WHAT'S BREWING
NORTH KOREA IS SO MAD THEY BLEW UP LIAISON OFFICE North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office building just inside its border, sharply raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula amid deadlocked nuclear diplomacy with the United States. North Korea had earlier threatened to demolish the office as it stepped up its fiery rhetoric over Seoul’s failure to stop activists from flying propaganda leaflets across the border. Some experts say North Korea is expressing its frustration because Seoul is unable to resume joint economic projects due to U.S.-led sanctions. [AP]
TRUMP'S NIECE TO PUBLISH TELL-ALL Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, is set to publish a revealing book about her uncle just weeks before the Republican National Convention. The book, titled “Too Much and Never Enough,” will be released in August and reportedly include “salacious” stories about the president. The book will reveal Mary Trump as the source behind a landmark investigation by The New York Times that detailed a series of financial schemes Trump was involved in in the 1990s that helped his parents dodge millions in taxes. Meanwhile, Trump threatened former national security adviser John Bolton with "criminal problems" if Bolton continues his plan to publish a tell-all book. [HuffPost]
RENEWED OUTCRY OVER BLACK TEEN'S 55-YEAR SENTENCE Nationwide anti-racism protests have sparked a renewed outcry over the 55-year prison sentence an Alabama teen received after he was convicted in the death of his friend, who was fatally shot by a police officer in 2015. Lakeith Smith was 15 when he and four friends broke into two homes and were confronted by police in Millbrook, Alabama. During a two-day trial in 2018, a jury convicted Smith of two counts of theft, burglary and felony murder under Alabama’s accomplice liability law. The law says a person can be guilty of murder if a death occurs when they are committing a crime, even if the person didn't directly cause the death. [HuffPost]
SCOTUS WON'T HEAR TRUMP'S LEGAL CHALLENGE TO 'SANCTUARY' LAWS The U.S. Supreme Court handed Trump a defeat in his legal showdown with the most-populous U.S. state, declining to hear his administration’s challenge to “sanctuary” laws in California that protect immigrants from deportation. The justices left in place a lower court ruling that upheld the bulk of three laws in the Democratic-governed state that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities. The Trump administration had appealed that ruling to the high court. [Reuters]
AS SUMMER HEATS UP, MIGRANT WORKERS FACE COMPOUND RISK Migrant farmworkers are particularly susceptible to contracting the coronavirus. They tend to live together in packed trailers or apartments due to their low wages, or in dormitories on the farms themselves. They often share kitchens and other common areas and take crowded buses and vans to and from the fields each day. They work inside packing houses where they stand shoulder to shoulder. And many lack access to health care and face language barriers that can make outreach and education more difficult. Without precautions, farming communities may see a spike in cases. [HuffPost]
AMERICAN SENTENCED TO 16 YEARS IN RUSSIAN PRISON A Russian court sentenced an American businessman to 16 years in prison on spying charges, a sentence that he and his brother rejected as being political. The Moscow City Court read out the conviction of Paul Whelan on charges of espionage and sentenced him to a maximum-security prison colony. The trial was held behind closed doors. Whelan, who was arrested in Moscow in December 2018, has insisted on his innocence, saying he was set up. [AP] | 
