Asian markets were mostly higher Tuesday as Wall Street’s big gains the day before gave investors hopes of a beginning of a post-pandemic recovery. The S&P/ASX in Sydney ended Tuesday’s session 2.4% higher to lead the region, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up 1% in late afternoon trading. The Shanghai Composite index is up 0.6%, while both the KOSPI index in Seoul and Taiwan’s TSEC index is 0.2% higher. Tokyo’s Nikkei index finished 0.3% lower for the day, while Mumbai’s Sensex is fluctuating. FILE – The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 8, 2020.But European markets are off to a slow start Tuesday. The FTSE in London is down 1.5%, while both the CAC-40 in Paris and Frankfurt’s DAX index are down 1.6%. Oil markets are also down Tuesday, with U.S. crude selling at $37.79 per barrel, down 1%, while Brent crude is selling $40.47 per barrel, down 0.8%. The Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are trending lower in futures trading, despite all three markets finishing Monday’s trading day with solid gains. The S&P 500 climbed back to its pre-pandemic levels, while the Nasdaq, which heavily tracks the technology sector, closed at a record high, despite news that the U.S. had officially fallen into a recession.
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Month: June 2020
World Athletics’ Ex-Chief Lamine Diack Goes on Trial in Paris
Former World Athletics’ Chief Lamine Diack was in a Paris courtroom Monday as a corruption trial opened against him. The case involves a Russian doping scandal. Eighty-seven-year-old Lamine Diack seemed relaxed as he made his court appearance Monday, sporting a dark grey suit. Arguments in the case were originally due to start in January, but postponed when new documents containing testimony from his son and co-defendant were submitted to the court. Lamine Diack is the former head of World Athletics – which was once known as the IAAF. As head of the IAAF from 1999 to 2015, Diack was once one of the most powerful figures in world athletics. Today, he lives under house arrest in Paris, charged with corruption and money laundering. Prosecutors allege Diack solicited millions of dollars to cover up Russian doping tests. Some of the money allegedly went to finance Macky Sall’s 2012 presidential campaign in Senegal. Sall won the election. If found guilty, Diack faces up to 10 years in prison. Diack denies wrongdoing. The trial is being held in Paris as the alleged money-laundering happened on French soil. One of Diack’s lawyers, Simon Ndiaye, told reporters that people were unfairly lashing out against his client without any precise elements to back up their accusations. Ndiaye said Diack’s accusers have forgotten others surrounding the ex-chief. His client’s only concern, Ndiaye said, was to defend the IAAF and preserve its financial resources. One of Diack’s sons, Papa Massata Diack, also faces corruption among other charges. He remains in Senegal, which has refused to extradite him, and will be tried in absentia. Four others are also on trial. Briton Sebastian Coe replaced Diack as the association’s head. He is trying to rebuild trust in athletics and has introduced changes in how sport is governed.
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South Africa Reopening of Schools Amid COVID-19 Outbreak
School children in South Africa are returning to class amid the COVID-19 outbreak that has closed schools for several weeks. The first group of students, 7th and 12th graders, returned to class Monday as part of a gradual loosening of coronavirus restrictions. The restart of the school year was delayed after the teacher’s union attempted to create a work stoppage, telling teachers the school system was not equipped with sufficient masks and gloves. The parent of one 7th grader, speaking to a reporter said, “How can we be safe when teachers are not even sure that they are safe, do you understand. We take our children to those schools knowing that the teachers are not safe.”The temperature of a grade 7 pupil is taken as she returns to the Meldene Primary School in Johannesburg Monday, June 8, 2020.Although school staff checked the temperature of children entering schools and masks and gloves were handed out, some parents were not sure the schools were ready. South Africa Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said no school will resume if not ready. She also said the school system will make alternative arrangements for schools unable to reopen. The schools are reopening, with South Africa confirming more than 50,000 COVID-19 cases and just over 1,000 deaths.
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Portland Police Chief Resigns Amid George Floyd Protests
Portland’s police chief resigned on Monday, just six months into her job, amid criticism of her department’s handling of protests in Oregon’s largest city. An African American lieutenant on the force replaced her. The shakeup came as police have been sharply criticized for using what has been called inappropriate force against some protesters as huge demonstrations continue in Portland. “To say this was unexpected would be an understatement,” new Police Chief Chuck Lovell said at a news conference. “I’m humbled. I’m going to listen. I’m going to care about the community, and I’m looking forward to this journey.” He and community leaders of color credited Jami Resch, a white woman, for stepping down as George Floyd protests roiled the city. Resch told the news conference that Lovell is “the exact right person at the exact right moment” to head the police department. Resch had replaced Danielle Outlaw, who was Portland’s first African American female police chief and who became Philadelphia police commissioner in February. Resch said she suggested the shakeup to Mayor Ted Wheeler, who said he supported Lovell to lead the department as it moves through needed reforms. “We need Chief Lovell’s leadership,” Wheeler said at the news conference. “We must re-imagine reform and rebuild what public safety looks like.” Lovell served as Outlaw’s executive assistant. Under Resch, he led a new Community Services Division that included the Behavioral Health Unit, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The unit’s mission, according to its web page, is to aid people in crisis resulting from mental illness and/or drug and alcohol addiction. Resch said she will stay with the department in a different role. Demonstrators held two peaceful George Floyd protests in Portland but a third one that lasted until the early hours of Monday resulted in at least 20 arrests, with some demonstrators throwing objects at police, who fired tear gas and sponge-tipped projectiles.Police use pepper spray against protesters in Portland, Oregon, May 31, 2020, in this still image taken from video obtained by Reuters.Full beverage containers, glass bottles, hard-boiled eggs and rocks were thrown or fired at officers using sling-shots, police said in a statement Monday. A medic who was working with the officers was hit in the stomach with a rock. The protest that turned violent happened at the Justice Center in downtown Portland. The ACLU of Oregon has called on Portland police to end the use of tear gas, impact weapons and flash bang devices. “We join the protesters in calling for a new approach in our community, and demanding that we uphold the rights of people who have historically had their rights and humanity denied,” the rights group said Sunday. Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who is African American, slammed the recent police response to some protests. “I’m incredibly troubled by the excessive force used nightly by PDX police since the protests began,” she said. “The videos and painful firsthand accounts of community members getting tear gassed and beaten by police for exercising their 1st Amendment rights should be concerning for us all.” Lovell’s appointment does not require City Council approval, Wheeler’s spokeswoman Eileen Park said. Police say they have encouraged peaceful protests, but smaller groups splinter from the demonstrations or come out later to engage in mayhem. Protesters Monday evening walked onto Interstate 84 in Portland’s Lloyd District, which led to officials temporarily shutting it down in that area, news footage showed. Earlier, protesters cheered when a speaker at the demonstration talked about the police chief’s resignation. “Are we done yet,” he asked the crowd. “No,” the crowd shouted back. Another crowd near the downtown jail after 9 p.m. was urged by police not to shake and climb a fence erected to keep protesters away. “We are not here to police a fence,” Portland police said on Twitter. “We are here to protect the people who work in the Justice Center and the adults in custody who are living there.” On the ground, police were staying farther away from the fence than they had during other nights. The crowd had grown to hundreds by around 9:40 p.m., The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
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Heir to South Korea’s Samsung Empire Avoids Jail
A South Korean Court has rejected an arrest warrant for the heir to the legendary Samsung Group conglomerate in connection with a controversial merger. Prosecutors have accused Lee Jae-yong, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, of stock manipulation and illegal trading involving the 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, of which Lee is the largest shareholder. He allegedly sought to inflate the value of Cheil Industries and lower the value of Samsung C&T to give him a bigger stake in the merged company, a move that would give him increasing control of South Korea’s largest conglomerate and smooth the transition from his ailing father, Lee Kun-hee, who suffered a heart attack in 2014. But the Seoul Central District Court ruled Tuesday that while prosecutors had amassed enough evidence against Lee in their investigation, there was not enough to justify detaining him. The 51-year-old Lee arrived at the courthouse Monday for the hearing, which lasted nine hours, and awaited the decision at a detention center. Samsung released a statement last week denying the allegations against Lee, who prosecutors have also accused of inflating the value of Samsung Biologics, a subsidiary of Cheil Industries. Lee is also awaiting a retrial on his original 2017 conviction for bribing a confidante of then-President Park Geun-hye in return for Park’s support for the 2015 merger, a scandal that forced Park out of office and eventually landed her in prison. Lee served a year in prison before an appeals court suspended his sentence, but South Korea’s Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s decision last year.
