China not forthcoming in Hawaii talks, but made commitment on trade: U.S. diplomat

China's attitude in talks with the United States this week in Hawaii cannot be described as forthcoming, although it did commit to following through on Phase One of the U.S.-China trade deal, the senior U.S. diplomat for East Asia said on Thursday. David Stilwell, who spoke after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Hawaii on Wednesday, told reporters the next couple of weeks would show whether the talks were productive. "The PRC (People’s Republic of China) side could not be described as really forthcoming,” said Stilwell.

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Chinese e-commerce giant JD soars on Hong Kong debut

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com soared nearly six percent on its Hong Kong debut Thursday, after raising almost $4 billion in an initial public offering that was the world's second-biggest this year. The new debut comes as Chinese companies -- especially those in tech -- eschew Wall Street because of rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. It is also a shot in the arm for Hong Kong as fears mount over the potential fallout of Beijing's plan to impose a new national security law on the city banning subversion and foreign interference.

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NYPD officer bragged about taking off protester's mask and pepper-spraying him, bodycam footage shows

Since protests erupted around the country last month, the NYPD has come under fire for numerous instances of violence against peaceful protesters.

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Cities Want To Remove Toxic Monuments. But Who Will Take Them?

By BY WILL WRIGHT from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3effawj

Kim Jong-un se vuelve hostil contra Corea del Sur y su hermana es quien da la cara

By BY CHOE SANG-HUN from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/30TkK3C

Rayshard Brooks’s Final Hour Was a Jarring Panorama of Policing

By BY RICHARD FAUSSET AND SHAILA DEWAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2NcCS08

Bolton Unites Republicans and Democrats in Scorn Over Tell-All Book

By BY LUKE BROADWATER AND EMILY COCHRANE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2NaVGNs

Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

By BY LARA TAKENAGA AND JONATHAN WOLFE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2UZl39f

Florida Is a Popular Site for Pro Leagues. It’s Also a Virus Hot Spot.

By BY SOPAN DEB from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/3dglWjU

John Bolton Is the Model of a Trump Sellout

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Supreme Court Gives DACA Thumbs Up, Trump Thumbs Down

The US Supreme Court on Thursday gave a firm rebuke to President Trump, and a major win to the so-called "Dreamers."  Trump tried to end the DACA program allowing nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants to remain in the country. In a 5-4 decision, the justices labeled Trump's action "arbitrary and capricious" and ruled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program can continue.   

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Atlanta Police Walk Out over Murder Charge as Mayor Admits Morale is ‘Down Tenfold’

A number of Atlanta police officers did not show up for their Wednesday-night shifts in protest of murder charges brought against a former officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks after he resisted arrest.Hours after Fulton County district attorney Paul L. Howard said officer Garrett Rolfe would be charged with felony murder, Atlanta police union spokesman Vince Champion told NBC News that officers had decided to walk off the job and go silent on radios to protest the decision."This is not an organized thing, it's not a blue flu, it's not a strike, it's nothing like that. What it actually is, is officers protesting that they've had enough and they don't want to deal with it any longer," he said.In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Champion added that "there are officers saying they are not going to leave the precinct unless to help another officer. Some are walking off and sitting in their personal vehicles."The Atlanta Police Department released a statement after Champion’s comments, calling claims that officers were walking off the job “inaccurate.”“The department is experiencing a higher than usual number of call outs with the incoming shift,” the police explained. “We have enough resources to maintain operations & remain able to respond to incidents.”> Earlier suggestions that multiple officers from each zone had walked off the job were inaccurate. The department is experiencing a higher than usual number of call outs with the incoming shift. We have enough resources to maintain operations & remain able to respond to incidents.> > -- Atlanta Police Department (@Atlanta_Police) June 18, 2020But Atlanta police scanner traffic conflicted with the statement. “We are not answering 911 calls right now due to personnel issues,” a police dispatcher said Wednesday.In announcing the charges against Rolfe on Wednesday, Howard said that the Atlanta Police Department’s initial account of events — that Rolfe shot Brooks because he appeared ready to fire a taser that had been wrestled from one of the officers — was inaccurate.“We concluded that Mr. Brooks was running away at the time that the shot was fired," the district attorney said. Howard also told reporters that the taser had already been discharged twice, rendering it unusable, and said the officers would have known that.Howard added that Rolfe’s former partner Devin Brosnan, who was also at the scene where Brooks was shot, would testify against his former partner. Howard said that after Brooks was shot in the back by Rolfe while fleeing arrest, Rolfe kicked him and Brosnan stood on his shoulders.“There is an Atlanta policy that requires that the officers have to provide timely medical attention to Mr. Brooks, to anyone who is injured,” Howard said. “But after Mr. Brooks was shot, for a period of two minutes and 12 seconds, there was no medical attention applies to Mr. Brooks.”But Brosnan’s attorney Don Samuel denied Howard’s account of events, saying his client had not agreed to be the state’s witness and did nothing wrong.“The decision to initiate charges by the Fulton County DA’s office is irrational, unethical and obviously based on factors which should have nothing to do with the proper administration of justice,” Samuel said in a statement.Howard, who said his office was able to bring charges after reviewing eight videos of the incident, is locked in a reelection battle and faces multiple civil sexual-harassment lawsuits and is being criminally investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for funneling nonprofit funds to boost his salary.Following the announcement of charges, the GBI — which is conducting a separate investigation of the shooting — said it was “not aware of today’s press conference before it was conducted” and was “not consulted on the charges filed by the District Attorney.”> Despite today’s occurrence, the GBI will complete its mission of completing an impartial and thorough investigation of this incident and we will submit the file, once completed, to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. (2/2)> > Full statement ⬇️:https://t.co/Cfnboi9DCu> > -- GA Bureau of Investigation (@GBI_GA) June 17, 2020In an interview on CNN Wednesday night, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms warned that police morale "is down ten-fold."“This has been a very tough few weeks in Atlanta and with the tragedy of Mr. Brooks, and then on top of that the excessive force charges that were brought against the officers involved with the college students,” Bottoms explained. “There's a lot happening in our city, and the police officers are receiving the brunt of it quite frankly."> Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms says morale in her city's police department "is down ten-fold" amid reports officers are calling in sick tonight.> > "We expect our officers will keep their commitment to our communities," she added. https://t.co/yHd6ZAY3vs pic.twitter.com/XsrvktkItX> > -- Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) June 18, 2020

