HMM: Manafort Accused of Witness Tampering Ahead of Trials. “Mueller team tells court they have ‘little confidence that restrictions short of detention will assure Manafort’s compliance’.”

IT’S COMPLICATED: Saudi Arabian Arrest Wave Shows Crown Prince’s Bid to Control Change.

Dozens of high-profile Saudis are locked up in jail, many of them denounced as traitors. Hundreds, possibly more, are barred from leaving the kingdom. And others have quietly left their homeland with no plans to return, creating the rudiments of an overseas Saudi dissident community.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has gone further than any of his predecessors to relax the kingdom’s strict social rules. But he is also overseeing one of the most ruthless crackdowns on perceived dissenters that Saudi Arabia has experienced in decades.

After high-profile autumn roundups of what the government said were dissident clerics and corrupt businessmen, the latest wave of arrests, in May, have focused in part on women and men who pushed for the right of women to drive, even though the Saudi government is set to begin recognizing that right on June 24.

The message behind the crackdown, which has come despite scant evidence of public dissent, is that the crown prince alone intends to dictate the pace and scope of change in Saudi Arabia, critics say.

“We were hoping for a more balanced society, more rights,” says a Saudi rights activist who has come under government pressure. “Instead what has happened is more repression, just with a different ideology.”

Government supporters see the development differently. “The country is going through tremendous disruptive change and it has a wide spectrum of political opinion—from religious conservatives to Western liberals,” said Ali Shihabi, who is close to the Saudi government and executive director of the Arabia Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.

“If you want to affect change, which is long overdue, there is no way you can bring all those constituencies together,” he added. “So you need an authoritarian approach—and that means you are going to limit freedoms for a while.”

Bringing the Kingdom into the 21st Century — or even the 19th — was never going to be pretty. But if bin Salman can pull it off, the results will be worth it.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Israel uses ‘Mean Girls’ to troll Iran on Twitter.

CONTAINMENT: China eyes its next prize – the Mekong.

There is another prize in Beijing’s sights, an artery that runs straight through mainland Southeast Asia. The mighty Mekong River, which starts in China (known there as Lancang), and connects Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, is a crucial lifeline that nourishes some 60 million people along its banks.

Control of both the South China Sea and Mekong River will strategically sandwich mainland Southeast Asia. Indeed, Beijing’s control of Southeast Asian rivers looks set to be the other half of its “salami slicing” strategy in the region.

Controlling the Mekong River’s flow with dams along the waterway ultimately means controlling access to food, and therefore the livelihoods of tens of millions of people in downstream riparian communities. Of the hydroelectricity dams on the Mekong, the vast majority of currently installed capacity (megawatts) is in China, accounting for more than 15,000 MW. This includes a half-dozen mega-dams over 1000 MW, including Nuozhadu dam which churns out 5850 MW.

Together these dams can hold back 23 billion cubic metres of water, or 27% of the river’s annual flow between China and Thailand. Other dams in the lower Mekong are piddling by comparison, with generating capacity in the tens or low hundreds of MW.

The bottom line: Chinese dams can now regulate the Mekong’s flow.

What do you do when you have a huge and aggressive neighbor with the ability to turn off your water?

LOVELY: Seattle Has Collected 42,000 Pounds Of Garbage Around Homeless Camps In Just 3 Weeks. “Last week Seattle’s mayor announced a new homeless initiative which will cost $11 million in the first year. The goal is to create more ‘tiny homes’ encampments where the homeless can live without any regulation of their drug or alcohol use.”

ALSO BREAKING: Weinstein pleads not guilty to NY rape charges.

BREAKING: David Hogg Family Home SWATted.

ENDORSED: Mike Huckabee: ‘Please God, Let Nancy Pelosi Continue to be the Voice of the Democratic Party.’

THE ONION: Bill Clinton Still Waiting For Personal Apology From Monica Lewinsky For Using Power As Intern To Exploit Him Sexually.

Given Clinton’s cringe-worthy performance yesterday, it’s safe to say there might be more than a hint of truth to this satire.

SHITHOLE COUNTRY: As Trump Plans North Korea Summit, Defectors Tell Harrowing Stories. “Torture and starvation in political prison camps, public executions and forced abortions persist.”

Kim Jong Un, the nation’s third-generation dictator, has tightened border controls to prevent escapes since taking power at the end of 2011. Those caught risk prolonged imprisonment. North Korean women sent back from China have been forced to have abortions if the fathers were Chinese, defectors say.

Torture and starvation are routine in a vast network of North Korean prison camps operated since the 1950s with a total land area about 20 times the size of Manhattan. Around 100,000 people are held in five camps, according to the United Nations. Camps in central areas have added new facilities to house more prisoners, satellite images show.

The repression has been largely ignored as Mr. Kim seeks to rehabilitate his international image with a swing to diplomacy. As President Donald Trump prepares for a planned summit meeting with Mr. Kim on June 12—the first between a U.S. and North Korean leader—it isn’t clear whether he will raise the issue of Pyongyang’s human-rights violations, or if doing so would lead to any improvement.

Mr. Trump has indicated that he sees human rights as a major concern, including in a speech to the South Korean legislature in November in which he described prisoners as “enduring torture, starvation, rape and murder on a constant basis.” But at a meeting on Friday with one of Mr. Kim’s top lieutenants, the president said they didn’t discuss human rights.

Unfortunately, three Administrations worth of neglect allowed Pyongyang to develop nuclear weapons and delivery systems dangerous enough to buy themselves a seat at the negotiating table.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: You Decide — Papadopoulos Is an Israeli Spy or a RUSSIAN Colluder, and Much, Much More.

MAKE ARMS SALES GREAT AGAIN: Boeing Sees Two-Year Wait for World’s Biggest Fighter Jet Deal.