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George Floyd to be Buried Tuesday
Family and friends are set to honor George Floyd with a private funeral Tuesday in the U.S. city of Houston, two weeks after his death in police custody inspired renewed protests against police brutality in numerous cities across the country. After the funeral, Houston police will escort the funeral procession to the nearby city of Pearland, where Floyd will be buried next to his mother. Houston’s city hall was lit up Monday night in crimson and gold, the colors of the high school Floyd attended, in remembrance of his life. Other cities joined the effort, with crimson and gold lights shining on city halls in Los Angeles, Boston, Oakland, Las Vegas, New York and elsewhere.The public had their chance to pay their respects Monday, as thousands of people streamed through The Fountain of Praise church to view Floyd’s open casket. Memorials were also held last week in Minneapolis and Raeford, North Carolina, near where Floyd was born. Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott was among those who paid tribute Monday. He told reporters outside the church that he will include Floyd’s family in discussions about police reform. “George Floyd has not died in vain. His life will be a living legacy about the way that America and Texas responds to this tragedy,” Abbott said. Outside the church, organizers assembled a large floral arrangement with white roses to spell the initials BLM for Black Lives Matter.A mourner reacts after viewing the casket of George Floyd during a public visitation Monday, June 8, 2020, at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden met Floyd’s relatives for more than an hour in Houston on Monday, according to the family’s lawyer Benjamin Crump. Crump said on Twitter that Biden “listened, heard their pain, and shared in their woe.”Also Monday, Derek Chauvin, the white officer who was filmed pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than 8 minutes before Floyd’s death, made his first court appearance since the charges against him were upgraded to second-degree murder. Chauvin said little during Monday’s brief hearing at a Minneapolis court as he appeared on closed-circuit television from a maximum-security prison. His next appearance is set for June 29. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Monday that President Donald Trump is “appalled” by calls from some protesters and activists for police departments to be defunded. She said the president is “taking a look at various” proposals in response to Floyd’s death but offered no specifics.WATCH: People pay respects to FloydSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 18 MB720p | 40 MB1080p | 73 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioIn Minneapolis, where the 46-year-old Floyd died May 25, nine of the 12 City Council members pledged to disband the city’s police department. “A veto-proof majority of the MPLS City Council just publicly agreed that the Minneapolis Police Department is not re-formable and that we’re going to end the current policing system,” council member Alondra Cano tweeted Sunday. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the state’s police training program to stop teaching chokeholds. Denver’s police department announced Sunday that it has also fully banned the use of chokeholds. In addition, it said it would also require members of its SWAT team to activate their body cameras during operations. In the northwestern state of Washington, Governor Jay Inslee proposed creating an independent investigative unit to probe officer-involved killings and making it obligatory for officers to report misconduct by other officers. The U.S. protests have also led to demonstrations in other countries, with people showing both solidarity with those marching in the United States and calling attention to cases in their own countries. France is one of the nations that has seen protests, and the country’s interior minister announced police there will no longer be allowed to use chokeholds during an arrest. “No arrest should put lives at risk,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said.
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Hong Kongers Still Defiant One Year Later As National Security Law Looms
On June 9 last year, some one million Hong Kongers staged a peaceful protest against a proposed extradition law that would allow individuals to be sent to China for trial. Little did they realize it was just the first of more than 1,000 protests in a drawn-out anti-government movement that would plunge the Asian financial hub into one of the deepest crises in its history. The protests unleashed years of unprecedented anger and frustration at the erosion of freedoms under 23 years of Chinese rule, particularly in recent years when Beijing accelerated political and economic integration to bring the former British colony under tighter control. The movement has exacted a heavy human cost. Initially peaceful, the demonstrations took a violent turn as the government was seen as turning a deaf ear and police increasingly used tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons and even live rounds on protesters, who first threw objects and later threw Molotov cocktails, set objects ablaze and wrecked banks, metro stations and pro-China retail outlets. Although the Hong Kong government belatedly withdrew the extradition bill four months after the initial protests, police brutality and the government’s refusal to launch an independent investigation into police violence further fueled protesters’ anger as some resorted to more radical actions. More than 8,900 people, of whom about 40% were students, have been arrested in more than 1,000 protests since June of last year. Although many ordinary Hong Kongers do not agree with violent tactics on either side, many sympathize with the radical young protesters and share their sense of desperation and frustration at a government that seems answerable to Beijing and not ordinary citizens. Hong Kong’s top leader is chosen by a largely pro-Beijing elite committee of around 1,200 people. Only half of the city’s legislature is elected by ordinary voters, and because it is dominated by pro-Beijing lawmakers, it does not have the power to vote down unpopular bills. “I feel heartbroken that our young people have made so many sacrifices. But if Hong Kong doesn’t resist, then China can do what it wants,” said a 71-year-old retiree surnamed Chow who escaped from China to Hong Kong in his teenage years. “People of our generation were too weak, we didn’t have the courage to fight against China. We simply fled.”Police clear a road around a fire that was lit during a pro-democracy protest in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong on May 27, 2020, as the city’s legislature debates over a law that bans insulting China’s national anthem.A year after the initial protests, many Hong Kongers are shocked to find themselves in what they consider a much worse situation. Intending to stamp out protests, China’s legislature in late May passed a plan to force sweeping national security laws on Hong Kong to prevent and punish “acts and activities” that threaten national security, including advocacy of secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference. Bypassing Hong Kong’s legislature, China’s vaguely defined national security laws will be applied to Hong Kong through an annex of the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law. The legislation would also allow Chinese national security organs to set up agencies in Hong Kong. Many fear that the laws that have been used to suppress activists and government critics in mainland China will now be used to erode most of Hong Kong’s freedoms. “We used to have the shield of the authorities adhering to some level of international standards to maintain a veneer of respectability and accountability, but that has been shattered,” said Edwin, a 40-year old lawyer. “That is where it gets frightening, because you worry where it all ends when the well-resourced government no longer feels the need to play by any rules whatsoever.” “There’s also a sense of anger that they could be so brazen and heartless to their own people in a way I would not have imagined a year ago,” he said. The planned national security law has rekindled protests that had largely died down due to the coronavirus pandemic early this year and fueled an unprecedented demand for independence from China. Many protesters shouted slogans such as “Hong Kongers, build our nation!” in recent protests, which have rarely been heard on the streets before. The looming draconian laws that many believe would spell the end of Hong Kong led skeptics to wonder whether Hong Kong protesters have taken the right approach in dealing with China. But many who have participated in the movement say they do not regret the resistance, even if it has brought on China’s drastic retaliation. As China has been tightening its control over Hong Kong they say, the territory’s “death” is inevitable and the protest movement has simply forced China to show its “true face.” “Do you think the Communist Party would be good to you if you stop resisting? It would tighten its control even more,” said 57-year-old Liu, a