right demonstrators gather in London to 'protect' statues Posted: 13 Jun 2020 11:58 AM PDT  'Winston Churchill, he's one of our own,' chanted right-wing demonstrators near the former prime minister's statue, which was sprayed with graffiti by anti-racism protesters last weekend.
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| Petition to label KKK terrorist organisation passes one million signatures Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:53 AM PDT  Over one million people have signed a petition for the Ku Klux Klan to be listed as a terrorist organisation as of Friday.The petition, which was started on Change.org is lobbying for the group to be formally recognised as a terrorist group in the US.
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