🇬🇧 **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.
-------------

🇩🇪 **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.

----------------

🇺🇸 **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.”
-----------------

🇺🇸 **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."

--------------------

🇸🇨 **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.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **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."
-----------------

🇺🇸 **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.”
-----------------

🇨🇳 **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.
-----------------

🇲🇽 **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."
-----------------

🇺🇸 **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."
-----------------

🇪🇺 **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.
-----------------

🇨🇳 ** 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.
-----------------

🇺🇸 **Teacher claims school made him resign for not using a transgender student's preferred name.**
*ABC News* - <https://archive.li/kLflW>
An Indiana orchestra teacher claims his former school forced him to resign after not referring to a transgender student by their preferred name. Brownsburg High School has a policy that teachers must refer to transgender students by their preferred name rather than their birth name. John Kluge, who taught at the school for 4 years disagreed with the policy and wanted to refer to students by their last names.

"I feel the compelled speech of forcing a teacher to take a side on this very highly controversial topic is a violation of our First Amendment rights," Kluge said. Kluge claimed the school told him he must either follow the policy, resign or be fired. He said he submitted a conditional resignation later, but later withdrew the resignation before the deadline. He called his meeting with the administration "very threatening" and "bullying."

"I enjoy being the orchestra teacher at Brownsburg," Kluge wrote in a statement. "It's unfortunate that the administration is not letting me come back and that they are unwilling to continue a reasonable accommodation that most people consider to be very common sense." He went on to ask that the board reconsider his termination.
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🇺🇸 **Denver Uber driver charged who shot passenger last week charged with first-degree murder.**
*Denver Post* - <https://archive.li/UsXBv>
An Uber driver who fatally fired 10 shots into a passenger last week has been charged with first-degree murder after deliberation in the death of a 45 year old man, authorities say.

Michael Hancock, 29, is being held without bond in the Denver city jail in the 2:45 a.m. June 1 shooting of Hyun Kim on southbound Interstate 25 near University Boulevard. The charge was direct filed Thursday in Denver District Court, said Ken Lane, spokesman for Denver District Court.

Hancock declined to give police detectives his side of the story. Ten bullet casings were discovered near Hancock’s vehicle. Kim’s body was found slumped in his car. Hancock's family says he only shot the man in self defence because the passenger was beating him on the head, but Hancock himself has made no statement.

Uber’s company policy, which bars drivers and riders from carrying firearms, applies in Colorado.
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🇦🇹 **Austria's right-wing government plans to shut down seven mosques and expel up to 40 foreign-funded imams in crackdown against Islamist ideology**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.li/8kf43>

Austria said today it could expel up to 60 Turkish-funded imams and their families and would shut down seven mosques as part of a crackdown on 'political Islam' that was described as 'just the beginning', triggering fury in Ankara.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the government is shutting a hardline Turkish nationalist mosque in Vienna and dissolving a group called the Arab Religious Community that runs six mosques. His coalition government, an alliance of conservatives and the far right, came to power soon after Europe's migration crisis on promises to prevent another influx and clamp down on benefits for new immigrants and refugees.

In a previous job as minister in charge of integration, Chancellor Kurz oversaw the passing of a tough 'law on Islam' in 2015, which banned foreign funding of religious groups and created a duty for Muslim societies to have 'a positive fundamental view towards (Austria's) state and society'.

'Parallel societies, political Islam and radicalisation have no place in our country,' Kurz told a news conference outlining the government's decisions, which were based on that law.

'This is just the beginning,' far-right Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache added.
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🇮🇷 **Iran Admits To Facilitating 9/11 Attacks, Report Says**
*The Daily Wire* - <https://archive.li/QEjeT>

For the first time ever, Iranian government officials have admitted to helping facilitate the 9/11 terror attacks that resulted in the deaths of approximately 3,000 Americans, the Washington Free Beacon reports.

Mohammad-Javad Larijani, an international affairs assistant in Iran's judiciary, disclosed in Farsi-language remarks broadcast on Iran's state-controlled television that Iranian intelligence officials secretly helped provide the al Qaeda attackers with passage and gave them refuge in the Islamic Republic, according to an English translation published by Al Arabiya.

"Our government agreed not to stamp the passports of some of them because they were on transit flights for two hours, and they were resuming their flights without having their passports stamped. However their movements were under the complete supervision of the Iranian intelligence," Larijani was quoted as saying in the May 30 interview, as reported by Adam Kredo.

The Beacon notes that this is the first time that top Iranian officials have admitted publicly to aiding the Islamic terrorist attack carried out by al Qaeda.