driver. “Don’t forget that this is a dictatorial regime.” “Even if Hong Kong finishes now, it’s visible to the whole word that, for the sake of this (national security), they’d send Hong Kong to its death,” said Vincent, a student in his 20s. Many say they support international sanctions against China, even if they would hurt Hong Kong’s economy, describing their mentality using the Cantonese expression “lam chow”, which means perishing with one’s enemies. U.S. President Donald Trump said in late May the United States would eliminate special treatment for Hong Kong as a separate customs and travel territory from China for its violation of its promise on Hong Kong’s autonomy. “I am aware of the impacts of possible U.S. sanctions. But when Hong Kong has to suddenly die like this, I’d support it because we’re desperate and there is nothing else we can do,” said Vincent. Under the shadow of the looming national security legislation, some vow to continue to speak up even if it means risking jail, while others try to learn how to maintain their resistance and conscience under Beijing’s influence. “I’d rather speak out and die than to live in silence,” said Chow, quoting a classical Chinese text from the 11th century. “We know we have no means of fighting against China, but we’ll not be subjugated.” “I’ll still come out to protest. They can kill me if they want to, then people will see their true face,” he said. Vincent said his way of resistance would be to maintain a sense of Hong Kong identity by up keeping the Hong Kong culture and rejecting China’s ideological assimilation. Willy Lam, adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said while he expected the resistance force to weaken, “I don’t think they can successfully suppress it. People won’t be subjugated. Many would go to prison… and many would emigrate.” Joseph Cheng, retired political scientist at the City University of Hong Kong, said while he did not expect ordinary Hong Kongers to give up on their ideals, “the danger is substantial” under the new security laws. “The anger is there and the dissatisfaction is there, their will to engage in struggles is there, but there is no easy victory ahead. It’s going to be a very costly and very long-term struggle,” Cheng said.
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Coronavirus Pandemic Fuels Mobile Money Transactions in Nigeria
With Nigerian businesses struggling because of coronavirus lockdown measures, the use of mobile money and “no touch”, cashless transactions in business is growing rapidly. The use of mobile money grew by almost 15 percent in March, and experts say the practice is expected to become even more common as the pandemic continues. “Cashless Payments Only” is an inscription at the entrance of Washme laundry in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Laundry manager Paul Godiya says it’s a recent measure to limit physical contact with cash to prevent the spread of COVID-19. “There are different people that come here from different places and money is generally accepted which is coming from different people and is circulating from different angles. It may be that Mr. A has this disease or Mr. B has this disease. So, in the process of circulating it may get to me and affect me,” Godiya said. With more businesses like this Abuja laundry switching to payment technology to ensure health and safety during the coronavirus pandemic, the mobile money industry is experiencing significant growth. Analysis by the Nigeria Interbank Settlement Scheme (NIBSS) shows mobile money transactions went up by 14.5 percent between February and March – a period when the virus was first reported in Nigeria. Mobile money agents like Isaac Odah, whose business has been booming say the trend has continued to increase since the pandemic. “We are rendering essential services, so our services are not something you can do without because people transact, people pay for one or two things every day, and will need money to carry out such transactions. That’s why our services are booming during this pandemic,” Odah said.As Africa’s largest nation, Nigeria is a huge market for mobile money and financial technology operators. But for many years restrictive government regulatory policies limited investment in this sector. In 2018, Nigeria’s Central Bank relaxed the restrictions, with the aim of having 80 percent of Nigerian adults use mobile money by 2020. Last December, it issued license to fifteen mobile money operators. Financial technology expert, Raphael Inusa, says the pandemic could fast track this goal. “There has been a steady growth or increase in the fintech sector. And even way before the coronavirus hit Nigeria, the fintech sector had attracted a lot of foreign investments, from VISA investing in Interswitch, to Flutter wave to several other fintech companies. But the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated a whole lot, we now have increased transactions online,” Inusa said.Apart from favorable government policies, the expansion of Nigeria’s internet penetration by about 20 percent in the last two years is also enabling the mobile money industry to thrive in the West African nation.
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Hundreds Gather to Say Final Goodbye to George Floyd
In the states of Texas and North Carolina hundreds gathered to say their final goodbyes to George Floyd a man who died after being in police custody in the state of Minnesota. While in Washington, D.C., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced sweeping legislation to combat police violence and racial injustice. VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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North Korea Says It Will Cut Communication Channels With South
North Korea said Tuesday it will cut off all communication channels with South Korea as it escalates its pressure on the South for failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border. The North Korean warning came as relations between the two Koreas have been strained amid a prolonged deadlock in broader nuclear diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington. Some experts say North Korea may be deliberately creating tensions to bolster internal unity or launch bigger provocation in the face of persistent U.S.-led sanctions. The North’s Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that all cross-border communication lines will be cut off at Tuesday noon. It said it will be “the first step of the determination to completely shut down all contact means with South Korea and get rid of unnecessary things.” “The South Korean authorities connived at the hostile acts against (North Korea) by the riff-raff, while trying to dodge heavy responsibility with nasty excuses,” it said. “They should be forced to pay dearly for this.” Since last week, North Korea has increasingly expressed its anger over the leafleting by threatening to permanently shut down a liaison office with South Korea and a jointly run factory park, as well as nullify a 2018 inter-Korean tension-reduction agreement. North Korean citizens have also staged a series of mass anti-Seoul public rallies, something the North typically organizes in times of tensions with the outside world. N. Korea Warns S. Korea to Stop Defectors from Scattering Anti-North LeafletsNorth says it may cancel recent bilateral military agreement if activity persists North Korea has in recent months suspended virtually all cooperation with South Korea as its nuclear negotiations with the United States remains stalemated since the breakdown of a summit between its leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump in early 2019. A main sticking point in the U.S.-North Korea diplomacy is a U.S. refusal to lift much of crippling international sanctions on North Korea in return for limited denuclearization steps. North Korea has slammed South Korea for failing to break away from Washington and for not restoring massive joint economic projects held up by U.S.-led sanctions. Inter-Korean relations flourished in 2018, when Kim entered talks on the future of his nuclear weapons. South Korea had no immediate response to the North Korean announcement. But it has recently said it would push for new legal steps to ban activists from launching leaflets in an attempt to save faltering ties with North Korea. But the North has countered the South Korean response lacks sincerity. The leafleting has been a long-running source of tensions between the two Koreas. In recent years, North Korean defectors and conservative activists have floated huge balloons carrying leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un over his nuclear ambitions and abysmal human rights record. The North, which bristles at any outside attempt to undermine the Kim leadership, has often made a furious response to the South Korean government for failing to stop them . In 2014, North Korean troops opened fire at propaganda balloons flying toward their territory, triggering an exchange of fire that caused no known causalities. South Korea has typically let activists launch such balloons, citing their rights to exercise freedom of speech, but it sometimes sent police officers to stop them from floating leaflets in times of tensions with North Korea.
