Judicial watchdogs cry foul over Berman sacking

The global implications of Geoffrey Berman firing. [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [View in your browser]( [Top of The World]( --------------------------------------------------------------- In the news today Winners and losers after Berman firing [US Attorney for the Southern District Geoffrey Berman attends a news conference on the indictment of Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, David Correia, and Andrey Kukushnin for various charges related to violations of US federal election laws in New York City, Oct. 10, 2019.]( Credit: Andrew Kelly/Reuters Shares in Turkish state lender Halkbank [surged 8% today]( after US federal chief prosecutor Geoffrey Berman was [forced to step down]( over the weekend. Berman oversaw [an indictment against the bank]( which alleges the company used money service businesses and front companies to evade US sanctions on Iran. John Bolton, the former national security adviser, has claimed in his tell-all book set for release tomorrow, that [President Donald Trump promised]( Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that he would intervene in the case. The firing of Berman, the US attorney for the influential office of the Southern District of New York, was the latest in a series of moves by Attorney General William Barr that [critics say undermines the independence of the Justice Department]( over political benefits for Trump. Berman’s office has spent years engaging cases that take on figures in Trump's orbit and [had been investigating Rudy Giuliani](, Trump’s private lawyer and a central person in the president’s interest in Ukraine and subsequent impeachment. What The World is following Wirecard, the former German technology darling, [said on Monday that $2.1 billion is missing from its accounts]( and was likely never there. News of Wirecard’s accounting problems rattled Germany’s financial industry. Wirecard is a payments processor firm for companies including Visa and Mastercard, and it is now looking at the sale or closure of parts of its business. Representatives from the US and Russia started nuclear weapons talks today in Vienna. Envoys for the countries [haven’t said much ahead of the meetings](, but the talks may include negotiations over replacing the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which expires in February. The Trump administration had repeatedly asked China to take part [but Beijing refused](. And Verkhoyansk, Russia, a town north of the Arctic Circle in Siberia, may have recorded a new record heat temperature of 100.4 degrees over the weekend. If verified, the temperature would be the [northernmost 100-degree reading ever observed](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Help inform The World's global security coverage Can you take a moment to answer a short (we promise!) survey for The World? [Tell us what you think about our global security stories.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- From The World [Bolton allegations on Trump 'as damaging as any in modern American history,' says Nicholas Burns]( [Then-National Security Adviser John Bolton listens as US President Donald Trump holds a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 9, 2018.]( Credit: Kevin Lamarque/File Photo/Reuters Nicholas Burns, a former career foreign service officer, worked with the former Trump White House national security adviser, John Bolton. Burns spoke to The World’s host Marco Werman about the most disturbing allegations in Bolton's book, which comes out Tuesday. [US targets Assad govt and backers with toughest sanctions yet against Syria]( [A woman walks past a poster depicting Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria, March 5, 2020.] Credit: Yamam Al Shaar/Reuters The aim is to prompt the Syrian president to negotiate an end to the war that has lasted almost a decade. --------------------------------------------------------------- The Number in the News: 1,000,000 On Friday, June 5, Maha al-Mutairi got a call from the police. They asked her to come in for an unspecified investigation. On her way to the station, she [posted a video]( to Snapchat. In the video, she alleges that when she has previously been called in by police, they’ve raped and sexaully assaulted her in the jail. The video and the allegations went viral. Mutairi's lawyer is calling this ["the biggest LGBT movement in Kuwait" in its history.]( The Number in the News is The World’s daily smart speaker show, where you’ll learn one number you won’t forget and why it's in the news today. [Click here to add The Number in the News]( to your Amazon or Google flash briefing and hear a new episode seven days a week. --------------------------------------------------------------- Morning meme K-pop fans claim that through[the social platform TikTok](, they were responsible for the rows and rows of empty seats at Trump's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, over the weekend. [A supporter of President Donald Trump shoots a video with his phone from the sparsely filled upper decks at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 20, 2020.]( [Credit: Leah Millis/File Photo]( --------------------------------------------------------------- In case you missed it on The World - [Heavy topics, heavy beats from Brazil’s Céu]( - [Music lovers in Stuttgart get one-on-one concerts]( - [Brazilian Indigenous leader dies of COVID-19]( - [Bolton book highlights incompetence and wrongdoing in the White House]( - [Could US sanctions bring peace to Syria?]( - [Doctors Without Borders closes its Kabul operations]( - [Calls for change to migrant housing in Singapore]( - [Diversity within US policing scrutinized]( - [Observing Juneteenth from Ghana]( Don't forget to subscribe to The World's Latest Edition podcast using your favorite podcast player: [RadioPublic](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Stitcher](, [Soundcloud](, [RSS]( [The World logo]( [The World on Facebook]( [The World's Twitter account]( [Donate]( | [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [Edit your subscription]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [View in your browser]( Top of the World is written weekday mornings by the team at [The World](. 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