🇬🇧🇮🇷 **Britain calls ship seizure 'hostile act' as Iran releases video of capture**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/g7WbQ>

Britain on Saturday denounced Iran’s seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf as a “hostile act” and rejected Tehran’s explanation that it seized the vessel because it had been involved in an accident.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards posted a video online showing speedboats pulling alongside the Stena Impero tanker, its name clearly visible. Troops wearing ski masks and carrying machine guns rappelled to its deck from a helicopter, the same tactics used by British Royal Marines to seize an Iranian tanker off the coast of Gibraltar two weeks ago.

Friday’s action in the global oil trade’s most important waterway has been viewed in the West as a major escalation after three months of confrontation that has already taken Iran and the United States to the brink of war.

It follows threats from Tehran to retaliate for Britain’s July 4 seizure of the Iranian tanker Grace 1, accused of violating sanctions on Syria.

British Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt called the incident a “hostile act”. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he had expressed “extreme disappointment” by phone to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif. Britain also summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires in London.

A spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Brigadier-General Ramezan Sharif, said Tehran had seized the ship in the Strait of Hormuz despite the “resistance and interference” of a British warship which had been escorting it. No British warship was visible in the video posted by the Guards.
--------------

🇺🇸🇮🇷 **US doesn’t want war with Iran & UK should take care of its own ships – Pompeo**
*RT* - <https://archive.fo/9uOzx>

Amid rising tensions, Mike Pompeo has insisted the US doesn’t want war with Iran and the UK is responsible for taking care of its own ships. The secretary of state also dismissed Tehran’s claims it had arrested CIA-linked spies.

Pompeo was speaking to Fox and Friends on Monday morning when he was asked what the US role was in getting back the British oil tanker Stena Impero, seized by Iran last week.

“The responsibility in the first instance falls to the United Kingdom to take care of their ships,” Pompeo said, adding, “This isn’t because of US sanctions, this is because of the theocracy of the leadership in Iran, the revolutionary zeal to conduct terror around the world, for now four decades, continues.”

“We don’t want war with Iran, we want them to behave like a normal nation,” he added. “I think they understand that.”

Iran has said that all 23 crew members on the Stena Impero are “safe and in good health,” and that it seized the tanker in response to the UK’s seizure of one of its own tankers on July 4.

In his interview, Pompeo also dismissed Iran’s announcement that it had captured 17 CIA-linked spies. “The Iranian regime has a long history of lying,” he said.
--------------

🇺🇸 **Trump has not built a single mile of new border fence after 30 months in office**
*Washington Examiner* - <https://archive.fo/rcVUi>

The Trump administration has not installed a single mile of new wall in a previously fenceless part of the U.S.-Mexico border in the 30 months since President Trump assumed office, despite his campaign promise to construct a “big beautiful wall.”

In a statement last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency overseeing border barrier construction, confirmed that all the fencing completed since Trump took office is "in place of dilapidated designs" because the existing fence was in need of replacement.

The agency said that it had built 51 miles of steel bollard fence with funding that was set aside during fiscal 2017 and 2018. But while the funding was meant both to replace outdated walls and to place barriers where there previously had been none, the government has only completed the replacement projects. The projects to secure areas with no fence are still in the works.

The 50 miles of completed replacement barrier is a 10-mile gain since early April. In Trump’s two and a half years in office, his administration has installed an average 1.7 miles of barrier per month, and none of it in areas that did not previously have some sort of barrier. A total 205 miles of new and replacement barrier has been funded in the two and a half years since Trump took office.

A senior administration official told the Washington Examiner that Border Patrol and the Army Corps of Engineers moved faster on replacement projects than the new ones because the approval process for environmental and zoning permits was far less extensive than areas of the border with no barrier.

A second senior official defended the progress the administration's progress and blamed Democrats in Congress for blocking funding for additional projects the White House has tried to move on.
--------------

🇺🇸 **More Than 2,000 Migrants Were Targeted in Raids. 35 Were Arrested.**
*MSN/New York Times* - <https://archive.fo/k92hm>

More than 2,000 migrants who were in the United States illegally were targeted in widely publicized raids that unfolded across the country last week. But figures the government provided to The New York Times on Monday show that just 35 people were detained in the operation.

President Trump had touted the raids — called Operation Border Resolve — as a show of force amid an influx of Central American parents and children across the southern border. After postponing the raids in June, Mr. Trump said ahead of time that they would take place last week.

Two current Department of Homeland Security officials and one former department official also confirmed to The Times that an enforcement operation would take place around mid-July.

But the publicity may have prompted many of those who had been targeted — 2,105 people in more than a dozen cities who had received final deportation orders but had not reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers — to temporarily leave their homes, or to move altogether to evade arrest.

Advance notice of the large-scale operation also gave immigrant advocates time to counsel families about their rights, which include not opening the door or answering questions. On social media, community groups shared detailed information about sightings of ICE agents.

In an interview Monday, Matthew Albence, the acting director of ICE, which is responsible for arresting, detaining and deporting unauthorized immigrants who are already in the United States, acknowledged that the number of apprehensions was low.

“I don’t know of any other population where people are telling them how to avoid arrest as a result of illegal activity,” he said. “It certainly makes it harder for us to effectuate these orders issued.”
--------------

🇺🇸 **Jeffrey Epstein Found Injured in NYC Jail Cell After Possible Suicide Attempt or Assault: Sources**
*NBC 4 New York* - <https://archive.fo/pWyyb>

Accused pedophile and wealthy Manhattan financier Jeffrey Epstein was found injured and in a fetal position inside his cell at a New York City jail, according to sources close to the investigation.

Epstein, who is being held in Metropolitan Correctional Center during his trial for conspiracy and sex trafficking, was found semi-conscious with marks on his neck, sources told News 4. Investigators are trying to piece together what happened, and have spoken to an accused killer who one source says may have attacked Epstein.

Two sources tell News 4 that Epstein may have tried to hang himself, while a third source cautioned that the injuries were not serious and questioned if Epstein might be using it as a way to get a transfer.

