News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
Arizona Files Lawsuit Against Google Over ‘Deceptive’ Location Tracking
The lawsuit, filed on May 27 by Attorney General Mark Brnovich, alleges that the technology company violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act. It requires Google to “disgorge gross receipts arising from its Arizona activities.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and argues that the maker of the Android smartphone operating system had set its mobile software to deceive device owners about protections afforded to them regarding their personal data.
“We filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against Google for deceptive and unfair practices used to obtain users’ location data, which Google then exploits for its lucrative advertising business,” Brnovich said in a statement on Twitter.
Trump signs social media executive order
President Trump is crafting an executive order on social media that could seek to curb legal protections for the industry, a broadside that comes amid his escalating fight this week with Twitter over the company’s decision to fact-check his claims for the first time.
Pennsylvania woman allegedly kept grandma’s corpse in freezer for 15 years, collected Social Security checks: reports
Delahay’s 61-year-old granddaughter, Cynthia Carolyn Black, allegedly told police she kept her grandma’s corpse because the family needed the money from her Social Security checks.
She also claimed she had moved the freezer to Dillsburg, more than 100 miles west of Ardmore, in 2007, the Patriot-News reported, citing state police.
Police discovered the body in February 2019 while responding to a report regarding human remains inside a Warrington Township home.
Border Patrol agents catch 2 escaped Colorado prisoners in Arizona
(U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
Rodiguez, 35, and Guzman, 42, claimed to be in the country illegally and wished to be immediately returned to Mexico, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release said.
They eventually admitted to being fugitives who escaped from the Federal Correctional Institution’s Satellite Prison Camp in Florence, Colo.
The men were discovered missing Wednesday morning.
YouTube removes video from Free Speech Union’s Toby Young after he criticized coronavirus lockdown measures
The clip, which was titled “The Case Against Lockdowns,” features Young discussing why he believes lockdown measures are a mistake during a panel discussion organized by the Institute of Arts and Ideas and also shows Michael Levitt, a Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford and winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, nodding enthusiastically.
In the clip, Young argues that the government should have to meet “quite a high evidential threshold” when demonstrating that suspending the civil liberties of its population will save lives and that the government hasn’t done this.
He also criticizes the model the government used as the basis for implementing lockdown measures and suggests that it was “panicked” into implementing these measures.
Video shows altercation between looters and woman in wheelchair outside Minneapolis Target
Videos taken from outside a parking lot in Minneapolis where looters ransacked a Target department store show a woman in a motorized wheelchair being punched in the head and sprayed with a fire extinguisher.
The woman, several social media users claimed in videos they posted online of the altercation, was carrying a knife.
At least one person was killed during the demonstrations in Minneapolis on Wednesday night, and local officials have called in the National Guard to help maintain safety with more demonstrations expected in the coming days.
US Army soldier ends active shooter situation by ramming with car
In what was originally thought to be a road-rage incident that started around 11 a.m. turned out to be suspect who had stopped on the bridge and began shooting randomly at passing vehicles using a handgun and a rifle, according to the Associated Press.
The soldier, who is assigned to Fort Leavenworth, was in his car waiting on traffic.
When he realized a shooting was taking place, he used his car to ram the suspect.
Supporter of Islamic State terror group nabbed in undercover sting in FL, FBI says
Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, 23, is charged with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
Al-Azhari was arrested Sunday in a federal sting operation in which he acquired weapons from an FBI informant with whom he’d shared his desires to carry out a mass shooting on behalf of a terror group, according to a criminal complaint.
The document refers to the terror group as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS.
Politics:
Dem governors taking heat for flouting their own coronavirus lockdown guidelines
Some Democratic governors are taking heat for apparently disregarding some of the coronavirus recommendations they themselves have asked residents to abide by to limit the spread of the virus.
From Virginia to New Mexico, governors have implemented strict orders meant to curb the spread of COVID-19 that has killed more than 100,000 Americans — only to be caught flouting those guidelines in some cases.
Take the case of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.
