Starbucks closed 8,000 of its stores Tuesday to give 175,000 employees about four hours of anti-bias training.

The sessions were part of the company’s response to the April 12 arrests of two black men at a Starbucks in Philadelphia. 

Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson had not purchased anything and told a store manager they were waiting for a friend to join them. They were asked to leave and an employee called the police, which led to their arrest. The scene was recorded on cellphones and quickly spread on social media, prompting sharp criticisms of Starbucks along with protests and calls to boycott the coffee chain.

Tuesday’s sessions involved asking employees to discuss with small groups of their colleagues aspects of race and bias and how they can make people feel like they belong.

There were exercises of personal reflection asking people to think about when they have thought about their own race, how it has affected their day-to-day lives and interactions with other people. 

Questions included evaluating how in the case of speaking to someone of the same race, or the case of speaking to someone of a different race, how easy or hard is it to talk about race, feel comfortable using their natural language and gestures, to be respected without having to prove their worth and express dissatisfaction with something without being told they seem angry.

“Without assigning good or bad, do you notice ways you treat people differently?” read one question.

Participants were also shown a series of videos including Starbucks executives discussing bias with experts, a company-funded documentary about the history of how African-Americans have been denied access in public places in the United States and employees describing instances in which they made assumptions about customers based on appearances.

Starbucks President and CEO Kevin Johnson acknowledged what he called the “disheartening situation that unfolded in Philadelphia” in one video and said the company’s mission is to be a “place where everyone feels welcome.” He said the focus of the training was not to be “color blind” by pretending race does not exist, but rather to be “color brave” and discuss race directly.

The training was developed with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Perception Institute and other social advocacy organizations, and included contributions by the rap music artist Common.

Similar unconscious bias training has been used by police departments, companies and other organizations to help address racism in the workplace and encourage workers to open up about implicit biases.

In one video, Common told employees that while people usually seek similarities with others, there are great advantages to learning to love what makes you different from other people.

“It’s a life skill to make someone else in your presence feel welcome. You do that by not only loving what makes them the same as you, but by appreciating what makes them different from you,” he said.

Starbucks has announced policy changes following the Philadelphia incident, mainly that it will no longer require people to buy anything in order to be welcome in the company’s stores. It also promised to give employees more training in the coming year, and to provide each store with a list of local resources for mental health and substance abuse services, housing shelters and protocols for calling authorities.

“Today was a starting point. We have much to do,” said Rosalind Brewer, chief operating officer and group president.

Nelson and Robinson reached an agreement with Starbucks for an undisclosed amount of money and offers of a free education. They also accepted from the city of Philadelphia a symbolic $1 each and a promise to launch a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs.
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The U.S.-North Korea summit appears to be back on track, but Pyongyang is showing increased impatience at comments coming out of Washington that what leader Kim Jong Un really wants, even more than his nuclear security blanket, is American-style prosperity.

It’s a core issue for Kim and a message President Donald Trump shouldn’t ignore as they work to nail down their summit next month in Singapore.

Kim is as enthusiastic as Trump to see the summit happen as soon as possible, but the claim that his sudden switch to diplomacy over the past several months shows he is aching for U.S. economic aid and private-sector know-how presents a major problem for the North Korean leader, who can’t be seen as going into the summit with his hat in his hand.

The claim is also quite possibly off target. 

North Korea is far more interested in improving trade with China, its economic lifeline, and with South Korea, which it sees as a potential gold mine for tourism and large-scale joint projects. Getting the U.S. to back off sanctions so he can pursue those goals, along with the boost to his legitimacy and whatever security guarantees he can take home, is more likely foremost on Kim’s mind. 

Even so, the North’s perceived thirst for U.S. economic aid has consistently been the message coming from Trump and his senior officials. All Kim needs to do, they suggest, is commit to denuclearization and American entrepreneurs will be ready to unleash their miracles on the country’s sad-sack economy.

“I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial nation one day,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this.” 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has laid Washington’s road map out in more detail.

“We can create conditions for real economic prosperity for the North Korean people that will rival that of the South,” he said earlier this month in a televised interview. “It won’t be U.S. taxpayers. It will be American know-how, knowledge, entrepreneurs and risk-takers working alongside the North Korean people to create a robust economy for their people.” 

Pompeo suggested that Americans help build out the North’s energy grid, develop its infrastructure and deliver the finest agricultural equipment and technology “so they can eat meat and have healthy lives.”

Kim has emphatically not agreed to any of that. 

Under Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy, international sanctions on North Korea are stronger than ever. Sanctions relief would open the door for more trade with China, South Korea and possibly Russia – partners North Korea trusts more than it trusts Washington – and potentially unlock access to global financial institutions. 

