Activists and religious leaders are holding a virtual march Saturday to highlight the plight of poor people in the United States.The Poor People’s Mass Assembly and Moral March on Washington was to be held in front of the White House, but the coronavirus pandemic forced organizers to instead mount a digital gathering.Organizers began making plans for the event two years ago, seeking to focus attention not only on the poor, but also on the systemic racism in the U.S., a theme that has been highlighted in recent demonstrations across the U.S. and around the world. following the death of George Floyd, who died after a police officer in Minneapolis held his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.Poor people will talk about their lives in the online campaign that will be streamed on various media outlets, including MSNBC and Radio One.Organizers of the event are also looking to focus attention on the country’s systemic ecological devastation that disproportionately affects poor communities.Dr. William J.  Barber and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis are the co-chairs of the virtual event. Hosts of the event will include former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Danny Glover, Jane Fonda, David Oyelowo, Wanda Sykes, and Debra Messing. 
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The United States Supreme Court this week delivered legal setbacks to the Trump administration with rulings on immigration and LGBTQ rights — two issues important to the president’s supporters. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report on the president’s reaction to these decisions and how they may impact him politically ahead of the November election.
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In a stunning reversal, the Navy has upheld the firing of the aircraft carrier captain who urged faster action to protect his crew from a coronavirus outbreak, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report. The official said the Navy also extended the blame for the ship’s pandemic crisis, delaying the promotion of the one-star admiral who was also onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt — concluding that both men made serious errors in judgment. The spread of the coronavirus aboard the carrier while on deployment in the Pacific in March exploded into one of the biggest military leadership crises of recent years. More than 1,000 members of the crew eventually became infected, and one sailor died. The ship was sidelined for weeks at Guam but recently returned to duty. Navy Adm. Michael Gilday, Chief of Naval Operations, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 1, 2020, in Washington.The decision by Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, to hold both Capt. Brett Crozier and his boss, Rear Adm. Stuart Baker, accountable is a confirmation of concerns expressed by top Pentagon officials who demanded a deeper investigation last month when the initial probe recommended Crozier’s reinstatement as the ship’s captain. The official described the findings on condition of anonymity to discuss a report not yet made public. The investigation, done by Adm. Robert Burke and endorsed Friday by Gilday, defends the abrupt turnaround on Crozier saying that the more detailed probe uncovered poor decisions he made that failed to stem the outbreak or properly communicate the escalating crisis to senior commanders. It also concludes that the ship’s slow response to the virus was not just his fault, and that Baker also failed to take decisive actions to address the problem. Gilday’s recommendations cap a drama that has engulfed the Navy for nearly three months, sidelining the carrier for 10 weeks in Guam, and setting off a dramatic series of events that led to Crozier’s dismissal, the abrupt resignation of the acting Navy secretary who fired him, and the push for a broader review of the Pacific fleet’s top commanders and how they handled the virus outbreak. Based on the findings, Crozier and Baker would be able to remain in the Navy and move on to other jobs at their current rank, but the admonishments are likely career-enders for both men. Crozier’s firing upset the carrier’s crew, and he received an ovation as he walked off the ship. The recommendations reflect concerns expressed by Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite who told a Senate committee in early May that the service was in “rough waters” and suffering from leadership failures. Braithwaite, who the official said endorsed Gilday’s report, pledged to the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing that he would restore a culture of good order and discipline to the service. In this June 4, 2020, photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt departs Apra Harbor in Guam.In late April, after a preliminary review, Gilday recommended that Crozier be returned to command the Roosevelt. But Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pressed for a delay and a wider investigation of the coronavirus crisis on the ship, suggesting the need for deeper scrutiny of actions and decisions by senior admirals in the Pacific, a region critical to America’s national security interests.  