However, the fourth source says an assault has not been ruled out, and that another inmate has been questioned. The inmate who investigators have talked to in Lower Manhattan facility has been identified as Nicholas Tartaglione, according to a source. Tartaglione is a former Orange County police officer who was arrested in December 2016 and accused of killing four men in an alleged cocaine distribution conspiracy, then burying their bodies in his yard in Otisville, according to court records.

Sources told News 4 investigators tried to question Tartaglione about whether he had any contact with Epstein before he was found on the ground. The former cop claimed not to have seen anything and didn’t touch Epstein, sources said.

Epstein is now on suicide watch inside MCC.
---------------

🇺🇸 **Supreme Court Rules Trump Can Use Pentagon Funds for Border Wall**
*Wall Street Journal* - <https://archive.is/Fl8q5#5%>

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of allowing the Trump administration to resume the use of military funds to expand a barrier at the southern border. In 5-4 decision, justices cleared the way for administration to use about $2.5 billion in military funds for U.S.-Mexico border-wall construction.

Trump can shift about $2.5 billion in military funds to construct an additional 100 miles of wall at the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to seal off the U.S. from illegal immigration.

The Trump administration has sought to replace some barriers with tougher materials and to erect some new barrier where there was previously no wall but hasn’t specified where all of the funded construction is to take place.
---------------

🇭🇰 **Protesters clash in Hong Kong as cycle of violence intensifies**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/sIvR9>

Hong Kong police clashed with thousands of protesters on Sunday, as they sought to defend China’s main representative office from crowds seething over what many see as an increasing cycle of violence against them.

Protests over the past two months spearheaded by anti-government activists against a proposed bill that would allow people to be extradited from the city to stand trial in courts in mainland China have grown increasingly violent.

A march on Saturday against a violent assault the previous weekend by suspected triad gang members ended in violent turmoil as riot police waded in to disperse crowds.

On Sunday, a peaceful gathering in a park in the city’s central business district rapidly morphed into a march, as tens of thousands of black-clad protesters set off in several directions, clogging up major thoroughfares.

Thousands of people headed east, toward the shopping district of Causeway Bay, while another large contingent headed west, toward the Chinese government’s representative office, known as the Central Government Liaison Office.

There, hundreds of riot police blocked activists from advancing toward the building, which had been heavily fortified with barricades after it was surrounded and defaced a week earlier. A clear plastic shield had been
erected around a national emblem above its front doors.

As the crowds surged, hundreds of riot police with shields advanced, firing rounds of tear gas, rubber bullets and sponge grenades - a crowd control weapon - at protesters, sending clouds of acrid, burning smoke through the streets.

Some protesters were on their knees choking as ambulances raced to take away the injured.
----------------

🇮🇹 **American teens arrested in murder of Italian officer accused each other, officials say**
*NBC News* - <https://archive.fo/Zbu1h>

Two Americans arrested in connection with the death of an Italian paramilitary officer had blamed each other for committing murder, court documents sent to reporters show.

Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, 18, and Finnegan Lee Elder, 19, both from Mill Valley, California, were detained by police in Rome on Friday for alleged homicide and attempted extortion.

Police have said the pair had a violent encounter with two plainclothes members of the storied Carabinieri paramilitary corps, after having stolen a backpack from Italian national and demanded money and
a gram of cocaine in exchange for its return.

On Sunday, police released audio files of two calls with the Italian national who allegedly had his backpack stolen. He alleged he had spoken to the people who stole his bag by calling his cellphone,
which had been inside the bag, adding that the suspects demanded money for the return of his belongings.

The dispatcher agreed to send an officer to meet the victim.

Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, who had just returned to duty a few days earlier from his honeymoon, was dispatched on Friday to meet with the Americans as part of the investigation, authorities said.

A detention order says Natale-Hjorth, who can understand Italian, confirmed that Rega identified himself as a Carabiniere officer. Elder, who doesn't speak the language, denies the officer revealed who he was.
----------------

🇮🇱 **Israeli teens jump for joy as they are released and the British woman, 19, who accused them of gang raping her in Ayia Napa is ARRESTED for 'making false allegations' after 'changing her story'**
*DailyMail* - <https://archive.fo/G7HOo>

The Israeli teenagers who were accused of gang-raping a British woman hugged their relieved families this afternoon following their release after their accuser backtracked on her original story.

And in a dramatic development in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, the 19-year-old woman has been arrested for making false allegations about the men.

She had alleged that 12 Israelis had raped her in a hotel room, leading to their arrest.

Five were released on Thursday following extensive DNA testing and the remaining seven have been released today after the woman 'changed her story'.

The Briton, who has not been named, is expected to appear in court on Monday.

Police sources said she had retracted her statement after being further questioned by detectives over the weekend following the examination of further DNA results.

Doubts about her story began after one of the teens she identified as taking part in the gang rape was able to prove he was in bed with his girlfriend who had taken a selfie.

A police spokesman in Nicosia said:' A 19 year old woman has been arrested on suspicion of making false allegations '

Yaniv Habari, a lawyer for some of the now freed men, told MailOnline: 'The woman has changed her story. Those in custody will be released and allowed to leave.'

He said the accuser 'regretted what she said and now she's being interrogated, and most likely she will be referred to court tomorrow.'
----------------

🇺🇸 **'Mental health crisis': Fifth NYPD officer dies by suicide in two months**
*NBC News* - <https://archive.fo/qOQ2J>

Another New York City police officer died by suicide amid what officials have declared a "mental health crisis."

The Sergeants Benevolent Association said on social media Saturday that the late officer was a sergeant, but neither the union nor the NYPD have identified the officer.
Commissioner James O’Neill pleaded with his police force to seek help for any mental health issues that they may be facing.

"To every member of the NYPD, please know this: it is okay to feel vulnerable," O'Neill said in a statement Saturday. "It is okay if you are facing struggles. And it is okay
to seek help from others. You may not know this, and it may be hard to imagine, but you are not out there all by yourself."