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Work Resumes on Notre Dame in Paris
Construction workers in Paris dangled from ropes and used saws to cut through the charred tangled remains of metal scaffolding as they resumed restoration work on Notre Dame cathedral. Fire nearly destroyed the centuries-old structure in April 2019. The coronavirus outbreak suspended work rebuilding the church in March.Huge towers of metal scaffolding erected before the fire — as part of a renovation — melted into a maze of tubes and pipes and must be cut away before any more work on the building can continue — 40,000 pieces of metal weighing as much as 200 tons must be carefully lifted out, which is expected to take three months. Workers prepare to remove damaged scaffolding elements from the remains of the damaged roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, June 8, 2020“It’s a bit like open-heart surgery because we are in the middle of the cathedral between the transept and its heart, precisely where the spire crashed,” Christophe Rousselot said. He heads a charity collecting funds to help pay for the restoration. The fire burned through the roof and destroyed the spire, but the main bell towers, walls, and most of the ceiling survived as well as many of the relics inside the church. Engineers cannot enter the cathedral to inspect its vaults until the fused scaffolding is removed. Once the scaffolding is gone, a temporary roof will be put up and the restoration work will begin. French President Emmanuel Macron has said he hopes the cathedral will be restored and ready for visitors again by 2024, when Paris hosts the Summer Olympics.
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Cristobal to Merge With New Storm System After Lashing South
Tropical Storm Cristobal could soon renew its strength by uniting with another storm system coming from the west to form one giant cyclone, forecasters say. After drenching much of the South, forecasters now expect the remnants of Cristobal to bring fierce winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms to much of the Midwest by Tuesday. A very strong storm system sweeping out from the Rocky Mountains is expected to meld with Cristobal, said Greg Carbin, who oversees forecasts at the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. “The two will eventually merge into a large cyclone,” Carbin said. “It’s a pretty fascinating interaction we’ll see over the next couple of days.” Wind gusts of up to 45 mph (72 kph) are expected in Chicago by Tuesday night, the National Weather Service said. Boaters were being warned of gale-force winds on nearby Lake Michigan on Tuesday and Wednesday. FILE – A wave crashes as a man stands on a jetty near Orleans Harbor in Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, June 7, 2020, as Tropical Storm Cristobal approaches the Louisiana Coast.High winds could be felt from Nebraska to Wisconsin, forecasters said. In parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, the gusty winds and low humidity will bring the threat of wildfires in areas with dry grass, National Weather Service forecasters warned. Any blazes that start will spread rapidly, they said. Cristobal weakened into a depression early Monday after inundating coastal Louisiana and ginning up dangerous weather along most of the U.S. Gulf Coast, sending waves crashing over Mississippi beaches, swamping parts of an Alabama island town and spawning a tornado in Florida. In Louisiana, two boaters were found Monday afternoon in good condition after their boat sank in a deepwater straight near Slidell on Sunday, authorities said. Cristobal’s remnants could be a rainmaker for days. Its forecast path takes it into Arkansas and Missouri by Tuesday, then through Illinois and Wisconsin to the Great Lakes. “It’s very efficient, very tropical rainfall,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said in a Facebook video. “It rains a whole bunch real quick.” In their last update on Cristobal from the hurricane center, forecasters said up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain could fall in some areas and could cause significant river flooding across the mid- and upper Mississippi Valley. FILE – Charles Marsala, who lives in the Orleans Marina in the West End section of New Orleans, films a rising storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain, in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal, June 7, 2020.Coastal Mississippi news outlets reported stalled cars and trucks as floodwaters inundated beaches and crashed over highways. On the City of Biloxi Facebook page, officials said emergency workers helped dozens of motorists through floodwaters, mostly on U.S. 90 running along the coast. In Alabama, the bridge linking the mainland to Dauphin Island was closed much of Sunday but was being reopened Monday. Police and state transportation department vehicles led convoys of motorists to and from the island when breaks in the weather permitted. “The storm could have been a lot worse, I’m very thankful to say. We were largely spared,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said. Cristobal provided the state with “a good test” of overall hurricane response and preparedness, particularly combined with ongoing COVID-19 response efforts, the governor said. President Donald Trump agreed to issue an emergency declaration for Louisiana, officials said. In Florida, a tornado — the second in two days in the state as the storm approached — uprooted trees and downed power lines Sunday afternoon south of Lake City near Interstate 75, the weather service and authorities said. There were no reports of injuries. The storm also forced a waterlogged stretch of Interstate 10 in north Florida to close for a time Sunday.
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Slave Trade, Colonialism Fuel Race Protests in Europe
Black Lives Matter protests erupted for a second weekend in cities across Europe, fuelled by deep-rooted anger over a perceived lack of understanding of colonial history. The demonstrations originally broke out in solidarity with protests in the United States over the death of a 46-year-old black man, George Floyd, while in Minneapolis police custody. In recent days, protesters in Britain and other European states have increasingly focused on racial inequality in their own countries. In the city of Bristol, in western England, protesters tore down a statue of 17th-century slave trader, Edward Colston, on Sunday, amid cheers from thousands of demonstrators. The bronze statue was rolled through the city streets and dumped into the harbor, where Colston’s slave ships used to dock after returning from Africa and the Americas. The monument had long been a divisive symbol: a tribute to a man who built schools and hospitals in the city, but who enslaved tens of thousands of black Africans, shipping them across the Atlantic. A banner is taped over the inscription on the pedestal of the toppled statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, England, June 8, 2020.The Bristol City Council estimates that up to 20,000 enslaved men, women and children died on board Colston’s ships. In recent decades, there have been several petitions among Bristol residents to have the statue removed, but the council could not agree on a course of action. “We have to walk these streets and see that statue of Colston every day, that’s what it means,” said Jasmine, a black woman from Bristol who joined the protest Sunday. “That statue is a kick in the face to all black people, it’s a disgrace. Now look at it, now look at it. Gone, gone, him gone.’’ The toppling of the statue mirrors similar debates in the United States, where activists have demanded the removal of statues honoring Confederate-era figures. Last week, the governor of the U.S. state of Virginia announced that a The Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, speaks to the press in Bristol, England, June 8, 2020.Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees — the first directly elected black mayor in Britain — told VOA that the protesters had legitimate concerns.“We have a city to run and we need to have order,” Rees said. “But if you fail to understand these kind of events, then you create the conditions for more and bigger types of events like these in the future. It’s a very significant, symbolic act, but it doesn’t deliver the affordable homes, the job opportunities, the educational opportunities, the access to the professions, political power, economic power, that actually underpins race inequality.”The British government takes a very different view. Home Secretary Priti Patel labeled the statue’s destruction as “sheer vandalism.” “It’s right actually the police follow up on that and make sure justice is taken,” Patel told reporters Monday. Protests erupted in several other cities across Britain over the weekend. Tens of thousands of people marched on the U.S. Embassy in London.Fiona Collins echoed the views of many in the crowd: “I’m sick of having to explain to my children that because they’re black, they have to act a certain way, they have to behave this way, they have to work 10 times harder to get anywhere in life and I’ve had enough of it.” There were violent clashes between some demonstrators and police in the capital. Twenty-two officers were injured, including a policewoman who fell from her horse after it bolted, striking a traffic signal. The riderless horse trampled a protester. Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter that the demonstrations had been “subverted by thuggery.”People have a right to protest peacefully & while observing social distancing but they have no right to attack the police. These demonstrations have been subverted by thuggery – and they are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve. Those responsible will be held to account.
