🇺🇸 **US & China put trade war ‘on hold,’ agree more talks **
🇨🇳 *RT* - <https://archive.fo/ktvV2>

The US-China trade war is “on hold” after the world’s two largest economies agreed to stop threatening new tariffs ahead of further negotiations on a wider trade deal. “We are putting the trade war on hold. Right now, we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told ‘Fox News Sunday.’

China and the US had threatened tariffs that would cost each of them billions of dollars, sparking fears of a full-scale trade war. On Saturday, China agreed to take measures to boost imports from the US to reduce its trade deficit. In earlier talks, Washington demanded that China reduce its trade surplus by $200 billion. No further details were given following the latest round of negotiations.

According to a joint statement, both sides agreed on meaningful increases in US agriculture and energy exports with the aim of helping to close the $335 billion annual US trade deficit with China. Mnuchin and Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said the agreement reached by Chinese and American negotiators on Saturday set up a framework for addressing trade imbalances in the future. Kudlow told ‘Face the Nation’ on CBS that it was too soon to confirm the $200 billion figure. “The details will be down the road. These things are not so precise,” he said.

The National Economic Council Director added that no trade deal had been reached but communications were open. “We want China to open up markets, lower tariffs, lower non-tariff barriers, give us a chance...Now are we going to get everything? I don't know, but I will say this – we're making terrific progress,” he said.
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🇩🇪 **German town votes to keep controversial bell devoted to Hitler**
*Fox News* <http://archive.is/4bF37>

A small town in southwestern Germany has voted to keep a controversial church bell dedicated to former Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler.

The bell, which is inscribed with a Nazi swastika and words that state “Everything for the Fatherland – Adolf Hitler,” serves as a memorial in a Protestant church in Herxheim am Berg.

According to the DPA news agency, the council in the small town voted 10-3 on Monday to preserve the bell, which were widespread during the Nazi era but mostly removed after the war.

State church authorities had offered to fund replacing the bell, which has been a fixture in the church since 1934.

However, a study concluded removing it would be akin to “fleeing from an appropriate culture of remembrance” and recommended either leaving it in place with an explanatory plaque or putting it in a museum.
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🇬🇧 **Britain to tackle 'Wild West' internet with new laws**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/Q5y1d>

Britain will tackle "the Wild West elements" on the internet from cyberbullying to online child exploitation by introducing new laws for social media companies, digital minister Matt Hancock said on Sunday.

Launching a consultation on what measures should be used to ensure the safety of those using the internet, Hancock said the government would publish a white paper - a policy document that sets out proposals for future legislation - later this year and aim to bring in new laws "in the next couple of years". Better regulating social media companies has long been an aim of a government that has struggled to carry out its agenda with Britain's departure from the European Union taking up much of ministers' time.

"Digital technology is overwhelmingly a force for good across the world and we must always champion innovation and change for the better," Hancock said in a statement. "At the same time I have been clear that we have to address the Wild West elements of the Internet through legislation, in a way that supports innovation. We strongly support technology companies to start up and grow, and we want to work with them to keep our citizens safe."

There was little detail on what kind of regulation should be used to protect those using the internet, but Hancock told the BBC that as part of the data protection bill now in parliament, firms could be fined up to 4 percent of their global turnover. But when asked whether the government would stop companies from allowing children to spend hours on the internet, Hancock told ITV television: "We want to have a broad consultation."

"I don't want the trolls to win," Hancock said.
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🇺🇸 **Google Removes 'Don't Be Evil' Clause From Its Code of Conduct**
*Gizmodo* - <https://archive.fo/14XRj>

Google’s unofficial motto has long been the simple phrase “don’t be evil.” But that’s over, according to the code of conduct that Google distributes to its employees. The phrase was removed sometime in late April or early May, archives hosted by the Wayback Machine show.

“Don’t be evil” has been part of the company’s corporate code of conduct since 2000. When Google was reorganized under a new parent company, Alphabet, in 2015, Alphabet assumed a slightly adjusted version of the motto, “do the right thing.” However, Google retained its original “don’t be evil” language until the past several weeks. The phrase has been deeply incorporated into Google’s company culture—so much so that a version of the phrase has served as the wifi password on the shuttles that Google uses to ferry its employees to its Mountain View headquarters, sources told Gizmodo.

Despite this significant change, Google’s code of conduct says it has not been updated since April 5, 2018. The updated version of Google’s code of conduct still retains one reference to the company’s unofficial motto—the final line of the document is still: “And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!”
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🇨🇦 **Canada Cracks Down, Will Grant Refugee Status To Fewer Border Crossers**
*The Daily Wire* - <https://archive.fo/fccLf>

The decision to crack down on illegal border jumpers apparently originates right with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who famously chided American President Donald Trump for closing off the United States' borders to illegal immigrants, and, in a tweet, offered to welcome America's rejected asylum seekers with "open arms."

Once Canada realized precisely what the "open arms" policy would entail — a massive increase in border-jumpers and a huge drain on resources, particularly in the province of Quebec — Canada's government quickly reversed its position, although Trudeau has remained quiet. Reuters reports that, although illegal immigration is way, way up along Canada's border with the United States, Canada is granting far fewer refugee requests, down 53% from 2017.