The COVID-19 outbreak on the Roosevelt was the most extensive and concentrated spread of the virus across the U.S. military. It eventually sent all of the 4,800 crew members ashore for weeks of quarantine, in a systematic progression that kept enough sailors on the ship to keep it secure and running.  More broadly, it put out of commission a massive warship vital to the Navy’s mission of countering China’s power in the Asia-Pacific region. When the coronavirus outbreak was discovered on the Roosevelt, Crozier sent an email to several commanders pleading for more urgent Navy action, including the removal of nearly all sailors from the ship to protect their health. That email was leaked to media, and the acting Navy secretary at the time, Thomas Modly, accused Crozier of bad judgment and directed that he be relieved of command April 2. Days later, amid an uproar of his handling of the matter, Modly resigned and was replaced by James McPherson. Braithwaite’s nomination to be secretary was still pending at the time. He took over earlier this month after he was confirmed by the Senate. In the report Friday, Gilday concluded that Crozier did not intentionally leak the email. The Roosevelt, meanwhile, spent weeks in port in Guam, as crew members rotated ashore for quarantine and isolation at the military base and in hotels around the island. After about two weeks of training at sea, the carrier returned to operations at sea with a reduced crew on June 4. Sailors have continued to fly back to the ship from Guam after they have recovered from the virus or completed two-weeks of quarantine. On Thursday, two of the ship’s aviators ejected from their F/A-18 fighter jet while conducting a training flight and were rescued in the Philippine Sea and found to be in good condition. The incident is under investigation and it’s not clear whether the crew’s long layoff in Guam or rapid return to sea played any role in the crash. The Roosevelt’s experience with the virus, however, spurred the development of widespread cleaning and health precautions across the military. And it also gave federal health authorities a population of sailors to test, providing greater insight into the science and the spread of the virus. 
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The U.S. Navy will not reinstate Captain Brett Crozier after faulting his response to the outbreak of the coronavirus aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and is also putting an admiral’s promotion on hold, sources told Reuters on Friday.Top Navy leaders were expected to announce the decisions Friday at a news conference.Crozier’s crew hailed him as a hero for risking his job by writing a letter, which later leaked, calling on the Navy for greater safeguards for his crew.A previous Navy investigation had recommended reinstating Crozier. But results of a more in-depth probe, which were to be disclosed at least in part on Friday, are expected to detail concerns about his response to the virus, the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. It was unclear whether that would include his failure to address those concerns through proper channels.The Navy is also expected to call for further investigation into Crozier’s boss at the time, Rear Admiral Stuart Baker. The Navy will announce that Baker’s planned promotion to a second star is being put on hold.More than 1,200 sailors aboard the Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus, including one sailor who died from it and several others who had to be treated at a hospital in Guam. The Navy has not explained publicly how the virus got aboard the ship.Crozier was fired by the Navy’s top civilian, then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, against the recommendations of uniformed leaders, who suggested he wait for an investigation.Modly’s decision backfired badly, as members of the crew hailed their captain as a hero for risking his career out of concern for their health, in an emotional sendoff captured on video that went viral on social media.Embarrassed, Modly then compounded his problems by flying out to the carrier to ridicule Crozier over the leak and question his character in a speech to the Roosevelt’s crew, which also leaked to the media. Modly then resigned.
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“I remember my dad bringing home NASA stickers for me when I was a little kid and thinking they were the greatest thing in the world,” says Erin Easley, who is now a senior studying industrial engineering at Louisiana State University.  
 
