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WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are proposing changes to police procedures and accountability, according to a draft of a bill obtained by The Associated Press. It would establish an enhanced use-of-force database, restrictions on chokeholds and new training and commissions to study law enforcement and race. The JUSTICE Act is the most ambitious GOP policing proposal in years. It's a direct response to the massive public protests over the death of George Floyd and other black Americans. The package is set to be introduced Wednesday. As the outlines emerged, Democrats said it didn't go far enough. The 106-page bill is not as sweeping as a Democratic proposal. Votes on both could come next week.
SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best says officers will go into an area being occupied by protesters if there are threats to public safety. Police previously pulled back from a part of the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood near the department’s East Precinct in the wake of recent clashes with people protesting police brutality after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Now called the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest,” participants have painted a Black Lives Matter mural on the street and planted a community garden. The situation has drawn the ire of President Donald Trump, who claimed without merit that violent people had taken over.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's foreign minister says China and Russia are using the heightened anxiety around the coronavirus pandemic to undermine Western democracies by spreading disinformation online. Marise Payne said the disinformation contributed to a “climate of fear and division” when the world needed cooperation and understanding. Payne referred to a Europe Union finding that Russia and China are flooding Europe with disinformation campaigns. China has warned its citizens about racism in Australia and made trade moves recently that are widely regarded as punishment for Australia’s advocacy for an independent inquiry into the origins and responses to the pandemic.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey says it has airlifted troops for a cross-border ground operation against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. The Defense Ministry said the airborne operation in Iraq’s Haftanin region was launched following “intense” artillery fire into the area. The operation by commando forces is being supported by attack helicopters, armed and unarmed drones, it said. It did not say how many commandos are involved. The ministry said the operation follows “increasing harassment and attempts to attack” military outposts or bases near the border area. Turkey regularly carries out air and ground operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, which maintains bases in northern Iraq.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea says it will redeploy military troops to now-shuttered inter-Korean tourism and economic sites, reinstall guard posts and resume military exercises at front-line areas. The moves would nullify the landmark tension-reducing deals reached during diplomacy with the South in 2018. The announcement came a day after North Korea destroyed an inter-Korean liaison office in a display of anger over propaganda leaflets sent across the tense border. It was the most provocative act by North Korea since it entered nuclear talks in 2018. The Diamond Mountain resort and the Kaesong industrial complex just north of the Koreas' heavily armed border were once symbols of inter-Korean cooperation.
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