Rumours that anti-fascist protesters planned to burn American flags on the Gettysburg Civil War battleground site led to armed far-right groups turning up in numbers on US Independence Day. Posts on social media by supposed antifa leaders urged members to meet at the Pennsylvania site on 4 July.

In response, far-right groups assembled on the historic grounds on Saturday – but no adversaries showed up. The holiday marks the US declaration of independence from Britain in 1776. The posts that appeared on social media ahead of the Independence Day celebrations reportedly called for people to flock to the site in face paint. Activists would “be giving away free small flags to children to safely throw into the fire”, the hoax call suggested. “Let’s get together and burn flags in protest of thugs and animals in blue,” one anonymous Facebook post said.(BBC)…[+]

Officials in Spain’s north-western region of Galicia have re-imposed restrictions on an area of 70,000 people following a Covid-19 outbreak.

Only those travelling for work will be allowed to leave or enter the coastal district of A Marina from midnight on Sunday to Friday. The move comes a day after the north-eastern region of Catalonia imposed a similar local lockdown. Nationally, Spain’s outbreak has been essentially brought under control. The country has recorded more than a quarter of a million cases and at least 28,385 deaths. But daily fatalities have been in the single figures for most of the past three weeks. Spain has been reopening its borders to other EU states, as well as the UK, in anticipation of summer holiday traffic.(BBC)…[+]

A New York court ruled a publisher can release President Donald Trump’s niece’s tell-all memoir about the US first family. Mary Trump’s book, Too Much and Never Enough, How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, is due for publication on 28 July. Wednesday’s ruling reverses a lower court’s decision to award a restraining order to Ms Trump’s uncle.

But the book may yet not be published due to a confidentiality agreement. Ms Trump is still bound by an agreement she signed in 2001 after an argument about a family inheritance. It was put in place to protect the family’s privacy, the New York Times said. But the judge on Wednesday said the agreement could have altered by the fact that Donald Trump has since become president.(BBC)…[+]

A top-secret communications system used by criminals to trade drugs and guns has been “successfully penetrated”, says the National Crime Agency. Major crime figures were among 746 arrests after messages on EncroChat were intercepted and decoded. More than two tonnes of drugs, several dozen guns and £54m in suspect cash have been seized, says the NCA. The NCA worked with forces across Europe on the UK’s “biggest and most significant” law enforcement operation. 

Officers are said to have prevented people being murdered after covertly monitoring planned attacks and threats to life on the encrypted service. The NCA says the Europe-wide operation, which lasted over three months and involved police forces across the UK, has had the biggest impact on organised crime gangs it has ever seen. 

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, whose force made 132 of the arrests and seized £13.3m in cash, described it as a “game changer”. She said: “This is just the beginning. We will be disrupting organised criminal networks as a result of these operations for weeks and months and possibly years to come.”(BBC)…[+]

President Donald Trump was not verbally briefed on reports Russia paid militants to kill US soldiers, said national security adviser Robert O’Brien, because of a lack of confidence in the intelligence. The CIA officer decided the intelligence was not verified.

Mr O’Brien did not say if the president was handed a written briefing. The intelligence reportedly arrived amid US attempts to negotiate a peace deal to end the Afghanistan war. At the time of the alleged plan to target US service personal in 2019, Mr Trump was also seeking to improve relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, quoting unnamed US officials, said a Russian military intelligence unit had offered Taliban-linked militants bounties to kill US troops. Russia has denied the reports, while the Taliban said it had not made any deal with agents from Moscow.

Speaking with Fox Business Network, Mr Trump said: “When you bring something into a president and I see many, many things – and I’m sure I don’t see many things that they don’t think rose to the occasion – this didn’t rise to the occasion. And from what I hear – and I hear it pretty good – the intelligence people, many of them didn’t believe it happened a all.”(BBC)…[+]

People testing negative for coronavirus antibodies may still have some immunity, a study has suggested.

For every person testing positive for antibodies, two were found to have specific T-cells which identify and destroy infected cells. This was seen even in people who had mild or symptomless cases of Covid-19.

But it’s not yet clear whether this just protects that individual, or if it might also stop them from passing on the infection to others. Researchers at the Karolinksa Institute in Sweden tested 200 people for both antibodies and T-cells. Some were blood donors while others were tracked down from the group of people first infected in Sweden, mainly returning from earlier affected areas like northern Italy.

This could mean a wider group have some level of immunity to Covid-19 than antibody testing figures, like those published as part of the UK Office for National Statistics Infection Survey, suggest. It’s likely those people did mount an antibody response, but either it had faded or was not detectable by the current tests. And these people should be protected if they are exposed to the virus for a second time.(BBC)…[+]

President Donald Trump, who has often pushed back against mask guidance from health officials, says he would wear one “in a tight situation with people”. Mr Trump – who has avoided appearing in public with a mask – also maintained masks do not need to become mandatory to curb Covid-19’s spread.

His remarks to Fox News come a day after Republicans in Congress called on Mr Trump to wear masks as an example. A number of states are seeing surges in virus cases and deaths in recent days. The US now has over 2.6 million confirmed Covid-19 infections and more than 127,000 deaths. Speaking to Fox Business Network on Wednesday, Mr Trump said: “I’m all for masks.”

When asked whether he would wear one, the president said “if I were in a tight situation with people I would, absolutely”, adding that people have seen him wearing one before. Mr Trump said he would have “no problem” with wearing a mask publicly and that he “sort of liked” how he looked with one on, likening himself to the Lone Ranger.(BBC)…[+]

The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to invalidate Obamacare, which has provided health insurance to millions of Americans. Government lawyers said the act became invalid when the previous Republican-led Congress axed parts of it.

Democratic challenger Joe Biden attacked the move, saying Mr Trump had put millions of lives at risk during the coronavirus pandemic. Health care will be a key battleground in the November presidential election.

Some 20 million Americans could lose their health coverage if the court overturns the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was introduced by Donald Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. The act’s popular provisions include banning insurers from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions and allowing children to stay on their parents’ health plans until age 26. Millions of low-income Americans were able to obtain insurance due to the act.

Mr Trump says the scheme costs too much and has promised a different plan to replace it, preserving some popular elements of the existing law but covering fewer people.(BBC)…[+]

The United Nations says it is “shocked and deeply disturbed” by footage of an apparent sex act in one of its official cars in Israel. The clip shows a woman in a red dress straddling a man in the back seat of a white 4×4 with UN markings. The video, shared widely on social media, was apparently filmed on a main street by Tel Aviv’s seafront.

The UN said it was investigating the incident and was close to identifying the individuals seen in the video. Those involved are believed to be staff members of a peacekeeping organisation in Israel, the UN said. Another passenger can be seen slumped in the front, but the driver can’t be seen as the car moves away. Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN’s Secretary General, António Guterres, described the behaviour seen in the 18-second video as “abhorrent”. That kind of behaviour “goes against everything we stand for and having been working to achieve in terms of fighting misconduct by UN staff”, Mr Dujarric told the BBC on Friday.(NU)…[+]

Facebook has said it will start to label potentially harmful posts that it leaves up because of their news value.

The more hands-on approach comes as the social media firm faces growing pressure to take stronger action to moderate the content on its platform. More than 90 advertisers have joined a boycott of the site, including consumer goods giant Unilever on Friday. The firm said it would halt Twitter, Facebook and Instagram advertising in the US “at least” through 2020. “Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society,” the maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, said.”We will revisit our current position if necessary.”

In a speech on Friday, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg defended the firm’s record of taking down hate speech. He pointed to a European Commission report this month that found Facebook removed 86% of hate speech last year, up from 82.6%.(BBC)…[+]