The last thing Kim wants is to give up his nuclear weapons only to have his country overrun with American businessmen and entrepreneurs.

To Pyongyang’s ears, that scenario is less an offer than a threat. 

Despite its very real need for foreign investment, Kim’s regime has good reason to be wary of economic aid in general. Opening up to aid inevitably involves some degree of increased contact with potentially disruptive outsiders, calls for change, loosening of controls and restrictions – all of which could be seen as a threat to Kim’s near absolute authority.

North Korea’s message on that has been clear. 

Almost as soon as Pompeo started talking about his plan to rebuild North Korea’s economy, Kim Kye Gwan, the North’s first vice foreign minister, shot back that Pyongyang has no interest in that kind of help, saying, “We have never had any expectation of U.S. support in carrying out our economic construction and will not at all make such a deal in future, too.” 

State media unleashed another attack on the idea Sunday, calling Fox News, CBS and CNN “hack media on the payroll of power” for airing programs that featured U.S. officials talking about how large-scale, nongovernmental economic aid awaits North Korea if it moves toward verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.

The North’s media have been careful not to criticize Trump directly. 

But the issue is sensitive enough that the North has also stepped up its response in ideological terms, stressing the superiority of the socialist system and the value of independence, while warning against the underhanded scheming of the “imperialists,” which in North Korea speak is interchangeable with “Americans.”

“It is the calculation of the imperialists that they can attain their aims without firing a single shot if they make the people degenerate and disintegrate ideologically and foment social disorder,” said an editorial Sunday in the ruling party’s newspaper.

The commentary went on to call the capitalist way of life “ideological and cultural poisoning” and concluded, “Unless such poisoning is prevented, it would be impossible to defend independence and socialism and achieve the independent development of each country and nation.”
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The U.S. declared Tuesday that religious freedom is “under assault” across the globe.

“The state of religious freedom is dire,” said Sam Brownback, the State Department’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, as he and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released the agency’s annual report concluding that many countries throughout the world crack down on religious adherents and punish them harshly for their beliefs.

Even as the U.S. works toward a June 12 summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, the State Department report singled out the reclusive communist nation for abuses against believers.

“The government continued to deal harshly with those who engaged in almost any religious practices through executions, torture, beatings, and arrests,” the report said. “An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, some imprisoned for religious reasons, were believed to be held in the political prison camp system in remote areas under horrific conditions.”

Brownback said, “What we know is we got a gulag system operating in North Korea, and it’s been a terrible situation for many, many years. You can go on satellite — open source satellite — and see some of these camps and their situation. You have people that have gotten out and written about the situation in North Korea. We know it is very difficult and desperate, and particularly for people of faith, and that’s why North Korea has remained a country of particular concern for us.”

The report also condemned abuse of religious believers in China, Iran, Russia and other countries.

The State Department said Beijing “continued to exercise control over religion and restrict the activities and personal freedom of religious adherents when the government perceived these as threatening” the state or the ruling communist party. The report estimated that “hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims have been forcibly sent to re-education centers, and extensive and invasive security and surveillance practices have been instituted.”

Brownback said, “You know, that was a concept you thought was gone decades ago and (is) being experienced in growing amounts. The report cites a number of very, very troubling concerns and a decline in religious freedom” in China.”

In Iran, the report said the government continues to deal harshly with religious minorities, including executing or imprisoning those convicted of waging “war on God.”

The State Department said that in Russia, “Authorities continued to detain and fine members of minority religious groups and minority religious organizations for alleged extremism. In one case, there were reports that authorities tortured an individual in a pretrial detention facility. Authorities convicted and fined several individuals for ‘public speech offensive to religious believers.’”

In releasing the report, Pompeo said, “Advancing liberty and religious freedom advances America’s interests. Where fundamental freedoms of religion, expression, press and peaceful assembly are under attack, we find conflict, instability and terrorism. On the other hand, governments and societies that champion these freedoms are more secure, stable and peaceful. So, for all of the reasons, protecting and promoting global respect for religious freedom is a priority for the Trump administration.”

Pompeo said the State Department is convening a ministerial meeting July 25-26 to promote religious freedom, inviting foreign diplomats from “like-minded governments, as well as representatives of international organizations, religious community, and civil society to reaffirm our commitment to religious freedom as a universal human right.”

He said the gathering “will not be just a discussion group, it will be about action. We look forward to identifying concrete ways to push back against persecution and ensure greater respect for religious freedom for all.”

Brownback said, “The problems are great, but the opportunity for change is, too.”

