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Statues Toppled Throughout US in Protests Against Racism

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A statue of Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, author of "Don Quixote," stands after being vandalized overnight in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Saturday, June 20, 2020. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group via AP)

By: Olga R. Rodriguez & Jeffrey Collins

Protesters tore down more statues across the United States, expanding the razing in a San Francisco park to the writer of America’s national anthem and the general who won the country’s Civil War that ended widespread slavery.

In Seattle, pre-dawn violence erupted Saturday in a protest zone largely abandoned by police, where one person was fatally shot and another critically injured.

On the East Coast, more statues honoring Confederates who tried to break away from the United States more than 150 years ago were toppled.

But several were removed at the order of North Carolina’s Democratic governor, who said he was trying to avoid violent clashes or injuries from toppling the heavy monuments erected by white supremacists that he said do not belong in places like the state Capitol grounds that are for all people.

The statues are falling amid continuing anti-racism demonstrations following the May 25 police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, the African American man who died after a white police officers pressed his knee on his neck and whose death galvanized protesters around the globe to rally against police brutality and racism.

At a campaign rally Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, President Donald Trump sought to tie the destruction of monuments and statues around the country to Democratic leaders, including his likely rival in the presidential election, Joe Biden.

Trump said “the choice in 2020 is very simple. Do you want to bow before the left-wing mob or do you want to stand up tall and proud as Americans?”

In San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park along the Pacific Ocean, protesters sprayed red paint and wrote “slave owner” on pedestals before using ropes to bring down the statues and drag them down grassy slopes amid cheers and applause.

The statues targeted included a bust of Ulysses Grant, who was the U.S. president after he was the general who finally beat the Confederates and ended the Civil War.

Protesters pointed out that Grant and his family owned slaves. He married into a slave-owning family, but he had no problem fighting to end slavery. Grant also supported the 1868 Republican platform when he won the presidency, which called for allowing Black men to continue voting in the South.

Also torn down in the San Francisco park was a statue of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the U.S. national anthem “Star Spangled Banner.” Key owned slaves.

Protesters also pulled down the statue of Spanish missionary Junipero Serra, an 18th century Roman Catholic priest who founded nine of California’s 21 Spanish missions and is credited with bringing Roman Catholicism to the Western United States.

Serra forced Native Americans to stay at those missions after they were converted or face brutal punishment. His statues have been defaced in California for several years by people who said he destroyed tribes and their culture.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvadore Cordileone criticized the pulling down of the Junipero Serra statue.

“What is happening to our society? A renewed national movement to heal memories and correct the injustices of racism and police brutality in our country has been hijacked by some into a movement of violence, looting and vandalism,” he said in a statement Saturday night.

Police officers were called out to the park, but they didn’t intervene. The crowd threw objects at the officers, but no injuries or arrests were reported, San Francisco Police spokesman Officer Adam Lobsinger said.

In Seattle, authorities were investigating what led to the shooting in the area known as CHOP, which stands for “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” zone. It has been harshly criticized by President Donald Trump, who has tweeted about possibly sending in the military to exert control.

Police released few other details about the shooting. Two men with gunshot wounds arrived in a private vehicle at a hospital about 3 a.m. One died, and the other was in critical condition, Harborview Medical Center spokesperson Susan Gregg said.

In Washington, D.C., and Raleigh, North Carolina, it was another night of tearing down Confederate statues. In the nation’s capital, demonstrators toppled the 11-foot (3.4-meter) statue of Albert Pike, the only statue in the city of a Confederate general. Then they set a bonfire and stood around it in a circle as the statue burned, chanting, “No justice, no peace!” and “No racist police!”

Trump quickly tweeted about the toppling, calling out D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and writing: “The DC police are not doing their job as they watched a statue be ripped down and burn. These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our Country!”

Two statues of two Confederate soldiers that were part of a larger obelisk were torn down Friday night by protesters in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Police officers initially stopped the demonstrators. But after they cleared the area, the protesters returned an finished the job. They dragged the statues down the street and strung one up by the neck from a light post.

Saturday morning, official work crews came to the North Carolina capitol to remove two more Confederate statues. One statue was dedicated to the women of the Confederacy, and another was placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy honoring Henry Wyatt, the first North Carolinian killed in battle in the Civil War, news outlets reported.

Gov. Roy Cooper said he ordered the removal for public safety and blamed the Republican majority state General Assembly for the danger.

“If the legislature had repealed their 2015 law that puts up legal roadblocks to removal, we could have avoided the dangerous incidents of last night,” Cooper posted on Twitter. “Monuments to white supremacy don’t belong in places of allegiance, and it’s past time that these painful memorials be moved in a legal, safe way.”

Cooper’s opponent for a second term in November, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, issued a statement saying Cooper did nothing to stop the destruction of statues and was either incompetent or encouraging lawlessness.

“It is clear that Gov. Cooper is either incapable of upholding law and order, or worse, encouraging this behavior,” Forest said. (AP)

 

Owner of Eskimo Pie to Change its ‘Derogatory’ Name

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The owner of Eskimo Pie is changing its name and marketing of the nearly century-old chocolate-covered ice cream bar, the latest brand to reckon with racially charged logos and marketing.

By: Anne D’Innocenzio

The owner of Eskimo Pie is changing its name and marketing of the nearly century-old chocolate-covered ice cream bar, the latest brand to reckon with racially charged logos and marketing.

“We are committed to being a part of the solution on racial equality, and recognize the term is derogatory,” said Elizabell Marquez, head of marketing for its parent Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, the U.S. subsidiary for Froneri, in a statement. “This move is part of a larger review to ensure our company and brands reflect our people values.”

The treat was patented by Christian Kent Nelson of Ohio and his business partner Russell C. Stover in 1922, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Eskimo Pie joins a growing list of brands that are rethinking their marketing in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests in recent weeks triggered by the death of George Floyd. Quaker Oats announced Wednesday that it will retire the Aunt Jemima brand, saying the company recognizes the character’s origins are “based on a racial stereotype.”

Other companies are reviewing their name or logo. Geechie Boy Mill, a family-owned operation in South Carolina that makes locally-grown and milled white grits, said Wednesday it is “listening and reviewing our overall branding,” though no decisions have been made. Geechie is a dialect spoken mainly by the descendants of African American slaves who settled on the Ogeechee River in Georgia, according to Merriam-Webster.com.

Mars Inc. said it’s also reviewing its Uncle Ben’s rice brand. B&G Foods Inc., which makes Cream of Wheat hot cereal, also said this past week it is initiating “an immediate review” of its packaging. A smiling black chef holding a bowl of cereal has appeared on Cream of Wheat packaging and in ads since at least 1918, according to the company’s website.