— Boris Johnson #StayAlert (@BorisJohnson) June 7, 2020 In Glasgow, Scotland, activists changed the names of streets linked to slave traders. In Belgium, protesters defaced a statue of King Leopold II, who oversaw the killing of millions of Congolese during colonial rule. The targeting of such monuments has rekindled calls for government action to remove symbols that glorify those involved in colonial repression and slavery. However, many British lawmakers have criticized the destruction of the Colston statue in Bristol and claim the monuments are an important reminder of a dark and complicated history. Ben Bradley MP of the ruling Conservatives wrote on Twitter: ‘If we start to judge historical figures by 21st century standards, we’ll find that quite a few folks weren’t that nice… almost as if they didn’t know any better.’ If we start to judge historical figures by 21st century standards, we’ll find that quiet a few folks weren’t that nice… Almost as if they didn’t know any better 🤔
— Ben Bradley MP (@BBradley_Mans) June 7, 2020Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer criticized the toppling of the statue but said that it should have been taken down by authorities many years ago. Many others say that statue’s razing has done far more to educate Britons about black oppression, a history that for many resonates deeply today.
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New York City Cautiously Reopens
New York City began a gradual restart of its economy Monday, three months after shutting down all but the most essential businesses in order to contain the coronavirus pandemic. “This is a powerful day,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at an outdoor news conference at the Brooklyn Navy Yard marking the launch of Phase One of the city’s restart. “Day 100 of the coronavirus crisis and it is the day we start to liberate ourselves from this disease.” He said he expects between 200,000 and 400,000 workers will start returning to their workplaces in the construction, manufacturing, wholesale supply and non-essential retail sectors. Shoppers will still have to pick up their purchases curb side, on-site shopping is not slated to return until the second phase of the four-stage reopening in approximately two weeks. Local hospitals have also been given the go ahead to resume elective surgeries. Multani Singh, owner of J&M sneakers, talks about keeping his business alive during nearly three months of shutdown, June 8, 2020, in the Sunset Park neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York.The city of 8.6 million has been one of the hardest hit anywhere in the world. There have been more than 200,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and nearly 22,000 deaths attributed to it. “We have been the epicenter of this crisis, this is the place where it was going to be the hardest to make a comeback, and yet, New York City is so strong and resilient we are making that comeback,” de Blasio said. He urged residents not to forget lessons learned, including the need for face coverings and social distancing. Indicators the city uses to gauge the rate of transmission are all dramatically down, but the health commissioner cautioned that the virus is still in what she characterized as a “moderate” transmission phase. Most New Yorkers rely on public transportation to get to and from work and many are still jittery about taking the subway. Pre-pandemic 5.5 million people rode the subway in often overcrowded cars each day, making it an ideal super spreader of the virus. The transit system has remained open for essential workers with scaled-back service throughout the pandemic, but saw ridership plummet nearly 90% and the transit agency has sought billions of dollars in federal aid. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took a ride on the subway Monday to raise rider confidence. He wore the mandatory face covering. If it wasn’t safe, I wouldn’t ask anyone to go on the subway.
Remember: If you’re riding, you MUST wear a mask. It’s mandatory & shows respect for fellow riders. pic.twitter.com/IH0Ue3p7Cr
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) Dominique Simonneaux, owner of Les Petits Chapelais, works to fulfill online orders at her store in the Soho neighborhood of New York, June 8, 2020.In Manhattan, major retailers including Macy’s at Herald Square and Saks Fifth Avenue did not reopen on Monday. Construction was also allowed to resume and trucks and workers in hard hats appeared busy at several local work sites. There will be at least two weeks between phases as the city aims to reopen a wider range of businesses in the next phase, including financial and real estate companies. In the third phase, the hospitality sector will return to full service —restaurants will be allowed to have indoor diners, and hotels, which are considered essential and have remained open, will be able to expand their services. In the final phase, schools, museums and entertainment are expected to reopen. But the smooth progression of the four phases is contingent on the virus indicators remaining at or below acceptable levels.
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Wall Street Climbs Higher as Investors Show Confidence
Wall Street picked up Monday where it left off at the end of last week with the S&P erasing all its losses for the year and investors confident the economy is coming back to pre-COVID-levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 461 points, or nearly 2%. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were both 1% higher. Monday’s 39-point gain for the S&P puts it right back in the black, gaining all the ground it lost since the coronavirus outbreak began to be fully felt in March. Travel-related stocks led Monday’s gains on Wall Street, including United Airlines, American Airlines, and Carnival Cruises. The price of leading U.S. retailer, Kohl’s, was also 8% higher. Major European indexes in London, Frankfurt and Paris were all a fraction lower Monday, while major Asian indexes closed on an upswing.
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Lawyer Says Arrest of Djibouti Military Pilot Sparks Protests
The tiny Horn of Africa nation Djibouti has witnessed days of anti-government protests after a detained air force pilot said in a video clip he had been tortured, his lawyer said on Monday.The government did not respond to a request for comment but Djibouti’s ambassador to neighboring Ethiopia told Reuters the pilot, Fouad Youssuf Ali, had been arrested for treason. The envoy denied that Fouad had been tortured.”Many spontaneous protests in support of Fouad’s unlawful detention and mistreatment have taken place in Djibouti,” said the lawyer, Zakaria Ali, adding that some 200 people including members of the pilot’s family had been arrested in recent days.”I visited him on May 13 and saw severe signs of torture on his legs,” Ali added.Grainy footage posted on social media sites appeared to show people protesting in the streets of Djibouti.According to social media, the protests began last week after a video clip began circulating online showing the pilot being held in what appeared to be a toilet of a jail.Asked about the case, Djibouti’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Mohamed Idriss Farah, said the pilot had been arrested on April 9 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where he had escaped after attempting to steal and fly a plane to Eritrea.”He was extradited to Djibouti the following day on charges of treason, as he incited people to rebellion in a video he took in the plane,” Farah said.”Claims that the pilot has been tortured while in detention are false,” he added.Djibouti is home to both Chinese and U.S. naval bases. Its strategic position on the Gulf of Aden means it overlooks the world’s busiest shipping lanes for oil cargos, but many of its citizens are impoverished and human rights groups say abuses by the security forces are common.Independent news sites are blocked in Djibouti and journalists often arrested and beaten, global media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres says.”We should not underestimate the ability of the government to be very brutal in its response if the unrest continues,” said Rashid Abdi, a Nairobi-based Horn of Africa political analyst.
