GERMANY, FRANCE, U.K. PRESS IRAN TO PROVIDE ATOMIC SITE ACCESS

The board of the United Nations' atomic watchdog agency on June 19 adopted a

resolution calling for Iran to provide inspectors access to sites where the

country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material, the

Russian representative said.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's Ambassador to international organisations in

Vienna, tweeted that his country and China had voted against the resolution

that Germany, France and Britain proposed at a meeting of the International

Atomic Energy Agency board.

"We believe that the resolution can be counterproductive," Mr. Ulyanov said,

while also stressing the need for Tehran and IAEA to settle this problem

without delay.

Earlier this week, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi reiterated concerns

that for more than four months Iran had denied his inspectors access to two

locations "to clarify our questions related to possible undeclared nuclear

material and nuclear-related activities".

Activities at the sites are thought to have been from the early 2000s,

before Iran signed the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Iran maintains

the International Atomic Energy Agency has no legal basis to inspect them.

Iran's representative to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, said his country

rejected the resolution.

TWITTER FLAGS TRUMP'S TWEET OF DOCTORED 'RACIST' VIDEO

Twitter has labelled a video tweeted by US President Donald Trump as having

"manipulated media" for the first time.

The video shows a black child running away from a white child while playing,

with a fake CNN caption.

The caption reads: "Terrified toddler runs from racist baby", before the

video accuses CNN of "fake news".

Twitter's decision to place a large warning label on the video is the latest

escalation in a row between Twitter and the president.

In late May, Twitter added fact-checking verification notices to the

president's tweets for the first time, following up two days later with

hiding some tweets behind a warning.

Mr Trump responded by signing an executive order that seeks to curb the

long-standing legal protections of social media firms.

This latest warning is the first time Twitter has used the "manipulated

media" warning on one of the president's tweets - designed to indicate the

photo or video has been significantly edited.

It also comes at a time of increased racial tension in the United States and

the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

After the initial shot of the children running, another caption appears:

"Racist baby probably a Trump voter."

It then cuts to text promising "what actually happened", showing the

original context of the two children at play - as CNN did in its original

report in September of last year.

"America is not the problem. Fake news is," the video declares before it

ends.

But clicking on the prominent warning that Twitter attached to the tweet

brings users to a page where Twitter warns: "The president shared a version

of the video which many journalists confirmed was edited and doctored with a

fake CNN chyron."

POMPEO TEARS INTO 'ROGUE ACTOR' CHINA FOR 'ESCALATING' BORDER TENSION WITH

INDIA

The US on Friday criticised the Chinese Army for "escalating" the border

tension with India and described the ruling Chinese Communist Party as a

"rogue actor."

Launching a scathing attack on the Chinese government, US Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo said the Chinese Communist Party wants to undo all the progress

the free world has made through institutions like NATO and adopt a new set

of rules and norms that accommodate Beijing.

"The PLA (People's Liberation Army) has escalated border tensions with

India, the world's most populous democracy. It's militarising the South

China Sea and illegally claiming more territory there, threatening vital sea

lanes," Pompeo said, a day after he expressed deep condolences to India on

the death of 20 soldiers in violent clashes with Chinese troops at Galwan

Valley in Ladakh early in the week.

In his virtual address on "Europe and the China Challenge" during the 2020

Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Friday, the top American diplomat said that

for many years, the West, in an era of hope, believed they could change the

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and improve the lives of the Chinese people

along the way.

"Along the way, the CCP took advantage of our goodwill while assuring us

they wanted a cooperative relationship. As (former Chinese politician) Deng

Xiaoping said 'Hide your strength, bide your time.' I've talked in other

venues about why this happened. It's a complicated story. It's no one's

fault," Pompeo said.

CORONAVIRUS | COVID-19 WAS PRESENT IN ITALY IN DECEMBER 2019, SUGGESTS STUDY

Scientists in Italy have found traces of the new coronavirus in wastewater

collected from Milan and Turin in December 2019 - suggesting COVID-19 was

already circulating in northern Italy before China reported the first cases.

The Italian National Institute of Health looked at 40 sewage samples

collected from wastewater treatment plants in northern Italy between October

2019 and February 2020. An analysis released late on Thursday said samples

taken in Milan and Turin on Dec. 18 showed the presence of the SARS-Cov-2

virus.

Small studies conducted by scientific teams in the Netherlands, France,

Australia and elsewhere have found signs that the virus that causes COVID-19

can be detected in sewage, and many countries are beginning to use

wastewater sampling to track the spread of the disease.

Scientists said the detection of traces of the virus before the end of 2019

was consistent with evidence emerging in other countries that COVID-19 may

have been circulating before China reported the first cases on Dec. 31.

