🇷🇺 **Russia cuts Rocketman scenes citing 'homosexual propaganda' law**
*The Guardian* - <https://archive.is/W9rDB>

A Russian media company has reportedly cut all scenes featuring gay sex and men kissing from the Elton John biopic Rocketman because of laws banning “homosexual propaganda”.

An estimated five minutes of footage have been cut from the film in an attempt to play down the sexuality of one of the world’s most famous gay celebrities for a conservative Russian audience.

The cuts were first reported by Russian journalists after the film’s 30 May release in Moscow. Anton Dolin, a popular Russian film critic, wrote on Facebook that “all scenes with kissing, sex and oral sex between men have been cut out… The nastiest part is that the final caption has been removed from the finale.”

While the original caption said that John lives with his husband and that they are raising children together, the Russian version says instead that he established an Aids foundation and continues to work with his musical partner.

“Sorry, Sir Elton,” Dolin wrote.

On Friday, John and the film’s makers released a joint statement condemning the cuts: “We reject in the strongest possible terms the decision to pander to local laws and censor Rocketman for the Russian market, a move we were unaware of until today.

“That the local distributor has edited out certain scenes, denying the audience the opportunity to see the film as it was intended is a sad reflection of the divided world we still live in and how it can still be so cruelly unaccepting of the love between two people.

“We believe in building bridges and open dialogue, and will continue to push for the breaking down of barriers until all people are heard equally across the world.”
--------------

🇺🇸 **U.S. to sell 34 surveillance drones to allies in South China Sea region**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/nQYZ1>

The Trump administration has moved ahead with a surveillance drone sale to four U.S. allies in the South China Sea region as acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said Washington will no longer
“tiptoe” around Chinese behavior in Asia.

The drones would afford greater intelligence gathering capabilities potentially curbing Chinese activity in the region.

Shanahan did not directly name China when making accusations of “actors” destabilizing the region in a speech at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday but went on to say the United States
would not ignore Chinese behavior.

The Pentagon announced on Friday it would sell 34 ScanEagle drones, made by Boeing Co. to the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam for a total of $47 million.

China claims almost all of the strategic South China Sea and frequently lambastes the United States and its allies over naval operations near Chinese-occupied islands. Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Taiwan and Vietnam have competing claims.

The Pentagon said Friday’s sales included spare and repair parts, support equipment, tools, training and technical services and work on the equipment was expected to be completed by March 2022.

As many as 12 unarmed drones and equipment would go to Malaysia for about $19 million. Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country would buy eight drones, the Philippines eight, and Vietnam six.

In 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration rolled out a long-awaited overhaul of U.S. arms export policy aimed at expanding sales to allies, saying it would bolster the American defense industry and
create jobs at home.
----------------

🇿🇦 **Another white South African farmer who spoke out about land grabs is shot dead as he eats dinner at home with his family just weeks after fellow landowner was beaten to death**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.is/e0E15>

A South African wine merchant who spoke out against attacks on white farmers was found dead after being shot on Sunday night while dining with family and friends.

Stefan Smit, 62, had been openly critical of the threat of land grabs on his property - a large estate in Stellenbosch, Western Cape - South Africa's most famous wine region.

It was a murder seemingly fuelled by a land dispute created when a squat straddling Smit's Louisenhof Estate was set up, expanding into a vast settlement.

The farmer had previously complained about how citizens from a nearby township had begun erecting shacks at the back of his farm, culminating in him getting an injunction to prevent people from encroaching on his space.

Smit was killed when four men entered his vineyard through an unlocked back door and shot him dead. His wife and a family friend managed to survive the attack.

Pieter Haasbroek, a friend of Mr. Smit, told The New York Times: 'They were busy eating dinner with friends when four masked men came into the house. They shot Smit dead. What we feared came true.'

The dispute over land has been ongoing and increasingly fractious, but police said it was too early to tell if Smit's death was connected to that or a random murder.
--------------

🇦🇺 **Federal police raid home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst**
*The Guardian* - <https://archive.fo/HWA1V>

The Australian federal police have raided the home of News Corp Australia journalist Annika Smethurst investigating the publication of a leaked plan to allow government spying on Australians.

On Tuesday police executed a warrant investigating the “alleged publishing of information classified as an official secret” which they said had the potential to undermine Australia’s national security.

The warrant from an ACT magistrate gave police authority to search the home, computer and mobile phone of the News Corp Sunday titles’ political editor.

The raid prompted outrage from News Corp Australia, which labelled it a “dangerous act of intimidation” targeted at public interest reporting.

In April 2018 Smethurst reported that the heads of the defence and home affairs ministries had discussed draconian new powers to allow the Australian Signals Directorate to spy on Australian citizens for the first time.

Under the mooted plan, spies would be allowed to secretly access emails, bank accounts and text messages with approval from the defence and home affairs ministers.

Under current laws the Australian federal police and domestic spy agency Asio have the power to investigate Australians with a warrant and seek technical advice from ASD, which is not permitted to produce intelligence on Australians.

In a statement the AFP confirmed it had executed a search warrant at a residence in an ACT suburb on Tuesday.
--------------

🇺🇸 **Trump administration oversees five-year high in approved citizenship applications**
*The Washington Times* - <https://archive.fo/k3Hl8>

Homeland Security reached a five-year high in approvals of citizenship applications last year, and swore in more people as naturalized citizens as well, according to the new statistical report released Friday night.