FCC commissioner: If social media companies wish to be political actors they shouldn’t have special protection
Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brendan Carr scolded Twitter on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday for attaching a fact check to a tweet from President Trump, saying the decision represents “their own political, partisan viewpoint.”
Carr accused Twitter of engaging in “political speech against the president,” arguing that “these are not fact checks that are going on, this is opinion journalism.”
After Decrying Corporate Cash, Hickenlooper Hauls in More Than $1 Million from Execs and Lobbyists
Federal Election Commission records show that Hickenlooper has directly collected more than $1.1 million from corporate executives in his bid to unseat Republican senator Cory Gardner.
The cash flowed from high-level executives at Microsoft, Geico, UnitedHealth, BlueShield, and other companies. Many of the executives made maximum contributions to Hickenlooper’s campaign.
Hickenlooper has made anti-corporate rhetoric a major part of his campaign in a race that could determine which party controls Congress’s upper chamber.
Tucker: Media embrace Big Tech censorship instead of pushing back
Commentary/Opinion:
The only reason we have a free press is to fight back against authoritarian power structures demanding we read from approved scripts.
World News:
Chinese diplomats are using Western social media to “fact-check” criticism against China
Sharing supposedly “verified” information in the form of a fact-check, both the Chinese embassies and the Chinese Foreign Ministry have launched an offensive to try to deny negative data about COVID-19 and China’s involvement.
Although this is not the first time that the country has tried to defend itself against the accusations by sharing information from state-run media, since the beginning of May the narrative has changed to add that these reports come from scientific studies and certified sources.
Interestingly, all publications follo
China Approves Plan to Rein In Hong Kong, Defying Worldwide Outcry
BEIJING — China officially has the broad power to quash unrest in Hong Kong, as the country’s legislature on Thursday nearly unanimously approved a plan to suppress subversion, secession, terrorism and seemingly any acts that might threaten national security in the semiautonomous city.
As Beijing hashes out the specifics of the national security legislation in the coming weeks, the final rules will help determine the fate of Hong Kong, including how much of the city’s autonomy will be preserved or how much Beijing will tighten its grip.
Early signals from the Chinese authorities point to a crackdown once the law takes effect, which is expected by September.
Iran says it has 112 new speedboats to stalk US warships
“Today we announce that wherever the Americans are, we’re right there beside you, and in the near future you will sense us even more,” IRGC Navy Commander Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said at a ceremony to unveil the new vessels, Bloomberg reported.
Tangsiri’s comments appear to be a reference to recent incidents between Iranian speedboats stalking and swarming around U.S. warships, which they have done frequently and previously vowed to continue doing.
The IRGC commander’s vow to bring the new boats alongside U.S. warships comes a month after 11 Iranian boats swarmed around a six U.S. warships transiting international waters.
Iranian man accused of beheading 14-year-old daughter in honor killing arrested
Teenager Romina Ashrafi ran away from her home to elope with her 34-year-old boyfriend Bahamn Khavari after her family objected to the union.
The pair was caught by the cops nearly 200 miles north of Tehran. Ashrafi was forced to return home, despite pleading with authorities and claiming she feared for her life.
Last week, Ashrafi was allegedly beheaded with a sickle in her bedroom by her father, Reza Ashrafi, who then walked out of his house with the sickle in his hand and confessed, local reports claimed. Reza Ashrafi is currently in custody.
Under Iranian law, girls can get married as young as 13.
Commentary/Opinion:
Why Are Lockdowns Actually Destroying Hospitals? (Pt. 2) | Matt Kibbe | POLITICS | Rubin Report
Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to Matt Kibbe (President and Chief Community Organizer at Free the People & host of Kibbe on Liberty on Blaze TV) about liberty in a time of lockdown.
Matt Kibbe talks about how even plans with the best intentions often yield horrible unintended consequences.
He gives the example of states making the decision to have hospitals cancel their elective surgeries.
This decision has had the unintended consequences of having cancer patients forego treatment, but also eliminating a main revenue stream for hospitals causing many hospitals to now possibly file for bankruptcy.
This is another instance where politicians have made things worse by trying to make them better.