"The Americans took this as evidence of Iran's cooperation with al-Qaeda and viewed the passage of an airplane through Iran's airspace, which had one of the pilots who carried out the attacks and a Hezbollah military leader sitting [next to] him on board, as evidence of direct cooperation with al-Qaeda through the Lebanese Hezbollah," Larijani stated.
-----------------

🌋 **Lava boils away largest lake on Big Island in about 90 minutes**
*SFGATE* - <https://tinyurl.com/yafx2nyx>

In the more than a month since Kilauea erupted, about 7.7 square miles of land reportedly have been blanketed by lava. Lava from Fissure 8 begin pouring into the lake on June 2, turning it into a roiling cauldron. A thick, white plume of water vapor billowed hundreds of feet over the lake. It took only an hour and half for the molten rock to evaporate the entire body of water, which was about 200 feet deep.

"Just outside the gates was the Kapoho Farm Stand, where a woman universally known as Smiley sells papayas, bananas and, for $5, admission to Green Lake, a deep freshwater pool in a crater atop Green Mountain (Pu'u Kapoho). Local legend has it that Jacques Cousteau tried to plumb its depths in a submarine and gave up trying."

Green Lake, also known as Ka Wai a Pele, was about 400 years old. It had been a popular swimming hole for ages. According to legend, Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanos, bathed in the lake when she first came to the island. Now, she has reclaimed it.

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🇰🇵 ** Full text of Trump-Kim signed statement**
🇺🇸 *CNN* - <http://archive.li/UrJa2>
Convinced that the establishment of new US-DPRK relations will contribute to the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognizing that mutual confidence building cam promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following:

1. The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.

2. The United States and DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula

4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.

Having acknowledged that the US-DPRK summit -- the first in history -- was an epochal event of great significance in overcoming decades of tensions and hostilities between the two countries and for the opening up of a new future, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un commit to implement the stipulations in the joint statement fully and expeditiously. The United States and the DPRK commit to hold follow-on negotiations, led by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant high-level DPRK official, at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes of the US-DPRK summit.

President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have committed to cooperate for the development of new US-DPRK relations and for the promotion of peace, prosperity, and the security of the Korean Peninsula and of the world.
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🇺🇸 ** Credit service shuts down payments on all gun purchases**
*NY Post* - <http://archive.li/NWWgo>
Several gun-related businesses were suddenly — and without warning — disrupted in recent weeks when Intuit stopped processing credit card payments because sales were gun-related, The Post has learned.

Some of the payments stopped didn’t even involve firearms, but simply T-shirts and coffee mugs and gun safety classes, according to small business owners.

Intuit told Campbell it mistakenly believed firearm sales were being made directly to the customers.

Campbell explained the guns were shipped to a local dealer with a federal firearms license who ran the required background checks. Intuit was unmoved.

Campbell said if he knew of Intuit’s stance, he would have simply moved back to his previous processor. “It’s fine, it’s capitalism, and if you don’t want to do business with us, we don’t want to do business with you,” he said.

Intuit did not return several requests for comment.
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🇺🇸 **After summit, Trump announces halt to US-SKorea ‘war games’**
🇰🇵 *AP* - <https://archive.li/f3gCV>

President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un concluded an extraordinary nuclear summit Tuesday with the U.S. president pledging unspecified “security guarantees” to the North and Kim recommitting to the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

Trump announced that he will be freezing U.S. military “war games” with its ally South Korea while negotiations between the two countries continue. Trump cast the decision as a cost-saving measure, but North Korea has long objected to the drills as a security threat.

After the signing, Trump said he expected to “meet many times” in the future with Kim and, in response to questions, said he “absolutely” would invite Kim to the White House. For his part, Kim hailed the “historic meeting” and said they “decided to leave the past behind.”

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🇲🇰 **‘Northern Macedonia’: Balkan republic to change name after 26-yr dispute with Greece**
🇬🇷 *RT* - <https://archive.li/Iy7BO>

“Macedonia will be called the Republic of Northern Macedonia [Severna Makedonija],” Zoran Zaev, the country’s prime minister, announced Tuesday. The new name will be used both domestically and internationally, with Macedonia making a relevant amendment to its Constitution, Zaev added.

The announcement came after telephone talks with Greek counterpart, Alexis Tsipras, on Tuesday. Tsipras said that Athens got “a good deal which covers all the preconditions set by the Greek side" as he briefed Greek President, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, on the results of negotiations.