Those numbers contradict the criticisms of congressional Democrats who had complained about backlogs building at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Homeland Security branch that handles legal immigration.

The new report also suggests that far from a crackdown, the government is processing more asylum-seeker petitions than any of the last four years. That included a 61 percent increase from 2017 to 2018 in affirmative asylum applications — though refugee interviews are down from more than 1250,000 in 2016, the last year under President Barack Obama, to just 26,400 in fiscal year 2018 under President Trump.

Still, when the whole panoply of humanitarian programs is considered — asylum, refugees, crime victim visas, Temporary Protected Status and screening for credible fear or reasonable fear of persecution — the numbers were 32 percent higher than fiscal year 2017. Credible fear and reasonable fear are first steps on the asylum track.
--------------

🇧🇾🇪🇺 **Belarus's Lukashenko: "Better a dictator than gay"**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.is/bqseh>

Belarussia’s Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday criticized EU politicians who have threatened him with further sanctions and in an apparent riposte to the German Foreign Minister’s branding him “Europe’s last dictator,” said: “Better to be a dictator than gay.”

Guido Westerwelle is Germany’s first openly gay minister.

European Union leaders at a summit in Brussels on Friday called for new measures to pressure the Belarus President, in power since 1994, over alleged human rights abuses.

Lukashenko said Belarus would give a strong reaction to any sanctions, according to local news agency Belta.

“This is absolute hysteria,” Belta reported him as saying. “And as you can see, at the forefront there are two types of politicians ... one lives in Warsaw, another in Berlin.”

“Whoever was shouting about dictatorship there ... when I heard that, I thought: it’s better to be a dictator than gay.”

European leaders said any new sanctions should target those in Belarus who are responsible for human rights violations and repression of civil society, as well as people supporting Lukashenko’s government or benefitting from it.

Poland, Belarus’s direct neighbor, has played a leading role in formulating EU policy towards Minsk - often drawing fire from Belarus for doing so.
--------------

🇺🇸 **Judge rejects House Democrats' request to block Trump's border wall funding**
*CBS News* - <https://archive.is/vU4TK>

A federal judge on Monday denied a House request to prevent President Donald Trump from tapping Defense Department money for his proposed border wall with Mexico, saying Congress lacked authority to sue.

Trump's victory is muted by a federal ruling in California last month that blocked construction of key sections of the wall. The California case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, wrote that the House's lawsuit was "about whether one chamber of Congress has the 'constitutional means' to conscript the Judiciary in a political turf war with the President over the implementation of legislation."

McFadden said Congress didn't have authority in this case but that he didn't mean to imply the legislative body could never challenge the president in court over separation of powers.

"An old maxim in politics holds that, 'Where you stand depends on where you sit,'" he wrote. "At law too, whether a plaintiff has standing often depends on where he sits. A seat in Congress comes with many prerogatives, but legal standing to superintend the execution of laws is not among them."

The Justice Department welcomed the decision, saying the judge "rightly ruled that the House of Representatives cannot ask the judiciary to take its side in political disputes and cannot use federal courts to accomplish through litigation what it cannot achieve using the tools the Constitution gives to Congress."

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats were reviewing the ruling and evaluating whether to appeal.
--------------

🇺🇸🇨🇳 **China chides Mike Pompeo after he calls on them to reveal Tiananmen Square death toll**
*Fox News* - <https://archive.fo/237va>

China admonished comments made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the 30th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protest, saying Tuesday the top U.S. diplomat spoke "out of prejudice and arrogance."

Pompeo had issued a statement Monday on the eve of the crackdown saluting what he called the "heroes of the Chinese people who bravely stood up thirty years ago in Tiananmen Square to demand their rights."

The seven-week-long Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 and their bloody end, where hundreds if not thousands of people are believed to have died, snuffed out a tentative shift toward political liberalization. Pompeo urged China to make a full, public accounting of those killed but admitted the country has not become more transparent in the decades since.

"Over the decades that followed, the United States hoped that China's integration into the international system would lead to a more open, tolerant society," Pompeo said. "Those hopes have been dashed."

In a statement posted on the Chinese Embassy's website in Washington, a spokesperson said Pompeo's statement "grossly intervenes in China's internal affairs, attacks its system, and smears its domestic and foreign policies."
--------------

No ones gonna write about Google and FB stock falling almost 10 points amid the anti trust investigation and most likely being broken up amid regulations

🇺🇸 **Dow surges on Fed chair comments, tech stock rally**
*Fox Business* - <http://archive.is/Z3d5i>

Stocks jumped Tuesday after tech company shares rallied and the head of the U.S. central bank indicated the Federal Reserve is open to cutting interest rates if the nation's economic growth weakens. Fed Chair Jerome Powell Opens a New Window. said the bank is "closely monitoring" developments in the trade conflicts between the U.S. and China, as well as Mexico, and would be ready to intervene to extend the nation's economic expansion.

Investor sentiment also rose after President Trump Opens a New Window. , meeting in London with British Prime Minister Theresa May, said he expects that after Brexit trade between the two nations will probably be two to three times the current amount.

Tech stocks rallied from the previous session's selloff, which was triggered by word that the federal government is going to investigate Big Tech companies.
---------------

🇰🇵 **North Korea's Mass Games 'paused' after Kim criticism**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/L7R0M>

North Korea's most important propaganda event, the Mass Games, has been put on hold after criticism from the country's leader Kim Jong-un, tour firms say.