On June 5, Deputy Chief Steven Silks, 62, was found dead in a police vehicle in Queens just days away from retirement. About 24 hours later, Detective Joseph Calabrese, 58, was
found dead at Brooklyn's Plum Beach.

Just a few days later, a 29-year-old officer died outside a precinct on Staten Island. Kevin Preiss, 53, a 24-year veteran of the force, was found dead at his Long Island home at the end of the month.

"This is a mental health crisis," O’Neill declared in June after the third death.

In a survey conducted by NBC New York, 78 percent of police officers across the country reported experiencing critical stress on the job, with 68 percent saying that stress triggered unresolved emotional issues.

Additionally, 16 percent of officers said that they had thoughts of suicide.

"This has to be a continuous process. This has to be done at roll calls. This has to be done in video training," O'Neill told NBC New York in June. "We need to talk about this. This can’t be a deep dark secret.
People have to understand that there is help available."
----------------

🇰🇵 **US citizen released from North Korea says he spied for US, South Korea**
*FOX News* - <http://archive.fo/Gbb3E>

"A U.S. citizen convicted of espionage in North Korea and later freed from prison there has admitted he was indeed spying for the U.S. and South Korea — detailing how he surreptitiously collected sensitive information from the Hermit Kingdom and also highlighting that not all of Pyongyang's pronouncements about captured spies are exaggeration, paranoia or propaganda.

Kim Dong Chul, a South Korea-born U.S. citizen and former Virginia resident, was released from North Korea in May 2018 after an April 2016 conviction that landed him in prison for 10 years with hard labor. He had been tried for allegedly "perpetrating state subversive plots and espionage against" North Korea.

And it turns out, that's exactly what he did.

He admitted before his sentencing to collecting and passing confidential information to South Korea, but such confessions are often stage-managed and coerced. But in an article published Thursday, a now-free Kim told NK News he also spied for the U.S. to obtain “very significant” information valuable to U.S. intelligence agencies."
----------------

🇧🇷 **Death toll in Brazil prison massacre rises to 57 with over a dozen decapitated**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/Vzd0b>

A bloody clash between two prison gangs on Monday left at least 57 inmates dead with 16 of them decapitated, authorities in the state of Para said, the latest deadly
clash as Brazil’s government struggles to control the country’s overcrowded jails.

State authorities said the riot began around 7 a.m. local time (1000 GMT) at a prison in the northern city of Altamira, and involved rival gangs.

Prisoners belonging to the Comando Classe A gang set fire to a cell containing inmates from the rival Comando Vermelho, or Red Command, gang, Para’s state government said in a statement.

Most of the dead died in the fire, they said, while two guards were taken hostage, but later released.

“It was a targeted act,” state prison director Jarbas Vasconcelos said in the statement, adding there was no prior intelligence that suggested an attack would take place.

“The aim was to show that it was a settling of accounts between the two gangs.”

Videos circulating online showed inmates at the prison celebrating as they kicked decapitated heads across the floor. Reuters was unable, however, to independently verify the footage.

Elected on a tough-on-crime message, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has benefited from a sharp drop in homicides so far this year. Nonetheless, endemic prison violence has been a
stubborn public security challenge in one of the world’s most violent countries.

In May, at least 55 inmates died during prison attacks in the northern state of Amazonas. Weeks of violence in Amazonas in 2017 resulted in 150 prison deaths as local gangs backed
by Brazil’s two largest drug factions went to war.
----------------

🇪🇹 **Ethiopia 'breaks' tree-planting record to tackle climate change**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/5TkDk>

Ethiopia has planted more than 350 million trees in a day, officials say, in what they believe is a world record.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is leading the project, which aims to counter the effects of deforestation and climate change in the drought-prone country.

Some public offices have been shut down to allow civil servants to take part.

The UN says Ethiopia's forest coverage declined from 35% of total land in the early 20th Century to a little above 4% in the 2000s.

Mr Abiy launched the tree-planting exercise as part of his Green Legacy Initiative, which is taking place in 1,000 sites across the country.

Officials were assigned to count the seedlings being planted by volunteers, reports BBC's Kalkidan Yibeltal in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia's Minister of Innovation and Technology Getahun Mekuria tweeted that more than 350 million trees were planted in 12 hours

The aim is to plant a total of four billion indigenous trees.

Promotional videos have run on state media urging the public to plant and care for trees, our reporter says.

Staff from the United Nations, African Union and foreign embassies in Ethiopia have also been taking part in the exercise.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Police ID Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting suspect as Santino William Legan; victims include 2 children**
*LA Times* - <http://archive.is/lqzc1>

The man police say opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on Sunday used a rifle banned in California to kill three people, including two children, and wound 12 others. Police identified the gunman as Santino William Legan , 19, of Gilroy. A 6-year-old boy, Stephen Romero, and a 13-year-old girl, Keyla Salazar, both of San Jose, were killed, the Santa Clara County coroner’s office said. Officials at Keuka College identified the third victim as graduate Trevor Irby, 25, of Romulus, N.Y.

The gunman was originally from Gilroy and spent some time in Nevada living with family, according to the city police chief. He also appeared to have posted to his Instagram a photo of a Smokey Bear sign warning about fire danger with a caption that instructed people to read the novel “Might Is Right.” The book, published in 1890 under the pseudonym Ragnar Redbeard, includes principles related to social Darwinism and is described as including misogynistic and racist ideas.

The popular food festival at the “Garlic Capital of the World” was about to close about 5:30 p.m. Sunday when authorities allege Legan opened fire. Chief Smithee said the gunman was able to circumvent the festival’s security by entering from a creek area and cutting through a fence.

Videos from the shooting scene showed people screaming and running across the festival grounds as shots were fired around them. Some described the chaotic situation as the scariest moments of their lives.