Stickers adorned Erin’s childhood schoolbooks – and other objects.
 
“Oh yeah, my sister and I would stick them on the furniture in our house, too,” she laughs, “and I’d give extras to kids in my class. I told them dad worked for NASA and had the coolest job.”
 
Erin’s father, Kelley Easley, was hired in 1983 to work in the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) – a NASA site on the outskirts of New Orleans, Louisiana. NASA calls MAF its “rocket factory” and considers it the nation’s premiere site for manufacturing and assembling large-scale structures for the space program.
 
In its 60-year history, the facility has been integral in sending Apollo astronauts to the moon and powering the Space Shuttle missions that helped build the International Space Station. Today, Kelley and others at MAF are focused on spacecraft designed carry a new generation of astronauts to the Moon and eventually to Mars. They’ve also built the largest segment of the most powerful rocket in the history of spaceflight, the SLS, that will launch astronauts at the start of those missions.
 
“We get to do some pretty awesome stuff here,” Kelley says, “and who doesn’t want his daughter to think he’s the ‘cool dad?’ That’s an added benefit.”
 Ready for launchKelley remembers bringing Erin to her first “Bring Your Child to Work Day” when she was 12 years old. MAF is large enough to hold 31 professional football stadiums and Kelley says he’ll never forget the look of awe on her face when she walked through the factory and stood in front of the 47-meter external rocket tanks – slightly taller than the Statue of Liberty.
 
“I remember, specifically, that she loved how people had to ride bicycles indoors to get around the facility,” he says. “She said anywhere that people got to ride a bicycle for work must be pretty great.”  
 
Despite her childhood love for NASA, the first profession Erin remembers wanting to pursue was teaching.
 
“Kids love playing Mom and Dad,” she says, “and I really wanted to be a teacher like my mom.”
 
But signs emerged that Erin might follow in her dad’s engineering footsteps instead.  
 
For example, Erin’s earliest memories include a love for puzzles. When she was five years old, Hurricane Katrina destroyed her family’s home. She, her dad and the rest of the family moved in with her grandfather, and Erin remembers her grandpa playing all sorts of puzzle games with her.
 
“I loved all his puzzles,” she says. “Especially the mental ones he did with me. When I got to high school and realized physics and calculus are a lot like mental puzzles, too, that’s when I decided engineering might be right for me.”
 Erin and Kelly with interns at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Payloads Operations Integration Center (POIC) in Huntsville, Alabama in the summer of 2019 during Erin’s internship.CountdownErin’s interests were unique in her peer group, especially among her female friends. But it wasn’t until she began her engineering courses at LSU that she realized how unique.
 
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports fewer than one in five American engineers are women. Erin says she was often the only female in her classes.
 
“It can be intimidating,” she admits. “Sometimes it feels like the guys don’t take me seriously, and I have to prove myself over and over.”
 
Erin refuses to be discouraged, though, and when a classmate mentioned a 10-week summer internship at the Michoud Assembly Facility, an opportunity her father also had mentioned, she decided to apply.
 
“She applied on her own,” Kelley says. “That’s one of the many things I admire about my daughter. She’s eager to try things without help. It was the same thing when she was learning to ride a bicycle or to roller skate. She never wanted my wife or me to tell her how to do something.”
 
When Erin was announced as one of only four interns accepted into the program, no one was prouder than her dad.
 
“I was so excited for her,” he remembers. “She got to work on real NASA projects with real implementation plans.”
 
During her 10 weeks at MAF, Erin worked on the replacement of a cooling tower and the rehabilitation of a storage building. She also had the opportunity to attend meetings, visit other NASA sites and interact with employees she had admired since she was a young girl.
 
Erin says one of the things that impressed her most, though, was how many incredible women she got to interact with at MAF.
 
“I was never the only female in any of my meetings,” she says. “NASA is full of talented women engineers, and that was so encouraging for me to see.”
 Erin and Kelley at “Artemis Day at the Michoud Assembly Facility” on December 9, 2019. The machinery in the background is the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will help power the first Artemis mission to the Moon.Lift-OffHer internship ended last August, but Erin returned to MAF in December to watch the 65-meter SLS core stage depart the factory to be assembled with the remaining pieces of the rocket. While she’s still open to different career paths at this point in her life, she says working at NASA would be her dream job.
 
“This is the design for the rocket that will launch the first woman to the moon and the first humans to Mars,” she says, “and to watch how passionate everyone is about their work — I want to be part of a place where people are proud of what they do and excited to explore the unknown.”
 