Canada screens all asylum seekers who cross into the country at designated border checkpoints. But across the northeastern United States, there are "unofficial" border crossings: towns that straddle the border, roads that run from upstate New York into Quebec, and unprotected forest areas where immigrants can simply cross through to Canadian soil. Once they're through an "unofficial" border crossing, immigrants can request asylum, and the Canadian government promises they may stay in Canada while their case is investigated, sometimes up to two years.

But Canada is denying more of those requests, and to top it off, Canada has quietly sent its ministers into the United States to speak to Haitian and El Salvadoran communities, urging them to stay in the United States and avoid migrating north. A Canadian minister was even dispatched to Nigeria, Reuters says, to persuade the Nigerian government not to encourage travel abroad.
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🇺🇸 **Court Rules President Donald Trump CANNOT Block Twitter Followers**
*The Daily Wire* - <https://archive.fo/4vaLF>

A federal court judge ruled Wednesday that President Donald Trump cannot block Twitter followers from his official "@Potus" account, without violating his followers' First Amendment rights. In a sweeping, 75-page opinion, Judge Naomi Buchwald noted that Trump's blocking habits amount to "viewpoint discrimination" and that, because Twitter is a public forum and Trump's Twitter account his held by the government, Trump must leave open the ability for his followers to reply, re-Tweet, and mention him.

According to Buchwald's decision, she finds that Twitter is a "public forum," and when government officials use Twitter, the social network effectively becomes a "government forum." Communicating with a public official in such an "interactive space," Buchwald found, is a First Amendment right, even if that public official doesn't exercise complete control over the forum (or even have a hand in making decisions with regard to the forum's content).

The decision is good news for Trump's Twitter trolls, like author Stephen King, who were part of the federal lawsuit that ultimately produced this decision. They, for now, have the right to angrily re-tweet and mention the president to their hearts' content (at least until the president's legal team applies for an injunction pending an appeal). Democrats shouldn't start the party just yet, either. The decision applies to government officials across the board, so now serial blockers like Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) will have to release their respective strangleholds.
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🇺🇸 **NFL Bans Kneeling During National Anthem**
*ESPN* - <https://archive.fo/KmN6K>

NFL owners have unanimously approved a new national anthem policy that requires players to stand if they are on the field during the performance but gives them the option to remain in the locker room if they prefer, it was announced Wednesday.

The policy subjects teams to a fine if a player or any other team personnel do not show respect for the anthem. That includes any attempt to sit or kneel, as dozens of players have done during the past two seasons to protest racial inequality and police brutality. Those teams also will have the option to fine any team personnel, including players, for the infraction.

"We want people to be respectful of the national anthem," commissioner Roger Goodell said. "We want people to stand -- that's all personnel -- and make sure they treat this moment in a respectful fashion. That's something we think we owe. [But] we were also very sensitive to give players choices."

All 32 owners approved the policy, which will be part of the NFL's game operations manual and thus not subject to collective bargaining. The NFL Players Association said in a statement that it will review the policy and "challenge any aspect" that is inconsistent with the CBA.
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🇺🇸 **US staffer suffers brain injury after 'sound' incident in China**
🇨🇳 *CNA* - <https://archive.fo/jPZz2>

A US government employee in China suffered brain trauma linked to "abnormal sounds" that resembled the still-unexplained injuries that befell US and Canadian diplomats in Cuba last year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday (May 23). US and Chinese authorities are investigating after the unnamed employee, who was assigned to the southern city of Guangzhou, was diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI).

The US embassy in Beijing issued a health alert on Wednesday over the incident, while saying it does not know what caused the symptoms or of any similar situations in the country. Last year 24 US diplomats and their family members in Cuba fell victim to mysterious "attacks" that left them with injuries resembling brain trauma. Ten Canadian diplomats and their relatives also suffered a strange illness.

Both countries scaled back their presence on the Caribbean island due to the problem, which continues to baffle investigators and has strained US diplomatic relations with Havana. "The medical indications are very similar and entirely consistent with the medical indications that have taken place to Americans working in Cuba," Pompeo said in Washington. "We are working to figure out what took place both in Havana and now in China as well," he said.
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🇬🇧 **UK Arrests Islam Critic For Reporting On Grooming Gang Trial, Bans Media from Reporting On His Arrest**
*The Daily Caller* - <https://archive.li/EDlHI>

Anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson was arrested Friday outside of a British court hearing on a gang accused of forcing women into sex, prompting protests Saturday.

Robinson was livestreaming on Facebook outside of a Leeds court when police arrested him for allegedly breaching the peace, according to The Independent. The Independent attempted to downplay Robinson’s claim of reporting on the grooming gang trial by putting “reporting” in quotes. Video shows Robinson being whisked off by police as he demands to know the reason for his arrest. “This is ridiculous, I haven’t said a word…I’ve done nothing,” he said.

Robinson was sentenced to 13 months in jail for the crime, while the judge prohibited reporting of the verdict within the United Kingdom. No major British outlet reported on the sentence, and Breitbart redacted Robinson’s name from its report on the case. According to The Independent, a contempt of court offense can be used to silence reporting on criminal procedures. Robinson was arrested while on a suspended sentence for a similar offense. In 2017, he was arrested and convicted of filming accused rapists as they headed into court.