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Chinese fighter jets buzz Taiwan again, stoking tensions

Chinese air force aircraft approached Taiwan on Thursday for the fifth time in 10 days, before being warned away by Taiwanese fighters, the island's air force said, in a further ratcheting up of tensions across the sensitive Taiwan Strait. The Chinese J-10 and J-11 fighter aircraft flew into the southwestern part of Taiwan's air defence identification zone in the morning, Taiwan's air force said in a statement. Taiwanese fighters, which regularly patrol the air space around the Chinese-claimed island, warned the Chinese aircraft over the radio, whereupon they left Taiwan's air defence zone, it added, without giving further details.

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Taiwan unveils plan to help Hong Kongers looking to leave

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Look at the facts in the Rayshard Brooks case. The George Floyd killing was different.

There is no shortage of police misconduct due to racism. But claiming it where it may not exist weakens the righteous cause of stamping it out.

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Coronavirus' return to Beijing disrupts life and rattles nerves

While residents of China's capital feel like they're living under "soft lockdown," it's still a limited outbreak, and authorities are determined to keep it that way.

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US employers step up anti-unionization efforts as pandemic spurs activism

The coronavirus crisis is making organization efforts difficult for unions and bosses seem keen to take advantageDuring the coronavirus pandemic, employers have opposed unionization elections even as workers’ activism over safety protections, job security and wages has increased in the face of an economic shutdown and health fears.But the pandemic has created difficult conditions for workers to organize elections in – something many employers appear to have taken advantage of, despite the wave of labor activism sweeping the US.The number of resolved union election cases at the National Labor Relations Board dropped from 84 in March 2020 to 13 in April 2020 as the pandemic raged. Several of the delayed union elections then had petitions withdrawn or have yet to be scheduled. During the pandemic, union election petitions have declined significantly. According to the NLRB, union representation case intake in April 2020 decreased by 67.6% compared with April 2019.The NLRB initially froze all union elections, while permitting mail-in ballot elections if employers and workers agreed to proceed. The board lifted the freeze on 6 April, after 116 union elections were delayed, and several other groups of workers had petition hearings postponed.For many workers, the need to have a union has never been greater.Monica Luna, an associate at a T-Mobile retail store in Del Rio, Texas for nearly three years, filed for a union election with the NLRB in April 2020 in response to working conditions during the pandemic and the lack of job security as T-Mobile is shuttering stores around the US.“A week and a half after, our district manager started making appearances and we started having union avoidance meetings,” said Luna.Her retail store remained opened entirely throughout the pandemic, yet her pay of $13 an hour remained the same. “I think it’s funny [that] all of a sudden we’re trying to form a union, and the district manager showed up and stayed for the week, was buying us food, giving his opinion regarding the union, trying to give us facts, saying if we didn’t pay dues we could get fired.”A T-Mobile spokesperson said in an email: “We as a company have the right to educate our employees about the facts around union representation so they can make informed decisions.”The Communications Workers of America lost the election. Organizer Tim Dubnau put the defeat down to the anti-union meetings and frequent intervention from the district manager, while organizers were unable to meet with workers due to concerns of spreading the virus.Activists and labor unions and several elected officials in Congress have been pushing for the NLRB to develop procedures to hold union elections electronically, citing employer opposition to mail-in ballot elections and the urgency of safety protections for workers who risk exposure to coronavirus.As union elections resumed during the pandemic, several employers have continued to oppose unionization efforts through captive audience meetings and pushes to postpone or delay elections.Mission hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, has been fighting with nurses working to join National Nurses United, with the hospital pushing for an in-person voting election and to expand the bargaining unit from 1,600 nurses to all nurses, nurse practitioners and nurse anesthetists in the county.The hospital has also argued to postpone the election until after the pandemic, while hiring union avoidance consultants, the Crossroads Group, to hold anti-union meetings with workers and managers through the pandemic.