Boeing is well placed in the race to supply the Indian Air Force with 110 fighter jets, Gene Cunningham, Boeing vice president of global defense sales, told Bloomberg News on Sunday on the sidelines of a security forum in Singapore. The company is a finalist in a separate competition to supply the Indian navy with 57 fighter jets.

“We have gotten to know Indian industry, understand the Indian process,” Cunningham said.

The tender for 110 combat aircraft mandates building at least 85 percent of the order locally. The deal is likely to be at least $15 billion.

Boeing said in April that it would partner with state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and Mahindra Defense Systems Ltd. to manufacture the F/A-18 Super Hornet in India at a new facility, which can also be used for other requirements. Other companies in the running include Lockheed Martin Corp., Saab AB and BAE Systems Plc.

The Super Hornet is a great jet, and despite its age would be a yuge upgrade from the problematical Russian stuff India has been buying for decades, mostly out of postcolonial pique.

And if that list of suitors is complete, New Delhi isn’t even considering buying Russian jets for once.

ART OF THE DEAL? BMW Looking at Sourcing More Carbonized Iron From U.S.

HMM: In Shakeup at Turkish Soccer Club, a Worrisome Sign for Erdogan?

A leadership change at a Turkish sports club has sent a message rife with political undertones, with some seeing the ouster of its longtime chairman as a sign of a tide turning against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, three weeks before he stands for reelection himself.

Ali Koc, the youngest son of Turkey’s richest family, was elected chairman of Fenerbahce, ending Aziz Yildirim’s 20-year tenure. Fenerbahce, one of Turkey’s so-called “big three” soccer clubs, is Erdogan’s favored team and has been at the center of political jockeying by various factions for several years. Koc won in a landslide – the 51-year-old garnered more than 16,000 of the 20,736 votes cast — suggesting that Yildirim supporters turned against him.

“The Fenerbahce family has carried out change, now it’s time for the big change in Turkey,” tweeted Muharrem Ince, the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s candidate for president at elections scheduled for June 24. Temel Karamollaoglu, another opposition candidate, tweeted that nobody could have predicted that the long-time Fenerbahce incumbent would be overthrown by a “deep wave.”

“In my opinion, the same will happen at the elections,” he said.

Stay tuned…

BLUE WAVE? GOP Doubles Number Of Female House Candidates.

This cycle the GOP has 103 female candidates, including incumbents, compared to 48 in 2016.

“We’ve seen an intense level of interest from Republican women in running for Congress this cycle,” said Jesse Hunt, press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “And some of the strongest candidates we have running currently are females in competitive districts.”

Republicans have not always been this successful. After a disappointing recruiting drive two years ago, the GOP campaign committee asked New York Rep. Elise Stefanik to oversee the effort. The 33-year-old Stefanik was the youngest woman ever elected to the House four years ago. The House GOP caucus currently contains two dozen women.

Meanwhile, the Democrats’ top elected officeholder just went on the record to claim that last week’s “strong employment numbers mean little.”

Nancy Pelosi isn’t exactly surfing that blue wave.

RUN, JOE, RUN: Biden 2020 Still Not Off The Table.

Jazz Shaw:

Frankly, this looks more like a tease on the part of NBC than any serious movement by Biden towards pitching a 2020 run. But some of his close associates are quoted as saying serious options are under discussion. For one thing, there’s the age factor. If Biden ran and won he would be 78 when he took office. Trump will be 74 by then so this is about the only choice out there that allows him to be the “youth candidate.” In response, Biden’s aides have once again mentioned a pledge to only serve one term and put forward an early proposal as to who his VP would be so they could be groomed for 2024.

I’ve maintained for some time now that Biden would be a dangerous opponent if he managed to secure the nomination. His resume has everything you’d want to see for a presidential bid and his history, while full of gaffes and uncomfortable moments, is essentially free of any real scandal. And people just seem to genuinely like Joe Biden. Heck, I find the guy likable. His reputation as “crazy Uncle Joe” is more of an asset than a detriment.

But could he actually land the nomination given the current mood in the Democratic Party?

Whatever his chances, you get the feeling Biden might want to try, just to stick it to Team Obama — and whoever Obama’s preferred candidate turns out to be — for shoving him aside for Hillary in 2016.

REMEMBER TIANANMEN: It’s been 29 years since the ‘June 4’ Massacre. Still, these 5 truths aren’t widely known.

SECDEF MATTIS: U.S. Troops on Korean Peninsula Non-Negotiable, ‘Not Going Anywhere.’ “Only way that would happen is ‘between a democracy called the Republic of Korea and a democracy called the United States of America’.”

THE SUICIDE OF THE WEST (CONT’D): UK Cathedral Celebrates Ramadan on Anniversary of ISIS London Bridge Attack.

BREAKING: Howard Schultz, architect of modern Starbucks, to step down as executive chair and from the board.

Courtesy of Ashe Schow, who tweets: “When the Left turns against the most ham-fisted social justice big business, it’s time to throw in the towel.”

Indeed.

VIDEO: CNN Reacts to the Supreme Court’s Ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Do Men Really Care About A Woman’s Stereotypical ‘Beach Body’?

YOUR DAILY TREACHER: The Final Act of ‘The Final Year’ Is the Best Comedy of 2018. “The first 72 minutes of ‘The Final Year’ are terrific, if you love Obama. The rest of it is for the rest of us.”

That’s what fast-forward is for.

HMM: Arizona suspect linked to 4 recent shooting deaths found dead in hotel room, police say.

HMM: EU will ‘dig its own grave’ if it tries to punish Italy, warns George Soros.

You can’t help but wonder how Soros is hedged to exploit the chaos.