Laos is not likely to make all its debt payments this year, much of them owed to China, which has become the world’s biggest lender, more so than the World Bank or any other global institution, according to analysts.When Vientiane’s bills come due, how will renegotiations affect Beijing’s growing influence in its fellow communist nation? The question is also part of a broader one being asked about Beijing’s influence around Southeast Asia.Laos was already at high risk of what analysts called “debt distress” before the coronavirus pandemic, but COVID-19 has only raised the risks of its foreign borrowing.Fishermen lay their nets on the Mekong River near Luang Prabang close to the site of an approved Laos dam site, Feb. 8, 2020.The hydroelectric projects and the roughly half-a-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative are part of a program by China to build ties with scores of nations through infrastructure. The initiative would link China to Europe, Africa and other parts of Asia. There are concerns about the level of debt some countries would take on regarding such investments. China has said there are no conditions attached to its investments and loans.GeopoliticsFitch reckons Laos has foreign exchange reserves of $1 billion and will owe $900 million in external debt payments this year. It also forecast state revenues will contract about 25%. It said, if the one-party state can’t meet payment deadlines, lenders dominated by China would be motivated to forgive Laos’ loans or help it pay them with new lending.“Geopolitical considerations and economic interests are likely to spur further bilateral lending, or debt relief, in the absence of sufficient financing from other sources,” Fitch said. It is not clear what Beijing would want in return for its generosity.The United States worries China aims to become too powerful over the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a video conference with the ASEAN foreign ministers in April, warning them China has built more territory in the disputed South China Sea, sunk a Vietnamese fishing boat this year, and dammed up the Mekong River, which could limit the fish and nutrients that flow downstream to Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.“The United States strongly opposes China’s bullying,” he said. “We hope other nations will hold them to account, too.”World’s biggest lenderChina and the U.S. have both increasingly sought to build ties with Southeast Asia in arenas from geopolitics to business. Cloud companies like Microsoft and Google compete with Chinese giants Huawei and Alibaba for customers around the region.In one of the biggest recent business transactions, Facebook and PayPal, both based in California, bought stakes in Indonesian ride-hailing company Gojek, which already has investment from Chinese tech company Tencent.A sign in Luang Prabang shows in Lao and Chinese referring to the construction of the first rail line linking China to Laos, a key part of Beijing’s ‘Belt and Road’ project across the Mekong, Feb. 8, 2020.Infrastructure financing is another arena for influence, which China exercises through Belt and Road, and the U.S. through its “Indo-Pacific” spending program. The Asian nation’s lending is far higher, though. Germany’s Kiel Institute analyzed data last year and concluded Beijing has become the world’s biggest lender, overtaking groups like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It said from 2000-2017 other nations’ debt to China “soared ten-fold, from less than $500 billion to more than $5 trillion.”Laos is one of the most indebted of those nations. What China gets from the bilateral relationship ranges from Vientiane resisting joint ASEAN action in the South China Sea, to a pending rail line that will link China to Laos and, eventually, its neighbors. Laos is also one of the first nations, along with Cambodia, to sign plans that “endorse China’s regional vision of a community of common destiny,” said Brookings Institution senior fellow Jonathan Stromseth.“China is becoming more involved in the domestic affairs of Southeast Asian countries,” he said in a November report.Examples include China recruiting Southeast Asians for study tours and training, as well as calling on its diaspora in the region to act as a diplomatic bridge, he said, adding, “China has stepped up activities in target countries to influence outcomes and public opinion.”
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Month: June 2020
German Defense Minister: No Official Confirmation of US Troop Withdrawal
Germany’s Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Monday she has received no official confirmation on the reported U.S. decision to withdraw more than a quarter of American troops stationed in Germany. The Wall Street Journal reported last Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump had ordered the Pentagon to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Germany by 9,500 to 25,000. The New York Times reported Saturday that U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper had approved the move. During the news conference in Berlin, Kramp-Karrenbauer said the German government had only seen the news reports and could not speculate further on what might happen. She did add the “the presence of United States soldiers in Germany serves the overall security of the NATO alliance.”. A US military aircraft takes off from the US Airbase Ramstein, Germany, June 7, 2020. According to various media outlets, the US wants to reduce the number of soldiers stationed in Germany by up to 9500.Currently there are 34,500 American service members permanently assigned in Germany as part of a long-standing arrangement with America’s NATO ally. Kramp-Karrenbauer said American soldiers have integrated well and have become a real component of German society. The reported troop withdrawal would be in keeping with Trump’s “America First” overall foreign policy and his often-stated belief that U.S. allies must shoulder more of the burden for their own defense.
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Studies Show Lockdowns Prevented Millions of COVID Deaths
Lockdowns across the globe prevented millions of deaths from the novel coronavirus, new studies published Monday report.According to New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks during a press conference about the COVID-19 coronavirus at Parliament in Wellington on June 8, 2020.The good news, however, came from New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who announced Monday that the country had eliminated transmission of the new coronavirus. The New Zealand has decided to lift most of its remaining Covid-19 restrictions but will keep its borders closed.Meanwhile, authorities across the United States are urging people who took part in protests of the death of George Floyd to get COVID-19 tests after more than a week of marches and close contact with each other.“Get a test,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said, adding that the state is opening 15 new testing sites and telling people not to take any chances. Similar calls for testing have come from state and city leaders in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Seattle.FILE – Subway riders seen during the Coronavirus Pandemic in New York City, May 29, 2020.As many as 400,000 people are expected to return to their jobs in New York Monday as the country’s largest city begins its first phase of reopening. Many will be using the subway for the first time in nearly three months.Construction workers and those with jobs in factories, wholesale houses, and some retailers will be returning to work. Stores are offering curbside pickup only.But the city’s thousands of restaurants will remain closed at least through the rest of the month.While New York City officials appeared confident enough to start to reopen, the Florida Department of Health announced another 1,180 new coronavirus cases Sunday, saying it was the fifth straight day the number of new cases exceeds 1,000.Experts in Florida say people are becoming careless about social distancing since statewide lockdowns have eased. They also note that the numbers started rising when the George Floyd protests began.Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott accused China on Sunday of trying to sabotage U.S. efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine. “It came to our intelligence community. I’m on Armed Service (committee), so clearly there’s things I can’t discuss that I get provided information. But there’s evidence that they’ve been trying to either sabotage or slow it down,” Scott said on BBC television’s Andrew Marr Show, but declined to give any evidence for his claim. The senator said China “won’t cheer” if the United States or Britain develops a vaccine before anyone else. No Chinese official has directly responded to Scott’s charge. In Europe, which suffered great losses earlier in the pandemic, countries are slowly reopening. Some countries in the European Union have opened borders to other European visitors. The European Union has said it hopes to open all borders to travelers by early July, the start of the summer travel season.