Young Pioneer Tour, a company which organisers trips to the hermit state, tweeted that the games "will be stopped from 10 June until further notice".

Koryo Tours, another North Korea specialist, also gave the same date. Pyongyang has so far made no comments.

On Monday, Mr Kim criticised the games for "their wrong spirit of creation".

After attending the opening day of the colourful and well-choreographed event, he also spoke of an "irresponsible work attitude", state media reported.

Mr Kim had already called earlier this year for a new approach to propaganda.

Correspondents say North Korea may be preparing for more economic and ideological isolation after talks with the US stalled.
----------------

🇸🇩 **Sudan crisis: 40 bodies pulled from Nile, opposition says**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/cu8mt>

Forty bodies have been pulled from the River Nile in the Sudanese capital Khartoum following a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests, opposition activists said on Wednesday.

Doctors linked to the opposition said the bodies were among 100 people believed killed since security forces attacked a protest camp on Monday.

Reports said a feared paramilitary group was attacking civilians.

Sudan's ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) vowed to investigate.

Residents in Khartoum told the BBC they were living in fear as members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) roamed the streets. The paramilitary unit - formerly known as the Janjaweed militia -
gained notoriety in the Darfur conflict in western Sudan in 2003.
----------------

🇺🇸 **68% Of Facebook Investors Vote To Oust Mark Zuckerberg**
*IBT* - <https://archive.fo/0RBX7>

Majority of Facebook investors sought the removal of founder CEO Mark Zuckerberg from the company’s chairman role.

The demand received 68 percent vote at the last shareholder meeting. They are seeking an independent director to adorn the chairman’s position.

This was evident in the details of voting trends at the recent annual meeting of Facebook released Monday. The votes had an upsurge of 17 percent over last year’s 51 percent.

But the move was shot down by Zuckerberg and a group of insiders using their leviathan 58 percent voting power coming from the special class shares owned by Zuckerberg.

Trillium Asset’s SVP Jonas Krone commented: “What we are seeing right now is really a quite deep well of concern of the concentration of power in one individual like we see with Mark Zuckerberg.”

Also, 82 percent of votes were cast seeking the elimination of the special class of shares held by Zuckerberg that gave him 10 times more voting power over regular shares.

Zuckerberg has been using the special voting shares that vested him 58 percent voting stake to maintain his control over the company.

***Why is Zuckerberg’s leadership under challenge?***

Zuckerberg’s leadership has been under lens since March 2018 after the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower scandal erupted triggering fears of compromise on privacy-related issues by the social media giant.

Now Facebook is readying to shell out $3 billion to $5 billion to settle the privacy probe kicked off by the Federal Trade Commission.

Anti-trust concerns over Facebook are also under the scrutiny of regulators.

However, Facebook FB stock was up 2 percent on Tuesday.
----------------

🇲🇽 **Leader of Mexico-based church accused of rape, child porn**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/KjvAE>

The head of a Mexican-based church estimated to have more than 1 million followers worldwide has been arrested in California and charged with crimes including human trafficking,
child pornography production and rape of a minor.

“La Luz Del Mundo” (Light of the World) leader Naason Joaquin Garcia, 50, was charged on Tuesday after being arrested at Los Angeles International Airport the day before, prosecutors said.

The church called the accusations unfounded.

“The Apostle of Jesus Christ, Brother Naason Joaquin Garcia, has always behaved in accordance with the law and with full respect for the institutions and the dignity of the people,”
it said in a statement on its website on Wednesday.

The prosecutors’ 19-page court filing indicates Garcia was known as “the Apostle” and children were told they were defying God if they were disobedient.

The complaint says three minors and one adult woman were abused, with one child and the woman raped. Others were forced to perform sex acts and “flirty” dances for Garcia wearing “as
little clothing as possible”, the complaint added.

“Crimes like those alleged in this complaint have no place in our society. Period,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement Tuesday. “We must not turn a blind
eye to sexual violence and trafficking in our state.”
----------------

🇮🇳 **Air pollution kills 100,000 Indian children every year, study says**
*CBS News* - <https://archive.fo/mTY0j>

The noxious air hanging over India's towns and cities kills more than 100,000 children under five every year, a damning study published Wednesday for World Environment
Day found. India has repeatedly failed to address environmental concerns. Last year a UN report found 14 of the world's 15 most polluted cities were Indian.

Despite calls to action against pollution around the globe, Indian politicians mostly side-stepped the issue in the last election.

The State of India's Environment (SoE) Report found air pollution is responsible for 12.5 percent of all deaths in the country -- painting a bleak picture of the environmental
record of recent Indian governments.

Carried out by the non-profit group Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), based in New Delhi, the report also found that 86 percent of Indian water bodies were "critically polluted."

In April, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer met patients in the emergency ward of Delhi's National Institute for Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases. Every one of them,
in one way or another, were victims of Delhi's filthy air. Between 800 and 1,000 people with lung problems line up at the ward every day for treatment.

"We have no non-smokers in India," said Dr. Arvind Kumar, a prominent chest surgeon and founder of the Lung Care Foundation in India. Due to the air pollution in country, "everybody
living in India is a smoker," he said.
----------------

🇺🇸 **Vox Media Staffers Walk Out After Failure to Reach New Contract**
*The Wrap* - <https://archive.fo/NFydS>

Vox Media staffers in New York City staged a walkout on Thursday after the company and reps for the Vox Media Union failed to come to an agreement over a new contract.

