North Korea replaces three top military leaders, Yonhap news agency reports

Source: The Washington Post



By Brian Murphy and Michelle Ye Hee Lee
June 4 at 1:47 AM

SEOUL — Three of North Korea’s top military officials have been replaced, a South Korean news agency reported Monday, marking an apparent shake-up in leader Kim Jong Un’s inner circle before next week’s planned summit with President Trump.

The report by the Yonhap news agency, citing an intelligence source, could not be independently verified. But, if confirmed, the moves suggest another step in Kim’s ongoing reorganization in military leadership — this time bringing in younger military overseers to replace older ranks possibly at odds with his outreach to the United States and its ally South Korea, experts said.

The officials who reportedly were dropped are from some of the highest echelons of the North’s military structure, including Ri Myong Su, the chief of general staff for the Korean People’s Army. Ri was thought to be a confidant of Kim’s father, the late leader Kim Jong Il.

The others dismissed, according to Yonhap, were defense chief Pak Yong Sik and Kim Jong Gak, director of the political bureau of the North Korean army.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-replaces-three-top-military-leaders-yonhap-news-agency-reports/2018/06/03/086da640-6798-11e8-bf8c-f9ed2e672adf_story.html

Facebook Gave Device Makers Deep Access to Data on Users and Friends

Source: The New York Times




The company formed data-sharing partnerships with Apple, Samsung and
dozens of other device makers, raising new concerns about its privacy protections.

By GABRIEL J.X. DANCE, NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and MICHAEL LaFORGIA June 3, 2018 9:59 PM EST

As Facebook sought to become the world’s dominant social media service, it struck agreements allowing phone and other device makers access to vast amounts of its users’ personal information.

Facebook has reached data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 device makers — including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung — over the last decade, starting before Facebook apps were widely available on smartphones, company officials said. The deals allowed Facebook to expand its reach and let device makers offer customers popular features of the social network, such as messaging, “like” buttons and address books.

But the partnerships, whose scope has not previously been reported, raise concerns about the company’s privacy protections and compliance with a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission. Facebook allowed the device companies access to the data of users’ friends without their explicit consent, even after declaring that it would no longer share such information with outsiders. Some device makers could retrieve personal information even from users’ friends who believed they had barred any sharing, The New York Times found.

Most of the partnerships remain in effect, though Facebook began winding them down in April. The company came under intensifying scrutiny by lawmakers and regulators after news reports in March that a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, misused the private information of tens of millions of Facebook users.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/03/technology/facebook-device-partners-users-friends-data.html

When Guns Are Sold Illegally, A.T.F. Is Lenient on Punishment

Source: The New York Times

By Ali Watkins
June 3, 2018

WASHINGTON — As they inspect the nation’s gun stores, federal investigators regularly find violations of the law, ranging from minor record-keeping errors to illegal sales of firearms. In the most serious cases, like a sale of a gun to a prohibited buyer, inspectors often recommend that gun dealers lose their licenses.

But that rarely happens. Senior officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regularly overrule their own inspectors, allowing gun dealers who fail inspections to keep their licenses even after they were previously warned to follow the rules, according to interviews with more than half a dozen current and former law enforcement officials and a review of more than 100 inspection reports.

One store was cited for failing to conduct background checks before selling a gun. Another store owner told investigators he actively tried to circumvent gun laws. One threatened an A.T.F. officer, and another sold a gun to a customer who identified as a felon. All were previously cited by the A.T.F. In each instance, supervisors downgraded recommendations that the stores’ licenses be revoked and instead let them stay open.



Of about 11,000 inspections of licensed firearm dealers in the year starting in October 2016, more than half were cited for violations. Less than 1 percent of all inspections resulted in the loss of a license.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/03/us/atf-gun-store-violations.html

Two sprinters gave the black-power salute at the Olympics. It took them decades to recover from that

By Rick Maese
May 28

They stood on the podium with Olympic medals hanging from their necks, and something much heavier weighing on their shoulders. Each man silently and stoically jabbed a gloved fist in the air, a popular black-power salute. The American track stars stood there without shoes, to symbolize black poverty, and one wore a black scarf, symbolizing black pride. Both kept their heads bowed as their national anthem played, refusing to acknowledge an oppressive society. And by the final notes of the song, everything had changed for John Carlos and Tommie Smith.