Legan was fatally shot by police Sunday after the mass shooting at the popular food festival in Santa Clara County.
----------------

🇺🇲 **Journalist attacked by Antifa: 'Criminal cartel' wants violent revolution, should be designated as terror organization**
*FOX News* - <http://archive.fo/BhmDT>

Journalist Andy Ngo, who was brutally attacked by Antifa members, said Monday that Republicans and President Trump are "correct" in pushing to designate the far-left group a terrorist organization.
“This will provide a framework for local authorities and, especially, federal authorities to start investigating this criminal cartel for the street thugs that they are," Ngo told "Fox & Friends."
"But in addition to the street hooliganism that we see over and over on the streets of America, this movement also has a political ideology that is agitating for a violent political revolution.”

Ngo, a conservative writer, was attacked by Antifa members during a clash with a far-right group called the “Proud Boys" last month. Ngo posted photos of himself from a hospital, with bruises, cuts, and scratches on his face and said he incurred a brain injury.

Host Brian Kilmeade asked Ngo for an update on the Portland police investigation of his assault. Ngo said there have been no arrests in the four weeks since he was beaten and robbed.
"I don’t want to be cynical about the police investigation but this has been a pattern of incidents of Antifa violence in this city that never results in arrests or charges," he responded.
He went on to say, “Portland’s government system is odd...our mayor is also our police commissioner and he’s up for re-election in a city that is mostly pro-Antifa and anti-police so you can imagine the variables that are causing what we are seeing now in Portland.”
----------------

🇺🇲**Trump: Black leaders boycotting him go against 'own people'**
*AOL News* - <http://archive.fo/jLRfd>

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that black legislators planning to boycott his appearance at a Virginia event commemorating the 400th anniversary of the rise of American democracy are going "against their own people."

Trump said African Americans "love the job" he's doing and are "happy as hell" with his recent comments criticizing a majority black district in the Baltimore area and its congressman.

Trump spoke at the White House before heading to historic Jamestown in Virginia.

Black state lawmakers plan to stay away from Trump's speech, in part over what they call Trump's disparaging comments about minority leaders.

A last-minute announcement that the president would participate in the Jamestown commemoration Tuesday marking the first representative assembly in the Western Hemisphere injected tension into an event years in the making. Some other top Democrats have also pledged a boycott in protest.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Procter & Gamble Loses $5 Billion Dollars Following ‘Woke’ Gillette Ad Campaign**
*Summit* - <https://archive.is/WzVKS>

Procter & Gamble has reported a net loss of $5.24 billion, prompting speculation as to whether a boycott of the company’s Gillette shaving products after a divisive ‘woke’ ad campaign hit the company’s bottom line.

It has now been revealed that Procter & Gamble took an $8 billion writedown on its Gillette shaving business, contributing to “a net loss of about $5.24 billion, or $2.12 per share, for the quarter ended June 30.”
---------------

🇺🇸 **Federal Judge Dismisses DNC Lawsuit Against Trump Campaign**
*Anti-War* - <https://archive.is/XfDFj#20%>

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on Tuesday from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) against members of President Trump’s campaign, WikiLeaks and the Russian government. The lawsuit claimed that these parties conspired together to hack the DNC emails and sabotage the 2016 election.

The dismissal comes after Robert Mueller’s testimony before congress, the Senate Intelligence report that found no concrete evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election and Dan Coats’ resignation as Director of National Intelligence. Coats was a firm believer in the idea that Russia attacked our democracy in 2016.

Although Koeltl does believe it was the Russian government who hacked the DNC, he holds firm that federal law prohibits suits against foreign governments except in “highly specific circumstances.” Koeltl also said even if Trump’s campaign did obtain these documents from the Russian government, they would be breaking no laws if they published them.
---------------

🇺🇸 **U.S. has intel that Osama bin Laden's son and heir, Hamza, is dead, officials say**
*NBC News* - <http://archive.is/ztbIx>

WASHINGTON — The United States has obtained intelligence that the son and potential successor of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Hamza bin Laden, is dead, according to three U.S. officials. The officials would not provide details of where or when Hamza bin Laden died or if the U.S. played a role in his death. It is unclear if the U.S. has confirmed his death.

In February, the State Department announced it would pay as much as $1 million for information on Hamza bin Laden's whereabouts. The department's Counterterrorism Rewards Program described the younger bin Laden on Twitter as "an emerging al Qaeda leader" who "has threatened attacks against the United States and allies."
---------------

🇹🇷 **Turkey moves to oversee all online content, raises concerns over censorship**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/6F0Uy>

Turkey on Thursday granted its radio and television watchdog sweeping oversight over all online content, including streaming platforms like Netflix and online news outlets, in a move that raised concerns over possible censorship.

The move was initially approved by Turkey’s parliament in March last year, with support from President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party and its nationalist ally.

The regulation, published in Turkey’s Official Gazette on Thursday, mandates all online content providers to obtain broadcasting licenses from RTUK, which will then supervise the content put out by the providers.

Aside from streaming giant Netflix, other platforms like local streaming websites PuhuTV and BluTV, which in recent years have produced popular shows, will be subject to supervision and potential fines or loss of their license.

In addition to subscription services like Netflix, free online news outlets which rely on advertising for their revenues will also be subject to the same measures.

“The aim of this regulation is to establish the methods and principles to regulate the presentation and provision of radio, television and on-demand broadcast services, the handing of broadcast licenses to media service
providers, the granting of broadcasting authorities to platform administrators and the supervision of the broadcasts in question,” the regulation said.
----------------

🇺🇸 **El Paso shooting: 20 people dead, 26 injured, suspect in custody, police say**
*NBC News* - <https://archive.fo/Tc2mI>

A gunman opened fire Saturday in a Walmart and around a nearby shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, leaving 20 people dead and 26 injured, law enforcement officials said.

In delivering an updated number of deceased, Gov. Greg Abbott called it "one of the most deadly days in the history of Texas."

"Twenty innocent people from El Paso have lost their lives," he said.

Authorities appealed for urgent blood donations for the wounded.

One suspect was in custody, officials said.