"That COVID-19 could have been circulating in Italy is possible," said

Rowland Kao, a veterinary epidemiology and data science professor at

Scotland's Edinburgh University.

A study in May by French scientists found that a man was infected with

COVID-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before France confirmed its

first cases. Mr. La Rosa said the presence of the virus in the Italian waste

samples did not "automatically imply that the main transmission chains that

led to the development of the epidemic in our country originated from these

very first cases".

OUTBREAK SPEEDING UP WITH 150K CASES IN A DAY: WHO

The head of the World Health Organization said the coronavirus pandemic is

"accelerating" and that more than 150,000 cases were reported yesterday -

the"highest single-day number so far.

In a media briefing on Friday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nearly half

of the newly reported cases were from the Americas, with significant numbers

from South Asia and the Middle East.

The warning came as it emerged the virus was present in Italy in December,

months before its first confirmed cases and about the same time as the

disease was first reported in China.

"We are in a new and dangerous phase," he said, warning that restrictive

measures are still needed to stop the pandemic. "Many people are

understandably fed up with being at home (and) countries are understandably

eager to open up their societies."

But Tedros warned that the virus is still "spreading fast" and that measures

like social distancing, mask wearing and hand-washing are still critical.

He noted the toll would be especially great on refugees in particular, of

whom more than 80 per cent live in mostly developing nations.

"We have a shared duty to everything we can to prevent, detect and respond

to the transmission of COVID-19 detected among refugees in hospitals."

CALLS INTENSIFY IN CONGRESS TO MAKE JUNETEENTH A FEDERAL HOLIDAY

Protesters across the U.S. are demanding racial equality, but there is also

a push to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

Juneteenth represents the day that black slaves in Texas learned that they

were free. The freedom of black Americans came two years after the

Emancipation Proclamation was signed.

For decades June 19, 1865 has marked the beginning of freedom for blacks in

America, but amid national outpouring for racial equality, this year's

celebration has a deeper meaning.

As the Black Lives Matter movement grows, companies like Nike, Target, and

Google have made Juneteenth a paid holiday.

Though Juneteenth is not a national holiday, at least 40 states have made

Juneteenth a state holiday.

A group of Senate Democrats announced Friday that they would introduce the

Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, legislation to designate the day,

and if passed, would make Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since

Martin Luther King Day was recognized in 1983.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif, teased the bill Thursday night, telling MSNBC,

"Together with my colleagues Cory Booker, Tina Smith, and Ed Markey, we are

proposing that Juneteenth be a national holiday. And we are dropping that

bill saying that Juneteenth should be a national holiday."

IRAQ TELLS TURKEY TO STOP ATTACKS

Baghdad on Thursday demanded Ankara immediately halt its assault in northern

Iraq, where Turkish special forces and helicopters have been targeting

Kurdish rebel hideouts.

Turkey early Wednesday launched a cross-border operation into the

mountainous regions of northern Iraq where the Kurdistan Workers' Party

(PKK), considered by Ankara to be a "terrorist" group, is thought to be

hiding out.

Iraq's Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish Ambassador Fatih Yildiz on

Thursday and handed him a "strongly-worded memorandum calling for a halt to

such provocative actions".

"We stress that Turkey must stop its bombardment and withdraw its attacking

forces from Iraqi territory," the Ministry said in a statement.

"We affirm our categorical rejection of these violations."

Iraq on Thursday also summoned Iran's envoy Iraj Masjedi in protest over its

shelling of Kurdish areas on Tuesday.

The Foreign Ministry statement urged Iran to "respect Iraq's sovereignty and

stops these types of actions".

"This Ministry affirms Iraq is keen to maintain and develop the historical

ties between the two countries, and also stresses its condemnation of these

actions," the ministry said.

CHINA CHARGES 2 CANADIANS WITH ESPIONAGE

Chinese prosecutors said on Friday they have charged two detained Canadians

for suspected espionage, indictments that could result in life imprisonment,

in a case that has driven a diplomatic wedge between Ottawa and Beijing.

Former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor were arrested

in late 2018 on state security charges, soon after Canadian authorities

arrested Huawei Technologies Co's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in

Vancouver on a U.S. warrant. While China maintains the detentions are not

linked to Ms. Meng, former diplomats and experts have said they are being

used to pressure Canada.

China has repeatedly called for Ms. Meng's release, and has warned Canada

that it could face consequences for aiding the United States in her case.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular briefing on Friday

that the indictments were "of particularly serious circumstances which

violated Article 111 of the Criminal Law of the Peoples Republic of China,"

which pertains to espionage and state secrets. Under that article, a

conviction can carry a sentence of from 10 years to life imprisonment "when

circumstances are particularly serious". The charges mean a formal trial can

begin.

Canada has called the arrests "arbitrary".