“Today’s our last scheduled day of bargaining. @voxmediainc is still apart from us on: competitive wage scales, strong guaranteed raises, better severance, subcontracting work,” the Vox Media Union said in a statement posted on Twitter. “We’ve decided we’re not showing up to work today until we resolve these issues.”

“Our unit members are taking their sites dark today to show management how important these issues are to us. Contract now,” they added. “The Vox Media Union has walked out today. Here’s what it looks like in the New York office,” they said, sharing images of Vox Media’s New York newsroom which appeared completely empty.

Last January, Vox officially moved to unionize with the Writers Guild of America, East. On Thursday, WGA East released a statement in support of the union.

“Although our negotiators and the Vox Media bargaining committee have been working overtime for a long time, and have made many important gains at the table, the company has to do more to address concerns about pay fairness and transparency. These issues are essential to the people we represent at Vox Media,” Lowell Peterson, executive director of the Writers Guild of America, East, said. “The WGAE is proud to be their collective bargaining representative.”

Vox CEO Jim Bankoff did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap, but on Thursday, he addressed employees in the newsroom, saying that he was upset with the walkout.

.

“While paying people a lot more than market wages sounds great on the surface, it’s not realistic or smart,” Bankoff said shortly before the walkout, according to Bloomberg.

Though company employees celebrated unionization at the time, there have also been consequences to it. Just a month after employees signed up with WGA East, Vox dropped 50 people or roughly 5% of its workforce.
--------------

🇷🇺 **Putin stands by China, criticizes U.S., in trade, Huawei disputes**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/zVzg7>

Aggressive U.S. tactics such as a campaign against Chinese telecoms firm Huawei will lead to trade wars - and possibly real wars - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday,
in a show of solidarity with China alongside its leader Xi Jinping.

In some of his strongest words on the subject, Putin accused Washington of “unbridled economic egoism”. He singled out U.S. efforts to thwart a Russian gas pipeline to Europe and a
U.S. campaign to persuade countries to bar Huawei, the world’s biggest telecoms equipment maker, from supplying network gear.

His broadside, at an economic forum in St Petersburg on the same platform as Xi, was a clear show of unity with China at a time when Beijing is locked in a trade war with Washington
and Moscow’s own ties with the West are at a post-Cold War low.

“States which previously promoted free trade with honest and open competition have started speaking the language of trade wars and sanctions, of open economic raiding using arm-twisting
and scare tactics, of eliminating competitors using so-called non-market methods,” said Putin.

“Look for example at the situation around Huawei which they are trying not to just squeeze out, but to unceremoniously push out of the global market. It’s already being called the first
technological war of the emerging digital era in some circles.”
----------------

🇩🇪 **Merkel's conservatives hit new low, piling pressure on coalition**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/BIad9>

Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives slumped to a record low and fell further behind the resurgent opposition Greens in a survey published on Saturday,
reflecting growing disillusionment with the ruling coalition.

Doubts are mounting that Merkel’s right-left alliance can last its full term until 2021, largely due to disarray within her Social Democrat (SPD) partners, and many experts
now see increasing chances of a federal election next year.

The Forsa poll put the conservative bloc on 24%, down two points from a week ago.

The Social Democrats (SPD) remained stuck at their low of 12% - level with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) - a week after their leader quit because of a dismal performance
in regional and European elections. Many members want to quit government and rebuild in opposition.

The Greens, buoyed by growing concern across Europe about climate change, which helped propel them to second place in European Parliament elections, remained the most popular party, on 27%.

“The Greens are benefiting from high voter mobilization, the self-destruction of the SPD and attempts by the conservatives to trump the Greens on climate protection,” said Forsa chief Manfred Guellner.

If Merkel’s coalition collapses, Germany faces the possibilities of a snap election, a minority government or an unwieldy alliance of three blocs.
----------------

🇭🇰 **Huge Hong Kong protest expected in last push to scrap extradition bill**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/XB3sI>

At least half a million people in Hong Kong are expected to brave sweltering heat on Sunday to press the government to scrap a proposed extradition
law that would allow suspects to be sent to China to face trial, organizers of the march said.

A committee of pro-democratic groups has raised turnout estimates and are now eyeing the biggest single-day rally since 2003, when a similar number of protesters forced the government
to shelve tighter national security laws.

The march will end at the city’s Legislative Council, where debates start on Wednesday into sweeping amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. The extradition bill is due to be
passed by the end of the month.

After weeks of growing local and international pressure, the protest is expected to reflect the broad range of opposition to the bill, with many saying they simply cannot trust China’s
court system or its security apparatus.

The city’s independent legal system was guaranteed under laws governing Hong Kong’s return from British to Chinese rule 22 years ago, and is seen by the financial hub’s business and
diplomatic communities as its strong remaining asset amid encroachments from Beijing.
----------------

🇸🇩 **Sudan crisis: Military arrests opposition figures after mediation bid**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/k1z23>

Sudan's security forces have reportedly arrested three prominent opposition figures after they met the Ethiopian prime minister who was in Khartoum to try to restart peace talks.

Opposition politician Mohamed Esmat was arrested on Friday soon after his meeting with PM Abiy Ahmed, aides said.

