PENTAGON-TRUMP CLASH BREAKS OPEN OVER MILITARY AND PROTESTS

US President Donald Trump's Pentagon chief shot down his idea of using

troops to quell protests across the United States Wednesday, then reversed

course on pulling part of the 82nd Airborne Division off standby in an

extraordinary clash between the US military and its commander in chief.

Both Trump and defense secretary Mark Esper also drew stinging, rare public

criticism from Trump's first defense secretary, Jim Mattis, in the most

public pushback of Trump's presidency from the men he put at the helm of the

world's most powerful military.

Mattis' rebuke followed Trump's threats to use the military to "dominate"

the streets where Americans are demonstrating following the death of George

Floyd, a black man who died when a white police officer pressed his knee

into his neck for several minutes.

The president had urged governors to call out the National Guard to contain

protests that turned violent and warned that he could send in active duty

military forces if they did not.

Esper angered Trump early Wednesday when he said he opposed using military

troops for law enforcement, seemingly taking the teeth out of the

president's threat to use the Insurrection Act. Esper said the 1807 law

should be invoked in the United States "only in the most urgent and dire of

situations."

He added, "We are not in one of those situations now."

Trump responded on Twitter by calling Mattis "the world's most overrated

General," adding: "I didn't like his 'leadership' style or much else about

him, and many others agree, Glad he is gone!" Days ago,

NORTH KOREA LASHES OUT, SAYS US WILL BE OVERSHADOWED BY CHINA

North Korea lashed out at the U.S. on Thursday, asserting that its ally

China was quickly overshadowing the U.S. amid an ongoing spat between

Washington and Beijing.

In a statement published by state media, Pyongyang excoriated Secretary of

State Mike Pompeo for criticizing China in an interview on Sunday. During

the interview, Pompeo accused Beijing of being "intent upon the destruction

of Western ideas, Western democracies, Western values."

"It is not the first time that he spouted nonsense about China over the

issues of Hong Kong, Taiwan, human rights and trade disputes, but what

cannot be overlooked is that he viciously slandered the leadership of the

Communist Party of China over socialism," North Korea's ruling Workers'

Party said.

"Pompeo, who has been deeply engrossed in espionage and plot-breeding

against other countries, said that the Communist Party today is different

from what it was a decade ago, which shows he acknowledges that socialism

led by the Communist Party grows stronger day by day and he is anxious about

the plight of the US which is doomed to ruin."

In the statement, North Korea also underscored protests that have spread

across the U.S. since the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who

died in police custody in Minneapolis. Trump has threatened to use the

military to quell the demonstrations.

"This is the present reality of the crumbling US where demonstrators enraged

by extreme racism throng even to the White House and it is American-style

freedom and democracy to stigmatize the demonstrators as leftists and

threaten to break up demonstration by setting even the dogs on them,"

Pyongyang said.

The statement also panned Seoul after defectors from the North released

anti-North Korean leaflets across the border, a move Pyongyang has long

slammed as a propaganda tactic.

"What matters is that those human scum hardly worth their value as human

beings had the temerity to fault our supreme leadership and cite 'a nuclear

issue,' " Kim Yo Jong, a North Korean spokeswoman and Kim's sister, said in

a statement run by state media, adding that Pyongyang could cancel an

agreement to run a joint liaison office with the South and cease hostile

military actions at the border.

JOE BIDEN, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGNS TARGETED BY FOREIGN HACKERS: GOOGLE

Google said state-based hackers have targeted the campaigns of both

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, although it saw

no evidence that the phishing attempts were successful.

The company confirmed the findings after the director of its Threat Analysis

Group, Shane Huntley, disclosed the attempts Thursday on Twitter.

Mr. Huntley said a Chinese group known as Hurricane Panda targeted Trump

campaign staffers while an Iranian outfit known as Charming Kitten had

attempted to breach accounts of Biden campaign workers.

Such phishing attempts typically involve forged emails with links designed

to harvest passwords or infect devices with malware.

The effort targeted personal email accounts of staffers in both campaigns,

according to the company statement. A Google spokesman added that "the

timeline is recent and that a couple of people were targeted on both

campaigns. He would not say how many.

Google said it sent targeted users our standard government-backed attack

warning and referred the incidents to federal law enforcement.

Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research

Lab, called the announcement a major disclosure of potential cyber-enabled

influence operations, just as we saw in 2016.

His tweet referred to the Russian hacking of the Democratic National

Committee and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and subsequent

online release of internal emails - some doctored - that US investigators

determined sought to assist the Trump campaign.

Neither the Biden nor the Trump campaign would not say how many staffers

were targeted, when the attempts took place or whether the phishing was

successful.