The crowd that assembled 50 years ago in Mexico City was there for a medal ceremony, to celebrate the fastest Olympic sprinters from the men’s 200-meter race: the two African Americans and an Australian named Peter Norman. It witnessed something much bigger. And as word of the demonstration spread across a United States still reeling from racial tensions, it became clear that Smith and Carlos would not be returning home to a hero’s welcome. Instead, they were cast as villains by leaders in the Olympic movement.

“The action of these negroes was an insult to the Mexican hosts and a disgrace to the United States,” Avery Brundage, the International Olympic Committee president, wrote in a letter months later.

A search through contemporaneous records reveals an IOC that was eager to punish Smith and Carlos, a U.S. Olympic Committee that was reluctant to defend them, a White House that declined to host them and an FBI that was monitoring them.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/two-sprinters-gave-the-black-power-salute-at-the-olympics-it-took-them-decades-to-recover-from-that-gesture/2018/05/28/b29e9dfc-4a58-11e8-827e-190efaf1f1ee_story.html

'Change is coming': Fox & Friends host has his lunch eaten by Dem candidate

Rick Santorum: Obama played a 'role' in Trump's failure to condemn racism

President Trump Thinks He Is a King

By Harry Litman

Mr. Litman is a former United States attorney and deputy assistant attorney general.

Harry Litman (@harrylitman) is a former United States attorney and deputy assistant attorney general. He teaches at the University of California, San Diego, department of political science and practices law at Constantine Cannon.

June 3, 2018

The president believes he is above the law. That’s the takeaway from the confidential 20-page memo sent by President Trump’s lawyers to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, published over the weekend by The Times. And it’s the same sentiment that Rudy Giuliani expressed on Sunday when he suggested that Mr. Trump has the power to pardon himself.

The central claim of the legal memorandum is that it is impossible for the president to illegally obstruct any aspect of the investigation into Russia’s election meddling. That’s because, as president, Mr. Trump has the constitutional power to terminate the inquiry or pardon his way out of it. Therefore — and this is the key and indefensible point — he cannot obstruct justice by exercising this authority “no matter his motivation.”

This understanding of presidential power is radical and absolutist. It is also unsound and almost certain to be sharply rejected should it ever be proffered in court.

Even granting the contention that Mr. Trump could simply terminate the investigation, it is a non sequitur to argue, as the president’s lawyers do, that as a consequence he cannot obstruct it. Imagine, for example, that the worst version of facts proves true: that Trump fired the F.B.I. director, James Comey, tried to fire Mr. Mueller, constructed a false account of the June 2016 Russia meeting, and tried to force Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse his recusal decision that was driven by Justice Department policy, all to protect his own skin and his family’s fortune.

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/03/opinion/mueller-trump-executive-power.html

Merkel endorses Macron's EU military plan

Source: Politico-Europe


The German chancellor has previously been cautious about plans for an EU joint military force.

By JAKOB HANKE 6/3/18, 5:17 PM CET Updated 6/3/18, 5:36 PM CET

German chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday she supports the idea of a joint European defense force, adding that the initiative could be open to British participation post Brexit.

Merkel’s French counterpart Emmanuel Macron has been pushing for the creation of a combined EU military force that could be deployed to trouble spots around the world. The idea had so far received a frosty reception in Berlin, with defense minister Ursula von der Leyen saying the idea was “not an imminent project for tomorrow.” So Merkel’s intervention represents a significant change of tone.

“I am in favor of President Macron’s proposal for an intervention initiative,” Merkel said in a wide-raning interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

Merkel said the initiative “needs to fit into the structure of defense cooperation,” which she said should bring down the number of different EU weapon systems from 180 to “about 30.”



Read more: https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-angela-merkel-endorses-eu-military-plan/

Trump's ambassador to Germany says he wants to 'empower' European conservatives

Source: The Hill




BY LUIS SANCHEZ - 06/03/18 12:40 PM EDT

Richard Grenell, President Trump’s new ambassador to Germany, said in a new interview that he wants to “empower” conservative leaders in Europe.

“I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders,” Grenell told Breitbart. “I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left.”

“There are a lot of conservatives throughout Europe who have contacted me to say they are feeling there is a resurgence going on,” Grenell said. The ambassador said that Trump’s election empowered people to take on the “political class.” He also railed against the German media that has often been critical of the president.

“That’s a very powerful moment when you can grasp the ability to see past the group-think of a very small elitist crowd telling you you have no chance to win or you’ll never win, or they mock you early on.”



Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/390462-trumps-german-ambassador-says-he-wants-to-empower-european

WATCH: McCarthy Dodges Q's On WH's Lie About Trump Tower Meeting Statement

https://twitter.com/TPMLiveWire/status/1003296092488978433