Ismail Jalab, a leader of the rebel SPLM-N group, and his spokesman Mubarak Ardol were detained early on Saturday.

It comes days after a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters left dozens dead.

Protest leaders have rejected an offer of talks from the Transitional Military Council (TMC), saying it cannot be trusted after the bloodshed.

Sudan has been controlled by the TMC since protests led to the ousting of long-time President Omar al-Bashir in April.

The military promised a transition to civilian rule but protesters had maintained a sit-in in Khartoum until security forces swept in on Monday and opened fire.
----------------

🇳🇵 **24,000 pounds of garbage were removed from Mount Everest, leading to the discovery of 4 dead bodies**
*CBS News* - <https://archive.fo/qc7Dq>

The Nepalese government has removed just over 24,000 pounds of trash from Mount Everest, according to The Associated Press. During their cleanup of the world's highest mountain,
cleaners also uncovered four dead bodies.

Among the 11 tons of recovered trash from the 45-day project are food wrappers, cans, bottles and empty oxygen cylinders, Tourism Department official Danduraj Ghimire said.
Cleaning up the mountain has been extremely difficult due to unpredictable weather conditions, inaccessibility of certain areas and the inherent dangers involved.

Ghimire said the four dead bodies were found by the cleaners in melting snow and were taken to base camp before being flown to a hospital in the capital for identification,
AP reports. None of the bodies have been identified and it is not known when they died.

Some of the waste was flown to Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, in army helicopters. Officials presented it to recyclers in a ceremony to officially conclude to clean up project,
the AP reports. "Unfortunately, some garbage collected in bags at the South Col could not be brought down due to bad weather," Ghimire said in a statement Wednesday.
----------------

🇮🇷 **Iran urges Europe to normalize economic ties with it or face consequences**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/jBJlx>

Iran said on Sunday Europe was in no position to criticize Tehran for its military capabilities and it called on European leaders to normalize trade ties with the Islamic Republic despite U.S.
sanctions, or face consequences.

President Donald Trump last year withdrew the United States from world powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sweeping sanctions. Trump condemned the accord, signed by his predecessor
Barack Obama, as flawed for not being permanent and for not covering Iran’s ballistic missile program or its role in conflicts around the Middle East.

The west European signatories to the deal - France, Britain and Germany - share the same concerns as the United States over Iran’s ballistic missile development and regional activities.

However, they have defended the nuclear accord as the best way to limit Iran’s enrichment of uranium, a potential pathway to nuclear weapons, and a basis for future negotiations on a broader
palette of security and other longstanding disputes.

“Europeans are not in a position to criticize Iran for issues outside the JCPOA,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted as saying by the state broadcaster, using the acronym for the nuclear deal.

“The Europeans and other signatories of the JCPOA should normalize economic ties with Iran...We will halt our commitments or will take action in accordance with their measures.”

Last month, Iran scaled back some commitments under the 2015 deal and warned that in 60 days it would resume enriching uranium to a higher degree than that permitted by the accord if the Europeans
failed to shield it against the U.S. sanctions, which aim to cripple its oil-dependent economy.
----------------

🇬🇧 **Two women injured in UK homophobic attack 'for refusing to kiss'**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/wqoyd>

Two women were punched and robbed in what police on Friday called a disgusting homophobic assault on a London bus, after one of the victims said their attackers tried to force them to kiss each other.

The incident took place in the early hours of May 30 after the women, in their 20s, boarded a night bus in West Hampstead.

“As they sat on the top deck, they were approached by a group of four males who began to make lewd and homophobic comments to them,” a police statement said.

“The women were then attacked and punched several times before the males ran off the bus. A phone and bag were stolen during the assault.”

Both women were treated in hospital for facial injuries.

Four men aged 15 to 18 have been arrested, police said later, and they were looking for other suspects.

Melania Geymonat, 28, told BBC radio the men began harassing them when they discovered she and her girlfriend Chris were a couple.

“They surrounded us and started saying really aggressive stuff, things about sexual positions, lesbians and claiming we could kiss so they could watch us,” she said.

“To ease the situation I tried to make some jokes, like Chris wasn’t understanding because she didn’t speak English. She even acted as if she was sick... but they started throwing coins.
The next thing I know Chris is in the middle of the bus and they are punching her.

“So I immediately went there by impulse and tried to pull her out of there and they started punching me. I was really bleeding.”
----------------

🇭🇰 **JUST IN: ‘No to China extradition’ – Hong Kong protest against controversial new law sees huge turnout**
*Hong Kong Free Press* - <https://archive.fo/MwUL1>

Hundreds of thousands have joined a mass protest against the Hong Kong government’s controversial extradition bill, in what organisers have said could be the biggest protester since 500,000 rallied against national security legislation in 2003.

As protesters gathered in Victoria Park, Causeway Bay, police urged them to begin marching before the 3pm start-time, to ease overcrowding. Police opened up all lanes on Hennessey Road a few hours later after initially refusing to do so. The MTR also enacted crowd control measures, with protesters still leaving Victoria Park as late up to four hours after the start time.

Bringing Hong Kong Island to a half, demonstrators chanted “Scrap the evil law,” “Oppose China extradition” and “Carrie Lam resign” in reference to the Chief Executive. Lam declined to answer questions at a public appearance in Ocean Park on Sunday afternoon.