The row between Athens and Skopje has been ongoing since 1991, when Macedonia seceded from Yugoslavia and declared its independence. Greece argued that by calling itself Republic of Macedonia the neighboring country was stating a territorial claim of the Greek northern province, also called Macedonia.

Due to the name dispute, Greece has vetoed all of attempts by Skopje to join both the European Union and NATO. The country was also accepted to the UN in 1993 as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Macedonia’s new name will be put up for a referendum, to be held in autumn. It also has to be ratified by both Macedonian and Greek parliaments.
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🇷🇺 **Russia says Gulag records are ‘kept forever’ amid reports of secretly evaporating archives**
*RT* - <https://archive.li/DbzhC>

A Russian museum studying the history of the infamous Gulag prison camps, which existed in the Soviet Union until 1960, has learned that prisoner data is being evaporated. The story was initially reported by Kommersant on Friday, and immediately picked up by other Russian and Western media outlets.

The records in question are the ‘registration cards’ that contained the personal data of prisoners, including movement between the camps and release date from the forced labor camp. For those who died in the Gulag, the authorities had a special file which was sent for permanent storage to the archive. The survivors’ cards are often the only source of information about their fate for relatives.

One of the Gulag Museum researchers claimed that one such card is missing, according to Russian media reports citing director Roman Romanov. When the authorities of Magadan Region, Russia were asked about the record, a local branch of the internal affairs ministry said the document was destroyed under a confidential 2014 order. The document was reportedly signed by multiple Russian ministries and services, including the interior ministry, justice ministry, and defense ministry, and allowed the destruction of the cards after former convicts turn 80.

The head of the Gulag Museum believes that the case is just an administrative “casus.” “What has happened in Magadan is the first such case in hundreds of similar requests,” he said. In the interview, he said the museum regularly deals with such records and have been provided with all the necessary records before. Political repressions are still a very sensitive topic in Russia. There are no precise figures on how many people were imprisoned in this case. Romanov says that more than 20 million people went through the Gulag.
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🦉 **Einstein's travel diaries reveal 'shocking' xenophobia**
*The Guardian* - <https://archive.li/9iq7j>

The publication of Albert Einstein’s private diaries detailing his tour of Asia in the 1920s reveals the theoretical physicist and humanitarian icon’s racist attitudes to the people he met on his travels, particularly the Chinese.

Written between October 1922 and March 1923, the diaries see the scientist musing on his travels, science, philosophy and art. In China, the man who famously once described racism as “a disease of white people” describes the “industrious, filthy, obtuse people” he observes. He notes how the “Chinese don’t sit on benches while eating but squat like Europeans do when they relieve themselves out in the leafy woods.

All this occurs quietly and demurely. Even the children are spiritless and look obtuse.” After earlier writing of the “abundance of offspring” and the “fecundity” of the Chinese, he goes on to say: “It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.”

Ze’ev Rosenkranz, senior editor and assistant director of the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology, said: “I think a lot of comments strike us as pretty unpleasant – what he says about the Chinese in particular.

“They’re kind of in contrast to the public image of the great humanitarian icon. I think it’s quite a shock to read those and contrast them with his more public statements. They’re more off guard, he didn’t intend them for publication.”
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🇺🇾 **Uruguay marijuana legalization leads to pot shortage**
📉 *CBS News* - <https://archive.li/I4FsZ>

Marijuana went on sale in Uruguay last year under a 2013 law that made it the first nation to legalize a pot market covering the entire chain from plants to purchase. But the country is still working out how to meet demand in its effort to undercut drug traffickers who control the black market.

In Uruguay, even finding legal marijuana can be a chore, as Andrade discovered. The law lets registered users buy as much as 40 grams (1.4 ounces) of marijuana a month at participating pharmacies. But only 14 of the country's estimated 1,200 pharmacies have signed up to sell marijuana. Many balked at the idea of selling the drug, due to low profit margins or fear of being robbed.

Uruguay's 8,750 registered individual growers are allowed to harvest up to 480 grams (a little over a pound) each per year. If all met that figure, it would total about 4 tons per year. There are also 90 users clubs with 2,529 members. If they were to produce their maximum amount, it would come to about another ton annually.

Pharmacy employee Lino Celle says marijuana arrives once a week at his business. "They're supposed to provide us with about 4 kilograms, but only leave us 3," he said. "The system is ridiculous. I live far away, work and study. It's too complicated to buy like this," said a local chef who asked to remain anonymous because he doesn't want to be stigmatized for smoking pot.