Law enforcement sources say police identified the suspect as Patrick Crusius, 21, from the Dallas area. Sgt. Robert Gomez of the El Paso Police Department said no shots were fired by law enforcement.
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🇺🇸 🇮🇱 **EXCLUSIVE – Defense Sources: Turkey Aiding Islamic State Resurgence After Trump Devastated Caliphate**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.is/5M4TF#0%>

Turkey has been working to bring thousands of Islamic State fighters to the region to launch campaigns in Iraq and Kurdish regions along the Syria-Iraq border, according to informed Middle Eastern defense officials. The officials finger Turkish intelligence and military personnel as helping to facilitate a resurgence of IS to essentially work as proxies to attack Kurdish positions and pressure the West and regional actors into supporting Turkish interests in Syria. Some of the IS fighters are coming from camps inside Turkey where forces tied to Turkey have helped facilitate training, the officials said.

However, the defense officials pointed out that it is Turkey that has been supporting extremists, especially dangerous Islamic fighters under the banner of IS. The officials warned that Turkish actions are resulting in the formation of a new IS terror army that can wreak havoc in the region after U.S. and allied efforts under the Trump administration massively damaged the IS terror apparatus and essentially destroyed the previously emerging IS caliphate in the region.
---------------

🇳🇬 **West African slavery lives on, 400 years after transatlantic trade began**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/XiAyO>

Blessing was only six years old when her mother arranged for her to become an unpaid housemaid for a family in the Nigerian city of Abuja, on the promise they would put her through school.

In her home town in southwest Nigeria, her mother had trouble making enough money to feed her three children. But when Blessing arrived in Abuja, instead of going to school, the family worked her round-the-clock, beat her with an electrical wire if she forgot one of her chores and fed her rotten leftovers.

When her mother later moved to the city to be closer to her daughter, Blessing was unable to be alone with her when she came to visit.

“They would tell me that my mother was coming, that I should not tell her what was happening to me, that I should not even say anything,” she says of the family.

“If she asks me how am I doing I should say I am doing fine, they said.”

As the world marks 400 years since the first recorded African slaves arrived in North America, slavery remains a modern-day scourge. Over 40 million people are estimated to be trapped in forced labor, forced marriages or other forms of sexual exploitation, according to the United Nations.

Blessing, now 11, is one such victim. She was rescued in 2016 by the Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF), an anti-human trafficking group, after two years of isolation and abuse. She is still under the care of WOTCLEF, which gave consent for her to be interviewed for this story.

Africa has the highest prevalence of slavery, with more than seven victims for every 1,000 people, according to a 2017 report by human rights group Walk Free Foundation and the International Labour Office. The report defines slavery as “situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuse of power.”
----------------

🇦🇺 **Australia prime minister joins transgender policy backlash**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/l5hK8>

Cricket Australia (CA) have come under fire for a new policy aimed at making the sport inclusive for transgender and gender diverse players, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison describing it as “heavy-handed” and “mystifying” on Friday.

CA issued two policies on Thursday, one setting out the rules for “Elite” cricket, which they said was closely aligned with the 2017 International Cricket Council guidelines, and the other for “Community Cricket”.

While the “Elite” policy demands that trans women must reduce their testosterone levels over a 12-month period to compete in women’s cricket, the “Community” policy requires only a nomination of a gender identity.

There was an immediate backlash on social media with some critics lambasting the governing body for progressive posturing but the majority accusing CA of fundamentally undermining women’s sport.

Morrison waded into the debate in a radio interview with conservative pundit Alan Jones on Friday and suggested the mandatory policies were unnecessary, at grassroots level at least.

“I think it’s pretty heavy-handed to put it pretty mildly,” the prime minister told Sydney radio station 2GB.

“I think it’s a very sensitive issue. I would need to have Cricket Australia understand that this is a very heavy-handed approach they’re taking with local sport, and I think there are far more practical ways to handle these issues than these sort of heavy mandatory ways of doing it.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Jeffrey Epstein is dead. His cases could live on for years**
*CNN* - <https://archive.fo/IErsP>

The apparent suicide of financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein early Saturday could lead to more accusers and witnesses stepping forward as well as a flurry of civil suits against the multimillionaire's estate, according to legal experts.

Authorities believe Epstein, 66, hanged himself at New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center, a law enforcement official told CNN -- less than a day after a court unsealed documents detailing disturbing claims against him and associates. His attorney is calling for an investigation into his death.

"The federal criminal case will end with his death," CNN legal analyst Paul Callan said. "But on the civil side, those cases will continue. They'll now be converted into an action against the estate of Jeffrey Epstein."
---------------

🇺🇸 **Chicken plants raided by ICE 'willfully and unlawfully' hired unauthorized workers: court documents**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/ujNmw>

Almost all of the Mississippi chicken plants raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on Wednesday were "willfully and unlawfully" employing people without proper work documentation authorizing them to hold jobs in the U.S., according to unsealed court documents.

Federal investigators who executed the raid on seven plants in all arrested 680 people, drawing in part on informant information -- in what's been described as the largest immigration raid in a decade. (Roughly 30 of those arrested were released on humanitarian grounds, while another 270 were released after being processed by ICE, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi said Thursday.)

An informant posing as a worker at the latter of two chicken processing plants, PH Food Inc. in Morton and A&B Inc. in Pelahatchie, told Homeland Security investigators that both are owned by a Chinese man from California, Huo You Liang, more commonly referred to as Victor by his employees in Mississippi. The informant contended that Victor, as well as managers at other plants, did not follow state regulations which require employers to utilize E-Verify, a federal electronic verification system, to validate the authenticity of work documents including identification, Social Security numbers and tax information.

"The payroll companies as well as PH Food Inc. and A&B Inc. do not verify the authenticity of their documents," the informant told investigators, according to court documents, allowing employees to use their real names supported by fake documents to get hired.

Another informant at PH Food said that the majority of the 240 employees at PH's plant as well as 80 employees at A&B's plant employed many Guatemalan immigrants lacking in proper work authorizations and documentation.
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🇳🇴 **Suspect in Norway mosque shooting not admitting guilt: lawyer**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/btvK2>

The man suspected of shooting at people inside a Norwegian mosque on Saturday and of separately killing his stepsister does not admit to any crime and is not speaking with investigators, his lawyer said on Monday.

