US imposes visa restrictions on Chinese officials over Hong Kong security law

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that Washington is imposing visa restrictions on Chinese Communist Party officials believed to be responsible for undermining freedoms in Hong Kong.

Mr Pompeo said the sanctions targeted "current and former" party officials.

He said the move followed President Donald Trump's promise to punish Beijing over a proposed security law that could erode Hong Kong's autonomy.

China said the US decision was a "mistake" that should be withdrawn.

It comes just days ahead of a meeting of China's parliament.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress will discuss the new law at its meeting, which starts on Sunday.

China has proposed security legislation that would make it a crime to undermine Beijing's authority in Hong Kong, and could also see China installing its own security agencies in the territory for the first time.

The move has sparked a new wave of anti-mainland protests in Hong Kong.

BBC News

Instagram Celebrity Arrested

Dubai's police force say they have arrested Nigerian Instagram celebrity Raymond Igbalodely, known as Hushpuppi, on allegations of fraud amounting to $435m (£346m).

In an operation police called "Fox Hunt 2", 12 other people were arrested in six simultaneous raids in Dubai.

Nearly two million people from different parts of the world were said to have fallen victims to the plot.

The social media star was based in Dubai and claimed he was successful businessman.

The local authorities published video on Twitter, documenting the four-month investigation that led to the arrests.Police say they discovered a hidden online fraud network that was committing crimes outside the UAE, including money-laundering, cyber fraud, hacking, criminal impersonation, banking fraud and identity theft.

The group is accused of hacking corporate emails and cloning websites to redirect payments to their own accounts.

The Dubai police has not yet said when they would be charged

BBC

Coronavirus: US cases ‘may have topped 20 million’

At least 20 million people in the US may already have been infected with Covid-19, according to the latest estimate by health officials.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says the true number of cases is likely to be 10 times higher than the reported figure.

It comes as the state of Texas halted its reopening as infections and hospitalisations surged.

The US has recorded 2.4m confirmed infections and 122,370 deaths.

Some southern and western states have been reporting record numbers of cases in recent days.

BBC News

No Nigerian State Safe, Secure Again —Ex-President, Obasanjo

A former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said that no state in the country was safe and secure any longer as a result of the threat of bandits and terror organisations.

Speaking on Friday at the Sobo Sowemimo Annual Lecture organised by Abeokuta Club, Obasanjo said that all hands must be on deck to tackle rising insecurity in the country.

He said, “Let me lay more emphasis on the issue of security, which in itself is serious enough to make restructuring imperative. The South-West governors cried out and devised Amotekun as a solution or part-solution. We have yet to see how successfully that will be operated. Other zones are clamouring for a solution because in no state and in no geopolitical zone is life and property safe and secure. 

Sahara Reporters

'I'm just different': The family of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man killed by Colorado cops almost a year ago, is still waiting for justice

During his lunch breaks, Elijah McClain sometimes played the violin for animals at the local shelter. He thought they, too, deserved some music in their lives. He was not like other 23-year-olds. He craved space to be himself, and when officers of the Aurora, Colo., police department approached him on the evening of Aug. 24, 2019, that is what Elijah McClain tried to tell them.

“I am an introvert,” he explained to the officers who responded to a 911 call about a Black male walking down the street in a ski mask on a night when the temperature was about 66 degrees Fahrenheit. “Please respect my boundaries.”

Fifteen minutes later, McClain was on the cusp of death, having been choked by one of the original responding officers and then injected with the powerful anesthetic drug ketamine by a medic who arrived on the scene later.“I don’t even kill flies,” McClain said at one point as the officers continued to restrain him. It was a cry for help, an explanation of who he was. It went unheeded, not only by the three officers who first responded to the 911 call but by the many others who arrived later, and who chatted casually as McClain struggled for his final breaths. 

“Aurora, Colo., is corrupt,” says Mari Newman, a Denver attorney who is representing McClain’s family. “Aurora, Colo., is trying to cover up its wrongdoing.”

Only now, nearly a year after his death, is the case of Elijah McClain finally receiving the national attention his family has been seeking. That attention comes largely because 2020 has seen a number of Black men and women killed by police officers or vigilantes: Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd. The outrage over those killings has intensified outrage over killings past. And it has made Elijah McClain the latest symbol of what many Americans see as a law enforcement culture informed by racial animosities.

Earlier this week, Bernice King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., tweeted about McClain. So did Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who called the killing “absolutely crushing.” “Learning about this case broke my heart,” wrote Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor of California. “Elijah McClain deserves justice.” 

Alexander Nazaryan

National Correspondent

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Yahoo News•June 27, 2020

Outrage mounts over report Russia offered bounties to Afghanistan militants for killing US soldiers

Outrage has greeted a bombshell New York Times story that says American intelligence officials believe a Russian military intelligence unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, including targeting Americans.

The story, citing its sources as unnamed officials briefed on the matter, said that the US had come to the conclusion about the operation several months ago and and offered rewards for successful attacks last year.

The Times wrote: “The intelligence finding was briefed to Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March.” However, despite drawing up numerous options by way of a response, the White House has not taken any action.

As the news broke it triggered a fierce response from top Democrats, especially those who have long pointed to what they say is Trump’s overly close relationship to Russia’s autocratic leader, Vladimir Putin.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016, said: “Trump was cozying up to Putin and inviting him to the G7 all while his administration reportedly knew Russia was trying to kill US troops in Afghanistan and derail peace talks with the Taliban.”

Michael McFaul, a former ambassador to Russia and a professor of political science at Stanford University, said: “I hope the American people will be as outraged as I am over Trump’s complacency. After he knew about these Putin-ordered contracts to kill US soldiers, Trump invited Putin to the G7.”

John Weaver, a Republican political consultant who helped found the anti-Trump Lincoln Project group, also expressed outrage.

The Guardian

Russia reportedly paid Taliban-linked militants bounty money to kill American troops

• US intelligence officials assessed that Russia's military intelligence agency offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill NATO troops in Afghanistan — which include American forces, according to a New York Times report.

• Interrogations of Afghan militants and criminals reportedly yielded the information indicating that Taliban-linked militants were offered bounties from Russian agents, specifically Unit 29155, a branch of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency.

• One theory floated by some of the officials is that Moscow may have been retaliating after an embarrassing defeat during a battle in Syria in 2018.

• President Donald Trump was briefed of the intelligence assessment, but the White House had yet to respond to it, The Times' sources said.

Business Insider, BI