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How COVID-19 is Stifling Vietnam’s Agenda to Vie with China over Disputed Sea
The coronavirus outbreak is dashing hopes in Vietnam that its lead role in a regional bloc of countries this year will help resolve a sticky maritime sovereignty dispute with China. Vietnam is chairing the 10-member country Association of Southeast Asian Nations through 2020, a once-per-decade opportunity for each bloc member. The association better known as ASEAN sometimes uses statements and talks to pressure Beijing over its South China Sea claims. ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam dispute some of the Chinese claims. Vietnam is the most outspoken. But online meetings of the type that ASEAN members have held this year to date, due to coronavirus concerns, are unlikely to produce diplomatic momentum, scholars say. In-person meetings build more trust, in turn generating more deals, and any events that do take place will focus more on responses to the coronavirus pandemic rather than on geopolitics, they believe. FILE – Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, left, and his staff prepare documents ahead of the Special ASEAN summit on COVID-19 in Hanoi, April 14, 2020.“It’s different if you have a face-to-face meeting compared to an online meeting,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. “Even if there’s a face-to-face meeting, I think the mindset of these ministers would be on this pandemic rather than the South China Sea.” ASEAN dealmaking thrives on sideline meetings, scheduled breaks and other unrecorded sessions that are common at “live” events, said Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines. “You don’t have the option of side meetings, or informal sessions,” Batongbacal said, referring to online events. “All the online meetings I’m sure will be recorded, so it will be very formal, so it’s going to be difficult for them to try to settle things off the record.” The chair rotates to a different country each year, and chairs have power to set the year’s ASEAN agenda. Normally foreign ministers meet in mid-year and heads of state gather toward the end of each year to approve deals. Vietnam’s ASEAN role coincides with its U.N. Security Council presidency this year, giving it extra clout in foreign affairs. Lack of of face-to-face meetings will sideline Vietnam’s “agenda” to ease the maritime dispute with China said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies director at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City. It would also spare China the sometimes uncomfortable task of addressing a tough agenda. Vietnam had hoped this year to strengthen relations with ASEAN’s “external partners” and expand the network, writes Frederick Kliem, a visiting fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. In the same spirit, Kleim writes in a paper as posted to a Vietnamese government website last month, Vietnam wanted to work on securing consensus among ASEAN nations when the bloc deals with outside countries. Action toward China in the past has faltered because Chinese allies such as Cambodia and Laos won’t go along. ASEAN and China are due by next year to finish a code of conduct for the disputed 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea. The code would set aside sovereignty differences and establish steps for handling mishaps between vessels, but no one’s sure whether the code will be binding or what tracts of sea it will cover. Claimant countries value the South China Sea for its fisheries, shipping lanes and undersea energy reserves. China is the most militarily powerful. The chair seldom pushes obviously “controversial” measures, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. For that reason, he said, the code of conduct has been pending for about a decade. “That actually is a very good illustration of the ASEAN dilemma,” Oh said. FILE – ASEAN defense ministers and Dialogue Nations defense ministers pose for a group photo during a meeting on Nov. 18, 2019, in Bangkok, Thailand.As chair in 2010, Vietnam led the first ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus and let the United States join ASEAN’s East Asia Summit. The “plus” refers to Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States. Vietnam’s chief hope for South China Sea progress this year may be its participation as a “plus” member among a group of four Western-allied countries, Nguyen said. The group called the Quad Plus held two video conferences in March on COVID-19 remedies and economic impacts from the disease. The quad countries — Australia, India, Japan and the United States — normally take action to keep the South China Sea open internationally rather than letting China tighten its grip.
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Anti-Racism Protesters Rally Around World, Topple Statue
Thousands of people took to the streets of European cities Sunday to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, with protesters in the English port of Bristol venting their anger at the country’s colonial history by toppling a statue of a 17th-century slave trader. Demonstrators attached ropes to the statue of Edward Colston before pulling it down to cheers and roars of approval from the crowd. Images on social media show protesters appearing to kneel on the statue’s neck, recalling the death of George Floyd in Minnesota on May 25 that has sparked worldwide protests against racism and police violence. Floyd, a black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck even after he pleaded for air while lying handcuffed on the ground. The statue met with a watery end as it was eventually rolled into the city’s harbor. It wasn’t the only statute targeted on Sunday. In Brussels, protesters clambered onto the statue of former King Leopold II and chanted “reparations,” according to video posted on social media. The word “shame” was also graffitied on the monument, reference perhaps to the fact that Leopold is said to have reigned over the mass death of 10 million Congolese. Protesters also defaced the statue of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in central London, crossing out his last name and spray painting “was a racist” underneath. They also taped a Black Lives Matter sign around its mid-section. The day’s demonstration in London had begun around the U.S. Embassy, where thousands congregated — most it seemed wearing masks against the coronavirus — to protest Floyd’s brutal death and to shine a light on racial inequalities at home. “Everyone knows that this represents more than just George Floyd, more than just America, but racism all around the world,” said Darcy Bourne, a London-based student. The protests were mainly peaceful but for the second day running there were some scuffles near the offices of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Objects were thrown at police. Police have sent reinforcements and calm appears to have been restored. Protesters also threw objects at police down the road outside the gates of Parliament, where officers without riot gear formed a line. They were reinforced by riot police who quickly ran toward the scene. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said violence was “simply not acceptable” and urged those protesting to do so lawfully while also maintaining social distancing by remaining two meters (6.5 feet) apart. But most demonstrators didn’t heed that call, particularly in front of the U.S. Embassy. A protest against racial inequality in Bristol, Englan, June, 7, 2020.Police said 14 officers were injured Saturday during clashes with protesters in central London that followed a largely peaceful demonstration that had been attended by tens of thousands. Hundreds of people also formed a densely packed crowd Sunday in a square in central Manchester, kneeling in silence as a mark of respect for George Floyd. In Hong Kong, about 20 people staged a rally in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement on Sunday outside the U.S. Consulate in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. “It’s a global issue,” said Quinland Anderson, a 28-year-old British citizen living in Hong Kong. “We have to remind ourselves despite all we see going on in the U.S. and in the other parts of the world, black lives do indeed matter.” Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in downtown Rio de Janeiro to protest against racism and police killings of black people on Sunday. The protesters weren’t just joining protests against Floyd’s death in the U.S., but also denouncing the killing of black people in Rio’s favelas. The most recent case was João Pedro Pinto, 14, who was inside his house on May 18 in Sao Gonçalo, a city in Rio’s metropolitan area, when police chasing alleged drug traffickers shot into the house. The protesters on Sunday carried banners reading “Black mothers can’t stand crying anymore.” In Sao Paulo, another demonstration ended with clashes between a small group of protesters and the police. Several dozen demonstrators took part in a Black Lives Matter protest held in Tel Aviv’s central Rabin Square. Many wore blue surgical masks but did not observe social distance guidelines. A rally in Rome’s sprawling People’s Square was noisy but peaceful, with the majority of protesters wearing masks. Among those present was 26-year-old Ghanaian Abdul Nassir, who is studying for a master’s in business management at one of the Italian capital’s public universities. “It’s quite unfortunate, you know, in this current 21st century that people of color are being treated as if they are lepers,” Nassir said. He said he occasionally has felt racist attitudes, most notably when riding the subway. “Maybe you’re finding a place to stand, and people just keep moving (away) and you’ll be, like, ‘What?’” Nassir said: “We’re strong people but sometimes everyone has a limit.” At one point, the protesters, most of them young and some with children or siblings, took the knee and raised a fist in solidarity with those fighting racism and police brutality. In Italy’s financial capital, Milan, a few thousand protesters gathered in a square outside the central train station Sunday afternoon. Many in the crowd were migrants or children of migrants of African origin. In Spain, several thousand protesters gathered on the streets of Barcelona and at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. Many in Madrid carried homemade signs reading “Black Lives Matter,” “Human rights for all” and “Silence is pro-racist.” “We are not only doing this for our brother George Floyd,” said Thimbo Samb, a spokesman for the group that organized the events in Spain mainly through social media. “Here in Europe, in Spain, where we live, we work, we sleep and pay taxes, we also suffer racism.”