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US Prosecutors Want to Question Prince Andrew Over Connection to Epstein
The U.S. Department of Justice issued a formal request to question Britain’s Prince Andrew as part of the government’s ongoing investigation into possible co-conspirators of convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, according to a law enforcement official.The formal action comes after federal prosecutors alleged that Andrew, known as the Duke of York, failed to respond to earlier Justice Department inquiries about his friendship with Epstein, who was found dead of an apparent suicide while in jail last August awaiting charges of sex trafficking and sexual abuse.In November, Queen Elizabeth’s second son stepped down from public duties due to the scandal over his friendship with Epstein and allegations that he had sexual encounters with a 17-year-old girl about 20 years ago.Investigators have not accused Andrew of any wrongdoing, and he has said that he would help “any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations if required.”FILE – This March 28, 2017, file photo, provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry, shows Jeffrey Epstein.Andrew has denied having sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre. She alleges Epstein forced her to have sex with the prince and that the encounters happened in London, New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands.Despite the pledge to cooperate, in March, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said the prince had provided “zero cooperation” to the FBI and “shut the door on voluntary cooperation.” Berman said his office is “considering its options.”Andrew’s lawyers hit back at these claims Monday, suggesting that U.S. prosecutors were seeking publicity rather than the royal’s cooperation.”The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ,” said Blackfords, the London-based law firm representing Andrew, in a statement.”Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the Duke has offered zero cooperation. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered,” the statement said.The request, initiated by federal prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, is part of a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) request, an agreement to gather and exchange information in criminal investigations between two counties, submitted to Britain’s Home Office, according to the source.If the MLAT request is approved, U.S. prosecutors could potentially force Andrew to go to court to provide evidence under oath.Prosecutors have vowed to continue the investigation, bringing renewed attention to several prominent people in Epstein’s orbit, including Andrew and socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.Maxwell faces several lawsuits and has denied all allegations against her.
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France to Ban Police Chokehold Used to Detain Suspects
France’s interior minister announced Monday police will no longer conduct chokeholds that have been blamed for multiple cases of asphyxiation and prompted new criticism after George Floyd’s death in the U.S.At a news conference in Paris, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said “the method of seizing the neck via strangling will be abandoned and will no longer be taught in police schools.”Immobilization techniques where officers apply pressure with their knees on prone suspects, as officers did in Floyd’s case, are used in policing around the world and have long drawn criticism. French lawmakers have called for such practices to be banned.FILE – People protest against the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis, next to the U.S. embassy in Paris, France, June 1, 2020.Castaner spoke out as the country’s government comes under increasing pressure to address brutality and racism within the police force. France has seen several protests over the past week sparked by Floyd’s death last month, which has stirred anger against racism and police brutality around the world.The interior minister said the move is not just a reaction to recent events but comes after months of work by the commission on police procedures.He added that stricter punishments would be implemented on cases of racism inside the police forces, whereby disciplinary processes such as suspensions would be followed by criminal proceedings. Castaner called racism an “abject evil” that has no place in French society.Three days after Floyd died in the custody of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, another black man writhed on the tarmac of a street in Paris as a police officer pressed a knee to his neck during an arrest.
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Kenya’s Judiciary Puts Executive on the Spot Over Appointment of Judges
Kenya’s chief justice has accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of disregarding court orders, failing to approve the appointment of new judges, and threatening the constitution.Speaking to reporters Monday, Chief Justice David Maraga called on the president to appoint some judges forwarded by the judicial service commission. “The constitution does not donate any mandate to the president to perform any other act upon [receiving] the names recommended by the JSC except to appoint them,” he said. The names of the 41 judges were forwarded to Kenyatta for appointment in mid-2019. FILE – Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta speaks at Nyayo Stadium in the capital Nairobi, Feb. 11, 2020.Through the attorney general, Kenyatta questioned the integrity of some judges, but twice, the court ruled in their favor.
Maraga said the delay in approving and swearing in the jurists has made work difficult for the courts.
“If you file a land case in the environment and land court (ELC) at Milimani court Nairobi today, the earliest your case will be heard is in 2022. This is because we have a total of 31 ELC judges in the country against the case backlog of 16,457 as of 31st March this year,” he said. “The situation is probably worse at the court of appeal, which has 15 judges serving the whole republic.” When contacted, the president’s office said it did not wish to comment on the judiciary’s accusations. Bob Mkangi, one of the authors of the 2010 constitution, said the executive branch was “endeavoring to claw back some of the powers that were taken away by the 2010 constitution.” Having an independent judiciary was one of the ways to end Kenya’s cycle of political violence, according to some analysts.
“Right now, the judiciary reads mischief in the entire procedure because there is already a Supreme Court judge who has retired from service, there are two judges who are coming up for retirement, as well as the chief justice himself,” said Joy Mdivo, a political commentator. “This is significant because it’s the Supreme Court that determines if there is a dispute in the presidential election, and so repopulating the Supreme Court is critical not just for the justice system, but clearly it’s critical for in the political arena.” In the 2017 presidential election, the Supreme Court, led by Maraga, nullified the vote for failing to meet the threshold for a credible election, a decision that has angered the ruling Jubilee party. Kenyatta won a new term in a rerun of the election.
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Trump Slumping in Approval Polls and Against Biden
U.S. political polls are increasingly showing that Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s performance in office, and that he is trailing in his bid for another four-year term in the White House against former Vice President Joe Biden. In the latest poll Monday, CNN said voters it surveyed last week disapproved of Trump’s handling of the presidency by a 57%-38% margin, and losing to Biden by a 55%-41% edge five months ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3. Trump derided the CNN poll in a tweet, contending the poll was “as fake as their reporting.” Trump said he had the “same numbers, and worse, against Crooked Hillary,” his derisive moniker for Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state he defeated for the presidency in 2016. CNN Polls are as Fake as their Reporting. Same numbers, and worse, against Crooked Hillary. The Dems would destroy America!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2020Trump often touts his high standing among Republican voters, but Democrats are equally opposed to his presidency, polling shows. Meanwhile, the CNN poll showed 52% of independent voters say they favor Biden for the presidency versus 41% for Trump. Trump’s low approval rating comes as voters assess his handling of the coronavirus pandemic over the past three months and more immediately, the nationwide protests in the past two weeks against the death of a black man, George Floyd, held in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. CNN said Trump’s approval rating had fallen seven points in the past month and was now the worst he had recorded since January 2019. The news network said Trump’s 38% approval rating was similar to two former U.S. presidents — Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992 — when they both lost bids for second terms. The CNN poll said the effect of the protests against Floyd’s death on the American electorate is significant, with voters saying race relations in the U.S. are now as important a campaign issue as the economy and health care. Those polled said they think Biden would handle race relations in the U.S. better than Trump by a 63%-31% margin. Black voters favored Biden’s handling of race relations by an overwhelming 91%-4% edge. Biden also outdistanced Trump in handling the coronavirus pandemic, 55% to 41%, while voters favored Trump in overseeing the economy by 51% to 46%. National polls in the U.S. have consistently shown Biden ahead of Trump, all 40 of them in May and another nine so far in June. The Real Clear Politics website aggregation of polls has Biden ahead 49.9% to 42.1%. Its collection of recent polls shows voters disapproving of Trump’s presidency 54.2% to 42.8%.