The judge in that case claimed it was not about “freedom of the press, nor about legitimate journalism, and not about political correctness,” but “about preserving the integrity of the jury to continue without people being intimidated or being affected by irresponsible and inaccurate ‘reporting.'”

Robinson’s supporters claim that he possibly could be murdered in jail due to his marked reputation among Muslim prisoners. The man who founded the English Defence League was assaulted by Muslim inmates during a previous stint in jail in 2014.
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🇧🇪 **Liege shooting: Two police officers and civilian dead in Belgium**
*BBC* - <http://archive.is/fcxkZ>

A man has shot dead two female police officers and a civilian in the eastern Belgian city of Liège.

The gunman also took a female cleaner hostage at a school before being killed by police. Two other police officers were also injured.

The man's motive is not yet clear but the incident is being treated as terrorism.

Police sources quoted in local media said the man was heard shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest" in Arabic).

Belgian broadcaster RTBF said the gunman was let out from prison on temporary release on Monday where he had been serving time on drug offenses. It said that he may have been radicalised while in jail.
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🇪🇺 **EU Member States agree on monitoring & filtering of internet uploads**
*EDRi* - <https://archive.li/qoaPu>

On 25 May, the European Council agreed to a negotiating position on the draft copyright directive. This will allow the presidency of the Council to start negotiations with the European Parliament on mass monitoring and filtering of internet uploads and a chaotic new “ancillary copyright” measure that will make it harder to link to and quote news sources.

Despite a large number of demands from a wide range of different stakeholders (including EDRi and Copyright for Creativity) to keep working on the text in order to create some semblance of balance, the Council decided to finalise its position with a flawed text. This position, as well as the mandate to the Council to negotiate, was voted against by Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Belgium and Hungary. [Update on 30 May]

Now it is the turn of the European Parliament to adopt its negotiating position. The Legal Affairs committee of the European Parliament (JURI) is voting on 20 and 21 June to agree on their standpoint. There is still time to act to prevent the most dangerous parts of the proposal. Due to the relative size of the groups and the splits in some of them, the balance is in favour of these measures, so there is a realistic danger that these policies can become law.
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🇮🇹 **Italy’s Euroskeptic coalition forms new cabinet after president’s ‘undemocratic’ veto**
*RT* - <https://archive.li/v4Afa>

Giuseppe Conte will head a new Lega-Five Star Movement government after all, as the two parties proposed a new finance minister instead of EU critic Paolo Savona, whose candidacy was rejected by the president. “All the conditions have been fulfilled for a political Five Star and Lega government,” said a joint statement from the two anti-establishment parties, which gathered more than half of the votes in the March election but had been unable to form a government for nearly three months.

With Conte to be sworn in on Friday, the new finance minister will be Giovanni Tria, a politically unaffiliated 69-year-old academic, who is regarded as anti-EU, but more flexible than Savona. The latter, who has called Italy’s entry into the euro zone a “historic mistake,” will become the European Affairs minister, with a remit to negotiate on Rome’s behalf in Brussels. In line with the earlier proposal, Lega leader Matteo Salvini will become the interior minister, concentrating on his party’s pledges to cut illegal migration, while Five Star Movement leader Luigi di Maio will have a chance to tackle bureaucracy, cut taxes, and increase employment as minister of labor and industry.

The two parties had threatened to call a new election after President Sergio Mattarella overruled their choice of Savona late last week, suggesting that his radical stance could alienate the markets and threaten the country’s economic welfare. The decision to ignore the coalition’s popular mandate from a man whose role is predominantly as a ceremonial constitutional safety mechanism was criticized as anti-democratic, particularly when Mattarella later put forward a “technocratic cabinet” as a replacement.

*The stand-off turned international when **EU budget chief Gunther Oettinger said that it was “not acceptable” for Italians to vote for anti-euro populists**, adding that “the markets will teach them how to vote.”* The remark produced outrage in Italy. Even top EU officials including Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk stepped in, urging Europe to “respect” Italy’s democratic choice.
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🇺🇸 **'Supersonic Tic Tac' UFO stalked US aircraft carrier for days, Pentagon report reveals**
*Fox News* - <http://archive.is/okf3m>

A supersonic UFO shaped like a Tic-Tac stalked a U.S. aircraft carrier for days before vanishing into thin air, according to a bombshell Pentagon report.

The object, which could reportedly hover in midair and make itself invisible, bamboozled U.S. Navy fighter pilots during a training exercise in the Pacific Ocean.

The leaked report, obtained by Las Vegas's KLAS tv station, tells how the USS Princeton, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, had multiple radar contacts with what it dubbed a Anomalous Aerial Vehicle (AAV).

The craft was described as "solid white, smooth, with no edges... uniformly colored with no nacelles, pylons or wings", and looked like "an elongated egg or Tic Tac," according to one of the pilots.
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🇬🇧 **Almost half of Brits are anti-Muslim, new data reveals**
*RT* - <https://archive.li/QyrFi>

Nearly half of Britons are anti-Muslim, research figures revealed but, according to the survey, the UK isn’t alone. Anti-Islam sentiments are rife across Europe, with negative feelings toward Muslims highest in Finland. According to data from the Pew Research Center, a whopping 62 percent of Finns hold negative views towards Muslims, while 42 percent of Europeans admitted to anti-Muslim sentiments.