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K-Pop Fans Show Organizing Prowess with Black Lives Matter Activism
Until last week, if you clicked the hashtag #whitelivesmatter on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, you’d find a smattering of right-wing posts by those opposed to the wave of global protests against racism and police brutality. But follow that hashtag now, and you’re likely to find something much different: random, fan-created videos of South Korean pop music stars. Over the past week, K-Pop fans around the world have commandeered the #whitelivesmatter hashtag, as well as #alllivesmatter and #bluelivesmatter, as a way to drown out racist posts that have also used those labels. It’s not just hashtags. When the Dallas, Texas police department set up a mobile app for users to submit videos of “illegal activity” from the protests, K-Pop fans quickly overwhelmed the site with tributes to their favorite stars, forcing the police department to take it down because of “technical difficulties.” The online disruption, combined with the millions of dollars donated by K-Pop celebrities and their followers to Black Lives Matter causes, underscores how international fans of Korean music have emerged as a formidable organizing force for social causes around the world. “Their ability to massively coordinate action is just unparalleled. I’m serious when I say they are the most potent online force in the world right now,” says TK Park, who has written about Korean pop culture and runs the “Ask A Korean!” blog. Organizing skills It may seem random, but the closer you look the more sense it makes. K-Pop has become a global phenomenon, with massive fan bases in every part of the world. In the United States, many of those fans are African Americans. As Park points out, K-Pop fans everywhere are very skilled at massive online campaigns with very specific goals. Usually, that means coordinated efforts by fans to push certain songs or videos up the music charts by streaming them obsessively or posting about the content on social media. “These groups of fans have accumulated a lot of [organizing] experience while supporting their idols,” says Hong Seok-kyeong, a communications professor at Seoul National University. “It requires a great deal of logic and strategy, like setting a timeline or choosing a channel.” But K-Pop fans are increasingly aiming their grassroots organizational powers at charitable and other causes, such as A group of protesters take a knee while marching in lower Manhattan, June 6, 2020, in New York.But those efforts have been turbo-charged with the reemergence of Black Lives Matter protests, which were spurred by the most recent police killings of African Americans. After BTS on Sunday donated $1 million to the Black Lives Matter organization, the group’s fans, known collectively as the “ARMY,” matched that donation within 24 hours, according to the OIAA website — a stunning display of online fundraising ability. 우리는 인종차별에 반대합니다.
우리는 폭력에 반대합니다.
나, 당신, 우리 모두는 존중받을 권리가 있습니다. 함께 하겠습니다.
We stand against racial discrimination.
We condemn violence.
You, I and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together.#BlackLivesMatter
— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) June 4, 2020“We’re happy to help ARMY organize and support the Black Lives Matter movement,” said an OIAA spokesperson. “We stand in solidarity with black ARMY. They’re an important part of our family. And we stand with black people everywhere. Your voices deserve to be heard.” Political past It’s not the first time K-Pop fans have influenced international politics. In 2019, Korean music fans in Chile were partly responsible for a series of protests calling for more social and economic equality, a report by the country’s interior ministry concluded. During those protests, K-pop fans criticized alleged human rights violations by the Chilean police force, according to a report by CNN Chile. Why K-Pop?
But why are K-Pop fans more politically active, especially on explicitly progressive causes, than fans of other types of music? After all, most K-Pop songs aren’t particularly political, at least no more than the music of any other country. The answer, according to Park, may be that K-Pop seems to have a special appeal to racial minorities and immigrants across the world — groups that don’t necessarily see themselves reflected in white-dominated western pop culture. In the United States, Asian-Americans and then African Americans were among the first to embrace Korean music, Park says. He notes there has been a similar trend in Europe. It’s possible, he speculates, that K-Pop is “essentially serving as a pop culture conduit connecting the marginalized around the world.” It could be “the pop culture representation of Third Worldism,” he says, referring to the diplomatic stance of non-aligned countries during the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The explanation may not be all-encompassing. After all, not all Korean music fans are marginalized or even minorities. But whatever is behind the activism, one thing is certain: the organization of K-pop fans is organic, with both the strategies and targets developing naturally online. “This collective action takes place as voluntary support, not a top-down order,” says Professor Hong. “They learn from themselves, by themselves.” While some K-Pop fans have at times been accused of cyber bullying, groups like OIAA are now trying to harness the community’s collective power to accomplish “global good,” the group’s website says. To do that, the collective selects a different non-profit group every month to which it directs fan contributions. “Many people giving small amounts,” it says, “can create a substantial impact when we work together.” Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.
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Some Tanzanians Resort to Bogus Steam Treatment for Coronavirus
Ever since Tanzania’s president endorsed inhaling steam to prevent coronavirus, some have flocked to shops selling steam machines – even though health experts say there is no evidence the method has any impact on COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Msafiri is making good money with a steam machine that he invented. Mjema says people are coming to buy his product ever since President John Magufuli declared that steam works against the coronavirus. Mjema says he now makes up to $200 dollars a day. Mjema says before in his clinic he was earning 70,000 to 100,000 shillings but now he earns 500,000 and there is one day that he earned up to one million. He adds that is just the beginning.Two months ago, the Tanzanian leader suggested inhaling steam could be a coronavirus treatment. Magufuli said, “The Ministry of Health should continue to clarify how inhaling steam helps to contain the coronavirus,” he says, adding that If those viruses are in the nose or mouth, they will melt when the temperature reaches above 100 degrees centigrade. He says that is also an important thing.Jane Makyao has put her faith in steam and comes for the treatment. Makyao says she steams because she knows there is the coronavirus, adding that when you get out from the steaming booth your body becomes more comfortable. Even President Magufuli and their ministers recommend steaming because they know its importance, she says. But health experts warn there is no evidence steam protects anyone from the coronavirus, adding that inhaling steam could even cause health problems. Fazel says it is better to understand that there is no scientific proof of this, adding that one can’t rely on steaming as the cure for the coronavirus. He also says it is better that people understand that there are effects of inhaling steam. He also says some people may get a certain type of pneumonia that causes lungs problems, and this may increase their chance to contract the coronavirus. In the meantime, Mjema continues to make money with his service from people who believe that steam, somehow, will protect them from the infection.
