Home Video: The Taliban released a 20-minute video of the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who arrived in the back seat of a white pickup truck. Armed members of the Taliban could be seen spread out in the hills nearby. Bergdahl was presented in traditional Afghan dress with shaved head and eyebrows, looking a bit dazed and confused. US Special Forces troops quickly searched Bergdahl for explosives before loading him onto a Blackhawk helicopter.

The Bergdahl exchange is threatening to become yet another lingering issue for the Obama administration. Some families say their sons were killed during increased violence after Bergdahl’s disappearance and capture five years ago. Congressional leaders from both parties say President Obama illegally traded away five Taliban prisoners without notifying Congress first. It hasn’t reached the proportions of the Benghazi dustup, but give it time. It’s an election year.

Heavy Weather: Rain and baseball-sized hail pounded the Midwest yesterday as a brutal front moves east. At least 4,300 cars were damaged at an auto dealership when hail dimpled the bodies and punched holes in the windows.

Econ 101: Employment grew by 179,000 jobs in May, less than the 210,000 that had been predicted. The Commerce Department says the balance of trade hit a record deficit, slowing growth.

Cultural Influence: Two Wisconsin girls who are fans of an Internet horror character named “Slenderman” are accused of luring a fellow 12-year-old girl into the woods and stabbing her 19 times. The girl survived. Police say the two attackers believed that to enter Slenderman’s realm you have to kill someone.

The Slenderman stories are horror satire. On the website Creepypasta, which hosts some Slenderman stories, an unsigned statement says, “I don’t believe that it’s the fault of Slenderman or horror writing in general that this happened.” It goes on to say, “being presented as 100% fiction into actually using it as a motive to plot and murder another human being – something else has to be going on there.”

World: The Mayor of Venice, Italy is one of 35 people arrested for corruption connected to the barriers built to protect the city from annual flooding. Giorgio Orsoni is accused of taking bribes during the bidding for contracts on the mobile barriers that would seal off Venice Lagoon against storms and high water. Investigators believe $20 million was drained away from the project, which has been slowed by Italy’s financial crisis.

National Amnesia: Thousands of people gathered in Hong Kong today to mark the 25^th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. But the Chinese government is slowly succeeding at erasing the event from national memory. The historical event is not taught in Chinese schools and is blocked on the Internet. It is only whispered about among those who remember it. Few Chinese alive today have ever seen the picture of a Chinese man standing in the path of a column of tanks to stop them.

In the weeks leading up to the massacre, the government had tolerated thousands of student protesters demanding more democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and workers’ rights. But overnight on June 3-4, government troops moved in with tanks, armored vehicles and automatic weapons fire. Anywhere from hundreds to thousands of people were killed. The number was never released.

The incident has been overtaken in the world’s image of China by its economic explosion and conversion to a consumer culture. Today Tiananmen Square is guarded by soldiers and there’s been a crackdown on people marking the occasion. For those who know and still talk about it in China it is known simply as liu si …. June 4.

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