Chicago-based Conagra Brands, which makes Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup, said its bottles — which are shaped like a matronly woman — are intended to evoke a “loving grandmother.” But the company said it can understand that the packaging could be misinterpreted. Critics have long claimed that the bottle’s design is rooted in the “mammy” stereotype. (AP)

Israel Calls for Action after UN Warns of Iran’s Noncompliance with Non-Proliferation Agreement

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presents material on Iranian nuclear weapons development during a press conference in 2018. Netanyahu says his government has obtained “half a ton” of secret Iranian documents proving the Tehran government once had a nuclear weapons program. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

By: Aryeh Savir

Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors (BoG) on Friday condemned the Islamic Republic of Iran for violating the Safeguards Agreements it has signed with the agency, and Israel has called for actions against the country.

The resolution, submitted by France, Germany and the United Kingdom, was adopted by a vote of 25 to 2 with 7 abstentions.

The resolution follows reports in March and June by IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi describing the Agency’s failed efforts and interactions with Iran to clarify information relating to the “correctness and completeness of Iran’s declarations” regarding its abiding of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and “continued lack of clarification” regarding IAEA questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities in Iran.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog called on Iran to “fully cooperate” with it in implementing its Weapons Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol and “satisfy the IAEA’s requests without further delay.”

The IAEA investigation indicates that Iran has carried out banned nuclear activities at undeclared sites and has failed to report its existence or activities.

Members of the Board of Governors expressed grave concern about the integrity of the IAEA and the credibility of the nuclear weapons regime.

Council members called on Iran to fully and immediately cooperate with the agency and to allow agency inspectors access to all undeclared sites.

This report joins the UN Secretary-General’s report that Iran has systematically violated the weapons embargo imposed on it under UN Security Council resolution 2231, and delivered weapons to the terrorist organizations it operates and supports throughout the Middle East.

UNSC resolution 2231 from July 2015 endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) on Iran’s nuclear program placed various limitations on Iran’s weapons industry and trade.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi blasted the IAEA, saying that it has been “entrapped in a dangerous game arranged by the US and Israel.”

“We think that they have been entangled in a trap laid by the Zionists and Americans for them and showed to our nation that they are incapable and untrustworthy countries,” Mousavi said, warning of the consequences of the resolution for those who have prepared it.

“Iran continues to systematically violate all international commitments it has signed and is working effortlessly to hide evidence and disrupt investigations in order to deceive the international community,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated following the IAEA’s resolution.

The Foreign Ministry noted that the IAEA’s report “corroborates all of Israel’s claims regarding Iran’s continued covert nuclear activity.”

“The report of the UN Secretary-General emphasizes the need to extend the arms embargo on Iran,” the statement said.

The UNSC imposed several arms embargoes on Iran in 2006, 2007 and 2010 concerning both its nuclear systems and conventional weapons. Should the embargoes not be extended in October, Teheran would be free to purchase arms from around the world.

“The international community is in agreement regarding Iran’s defiance and has made emphatic decisions on the issue.  The Security Council must now act decisively against Iran,” Israel demanded. “The world must set a clear red line for Iran.” (TPS)

 

Settlement Leader Warns Netanyahu: Don’t Abandon Us Like ‘Disgraceful’ Ariel Sharon Plan

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Protesters carry signs in Jerusalem against then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the disengagement plan on September 13, 2004. (Flash90/File)

“Leaving isolated communities is like the disgraceful Ariel Sharon Disengagement plan that cut off parts of Samaria from Israel,” said the Shomron Regional Council chairman.

By: WIN Staff

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forges ahead with his plans for extended sovereignty over Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, settlement leaders are becoming more concerned that some Jewish communities will be cut off and isolated within a future Palestinian state.

According to Samaria Regional Council leader Yossi Dagan, leaving the 20,000 Jewish residents living in these settlements to the mercy of the Palestinians will lead to the same disastrous consequences caused by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005.

“Leaving isolated communities is like the disgraceful Ariel Sharon disengagement plan that cut off parts of Samaria from Israel,” said Dagan said on Thursday. “It is inconceivable that a right-wing government will abandon Elon Moreh and other similar communities, surrounded by a terrorist state, under the decree of a construction freeze and inability to develop.”

On Thursday, the heads of the Yesha Council of Settlers proposed an annexation map that provides a way for the smaller communities to be included in the 30 percent limit required by the U.S. Mideast peace plan.

According to Ynet, the alternative map proposes connecting the 19 communities with the larger ones by expanding its borders within the annexed enclave.

Netanyahu has continuously argued that Israel faces a “historic opportunity” to apply sovereignty to key areas. The prime minister told his right-wing opposition on many occasions that he never agreed to a Palestinian state and that this is the first time the U.S. isn’t demanding something of Israel first. (World Israel News)

Read more at: worldisraelnews.com

Michael Moore Warns Dems: ‘There’s No Massive, Intense Love of Joe Biden’

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Michael Moore Photo Credit: AP

By: Alana Mastrangelo

Left-wing documentary filmmaker Michael Moore is warning Democrats and the political left that while they may be laughing at President Donald Trump’s supporters gathering in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for his campaign rally on Saturday, “there’s no massive, intense love of Joe Biden.”

 

“Don’t get all smug laughing at these Bubbas in Tulsa today & snickering over how many of them are going to come down with Covid-19,” wrote Moore in an Instagram caption on Saturday. “They live, eat and breathe Trump — and none of us do that with Joe Biden. We’re counting on Hatred of Trump – not love of Biden – to win the day. Is that how you really think — hate beats love? Like, the more we ply our neighbor’s hatred of Trump, that’s the ticket to win?”

 

“Because deep down we know there’s no massive, intense love of Joe Biden,” admitted Moore, who predicted in July 2016 that Donald Trump would defeat Hillary Clinton.

 

“They started lining up on Tues in Tulsa for Trump’s rally today. 100,000 are expected!” said Moore. 

“Trump has lost none of his base and they are more rabid than ever. Sleeping on the sidewalk for five nights just to get in to see Trump? THAT is commitment.”

 

“Do not take Trump for granted. Don’t think he can’t win. Don’t get all cocky telling everyone there’s no way he’s winning the White House because, frankly, you sound a lot like yourself four years ago,” Moore warned his followers.

 

“I have a question I want you to answer, and I ask you to answer me honestly: ‘How many people would line up for five days just to hear Joe Biden talk?’ 12? 5? None?” inquired Moore.

 

Meanwhile, Biden’s rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday appears to have elicited the exact opposite response — according to a report by the New York Times, which noted that “hardly any voters” had attended the event.