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Some Tanzanians Resort to Bogus Steam Treatment for Coronavirus
Ever since Tanzania’s president endorsed inhaling steam to prevent coronavirus, some have flocked to shops selling steam machines – even though health experts say there is no evidence the method has any impact on COVID-19. Charles Kombe reports from Dar es Salaam.Camera: Rajabu Hassan Produced by: Jason Godman
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Floyd Viewing Set for Houston as Minneapolis Council Supports Disbanding Police
Mourners are set to gather Monday in the U.S. city of Houston to view the casket of George Floyd, the African American man whose death in police custody sparked renewed protests against police brutality in cities across the country and in other parts of the world. Floyd’s funeral and burial will take place Tuesday. An aide for former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the Democratic presidential candidate planned to travel to Houston to meet with Floyd’s family and to give a video message at the funeral. President Donald Trump on Sunday ordered National Guard troops to start withdrawing from the nation’s capital after they deployed there to assist law enforcement. Similar withdrawals are happening in other states with protests in recent days taking place with few clashes between demonstrators and authorities. Trump has consistently expressed his backing for what he calls “law and order” and in a tweet Sunday he criticized those who want to see police departments have their budgets slashed or eliminated entirely.President Donald Trump returns to the White House in Washington, June 1, 2020.“I want great and well paid LAW ENFORCEMENT. I want LAW & ORDER!” Trump said. Senator Mitt Romney, a member of Trump’s Republican Party, joined protesters in Washington during a march Sunday, the first known instance of a Republican lawmaker taking part in the demonstrations during the past two weeks. Romney tweeted several photos along with the caption, “Black Lives Matter.” One photo was a selfie among protesters carrying signs that included the messages “RACISM KILLS” and “BE JUST, LOVE MERCY, WALK HUMBLY.” “We need a voice against racism, we need many voices against racism and against brutality,” he told NBC News. In Minneapolis, where the 46-year-old Floyd died May 25 after a white police officer held him face down on the street and pressed a knee against his neck for several minutes, 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 reformable and that we’re going to end the current policing system,” Council Member Alondra Cano tweeted Sunday. Mayor Jacob Frey, who supported bringing charges against the officer who held Floyd, told protesters on Saturday that he favors reforming the department instead of fully abolishing it. The crowd gathered outside his home greeted his answer with boos.Social media video grab of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey walking through a crowd of jeering protesters, June 7, 2020, in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd.Frey told the Star Tribune newspaper Sunday, “People continue to require service in many forms from our public safety offices, whether in times of domestic violence, or assistance in some of the most dire conditions.” The city council voted last week to ban police from using of chokeholds and neck restraints. Thousands of people kept up protests Sunday in other parts of the country, including in Los Angeles where the city’s mayor has pledged to cut the police department’s budget as part of an effort to invest in community programs. Protesters also assembled Sunday in major cities such as New York, Chicago and Atlanta, where leaders have lifted nighttime curfews put in place after earlier demonstrations were marred by vandalism and looting. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday his administration plans to move an unspecified amount of funding from the police department to “youth initiatives and social services.” “The details will be worked out in the budget process in the weeks ahead. But I want people to understand that we are committed to shifting resources to ensure that the focus is on our young people. And I also will affirm while doing that, we will only do it in a way that we are certain continues to ensure that this city will be safe,” de Blasio said. Sunday also brought protests in the northwestern city of Seattle, where a man drove a car toward a crowd in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, then shot a man who reached into the car. The gunman got out of the car and walked through the crowd, and later approached a line of police officers who took him into custody. Police gave few details on the incident, saying only that a suspect was in custody and a gun was recovered. The Seattle fire department said the gunshot victim was approximately 27 years old and was taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
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Aid Groups in a Rohingya Refugee Camp May Have to Ration Care if there is a Major COVID-19 Outbreak
Humanitarian aid groups operating in southern Bangladesh are bracing for a potential worst-case scenario now that COVID-19 is spreading in Rohingya refugee camps. Considerable progress has been made to improve the treatment available. But as Dave Grunebaum reports, if there is a major outbreak medical teams may be forced to ration health care.
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NASCAR Vows to do Better Job Addressing Racial Injustice
Bubba Wallace donned a black T-shirt with the words “I Can’t Breathe” and NASCAR paused before Sunday’s Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway to acknowledge the country’s social unrest. The governing body vowed to to do a better job of addressing racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s death. During their warm-up laps, the 40 cars pulled to a stop in front of the empty grandstands and shut off their engines so NASCAR President Steve Phelps could deliver a message over their radio sets. “Thank you for your time,” Phelps said. “Our country is in pain and people are justifiably angry, demanding to be heard. The black community and all people of color have suffered in our country, and it has taken far too long for us to hear their demands for change. Our sport must do better. Our country must do better.” A black NASCAR official took a knee along pit road, mimicking a gesture used by protesters in tribute to former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. All 40 crews stood on the wall in front of their pit boxes. “The time is now to listen, to understand and to stand against racism and racial injustice,” Phelps said. “We ask our drivers … and all our fans to join us in this mission, to take a moment of reflection, to acknowledge that we must do better as a sport, and join us as we now pause and take a moment to listen.” Wallace, the only African American driver in NASCAR’s top series, has been the sport’s most outspoken voice since Floyd died while in the custody of Minneapolis police, sparking massive protests in all 50 states and around the world demanding an end to law enforcement brutality against people of color. Wallace’s T-shirt carried Floyd’s pleading words when an officer, identified as Derek Chauvin, pinned a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes while he was handcuffed. Chauvin and three other officers have been fired and charged in the incident, which followed the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Protesters have cited all three African American victims in their demands for social justice. After Phelps spoke to the NASCAR drivers, they observed a 30-second moment of silence. Then, as the cars refired their engines and slowly pulled away for the green flag, the Fox broadcast cut to a video made by a number of Cup drivers, including Wallace and seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, as well as retired star Dale Earnhardt Jr. Several drivers also posted the video on their Twitter accounts, vowing to “listen and learn” from the protests that have rocked the nation. The vowed to “no longer be silent” and pledged to “work together to make real change.” With its roots in the South and one-time embrace of Confederate symbols, NASCAR has a checkered racial history. The organization has launched diversity programs but still struggles to shake its reputation as a largely white sport. During a shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, NASCAR driver Kyle Larson was fired after casually uttering a racial slur while competing in a video racing game. “We need step up more than we ever have before,” said former Cup star Jeff Gordon, now a Fox broadcaster. “We are listening, we are learning and we are ready to change.”