In the UK, 45 percent of church-attending Christians say Islam is fundamentally incompatible with British values and culture, as do roughly the same share of non-practicing Christians (47 percent). For those adults with no religious affiliation, just 30 percent say Islam is fundamentally incompatible with their country’s values.

According to the study, the pattern continues on whether there should be restrictions on Muslim women’s dress. Church-goers are more likely than the non-religious to say Muslim women should not be allowed to wear any religious clothing.

The Pew Research Center is a non-partisan fact-tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. To obtain the data for their survey on religious attitudes, Pew conducted surveys among 24,599 adults across 15 countries in Western Europe from April to August, 2017.
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☠ **A glypho by any other name: Bayer to bury Monsanto brand after takeover**
*RT* - <https://archive.li/Y9nIa>

Germany’s pharmaceuticals and chemicals group Bayer will wrap up the $63 billion takeover of US agrochemical giant Monsanto on Thursday, ditching the seed maker’s 117 year-old name. The deal will create the world’s largest maker of seeds and pesticides, with combined sales worth about €20 billion (over $23 billion).

“Bayer will remain the company name. Monsanto will no longer be a company name. The acquired products will retain their brand names and become part of the Bayer portfolio,” the German drugmaker said on Monday, adding that it had received all required approvals from regulatory authorities.

The company launched a €6 billion ($7 billion) rights issue on Sunday, shortly after clearing the last major antitrust hurdle in the US. The merged agrichemical division will be named Bayer Crop Science, according to German business newspaper Handelsblatt which cited “industry sources.”

The Bayer-Monsanto merger has been strongly criticized by environmentalists and farming groups. In a letter to the European Commission before its March approval of the merger, Friends of the Earth Europe said that more than a million people had signed petitions calling on EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager to block “this merger from hell.”

Last month, some 200 people demonstrated against the merger outside the German firm's annual general meeting. Bayer agreed to acquire Monsanto two years ago. It vowed not to take advantage of its market position to forcefully introduce genetically modified crops in Europe against consumers’ will.
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🇸🇾 **Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to visit Kim Jong Un in North Korea, state media says**
🇰🇵 *Fox News* - <https://archive.li/MJ9Un>

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will visit Kim Jong Un in North Korea’s capital, the regime’s state media announced Sunday, in what would be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said Assad expressed willingness to visit Pyongyang to meet with Kim on May 30 while receiving the credentials for the North Korean ambassador. "I am going to visit the DPRK and meet HE Kim Jong Un," Assad was quoted saying, using the acronym “HE” for “His Excellency.” No other details, including when the possible summit may occur, was released.

Assad was also quoted saying he believed Kim would "achieve the final victory and realize the reunification of Korea without fail." KCNA also reported Assad saying the Syrian government would “fully support all policies and measures of the DPRK leadership.” If the meeting occurred, it would be the first summit meeting by a foreign leader in Pyongyang. Kim has never hosted a meeting with any other foreign heads of state in the country’s capital.

Assad and Kim seem to have a friendly relationship and are often quoted by KCNA exchanging pleasant remarks and compliments to one another, the Wall Street Journal reported. A United Nations report leaked in February revealed investigators found North Korea was shipping more than 40 items to Syria used for ballistic missile and weapons programs between 2012 and 2017.
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🇺🇸 **Construction Begins On San Diego Section Of The Border Wall**
*The Daily Wire* - <https://archive.li/nCZer>

Although approval is still pending on the billions of dollars President Donald Trump needs to build a full border wall along the United States' southern border with Mexico, work on a 15-mile section of "the wall" officially began on Friday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says they're beginning improvements on a section of the border wall near San Diego, partly in preparation for the existing wall to connect with whatever new wall the Trump Administration has planned, Fox News reports.

The current San Diego border wall was built in the 1990s with material left over from the 1960s and '70s, including Vietnam War-era “recycled scraps of metal and old landing mat steel plates,” the Customs and Border Patrol told Fox. Since the "cross border threat has increased," the wall will get an update over the next several months.

The new wall will be a "bollard-style wall" that is twice as high as the existing wall. CBP is also installing what they call an "anti-climbing plate." “The construction of this new substantial wall will improve overall border security, the safety and effectiveness of Border Patrol agents, the safety of the public, and will enhance the atmosphere for business and commerce in the area,” the Border Patrol said of the project.
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🇺🇸 **Supreme Court rules on narrow grounds for baker who refused to create same-sex couple's wedding cake**
*USA Today* - <http://archive.li/HKGxt>

A divided Supreme Court on Monday absolved a Colorado baker of discrimination for refusing to create a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

The verdict criticized the state's treatment of Jack Phillips' religious objections to gay marriage, ruling that a civil rights commission was biased against him. As a result, the decision did not resolve whether other opponents of same-sex marriage, such as florists and photographers, can refuse commercial wedding services to gay couples.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the court's 7-2 decision against the same-sex couple, departing from his long history of opinions in favor of gay rights dating back a generation. Included among them was the court's 2015 decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

During oral argument in December, Kennedy and other conservative justices had expressed concern about the potential effect on other merchants with strong religious objections to same-sex marriage, from chefs to florists.
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🇺🇸 **Dem lawmaker: ‘Looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress'**
*The Hill* - <https://archive.fo/BZ9nct>

A Democratic congressman hammered Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, following a report that the company is sharing large amounts of its users’ data with other companies.