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Viewers Refute Myth That Black US Films, TV are Poor Exports
To entice a European TV executive shopping for programs a few years ago, ABC offered up glossy fare including “Scandal” starring Kerry Washington and “How to Get Away with Murder” with Oscar-winner Viola Davis.
“‘This is great, but when are you going to start bringing us shows that don’t have black leads?'” the buyer asked in the 2015 meeting, as then-ABC executive Channing Dungey recounts. “I was sitting in a room in the 21st century, and I thought I was being slapped across the face.”
The remark was unusually blunt but the attitude is a familiar one within Hollywood’s own ranks: African American actors and stories make for poor exports, an assertion that’s burdened black artists and limited their opportunity and influence.
Until now. Box-office hits like “Black Panther” and the ethnically diverse “Fast & Furious” franchise increasingly undercut what filmmaker Ava DuVernay calls a “longstanding myth,” joined by a new generation of successful small-screen fare.
It’s an issue with resonance, as American torment over to the videotaped death of a black man in police custody is reflected in demonstrations held far outside this nation’s borders. Protesters carrying “We Are All George Floyd” and “Black Lives Matter” placards have gathered in cities including Montreal, London, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Auckland.
Dungey, who at ABC became the first African American to head a major broadcast network and now is Netflix’s vice president for original series, says diversity’s appeal is proven by the streaming service’s globally distributed programs and closely held viewership figures provided to The Associated Press.
Racial discrimination and injustice are themes of some, but not all, of the Netflix projects that have drawn widespread audiences. The characters tend to be African American, created by the black writers, directors and stars whose progress in the U.S. entertainment industry has outpaced that of other people of color.
“When They See Us,” DuVernay’s Emmy-winning miniseries about the Central Park Five case, was watched by 31 million households worldwide in its first month of release, according to Netflix, with 51 percent of the audience outside the United States. “American Son,” about a missing black teenager that was produced by and starred Washington, was watched in 17 million homes worldwide in its first month, with non-U.S. subscribers making up 46 percent of viewers.
“Raising Dion,” about a black youngster with superpowers, drew attention from 32 million households, with 60 percent outside the U.S.
“I thought we might be in trouble when it’s called ‘American Son,'” Washington said of her film’s global prospects. “But the (African) diaspora was vast and large and the struggles that people of color have in facing prejudice when dealing with people in authority, that is not an American phenomenon. Racism and the prejudice expressed particularly toward young men of color happens all over the world.”
Multinational consumption is critical to the streaming service, with about 65 percent of its subscribers outside the U.S.
Netflix has begun sharing viewership results with its creators, resulting in what DuVernay called “astounding numbers” that are in dismaying contrast to how her major studio films, “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Selma,” fared with limited international releases.
“It wasn’t until I made a small documentary about prisons in America that I felt the world watching my work, and that was because Netflix made ‘13th’ available in 100-plus countries,” she said of her Oscar-nominated 2016 film.
The numbers provided by Netflix to the AP aren’t wholly revelatory: they represent one of the service’s viewing yardsticks — households that watched at least two minutes of a program. Netflix declined to provide overall program rankings.
Where viewers of black-led projects are found varies widely. “When They See Us” was most popular in Britain, Ireland, the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg), and in Africa. “American Son” did well in France, Africa, Mexico and Latin America.
“If you think about the global market, what does the rest of the world look like? The rest of the world looks like America’s diversity. It does not look like Europe,” said Darnell Hunt, a University of California, Los Angeles, professor and lead author of annual research on diversity and profitability. “The rest of it is Africa, it’s Asia, it’s Australia, all these other countries that look like America’s minority groups.”
Kenya Barris, creator of ABC’s sitcom “black-ish” and Netflix’s new comedy “#blackAF,” saw the bias at work with the 2017 big-screen romp “Girls Trip,” which he co-wrote. It was a U.S. box- office hit with $115 million but drew only $25 million internationally, which Barris attributed to a lack of support.
The result is different when a TV show such as “black-ish” is widely seen.
“I was in England, gave a waiter my (credit) card and he was like, ‘Oh my God, are you Kenya Barris? I love your show.’ And I was shocked,” said the writer-producer.
Studios and others resisting inclusiveness risk a “death knell” as newcomers such as Netflix open their doors, DuVernay said.
“Now there is a way to say, ‘I’m not going to deal with the trauma of this lie that handcuffs my work,'” she said. “I’m going to make work where it is embraced and where it will be shared widely.”