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Thai Activists Raise Alarm over New Proposed Lao Mekong Dam
Thai activists and organizations have raised alarm bells following last month’s announcement that the Mekong River Commission will begin its prior consultation process on the Sanakham hydropower plant, a new Mekong River dam project in northern Laos. The plant would be the sixth dam in Laos, costing more than $2 billion, and would follow Laos’ Xayaburi Dam, farther upstream, which began operation in November. The MRC prior consultation process normally lasts for six months, during which other MRC members, including Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, can review the project and assess any cross-border impacts. While members can suggest changes, the MRC consultation process cannot veto projects, meaning the Sanakham project will move forward. Save the Mekong, a coalition of organizations and academics, said June 2 the proposed dam is expensive, unnecessary and risky, and should be canceled. “Now is the time to cancel the Mekong mainstream dams permanently and prioritise sustainable and equitable energy options and pathways that respect the rights of communities,” the group said. Like the Xayaburi Dam, the electricity generated by the Sanakham project would mainly be exported to Thailand, a country many observers say is already oversupplied with power. “Records show that electric plants in the region generate enough power already and the Sanakham dam will only add more problems for the people living and working along the river,” according to Ormbun Thipsuna, spokesperson for the Network of Thai People in Eight Mekong Provinces. The organization was scheduled to meet Thai government officials in March to discuss the potential adverse effects of the newly operational Xayaburi dam, along with concerns about the proposed Sanakham project. The meeting was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lower Mekong Basin had record-low water levels in the last half of last year, which exacerbated Thailand’s worst drought in 40 years at the beginning of 2020, affecting farmers who heavily depend on the waterway for irrigation.Local villagers travel on the Mekong River near Nong Khai, Thailand. The river’s water has become clear since the Xayaburi dam upstream began generating hydropower. (Steve Sandford/VOA)Critics say that new dam will only make conditions worse. “According to villagers in Loei [a northeastern Thai province on the Mekong], downstream of the proposed Sanakham dam site, the push for the Sanakham project will greatly aggravate the environmental and social problems within the Mekong river on the communities in the lower Mekong basin,” Paiporn Deetes, of the conservationist group International Rivers, said. “Data notification,” Deetes added, referring to the limited environmental information supplied by countries where the dams operate, particularly in the Upper Mekong Basin, controlled by China, “which until now has been made through government channels, has failed to keep the public sufficiently informed and has also failed to address transboundary impacts.” “Most importantly, the notifications have not addressed the impacts on downstream communities and the ecological system,” he said. Many groups in the Save the Mekong coalition are calling for a moratorium on large-scale hydropower dams, similar to Cambodia’s March decision to impose a 10-year ban on new dam building along the section of the river there. Although China is not a commission member, the country extends a strong influence in the region through investments and loans. The MRC released a statement calling for greater transparency after the April release of a report saying Chinese Upper Mekong dams had held back water, creating low water levels in the Lower Mekong Basin. The report, by water research and consulting company Eyes on Earth, combined daily satellite imagery from 1992 to 2019 with daily river height gauge data to assist in their conclusions that the 11 Chinese Upper Mekong Basin dams, have held back water to fill local reservoirs for long-term storage. “The need for all the countries along the length of the Mekong to strike a balance between the benefits of development, social justice, and environmental sustainability is so paramount. A transparent data sharing arrangement on how water and related infrastructures are operated will help everyone manage risks and avoid misperception,” said An Pich Hatda, the MRC Secretariat’s chief executive officer. The date for the beginning of the Sanakham consultation will be announced after the completion of the previous MRC consultation process, assessing the Luang Prabang dam project, another Laos – based dam, which will conclude June 30. Datang Sanakham Energy, is the contractor of the Sanakham project, a subsidiary of China’s Datang International Power Generation Co. – a state-owned company.
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Governors, Mayors in US Urge Floyd Protesters to Get COVID Tests
Authorities across the country are urging protesters against the death of George Floyd to get COVID-19 tests after more than a week of street marches and close contact with each other.“Get a test. Get a test,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says, adding that the state is opening 15 new testing sites and telling people not to take any chances.“I would act as if you were exposed, and I would tell people you are interacting with, assume I am positive for the virus,” Cuomo said.Similar calls for testing have come from state and city leaders in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Seattle.As many as 400,000 people are expected to return to their jobs in New York Monday as the country’s largest city begins its first phase of reopening. Many will be packing the subway for the first time in nearly three months.Construction workers and those with jobs in factories, wholesale houses, and some retailers will be returning to work. Stores are offering curbside pickup only.But the city’s thousands of restaurants will remain closed at least through the rest of the month.While New York City officials appear confident enough to start to reopen, the Florida Department of Health announced another 1,180 new coronavirus cases Sunday — saying this is the fifth straight day the number of new cases exceeds 1,000.Visitors arrive at Universal Studios theme park on the first day of its reopening after the shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic, in Orlando, Florida, June 5, 2020.Experts in Florida say people are becoming careless about social distancing since statewide lockdowns have eased. They also note that the numbers started rising when the George Floyd protests began.Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott Sunday accused China of trying to sabotage U.S. efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine.Appearing on BBC television’s Andrew Marr Show, Scott declined to give any evidence for his claim.“It came to our intelligence community. I’m on Armed Service (committee), so clearly there’s things I can’t discuss that I get provided information. But there’s evidence that they’ve been trying to either sabotage or slow it down,” Scott responded.The senator said China “won’t cheer” if the United States or Britain develops a vaccine before anyone else.No Chinese official has directly responded to Scott’s charge.But Science and Technology Minister Wang Zhigang said Sunday Beijing wants to strengthen international cooperation in developing a vaccine.The number of CIVID-19 cases worldwide moved closer to the 7 million mark, according to the count by Johns Hopkins University, with more than 401,000 deaths.The United States is far ahead of any other country in both categories.
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Watery End for Statue of Slave Trader in UK City of Bristol
For someone who died nearly three centuries ago, Edward Colston has become a symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement in Britain. The toppling of his statue in Bristol, a city in the southwest of England, on Sunday by anti-racism protesters was greeted with joyous scenes, recognition of the fact that he was a notorious slave trader — a badge of shame in what is one of Britain’s most liberal cities. Demonstrators attached ropes to the statue before pulling it down. Footage of the moments after the statue crashed to the ground saw hundreds, if not thousands, of local Bristolians, in ecstasy. Images on social media showed protesters then appearing to kneel on the neck of the statue for eight minutes, recalling how George Floyd died in Minneapolis on May 25. The statue was then rolled into the nearby Bristol Harbor — again to rapturous scenes. Police said officers have launched an investigation and are looking for those who “committed an act of criminal damage.” Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said the removal of the statue would “divide” opinion, but added that it was “important to listen to those who found the statue to represent an affront to humanity and make the legacy of today about the future of our city, tackling racism and inequality.” The symbolism of the statue’s demise can’t be overstated not least because the bridge overlooking its new resting place is named Pero’s Bridge, after Pero Jones — an enslaved man who lived and died in the city in the latter part of the 18th century. Colston, who was born in 1636 to a wealthy merchant family, became prominently involved in England’s sole official slaving company at the time, the Royal African Company, and Bristol was at the heart of it. The company transported tens of thousands of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean, mainly to work the sugar plantations in the Caribbean and cultivate the tobacco fields that were burgeoning in the new North American colony of Virginia. Each enslaved person had the company’s initials branded onto their chest.A protest against racial inequality in Bristol, Englan, June, 7, 2020.Bristol, as an international port, was at the center of the slave trade and benefited hugely financially — not just shipbuilders and slavers, but also investors like Colston, who would buy a stake in the triangular slave voyage between England, West Africa and the Caribbean. The bronze memorial, which had been in place since 1895, had been the subject of an 11,000-strong petition to have it removed. Residents, including the city’s big community that hails from the Caribbean, are ashamed of what Colston represents. Colston has been a figure of huge controversy in Bristol with attempts made to rename Colston Hall, the biggest music venue in the city among many efforts to “decolonize” the city. Colston gave a lot of money to local charities and that helps explain why his name dons so many public buildings in the city, including educational and economic institutions. Britain formally abolished the slave trade in 1807 by an Act of Parliament but slavery itself was only formally outlawed in British territories in 1834. Overall, more than 12 million Africans are estimated to have been exported to the New World, of whom around 2 million are believed to have perished en route. The watery end of the Colston statue wasn’t the only historic sculpture to have been targeted by protesters. In London, protesters defaced the base of the statue of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill outside Parliament, crossing out his last name and spray painting “was a racist” underneath. They also taped a Black Lives Matter sign around its mid-section. Thousands joined a Black Lives Matter rally in Brussels, where protesters clambered Sunday onto the statue of former King Leopold II and chanted “reparations,” according to video posted on social media. The word “shame” was also graffitied on the monument, reference perhaps to the fact that Leopold is said to have reigned over the mass death of 10 million Congolese. A bust of Leopold’s in the city of Ghent has also been defaced, daubed in red paint and covered with a cloth scrawled: “I can’t breathe.” Leopold’s ruthless early rule over Congo from 1885 to 1908 is notorious for its brutality when the Congo Free State was practically his personal fiefdom. After Leopold handed over Congo to the Belgian state, the tiny nation continued to hold sway over an area 80 times its size half a world away, until independence in 1960. And in Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam has pledged to remove the Gen. Robert E. Lee statue, and city leaders have committed to taking down the other four Confederate memorials along Richmond’s prestigious Monument Avenue.