 

“About 20 handpicked local officials, small-business owners and reporters sat in folding chairs, each placed within a large white circle taped on the floor of a recreation center to maintain — or at least encourage — social distancing,” reported the New York Times. “A few attendees whispered to each other as photographers quietly chatted,” the report added, describing the event. “You could hear the clack of typing echoing across the room. The silence was striking,”

 

“Then, Mr. Biden appeared,” added the New York Times. “He arrived with such little fanfare that I didn’t even notice him enter the room.”

 

Moore added that “the candidate who inspires the most people in the swing states to excitedly get to the polls” is the one who wins the White House.

 

“We’d better figure this out,” the Oscar-winner warned. “Biden better get out of the basement. We need to know he’s ok. We need to know what Plan B is. We can’t risk ANYTHING with this election. Biden has to rock everyone’s world to win.” (Breitbart.com)

 

Muhammad Ali’s Son Calls Black Lives Matter ‘Racist’ ‘Devils’

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Protesters march down the שstreet during a solidarity rally for George Floyd, Sunday, May 31, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Protests were held throughout the city over the death of Floyd, a black man in police custody in Minneapolis who died after being restrained by police officers on Memorial Day. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

By: Tauren Dyson

The son of Muhammad Ali said his father would not agree with Black Lives Matter, referring to the cause as “racist” and its members as “devils,” according to the New York Post.

Speaking on the fourth anniversary of the iconic boxer’s death, Muhammad Ali Jr. talked about how the protests devolved into looting and violence in response to the death of George Floyd.

“Don’t bust up s**t, don’t trash the place,” Ali told the Post. “You can peacefully protest.

“My father would have said, ‘They ain’t nothing but devils.’ My father said all lives matter. I don’t think he’d agree,” Ali said.

Ali called the Black Lives Matter movement divisive.

“I think it’s racist,” Ali said. “It’s not just Black Lives Matter, white lives matter, Chinese lives matter, all lives matter, everybody’s life matters. God loves everyone — he never singled anyone out. Killing is wrong no matter who it is.”

He praised President Donald Trump’s leadership while in office, saying his father would approve of his work.

“I think Trump’s a good president,” Ali said. “My father would have supported him. Trump’s not a racist. He’s for all the people. Democrats are the ones who are racist and not for everybody.”

Ali continued, “These [Democrat politicians] saying Black Lives Matter, who the hell are you to say that? You’re not even black.”

He went on to recount two instances where he was detained and questioned by the TSA after Trump issued a travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries. Each time Ali was released.

Even after the detainment, Ali contends he has never been profiled by the police because of his race.

“Not all the police are bad, there’s just a few,” he said. “There’s a handful of police that are crooked; they should be locked up. I never had a bad scene with a cop. They’ve always been nice and protect me. I don’t have a problem with them.”

He even called out former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as a prime example of the apathy Democrats have for the black community.

“Democrats don’t give a s**t about anybody. Hillary Clinton doesn’t give a s**t; she’s trying not to get locked up,” Ali said.

He added, “Trump is much better than Clinton and Obama.

“The only one to do what he said he would do is Donald Trump.” (Newsmax.com)

 

 

Ex-Businessman Facing Murder Charges In Mumbai Terror Attack

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In this Jan. 6, 2010, file courtroom artist's drawing Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, center, appears before Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago's federal court. Rana, a Pakistani-born Canadian, was convicted of a crime related to the Mumbai killings that are sometimes called India's 9/11, though U.S. prosecutors had failed to prove a terrorism charge that connected him directly to the three-day rampage during his 2011 trial. Rana who spent more than 10 years in prison for supporting terrorist groups has been arrested in Los Angeles to face charges in India for attacks in Mumbai in 2008 that killed more than 160 people, U.S. prosecutors said Friday, June 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Verna Sadock, File)

By: AP

A former Chicago businessman imprisoned for aiding terrorist groups has been arrested in Los Angeles to face murder charges in India for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed more than 160 people, U.S. prosecutors said Friday.

Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-born Canadian, has been charged in India with conspiring to plot and carry out the deadly attacks that are sometimes referred to as India’s 9/11.

Rana, 59, was convicted of a terrorist charge connected to the group behind the Mumbai slayings, though U.S. prosecutors failed to prove he directly supported the four-day rampage.

Rana was serving a 14-year sentence when he was granted early release from a Los Angeles federal prison last week because of poor health and a bout of coronavirus. But he never got out of prison before being arrested to face extradition to India, prosecutors said.

He has been charged with murder and murder conspiracy in India, according to court documents. A request for comment from Rana’s public defender was not immediately returned.

Rana was convicted in Chicago in 2011 of providing material support to the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which planned the India attack, and for supporting a never-carried-out plot to attack a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005. The cartoons angered many Muslims because pictures of the prophet are prohibited in Islam.

Jurors cleared Rana of a more serious charge of providing support for the attacks in Mumbai, India’s largest city, that killed 166, injured nearly 240 and caused $1.5 billion in damage.

Rana’s lawyer said at trial that he had been duped by his high school buddy, David Coleman Headley, an admitted terrorist who plotted the Mumbai attacks. The defense called Headley, the government’s chief witness who testified to avoid the death penalty, a habitual liar and manipulator.

Rana was accused of allowing Headley to open a branch of his Chicago-based immigration law business in Mumbai as a cover story and travel as a representative of the company in Denmark.

Prosecutors said Rana knew Headley had trained as a terrorist. Headley shared information of the scouting missions he conducted in Mumbai and of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where gunmen later slaughtered dozens of people.

Headley, who was born in the U.S. to a Pakistani father and American mother, said his hatred of India dated to his childhood when his school in Pakistan was bombed by Indian military planes during a war between the countries in 1971.

Months after the Mumbai attacks, Headley, who did not take part in the attacks, told Rana he was “even with the Indians now,” according to a court document. Rana said they deserved it.

Headley, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. As part of his plea deal, he can’t be extradited to India.

Only one of the 10 Mumbai terrorists survived the attack and went on trial. He was convicted, sentenced to death in India and hanged. (AP)

Apple Re-Closes Some Stores, Raising Economic Concerns

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In this March 14 2020 file photo, Apple employees work inside a closed Apple store in Miami. Apple is temporarily closing 11 stores in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina just few weeks after reopening them in hopes that consumers would be able to shop in them without raising the risk of infecting them or company workers with the novel coronavirus that caused COVID-19. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

By: AP

Apple’s Friday decision to close stores in four states with surging coronavirus cases highlights a question that other businesses may soon face: Stay open or prepare for more shutdowns?

Apple, like many other major U.S. retailers, shut down all of its U.S. locations in March. On Friday, it said it would shut 11 stores, six in Arizona, two in Florida, two in North Carolina and one in South Carolina, that it had reopened just a few weeks ago.