“Sure looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress about whether users have ‘complete control’ over who sees our data on Facebook," Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) tweeted on Sunday.

“This needs to be investigated and the people responsible need to be held accountable,” the top Democrat on the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee continued.

Cicilline’s tweet came in response to a Sunday New York Times story that detailed “far-reaching data partnerships” Facebook has established with roughly 60 device manufacturers, including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung over the last decade.

The partnerships allowed device makers to obtain Facebook user data like relationship status, religion and political leanings from users and also allowed for the sharing of the data of users’ Facebook friends.
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🇬🇧 **SEXBOTS 'DANGER' Life-like sex robots could spread STIs, worsen impotence and ‘normalise paedophilia’**
*The Sun* - <http://archive.is/hxo77>

SEX ROBOTS may do more harm than good, leading medics claim.

They warn rising use of “sexbots” could spread sexually-transmitted infections, worsen impotence and normalise “sexual deviancy”.

Fans of the life-like love machines – that sell for up to £11,600 – say they can aid “harm reduction” by offering desperate fellas an outlet.

They claim doll use helps reduce sex crimes against women and children.

But Dr Chantal Cox-George, from St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Professor Susan Bewley, from King’s College London, say there is little evidence this is true.

And raised fears they may make illegal behaviour more socially acceptable.
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🇩🇪 **German president apologizes to gays for decades of injustice**
*AP* - <http://archive.is/pgxZf>

Germany’s president has asked gays for forgiveness for decades of suffering and injustice they endured as a result of repressive laws in Germany in the Nazi era and after World War II.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke Sunday in a ceremony marking the persecution of gays by the Hitler regime.

The dpa news agency quoted Steinmeier as saying that the harsh treatment continued in the post-war era, in both parts of a then-divided Germany, where homosexuality for years remained a criminal offense.

The president says that “this is why I’m asking for forgiveness today, for all the suffering and injustice, and the silence that followed.”

Steinmeier says he wants to reassure “all gays, lesbians and bisexuals, all queers, trans- and intersexuals” that they are protected in today’s Germany.

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🇺🇸 **State Collects $4 Million In Illegal Taxes, Won't Give It Back**
*WND* - <https://archive.li/MxZNs>

In the Nextel case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court “held that the state collected about $4 million in taxes from Nextel in violation of that state’s constitution. But when the state complained that repaying the illegally collected taxes would hurt the public treasury, the court refused to grant Nextel a refund,” the foundation said.

“Protecting the state treasury is an objective that serves a state as a whole, and is not properly made the burden of a few taxpayers. Yet, as in this case, the burden in many illegal tax cases of protecting constitutional rights frequently falls upon those few taxpayers who pay the most.”

“The power to tax is the power to destroy,” PLF wrote. “Given the magnitude of this power, a state’s interest in raising and controlling revenue is limited by the due process guaranteed to taxpayers under the 14th Amendment.”

“In this case, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania assessed Nextel Communications nearly $4 million state taxes, in violation of the state constitution’s Uniformity Cluase. Nextel sued. … The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held in favor of Nextel insofar as the tax was illegally collected. “But the court failed to address Nextel’s due process claim and it gave Nextel no remedy, i.e., no reimbursement of the illegally collected tax.”

“A taxpayer who remits millions of dollars under an illegal collection scheme cares not whether the illegality derives from federal or state law. Justice – and due process – require a remedy,” PLF said. The organization pointed out that Pennsylvania and Florida, “among others, have been known to repeatedly try to assess illegal taxes “even in light of court rulings striking them down.”
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🇺🇸 **Family of Stoneman Douglas student advocate David Hogg 'swatted' at home**
*Local 10 ABC* - <https://archive.fo/dufI3>

The family of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg was "swatted" Tuesday morning, causing police to respond to their Parkland home.
A call came into the Broward Sheriff's Office claiming a hostage situation at the home in the 7800 block of Northwest 122nd Way.

Coral Springs Fire Rescue arrived at the scene to find there was no hostage situation and the call was a prank.

Hogg was not home at the time of the incident and is currently in Washington, DC with his mother to accept the RFK Human Rights award.

Sky 10 was over the home as units were staged outside as a precaution. BSO responded with multiple crews and a police helicopter.

Hogg said the swatting incident was "evidence of the fact of how many people are trying to stop us from what we're trying to do, which is to stop these kids from dying."

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🇸🇨 **South Africa’s sharp economic decline a major blow to President Ramaphosa's reforms**
*RT* - <https://archive.li/wgyW2>

South Africa’s national statistical service has revealed the worst quarterly contraction of country's economy in nearly a decade after Cyril Ramaphosa ousted Jacob Zuma from leadership. From January through March, the country’s GDP declined by 2.2 percent against the previous three months, Stats SA said on Tuesday. That’s the biggest drop since the first quarter of 2009, when the economy contracted by 6.1 percent. The current figure is much larger than economists’ projections.

The poor results pose a considerable challenge for the country’s new president, who pledged to provide long-term economic growth. To deliver the goods, Ramaphosa was planning to clean up governance, deal with high unemployment and improve basic services, igniting a wave of optimism dubbed “Ramaphoria.”