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N. Korea’s Kim Stresses Self-Sufficient Economy at a Politburo Meeting -KCNA
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a meeting of the politburo of the country’s ruling Workers Party, where economic projects including the chemical industry were discussed, state news agency KCNA said on Monday. The two-day meeting comes at a time of economic uncertainty amid the global COVID-19 pandemic that is putting additional pressure on the North’s economy, already battered by international sanctions aimed at stopping its nuclear program. The meeting discussed “crucial issues arising in further developing the self-sufficient economy of the country and improving the standard of people’s living,” KCNA said. The 13th political bureau meeting repeatedly stressed that the chemical industry is “a major thrust front of the national economy,” it said. “He stressed the need to give top priority to increasing the capacity for producing fertilizer,” KCNA said, citing Kim. After weeks of intense speculation about his health, KCNA reported Kim attended the opening of a fertilizer plant on May 1. The meeting also emphasized construction of residential houses as a way to better North Korean’s standard of living. “Pointing out in detail the issues that have to be urgently settled to ensure living conditions of citizens in the city, the Supreme Leader stressed to take strong state measures for ensuring the living conditions of people including the construction of dwelling houses,” KCNA reported. Kim has made an unusually small number of outings in the past months, with his absence from a major holiday prompting speculation about his condition, as Pyongyang has stepped up measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. While North Korea says it has no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, South Korea’s main intelligence agency has said an outbreak there cannot be ruled out.
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Minneapolis City Council Backs Dismantling Police Department
The Minneapolis police department could soon undergo a radical change following the death two weeks ago of George Floyd, an African American man, while in the custody of four city officers.Nine of 12 members of the city council announced at a rally in a city park that they support dismantling the police department and replacing it with what is being described as a community-based public safety model.Details on exactly what this new model would look like are unclear.The 12-member council still has to approve the plan and, under council rules, the decision would be veto-proof.A group of demonstrators rallied outside the home of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey Saturday to demand the police department be defunded, accusing it of long-standing racism and rough treatment of black suspects.“It shouldn’t have taken so much death to get us here,” said Kandace Montgomery, the director of Black Vision which organized the gathering outside the mayor’s house. “We’re safer without armed, unaccountable patrols supported by the state hunting black people.”Frey told the crowd that he does not support getting rid of the police department as it looks now.”I told them the truth about where I stand. I’ll work relentlessly toward deep structural reforms to change policing, rethink our system, and directly address systemic racism. However, I do not support abolishing the department,” Frey said.Many of the demonstrators who have been protesting across the country have demanded that big city police departments be defunded. Supporters say that doesn’t mean literally getting rid of law enforcement but say much of the money used to run police departments can be reinvested into social services, arguing that creating better lives for citizens means little need for a gun-toting officer.Opponents say they want people to ask themselves what happens when someone calls 911 to report a rape in progress or a murder or armed robbery and few officers are available.Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will be in Houston Monday to meet with George Floyd’s family before a funeral service.A Biden aide says a video message from Biden will be played at the service, but Biden himself will not attend.Floyd was born near Fayetteville, North Carolina, but grew up in Houston, where he will be buried Tuesday.Biden got a huge endorsement Sunday when former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he would be voting for the Democrat in November.”I cannot in any way support President Trump this year,” Powell told CNN Sunday.He added that he is “very close to Joe Biden on a social matter and on a political matter. I think what we’re seeing now, this massive protest movement I have ever seen in my life, I think it suggests the country is getting wise to this and we’re not going to put up with it anymore,” Powell told Tapper.Trump shot back, calling Powell a “stiff” and “overrated.”Powell is another major voice from the U.S. military critical of the way the Trump administration has been calling for force to deal with protest marches against the harsh police treatment of black men.The National Guard will start pulling out of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, and other California cities as the violence by Floyd protesters has eased.Sunday’s marches in California were peaceful, but Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says a “small number of units” will be stationed nearby for at least two more days in case of emergency.A group of primarily African Americans calling themselves The Compton Cowboys held a peaceful protest on horseback in some southern L.A. suburbs Sunday while a group of classic car fans held their own march in East Los Angeles.The situation in Oakland was a bit more tense when demonstrators tried to close down an interstate highway but backed down after a brief standoff with police. Another gathering painted the words Black Lives Matter in a downtown Oakland street, just like the one painted on a Washington street.Several hundred families, many pushing baby strollers, marched peacefully around a lake in Oakland. A similar march was held in San Francisco and thousands also gathered peacefully along that city’s waterfront.In Washington, Republican Senator Mitt Romney marched with protesters, the first known instance of a Republican lawmaker joining the demonstrations. He posted photos of the march on Twitter along with the caption, “Black Lives Matter,” as well as photos of his father from a civil rights march in the 1960s.
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As Mourners Pay Tribute to George Floyd, Protests Continue
Protesters around the globe march on, rallying against racism and police brutality nearly two weeks after an African American man – George Floyd – died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, the protests come amid memorial services for Floyd in North Carolina and planning for his funeral in Texas.
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Officers Around US ‘Take a Knee’ in Solidarity With Protesters
After George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, some officers around the country knelt in solidarity with protesters condemning racism. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias met with the sheriff and protest organizers in Prince William County, Virginia, where “taking a knee” may spearhead permanent change.