The move heightens concerns that the pandemic might keep the economy in the doldrums longer than expected. Those worries sent stocks on Wall Street lower. It’s not clear whether other retailers will follow en masse, although one analyst expects hard-hit stores to stay open unless forced to close by local authorities.

Many other businesses, including manufacturing, travel, dining, and entertainment, have been steadily reopening where they can while taking health precautions. But some have recently pulled back or paused their plans. The Cruise Lines International Association, for instance, announced Friday that ships will not be sailing from U.S. ports until at least Sept. 15, extending a pause put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The auto industry, meanwhile, has seen its efforts to restart production hampered in part by infected workers.

Because U.S. efforts to contain the pandemic haven’t been particularly successful, the situation “could ultimately lead to a need for more prolonged shut-downs” that would reduce consumer spending and cost jobs, said Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In public remarks Friday, Rosengren said he expected the economic rebound this year would be less than what was initially hoped for at the pandemic’s outset, and that the unemployment rate would remain in double-digits.

States such as Utah and Oregon are pausing the reopening of their economies amid a spike in cases, while others like Texas and Arizona have not changed their plans. Arizona this week did mandate that businesses implement social distancing, and Phoenix made masks mandatory in public.

Like many of the biggest players in the technology industry, Apple has been faring far better than most companies amid pandemic-induced recession. The store closures won’t put a significant dent in Apple’s sales, said Wedbush Securities Daniel Ives, but they are “a worrisome trend.”

The Cupertino, California, company has continued to sell iPhones and other products online, and other retailers can do so as well if they decide to close, said Craig Johnson, president of retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners.

“I don’t think this is going to be a giant stumbling block for Apple or anybody else. You can still get almost everything you need online somewhere,” he said.

Johnson noted that the country’s biggest retailers, Walmart and Target, did not shut down, and neither did appliance chains like Home Depot and Lowe’s. If other chains that aren’t deemed essential do shut down stores, he would expect closures to be limited to areas with rising cases.

Still, retail has been hit hard, with declining profits and bankruptcies. Retail earnings shrank 70% in the first quarter, excluding Walmart, said Ken Perkins of Retail Metrics, and second-quarter earnings are expected to drop another 45%. Department stores Neiman Marcus and J.C.Penny and clothing chain J. Crew have all filed for bankruptcy protection. Home-goods chain Pier 1 is shutting down.

“Remaining open may be existential for some retailers and I would expect they will stay open where local regulations allow,” Perkins said in an email. He expected that they would offer curbside pick-up “at a bare minimum” even if doors were shut again in specific areas where they are required to do so.

Disney, which has been planning to reopen Disneyland in California and Disney World in Orlando, Florida, in July, is not changing its plans. Universal Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and SeaWorld have already reopened in Florida. Cases are also rising in Florida, and some restaurants and bars said they were temporarily closing again.

Movie theater chains are also reopening, with Cinemark beginning the process this week in Dallas and going nationwide in July. Regal and AMC are also set to open again in July — with mask requirements for employees and customers.

The Navajo Nation’s gambling operation had hoped to reopen its casinos in Arizona and New Mexico in mid-June but they’ll stay closed until at least early July because of the outbreak. Other casinos have closed temporarily. (AP)

 

OP-ED:  Don’t Identify Jews with ‘White Imperialism’

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The experience of being an immigrant group and living as a minority in an often hostile culture is, of course, one that Diaspora Jews know only too well. Photo Credit: AP

The left’s Orwellian race formula links even Mizrahi Jews and Israel with their toxic attack on the West

By: Melanie Phillips

The experience of being an immigrant group and living as a minority in an often hostile culture is, of course, one that Diaspora Jews know only too well.

There are obviously huge differences, though, between the Jewish and black experience. Yet one of the most important is overlooked.

In Britain and America, as we have seen over the past few weeks, a movement is under way to rewrite American and British history with the aim of changing the culture. The charge is that white society is endemically racist.

This is supposedly demonstrated by the failure of Western society to acknowledge the cultural sins of slavery and colonialism. The failure sufficiently to trash this history and airbrush out of cultural memory all who have associations with it is said to prove that “white privilege” still rules.

Leave aside the fact that such demonization of white society is itself racist. Leave aside, too, the fact that Britain and the United States have long flagellated themselves over colonialism and slavery through their educational systems.

It you listen carefully, you’ll hear something pulsating beneath the anger about “white privilege.” In the complaint that colonialism isn’t taught, there’s something much more distressed: the cry that black people can’t see themselves in the picture of Western society that’s being taught.

Back in the 1980s, it was claimed that black children couldn’t be expected to relate to education unless they saw themselves in the stories it told. So instead of teaching them about the unique institutions and events that had made Britain or America what it was, they would be taught about what was said to be their own history under British colonialism and American slavery.

They wouldn’t be taught the truth that colonialism and slavery had been universal. They would be taught instead that these were the special sins of white society.

In fact, this was the best way to keep black people marginalized. For to take their place as equals in British or American society, they needed to be taught first and foremost about the culture in which they were living. To succeed in a different culture requires being taught it. If that teaching is censored, such children will always be at a disadvantage.

This is something that Diaspora Jews have always known. Jews who arrived in America and Britain around the turn of the 20th century understood that, if their children were to prosper, they needed to be inducted into those countries’ culture.

Many black or ethnic minority people are also ambitious for their children. They harbor no deep-rooted hostility to white people and, particularly among black church-goers, are demonstrably sympathetic towards the Jewish people.

Yet why is such a distressingly high proportion of those communities so angry with white society and so prejudiced against the Jews? Why do they feel a bottomless need for public recognition of their group victimization?

Jews (other than the ultra-Orthodox) have never felt threatened by being taught Western culture. While they are deeply concerned by the failure to stop anti-Semitism, they have never felt wounded to their very soul because their oppression isn’t sufficiently recognized in the British or American education curriculum.

After all, if every anti-Semite was excised from western history or literature, there would be precious little Western culture left at all. Diaspora Jews don’t need to be validated in that culture because Judaism places such high priority on constantly educating Jews themselves in their identity and purpose in life.

In stark contrast, those most insistent that Western society has to be reframed around the history of black enslavement and colonial oppression perhaps feel most adrift in the world.

This gets translated into an intense resentment at the society whose culture is (or was) defined and confident. Worse still, in the vacuum created by an education system that repeatedly tells them they are victims of rapacious white society, their identity has become constructed around that resentment.

Many factors are fueling this black sense of dislocation. First is the prevalence among African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans of shattered family backgrounds.