“We’re still waiting for the NLRB to announce who will be able to vote and when and how the vote will take place,” said Sarah Kuhl, a registered nurse at Mission Health’s oncology department.Kuhl noted the hospital is still pushing for an in-person election vote, while anti-union meetings continue, and management distributes anti-union flyers. “Our cases of Covid-19 here in Asheville are increasing and staff members have been impacted, so an in-person vote would be irresponsible to patients and staff.”A Mission hospital spokesperson told the Guardian: “We respect every colleague’s right to decide for themselves whether they desire union representation or not. However, we do not believe unions benefit our facilities, our colleagues, and most importantly our patients.”Rose Turner, organizing director at UFCW local 1529, filed a petition for a union election in Byhalia, Mississippi, as soon as the board lifted the election freeze on 6 April to represent workers at Hearthside Food Solutions, the largest private bakery in the US which packages cereal for Kellogg’s.Immediately following the petition filing, Hearthside hired a union avoidance firm to hold regular meetings with workers to deter them from voting for the union. The vote was scheduled to be held via mail-in ballot due to the pandemic, but Hearthside Food Solutions pushed to hold a manual election and the NLRB agreed.The union won the election in a 62 to 47 vote.“I’ve been with the union for over 30 years. That was the hardest election I ever experienced,” said Turner, citing the difficulty for the union to hold meetings and speak to workers ahead of the vote. “In the end, we prevailed.”Epic Academy College Prep and Hearthside Food Solutions did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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'We are going to be patient': Carnival plans phased return to cruising amid coronavirus pandemic

Carnival Corp. has announced its cruise lines will take a phased approach to returning ships to cruising: "We are going to be patient."

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Sweden 'surprisingly slow' at achieving herd immunity, study finds

Sweden’s state epidemiologist has said the country has been “surprisingly slow” at achieving herd immunity. The death toll in Sweden passed 5,000 on Wednesday and the Scandinavian nation has one of the highest mortality rates in the world at 487 per 1m population, approximately ten times higher than neighbouring Norway. Yet an analysis by Werlabs AB of 50,000 tests showed that only 14 per cent of those living in the Stockholm region tested positive for coronavirus antibodies. In Bergamo, considered to be the epicentre of Italy’s deadly outbreak, about 57 per cent of people had antibodies. The UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance estimated that 60 per cent of people would need to be infected to achieve herd immunity from the novel coronavirus. Sweden chose not to implement a strict lockdown, running contrary to many other countries worldwide. Schools, shops and restaurants have all remained open during the course of 2020.

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Iran navy test-fires new cruise missiles

Iran test-fired a "new generation" of cruise missiles Thursday, the navy said, in the first such military exercises since 19 sailors were killed last month in a friendly fire incident. The armed forces' website published pictures of the drill in the Gulf of Oman showing missiles being fired from a warship and the back of a truck, and a vessel exploding out at sea. A video released by state television on its website said some of the missiles were based on "older platforms that have been updated".

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Prosecutors charge police, push reforms amid Floyd protests

Prosecutors across the country are defying traditionally cozy relationships with police departments, swiftly charging officers with murder, assault and other crimes following protests over the death of George Floyd and dropping charges against demonstrators. “Prosecutors realize that they’re being watched,” said Mark Dupree Sr., district attorney for Kansas’ Wyandotte County, which includes Kansas City.

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