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US Attorney General Defends Clearing Park of Protesters Near White House
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has justified use of force to clear Lafayette Park across the street from White House last Monday evening of protesters just ahead of President Donald Trump walking through the park for a photo-op in front of a nearby church.“They were not peaceful protesters,” Barr contended on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” show. “And that’s one of the big lies that the media is, seems to be perpetuating at this point.”Barr, the top law enforcement official in the U.S., said protesters were given three warnings to clear the park before police and authorities clad in riot gear advanced on them, firing pepper balls.The police action against the protesters came in the midst of nationwide protests against the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American man who was held face down by a white police officer on a street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes even as he said repeatedly he could not breathe.Attorney General William Barr, center, stands in Lafayette Park across from the White House as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, June 1, 2020, in Washington.Barr denied the use of chemical irritants such as tear gas in clearing Lafayette Park, although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines the pepper spray that was used as a type of “tear gas” or “riot control agent.”Barr said the park was cleared because of violent clashes that had erupted there from Friday to Sunday a week ago, May 29-31, with police “under constant attack.” “On Sunday, things reached a crescendo,” Barr said. “The officers were pummeled with bricks. Crowbars were used to pry up the pavers at the park and they were hurled at police. There were fires set in not only St. John’s Church (that Trump stood in front of Monday night), but a historic building at Lafayette was burned down.”After the May 31 clashes, Barr said, U.S. Park Police decided to expand the fenced-in perimeter around the White House, where Trump, first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron live.“When I came in Monday, it was clear to me that we did have to increase the perimeter on that side of Lafayette Park and push it out one block,” Barr said. “That decision was made by me in the morning. It was communicated to all the police agencies.”Tear gas floats in the air as a line of security forces move demonstrators away from St. John’s Church across Lafayette Park from the White House, as they gather to protest the death of George Floyd, June 1, 2020, in Washington.The attorney general said he saw projectiles being thrown at police, but added, “Here’s what the media is missing. This was not an operation to respond to that particular crowd. It was an operation to move the perimeter one block.”CBS’s Margaret Brennan told Barr that to Americans watching on television it appeared that the park was cleared of protesters so Trump, accompanied by heavy security and top aides, could walk to St. John’s for his brief photo opportunity with a Bible held aloft.“In an environment where the broader debate is about heavy-handed use of force in law enforcement, was that the right message for Americans to be receiving?” she asked.“Well, the message is sometimes communicated by the media,” Barr said. “I didn’t see any video being played on the media of what was happening Friday, Saturday and Sunday” of the authorities being attacked by projectiles.“All I heard was comments about how peaceful protesters were,” Barr said. “I didn’t hear about the fact that there were 150 law enforcement officers injured and many taken to the hospital with concussions. So, it wasn’t a peaceful protest. We had to get control over Lafayette Park, and we had to do it as soon as we were able to do that.”
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Malian Migrants Stranded by COVID-19 Border Closures Now Home
Dozens of Malian migrants stranded for nearly three months in Niger by COVID-19-related border closures have returned home. Earlier this week, the International Organization for Migration was finally able to repatriate 179 migrants who had been waiting at IOM transit centers in Niamey and Agadez.In the past two weeks, the U.N. migration agency was able to return 43 migrants to Burkina Faso and 58 migrants to Benin from Niger by land. However, the return of the Malian nationals was the first by air since restrictions on air travel were imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19.IOM spokesman Paul Dillon said the airlift was made possible by an agreement between Niger and Mali.“An additional 1,400 migrants from several, mainly West African, countries remain in six IOM transit centers and quarantine sites in Niger waiting for travel restrictions to lift so they, too, can return to their countries of origin,” he said.IOM agrees extraordinary measures taken by governments to curb the spread of COVID-19 may be necessary. However, it says they are having a serious impact on many vulnerable migrants. It notes many migrants stranded in foreign countries by travel restrictions cannot work, making them vulnerable to exploitation, including trafficking.The agency reports around 30,000 migrants are stranded in West and Central Africa. Dillon said more than half are foreigners unable to cross borders to return home. Among them, he said, are Mauritanian herders who need to cross into neighboring countries to graze their cattle.“The establishment of humanitarian corridors is essential to ensure that people are able to cross international borders in a timely and dignified manner, with their rights respected and public health issues addressed. IOM stands ready to help governments increase disease surveillance at their borders, train and equip border officials, and assist with quarantine measures for those who return,” said the spokesman.IOM reports tens of thousands of migrants are stranded across the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It says it is providing many with financial support, food, clothing, shelter, and other essential relief. However, the agency says it is limited in what it can do. It urges governments to assist and protect migrants who are stranded on their territory and find themselves in dire straits.
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Trump Withdraws National Guard From Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday ordered the 5,000 National Guard troops brought to Washington last week to quell protests against the death of a black man in police custody to begin to withdraw, saying the national capital was “under perfect control.” “They will be going home, but can quickly return, if needed,” the U.S. leader said on Twitter. “Far fewer protesters showed up last night than anticipated!” I have just given an order for our National Guard to start the process of withdrawing from Washington, D.C., now that everything is under perfect control. They will be going home, but can quickly return, if needed. Far fewer protesters showed up last night than anticipated!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Demonstrators talk to National Guard soldiers as they protest Saturday, June 6, 2020, near the White House in Washington, over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis.Even as he withdrew the National Guard troops, however, key former U.S. military leaders continued to voice their opposition to Trump’s reported threat a week ago to use as many as 10,000 active duty military troops to augment local police in Washington against demonstrators protesting the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The death of the 46-year-old Floyd, who was held down on a city street for nearly nine minutes by a white policeman who pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck, has spawned nearly two weeks of protests in the U.S., some of them angry, violent clashes with authorities. But tens of thousands of Americans protested peacefully in dozens of U.S. cities on Saturday against police abuse of authority against minorities, with few reports of clashes with authorities. In the end, 1,600 members of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division were dispatched to Washington but not activated to calm the protests. Defense Secretary Mark Esper broke with Trump last week, saying that active duty troops should only be used as a last resort to quell insurrection in the U.S., a stance Attorney General William Barr told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” show he also supported. Attorney General William Barr, center, stands in Lafayette Park across from the White House as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, June 1, 2020, in Washington.Barr, the nation’s top law enforcement official, disputed news accounts that Trump wanted 10,000 active duty military personnel ready to take on protesters. Barr said he met with Trump last Monday at the White House after violent clashes in Washington on the night of May 31. “I was called over and asked if I would coordinate federal civil agencies and that the Defense Department would provide whatever support I needed or we needed to protect federal property at the White House, federal personnel” Barr said. “The decision was made to have at the ready and on hand in the vicinity some regular troops,” he said. “But everyone agreed that the use of regular troops was a last resort and that as long as matters can be controlled with other resources, they should be. I felt, and the secretary of Defense felt, we had adequate resources and wouldn’t need to use federal troops. But in case we did, we wanted them nearby.” He said Trump “never asked or suggested that we needed to deploy regular troops at that point. It’s been done from time to time in our history. We try to avoid it. And I’m happy that we were able to avoid it on this occasion.” Acting Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf rejected the suggestion that bringing active duty military personnel to Washington amounted to “overkill.” Wolf told the “Fox News Sunday” show that U.S. law enforcement authorities need to “make sure we keep all our tools in the toolbox.” But former Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, once the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, voiced his opposition to use of active duty military personnel to control demonstrations in the U.S. as Trump wanted. “We have a military to fight our enemies, not our own people,” Mullen told Fox News. He said the U.S. military could lose its bond with the American public with use of troops against protesters. “We could lose that trust when you don’t really need that force,” Mullen said. Retired Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, another former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed Mullen’s thoughts, telling ABC News’ “This Week” show, “America is not a battleground. We have to be very careful in how we use our military.” He said the U.S. military lost standing with the American public five decades ago during contentious, often violent protests against the Vietnam War. “It took us a while to improve the relationship with the American public,” he said. “The relationship has to be one of trust.”