The protesters marched towards the legislature over an issue that has underscored divisions in society over trust in the legislature and the Chinese judicial system.

Hong Kong’s government first proposed legal amendments in February to allow the city to handle case-by-case extradition requests from jurisdictions with no prior agreements, most notably China and Taiwan.
The plan would enable the chief executive and local courts to handle extradition requests without legislative oversight and could reach a final vote before the current legislative period ends in July. The government has said the law will allow it to close a legal “loophole.” But lawyers, journalists, foreign politicians and businesses have raised concerns over the risk of residents being extradited to the mainland.
--------------

🇺🇸 **Milo Yiannopoulos named marshal for 'Straight Pride' parade**
*The Hill* - <https://archive.fo/tGgyQ>

Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has been named the grand marshal for Boston’s "Straight Pride" parade.

Organizers announced Friday the former Breitbart editor as the parade's grand marshal after they originally used actor Brad Pitt's name and likeness for the event.

The head of Super Happy Fun America, a group that "advocates on behalf of the straight community," told the Boston Herald that Pitt “was not super happy” about the group using his name and likeness without his consent.

“I really like his movies and his lawyers sent us a letter asking us to take his stuff down but, you know, you’re allowed to do satire,” John Hugo, president of Super Happy Fun America, told the newspaper.

The organization later named Yiannopoulos, who is openly gay, as its grand marshal for the event.

“I might technically be a sequined and perfectly coiffed friend of Dorothy’s, but I’ve spent my entire career advocating for the rights of America’s most brutally repressed identity — straight people — so I know a thing or two about discrimination,” Yiannopoulos said in a statement released by the group.

“This parade is a gift to anyone, male or female, black or white—gay and transgender allies, too!—who will stand with us and celebrate the wonder and the majesty of God’s own heterosexuality. Men, bring your most toxic selves. Women, prepare to burn your briefcases! Because it’s great to be straight, and we’re not apologizing for it any more. We’re Here, Not Queer.”

Boston’s Straight Pride event purportedly aims to celebrate heterosexuality in a city that’s said to have one of the largest LGBTQ communities in the nation.
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🇺🇸 **White supremacist appears to urinate on an Israeli flag as nationalist group interrupts LGBT celebration in Detroit by tearing apart Pride flags and giving Nazi salutes**
*Daily Mail* - <https://archive.fo/bFbza>

White supremacists caused outrage among the LGBT community when one of them appeared to urinate on an Israeli flag and gave Nazi salutes during a Pride event in Detroit.

The National Socialist Movement (NSM) interrupted the family-friendly event on Saturday, holding placards with their slogan and swastika flags.

The white nationalist group is one of the largest neo-Nazi organizations in the United States and is known for anti-Jewish and racist protests.

Images show LGBT supporters attempting to block them joining the event. Police are seen in the vicinity.

Motor City Pride began at noon and had four stages of entertainment, in addition to over 100 food stalls and other merchandise on sale. The city's main parade takes place on Sunday.

One image of the day's events appears to show an unidentified neo-Nazi group member urinating on an Israeli flag, with one LGBT supporter watching in horror at his actions.

Counter-protesters were pictured being blocked by law enforcement from intervening as members of the National Socialist Movement demonstrated.
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🇺🇸 **Man arrested for waving gun at DC Pride parade, sparking stampede**
*New York Post* - <https://archive.fo/c5cHC>

A man was arrested for waving a handgun during the Capital Pride Parade in Washington DC — sparking a stampede that left several people in the hospital, according to cops.

The unidentified man was taken into custody during Saturday night’s parade and is facing a gun possession charge, police said.

News of a gun had sparked an active-shooter scare — with officials saying about seven people were taken to a hospital for injuries from a mad stampede away, despite police believing no shots were fired.

“Some of the individuals in the crowd said there was a man with a gun and that someone had fired a shot,” said Commander Guillermo Rivera of the Metropolitan Police Department.

“Officers arrived and stopped an individual and a gun was recovered close by. There is no evidence that any shots were fired, but that’s under investigation,” Rivera said, according to the Washington Blade.
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🇮🇹 **How Italy's migrant model town Riace veered far-right**
*Yahoo/AFP* - <https://archive.fo/Gd47y>

The sign reading "Riace, land of welcome" still hangs in the small town, but its dream of migrant integration is over after the far-right's "Italians first" election victory.

The new mayor of the one-time "global village" in southern Italy's rural Calabria elected on May 26 with the support of Matteo Salvini's anti-migrant Lega party, Antonio Trifoli, has so far left the sign up.

"We will welcome refugees again," he told AFP.

"But we can't have 500 to 600 asylum seekers in a town with 1,500 residents," said the former town policeman.

Trifoli was first on the independent "Riace reborn" list, backed by the Lega, whose supporters provided many of the 41.8 percent of the 1,103 votes he won.

Until just a few years ago, the Lega was a separatist party at the other end of the country which sneeringly referred to southerners as "bumpkins" or worse.

"The problem is that we had too many migrants and we lost the spirit of openness there was initially," said Trifoli.

"A whole economic system developed with the migrants, but without making the village dynamic again... The model destroyed itself," he said.
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🇺🇸 **Google Made $4.7 Billion From the News Industry in 2018, Study Says**
*New York Times* - <https://archive.fo/BnaLK>

$4,700,000,000.
It’s more than the combined ticket sales of the last two “Avengers” movies. It’s more than what virtually any professional sports team is worth. And it’s the amount that Google made from the work of news publishers in 2018 via search and Google News, according to a study to be released on Monday by the News Media Alliance.