HONG KONG COMMEMORATES TIANANMEN DEAD WITH VIGIL

Thousands defied a police ban to gather with candles in Hong Kong on

Thursday to mark China's bloody Tiananmen Square democracy crackdown in 1989

and accuse Beijing of stifling freedoms too on their semi-autonomous

territory.

Meeting in the city's Victoria Park, some chanted slogans such as "End one

party rule" and "Democracy for China now" as they skirted an unprecedented

prohibition on the annual vigil justified by police due to the coronavirus

crisis.

The anniversary has struck an especially sensitive nerve in the former

British-ruled city this year after China's move last month to impose

national security legislation. On Thursday, Hong Kong passed a Bill that

would criminalise disrespect of China's national anthem, a move critics see

as the latest sign of Beijing's tightening grip on the semi-autonomous city.

It also comes as Chinese media and some Beijing officials voice support for

protests in the U.S. against police brutality. The crackdown is not

officially commemorated in mainland China, where the topic is taboo and

discussion censored.

In Hong Kong, which just reported its first locally transmitted coronavirus

cases in weeks, police had said a mass gathering would undermine public

health. But several thousand made it to Victoria Park where they held a

minute of silence.

Elsewhere around the city, Hong Kong residents took to the streets and also

lit candles in other peaceful rallies.

BRAZIL'S COVID-19 DEATH TOLL SURGES TO THIRD-HIGHEST IN WORLD

Brazil's death toll from the novel coronavirus has surged past 34,000 to

become the third-highest in the world, surpassing Italy's, according to

official figures released Thursday.

The South American country reported a new record of 1,473 deaths in 24

hours, bringing its overall toll to 34,021, behind only the United States

and Britain.

Brazil has now confirmed 614,941 infections, the health ministry said -- the

second-largest caseload in the world, behind the US.

Experts say under-testing in Brazil means the real numbers are probably much

higher.

The latest figures underlined the grim toll the virus is taking in Latin

America, the latest epicenter in the pandemic.

Brazil, a country of 210 million people, has been the hardest-hit in the

region.

CHINA TO ALLOW FOREIGN FLIGHTS

China said on Thursday foreign airlines blocked from operating in the

country over virus fears would be allowed to resume limited flights,

apparently deescalating a row with Washington following U.S. plans to ban

Chinese carriers.

The latest spat was rooted in the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC)

deciding to impose a limit on foreign airlines based on their activity as of

March 12. Because U.S. carriers had suspended all flights by that date their

cap was set at zero, while Chinese carriers' flights to the U.S. continued.

On Wednesday the U.S. said it would block Chinese passenger flights from

June 16, raising concerns of another front being opened up in the economic

titans' standoff.

But the CAAC on Thursday said all foreign airlines not listed in the March

12 schedule would now be able to operate one international route into China

each week.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian expressed regret over the

U.S. decision, adding that the CAAC is making "solemn representations" over

the matter.

GEORGE FLOYD WAS INFECTED WITH COVID-19, AUTOPSY REVEALS

George Floyd, whose fatal encounter with Minneapolis police stirred a global

outcry over racial bias by U.S. law enforcement, tested positive for the

coronavirus, his autopsy showed, but the infection was not listed as a

factor in his death.

The official cause of death, according to the full 20-page report made

public on Wednesday by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office, was

cardiopulmonary arrest while Floyd was being restrained by police taking him

into custody on May 25.

The coroner ruled the manner of death to be a homicide.

The autopsy, in listing cardiopulmonary arrest as the cause of Floyd's

death, also cited "complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint and neck

compression."

The report listed several additional factors as "significant conditions"

contributing to Floyd's death, including heart disease, high blood pressure

and intoxication from the powerful opioid fentanyl, as well as recent

methamphetamine use.

The report further noted that a nasal swab sample collected from Floyd's

body came back positive for Covid-19, and that Floyd had also tested

positive on April 3, nearly eight weeks before his death.

The county's chief medical examiner, Dr. Andrew Baker, concluded that the

post mortem test result "most likely reflects asymptomatic but persistent

... positivity from previous infection." There was no indication in the

autopsy report that coronavirus played any role in Floyd's death.

40 STUDENTS, TEACHERS STABBED BY SECURITY GUARD IN PRIMARY SCHOOL IN CHINA

About 40 students and staff of a primary school in China were injured when a

security guard attacked them with a knife, official media reported on

Thursday, the latest such incident of mass attack by disgruntled people in

the country.

The incident happened at a school in southern Guangxi province, state-run

China Daily said in a brief report.

Three of the injured are in serious condition, state-run CGTN TV reported.

The man has been detained by the police and the injured have been sent to a

hospital, it said.

The incident happened on Thursday at 8.30 am, at Wangfu Town Central Primary

School in Wuzhou city, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The suspected attacker has been detained by local police for questioning.