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Thousands Join Black Lives Matter Protest outside US Embassy in London
Thousands of protesters gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in London on Sunday to condemn police brutality after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, some wearing face masks to protect against COVID-19 bearing the slogan “racism is a virus.”On Saturday, thousands of protesters had gathered in central London in a demonstration that was peaceful but that ended with small numbers of people clashing with mounted police near Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street residence.London Police chief Cressida Dick said 27 officers had been injured in “shocking and completely unacceptable” assaults during anti-racism protests in central London this week, including 14 on Saturday.Both Dick and health minister Matt Hancock urged protesters not to gather in London again on Sunday due to the risk of the spread of the coronavirus. But thousands ignored this to pack the road outside the embassy on the south bank of the River Thames.”It just needs to stop now,” said 17-year-old student Chaniya La Rose who was at the protest with her family. “It shouldn’t have to be this hard to be equal.”There have been demonstrations around the world over police treatment of ethnic minorities, sparked by the death of Floyd, a black American, on May 25 in Minneapolis. A white police officer detaining him knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The London protest was peaceful, with people clapping, taking to one knee, waving placards and chanting “George Floyd” and “the UK is not innocent.”Pauline Nandoo, 60, said she had been protesting about the issue of racism since the 1970s and the images of violence at the end of Saturday’s protest had not deterred her.”There’s children of all ages and older adults here,” said Nandoo, who was with her brother and 13-year-old daughter. “They are going to experience what we have experienced and we have to try to make that not happen.”
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Russian Journalist Jailed for Violating Virus Ban Released
A Russian journalist whose jailing prompted protests in which police detained demonstrators has been released. The detentions brought criticism that authorities were using coronavirus restrictions to suppress opposition. Ilya Azar was sentenced to 15 days in jail on May 28, but was released Sunday after a court reduced his sentence. Azar was arrested after holding a one-man picket outside police headquarters in Moscow against the jailing on extortion charges of an activist who monitors police corruption. He was jailed for violating a ban on public gatherings during the coronavirus lockdown. Other pickets protesting his jailing took place in Moscow and St. Petersburg and at least 35 people were detained, many of them charged with violating the gatherings ban. Amnesty International, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Council have all condemned the Russian crackdown.
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‘A long Time Coming’: Iconic Lee Statue to Be Removed
David Harris Jr., a nephew of humanitarian and tennis legend Arthur Ashe, tried for decades to get a street named after his uncle in Richmond, the hometown that once denied Ashe access to segregated public tennis courts.Finally, in 2019, the City Council approved the renaming over the objections of some city residents. So it was gratifying, Harris said, to see Virginia’s governor announce plans to remove an iconic statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee after days of protests over the death of George Floyd.“My hat is off to them for getting this done,” Harris said Friday. “It took me 25 years to get the street name changed. I commend these young folks for getting these guys to see it within a week and a half.”In recent days, amid an extraordinary outpouring of grief over Floyd’s death, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has pledged to remove the Lee statue, while city leaders have also committed to taking down the other four Confederate memorials along Richmond’s prestigious Monument Avenue.The changes amount to a reshaping of how one of America’s most historic cities tells its story in its public spaces — and a rethinking of whom it glorifies.“It’s been a long time coming. … We’ve tried marches, petitions, protests, going to city council” to get the Confederate monuments removed, said Phil Wilayto, a longtime community organizer and activist with the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality. “And it took what is in effect a mass uprising of the community to say these things are not acceptable.”Republican lawmakers, Confederate heritage groups and a Monument Avenue preservation group have criticized the decisions. Many have equated the monuments’ removal to erasing history.“Attempts to eradicate instead of contextualizing history invariably fail,” Senate GOP leaders said in a statement.Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, died after a white officer jammed his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes as other officers watched. Video captured Floyd’s arrest and final moments, and his death has sparked protests around the world that demonstrators have vowed to turn into a sustained movement focused on addressing racial injustice.The Richmond monument decisions, part of a wave of Confederate monument removals around the country, has stunned some observers in this former capital of the Confederacy, a place where even three years ago many residents said they considered removing the statues impractical, or nearly impossible due to a state law that protected war memorials.Late Saturday, a small group of demonstrators toppled a statue o f Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham in Monroe Park, a Richmond police spokeswoman said. She said she did not know if there were any arrests or damage done to the statue.The new Democratic majority at the General Assembly rewrote that law earlier this year, an effort led by black women lawmakers. It will take effect July 1, giving Richmond and other localities around the state permission to do as they please. The Lee statue, meanwhile, was on state property.“Yes, that statue has been there for a long time,” Northam said Thursday. “But it was wrong then, and it is wrong now. So we’re taking it down.”The idea to erect a monument to Lee originated “within hours” of his death, according to a National Register of Historic Places nomination form. Two rival campaigns to raise money for the memorial dragged on for more than 15 years, and the selected site was a gift of a prominent Richmond businessman, the documents show.The statue was the first of five Confederate monuments to be erected on Richmond’s Monument Avenue. It was unveiled in May 1890, at a time when the Civil War and Reconstruction were long over, and Jim Crow racial segregation laws were on the rise.The statue arrived in Richmond in pieces from France, where it was created. Thousands of Virginians used wagons to help pull the pieces for more than a mile to what was then an empty field. That field is now part of Monument Avenue, the city’s grandest boulevard and one that’s been visited over the years by dignitaries including then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.To white citizens in the late 19th century, the statue of Lee, a Civil War hero and native Virginian, was a cause for celebration. Some even saved pieces of the rope used to haul the statue as souvenirs.But black citizens felt a deep-seated animosity toward the statue, seeing it as a glorification of slavery, the Civil War and their treatment as second-class citizens, said Julian Hayter, a historian and professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond.Today, the 21-foot (6-meter) bronze equestrian sculpture that shows the general in military attire sits atop a 40-foot (12-meter) pedestal on whose side is featured a single word: “Lee.”Northam emphasized the monument’s enormous size in his remarks Thursday, saying that at six stories tall, it towers over homes, businesses and “everyone who lives in Virginia.”“And when it’s the biggest thing around, it sends a clear message: ‘This is what we value the most.’ But that’s just not true anymore,” he said.Joseph Rogers, a descendant of enslaved people and an organizer with the Defenders who spoke with AP this week from a rally at the Lee monument, said he felt he was witnessing history when he learned the statue would be removed.He also said the moment felt like “a fulfillment of prophecy,” a reference to words written by the black editor of the Richmond Planet newspaper who covered the unveiling of the Lee memorial.“(The black man) put up the Lee Monument, and should the time come, will be there to take it down,” John Mitchell Jr. wrote.Elsewhere on the broad avenue are statues to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, generals J.E.B. Stuart and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and Confederate naval officer Matthew Maury.Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced this week that he and a city councilman would introduce an ordinance removing the statues, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch has reported the city council has unanimously affirmed support for such a move.Dr. Fergie Reid, who grew up in segregated Richmond and in 1967 became the first African American elected to the Virginia General Assembly since Reconstruction, called the monuments’ removal “long overdue.” But Reid, 95, said he thinks they still have historical value.“I think they should go to a museum — just like the dinosaurs,” he said.
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