The journalists who create that content deserve a cut of that $4.7 billion, said David Chavern, the president and chief executive of the alliance, which represents more than 2,000 newspapers across the country, including The New York Times.

“They make money off this arrangement,” Mr. Chavern said, “and there needs to be a better outcome for news publishers.”

That $4.7 billion is nearly as much as the $5.1 billion brought in by the United States news industry as a whole from digital advertising last year — and the News Media Alliance cautioned that its estimate for Google’s income was conservative. For one thing, it does not count the value of the personal data the company collects on consumers every time they click on an article like this one.

“The study blatantly illustrates what we all know so clearly and so painfully,” said Terrance C.Z. Egger, the chief executive of the Philadelphia Media Network, which publishes The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and philly.com. “The current dynamics in the relationships between the platforms and our industry are devastating.”
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🇺🇸 **HBO Cancels 'Vice News Tonight,' Josh Tyrangiel to Depart (Exclusive)**
*Hollywood Reporter* - <https://archive.fo/t09rO>

HBO has canceled Vice News Tonight, putting an end to its seven-year relationship with Vice Media.

The architect of that show, news chief Josh Tyrangiel, will depart Vice this summer after nearly four years of, per a memo he sent to staff, “harrowing challenges and huge highs” with the company.

Amid the changes at Vice News, CEO Nancy Dubuc has tapped Jesse Angelo, the former chairman and CEO of the New York Post, for a newly created role overseeing news, television and digital at Vice. She announced the staffing changes in an email to Vice employees Monday morning. “Jesse is joining us to create expanded platform opportunities and franchises for all our great talent and the content we are making every day,” Dubuc wrote in the note, which a Vice spokeswoman shared with THR.

The shake-up comes one year into Dubuc’s tenure as CEO. News is among her five focus areas at the company, which also include cable network Viceland and the editorial sites under Vice Digital. Angelo's hiring, she explained, will allow her to strengthen the relationship between those three divisions.

HBO has been the exclusive television home for Vice News, a relationship that has at times proved fraught for both companies, especially when Vice under then-CEO Shane Smith expanded its TV footprint with the 2016 launch of cable channel Viceland. With the end of Vice News Tonight, Vice is expected to look to further grow its news brand with both domestic and international partners. Angelo will be tasked with overseeing that expansion, with Dubuc noting in her memo, “Importantly, his role will really bring to life our ambitions to expand our Vice News global footprint.”
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🇺🇸 **Live updates: Helicopter crashes onto New York City building roof, 1 dead**
*ABC News* - <https://archive.fo/I8A4L>

A pilot died when a helicopter crashed onto the roof of a Midtown Manhattan building in a hard landing on Monday, filling the air with smoke and clogging the city streets with fire trucks, according to police and fire officials.

The pilot was the only person on board the Agusta A109E helicopter, preliminary information shows, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

No one else was injured in the crash, which took place in the heart of New York City, just blocks from Times Square, according to city officials.

It's believed to be an accident and there's no indication of terrorism, a senior official with FAA told ABC News.

The crash sparked a fire that has since been extinguished, though officials said fuel is leaking from the helicopter.

The crash -- which took place at about 1:45 p.m. -- comes on a rainy New York afternoon. Both Newark and LaGuardia Airports are in a ground stop due to visibility and thunderstorms, according to the FAA.

The building is located at 787 Seventh Ave., between 51st and 52nd Streets, according to the New York City Fire Department.

It's a busy area of Midtown Manhattan, just below Central Park South, filled with business towers.
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🇭🇰 **Tens of thousands of protesters force delay in Hong Kong extradition bill debate**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/gY4DU>

Tens of thousands of Hong Kong demonstrators surrounded the Chinese-ruled city’s legislature on Wednesday, forcing it to postpone a second round of
debate on an extradition bill that would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial.

The protesters, most of them young people dressed in black, erected barricades as they prepared to hunker down for an extended occupation of the area,
in scenes reminiscent of pro-democracy “Occupy” protests that gridlocked the former British colony in 2014.

Protesters rallied in and around Lung Wo Road, a main east-west artery near the offices of embattled Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam,
as hundreds of riot police, some armed with batons and plastic shields, warned them to stop advancing.

“Didn’t we say at the end of the Umbrella movement we would be back?” pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo said, referring to the name often used for the
“Occupy” demonstrations.

“Now we are back!” she said as supporters echoed her words.

Others once again called for Lam to step down.

Opposition to the bill on Sunday triggered Hong Kong’s biggest political demonstration since its handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997 under
a “once country, two systems” deal guaranteeing it special autonomy, including freedom of assembly, free press and independent judiciary.

But many accuse China of extensive meddling since then, including obstruction of democratic reforms, interference with local elections and of being
behind the disappearance of five Hong Kong-based booksellers, starting in 2015, who specialized in works critical of Chinese leaders.
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🇻🇦 **Vatican Rejects Notion That Gender Identity Can Be Chosen**
*New York Times* - <https://archive.fo/d261D>

The Vatican on Monday released its first extensive official document on gender theory, rejecting the notion that individuals can choose their own gender identity.

