Police deployed tear gas and fired rubber bullets at protesters in Puerto Rico's capital city of San Juan late Wednesday on the fifth consecutive day of mass demonstrations to demand the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló. That marked the second time this week that police used tear gas outside the governor's mansion amid growing outrage directed at Rosselló, a member of Puerto Rico's New Progressive Party who is affiliated with Democrats nationally. Despite the mounting unrest, Rosselló has refused to step down. He told reporters in a news conference on Tuesday, "I have not committed any illegal acts, I only committed improper acts," and "I will continue my work and my responsibility to the people of Puerto Rico." There is no recall law in Puerto Rico, and the power to impeach the governor rests with the legislature, both houses of which are controlled by the New Progressive Party.
As promised, the United States is refusing to sell F-35 jets to Turkey after that country purchased missile systems from Russia. Last week, Turkey received its first shipments of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, despite warnings that the purchase would mean that the United States would not sell Turkey any F-35 stealth fighter jets. A statement from the White House says, "The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities. Accepting the S-400 undermines the commitments all NATO allies made to each other to move away from Russian systems."
Former US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens died Tuesday, just months shy of his 100th birthday. He was a very important and pivotal figure on the court. He was not a blind ideologue, a jurist who came to the court with a worldview and an approach to jurisprudence that could not be swayed by the facts and a changing world. Yesterday I gave you my analysis on Justice Stevens' impact, but today I want to provide you all with some deeper insight.
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Bob Schlehuber — Producer for By Any Means Necessary and Sputnik news analyst.
Mark Sleboda — International affairs and security analyst.
The Honorable Arthur L. Burnett Sr. — First African-American US magistrate judge.
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