 
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Hurricane Maria claimed more than 4,600 lives in Puerto Rico last year, more than 70 times higher than the U.S. government’s official death toll of 64, according to a study published Tuesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.

The findings, based on a survey of thousands of Puerto Rican residents conducted by researchers from Harvard University and elsewhere, show the fatalities occurred between September 20 and December 31, 2017.

The U.S. government’s emergency response to the storm had been criticized and President Donald Trump, was faulted when much of the U.S. territory remained without power for months.

The researchers said their latest estimates may be too low and “underscore the inattention of the U.S. government to the frail infrastructure of Puerto Rico.”

Maria inflicted about $90 billion in damage to Puerto Rico, which was already grappling with an anemic economy. Researchers have said Maria was the third costliest tropical cyclone to strike the U.S. since 1900.

More than 8 months after the storm, the territory has been slow to recover. Residents continue to suffer from a lack of water, an unstable power grid and a dearth of essential services, forcing many residents to leave.

While the new study puts the death toll at 4,645, it says there is a 95-percent chance the actual number could be as low as 793 and as high as 8,498. Earlier independent studies have estimated the death toll at about 1,000.

The results of the latest study were based on randomly conducted in-person surveys of 3,299 of an estimated 1.1 million Puerto Rican households earlier this year, including homes in remote areas.

To ensure unbiased results, residents were not paid for their responses and were told their answers would not result in any additional government assistance.

Researchers said they could not compare their findings with the latest government tally because their request for access to the numbers was denied.

The Puerto Rican government stopped publicly disclosing its hurricane death figures in December.
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet later this week with a North Korean four-star general in New York for talks related to a planned summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader, according to the White House.

Kim Yong Chol, the vice chairman of the powerful Central Committee and North Korea’s former spy chief, departed Beijing on an Air China commercial flight Tuesday for John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that Kim’s visit is a “solid response to my letter, thank you!”

“Kim Yong Chol is the man who whispers in Kim Jong Un’s ear. Not only does he advise him on strategy but he also conveys the leader’s demands. He’ll be coming to New York to negotiate on Kim Jong Un’s behalf. It’s another very strong sign of commitment to this summit,” said Jean Lee, director of the Korea program at the Wilson Center.

Lee, former Pyongyang bureau chief for the Associated Press, tells VOA tough discussions should be expected “as the U.S. and North Korean sides try to get on the same page regarding what the two leaders will accomplish at this anticipated summit.”

The president sent a letter last week to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un saying their scheduled June 12 summit in Singapore would not happen, blaming what he said was “tremendous anger and open hostility” shown in a statement from Pyongyang. But negotiations between the two countries have continued, including talks at the Korean demilitarized zone.

But since Trump’s letter, “the North Koreans have been engaging,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders in a statement Tuesday. “The United States continues to actively prepare for President Trump’s expected summit with leader Kim in Singapore.”

Sanders said a U.S. delegation is meeting with a North Korean delegation in the demilitarized zone, led by Sung Kim, who is the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines and former envoy to South Korea. Also present are Allison Hooker, Korea director on the National Security Council and Randy Schriver, who is the assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs.

“They plan to have additional meetings this week” at Panmunjom, according to Sanders.

Separately, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin is leading a pre-advance team in Singapore “coordinating the logistics of the expected summit,” said Sanders.

It has also been announced here that Trump is to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the White House on June 7.

In a phone call Monday, Trump and Abe “affirmed the shared imperative of achieving the complete and permanent dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and ballistic missile programs,” according to a White House statement.

Behind the scenes, Japanese officials have been expressing anxiety about the Trump-Kim summit. They worry Japanese interests could be sidelined at the summit, especially what to do about North Korea’s short and medium-range missile able to reach Japan and the fate of Japanese abducted over decades by North Korean agents.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in could also be going to Singapore next month for a three-way summit with his U.S. and North Korean counterparts, a government official in Seoul said Monday.

After a surprise meeting Saturday between Kim and Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president said the North Korean leader is still committed to the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula.

The U.S. has called for “complete, verifiable and irreversible” dismantling of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal. North Korea has rejected unilateral disarmament and called for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula without defining what that entails.

The North Koreans, after expressing initial enthusiasm about diplomacy with the United States earlier this month, did not show up for a preparatory meeting in Singapore.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui also was quoted by the country’s official news agency threatening to use nuclear force and she referred to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence as a “political dummy.”

That angered Trump who then wrote a letter to Kim Jong Un calling off their summit.

North Korean state media quickly replied with a conciliatory statement, reporting Kim’s “fixed will” that his summit with Trump should go ahead.

Ira Mellman and Victor Beattie contributed to this report
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