Of course, family breakdown occurs in great measure in white society too. And there are many examples of lone-parent households succeeding against all the odds in raising their children successfully.

But relatively speaking, children with fragmented family backgrounds suffer a range of lasting disadvantages and problems—one of which, especially among boys and young men, is an inchoate rage at the world.

Which is why so many from such backgrounds, black and white, drift into educational failure, drugs and violent crime. Conversely, minorities such as the Jews, Indians or Chinese, are most successful because of their strong, traditional family lives.

The second factor is the absence of religion. Not only do religious rituals and observances provide a crucial structure of support, but no less important is the sense of purpose and meaning they bring to otherwise rootless lives.

Third, those who define themselves as the descendants of slaves do not have a collective history in which they feel they can take pride.

Last, but by no means least, is a particularly baleful phenomenon. In his book The Tyranny of Guilt, Pascal Bruckner pointed out that, while slavery has been practiced across the world, it was the west which abolished it. Yet as he asked, why is it only the West that is blamed for it while Africa and Asia are exonerated from all responsibility?

The answer is white guilt, as Shelby Steele pointed out in his 2006 book of that name.

Black rage, he wrote, seizes its opportunity from the perceived weakness of the white oppressor, even when there is no injustice.

Black rage started rising in America after the great civil-rights victories were won in the ’60s. White guilt then made racism into “a valuable currency for black Americans.” It gave them a political identity with no real purpose, except the manipulation of white guilt.

 

The subsequent Black Power movement articulated Marxist dogma, which went like this. Capitalism created power and oppression; white people were capitalists, so white people were powerful oppressors; Jews were behind capitalism, so Jews were oppressors; capitalism was bad because it was white; Jews were white because they were capitalists.

This doctrine was then turned into a toxic cultural poison by the immensely influential Columbia University literature professor Edward Said. He fused American racism and European colonialism, and represented Palestinians as the essential darker-skinned “Orientals” who were its supposed victims. At a stroke, he thus transformed Israel into the every embodiment of white supremacy.

As a result, Israel is viewed as a white-colonialist enterprise by those who subscribe to these ideas. Given that most Israelis are not white but dark-skinned, this is absurd. But then, in today’s upside-down world, whiteness is not a pigment but an ideology.

Last week, a workshop at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, called “Jews and whiteness in colonial spaces,” set out to associate Zionists, African Jews and eastern Mizrahi Jews with “whiteness,” and thus turn them all into oppressors.

Who can be surprised? For “critical race theory,” part of post-modern academic orthodoxy holds that science, reason and evidence are a “white” way of knowing. Crazy or what?

So both Israel and Western society are falsely denounced for “white imperialism,” even black or brown-skinned Jews are white, and George Orwell is spinning in his grave. (JNS.org)

Melanie Phillips, a British journalist, broadcaster and author, writes a weekly column for JNS. Currently a columnist for “The Times of London,” her personal and political memoir, “Guardian Angel,” has been published by Bombardier, which also published her first novel, “The Legacy,” in 2018. Her work can be found at: www.melaniephillips.com.

 

 

Three Jewish Lawmakers Return to UK Labour Party

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Three Jewish lawmakers who left Labour party over anti-Semitism problem under Corbyn say they are rejoining the party.

By: Elad Benari

Three Jewish lawmakers who left the British Labour party over its anti-Semitism problem under Jeremy Corbyn have said they are rejoining the party because its new leader, Keir Starmer, has spoken out on the issue, JTA reported on Friday.

David Triesman, the ex-chairman of the Football Association, quit the party in July 2019, along with Leslie Turnberg, a former president of the Royal College of Physicians. Parry Mitchell left in 2016 saying that as “a Jew and a Zionist” he cannot stay under Corbyn.

“The Labour Party has in the past said it was dealing with antisemitism but did almost nothing,” Triesman told the Jewish Chronicle. “It was vital to see strong, practical action and with Keir we have seen just that. It’s the moment when being Jewish and Labour have been truly reconciled by active leadership.”

The three lawmakers serve in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament. They stayed on as independents after leaving Labour.

Starmer, who became party leader in April after Corbyn stepped down, apologized shortly after being elected for how the Labour Party has handled anti-Semitism within its ranks and committed to making change.

He later committed to setting up an independent complaints process for anti-Semitism in the party, saying it is “very important to me to seek to address the disgrace of anti-Semitism in our party as soon as possible.”

On Friday, Starmer touched on the issue during a talk with members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

“It will take time to rebuild trust between the Jewish community and the Labour Party,” Starmer said, according to JTA. But, he added, “We are beginning to wash clean the stain of anti-Semitism from our party.”

Corbyn had faced ongoing accusations of anti-Semitism, both over his history of hostility towards Israel and support for anti-Israel terrorist groups, as well as the rise in anti-Jewish rhetoric within the party.

Dozens of Labour members have been suspended over their anti-Semitic statements in recent years, while the party has been criticized for its failure to deal with the anti-Semitism within it.

In the British parliamentary election this past December, Labour recorded its worst performance, in terms of seats, since 1935.

British Labour MPs who lost their seats in the general election later cited Labour’s “unwillingness” to stand up to anti-Semitism as one of the issues that led to the party’s loss in the election. (INN)

 

The Method Behind the Current Madness

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by Sarah Lee (Capital Research)

The world has been on fire these past few weeks, with the pandemic reaching into its third month and then the protests, rioting, and looting following George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Everything seems upended, and people are attempting to make some sense of the madness.

Capital Research Center is honored to be at the forefront of untangling the organizational structure behind the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, researching funding mechanisms behind Antifa and other anarchist groups, and discussing the role of police unions and their legislative supporters in the current turmoil.

The month of June found our organization particularly involved in educating Americans and their federal, state, and local leaders on what’s happening outside their doors.

Radical Political Correctness

CRC President Scott Walter was interviewed in a Politico piece on June 2 that detailed the organizing principles behind Antifa as they engaged in burning our cities and declaring “autonomous zones” in urban areas:

In a way, antifa is the political correctness that all kinds of conservatives dislike, in a really radical form,” said Scott Walter, the president of the Capital Research Center, a conservative-libertarian think tank that maintains a database of research on left-wing organizations. “And the most common place to find political correctness and antifa is on college campuses, where the essential thing is that you want to silence your opponents completely, and you want to have mob rule. That’s what, I think, almost all conservatives see.

Speech and Violence

Walter also worked with Wall Street Journal columnist Bill McGurn on his piece “The Mayhem Is the Message,” in which Walter told McGurn:

Radical mobs on campuses call speech they don’t like “violence.” Radical mobs in the streets call their violence “speech.” Either way, instead of highlighting the difference between peaceful protesters and rioters, they want to erase it.”