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China Releases Lengthy White Paper to Chronicle COVID-19 Response
China on Monday released a lengthy white paper to chronicle what it called a hard-won fight against the COVID-19 outbreak in the past five months – a report that has mostly won acclaim from its people.In the 37,000-word document, however, China said little about its early response to the coronavirus outbreak. Several accounts of what happened in Wuhan, the epicenter of the global pandemic when the outbreak began, have run contrary to what whistleblower doctors had said, according to analysts. China claimed the virus was first reported in Wuhan in December.The analysts added that the document is nothing but a tool for China’s official narrative in a global propaganda campaign to shift blame and is far from convincing to the global community.Lengthy white paperA medical staff attends a patient with pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Jan. 22, 2020.“China has long been trying to skirt responsibility and repeatedly denied any cover-up. And from China’s own statistics [in the paper], you can tell that they are still trying to cover things up,” Twu Shiing-jer, Taiwan’s former health minister, told VOA.The report sheds no light on how China dealt with the outbreak before December 27, 2019 – almost one-and-a-half months after government records allegedly showed that the country’s first confirmed case could be traced back to mid-November, Twu said.The global pandemic, which has killed nearly 400,000 people, could have been avoided had China notified the World Health Organization one month earlier in early December, he said.China’s refusal to reflect on its mistakes, especially fallacies during the initial cover-up stage, won’t help scientists inside and outside of China map out concrete measures that will prevent new diseases, Twu added, saying China’s lies keep piling up in the paper.More lies?In the first chapter of the paper, titled, “China’s Fight Against the Epidemic: a Test of Fire,” China said it had asked Wuhan residents to wear masks and made public disclosure of the disease as early as December 31, even though it waited until Jan. 20 to confirm the nature of the virus’s human-to-human transmission.Chinese coronavirus whistleblower, Dr. Li Wenliang, whose death was confirmed on Feb, 7, 2020, is shown in his protective mask, at the Wuhan Central Hospital, China.But words of two Chinese whistle-blower doctors Ai Fen and Li Wenliang of Central Hospital of Wuhan suggested otherwise.Dr. Ai once told local media that she was asked by hospital authorities to shut up and her colleagues in the emergency room were discouraged from putting on protective masks or suits until late January.Police in Wuhan also reprimanded Dr. Li, along with his seven colleagues, for spreading rumors on January 3 after they raised the alarm about the virus. Li succumbed to the disease on Feb 7, leaving behind his last words that “there should be more than one voice in a healthy society.”At a press briefing to release the white paper, Xu Lin, minister of the State Council Information Office, denied any cover-up, saying, “Such accusations are groundless, unreasonable and a show of disrespect for science.”High cure rateOther highlights of the report included that China boasted a cure rate of 94.3 percent as its death toll stood at 4,634 out of a total of 83,017 confirmed patients, as of the end of May.China also said all patients were given free treatment, which cost the government some $190 million for its nearly 59,000 inpatients, while traditional Chinese medicine was found effective in treating 92 percent of COVID-19 patients.China also gave itself credit for having sent a total of 29 medical expert teams to 27 countries and offered help to 150 nations and four international organizations.Some Chinese netizens appeared to fully embrace the official narrative in the government’s white paper.Nationalist sentimentsOn Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social microblogging site, nationalistic comments such as, “I love China. A great nation with great people” or “China puts lives before anything. U.S. capitalists put votes before anything,” were posted.Other Weibo users, however, expressed criticism.One user asked, “Have we forgotten what happened in Wuhan in the initial stage? Is it too early to take credits?” Another wrote, “Do you think the world will believe in Chinese officials when they say there’s no cover-up and delay in response?”Ross Feingold, a Taipei-based political analyst, said the document only serves China’s record of its response to COVID-19 and a document for its politicians, diplomats and state media to refer to when defending China.He said it has little effect on the world’s perception about China.“This kind of messaging is not going to change the trajectory of public policy in the United States whether it is increasing bipartisan consensus within the Democrats or Republicans, industry [and] other stakeholders about how to approach relations with China,” said Feingold.
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Kenyan Company Rolls Out First African-Made Video Conferencing App
A Kenya-based company has developed a video conferencing application, the first made in Africa, designed to be more affordable than foreign counterparts. Gumzo, which means “chatting” in Swahili, is free to join and costs only $1 per week for users who want to host meetings. Eight weeks — that’s the amount of time it took for the first African-made video conferencing system to becreated.Gumzo – which is Swahili for “chatting” was made in the offices of Usiku Games, a Nairobi company that until a few months ago, focused on making video games for the African market.In the wake of COVID-19, only a small staff routinely reports to the company’s office.But that didn’t stop Usiku’s coders and programmers from quickly developing and rolling out the video conference app.Jay Shapiro, Usiku’s CEO, said Gumzo is built to be used on the wide variety of devices used across Africa.“Africa is a mobile phone first continent and so you have to have a platform that works on mobile devices [that are] older, less memory and so that’s why we built a download app that is web-based and is accessible on all smart phones or PC or tablets to try and reach as many people as we can,” he said.In early March, the Kenyan government closed all learning institutions in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus. About 17 million students have been kept out of schools since.Teachers have used a variety of conferencing apps, including Zoom, Skype and Whatsapp, to keep in touch with students.Gilbert Walusimbi, a teacher at Upper Hill High School in Nairobi, is one of the users of Gumzo. On average his video conferencing class has forty-five students.Walusimbi likes the fact that he can have an unlimited number of students in meetings and still have clarity because Gumzo’s servers are in Kenya and South Africa.However, Walusimbi adds that digital access to all learners is an issue.“Now the challenges are where that particular receiver, that is the student is, because not every area in the country has the infrastructure for receiving this particular type of digital learning material. Electricity is also a challenge in some areas,” he said.Vincent Omondi, an information technology expert at Makini School in Nairobi, points out that the digital divide in Africa could pose a challenge in the uptake of emerging innovations and technologies.“The latest statistics that we have 2019 that was conducted by the International Telecommunications Union, 29 percent of the population in Africa had access to internet. After internet access there’s now the issue of device, the appropriate devices to use to access video conference softwares that would also play a big challenge,” said Omondi.Although the digital divide in Africa is still quite large, Usiku hopes that Gumzo will help make it smaller.
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Sudanese Demand End to Lockdown Amid Economic Woes
Like many Sudanese, car mechanic Mohamed Othman says the government must end its coronavirus lockdown now so that he can get back to work because “me and my family have no other source of income.”
The transitional civilian government, which runs Sudan under a power-sharing deal with the army, ordered most businesses, markets, schools and mosques to shut and imposed travel restrictions nearly two months ago.
But it is facing growing demands to end the restrictions from a population mired in poverty and facing annual inflation of nearly 100% as well as complaints that promised aid for poorer Sudanese has failed to materialize.
“We demand that the lockdown is lifted immediately so that we can… get on with our lives, because hunger is worse than corona,” said Othman, who is paid by the day.
And it is not only the poor who are unhappy.
“We’re facing huge daily financial losses,” said supermarket owner Magdi Yousif.
The government says the lockdown, extended again in the capital Khartoum until June 18, has helped to curb the pandemic.
Sudan has so far reported 6,081 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the lung disease caused by the new coronavirus, with 359 deaths. The daily infection rate, at around 200, is much lower than, for example, in neighboring Egypt.
Weak enforcement
The government blames technical issues for the delays in aid to the poor. The civil service is still in some disarray following the ouster of veteran ruler Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
Officials say only 60% of some half a million designated families have received food baskets and cash transfers.
“There are now efforts to distribute the rest of the aid supplies,” said Information Minister Faisal Mohamed Salih.
The Multipurpose Women’s Cooperative Union, which represents 15,000 tea sellers and street vendors, said its members had not received aid despite presenting the government with lists of those impacted when the lockdown began.
“They’re isolating, but they’re in a difficult situation,” union leader Awadiya Mahmoud Kuku said last week. “We need to stand with these people so they don’t go back onto the streets (to sell).”
The government later announced it would begin to provide money transfers to union members.
Some Sudanese complain that the lockdown is being widely flouted, with some stores remaining open and people continuing to mix in public. Some tea sellers are serving the very security forces who are meant to be enforcing the restrictions, they say.
“The government is being lax in enforcing the lockdown and the government forces are only present at the bridges and main markets, while life in the rest of the city is almost as it was before,” said school teacher Nadia Ahmed.
Health minister Akram Ali Altom has criticized security forces for not fully enforcing the lockdown. Sudan’s healthcare system, neglected for decades under Bashir, is struggling to cope with the pandemic.
Adil Mohamed said he had tried unsuccessfully to report mosques that continued to host banned group prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“Why make the announcement of shutting mosques if you’re not going to enforce it?”
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