“He is exercising his right not to be interrogated,” his defense attorney, Unni Fries, told Reuters. “He is not admitting any guilt.”

A court is expected to rule later on Monday on a police request to detain the 21-year-old for the next several weeks.

Police said on Sunday they were investigating whether the man was guilty of breaching anti-terrorism laws when shots were fired at the al-Noor Islamic Center near the Norwegian capital, although no one was hit in the attack.

The man, who is also suspected of killing his 17-year old stepsister before the attack, was eventually overpowered by a member of the mosque and held down by several people before his arrest.
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🇬🇹 **Guatemalan conservative claims victory in presidential election**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/6Hpzy>

Guatemalan conservative Alejandro Giammattei claimed victory in Sunday’s presidential election, saying it would be an honor to serve as president
after preliminary results gave him a massive lead over his center-left rival.

“It wasn’t easy, but the goal was met. It will be an immense honor to be president of this country that I love so much,” he said at a news conference
in Guatemala City. “We will rebuild Guatemala. I have no words to say how grateful I am.”
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🇺🇸 🇨🇳 **State Media: Hong Kong Protests Are U.S. ‘Warfare’ Tactic Against China**
*Breitbart* - <http://archive.is/sQeBT>

Pro-democracy protests are a “form of warfare employed by the West to destabilize certain countries” and the peaceful Hong Kong protest movement is an American-fabricated attempt to weaken China from within, the Communist Party’s People’s Daily suggested on Monday.

The People’s Daily does not deviate from Chinese government opinions. Its column accusing American officials of deliberately emboldening pro-democracy protesters in the southern autonomous city was published in tandem with yet another rant from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying accusing Hong Kong protesters of being American puppets, not a legitimate representation of the sentiments of the people of the city.

“If the violence and chaos are allowed to continue, not only the safety of Hong Kong citizens’ lives and property will be endangered, the governance authority of the SAR government, the cornerstone of the rule of law in Hong Kong, the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, and the ‘one country, two systems’ will also be destroyed,” he said.
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🇩🇰🇬🇱 **Greenland tells Trump it is open for business but not for sale**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/hGHQd>

Greenland on Friday dismissed the notion that it might be up for sale after reports that U.S. President Donald Trump had privately discussed with his advisers the idea of buying the world’s biggest island.

“We are open for business, but we’re not for sale,” Greenland’s foreign minister Ane Lone Bagger told Reuters.

Trump is due to visit Copenhagen in September and the Arctic will be on the agenda during meetings with the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

Talk of a Greenland purchase was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that the notion had been laughed off by some advisers as
a joke but was taken more seriously by others in the White House.

Danish politicians on Friday poured scorn on the idea.

“It has to be an April Fool’s joke. Totally out of season,” former prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Twitter.

“If he is truly contemplating this, then this is final proof, that he has gone mad,” foreign affairs spokesman for the Danish People’s Party, Soren Espersen, told broadcaster DR.

“The thought of Denmark selling 50,000 citizens to the United States is completely ridiculous,” he said.

Greenland, a self-ruling part of Denmark located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, is dependant on Danish economic support. It handles its own domestic affairs while
Copenhagen looks after defense and foreign policy.

“I am sure a majority in Greenland believes it is better to have a relation to Denmark than the United States, in the long term,” Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, Danish MP from Greenland’s
second-largest party Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA), told Reuters.
----------------

🇮🇹 **Italian PM resigns, denounces Salvini for sinking government**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/CoJOM>

Italy’s prime minister resigned on Tuesday after launching a blistering attack on his own interior minister, Matteo Salvini, accusing him of sinking the ruling coalition and endangering the economy for personal and political gain.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, addressing parliament after it was recalled from its summer recess to decide the future of the 14-month-old government, accused the far-right League party chief Salvini of seeking to cash
in on his rising popularity.

In a shock move on Aug. 8, Salvini declared that his alliance with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement was dead and called for elections, but the gambit could yet prove a big political blunder and open the door to
power for his rivals.

Politicians from 5-Star and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) are openly discussing forming a new coalition which would push the League into opposition and give Italy a more centrist, pro-European government.

“The interior minister has shown that he is following his own interests and those of his party,” Conte told a packed Senate, a stony-faced Salvini sitting by his side. “His decisions pose serious risks for this country.”

He described Salvini’s actions as reckless and “liable to tip the country into a spiral of political uncertainty and financial instability”.

After the Senate debate Conte, who belongs to neither of the coalition parties, handed his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella, who said he would begin talks with parliamentary groups on Wednesday to see if a new
coalition can be formed.

Failing that, Mattarella would have to dissolve parliament, 3-1/2 years ahead of schedule, to allow for autumn elections.

The consultations with party delegations will begin with minor groups at 1400 GMT on Wednesday. Mattarella will hear all the main parties on Thursday, concluding with 5-Star at 1500 GMT.
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🇺🇸 **Ocasio-Cortez Is Calling For Another American Institution To Be Abolished**
*Daily Wire* - <https://archive.fo/uW6hw>

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) posted an Instagram Live story on Monday mocking the United States' voting system and calling for the abolishment of the Electoral College.

"We're coming to you live from the Electoral College," Ocasio-Cortez said as she recorded an empty desert highway. "Many votes here as you can see — [it's a] very efficient way to choose leadership of the country. I mean, I can't think of any other way, can you?"

The self-proclaimed "radical" congresswoman cited a March 2019 report from New York Magazine's daily Intelligencer newsletter titled "Here's Every Defense of the Electoral College — and Why They're All Wrong." She subsequently noted that the report is for "all the Republicans getting big mad [because] the electoral college is, in fact, a scam."

Ocasio-Cortez touched on several intersecting points, all of which are based on the underlying idea that the American voting system is racist and therefore is discriminatory against minorities.