This led to a letter to the editor on Thursday, June 18, in which the writer asserted that the mob also considers silence speech, and we take his point.

Marxism, Anarchy, and “Autonomous Zones”

Thursday, June 18, also saw Walter as a featured expert in two other prominent articles, one in the Washington Times on the Black Lives Matter movement, and the other in Politico on the “autonomous zone” in Seattle known as the CHAZ (or CHOP, depending on when you discover it).

In the Washington Times article, Walters examines the recent resurrection of BLM as a group more palatable to the general public than they have been in the past, despite their continued association with Marxism and anarchy.

. . . it’s still not entirely clear who speaks for Black Lives Matter or what it stands for.

Scott Walter, president of the conservative Capital Research Center, which tracks public policy groups on its InfluenceWatch website, said pinning down the highly decentralized BLM network has been like “trying to untangle a bowl of spaghetti.”

“Early on, the first people to try to ride that slogan were some hard-left socialist slash anarchist slash communist entities,” Mr. Walter said. “But if you turn on your TV and you see hundreds of thousands of people protesting, and folks are holding signs saying ‘Black Lives Matter,’ well, most of those people are ordinary citizens who are sincerely upset about police issues or a particular police acts like the George Floyd case.”

And for Politico, Walters tries to help the left-leaning outlet understand the misnomer “autonomous” when describing the several city blocks the anarchists have taken over in the city of Seattle.

“To the extent they’ve avoided violence, that’s admirable. But even just trying to take it over is silly,” said Scott Walter, president of the conservative-libertarian think tank Capital Research Center, pointing out that the zone still relied on city services such as trash pickup.

Organized Chaos

CRC considers it a privilege to help the public understand some of the complexities behind the huge stories on television every night and in their news feeds. Hopefully, better understanding will provide a sense that some of what appears chaotic is actually quite organized behind the scenes.

Dietl: Commissioner Shea’s Crime Miscalculation Radical, Deadly

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Brooklyn, N.Y. An NYPD unit provides security on the Coney Island Boardwalk. (Zhukovsky/Dreamstime)

Richard”Bo” Dietl (NEWSMAX)

On February 12, 1980, I responded to a 10-13, officer needing assistance, and found Officer Bobby Bilodeau, a Street Crime Unit cop, dying of a gunshot wound after a running gun battle with drug dealers in upper Manhattan. His family was awarded the NYPD Medal of Honor, posthumously; it was his second.

Bilodeau remains as the only officer in NYPD history to have received the medal twice.

Less than a year earlier, on April 5, 1979, Bobby had had his throat slashed by a passerby while acting as a decoy a few blocks south of the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal.

He survived, but it took 63 stitches to close his throat; he nearly died.

It took him just three weeks to come back on the job after his throat was slashed.

He told me that he had needed to come back because he needed to protect people who weren’t able to protect themselves. For him, being a cop, and being part of the all-volunteer Street Crime Unit wasn’t just his job; it was his calling.

I thought of Bobby, now dead over 40 years, the other day as I heard New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea speak of disbanding the 600 officer Anti-Crime Unit, the successor to the Street Crime Unit where Bobby had served.

Reportedly, Commissioner Shea decided to disband the Anti-Crime Unit because it was disproportionately involved with so many shootings and civilian complaints. (One review of shooting statistics claimed 31% of all NYPD killings came from the roughly 6% of the force on the Anti-Crime Unit. ACU also reportedly had a disproportionately high percentage of civilian complaints.)

But Shea’s dodgy, top-side, assumption about that data set is that a uniformed officer responding to crimes in a radio mobile patrol (RMP) car will have the same policing experience as a plainclothes ACU cop actively seeking out crimes in progress.

The disproportionate stats NYPD critics cite to eliminate the ACU result from the unit’s aggressive, proactive, peripatetic, daily policing in some of the city’s highest crime neighborhoods, “looking for the worst people in the worst neighborhoods during the worst hours,”  as one John Jay instructor put it. Anti-crime cops might have 10, 20 or even 30 encounters with suspects or victims to each uniformed officer’s single encounter.

Nearly 50 years ago my old boss, David Durk, the crusading, media-savvy, politically-connected, NYPD commander whose disclosures, along with those of the famous Frank Serpico, led to the creation of the Knapp Commission, acknowledged to me that it was about 10% of cops — aggressive, risk-taking, go-getters like Bobby Bilodeau and I were —who made about 90% of the arrests.

That realization ultimately led to the creation of the Street Crime Unit in 1971.

Street Crimes’ unofficial slogan, adopted after I left, was “We Own the Night.”

Commissioner Shea’s radical and misguided move to eliminate the Anti-Crime Unit will diminish the extraordinary performance of a few cops to align it with those of the many; to make great, heroic, risk-taking, go-getter, cops just “so-so,” mail-it-in civil-service drones who seek to fall into the middle of the bell curve of performance rather than to be among the best.

The result will be that crime — especially violent crimes in high-crime neighborhoods —will spike and people, overwhelmingly people of color, will die.

The NYPD won’t “Own the Night,” the criminals and gang-bangers will.

And the people in the high crime neighborhoods where ACU operated most will suffer most as their sons, daughters, husbands and wives suffer the criminal pathology of the few that only policing can stop.

Great cops like Bobby Bilodeau would have had no part of it.

Neither should Commissioner Shea.

Let’s hope he sees the folly of his mistake before too many people have to die.

Richard”Bo” Dietl, the founder and CEO of Beau Dietl & Associates was an NYPD police officer and detective from 1970 to 1985. As a member of the Street Crime Unit and the Anti-Crime Unit, he was mugged over 500 times as a decoy, hospitalized over 30 times, and effected over 1,600 felony arrests. He never resorted to deadly force. Twitter: @Bodietl

Report: Top Trump officials to hold two key meetings to discuss Israel’s annexation plan

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(i24 News) Top officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration will hold two meetings this week to discuss whether to give Israel the go-ahead to apply its sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, an Israeli outlet reported Saturday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government plans to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank as well as the Jordan Valley, moves that are in line with the peace roadmap the US unveiled earlier this year.

Netanyahu has said the annexation process will begin on July 1.

According to Channel 13, participants at the meetings on Monday and Tuesday will include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser Richard O’Brien, Avi Berkowitz, Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations and Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, in addition to the US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who will fly in from Jerusalem.

It is understood, the report said, that Trump will join the meetings “at some point.”

Meanwhile, top Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), warned Israel against going through with the annexation, saying it could jeopardize the Jewish state’s long-security objectives and further destabilize an already precarious Middle East region.

International actors including the United Nations and the European Union voiced their opposition to the move.