According to the statistics office, mining, manufacturing and agriculture were the major areas of decline; while the electricity, construction and trade industries recorded negative growth as well. Following four consecutive quarters of robust growth in 2017, the South African agricultural sector demonstrated the fall of 24.2 percent, the largest in 12 years. The sector was dragged down by decreased production in field crops and horticultural products.

The country’s mining industry is shrinking for the second consecutive quarter with production down 9.9 percent in the first three months of the year. It follows a drop of 4.4 percent in the previous quarter. Decreasing production in gold, platinum group metals, and iron ore reportedly became key factors for the general decline.
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🇺🇸 **On the 500th Day of the Trump Administration, Attorney General Sessions Announces 311 New Assistant United States Attorney Positions**
*DOJ* - <https://archive.fo/99XSW>

Largest Increase in AUSAs in Decades Allocates Prosecutors to Focus on Violent Crime, Civil Enforcement, and Immigration Crimes
Today, on the 500th day of the Trump Administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Department of Justice is taking a dramatic step to increase resources to combat violent crime, enforce our immigration laws, and help roll back the devastating opioid crisis. In the largest increase in decades, the Department of Justice is allocating 311 new Assistant United States Attorneys to assist in priority areas. Those allocations are as follows: 190 violent crime prosecutors, 86 civil enforcement prosecutors, and 35 additional immigration prosecutors. Many of the civil enforcement AUSA’s will support the newly created Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force which targets the opioid crisis at every level of the distribution system.

"Under President Trump's strong leadership, the Department of Justice is going on offense against violent crime, illegal immigration, and the opioid crisis—and today we are sending in reinforcements," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. "We have a saying in my office that a new federal prosecutor is 'the coin of the realm.' When we can eliminate wasteful spending, one of my first questions to my staff is if we can deploy more prosecutors to where they are needed. I have personally worked to re-purpose existing funds to support this critical mission, and as a former federal prosecutor myself, my expectations could not be higher. These exceptional and talented prosecutors are key leaders in our crime fighting partnership. This addition of new Assistant U.S. Attorney positions represents the largest increase in decades."
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🇺🇸 **Obama Administration Secretly Helped Iran Skirt Financial Sanctions **
*National Review* - <https://tinyurl.com/yb2dspw4>

The Obama administration helped Iran utilize sanctioned oil revenue stranded in a foreign bank account in 2016 while actively misleading Congress about the cooperation, according to the results of a Republican led Senate investigation released Wednesday night. After signing the 2015 nuclear deal, which unfroze Iran’s U.S. accounts in exchange for the regime’s non-proliferation pledge, the Obama administration publicly maintained that all non-nuclear sanctions barring Iran from operating within the U.S. financial system would remain in place.

“Senior U.S. government officials repeatedly testified to Congress that Iranian access to the U.S. financial system was not on the table or part of any deal,” congressional investigators wrote in the report. Despite this pledge to the public and Congress, in February 2016 the administration assisted Tehran in recovering $5.7 billion held in the Bank Muscat in the Persian Gulf state of Oman, according to the report, compiled by the Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigations. And, according to the report, administration officials continued to misled Congress after the license was issued.

According to the report, the Obama administration’s plan ultimately proved unsuccessful, but in undertaking the effort without informing Congress, officials “misled the American people by saying that Iran was not going to be granted access to the U.S. financial system,” Subcommittee Chairman Rob Portman (R., Ohio), the subcommittee’s chairman, told the Washington Post in an interview. “I think they did it because they were so eager to get an agreement with Iran.”
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🇨🇳 **Facebook Gave Data Access to Chinese Firm Flagged by U.S. Intelligence**
*NYT* - <https://archive.li/yZy5n>

Facebook has data-sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics companies, including a manufacturing giant that has a close relationship with China’s government, the social media company said on Tuesday. The agreements, which date to at least 2010, gave private access to some user data to Huawei, a telecommunications equipment company that has been flagged by American intelligence officials as a national security threat, as well as to Lenovo, Oppo and TCL.

The four partnerships remain in effect, but Facebook officials said in an interview that the company would wind down the Huawei deal by the end of the week. Facebook gave access to the Chinese device makers along with other manufacturers — including Amazon, Apple, BlackBerry and Samsung — whose agreements were disclosed by The New York Times on Sunday.

The deals were part of an effort to push more mobile users onto the social network starting in 2007, before stand-alone Facebook apps worked well on phones. The agreements allowed device makers to offer some Facebook features, such as address books, “like” buttons and status updates.

Facebook officials said the agreements with the Chinese companies allowed them access similar to what was offered to BlackBerry, which could retrieve detailed information on both device users and all of their friends — including religious and political leanings, work and education history and relationship status.
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🇲🇽 **Mexico slaps tariffs on US pork, apples and bourbon**
*CNN* - <https://archive.li/jh6YM>

In retaliation for the Trump administration announcing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Mexico and much of the rest of the world, Mexico Tuesday imposed a series of tariffs against US exports to its market valued at $3 billion. They'll hike the price of products including pork, apples, potatoes, bourbon as well as different types of cheese.

