Ocasio-Cortez leads critics of video showing Ivanka Trump G20 chat

• First daughter attempts to talk with May, Macron and more
• New York Democrat laments damage to ‘diplomatic standing’

Martin Pengelly
Sun 30 Jun 2019 17.03 BST Last modified on Sun 30 Jun 2019 19.20 BST

The French government on Saturday released a brief clip of a discussion at the G20 summit in Osaka involving four world leaders – and Ivanka Trump.

In the 19 seconds of footage, Donald Trump’s daughter appears to attempt to join a conversation between French president Emmanuel Macron, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde and British prime minister Theresa May.

Among widespread reaction on social media, most of it critical of the first daughter, the New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said such behaviour “hurts our diplomatic standing”.

Trump has been criticised before for appearing to stand in for her father at international summits, for example during a discussion on health and migration in Africa at the 2017 G20 in Hamburg.

In the video released by the Elysée Palace, Macron can be heard to make a point about “social justice”, to which Trump, standing to his right, says either “it’s on” or “it’s all”.

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Despite new law, Trump administration has not given Puerto Rico emergency food stamp aid

By Jeff Stein and Arelis R. Hernández June 24 at 12:32 PM

The Trump administration has not yet given Puerto Rico $600 million in food stamp aid more than two weeks after the president signed the emergency funding into law, according to federal and territory officials.

Puerto Rico does not expect to be able to spend the emergency food stamp funding until September, most likely, six months after food stamp cuts began for the more than 1 million island residents who rely on the program, said Glorimar Andújar Matos, executive director of the Departamento de la Familia, the Puerto Rico government agency that administers the program.

While the reason for it was not immediately clear, the unexpected delay to Puerto Rico’s food stamp aid reflects the ongoing dysfunction in securing the release of federal funding for the U.S. territory that is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria in fall 2017.

Emergency food stamp money for Puerto Rico ran out in March, starting widespread reductions in benefits, and funding renewal was delayed by several months amid an impasse among federal lawmakers and opposition to additional funding for Puerto Rico from the Trump administration.

Puerto Rican officials said they have unsuccessfully sought clarity from the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service for how to swiftly secure the food stamp funding.

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WORLD NEWS JUNE 20, 2019 / 5:35 AM / UPDATED 12 HOURS AGO

Britain broke law in allowing arms exports to Saudis: court

Paul Sandle, Guy Faulconbridge
6 MIN READ

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain broke the law by allowing arms sales to Saudi Arabia that might have been deployed in the war in Yemen, an English court ruled on Thursday after activists said there was evidence the weapons had been used in violation of human rights statutes.

While the court’s decision does not mean Britain must immediately halt arms exports to Saudi Arabia, it does mean that there is a stay on the granting of new export licenses to sell arms to the kingdom - Britain’s biggest weapons purchaser.

The United Nations has described the conflict in Yemen, which has killed tens of thousands of people including thousands of civilians, as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“The Court of Appeal has concluded that the process of decision-making by the government was wrong in law in one significant respect,” said Terence Etherton, England’s second most senior judge.

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NPR Identifies 4th Attacker In Civil Rights-Era Cold Case

June 18, 2019 12:00 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
GRAHAM SMITH
CAT SCHUKNECHT

An NPR investigation has uncovered new evidence in a prominent unsolved murder case from the civil rights era, including the identity of an attacker who admitted his involvement but was never charged.

The murder of Boston minister James Reeb in 1965 drew national attention at the time and spurred passage of the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed the Jim Crow voting practices that had disenfranchised millions of black Americans.

The case remains officially unsolved. Three men charged in 1965 with attacking Reeb and two other ministers on a street corner in Selma, Ala., were acquitted by an all-white jury.

But a four-year NPR investigation, led by Alabama-based reporters Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace, found an eyewitness to the attack who has never spoken publicly about what she saw. She said the three men acquitted in the case — Elmer Cook, William Stanley Hoggle and Namon O'Neal "Duck" Hoggle — were, in fact, the men who attacked Reeb.

That witness, Frances Bowden, also described the participation of another man, William Portwood. In an exclusive interview with NPR, Portwood confirmed his participation in the 1965 assault.

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