New model by Israel Aerospace Industries uses AI to forecast changes in COVID-19 patients

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A visual of the IAI's modeling that predicts changes in the medical status of COVID-19 patients using AI. Credit: Courtesy.

BY YAAKOV LAPPIN (JNS)

Israeli defense company Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has developed a model that predicts changes from one day to the next in the medical status of COVID-19 patients, using artificial intelligence, big data and machine-learning technologies.

In a statement, IAI said that “the predictive capabilities can alert medical staff to the possible deterioration in the patient’s condition, thus enhancing patient care and flagging the cases with higher chances of medical escalation and significantly improving the patient outcome.”

The model was developed by researchers and engineers at IAI’s Innovation Center in the company’s Systems Missiles and Space Group.

Dr. Einat Klein, chief innovation engineer at IAI’s Systems Missile and Space Group, told JNS that the model is part of IAI’s broad effort to assist the medical system in its war against the pandemic.

She said that machine-learning and data-science personnel at IAI called upon their knowledge and experience to develop a model in cooperation with the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.

Sheba has received the highest number of COVID-19 patients in Israel, and it made available significant amounts of data to IAI, which then used that information to help build the model.

“The need arose from the hospital,” said Klein. “They spoke of a need to be able to forecast the deterioration of patients. One of the characteristics of the disease is sudden deterioration. A patient can feel well one moment and then suddenly deteriorate. These surprises are very complex, and doctors are dealing with a relatively new disease, which is not a simple struggle. They have to make decisions under uncertain conditions.”

IAI’s challenge, she added, was to build a model that truly succeeds in forecasting deteriorations in patients ahead of time. Part of building the model involved figuring out which medical readings could be used to make that forecast. Doctors and IAI personnel joined forces to select the right readings.

“The model succeeds by basing itself on the medical signs of patients up to the day the readings were taken and can then forecast what their situation will be tomorrow,” said Klein.

A short-term forecast of a few hours would not be useful to doctors, while a long-term prediction of a week ahead would not be credible, she stated. “But a day or two ahead is a forecast that is both relevant and helpful to doctors. In the end, the model can provide a forecast of the patient’s situation from one day to the next with fairly high credibility.”

IAI’s experience in using innovative algorithms meant that it could make the transition to the medical world, although this was supported by input from medical professionals. Personnel who usually work on defense projects also found themselves reading medical books to help get a better grasp of the new world they were operating in.

“It was a moving experience for us to make this change,” said Klein.

Hundreds of ventilators being produced

Currently, the system is still at a stage of being a model, and it is now in the service of the Sheba Medical Center, which can move it forward.

IAI’s Systems, Missiles & Space Group has a long record in air-defense systems, missile and satellite systems. The group also co-built the “Beresheet” spacecraft that traveled to the moon on Israel’s first unmanned mission to land there.

In April, IAI’s Systems Missiles Space group added a new production line—one that produces hospital ventilators.

IAI teamed up with Ra’anana-based Inovytec, which specializes in the production of emergency medical systems, to get the new production line going quickly.

The new cooperation program—conducted together with the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Production and Procurement, and the Ministry of Health—is seeing hundreds of ventilators being produced, giving Israel a domestic mass-production capability.

Judge: Bolton can Publish Book Despite Efforts to block it

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In this Feb. 19, 2020, file photo, former national security adviser John Bolton takes part in a discussion on global leadership at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. An attorney for Bolton said Wednesday, June 10, that President Donald Trump is trying to put on ice publication of the former top administration official’s forthcoming memoir after White House lawyers again this week raised concerns that the book contains classified material that presents a national security threat. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

By ERIC TUCKER (AP)

Former national security adviser John Bolton can move forward in publishing his tell-all book, a federal judge ruled Saturday, despite efforts by the Trump administration to block the release because of concerns that classified information could be exposed.

The decision from U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth is a victory for Bolton in a court case that involved core First Amendment and national security issues, even as the White House pledged to keep pursuing the onetime top aide. And the judge also made clear his concerns that Bolton had taken it upon himself to publish his memoir without formal clearance from a White House that says it was still reviewing it for classified information.

“Defendant Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States. He has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability,” Lamberth wrote. “But these facts do not control the motion before the Court. The government has failed to establish that an injunction will prevent irreparable harm.”

The White House signaled the legal fight would continue, saying it would try to prevent Bolton from profiting off the book.

President Donald Trump tweeted that Bolton “broke the law by releasing Classified Information (in massive amounts). He must pay a very big price for this, as others have before him. This should never to happen again!!!”

In the meantime, though, the ruling clears the path for a broader election-year readership and distribution of a memoir, due out Tuesday, that paints an unflattering portrait of Trump’s foreign policy decision-making during the turbulent year and a half that Bolton spent in the White House.

Bolton’s lawyer, Chuck Cooper, applauded Lamberth for denying the government’s attempt to “suppress” the book. Publisher Simon & Schuster said the decision “vindicated the strong First Amendment protections against censorship and prior restraint of publication.″

While declining to halt the book’s release, Lamberth did suggest that Bolton may have left himself open to potential criminal prosecution by publishing classified information and that the government may prove successful in preventing Bolton from benefiting financially.

The White House indicated it planned to do exactly that, saying in a statement that the government “intends to hold Bolton to the further requirements of his agreements and to ensure that he receives no profits from his shameful decision to place his desire for money and attention ahead of his obligations to protect national security.”

“Whatever he makes he’s going to be giving back, in my opinion, based on the ruling,” Trump added before heading to a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Bolton’s team insisted that Bolton had spent months addressing White House concerns about classified information and that Bolton had been assured in late April by the official he was working with that the manuscript no longer contained any such material. Bolton’s lawyers said the Trump administration’s efforts to block the book were a pretext to censor him for an account that the White House found unfavorable.

The Justice Department sued this past week to block the book’s release and to demand that copies be retrieved. Officials said the book contained classified information and submitted written statements from administration officials testifying to that assertion. They also said Bolton had failed to complete a prepublication review process meant to prevent government officials from disclosing national security secrets in books.

The judge did not take issue with those concerns in his order. But with more than 200,000 copies of the book already distributed to booksellers across the country, attempting to block its release would be futile, Lamberth wrote. Major media organizations also obtained the book and published comprehensive accounts about it.

“In taking it upon himself to publish his book without securing final approval from national intelligence authorities, Bolton may indeed have caused the country irreparable harm. But in the Internet age, even a handful of copies in circulation could irrevocably destroy confidentiality,” Lamberth wrote.

“With hundreds of thousands of copies around the globe — many in newsrooms — the damage is done. There is no restoring the status quo,” the judge wrote.