Excitement about NASA’s mission is infectious, and often extends to strangers.
 
Kelley says if he goes to the grocery store while wearing a NASA shirt, he’s often stopped by another customer who wants to talk about NASA’s next big project, sometimes resulting in a 20-minute conversation.
 
“Everyone wants to do something that matters and everyone wants to feel pride in what they do,” he says. “It reminds me how fortunate I am, and I would love that same thing for my daughter.”
 
Erin says she’s treasured having a passion in common with her father. She remembers watching space movies with him when she was growing up and going for walks around the Michoud facility with him when she was an awestruck child, and again as an enterprising intern. She calls him when she sees a video about space that excites her, and when she learns something new in her engineering program.
 
Maybe one day they’ll walk across the vast floors of America’s rocket factory together again — this time as coworkers.
 
For now, Erin opens her computer to research next semester’s classes. Two NASA stickers decorate her laptop.Editor’s note: This is the fifth story in a VOA series highlighting the accomplishments of father-daughter duos across America – and celebrating cross-generational ties and common purpose between fathers and daughters ahead of Father’s Day, June 21. 
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European governments are working with the United States on plans to overhaul the World Health Organization, a top health official for a European country said, signaling that Europe shares some of the concerns that led Washington to say it would quit.The European health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while discussing initiatives that are not public, said Britain, France, Germany and Italy were discussing WHO reforms with the United States at the technical level.The aim, the official said, was to ensure WHO’s independence, an apparent reference to allegations that the body was too close to China during its initial response to the coronavirus crisis early this year.”We are discussing ways to separate WHO’s emergency management mechanism from any single country influence,” said the official.Reforms would involve changing the WHO’s funding system to make it more long-term, the official said. The WHO now operates on a two-year budget, which “could hurt WHO’s independence” if it has to raise funds from donor countries in the middle of an emergency, the official said.U.S. President Donald Trump has accused the WHO of being too close to China and announced plans to quit and withdraw funding.European countries have occasionally called for reform of the WHO but have generally shielded the organization from the most intense criticism by Washington. In public the European position has usually been that any reform should come only after an evaluation of the response to the coronavirus crisis.Evaluation and reformBut minutes of a videoconference of EU health ministers last week suggested European countries were taking a stronger line and also seeking more European influence at the WHO in future.The German and French ministers told their colleagues “an evaluation and reform of the WHO was needed,” the minutes said.That was stronger wording than in a resolution last month which the EU drafted, and which was adopted by all 192 WHO member countries. That resolution called for an evaluation of the response to the coronavirus crisis, but it stopped short of calling for reforms.The German and French ministers also told their colleagues, “The EU and its MS (member states) should play a bigger role at the global level,” the minutes showed.A spokesperson for the German health ministry said Berlin sought stronger engagement with the WHO ahead of Germany taking over the EU presidency on July 1.A German government source told Reuters the aim of the intervention at the health ministers’ meeting was to encourage debate among EU member states about how to reform the WHO. Asked whether Germany was now pushing for quicker changes, instead of waiting until after the crisis, the official said: “Reforms of international organizations normally take years, not months.”A French health ministry spokesman also said the WHO would be on the agenda of Germany’s presidency of the EU, and Paris would work on it with Berlin. France backed WHO reform, but changes should follow the evaluation of the organization’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, he said.A British government spokesperson said Britain worked with organizations including the WHO “to encourage and support transparency, efficiency and good management.”The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the WHO did not respond to requests for comment.The WHO drew criticism for public praise of China’s efforts to combat the new coronavirus in the early days of the crisis, even as evidence emerged that Chinese officials had silenced whistleblowers.The EU and its governments funded around 11 percent of the WHO’s $5.6 billion budget in the 2018-19 period, and the United States provided more than 15 percent. China covered just 0.2 percent. 
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