"The Electoral College has a racial injustice breakdown," Ocasio-Cortez said. "Due to severe racial disparities in certain states, the electoral college effectively weights white voters over voters of color, as opposed to a 'one person, one vote' system where all are counted equally."
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:flag_nk:flag_jp: **Japan warns North Korea now has miniaturized nukes small enough to fit on its ballistic missiles and is a 'serious and imminent threat'**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/bObu8>

North Korea has miniaturised nuclear warheads and made them small enough to fit on ballistic missiles, Japan believes.

Tokyo defence chiefs warn in a new white paper that North Korea's military activities pose a 'serious and imminent threat'.

In last year's report Japan said it was 'possible' that North Korea had achieved miniaturisation, but Tokyo now appears to have upgraded its assessment, according to Japanese newspaper Yomiuri.

Japan is seen as a 'primary target' of nearby North Korea's weapons capabilities and fears that Pyongyang's nuclear programme is 'growing unabated', experts say.

The latest findings come alongside newly-released pictures which suggest a North Korean plant may be leaking hazardous waste into a nearby river.

The Japanese report highlights the lack of progress on denuclearisation talks, said Vipin Narang, a nuclear affairs expert at MIT.

'It is Japan that is most threatened, and probably the primary target of such a capability,' he said.

'So openly acknowledging it underscores Tokyo's acute fears that North Korea's nuclear program continues to grow unabated with no foreseeable plan to slow its growth, let alone eliminate them.'

The report is due to be approved at a Cabinet meeting in Japan in mid-September.

In last year's Defence White Paper, Japan said 'miniaturising a nuclear weapon small enough to be mounted on a ballistic missile requires a considerably high degree of technological capacity'.

However, they said 'it is possible that North Korea has achieved the miniaturisation of nuclear weapons and has developed nuclear warheads.'
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🇺🇸 **David Koch, Industrialist Who Fueled Right-Wing Movement, Dies at 79**
*New York Times* - <https://archive.is/I0m45>

David H. Koch, who joined his brother, Charles G. Koch, in business and political ventures that grew into the nation’s second-largest private company and a powerful right-wing libertarian movement that helped reshape American politics, has died. He was 79.

Charles Koch announced the death in a statement, which gave no cause but noted that David Koch had suffered from prostate cancer in the past.

Hitching his star to the soaring ambitions of his older brother, David Koch (pronounced coke) became one of the world’s richest people, with assets of $42.2 billion in 2019 and a 42 percent stake in the global family enterprise, Koch Industries. He also became a nationally known philanthropist and the early public face of the Koch political ascendancy, as the Libertarian Party’s candidate for vice president in 1980.

Three decades after David Koch’s public steps into politics, analysts say, the Koch brothers’ money-fueled brand of libertarianism helped give rise to the Tea Party movement, strengthened the far-right wing of a resurgent Republican Party and played a significant role in the election of Donald J. Trump as president in 2016.
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🇺🇸 **Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Treated Again For Cancer**
*WFUV/NPR* - <https://archive.fo/hg42h>

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has just completed three weeks of radiation treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the U.S. Supreme Court disclosed Friday.

The radiation therapy, conducted on an outpatient basis, began Aug. 5, shortly after a localized cancerous tumor was discovered on Ginsburg's pancreas. The treatment included the insertion of a stent in Ginsburg's bile duct, according to a statement issued by the court.

Doctors at Sloan Kettering said further tests showed no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body. The treatment comes just months after Ginsburg was operated on for lung cancer last December. The 86-year-old justice has been treated for cancer in various forms over the past 20 years.

"Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg today completed a three-week course of stereotactic ablative radiation therapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City," a statement from the Supreme Court read. "The focused radiation treatment began on August 5 and was administered on an outpatient basis to treat a tumor on her pancreas. The abnormality was first detected after a routine blood test in early July, and a biopsy performed on July 31 at Sloan Kettering confirmed a localized malignant tumor.

"As part of her treatment, a bile duct stent was placed. The Justice tolerated treatment well. She cancelled her annual summer visit to Santa Fe, but has otherwise maintained an active schedule. The tumor was treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body. Justice Ginsburg will continue to have periodic blood tests and scans. No further treatment is needed at this time."
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🇫🇷 **Squabbles erupt as G7 leaders open summit in French resort**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/DpZh5>

Squabbles erupted among G7 nations on Saturday as their leaders gathered for an annual summit, exposing sharp differences on global trade tensions, Britain’s exit from the EU and how to respond to the fires raging in the Amazon rainforest.

French President Emmanuel Macron, the summit host, planned the three-day meeting in the Atlantic seaside resort of Biarritz as a chance to unite a group of wealthy countries that has struggled in recent years to speak with one voice.

Macron set an agenda for the group - France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - that included the defense of democracy, gender equality, education and the environment. He invited Asian, African and Latin American leaders to join them for a global push on these issues.

However, in a bleak assessment of relations between once-close allies, European Council President Donald Tusk said it was getting “increasingly” hard to find common ground.

“This is another G7 summit which will be a difficult test of unity and solidarity of the free world and its leaders,” he told reporters ahead of the meeting. “This may be the last moment to restore our political community.”

U.S. President Donald Trump brought last year’s G7 summit to an acrimonious end, walking out early from the gathering in Canada and rejecting the final communique.

Trump arrived in France a day after responding to a new round of Chinese tariffs by announcing Washington would impose an additional 5% duty on some $550 billion worth of Chinese imports, the latest tit-for-tat trade war escalation by the world’s two largest economies.

“So far so good,” Trump told reporters as he sat on a seafront terrace with Macron, saying the two leaders had a special relationship. “We’ll accomplish a lot this weekend.”
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🇺🇸 **Steven Mosher: China Loses Money on Everything But Exports, Trump’s Tariffs Will Break Them**
Breitbart - <http://archive.is/rHWNC>

Exports are the lifeblood of China’s economy, stated Mosher, highlighting the inefficiency and corruption endemic to centrally-planned economies. “The tariffs have hurt the export sector of economy tremendously in China, and remember, that’s the only sector of the economy that actually makes money, the rest of the economy loses money,” Mosher remarked. “The state-owned enterprises [are] these huge dinosaurs run by huge non-productive bureaucracies consisting of Communist Party officials who have no idea how a market economy works and are just there to take bribes, make deals, and pocket the profits.”