Bolton’s book, “The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir,” depicts a president whose foreign policy objectives were inexorably linked to his own political gain.

Bolton says Trump “pleaded” with China’s Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit to help Trump’s reelection prospects. Bolton writes that Trump linked the supply of military assistance to Ukraine to that country’s willingness to conduct investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter — allegations that were at the heart of an impeachment trial that ended with Trump’s acquittal by the Senate in February.

The monthslong classification review process for the manuscript took a complex path.

Bolton says he was told April 27 by a career official with whom he had worked for months on edits that the manuscript was now free of classified information. But another White House official soon embarked on an additional review and identified material that he said was classified, prompting the administration to warn Bolton in writing against publication.

Bolton’s lawyers say the White House assertions of classified material were an attempt to censor him over a book the administration simply finds unflattering.

“If the First Amendment stands for anything, it is that the Government does not have the power to clasp its hand over the mouth of a citizen attempting to speak on a matter of great public import,” Bolton’s attorneys wrote in a court filing.

Trump on Thursday called the book a “compilation of lies and made up stories” intended to make him look bad. He tweeted that Bolton was just trying to get even for being fired “like the sick puppy he is!”

Even Democrats who pounced on some of Bolton’s anecdotes to condemn the president nonetheless expressed frustration that he had saved them for his book instead of participating in the impeachment case.

Manhattan top prosecutor leaves job after standoff with Barr

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Geoffrey S. Berman, United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, arrives to his office in New York on Saturday, June 20, 2020. The Justice Department moved abruptly Friday night to oust Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan overseeing key prosecutions of President Donald Trump’s allies and an investigation of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. But Berman said he was refusing to leave his post and his ongoing investigations would continue. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)

By MICHAEL BALSAMO and LARRY NEUMEISTER (AP)

An unusual standoff between Attorney General William Barr and Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor ended Saturday when the prosecutor agreed to leave his job with an assurance that investigations by the prosecutor’s office into the president’s allies would not be disturbed.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman announced in an early evening statement that he would leave his post, ending increasingly nasty exchanges between Barr and Berman. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, had distanced himself from the dispute, telling reporters the decision “was all up to the attorney general.”

The whirlwind chain of events began Friday night, when Barr announced that Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, had resigned. Hours later, the prosecutor issued a statement denying that he had resigned and saying that his office’s “investigations would move forward without delay or interruption.”

On Saturday morning, he showed up to work, telling reporters, “I’m just here to do my job.”

The administration’s push to cast aside Berman set up an extraordinary political and constitutional clash between the Justice Department and one of the nation’s top districts, which has tried major mob and terrorism cases over the years and is investigating Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. It also deepened tensions between the department and congressional Democrats, who have accused Barr of politicizing the agency and acting more like Trump’s personal lawyer than the country’s chief law enforcement officer.

Only days ago, allegations surfaced from former Trump national security adviser John Bolton that the president sought to interfere in an investigation by Berman’s office into the state-owned Turkish bank in an effort to cut deals with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In a letter made public by the Justice Department on Saturday, Barr said he expected to continue speaking with Berman about other possible positions within the department and was surprised by the statement he released.

“Unfortunately, with your statement of last night, you have chosen public spectacle over public service,” Barr wrote, adding that the idea that Berman had to continue on the job to safeguard investigations was “false.”

“Your statement also wrongly implies that your continued tenure in the office is necessary to ensure that cases now pending in the Southern District of New York are handled appropriately,” he wrote. “This is obviously false.”

Although Barr said Trump had removed Berman, the president told reporters: “That’s all up to the attorney general. Attorney General Barr is working on that. That’s his department, not my department.” Trump added: “I wasn’t involved.”

Barr offered no explanation for his action. The White House announced that Trump was nominating Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton, a well-connected Wall Street lawyer with virtually no experience as a federal prosecutor, for the job.

Berman initially planned to remain in his job until a replacement was confirmed, but he changed his mind late Saturday after Barr said he would allow Berman’s second in command, Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, to become acting U.S. attorney.

Berman said that led him to announce he would be leaving, “effective immediately.”

People familiar with the matter in the Southern District could point to no clear reason for Berman’s removal, though they noted his job had always seemed in jeopardy and Berman was never given the sense that it was secure.

Berman’s office also took actions on some important cases without first informing Washington. But the various investigations are ongoing and no charges seem imminent, said the people familiar with the matter, who weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

A senior department official said Clayton was planning to leave the administration, wanted to move back to New York and expressed interest in the Southern District position, and Barr thought he would be a good fit. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss internal department matters and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he was unlikely to proceed with Clayton’s nomination unless New York’s senators, Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, gave their consent to the pick. Schumer said the bid to oust Berman “reeks of potential corruption of the legal process,” and Gillibrand said she would “not be complicit” in helping fire a prosecutor investigating corruption. Both lawmakers called for Clayton to withdraw from consideration.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said his committee was inviting Berman to testify this coming week. Schumer called for the department’s inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate.

Berman’s statement Friday night said he would stay on the job until a nominee was confirmed by the Senate. He challenged Barr’s power to remove, given that Berman was appointed by federal judges, not by the president, and the White House never formally nominated him. Under federal law, a U.S. attorney who is appointed by district court judges can serve “until the vacancy is filled.”

But the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel argued in a 1979 opinion that the “power to remove a court-appointed U.S. attorney rests with the president.” It says, “The president is responsible for the conduct of a U.S. Attorney’s office and therefore must have the power to remove one he believes is an unsuitable incumbent, regardless of who appointed him.”

Federal prosecutors in New York have overseen numerous prosecutions and investigations with ties to Trump in recent years. That includes an ongoing investigation into Giuliani’s business dealings, including whether he failed to register as a foreign agent, according to people familiar with the matter. They were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The office has also prosecuted a number of Trump associates, including Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who served a prison sentence for lying to Congress and campaign finance crimes. Cohen was recently released from a federal prison to continue serving his sentence on home confinement over coronavirus concerns.

Berman has overseen the prosecution of two Florida businessmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were associates of Giuliani and tied to the Ukraine impeachment investigation. The men were charged in October with federal campaign finance violations, including hiding the origin of a $325,000 donation to a group supporting Trump’s reelection.

A Republican who contributed to the president’s election campaign, Berman worked for the same law firm as Giuliani and was tapped as U.S. attorney by the Trump administration. In that role, he won over some skeptics after he went after Trump allies.

Under Berman’s tenure, his office also brought charges against Michael Avenatti, the combative lawyer who gained fame by representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits involving Trump. Avenatti was convicted in February of trying to extort Nike after prosecutors said he threatened to use his media access to hurt Nike’s reputation and stock price unless the sportswear giant paid him up to $25 million.