Uruguay launched its government-regulated marijuana marketplace in an effort to fight rising homicide and crime rates linked with illicit drug trafficking. Yet drug violence has increased since the law went into the effect. Interior Minister Eduardo Bonomi says fights between criminal gangs, mostly associated with drugs, made up 59 percent of all homicides in the first quarter of 2018, roughly double the percentage in 2012.
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🇺🇸 **Trump slaps China with $50 billion in trade tariffs on imports**
🇨🇳 *RT* - <https://archive.li/5umc8>

The White House has announced a 25-percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods in what it calls a clampdown on unfair trade practices by Beijing. The US trade representative’s office said it issued a revised China tariff list covering 1,102 separate product categories. The first package of revised tariffs will apply to $34 billion of Chinese imports, on 818 product lines, and will enter into effect from July 6. The second package will target the remaining $16 billion of Chinese goods, on 284 product lines.

“In light of China’s theft of intellectual property and technology and its other unfair trade practices, the US will implement a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods from China that contain industrially significant technologies,” according to the White House statement.

“This includes goods related to China’s Made in China 2025 strategic plan to dominate the emerging high-technology industries that will drive future economic growth for China, but hurt economic growth for the United States and many other countries.”

The step is expected to escalate trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies. Earlier, Chinese officials warned of mirror measures, pledging to introduce import tariffs on US goods such as automobiles, aircraft, and soybeans <:soy:415618830056947732> .
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🇨🇦 ** Canadians boycott US products, cancel vacations to America**
🇺🇸 *NY Post* - <http://archive.li/SZ06Y>

Canadians have taken to practicing pocketbook diplomacy in defense of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is caught in a trade war of words with President Trump, by boycotting American goods and canceling vacations to the United States, according to a report.

Shoppers are shunning Kentucky bourbon, California wine and Florida oranges, and avoiding American companies like Starbucks, Walmart and McDonald’s, Canadian network CTV News reported on Wednesday.

On Twitter, hashtags like #BuyCanadian, #BoycottUSProducts and #BoycottUSA are spreading as outrage over Trump’s trade tariffs grows.

An Ottawa man posted a “Trump-free grocery cart” full of products from Canada or from “countries with strong leadership.”

Vacationers said they would be staying up north this summer instead of booking trips to the US.

“F​–k​ you Trump. We just booked a $3,000 vacation to beautiful British Columbia. Happy anniversary to us. #Canadastrong #BuyCanadian #F***Tariffs,” tweeted ​Supreme Leader Lyna.
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🇺🇸 **Trump and family sued by New York attorney general over alleged charity violations**
*The Guardian* - <http://archive.li/xWA2m>

The attorney general of New York state sued the Donald J Trump charitable foundation, President Trump and three of his children on Thursday for violating state charity laws, alleging that the Trumps used charitable assets as “little more than a check book for payments to not-for-profits from Mr Trump” and his companies.

The lawsuit, filed by the attorney general, Barbara Underwood, on the morning of Trump’s 72nd birthday, seeks $2.8m in restitution and penalties from Trump and asks for the distribution of $1m in assets to other charities.

Trump began tweeting soon after the charges were filed, dismissing the lawsuit as the work of “the sleazy New York Democrats” and claiming the foundation “took in $18,800,000 and gave out to charity more money than it took in, $19,200,000”.

Money used to pay those bills came not from Trump but from would-be charitable donors who paid into the foundation, the lawsuit said. “From 1987 through 2008, Mr Trump personally donated funds to support the foundation,” the suit reads. “Since 2008, however, Mr Trump has not contributed any personal funds to the foundation, which instead has been supported by donations from other persons and entities.”
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🇵🇰 ** Leader of Pakistani Taliban killed by U.S. drone strike, Afghanistan says**
🇺🇸 *NBC News* - <http://archive.li/Sz23j>

The Pentagon confirmed U.S. forces had carried out a strike close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, targeting the leader of a terror group.

Mullah Fazlullah Khorasani was Pakistan's most-wanted militant and blamed for attacks including a 2014 school massacre that killed 132 children and the 2012 shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In March, the U.S. offered a $5 million reward for information on Fazlullah.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish told NBC News that Fazlullah died in a strike in the Marawaya district of the border province of Kunar.

Earlier, Lt. Col Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement that U.S. forces had carried out an airstrike Thursday in Kunar "which targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organization."

Fazlullah's death could ease strained ties between Islamabad and Washington even as Afghanistan observes an unprecedented three-day ceasefire with the larger Afghan Taliban.
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