The tariffs range between 15% and 25%, and could raise the price of US goods by that amount, cutting deeply into US exports to its neighbor. "It is necessary and urgent to impose measures equivalent to the measures implemented by" the US, said the statement issued by the Mexican government. Mexico had signaled last week that it intended to retaliate against the US steel and aluminum tariffs.

The tariffs imposed Tuesday will affect just more than 1% of US exports to Mexico. But they'll have a significant impact on the targeted US industries. For example Mexico is the largest market for US pork exports according to the National Pork Producers Council, an industry trade group. It says that 25% of US pork exports last year went to Mexico.

"A 20% tariff eliminates our ability to compete effectively in Mexico," said Jim Heimerl, the trade group's president and a pork producer from Johnstown, Ohio. "This is devastating to my family and pork producing families across the United States."
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🇺🇸 **DOJ watchdog finds James Comey defied authority as FBI director**
*ABC News* - <https://archive.li/B31bg>

The Justice Department's internal watchdog has concluded that James Comey defied authority at times during his tenure as FBI director, according to sources familiar with a draft report on the matter. One source told ABC News that the draft report explicitly used the word "insubordinate" to describe Comey's behavior. Another source agreed with that characterization but could not confirm the use of the term.

In the draft report, Inspector General Michael Horowitz also rebuked former Attorney General Loretta Lynch for her handling of the federal investigation into Hillary Clinton's personal email server, the sources said. On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump complained of "numerous delays" in the release of Horowitz's final report, which is expected to run several hundred pages long and be released in the coming days. The sources who spoke to ABC News were willing or able to address only a portion of the draft report's complete findings.

The draft of Horowitz's wide-ranging report specifically called out Comey for ignoring objections from the Justice Department when he disclosed in a letter to Congress just days before the 2016 presidential election that FBI agents had reopened the Clinton probe, according to sources. Clinton has said that letter doomed her campaign.

Comey has defended his decisions as director, insisting he was trying to protect the FBI from even further criticism and "didn't see that I had a choice." "The honest answer is I screwed up a couple of things, but ... I think given what I knew at the time, these were the decisions that were best calculated to preserve the values of the institutions," Comey told ABC News. "I still think it was the right thing to do."
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🇪🇺 **EU to fine countries €250,000 for EVERY REFUGEE refused entry**
*Express* - <https://archive.li/YNhsz>

The financial penalty, which would see countries who wish to retain control of their own borders fined hundreds of millions of euros, is expected to be unveiled tomorrow. With countries including Hungary refusing to accept quotas of migrants issued by the European Union, the huge financial threat has been introduced to prevent states from choosing who to accept in their countries.

The deliberately high fine of €250,000 per asylum seeker will leave countries with no choice but to accept thousands of migrants - or face huge penalties. Poland, for example, would be forced to pay €1.5billion if they kept their borders closed to the 6,200 migrants on their quota. An EU source revealed: “The size of the contribution may change but the idea is to make it appear like a sanction.” Another added that the penalty would be “hundreds of thousands of euros.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban declared that the EU does not have the authority to fine countries, arguing "the EU is not the Soviet Union." He said: “No one can force anything on us which the Hungarian people do not want.” With the country preparing for a referendum on whether it should accept EU demands on refugee numbers, Mr Orban also warned that migrant quotas increased the threat of terrorism. He said: “There is a link between migrants and terrorism, and these people seek vengeance against European countries.

“Those who are in favour of freedom of movement must support walls and border controls: this is the Hungarian standpoint. “My approach on the migrant situation is completely different from that of the European Commission, and I don't believe that migration can solve demographic and economic difficulties.”
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🇮🇱 ** Mueller was investigating Trump adviser as unregistered agent of Israel, his wife says**
🇺🇸 *The Washington Post via Chicago Tribune* - <http://archive.li/kJRQv>

Special counsel Robert Mueller last summer threatened to charge George Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump, with acting as an unregistered agent of Israel, Papadopoulos' wife said Tuesday.

Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, an Italian lawyer who married Papadapoulos in March, said the special prosecutor's office claimed to have evidence that Papadopoulos had worked on behalf of Israel without registering as a foreign agent while he was serving as an energy consultant before he joined the Trump campaign.

Papadopoulos denied the allegation, she said, but pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about his interactions with two Russians and a London professor who had told him in 2016 that the Russians held Clinton-related emails. He has been cooperating with Mueller's probe.
Simona Papadopoulos, who said her husband was not involved in Russia's efforts to interfere in the White House race, said he agreed to plead guilty as a way to acknowledge missteps with the FBI and to avoid a protracted legal battle.

"I know he doesn't have anything to do with Russia," she said in an interview. "We know he was under scrutiny because of his ties to Israel, not his ties to Russia. So what's this about?"

A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment.
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🇨🇳 ** US screens more staff in China over mystery health issues**
🇺🇸 *AP* - <http://archive.li/7V4at>
A U.S. medical team was screening more Americans who work at the consulate in southern China as the State Department confirmed evacuating a number of government employees who experienced unexplained health issues like those that have hurt U.S. personnel in Cuba and China.

The evacuations of workers in Guangzhou followed medical testing that revealed they might have been affected. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said “a number of individuals” had been brought to the U.S. but didn’t say how many were affected or evacuated. A previous case in Guangzhou, disclosed last month, prompted the tests.