The document, issued by the Vatican department overseeing Catholic education, argued that increasing acceptance of fluid definitions of gender by schools and legal systems posed a threat to traditional families and ignored the natural differences between men and women.

It lamented “calls for public recognition of the right to choose one’s gender, and of a plurality of new types of unions, in direct contradiction of the model of marriage as being between one man and one woman, which is portrayed as a vestige of patriarchal societies.”

The document broke little new ground in promoting traditional Catholic teaching on the intrinsic biological differences between men and women. But coming from a church led by Pope Francis, who has struck an inclusive tone toward homosexual Catholics, it immediately disappointed advocates who had hoped for a more tolerant message.
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🇺🇸 **Private border wall group ordered to keep gate open**
*The Washington Times* - <https://archive.fo/GXxcM>

The builders of a private border wall in New Mexico have been ordered by a state agency to keep a gate permanently open.

According to a report in Buzzfeed, the half-mile wall near Sunland Park cut off official access to a levee and a dam and public access to Monument One, a series of obelisks marking the U.S.-Mexico border.

The We Build the Wall barrier also featured a gate built on about 33 feet of federal property without proper advance permission.

“This is normally done well in advance of a construction project,” said Lori Kuczmanski, a spokeswoman for the International Boundary and Water Commission, which handles waterway issues between the U.S. and Mexico. “They think they can build now and ask questions later, and that’s not how it works.”

Commission officials propped open that gate in response earlier this week, to preserve public access and, by extension, making the wall easy to breach.

“We’re going to lock it in an open position until we come into a mutual decision on how this gate is going to operate,” Ms. Kuczmanski told Buzzfeed.

Brian Kolfage, president and founder of We Build the Wall, accused the panel of legal overreach and of complicity in an illegal-immigrant invasion of the U.S.

“The IBWC commissioner @harkjay350 has a bad habit of leaving gates open on our border.last week she left open this gate! largest invasion on record 1000 crossed at once! She just locked our gate wide open for illegals to invade America!” he wrote on Twitter.
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🇺🇸🇮🇷 **Pompeo blames Iran for attack on two tankers in Gulf of Oman, US details evidence **
*ABC News* - <https://archive.fo/GXxcM>

"It is the assessment of the United States government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today. This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high-degree of sophistication," Pompeo told reporters at the State Department.

"Iran is lashing out because the regime wants our successful maximum pressure campaign lifted," he said, adding that the U.S. "will defend its forces, interests and stand with our partners and allies to safeguard global commerce and regional stability."

Some of the intelligence that Pompeo referred to includes overhead images taken by a U.S. Navy P-8 surveillance craft that shows Iranians on small boats alongside the Kokuka Courageous attempting to remove an unexploded mine that they had previously attached to the ship, a U.S. official told ABC News. While the images themselves weren't disclosed, the descriptions suggested that the Iranians were attempting to remove evidence that would link them directly to the tanker attacks.

A distress call was received from the Kokuka Courageous at 6:12am local time in Bahrain, forty five minutes later a second ship, the Front Altair issued its own distress signal after a series of explosions set fire to the ship.

The 21 mariners aboard the Kokuka Courageous were picked up by a nearby Dutch tugboat before being transferred to the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Bainbridge that had been in the vicinity, another U.S. .

According to a U.S. official, after a mine exploded on the ship's hull, during a hull damage inspection the ship's crew spotted an unexploded mine attached to the hull. The crew of the USS Bainbridge and a U.S. Navy P-8 surveillance aircraft verified the presence of an unexploded mine attached to the ship.

Later, that aircraft spotted the crews of some of the Iranian small boats attempting to remove the unexploded mine in an attempt to recover evidence that could connect Iran to the attacks, said a U.S. official.
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🇨🇭 **Swiss women strike for more money, time and respect**
*BBC* - <https://archive.fo/lr80Q>

Women across Switzerland have begun a day of demonstrations against what they say is the country's unacceptably slow pace to equality.

Friday's protest comes 28 years after similar action saw half a million women take to the streets in 1991.

Swiss women have long campaigned to accelerate the pace of gender equality.

They joined millions of other women in Europe after World War One ended in 1918 in demanding the right to vote - but did not get it until 1971.

At the time of the 1991 strike there were no women in the Swiss government, and there was no statutory maternity leave.

Appenzell, the last Swiss canton to refuse women the right to vote, had just been ordered to change its policy by Switzerland's Supreme Court.
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🇧🇪 🇪🇺 **Senior EU diplomat, back from Iran, shows support for nuclear deal**
*Reuters* - <https://archive.fo/q32kp>

The EU’s second most senior diplomat affirmed the bloc’s support for the nuclear deal between world powers with Iran, including via the use of a new payment
system for barter-based trade designed to circumvent U.S. sanctions.

Helga Schmid, the secretary general of European Union external action service, visited Tehran last week. She helped negotiate the deal in 2015.

Its status has been precarious since President Donald Trump pulled the United States out last year and toughened its sanctions regime against Tehran.

The European Union’s foreign service said that, in Tehran, Schmid had reiterated the bloc’s commitment to the deal, which has been “delivering on its primary goal ...
to ensure that Iran does not acquire material or equipment to develop a nuclear weapon.”

She had also discussed “EU efforts ... to enable the continuation of legitimate trade with Iran,” including working to put into operation the Instex payment channel
set up by France, Britain and Germany to facilitate non-dollar trade.
----------------