“The state-owned enterprises are all losing money,” Mosher said. “The state-owned steel mills, the state-owned railroads, they’re all in huge amounts of debt, and of course the government keeps funding them, and the money comes from what? The money comes from what is stolen from the West and from the United States. It comes from the export sector of the economy and the trade surplus that President Trump is trying so manfully to reduce, now. That’s the key to bringing China to heel. If you can cause enough pain to the export sector of the Chinese economy, it ripples throughout China, it hurts the political class, it hurts the economy in general, and it will eventually bring them around.”

Mosher concluded, “Certainly, I have great respect for the Chinese people, who are among the hardest working, most enterprising, and most intelligent people the world has ever seen. It’s a great tragedy that they’re languishing under one of the most tyrannical surveillance states the world has ever seen.”
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🇨🇦 **Anti-immigration billboards across Canada taken down after backlash**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/syB8k>

Anti-immigrant ads on billboards across Canada are being taken down after a public outcry and multiple petitions against them, the company that owns the billboards said.

The ads were launched in support of Maxime Bernier, leader of the small right-wing anti-immigration People’s Party of Canada, and called for a halt on mass immigration to Canada.
They started appearing in several Canadian cities last week and were bought by True North Strong and Free Advertising Corp (TNSFAC).

Bernier, 56, has focused on limiting immigration and protecting so-called Canadian values in contrast with more moderate Conservatives, prompting some pundits to refer to him as Canada’s Donald Trump.

Canada will have a federal election on Oct. 21 and immigration has broad support, some polls show. A Pew Research Center report published Aug. 9 found that Canadians have among the highest support in the world for immigration.

Although the People’s Party of Canada was not responsible for the ad, Bernier was upset that it was taken down.

“The message on the billboard is not ‘controversial’ for two thirds of Canadians who agree with it, and for those who disagree but support free speech and an open discussion,” Bernier said on Twitter on Monday.

“It was never my or Pattison Outdoor’s intention to offend, alienate or in any way insult the public by allowing this ad to be run,” Pattison Outdoor President Randy Otto said in a statement, adding that he regretted the
decision to run the ads.

TNSFAC registered as a third party with Elections Canada on Aug. 16, just days before the billboards first garnered attention on Aug. 23. If an entity runs an advertising campaign worth over $500 that is considered
political in nature and it must register as a third party, according to the Canada Elections Act.
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🇬🇧 **Johnson to suspend parliament before Brexit, opposition denounces 'coup'**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/L0fi5>

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will suspend Britain’s parliament for more than a month before Brexit, enraging opponents and raising the stakes in the country’s most serious political crisis in decades.

Cheered on by U.S President Donald Trump, Johnson launched his boldest move yet to take the country out of the European Union by Oct. 31 with or without a divorce deal, by setting a new date for a state opening of parliament.

Known as the Queen’s Speech, the formal event will be held on Oct. 14 and be preceded by a suspension of the House of Commons, meaning parliament will not sit between mid-September and mid-October.

The move, which had to be approved by Queen Elizabeth, limits the time opponents have to derail a disorderly Brexit, but also increases the chance that Johnson could face a vote of no-confidence in his government, and possibly an election.

It also risks dragging the 93-year-old, politically neutral queen into the dispute. So incensed were leaders of the opposition parties by Johnson’s plan that several have written to the monarch asking for a meeting to express their concern.
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🇨🇳 **Amid crisis, China rejected Hong Kong plan to appease protesters**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/gcBQy>

Earlier this summer, Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, submitted a report to Beijing that assessed protesters’ five key demands and found that withdrawing a contentious extradition bill could help defuse the mounting political crisis in the territory.

The Chinese central government rejected Lam’s proposal to withdraw the extradition bill and ordered her not to yield to any of the protesters’ other demands at that time, three individuals with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

China’s role in directing how Hong Kong handles the protests has been widely assumed, supported by stern statements in state media about the country’s sovereignty and protesters’ “radical” goals.

Beijing’s rebuff of Lam’s proposal for how to resolve the crisis, detailed for the first time by Reuters, represents concrete evidence of the extent to which China is controlling the Hong Kong government’s response to the unrest.

The Chinese central government has condemned the protests and accused foreign powers of fuelling unrest. The Foreign Ministry has repeatedly warned other nations against interfering in Hong Kong, reiterating that the situation there is an “internal affair.”

Lam’s report on the tumult, made before an Aug. 7 meeting in Shenzhen about Hong Kong led by senior Chinese officials that examined the feasibility of the five demands of the protesters, analyzing how conceding to some of these might quiet things down, the individuals with direct knowledge said.
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🇳🇱 **Rotterdam 12 points: port city to stage Eurovision Song Festival**
*Dutch News* - <https://archive.fo/Z7Wjj>

Rotterdam has been selected as the host city for next year’s Eurovision Song Festival, after beating Maastricht in a short-list of two.

The Netherlands will host the show because singer songwriter Duncan Lawrence won the contest last year – the first Dutch victory in 44 years.

The contest will be staged in the Ahoy exhibition complex which hosts trade fairs, tennis matches and the North Sea Jazz festival.
The semi-finals take place on Tuesday May 12 and Thursday may 14, with the grand final on Saturday, May 16.

Rotterdam, Utrecht, Maastricht, Arnhem and Den Bosch all submitted formal ‘bid books’ to host the show, with just two making the shortlist.

Amsterdam pulled out of the running after mayor Femke Halsema said none of the venues that were capable of putting on the event were available for the required eight-week period.

Staging the festival is likely to cost up to €30m, and Zuid-Holland provincial council has said it will contribute €1m. Rotterdam alderman Said Kasmi said he did not yet know how much the city would
contribute to the bill but that it would be considerable.
----------------