Nauert also said that remaining U.S. government personnel and their families in Guangzhou would also be able to request testing if they “noted concerning symptoms or wanted baseline screening.”

The incidents have raised fears the unexplained issues that started in Cuba in 2016 have expanded. The U.S. government has deemed those incidents “specific attacks” on American workers but hasn’t publicly identified a cause or culprit. Most of the incidents were accompanied by bizarre, unexplained sounds that initially led U.S. investigators to suspect a sonic attack.

Symptoms have included dizziness, headaches and an inability to concentrate. The American government worker who previously was removed from China reported “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure,” the Guangzhou consulate reported last month.

Security guards outside the Guangzhou consulate on Thursday told reporters to leave the area and not attempt to talk to consulate staff.
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🇺🇸 **Facebook says software bug made millions of users' private posts public**
*The Washington Times* - <https://archive.li/YnxZt>

Facebook says a software bug made some private posts public for as many as 14 million users over several days in May. The problem, which Facebook says it has fixed, is the latest privacy scandal for the world’s largest social media company. The company said on Thursday the bug automatically suggested that users make new posts public, even if they had previously restricted to “friends only” or another private setting.

Erin Egan, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, says the bug did not affect past posts. She added that Facebook is notifying users who posted publicly during the time the bug was active to review their posts. The news follows a recent furor over Facebook’s sharing of user data with device makers, including China’s Huawei.
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🇺🇸 **Virginia National Guard Soldier leads police on a 2 hour chase in a stolen armored vehicle**
*Inside Edition * - <https://archive.li/2Twmw>
A Virginia National Guard soldier led police on a 2 hour chase down an interstate. Joshua Philip Yabut is accused of stealing a M577 armored personnel carrier from Fort Pickett on Tuesday.

"The unit was conducting routine training at Fort Pickett when Yabut drove away in the vehicle," said Cotton Puryear, the Virginia National Guard spokesman.

Yabut drove down Interstate 85 and then north on Interstate 95 in Richmond, police said. The incident was first at 7:50 PM. Around 8 PM, Yabut posted photos and videos of him inside the vehicle on his twitter, <https://archive.li/LCiLH>. The chase came to an end at 10 PM, when Yabut was arrested. He was charged with driving under the influence of drugs, felony eluding the police and felony unauthorized use of a vehicle.
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🇺🇸 **Anthony Bourdain: Celebrity chef dies in apparent suicide aged 61**
*Sky News* - <https://archive.li/kAZ5d>

US celebrity chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain has died in an apparent suicide in a French hotel room. The US network CNN - which hosts Bourdain's Parts Unknown programme - tweeted that the "chef, storyteller and Emmy-winning host" had killed himself. Bourdain, 61, was found unresponsive in his hotel room in the city of Strasbourg, where he was filming an episode of the show, said the channel.

His friend, the chef Eric Ripert, found him. A CNN statement said: "It is with extraordinary sadness we can confirm the death of our friend and colleague, Anthony Bourdain. "His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller.

"His talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter and family at this incredibly difficult time." Bourdain's bestselling book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, became a bestseller in 2000 and launched his TV career. His early work on the Travel Channel won Emmy Awards and in 2013 he moved to news broadcaster CNN and began filming Parts Unknown.
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🇪🇺 **Memes will be banned under new EU copyright law warns campaigners**
*Sky News* - <https://archive.li/un22u>
The EU Copyright Directive intends to protect the intellectual property rights of people who upload their material to the internet. Campaigners are warning that a new copyright law in the EU will require "all content uploaded to the internet to be monitored and potentially deleted if a likeness to existing copyright is protected". This law is a certain provision of the Copyright Directive known as Article 13.

The campaigners are arguing that the copyright protections of Article 13 would damage the sharing of parody content and memes, which, while being original content, are usually derived from other people's original content. The allegations have been rejected by the European Commission.

A European Commission spokesperson has said that "The idea behind our copyright proposals is that people should be able to make a living from their creative ideas."
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🇺🇸 **Indiana man arrested for Boston 'free speech' rally shooting threat.**
*WHTC* - <https://archive.li/VLaid>
Authorities arrested an Indiana man, Eric M. Radulovic, on Friday after a federal charge that he threatened to shoot white attendees at a Boston rally of far right speakers last August. The Boston 'free speech' rally drew thousands of counter-protesters and a massive police presence aimed at averting violence.

Radulovic allegedly posted to 4chan.org the day after the violent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and posed as a member of the 'alt right', saying that he would shoot white people at the Boston rally in order to gain sympathy for the alt-right movement. "I'm going to bring a Remington 700 and start shooting Alt-Right guys," Radulovic wrote. "We need sympathy after that landwhale got all the liberals teary eyed, so someone is going to have to make it look as if the left is becoming more violent and radicalized. It's a false flag for sure, but I'll be aiming for the more tanned/dark haired muddied jeans in the crowd so real white won't have to worry."

Radulovic was referring to the death of Heather Heyer, who was hit and killed by a vehicle while protesting the alt right in Charlottesville. The indictment alleges that Radulovic posted this for the purpose of issuing a threat and knowing that it would be interpreted as such.

Radulovic faces up to 5 years in prison if convicted. It is unknown if he has an attorney.
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